He  had  neglected  to  summon  the  electors  ;  a  single  German  prince  was
present — Philip  of  the  Palatinate,  who  had  arrived  by  chance  the  day
before  the  coronation — the  same  who  had  just  acquired  a  certain  celebrity
at  the  siege  of  Vienna  ;  but  he  held  no  official  rank  or  charge  at  the  cere-
mony. An  escort  of  German  knights,  such  as  had  heretofore  accompanied
their  emperor  to  the  bridge  of  the  Tiber,  was  out  of  the  question  ;  instead
of  them  three  thousand  German  landsknechts  were  drawn  out  on  the
piazza,  gallant  and  warlike  soldiers,  but  under  the  command  of  a  Spaniard,
Antonio  de  Leiva,  who  had  made  his  entrance  into  the  city  at  their  head,
carried  on  a  litter  of  dark-brown  velvet.  Whatever  brilliancy  surrounded
the  emperor  had  attended  him  from  Spain,  or  had  come  to  meet  him  in
Italy.  The  procession  with  which  he  repaired  to  the  church  to  be  invested
with  the  imperial  crown,  on  the  24th  of  February,  1 5  30,  (having  two  days
previously  received  the  iron  crown  with  somewhat  modified  solemnities),
was  opened  by  Spanish  pages  of  noble  birth  ;  then  followed  the  Spanish
lords  we  have  already  enumerated,  vying  with  each  other  in  pomp  and
splendour  ;  after  them,  the  heralds — not  German,  but  principally  those
of  the  several  Spanish  provinces  :  the  sceptre  was  borne  by  the  Marquis

1  The  immediate  purpose  of  the  letter  of  the  10th  of  January,  so  often  referred
to,  which  I  discovered  during  my  second  visit  to  Brussels,  was  this  inquiry.
Ferdinand  received  it  on  the  18  th,  and  answered  on  the  28  th  from  Budweis.
The  answer  is  printed  in  Gevay,  1530.     App.,  No.  1.
