FOOTNOTES
[1] Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 28, cap. 11.—Zurita, Anales, 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, Anales, MS., año 1504.
[3] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 46, 47.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 273.—Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 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 noble, 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 señora 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 Católicos, MS., cap. 200, 201.—Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1504.—Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 16.—Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, pp. 423, 424.
[9] "Ni fagan fnera de los dichos mis Reynos e Señorios, Leyes e Premáticas, 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 assumption of preceding and succeeding princes.
[10] I have before me three copies of Isabella's testament; one in MS., apud Carbajal, Anales, año 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 "Pragmáticas 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 commencèrent aussitôt qu'on sut en Amérique que la reine Isabelle venait de mourir; car jusqu'alors il ne s'était pas commis autant de crimes dans l'île Espagnole, et l'on avait même eu soin de les cacher à cette princesse, parce qu'elle ne cessait de recommander de traiter les Indiens avec douceur, et de ne rien négliger pour les rendre heureux: j'ai vu, ainsi que beaucoup d'Espagnols, les lettres qu'elle écrivait à ce sujet, et les ordres qu'elle envoyait; ce qui prouve que cette admirable reine aurait mis fin à tant de cruautés, si elle avait pu les connaître." Oeuvres, ed. de Llorente, tom. i. p. 21.
[13] The original codicil is still preserved among the manuscripts 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. Ilust. 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 Católicos, MS., cap. 201.—Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 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 Católicos, 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 Católicos, 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. Ilust. 8.
[23] Ibid., ubi supra.
[24] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 182.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, 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 Católicos, 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 Católicos, part. 1, cap. 4.
[27] Florez quotes a passage 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 doña 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 presto buenos." Reynas Cathólicas, 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. Ilust. 12.
[29] "Alegre," says the author of "Carro de las Doñas," "de una alegria honesta y mui mesurada." Ibid., p. 558.
[30] Among the retainers of the court, Bernaldez notices "la moltitud de poetas, de trobadores, e músicos de todas partes." Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 201.
[31] "Queria que sus cartas é mandamientos fuesen complidos con diligencia." Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, 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 cum dolore atque jacturâ Consalvi; nam ab eâ tanquam alumnus, ac in ejus regiâ 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 elatâ reginâ." Vitae Illust. 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.
[35] Isabella at her brother's court might well have sat for the whole of Milton's beautiful portraiture.
"So dear to heaven is saintly chastity,
That, when a soul is found sincerely so,
A thousand liveried angels lackey her.
Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt,
And, in clear dream and solemn vision.
Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear,
Till oft converse with heavenly habitants
Begin to cast a beam on the outward shape,
The unpolluted temple of the mind,
And turns it by degrees to the soul's essence,
Till all be made immortal."
[36] "Era tanto," says L. Marineo, "el ardor y diligencia que tenia cerca el culto divino, que aunque de dia y de noche estava muy ocupada en grandes y arduos negocios de la governacion de muchos reynos y señorios, parescia que su vida era mas contemplativa que activa. Porque siempre se hallava presente a los divinos oficios y a la palabra de Dios. Era tanta su atencion que si alguno de los que celebravan o cantavan los psalmos, o otras cosas de la yglesia errava alguna dicion o syllaba, lo sintia y lo notava, y despues como maestro a discipulo se lo emendava y corregia. Acostumbrava cada dia dezir todas las horas canónicas demas de otras muchas votivas y extraordinarias devociones que tenia." Cosas Memorables, fol. 183.
[37] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 1, cap. 4.—Lucio Marineo enumerates many of these splendid charities.—(Cosas Memorables, fol. 165.) See also the notices scattered over the Itinerary (Viaggio in Spagna) of Navagiero, who travelled through the country a few years after.
[38] The archbishop's letters are little better than a homily on the sins of dancing, feasting, dressing, and the like, garnished with scriptural allusions, and conveyed in a tone of sour rebuke, that would have done credit to the most canting Roundhead in Oliver Cromwell's court. The queen, far from taking exception at it, vindicates herself from the grave imputations with a degree of earnestness and simplicity, which may provoke a smile in the reader. "I am aware," she concludes, "that custom cannot make an action, bad in itself, good; but I wish your opinion, whether, under all the circumstances, these can be considered bad; that, if so, they may be discontinued in future." See this curious correspondence in Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 13.
[39] Such encomiums become still more striking in writers of sound and expansive views like Zurita and Blancas, who, although flourishing in a better instructed age, do not scruple to pronounce the Inquisition "the greatest evidence of her prudence and piety, whose uncommon utility, not only Spain, but all Christendom, freely acknowledged!" Blancas, Commentarii, p. 263.—Zurita, Anales, tom. v. lib. 1, cap. 6.
[40] Sismondi displays the mischievous influence of these theological dogmas in Italy, as well as Spain, under the pontificate of Alexander VI. and his immediate predecessors, in the 90th chapter of his eloquent and philosophical "Histoire des Républiques Italiennes."
[41] I borrow almost the words of Mr. Hallam, who, noticing the penal statutes against Catholics under Elizabeth, says, "They established a persecution, which fell not at all short in principle of that for which the Inquisition had become so odious." (Constitutional History of England, (Paris, 1827,) vol. i. chap. 3.) Even Lord Burleigh, commenting on the mode of examination adopted in certain cases by the High Commission court, does not hesitate to say, the interrogatories were "so curiously penned, so full of branches and circumstances, as he thought the inquisitors of Spain used not so many questions to comprehend and to trap their preys." Ibid., chap. 4.
[42] Even Milton, in his essay on the "Liberty of Unlicensed Printing," the most splendid argument, perhaps, the world had then witnessed in behalf of intellectual liberty, would exclude Popery from the benefits of toleration, as a religion which the public good required at all events to be extirpated. Such were the crude views of the rights of conscience entertained in the latter half of the seventeenth century, by one of those gifted minds, whose extraordinary elevation enabled it to catch and reflect back the coming light of knowledge, long before it had fallen on the rest of mankind.
[43] The most remarkable example of this, perhaps, occurred in the case of the wealthy Galician knight, Yañez de Lugo, who endeavored to purchase a pardon of the queen by the enormous bribe of 40,000 doblas of gold. The attempt failed, though warmly supported by some of the royal counsellors. The story is well vouched. Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 2, cap. 97.—L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 180.
[44] The reader may recollect a pertinent illustration of this, on the occasion of Ximenes's appointment to the primacy. See Part II. Chapter 5, of this History.
[45] See, among other instances, her exemplary chastisement of the ecclesiastics of Truxillo. Part I. Chapter 12, of this History.
[46] Ibid., Part I. Chapter 6, Part II. Chapter 10, et alibi. Indeed, this independent attitude was shown, as I have more than once had occasion to notice, not merely in shielding the rights of her own crown, but in the boldest remonstrances against the corrupt practices and personal immorality of those who filled the chair of St. Peter at this period.
[47] The public acts of this reign afford repeated evidence of the pertinacity with which Isabella insisted on reserving the benefits of the Moorish conquests and the American discoveries for her own subjects of Castile, by whom and for whom they had been mainly achieved. The same thing is reiterated in the most emphatic manner in her testament.
[48] Opus Epist., epist. 31.
[49] Mem. de la. Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. p. 49.
[50] The preamble of one of her pragmáticas against this lavish expenditure at funerals, contains some reflections worth quoting for the evidence they afford of her practical good sense. "Nos deseando proveer e remediar al tal gasto sin provecho, e considerando que esto no redunda en sufragio e alivio de las animas de los defuntos," etc. "Pero los Católicos Christianos que creemos que hai otra vida despues desta, donde las animas esperan folganza e vida perdurable, desta habemos de curar e procurar de la ganar por obras meritorias, e no por cosas transitorias e vanas como son los lutos e gastos excesivos," Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. p. 318.
[51] Her exposure in this way on one occasion brought on a miscarriage. According to Gomez, indeed, she finally died of a painful internal disorder, occasioned by her long and laborious journeys. (De Rebus Gestis, fol. 47.) Giovio adopts the same account. (Vitae Illust. Virorum, p. 275.) The authorities are good, certainly; but Martyr, who was in the palace, with every opportunity of correct information, and with no reason for concealment of the truth, in his private correspondence with Tendilla and Talavera, makes no allusion whatever to such a complaint, in his circumstantial account of the queen's illness.
[52] Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. vii. p. 411.—Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. p. 29.
[53] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 182.—"Pronunciaba con primor el latin, y era tan habil en la prosodia, que si erraban algun acento, luego le corregia." Idem., apud Florez, Reynas Cathólicas, tom. ii. pp. 834.
[54] If we are to believe Florez, the king wore no shirt but of the queen's making. "Preciabase de no haverse puesto su marido camisa, que elle no huviesse hilado y cosido." (Reynas Cathólicas, tom. ii. p. 832.) If this be taken literally, his wardrobe, considering the multitude of her avocations, must have been indifferently furnished.
[55] Among many evidences of this, what other need be given than her conduct at the famous riot at Segovia? Part I. Chapter 6, of this History.
[56] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 1, cap. 4.—"No fue la Reyna," says L. Marineo, "de animo menos fuerte para sufrir los dolores corporales. Porque como yo fuy informado de las dueñas que le servian en la camara, ni en los dolores que padescia de sus enfermidades, ni en los del parto (que es cosa de grande admiracion) nunca la vieron quexar se; antes con increyble y maravillosa fortaleza los suffria y dissimulava." (Cosas Memorables, fol. 186.) To the same effect writes the anonymous author of the "Carro de las Doñas," apud Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. p. 559.
[57] "Era firme en sus propósitos, de los quales se retraia con gran dificultad." Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 1, cap. 4.
[58] The reader may refresh his recollection of Tasso's graceful sketch of Erminia in similar warlike panoply.
"Col durissimo acciar preme ed offende
Il delicato collo e l'aurea chioma;
E la tenera man lo scudo prende
Pur troppo grave e insopportabil soma.
Cosi tutta di ferro intorno splende,
E in atto militar se stessa doma."
Gerusalemme Liberata, canto 6, stanza 92.
[59] Viaggio, fol. 27.
[60] We find one of the first articles in the marriage treaty with Ferdinand enjoining him to cherish, and treat her mother with all reverence, and to provide suitably for her royal maintenance. (Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Apend. no. 1.) The author of the "Carro de las Doñas" thus notices her tender devotedness to her parent, at a later period. "Y esto me dijo quien lo vido por sus proprios ojos, que la Reyna Doña Isabel, nuestra señora, cuando estaba alli en Arevalo visitando a su madre, ella misma por su persona servia a su misma madre. E aqui tomen ejemplo los hijos como han de servir à sus padres, pues una Reina tan poderosa y en negocios tan arduos puesta, todos los mas de los años (puesto todo aparte y pospuesto) iba a visitar a su madre y la servia humilmente." Viaggio, p. 557.
[61] Among other little tokens of mutual affection, it may be mentioned that not only the public coin, but their furniture, books, and other articles of personal property, were stamped with their initials, F & I, or emblazoned with their devices, his being a yoke, and hers a sheaf of arrows. (Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 2, dial. 3.) It was common, says Oviedo, for each party to take a device, whose initial corresponded with that of the name of the other; as was the case here, with jugo and flechas.
[62] Marineo thus speaks of the queen's discreet and most amiable conduct in these delicate matters. "Amava en tanta manera al Rey su marido, que andava sobre aviso con celos a ver si el amava a otras. Y si sentia que mirava a alguna dama o donzella de su casa con señal de amores, con mucha prudencia buscava medios y maneras con que despedir aquella tal persona de su casa, con su mucha honrra y provecho." (Cosas Memorables, fol. 182.) There was unfortunately too much cause for this uneasiness. See Part II. Chapter 24, of this History.
[63] The best beloved of her friends, probably, was the marchioness of Moya, who, seldom separated from her royal mistress through life, had the melancholy satisfaction of closing her eyes in death. Oviedo, who saw them frequently together, says, that the queen never addressed this lady, even in later life, with any other than the endearing title of hija marquesa, "daughter marchioness." Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 23
[64] As was the case with Cardenas, the comendador mayor, and the grand cardinal Mendoza, to whom, as we have already seen, she paid the kindest attentions during their last illness. While in this way she indulged the natural dictates of her heart, she was careful to render every outward mark of respect to the memory of those whose rank or services entitled them to such consideration. "Quando," says the author so often quoted, "quiera que fallescia alguno de los grandes de su reyno, o algun príncipe Christiano, luego embiavan varones sabios y religiosos para consolar a sus heredores y deudos. Y demas desto se vestian de ropas de luto en testimonio del dolor y sentimiento que hazian." L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 185.
[65] Her humanity was shown in her attempts to mitigate the ferocious character of those national amusements, the bull-fights, the popularity of which throughout the country was too great, as she intimates in one of her letters, to admit of her abolishing them altogether. She was so much moved at the sanguinary issue of one of these combats, which she witnessed at Arevalo, says a contemporary, that she devised a plan, by guarding the horns of the bulls, for preventing any serious injury to the men and horses; and she never would attend another of these spectacles until this precaution had been adopted. Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.
[66] Isabella, the name of the Catholic queen, is correctly rendered into English by that of Elizabeth.
[67] She gave evidence of this, in the commutation of the sentence she obtained for the wretch who stabbed her husband, and whom her ferocious nobles would have put to death, without the opportunity of confession and absolution, that "his soul might perish with his body!" (See her letter to Talavera.) She showed this merciful temper, so rare in that rough age, by dispensing altogether with the preliminary barbarities, sometimes prescribed by the law in capital executions. Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 13.
[68] Hume admits, that, "unhappily for literature, at least for the learned of this age, Queen Elizabeth's vanity lay more in shining by her own learning, than in encouraging men of genius by her liberality."
[69] Which of the two, the reader of the records of these times may be somewhat puzzled to determine.—If one need be convinced how many faces history can wear, and how difficult it is to get at the true one, he has only to compare Dr. Lingard's account of this reign with Mr. Turner's. Much obliquity was to be expected, indeed, from the avowed apologist of a persecuted party, like the former writer. But it attaches, I fear, to the latter in more than one instance,—as in the reign of Richard III., for example. Does it proceed from the desire of saying something new on a beaten topic, where the new cannot always be true? Or, as is most probable, from that confiding benevolence, which throws somewhat of its own light over the darkest shades of human character? The unprejudiced reader may perhaps agree, that the balance of this great queen's good and bad qualities is held with a more steady and impartial hand by Mr. Hallam than any preceding writer.
[70] The unsuspicious testimony of her godson, Harrington, places these foibles in the most ludicrous light. If the well-known story, repeated by historians, of the three thousand dresses left in her wardrobe at her decease, be true, or near truth, it affords a singular contrast with Isabella's taste in these matters.
[71] The reader will remember how effectually they answered this purpose in the Moorish war. See Part I. Chapter 14, of this History.
[72] It is scarcely necessary to mention the names of Hatton and Leicester, both recommended to the first offices in the state chiefly by their personal attractions, and the latter of whom continued to maintain the highest place in his sovereign's favor for thirty years or more, in despite of his total destitution of moral worth.
[73] Queen Elizabeth, indeed, in a declaration to her people, proclaims, "We know not, nor have any meaning to allow, that any of our subjects should be molested, either by examination or inquisition, in any matter of faith, as long as they shall profess the Christian faith." (Turner's Elizabeth, vol. ii. p. 241, note.) One is reminded of Parson Thwackum's definition in "Tom Jones," "When I mention religion, I mean the Christian religion; and not only the Christian religion, but the Protestant religion; and not only the Protestant religion, but the church of England." It would be difficult to say which fared worst, Puritans or Catholics, under this system of toleration.
[74] "Quum generosi," says Paolo Giovio, speaking of her, "prudentisque animi magnitudine, tum pudicitiae et pietatis laude antiquis heroidibus comparanda." (Vitae Illust. Virorum, p. 205.) Guicciardini eulogizes her as "Donna di onestissimi costumi, e in concetto grandissimo nei Regni suoi di magnanimità e prudenza." (Istoria, lib. 6.) The loyal serviteur notices her death in the following chivalrous strain. "L'an 1506, une des plus triumphantes e glorieuses dames qui puis mille ans ait esté sur terre alla de vie a trespas; ce fut la royne Ysabel de Castille, qui ayda, le bras armé, à conquester le royaulme de Grenade sur les Mores. Je veux bien asseurer aux lecteurs de ceste presente hystoire, que sa vie a esté telle, qu'elle a bien mérité couronne de laurier après sa mort." Mémoires de Bayard, chap. 26.—See also Comines, Mémoires, chap. 23.—Navagiero, Viaggio, fol. 27.—et al. auct.
[75] I borrow the words of one contemporary; "Quo quidem die omnis Hispaniae felicitas, omne decus, omnium virtutum pulcherrimum specimen interiit," (L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, lib. 21,)—and the sentiments of all.
[76] If the reader needs further testimony of this, he will find abundance collected by the indefatigable Clemencin, in the 21st Ilust. of the Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi.
[77] It would be easy to cite the authority over and over again of such writers as Marina, Sempere, Llorente, Navarrete, Quintana, and others, who have done such honor to the literature of Spain in the present century. It will be sufficient, however, to advert to the remarkable tribute paid to Isabella's character by the Royal Spanish Academy of History; who in 1805 appointed their late secretary, Clemencin, to deliver a eulogy on that illustrious theme; and who raised a still nobler monument to her memory, by the publication, in 1821, of the various documents compiled by him for the illustration of her reign, as a separate volume of their valuable Memoirs.