John, of Austria, 1547-1578; Spain -- History -- Philip II, 1556-1598
It was in vain that, when the Prince was nineteen, D. Philip admitted
him to the Council of State (1564), and gave him a new household,
leaving Luis Quijada as Master of the Horse, but naming no less a person
than Ruy Gómez de Silva, Prince of Évoli, as Lord Steward, in the place
of D. Garcia de Toledo, lately dead.
All D. Carlos's household were the victims of his violence and abuse,
from Ruy Gómez, whom he continually threatened that, when he was King,
Ruy Gómez should know it, to the lowest barber, whom he beat with his
own hand for the least delay or mistake.
One day the King was consulting with his ministers about Flemish
affairs; the Prince, who was very curious about the subject, went to
listen at the door, with one ear at the keyhole, the Queen's ladies and
pages seeing him in this ignoble position from the gallery above. His
gentleman D. Diego de Acuña hearing of it, wanted to get him away, but
D. Carlos answered him by a slap in the face, which so enraged D. Diego
that it was with difficulty that he restrained the impulse of plunging a
dagger into the Prince's heart, and he went straight to the King and
resigned his appointment. D. Philip soothed his wounded feelings by
taking him into his own service, with doubled honours and salary.
D. Carlos insulted another of his gentlemen, D. Alonso de Córdoba, son
of the Marqués de las Navas, in the same way, slapping his face because
he did not hasten when D. Carlos called, saying that he had intended to
do it for six months, and it was fair that he should at last give vent
to his desire.
One day he waylaid Cardinal Espinosa, President of Castille (who had
exiled an actor named Cisnero, who was on intimate terms with D. Carlos,
from the Court), at the door of the Council Chamber, and rushed at him,
dagger in hand, and, pulling off his rochet, cried, "Little priest! You
dare to stop Cisnero coming to wait upon me? By the life of my father, I
must kill you." And so he would have done, had not some of the Grandees,
who hastened at the cries, released the Cardinal from him.
This insolence to great personages became monstrous cruelty to the lower
orders. In the Palace accounts, preserved in the Archives of Simancas,
one meets with entries of indemnification paid to the fathers of boys
caused to be beaten by D. Carlos. One day he wanted to throw his valet,
Juan Estévez de Lobon, out of a window into the castle moat, after
having beaten him, and he obliged a shoemaker, who had made him boots
that were too tight, to eat them cooked and cut up in small pieces.
Water fell on him one day from a window, and he at once sent a guard to
burn the house and kill the inhabitants, and, "to satisfy him," says
Cabrera de Córdoba, "the guard returned and said that the Holy Sacrament
of the Viaticum was entering the house, and for this they had respected
the walls."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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