The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic — Volume 3

by William Hickling Prescott

FOOTNOTES

[1] Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib, 29, cap. 2.—Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 7, cap. 29.

[2] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 324, 332, 339, 363.—Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 29, cap. 3.—Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1506.— Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 206.—Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 17.

"Childish as was the affection," says Dr. Dunham, "of Joanna for her husband, she did not, as Robertson relates, cause the body to be removed from the sepulchre after it was buried, and brought to her apartment. She once visited the sepulchre, and, after affectionately gazing on the corpse, was persuaded to retire. Robertson seems not to have read, at least not with care, the authorities for the reign of Fernando." (History of Spain and Portugal, vol. ii. p. 287, note.) Whoever will take the trouble to examine these authorities, will probably not find Dr. Dunham much more accurate in the matter than his predecessor. Robertson, indeed, draws largely from the Epistles of Peter Martyr, the best voucher for this period, which his critic apparently has not consulted. In the very page preceding that in which he thus taxes Robertson with inaccuracy, we find him speaking of Charles VIII. as the reigning monarch of France; an error not merely clerical, since it is repeated no less than three times. Such mistakes would be too trivial for notice in any but an author, who has made similar ones the ground for unsparing condemnation of others.

[3] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 339.

A foolish Carthusian monk, "laevi sicco folio levior," to borrow Martyr's words, though more knave than fool probably, filled Joanna with absurd hopes of her husband's returning to life, which, he assured her, had happened, as he had read, to a certain prince, after he had been dead fourteen years. As Philip was disembowelled, he was hardly in a condition for such an auspicious event. The queen, however, seems to have been caught with the idea. (Opus Epist., epist. 328.) Martyr loses all patience at the inventions of this "blactero cucullatus," as he calls him in his abominable Latin, as well as at the mad pranks of the queen, and the ridiculous figure which he and the other grave personages of the court were compelled to make on the occasion. It is impossible to read his Jeremiads on the subject without a smile. See, in particular, his whimsical epistle to his old friend, the archbishop of Granada. Opus Epist., epist. 333.

[4] Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 29, cap. 3.—Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 7, cap. 26, 38, 54.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 72.— Sandoval, Hist. del Emp. Carlos V., tom. i. p. 11.

[5] Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. rey 30, cap. 16.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 346.—Zurita, Anales, lib. 7, cap. 36-38.—Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, año 1507.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 206.

The duke of Medina Sidonia, son of the nobleman who bore so honorable a part in the Granadine war, mustered a large force by land and sea for the recovery of his ancient patrimony of Gibraltar.—Isabella's high-spirited friend, the marchioness of Moya, put herself at the head of a body of troops with better success, during her husband's illness, and re-established herself in the strong fortress of Segovia, which Philip had transferred to Manuel. (Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 343.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 207.) "No one lamented the circumstance," says Oviedo. The marchioness closed her life not long after this, at about sixty years of age. Her husband, though much older, survived her. Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 23.

[6] Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 208.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 71.— Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 29, cap. 2.

The worthy Curate of Los Palacios does not vouch for this exact amount from his own knowledge. He states, however, that 170 died, out of his own little parish of 500 persons, and he narrowly escaped with life himself, after a severe attack. Ubi supra.

[7] Ximenes equipped and paid out of his own funds a strong corps, for the ostensible purpose of protecting the queen's person, but quite as much to enforce order by checking the turbulent spirit of the grandees; a stretch of authority, which this haughty body could ill brook. (Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 17.) Zurita, indeed, who thinks the archbishop had a strong relish for sovereign power, accuses him of being "at heart much more of a king than a friar." (Anales, tom. vi. lib. 7, cap. 29.) Gomez, on the contrary, traces every political act of his to the purest patriotism. (De Rebus Gestis, fol. 70, et alib.) In the mixed motives of action, Ximenes might probably have been puzzled himself, to determine how much belonged to the one principle, and how much to the other.

[8] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 351.—L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 187.—Lanuza, Historias, tom. i. lib. 1, cap. 21.—Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 7, cap. 19, 22, 25, 30, 39.—Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. iv. p. 76, ed Milano, 1803.—Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 17.—Sandoval, Hist. del Emp. Carlos V., tom. i. p. 12.

[9] Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, lib. 30, cap. 1-5.—Summonte, Hist. di
Napoli, tom. iv. lib. 6, cap. 5.—L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 187.
—Buonaccorsi, Diario, p. 129.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 210.
—Signorelli, Coltura nelle Sicilie, tom. iv. p. 84.

The learned Neapolitan civilian, Giannone, bears emphatic testimony to the general excellence of the Spanish legislation for Naples. Ubi supra.

[10] Giovio, Vitae Illust. Virorum, p. 102.—Chrónica del Gran Capitan, lib. 3.

[11] Machiavelli expresses his astonishment, that Gonsalvo should have been the dupe of promises, the very magnitude of which made them suspicious. "Ho sentito ragionare di questo accordo fra Consalvo e il Re, e maravigliarsi ciascuno che Consalvo se ne fidi; e quanto qual Re è stato più liberale verso di lui, tanto più, ne insospettisce la brigata, pensando che il Re abbi fatto per assicurarlo, e per poterne meglio disporre sotto questa sicurtà." (Legazione Seconda a Roma, let. 23, Oct. 6.) But what alternative had he, unless indeed that of open rebellion, for which he seems to have had no relish? And, if he had, it was too late after Ferdinand was in Naples.

[12] Chrónica del Gran Capitan, lib. 3, cap. 3.—Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 7, cap. 6, 49.—Giovio, Vitae Illust. Virorum, p. 279.

"Vos el ilustre Don Gonzalo Hernandez de Cordoba," begins the instrument, "Duque de Terra Nova, Marques de Santangelo y Vitonto, y mi Condestable del reyno de Nápoles, nuestro muy charo y muy amado primo, y uno del nuestro secreto Consejo," etc. (See the document, apud Quintana, Españoles Célebres, tom. i. Apend. no. 1.) The revenues from his various estates amounted to 40,000 ducats. Zurita speaks of another instrument, a public manifesto of the Catholic king, proclaiming to the world his sense of his general's exalted services and unimpeachable loyalty. (Anales, tom. vi. lib. 8, cap. 3.) This sort of testimony seems to contain an implication not very flattering, and on the whole is so improbable, that I cannot but think the Aragonese historian has confounded it with the grant of Sessa, bearing precisely the same date, February 25th, and containing also, though incidentally, and as a thing of course, the most ample tribute to the Great Captain.—Comp. also Pulgar, Sum., p. 138.

[13] Tacitus may explain why. "Beneficia eo usque laeta sunt, dum videntur exsolvi posse; ubi multum antevenere, pro gratia odium redditur." (Annales, lib. 4. sec. 18.) "Il n'est pas si dangereux," says Rochefoucault, in a more caustic vein, "de faire du mal à la plûpart des hommes, que de leur faire trop de bien."

[14] Giovio, Vitae Illust. Virorum, pp. 280, 281.—Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 20, cap. 9.—Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, lib. 30, cap. 1.— Summonte, Hist. di Napoli, tom. iv. lib. 6, cap 5.—Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. iv. p. 72.—Chrónica del Gran Capitan, lib. 3, cap. 4.

[15] "Spettacolo certamente memorabile, vedere insieme due Re potentissimi tra tutti i Principi Cristiani, stati poco innanzi si acerbissimi inimici, non solo riconciliati, e congiunti di parentado, ma deposti i segni dell' odio, e della memoria delle offese, commettere ciascuno di loro la vita propria in arbitrio dell' altro con non minore confidenza, che se sempre fossero stati concordissimi fratelli." (Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. iv. p. 75.) This astonishment of the Italian is an indifferent tribute to the habitual good faith of the times.

[16] D'Auton, Hist. de Louys XII., part. 3, chap. 38.—Buonaccorsi, Diario, p. 132.—St. Gelais, Hist. de Louys XII, p. 204.

Germaine appears to have been no great favorite with the French chroniclers. "Et y estoit sa femme Germaine de Fouez, qui tenoit une marveilleuse audace. Elle fist peu de compte de tous les François, mesmement de son frère, le gentil duc de Nemours." (Mémoires de Bayard, chap. 27, apud Petitot, Collection des Mémoires, tom. xv.) See also Fleurange, (Mémoires, chap. 19, apud Petitot, Collection des Mémoires, tom. xvi.) who notices the same arrogant bearing.

[17] For fighting, and feasting, and all the generous pastimes of chivalry, none of the old French chroniclers of this time rivals D'Auton. He is the very Froissart of the sixteenth century. A part of his works still remains in manuscript. That which is printed retains the same form, I believe, in which it was given to the public by Godefroy, in the beginning of the seventeenth century; while many an inferior chronicler and memoirmonger has been published and republished, with all the lights of editorial erudition.

[18] D'Auton, Hist. de Louys XII., part. 3, chap. 38.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., ubi supra.—Bembo, Istoria Viniziana, lib. 7.—St. Gelais, Hist. de Louys XII., p. 201.

[19] Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. iv. pp. 76, 77.—Giovio, Vitae Illust. Virorum, p. 282.—Chrónica del Gran Capitan, lib. 3, cap. 4.

"Ma non dava minore materia ai ragionamenti il Gran Capitano, al quale non erano meno volti gli occhi degli uomini per la fama del suo valore, e per la memoria di tante vittorie, la quale faceva, che i Franzesi, ancora che vinti tante volte di lui, e che solevano avere in sommo odio, e orrore il suo nome, non si saziassero di contemplarlo e onorarlo. ***** E accresceva l'ammirazione degli uomini la maestà eccellente della presenza sua, la magnificenza delle parole, i gesti, e la maniera piena di gravità condita di grazia: ma sopra tutti il Re di Francia," etc. Guicciardini, ubi supra.

[20] Brantôme, Vies des Hommes Illustres, disc. 6.—Chrónica del Gran Capitan, lib. 3, cap. 4.—Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. iv. pp. 77, 78.— D'Auton, Hist. de Louys XII., ubi supra.—Quintana, Españoles Célebres, tom. i. p. 319.—Mémoires de Bayard, chap. 27, apud Petitot, Collection des Mémoires, tom. xv.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 210.— Pulgar, Sumario, p. 195.

[21] D'Auton, Hist. de Louys XII., part. 3, chap. 38.—Buonaccorsi, Diario, p. 133.—Ulloa, Vita di Carlo V., fol. 36.

[22] King Ferdinand had granted him the title and territory of Oliveto in the kingdom of Naples, in recompense for his eminent services in the Italian wars. Aleson, Annales de Navarra, tom. v. p. 178.—Giovio, Vitae Illust. Virorum, p. 190.

[23] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 210.—Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 8, cap. 4, 7.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 358.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 74.—Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.

[24] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 75.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 363.—Zurita, Anales, lib. 8, cap. 49.—Sandoval, Hist. del Emp. Carlos V., tom. i. p. 13.

Philip's remains were afterwards removed to the cathedral church of
Granada; where they were deposited, together with those of his wife
Joanna, in a magnificent sepulchre erected by Charles V., near that of
Ferdinand and Isabella. Pedraza, Antiguedad de Granada, lib. 3, cap. 7.—
Colmenar, Délices de l'Espagne et du Portugal, (Leide, 1715,) tom. iii. p.
490.

[25] Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 7, cap. 26, 34; lib. 9, cap. 20.

See the bold language of the protest of the marquis of Priego, against this assumption of the regency by the Catholic king. "En caso tan grande," he says, "que se trata de gobernacion de grandes reinos é señoríos justa é razonable cosa fuera, é sería que fueramos llamados é certificados de ello, porque yo é los otros caballeros grandes é las ciudades é alcaldes mayores vieramos lo que debiamos hacer é consentir como vasallos é leales servidores de la reina nuestra señora, porque la administration é gobernacion destos reinos se diera é concediera á quien las leyes destos reynos mandan que se den é encomienden en caso," etc. (MS. de la Biblioteca de la Real Acad. de Hist., apud Marina, Teoría, tom. ii. part. 2, cap. 18.) Marina, however, is not justified in regarding Ferdinand's subsequent convocation of cortes for this purpose, as a concession to the demands of the nation. (Teoría, ubi supra.) It was the result of the treaty of Blois, with Maximilian, guaranteed by Louis XII., the object of which was to secure the succession to the archduke Charles. Zurita, Anales, lib. 8, cap. 47.

[26] Giovio, Vitae Illust. Virorum, p. 282.—Chrónica del Gran Capitan, lib. 3, cap. 4.

[27] Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 8, cap. 10.—MSS. de Torres y de Oviedo, apud Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 6.—D'Auton, Hist. de Louys XII., part. 3, chap. 38.

The Catholic king was very minute in his inquiries, according to Auton, "du faict et de l'estat des gardes du Roy, et de ses Gentilshommes, qu'il réputoit à grande chose, et triomphale ordonnance." Ubi supra.

[28] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 210.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 363.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 75.—Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 8, cap. 15.

[29] "Montiliana," writes Peter Martyr, "illa atria, quae vidisti aliquando, multo auro, multoque ebore compta ornataque, proh dolor! funditus dirui sunt jussa." (Opus Epist., epist. 405.) He was well acquainted with the lordly halls of Montilla, for he had been preceptor to their young master, who was a favorite pupil, to judge from the bitter wailings of the kind-hearted pedagogue over his fate. See epist. 404, 405.

[30] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 215.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 392, 393, 405.—Giovio, Vitae Illust. Virorum, p. 284.— Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 8, cap. 20, 21, 22.—Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1507.—Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 20, cap. 10.—Chrónica del Gran Capitan, lib. 3, cap. 6.—Sandoval, Hist. del Emp. Carlos V., tom. i. p. 13.

[31] Giovio, Vitae Illust. Virorum, p, 282.—Pulgar, Sumario, p. 197.

[32] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 210.—Giovio, Vitae Illust. Virorum, ubi supra.—Chrónica del Gran Capitan, lib. 3, cap. 5.

[33] Quintana errs in stating that Doña Elvira married the constable. (Españoles Célebres, tom. i. p. 321.) He had two wives, Doña Blanca de Herrera, and Doña Juana de Aragon, and at his death was laid by their side in the church of Santa Clara de Medina del Pomar. (Salazar de Mendoza, Dignidades, lib. 3, cap. 21.) Elvira married the count of Cabra. Ulloa, Vita di Carlo V., fol. 42.

[34] Bernardino de Velasco, grand constable of Castile, as he was called, par excellence, succeeded in 1492 to that dignity, which became hereditary in his family. He was third count of Haro, and was created by the Catholic sovereigns, for his distinguished services, duke of Frias. He had large estates, chiefly in Old Castile, with a yearly revenue, according to L. Marineo, of 60,000 ducats. He appears to have possessed many noble and brilliant qualities, accompanied, however, with a haughtiness, which made him feared, rather than loved. He died in February, 1512, after a few hours' illness, as appears by a letter of Peter Martyr. Opus Epist., epist. 479.—Salazar de Mendoza, Dignidades, ubi supra.—L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 23.

[35] Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, pp. 282, 283.

[36] Giovio, Vitae Illust. Virorum, pp. 284, 285.—Chrónica del Gran Capitan, lib. 3, cap. 6.—Pulgar, Sumario, p. 208.

[37] The inscription on Guicciardini's monument might have been written on Gonsalvo's.

"Cujus negotium, an otium gloriosius incertum."

See Pignotti, Storia della Toscana, (Pisa, 1813,) tom. ix. p. 155.

[38] Quintana, Españoles Célebres, tom. i. pp. 322-334.—Giovio, Vitae Illust. Virorum, p. 286.—Chrónica del Gran Capitan, lib. 3, cap. 7-9.— Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 560.—Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. iv. pp. 77, 78.