topics, that it is
no easy matter to preserve anything like unity of interest in the story.
Thus the Revolution of the Netherlands, although, strictly speaking,
only an episode to the main body of the narrative, from its importance,
well deserves to be treated in a separate and independent narrative by
itself.[1] Running along through the whole extent of Philip's reign, it
is continually distracting the attention of the historian, creating an
embarrassment something like that which arises from what is termed a
double plot in the drama. The best way of obviating this is to keep in
view the dominant principle which controlled all the movements of the
complicated machinery, so to speak, and impressed on them a unity of
action. This principle is to be found in the policy of Philip, the great
aim of which was to uphold the supremacy of the Church, and, as a
consequence, that of the crown. "Peace and public order," he writes on
one occasion, "are to be maintained in my dominions only by maintaining
the authority of the Holy See." It was this policy, almost as sure and
steady in its operation as the laws of Nature herself, that may be said
to have directed the march of events through the whole of his long
reign; and it is only by keeping this constantly in view that the
student will be enabled to obtain a clew to guide him through the
intricate passages in the history of Philip, and the best means of
solving what would otherwise remain enigmatical in his conduct.

In the composition of the work, I have, for the most part, conformed to
the plan which I had before adopted. Far from confining myself to a
record of political events, I have endeavored to present a picture of
the intellectual culture and the manners of the people. I have not even
refused such aid as could be obtained from the display of pageants, and
court ceremonies, which, although exhibiting little more than the
costume of the time, may serve to bring the outward form of a
picturesque age more vividly before the eye of the reader. In the
arrangement of the narrative, I have not confined myself altogether to
the chronological order of events, but have thrown them into masses,
according to the subjects to which they relate, so as to produce, as far
as possible, a distinct impression on the reader. And in this way I have
postponed more than one matter of importance to a later portion of the
work, which a strict regard to time would assign more properly to an
earlie