FOOTNOTES
[1] Marina tells an anecdote too long for insertion here, in relation to this cortes, showing the sturdy stuff of which a Castilian commoner in that day was made. (Teoría, part. 2, cap. 7.) It will scarcely gain credit without a better voucher than the anonymous scribbler from whom he has borrowed it.
[2] Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 28, cap. 22.—Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 7, cap. 11.—Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. rey 30, cap. 15.
Joanna on this occasion was careful to inspect the powers of the deputies herself, to see they were all regularly authenticated. Singular astuteness for a mad woman!
[3] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 312.—Mariana, Hist. De España, tom. ii. lib. 28, cap. 22.—Lanuza, Historias, tom. i. lib. 1, cap. 21.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 65.—Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 23.
[4] Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 17.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 65.— Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, rey 30, cap. 16.—Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 14.
[5] Lucero (whom honest Martyr, with a sort of back-handed pun, usually nicknames Tenebrero) resumed his inquisitorial functions on Philip's death. Among his subsequent victims was the good archbishop Talavera, whose last days were embittered by his persecution. His insane violence at length provoked again the interference of government. His case was referred to a special commission, with Ximenes at its head. Sentence was pronounced against him. The prisons he had filled were emptied. His judgments were reversed, as founded on insufficient and frivolous grounds. But alas! what was this to the hundreds he had consigned to the stake, and the thousands he had plunged in misery? He was in the end sentenced,—not to be roasted alive,—but to retire to his own benefice, and confine himself to the duties of a Christian minister! Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 77.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist, 333, 334, et al.—Llorente, Hist. de l'Inquisition, tom. i. chap. 10, art. 3, 4.—Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., dial, de Deza.
[6] Oviedo has given an ample notice of this prelate, Ferdinand's confessor, in one of his dialogues. He mentions a singular taste, in one respect, quite worthy of an inquisitor. The archbishop kept a tame lion in his palace, which used to accompany him when he went abroad, and lie down at his feet when he said mass in the church. The monster had been stripped of his teeth and claws when young, but he was "espantable en su vista é aspeto," says Oviedo, who records two or three of his gambols, lion's play, at best. Quincuagenas, MS.
[7] Llorente, Hist. de l'Inquisition, tom. i. chap. 10, art. 3, 4.— Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, rey 30, cap.—Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 333, 334, et al.
"Toda la gente," says Zurita, in reference to this affair, "noble y de limpia sangre se avia escandalizado dello;" (Anales, tom. vi. lib. 7, cap. 11;) and he plainly intimates his conviction, that Philip's profane interference brought Heaven's vengeance on his head, in the shape of a premature death. Zurita was secretary of the Holy Office in the early part of the sixteenth century. Had he lived in the nineteenth, he might have acted the part of a Llorente. He was certainly not born for a bigot.
[8] Summonte, Hist. di Napoli, tom. iv. lib. 6, cap. 5.
[9] Giovio, Vitae Illust. Virorum, p. 276.—Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. rey 30, cap. 16.—Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 6, cap. 5, 11, 17, 27, 31; lib. 7, cap, 14.—Buonaccorsi, Diario, p. 123.—Gonsalvo, in a letter to the king dated July 2, 1506, alludes bitterly to these unfounded imputations on his honor. Cartas, MS.
[10] Mariana, Hist. de España, lib. 28, cap. 12.—Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 6, cap. 5.
[11] Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 7, cap. 6.—Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. iv. p. 12, ed. di Milano, 1803.—Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, lib. 30, cap. 1.—Giovio, Vitae Illust. Virorum, p. 280.—Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 3, dial. 9.
[12] Giannone, Istoria de Napoli, ubi supra.—Summonte, Hist. di Napoli, tom. iv. lib. 6, cap. 5.—L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 187.— Buonaccorsi Diario, p. 123.—Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, tom. i. p. 152.— "Este," says Capmany of the squadron which bore the king from Barcelona, "se puede decir fué el último armamento que salió de aquella capital."
[13] Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. iv. p. 30.—Machiavelli, Legazione Seconda a Roma, let. 23.—Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, lib. 30, cap. 1.
[14] Zurita, Anales, lib. 6, cap. 31.
[15] My limits will not allow room for the complex politics and feuds of Italy, into which Gonsalvo entered with all the freedom of an independent potentate. See the details, apud Chrónica del Gran Capitan, lib. 2, cap. 112-127.—Sismondi, Républiques Italiennes, tom. xiii. chap. 103.— Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. iii. p. 235 et alibi.—Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 6, cap. 7, 9.—Carta del Gran Capitan, MS.
[16] Zurita, Anales, lib. 6, cap. 11.
[17] "Il Gran Capitan," says Guicciardini, "conscio dei sospetti, i quali il re forse non vanamente aveva avuti di lui," etc. (Istoria, tom, iv. p. 30.) This way of damning a character by surmise, is very common with Italian writers of this age, who uniformly resort to the very worst motive as the key of whatever is dubious or inexplicable in conduct. Not a sudden death, for example, occurs, without at least a sospetto of poison from some hand or other. What a fearful commentary on the morals of the land!
[18] Philip's disorder was lightly regarded at first by his Flemish physicians; whose practice and predictions were alike condemned by their coadjutor Lodovico Marliano, an Italian doctor, highly commended by Martyr, as "inter philosophos et medicos lucida lampas." 'He was at least the better prophet on this occasion. Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 313.—Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 7, cap. 14.
[19] Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 3, dial. 9.—Fortunately for Ferdinand's reputation, Philip's death was attended by too unequivocal circumstances, and recorded by too many eyewitnesses, to admit the suggestion of poison. It seems he drank freely of cold water while very hot. The fever he brought on was an epidemic, which at that time afflicted Castile. Machiavelli, Legazione Seconda a Roma, let. 29.—Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, año 1506.
[20] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 313, 316.—Bernaldez, Reyes
Católicos, MS., cap. 206.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 66.—Carbajal,
Anales, MS., año 1506.—L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 187.—Sandoval,
Hist. del Emp. Carlos V., tom. i. p. 11.
[21] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 187, 188.—Sandoval, Hist. del Emp. Carlos V., ubi supra.
Martyr, touched with the melancholy fate of his young sovereign, pays the following not inelegant, and certainly not parsimonious tribute to his memory, in a letter written a few days after his death, which, it may be noticed, he makes a day earlier than other contemporary accounts. "Octavo Calendas Octobris animam emisit ille juvenis, formosus, pulcher, elegans, animo pollens et ingesio, procerae validaeque naturae, uti flos vernus evanuit." Opus Epist., epist. 316.
[22] Garcilasso de la Vega appears to have been one of those dubious politicians, who, to make use of a modern phrase, are always "on the fence." The wags of his day applied to him a coarse saying of the old duke of Alva in Henry IV.'s time, "Que era como el perro del ventero, que ladra a los de fuera, y muerde a los de dentro." Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 7, cap. 39.
[23] Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 29, cap. 2.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 206.—Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 7, cap. 22.
[24] Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 7, cap. 15.—Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 29, cap. 1.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 317.—Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, año 1506.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 67.
[25] Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 7, cap. 16.
I find no authority for the statement made by Alvaro Gomez (De Rebus Gestis, fol. 68), and faithfully echoed by Robles (Vida de Ximenez, cap. 17) and Quintanilla (Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 14), that Ximenes filled the office of sole regent at this juncture. It is not warranted by Martyr, (Opus Epist., epist. 317,) and is contradicted by the words of the original instrument cited as usual by Zurita, (ubi supra.) The archbishop's biographers, one and all, claim as many merits and services for their hero, as if, like Quintanilla, they were working expressly for his beatification.
[26] The duke of Alva, the staunch supporter of King Ferdinand in all his difficulties, objected to calling the cortes together, on the grounds, that the summonses, not being by the proper authority, would be informal; that many cities might consequently refuse to obey them, and the acts of the remainder be open to objection, as not those of the nation; that, after all, should cortes assemble, it was quite uncertain under what influences it might be made to act, and whether it would pursue the course most expedient for Ferdinand's interests; and finally, that if the intention was to procure the appointment of a regency, this had already been done by the nomination of King Ferdinand at Toro, in 1505; that to start the question anew was unnecessarily to bring that act into doubt. The duke does not seem to have considered that Ferdinand had forfeited his original claim to the regency by his abdication; perhaps, on the ground, that it had never been formally accepted by the commons. I shall have occasion to return to this hereafter. See the discussion in extenso, apud Zurita, Anales, lib. 7, cap. 26.
[27] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 318.—Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 29, cap. 2.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 71-73.
[28] Zurita, Anales, lib. 7, cap. 22.
[29] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 187.—Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, año 1506.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 317.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 68, 69, 71.
Shall we wrong Ferdinand much by applying to him the pertinent verses of
Lucan, on a somewhat similar occasion?
"Tutumque putavit
Jam bonus esse socer; lacrymas non sponte cadentes
Effudit, gemitusque expressit pectore laeto,
Non aliter manifesta putans abscondere mentis
Gaudía, quam lacrymis."
Pharsalia, lib. 9.
[30] "Un re glorioso per tante vittorie avute contro gl' Infedeli, e contro i Cristiani, venerabile per opinione di prudenza, e del quale risonava fama Cristianissima, che avesse con singolare giustizia, e tranquillità governato i reami suoi." Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. iv. p. 31.—Also Buonaccorsi, Diario, p. 124.—Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, lib. 30, cap. 1.
[31] Summonte, Hist. di Napoli, tom. iv. lib. 6, cap. 5.—Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. iv. p. 31.—Giovio, Vitae Illust. Virorum, pp. 278, 279.— Bembo, Istoria Viniziana, lib. 7.
[32] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 210.—Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 7, cap. 20.—Giovio, Vitae Illust. Virorum, ubi supra.—Garibay, Compendio, lib. 20, cap. 9.
[33] Zurita, Anales, ubi supra.—Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. iv. pp. 72, 73.
[34] Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, lib. 30, cap. 1.—Summonte, Hist. di Napoli, tom. iv. lib. 6, cap. 5.—Buonaccorsi, Diario, p. 129.— Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. iv. p. 71.
[35] Such, for example, was the fate of the doughty little cavalier, Pedro de la Paz, the gallant Leyva, so celebrated in the subsequent wars of Charles V., the ambassador Rojas, the Quixotic Paredes, and others. The last of these adventurers, according to Mariana, endeavored to repair his broken fortunes by driving the trade of a corsair in the Levant. Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 29, cap. 4.
[36] If any one would see a perfect specimen of the triumph of style, let him compare the interminable prolixities of Zurita with Mariana, who, in this portion of his narrative, has embodied the facts and opinions of his predecessor, with scarcely any alteration, save that of greater condensation, in his own transparent and harmonious diction. It is quite as great a miracle in its way as the rifacimento of Berni.