“King Ferdinand, her husband.”[[392]]
The Magnifico continued:
“That I shall not deny; for since the queen judged him worthy to be her husband, and so loved and honoured him, we cannot say that he did not deserve to be compared with her: yet I believe that the fame he had by her was a dowry not inferior to the kingdom of Castile.”
ISABELLA THE CATHOLIC
1451-1504
Much enlarged from a part of Laurent’s photograph (no. 533) of an altar-piece, formerly in the royal chapel of the Convent of St. Thomas de Avila, but now in the Prado Gallery at Madrid. It was painted about 1491 by order of the Inquisitor Torquemada, and has been attributed to Miguel Zittoz.
“Nay,” replied my lord Gaspar, “I think that Queen Isabella had credit for many of King Ferdinand’s deeds.”
Then the Magnifico said:
“Unless the people of Spain,—lords, commons, men and women, poor and rich,—have all agreed to lie in praise of her, there has not been in our time on earth a brighter example of true goodness, of lofty spirit, of wisdom, of piety, of purity, of courtesy, of liberality,—in short, of every virtue,—than Queen Isabella; and although the fame of that illustrious lady is very great in every place and among every nation, those who lived in her company and were witness to her actions, do all affirm that this fame sprang from her virtue and merits. And whoever will consider her deeds will easily perceive such to be the truth. For leaving aside countless things that give proof of this and could be told if it were our theme, everyone knows that when she came to reign she found the greater part of Castile usurped by the grandees; yet she recovered the whole so righteously and in such fashion that the very men who were deprived of it, remained very devoted to her and content to give up that which they possessed.
“A very noted thing also is with what courage and wisdom she always defended her realms against very powerful enemies; and likewise to her alone can be given the honour of the glorious conquest of the kingdom of Granada; for in this long and difficult war against obstinate enemies,—who were fighting for property, for life, for religion, and (to their thinking) for God,—she always showed, both in her counsel and in her very person, such virtue that perhaps few princes in our time have had the hardihood, I will not say to imitate, but even to envy her.