Volume II Part 25 (1/2)

[3] Nine different matches were proposed for Joanna in the course of her life; but they all vanished into air, and the ”excellent lady,” as she was usually called by the Portuguese, died as she had lived, in single blessedness, at the ripe age of sixty-eight. In the Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi., the 19th Il.u.s.tracion is devoted to this topic, in regard to which Father Florez shows sufficient ignorance, or inaccuracy. Reynas Catholicas, tom. ii. p. 780.

[4] Instructions relating to this matter, written with the queen's own hand, still exist in the archives of Simancas. Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., ubi supra.

[5] La Clede, Histoire de Portugal, tom. iv. p. 100.

The Portuguese historian, Faria y Sousa, expends half a dozen folio pages on these royal revelries, which cost six months' preparation, and taxed the wits of the most finished artists and artificers in France, England, Flanders, Castile, and Portugal. (Europa Portuguesa, tom. ii. pp. 452 et seq.) We see, throughout, the same luxury of spectacle, the same elegant games of chivalry, as the tilt of reeds, the rings, and the like, which the Castilians adopted from the Spanish Arabs.

[6] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, tom. v. fol. 38.--Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 312.

[7] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, tom. v. fol. 78, 82.--La Clede, Hist.

de Portugal, tom. iv. p. 95.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 146.

Martyr, in a letter written at the close of 1496, thus speaks of the princess Isabella's faithful attachment to her husband's memory; ”Mira fuit hujus foeminae in abjiciendis secundis nuptiis constantia. Tanta est ejus modestia, tanta vidualis cast.i.tas, ut neo mensa post mariti mortem comederit, nec lauti quicquam degustaverit. Jejuniis sese vigiliisque ita maceravit, ut sicco stipite siccior sit effecta. Suffulta rubore perturbatur, quandocunque de jugali thalamo sermo intexitur. Parentum tamen aliquando precibus, veluti olfacimus, inflectetur. Viget fama, futuram vestri regis Emmanuelis uxorem.” Epist. 171.

[8] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, tom. v. fol. 63.

[9] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, tom. v. lib. 2, cap. 5.--Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii. p. 160.

[10] I believe there is no instance of such a union, save that of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, with Dona Constanza, daughter of Peter the Cruel, in 1371, from whom Queen Isabella was lineally descended on the father's side. The t.i.tle of _Prince of the Asturias_, appropriated to the heir apparent of Castile, was first created for the infant Don Henry, afterwards Henry III., on occasion of his marriage with John of Gaunt's daughter, in 1388. It was professedly in imitation of the English t.i.tle of Prince of Wales; and the Asturias were selected as that portion of the ancient Gothic monarchy, which had never bowed beneath the Saracen yoke.

Florez, Reynas Catholicas, tom. ii. pp. 708-715.--Mendoza, Dignidades, lib. 3, cap. 23.

[11] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib. 2, cap. 25.--Rymer, Foedera, (London, 1727,) vol. xii. pp. 638-642.

Ferdinand used his good offices to mediate a peace between Henry VII. and the king of Scots; and it is a proof of the respect entertained for him by both these monarchs, that they agreed to refer their disputes to his arbitration. (Rymer, Foedera, vol. xii. p. 671.) ”And so,” says the old chronicler Hall, of the English prince, ”beying confederate and alied by treatie and league with al his neighbors, he gratefied with his moost heartie thanks kyng Ferdinand and the quene his wife, to which woman none other was comparable in her tyme, for that they were the mediators, organes, and instrumentes by the which the truce was concluded betwene the Scottish kynge and him, and rewarded his amba.s.sadoure moost liberally and bountefully.” Chronicle, p. 483.

[12] See the marriage treaty in Rymer. (Foedera, vol. xii. pp. 658-666.) The marriage had been arranged between the Spanish and English courts as far back as March, 1489, when the elder of the parties had not yet reached the fifth year of her age. This was confirmed by another, more full and definite, in the following year, 1490. By this treaty, it was stipulated, that Catharine's portion should be 200,000 gold crowns, one-half to be paid down at the date of her marriage, and the remainder in two equal payments in the course of the two years ensuing. The prince of Wales was to settle on her one-third of the revenues of the princ.i.p.ality of Wales, the dukedom of Cornwall, and earldom of Chester. Rymer, Foedera, vol. xii.

pp. 411-417.

[13] ”Procuro,” says Zurita, ”que se effectua.s.sen los matrimonios de sus hijos, no solo con promesas, pero con dadivas que se hizieron a los privados de aquellos principes, que en ello entendian.” Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib. 2, cap. 3.

[14] Historians differ, as usual, as to the strength of this armament.

Martyr makes it 110 vessels, and 10,000 soldiers, (Opus Epist., epist.

168;) while Bernaldez carries the number to 130 sail, and 25,000 soldiers, (Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 153.) Ferreras adopts the latter estimate, (tom. viii. p. 173.) Martyr may have intended only the galleys and regular troops, while Bernaldez, more loosely, included vessels and seamen of every description. See also the royal ordinances, ap. Coleccion de Cedulas, (tom. i. nos. 79, 80, 82,) whose language implies a very large number, without specifying it.

[15] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 172.--Carbajal, a.n.a.les, MS., ano 1496.--Mariana, Hist. de Espana, tom. ii. lib. 26, cap. 12.

[16] Carbajal, a.n.a.les, MS., ano 1496.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist.

172.

[17] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 174.--Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii.

lib. 19, cap. 6.--Gaillard, Rivalite, tom. iii. pp. 416, 423.--Sandoval, Historia del Emperador Carlos V., (Amberes, 1681,) tom. i. p. 2.

These, comprehending her verses, public addresses, and discourse on her own life, have been collected into a single volume, under the t.i.tle of ”La Couronne Margaritique,” Lyons, 1549, by the French writer Jean la Maire de Belges, her faithful follower, but whose greatest glory it is, to have been the instructor of Clement Marot.

[18] Fontenelle, Oeuvres, tom. i. dial. 4.

”Ci gist Margot, la gentil' damoiselle Qu'a deux maris, et encore est pucelle.”

It must be allowed that Margaret's quiet nonchalance was much more suited to Fontenelle's habitual taste, than the imposing scene of Cato's death.