approached her presence, and even in public she occasionally gave way to paroxysms of fury.[517] Suspicions of her husband's fidelity to his marriage vows now came to increase her misery. When she heard of Philip going on long hunting-parties with the Duchess of Lorraine, and dancing with her at masques, she was seized with transports of rage, and, rushing at the portrait of her husband which hung over her bed, was with difficulty restrained from cutting it to pieces.[518] [Sidenote: DEC., 1556] THE DUCHESS OF PARMA] Meanwhile a rival to Christina appeared at Court in the person of the King's half-sister Margaret, Duchess of Parma. This Princess, the illegitimate daughter of Charles V. and Margaret Van Gheynst, a beautiful maiden in the Countess Lalaing's service, was born at Oudenarde in 1522, and brought up under the eye of the Archduchess Margaret. At thirteen she was married to Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence, with whom she led a miserable life until this worthless Prince was murdered by his cousin in 1537. Her second union, with Ottavio Farnese, Pope Paul III.'s grandson, proved little happier. Ottavio was an intractable boy of thirteen when he married her in November, 1538, and the quarrels of the young couple fill pages of the Emperor's correspondence in the archives of Simancas. After the Duke's return from the expedition to Algiers, a reconciliation was effected, and Margaret bore a son, who became the famous captain Alexander of Parma. But the Farnese were always a thorn in the Emperor's side, and, by joining with his foes at a critical moment, involved him in the gravest disaster of his life. Now harmony was restored in the family circle, and when the war with Paul IV. broke out, Philip secured Ottavio's alliance by giving him the citadel of Piacenza. Margaret and her young son came to the Netherlands to pay their respects to the King and thank him for this mark of his favour. They arrived at Christmas, in the depths of the severest winter that had been known for many years. The Scheldt was frozen over at Antwerp, and the Court was busy with winter sports, in which Philip and Christina took an active part, playing games and sleighing in the park, and attending a masked ball given by Count Lalaing on the ice.[519]