siege of Rome--Pence with the pontiff--Hostilities on the Flemish
border--Coligny foiled at Douay--Sacks Lens--Philip in England--
Queen Mary engages in the war--Philip's army assembled at Givet--
Portrait of Count Egmont--The French army under Coligny and
Montmorency--Siege of St. Quentin--Attempts of the constable to
relieve the city--Battle of St. Quentin--Hesitation and timidity of
Philip--City of St. Quentin taken and sacked--Continued indecision
of Philip--His army disbanded--Campaign of the Duke of Guise--
Capture of Calais--Interview between Cardinal de Lorraine and the
Bishop of Arran--Secret combinations for a league between France and
Spain against heresy--Languid movements of Guise--Foray of De
Thermes on the Flemish frontier--Battle of Gravelines--Popularity of
Egmont--Enmity of Alva.

Philip the Second had received the investiture of Milan and the crown of
Naples, previously to his marriage with Mary Tudor. The imperial crown
he had been obliged, much against his will, to forego. The archduchy of
Austria, with the hereditary German dependencies of his father's family,
had been transferred by the Emperor to his brother Ferdinand, on the
occasion of the marriage of that prince with Anna, only sister of King
Louis of Hungary. Ten years afterwards, Ferdinand (King of Hungary and
Bohemia since the death of Louis, slain in 1526 at the battle of Mohacz)
was elected King of the Romans, and steadily refused all the entreaties
afterwards made to him in behalf of Philip, to resign his crown and his
succession to the Empire, in favor of his nephew. With these
diminutions, Philip had now received all the dominions of his father.
He was King of all the Spanish kingdoms and of both the Sicilies. He was
titular King of England, France, and Jerusalem. He was "Absolute
Dominator" in Asia, Africa, and America; he was Duke of Milan and of both
Burgundies, and Hereditary Sovereign of the seventeen Netherlands.