by Henry Kamen
Work was not forgotten. The day after the wedding, he was up at 7 a.m. and despatched business (for Flanders and Italy) until 11 a.m. Writing to Juana, Philip reported that after the marriage at Winchester ‘we came to London where I was received with demonstrations of affection and general contentment’. The entrance to the capital in fact took place many days after the wedding. The royal pair took ship down the Thames and made their entrance by water on 18 August, sailing under Westminster bridge and disembarking in the heart of the city. ‘After staying in London six or seven days,’ Philip's account continues, ‘we came to pass what remains of summer in this house’ of Hampton Court. By September, ‘I have begun to deal with the business of this kingdom and a good start has been made.’36 With his arrival, a large number of notables and diplomats from all Europe gathered in London. Gonzalo Pérez judged that eighteen different languages were being spoken at court. But Philip, in his view, handled the situation superbly.37
The Spanish nobles were excited by England. For them it was the legendary island of chivalry, the home of king Arthur and of Amadis.38
He who thought up and composed the books of Amadis and other similar books of chivalry, with imaginary countrysides and dwellings and enchantments, must without doubt have first seen the customs and strange ways in use in this realm, before he wrote about them. There is more to be seen in England than is written of in those books, because the dwellings that there are in the country, the rivers, the fields, the beautiful flowered meadows, the cool fountains, are in truth a pleasure to see and above all in summer.
In Winchester, ‘we went to see in the castle the Round Table of king Arthur’.39
Apart from the wonders of legend and landscape, however, there was little to delight them. They found the English ‘white, pink, and quarrelsome’. ‘All their celebrations consist of eating and drinking, they think of nothing else.’ ‘They have a lot of beer, and drink more of it than there is water in the river at Valladolid.’40 Above all, however, there was tension and hostility. ‘We are in an excellent land, but among the worst people in the world. These English are very unfriendly to the Spanish nation. This has been seen very well from the many incidents, some of them important, that have taken place between them and us.’ In London there were several incidents in the street, and Spaniards were frequently set upon and robbed. ‘There are great thieves among them, and they rob in broad daylight,’ Ruy Gómez wrote. Nobody walked at night through the streets for fear of thieves. When the nobles complained, they were told ‘that it is in the interests of His Majesty's service to cover up all this’. Not surprisingly, ‘some say they would prefer to be in the slums of Toledo rather than in the meadows of Amadis’.41
They found the ladies of court ‘quite ugly’. One disappointed noble commented that? do not know why this should be so, because outside the palace I have seen some very beautiful women.’ The Spanish opinion of Mary was unequivocal: ‘the queen is in no way beautiful; she is short, frail rather than fat, and very white and fair-haired; she has no eyebrows; she is a saint; she dresses very badly’.42 The description, which accords perfectly with her portraits, is more generous than that of the Venetian ambassador. He described her as unattractive, wrinkled, Very shortsighted’ (so that books had to be brought up to her eyes) and with a voice ‘rough and loud, like a man's’.43 The queen was sincere and devoted in her relations with Philip, while he was generous and courteous towards her. On both sides, it was accepted that love was not part of the contract. Ruy Gómez observed tactfully in the week after the wedding that ‘the queen is a finse e lady, though older than we were told. But His Highness comports himself so well and gives her so many presents that I am certain that both will be very satisfied with each other.’ ‘The king,’ he added a few days later, ‘is trying to be as gracious as possible to her so as not to fall short in any way of his duty.’44 In one pithy phrase, he summed up Philip's attitude: ‘the king understands that this marriage was effected not for the flesh but for the restoration of this realm and the conservation of those states [that is, Flanders]’. Sandoval, the official chronicler of the emperor, put it even more cogently: ‘he acted in this like Isaac, letting himself be sacrificed to the will of his father’.45
In the months after the wedding Philip abstained scrupulously from interfering in English domestic affairs,46 and devoted himself closely to the politics of Spain, Italy and America. In none of these areas did his views coincide with those of his father. Philip had obediently accepted Charles's proposal of the English marriage. But on matters of government, which had effectively been in his hands now for ten years, his perspective was consistently different and independent. Charles, anxious that his son come to Brussels and enable him to proceed with the abdication, sent his secretary Francisco de Eraso to London with a message. Writing in September, Philip explained why some delay was necessary.47
The settlement of religion (in which he helped substantially)48 was going smoothly, he said. At the end of September 1554, his letter continued, he and Mary left Hampton Court for London. On 30 November they presided over a moving joint session of parliament in which the reconciliation of England with Rome, after twenty years of schism, was made law. Although ‘I greatly desire to kiss your hands and see you and talk to you, I beg you again to accept that when this is over I shall be able to come.’ Besides, ‘since the queen is pregnant it will be easier later, and I think it will be around January’. He was not, as some have supposed, anxious to escape from England and from Mary.
On specific matters of policy, he felt bound to disagree with his father. One issue was whether the use of the labour of Indians in America, known as repartimiento, should be conceded to the settlers there as a right. He had before him the views of theologians in Spain. He had also now set up in London a special committee of twelve, which debated the issue for three days. The discussion was so violent that a couple of the participants almost came to blows. The two – both of them chaplains of the prince – were the stocky, bushy-browed Bartolomé Carranza, a friend of Las Casas, and the portly Franciscan Bernardo de Fresneda. Philip did not mention the conflict, only the resolution of the meeting. ‘It appears that a majority from both sides agree that one should and can concede the said repartimiento in perpetuity, and that there is no other solution for the security and peace of those lands.’ He then listed further reasons for this conclusion. ‘For all these and other reasons, I have decided that the matter be put into effect.’ In a marginal note for secretary Eraso, he scribbled: ‘Tell His Majesty firmly that this matter cannot be resolved any other way.’ It was a thorny problem, which Philip did not press, and which he allowed everybody to discuss for two more years. Not until September 1556 did he inform the council of the Indies (which solidly opposed the idea) that ‘I have resolved to concede it and to order it put into effect without delay’.49 There was a powerful motive inducing the concession: the settlers had offered the crown five million ducats in gold. Philip explained to the council that ‘I cannot find supplies anywhere else to pay the great amount that is owed’.
As for finding funds for a future war with France, Philip wrote to his father, he was opposed to raising any money from the Netherlands. This was, he felt, ‘the first campaign in which I am pledged to gain or lose honour [reputación], for now and for the future, and on which all have their eyes fixed. Besides, the campaign has to be launched from the direction of those states, and it would be better if I did not under any circumstances need to ask them for new contributions.’
Finally, he insisted that Charles's officials in the Italian states, which were now definitively in his hands, answer only to him. ‘It is unreasonable that after Your Majesty has granted me those states, the officials should feel that the grant is only in name and that the situation is the same as before Your Majesty made the grant to me.’ The matter was important, for Philip was very shortly to attempt the use of force in Italy to resolve differences with the papacy. Committed as he was to bringing his father's wars to an end, h
e regretted the turn of events in Siena, where Spanish troops had to be used to put down a revolt. ‘I would very much like to explain my actions before the world, to demonstrate that I have no claims to the territory of others,’ he informed Charles shortly after. ‘But I would also like it to be understood that I must defend that which Your Majesty has granted to me.’50
Charles had long since accepted the independent line taken by his son. He swallowed Philip's Italian policy without demur. But he registered his dissent concerning the decision on the Indians. Charles, like Las Casas, felt that a deep moral principle was involved. Philip agreed with them on the principle, but saw the force of his advisers' arguments that if no concessions were made to the settlers then permanent rebellion would be the outcome. Charles wrote:? have never been easy on this question, as you know, and have always wished to keep clear of it.’ While he remained king, he would never put his signature to the decision. It would be better if Philip waited until Castile and the Indies were passed to him; he would then be free to go ahead. ‘You will be able to do it according to your wishes and as something that is your own, and sign the orders; and you will unburden me of this scruple.’51
The problems of America were, however, too pressing to be set aside. Las Casas continued to be in close touch with Philip during the latter's absence abroad. The island of Hispaniola, principal centre of Spanish settlement in the New World, was going through a serious crisis. To plead its case it sent a special representative, who took care, before visiting Philip in England and in Flanders, to come armed with letters of recommendation from Las Casas.52 The supply of gold from America was drying up, and the economy was suffering from a lack of labour. Philip gave his approval therefore to further imports of African blacks as slaves, and to the seizure of Caribbean Indians (thought by the Spanish to be cannibals) as slaves.53 It was a significant step. Only just over a year before, Philip had accepted the views of theologians that the trade in blacks to America was immoral, and had ordered a trading licence to be suspended.54 Curiously, in this matter the views of Philip and of Las Casas seem to have coincided absolutely. Both were concerned to strengthen the Spanish presence in Hispaniola (an island which many, including Las Casas, thought was larger than Spain itself) in order to make it rich and powerful. It would become ‘a realm greater even than Spain, the very thought of which would make the king of France tremble’, as Las Casas put it in 1559.55
Very soon after,56 Las Casas became a firm opponent of black slavery and an outright defender of the Caribs. Philip continued to respect the veteran's views and maintained his favour.57 ‘In consideration of the services of fray Bartolomé de las Casas to the emperor, and his services past and present to me,’ runs a royal order of 1560, ‘it is our wish that for as long as he resides in this my capital, he be lodged in it in the manner that befits his standing.’58 For these last years of his life, the aged campaigner followed the court. In 1561 Philip joined Las Casas in a public debate on the American question held in the Dominican monastery of Atocha in Madrid.59 It was here that Las Casas died five years later. In some respects at least, his ideas continued to influence the king. In May 1565 he presented to Philip the text of his Twelve Doubts, a brief summary of his views.
In England, meanwhile, the religious settlement was taking a new and tragic turn. At the end of 1554 a number of bishops' courts began proceedings for heresy against selected persons. On 1 February 1555 the first victim of the persecution was sent to the stake. Many European observers in London, who felt from their experience that burning was no solution, were appalled. On 5 February Simon Renard wrote urgently to Philip: ‘I do not think it well that Your Majesty should allow further executions to take place.’60 The king, however, had no power to intervene in the Church courts. He approached the problem another way. On the following Sunday, 10 February, his confessor fray Alfonso de Castro preached before the court a sermon in which he ‘did earnestly inveigh against the bishops for burning of men, saying plainly that they learned it not in scripture to burn any for conscience sake; but the contrary, that they should live and be converted’.61 There were no further burnings for the rest of the month, possibly as a result of the sermon.
Philip's first direct response to the problem of religious persecution was evidently one of moderation. He seems not to have disagreed with Castro's sermon, and shortly after appointed him to Spain's second see, that of Santiago.62 The king and his advisers wished to assuage rather than agitate the issue of religion, but several Spanish clergy, including Bartolomé Carranza, supported the English bishops in their campaign of persecution. Mary's own view, that ‘the punishment of heretics ought to be done without rashness’,63 was not translated into a policy of moderation. The persecution, and the inevitable rumours about bringing in Spain's Inquisition, helped sow a further seed of distrust between the two nations.
Philip's detachment from English affairs was exemplary. If asked for an opinion he always referred matters to the queen. The Venetian ambassador commented that he was not only popular but also well loved, and would be more so if the Spaniards round him could be got rid of.64 There was no doubt over English attitudes to the Spanish presence. Protestant voices and French insinuations encouraged English xenophobia. Little incidents served to fan distrust. However, there were also entertainments which soothed tempers. There were masked balls at court, and several tournaments, one of them in the great yard at Westminster at Easter 1555, where the king and his men, dressed in blue, challenged the English knights.65
Philip's stay in England lasted little more than a year. He intended to cross over to Brussels in the spring to confer with the emperor, but was held back by Mary's suspected pregnancy. The queen was large. Philip treated her respectfully, but doubts over the pregnancy were all too soon confirmed. By the summer it was accepted at court that the child was ‘mere wind’. Philip wrote ruefully to Maximilian: ‘the queen's pregnancy turns out not to have been as certain as we thought. Your Highness and my sister manage it better than the queen and I do.’66
As soon as everyone became reconciled to the reality, Philip hastened his departure. The bulk of his court stayed behind in London when he took his leave of the queen at Greenwich on 29 August. Mary was disconsolate. She fought back her tears at the leave-taking. Philip, for his part, took delight in kissing all the ladies farewell. His group departed on barges downriver and the queen returned to her apartments. ‘Placing herself at a window which overlooks the river she gave free rein to her grief by a flood of tears, nor did she once quit the window as long as he was in sight.’ The king stood on the top of his barge to be better seen, and waved his hat in farewell.67 His large party, which included a good part of the English Privy Council, made slow progress. The river breeze was a welcome relief from the stifling heat of that year's summer, which had provoked forest fires in southern England.68 Overnight stays were made at Sittingbourne and Canterbury. At Dover high winds delayed embarkation until 4 September, but then they made it in three hours to Calais. On the eighth he met the emperor in Brussels.
*
Philip's presence was necessary in order to carry out Charles's firm decision to abdicate from all his realms. The chief officials of the Netherlands, and the delegates to the States General, were instructed to assemble in mid-October though continuous bad weather forced the date to be put back to 25 October. Invitations were sent out to members of the Habsburg family, knights of the Golden Fleece and neighbouring princes. In the afternoon of the appointed day the emperor, accompanied by Philip and a tiny group of attendants, rode through Brussels to the great hall of the royal palace.
The hall was packed.69 The emperor made his entrance, walking slowly. He supported himself with his left hand on a stick, his right hand leaning on the shoulder of the prince of Orange. Behind them came Philip, Mary of Hungary, the duke of Savoy, the knights of the Fleece and the high officials of Burgundy. The emperor went up to the dais and sat down. Philip sat down on his right, Mary on his left. A courtier began by explaining
briefly to the assembled dignitaries the purpose of the session. Then the emperor, seated because of his infirmities,70 put on his spectacles and glanced rapidly at some notes in his hand. He raised his head and began to speak.
Before announcing his decision he gave a short and moving summary of his life and his struggles.
I have been nine times to Germany, six times to Spain, and seven to Italy; I have come here to Flanders ten times, and have been four times to France in war and peace, twice to England, and twice to Africa … without mentioning other lesser journeys. I have made eight voyages in the Mediterranean and three in the seas of Spain, and soon I shall make the fourth voyage when I return there to be buried.71
While he spoke, the English envoy observed, there was ‘not one man in the whole assemblie that poured not oute abundantly teares’. The wave of emotion overtook Charles, who also began to weep. The emperor bade his son kneel before him, asked for his hand and embraced him. He placed his hands on Philip's head and blessed him. The prince then rose to accept the duties entrusted to him. However, he limited his own intervention to apologising, in a few halting words of French, for the fact that he could not speak the language, the official one of the States General.72 The bishop of Arras, he said, would speak for him. Antoine Perrenot then delivered his address. After him, Mary said a few words. At the end of the ceremony Charles formally invested his son as new sovereign of the Netherlands.