DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.67375#0125
PHILIP III. AND PHILIP IV.
87
to present their accounts on the appointed day. Ossuna
imprisoned them in their houses with threats of greater
severity. A few days later he summoned them before him,
and announced that they were to be carried to distant
castles. Carriages were waiting, and with no preparation,
and no leave-taking of family or friends, each one was put
in a separate coach and driven away, regardless of the
intercession of the few who knew what was being done.
When Ossuna was reminded that such journeys were often
fatal in the heat which prevailed, he replied that such a
thought did not disturb him. His daring and unexampled
brutality was doubtless the effect of his suspicion that these
men had reported his conduct to the court at Madrid.
Ossuna’s fiendish cruelty was combined with superstitious
fear. He was constantly in horror of being spellbound,
and frequently had women whom he suspected as witches
flogged through the streets; it was a mark of favor when
they were permitted to veil their faces ; a monk bore a
crucifix before them, and after the scourging they were
expelled from Naples.
Ossuna’s private life was too low and indecent for descrip-
tion ; and yet, in spite of his abominable character in both
his public and private relations, he held some potent charm
by which he could attract a following among the very
people whom he outraged. At length, apparently weary
of so narrow a field as Naples afforded him, together with
the Spanish governor at Milan, Don Pedro de Toledo, and
the Spanish ambassador to Venice, the Marquis of Bedmar,
he entered into a conspiracy against the Venetian republic,
which presented the only bar to the Spanish dominion over
all Italy.
In the spring of 1617, Ossuna made vast preparations
for his attack on Venice. He appealed to the piratical
Usochi, who had long been the enemies of the Republic,
and opened to them the Neapolitan ports on the Adriatic;
87
to present their accounts on the appointed day. Ossuna
imprisoned them in their houses with threats of greater
severity. A few days later he summoned them before him,
and announced that they were to be carried to distant
castles. Carriages were waiting, and with no preparation,
and no leave-taking of family or friends, each one was put
in a separate coach and driven away, regardless of the
intercession of the few who knew what was being done.
When Ossuna was reminded that such journeys were often
fatal in the heat which prevailed, he replied that such a
thought did not disturb him. His daring and unexampled
brutality was doubtless the effect of his suspicion that these
men had reported his conduct to the court at Madrid.
Ossuna’s fiendish cruelty was combined with superstitious
fear. He was constantly in horror of being spellbound,
and frequently had women whom he suspected as witches
flogged through the streets; it was a mark of favor when
they were permitted to veil their faces ; a monk bore a
crucifix before them, and after the scourging they were
expelled from Naples.
Ossuna’s private life was too low and indecent for descrip-
tion ; and yet, in spite of his abominable character in both
his public and private relations, he held some potent charm
by which he could attract a following among the very
people whom he outraged. At length, apparently weary
of so narrow a field as Naples afforded him, together with
the Spanish governor at Milan, Don Pedro de Toledo, and
the Spanish ambassador to Venice, the Marquis of Bedmar,
he entered into a conspiracy against the Venetian republic,
which presented the only bar to the Spanish dominion over
all Italy.
In the spring of 1617, Ossuna made vast preparations
for his attack on Venice. He appealed to the piratical
Usochi, who had long been the enemies of the Republic,
and opened to them the Neapolitan ports on the Adriatic;