CARLOS, DON, son of Philip II. by his first marriage with Maria of Portu gal; born in Valladolid, July 8, 1545. After his recognition as heir to the throne, Don Carlos was sent to study at the University of Alcala de Henares, where, however, he profited so little, that the king, regarding him as unqualified to reign, invited a nephew, the Arch duke Rudolf, to Spain, intending to make him heir to the throne. The weak intel lect, with vicious and cruel tendencies, which the young prince showed early, may have been due to an injury to his head from a fall down the stairs at Alcala de Henares; or more probably was congenital through the fatal descent from "Juana la loca," and only aggra vated by his accident. Excluded from all participation in the government, he early conceived a strong aversion toward the king's confidants, and especially was unwilling that the Duke of Alva should have the government of Flanders. In confession to a priest, on Christmas eve, 1567, he betrayed his purpose to assassi nate a certain person; and as the king was believed to be the intended victim, this confession was divulged. The pa pers of Don Carlos were seized; he was tried and found guilty of conspiring against the life of the king, and of trai torously endeavoring to raise an insur rection in Flanders. The sentence was
left for the king to pronounce. Philip declared that he could make no exception in favor of such an unworthy son, but sentence of death was not formally re corded. Shortly afterward he died, July 24, 1568, and was interred in the Do minican monastery, El-Real, at Madrid. The suspicion that he was poisoned or strangled has no valid evidence to sup port it. The enemies of Philip II. were eager to prove him the murderer of his son, and much has been written on this problem. The version of the story which obtained so much currency through "Don Carlos," the great tragedy of Schiller, was due to the romancing pen of Saint Real in 1672. Its credibility was shat tered first in 1817 by the Spanish writer, Llorente, and in 1829 by the learned Ranke in vol. xlvi. of the "Vienna Year book of Literature." The most im portant contribution to the question since is Gachard's "Don Carlos and Philippe II." (2d ed., Paris, 1867). A new and not unfavorable light on Philip's char acter as a father has been thrown by the publication of "Letters of Philippe II. to His Daughters" (Paris, 1884), by the same editor.