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184 20 Great Balls of Fire (Trent, 1549) The most spectacular series of sixteenth-century Spanish royal entries greeted the future Philip II on his long tour of Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands between October 1548 and May 1550. The tour was intended as a triumphal buildup to his proclamation as heir to the Holy Roman Empire. Having defeated the Lutheran League of Schmalkalden at the battle of Mühlberg in April 1547 and so consolidated his power in Germany, Charles V had decided that the time was ripe to secure the imperial succession for his son. As it turned out, Charles abandoned these ambitions in the face of strenuous objections from the eastern Hapsburgs, but at least for the duration of his tour, Philip believed himself to be the future emperor. So did many of those who entertained him. Philip was twenty-one when he set out from Valladolid in October 1548. Keeping records of his journey were Cristóbal Calvete de Estrella, the prince’s former tutor and official chronicler of the tour; the royal steward Vicente Alvarez, who wrote a journal when he was not supervising the food; and, until he left the tour in Trent, a trumpeter in the cardinal’s service called Cerbonio Besozzi.1 When Philip sailed from the Catalan port of Rosas, the salvos of artillery from the boats at sea and the castle on shore were so frequent and so furious that “it seemed as if the sky and earth were drowning in thunder and fire; and that the galleys and other ships [were] . . . burning with living flames.”2 Similar gunfire greeted the royal fleet as it sailed past Monaco and again when it arrived in Genoa. There, “the smoke was so thick that one could hardly see the city and the mountains.” Jenaro Alenda y Mira interprets an unpublished Italian verse account of the Genoese reception to mean that Philip was entertained with mock battles offshore.3 From Genoa, Philip headed north, arriving in Trent on Thursday, 24 January 1549. Philip’s host was the thirty-six-year-old bishop of the city, Cardinal Cristoforo Madruzzo, who had traveled with the royal party from Spain. Although Trent was then just within the German boundaries of Charles’s empire, the majority of its population of between seven and eight thousand was Italian.4 The Council of Trent had convened there in 1545, but had been fragmented two years later when delegates loyal to the pope moved to Bologna and those dependent on the emperor remained in Trent. It was to begin a second, more or less united session in 1551. Philip was greeted by a fireworks display in the cathedral square. A wooden castle, decorated on all sides with “many heads like those they paint to represent the winds” and with two large wheels mounted on poles on its walls, stood in the center of the square. When the wheels were lit, they began to spin at great speed, throwing off “rays of fire” and other fireworks with “great and dreadful bangs.” At the same time, all the heads spouted “flames of fire from their mouths, eyes, and noses, all up and down the castle, with many fearful explosions”; a drum, fife, and bugle corps made “a great din”; and artillery fired “with great rapidity” from a nearby tower. All this went on for “more than half an hour,” until the castle was ignited from within and quickly consumed by “huge flames.”5 A little further on, at the gate of the bishop’s palace, a painted globe, surrounded by “a dozen heads representing the principal winds,” hung from a cord stretched across the square. Above the globe were a “wheel” representing the sun and a crowned imperial eagle. As Philip reached the center of the square, artillery opened fire, “trumpets, fifes, drums, and other instruments” struck up, and a fireworks dragon (Fig. 19) raced along the suspended cord to ignite the globe, which was full of fireworks “skillfully arranged to go off in order.” In an instant, the sun wheel was revolving and the winds were blowing furiously, flashing and sending off fireworks , some high into the air and others into the crowded square. People didn’t know where to turn for safety. The display lasted “a long time.” Afterward, the prince entered the bishop’s palace, a magnificent Renaissance castle built for Madruzzo’s predecessor. There the royal party dined and drank heavily “in the German style...

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