The Press. — London, England, 1857-02-14 00:00:00

FEBRUARY 14, 1857. yitcratart. Elizabeth de Valois, Queen of Spain, and the Court of Philip 11. By Martha Walker Freer. Two Vols. London: Hurst and Blackett. THESE volumes will repay perusal. They have done more than amuse us; they have pleas ingly engaged our mind, and have suggested topics of reflection to which it is impossible that we can more than cursorily allude here. They relate to a period of history not yet thoroughly explored, though rich in materials of interest. Poetic genius has illuminated some of its dark caverns, and historic research has found some stepping-stones on which in the treacherous marsh the foot may firmly tread. But we think it possible that a rich harvest may yet be in reserve to reward the patient explorer who shall endeavour to tread the tortuous mazes in which the coldest and cruellest bigot of historic record—Philip IL of Spain—delighted to move. Of his four wives, Elizabeth of Valois— daughter of Henry IL and Catherine de Medici—was the third. She reigned Queen of Spain for the space of eight years. Her biographer, Miss Freer, cries up the affection ate solicitude of her husband ; yet it is probable that his bigotry and his unnatural cruelty to his son broke her heart. Among the causes which contributed to her early death, her treatment by her Spanish physicians must not, however, be overlooked. The character of Dr. Sangredo, in" Gil Blas," could not have been caricatured in the slightest degree. The Queen's physicians bled her for everything. They bled her for childbirth ; they bled her on occasion of every illness till she fainted, and then bled her for fainting. The unfortunate Don Carlos was served, if possible, still worse. Reading the remedies administered to him during his illnesses, the wonder is that he lived to attain the age of twenty-three. Miss Freer is an industrious historiographer. She goes to original sources of information, and she gives the reader all the details she can collect. She follows in the path which Miss Strickland struck out. She represents the manners of a period, so far as they can be collected from contemporary chroniclers' accounts of processions and dresses, and state formalities of all kinds. This kind of description grows excessively tedious when long continued, as it is in these pages ; but it has some kind of value in contributing to the illustration of character. We can better understand, for example, the difficulties which the young Queen had to contend with at the commencement of her reign, and can more highly appreciate her firmness and good sense in her fifteenth year, when called on to decide the rival claims of her French and Spanish attendants, when we read the list of the atten dants who accompanied her from France into Spain. The enumeration is curious : Suzanne de Bourbon, Countess de Harcourt and de Rieux, and Madame de Clzrmont-Lodeve were appointed chief ladies of honour. Anne de Bourbon, Elizabeth's favourite friend, was nominated maid of honour with Mesdemoiselles de. Riberac, de Carton, de Thorigny, de Noran, de Monte!, de St. Ana, and de St. Legier. Madame de Vineux, with Mesdemoiselles de Gironville, Parne, and de la Motte, were gratified with the post of bedchamber women. The Queen was attended by her principal tire woman, Claude Nau. She had, also, three chaplains ; a French confessor; and likewise her old preceptor the AbbO St. Etienne. One Andre de Vermont was nomi nated her chief maitre d'hôtel. Her physician in ordinary, Burgensis, accompanied her into Spain, with Dunoir her surgeon. and two apothecaries. Elizabeth had a numerous suite of gentlemen of the chamber; twelve valets-de chambre ; a dwarf Montaigne ; twelve gentlemen-ushers ; a treasurer of the household, one Emery Tissart ; a trea sury of the privy purse; and a band of six musicians. There was also nominated a staff for the kitchen depart ment under Maitre Vermont. She had, likewise, two French secretaries, besides an infinite number of subonli nate personages, such as tire-women, wardrobe-keepers, and others. The Countess de Harcourt, or as she was generally called, Madame de Hien; and her niece Mademoiselle de Montpensier, being princesses of the blood, had, moreover, their own train of attendants. We can well understand the difficulties that must have attended the passage of this nume rous retinue across the Pyrenees i n th e d e pth of winter, more especially as the trousseau of the young Queen alone was of unexampled magnitude and splendour. All details of this kind are related by Miss Freer with great THE PRESS. minuteness, and often with dramatic effect. Her fault is ou the side of excessive elabora tion. In the higher qualities of an historic writer she is totally deficient. She has no penetra tion—no original judgment. She relates the surface of events only. Because Philip has been described by contemporary authorities as a most affectionate husband, an exemplary father, a sage statesman, and a great ruler, she accepts the portraiture as correct, and faithfully copies it. The effect is almost ludi crous, knowing what we do of his unexampled falsehood and cruelty. When the betrothal of Elizabeth to Don Carlos was first proposed, the Prince was scarcely fourteen, and the Princess nine months younger. How different might have been the lives of both had fate permitted their union ! While the negotiation was in progress Philip's consort, Mary of England, died. She expired on the 15th of November, 1558, and in two months afterwards Philip's ambassadors at the Court of France received orders to substi tute his own name for that of his son as the proposed husband of Elizabeth of Valois. The French Court gladly accepted the change, and on the 3rd of April, 1559, the Princess was formally affianced to the most powerful sove reign of Europe. It is admitted by Miss Freer that the young Princess " regarded the alliance with uncon querable dread." Her home had been affec tionate and happy. She had been brought up with the unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots; and at the commencement of this biography some pleasing details are given of their youth. ful studies. Elizabeth was of a gentle nature, and her face seems to have eminently reflected her serene and affectionate character. She was excessively lovely, and her amiability is established by numerous instances. Her prudence, considering the tender years at which she was called to be the consort of Philip, was wonderful. Her bethrothal was gloomily signalised by the death of her brother the King, who was killed at the tournament given in honour of the event. She put off her departure till the impatience of Philip would bear no longer delay. She finally quitted the French Court at the end of November, 15:59, and first saw Philip. two months later. Not the glowing reports which reached him of the charms of his young bride, nor his impatience to behold her, would induce the formal monarch to anti cipate their meeting till she knelt before him in ceremonious state in the halls of Mendoza on the 2nd of February, 1560. We may remark here that Miss Freer falls into great confusion respecting dates. A letter of Philip, urging the more rapid progress of the Queen, is dated January 26, 1561 (i. 130), and it is said that at the time of her marriage Elizabeth had just entered her sixteenth year. If the date of her birth is correctly given (April 22, 1546), it is evident that on the 2nd of February, 1560, she could not have been quite fourteen. On the following 15th of February Elizabeth made her public entry into Toledo, and met Don Carlos for the first time. He arose front a sick-bed to welcome the fair young Queen. He was seldom free from ague for any long time together, and probably that indisposition to martial exercises, and that irritability of temper which have been dwelt on so malig nantly by contemporary writers, arose from the severity of his bodily suffering. The meeting has been described by one of the French ambassadors : Don Carlos advanced towards the Queen, fixing his eyes earnestly on her countenance ; be then bent the knee, and kissed her hand. Elizabeth received the Prince with gracious affability ; and her words were so appropriate, that the Prince showed by his manner what great con tentment they gave him. " Her Majesty," says the ambassador, " received M. le Prince with such favour and demonstration of regard, that if the King and all present derived contentment therefrom, the said Prince was still more flattered ; a sentiment which he plainly evidenced then, and also since, when he hag visited her said Majesty, which, however, has not been frequent ; for visits in this country are not so much the fashion as in France ; besides, the said Prince has been so tormented with fever, that from day to day he seems to grow weaker." The fancy of the young Prince had been fired by reports of the beauty of the Princess when she was spoken of as his destined bride, and at his first interview, beholding a 159 face whieh must have surpassed his expecta tion, it. is probable that he conceived the fatal passion which ended in the darkest tragedy of his father's gloomy reign. In these volumes the report of his passion is treated lightly. Miss Freer hardly gives credence to it. Adopting all the calumnies published to justify the conduct of Philip towards his son, she recounts incredible stories of his violence and brutality, and seems to conceive it impossible that Elizabeth could have regarded him with any other sentiment than compassion. The course of her own nar rative might have taught her better. We continually meet with passages indicative of the affectionate regard —if we suppose no warmer feeling existed—which certainly united the young queen of Philip 11. to his unfor tunate son. It was while the festivities in honour of Elizabeth's arrival still continued, that Don Carlos was with great pomp publicly recog nised as heir to the crown. It would require minute and most critical examination of those contemporary chronicles from which black accounts of the character and conduct of Don Carlos have descended to us, to determine the degree of credit which should be attached to them. Of all kinds of injustice that which notun frequently prevails in history through the deli beratefalsification of contemponwy record is the most cruel. The ruling power, of whatever nature it be, may not only imprison its victims, subject them to inhuman torture, and shorten thew lives, but may blacken their character for all time. It is surprising that so acute a man as Mr. Fronde should not see the danger of trusting too implicitly to State records. Who prepared those records ?—who preserved them ? Is it not certain that the power which at any time committed injustice would endea vour to screen it with an appearance of fair ness ? What would be the history of the worst transactions of our own time, if the perpetrators of those transactions had power to impose on the world their own version of them ? Would Sir John Dean Paul, or Redpath, or Robson, appear forgers and felons? It is necessary to inspect with the greatest jealousy those versions of state occurrences which have been bequeathed to us by the ruling power of the time; and. more especially is it necessary to exercise such caution when the occurrences are of a domestic character, as in the case of Henry VIII.'s prosecution of Anne Boleyn, and of Philip ll.'s conduct to his son. Between the fate of the unfortunate Don Carlos and that of the son of Peter I. of Russia, there exist so many points of resemblance as to suggest a curious parallel. The irresponsible power of the parent has in each case shrouded the fate of the son in impenetrable mystery. In the case of Don Carlos, however, the suspicion of foul play is the stronger, from the notorious treachery of Philip—treachery which would seem incredible, if the records of it did not exist under his own hand in relation to his murder of the Flemish deputies, Montigny and Bergin. The discovery of the Simancas records has exhibited Philip as a monster of perfidious bigotry. Yet Philip may possibly some day meet with a Fronde to justify him. The manner in which Miss Freer uniformly speaks of the " forbearing tenderness " of Philip, and of the malignant violence of Carlos, is positively amusing from its simplicity. It is more profitable to note, however, the evi dences we meet with of the young Prince's real condition. When Elizabeth wrote to the Queen her mother, some months after her marriage, she said—" The Prince suffers from " fever as usual." When Elizabeth was dan gerously ill, the narrative says : Don Carlos, who, during these months, had never thoroughly rtcovered from his ague, sent frequently to inquire after the Queen's progress, and displayed the greatest grief when informed of her danger. When in telligence reached him that Elizabeth's physicians had good hope other recovery, he despatched his chamberlain. Don Diego de Pimental. to Mazaxambroa to deliver " his commendations to the Queen, and to inform her that his ague was much subdued, so that, during the last attack, he had not even thought it necessary to go to bed, and that he hoped soon to pay his respects to her Majesty." When the Prince fell dangerously ill from an accident, "his docility and obedience are de " scribed as most exemplary." In 1363, when negotiations were in progress for betrothing Carlos to the Archduchess Antle ► (laughter