knowingly and willingly, have I done wrong or violence, nor authorized such deeds in others. If, notwithstanding, such offences may be justly chargeable upon me, I solemnly assure you that I have committed them unknown to myself and against my own desire; and I entreat those whom I may thus have wronged, both those who are present to-day and those who are absent, to grant me their forgiveness.'

Fatigued with standing and speaking, perhaps overcome by his emotions, the emperor here sat down to rest. Queen Eleanor brought him a small cup of cordial. Having touched it with his lips, he again rose, and turning to his son, who stood uncovered by his side, addressed him to this effect.

'Were you put in possession of these provinces by my death, so fair a heritage might well give me a claim on your gratitude. But now that I give them up to you of my own will, dying as it were before the time for your advantage, I expect that your care and love of your people will repay me in the way such a boon deserves. Other kings reckon themselves fortunate to be able, at the hour of death, to place their crowns on their children's heads; I wish to enjoy this happiness in my life, and to see you reign. My conduct will have few imitators, as it has few examples; but it will be praised if you justify my confidence, if you do not decline in the wisdom you have hitherto displayed, and if you continue to be the strenuous defender of the catholic faith, and of law and justice, which are the strength and the bulwarks of empire. May you also have a son to whom you may, in turn, transmit your power!'

With these words the emperor tenderly embraced his son, who was now kneeling before him, and kissing his hand. Placing his hand on the head of his successor, Charles the Fifth, with tears in his eyes, bestowed on

him his paternal blessing, and committed him to the protection of God. Philip's cold heart was melted at this solemn moment, and he also shed tears, which likewise flowed plentifully both in the ranks of the noble and knightly spectators, and amongst the populace in the centre of the hall.

The emperor and his son having resumed their seats, Jacques Maes, an eminent lawyer and syndic of Antwerp, stood up to answer the abdicating monarch in the name of the states-general. His speech was remarkable for longwinded magniloquence and gross adulation. Charles was described as the greatest of monarchs, his Flemish people, as the most devoted and peaceable of subjects. As for Philip, that worthy image of a great sire was declared to be so marvellously endowed by nature, that had the states-general been free to choose their lord, they must have preferred him to any other prince in Christendom. Rising from his chair, the new sovereign bowed to the assembly, replied in a few words expressive of his regret for his imperfect French, which compelled him to speak through the mouth of the bishop of Arras, to whom however he had imparted his wishes and his feelings.

Anthony Perrenot, bishop of Arras, was the able statesman afterwards so powerful and so famous as cardinal Granvelle. His address was well suited to the occasion, being brief, clear, and dignified. In the king's name, he assured the states-general that his majesty had accepted the sovereignty only out of respect to the express command of his father. He solemnly promised to employ all his power in governing them and defending them well, and he hoped that he should find himself the ruler of a loyal people. He would remain among them as long, and he would return to them as often, as affairs required his presence. He would specially watch

over the maintenance of the catholic religion, justice, their old laws, privileges, and immunities, and in all things would show himself a good prince, as he hoped that they would show themselves good subjects.

When the bishop ended his harangue, the third personage in the royal group beneath the canopy rose to address the assembly. Mary, queen of Hungary, for twenty-four years the able and indefatigable ruler of the Netherlands, announced that she also was about to resign the delegated authority which she had so long wielded. The emperor and the king, said she, had at last permitted her to pass into Spain, there to serve God in the tranquillity which her age and her fatigues demanded. Had her knowledge and capacity been equal to the zeal and fidelity with which she had devoted herself to her duties, never would sovereign have been better served, nor country better governed. While she begged for indulgence and forgiveness for the errors which she had committed, she acknowledged that these would have been far more numerous, but for the assistance she had received from the counsellers now around her, and from those who had gone before them. Entreating the emperor, the king, and the deputies to accept her services in the spirit in which they had been rendered, she desired to carry with her the goodwill of the Belgian people, and to assure them of her affection, and of her earnest desire for their welfare, to which any power she might possess would ever be directed.1

The eloquence and flattery of Jacques Maes were again put in motion. In his own diffuse style, and in the name of the states-general, he assured the

'Queen Mary's speech is printed by M. Gachard, from a minute in her own handwriting, in the royal archives of Belgium.

queen of Hungary that her government had given universal satisfaction, and he thanked her for the affection towards her late subjects which she had just expressed. The emperor then signed and sealed the formal deed of abdication; and declaring Philip invested with the sovereignty of the Netherlands, he slowly retired from the hall, followed by his family and court, and leaving the audience deeply moved with a scene, which, more than any other event of an eventful reign, is calculated to affect the imagination and dwell in the remembrance of distant posterity.

In the year following, on the sixteenth of January, 1556, in the same place, and with a similar ceremonial, he signed and sealed the act of abdication of his Sicilian and Spanish kingdoms, and their dependencies in Africa and the New World; and on the sixteenth of August he placed in the hands of the prince of Orange, who received it with tears, a deed of renunciation of the imperial crown to be laid before the diet of the empire. It was already understood that the electors were to confer the vacant dignity on Charles's brother Ferdinand, king of the Romans, and actual sovereign of the archduchies of Austria. To obtain the diadem of the Cæsars for his son Philip, had long been one of the dreams of Charles's ambition. Ferdinand, however, would neither waive his claims, nor even consent to the proposal that Philip should succeed him, to be succeeded in his turn by Ferdinand's son, Maximilian, king of Bohemia. discussion of the question had for some time caused a coolness between the emperor and the king of the Romans; and Charles was especially offended with Ferdinand for seeking to strengthen his position by the support of the protestant electors. But the design being abandoned as hopeless, it was now the earnest wish of the abdicating monarch that the subsequent formalities should be ac

The

complished with all practicable speed.

Should the

electors,' he wrote to Ferdinand,' 'refuse their consent to the transfer of the title, which God forbid, my ambassadors are instructed to demand that I be at least permitted to resign to you the entire administration of affairs. My conscience being thus discharged of its burden, I will keep the title, although, if any way can be found of laying even that aside, it is the thing which I most desire, and in which your good offices will give me most contentment.'

When Charles laid down the sceptre, he also quitted the palace, of his Burgundian ancestors. He chose for his retreat a small house, where part of his childhood had been spent, in the park of Bruxelles, not then the trim urban pleasance which later times and taste have made it, but a skirt of the wild forest of Soigne. This pavilion, of one story and a few rooms, for a century afterwards was known as the house of Charles the Fifth; its site, near the Louvain-gate, is now covered by the national or legislative palace of Belgium. Here the retired monarch lived for many months, much tormented with gout, but giving close attention to the winding up of his affairs with the world. In the previous autumn the king of the Romans had negotiated at Augsburg a peace with the protestants of Germany. In the spring of 1556, under the arbitration of the English queen, the terms of a long truce between the house of Valois and the house of Austria were agreed upon at the abbey of Vaucelles. In this truce the emperor took the deepest interest and an active part; hoping that it might be the foundation of that solid

'On the 8th August, 1556. The letter occurs in the Correspondenz des Kaisers Karl V. von Dr. Karl Lanz. 3 vols. 8vo. Leipzig: 1844. iii. p. 708-9.