very
department, whether civil or military or ecclesiastical, with his own
eyes, and to decide concerning it according to his own ideas, it gave
him the utmost pain, when he felt his infirmities increase so fast upon
him, that he was obliged to commit the conduct of all his affairs to his
ministers. He imputed every misfortune which befell him, and every
miscarriage that happened, even when the former was unavoidable or the
latter accidental, to his inability to take the inspection of business
himself. He complained of his hard fortune in being opposed, in his
declining years, to a rival who was in the full vigor of life; and that,
while Henry could take and execute all his resolutions in person, he
should now be reduced, both in counsel and in action, to rely on the
talents and exertions of other men. Having thus grown old before his
time, he wisely judged it more decent to conceal his infirmities in some
solitude than to expose them any longer to the public eye, and prudently
determined not to forfeit the fame or lose the acquisitions of his
better years by struggling, with a vain obstinacy, to retain the reins
of government, when he was no longer able to hold them with steadiness,
or to guide them with address.[58]

But though Charles had revolved this scheme in his mind for several
years, and had communicated it to his sisters the dowager queens of
France and Hungary, who not only approved of his intention, but offered
to accompany him to whatever place of retreat he should choose, several
things had hitherto prevented his carrying it into execution. He could
not think of loading his son with the government of so many kingdoms
until he should attain such maturity of age and of abilities as would
enable him to sustain that weighty burden. But as Philip had now reached
his twenty-eighth year, and had been early accustomed to business, for
which he discovered both inclination and capacity, it can hardly be
imputed to the partiality of paternal affection that his scruples with
regard to this point were entirely removed; and that he thought he might
place his son, without further hesitation or delay, on the throne which
he himself was about to abandon. His mother's situation had been another
obstruction in his way. For although she had continued almost fifty
years in confinement, and under the same disorder of mind which concern
for her husband's death had brought upon her, yet the government of
Spain was still vested in