The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Volume II Part 22

iii. lib. 6, cap. 2.--Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, lib. 29, cap. 2.

[2] Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 140-143.

[3] Summonte, Hist. di Napoli, tom. iii. lib. 6, cap. 2.

According to Giannone, (Istoria di Napoli, lib. 29, cap. 2,) he did obtain the invest.i.ture from the pope; but this statement is contradicted by several, and confirmed by none, of the authorities I have consulted.

[4] Brantome, Hommes Ill.u.s.tres, Oeuvres, tom. ii. pp. 3-5.--Comines, Memoires, liv. 8, chap. 2.

The particulars of the coronation are recorded with punctilious precision by Andre de la Vigne, secretary of Queen Anne. (Hist. de Charles VIII., p.

201.) Daru has confounded this farce with Charles's original entry into Naples in February. Hist. de Venise, tom. iii. liv. 20, p. 247.

[5] Villeneuve, Memoires, apud Pet.i.tot, Collection de Memoires, tom. xiv.

pp. 262, 263.--Fla.s.san, Diplomatie Francaise, tom. i. pp. 267-269.-- Comines, Memoires, liv. 8, chap. 10-12, 18.

[6] Comines, Memoires, liv. 8, chap. 1.--Brantome, Hommes Ill.u.s.tres, tom.

ii. p. 59.

[7] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib. 2, cap. 7.--Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, lib. 1, pp. 204, 205.

[8] Pulgar, Sumario de las Hazanas del Gran Capitan, (Madrid, 1834,) p.

145.--Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, lib. 1, pp. 205 et seq.

[9] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 90.--Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, lib. 1, pp. 211, 212.--Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. cap.

42.--Quintana, Espanoles Celebres, tom. i. pp. 207-216.--Pulgar, Sumario, p. 193.

Florian has given circulation to a popular error by his romance of "Gonsalve de Cordone," where the young warrior is made to play a part he is by no means ent.i.tled to, as hero of the Granadine war. Graver writers, who cannot lawfully plead the privilege of romancing, have committed the same error. See, among others, Varillas, Politique de Ferdinand, p. 3.

[10] Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, p. 214.--Chronica del Gran Capitan Gonzalo Hernandez de Cordova y Aguilar, (Alcala de Henares, 1584,) cap.

23.

Another example of his gallantry occurred during the Granadine war, when the fire of Santa Fe had consumed the royal tent, with the greater part of the queen's apparel and other valuable effects. Gonsalvo, on learning the disaster, at his castle of Illora, supplied the queen so abundantly from the magnificent wardrobe of his wife Dona Maria Manrique, as led Isabella pleasantly to remark, that, "the fire had done more execution in his quarters, than in her own." Pulgar, Sumario, p. 187.

[11] Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, p. 214.--Chronica del Gran Capitan, cap.

23.

[12] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib. 2, cap. 7, 24.--Quintana, Espanoles Celebres, tom. i. p. 222.--Chronica del Gran Capitan, ubi supra.

Giovio, in his biography of Gonsalvo, estimates these forces at 5000 foot and 600 horse, which last in his History he raises to 700. I have followed Zurita, as presenting the more probable statement, and as generally more accurate in all that relates to his own nation. It is a hopeless task to attempt to reconcile the manifold inaccuracies, contradictions, and discrepancies, which perplex the narratives of the writers on both sides, in everything relating to numerical estimates. The difficulty is greatly increased by the extremely vague application of the term _lance_, as we meet with it, including six, four, three, or even a less number of followers, as the case might be.

[13] Mariana, Hist. de Espana, tom. ii. lib. 26, cap. 10.--Zurita, Hist.

del Rey Hernando, lib. 2, cap. 7.

The occupation of these places by Gonsalvo excited the pope's jealousy, as to the designs of the Spanish sovereigns. In consequence of his remonstrances, the Castilian envoy, Garcila.s.so de la Vega, was instructed to direct Gonsalvo, that, "in case any inferior places had been since put into his hands, he should restore them; if they were of importance, however, he was first to confer with his own government." King Ferdinand, as Abarca a.s.sures his readers, "was unwilling to give cause of complaint to any one, _unless he were greatly a gainer by it_." Reyes de Aragon, rey 30, cap. 8.--Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, tom. v. lib. 2, cap. 8.

[14] Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, pp. 215-217.--Idem, Hist. sui Temporis, pp. 83-85.--Bembo, Istoria Viniziana, lib. 3, pp. 160, 185.--Zurita, Hist.

del Rey Hernando, lib. 2, cap. 8.--Guicciardini, Istoria, lib. 2, pp. 88, 92.--Chronica del Gran Capitan, cap. 25.

[15] Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, lib. 1.--Du Bos, Ligue de Cambray, introd., p. 58.

[16] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib. 2, cap. 7.--Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, ubi supra.

[17] Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, lib. 1, pp. 216, 217.--Chronica del Gran Capitan, cap. 24.--Quintana, Espanoles Celebres, tom. i. pp. 223-227.

[18] Giovio, Hist. sui Temporis, lib. 3, pp. 83-85.--Chronica del Gran Capitan, cap. 24.--Summonte, Hist. di Napoli, tom. iii. lib. 6, cap. 2.-- Guicciardini, Istoria, lib. 2, p. 112.--Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib.

19, p. 690.

[19] Guicciardini, Istoria, lib. 1, p. 112.--Giovio, Hist. sui Temporis, lib. 3, p. 85.--Lanuza, Historias, tom. i. lib. 1, cap. 7.

[20] Summonte, Hist. di Napoli, tom. vi. p. 519.--Guicciardini, Istoria, lib. 2, pp. 113, 114.--Giovio, Hist. sui Temporis, lib. 3, pp. 87, 88.-- Villeneuve, Memoires, apud Pet.i.tot, Collection des Memoires, tom. xiv. pp.

264, 265.

[21] Giovio, Hist. sui Temporis, lib. 3, pp. 88-90, 114-119.-- Guicciardini, Istoria, lib, 2, pp. 114-117.--Summonte, Hist. di Napoli, tom. vi. pp. 520, 521.

[22] Bembo, Istoria Viniziana, lib. 3, pp. 173, 174.--Chronica del Gran Capitan, cap. 26.--Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, lib. 1, p. 218.-- Villeneuve, Memoires, p. 313.--Sismondi, Republiques Italiennes, tom. xii.

p. 386.

[23] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib. 2, cap. 11, 20.--Guicciardini, Istoria, lib. 2, p. 140.--Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, lib. 1, pp. 219, 220.--Chronica del Gran Capitan, cap. 25, 26.

[24] Guicciardini, Istoria, lib. 3, pp. 140, 157, 158.--Comines, Memoires, liv. 8, chap. 23, 24.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 183.

Du Bos discriminates between the character of the German levies or landsknechts and the Swiss, in the following terms. "Les lansquenets etoient meme de beaucoup mieux faits, _generalement_ parlant, et de bien meilleure mine sous les armes, que les fanta.s.sins Suisses; mais ils etoient incapables de discipline. Au contraire des Suisses, ils etoient sans obeissance pour leur chefs, et sans amitie pours leurs camarades."

(Ligue de Cambray, tom. i. dissert. prelim., p. 66.) Comines confirms the distinction with a high tribute to the loyalty of the Swiss, which has continued their honorable characteristic to the present day. Memoires, liv. 8, chap. 21.

[25] Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, lib. 1, pp. 218, 219.--Chronica del Gran Capitan, cap. 28.--Quintana, Espanoles Celebres, tom. i. p. 226.--Bembo, Istoria Viniziana, lib. 3, p. 184.--Guicciardini, Istoria, lib. 3, p. 158.

[26] Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, pp. 219, 220.--Chronica del Gran Capitan, cap. 27.--Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, tom. i. lib. 2, cap.

26.--Quintana, Espanoles Celebres, tom. i. pp. 227, 228.--Guicciardini, Istoria, lib. 3, pp. 158, 159.--Mariana, Hist. de Espana, tom. ii. lib.

26, cap. 12.

[27] Giovio, Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib. 4, p. 132.

[28] Quintana, Espanoles Celebres, tom. i. p. 228.--Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, lib. 1, p. 220.

The Aragonese historians are much ruffled by the irreverent manner in which Guicciardini notices the origin of the cognomen of the Great Captain; which even his subsequent panegyric cannot atone for. "Era capitano Gonsalvo Ernandes, di casa d'Aghilar, di patria Cordovese, uomo di molto valore, ed esercitato lungamente nelle guerre di Granata, il quale nel principio della venuta sua in Italia, cognominato _dalla jattanza Spagnuola_ il Gran Capitano, per significare con questo t.i.tolo la suprema podesta sopra loro, merit per le preclare vittorie che ebbe dipoi, che per consentimento universale gli fosse confermato e perpetuate questo sopranome, per significazione di virtu grande, e di grande eccellenza nella disciplina militare." (Istoria, tom. i. p. 112.) According to Zurita, the t.i.tle was not conferred till the Spanish general's appearance before Atella, and the first example of its formal recognition was in the instrument of capitulation at that place. (Hist.

del Rey Hernando, lib. 2, cap. 27.) This seems to derive support from the fact that Gonsalvo's biographer and contemporary, Giovio, begins to distinguish him by that epithet from this period. Abarca a.s.signs a higher antiquity to it, quoting the words of the royal grant of the duchy of Sessa, made to Gonsalvo, as authority. (Reyes de Aragon, rey 39, cap. 9.) In a former edition, I intimated my doubt of the historian's accuracy. A subsequent inspection of the instrument itself, in a work since come into my possession, shows this distrust to have been well founded; for it is there simply said, that the t.i.tle was conferred in Italy. Pulgar, Sumario, p. 188.

[29] This was improving on the somewhat similar expedient ascribed by Polybius to King Pyrrhus, who mingled alternate cohorts, armed with short weapons after the Roman fas.h.i.+on, with those of his Macedonian spearmen.

Lib. 17 sec. 24.

[30] Giovio, Hist. sui Temporis, lib. 4, p. 133.--Idem, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, pp. 220, 221.--Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib. 2, cap. 27.

--Chronica del Gran Capitan, cap. 28.--Quintana, Espanoles Celebres, tom.

i. p. 229.--Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, rey 30, cap. 9.

[31] Villeneuve, Memoires, p. 318.--Comines, Memoires, liv. 8, chap. 21.-- Giovio, Hist. sui Temporis, lib. 4, p. 136.

[32] Comines, Memoires, liv. 8, chap. 21.

[33] Giovio, Hist. sui Temporis, p. 137.--Comines, Memoires, liv. 8, chap.