The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Volume I Part 9

The new queen, disgusted with his haughty bearing, and probably not much gratified with the subordinate situation to which he had reduced her husband, entered heartily into the feelings of the latter, and indeed contrived to extinguish whatever spark of latent affection for his ancient favorite lurked within his breast. John, yet fearing the overgrown power of the constable too much to encounter him openly, condescended to adopt the dastardly policy of Tiberius on a similar occasion, by caressing the man whom he designed to ruin, and he eventually obtained possession of his person, only by a violation of the royal safe-conduct. The constable's trial was referred to a commission of jurists and privy counsellors, who, after a summary and informal investigation, p.r.o.nounced on him the sentence of death on a specification of charges either general and indeterminate, or of the most trivial import. "If the king," says Garibay, "had dispensed similar justice to all his n.o.bles, who equally deserved it in those turbulent times, he would have had but few to reign over." [38]

The constable had supported his disgrace, from the first, with an equanimity not to have been expected from his elation in prosperity; and he now received the tidings of his fate with a similar fort.i.tude. As he rode along the streets to the place of execution, clad in the sable livery of an ordinary criminal, and deserted by those who had been reared by his bounty, the populace, who before called so loudly for his disgrace, struck with this astonis.h.i.+ng reverse of his brilliant fortunes, were melted into tears. [39] They called to mind the numerous instances of his magnanimity.

They reflected, that the ambitious schemes of his rivals had been not a whit less selfish, though less successful, than his own; and that, if his cupidity appeared insatiable, he had dispensed the fruits of it in acts of princely munificence. He himself maintained a serene and even cheerful aspect. Meeting one of the domestics of Prince Henry, he bade him request the prince "to reward the attachment of his servants with a different guerdon from what his master had a.s.signed to him." As he ascended the scaffold, he surveyed the apparatus of death with composure, and calmly submitted himself to the stroke of the executioner, who, in the savage style of the executions of that day, plunged his knife into the throat of his victim, and deliberately severed his head from his body. A basin, for the reception of alms to defray the expenses of his interment, was placed at one extremity of the scaffold; and his mutilated remains, after having been exposed for several days to the gaze of the populace, were removed, by the brethren of a charitable order, to a place called the hermitage of St. Andrew, appropriated as the cemetery for malefactors. [40]

Such was the tragical end of Alvaro de Luna; a man, who, for more than thirty years, controlled the counsels of the sovereign, or, to speak more properly, was himself the sovereign of Castile. His fate furnishes one of the most memorable lessons in history. It was not lost on his contemporaries; and the marquis of Santillana has made use of it to point the moral of perhaps the most pleasing of his didactic compositions. [41]

John did not long survive his favorite's death, which he was seen afterwards to lament even with tears. Indeed, during the whole of the trial he had exhibited the most pitiable agitation, having twice issued and recalled his orders countermanding the constable's execution; and, had it not been for the superior constancy, or vindictive temper of the queen, he would probably have yielded to these impulses of returning affection.

[42]

So far from deriving a wholesome warning from experience, John confided the entire direction of his kingdom to individuals not less interested, but possessed of far less enlarged capacities, than the former minister.

Penetrated with remorse at the retrospect of his unprofitable life, and filled with melancholy presages of the future, the unhappy prince lamented to his faithful attendant Cibdareal, on his deathbed, that "he had not been born the son of a mechanic, instead of king of Castile." He died July 21st, 1454, after a reign of eight and forty years, if reign it may be called, which was more properly one protracted minority. John left one child by his first wife, Henry, who succeeded him on the throne; and by his second wife two others, Alfonso, then an infant, and Isabella, afterwards queen of Castile, the subject of the present narrative. She had scarcely reached her fourth year at the time of her father's decease, having been born on the 22d of April, 1451, at Madrigal. The king recommended his younger children to the especial care and protection of their brother Henry, and a.s.signed the town of Cuellar, with its territory and a considerable sum of money, for the maintenance of the Infanta Isabella. [43]

FOOTNOTES

[1] Sempere y Guarinos, Historia del Luxo, y de las Leyes Suntuarias de Espana, (Madrid, 1788,) tom. i. p. 171.

[2] Cronica de Enrique III., edicion de la Academia, (Madrid, 1780,) pa.s.sim.--Cronica de Juan II., (Valencia, 1779,) p. 6.

[3] Cronica de Alvaro de Luna, edition de la Academia, (Madrid, 1784,) t.i.t. 3, 5, 68, 74.--Guzman, Generaciones y Semblanzas, (Madrid, 1775,) cap. 33, 34.--Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, en a.n.a.les Historicos, (Madrid, 1682,) tom. i. fol. 227.--Cronica de Juan II., pa.s.sim.--He possessed sixty towns and fortresses, and kept three thousand lances constantly in pay.

Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.

[4] Guzman, Generaciones, cap. 33.--Cronica de Don Juan II., p. 491, et alibi. His complaisance for the favorite, indeed, must be admitted, if we believe Guzman, to have been of a most extraordinary kind. "E lo que con mayor maravilla se puede decir e oir, que aun en los autos naturales se dio asi a la ordenanza del condestable, que seyendo el mozo bien complexionado, e teniendo a la reyna su muger moza y hermosa, si el condestable se lo contradixiese, no iria a dormir a su cama della." Ubi supra.

[5] Marina, Teoria de las Cortes, (Madrid, 1813,) tom. i. cap. 20.--tom.

ii. pp. 216, 390, 391.--tom. iii. part. 2, no. 4.--Capmany, Practica y Estilo de Celebrar Cortes en Aragon, Cataluna y Valencia, (Madrid, 1821,) pp. 234, 235.--Sempere, Histoire des Cortes d'Espagne, (Bordeaux, 1815,) ch. 18, 24.

[6] Several of this prince's laws for redressing the alleged grievances are incorporated in the great code of Philip II., (Recopilacion de las Leyes, (Madrid, 1640,) lib. 6, t.i.t. 7, leyes 5, 7, 2,) which declares, in the most unequivocal language, the right of the commons to be consulted on all important matters. "Porque en los hechos arduos de nuestros reynos es necessario consejo de nuestros subditos, y naturales, _especialmente de los procuradores de las nuestras ciudades, villas, y lugares de los nuestros reynos._" It was much easier to extort good laws from this monarch, than to enforce them.

[7] Mariana, Historia de Espana, (Madrid, 1780,) tom. ii. p. 299.

[8] Marina, Teoria, ubi supra.

[9] Capmany, Practica y Estilo, p. 228.--Sempere, Hist. des Cortes, chap.

19.--Marina, Teoria, part. 1, cap. 16.--In 1656, the city of Palencia was content to repurchase its ancient right of representation from the crown, at an expense of 80,000 ducats.

[10] Capmany, Practica y Estilo, p. 230.--Sempere, Histoire des Cortes d'Espagne, chap. 19.

[11] Marina, Teoria, tom. i. p. 161.

[12] See the ample collections of Sanchez, "Poesias Castellanas anteriores al Siglo XV." 4 tom. Madrid, 1779-1790.

[13] Guzman, Generaciones, cap. 33.--Gomez de Cibdareal, Centon Epistolario, (Madrid, 1775,) epist. 20, 49.--Cibdareal has given us a specimen of this royal criticism, which Juan de Mena, the subject of it, was courtier enough to adopt.

[14] Velazquez, Origenes de la Poesia Castellana, (Malaga, 1797,) p. 45.-- Sanchez, Poesias Castellanas, tom. i. p. 10.--"The Cancioneros Generales, in print and in ma.n.u.script," says Sanchez, "show the great number of dukes, counts, marquises, and other n.o.bles, who cultivated this art."

[15] He was the grandson, not, as Sanchez supposes (tom. i. p.15), the son, of Alonso de Villena, the first marquis as well as constable created in Castile, descended from James II. of Aragon. (See Dormer, Enmiendas y Advertencias de Zurita, (Zaragoza, 1683,) pp. 371-376.) His mother was an illegitimate daughter of Henry II., of Castile. Guzman, Generaciones, cap.

28.--Salazar de Mendoza, Monarquia de Espana, (Madrid, 1770,) tom. i. pp.

203, 339.

[16] Guzman, Generaciones, cap. 28.--Juan de Mena introduces Villena into his "Laberinto," in an agreeable stanza, which has something of the mannerism of Dante.

"Aquel claro padre aquel dulce fuente aquel que en el castolo monte resuena es don Enrique Senor de Villena honrra de Espana y del siglo presente," etc.

Juan de Mena, Obras, (Alcala, 1566,) fol. 138.

[17] The recent Castilian translators of Bouterwek's History of Spanish Literature have fallen into an error in imputing the beautiful _cancion_ of the "Querella de Amor" to Villena. It was composed by the Marquis of Santillana. (Bouterwek, Historia de la Literatura Espanola, traducida por Cortina y Hugalde y Mollinedo, (Madrid, 1829,) p. 196, and Sanchez, Poesias Castellanas, tom. i. pp. 38, 143.)

[18] Velazquez, Origenes de la Poesia Castellana, p. 45.--Bouterwek, Literatura Espanola, trad. de Cortina y Mollinedo, nota S.

[19] See an abstract of it in Mayans y Siscar, Origines de la Lengua Espanola, (Madrid, 1737,) tom. ii. pp. 321 et seq.

[20] Zurita, a.n.a.les de la Corona de Aragon, (Zaragoza, 1669,) tom. iii. p.

227.--Guzman, Generaciones, cap. 28.

[21] Centon Epistolario, epist. 66.--The bishop endeavored to transfer the blame of the conflagration to the king. There can be little doubt, however, that the good father infused the suspicions of necromancy into his master's bosom. "The angels," he says in one of his works, "who guarded Paradise, presented a treatise on magic to one of the posterity of Adam, from a copy of which Villena derived his science." (See Juan de Mena, Obras, fol. 139, glosa.) One would think that such an orthodox source might have justified Villena in the use of it.

[22] Comp. Juan de Mena, Obras, copl. 127, 128; and Nic. Antonio, Bibliotheca Vetus, tom. ii. p. 220.

[23] Pulgar, Claros Varones de Castilla, y Letras, (Madrid, 1755,) t.i.t.

4.--Nic. Antonio, Bibliotheca Vetus, lib. 10, cap. 9.--Quincuagenas de Gonzalo de Oviedo, MS., batalla 1, quinc. 1, dial. 8.

[24] Garcila.s.so de la Vega, Obras, ed. de Herrera, (1580,) pp. 75, 76-- Sanchez, Poesias Castellanas, tom. i. p. 21.--Boscan, Obras, (1543,) fol.

19.--It must be admitted, however, that the attempt was premature, and that it required a riper stage of the language to give a permanent character to the innovation.

[25] See Sanchez, Poesias Castellanas, tom. i. pp. 1-119.--A copious catalogue of the marquis de Santillana's writings is given in the same volume, (pp. 33 et seq.) Several of his poetical pieces are collected in the Cancionero General, (Anvers, 1573,) fol. 34 et seq.

[26] Pulgar, Claros Varones, t.i.t. 4.--Salazar de Mendoza, Monarquia, tom.

i. p. 218.--Idem, Origen de las Dignidades Seglares de Castilla y Leon, (Madrid, 1794,) p. 285.--Oviedo makes the marquis much older, seventy-five years of age, when he died. He left, besides daughters, six sons, who all became the founders of n.o.ble and powerful houses. See the whole genealogy, in Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 8.

[27] "Flor de saber y cabelleria." El Laberinto, copla 114.

[28] Nic. Antonio, Bibliotheca Vetus, tom. ii. pp. 265 et seq.

[29] Cibdareal, Centon Epistolario, epist. 47, 49.

[30] See Velazquez, Poesia Castellana, p. 49.

[31] A collection of them is incorporated in the Cancionero General, fol.

41 et seq.

[32] Castro, Biblioteca Espanola, (Madrid, 1781,) tom. i, pp. 266, 267.-- This interesting doc.u.ment, the most primitive of all the Spanish _cancioneros_, notwithstanding its local position in the library is specified by Castro with great precision, eluded the search of the industrious translators of Bouterwek, who think it may have disappeared during the French invasion. Literatura Espanola, trad. de Cortina y Mollinedo, p. 205, nota Hh.

[33] See these collected in Castro, Biblioteca Espanola, tom. ii. p. 265 et seq.--The veneration entertained for the poetic art in that day may be conceived from Baena's whimsical prologue. "Poetry," he says, "or the gay science, is a very subtile and delightsome composition. It demands in him, who would hope to excel in it, a curious invention, a sane judgment, a various scholars.h.i.+p, familiarity with courts and public affairs, high birth and breeding, a temperate, courteous, and liberal disposition, and, in fine, honey, sugar, salt, freedom, and hilarity in his discourse." p.

268.

[34] Castro, Biblioteca Espanola, tom. i. p. 273.

[35] Perhaps the most conspicuous of these historical compositions for mere literary execution is the Chronicle of Alvaro de Luna, to which I have had occasion to refer, edited in 1784, by Flores, the diligent secretary of the Royal Academy of History. He justly commends it for the purity and harmony of its diction. The loyalty of the chronicler seduces him sometimes into a swell of panegyric, which may he thought to savor too strongly of the current defect of Castilian prose; but it more frequently imparts to his narrative a generous glow of sentiment, raising it far above the lifeless details of ordinary history, and occasionally even to positive eloquence.