This marriage, useful and brilliant as it was to the house of
Austria, turned out bitterly bad to the parties to it,--and it is not an
isolated case in that respect. Philip the Fair was a very handsome
fellow, as became his designation, or rather whence his designation
came; but on the principle that "handsome is that handsome does," he was
one of the ugliest of men. He was guilty of gallantry, the weakness of
kings, and of many of the sovereign people too. When living in Spain he
had many amorous adventures; and his wife, who had brought him so great
a fortune that she thought she had an especial claim on his fidelity,
became exceedingly jealous, and, being a _dague en jarretiere_ lady, as
became one who was born to reign over Andalucia, killed her faithless
husband,--not by stabbing him, but by giving him poison. This was in
1506, when husband and wife were but twenty-eight and twenty-four years
old, and had been but ten years married. There were two sons and four
daughters born of this marriage, all of whom made important marriages.
The eldest son was the man whom Mr. Stirling calls "the greatest monarch
of the memorable sixteenth century,"--Charles V., Emperor of Germany,
and the Spanish Charles I. He founded the Spanish branch of the house of
Austria, the elder branch.
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