h merchants, in
consideration of this iniquity, the sum of fifty thousand pounds, and
an imposition of four crowns on each piece of cloth which they should
export. She attempted to borrow great sums abroad; but her credit was
so low, that though she offered fourteen per cent to the city of Antwerp
for a loan of thirty thousand pounds, she could not obtain it till she
compelled the city of London to be surety for her.[*] All these violent
expedients were employed while she herself was in profound peace with
all the world, and had visibly no occasion for money but to supply the
demands of a husband who gave attention only to his own convenience, and
showed himself entirely indifferent about her interests.

* Godwin, p. 359. Cowper's Chronicle. Burnet, vol. ii. p.
359. Carte, p. 330, 333, 337, 341. Strype's Memor vol. iii.
p. 428, 558. Annals vol. i. p. 15.

Philip was now become master of all the wealth of the new world, and
of the richest and most extensive dominions in Europe, by the voluntary
resignation of the emperor Charles V.; who, though still in the vigor of
his age, had taken a disgust to the world, and was determined to seek,
in the tranquillity of retreat, for that happiness which he had in vain
pursued amidst the tumults of war and the restless projects of ambition.
He summoned the states of the Low Countries and seating himself on the
throne for the last time, explained to his subjects the reasons of his
resignation, absolved them from all oaths of allegiance, and, devolving
his authority on Philip, told him, that his paternal tenderness made him
weep when he reflected on the burden which he imposed upon him.[*] He
inculcated on him the great and only duty of a prince, the study of his
people's happiness; and represented how much preferable it was to
govern by affection, rather than by fear, the nations subjected to
his dominion. The cool reflections of age now discovered to him the
emptiness of his former pursuits; and he found that the vain schemes
of extending his empire had been the source of endless opposition and
disappointment, and kept himself, his neighbors, and his subjects, in
perpetual inquietude, and had frustrated the sole end of government,
the felicity of the nations committed to his care; an object which meets
with less opposition, and which, if steadily pursued, can alone convey a
lasting and solid satisfaction.

* Thuan. lib. xvi. c. 20.

{1556.} A few months after,