The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Volume I Part 15

[29] Rades y Andrada, Las Tres Ordenes, fol. 77.--Caro de Torres, Historia de las Ordenes Militares de Santiago, Calatrava, y Alcantara, (Madrid, 1629,) lib. 2, cap. 59.--Castillo, Cronica, cap. 85.--Alonso de Palencia, Coronica, MS., cap. 73.--Gaillard remarks on this event, "Chacun crut sur cette mort ce qu'il voulut." And again in a few pages after, speaking of Isabella, he says, "On remarqua que tons ceux qui pouvoient faire obstacle a la satisfaction ou a la fortune d'Isabelle, mouroient toujours a propos pour elle." (Rivalite, tom. iii. pp. 280, 286.) This ingenious writer is fond of seasoning his style with those piquant sarcasms, in which oftentimes more is meant than meets the ear, and which Voltaire rendered fas.h.i.+onable in history. I doubt, however, if, amid all the heats of controversy and faction, there is a single Spanish writer of that age, or indeed of any subsequent one, who has ventured to impute to the contrivance of Isabella any one of the fortunate coincidences, to which the author alludes.

[30] Lebrija, Rerum Gestarum Decades, lib. 1, cap. 2--Zurita, a.n.a.les, lib.

18, cap. 10--Castillo, Cronies, cap. 93, 97.--Alonso de Palencia, Coronica, MS., part. 1, cap 80.

[31] Alonso de Palencia, Coronica MS., cap. 82.

[32] Zuniga, a.n.a.les de Sevilla, pp. 851, 352.--Carta del Levantamiento de Toledo, apud Castillo, Cronica, p. 109.--The historian of Seville has quoted an animated apostrophe addressed to the citizens by one of their number in this season of discord:

"Mezquina Sevilla en la sangre banada de los tus fijos, i tus cavalleros, que fado enemigo te tiene minguada," etc.

The poem concludes with a summons to throw off the yoke of their oppressors:

"Despierta Sevilla e sacude el imperio, que faze a tus n.o.bles tanto vituperio."

See a.n.a.les, p. 359.

[33] "Quod in pace fore, sen natura, tune fatum et ira dei vocabatur;"

says Tacitus, (Historiae, lib. 4, cap. 26,) adverting to a similar state of excitement.

[34] Saez quotes a MS. letter of a contemporary, exhibiting a frightful picture of these disorders. (Monedas de Enrique IV., p. 1, not.--Castillo, Cronica, cap. 83, 87, et pa.s.sim.--Mariana, Hist. de Espana, tom. ii. p.

451.--Marina, Teoria, tom. ii. p. 487.--Alonso de Palencia, Coronica, MS., part. 1, cap. 69.) The active force kept on duty by the Hermandad amounted to 3000 horse. Ibid., cap. 89, 90.

[35] Alonso de Palencia, Coronica, MS., cap. 87, 92.--Castillo, Cronica, cap. 94.--Garibay, Compendio, lib. 17, cap. 20.

[36] Marina, Teoria, part. 2, cap. 88.

[37] Lebrija, Rerum Gestarum Decad., lib. 1, cap. 3.--Alonso de Palencia, Coronica, MS., part. 1, cap. 92.--Florez, Reynas Catholicas, tom. ii. p.

790.

[38] Lebrija, Rerum Gestarum Decad., lib. 1, cap. 3.--Ferreras, Hist.

d'Espagne, tom. vii. p. 218.-Alonso de Palencia, Coronica, part. 1, cap.

92.--part. 2, cap. 5.

[39] See a copy of the original compact cited at length by Marina, Teoria, Apend. no. 11.--Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, part. 1, cap. 2.

[40] So called from four bulls, sculptured in stone, discovered there, with Latin inscriptions thereon, indicating it to have been the site of one of Julius Caesar's victories during the civil war. (Estrada, Poblacion General de Espana, (Madrid, 1748,) tom. i. p. 306.)--Galindez de Carbaja, a contemporary, fixes the date of this convention in August. Apales del Rey Fernando el Catolico, MS., ano 1468.

[41] Alonso de Palencia, Coronica, MS., part. 2, cap. 4.--Castillo, Cronica, cap. 18.--Mariana, Hist. de Espana, tom. ii. pp. 461, 462.-- Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, part. 1, cap. 2.--Castillo affirms that Henry, incensed by his sister's refusal of the king of Portugal, dissolved the cortes at Ocana, before it had taken the oath of allegiance to her.

(Cronica, cap. 127.) This a.s.sertion, however, is counterbalanced by the opposite one of Pulgar, a contemporary writer, like himself. (Reyes Catolicos, cap. 5.) And as Ferdinand and Isabella, in a letter addressed, after their marriage, to Henry IV., transcribed also by Castillo, allude incidentally to such a recognition as to a well-known fact, the balance of testimony must be admitted to be in favor of it. See Castillo, Cronica, cap. 114.

[42] Isabella, who in a letter to Henry IV., dated Oct. 12th, 1469, adverts to these proposals of the English prince, as being under consideration at the time of the convention of Toros de Guisando, does not specify which of the brothers of Edward IV. was intended. (Castillo, Cronica, cap. 136.)

Mr. Turner, in his History of England during the Middle Ages, (London, 1825,) quotes part of the address delivered by the Spanish envoy to Richard III., in 1483, in which the orator speaks of "the unkindness, which his queen Isabella had conceived for Edward IV., for his refusal of her, and his taking instead to wife a widow of England." (Vol. iii. p.

274.) The old chronicler Hall, on the other hand, mentions, that it was currently reported, although he does not appear to credit it, that the earl of Warwick had been despatched into Spain in order to request the hand of the princess Isabella for his master Edward IV., in 1463. (See his Chronicle of England, (London, 1809,) pp. 263, 264.)--I find nothing in the Spanish accounts of that period, which throws any light on these obvious contradictions.

[43] The territories of France and Castile touched, indeed, on one point (Guipuscoa), but were separated along the whole remaining line of frontier by the kingdoms of Aragon and Navarre.

[44] Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 8.--Alonso de Palencia, Coronica, MS., part. 2, cap. 10.

[45] Isabella, in order to acquaint herself more intimately with the personal qualities of her respective suitors, had privately despatched her confidential chaplain, Alonso de Coca, to the courts of France and of Aragon, and his report on his return was altogether favorable to Ferdinand. The duke of Guienne he represented as "a feeble, effeminate prince, with limbs so emaciated as to be almost deformed, and with eyes so weak and watery as to incapacitate him for the ordinary exercises of chivalry. While Ferdinand, on the other hand, was possessed of a comely, symmetrical figure, a graceful demeanor, and a spirit that was up to anything;" _mui dispuesto para toda coga que hacer ginsiese_. It is not improbable that the queen of Aragon condescended to practise some of those agreeable arts on the worthy chaplain, which made so sensible an impression on the marquis of Villena.

[46] Alonso de Palencia, Coronica, MS., part. 2, cap. 5.

[47] See ante, note 10.

[48] Faria y Sousa, Europa Portuguesa, tom. ii. p. 391.--Castillo, Cronica, cap. 121, 127.--Alonso de Palencia, Coronica, MS., part. 2, cap.

7.--Lebrija, Rerum Gestarum Decad., lib. 1, cap. 7.

[49] Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 7.--Alonso de Palencia, Coronica, MS., part. 2, cap. 7.

[50] Pulgar, Claros Varones, t.i.t. 2.

[51] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 154.--Zurita, a.n.a.les, tom. iv.

fol. 162.--Alonso de Palencia, Coronica, MS., part. 2, cap. 7.--Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 9.

[52] Zurita, a.n.a.les, tom. iv. fol. 157, 163.

[53] See the copy of the original marriage contract, as it exists in the archives of Simancas, extracted in tom. vi. of Memorias de la Acad. de Hist., Apend. no. 1.--Zurita, a.n.a.les, lib. 18, cap. 21.--Ferreras, Hist.

d'Espagne, tom. vii. p. 236.

[54] Alonso de Palencia, Coronica, MS., part. 2, cap. 12.--Castillo, Cronica, cap. 128, 131, 136.--Zurita, a.n.a.les, tom. iv. fol. 162.--Beatrice de Bobadilla and Mencia de la Torre, the two ladies most in her confidence, had escaped to the neighboring town of Coca.

[55] Castillo, Cronica, cap. 136.--Alonso de Palencia, Coronica, MS., part. 2, cap. 12.--Carbajal, a.n.a.les, MS., ano 69.

[56] This cavalier, who was of an ancient and honorable family in Castile, was introduced to the princess's service by the archbishop of Toledo. He is represented by Gonzalo de Oviedo as a man of much sagacity and knowledge of the world, qualities with which he united a steady devotion to the interests of his mistress. Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 2, dial. 1.

[57] Alonso de Palencia, Coronica, MS., cap. 14.-The bishop told Palencia, that "if his own servants deserted him, he would oppose the entrance of Ferdinand into the kingdom."

[58] Zurita, a.n.a.les, lib. 18, cap. 26.--The enrique was a gold coin, so denominated from Henry II.

[59] Zurita, a.n.a.les, lib. 18, cap. 26.--Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii.

p. 273.

[60] Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. p. 78, Il.u.s.t. 2.

[61] Alonso de Palencia, Coronica, MS., part. 2, cap. 14.--Zurita, a.n.a.les, loc. cit.

[62] This letter, dated October 12th, is cited at length by Castillo, Cronica, cap. 136.

[63] Alonso de Palencia, Coronica, MS., part. 2, cap. 15.

[64] Gutierre de Cardenas was the first who pointed him out to the princess, exclaiming at the same time, "_Ese es, ese es_," "This is he;"

in commemoration of which he was permitted to place on his escutcheon the letters SS, whose p.r.o.nunciation in Spanish resembles that of the exclamation which he had uttered. Ibid., part. 2, cap. 15.--Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 2, dial. 1.

[65] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 182.--Garibay, Compendio, lib. 18, cap. 1.--"Tan amigo de los negocios," says Mariana, "que parecia con el trabajo descansaba." Hist. de Espana, lib. 25, cap. 18.

[66] "En hermosura, puestas delante S. A. todas las mugeres que yo he visto, ninguna vi tan graciosa, ni tanto de ver corao su persona, ni de tal manera e sanctidad honestisima." Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.