§ 52. The Abdication of Charles, and his Cloister Life.
The abdication of Charles, and his subsequent cloister life, have a considerable interest for
ecclesiastical as well as general history, and may by anticipation be briefly noted in this place.
In the year 305, the last of the imperial persecutors of Christianity, who was born a slave
and reached his power by military achievements, voluntarily resigned the throne of the Caesars,
and retired for the remaining eight years of his life to his native Salona in Dalmatia to raise cabbages.
In the year 1555 (Oct. 25), Charles V., who was born an heir of three kingdoms, wearied of the
race of politics, diplomacy, and war, defeated by the treason of Moritz, and tormented by gout,
abdicated his crown to live and die like an humble monk.
The abdication of Charles took place in the royal palace at Brussels, in the same hall in
which, forty years before, he had been declared of age, and had assumed the reign of Brabant. He
was dressed in mourning for his unfortunate mother, and wore only one ornament,—the superb
collar of the Golden Fleece. He looked grave, solemn, pale, broken: he entered leaning on a staff
with one hand, and on the arm of William of Orange with the other; behind him came Philip II.,
his son and heir, small, meager, timid, but magnificently dressed,—a momentous association with
the two youthful princes who were to be afterwards arrayed in deadly conflict for the emancipation
of the Netherlands from the yoke of Spanish tyranny and bigotry.^314
The Emperor rose from the throne, and with his right hand resting on the shoulder of the
Prince of Orange,—who was one day to become the most formidable enemy of his house,—and
holding a paper in the other hand, he addressed his farewell in French before the members of the
royal family, the nobility of the Netherlands, the Knights of the Golden Fleece, the royal counselors,
and the great officers of the household. He assured them that he had done his duty to the best of
his ability, mindful of his dear native land, and especially of the interests of Christianity against
infidels and heretics. He had shrunk from no toil; but a cruel malady now deprived him of strength
to endure the cares of government, and this was his only motive for carrying out a long-cherished
wish of resigning the scepter. He exhorted them above all things to maintain the purity of the faith.
He had committed many errors, but only from ignorance, and begged pardon if he had wronged
any one.
He then resigned the crown of the Netherlands to his son Philip with the exhortation, "Fear
God: live justly; respect the laws; above all, cherish the interests of religion."
Exhausted, and pale as a corpse, he fell back upon his seat amid the tears and sobs of the
assembly.^315
On the 16th of January, 1556, he executed the deeds by which he ceded the sovereignty of
Castile and Aragon, with their dependencies, to Philip. His last act was to resign the crown of
Germany into the hands of his brother Ferdinand; but, as affairs move slowly in that country, the
resignation was not finally acted on till Feb. 28, 1558, at the Diet at Frankfurt.^316
His Retirement to Yuste.
(^314) "Ein Moment volt Schicksal und Zukunft!" says Ranke (V. 295)."Da war der mächtige Kaiser, der bisher die grossen Angelegenheiten
der Welt verwaltet hatte; von denen, die ihm zunächst standen, beinahe der Generation, die ihn umgab, nahm er Abschied. Neben ihm
erschienen die Männer, denen die Zukunft gehörte, Philipp II. und der Prinz von Oranien, in denen sich die beiden entgegengesetzten
Directionen repräsentirten, die fortan um Weltherrschaft kämpfen sollten."
(^315) Sandoval, II. 597 sqq.; Gachart, Analectes belgiques, 87; Prescott, Philip the Second, I. 10 sqq.; Ranke, V. 293 sqq. Prescott calls
this abdication one of the most remarkable scenes in history.
(^316) The negotiations with Ferdinand and the German Diet are detailed by Ranke, V. 297 sqq.