413 
S P A I N. 
fresh violence the flames of war, both in Italy and the Low 
Countries. 
No sooner was Paul made acquainted with the success of 
this negociation, than he proceeded to the most indecent 
extremities against Philip. He ordered the Spanish ambas¬ 
sador to be imprisoned ; he excommunicated the Colonnas, 
because of their attachment to the imperial house; and he 
considered Philip as guilty of high treason, and to have 
forfeited his right to the kingdom of Naples, which he was 
supposed to hold of the holy see, for afterwards affording 
them a retreat in his dominions. 
Alarmed at a quarrel with the Pope, whom he had been 
taught to regard with the most superstitious veneration, as 
the vicegerent of Christ and the common father of Christen¬ 
dom, Philip tried every gentle method before he made use 
of force. He even consulted some Spanish divines on the 
lawfulness of taking arms against a person so sacred. They 
decided in his favour; and Paul continuing inexorable, the 
duke of Alva, to whom the negociations as well as the war 
had been committed, entered the ecclesiastical state at the 
head of 10,000 veterans, and carried terror to the gates of 
Rome. 
The haughty pontiff, though still inflexible and undaunted 
himself, was forced to give way to the fears of the cardinals, 
and a truce was concluded for forty days. Meantime the 
duke of Guise arriving with a supply of 20,000 French 
troops, Paul became more arrogant than ever, and banished 
all thoughts from his mind but those of war and revenge. 
The duke of Guise, however, who had precipitated his 
country into this war, chiefly from a desire of gaining a 
field where he might display his own talents, was able to 
perform nothing in Italy worthy of his former fame. He 
was obliged to abandon the siege of Civetella; he could not 
bring the duke of Alva to a general engagement; his army 
perished by diseases; and the Pope neglected to furnish the 
necessary reinforcements. He begged to be recalled; and 
France stood in need of his abilities. 
Philip, though willing to have avoided a rupture, was 
no sooner informed that Henry had violated the truce of 
Vaucelles, than he determined to act with such vigour, 
as should convince Europe that his father had not erred in 
resigning to him the reins of government. He immediately 
assembled in the Low Countries a body of 50,000 men, and 
obtained a supply of 10,000 from England, which he had 
engaged in his quarrel; and as he was not ambitious of 
military fame, he gave the command of his army to Emanuel 
Philibert duke of Savoy, one of the greatest generals of that 
warlike age. 
The duke of Savoy kept the enemy for some time in 
suspense with regard to his destination ; at last he seemed 
to threaten Champagne; towards which the French drew 
all their troops; then turning suddenly to the right, he 
advanced by rapid marches into Picardy, and laid siege to 
St. Quintin. It was deemed in those times a town of con¬ 
siderable strength; but the fortifications had been much 
neglected, and the garrison did not amount to a fifth part 
of the number requisite for its defence: it must therefore 
have surrendered in a few days, if the admiral de Coligny 
had not taken the gallant resolution of throwing himself 
into it with such a body of men as could be collected on a 
sudden. This he effected in spite of the enemy, breaking 
through their main body. The place, however, was closely 
invested; and the constable Montmorency, anxious to extri¬ 
cate his nephew out of that perilous situation, in which his 
zeal for the public had engaged him, as well as to save a 
town of such importance, rashly advanced to its relief with 
forces one half inferior to those of the enemy. His army 
was cut in pieces, and he himself made prisoner. 
The cautious temper of Philip on this occasion saved 
France from devastation, if not ruin. The duke of Savoy 
proposed to overlook all inferior objects, and march speedily 
to Paris, which, in its present consternation, he could not 
have failed to make himself master of; but Philip, afraid of 
the consequences of such a bold enterprise, desired him to 
continue the siege of St. Quintin, in order to secure a safe 
Vol. XXIII. No. 1579. 
retreat in case of any disastrous event. The town, long and 
gallantly defended by Coligny, was at last taken by storm ; 
but not till France was in a state of defence. 
Philip was now sensible that he had lost an opportunity 
which could never be recalled, of distressing his enemy, and 
contented himself with reducing Horn and Catelet; which 
petty towns, together with St. Quintin, were the sole fruits 
of one of the most decisive victories gained in the 16th 
century. The Catholic king, however, continued in high 
exultation on account of his success; and as all his passions 
were tinged with superstition, he vowed to build a church, a 
monastery, and a palace, in honour of St. Lawrence, on the 
day sacred to whose memory the battle of St. Quintin had 
been fought. He accordingly laid the foundation of an 
edifice, in which all these were included, and which he conti¬ 
nued to forward at vast expense, for twenty-two years. The 
same principle which dictated the vow directed the building. 
It was so formed as to resemble a gridiron—on which culinary 
instrument, according to the legendary tale, St. Lawrence 
had suffered martyrdom. Such is the origin of the famous 
Escurial near Madrid, the royal residence of the kings of 
Spain. 
The first account of that fatal blow which France had 
received at St. Quintin, was carried to Rome by the courier 
whom Henry had sent to recal the duke of Guise. Paul 
remonstrated warmly against the deparlure of the French 
army ; but Guise’s orders were peremptory. The arrogant 
pontiff therefore found it necessary to accomodate his conduct 
to the exigency of his affairs, and to employ the mediation 
of the Venetians, and of Cosmo de Medici, in order to 
obtain peace. The first overtures of this nature were eagerly 
listened to by the Catholic king, who still doubted the jus¬ 
tice of this cause, and considered it as his greatest misfortune 
to be obliged to contend with the Pope. Paul agreed to 
renounce his league with France; and Philip stipulated on 
his part, that the duke of Alva should repair in person to 
Rome, and after asking pardon of the holy father in his own 
name and in that of his master, for having invaded the 
patrimony of the church, should receive absolution from that 
crime. Thus Paul, through the superstitious timidity of 
Philip, finished an unpropitious war not only without any 
detriment to the apostolic see, but saw his conqueror hum¬ 
bled at his feet: and so excessive was the veneration of the 
Spaniards in that age for the papal character, that the duke 
of Alva, the proudest man perhaps of his time, and accus¬ 
tomed from his infancy to converse with princes, acknow¬ 
ledged, that when he approached Paul, he was so much 
overawed, that his voice failed, and his presence of mind for¬ 
sook him. 
But though this war, which at its commencement threat¬ 
ened mighty revolutions, was terminated without occasioning 
any alteration in those states which were its immediate 
objects, it produced effects of considerable consequence in 
other parts of Italy. In order to detach Octavio Farnese, 
duke of Parma, from the French interest, Philip restored to 
him the city of Placentia and its terrifory, which had been 
seized by Charles V., and he granted to Cosmo de Medici 
the investiture of Sienna, as an equivalent for the sums due 
to him. By these treaties, the balance of power among the 
Italian states was poised with more equality, and rendered 
less variable than it had been since it received the first vio¬ 
lent shock from the invasion of Charles VIII., and Italy 
henceforth ceased to be the theatre on which the monarchs 
of Spain, France, and Germany, contended for fame and 
dominion. Their hostilities, excited by new objects, stained 
other regions of Europe with blood, and made other states 
feel, in their turn, the miseries of war. 
The duke of Guise, who left Rome the same day that his 
adversary the duke of Alva made his humiliating submission 
to the Pope, was received in France as the guardian angel 
of the kingdom. He was appointed lieutenant-general in 
chief, with a jurisdiction almost unlimited; and, eager to 
justify the extraordinary confidence which the king had 
reposed in him, as well as to perform something suitable to 
the high expectations of his countrymen, he undertook in 
5 N winter 
