CHAPTER I.1555.
Abdication of Charles resolved upon--Brussels in the sixteenth century--Hall of the palace described--Portraits of prominent individuals present at the ceremony--Formalities of the abdication-- Universal emotion--Remarks upon the character and career of Charles -- His retirement at Juste.
On the twenty-fifth day of October, 1555, the estates of the Netherlands were assembled in the great hall of the palace at Brussels.

They had been summoned to be the witnesses and the guarantees of the abdication which Charles V.had long before resolved upon, and which he was that day to execute.

The emperor, like many potentates before and since, was fond of great political spectacles.

He knew their influence upon the masses of mankind.

Although plain, even to shabbiness, in his own costume, and usually attired in black, no one ever understood better than he how to arrange such exhibitions in a striking and artistic style.