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.”

That learned and eloquent author, Estelle Calvete, even filled the greater part of a volume, in which he described the journey of the Prince, with a minute description of these feasts and jousts, but we may reasonably conclude that to the loyal imagination of his eulogist Philip is indebted for most of these knightly trophies.  It was the universal opinion of unprejudiced cotemporaries, that he was without a spark of enterprise.  He was even censured for a culpable want of ambition, and for being inferior to his father in this respect, as if the love of encroaching on his neighbor’s dominions, and a disposition to foreign. commotions and war would have constituted additional virtues, had he happened to possess them.  Those who were most disposed to think favorably of him, remembered that there was a time when even Charles the Fifth was thought weak and indolent, and were willing to ascribe Philip’s pacific disposition to his habitual cholic and side-ache, and to his father’s inordinate care for him in youth.  They even looked forward to the time when he should blaze forth to the world as a conqueror and a hero.  These, however, were views entertained by but few; the general and the correct opinion, as it proved, being, that Philip hated war, would never certainly acquire any personal distinction in the field, and when engaged in hostilities would be apt to gather his laurels at the hands of his generals, rather than with his own sword.  He was believed to be the reverse of the Emperor.