uch force on the head, that, after being carried some distance by his
horse, he fell senseless from the saddle. The alarm was great, but the
accident passed away without serious consequences.[33]

There were those who denied him skill in the management of his lance.
Marillac, the French ambassador at the imperial court, speaking of a
tourney given by Philip in honor of the princess of Lorraine, at
Augsburg, says he never saw worse lance-playing in his life. At another
time he remarks, that the Spanish prince could not even hit his
antagonist.[34] It must have been a very palpable hit to be noticed by a
Frenchman. The French regarded the Spaniards of that day in much the
same manner as they regarded the English at an earlier period, or as
they have continued to regard them at a later. The long rivalry of the
French and Spanish monarchs had infused into the breasts of their
subjects such feelings of mutual aversion, that the opinions of either
nation in reference to the other, in the sixteenth century, must be
received with the greatest distrust.

But, whatever may have been Philip's success in these chivalrous
displays, it is quite certain they were not to his taste. He took part
in them only to conform to his father's wishes, and to the humor of the
age. Though in his youth he sometimes hunted, he was neither fond of
field-sports nor of the athletic exercises of chivalry. His constitution
was far from robust. He sought to invigorate it less by exercise than by
diet. He confined himself almost wholly to meat, as the most nutritious
food, abstaining even from fish; as well as from fruit.[35] Besides his
indisposition to active exercises, he had no relish for the gaudy
spectacles so fashionable in that romantic age. The part he had played
in the pageants, during his long tour, had not been of his own seeking.
Though ceremonious, and exacting deference from all who approached him,
he was not fond of the pomp and parade of a court life. He preferred to
pass his hours in the privacy of his own apartment, where he took
pleasure in the conversation of a few whom he honored with his regard.
It was with difficulty that the emperor could induce him to leave his
retirement and present himself in the audience-chamber, or accompany him
on visits of ceremony.[36]

These reserved and quiet tastes of Philip by no means recommended him to
the Flemings, accustomed as they were to the pomp and profuse
magnificence of the Burgundian court