for the invasion of the British Islands; and he now sanctioned an attempt in this direction, lending, at the same time, his countenance to the project of the marriage of Queen Mary to John of Austria. Elizabeth was believed by Philip to be the real mover and supporter of the insurrection in the Low Countries. It was therefore regarding her as a political enemy and not only as a heretic, that he began to entertain designs upon her power, of which the Invincible Armada was the great and final outcome.
The troubles of King Philip in his Netherland dominions may be said in brief to have sprung mainly from religious intolerance and from his having introduced the Inquisition into those provinces. He was ignorant of the people whose religion he sought to dictate to them. He knew not how to conciliate them. He seems, moreover, to have had but a sorry idea of how to override and crush them; for, want of despatch, a short supply of money, and scarcity of munitions of war, caused many of his tyrannical enterprises to miscarry. Though he studied the arts of dissimulation and of despotism, nothing could be more stupid in both these respects than his government of the Low Provinces. They were so well disposed to his house that he might have won them if he would but have treated them with some consideration; they had so small an idea of political freedom, and they had so many distractions among them, that he might have got them under his heel by force had he known how to bear them down with the military power which he undoubtedly possessed. In effect, he, by his imbecile course of feeble oppression, taught them in the course of his reign the aspirations of a free people.
He sometimes cajoled and deceived, he sometimes bullied. He tried to rule through Cardinal Granvelle, and he tried to rule through the Duke of Alva. All his attempts failed, as they could not but do, they were so ill executed, owing principally to his own shortcomings. Alva had been withdrawn after failure. Requesens, whom we saw as Don John's lieutenant at Lepanto, succeeded him, made one or two efforts in the field, and then died suddenly. The King's cause was already lost, and the King had not acquired one wise idea as to the reason of his failure, when he called on his brother to go and assume the viceroyalty.
Don John did not know that he was going to his detriment and his death when he set out for his new charge; but he knew much better than the King did how little chance he had of winning honour, and he went unwillingly. Perhaps the poor hope of Mary's crown, to be obtained through a Spanish invasion and an English rising of Catholics, was his secret encouragement to try his best. The King, somewhat alarmed at the critical state of things, would have had his new viceroy set off at once; but Don John, spite of positive orders to the contrary, went to Madrid before proceeding northward, to inform himself as accurately as possible of his brother's mind, and to press certain views of his own, which he regarded as of the first importance. His disobedience was not resented; he was allowed to stay a short time at Court; and he found an opportunity of paying a visit to Doña Magdalena, whom he saw for the last time.
He set off, as had been before determined, with a very small retinue. He himself travelled disguised as a Moorish slave. The
