[28] He married Isabella of Portugal, and
their son was Philip II., who added Portugal to the possessions of the
Austrian family, and one of whose wives was Mary Tudor, queen of
England, the Bloody Mary of fire-and-fagot memory; and Philip gladly
would have placed Mary's sister Elizabeth in his half-vacant bed. The
marriage of Philip and Mary was barren, and poor Mary's belief that a
"blessed baby" was coming has been matter for laughter for more than
three hundred years. Had her agonizing prayers for offspring been heard,
what a change would have been wrought in human destinies, even had the
child lived to be no older than Edward VI.! The second son of Philip the
Fair and Juana was Ferdinand, named from his maternal grandfather,
Ferdinand the Catholic, king of Argon. He was the founder of the German
branch of the house of Austria, the younger branch, which has long
survived the elder branch, though now it exists only in the female line,
and really is the house of Lorraine. Ferdinand became Ferdinand I.,
Emperor of Germany, and he did far more than was done by his elder
brother to keep up the character of his family for making much through
marriage. In 1522, when but nineteen, he married Anne Yagellon, princess
of Hungary and Bohemia,--a marriage that might not have proved very
important, but that death came in and made it so, and also the births
that came from it, as will presently appear.
Pages:
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292