[420] "Mio figliuolo et io e voi habbiamo perso un buon letto di riposo,"—literally a good bed to repose on. Leti, Vita di Filippo II., tom. I. p. 195.
[421] principal motive of Philip the Second in founding this university, according to Hopper, was to give Flemings the means of getting a knowledge of the French language without going abroad into foreign countries for it. Recueil et Mémorial des Troubles des Pays-Bas, cap. 2, ap. Hoynck, Analecta Belgica, tom. II.
[422] "On remarque de lui ce qu'on avoit remarqué de César, et même d'une façon plus singulière, c'est qu'il occupoit cinq secrétaires à la fois, en leur dictant des lettres en différentes langues." Levesque, Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire du Cardinal de Granvelle, (Paris, 1753,) tom. I. p. 215.
[423] "Di modo che ogni sera sopra un foglio di carta che lor chiamono beliero esso Granvela, manda all'Imperatore il suo parere del quale sopra li negotii del seguente giorno sua maestà ha da fare." Relatione di Soriano, MS.
[424] "Havendo prima luí senza risolvere cosa alcuna mandata ogn'informatione et ogni particolare negotiatíone con gli Ambasciatori et altri ad esso Monsignore, di modo che et io et tutti gl'altri Ambasciatori si sono avveduti essendo rimesse a Monsignor Granvela che sua Eccellenza ha inteso ogni particolare et quasi ogni parola passata fra l'Imperatore et loro." Ibid.
[425] A striking example of the manner in which Granvelle conveyed his own views to the king is shown by a letter to Philip dated Brussels, July 17, 1559, in which the minister suggests the arguments that might be used to the authorities of Brabant for enforcing the edicts. The letter shows, too, that Granvelle, if possessed naturally of a more tolerant spirit than Philip, could accommodate himself so far to the opposite temper of his master as to furnish him with some very plausible grounds for persecution. Papiers d'Etat de Granvelle, tom. V. p. 614.
[426] Levesque, Mémoires de Granvelle, tom. I. p. 207 et seq.—Courchetet, Histoire du Cardinal de Granvelle, (Bruxelles, 1784,) tom. I. passim.—Strada, De Bello Belgico, p. 85.—Burgon, Life of Gresham, vol. I. p. 267.
The author of the Mémoires de Granvelle was a member of a Benedictine convent in Besançon, which, by a singular chance, became possessed of the manuscripts of Cardinal Granvelle, more than a century after his death. The good Father Levesque made but a very indifferent use of the rich store of materials placed at his disposal, by digesting them into two duodecimo volumes, in which the little that is of value seems to have been pilfered from the unpublished MS. of a previous biographer of the Cardinal. The work of the Benedictine, however, has the merit of authenticity. I shall take occasion, hereafter, to give a more particular account of the Granvelle collection.
[427] "En considération des bons, léaux, notables et agréables services faits par lui, pendant plusieurs années, à feu l'Empereur, et depuis au Roi." Correspondance de Philippe II, tom. I. p. 184.
[428] Vandervynckt, Troubles des Pays-Bas, tom. II. p. 69 et seq.—Strada, De Bello Belgico, p. 40.—Hopper, Recueil et Mémorial, cap. 2.—Francia, Alborotos de Flandes, MS.