Volume I Part 10 (1/2)

Nic. Antonio, in the tenth book of his great repository, has a.s.sembled the biographical and bibliographical notices of the various Spanish authors of the fifteenth century, whose labors diffused a glimmering of light over their own age, which has become faint in the superior illumination of the succeeding.

[36] Sempere, in his Historia del Luxo, (tom. i. p. 177,) has published an extract from an unprinted ma.n.u.script of the celebrated marquis of Villena, ent.i.tled _Triunfo de las Donas_, in which, adverting to the _pet.i.ts- maitres_ of his time, he recapitulates the fas.h.i.+onable arts employed by them for the embellishment of the person, with a degree of minuteness which might edify a modern _dandy_.

[37] Cronica de Juan II., p. 499.--Faria y Sousa, Europa Portuguesa, (1679,) tom. ii. pp. 335, 372.

[38] Cronica de Alvaro de Luna, t.i.t. 128.--Cronica de Juan II., pp. 457, 460, 572.--Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 227, 228.--Garibay, Compendio Historial de las Chronicas de Espana, (Barcelona, 1628,) tom.

ii. p. 493.

[39] Cronica de Alvaro de Luna, t.i.t. 128.--What a contrast to all this is afforded by the vivid portrait, sketched by John de Mena, of the constable in the noontide of his glory.

”Este caualga sobre la fortuna y doma su cuello con asperas riendas y aunque del tenga tan muchas de prendas ella non le osa tocar de ninguna,” etc.

Laberinto, coplas 235 et seq.

[40] Cibdareal, Centon Epistolario, ep. 103.--Cronica de Juan II., p.

564.--Cronica de Alvaro de Luna, t.i.t. 128, and Apend. p. 458.

[41] Ent.i.tled ”Doctrinal de Privados.” See the Cancionero General, fol. 37 et seq.--In the following stanza, the constable is made to moralize with good effect on the instability of worldly grandeur.

”Quo se hizo la moneda que guarde para mis danos tantos tiempos tantos anos plata joyas oro y seda y de todo no me queda sine este cadahalso; mundo malo mundo falso no ay quien contigo pueda.”

Manrique has the same sentiments in his exquisite ”Coplas.” I give Longfellow's version, as spirited as it is literal.

”Spain's haughty Constable,--the great And gallant Master,--cruel fate Stripped him of all.

Breathe not a whisper of his pride, He on the gloomy scaffold died, Ign.o.ble fall!

The countless treasures of his care, Hamlets and villas green and fair, His mighty power,-- What were they all but grief and shame, Tears and a broken heart,--when came.

The parting hour!”

Stanza 21.

[42] Cibdareal, Centon Epistolario, ep. 103.--Cronica de Alvaro de Luna, t.i.t. 128.

[43] Cronica de Juan II., p. 576.--Cibdareal, Centon Epistolario, epist.

105.

There has been considerable discrepancy, even among cotemporary writers, both as to the place and the epoch of Isabella's birth, amounting, as regards the latter, to nearly two years. I have adopted the conclusion of Senor Clemencin, formed from a careful collation of the various authorities, in the sixth volume of the Memorias de la Real Academia de Historia, (Madrid, 1821,) Il.u.s.t. 1, pp. 56-60. Isabella was descended both on the father's and mother's side from the famous John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster. See Florez, Memorias de las Reynas Catholicas, (2d ed. Madrid, 1770,) tom. ii. pp. 743, 787.

CHAPTER II.

CONDITION OF ARAGON DURING THE MINORITY OF FERDINAND.--REIGN OF JOHN II., OF ARAGON.

1452-1472.

John of Aragon.--Difficulties with his Son Carlos.--Birth of Ferdinand.-- Insurrection of Catalonia.--Death of Carlos.--His Character.--Tragical Story of Blanche.--Young Ferdinand besieged by the Catalans.--Treaty between France and Aragon.--Distress and Embarra.s.sments of John.--Siege and Surrender of Barcelona.

We must now transport the reader to Aragon, in order to take a view of the extraordinary circ.u.mstances, which opened the way for Ferdinand's succession in that kingdom. The throne, which had become vacant by the death of Martin, in 1410, was awarded by the committee of judges to whom the nation had referred the great question of the succession, to Ferdinand, regent of Castile during the minority of his nephew, John the Second; and thus the sceptre, after having for more than two centuries descended in the family of Barcelona, was transferred to the same b.a.s.t.a.r.d branch of Trastamara, that ruled over the Castilian monarchy. [1]

Ferdinand the First was succeeded after a brief reign by his son Alfonso the Fifth, whose personal history belongs less to Aragon than to Naples, which kingdom he acquired by his own prowess, and where he established his residence, attracted, no doubt, by the superior amenity of the climate and the higher intellectual culture, as well as the pliant temper of the people, far more grateful to the monarch than the st.u.r.dy independence of his own countrymen.

During his long absence, the government of his hereditary domains devolved on his brother John, as his lieutenant-general in Aragon. [2] This prince had married Blanche, widow of Martin, king of Sicily, and daughter of Charles the Third, of Navarre. By her he had three children; Carlos, prince of Viana; [3] Blanche, married to and afterwards repudiated by Henry the Fourth, of Castile; [4] and Eleanor, who espoused a French n.o.ble, Gaston, count of Foix. On the demise of the elder Blanche, the crown of Navarre rightfully belonged to her son, the prince of Viana, conformably to a stipulation in her marriage contract, that, on the event of her death, the eldest heir male, and, in default of sons, female, should inherit the kingdom, to the exclusion of her husband. [5] This provision, which had been confirmed by her father, Charles the Third, in his testament, was also recognized in her own, accompanied however with a request, that her son Carlos, then twenty-one years of age, would, before a.s.suming the sovereignty, solicit ”the good will and approbation of his father.” [6] Whether this approbation was withheld, or whether it was ever solicited, does not appear. It seems probable, however, that Carlos, perceiving no disposition in his father to relinquish the rank and nominal t.i.tle of king of Navarre, was willing he should retain them, so long as he himself should be allowed to exercise the actual rights of sovereignty; which indeed he did, as lieutenant-general or governor of the kingdom, at the time of his mother's decease, and for some years after. [7]

In 1447, John of Aragon contracted a second alliance with Joan Henriquez, of the blood royal of Castile, and daughter of Don Frederic Henriquez, admiral of that kingdom; [8] a woman considerably younger than himself, of consummate address, intrepid spirit, and unprincipled ambition. Some years after this union, John sent his wife into Navarre, with authority to divide with his son Carlos the administration of the government there.