Margaret of Austria had already been appointed by Maximilian as ruler of the Netherlands. In this position the new Emperor left her, showing therein great wisdom, as Margaret proved a popular ruler. On her death he appointed his widowed sister, Mary of Hungary, as her successor. Under the beneficent rule of these two Burgundian ladies, the industry of tapestry weaving flourished and reached its height. The Netherlands enjoyed a long term of peace and prosperity. Both Margaret of Austria and Mary of Hungary were enthusiastic patrons of the art, and many well-known series of tapestries were woven at their command. These pieces passed, almost without exception, into the hands of Charles V and Philip II on the death of their original owners. During the long and bitter struggle against the Catholic Philip, the industry, as was inevitable, languished and never again recovered its ancient vigour. It has been asserted that the Spanish kings used their power in the Netherlands to extort from the weavers the finest products of their looms by blackmail, or even torture. There seems to be little foundation, if any, for this charge. With one exception, where the origin of the tapestries is known, they were acquired by inheritance or purchase, or were made, as in the case of the _Conquest of Tunis_, directly to the royal command. Besides the tapestries dealt with in the following pages the Spanish royal collection contains an even greater number of pieces of less importance and artistic value, disposed upon the walls of the palace. These also are almost entirely of Flemish origin, except those which were the product, at a later date, of the Spanish looms established by the much persecuted Van der Goten. A large number of the tapestries here described were shown at the Paris Exhibition of 1900, when, for the first time, the world became aware of the artistic wealth so long hidden in the Royal Palace of Madrid. The accumulated treasures of the Spanish Court had remained for many years neglected and uncatalogued, their history and origin uncertain or unknown. It was King Alfonso XII who first conceived the idea of arranging the royal tapestries, studying their history, discovering, where possible, their designers and makers, and classifying them into groups and series, and making photographs of the whole collection. This work was subsequently completed by the late Queen Isabella of Spain. In 1903 an excellent series of photographic plates representing the finest of the tapestries was published in book form, accompanied by critical and historical notes from one of the finest art critics of Spain--the Count Valencia de Don Juan. It is to this learned and discerning writer that I am most indebted for the explanatory notes which accompany the reproductions included in this volume. The tapestries are, as far as possible, treated in groups connected by similarity of subject except where several pieces form a continuous series. CHAPTER III