§ 52. THE ABDICATION OF CHARLES. 277
life to his native Salona in Dalmatia to raise cabbages. In the year 1555 (Oct. 25), Charles V., who was born an heir of three kingdoms, wearied of the race of politics, diplomacy, and war, defeated by the treason of Moritz, and tormented by gout, abdicated his crown to live and die like an humble monk.
The abdication of Charles took place in the royal palace at Brussels, in the same hall in which, forty years before, he had been declared of age, and had assumed the reign of Brabant. He was dressed in mourning for his unfortunate mother, and wore only one ornament, — the superb collar of the Golden Fleece. He looked grave, solemn, pale, broken: he entered leaning on a staff with one hand, and on the arm of William of Orange with the other; behind him came Philip II., his son and heir, small, meager, timid, but magnificently dressed, a momentous association with the two youthful princes who were to be afterwards arrayed in deadly conflict for the emancipation of the Netherlands from the yoke of Spanish tyranny and bigotry.}
The Emperor rose from the throne, and with his right hand resting on the shoulder of the Prince of Orange, — who was one day to become the most formidable enemy of his house, —and holding a paper in the other hand, he addressed his farewell in French before the members of the royal family, the nobility of the Netherlands, the Knights of the Golden Fleece, the royal counselors, and the great officers of the household. He assured them that he had done his duty to the best of his ability, mindful of his dear native land, and especially of the interests of Christianity against
1 “Ein Moment voll Schicksal und Zukunft 1" says Ranke (V. 295). ‘Da war der mdchtige Kaiser, der bisher die grossen Angelegenheiten der Welt verwaltet hatte; von denen, die ihm zundchst standen, beinahe der Generation, die ihn umgab, nahm er Abschied. Neben ihm erschienen die Manner, denen die Zukunft gehdrte, Philipp II. und der Prinz von Oranien, in denen sich die beiden entgegengesetzten Directionen repréasentirten, die fortan um Weltherrschaft kdmpfen soliten.’’
278 THE GERMAN REFORMATION. A.D. 1517 τὸ 1580.
infidels and heretics. He had shrunk from no toil; but a cruel malady now deprived him of strength to endure the cares of government, and this was his only motive for carrying out a long-cherished wish of resigning the scepter. He exhorted them above all things to maintain the purity of the faith. He had committed many errors, but only from ignorance, and begged pardon if he had wronged any one.
He then resigned the crown of the Netherlands to his son Philip with the exhortation, “Fear God: live justly; respect the laws; above all, cherish the interests of religion.”
Exhausted, and pale as a corpse, he fell back upon his seat amid the tears and sobs of the assembly.!}
On the 16th of January, 1556, he executed the deeds by which he ceded the sovereignty of Castile and Aragon, with their dependencies, to Philip. His last act was to resign the crown of Germany into the hands of his brother Ferdinand ; but, as affairs move slowly in that country, the resignation was not finally acted on till Feb. 28, 1558, at the Diet at Frankfurt.?
Ms Retirement to Yuste.
On the 17th of September Charles sailed from the harbor of Flushing for Spain with a fleet of fifty-six sails, his two sisters (Mary, formerly queen of Hungary, and regent of the Low Countries, and Eleanor, the widow of King Francis of France), and a hundred and fifty select persons of the imperial household.
After a boisterous voyage, and a tedious land-journey, he arrived, Feb. 3, 1557, at the Convent of St. Gerome in Yuste, which he had previously selected for his retreat.
The resolution to exchange the splendors of the world for monastic seclusion was not uncommon among the rulers and
1 Sandoval, II. 597 sqq.; Gachart, Analectes belgiques, 87; Prescott, Philip the Second, I. 10 sqq.; Ranke, V. 293sqq. Prescott calls this abdication one of the most remarkable scenes in history.
2 The negotiations with Ferdinand and the German Diet are detailed by Ranke, V. 297 sqq.