Luc-Jean-Joseph Vandervynckt, to whom I have repeatedly had occasion to refer in the course of the preceding chapter, was a Fleming,--born at Ghent in 1691. He was educated to the law, became eminent in his profession, and at the age of thirty-eight was made a member of the council of Flanders. He employed his leisure in studying the historical antiquities of his own country. At the suggestion of Coblentz, prime minister of Maria Theresa, he compiled his work on the Troubles of the Netherlands. It was designed for the instruction of the younger branches of the imperial family, and six copies only of it were at first printed, in 1765. Since the author's death, which took place in 1779, when he had reached the great age of eighty-eight, the work has been repeatedly published. As Vandervynckt had the national archives thrown open to his inspection, he had access to the most authentic sources of information. He was a man of science and discernment, fair-minded, and temperate in his opinions, which gives value to a book that contains, moreover, much interesting anecdote, not elsewhere to be found. The work, though making only four volumes, covers a large space of historical ground,--from the marriage of Philip the Fair, in 1495, to the peace of Westphalia, in 1648. Its literary execution is by no means equal to its other merits. The work is written in French; but Vandervynckt, unfortunately, while he both wrote and spoke Flemish, and even Latin, with facility, was but indifferently acquainted with French. CHAPTER III. PROTESTANTISM IN SPAIN. Philip's Arrival in Spain.--The Reformed Doctrines.--Their Suppression.--Autos da Fé.--Prosecution of Carranza.--Extinction of Heresy.--Fanaticism of the Spaniards. 1559. The voyage of King Philip was a short and prosperous one. On the twenty-ninth of August, 1559, he arrived off the port of Laredo. But while he was in sight of land, the weather, which had been so propitious, suddenly changed. A furious tempest arose, which scattered his little navy. Nine of the vessels foundered, and though the monarch had the good fortune, under the care of an experienced pilot, to make his escape in a boat, and reach the shore in safety, he had the mortification to see the ship which had borne him go down with the rest, and with her the inestimable cargo he had brought from the Low Countries. It consisted of curious furniture, tapestries, gems, pieces of sculpture, and paintings,--the rich productions of Flemish and Italian art, which his father, the emperor, had been employed many years of his life in collecting. Truly was it said of Charles, that "he had sacked the land only to feed the ocean."[432] To add to the calamity, more than a thousand persons perished in this shipwreck.[433]