intelligence was transmitted every where.  Great were the joy and the festivities in the Netherlands, where people were so easily made to rejoice and keep holiday for any thing.  “The Regent, being in Antwerp,” wrote Sir Thomas Gresham to the lords of council, “did cause the great bell to rings to give all men to understand that the news was trewe.  The Queene’s highness here merchants caused all our Inglishe ships to shoote off with such joy and triumph, as by men’s arts and pollicey coulde be devised—­and the Regent sent our Inglishe maroners one hundred crownes to drynke.”  If bell-ringing and cannon-firing could have given England a Spanish sovereign, the devoutly-wished consummation would have been reached.  When the futility of the royal hopes could no longer be concealed, Philip left the country, never to return till his war with France made him require troops, subsidies, and a declaration of hostilities from England.

The personal appearance of the new sovereign has already been described.  His manner was far from conciliatory, and in this respect he was the absolute reverse of his father.  Upon his first journey out of Spain, in 1548, into his various dominions, he had made a most painful impression every where.  “He was disagreeable,” says Envoy Suriano, “to the Italians, detestable to the Flemings, odious to the Germans.”

The remonstrances of the Emperor, and of Queen Mary of Hungary, at the impropriety of his manners, had produced, however, some effect, so that on his wedding journey to England, he manifested much “gentleness and humanity, mingled with royal gravity.”  Upon this occasion, says another Venetian, accredited to him, “he had divested himself of that Spanish haughtiness, which, when he first came from Spain, had rendered him so odious.  The famous ambassador, Badovaro confirms the impression.  “Upon his first journey,” he says, “he was esteemed proud, and too greedy for the imperial succession; but now ’tis the common opinion that his humanity and modesty are all which could be desired.  These humane qualities, however, it must be observed, were exhibited only in the presence of ambassadors and grandees, the only representatives of “humanity” with whom he came publicly and avowedly in contact.

He was thought deficient in manly energy.  He was an infirm valetudinarian, and was considered as sluggish in character, as deficient in martial enterprise, as timid of temperament as he was fragile and sickly of frame.  It is true, that on account of the disappointment which he occasioned by his contrast to his warlike father, he mingled in some tournaments in Brussels, where he was matched against Count Mansfeld, one of the most distinguished chieftains of the age, and where, says his professed panegyrist, “he broke his lances very mach to the satisfaction of his father and aunts.”