and, so, half-
brother to the bowelless King Philip II. of Spain. Never was
woman born to royal or semi-royal state who was more utterly the
victim of the circumstances of her birth.
Of the natural sons of princes something could be made, as
witness the dazzling career of Anne's own father; but for natural
daughters--and especially for one who, like herself, bore a
double load of cadency--there was little use or hope. Their royal
blood set them in a class apart; their bastardy denied them the
worldly advantages of that spurious eminence. Their royal blood
prescribed that they must mate with princes; their bastardy
raised obstacles to their doing so. Therefore, since the world
would seem to hold no worthy place for them, it was expedient to
withdraw them from the world before its vanities beglamoured
them, and to immure them in convents, where they might aspire
with confidence to the sterile dignity of abbesshood.
Thus it befell with Anne. At the early age of six she had been
sent to the Benedictine convent at Burgos, and in adolescence
removed thence to the Monastery of Santa Maria la Real at
Madrigal, where it was foreordained that she should take the
veil. She went unwillingly.
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