[278] Ibid, p. 351.—De Thou, Histoire Universelle, tom. III. p. 367.—Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. IV. cap. 20.—Campagna Filippo Secondo, parte II. lib. 11.—Forbes, State Papers, vol. I. p. 151.
[279] The English commissioner, Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, bears testimony to the popularity of Henry.—"Their was marvailous great lamentation made for him, and weaping of all sorts, both men and women." Forbes, State Papers, vol. I. p. 151.
[280] This pleasing anticipation is not destined to be realised. Since the above was written, in the summer of 1851, the cloister life of Charles the Fifth, then a virgin topic, has become a thrice-told tale,—thanks to the labors of Mr. Stirling, M. Amédée Pichot, and M. Mignet; while the publication of the original documents from Simancas, by M. Gachard, will put it in the power of every scholar to verify their statements.—See the postscript at the end of this chapter.
[281] Sandoval, Hist. de Carlos V., tom. II. p. 611.
[282] "Una sola silla de caderas, que mas era media silla, tan vieja y ruyn que si se pusiera en venta no dieran por ella quatro reales." Ibid., tom. II. p. 610.—See also El Perfecto Desengaño, por el Marqués de Valparayso, MS.
The latter writer, in speaking of the furniture, uses precisely the same language, with the exception of a single word, as Sandoval. Both claim to have mainly derived their account of the cloister life of Charles the Fifth from the prior of Yuste, Fray Martin de Angulo. The authority, doubtless, is of the highest value, as the prior, who witnessed the closing scenes of Charles's life, drew up his relation for the information of the Regent Joanna, and at her request. Why the good father should have presented his hero in such a poverty-stricken aspect, it is not easy to say. Perhaps he thought it would redound to the credit of the emperor, that he should have been willing to exchange the splendors of a throne for a life of monkish mortification.
[283] The reader will find an extract from the inventory of the royal jewels, plate, furniture, &c., in Stirling's Cloister Life of Charles the Fifth, (London, 1852,) Appendix, and in Pichot's Chronique de Charles-Quint, (Paris, 1854,) p. 537 et seq.
[284] Mignet has devoted a couple of pages to an account of this remarkable picture of which an engraving is still extant, executed under the eyes of Titian himself. Charles-Quint, pp. 214, 215.
[285] Vera y Figueroa, Vida y Hechos de Carlos V., p. 127.
A writer in Fraser's Magazine for April and May, 1851, has not omitted to notice this remarkable picture, in two elaborate articles on the cloister life of Charles the Fifth. They are evidently the fruit of a careful study of the best authorities, some of them not easy of access to the English student. The author has collected some curious particulars in respect to the persons who accompanied the emperor in his retirement; and on the whole, though he seems not to have been aware of the active interest which Charles took in public affairs, he has presented by far the most complete view of this interesting portion of the imperial biography that has yet been given to the world.