his hair and beard were observed to have whitened with remarkable rapidity. Early in 1554 his health and spirits were so much shaken, that there was some colour for the deplorable report of them which the French ambassador was instructed to make to the sultan at Constantinople. Solyman the Magnificent was to be told that his great christian rival had lost the use of an arm and a leg; that he was utterly unfit for business, and spent his time in taking watches to pieces and putting them together again; that he was gradually going out of his mind; and that his sister, the queen of Hungary, permitted him to be seen only at the far end of a long gallery, where he showed himself sitting in his chair, and looking more like a statue than a man.' In spite, however, of gout, dyspepsia, and horological pursuits, he succeeded, greatly to the chagrin of France, in adding the crown matrimonial of England to the many diadems which were to be worn by his son Philip. But had he much longer continued to bear the burden of supreme power, there is little doubt that the hand of death would soon have made Mary Tudor queen of Castille.

That Philip might meet his English bride on equal terms, the emperor ceded to him, in 1554, the title of king of Naples. In the autumn of 1555 he recalled him from Windsor to receive yet higher and more substantial honours, and to assist at the most remarkable solemnities of a century prolific of great pageants as well as of great events. The theatre of these solemnities. was the hall of the castle of Caudenberg, the ancient palace of the dukes of Brabant, a mass of buildings of various dates and styles, from the towering donjon

Ribier; Lettres et Memoires d'etat sous les Regnes de François I., Henri II., et François II. 2 vols. fol. Paris: 1677. ii. p. 485.

keep of duke John the Second,' to the airy portal, pierced and pinnacled in the richest Gothic of the days of Charles the Bold. Here, on the twenty-third of October, Charles held a chapter of the Golden Fleece, and invested Philip with the grand mastership of that illustrious order. Three days later, on the twenty-fifth of October, at three o'clock in the afternoon, the statesgeneral of the Netherlands appeared in the same hall by their deputies, to witness the emperor's abdication of the dominions of the house of Burgundy. They took their seats on benches placed in the form of a half circle, in front of a decorated dais, on which stood three chairs beneath a canopy of state. On each side of this dais were rows of seats, those on the right being reserved for the knights of the Golden Fleece, and those on the left for royal and noble guests. Archers of the guard and halberdiers stood sentry at the doors and kept order in the body of the hall, which was densely crowded with spectators. The walls were covered with magnificent tapestries, on which the rich looms of Flanders had wrought the story of the Fleece of Gold, and the institution of the order by Philip the Good. When the deputies had taken their places according to their rank, the doors which communicated with the palace chapel were thrown open, and the emperor appeared. The whole assembly rose and uncovered as he approached. Supporting himself on the right with a staff, and leaning with his left hand on the shoulder of William prince of Orange, he slowly made his way across the dais, and seated himself in the central chair.

1 The building was destroyed by a fire, which broke out on the night of the 3rd or 4th of February, 1731. It occupied the site of the present church of Caudenberg, and of the Place-royale. Th. Juste: LAbdication de Charles Quint. 8vo. Liege: 1851; an agreeable work, reprinted in a separate form from the Progrès Pacifique.

He was closely followed by his son Philip, by his sisters, Mary queen of Hungary and Eleanor queen of France, and by his nephew, Ferdinand archduke of Austria. After these came his beautiful niece, Christina duchess of Lorraine, his nephew the gallant Emanuel Philibert, duke of Savoy, and the pope's nuncio, heading a splendid throng of cardinals, ambassadors, nobles, and knights of the fleece. The king of England and Naples seated himself in the chair on the emperor's right hand, while the queen of Hungary took that on his left. When all were placed, the usher of the council called over the names of the deputies of the provinces, and asked if they were furnished with the necessary powers. Their answers made, the emperor ordered the councillor Philibert de Bruxelles to state to the assembly the reasons which had induced him to abdicate the throne. In a pompous oration, that functionary set forth that illhealth had rendered the burden of power intolerable to their master, and compelled him to seek the milder climate of Spain; and he expatiated on the good fortune of the Netherlands in being thus called upon to transfer their allegiance to a prince in all respects so admirable as the heir-apparent of Castille. The emperor then rose, slowly and painfully, leaning heavily on the arm of the prince of Orange. Holding in his hand a paper of notes, to which he occasionally referred, he delivered in French, in the midst of the profoundest silence, a speech, of which the substance, if not the exact words, has been preserved.1

1 The official account of the abdication, and various documents connected with it, ten in all, preserved in the royal archives of Belgium, have been published by M. Gachard, in his Analectes Belgiques, vol. i. 8vo. Bruxelles, 1830, pp. 70-106. The emperor's speech is unfortunately not officially reported, nor do the original notes exist, but there is an account of it drawn up par quelque bon personnaige estant a la dicte assemblée,’ which must have been esteemed a correct one, or it would hardly have been placed in the archives.

'Some of you,' he said, 'will remember that on the fifth of January last, forty years had elapsed since the day when, in this very hall, I received, at the age of fifteen, from my paternal grandfather the emperor Maximilian, the sovereignty of the Belgian provinces. My maternal grandfather, Ferdinand, king Ferdinand the Catholic, dying soon after, there devolved on me the care of a heritage which the state of my mother's health did not permit her to govern. At the age of seventeen, therefore, I crossed the sea to take possession of the kingdom of Spain. At nineteen, on the death of the emperor, I ventured to aspire to the imperial crown, from a desire, not of extending my dominions but, of the more effectually providing for the safety of Germany, and of my other kingdoms, and especially of the Belgian provinces, and in the hope of maintaining peace amongst christian nations, and of uniting their forces in defending the catholic faith against the Turk.

These designs I have not been able completely to execute, owing, in part, to the outbreak of the German heresy, and in part to the jealousy of rival powers. But with God's help I have never ceased to resist my enemies, and to endeavour to fulfil the task imposed on me. In the course of my expeditions, sometimes to make war, sometimes to make peace, I have travelled nine times into High Germany, six times into Spain, seven times into Italy, four times into France, twice into England, and twice into Africa, accomplishing in all forty long journeys, without counting visits of less importance to my various states. I have crossed the Mediterranean eight times, and the Spanish sea twice. I will not now allude to my journey from Spain to the Netherlands, undertaken, as you know, for reasons sufficiently grave. My frequent absence from these pro

1 To suppress the insurrection at Ghent in 1540.

vinces obliged me to entrust their government to my sister Mary, who is here present. I know, and the statesgeneral know also, how well she has discharged her duties. Although I have been engaged in many wars, into none of them have I gone willingly; and in bidding you farewell, nothing is so painful to me as not to have been able to leave you a firm and assured peace. Before my last expedition into Germany, considering the deplorable state of my health, I had already contemplated relieving myself of the burden of public business; but the troubles which agitated Christendom induced me to put off my design, in the hope of restoring peace, and because, not being so enfeebled as I now am, I felt it incumbent on me to sacrifice to the welfare of my people what remained to me of strength and life. I had almost attained the end of my endeavours, when the sudden attack made upon me by the king of France and some of the German princes, forced me again to take up arms. I have done what I can to defeat the league against me; but the issue of war is in the hand of God, who gives victory or takes it away at his pleasure. Let us be thankful to Providence that we have not to deplore any of those great reverses which leave deep traces behind them, but on the contrary, have obtained some victories of which our children may cherish the remembrance. In entering on my retirement I entreat you to be faithful to your prince, and to maintain a good understanding amongst yourselves. Above all, resist those new sects which infest the adjoining countries; and if heresy should penetrate within your frontier, hasten to extirpate it, or evil will overtake you. For myself, I must confess that I have been led into many errors, whether by youthful inexperience, or by the pride of riper age, or by some other weakness inherent in human nature. But I declare that never,