The Story of Don John of Austria by Luis Coloma (e books for reading txt) 📖

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STATUE OF D. JOHN OF AUSTRIA

By Calamech at Messina

The captain acted as interpreter when they presented their credentials and said who they were and where they came from. They were ambassadors from Albania and Morea and were come to offer D. John of Austria the crown of those kingdoms oppressed by the Turk, and to offer him their allegiance at once in the name of the Albanian Christians. The old man lifted up his voice and talked very quietly and with courtly ease, laying great stress on the points which might decide D. John to accept the offer, and insisting over and over again that it was necessary to take advantage of the panic and despair that the terrible defeat of Lepanto had produced in Constantinople and throughout the Ottoman Empire.

D. John was not in the least disturbed by the unexpected proposal which had come so suddenly to realise the brilliant dreams of his school-days. To conquer a kingdom for Christ! Was not the dream of his youthful imagination intensified by the reading of romances at Alcalá, being realized? and the kingdom calling to him, opening its doors, and holding out its arms and offering sceptre and crown in exchange for the Christian faith in Albania and Morea being safeguarded by the conquering sword of Lepanto.

The temptation was great to a youth of twenty-four, greedy of glory and enthusiastic for his faith, spoiled by fortune and protected by the great power that the Court of Rome then was; but the knightly ambition of D. John, great and active as it was from his lineage and noble qualities, was always subordinate to the obedience and loyalty that he owed to Philip II as King and brother: so, without hesitating for a moment, he answered the ambassadors, thanking them and making much of the honour they were doing him, but frankly confessing that he could settle nothing which was not the will of the King his Lord and brother, who was the master of his person and all his actions. That he would communicate with him to gain his consent, and that time would show what best to do, and Our Lord would dispose as was best, as he (D. John) placed the business in His hands.

The ambassadors retired in good heart, much pleased with D. John, who at once sent a courier to Philip II telling him of the circumstance. He did not have to wait long for the answer: D. Philip neither accepted or refused the offer, which came at a bad time, he said, as his acceptance might displease the Venetians: however, he advised D. John to keep up the hopes of the ambassadors, as the opportunity might come for him to gain his desires: and he reiterated his orders "That D. John was not to stir from Messina."

Vander Hammen comments on this answer from the King and says, "D. Philip meant to fan his brother's hopes, so that, by them, he should obtain greater things from his service; but never to let him be King." And a celebrated modern historian, sometimes unjust to Philip, adds, "What was it that made Philip II act in this way, when previously he had shown his desire that D. John should hasten as quickly as possible on the enterprise, to gain all the fruits to be expected from a first victory? Was it only the difficulties that France was making about the war in Flanders? Or was it fear that his brother should set too much sail, and obtain one of the sovereignties, with which his friends and even the Pontiff himself seemed to kindle his youthful ambition?" To us it seems certain that Philip II did not wish D. John to rise above the sphere in which Philip had placed him. Philip had told his ministers in Italy to honour and serve the Lord D. John, but neither by word nor in writing to call him "Highness," that "Excellency" was the most they should call him, and Philip ordered them not to say that they had received this order from him. The ambassadors of Germany, France and England received the same instructions. And if he showed himself so jealous of the title of "Highness" being given to his brother, it is evident that he would do his utmost to prevent him being decorated with that of "Majesty."

But in our opinion it is not necessary to descend to such a base passion as envy to explain Philip II's conduct on this occasion. It was enough, and more than enough, that his brother's good or bad plans, lawful or unlawful ambitions, should hinder the progress of his complicated policy, for Philip II to bring the plans to naught and smother the ambitions without pity. If he had any jealousy of D. John at that time, it was without doubt owing to what the sly traitor Antonio Pérez was beginning cleverly to insinuate. He did not yet dare to attack the noble Prince openly, and confined his shots to the secretary Juan de Soto, accusing him of inflating D. John's vanity by his flattery and advising Philip to remove him from his brother's side.

On the 1st of May, 1572, Pius V died, and was succeeded in the Pontificate by Gregory XIII,[14] who no sooner sat in the Chair of St. Peter, than he began to stir up the League, and stimulate D. John, with what he called "Briefs of Fire," that he should take the fleet to sea and pursue his victories. Such were the confidence and estimation in which his person was held, that he publicly extolled him in the Consistory, calling him a Scipio for valour, a Pompey for charm, an Augustus for fortune; a new Moses, a new Gideon, a new Samson, a new Saul, and a new David without homicide or envy or the failings noted in the others. What was written privately to D. John was said and repeated three times publicly: that before he died, it was hoped, in God, to give him a king's crown.

And these three opposite influences embittered and shortened the remainder of the life of D. John of Austria; the determination of the Pontiff to give him a crown excited his always loyal, frank and noble ambition; D. Philip's systematic policy of opposing and defeating these plans, and the unbridled envy of Antonio Pérez, poisoning with his calumnies and falsehoods the suspicious nature of the Monarch and succeeding at last in making him detest his brother.

By one of its articles the Holy League insists that every year in the month of March, or in April at the latest, the squadrons of the three Powers should set out to sea, with an army at least equal to the one of 1571. But when Pius V died on the 1st of May, 1572, the Powers had not been able to agree about this second campaign, in spite of the superhuman efforts of the saintly old man. At last, in July, his successor, Gregory XIII, managed to get the matter settled, and in July, on the 6th, D. John of Austria left the port of Messina with Marco Antonio Colonna, to join the Venetian fleet which was cruising in the Levant at Corfu. Jacobo Foscarini commanded instead of old Sebastian Veniero, against whom D. John had made grave complaints before the Venetian Senate. The Duque de Sesa was D. John's lieutenant in the place of the Knight Commander D. Luis de Requesens who had been appointed Governor of Milan by Philip II. These were the only changes in the fleet.

"This expedition," says an historian, "was undertaken with inexcusable delay, continued with slowness, and failed through quarrels. Nobody could have believed in October, 1571, that the victors of Lepanto could have returned thus in 1572." They did return, without having engaged in any definite battle with the Turk, and without other loot than the magnificent galley belonging to Barbarossa's grandson, taken by the Marqués de Santa Cruz and brought back to Naples, to be rechristened "La Presa." Then the expedition was considered ended, and the Venetians went to winter in Corfu, the Pontifical fleet at Rome, and D. John of Austria with his squadron to Messina and from there to Naples, where by ill-fortune Philip II had ordered him to spend the winter.

It was an unfortunate circumstance, for what Doña Magdalena de Ulloa with her maternal foresight had foretold, when she sent D. John to the Granada war, came to pass: "Indolent wealth will be always prejudicial to his youth, and it is only by the labours and responsibilities of war that he will be able to balance the youthful ardour of his nature." D. John found himself unoccupied, because, while the fleet wintered, the duties of his command did not satisfy his longing for activity; he was wounded in his pride, that his advice about the organisation and commencement of this campaign had not been listened to, the scanty results of which were now deplored by all, when it was too late, proving the Generalissimo to have been right. Something, therefore, was necessary to distract him and fill up his time, and this he found in that delightful country, under that matchless sky, in that corrupt Naples of the sixteenth century, as dangerous then in its treacherous delights as it is to-day.

Naples was at that time one of the most beautiful cities in Italy or in Europe; the famous Viceroy D. Pedro de Toledo had enlarged and beautified it, throwing down the old walls, and constructing magnificent palaces, monasteries and churches in the two miles which this improvement added to the town. He also caused streets and squares to be paved, and filled with trees and fountains, and made the celebrated road more than half a league long, full of sumptuous palaces, which he named the street of the Holy Spirit, and which to-day is called the street of Toledo in his honour. Naples had then more than 300,000 inhabitants, and was the centre to which all the aristocracy of the Kingdom flocked.

In D. John's day, 40 Princes lived there, 25 Dukes, 36 Marquises, 54 Counts, 488 Barons, and numberless gentlemen, not so rich in money as in titles, and sometimes absolutely poor, but not the less proud of their nobility on account of this, and as disdainful as the rest, with no other occupations than riding, games with arms, and to "ruar," that is to saunter about the streets, paying compliments to the ladies, and lazily gossiping in the thousand comfortable seats which it was the custom of the city to provide in the squares and streets.

So, what we call good society was very numerous at Naples, and in it could be noted, in certain elevated circles, as to-day, that fatal anxiety for enjoyment and amusement of every possible kind, as if life had no other aim or object. That lazy nobility, strange medley of the virtues and vices of the time, strongly tinged with paganism, a relic of the Renaissance, flighty and chivalrous, cultured and wild, devout and corrupt, welcomed the hero of Lepanto as a demi-god, whose human charms, which were many and great, were enhanced by the divine rays of Genius and Glory. The men, overcome with admiration, slavishly imitated him, the women, in love with his winning presence, vied with each other for his glances, and solicited his favours as supernatural honours, and the people idle too, and captivated with so much grace and splendour, exaggerated his deeds and triumphs, followed him, and enthusiastically applauded his skill and undoubted bravery in the cane jousts, and games of "pelota," in masquerades, tournaments and bull-fights.

In the diary of D. John's confessor, Fr. Miguel Servia, who had followed him to Naples, we notice a circumstance which will make those smile sadly who know the frailty of the human heart. The more D. John was engulfed in the pleasures of Naples, the more the regularity and the frequency with which the