DON CARLOS OR AN HISTORICAL RELATION OF The Unfortunate Life and Tragical Death of that Prince of SPAIN Son to PHILIP the II d. Written in French Anno 1672. and newly Englished by H. I. LONDON Printed by T. N. for Hen. Herringman at the Blew Anchor in the Lower Walk of the New Exchange and John Crump at the Three Bibles in St. Pauls Church-yard 1674. TO THE LADY ELLIS Wife to the RIGHT WORSHIPFUL Sir WILLIAM ELLIS Baronet Madam BEing lately necessitated to pass some dayes in a place where I had but little Company and less Diversion I resolved to spend my idle houres in Translating this Relation of the Misfortunes of poore Don Carlos It was Written by a Person of Honour and one that pretends to have a particular insight into the Spanish History Yet least his Authority should not seem sufficient in some dubious passages he backs it with that of the most Famous Writers of the last Age. His Design as you may see by his own Advertisement was chiefly to Vindicate the Queen of Spaine's Vertue from the Aspersions that had been cast upon it by some Malicious Pens and mine is no other then to divert you and by this small testimony of my Affection to Assure You that I am MADAM Your most Humble and most Obedient Servant H. J. Advertisement of the AUTHOR ALl Historians of the last Age that make mention of the unfortunate Prince of Spain who is the subject of this Treatise do also speak of his Love for his Mother-in-Law and as people are always apt to put an evil interpretation upon things of that nature his Passion hath done some wrong to the reputation of that vertuous Queen The Authour of this Book having found in divers places the particularities of their History thought himself obliged to communicate them to the Publick because they justifie the memory of that Princess and make it appear that there was nothing but what was very innocent on her side Though she had done nothing else but discover the Conspiracy whereof you shall see the recital she had well deserved to have some care taken of her glory because it is certainly true that without her the Prince of Navarre had never come to be the greatest King in the world and to say something more to his honour Grandfather to Lewis the Fourteenth This History is taken out of all the Authors Spanish French Italian and Dutch which have written of those times in which it hapned The principal are Thuanus Monsieur Aubigné Brantome Cabrera Campana Adriani Natalis Comes Dupleix Mathieu Mayerne Mezerai le Laboureur Sur Castelnau Strada Meteren The History of Don John of Austria the Elogies of F. Hilarion de Coste The Spanish Book of the Deeds and Sayings of Philip the Second A Relation of the Death and Obsequies of his Son c. It is likewise collected out of several Pieces pertaining to History as well Manuscripts as Printed and amongst the rest out of a little Book intituled Diogenes which treats largely of this matter and a Manuscript written by Monsieur de Peresese expresly upon that subject However for the Reader 's farther satisfaction I have set down in the Margent of the most particular and extraordinary places the principal Authors out of which they were taken DON CARLOS Or An Historical Relation of the Vnfortunate Life and Tragical Death of that Prince of Spain Son to Philip the Second WHen the Emperour Charls the Fifth resolved to quit the Government of the Empire and to retire himself into a solitary way of living fearing to leave his Son exposed to the good fortune of Henry the Second of which himself had already felt the effects he concluded with that Prince a Truce for the five first years of his Son's Reign Amongst other Propositions for a Peace between the two Crowns which were made during this Truce was proposed the Marriage of Don Carlos Prince of Spain and onely Son of Philip the Second and Mary of Portugal his first Wife with Madam Elizabeth the Eldest Daughter of France This Princess was very young but wonderfully accomplish'd for a person of her age And as this Marriage was resolv'd upon with great joy on both sides as soon as it was proposed she could not chuse but conceive a very great esteem for him that was destin'd to be her Husband her young heart finding in that occasion a suitable object to fix it self upon did much please it self in the thoughts of it and she did by degrees insensibly ingage her self in an inclination which though altogether innocent did afterwards prove more troublesome blesome to her vertue then ever she thought it would The Prince of Spain was no less contented then she with his hoped for happiness and as all that people said to him concerning Madam gave him a very lovely Idea of her person he abandon'd himself with pleasure to all those thoughts of love and desire which that Idea inspir'd him withall The Princess's Picture which according to the custome was sent him by the King of France finished that conquest in him which the reputation of her beauty had already begun Those that brought it said it was extremely like her and Don Carlos easily believ'd them in a thing he so much desired might be true When he considered this Picture there was no way that he would not willingly have tried to let Madam know the thoughts he had of her He could by no means endure that she should be ignorant of the joy which the hopes of possessing her fill'd him with Sometimes he was even asham'd of the excess of his good fortune and could almost have been contented to allow himself the time of winning the Princess's heart by his merits and services rather then to obtain her by the common ways but knowing that to be an impossible thing he thought he should be well enough satisfi'd if he could but at least acquaint her with the diversity of his thoughts In the mean time the face of affairs was wholly changed by a sudden and unexpected breach of the Five years Truce the Princes of the House of Lorrain or those that at the sollicitation of Paul the Fourth brought about this rupture The Pope's aim was by raising troubles in Flanders to free himself from the Duke D' Alva who had the command of a Spanish Army and had for some time kept him as it were block'd up within the Walls of Rome One part of his design which was the diversion of the Spanish Arms succeeded according to his desire but in Flanders he found more opposition where the French lost two Battels in which the greatest part of their most valiant men were either kill'd or taken prisoners and which reduc'd their affairs to so ill a a condition that they resolv'd speedily to buy a Peace at what price soever This Peace was the work of the Duke of Savoy General of the Spanish Army and of the Constable of Montmorency his Prisoner The Constable represented to
the Duke That he could never hope to find a fairer occasion of recovering the possession of his Estates from which his Father had been driven by Francis the First and the Duke on his side prevailed so far with Philip the Second that the Treaty was concluded a little while after at Chateau-Cambresis It is easie to judge of the grief of Don Carlos at the breaking of the Truce and how great his joy was when the Negotiation of a Peace was reassumed and yet this Peace which seemingly gave such seasonable grounds for his hopes was that which at last proved their utter destruction During the time of the Negotiation Philip the Second was made a Widower by the death of Mary Queen of England his Second Wife and being obliged by several weighty considerations to a Third Marriage he demanded for himself the Princess that had before been promised to his Son The French would doubtless much rather have given her to the Heir of the Crown who was much of the same age with her then to a Prince old enough to have been her Father and by whom she could have none but younger Children and by consequence incapable of inheriting the Crown but all things considered he could not handsomely be refused Though this news was like the stroak of a Thunder-bolt to poor Don Carlos who was told it at first before a great deal of company yet he was enough Master of himself to hinder any body from taking notice of the grief it caused in him but the violence he did himself cost him dear when he was alone All his thoughts were nothing but the continual inspirations of Love and Rage But the trouble he was in not permitting him to resolve upon nor the present state of his fortune to undertake any thing that might ease his mind his Despair was insensibly turned into Melancholly and from thence proceeded that reserved way of living which rendred him so odious to the King his Father who never once dreaming of the true cause of his discontent and judging of his Son by himself did attribute it to the impatience he thought this young Prince might have of Reigning As for Madam though what she felt in her self for Don Carlos was rather a disposition to love him then a true and well established passion yet the fear she had that there was something more in it then as yet she apprehended made her have an unspeakable distrust of her self Till then she had an extreme curiosity to know the effect her Picture had produced upon the Prince nay and she had desired sometimes that his heart if it were possible might in that respect enjoy less quiet then her own But as soon as she knew the change that was happened in their fortune she feared nothing in the world so much as to be lov'd by him What pleasure soever there be to be thought handsome she wish'd that what all people said of her charms had been false In this difference of thoughts her mind not having all the tranquillity necessary to bring her handsomely off in an Action so hard for a person in her circumstances as her first arrival at the Court of Spain was she stopp'd her journey as long as she could have the least appearance of an excuse and though the Duke D' Alva had marri'd her in his Masters name in the moneth of June she did not leave Paris till the end of November She staid to see all the fine Houses that were in her way and did not come into the Province of Aquitane till the year was ready to expire as if those delays could have done that in her heart that her own reason was not capable of doing When she was at the Pyrenaean Mountains Fortune that sometimes pleases her self in bestowing her favours upon those that least expect them helped her to one stop more then ever she had hoped for Anthony of Bourbon King of Navar was charged with the conduct of the Princess into Spain and he was to remit her upon the Frontier into the hands of the Cardinal of Burgos and the Duke De l' Infantado This King possessed onely the lower Navar because the Upper had been usurped from his Wives Great Grandfather by the Spaniards but yet not to prejudice the right he pretended to upon them both he would not acknowledge the place that at that time separated his Dominions from those of the King of Spain for the true Spanish Frontier but he required a declaration from the Deputies that the Delivery he should make of the Princess in that place should in no way hurt his pretensions The Declaration was of too great consequence to be accorded without express order and therefore they were forced to write to Madrid and expect His Majesty's answer in the place where they were Philip would have been glad to have been spared this trouble by the Court of France and that this Commission had been given to some body else rather than to the King of Navar But the Princes of the House of Guise at that time the new and absolute Masters of all Affairs had their particular reasons for keeping the Princes of the Bloud as much as they could from approaching the Court or the King's Person and their design being onely to seek out fair pretensions so to do they were ravish'd to find so plausible an one of delivering themselves from him that troubled them the most In short the King of Spain saw himself oblig'd either quickly to satisfie the King of Navar '◠demand or else to bring the business to a Negotiation to obtain of the Court of France that he might be called back and another sent in his place This last way seem'd to be of an insupportable length for a Prince that was in expectation of the most lovely person in the world for his Wife Wherefore this great Polititian satisfied for that time his amorous impatience to the prejudice of his Interests and wrote to his Deputies to grant the King of Navar his demand Presently after the Queen began her Journey to Madrid and was met upon the way by Don Carlos who was accompanyed besides many other considerable persons by his Cousin Alexander Farnese the young Prince of Parma and by Rui Gomez de Silva Prince of Eboli his Governour and the King 's great Favourite At the first news the Queen had of the Prince's coming such opposite sentiments did raise themselves in her mind and did agitate her with so much violence that she fell into a 〈◊〉 in her Womens arms and could not be brought to her self till Don Carlos was ready to ask leave to salute her After the first civilities these two illustrious Persons taken up with the mutual consideration of each other left off speaking and the rest of the company holding their peace out of respect there was for some time a silence extraordinary enough in such an occasion Don Carlos was not shap'd according to the exactest rules of Symmetry but
surprise the Queen and her Children at Pau in Bearn where they made their residence and where they had almost no other Guard then the hearts of their Subjects But though their design were wonderfully well laid the great Destiny of the young Prince rendred it vain It preserved him to be one day the Restorer of France to its antient splendor and the terrour of the Spaniards A little while before the voyage of Bayonne Captain Dominick assisted by some Governours of the French Frontier that depended upon those who made him act had disposed all things necessary upon the places appointed for his attempt After that he was gone into Spain where he went to receive the Orders of the Duke D' Alva for the advancement of the Troops destin'd for its execution The Duke who was then at Alva after some conference with him sent him back to the King who held the States of the Kingdom at Mouzon The Captain fell dangerously sick in going thither and was forc't to stay at Madrid where he was necessarily to pass During his illness he was assisted in all things by a French man a servant to the Queen and who was his Countryman Not knowing how to testifie his gratitude he chanced one day to say to him That his life was of greater importance then perhaps he thought and that the care which was taken of him should be one day magnificently rewarded These words were pronounced after a manner that might make one judge they had some extraordinary foundation and they caused in his Friend the curiosity of penetrating the Mystery they seemed to contain The Captain could refuse nothing to a Man to whom he thought he owed his life And whether it were that the fear of death had inspired him with some repentance of his crime or that the Disease had disturb'd his brain he pay'd with this secret the services he had received This Friend told it the same day to the Queen his Mistress who was then at Madrid and who lived in a strait friendship with the Queen of Navarr At the recital of this horrible Plot she could not withold her tears and whilst the Captain was curing and ordering all things with the King that concern'd his Enterprize she made notice of it be given in Bearn and at Bourdeaux where the Queen her Mother was at that time The Attempt having failed in this manner the Queen conducted by the Duke d' Alva went to meet the Court of France at Bayonne This Court was divided into two Factions almost as great enemies one of the other as they were both one and the other of the Hugonots their common enemies Although they were both Catholicks one of them did more especially attribute to themselves this quality It was that which was headed by the Friends of the Duke d' Alva the first Authors of the Bearnish Conspiracy And as they were already laying the foundations of the League that appeared ten years afterwards they lived in a perfect intelligence with the Spaniards but it was not so with the other Faction which was that of the King and of which Catherine de Medicis was the chief Arbitraryness and Independency were the only end of all this Woman's Actions she knew that all inward commerce with the Spaniard was but so much slavery and she put no other trust in the King her Son-in-law and his Ministers then that to which she was obliged by necessity and her Relation to them In the mean time how reserved soever she were the Complices of the Duke d' Alva having a familiar intercourse with her upon account of some other intrigues turned so many Stones and set so many Spyes about her at this Interview at Bayonne that at last they knew of a certainty that it was the Queen of Spain that had ruin'd their enterprise but they could never comprehend how this enterprize should come to her knowledge The Duke d' Alva could not believe that so young a Woman was capable of venturing upon so bold and delicate an action The familiarity of this Princess with Don Carlos had alwayes been suspected by him because he knew that Don Carlos naturally hated him He thought she had done nothing without advising with the Prince and as there are but few g iefs so sensible as that one feeles for having done a wicked Action to no purpose He took so strong a Resolution to Revenge himself on them that at last he brought it about Yet Don Carlos knew nothing of this Conspiracy before the voyage of Bayonne but the thing being afterwards divulged the Queen confessed the truth to him The Prince amazed at the horribleness of this villanous attempt could not hinder himself from saying in the presence of Don John and the Princess of Eboli That he would one day cruelly punish those that gave such base Counsel to the King his Father The Duke d' Alva was known by all the World to be the Author of the Plot and the King did nothing without the advice of Rui Gomez so that this threat could regard none but those two Ministers and the Princess of Eboli having told it to Rui Gomez her Husband this favorite judged it was high time to begin to fortifie himself against the Authority which the Prince's age began now to give him These two Ministers did equally share the favour of the Court onely with this difference that one might say That the Duke d' Alva was the Kings Favourite and Rui Gomez the Favourite of Philip. This concurrence had sometimes bred some difference between them but their common interest reunited them upon this occasion The Duke d' Alva who did Soveraignly govern all Military Affaires knowing the warlike inclinations of his Prince feared he would lessen his Authority upon the first beginnings of any War by taking the management of it into his own hands And he was perswaded that Don Carlos would never pardon him a business that was past between them some years before The King had Assembled the States of Arragon there to make his Son be acknowledged lawful Successor to him in the Government of the Spaines In this Ceremony it being come to the Duke d' Alvas turne to swear Fidelity the Herauld called him by his Name three times in vain A moment afterward he came out of his ranke to acquit himself of his duty and Don Carlos turn'd him back very disdainfully but the Duke excusing himself upon the multitude of busiuess he was engaged in that day by reason of his Office of Great Master the King obliged the Prince to accept his Submission As for Rui Gomez who disposed absolutely of the Justice and of the Kings Exchequer he was afraid least the Prince who naturally loved to give should himself meddle with bestowing Favours of which nothing should remain to others but the merit of executing them He had been Governor to Don Carlos and he could never satisfie the King to whose will he was wholly devoted in this employment
if he saw her again and that she would easily take out of his heart all that which they had put into it Although it might happen that what they feared should not come to pass yet it was possible that it might come to pass And considering the consequence of which the thing was to them they ought not to put any thing to the hazard To take from this Princess the occasion of undoing in one night that which had cost them so much care and time they bethought themselves of a meanes which would appear ridiculous if it had not succeeded At the Voyage which the Court of France made along the River of Loire in the time of Francis the Second there ran a report That his Servants sought out little Children to bathe that young King in their blood whom they feigned to be troubled with the Disease which is cured by this strange remedy Nay and there were some persons that went some dayes journeys before the Court and who examined carefully the children of the places where it was to pass to observe those that they found fit for the use which the Physicians were to make of them These unknown persons spread so general a fear in all their way that all the people thought no more of any thing but how to hide from them that which they pretended to seek The Queen-Mother having discovered the Authors of this horrible report made some of them be taken They discovered at their death by whom they had been set on but those which received their Confession judged it not safe for them to divulge it If the continual infirmities of the King made so extravagant a calumny be so easily believed among his own People it is not hard to judge of the effect it produced in Forreign Countries where those sorts of Newes alwayes find more credit then in the places where they are done The King of Spain testified a great deal of trouble about it He was afraid that his Wife had some secret disposition to this same illness which is often an hereditary distemper The Small pox which she had had since that was accompanyed with some equivocal accidents that were common with that infirmity They resolved to make the King believe That she had had some others much more dangerous then the former at this last greatness And as he had a mind very easie to be wrought upon in that which concern'd his health they thought that if they strengthned this story by the testimony of some persons not to be suspected it would be enough to hinder him from ever seeing his Wife again in private The Princess of Eboli was to give him the first notice of it she was obliged so to do by the fidelity she had promised him in the employment she had about the Queen And that same French-woman for whom Don John had formerly made appear some inclination was to confirm that which the Princess should say This young woman was one of those medling spirits born for the management of an intrigue and she was inconsolable that all the favour she had with her Mistress had never been able to interest her in any important confidence The Princess of Eboli commanded Don John to counterfeit the Lover a second time by that meanes absolutely to gain to them this dangerous Person This Prince who found some sweetness in troubling the Kings happiness obeyed with great eagerness But the young woman much offended by the coldness he had had for her would not believe him except he gave her some extraordinary assurances Don John in haste to finish his business did not stick to make her a promise of Marriage upon condition that she should tell the King whatsoever they would have her The thing succeeded much more easily then they had hoped The King whose Love was already changed into indignation ran blindly into the Snare they had laid for him The Duke d' Alva who had deferred his Voyage to attend the Success of this Artifice went away for Flanders the day after He took leave of Don Carlos in termes that were conformable to the answer which the King had made to that Princes last requests And Don Carlos treated the Duke very ill for fear of having his designs suspected if he had appeared too calme in an occasion which ought to touch him so sensibly In the mean time this Prince received from all parts the best newes he could have wished for The Prince of Orange and the Admiral de Chatillon with whom he was to consult upon all he had to do encouraged and hastned him by their Letters whether it were to serve him or to undo him God knows The revolted party in the Low-Countries absolutely confiding in his generosity demanded of him no conditions But that which perfected his resolution was the assurance of a considerable Fleet which the Grand Signior was to send upon the coast of Flanders to favour all his designs But as his principal hope was founded upon this assistance it is necessary to consider this business in its first beginnings At the time that Queen Mary was Governess of the Low-Countreys for the Emperour her Brother a certain Jew that was a Portuguez by birth named John Miquez for whom she had a very particular esteem ravish'd in her Court a young Lady of the first Quality and of an extraordinary beauty The King of Spain who protected the kindred of this fair person having made the Ravisher be driven out of all the States of Christendom where he sought for a Sanctuary he retir'd himself to Constantinople and from thence into Caramania to the Court of Selimus eldest Son of Soliman the Magnificent This young Prince who was confin'd to that Countrey by his Father according to the custome of their House had no other care then how to pass the time as well as he could in the midst of pleasures and divertisements in expectation of the Empire Miquez amongst other Talents possess'd the Art of diversifying these pleasures after a hundred several manners of which every one had a new and particular charm He knew how to give them that sweet point which makes them be felt with so much delight and which is so easily blunted by an unskilful hand And having cultivated by a long and curious exercise the Genius he had for that Science he had carri'd it to a perfection infinitely beyond the imagination of Vulgar Swell'd with pride for his skill in these rare Arts he doubted not but he should in a short time have the first place in the favour of a Prince like Selimus who understood perfectly the worth of voluptuousness This man knew that those services which make the greatest noise are not always those that are most sensible to the hearts of Sovereigns It seems that those one renders them in publick are sufficiently recompenced by the glory that follows them but they alone can recompence those which are known by no body but themselves The success surpassed Miquez his
him an account on the King's part of the news they had received from Granada This Minister entertain'd him so late that the Prince seeing he had not night enough left to go so far as he desired before his flight could be discover'd thought it his best way to put it off till the morrow Rui Gomez retir'd himself after he had seen him in bed but being ignorant of the change of his resolution he set some of his most faithful and resolute men at all the avenues of the Prince's apartment It had been to be wish'd for the King's justification that Don Carlos had been taken in attempting to escape But when they had waited two or three hours without seeing any appearance of his coming out the King resolved to pass on not thinking that he ought to hazard all things for a formality Don John had observed the manner in which his chamber door was shut and whilst Don Carlos was yet at the Queen's chamber the King had commanded the maker of that extraordinary Lock to spoil the spring of it some how or other that so it might no more shut so close but that it might be open'd on the outside Whatsoever this Workman could do the spring made a great noise in opening but the Count of Lerma whom the King made enter first into the room found the unfortunate Prince sleeping so soundly that he had the leisure to take away the Swords and Pistols that were under his bolster without waking of him After this the Count sate down upon a Coffer that stood by his bed-side and in which Don John thought the Fire-arms were kept Then the King judging by the Count of Lerma's silence that he had done what he ought to do entred himself into the Chamber preceded by Rui Gomez the Duke of Feria the Great Commander and Don Diego de Corduba all armed with Swords and Pistols The Prince being awakened with much ado by Rui Gomez as soon as he had opened his eyes cried out that he was dead The King told him That all they did was for his good But Don Carlos seeing that he seized on a Box full of Papers that was under his bed entred into so furious a despair that he was going to throw himself all naked as he was into a great Fire pan full of Coals which the extremity of the cold had obliged his servants to leave lighted in his chimney They were fain to draw him from it by force and he appeared inconsolable that he had not had the time to smother himself in it They presently unfurnish'd his Chamber and in stead of so many magnificent things which they took out of it they put into it for its onely furniture a scurvy Groundpallet None of his Officers after that time ever appeared in his presence His Guards never let him go out of their sight They caused a mourning Suit to be made for him and he was no more waited upon but by men clothed in the same dress and who were unknown to him This unfortunate Heir of so many Crowns saw no more any thing about him which did not represent to his eyes the frightful image of death In the mean time the King saw the designs and intelligence of his Son by the Papers which he had seized He was astonished at the greatness of the danger he had run but he was yet more touched when amongst several Letters of the Queens Hand-writing he found one which appeared to him the most Passionate and most Amorous in the world It was that which the Marquess of Posa had carried to Alcala and which Don Carlos would never be perswaded to restore As the Queen had written it in the first transport of her grief for the Mortal Accident that had befallen that Prince she did not think any consequence could be drawn from what she could say to a Man whose life was despaired of or that it could produce any other consequence then to make him die more contentedly So that she had abandon'd her self to all her tenderness in writing it and had in it expressed the dearest and most secret Sentiments of her heart with all the violence that so lamentable an occasion could inspire Yet it was without any Passionate expressions that could interest her honour or so much as offend her Duty But the King drew very different consequences from it The fury he conceived for it was at first accompanyed with so lively a grief that it would perhaps have bereaved him of his Life if the desire of revenge so natural in those occasions had not preserved it But reflecting presently in himself That he was Master of those that had so cruelly offended him this agreeable thought made a barbarous joy succeed to the rage he had in his Soul which changed his tormenting despair into a tranquility full of horrour The same day Monteigni was clapt in prison to leave some time after his head upon a scaffold and the Marquis of Bergh in favour of Rui Gomez his ancient friend had leave to poison himself The intimacy of these Two Noble-men with Don Carlos was known to all the world They were both as well as he declared enemies of the Cardinal Spinosa Inquisitor General and this Enmity was enough in Spain to make a man suspected for his Religion They accused this Prelate to be the Authour of all those violent Counsels that the King had taken against their country but the Cardinal accused them themselves of having made several Packets of Calvin's Catechismes he brought out of France by the help of a Passport from Don Carlos All the passionate proceedings of this Prince against the Inquâ—sitors about the will of Charles the fifth were not as yet forgotten All these things joyned together did strangely dispose the people to believe the Innocent Prince engaged in the new opinions of which he had never so much as heard any body speak The King saw well that there was nothing but Religion that could make so strange an action as that he had done be endured He doubted not but that with these favorable dispositions and the proofs he had of his Son's intelligences he could if he would Sacrifice him with impunity to his revenge In this belief he put into the hands of the Cardinal Spinosa all the Originals he had found in Don Carlos his Cabinet excepting onely the Queen's Letters He established the Inquisitors Sovereign Judges between his Son and him and he protested he would wholly refer himself to their Judgment He knew that the choler of that sort of people never dies and that he should find their resentment against the Prince as violent after several years of interval since their quarrel as if it had been but a week before Although the King had made rigorous prohibitions to write of the imprisonment of Don Carlos into Forreign Countries the news of it was soon spread abroad The most part of the Princes of Christendom begg'd his pardon the Empress especially
besides the excellency of his complexion and one of the finest heads in the world his eyes were so full of fire and life and his Mien was so softy and martial that he could not with reason be thought any ways unpleasing At first the wonderful beauty of the Queen did even dazle his eyes but the consideration of what he had lost in losing her quickly changed his admiration into sorrow and fore-seeing what he was like to suffer for her he came by degrees to look upon her with some kind of fear In the mean time the Duke De l' Infantado thought that the Queen staid out of civility to know when it was Don Carlos pleasure to go and that the Prince out of respect staid for the same reason This made him put the Queen in mind that it was time to be going and by that means he drew them both out of a greater perplexity then perhaps he was aware of The Prince having taken his place in the Queens Coach never lifted his eyes from off her all the way and he had all the conveniency he could desire to consider her and undo himself The Queen soon observed it and a secret Sentiment of which she was not the Mistris made her find some kind of sweetness in seeing the disorder Don Carlos was in Yet she durst not at first seem to observe him too exactly and he could not look upon her without trembling But at last their eyes after having avoided one another's rencounter for some time not able to do themselves any farther violence and meeting one another by chance had not the force to withdraw themselves from the contemplations of so tempting objects It was by these faithful Interpreters that Don Carlos told the Queen all he had to say to her He prepared her by a thousand sad and passionate looks to suffer all the obstinacy and greatness of his passion The heatt of this Prince burden'd by its own secret and press'd with the grief of its misfortune could no longer defer to ease it self and the opinions he conceived by the troubled and discomposed carriage of the Queen that she was not ignorant of his meaning gave him so sensible a joy that it made him forget for some moments both the good Fortune of his Father and his own unhappiness This little satisfaction gave him a liberty of mind at the first meeting of the King and Queen which otherwise he could not have hoped for but the Princess was so intent upon her melancholly thoughts that the presence of her Husband could not draw her out of them When they were arrived at Madrid and that the King had received her at her coming out of the Coach after the first Ceremonies practised in those occasions she set her self to look fixedly upon him without thinking on what she did as if she had observed whether or no he took notice of the trouble she was in The King far enough from suspecting the true cause of her disturbance askt her roughly enough Whether she were displeased to see that his head was already full of gray haires â— These words were taken for an ill omen by those that stood by and some judged from that very time that the union between two persons so different in that as well as upon several other accounts could never be happy The Court of Spain that had hearkened to the wonders that were commonly reported of the Queens Beauty as to the ordinary exaggerations given to the good qualities of Princesses was infinitely astonished when it saw that all that had been reported of her came short of the truth This Princess was born into the World with all the advantages Nature could bestow upon her and she was then in that flourishing Age which is requisite to make a perfect Beauty All beautiful persons do not touch all sorts of hearts but the Queen was equally adored by the People and in the Court. As often as she shewed her self in publick so often she triumphed over the hearts of all those that saw her It was so hard to see her without loving her that it is to this day a Tradition in the Court of Spain That no wise man would venture to look her long in the Face In fine if it be true that beauty is a kind of Natural Royalty one may say That never Queen was more properly Queen then she It had been hard that her happy husband possessor of so many perfections should not have been charmed by them The smallest actions and gestures of this Princess appeared to him extreamly taking He found alwayes in her an attracting sweetness equally different from the coy severity of the Spanish Women in Publick and the too extravagant Sallies of their passion when in private Sometimes in making reflection upon these things he admired his own happiness but it was only in himself for he did not think it becoming his Grandeur to let so young a person know the weakness she was the cause of in him And if she suspected any thing of it she had quickly lost that thought by considering the little trust he seemed to put in her his severe carriage towards her and his regularity to shut all his caresses within the bounds of the night as if he had been afraid lest she should have seen him in some posture less grave then that in which he was usually seen by other People This way of proceeding so little obliging in appearance and so differing from that agreeable unruliness of the passions that ordinarily accompanies the happy condition of satisfied Lovers did in no wise answer the Idea the Queen had form'd of the life that two Married People happy enough to love one another ought to lead So that she lookt upon her Husband as a Man of whom she possessed nothing but the Body and whose mind was wholly filled with Politick thoughts and ambitious designs In the mean time she was so extreamly loved by him that the enjoyment of her far from diminishing his passion did but augment it whether it were that the possession of the object loved which satisfies so fully the desires of most Husbands served only to increase his by discovering to him every day new hidden beauties or that the secret he made to her of his love redoubled it's violence In the mean time Don Carlos was marvellously unquiet to know what thoughts the Queen had of him And though every time she lookt upon him he thought he discovered in her eyes a secret and passionate languishing which appeared not there at other times yet he durst not believe even what he saw whatsoever impatience he had to have a clearer knowledge in this point she being but very seldome alone during the publick divertisements that were made in honour of her Wedding he was a great while without being able to entertain her in private but at last fortune which pleaseth her self in furthering those designes that can have no other then unhappy events offer'd him an occasion
without using the Prince with the same rigour with which he himself used him And as this austere carriage was the true cause of Don Carlos his antipathy to his Father it is necessary here to relate some particularities thereof though perhaps a little meane and childish Don Carlos being hardly entred upon his Age of reason the Queen of Bohemia his Aunt who lived then in Spain made one of her Pages whom he loved above all the rest be severely chastised for a very light fault and he being at that very time extreamly violent in all his passions complain'd to her of it with a great deal of eagerness and this Princess having threatned to have him whipt if he would not hold his peace Don Carlos whom one could not more sensibly injure then in using him like a child was so out of pat ence at this threatning that he gave her a box on the Eare. As soon as she had left him he began to perceive what he had done and was much disquieted about it when the Steward of his Houshold presented himself before him melted into Teares Don Carlos to whom al extraordinary objects were susp cious in the condition he was in asked him the Subject of his Tears and knew by him that his Father had known his crime and had condemn'd him to death Those that were present with him observed that he received indeed this Newes with some astonishment but yet without any other marke of fear then asking Whether there were no pardon to be had for him One went presently to the King to demand it and came back with this Answer That he had obtained it but that he should not be quit without losing the Hand wherewith he had struck the Queen It would be a fine thing indeed cryed he briskly at this Answer to see a one-handed King He was told That it was happiness enough for him that the King contented himself with this punishment But a person of the Company having represented to him in private That if he submitted himself to some voluntary Correction his Father might be touched with some pitty for him he approved that Counsel and sent to pray the Cardinal Spinosa to come and Whip him a thing which without that consideration he would never have done Some years afterward just upon his recovery from a Sickness he had had the King having taken him aside to reprove him severely for some fault Don Carlos who thought himself blamed wrongfully was so livelily toucht with what his Father said to him that he fell into a relapse of his Fever at that very moment So harsh an Education had accustomed the Prince to see all his Sentiments and Inclinations contradicted and as he was of a disposition directly opposite to that of his Father he did not ordinarily govern himself after such a manner as the King could have desired This had often obliged Rui Gomez earnestly to desire that he might be excused from waiting on him any longer he was afraid that the King would at last as Fathers ordinarily do accuse him of the little comfort he had in his Son but this Favourite knew not that those people who like his Master think themselves very wise and who brag of constancy above all other vertues would a thousand times sooner condemn their own Children then blame a Man they have once chosen and are not so much afraid of appearing unfortunate in their Families as unskilful in their judgments Rui Gomez seeing the Kings obstinacy to continue him in his charge had us'd Don Carles with all rigour imaginable as it were to take away all occasion of blaming him for his ill conduct so that he judged well that he was to fear all things from the resentment of his Scholar and being sollicited by his Wife who under pretence of taking care of her husbands safety revenged her despised fav urs He did all things possible to obl ge the Duke d' Alva to joyne himself with him against Don Carlos letting him know how the Prince had threatned them both What earnestness soever the Princess of Eboli shewed to have her part in this combination her Husband who had some suspition of the sincerity of all her officiousness did not think it fit to entrust her with so important a secret She told him not all she thought she knew concerning the correspondence betwixt Don Carlos and the Queen But Rui Gamez who had a very piercing wit making reflection in private upon what she had told him had soon divined the rest But what Idea soever he attempted to make in his mind concerning this correspondence he could never form so perfect a conception of it as when he thought there was some love at the bottom A thousand things upon which he had not reflected at the time when they were done came then into his memory He remembred how he had observed that when the Queen was spoken of in Don Carlos his presence that Prince look'd upon those that spake of her as if he had feared lest they should observe him at that time and lest that they said of her had been onely to try him In other occasions where it seemed that all the company disputed who should praise the Queen best Don Carlos praised her not at all in his turn as the others did and when he must necessarily speak of her he was always afraid of saying too little and his mouth not accustomed to disguise the sentiments of his heart could ill do a thing it was ignorant of Rui Gomez considered again that though the Prince had no consideration for all other women yet he appeared before the Queen with a certain sweetness and complaisance that never bely'd it self and that render'd him uncapable of being known to those that were acquainted with his humour In fine it was not hard to believe that the marvellous beauty of that Princess from which the most insensible were forced to turn away their eyes and against which the oldest and wisest men of the Court had much ado to defend their reason should make upon the heart of a young Prince who saw her familiarly every day the impression it made upon all other Rui Gomez was confirmed in his opinion by communicating it to the Duke D' Alva from whom he thought not to hide it And as it ordinarily happens that when one hath discovered one part of a secret the desire one hath to know the rest makes one endeavour to Divine it they began to doubt at that very time that the Queen answer'd Don Carlos his passi n. This passion at first flatter'd their animosity they were glad for some moments that they had in their hands an infallible way of revenging themselves upon this Prince by discovering his Love to his Father But afterwards coming to make reflexion upon the King 's jealous humour and upon his natural cruelty they considered the strange extremities to which apparently it would carry him and were stricken with horror at that
the Queen and considering what was the pleasure of seeing her he well perceived he should never resolve to see her no more In this thought he went and gave her an account of what had passed between the Deputies and him and of the project he had formed He askt her pardon a thousand times over for being able to think for some moments that he could live absent from her but the Queen who aimed at nothing but to cure him of his passion obliged him notwithstanding his resistance to pursue his design of the expedition into Flanders and to make him resolve upon it the more easily she represented to him That this Voyage would dissipate the ill-humour the King was in through his suspicion of their affection and that so being less observed at his return and more considerable and absolute by reason of the glory he would doubtlessly acquire they might live together with less inquietude Don Carlos partly perswaded by these reasons but much more by the blind obedience he had sworn to the Queen in all things declared himself openly in favour of the Nobility of the Low-Countries to the great scandal of the Inqu sitors who held them to be almost all infected with Heresie and who had not yet forgotten the business of Charles the Fifth's Will. He made the King be told That if he would give him the Government of these Provinces he would be an werable to him upon his Life for their O edience It would be difficult to express to what a degree Rui Gomez and the Duke d'Alva were allarm'd at this design The Authority that an employment of that consequence was like to give to the Heire of the Crown appeared to them to be their evident ruine They judg'd That at his return from this expedition in which he would infallibly have good success this Prince would be his Fathers first Minister and that by consequence they must depend upon him The Duke d'Alva above all who had the same pretensions with Don Carlos engaged Rui Gomez who was more familiar with the King than he to make him consider How much this enterprise would raise his Son above him in the hearts of the Flemmings Perez without seeming to act by consent with them put him also in fear of the strait League which Don Carlos would doubtless make with France by the meanes of the Queen if he were once Master of the Low-Countries These Advertisements made all the impression they were capable of making upon the mind of a Prince naturally jealous of his Authority and fearful of his Sons Ambition The King thought no more of any thing but how to refuse Don Carlos with a good grace and so that he might not take his refusal for an affront He made him be told That he granted his Request and that he was ravisht that they had both hapned upon the same intention but that he was resolved to go himself establish him in Flanders and that they would shortly go away together for that design that it would not be handsome for him to live securely in Spain and in the mean time to expose his onely Son to the accidents of so fu ious a Rebellion and that he would share the danger with him and afterwards let him reap all the Glory The noise of this Voyage was immediately spread abroad into all parts by reason of the preparations the King made for it to deceive Don Carles yet no body could believe it In the mean time how groundless soever this noise appeared it filled the minds of the Rebels yet wavering with terror and the King to confirm it more and more made so considerable an Expence in Equipages that even Bergh and Monteigni who had laught at it till then cu st no longer doubt of its t uth The Queen and Don Carlos were at first cheated by appearances as well as the others but they undeceived themselves sooner then any When the Equipages were finisht the King who saw that people would soon be disabus'd if he began not his Journey could find no other expedient to excuse his stay but the feigning to be sick This pretence wrought its effect pretty well in the Countries afar off but what care soever he took to make his sickness be believed in his Court and what constraint soever this poor Prince brought himself under to live after a manner that might confirm the opinion he had a mind to give of himself he could never deceive his Wife and his Son In this conjuncture one day that a great deal of company that had been with the Queen and had discoursed a long time about the Kings Voyage into Flanders were gone out Don Carlos Don John and the Princess of Eboli being left alone with her at first they made an observation altogether How Courtiers do often torment themselves to divine the Causes and effects of that which shall never be After having some time laughed at those that had spoken of the Voyage Don Carlos came insensibly to laugh at the Voyage it self and at the violence the King did himself to counterfeit the sick Man He said That Charles the Fifth had made Voyages enough for himself and his Son too and that the King would repose both for himself and his Father The Queen did not hear these words because she was obliged to talk privately with some persons that had business with her In the mean time while Don John and the Princess of Eboli talked softly together Don Carlos in a pensive posture set himself to make a little Book in which he wrote these words in Capital Letters upon the first page The great and admirable Voyages of King Philip and in every one of the other pages of the Book he wrote one of the following Titles The Voyage from Madrid to the Escurial The Voyage from the Escurial to Toledo from Toledo to Madrid from Madrid to the Aranjuez from the Aranjuez to the Pardo from the Pardo to the Escurial And after this manner he filled the whole Book with the Kings Voyages to his Houses of Pleasure and to some of the greatest Townes in Spain The Queen could not keep her self from laughing at this imagination of the Prince how dangerous soever she thought it but as she read this paper one came to tell her that the King was newly fallen into a swoon and that he was very ill At this news she had onely the leisure to recommend the Book to Don Carlos The Prince who would needs follow her as soon as might be contented himself to throw it into a little Closet of which he shut the door after him He knew not that the Princess of Eboli had false Keys to all the Queen's Locks He was hardly out of the room but she seized upon his writing and when she had seen what it was she was extremely glad to have in her hands so considerable a means of prejudicing him in the King's mind The first thing she thought of was how she
utmost extremity This way was to renew with great earnestness the request he had made to be sent into Flanders where the state of Affairs demanded a more present and speedy remedy then ever He did it in termes that made the King comprehend that he would have what he desired and that there was no safety to refuse him He judged it his best way to express his mind in this absolute manner for he thought that if he were discovered he had nothing more to Husband and if he were not it might happen that the King sollicited by his jealousie and affrighted by this imperious way of proceeding wou'd grant him any thing in the World to be rid of him This unfortunate Father whose mind was more free to see the consequences of his Cruelty after he had satisfied it was again fallen into his natural timidity He saw plainly that he must necessarily send an Army into Flanders and he was afraid of irritating Don Carlos his resentment yet fresh for the death of his Friend if he refused him the Command of this Army which he demanded in such high termes Rui Gomez who had found the King so resolute in the business of the Marquess was not a little astonished to see him so unresolved in an occasion of much greater importance The Interest which this Minister had in his Masters welfare made him look with dread upon the weakness of that Prince who was going to put the Arms into his Sons hands wherewith he was like to have his own Throat cut the first As there is no Reason so strong as fear to oblige the most unstable spirits to determine themselves the King was ready to resolve himself in favour of Don Carlos Rui Gomez who saw it well knew not how to hinder it but having a very present wit he be thought himself all of a sudden of that Book of the Kings Voyages which his Wife had found in the Queens Closet written with Don Carlos his hand and which he had lookt upon ever since as a Toy which might yet prodnce some great effect if it were employed with discretion And now he thought he had found the occasion of using it He told the King That he thought himself obliged to let him know a little thing that till then he had not thought worthy of acquainting him with but which in the present conjuncture would help him much the better to guess at the Genius and Sentiments of his Son The King to whom this affair appeared of greater consequence then Rui Gomez made shew of thinking it would needs examine the Book himself and knowing it to be of his Sons own Writing he entred into a profound thoughtfulness in which this Minister thought it best to leave him After that he was a little come to himself from the first trouble of Mind into which so bloody a Raillery made by two persons so dear unto him had at first cast him his antient suspicions of Don Carlos his love for the Queen awakened themselves in his Soul with more violence then ever He could not comprehend that a Wife and a Son should divert themselves in that manner at the cost of a Father and a Husband that was their King without living in the most Criminal Familiarity But the Marquess of Posa coming presently into his Mind he could not believe that the Queen was in Love with them both especially Don Carlos and the Marquess being so united as they were and he concluded that it must necessarily be that one was the Lover and the other the Confident yet what effort of wit soever he could make he could never determine in himself which was the Lover But which soever of the two it were he still found that the death of the Marquess was but too just and that Don Carlos was equally culpable However the matter went he would not authorize the Railleries his Son made upon his manner of life by giving him the means of leading so different a one in Flanders If this Prince who had yet done nothing had the boldness to treate his Father with so much contempt what would he not have dared to have done if Fortune had been favourable to his ambition The King made him be told That in the fearful disorder in which Flanders was he thought he could not send him thither without exposing his life to inevitable danger but that the Duke d' Alva should go thither with a powerful Army within a short time and that as soon as this Army should have rendred his side the strongest he should be free to do whatever he would desire This refusal fully confirmed the Prince in the opinion he had that his ruine was resolved upon so that he rendred himself to the instances that the Rebels of Flanders had been a long time making to him by the Count of Egmont and their Deputies to go and put himself at their head They promised him That if he would grant them a few things that were very reasouable they would obey him with more fidelity then the Catholicks obey'd the King Don Carlos doubted not but that if he were once Master of this Revolted People the King would abandon to him the rest of Flanders though it were but to hinder him from possessing himself of it by force as it would be easie for him to do The Marquess of Bergh and Monteigni had several Conferences with him upon this Project and they took together so just and so solid Measures for the executing of it that they could not fail of success provided that the Prince conserved to himself the liberty of Acting It was that to which they exhorted him principally and if he had taken their Counsel he had began his journey at that very time But Don Carlos judged that there would be too much rashness in declaring himself after that manner before he had established the correspondency that were necessary for him but he promised them that in the mean time he would make use of such powerful precautions for the safety of his person that he should be able to give them a good account of it Besides a Coffer filled with Fire Armes which he made be set at his Beds-head he caused some little Pistols to be made of a new Invention to carry alwayes about him without being seen And that he might hinder himself from being surprised in his sleep he commanded a famous French Artist who workt at the Escurial to make a kind of Lock for his Chamber that could not be open'd but on the inside and he put every night under his Bolster two Swords and a Case of Pistols Whilst this unfortunate Prince hastened perhaps his undoing by the sole opinion he had that he was undone his Enemies forgot nothing to take from him all wayes of reconciling himself with his Father The King had not yet seen the Queen in private since the death of the Marquess of Posa and they feared that all their labour would prove to be in vain