“His Holiness the Pope and the King of Spain,” said the Admiral of Arragon, “think it necessary to apply most stringent measures to the emperor to compel him to appoint a successor, because, in case of his death without one, the administration during the vacancy would fall to the elector palatine,—­a most perverse Calvinistic heretic, and as great an enemy of the house of Austria and of our holy religion as the Turk himself—­as sufficiently appears in those diabolical laws of his published in the palatinate a few months since.  A vacancy is so dreadful, that in the north of Germany the world would come to an end; yet the emperor, being of rather a timid nature than otherwise, is inclined to quiet, and shrinks from the discussions and conflicts likely to be caused by an appointment.  Therefore his Holiness and his Catholic Majesty, not choosing that we should all live in danger of the world’s falling in ruins, have resolved to provide the remedy.  They are to permit the electors to use the faculty which they possess of suspending the emperor and depriving him of his power; there being examples of this in other times against emperors who governed ill.”

The Admiral farther alluded to the great effort made two years before to elect the King of Denmark emperor, reminding Philip that in Hamburg they had erected triumphal arches, and made other preparations to receive him.  This year, he observed, the Protestants were renewing their schemes.  On the occasion of the baptism of the child of the elector palatine, the English envoy being present, and Queen Elizabeth being god-mother, they had agreed upon nine articles of faith much more hostile to the Catholic creed than anything ever yet professed.  In case of the death of the emperor, this elector palatine would of course make much trouble, and the emperor should therefore be induced, by fair means if possible, on account of the great inconvenience of forcing him, but not without a hint of compulsion, to acquiesce in the necessary measures.  Philip was represented as willing to assist the empire with considerable force against the Turk—­as there could be no doubt that Hungary was in great danger—­but in recompense it was necessary to elect a King of the Romans in all respects satisfactory to him.  There were three objections to the election of Albert, whose recent victories and great abilities entitled him in Philip’s opinion to the crown.  Firstly, there was a doubt whether the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia were elective or hereditary, and it was very important that the King of the Romans should succeed to those two crowns, because the electors and other princes having fiefs within those kingdoms would be unwilling to swear fealty to two suzerains, and as Albert was younger than his brothers he could scarcely expect to take by inheritance.

Secondly, Albert had no property of his own, but the Admiral suggested that the emperor might be made to abandon to him the income of the Tyrol.