Verdi said: "Everything in this drama is false. Don Carlos was a fool, a madman. Elizabeth was never in love with him. Posa is an imaginary figure who could never have existed under Philip's reign. Philip wasn't as soft-hearted as that. In this drama there is nothing historical, nor is there any Shakespearean truth or profundity". If that is the case, just what was true of the real characters and events falsely portrayed in the play and the opera which also condensed years of history into a few days?
Because of the complexity of this subject, it has been divided into a number of separate articles as follows:
Introduction | Time Line | Charles V | Philip II | Don Carlos | San Diego Connection
During the sixteenth century it could truly be said that the sun never set on the Spanish Empire. Charles I of Spain and V of The Holy Roman Empire inherited Aragón, Valencia, Cataluña and southern Italy and Sicily from his maternal grandfather, Ferdinand. He inherited Castille, León, Navarre and the Spanish possessions in the New World from his maternal grandmother, Isabella. His inheritance from his father, Philip the Handsome, included Flanders, Holland, Luxembourg, Franche-Comté and a claim to Burgundy as well as the Habsburg lands of Austria, the Tirol and parts of Germany. Later the Philippines and territories in East Africa and in the Indian Ocean such as Ceylon were added.
Yet Spain itself was a poor country with limited arable soil. It was isolated from the rest of Europe by the Pyrenees and there was no political unity. Until the time of Ferdinand and Isabella, it consisted of many independent states, many under Moorish control. Their marriage, and the Reconquista brought some unity, but even under Philip II, Aragón and Castile were more like separate countries. It was the riches pouring in from the New World which enabled Spain to become the greatest power of the sixteenth century. Yet ironically, these riches led to spiraling inflation which ended in several bankruptcies. What held it together was a common faith. There were 9,088 monasteries and about 32,000 Dominican and Franciscan friars. Even this was threatened by the Reformation and Spain was literally held together by the Inquisition.
The sixteenth century also saw the flowering of Spanish culture. It was the time of artists such as El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos) and writers such as Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote. The playwright Lope de Vega was Shakespeare's contemporary and was involved with commedia dell'arte. There were many universities and almost all gentlemen were well-educated. However, they were not allowed to attend foreign universities for fear they would become contaminated with heretical ideas.
It was also the Age of Exploration. Columbus led the way in 1492. In 1493 the Pope issued a bull setting an imaginary line of demarcation. The rights to "all islands and mainlands whatever, found or to be found" to the east of it would belong to Portugal, those to the west to Spain. This was confirmed by the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas when the line was moved and defined as the "meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde island". (As a result what is now Brazil became Portuguese but the rest of the Americas became Spanish.) Ponce de León landed in Florida in1512, Cortez conquered Mexico and Magellan discovered, claimed, and named the Philippines in 1519. They were followed by Pizzaro who conquered Peru in 1533.
PRELUDE TO CHARLES V, PHILIP II AND DON CARLOS
Ferdinand and Isabella, who married in 1469, uniting two of Spain's largest
kingdoms, were first cousins. Their first daughter, Isabel married the King
of Portugal. Their second daughter, Juana, married the Habsburg, Philip
the Handsome of Burgundy, and they had a son, Charles of Ghent, who would
become the Emperor Charles V. Their third daughter, Catherine (of Aragón)
married first England's Prince Arthur and later his brother who became Henry
VIII. When Isabella died in 1504, Ferdinand retired to Aragón and Philip
the Handsome took over Castile, excluding Juana from the government but not
from the title of Queen of Castile. Juana early showed signs of 'insanity',
possibly schizophrenia, and although the Cortes confirmed her as Queen of Castile,
her six-year-old son Charles was made the ruler under a regency council. Ferdinand
was called back to Castile and was declared the administrator in 1510. Juana,
although still nominally the Queen, and sharing her rule with Charles, was confined
in a castle in Tordesillas until her death in 1555.
SIXTEENTH CENTURY SPAIN: TIMELINE
Both Schiller's play Don Carlos and Verdi's Opera telescope the events of many years into a few days, in many cases distorting the age differences between the characters. People who appear in the opera are in bold. Most of the events are described in other articles to which links will be created shortly.
1469: Marriage of Ferdinand of Aragón and Isabella of Castile.
1480: Spanish Inquisition established.
1483: Martin Luther born.
1492: Conquest of Granada.
Expulsion of the
Jews from Spain.
Columbus discovers
America.
1494: Treaty of Tordesillas.
1496: Philip the Handsome, Duke of Burgundy, marries Juana, daughter of Ferdinand
and Isabella.
1498: Torquemada the first inquisitor-general of Spain dies (b. 1420).
The inquisitor-general
Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros starts forced conversions of Moors.
1500: Charles V born.
1504: Isabella dies. Juana becomes heir to Castile.
The fourth voyage
of Columbus.
1505: Ferdinand, Juana and Philip the Handsome jointly rule Castile.
1506: Philip the Handsome dies. Council of regency established for Charles because
of the insanity of Juana.
Columbus dies.
1507: Margaret of Austria made regent in Netherlands for her brother Charles.
1509: HenryVIII marries Catherine of Aragon.
1512: Ponce de León discovers Florida.
1515: Charles becomes governor of the Netherlands.
1516: Charles become King of Spain as Charles I.
Mary Tudor, daughter
of Catherine of Aragón is born.
The future Prince
Éboli is born.
1517: Charles enters Spain.
The Portuguese found
a factory in Ceylon.
Luther posts his
95 theses.
1519: Charles elected Holy Roman Emperor as Charles V.
Cortés enters
the capital of Mexico.
Magellan circumnavigates
the globe.
1520: Charles V crowned in Aachen.
Charles goes to
England, makes a pact with Henry VIII, and proposes to his daughter Mary Tudor.
1521: Charles V faces Luther at Diet of Worms.
1525: Francis I of France taken prisoner by Charles V.
First use of muskets
by Spanish.
1526: Charles V marries his cousin, Isabella of Portugal.
His sister, Eleonora
marries Francis I.
1527: The future Philip II is born.
1530: Charles V crowned as Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope.
1533: Elizabeth of England born.
Pizarro begins conquest
of Peru.
1540: The future Princess Éboli born.
1542: Mary Queen of Scots born.
Cabrillo discovers
San Diego Bay.
1543: Philip marries Maria of Portugal.
First Protestants
burnt at stake by Spain.
1545: Don Carlos is born.
Elizabeth of Valois
is born.
Don Juan of Austria
is born.
1552: Marriage of the Éboli's
1553: Henry VIII dies and Mary Tudor becomes Queen of England.
1554: Mary Tudor marries Philip II of Spain.
1555: Charles V gives government of Netherlands to Philip II.
1556: Charles V abdicates giving Spain to Philip and Holy Roman Empire to brother
his Ferdinand.
1558: Charles V dies.
Inquisition identifies
Protestants in Seville and Valladolid.
1559: Elizabeth becomes Queen of England.
Margaret of Parma
is Regent in the Netherlands.
Philip returns to
Spain.
Ruy Gómez
made Prince of Eboli.
1560: Philip II marries Elizabeth of Valois.
Capitol established
at Madrid.
1562: Don Carlos at Alcalá.
1564: Diego de Espinoza made Grand Inquisitor
1565: St. Augustine, Florida founded.
Beginning of the
Escorial
1566: Margaret of Parma abolishes Inquisition in the Netherlands.
1567: Alva arrives in Netherlands, arrests, Egmont and Hoorn.
1567-1648: Revolt in Netherlands.
1568: Don Carlos dies.
Death of Elizabeth
of Valois.
Egmont and Hoorn
beheaded in Brussels.
1570: Philip II marries Anne of Austria.
1571: Battle of Lepanto.
1572: St. Bartholomew's Day massacre.
Death of Prince
Éboli
Death of Diego de
Espinoza, the Grand Inquisitor
1573: Alva returns to Spain.
Royal corpses moved
to the Escorial.
1575: State bankruptcy in Spain.
1576: Don Juan governor of Netherlands.
1577: Don Juan deposed. William of Orange enters Brussels.
1578: Elizabeth I offers to mediate between Spain and The Netherlands.
Alessandro Farnese,
Governor of Netherlands.
1579: Union of Utrecht forms the Dutch Republic.
1580: Spanish invade Portugal and Philip II ascends Portuguese throne.
1582: Gregorian Calendar adopted by Spain, France, England, Netherlands, et
al.
1583: William of Orange sovereign of northern Netherlands.
1584: William of Orange assassinated.
1585: Queen Elizabeth I takes the Netherlands under her protection.
1586: Mary Queen of Scots recognizes Philip II as her heir.
1588: Defeat of Armada.
1592: Death of Princess Eboli.
1597: Ceylon inherited by Philip II.
1598: Philip II dies.
1602: Viscaino names San Diego.
1603: Queen Elizabeth of England dies.
1604: Peace between England and Spain.
1605: Cervantes publishes first part of Don Quixote.
1607: Founding of Jamestown.
1640: Portugal secedes from Spain.
1658: Ceylon taken by Dutch from Portugal.
1700: Carlos II, last Hapsburg king of Spain dies.
Philip V, first
Spanish Bourbon ascends throne.
1702-13: War of the Spanish Succession.
1713: Peace of Utrecht, Spain loses most of its European possessions.
The opera Don Carlo is bracketed by appearances of Emperor Charles V, first disguised as a monk, and at the end, in full royal regalia. He is really the start of the story of his grandson, Don Carlos.*
Fittingly, the history of sixteenth century Spain begins with Charles, born in 1500, the first true Habsburg king of Spain. His father was the Habsburg Grand Duke Philip the Handsome of Burgundy**, and his paternal grandfather was the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian I of Austria. Through his mother, Juana, he was the grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain.
Charles was born in Ghent in what is now Belgium and spent the first seventeen years of his life in the Netherlands. When he was six, Isabella died and left Castile to Juana only, not to Philip, and Ferdinand served as regent until Philip and Juana could come to Spain. Charles was left behind to be brought up in the Netherlands by his Aunt, Margaret of Austria. He became the Duke of Burgundy at the age of fifteen.
When Philip the Handsome died and Juana was judged to be unfit to rule, Ferdinand became the regent once more. He did not want the throne to pass to a 'foreigner', his grandson Charles, who was still in the Netherlands. However, on his deathbed, he finally agreed, and Charles became Charles I of Spain in 1516. Nominally he and Juana were joint rulers — her name appeared with his on all official documents — but she was confined to the castle at Tordesillas for the last fifty years of her life. (Two operas have been based on her life, Juana la Loca by Gian Carlo Menotti which was premiered by San Diego Opera, and Rage d'Amours by Robert Zuidam, recently commissioned by the Boston Symphony orchestra for Tanglewood.)
Charles finally arrived in Spain in 1517 in forty ships and accompanied by his Flemish court. He gave all of the high offices to his Flemings. He knew no Castilian and was completely ignorant of Spanish affairs. Of his forty years as King, he spent only 16 in Spain. In 1519 he was elected, largely by massive bribery, as the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V. (He was crowned in 1520 and then again by the Pope in 1530.) Part of the agreement making him Holy Roman Emperor was that he would be followed as such by his younger brother, Ferdinand. His own son, if any, would inherit only Spain and its colonies. Charles now ruled almost all of Europe by inheritance, not by conquest.
1520 was a momentous years in other ways. Charles went to England to visit Henry VIII and his aunt Catherine of Aragón and to propose a marriage with their daughter Mary Tudor, then aged six. The idea was that she would be sent to Spain to be brought up there. But Cardinal Wolsey refused; she could be trained as a Spanish lady in England. Charles later broke the engagement, and many years later, Mary married his son, Philip. It was also the year of the Field of the Cloth of Gold during which Henry VIII met with Francis I of France. Seventeen days after that meeting, Henry met once more with Charles and joined him against France.
Francis had wanted to be Holy Roman Emperor himself; instead he was now completely surrounded by Habsburg lands and worried that he would lose his Italian possessions. He also wanted Burgundy which had been Philip the Handsome's. In 1525, the Spanish met the French at the Battle of Pavia in Italy and Francis was captured and taken to Madrid. In the Treaty of Madrid, Francis was released in exchange for his two eldest sons who were sent to Spain as hostages. In a strange twist, by the same treaty, Charles's sister Eleonora became the second wife of Francis.
In 1526 Charles married Isabella of Portugal. They met for the first time on March 9 in Seville, and they were married at 1 the next morning! They had six legitimate children, four of whom survived infancy. The future Philip II was born at Valladolid on May 21, 1527. Charles also had two illegitimate children, Margaret of Parma and Don Juan of Austria. He spent most of the rest of his life in the north, visiting all of his European domains, leaving his wife, and later Philip, as regent. His effective capital was Brussels. The people there liked him because he was one of them, and he returned their love. There were a few revolts, but nothing came of them. Things were to be very different under Philip.
The Protestant Reformation formed the background to much of what was happening in Spain during the sixteenth century. When Charles was nine, Calvin was born. He was seventeen when Martin Luther posted his ninety-five theses on the church door at Wittenberg. In 1521 he signed Edict of Worms, and he was able to keep the Protestants from Spain. However, the German princes were allowed to choose between Catholicism and Lutheranism for themselves and their subjects.
Never very strong, Charles started to go grey at thirty-six; by age forty he had gout. At fifty-five he was an old man. As soon as his mother, Juana, died, he abdicated. As per the earlier agreement, Philip inherited Spain, its overseas territories, some of Italy and the Netherlands. Charles's younger brother Ferdinand, who ironically had been raised in Spain, became the Holy Roman Emperor, keeping all the German-speaking lands.
Several years before his abdication as King of Spain, Charles had prepared for his retirement at the monastery at Yuste in the Estramadura region of Spain. On the trip back to Spain he was so weak he had to be carried in a litter rather than ride on horseback, and he had to rest often. Despite his depiction in Don Carlo he did not become a monk, nor even live in the monastery itself. Instead he had built a small palace attached to its walls and lived there in luxury. There are still inventories of his possessions including gowns of silk and velvet. The decorations were luxurious; all the kitchen utensils and dishes were of silver. The site was sacked by French in 1809, during the Napoleonic Wars, and the present complex rebuilt since then.
Still the Emperor until Feb 1558, he continued to maintain a court of at least fifty, mostly Flemings and took an interest in politics until his death. Messengers with dispatches came to him every day.When he was able, he attended mass with the monks and joined in the singing of the choir. His still unacknowledged illegitimate son, Don Juan of Austria was with him. He corresponded with his sister Juana, about making Don Carlos the heir to Portugal, but she would not hear of it.
There is a story of a rehearsal for his funeral which he attended muffled in a cloak. This may have given rise to ghost stories which are suggested in Don Carlo. He died on September 21, 1558 and was buried at Yuste until he was moved to the Escorial. In his will he urged Philip to bring all heretics to justice. He was buried in the habit of a monk and his coffin was filled with heaps of rosemary and thyme. When the coffin was opened and the corpse displayed ninety years later, the body was almost intact.
* By convention, the emperor is always referred to in English as Charles and his grandson as Carlos.
**While Philip the Handsome shared the rule of Castille with Juana and Charles for a short time, he was never ruler of all Spain.
Youth and Maria of Portugal | Netherlands and Mary Tudor | Elizabeth of Valois | Anne of Austria | The King | The Man | Religion | The End | Epilogue | The Escorial
YOUTH AND FIRST WIFE, MARIA
The future Philip II of Spain was born in 1527, and was named after his Habsburg
grandfather, Philip the Handsome. His slight stature, fair hair and blue eyes
reflected his Habsburg ancestry, but he was a Spaniard through and through.
Two of his brothers died of epilepsy in infancy, but while he carried the blood
of Juana la Loca in his veins, he himself was relatively untouched by the streak
of insanity and ill health which ran in the family.
As a boy he had no real youth. When he was seven, he was given his own household. This grew to 191 people including 51 pages, one of whom was the Portuguese Ruy Gómez da Silva, the future Prince of Eboli, who was five years his senior. Although his father, Charles V was usually away traveling and at war, he supervised the boy's upbringing through letters. On the few occasions when the Emperor was in Spain he spent hours with his son each day. But when Philip was twelve, and his mother, Isabel of Portugal, died, the boy had to lead the funeral cortege; Charles had shut himself in a monastery to mourn for eight weeks.
Philip's education included Latin and Greek, geography and history. He particularly liked mathematics and could understand and read French, Italian and Portuguese but could not speak them very well. He loved nature, kept many caged birds, and was happiest out-of-doors. At age thirteen he started to buy his own books. (Some of his earlier purchases were books which were later banned by the Inquisition.) His collection was eclectic, encompassing every imaginable subject including science, architecture, religion and mathematics. There were at least two hundred books on subjects such as magic and astrology. This gave him a wide background, especially in history and geography, of which he often knew more than his advisors. By the end of his life, his library contained 14,000 volumes.
When Philip was fourteen, his training for kingship began. He was sent to lead troops against the French trying to take Perpignan, and the French retired without battle. At sixteen he was made the regent in Spain for his absent father, and he married Maria of Portugal. (They were double first cousins so a papal dispensation was necessary. Her mother was his father's sister; her father was his mother's brother.) They had one son, the future Don Carlos, but Maria died a few days later.
THE NETHERLANDS AND MARY TUDOR
In 1549, Charles V called Philip to the Netherlands to introduce him to the
people there. Although he tried to participate in activities, the people did
not take to him. His visit was unsuccessfull and he returned to Spain. While
the northerners liked his father, they grew to detest Philip. He did try to
learn the language spoken by the people, but he was surrounded by Spaniards
who spoke only Castillian.
As part of Charles's grand scheme for Europe, negotiations started for the marriage of Philip to Mary Tudor, the daughter of King Henry VIII of England. Count Egmont, who was to figure later in the troubles in the Netherlands, was the head of the delegation sent to England to work out the details. Charles himself had been briefly engaged to Mary while she was still a child, and in a way, Philip was a replacement. The marriage agreement provided that if Philip and Mary had a child, it would inherit both her England and all of his Spanish possessions. However, if they did not have a child, Don Carlos would inherit only Spain.
Mary was the daughter of Philip's great-aunt, Catherine of Aragón, and was aware of and proud of, her Spanish heritage, but she was not about to share her kingdom with Philip. After the engagement was approved, Philip sent her a big diamond but did not otherwise communicate with her. He arrived in England with an entourage of about 500, including Ruy Gómez da Silva. At the wedding banquet, as a sign of what was to come, Mary was served on gold plate, Philip on silver. When the courtiers found Philip would have no power in England, four-fifths of them returned to Flanders or to Spain.
Philip spent only 15 months in England. He treated Mary kindly, but she was not very attractive and much older, so there were no romantic feelings. They had trouble communicating; she spoke Aragonese which she had learned from her mother but understood only a little of his very different Castillian. He never attempted to learn English. He went to Flanders for his father's abdication in 1555 and returned to England only once and then very briefly.
When Mary died, Philip regretted her death not for her, but because it took England away from Spain. While married, he had been instrumental in bringing her sister Elizabeth back to court, and a month after Mary's death, he made a bid to marry the new young Queen. He may have been attracted to her, but the chief attraction was England. She was not interested.
ELIZABETH OF VALOIS (1545-1568)
During the negotiations for the peace treaty of Chateau-Cambresis, between Spain
and France, an alliance between the two royal houses was to be arranged. The
engagement of Don Carlos and Elizabeth was considered but never formalized.
When Mary died, leaving Philip free, he was substituted for his son. The Duke
of Alva went to France for the proxy wedding, accompanied by Ruy Gómez
da Silva and by William of Orange and Count Egmont.
Elizabeth was the sister of Francis II, the first husband of Mary Queen of Scots. When she left for her new home in Spain she was still, at fourteen, little more than a child who still played with dolls. She met both Philip and his son for the first time at the real wedding in Spain. (The meeting between Don Carlos and Elizabeth at Fontainebleau is fictitious.) Philip was thirty-four, Elizabeth fifteen and Don Carlos fourteen. The wedding festivities included, jousts, bullfights and an auto-da-fé! Six years later she bore their first living child. The ten years of their marriage were some of the happiest of Philip's life. He was very fond of her, risking his own health by insisting on staying with her when she was ill with smallpox. She had two miscarriages and one stillborn child as well as the two daughters who were the comfort of Philip's later life.
Elizabeth was known at the Reina de la Paz (the Queen of Peace). There was never any possibility of a romance between her and Don Carlos, but they were the only two young people in a strict and older court. She was fond of him and tried to arrange a marriage between him and her sister. When he died she went into a deep depression, weeping for two days until Philip ordered her to stop. Two months later she died giving birth to a premature girl. Philip's enemy, William of Orange accused him of murdering both Don Carlos and Elizabeth, and the story was accepted among the enemies of Spain. There was absolutely no truth in it.
ANNE OF AUSTRIA
Anne was Philip's niece, daughter of Philip's sister and of his cousin Ferdinand.
Like Elizabeth she had originally been considered for Don Carlos. She was born
in Spain and was very Spanish; the French complained that her court was like
a nunnery. Desperate for a male heir, Philip married her shortly after Elizabeth's
death. They had six children in six years. One was the future Philip III and
one was stillborn. She was pregnant for the seventh time when she died.
PHILIP AS KING
Philip ruled the greatest empire in Europe since the time of the Mongols and
the first to circle the globe. It contained about 50,000,000 people. Magellan
had discovered the Philippines in 1521 and named them the Archipelago of
San Lorenzo. During his reign, Philip organized as them as a Spanish colony
and appointed the first Governor-General. They were administered from Mexico
and were an important link in the commerce between Canton and Acapulco. For
over 200 years foreign ships were forbidden from trading at the islands. Philip
founded the first university in the New World in Mexico City and established
a colony in Florida. Riches poured in from the colonies, but his conflicts with
the Turks, with England and with the Netherlands led to a financial drain which
he tried to stem by borrowing. This eventually caused three state bankruptcies.
By now, Philip was the only European fighting the Turks; he had tried unsuccessfully to get France to help him. Suleiman the Magnificent died in 1566, and in 1579, the Turks captured Cyprus
Until the reign of Philip, there was no capital for all of Spain. Each formerly independent state had its own, and there were many separate assemblies, rather than one united parliament. Philip chose Madrid as his capital. At the time it was only a large village but grew under him to a town of 55,000, very big for the time. However, after the death of Don Carlos he spent very little time there, moving instead to the Escorial .
The English hated Spain, especially after Philip's marriage to Mary Tudor. From 1577 on, Sir Francis Drake and others roamed the seas preying on Spanish shipping. In retaliation, several invasions of England were considered and even set up but none bore fruit. The English also aided the Netherlands during Spain's problems with those lowland countries. Philip started a plan to invade England which eventuated with the "Invincible Armada". At one time, there were feelers on a marriage between Mary Queen of Scots and Don Carlos. On her death, she bequeathed Scotland to Philip; another reason for the Armada was to enforce his claim on Scotland.
Philip's most trusted advisors were the Duke of Alva and Ruy Gómez de Silva, the Prince of Eboli . They led opposing factions at his court.
PHILIP THE MAN
Although never gregarious, during his younger days Philip was not the recluse
he became as an old man. However, while Charles V had reigned from the saddle,
Philip governed from his desk. He was distrustful of strong men like Alva and
preferred to spend time with his papers. He insisted on seeing every state paper
himself and wrote continually, keeping several secretaries busy at once. Yet
he wrote no memoirs and allowed no biography while he was living.
He loved music, played the guitar, and refused to travel without his own organ and his own musicians. He made sure his children learned to love music and to play instruments. At one time about 150 musicians were included in the court of about 5,000. He had some artistic talent, amassed a vast collection of paintings, and knew a lot about architecture. His vast library included books printed in Mexico; he had detailed maps made of all parts of Spain which, for the time, were extremely accurate. He also collected many other items including, statues, armor and arms, scientific and musical instruments, and coins. Philip also became interested in alchemy and, although skeptical of success, he investigated the making of silver and gold from base metals. He founded an Academy of Mathematics in which the teaching was in Castillian, not Latin. The curriculum included architecture, hydraulics, fortifications, navigation and other subjects as well as mathematics.
He also enjoyed gardens and had all his gardens rebuilt in the northern style, directing the laborers himself. He kept zoos at his various residences which included camels, ostriches, elephants, rhinoceros and lions, and he built artificial lakes and stocked them with fish and swans. The fish were for him; anyone fishing in his ponds received 100 lashes on the first offence and was sent to the galleys on the second.
Philip's health was never strong, but he was extremely hard working and adhered to regular schedules, even in recreation and attending chapel. He ate mostly meat, fish, soup and bread. While fruits and vegetables were available, he seldom ate them. Basically simple in nature and not interested in protocol for himself, he did insist on strict respect (no bowing and scraping, only the removal of hats), and he always dressed plainly but richly, usually in black silk. His court had forty pages, fewer than he had had as a boy, and twenty-six maids of honor. The King's Guard consisted of one hundred Flemings, one hundred Spaniards, and one hundred Germans, all well-born.
PHILIP AND RELIGION
Religion very important to Philip. He had a deep faith and a conviction of the
truth of Roman Catholicism, and he regarded himself as its defender, determined
to extirpate all "idolaters" from his dominions. As self-proclaimed
leader of the Counter-Reformation, he presided in person at five autos. He thought
of his power in terms of service to God. When the Protestant Elizabeth was on
the throne of England, he believed its invasion by the Armada would meet with
divine favor. Philip's contemporaries were St. Ignatius Loyola and Saint Teresa
of Avila, with whom he felt a kindred spirit. He kept her works by his bedside
until his death. However, his relations with the Popes were never good.
THE END
As he aged, Philip lost almost all of his hair and teeth. During his last years
he was confined to bed or an invalid chair, and he suffered greatly. He became
very close to his daughters by Elizabeth and kept at his bedside Charles V's
scourge and the crucifix which both his mother and father had held at their
deaths. He died at age seventy-one, having ruled almost forty-three years. Philip
once said: "Being a King...is none other than a form of slavery which carries
a Crown". Seven days before his death, the Spanish crossed the Rio Grande
into "New Mexico"
EPILOGUE
After Philip's death, his enemies, especially William of Orange, charged him
with adultery, incest and the murder of his son Don Carlos and his wife Elizabeth.
The stories spread across Europe and became the chief source for later Protestant
biographies. His reputation was further damaged by Schiller in his play Don
Carlos. It was not until the nineteenth century that objective accounts of his
life were written. When his archives were opened, a better picture could be
drawn. He did ruin Spain. When he died, the once great empire was in shambles.
His son Philip III was a weak ruler and Philip IV lead the country from disaster
to disaster for forty-four years. His son Carlos II, the last Habsburg King
of Spain was an epileptic who was called Carlos the Bewitched. All of the unfortuante
genetic traits of the Spanish Habsburgs came together in him.
THE ESCORIAL
This grand monastery and palace was begun in 1563. Commemorating St. Lawrence
as San Lorenzo el Real it is in the form of a gridiron. Philip donated
his vast library and art collection to it but the monks were not really interested.
It took 21 years to build and has been called monument to the Counter-Reformation.
He followed its construction closely and moved in before it was completed.
The interior of the palace part is relatively modest compared to the splendor of the church and the tombs. Part of the structure contains the Pantheon, right under the high altar of the church, which contains the tombs of many Spanish Kings and Queens with room for more. (Charles V had asked him to build a suitable mausoleum but it was not finished until the reign of Philip III.) Children and other relatives, including Don Juan of Austria and Don Carlos lie in an adjoining mausoleum, the Pantheon of the Infantes. When Verdi saw the Escorial he said: Ït is severe and terrible like the savage monacrch who built it.
Boyhood and Youth | Alcalá | Carlos and The Netherlands | Imprisonment and Death | Summary
In Schiller's play and Verdi's opera, the heir to sixteenth century Spain is depicted as a gallant young prince with whom two beautiful women are passionately in love. Yet he is depicted in many 'histories' as little more than a blithering idiot, as misshapen in his body as in his mind. The truth is somewhere in between.
BOYHOOD AND YOUTH
He was born in 1545, the son of King Philip II and his first wife, Maria of
Portugal. The birth was difficult and may have caused some brain dysfunction,
but his genetic heritage was his greatest disadvantage. His parents were double
first cousins, both descended from Juana la Loca. All four of his grandparents
had Ferdinand and Isabella as grandparents. (Carlos had only 6 great-great-grandmothers
versus the norm of 16.) Both his great grandmother, Juana, and Juana's grandmother
had been locked up for insanity and there was also a history of epilepsy in
the family.
Nevertheless, he seemed fairly normal at first, and Philip was a loving father. But by age seven, Carlos could neither read nor write and he never learned to write very well. He was eight when his father left for England to marry Mary Tudor, and Carlos accompanied him as far as the coast. Before Philip sailed, they hunted and attended a tournament together. For the next five years, his father was in the north and Carlos was in the care of Philip's sister, Juana, who was acting as his regent in Spain.
Carlos started getting badly out of hand when he was about eleven. Charles V met his grandson for the first time on his way to his retirement at Yuste and noted that he was badly spoiled and needed to be corrected. He was slightly hunchbacked, one shoulder was higher than the other and he had a sunken chest, disabilities which are cleverly disguised in his portraits. He was not interested in his studies or sports. His voice was high and thin and he had a quick tongue. He became bold and cunning — the Venetians ambassadors described him as arrogant and reckless. He was also in poor health, suffering from frequent fevers.
Yet Carlos did have good qualities and had periods of calm and rationality. Some people had great hopes for him. He was generous and outgoing, the Inquisition considered him orthodox, and Elizabeth of Valois was eager for him to marry with her sister.
The central feature of both Schiller's play and Verdi's opera, Carlos's hatred of his father for stealing his intended bride is complete fiction. The marriage of Carlos and Elisabeth of Valois was discussed during the negotiation for the 1559 Peace Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis between Spain and France, but nothing was ever formalized. When Mary Tudor died, Philip was free to marry again and was a better catch. Carlos met Elizabeth for the first time at her wedding to his father and he was only fourteen at the time!
ALCALÁ
Then in 1562, when Carlos was seventeen, an event was to occur which exacerbated
all of his bad qualities. Carlos, Don Juan of Austria and Alexander of Parma
were living in Alcalá de las Henares. They attended lectures at the University
where Ignatius of Loyola had studied, but weren't regular students. They had
private tutors, but Carlos was interested only in wine, food and women. One
night he fell down the stairs at their lodging and struck his head. There are
many versions of what happened but most involve him hurrying to a romantic tryst.
At first the injury did not seem serious, but he soon worsened. He grew steadily
worse and all felt the end was near. The efforts of local doctors were in vain
and Philip kept watch by his bedside. The great doctor Vesalius was called and
may or may not have performed a trepanning operation. A magic salve was tried
to no avail. Then a group of Franciscan monks arrived with the body of a long
dead monk, Diego, which had been reported to perform miracles. With Philip's
permission, this was placed in Carlos's bed. One version states that, during
the night, Carlos saw a vision of a friar lying beside him, and he started to
improve. The miracle was authenticated and Philip asked the pope for the canonization
of the monk. The humble monk was soon St. Didicus.
In spite of the 'miracle' it was six months before Carlos could walk again, and his behavior became even worse than before. He had violent tantrums, threw a page out of the window, attacked his father's ministers with knives and, when displeased with a pair of boots, forced the shoemaker to eat them. Ambassadors urged their masters not to consider a marriage with him.
DON CARLOS AND THE NETHERLANDS
For years Philip had tried to get his son to take interest in affairs of state
but finally had to admit his unfitness to govern. He had given him responsibilities
at court but he botched them. He lost control when leading the state council
and punched one of father's officials. Was he truly interested in governing
the Netherlands or helping the dissidents there? He would have met all the envoys
from the Netherlands who came to Spain. Once more, accounts
vary. In 1576 Carlos seems to have begun to amass money and may have been secretly
preparing to leave the court. One report says he tried to stab Alva so he could
go to the Netherlands in his place. At any rate, Don Juan of Austria may have
told Philip his son was planning to flee to the Netherlands. This would have
been dangerous for Spain because Carlos could have become a figurehead for the
rebels to rally around. Reportedly he told his confessor he planned to kill
a man (his father?), and his confessor told Philip. Whether Carlos was really
plotting treason is not sure, but evidently Philip believed he was. Yet Philip
maintained hope for him almost to the end.
IMPRISONMENT AND DEATH
Carlos became paranoid. He thought the Prince of Eboli was sent to spy on him.
He slept with a spear and arquebus (an early gun) and had an elaborate mechanism
by which he could lock and open his door from his bed.
On January 13, 1568 Philip ordered public prayers in all monasteries and churches to ask for God's grace for himself. No reason was given, but on January 18, led by the king wearing an helmet and sword, a group including Prince Eboli and the Grand Inquisitor Espinosa arrived to put Carlos under arrest. With the aid of a locksmith, they entered the Prince's bedroom and seized his pistol and arquebus. The window was boarded up and his papers were seized. Among them were found lists Carlos had made of his friends and enemies. The friends included Elizabeth and Don Juan of Austria. Heading the list of enemies were King Philip, the Prince and Princess of Eboli and the Duke of Alva.
Philip had put off the necessity of taking action against his son as long as possible. To his sister he wrote: "Thus have I been willing to sacrifice to God my own flesh and blood, preferring His service and the welfare of my people to all human considerations". Eboli wrote to the French minister saying Philip had been putting it off for three years hoping for some improvement, and had placed his son under restraint with"unspeakable anguish". Letters were sent to nobles explaining the king had felt compelled to take this action but were not explicit about what the prince had done.
Carlos was confined to his room, watched day and night by guards, and served by men who were forbidden to speak to him. The Prince and Princess of Eboli moved into the apartment next door to Carlos and became his chief jailers. His food was carried to an outer room, and only six men, including the Count of Lerma, were allowed to take it to him. No one else could enter the room without the king's permission; Lerma was to sleep in the prince's room each night; others took turns during the day. Everyone in service to Carlos took an oath before Eboli to obey all of the regulations. In spite of her pleading, Elizabeth was not allowed to see him. A special commission including Eboli and Espinosa was appointed to try the prince. They were to take evidence and establish the facts.
After his imprisonment, Carlos was calm at first but then had fits of rage and despair and alternating bouts of eating and starving. Sometimes he lay naked in ice water on the floor and ate only fruit. His food was prepared in Eboli's chambers and later Antonio Pérez accused him of using poison. From the time of the arrest, Philip never left the palace, not even to watch the building of the Escorial. Carlos died on July 24, 1568 apparently from starvation during a hunger strike. Philip went into isolation and forbade Carlos's name to be mentioned in conversations or prayers. During the funeral, Eboli and Lerma were pall bearers. Elizabeth went into deep melancholy and wept for two days until Philip ordered her to stop. On October 3 she gave birth to a premature girl and died soon after.
Carlos's death caused a sensation in Spain, and rumors and myths about his death soon started. He had been poisoned; he had been smothered, etc. William of Orange said Philip had had both Carlos and Elizabeth killed. Philip's enemies had a field day. But while the death of Carlos was convenient for Philip, it was not essential. His grandmother, the mad Juana and true Queen, spent her last fifty years in confinement!
Philip said: "God who has given me so many kingdoms, has not granted me a son fit to govern them" and that he had acted "as a king, not a father in arresting him".
SUMMARY
There are too many stories to doubt that Carlos had serious mental problems,
but was he really crazy? He certainly could not be trusted to act rationally
in public or with a wife, but Elizabeth was very fond of him. The accounts of
his intrigue with the Netherlands, if any, are a matter of debate; they may
not have been true. There is absolutely no evidence of a romantic attachment
with Elizabeth. They were the same age and probably had things in common not
shared by the older courtiers, but they would have been too closely supervised
to have had a liaison. Privacy was unknown in the strict Spanish court, and
there is no evidence of Philip being jealous or suspicious. The story that they
were having an affair was started in the Apology of William of Orange and was
included in most biographies of the king by early Protestant writers.
On September 28, 1542, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo sailed into what is now San Diego Bay and landed on Point Loma somewhere near Ballast Point. He claimed the land for Spain and, since it was the eve of the feast of San Miguel, gave that name to the surrounding area. When many years larer, Sebastian Vizcaino explored the west coast, he vowed to keep all the names given to sites by Cabrillo and others. However, he entered this harbor on November 12, 1602, the eve of the day of San Diego de Alcalá, and his flagship bore that name, so he changed the name of the bay. He explored Mission Bay and found about 20,000 natives in the area. It was over one hundred years before the site was visited again but the name stuck. In 1769, Father Junipero Serra built the first of his missions there.
Just who was the saint for which the present city was named? Early in the fifteenth century, in a small, poor valley near Seville, Spain, a little boy was born and named for Saint James (Santiago or Diego). As a young man he became a member of the Third Order of St. Francis and lived as a hermit for a while. Then, for thirty years, as a lay brother, he worked as a porter at a monastery. Although illiterate, he was sent to the Canary Islands where he hoped to become a martyr to the native tribes but instead became the guardian of the convent and converted many people. After he returned to Spain, went to Rome for the canonization of Saint Bernadine of Sienna. When an epidemic broke out there, he cared for the sick and turned a convent into a hospital. Many miraculous cures were attributed to him. Diego gained fame as an orator and theologians listened in amazement to this uneducated man. In 1456, he gained a post as a lecturer at the university at Alcalá de Henares. At the end of his life he worked in the infirmary and then, once more, as a humble doorkeeper. He died on November 12, 1463, and when he could not be buried immediately, people noted that his corpse remained uncorrupted; they could detect the 'odor of sanctity'. The students petitioned for beatification, but nothing came of it until Don Carlos, the son and heir of Philip II of Spain fell down the stairs in Alcalá, and injured his head. No doctors could help, but the body of Diego, now almost one hundred years dead, was placed in the prince's bed and 'cured' him. The grateful Philip was convinced of a genuine miracle and added his petition to Pope Sixtus V for the canonization of the humble monk. The pope soon complied, and he was named Saint Didicus, better known as San Diego.
Thus, if Don Carlos had not fallen down the stairs, San Diego might still be named San Miguel.