He was born in May, 1527, and was now therefore twenty-eight years of age.  At the age of sixteen he had been united to his cousin, Maria of Portugal, daughter of John iii. and of the Emperor’s sister, Donna Catalina.  In the following year (1544) he became father of the celebrated and ill-starred Don Carlos, and a widower.  The princess owed her death, it was said, to her own imprudence and to the negligence or bigotry of her attendants.  The Duchess of Alva, and other ladies who had charge of her during her confinement, deserted her chamber in order to obtain absolution by witnessing an auto-da-fe of heretics.  During their absence, the princess partook voraciously of a melon, and forfeited her life in consequence.

In 1548, Don Philip had made his first appearance in the Netherlands.  He came thither to receive homage in the various provinces as their future sovereign, and to exchange oaths of mutual fidelity with them all.  Andrew Doria, with a fleet of fifty ships, had brought him to Genoa, whence he had passed to Milan, where he was received with great rejoicing.  At Trent he was met by Duke Maurice of Saxony, who warmly begged his intercession with the Emperor in behalf of the imprisoned Landgrave of Hesse.  This boon Philip was graciously pleased to promise,—­and to keep the pledge as sacredly as most of the vows plighted by him during this memorable year.  The Duke of Aerschot met him in Germany with a regiment of cavalry and escorted him to Brussels.  A summer was spent in great festivities, the cities of the Nether lands vieing with each other in magnificent celebrations of the ceremonies, by which Philip successively swore allegiance to the various constitutions and charters of the provinces, and received their oaths of future fealty in return.  His oath to support all the constitutions and privileges was without reservation, while his father and grandfather had only sworn to maintain the charters granted or confirmed by Philip and Charles of Burgundy.  Suspicion was disarmed by these indiscriminate concessions, which had been resolved upon by the unscrupulous Charles to conciliate the good will of the people.  In view of the pretensions which might be preferred by the Brederode family in Holland, and by other descendants of ancient sovereign races in other provinces, the Emperor, wishing to ensure the succession to his sisters in case of the deaths of himself, Philip, and Don Carlos without issue, was unsparing in those promises which he knew to be binding only upon the weak.  Although the house of Burgundy had usurped many of the provinces on the express pretext that females could not inherit, the rule had been already violated, and he determined to spare no pains to conciliate the estates, in order that they might be content with a new violation, should the contingency occur.  Philip’s oaths were therefore without reserve, and the light-hearted Flemings, Brabantines, and Walloons received him with open arms.  In Valenciennes the festivities which attended his