by Henry Kamen
When not faced with formal courtesies, Philip was very much more at ease. He participated wholeheartedly in festivities, dancing and tournaments; his energy on social occasions was formidable. The voyage ended on 25 November, when the entire fleet sailed into the harbour of Genoa. Philip was the guest for sixteen days of prince Andrea Doria at his palace outside the city. Head of Genoa's leading noble family, the great seafaring admiral had allied himself to Charles V twenty years before. Since that time, his private fleet had been the mainstay of Spain's naval power in the Mediterranean. The high point of the stay was Philip's formal attendance at mass in the cathedral on 8 December. The city was packed with nobles, soldiery and populace. The Spanish guard wore the prince's livery: yellow, white and red. The only event marring the visit was a small public disturbance to protest against the conduct of the Spanish soldiers.
The party left Genoa on 11 December. It was cold, and snowing. They took the route through Alessandria and Pavia, and in each town did a bit of touring and admired the fortifications. On the nineteenth, as they approached Milan, they were met by the duke of Savoy, Carlo III, who accompanied them into the city. Philip himself was duke of Milan, by gift of his father, and entered to a suitably triumphant welcome. The stay, which lasted nineteen days, was taken up with tours, feasts, banquets, tourneys, theatre visits and balls. On New Year's Day the governor, Ferrante Gonzaga, put on a great feast followed by dancing. Philip stayed up until it ended at four in the morning. His gallantry to women was evident. At the feast he gave up his seat of honour to the governor's daughter and let the fair ladies drink from his glass, ‘something no one had ever seen before’.54 At the tourney held a few days later, he was ‘looked at admiringly by the ladies because he fought with such spirit and agility’. But the stay was not all gallantry. Philip took time off to meet the great artist Titian, and commissioned some portraits from him.55
The journey resumed on 7 January. The route took them through Cremona and Mantua (a four-day stop, as guests of the duke of Ferrara). From here they began the ascent up the mountainous valley of the river Adige. They crossed out of Italy now, into German territory, and on the twenty-fourth arrived at Trent.
Philip was welcomed into the city by the cardinals of Trent and Augsburg, and by Charles V's ally the young twenty-seven-year-old Elector of Saxony, Maurice. Triumphal arches covered the streets. Trent was a centre of world attention because of the Church council which should have been in session there. In 1547, however, the prelates at the council were instructed by the pope to move temporarily to Bologna, because of an outbreak of plague. Only the prelates dependent on Charles V – the Germans and Spaniards – disobeyed the pope and stayed on at Trent. It was this small group which now took part in welcoming the prince of Spain. Philip managed to speak to the prelates, but the greater part of his time in Trent was occupied in festivities. Every night there was a banquet. On the first night, ‘the dinner was joyous and very German because everyone drank a lot; it ended at ten and then the celebrations began’.56 There was dancing: ‘the first to dance was the prince, who was picked out by the most beautiful of the Italian ladies.’57 The next two nights, Friday and Saturday, the prince dined alone. It was a self-discipline which he had practised for many years, and which he apparently continued for the rest of his life. Twenty years later an ambassador reported that he was still following the practice.58 The last of the five nights the party spent here took the form of a masked ball that lasted almost until dawn. The prince, Elector Maurice and the other nobles wore masks. The gaiety was so general that the cardinals of Trent and Augsburg also danced with the ladies.59
The journey to the Netherlands lasted a full six months, an extended pleasure tour which was also intended to be educational. As they went north they were preparing for the cold and snows of the Alps. At Bolzano, where they spent the night of 30 January, Philip was presented with a large block of silver ore, mined in the region. His companions noted the well-being of the people in the Tyrol, the wayside crucifixes, the beauty of the women, the gradual disappearance of vineyards. On 3 February they made their way up to the Brenner pass, and then descended towards Innsbruck, which they entered on the fourth.
From this point the cardinal of Trent acted as Philip's translator into German. After a rest at Innsbruck, where Philip spent a day hunting in the woods, the entire group embarked in boats and sailed down the river Inn as far as Rosenheim. It was a relaxing journey which they broke every night in order to sleep ashore. From Rosenheim they pressed overland, spending the night at the abbey of Ebersberg. On 13 February the party arrived at Munich where they were greeted by duke Albert of Bavaria and his family. The Spaniards were immediately impressed by the beauty of the town, its little houses and clean streets. There were banquets nearly every night. On the second day they went hunting in the woods round Munich, and had a splendid picnic in the country. That night there was a sumptuous dinner with ‘sweet music and ladies’.60 ‘During all these entertainments, His Highness was as happy, relaxed and sociable as if he understood the language; as a result everyone was enchanted, above all the duke's daughter.’61
Two days after leaving Munich the party, which since Trent also included Maurice of Saxony, entered Augsburg. It was 21 February. Philip for the first time learned what it was like to live among heretics, since the area was largely Lutheran. It did not affect his conduct. His father's firm policy was one of unavoidable coexistence with Lutherans and Philip accepted it without protest. Maurice of Saxony, his close companion during the journey, was an active Lutheran and leading ally of the emperor. The prince greeted the city councillors cheerfully, and spent four days in the partly Protestant city. He took the opportunity to visit the magnificent palace of the Fugger family, financiers who had enriched themselves by lending money to his father. The day after departing from Augsburg, Elector Maurice took his leave in order to return to Saxony.
The next important stop was Ulm, where they spent the last two days of February. The entertainment here was a joust between boats on the Danube. The losers were tipped into the river. Philip was now travelling through the solidly Lutheran territory of Württemberg. His party made their way north, towards the Rhine. At Vaihingen they were met by the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, the Lutheran duke Albert of Hohenzollern, with a military escort which accompanied them as far as Speyer. In this way they reached Heidelberg, capital of the Palatinate, on 7 March.
The remarkable city, set on a hill overlooking the woods of the river Neckar, was at this time a Catholic area surrounded by Lutheran states. Philip spent four days here. On the second, he went out hunting at the mountains and picnicked in the woods. On the third, there was jousting in the castle courtyard, followed that night by a ball and a banquet. As in the other feasts along the route, the prince took pains to follow German drinking habits. There was a series of toasts, and each time he dutifully raised his glass and drank the wine. But ‘that was hazardous, for His Highness was not used to these practices’.62 The wine was, all the same, delicious,63 of a quality unknown in Spain. The Germans expressed their satisfaction at seeing the prince doing ‘many things against his inclination and habits’ simply to please them.64 Philip could not have been happier. He wrote from Heidelberg to Ferrante Gonzaga that ‘I have been very well received by all these princes and cities of Germany, with great demonstrations of affection’.65
The group left on the eleventh and arrived in the evening at Speyer, on the river Rhine. They were met by a Netherlands military escort under the command of the duke of Aerschot, and by the archbishop of Mainz who came downriver to greet the prince. They then struck out westward instead of going down the valley of the Rhine. Passing through Kaiserslautern, Zweibrücken and Saarbrücken, they arrived in Luxembourg late on 21 March. Philip stayed only one day in the town, in which he spent the time examining the walls and defences. He had a passionate interest in military fortifications, and had inspected the defences of every city through which they passed on the journey. He was no
w on home ground, in the states of his father. The party spent the last three days of March in Namur.
A few miles outside Brussels, a reception was put on for the approaching travellers by queen Mary of Hungary, sister of the emperor and regent of the Netherlands. Towards nightfall on 1 April, Philip made a formal entrance into the capital. The streets were brilliantly decked and illuminated, there were triumphal arches everywhere and torches in the windows. Over 50,000 people, a witness estimated, were gathered in the city centre to greet the prince.66 Philip made his way to the royal palace, where he was received formally by Mary and by her sister the queen of France, Eleanor. The two queens accompanied him to a room where the emperor was waiting to receive him. The two embraced. Philip had not seen his father in six years.
*
The political team with which Philip came into contact in these years was his father's. It was made up of men whose professional horizon was the whole of Europe. They usually had a university background, were trained in the humanities, and spoke several languages. They focused their loyalty not on any single nation but on the emperor, a personage transcending nations. When prince Philip was in the north, the most important of these officials was the emperor's chancellor, Antoine Perrenot. A native of Besançon in the Franche-Comté, Antoine (born in 1517) was the eldest of the five sons of Nicolas Perrenot, chancellor for over twenty years. During that period, father and sons worked together in the emperor's service. Antoine pursued his career through the Church, and was appointed bishop of Arras in the 1530s. When Nicolas died in 1550, Antoine succeeded him as the emperor's closest counsellor. During Charles's last, difficult years in the Netherlands, Perrenot directed policy. In the process, his approach clashed with that of the nobility of the Netherlands.
The Netherlands were (as the name implied) a small group of unspectacular, low-lying provinces whose economic sustenance came mainly from the sea. The major port, Antwerp, was a hive of trading activity. Despite its unassuming aspect, the country was always a potential source of problems. Its seventeen provinces had no political unity beyond their allegiance to a common ruler, Charles. They technically formed part of the Holy Roman Empire ruled by Charles, but the emperor had some years before secured their effective autonomy. The Netherlands had a common constitutional assembly, the States General, but real political power rested with the great nobles and above all with those who were governors (stadhouders) of the leading provinces. Charles had attempted to strengthen control in the capital, Brussels, by setting up a system of three central councils. Differences between the provinces were aggravated by cultural divisions: the greater part, roughly the northern areas down as far as Brussels, spoke Dutch; in the south, economically richer and more densely populated, the principal language was French.
The dual culture affected politics. The Netherlanders felt themselves kin to both the Germans and the French. Most greater nobles had French origins, but they frequently married into German families. The most prominent grandee was William of Nassau, prince of Orange, six years younger than prince Philip. Holder of extensive estates in both France and Germany, he became in 1559 stadhouder of the provinces of Holland, Zealand and Utrecht. In 1561 he married, as his third wife, the daughter of Elector Maurice of Saxony. Another of the magnates of the country was Lamoral, count of Egmont, four years older than Philip and stadhouder of the French-speaking provinces of Flanders and Artois. The cosmopolitan links of Netherlands nobles tended to make them the focus of international interest.
The complex situation in the Netherlands was at its most delicate in religion. The Dutch had a well-deserved reputation as religious liberals. It was the country of Erasmus, guiding light of European humanism. But it was also the country where the radical Anabaptists most flourished, and where they were (during the 1530s) the most bitterly persecuted. In the months that he was in the Netherlands, Philip became familiar with an environment where the existence of heresy was accepted as almost natural.
For the first three and a half months of his stay he remained in Brussels. In part this was because of the emperor's health. The French ambassador had reported from Brussels in February 1549 that Charles had ‘tired eyes, a pale mouth, face more dead than alive, his speech weak, his breath short, his back bowed’.67 He managed all the same to make his son's visit agreeable. ‘During all this period there were fine celebrations, banquets, dances, elegant masked balls, hunting parties and tournaments.’68 Philip got to know all the young men who in later years would play a key part in his policies. He jousted shoulder to shoulder with William of Orange (with whom he shared a passion for the literature of chivalry) and Lamoral of Egmont. He went with them on hunts and to balls. There was no problem of communication. Many, like Egmont, spoke perfect Spanish. Several were companions in chivalry, as knights of the elite Burgundian order of the Golden Fleece. Philip also had his fair share of the ladies. The French ambassador commented on his interest in the beautiful young duchess of Lorraine, and ‘the frequent kisses and extremely great courtesies that the prince offers her’.69 But Philip could not avoid work. The emperor made him come ‘every day for two or three hours to his study to instruct him person to person’.70 On 12 July Charles set out with his son on a tour of the provinces.
Even before he entered Germany a controversial item was put on Philip's plate. Consequent on his victory at Mühlberg Charles took as prisoners the Lutheran leaders the duke of Saxony and the Landgrave Philip of Hesse. They were kept under honourable custody in Brussels. Among the first letters the prince received while in the Empire was one from the duke, asking him to mediate with the emperor for his release.71 The requests did not stop. Elector Maurice, who was married to the daughter of the Landgrave, asked Philip when he met him at Trent to intercede with Charles.72 Philip said he would try. Shortly after leaving Heidelberg he was pursued by a similar request from the princess Palatine. This time the prince explained that he could not, because the emperor was very angry over the whole matter.73 The issue remained with him to the end of his stay in Germany.
Philip's tour had as its purpose the swearing-in of the prince of Spain as heir to each province. Charles intended that Philip should get to know his future northern subjects. For the next few months the cities vied with each other in the complexity of their triumphal arches and celebrations. The royal party included the households of the emperor, the prince, Mary of Hungary, and the leading nobility. The journey was done in two phases. In July and August 1549 they toured the southern provinces and returned afterwards to Brussels. Then in September and October they went round the northern provinces. As in the trip through Germany, there was much to wonder at and admire.
The highlight of the first part of the tour was the entertainment put on by Mary of Hungary for her guests in the last week of August 1549 at her palace in Binche. Mary had converted the old château into one of the most sumptuous Renaissance palaces of northern Europe. The stay there left an unforgettable impression on Philip. His suite of rooms was richly furnished and decorated in a way that he was later to imitate. The little chapel contained a painting of The Descent from the Cross by Roger van der Weyden which the prince so admired that he later (in 1574) acquired it for the Escorial and also, before that (in 1569), had a copy painted for him by the Flemish artist Michel Coxcie. On 24 August a great tourney was mounted in the palace courtyard, with the prince participating. Over the next two days the queen staged a splendid chivalric feast, based on the popular book of chivalry, the Amadis of Gaul. Knights (one of them was Philip) had to traverse several obstacles in order to gain entrance to the Dark Tower, liberate the prisoners there, and afterwards make it to the Happy Isles. On the twenty-ninth the guests went out to Mary's nearby château at Mariemont, where there was a feast served by pretty girls dressed as nymphs and huntresses. This was followed by the storming of a mock castle by knights who had to liberate imprisoned maidens. The next day there was another tourney, with sixty knights participating. After nine days at Binche, Philip continued the tour, this time nort
hwards.74
On 11 September the prince made a formal entry into Antwerp, the commercial metropolis of northern Europe, where he was accorded the privilege of a magnificent ‘Joyous Entry’, as the ceremonial was called. Unfortunately, a heavy downpour dampened the occasion.75 The visitors were particularly impressed by the opulence of the city, ‘which could with good reason be called the market-place of the world’. The Spaniards next paid special attention to Rotterdam, which they visited on 27 September. It was the birthplace of Erasmus who was still highly regarded in Spain, and Philip went specially to mass at the church near Erasmus's family house, and ‘the leading lords and gentlemen of the court’ went inside the house to pay homage.76
The long and tiring tour ended with the return to Brussels on 26 October. Philip had seen every corner of the seventeen provinces, and been sworn in at every principal city. He now took a rest from travel, and turned to other matters. He consulted with the emperor over planning a reunion of members of the Habsburg family. He wrote to Spain to congratulate his sister María over the birth of her first child, and in passing urged Maximilian to come to Germany for the reunion.77 The feasts, the hunts, the tourneys, the balls, started up again. In December the prince received a splendid gift of eight falcons from the Lutheran king of Denmark. He wrote back, thanking the king profusely: ‘they are so fine that we hope to make use of them many times; and if we could please Your Serenity in some matter we shall do so with as much appreciation as our good friendship demands’.78