The Year after the Armada, and Other Historical StudiesHume, Martin A. S. (Martin Andrew Sharp)
Philosophy
The Year after the Armada, and Other Historical Studies
Hume, Martin A. S. (Martin Andrew Sharp)
Armada, 1588; Europe -- History -- 1517-1648; Europe -- History -- 17th century
The pragmatics now, however, had altered their tone. They were
exhortatory rather than comminatory during the last years of the House
of Austria. A change came with the advent of the first Bourbon Philip
V. The Spaniards were sensitive, and resented the inferiority implied
by the adoption by the Court and society of the French fashions, high
heels, wide-skirted coats, full-bottomed wigs, and the rest; so the
mass of the people clung to their cropped back-hair, their
broad-brimmed hats, long cloaks, and above all their stately stiffened
"golillas." Philip was too wise to run atilt against the golilla at
first, and indeed adopted it himself, as may be seen in his portrait as
a youth in the Louvre. But he wrote an anonymous pamphlet against it,
and lost no opportunity of pointing out its unfitness for working
people and soldiers. Alberoni, with his caustic {256} Italian wit, was
for ever sneering at it, so that when Philip abandoned it and took to a
collar and white lace cravat public opinion was prepared for the change
and the golilla fell, after a reign of a hundred years.
When Philip was firm upon his throne after his long struggle, he issued
a pragmatic, in 1723, once more trying to stem the tide of
extravagance, precisely as if it had never been tried and failed
before. No gold or silver either in texture or trimming was to be
worn. No gold, glass, pearl, or steel buttons were to be allowed. No
precious stones, real or false, might be used in trimming or
fastenings, there were to be no foreign ornaments, and sham gems and
jewellery were strictly prohibited. No silk might be worn but such as
was of Spanish manufacture. Servants were to be clothed in plain cloth
and woollen stockings, and no person but a grandee was allowed to keep
more than two lackeys; and no silk was to be used on harness or the
outside of coaches. No person might drive more than four horses in the
capital, and no lawyer, notary, or tradesman was permitted to keep a
coach. Doctors and priests alone might ride a pacing mule, all other
men were bidden to mount horses only. Artisans and workmen were to
dress exclusively in baize, serge, or frieze; their cuffs alone might
be of silk. The pains and penalties in this great pragmatic were many
and severe, but the decree aimed at doing too much. So many fine and
delicate doubtful points arose with regard to its provisions, that for
years after fresh proclamations were constantly being made to elucidate
this pragmatic of 1723; and through the many loopholes offenders
escaped, and the act became a dead letter.
[Illustration: FRANCISCO DE QUEVEDO VILLEGAS _from the collection of
his Grace the Duke of Wellington._]
{257}
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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