The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Volume III Part 14

Happily, these masculine qualities in Isabella did not extinguish the softer ones which const.i.tute the charm of her s.e.x. Her heart overflowed with affectionate sensibility to her family and friends. She watched over the declining days of her aged mother, and ministered to her sad infirmities with all the delicacy of filial tenderness. [60] We have seen abundant proofs how fondly and faithfully she loved her husband to the last, [61] though this love was not always as faithfully requited. [62]

For her children she lived more than for herself; and for them too she died, for it was their loss and their afflictions which froze the current of her blood, before age had time to chill it. Her exalted state did not remove her above the sympathies of friends.h.i.+p. [63.] With her friends she forgot the usual distinctions of rank, sharing in their joys, visiting and consoling them in sorrow and sickness, and condescending in more than one instance to a.s.sume the office of executrix on their decease. [64] Her heart, indeed, was filled with benevolence to all mankind. In the most fiery heat of war, she was engaged in devising means for mitigating its horrors. She is said to have been the first to introduce the benevolent inst.i.tution of camp hospitals; and we have seen, more than once, her lively solicitude to spare the effusion of blood even of her enemies. But it is needless to multiply examples of this beautiful, but familiar trait in her character. [65]

It is in these more amiable qualities of her s.e.x, that Isabella's superiority becomes most apparent over her ill.u.s.trious namesake, Elizabeth of England, [66] whose history presents some features parallel to her own.

Both were disciplined in early life by the teachings of that stern nurse of wisdom, adversity. Both were made to experience the deepest humiliation at the hands of their nearest relative, who should have cherished and protected them. Both succeeded in establis.h.i.+ng themselves on the throne after the most precarious vicissitudes. Each conducted her kingdom, through a long and triumphant reign, to a height of glory, which it had never before reached. Both lived to see the vanity of all earthly grandeur, and to fall the victims of an inconsolable melancholy; and both left behind an ill.u.s.trious name, unrivalled in the subsequent annals of their country.

But, with these few circ.u.mstances of their history, the resemblance ceases. Their characters afford scarcely a point of contact. Elizabeth, inheriting a large share of the bold and bluff King Harry's temperament, was haughty, arrogant, coa.r.s.e, and irascible; while with these fiercer qualities she mingled deep dissimulation and strange irresolution.

Isabella, on the other hand, tempered the dignity of royal station with the most bland and courteous manners. Once resolved, she was constant in her purposes, and her conduct in public and private life was characterized by candor and integrity. Both may be said to have shown that magnanimity which is implied by the accomplishment of great objects in the face of great obstacles. But Elizabeth was desperately selfish; she was incapable of forgiving, not merely a real injury, but the slightest affront to her vanity; and she was merciless in exacting retribution. Isabella, on the other hand, lived only for others,--was ready at all times to sacrifice self to considerations of public duty; and, far from personal resentments, showed the greatest condescension and kindness to those who had most sensibly injured her; while her benevolent heart sought every means to mitigate the authorized severities of the law, even towards the guilty.

[67]

Both possessed rare fort.i.tude. Isabella, indeed, was placed in situations, which demanded more frequent and higher displays of it than her rival; but no one will doubt a full measure of this quality in the daughter of Henry the Eighth. Elizabeth was better educated, and every way more highly accomplished than Isabella. But the latter knew enough to maintain her station with dignity; and she encouraged learning by a munificent patronage. [68] The masculine powers and pa.s.sions of Elizabeth seemed to divorce her in a great measure from the peculiar attributes of her s.e.x; at least from those which const.i.tute its peculiar charm; for she had abundance of its foibles,--a coquetry and love of admiration, which age could not chill; a levity, most careless, if not criminal; [69] and a fondness for dress and tawdry magnificence of ornament, which was ridiculous, or disgusting, according to the different periods of life in which it was indulged. [70] Isabella, on the other hand, distinguished through life for decorum of manners, and purity beyond the breath of calumny, was content with the legitimate affection which she could inspire within the range of her domestic circle. Far from a frivolous affectation of ornament or dress, she was most simple in her own attire, and seemed to set no value on her jewels, but as they could serve the necessities of the state; [71] when they could be no longer useful in this way, she gave them away, as we have seen, to her friends.

Both were uncommonly sagacious in the selection of their ministers; though Elizabeth was drawn into some errors in this particular, by her levity, [72] as was Isabella by religious feeling. It was this, combined with her excessive humility, which led to the only grave errors in the administration of the latter. Her rival fell into no such errors; and she was a stranger to the amiable qualities which led to them. Her conduct was certainly not controlled by religious principle; and, though the bulwark of the Protestant faith, it might be difficult to say whether she were at heart most a Protestant or a Catholic. She viewed religion in its connection with the state, in other words, with herself; and she took measures for enforcing conformity to her own views, not a whit less despotic, and scarcely less sanguinary, than those countenanced for conscience' sake by her more bigoted rival. [73]

This feature of bigotry, which has thrown a shade over Isabella's otherwise beautiful character, might lead to a disparagement of her intellectual power compared with that of the English queen. To estimate this aright, we must contemplate the results of their respective reigns.

Elizabeth found all the materials of prosperity at hand, and availed herself of them most ably to build up a solid fabric of national grandeur.

Isabella created these materials. She saw the faculties of her people locked up in a deathlike lethargy, and she breathed into them the breath of life for those great and heroic enterprises, which terminated in such glorious consequences to the monarchy. It is when viewed from the depressed position of her early days, that the achievements of her reign seem scarcely less than miraculous. The masculine genius of the English queen stands out relieved beyond its natural dimensions by its separation from the softer qualities of her s.e.x. While her rival's, like some vast but symmetrical edifice, loses in appearance somewhat of its actual grandeur from the perfect harmony of its proportions.

The circ.u.mstances of their deaths, which were somewhat similar, displayed the great dissimilarity of their characters. Both pined amidst their royal state, a prey to incurable despondency, rather than any marked bodily distemper. In Elizabeth it sprung from wounded vanity, a sullen conviction that she had outlived the admiration on which she had so long fed,--and even the solace of friends.h.i.+p, and the attachment of her subjects. Nor did she seek consolation, where alone it was to be found, in that sad hour.

Isabella, on the other hand, sunk under a too acute sensibility to the sufferings of others. But, amidst the gloom which gathered around her, she looked with the eye of faith to the brighter prospects which unfolded of the future; and, when she resigned her last breath, it was amidst the tears and universal lamentations of her people.

It is in this undying, unabated attachment of the nation, indeed, that we see the most unequivocal testimony to the virtues of Isabella. In the downward progress of things in Spain, some of the most ill-advised measures of her administration have found favor and been perpetuated, while the more salutary have been forgotten. This may lead to a misconception of her real merits. In order to estimate these, we must listen to the voice of her contemporaries, the eye-witnesses of the condition in which she found the state, and in which she left it. We shall then see but one judgment formed of her, whether by foreigners or natives.

The French and Italian writers equally join in celebrating the triumphant glories of her reign, and her magnanimity, wisdom, and purity of character. [74] Her own subjects extol her as "the most brilliant exemplar of every virtue," and mourn over the day of her death as "the last of the prosperity and happiness of their country." [75] While those who had nearer access to her person are unbounded in their admiration of those amiable qualities, whose full power is revealed only in the unrestrained intimacies of domestic life. [76] The judgment of posterity has ratified the sentence of her own age. The most enlightened Spaniards of the present day, by no means insensible to the errors of her government, but more capable of appreciating its merits than those of a less instructed age, bear honorable testimony to her deserts; and, while they pa.s.s over the bloated magnificence of succeeding monarchs, who arrest the popular eye, dwell with enthusiasm on Isabella's character, as the most truly great in their line of princes. [77]

FOOTNOTES

[1] Mariana, Hist. de Espana, tom. ii. lib. 28, cap. 11.--Zurita, a.n.a.les, tom. v. lib. 5, cap. 84.

[2] Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 16.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 271, 272.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 46.--Carbajal, a.n.a.les, MS., ano 1504.

[3] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 46, 47.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 273.--Carbajal, a.n.a.les, MS., ano 1504.

[4] Opus Epist., epist. 274.

[5] A short time before her death, she received a visit from the distinguished officer, Prospero Colonna. The Italian n.o.ble, on being presented to King Ferdinand, told him, that "he had come to Castile to behold the woman, who from her sick bed ruled the world;" "ver una senora que desde la cama mandava al mundo." Sandoval, Hist. del Emp. Carlos V., tom. i. p. 8.--Carta de Gonzalo, MS.

[6] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 47.

Among the foreigners introduced to the queen at this time, was a celebrated Venetian traveller, named Vianelli, who presented her with a cross of pure gold set with precious stones, among which was a carbuncle of inestimable value. The liberal Italian met with rather an uncourtly rebuke from Ximenes, who told him, on leaving the presence, that "he had rather have the money his diamonds cost, to spend in the service of the church, than all the gems of the Indies." Ibid.

[7] Opus Epist., epist. 276.

[8] Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 200, 201.--Carbajal, a.n.a.les, MS., ano 1504.--Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 16.--Zuniga, Annales de Sevilla, pp. 423, 424.

[9] "Ni f.a.gan fnera de los dichos mis Reynos e Senorios, Leyes e Prematicas, ni las otras cosas que en Cortes se deven hazer segand las Leyes de ellos;" (Testamento, apud Dormer, Discursos Varios, p. 343;) an honorable testimony to the legislative rights of the cortes, which contrasts strongly with the despotic a.s.sumption of preceding and succeeding princes.

[10] I have before me three copies of Isabella's testament; one in MS., apud Carbajal, a.n.a.les, ano 1504; a second printed in the beautiful Valencia edition of Mariana, tom. ix. apend. no. 1; and a third published in Dormer's Discursos Varios de Historia, pp. 314-388. I am not aware that it has been printed elsewhere.

[11] The "Ordenanjas Reales de Castilla," published in 1484, and the "Pragmaticas del Reyno," first printed in 1503, comprehend the general legislation of this reign; a particular account of which the reader may find in Part I. Chapter 6, and Part II. Chapter 26, of this History.

[12] Las Casas, who will not be suspected of sycophancy, remarks, in his narrative of the destruction of the Indies, "Les plus grandes horreurs de ces guerres et de cette boucherie commencerent aussitot qu'on sut en Amerique que la reine Isabelle venait de mourir; car jusqu'alors il ne s'etait pas commis autant de crimes dans l'ile Espagnole, et l'on avait meme eu soin de les cacher a cette princesse, parce qu'elle ne cessait de recommander de traiter les Indiens avec douceur, et de ne rien negliger pour les rendre heureux: _j'ai vu, ainsi que beaucoup d'Espagnols, les lettres qu'elle ecrivait a ce sujet, et les ordres qu'elle envoyait; ce qui prouve que cette admirable reine aurait mis fin a tant de cruautes, si elle avait pu les connaitre_." Oeuvres, ed. de Llorente, tom. i. p. 21.

[13] The original codicil is still preserved among the ma.n.u.scripts of the Royal Library at Madrid. It is appended to the queen's testament in the works before noticed.

[14] Clemencin has given a fac-simile of this last signature of the queen, in the Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Il.u.s.t. 21.

[15] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 187.--Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii.

lib. 19, cap. 16.

[16] Arevalo, Historia Palentina, MS., apud Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. p. 572.--L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 187.--Garibay, Compendio, ubi supra.

[17] Isabella was born April 22d, 1451, and ascended the throne December 12th, 1474.

[18] Opus Epist., epist. 279.

[19] Opus Epist., epist. 280.--The text does not exaggerate the language of the epistle.

[20] Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 201.--Carbajal, a.n.a.les, MS., ano 1504.--Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 16.--Zurita, tom. v.

lib. 5, cap. 84.--Navagiero, Viaggio, fol. 23.

[21] The Curate of Los Palacios remarks of her, "Fue muger hermosa, de muy gentil cuerpo, e gesto, e composicion." (Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 201.) Pulgar, another contemporary, eulogizes "el mirar muy gracioso, y honesto, las facciones del rostro bien puestas, la cara toda muy hermosa." (Reyes Catolicos, part. 1, cap. 4.) L. Marineo says, "Todo lo que avia en el rey de dignidad, se hallava en la reyna de graciosa hermosura, y en entrambos se mostrava una majestad venerable, aunque a juyzio de muchos la reyna era de mayor hermosura." (Cosas Memorables, fol. 182.) And Oviedo, who had likewise frequent opportunities of personal observation, does not hesitate to declare, "En hermosura puestas delante de S. A. todas las mugeres que yo he visto, ninguna vi tan graciosa, ni tanto de ver como su persona."

Quincuagenas, MS.

[22] Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Il.u.s.t. 8.

[23] Ibid., ubi supra.

[24] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 182.--Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, part. 1, cap, 4.

[25] Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. p. 323.

[26] Such occasions have rare charms, of course, for the gossipping chroniclers of the period. See, among others, the gorgeous ceremonial of the baptism and presentation of Prince John at Seville, 1478, as related by the good Curate of Los Palacios. (Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 32, 33.) "Isabella was surrounded and served," says Pulgar, "by grandees and lords of the highest rank, so that it was said she maintained too great pomp; _pompa demasiada_." Reyes Catolicos, part. 1, cap. 4.

[27] Florez quotes a pa.s.sage from an original letter of the queen, written soon after one of her progresses into Galicia, showing her habitual liberality in this way. "Decid a dona Luisa, que porque vengo de Galicia desecha de vestidos, no le envio para su hermana; que no tengo agora cosa buena; mas yo ge los enviare pres...o...b..enos." Reynas Catholicas, tom. ii.

p. 839.

[28] See the magnificent inventory presented to her daughter-in-law, Margaret of Austria, and to her daughter Maria, queen of Portugal, apud Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Il.u.s.t. 12.

[29] "Alegre," says the author of "Carro de las Donas," "de una alegria honesta y mui mesurada." Ibid., p. 558.

[30] Among the retainers of the court, Bernaldez notices "la molt.i.tud de poetas, de trobadores, e musicos de todas partes." Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 201.

[31] "Queria que sus cartas e mandamientos fuesen complidos con diligencia." Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, part. 1, cap. 4

[32] See a remarkable instance of this, in her treatment of the faithless Juan de Corral, noticed in Part I. Chapter 10, of this History.

[33] The melancholy tone of Columbus's correspondence after the queen's death, shows too well the color of his fortunes and feelings. (Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i. pp. 341 et seq.) The sentiments of the Great Captain were still more unequivocally expressed, according to Giovio. "Nec multis inde diebus Regina fato concessit, incredibili c.u.m dolore atque jactura Consalvi; nam ab ea tanquam alumnus, ac in ejus regia educatus, cuncta quae exoptari possent virtutis et dignitatis incrementa ademptum fuisse fatebatur, rege ipso quanquam minus benigno parumque liberali nunquam reginae voluntati reluctari anso. Id vero praeclare tanquam verissimum apparuit elata regina." Vitae Ill.u.s.t. Virorum, p. 275.

[34] The reader may recall a striking example of this, in the early part of her reign, in her great tenderness and forbearance towards the humors of Carillo, archbishop of Toledo, her quondam friend, but then her most implacable foe.