THE POISONED HOST / WAFER (OSCAR WILDE)

None of the royal family of Spain (the Habsburgs or "Austrias") had entered the great cathedral of Saragossa since a mad priest, supposed by many to have been in the pay of Elizabeth of England, had tried to administer a poisoned wafer to the Prince of Asturias.

OSCAR WILDE

En realidad ningún miembro de la real familia de España (los Austrias o Habsburgo) había entrado a la catedral de Zaragoza desde que un cura loco, que muchos suponían pagado por Isabel de Inglaterra, había tratado de hacer tragar una hostia envenenada al príncipe de Asturias.

TRADUCCIÓN OFICIAL

This Oscar Wilde sentence sets my creative juices flowing. The Prince of Asturias (Crown Prince) at the time was Don Carlos, immortalised by Romanticism and by the opera by Giuseppe Verdi, known to be a sensitive boy with daddy issues, who died young, a violent death, and an odd duck among the Spanish Habsburgs: the perfect topic for Romantic literature and for Verdian opera. Surely Oscar Wilde knew of Don Carlos (and of Good Queen Bess), but did this happen in real life or is this only a legend?

This sounds like a great idea for a fanfic, or for a thriller (literary or cinematic, or both). Wilde implied that Don Carlos did not consume the poisoned host, but what if he did? Would it have affected the Crown Prince's mental health? And was the poisoner really a Catholic priest, or one of Queen Bess' many secret agents? Did they catch him, was he tortured and executed?... Or did he return home in the end? So many questions...

I have Googled "don Carlos hostia envenenada Zaragoza" - no replies. This is either something Oscar Wilde has fabricated or a real legend from the days of the Spanish Habsburgs. Most likely the latter. Still it would be lovely to write a novel or a fanfic, or to draw a manga, about this. There are already a few novels, an arc in The Serpent Queen, and fanfics (most of those I know, by Yours Truly), about Dauphin Francis and Sebastian di Montecuccoli... The poisoning of a young crown prince leaves no one indifferent!