The secret history of the court of Spain during the last centuryChallice, Rachel
History
The secret history of the court of Spain during the last century
Challice, Rachel
Spain -- Court and courtiers; Spain -- History -- Bourbons, 1700-
Charles had passed the twenty years of his reign in a self-indulgent,
simple life, and although he did nothing to show great devotion to
his kingdom, he certainly of his own accord would have done nothing
to disturb its peace. The Count of Toreno repeats the account which
Charles gave of his daily routine to the Emperor:
“Every day, winter and summer, I hunt till twelve o’clock, when I dine.
Directly afterwards I hunt again till evening. Manuel tells me how
things are going on, and I go to bed, to begin the same life next day,
unless there is some important ceremony.”
With a Sovereign so inert, Godoy did not demur on signing the deed of
renunciation of the throne, and as Escoiquiz sanctioned the deed, it
shows that he also felt that Ferdinand was but a broken reed.
After the humiliating events of Bayonne, the poor Queen of Etruria
sought to return to Etruria, but was detained at Nice. Miserable at
having been obliged to leave her young son ill at Compiègne, she tried
to escape to England, but, the plot being discovered, one of her
two agents was shot, the other died in prison, and she herself was
condemned to confinement in a convent at Rome; so she did not recover
her liberty nor see her child again until the fall of Napoleon. The
Queen’s claims on Etruria were subsequently nullified by the Congress
of Vienna, and she had to be contented with the nomination of her sons
to the dukedom of Lucca.
Although after the Treaty of Bayonne the city of Madrid was in the
hands of Napoleon Bonaparte, the palace could not count the Emperor as
one of the residents in the palace, for during his stay in the Spanish
capital he was installed in the mansion of the Duque del Infantado
at Chamartin, and it was from this house that he made his entry into
Madrid. “Je la tiens en fin cette Espagne si désirée,” said the French
conqueror as he passed up the magnificent staircase of the royal
palace, and placed his hand upon one of the lions on the balustrade;
then, as his eyes travelled up the matchless marbles and fine panels
and pictures of the staircase, he turned to his brother Joseph and
said: “Mon frère, vous serez mieux logé que moi.”
When passing through the magnificent apartments, he stopped before
a portrait of Philip II., and after gazing at it for some minutes in
silence turned away. Who knows what recollections may have passed
through the conqueror’s mind, of stories of this Sovereign read in
boyhood, and how little he had then thought that the throne of this
King would ever be at his disposal!
Thus ended the rapid and only visit of Napoleon to the Spanish capital,
for he went back to Chamartin, and from thence set out for Galicia.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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