es of her royal state for the dark chambers of the Escorial.

From Toledo the court proceeded to Valladolid, long the favourite
residence of the Castilian princes, though not the acknowledged capital
of the country. Indeed there was no city, since the time of the
Visigoths, that could positively claim that preeminence. This honor was
reserved for Madrid, which became the established residence of the court
under Philip, who in this but carried out the ideas of his father,
Charles the Fifth.

The emperor had passed much time in this place, where, strange to say,
the chief recommendation to him seems to have been the climate. Situated
on a broad expanse of table-land, at an elevation of twenty-four hundred
feet above the level of the sea, the brisk and rarefied atmosphere of
Madrid proved favorable to Charles's health. It preserved him, in
particular, from attacks of the fever and ague, which racked his
constitution almost as much as the gout. In the ancient _alcazar_ of the
Moors he found a stately residence, which he made commodious by various
alterations. Philip extended these improvements. He added new
apartments, and spent much money in enlarging and embellishing the old
ones. The ceilings were gilded and richly carved. The walls were hung
with tapestries, and the saloons and galleries decorated with sculpture
and with paintings,--many of them the productions of native artists, the
first disciples of a school which was one day to rival the great masters
of Italy. Extensive grounds were also laid out around the palace, and a
park was formed, which in time came to be covered with a growth of noble
trees, and well stocked with game. The _alcazar_, thus improved, became
a fitting residence for the sovereign of Spain. Indeed, if we may trust
the magnificent vaunt of a contemporary, it was "allowed by foreigners
to be the rarest thing of the kind possessed by any monarch in
Christendom."[481] It continued to be the abode of the Spanish princes
until, in 1734, in the reign of Philip the Fifth, the building was
destroyed by a fire, which lasted nearly a week. But it rose like a
phoenix from its ashes; and a new palace was raised on the site of the
old one, of still larger dimensions, presenting in the beauty of its
materials as well as of its execution one of the noblest monuments of
the architecture of the eighteenth century.[482]

Having completed his arrangements, Philip established his residence at
Madrid in 1563. The t