Carlos, Don,

Carlos, Don, son of Philip II. by his first marriage with Maria of Portugal, was born at Valladolid, July 1545. After his recognition as heir to the throne, Don Carlos was sent to study at the university of Alcala de Henares; where, however, he profited so little, that the king, regarding him as unqualified to reign, invited a nephew, the Archduke Rudolf, to Spain, intending to make him heir to the throne. The weak intellect, with vicious and cruel tendencies, which the young prince showed early, may have been due to an injury to his head from a fall down the stairs at Alcala de Henares; or more probably was congenital through the fatal descent from 'Juana la loca,' and only aggravated by his accident. Excluded from all participation in the government, he early conceived a strong aversion towards the king's confidants, and especially was unwilling that the Duke of Alva should have the government of Flanders. In confession to a priest, on Christmas eve 1567, he betrayed his purpose to assassinate a certain person; and as the king was believed to be the intended victim, this confession was divulged. The papers of Don Carlos were seized; he was tried and found guilty of conspiring against the life of the king, and of traitorously endeavouring to raise an insurrection in Flanders. The sentence was left for the king to pronounce. Philip declared that he could make no exception in favour of such an unworthy son; but sentence of death was not formally recorded. Shortly afterwards he died, July 24, 1568, and was interred in the Dominican monastery, El-Real, at Madrid. The suspicion that he was poisoned or strangled has no valid evidence to support it, and natural causes, as constant fever, a depraved appetite, and an injury to the brain, are of themselves enough to account for his death. The enemies of Philip II. were eager to prove him the murderer of his son, and much has been written on this problem. The version of the story which obtained so much currency through Don Carlos, the great tragedy of Schiller, was due to the romancing pen of Saint-Real in 1672. Its credibility was shattered first in 1817 by the Spanish writer, Llorente, and in 1829 by the learned Ranke in vol. xvi. of the Wiener Jahrbücher der Litteratur. The most important contribution to the question since is Gachard's Don Carlos et Philippe II. (2d ed. Paris, 1867). A new and not unfavourable light on Philip's character as a father has been thrown by the publication of Lettres de Philippe II. à ses filles (Paris, 1884) by the same editor. See also Maurenbrecher, Don Carlos (2d ed. Berlin, 1876), and Stirling-Maxwell, Don John of Austria (1883).