On the 30th May the Infanta executed a procuration by which she gave
absolute authority to her future husband to rule over the provinces of
the Netherlands, Burgundy, and Charolois, and to receive the oaths of the
estates and of public functionaries.

[See all the deeds and documents in Bor, IV. 461-466. Compare
Herrera, iii. 766-770. Very elaborate provisions were made in
regard to the children and grand-children to spring from this
marriage, but it was generally understood at the time that no issue
was to be expected. The incapacity of the cardinal seems to have
been revealed by an indiscretion of the General of Franciscans--
diplomatist and father confessor--and was supported by much
collateral evidence. Hence all these careful stipulations were a
solemn jest, like much of the diplomatic work of this reign.]

It was all very systematically done. No transfer of real estate, no
'donatio inter vivos' of mansions and messuages, parks and farms, herds
and flocks, could have been effected in a more business-like manner than
the gift thus made by the most prudent king to his beloved daughter.

The quit-claim of the brother was perfectly regular.

So also was the power of attorney, by which the Infanta authorised the
middle-aged ecclesiastic whom she was about to espouse to take possession
in her name of the very desirable property which she had thus acquired.

It certainly never occurred, either to the giver or the receivers, that
the few millions of Netherlanders, male and female, inhabiting these
provinces in the North Sea, were entitled to any voice or opinion as to
the transfer of themselves and their native land to a young lady living