g, he did not
come rapidly to results, but pondered long, and viewed a question in all
its bearings, before arriving at a decision. He had, as we have seen,
the same patient spirit of application as Philip, so that both may be
said to have found their best recreation in labor. Neither was he less
zealous than the king for the maintenance of the true faith, though his
accommodating nature, if left to itself, might have sanctioned a
different policy from that dictated by the stern, uncompromising spirit
of his master.

Granvelle's influence was further aided by the charms of his personal
intercourse. His polished and insinuating manners seem to have melted
even the icy reserve of Philip. He maintained his influence by his
singular tact in suggesting hints for carrying out his master's policy,
in such a way that the suggestion might seem to have come from the king
himself. Thus careful not to alarm the jealousy of his sovereign, he was
content to forego the semblance of power for the real possession of
it.[425]

It was soon seen that he was as well settled in the confidence of Philip
as he had previously been in that of Charles. Notwithstanding the
apparent distribution of power between the regent and the several
councils, the arrangements made by the king were such as to throw the
real authority into the hands of Granvelle. Thus the rare example was
afforded of the same man continuing the favorite of two successive
sovereigns. Granvelle did not escape the usual fate of favorites; and
whether from the necessity of the case, or that, as some pretend, he did
not on his elevation bear his faculties too meekly, no man was so
generally and so heartily detested throughout the country.[426]

Before leaving the Netherlands, Philip named the governors of the
several provinces,--the nominations, for the most part, only confirming
those already in office. Egmont had the governments of Flanders and
Artois; the prince of Orange, those of Holland, Zealand, Utrecht, and
West Friesland. The commission to William, running in the usual form,
noticed "the good, loyal, and notable services he had rendered both to
the emperor and his present sovereign."[427] The command of two
battalions of the Spanish army was also given to the two nobles,--a poor
contrivance for reconciling the nation to the continuance of these
detested troops in the country.

Philip had anxiously waited for the arrival of the papal bull which was
to authorize the erec