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Discovering Diverse Content Through
Random Scribd Documents
[4] Ambassades de Noailles. Leyden, 1763.

[5] To these may be added the slight but interesting narrative

existing in manuscript at Lotivain, and printed by Tytler in his
"Edward VI and Mary," and the letters of the Venetian ambassador in
Flanders to the Doge and Senate, for which see Calendar of State
Papers (Venetian) of the date in question.

[6] He was equally at sea at the beginning of Mary's reign, when he

vigorously aided Northumberland's conspiracy to place Lady Jane
Grey on the throne, and repeatedly told his master that Mary's cause
was an absolutely hopeless one. On the ignominious collapse of
Dudley, Noailles excused his own want of prescience by saying that
nothing but a direct miracle from heaven could have brought about
such a change.

[7] I am of course aware that the ambassador had previously sent his
brother François de Noailles to request the Queen to stand
godmother to his newly born son, but François only arrived at
Winchester from London on the day the Queen received news of the
arrival of the Prince off the Isle of Wight, which could not have been
earlier than the 19th, and was back in London again in time for the
child to be christened, with the Countess of Surrey as the Queen's
proxy, on the 22nd, which would certainly leave him no time to go to
Southampton to witness the landing. See "Ambassudes de Noailles,"
iii. 282.

[8] Mr. Prescott is the only historian writing in the English language
who refers to Spanish accounts at all, and his reference is confined to
a single mention of Cabrera's bald and stolid history and one or two
quotations from Sepulveda, who appears to have derived what little
information he gives from one of the narratives now before me.
Simon Renard's letters to the Emperor in the Granvelle papers are
naturally also referred to by most historians of the period in
question, but, important as they are from many points of view, they
only give a purely official and diplomatic account, and are Flemish
and imperial rather than Spanish and personal in their interest.
[9] Cabrera, "Relaciones," and Nicolas Antonio, "Biblioteca Nova."

[10] "Chronicle of King Henry VIII. of England." London: Bell and

Sons. 1889.

[11] See letter from Lord Edmund Dudley to the Council, quoted in
Tytler, "Edward VI. and Mary."

[12] This was in despite of Renard's recommendation to Philip:

"Seulement sera requis que les Espaignolez qui suyvront vostre
Alteze comportent les façons de faire des Angloys et soient
modestes, confians que vostre Alteze les aicarassera par son
humanité costumiere."

[13] Renard to the Emperor, quoted in Tytler, "Edward VI. and

Mary."

[14] July, Calendar of State Papers, Venetian.

[15] Soriano, the Venetian ambassador in Madrid, says that the

gentle courtesy he adopted in England was continued after his return
to Spain, and that, whilst maintaining his natural gravity and dignity,
his kindness and graciousness were remarkable to all persons.
Michaeli, the Venetian ambassador in London, who had sided with
Noailles in his opposition to the match, is emphatic in his testimony
of Philip's affability whilst in England, and says that his conduct
towards his wife was enough to make any woman love him, "for in
truth no one else in the world could have been a better or more
loving husband." These and many other similar contemporary
assurances prove that Philip acted all through the business like an
honest, high-minded gentleman.

[16] He died in 1559, and a magnificent alabaster monument, with

the recumbent figures of himself and his wife, exists in fine
preservation in the chancel of Thame church, of which he was a
liberal benefactor.
[17] Probably the dress in which he is represented in the magnificent
painting of him belonging to the Marquis of Exeter at Burghley (No.
236, Tudor Exhibition).

[18] Sir John Gage.

[19] The Earl of Arundel.

[20] In the narrative signed by Car (British Museum) the Queen is

described in this interview as "chatting gaily, and although she is a
little elderly she displays the grace befitting a queen."

[21] Don Pedro Enriquez was wrong here. One of the greatest of the
Spanish nobles, Count de Feria, had fallen madly in love with Jane
Dormer, one of the Queen's maids of honour, and soon afterwards
privately married her.

[22] Baoardo, quoted by Mr. Froude, says "he raised his hat to
nobody," but these narratives often mention his being uncovered.

[23] Narrator No. 6 says, "The hall, which is beautifully hung with
cloth of gold and silk, measures forty of my paces long and twenty
wide."

[24] Underhyll (Harleian Manuscript, 425, f. 97) gives a very quaint

account of his share in this banquet. "On the maryage daye the kynge
and queue dyned in the halle in the bushop's palice sittynge under
the cloth of estate and none eles att that table. The nobillitie satte att
the syde tables. Wee (i.e., the gentlemen pensioners) weare the
cheffe sarueters to cary the meate and the yearle of Sussex ower
captayne was the shewer. The seconde course att the maryage off a
kynge is gevyne unto the bearers; I meane the meate butt nott the
dishes for they were off golde. It was my chaunce to carye a greate
pastie of a redde dere in a great charger uery delicately baked; which
for the weyght thereoff dyuers refused; the wyche pastie I sentt unto
London to my wyffe and her brother who cherede therewith many
off ther trends. I wyll not take uppon me to wryte the maner of the
maryage, off the feaste nor of the daunssyngs of the Spanyards thatt
day who weare greatly owte off countenaunce specyally King Phelip
dauncynge when they dide see me lorde Braye, Mr. Carowe and
others so farre excede them; but wyll leve it unto the learned as it
behovithe hym to be thatt shall wryte a story off so greate a
tryoumffe." The Louvian Chronicle (Tytler) says:—"The dinner
lasted till six in the evening, after which there was store of music,
and before nine all had retired."

[25] This was the Marquis of Winchester, not, as Señor Gayangos

supposes, Sir Edward Peckham, who was Treasurer of the Mint.

[26] The Spaniards had to be quartered in the halls of the City guilds.

Signature: Marye the queene

THE EVOLUTION OF THE SPANISH ARMADA.

 Headpiece

THE EVOLUTION OF THE SPANISH ARMADA.

Perhaps no character in history has been more misjudged and

misrepresented than Philip II. For three centuries it has pleased English
writers particularly, to portray him as a murderous ogre, grimly and silently
plotting the enslavement of England for thirty years before the great
catastrophe which reduced his vast empire to the rank of a harmless second-
rate power. As a matter of fact he was a laborious, narrow-minded, morbidly
conscientious man, patient, distrustful, and timid; a sincere lover of peace
and a nater of all sorts of innovations. He was born to a position for which
he was unfitted, and was forced by circumstances stronger than himself to
embark upon gigantic warlike enterprises which he disliked and deplored.

For ages it had been considered vital in the interests both of England and
Spain that a close alliance should exist between the two countries, in order
to counterbalance the immemorial connection between Scotland and France;
and that the Flemish dominions of the house of Burgundy should under no
circumstances be allowed to fall under the sway of the French. It is easy to
understand that with France paramount over the North Sea ports and in
Scotland, England would never have been safe for a moment; whilst the
principal continental seat of English foreign trade would have been at the
mercy of England's secular foe. At the same time all central Europe would
have been cut off from its Atlantic seaboard, whilst the principal maritime
powers, Spain and Portugal, would have been excluded from all ports north
of Biscay, except on the sufferance of their jealous rival. This was the
tradition to which Philip had been born; inheriting as he did the dominions
both of Spain and the house of Burgundy, and almost at any cost he was
forced, as his forefathers had been, to cling to the connection between his
country and England. Henry VIII. had known full well that he might strain
the cord very tightly without breaking it when he flew into the face of all
Christendom, and contemptuously cast aside for an ignoble passion the aunt
of the Emperor, a daughter of the proudest royal house in Europe. Charles V.
dared not, and did not, break with England in consequence; for Henry had
taken care to draw close to Scotland and France, and the very hint of such a
combination was sufficient to render the Emperor all amiability.

For a time it looked as if the alliance had been rendered proof against all
attack by the marriage of Philip and Mary, and it is highly probable that it
would have been so if Renard's plan to marry Elizabeth to the Duke of
Savoy had been carried out; but here again circumstances were too strong
for persons. The marriage would have been useless unless Elizabeth were
first legitimised, and Mary could not legitimise her without bastardising
herself, which she obstinately refused to do, notwithstanding all the
entreaties of Philip and his friends. But Philip ostentatiously favoured his
young sister-in-law, in the hope that when she came to the throne he might
have some claim upon her gratitude, and induce her to maintain the
friendship which was so necessary for his interests. It was no question of
Catholic or Protestant yet. He would have supported her—as indeed he did
—however firm a Protestant she might be; for the next Catholic heir to the
crown, Mary Stuart, was practically a Frenchwoman, married to the heir of
the French throne, and with her as Queen of England and France, Spain and
the house of Burgundy would have been ruined.

Elizabeth knew as well as any one how vital it was for Philip to be
friendly with England; and during a long course of years she traded
unscrupulously upon her knowledge that she might assail, insult, plunder,
and make more or less veiled war upon him, and yet that he dared not
openly break with her whilst France was greedily eyeing his Flemish
harbours. From the first moment that Elizabeth's reform policy became
evident it was seen by Spanish statesmen that either the government of
England must be changed, so as to bring it back to the old cordial alliance,
or else Spain must seek new combinations of powers, in order to redress the
balance. For the first alternative to be successful promptness was necessary,
and the government of the Queen changed whilst the country was yet
unsettled and divided. Feria wrote from London to Philip only a day or two
after Mary's death that the country must be dealt with sword in hand rather
than by cajolery, unless it were to be allowed to slip through their hands; and
thenceforward for years all of Philip's agents, one after the other, pressed
upon their master the necessity of using force, either by aiding the Catholics
to revolt or by a direct attack on England. Angry, almost contemptuous,
references to the King's hesitancy and timidity are constantly occurring in
the letters of the various Spanish ambassadors in England, but beyond
occasional money aid to the English Catholics nothing could be obtained
from the King.

Of all things slow-minded, unwarlike Philip desired peace, almost at any

price, and he saw, as his advisers did not, the dangers that surrounded him.
Marriage designs, cajolery, and other peaceful methods having failed to bind
Elizabeth to him, he attempted to form a new combination. He married the
French king's daughter as his third wife; and doubtless even thus early had
evolved in his mind the idea of a league of the Catholic powers as a
counterbalance to Elizabeth's friendship with Denmark, Sweden, and the
German Protestant princes. He knew that overt assistance from him to the
English Catholics to depose the Queen and stifle Protestantism would
increase the enmity of the allied Protestants of the Continent, and perhaps let
loose the storm of which the mutterings were already audible in Flanders.
So, in answer to Feria's advice and Bishop Quadra's arguments in favour of
force, he insisted upon a policy of soft words, pacification, and palliation;
and again and again told his ambassadors, "You must keep principally in
view by all ways and means to avoid a rupture ... the importance of which is
so great that I cannot be satisfied without repeating it so many times."

But if he thus deprecated open warfare he was at all times, after Mary
Stuart's French husband was dead, ready enough to subsidise plots to
assassinate or depose Elizabeth; and large sums were sent to England for
that purpose. In vain his agents continued to tell him how useless it was to
expect that the English Catholics would pull the chestnuts out of the fire for
him, unless they were assured of his armed support. But this assurance he
would not give. A marriage of his son Carlos with the widowed Mary Stuart,
simultaneously with a Catholic rising in England, was an expedient after his
own heart, but even here his timidity was so great that he would run no risk
of firing a shot in favour of a project in which he would have been the
principal gainer. He writes (June 15, 1563) to Bishop Quadra: "With regard
to the adherents that the Scots will have in England, and the increase of their
number if necessary, you will not interfere in any way further than you have
done, but let them do it all themselves, and gain what friends and sympathy
they can for their opinions amongst the Catholics and those upon whom they
depend. I say this because if anything should be discovered they should be
the persons to be blamed and no one in connection with us." He was told
plainly that the negotiations could not be carried on in this way, which
pledged everybody but himself, but it was all useless: his instructions were
firm and undeviating: under no circumstances was he to be drawn into war
with England.

In 1564 the English Protestants were almost openly sympathising with

the growing discontent in the Netherlands, and flocks of refugees from
Holland were daily crossing to England. Spanish ships were being pillaged
on every sea by English privateers, and a war of tariffs and commercial
prohibitions was being carried on between England and Spanish Flanders;
and Philip's advisers told him that an open war with England would not
injure him so much as his present inactivity was doing. But withal when he
sent a smooth-tongued ambassador, Diego de Guzman, to mollify the
English, his secret instructions were that he was to tell Elizabeth that "his
orders were to endeavour to please her in all things, as in effect we wish you
to do, using every possible effort to that end; and striving to preserve her
friendship towards us and our mutual alliance."

In August, 1568, Philip sent a new ambassador to England, Gerau de

Spes. Relations at the time were extremely strained between the two
countries, owing to the expulsion of the English ambassador from Spain for
some offence against the Catholic religion; and Alba's cruelty in the
Netherlands had aroused a bitter feeling in England against Spain, which
was increased by the plots which were known to be in progress between the
Guises and Alba in favour of Mary Stuart. And yet Philip's orders to his new
ambassador were, "that he was to serve and gratify Elizabeth on every
possible occasion, as in fact I wish you to do, trying to keep her on good
terms, and assuring her from me that I will always return her friendship as a
good neighbour and brother."
 When Elizabeth a few months afterwards seized Philip's treasure-ships,
which had been driven to take refuge in English ports to escape from the
privateers, he pursued the same peaceful policy. Fiery de Spes was all for
war and retaliation, but beyond seizing English shipping in Spanish and
Flemish harbours, Philip would not go. He was driven for money and sorely
beset on all sides, his commerce well-nigh swept from the seas, his credit
diminished, and his rebellious subjects in Flanders blockading his own
coasts against him. Mary Stuart was urging him to action, his own ministers
were assuring him ceaselessly that the only way to check English aggression
was to "set the fire to Elizabeth's own doors by raising troubles in England
or Ireland if he was not prepared to go to war." But in the face of all
provocation, in the face of Alba's assurance that his prestige was being
ruined by his tame submission, he could only say after long delay
(December 16, 1569) that if Elizabeth's hardness of heart continued he
should really have to consider what could be done. "We here think that the
best course will be to encourage with money and secret favour the Catholics
of the North, and to help those in Ireland to take up arms against the heretics
and deliver the crown to the Queen of Scotland, to whom it belongs by
succession." And the only outcome of it all was the futile aid to the plots of
Norfolk and Ridolfi.

It was the same again twelve years later when Drake's appalling atrocities
on the South American coasts had aroused the fury of all Spain; and England
was enriched by the plunder of sacred shrines and peaceful merchantmen.
English troops were in arms against him in Flanders, and public money had
been flowing over to the aid of the rebels with the thinnest possible disguise,
but still Philip clung obstinately to the English alliance, hoping against hope
that at last Elizabeth would become friendly with him. The most he would
do, as before, was to help the Irish Catholics in their revolt, in order to
hamper the English queen and prevent her from injuring him further.
Certainly in all these years he had never entertained for a moment the idea
of the subjugation of England; he only sought either by removing Elizabeth
or by diverting her attention to troubles at home to draw her country back
again to the old alliance and friendship.

Up to this period (1580) the principal reason, beyond Philip's natural love
of peace, which had caused him to follow his long-suffering policy was the
fear of finding himself opposed both to England and France. Catharine de
Medici was as facile as Elizabeth herself, and could generally, when it suited
her, patch up a reconciliation between Huguenots and Catholics and unite
them, for a short time at least, under a national banner. But in January, 1580,
an event happened which for the first time seemed to hold out hopes that he
might be able to revenge himself upon Elizabeth without the fear of France
before his eyes. Archbishop Beaton, Mary Stuart's ambassador in Paris,
secretly told Philip's ambassador there that he and the Duke of Guise had
prevailed upon the Queen of Scots to place herself, her son, and her realm
entirely in the hands and under the protection of the King of Spain, and
would send James VI. to Spain to be brought up and married there to Philip's
pleasure. This meant the detachment of the Guises from the French interest,
and Vargas, the Spanish ambassador, at once saw its importance. He sent off
a special courier to Philip, urging him now to action: "Such is the state of
things there," he says, "that if even so much as a cat moved the whole
edifice would crumble down in three days. If your Majesty had England and
Scotland attached to you, directly or indirectly, you might consider the
States of Flanders conquered, and ... you could lay down the law for the
whole world."

Guise's adhesion to Spain made all the difference, and Philip welcomed
the idea of deporting James Stuart to Spain as a preliminary measure. Mary
herself was in high hopes, and Beaton said she was determined to leave her
prison only as Queen of England. Her adherents, he asserted, were so
numerous in the country, that if they rose the matter would be easy without
assistance, "but with the aid of your Majesty it would soon be over." The
plan was shelved for a time in consequence of the death of Vargas; and
James' deportation became unnecessary on the fall of Protestant Morton, and
the accession to power of D'Aubigny, Earl of Lennox, who had already sent
Fernihurst to Spain to assure Philip of his devotion; but in April of the
following year Mary Stuart opened negotiations with Tassis, the new
Spanish ambassador in Paris. "Affairs," she assured him, through Beaton,
"were never better disposed in Scotland, than now to return to their ancient
condition, so that English affairs could be dealt with subsequently." The
King, her son, she said, was quite determined to return to the Catholic
religion, and inclined to an open rupture with the Queen of England.

Philip, however, wished to be quite sure that James was really to be a

Catholic before helping him to the succession of the English crown. Father
Persons and five or six Jesuits were busy in Scotland with Spanish money
plotting for the restoration of the Catholic religion, and the young King
himself told them, "that though for certain reasons it was advisable for him
to appear publicly in favour of the French, he in his heart would rather be
Spanish." Even thus early James' duplicity was the subject of wonder to
those who surrounded him; and in January, 1582, Mary wrote rather
doubtfully about his religion to Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador in
England. "The poor child," she said, "was so surrounded by heretics that she
had only been able to obtain the assurance that he would listen to the priests
she sent him." But she assures the Spaniard that she will bind herself and her
son exclusively to Philip in future, and begs that the Scottish courtiers
should be bribed in his interest. The Catholic revival in Scotland was being
vigorously worked by the Jesuits and the nobles, and it soon became evident
to them also that James was too slippery to be depended upon. So they sent
Father Holt to London in February with some important proposals. The rank
and file of the Jesuits had no idea that their Catholic propaganda in Scotland
had been contrived and paid for by Spain with a political object, and Holt
was astounded when the person to whom he was directed in London took
him to Mendoza. His message was that the Scottish nobles had decided, as a
last resource, if James continued obstinate, to depose him, and either convey
him abroad or hold him a prisoner until his mother arrived in Scotland. They
besought the guidance of the King of Spain in the matter, and begged that
2,000 foreign troops might be sent to them to carry out their plans. This
message was repeated in a softened form to Mary Stuart in her English
prison, and Mendoza urged his master to send the troops requested, "with
the support of whom the Scots might encounter Elizabeth, and the whole of
the English north country would be disturbed, the Catholics there being in a
majority; and the opportunity would be taken for the Catholics in the other
parts of the country to rise, when they knew they had on their side the forces
of a more powerful prince than the King of Scotland."

Philip was on the Portuguese frontier at the time, and affairs in Madrid
were being managed by the aged Cardinal de Granvelle, who sent to the
King notes and recommendations on all letters received.

He warmly seconded Mendoza's recommendations that the troops

requested by the Scots nobles should be sent, and says: "The affair is so
important both for the sake of religion, and to bridle England, that no other
can equal it; because by keeping the Queen of England busy we shall be
ensured against her helping Alençon or daring to obstruct us in any other
way." Somewhat later Granvelle repeats the same note. Speaking of the fear
of the Scots nobles that the landing of a large foreign force might threaten
their liberties, he says: "This is not what his Majesty wants, nor do I approve
of it, but that we should loyally help the King of Scots and his mother to
maintain their rights; and by promoting armed disturbance keep the Queen
of England and the French busy, at a comparatively small cost to ourselves,
and so enable us to settle our own affairs better. If it had no other result than
this it would suffice, but very much more when we consider that it may lead
to the re-establishment of the Catholic religion in those parts. It is very
advantageous that the matter should be taken in hand by the Duke of Guise,
as it will ensure us from French obstruction. Since we cannot hope to hold
the island for ourselves, Guise will not try to hand it over to the King of
France to the detriment of his near kinswoman." He also speaks of the
probability of Elizabeth's coming to terms with Spain on being secured to
the throne during her life, and the re-establishment of the old alliance
between the two countries.

Thus far, then, the aims of Spain were legitimate and honest under the
circumstances; and Philip had no avowed intention, or thought, of the
conquest of England for himself. We shall see how he was gradually forced
by circumstances and the jealousy between the English and Scottish
Catholics to adopt a different attitude.

So long as Mary and Mendoza kept the direction of the conspiracy in

their own hands all was done wisely and prudently, but as soon as Lennox
and the Jesuits had a hand in it a complete muddle was the result. Tassis, the
Spanish Ambassador in France, and Guise had been quite outside the new
proposition of the Scots nobles, but in March, 1582, Lennox wrote a foolish
letter to Tassis, which he sent by Creighton to Paris, laying bare the plan and
giving his adhesion to it, but making all manner of inflated and exaggerated
demands.

Creighton had promised him, he said, 15,000 foreign troops, of which he

was to have command, and he asked in addition for a vast sum of money and
a personal guarantee against loss of fortune in any event. Creighton also
went to Guise and brought him into the business, and Jesuit emissaries were
to go to Rome and Madrid to crave aid from the Pope and Philip. Mary and
Mendoza were furious at the ineptitude of Lennox and the priests, and Mary
particularly that her name should be used by them as being the head of the
conspiracy. Creighton had no authority whatever to promise 15,000 men,
and the idea that Lennox was to have command was absurd from a Spanish
point of view. Philip was alarmed too at the large number of persons who
were now concerned in the affair, and directed that no further steps should
be taken. The inclusion of Guise in the project soon produced its result. He
wanted naturally to take a large and prominent part, and travelled to Paris to
meet Tassis secretly at Beaton's house. He was full of far-reaching, ill-
digested plans; but his main desire evidently was to prevent Spanish troops
from being sent to Scotland, for fear, he said, of the jealousy of the French.
His idea was that a large mixed force should be sent from Italy under the
papal flag, whilst he made a descent with Frenchmen on the coast of Sussex.
But all these fine plans were soon frozen under the cold criticism of Philip
and de Granvelle. Philip, it is true, did not yet think of conquering England
for himself, but Mary and James must owe the English crown to him alone,
and be bound to restore the close alliance between England and Spain, or the
change would be of no use to him: and this could hardly be hoped for if
there were too many French and Italian troops concerned in the business, or
if Guise had the main direction of the enterprise.

Sir Francis Englefield was in Madrid as Philip's adviser on English

affairs, and both he and the numerous English Catholic refugees in France,
Flanders, and Spain soon made it clear that their national distrust and enmity
of the French was as keen as ever, whilst they looked sourly upon any
project which should make the Frenchified Scots paramount over England.
This feeling they were careful to urge upon the Spaniards upon every
occasion, and it is not surprising that Philip at last came to believe their
assurances that all England would welcome a Catholic restoration if it came
from their old friends the Spaniards, and not from their old enemies the
French.

From that time a change was apparent in Philip's policy. When he heard
of the Raid of Ruthven and the flight of Lennox he saw that English
Protestant intrigue had conquered, and that the Scottish-Catholic enterprise
was at an end for a time. Guise was to be flattered and conciliated, but it is
clear that henceforward Philip wished to confine his (Guise's) attention to
France. He was told how dangerous it would be for him to leave France with
his enemies, the Huguenots, in possession, and was emphatically assured of
Spanish support in his own ambitious plans at home.

Guise was flattered, but he could hardly be expected to look upon

Scottish affairs from Philip's point of view. So he got one of his adherents,
young de Maineville, sent to Scotland to revive the idea of the landing of
foreign troops there. Beaton, who was thoroughly French, was just as
anxious to keep the matter afoot in Paris, but Philip had lost faith in the
enterprise, and only kept up an appearance of negotiation in order to
maintain his hold upon the Guises and prevent them from undertaking
anything except under his patronage. De Maineville soon got on intimate
terms with James, but the Protestant lords were holding him at the time, and
Guise was informed by his agent that the time was not now propitious for a
Catholic descent upon Scotland.

Guise thereupon came to the Spaniards in May, 1583, with a fresh plan.
He had decided, he said, to begin with the English Catholics. Elizabeth was
first to be murdered and the country raised, whilst he landed on the coast,
but Philip and the Pope must provide 100,000 crowns to pay for it. His
plans, as usual, however, were vague and incomplete, and the English
Catholics, as well as Philip, looked coldly upon them. Father Allen and the
English exiles were in deadly earnest, "and thought all this talk and intricacy
were mere buckler-play." Mendoza in Paris reports to Philip that "they
suspected a tendency on the part of the Scots to claim a controlling influence
in the new empire, and as the Scots are naturally inclined to the French, they
would rather the affair were carried through with but few Spaniards, whilst
the English hate this idea, as their country is the principal one ... and they
think it should not lose its predominance."

The English Catholics had a plan of their own which they urged upon
Philip. The English North Country was to be raised simultaneously with the
landing of a Spanish force in Yorkshire, accompanied by the Earl of
Westmoreland, Lord Dacre, and other nobles, with Allen as Nuncio and
Bishop of Durham, and some of the extreme Catholic party, even in
Scotland, distrusting the French, favoured some such plan as this under
purely Spanish auspices.
 Guise appears finally to have adopted a combination of this plan and his
own. The Spanish forces were to land at Fouldrey, Dalton-in-Furness,
Lancashire, whilst the English North Country was to be raised, and the
Catholic Scots on the border were to co-operate with the Spaniards. Guise at
the same time was to land in the south of England with about 5,000 men.
James VI., who had thrown himself into Falkland and had assumed the reins
of government, was in complete accord with Guise about it, but the latter, as
usual, was for pushing matters on far too rapidly to please Philip. He (Guise)
took upon himself to send a priest named Melino to the Pope to ask him to
furnish some funds for the expedition and to explain the whole of the
particulars, and this deeply offended the King of Spain, who had no idea of
having matters arranged over his head by such a bungler as Guise. The latter
also sent Charles Paget in disguise to England in August, 1583, to inquire as
to the amount of support he might expect when he landed on the south coast,
and when Philip in due course saw the instructions taken by Paget, it became
clear to him that he must somehow eliminate Guise from the project. On the
margin of the instructions Philip scribbled sarcastic remarks as to the futility
of Guise's projecting a landing and sending full particulars of his plans to the
Pope before he had ascertained what support he could depend upon when he
did land. What opened Philip's eyes more than anything else was that the
English "were to be assured on the faith and honour of Guise that the
enterprise is being undertaken with no other object or intention than to re-
establish the Catholic religion in England and to place the Queen of
Scotland peacefully on the throne of England, which rightly belongs to her.
When this is effected the foreigners will immediately retire from the
country, and if any one attempts to frustrate this intention Guise promises
that he and his forces will join the people of the country to compel the
foreigners to withdraw."

Well might Philip underline this and scatter notes of exclamation around
it, for it marked the parting of the ways, and showed that Guise was more
anxious for his family aggrandisement and personal ambition in placing his
kin upon the English throne than to serve the interests of Spain by securing a
close union between the two countries to the exclusion of France, which was
Philip's main object.

Guise was therefore told that he must not be precipitate, and the matter
was kept in suspense; but from that moment Philip decided to undertake the
matter alone. Allen and the English Catholics had never ceased to urge upon
him that his troops should be landed first in England, and not in Scotland;
and this now obviously suited Philip best, as he was growing more and more
doubtful about James' religious sincerity. Another fact must have also
influenced him greatly in the same direction. His great admiral, Santa Cruz,
had just brilliantly routed the French mercenary fleet in the service of the
Portuguese pretender at the Azores, and in the flush of victory had written to
Philip begging to be allowed to direct his conquering fleet against England.
"Do not miss the opportunity, sire," he wrote, "and believe me I have the
will to make you king of that country and others besides." The grand old
sailor made light of the difficulties, and besought the King to let him go and
conquer England in the name of God and Spain. But Philip was not ready
for that yet, and the idea was only now being forced by events into his slow
mind that perhaps he might be obliged, after all, to claim England for his
own, since the English Catholics were for ever saying they wanted no
French or Scotsmen; and not a single English pretender was otherwise than
Protestant. So Santa Cruz was told that the King would consider the matter,
and in the meanwhile provide for eventualities by ordering large supplies of
biscuits, and by gradually sending men to Flanders. At the same time he
wrote to his ambassador in Paris, telling him in confidence that he intended
in due time to invade England from Flanders, but no one was to learn this
until the preparations had advanced too far to be concealed; "and even then
they (the French) must be told in such terms as may not make them suspect
an intention of excluding the French from the enterprise."

But what is of more importance still, Philip gave directions in the same
letter to Tassis in November, 1583, that his own claim to the English crown
as a descendant of Edward III. should be cautiously broached. If England
was to remain in close alliance with Spain, it is difficult to see what other
course Philip could have taken. James as a successor to his mother was now
out of the question, so far as Spanish interests were concerned, for he was
playing false all round. No sooner did the Scots Catholics gain the upper
hand than he intrigued with Elizabeth and the Protestants for their
overthrow, and immediately the English and Protestant faction became
paramount he wrote beseeching letters for aid to Guise and the Pope. All
this, of course, Philip knew, for he knew everything, and although he
intended to put Mary Stuart on the throne, from this time he was determined
that her son should not succeed her.
 The discovery of the Throgmorton plot and Guise's wild plans in
connection therewith threw the whole project into the background for a time,
and confirmed stealthy Philip in the idea that in future he must manage
matters himself. When Tassis, his ambassador in Paris, was withdrawn from
his post, in the spring of 1584, he wrote an important memorandum to his
master setting forth at length the arguments on both sides for and against a
landing in England or Scotland, by which it is clear that the English and
Scottish Catholic factions in France were now bitterly at issue on the
subject. As the English plan had gained ground, James had once more
considered it advisable to feign a desire to become a Catholic; and Guise
had again urged the adoption of the plan of a landing in Scotland, with the
invasion of England over the Scots border, James himself being the
figurehead. Tassis says that such is the jealousy of the Scots in England that
if an army crossed the Border the English Catholics themselves might resist
it. "The English," he says, "would not like to be dominated by Scotsmen,
and if the crown of Scotland is to be joined to theirs, they still wish to be
cocks-of-the-walk, as their kingdom is the larger and more important one.
On the other hand the Scots may be unduly inflated with the opposite idea,
so that imperfections may exist on both sides." As Mary Stuart had drawn
closer to Spain she had grown distrustful of Beaton and Tassis, whom she
considered too much wedded to French ideas; but withal Tassis in this
document very emphatically leans to the English view, which he knew was
that now held by his master. The full plan for a great armada was evidently
slowly germinating in Philip's mind, but the vast expense had first to be
provided for. When Guise's envoy, Melino, had gone on his meddling
mission to the Pope his Holiness had offered to subsidise the expedition to a
moderate amount, and in answer to the second appeal from James VI.
himself he had said that he would stand by his previous promise. But this
did not suit Philip, and he let the Pope know promptly that he was willing to
undertake the great task for the glory of God and the advance of the Church,
but that the Pope must subscribe very largely indeed, "and must find ways
and means through his holy zeal to do much more than has yet been
imagined." He was also warned that Guise ought not to be allowed to leave
France, where he might serve the Catholic cause so much more effectively
than elsewhere. And so Guise and the Scotsmen are pushed further and
further into the background, Philip's aim being evidently to raise civil
commotion in France, which was always easy enough to do, and so to
paralyse Henry III. and the Huguenots from helping Elizabeth, whilst Guise
would be powerless to promote the interest in England of his kinsman
James.

When it became apparent that the Pope was to have a large share in the
business the intrigue was transferred from Paris to Rome. Sixtus himself was
wise, frugal, and moderate, and had no great desire to serve Philip's political
aims, but only to signalise his own pontificate by the restoration of England
to the Church; but he was surrounded by cardinals who represented the
different interests. Medici, D'Este, Gonzaga, Rusticucci, Santorio, and others
represented the French view, which was in favour of an arrangement with
Elizabeth and James, and desired to exclude Spanish influence from
England. Sanzio watched Guise's interests, whilst the Secretary of State
Caraffa, Sirleto, Como, Allen, and the Spanish ambassador, Olivares,
craftily forwarded Philip's wishes, the Pope himself being carefully kept in
the dark as to the ultimate object in view. The cause of religion was invoked
all through as being Philip's only motive; inconvenient points were left
indefinite, with the certainty that Caraffa would interpret them favourably to
Spanish designs; and by the most extraordinary cajolery the Pope was
induced to promise a million gold crowns to the enterprise. He was not
brought to this without much haggling and misgiving on his part, and was
very cautiously treated with regard to Philip's intention to claim the English
crown. "His Holiness," writes Olivares, "is quite convinced that your
Majesty is not thinking of the crown of England for yourself, and told
Cardinal D'Este so. I did not say anything to the contrary. He is very far
from thinking your Majesty has any such views, and when the matter is
broached to him he will be much surprised. However deeply he is pledged to
abide by your Majesty's opinion, I quite expect he will raise some
difficulty." Philip's constant orders were that the Pope should be plied with
arguments as to the inadvisibility of the heretic James being allowed to
succeed, and the need for choosing some good Catholic to succeed Mary.
The person that Philip had decided to make sovereign of England was his
favourite daughter, Isabel Clara Eugenia, but this was not to be mentioned to
the Pope. "But if at any time the Pope moved by his zeal should talk about
any other successor, you will remind him, before he gets wedded to his new
idea, that he is pledged to agree to my choice in the matter."
 In the meanwhile Allen, Persons, and the other English Catholics, were
ceaseless in their steady propagation of the idea of Philip's own right to the
crown, in consequence of the heresy of James, and the same view was
forced upon Mary Stuart by Mendoza and her English confidants in Paris,
all of whom were pensioners of Spain. At length Mary was convinced, and
wrote to Mendoza at the end of June, 1586, saying she had disinherited her
son in favour of Philip.

The full plan of the Armada had now assumed definite form. The King
was in possession of Santa Cruz's marvellously complete estimate of cost
and requirements of all sorts—a perfect monument of technical knowledge
and forethought; the Pope was pledged to find about a third of the necessary
funds, and to leave Philip a free hand with regard to the English succession
and the time for the carrying out of the enterprise; whilst Philip's position
with regard to his claim to the English crown was regularised by Mary's will
in his favour.

Guise, Beaton, and the Scots had thus been routed all along the line, but
it was not to be supposed that they would accept their defeat without a
struggle. Their next move was within an ace of being successful, and nearly
changed the whole plan of the Armada. In July, 1586, Guise wrote to
Mendoza that a plan he had long been concocting had at last been brought to
a head, and Beaton was commissioned to tell Mendoza what the scheme
was. A Scottish gentleman named Robert Bruce had been sent to France
with three blank sheets, signed respectively by Lords Huntly, Morton, and
Claude Hamilton, which Guise was to fill up over the signatures with letters
to Philip, appealing to him to aid the Scots Catholics. They asked for 6,000
foreign troops for one year and 150,000 crowns to equip their own men, and
in return promised to restore Catholicism, release James and his mother,
compel the former to become a Catholic, and, most tempting of all, to
deliver to Philip one or two good ports near the English Border to be used
against the Queen of England. Bruce went to Madrid to lay the Scots' appeal
before the King, but when he arrived the failure of the Babington plot and
the collapse of the Catholic party in England was known to Philip, and he
had lost hope of effecting the "enterprise" except with overwhelming forces
of his own. He did not wish, moreover, for Guise's interference, and was
coolly sympathetic and no more. And yet, in the face of Santa Cruz's advice
that he should secure some ports of refuge for the Armada in the North Sea,
the offer of the Scots lords to give him two good Scotch harbours was one
not to be lightly refused, so whilst he sent Bruce back with vague promises,
he instructed Parma and Mendoza to report fully on the scheme. Parma was
cold and irresponsive. He would give no decided opinion until he knew what
Philip's intentions were. He was apparently jealous that he was not taken
fully into his uncle's confidence, and perhaps angry that his son's claims to
the English crown, which were better than those of Philip and his daughter,
were being ignored. But Mendoza, an old soldier, the last pupil of Alba, as
he called himself, was indignant at Parma's doubts, and wrote to Philip an
extremely able paper strongly advising the invasion of England through
Scotland, instead of risking everything in a vast fleet, to which one disaster
would cripple Spain for ever. In prophetic words he foretold the possibility
of the very catastrophe which subsequently happened, and prayed Philip, ere
it was too late, to close with the Scots lords' offer. But Philip and Parma
were slow and wanted all sorts of assurances; so Bruce was kept in France
and Flanders for many months, whilst his principals lost hope and heart. At
last, when they were on the point of going over to the Protestant side, on a
promise of toleration for their religion, Bruce was tardily sent back with
10,000 crowns to freight a number of small boats at Leith to send over to
Dunkirk for Parma's troops, and the 150,000 crowns demanded by the lords
were promised when they rose.

During all this time the juggle in Rome was going on. Gradually Sixtus
was familiarised with the idea that Philip could not go to war for the sake of
putting heretic James on the throne; then Allen took care that he saw the
genealogical tree showing Philip's claim, and at last, in the summer of 1587,
it was cautiously hinted to him that, though Philip would not add England to
his dominions, he might perhaps appoint his daughter to the throne. Sanzio,
Mendovi and the French cardinals were straining every nerve to persuade
the Pope that the King of Scots might be converted, and the Capuchin monk
Bishop of Dunblane, amongst others, went to Scotland for the purpose of
forwarding this view.

The result of Bruce's appeal at Madrid was concealed from Guise, but of
course he learnt it indirectly, and was greatly indignant at his exclusion from
a project of which he was the originator. It was really no secret, however, for
in July, 1587, Father Creighton, sent by Guise, arrived in Rome full of it; he,
like other Scotsmen, being in favour of James' conversion and his
acceptance by Spain as King of England. But Allen, Persons, and the rest of
them, soon silenced Creighton, with threats, cajolery, and money.

When Catharine de Medici got wind of the business she seems to have
thought it a good opportunity for getting rid of Guise and checkmating
Philip at the same time, and urged him (Guise) to go himself to aid his
kinsman James to the crown, in which case she would largely subsidise him;
and Guise himself was so incensed at the way Philip had treated him that he
threatened to divulge the whole of Bruce's plot to James, and very probably
did so. Elizabeth, too, sent young Gary to warn James of what was going on,
so that when Bruce arrived in Scotland the King was fully prepared for him;
and although he appeared to acquiesce in the hint from Bruce that the
Spaniards would aid him to avenge his mother, he was now surrounded by
ministers favourable to the Protestant interest, who saw that James had more
to hope for from Elizabeth than from Philip, and the matter was deferred
indefinitely. It was late in autumn when Bruce arrived in Scotland, too late
in the season to freight ships, and he suggested that in the following summer
ships for the transport of Parma's 6,000 men to Leith should be freighted in
Flanders. This was impossible—in fact, the long delay whilst Philip and
Parma were hesitating had ruined the project, which was now public and
consequently impracticable, though Bruce and the Scottish lords continued
to clamour for Spanish men and money until the Armada appeared. And so
again Philip's want of promptness lost this chance, which might have saved
the Armada.

By this time, late in the year 1587, the final plan of the Armada had been
settled. Parma had received his full instructions from Philip some months
before; all Spain and Catholic Christendom were ringing with preparations
for the fray, and the great fleet—or what Drake had left intact of it on his
summer trip to Cadiz—was mustering at Lisbon under gallant old Santa
Cruz, who was already dying broken-hearted at the neglect of his wise
precautions, at the confusion, waste, and ineptitude which foreboded the
crowning disaster.

With the subsequent mishaps and catastrophe this study is not concerned.
My object has been to show how circumstances drove Philip to adopt the
course he did, both with regard to the invasion itself and his claim to the
English crown; and to demonstrate that the ostensible prime object of the
Armada, the conversion of England to Catholicism, although undoubtedly
desired by Philip, was mainly used as a means to his real end—namely, a
close political alliance with England, without which Spain was inevitably
doomed to the impotence which eventually fell upon her.

Tailpiece

A FIGHT AGAINST FINERY.

 Headpiece

A FIGHT AGAINST FINERY.

(A HISTORY OF THE SUMPTUARY LAWS IN SPAIN.)

It is a curious reflection that whilst all the serious acts and surroundings
of civilised life have been rendered amenable to the law, whilst the very
instincts inherent in the nature of mankind have been dominated and
regulated by authority, utter failure has attended the persistent efforts of
rulers to cope with the trivial follies of fashion, or to limit the vanity and
extravagance of personal adornment. For long ages men, and particularly
women, have insisted upon making themselves absurd and uncomfortable, at
great cost and in an infinite variety of ways, in obedience to dictates or
impulses springing from nobody knows where, and have only consented to
forego each succeeding caprice when the taste for it has worn itself out and
has given place to another, perhaps still more preposterous than its
predecessor.

It has been from no fault of the rulers that they have been beaten in their
fight with fashion, for they have tried their hardest for centuries. Our
Plantagenet and Tudor sovereigns made many attempts to regulate the dress
and adornment of their subjects, but the motive which mainly prompted
them was the desire to differentiate the classes and prevent the humbler
citizens from emulating, in appearance at least, their social superiors. In a
state of society which depended upon the subjection of the majority by the
privileged classes, this motive was perfectly reasonable; as was also the
alternative one of protecting a particular national industry, which, in Tudor
times especially, often furnished a reason for the imposition of sumptuary
enactments; but both of these motives, from their very nature, were
necessarily more or less ephemeral and artificial, because, on the one hand,
the continual social development, the growing wealth of the traders and the
emancipation of the labourers made the classes interdependent; and, on the
other, the extended seaboard of England and the maritime enterprise of the
inhabitants made the protection of a particular industry by prohibiting
foreign competition impossible for any great length of time. The attempted
interference, therefore, of English sovereigns with the dress of their lieges
was intermittent and spasmodic, and was, at a comparatively early period,
admitted to be useless.

Such, however, from various reasons was not the case in Spain. There the
fight against finery was kept up persistently for nearly six centuries, and
hardly a decade passed during that time without one or more petty and
ridiculous attempts being made to interfere with the dress, food, personal
habits, and surroundings of the people. The ostensible motives were usually
different from those which operated in England. The separation of the
classes has never been so complete in Spain as elsewhere in Europe, owing
to the fact that from a very early period in the history of the country all
Christians were banded together and dependent upon one another for
protection against the common enemy, the infidel. Manual industry,
moreover, was never a strong point with Spanish Christians, and the main
reason for the various attempts to exclude foreign goods was the dread that
Spanish gold would be sent out to pay for them. Nothing is more striking,
indeed, than the absolutely murderous effect upon Spanish industry exerted
by most of the paternal attempts at interference with trade, but political
economy was even more of a dead letter amongst that nation of warriors
than with our own ancestors. The earliest object of the great mass of
sumptuary laws in Spain was to restrict the dreaded taste for luxury and
splendour which was felt to be a characteristic of the hated Moor, who had
been conquered bit by bit by people who were content to live roughly, feed
frugally, and dress plainly. But with victory came wealth, with peace came
intermixture, and the subtle, refined, Oriental blood, with its love of pomp
and brilliancy, gradually permeated the rough Gothic-Iberians, until its
manifestations alarmed rulers whose power still largely depended upon the
self-sacrificing frugality and hardy endurance of their subjects. Thus it was
that the attempt was made to keep people frugal and homely whilst they
were growing rich, and the tendency continued during all the centuries that
the struggle against Spanish luxury went on, although during the last three
centuries of the period the original motive had disappeared, and the usual
excuse for the interference of the King with the dress of his subjects was the
desire to prevent them from spending so much money upon themselves, in
order that they might spend more upon him.

But, whatever the motives may have been, the fight against extravagance
was carried on as persistently as fruitlessly until quite recent times, and there
exists a mass of information with regard to the dress and manners of the
people in the Spanish sumptuary enactments unequalled elsewhere. The
decrees usually took the form of a representation from the Cortes to the
sovereign, setting forth in a preamble the particular abuses to be remedied,
and then proposing a remedy which the sovereign usually confirmed by
what was called his "pragmatic sanction," and the decree was then
proclaimed and had the force of law. A large number of these decrees or
"pragmatics" of the highest interest will be found in the British Museum
manuscripts (MSS. Add. 9933 and 9934), and many more are set forth in
Sempere's "Historia de las leyes suntuarias" (Madrid, 1788), whilst the
familiar and festive traditions of old Madrid teem with quaint stories of
ingenious evasions and jovial defiance of the laws under the very noses of
the sable-clad Acaldes and Alguaciles, whose grave and solemn duty it was
to clip lovelocks and measure frills and furbelows.

The first vicious extravagance which seizes upon a hardy, simple people
who find themselves safe after a period of struggle is naturally that of
gluttony; and the earliest sumptuary decrees of the Castilian kings were
directed against this particular excess.

In point of date the first decree extant in Spain of a sumptuary character

was that issued by Don Jaime (El Conquistador) of Aragon in 1234. He was
extremely devout and ascetic himself, and was shocked at the growing
extravagance of his subjects, who having in his remote mountain kingdom
finally expelled the Moors, turned their attention to tourneys, shows, and
mimic warfare, at which great sums were spent both in feasting and
adornment. The Jews too, who at the time nearly monopolised Spanish
trade, encouraged the growing taste for the fine stuffs and precious
ornaments, from the sale of which they derived so large a profit. So in 1234
Don Jaime decreed from his capital of Zaragoza that no subject of his should
sit down to a meal of more than one dish of stewed, and one of roast meat,
unless it were dried and salted. As much game as they pleased might be
eaten, on condition that it had been hunted by the eater, but otherwise only
one dish of game might be served. No jongleur or minstrel might eat with
ladies and gentlemen, and no striped or bordered stuffs were to be worn.
Gold and silver, as well as tinsel, were prohibited, and ermine and other furs
were only to be used as a trimming to hoods and hanging sleeves. Jaime
since his childhood had been trying to crush the rising power of his feudal
nobles, and had already embarked on that long career of conquest by which
he subdued the Moorish kingdoms of Majorca and Valencia, so that,
although he himself was now safe in his mountain realm from invasion, his
decree was as much prompted by his dread of the softening effect of luxury
upon his subjects as by his own rough, simple tastes.

His kinsman of Castile was in worse case, for his dominions were more
open to the Moor. Saint Ferdinand conquered the splendid Moorish city of
Seville in 1248, where he died four years later, leaving his son, Alonso the
Wise, to succeed him as King of Castile. Oriental luxury surrounded the
frugal Castilians on all hands. The wealth of plundered cities, the spoils of
Moslem palaces were to be had for the grasping, so that it was natural that
extravagance in attire and eating should soon threaten to soften the Christian
conquerors dwelling in the midst of the gentler, vanquished Moor. Alonso
the Wise, in 1256, therefore issued in Seville his first great sumptuary
enactment. By it no saddles were allowed to be covered or trimmed with
plush. No gold or silver tinsel was to adorn them, excepting as a border of
three inches wide, the saddle itself being of uncovered leather. Gold and
silver might be used on caps, girdles, quilted doublets, saddle-cloths or
table-covers, but not for draping shields or cuirasses. No jingling bells were
to be used as trimmings, except on the saddle-cloths at the cane-throwing
tourneys, but even then no device was to be embroidered on the cloths.
Bosses upon the shields were not to be allowed, but the latter might be
adorned with a painted or gilded-copper device. No milled cloth was to be
worn, nor were the garments to be cut and pinked in fanciful shapes, or
trimmed with ribbons or silk cords; the penalty for infringing any of these
regulations being the loss of one or both thumbs by the offender, which of
course meant his disgrace and ruin in the career of arms. Women were
allowed a little more latitude, but not much. They might wear ermine and
otter fur to any extent, but they were forbidden to adorn their girdles with
beads or seed-pearls, or to border their kirtles or wimples with gold or silver
thread, or to wear them of any other colour than white.

With regard to eating, Alonso the Wise held similar notions to those of
his neighbour Don Jaime, and ordered that his lieges should not have upon
their tables more than two dishes of meat and one of bought game, and on
fast days not more than two kinds of fish. As if recognising the difficulty of
enforcing this, the King solemnly undertook to comply with his own
regulations. Great extravagance had arisen in wedding feasts, which were
said (as in Oriental countries they do to-day) to often ruin the contracting
families, and Alonso made strict rules to limit the excess in this direction.
No presents of breeches were to be given, and the entire cost of a wedding
outfit was not to exceed 60 maravedis, whilst not more than five men and as
many women might be invited to the wedding banquet by each of the
contracting parties. The money spent upon marriage rejoicings, indeed, had
become so great that Alonso made this reform a great point in his decree,
and provided against evasion by strictly limiting the time during which the
feast might continue and wedding presents be given. Moors were said to be
dressing like Christians, and this was rigidly forbidden. They were to wear
no red or green clothes, and no white or gold shoes, and their hair was to be
parted plainly in the middle of the head, with no topknot, whilst they were
enjoined to wear their full beard, which made the distinction between them
and the shaven-chinned Christians the more marked. The penalties imposed
for disobeying this decree of 1256 were savage in the extreme, varying from
loss of a thumb and a fine for the first offence, to death for the third; but
savage as they were, they can hardly have been effectual, except perhaps in
Seville, for only two years later, in 1258, Alonso came out with a perfect
code of conduct for his subjects, far too minute to even summarise here, but
of which some specimens may be given, as they served as a model for
subsequent decrees for many years afterwards. Alonso had apparently got
tired of his self-denying ordinance and says the King may eat and dress as
he pleases, but agrees to limit his daily table expenditure to 150 maravedis a
day, which in spending power would represent about £40 at the present time
at least. But he orders his "ricoshomes," ruling men, to eat more sparingly
and to spend less money. None of the members of the royal household,
squires, scribes, falconers, or porters, except the head of each department,
were allowed to wear white fur or trimmings, or to use gilt or plated saddles
or spurs. They were forbidden to indulge in breeches of scarlet cloth, gilt
shoes, and hats of gold or silver tissue. Priests, it appears, had been reducing
the size of their tonsures and ruffling in fine colours, so as to be
undistinguishable from laymen, and they are sternly ordered to have their
tonsures the full size of their heads, gird themselves with a rope, and eschew
red, green, and pink garments. The old regulations about eating were
repeated with the addition of one plate of meat for supper, and the
prohibition of fish on meat days. No man, however rich, was to buy more
than four suits of clothes in a year, and no ermine, silk, gold or silver tissue,
no slashes, trimmings, or pinked cloth might be worn by men. Two fur
mantles in a year, and one rain-cape in two years was the limit of
extravagance allowed to a man in this direction; and the King alone was to
wear a red rain-cape. Lawn and silk for outer garments were confined to
royalty, but the "ricoshomes" might employ them as linings. No crystal or
silver buttons were to be allowed, nor was shaving or other signs of
mourning permitted, except to vassals who had lost their overlord and to
widows. Jews and Moors are cruelly treated in this decree, and their
offences and those of the poorer classes are to be punished by torture or
death, whilst those of the "ricoshomes" are left to the King's discretion.
Ermine, vair, and otter furs would appear to have been amongst the principal
articles of luxury, as the wearing of them is very strictly regulated, and white
furs seem to come next in estimation after them.

For ninety years these laws of Alonso the Wise were repeated and
reimposed with slight variations, but apparently ineffectually; since in 1348
the Cortes of Alcalá made a presentment to Alonso XI. of Castile bewailing
the luxury and extravagance of the age, and proposing a new code of
sumptuary rules, which in due course the King confirmed. These rules are
very interesting because they demonstrate the great strides which had been
made in luxury, refinement, and civilisation since the issue of the decrees of
Alonso the Wise nearly a century before. No gold ornaments, no ermine or
grebe-neck trimmings, no seed-pearl embroidery, gold or silver buttons or
wire, and no enamels were to be worn except by nobles. No gold tissue or
silk was allowed except for linings, and no man below the rank of a knight
might wear vair fur or gilt shoes. Even the princes of the blood were strictly
limited in their dress, and were ordered to use tapestry cloth or silk, but
without gold or trimming of any sort. The Spartan wedding regulations of
Alonso the Wise had now become obsolete with the advance of wealth, but
the new rules, although wider, were to be enforced with equal or greater
severity. No gentleman was to give his bride within four months after
marriage more than three suits of clothes, one of which might be of gold
tissue, and one embroidered with seed-pearls to the value of 4,000
maravedis, an enormous sum when we consider that ninety years before 150
maravedis were the limit of the monarch's daily expenditure, and that at this
date, 1348, the value of a sheep was only eight maravedis. The bride's
trousseau is regulated down to the smallest details, and the penalty for
exceeding them is the loss of one-quarter of his land by the too-generous
gentleman who does so. The decree sets forth that some women are wearing
trains, "which are both costly and useless," but in future they are to be
confined to those ladies who are travelling in a litter—a privilege limited to
nobles. All other women are to wear pelisses without trains, just reaching the
ground, "or at least not to drag more than two inches upon it." Ladies who
broke this rule were to be fined 500 maravedis. Great stress is again laid
upon the limitation of extravagance in wedding feasts, and burials, but the
cost still allowed shows to what an excess luxury had been carried. The
bride's wedding clothes might cost 4,000 maravedis and the groom's outfit
2,000; and thirty-two people were now allowed at the wedding feast. Much
more latitude was permitted in the use of seed-pearls, gold, and silver, to
people above the rank of knights, but the principal point to be noted in these
decrees of Alonso XI. is the incidence of the penalty. In the decrees of
Alonso the Wise, as has been shown, the most savage penalties were
imposed upon the poorer classes, whilst the punishment of the nobles was
left to the King's discretion. But much more even justice is dealt out by
Alonso XI. The nobles who break the law are to lose one-quarter of their
land, the knights one-third, the citizens 500 maravedis, whilst the poorer
classes for slight offences against the sumptuary rules are condemned to lose
the offending garment and its cost in money.

But whatever the penalty might be, extravagance, checked in one

direction, broke out in another, and Peter the Cruel, the son of Alfonso XI.,
only a few years after the date of the decree just mentioned, issued a
complete sumptuary code in which the punishments were positively
ferocious. Fines, scourging, mutilation, and banishment for first and second
offences, and death for the third, were imposed for the smallest infraction.
Peter was particularly hard on priests, who were said to be swaggering about
with women, tricked out in gay finery, and they were ordered in future to be
sober and frugal, wearing no ornaments of any kind, and only sad-coloured
garb. Workmen, too, were to labour from sunrise to sunset for a fixed wage
on pain of punishment as severe as those imposed by our own labour laws.
The King, moreover, fixed stringently the cost which was to be incurred by
cities and towns in entertaining him when he visited them. The dietary scale
appears a pretty generous one from the point of view of to-day, consisting as
it does of 45 sheep at 8 maravedis each, 22 dozen of dry fish at 12
maravedis a dozen, 90 maravedis worth of fresh fish, with pork, grain, wine,
&c.; the total value of the feast being limited to 1,850 maravedis. Villages
and nobles were not to spend more than 800 maravedis on a similar
occasion.

In 1384 Peter the Cruel's nephew, John I. of Castile, was well beaten by
the Portuguese at the battle of Aljubarrota, and marked his sorrow by issuing
a decree prohibiting the use in any form of dress of silk, gold, silver, seed-
pearls, precious stones, or ornaments of any kind, and everybody was
ordered to don a simple mourning garb. When, four years after this, John of
Gaunt's daughter Catharine came to marry the heir to the crown of Castile,
she brought something else with her besides the wide, pointed coif which
Spanish widows wore for the next three hundred years. Part of her dower
consisted of great herds of merino sheep, which crossed and thrived so well
in Spain that the coarse duffel, which had been the only native cloth, gave
place in a few years to beautiful fine woollen textures which could vie with
those of England and Flanders.

Intercourse between nations, the growth of wealth, the spread of learning,

and the advance of civilisation were moving with giant strides. The soft arts
of peace were practised with greater success than ever, now that the Moslem
and the Christian were fast merging into one people in Seville and Toledo,
and the refinement of the one was strengthened by the energy of the other.
Beautiful stuffs, stiff with gold and gems, gauzy silk, soft cloths, and fine
linens, had no longer to be brought from the Moors or the kingdoms across
the sea. Seville, Toledo, and Cordova could produce everything that the
most luxurious extravagance could desire, and the sumptuary laws for a time
were forgotten.

In 1452 the Cortes of Palenzuela presented a petition to John II. asking

that the stringent sumptuary code of Alonso XI. should be re-enforced. The
King, in reply, admitted that the law was a dead letter, and that the
extravagance in dress was greater than ever. He says that gold tissue and
silks are now ordinary wear, and that gold trimmings and marten-fur linings
are used even by people of low estate. "Actually working women," he says,
"now wear clothes that are only fit for fine ladies; and people of all ranks
sell everything they possess in order to adorn their persons." Still the remedy
proposed to him of a revival of the stern code of a hundred years before he
saw was an impossible one, and the matter was held in suspense. He died
soon afterwards, and his feeble successor, Henry IV., was equally powerless
to stem the rising tide of industry and wealth with their natural
consequences.

In 1469, during the interregnum which followed the deposition of Henry,

the Master of Santiago issued a proclamation deploring the growing
extravagance of the age, and enjoining more moderation. Amongst other
similar things it says, "Such is the pomp and vanity now general, even
amongst labourers and poor people in their dress and that of their wives, that
in appearance they seek to vie with persons of rank, whereby they not only
squander their own estates but bring great poverty and want to all classes."
But it was useless: and luxury went unchecked until Ferdinand and Isabel
the Catholic were firmly seated on the twin throne of a united Spain and the
last Moslem stronghold had fallen. Then, in 1495, a "pragmatic" was issued
which superseded all previous obsolete sumptuary codes and established a
new one, which formed the model for similar decrees for the next two
centuries. Probably a more economically unwise decree under the
circumstances was never penned. All other previous pragmatics had
forbidden the wearing of extravagant apparel, and this did the same,
especially severely as regarded the precious metals; but it did more than this.
It absolutely forbade the introduction and sale of every sort of gold and
silver tissue, and rendered criminal the exercise in Spain of the industry of
embroidering or weaving gold, silver, and every other metal. The
Christianised populations of the south of Spain were greatly excelling
already in this industry. Their gold embroideries on velvet were in great
demand for church vestments and royal trappings all over Europe. The taste
for chivalrous splendour was not confined to Spain, and the beautiful half-
Oriental tissues of Andalusia were eagerly sought for in every Court; gold
was just beginning to find its way direct to Spain from the new-found Indies,
and if the industry had remained untrammelled there was no reason why the
country should not have provided the world with textile splendours to its
own great advantage. The ingenious, industrious people—for they were
industrious until the strangling of their handicrafts made them idle—did
their best to avert ruin. In 1498, only three years afterwards, the Cortes made
a presentment to the Queen saying that things were worse than ever. It was
true that gold brocade was no longer made and the wicked waste of the
precious metal was thus avoided, but all sorts of strange devices and
novelties were being introduced in the manufacture of silks, whereby the
people were tempted to squander their money on useless finery. The Spanish
silk factories were then the finest in Europe, and great quantities of raw silk
were raised in the south-east of the Peninsula: and yet a "pragmatic" was
issued the next year, 1499, stringently forbidding the manufacture, sale, or
use of silk, except for lining. It was a staggering blow to a flourishing
industry, and in order to prevent total ruin a decree was given that no raw
silk from abroad was to be introduced into the country, and only Spanish-
grown silk used. But this was not enough, and some of the silk-making
provinces, reduced to desperation, petitioned for the relaxation of the law.
Their prayer was granted, as if in irony, to the extent of allowing them to
wear silk against the law. But they did not want to wear silk, but to make it
for other people to wear, and their industry languished, never entirely to
recover.

By the time Isabel the Catholic had died the Spanish silk industry was
nearly at an end, and the skittish young Bearnaise princess, Germaine de
Foix, who succeeded her as old Fernando's wife, came too late to do it much
good. It is true she snapped her slender fingers and threw up her pretty chin
at the straitlaced sumptuary laws, and surrounded herself with silks and
velvets, gold brocade and gems, wherever she went; but unfortunately they
mostly came from the looms and workshops of Southern France, and gave
no work to Spanish hands. Money, of course, had to be sent out of Spain to
pay for the finery, and in 1515 the Cortes of Burgos complained of this to
Jane the Mad, Isabel's nominal successor, who thereupon issued a decree
entirely forbidding brocades and gold or silver embroidery and trimmings to
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