[467] "Son visage estoit beau, et ses cheveux et yeux noirs, qui adombroient son teint...... Sa taille estoit tres belle, et plus grande que toutes ses sœurs, qui la rendoit fort admirable en Espagne, d'autant que les tailles hautes y sont rares, et pour ce fort estimables." Ibid., p. 128.
[468] "Les seigneurs ne l'osoient regarder de peur d'en estre espris, et en causer jalousie au roy son mary, et par consequent eux courir fortune de la vie." Ibid., p. 128.
[469] "La regina istessa parue non so come sorpressa da vn sentimento di malinconica passione, nel vedersi abbracciare da vn rè di 33 anni, di garbo ordinario alla presenza d'vn giouine prencipe molto ben fatto, e che prima dell'altro l'era stato promesso in sposo." Leti, Vita di Filippo II., tom. I. p. 345.
[470] Brantôme, who was certainly one of those who believed in the jealousy of Philip, if not in the passion of Isabella, states the circumstance of the king's supplanting his son in a manner sufficiently naïve. "Mais le roy d'Espagne son pere, venant à estre veuf par le trespas de la reyne d'Angleterre sa femme et sa cousine germaine, ayant veu le pourtraict de madame Elizabeth, et la trouvant fort belle et fort à son gré, en coupa l'herbe soubs le pied à son fils, et la prit pour luy, commençant cette charité à soy mesme." Œuvres, tom. V. p. 127.
[471] Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. V. cap. 6.—Florez, Reynas Catolicas, p. 897.
"A la despedida presentó el Duque del Ynfantado al Rey, Reyna, Damas, Dueñas de honor, y á las de la Cámara ricas joyas de oro y plata, telas, guantes, y otras preseas tan ricas, por la prolixidad del arte, como por lo precioso de la materia." De Castro, Hist. de Guadalajara, p. 116.
[472] "Danças de hermosisimas donzellas de la Sagra, i las de espadas antigua invencion de Españoles." Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. V. cap. 6.
[473] "Por la mucha hermosura que avia en las damas de la ciudad i Corte, el adorno de los miradores i calles, las libreas costosas i varias i muchas, que todo hazia un florido campo o lienço de Flandres." Ibid., ubi supra.
[474] The royal nuptials were commemorated in a Latin poem, in two books, "De Pace et Nuptiis Philippi et Isabellæ." It was the work of Fernando Ruiz de Villegas, an eminent scholar of that day, whose writings did not make their appearance in print till nearly two centuries later,—and then not in his own land, but in Italy. In this epithalamium, if it may be so called, the poet represents Juno as invoking Jupiter to interfere in behalf of the French monarchy, that it may not be crushed by the arms of Spain. Venus, under the form of the duke of Alva,—as effectual a disguise as could be imagined,—takes her seat in the royal council, and implores Philip to admit France to terms, and to accept the hand of Isabella as the pledge of peace between the nations. Philip graciously relents; peace is proclaimed; the marriage between the parties is solemnized, with the proper Christian rites; and Venus appears, in her own proper shape, to bless the nuptials! One might have feared that this jumble of Christian rites and heathen mythology would have scandalized the Holy Office, and exposed its ingenious author to the honors of a san benito. But the poet wore his laurels unscathed, and, for aught I know to the contrary, died quietly in his bed. See Opera Ferdinandi Ruizii Villegatis, (Venetiis, 1736,) pp. 30-70.
[475] The sovereign remedy, according to the curious Brantôme, was new-laid eggs. It is a pity the prescription should be lost. "On luy secourust son visage si bien par des sueurs d'œufs frais, chose fort propre pour cela, qu'il n'y parut rien; dont j'en vis la Reyne sa mere fort curieuse à luy envoyer par force couriers beaucoup de remedes, mais celui de la sueur d'œuf en estoit le souverain." Œuvres, tom. V. p. 129.