An inventory of the rich plate and jewels presented to Margaret on the day of her marriage is to be found in the sixth volume of memoirs of the Spanish Academy of History. The plate and jewels are said to be 'of such value and perfect workmanship that the like was never seen.'

Nothing seemed wanting to the happiness of the young bride and bridegroom, and that summer they made a kind of triumphal progress through the great cities of the land. The marriage of the heir-apparent could not have been celebrated at a happier time. It took place in the midst of negotiations for a general peace, to which the nation looked for repose after so many years of uninterrupted war. The Court of the Spanish sovereigns was at the height of its splendour; Ferdinand and Isabella seemed to have reached the zenith of their ambitious dreams, when death stepped in, and destroyed their fondest hopes.

Seven months after Prince John's marriage, his sister, Isabella, was united to the King of Portugal. The wedding took place at the frontier town of Valencia de Alcantara, in the presence of the Catholic sovereigns, without pomp or parade of any kind.

While they were detained there, an express messenger brought tidings of the dangerous illness of their son, the Prince of Asturias. Prince John, accompanied by his youthful bride, had been on his way to his sister's wedding when he fell a victim to a malignant fever at Salamanca. The symptoms speedily assumed an alarming character. The prince's constitution, naturally delicate, sunk under the violence of the attack; and when his father, who came with all possible speed to Salamanca, arrived there, no hopes were entertained of his recovery.

Ferdinand, however, tried to cheer his son with hopes he did not feel himself; but the young prince told him that it was too late to be deceived; that he was prepared to die, and that all he now desired was that his parents might feel the same resignation to the divine will which he experienced himself. Ferdinand took fresh courage from the heroic example of his son, whose forebodings were unhappily too soon realised. The doctors fearing to alarm Margaret, who was expecting shortly to become a mother, had kept from her the serious state of her husband's health as long as possible. Knowing that he was ill, she was anxious to go on a pilgrimage to pray for his recovery. 'When at last she was allowed to enter his room on the 4th October 1497 she was shocked to see the change which a few days had wrought in him. Her dying husband bade her farewell in a broken voice, recommending their unborn child to her tender care. Margaret pressed her lips to his, but when she found them already cold, overcome by emotion, she had to be carried half-dead from the room.' Bowed down with grief, she did not recover from the shock of her sudden bereavement, and soon after her husband's death, gave birth to a still-born child.[11]

This double tragedy is pathetically described by the historian, Peter Martyr, who draws an affecting picture of the anguish of the young widow, and the bereaved parents. 'Thus was laid low the hope of all Spain.' 'Never was there a death which occasioned such deep and general lamentation throughout the land.' Ferdinand, fearful of the effect which the sudden news of this calamity might have on the queen, caused letters to be sent at brief intervals, containing accounts of the gradual decline of the prince's health, so as to prepare her for the inevitable stroke. Isabella, however, received the fatal tidings in a spirit of humble resignation, saying, 'The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be his name!'[12]

Another historian relates that Ferdinand, fearing that the sudden news of John's death would kill Isabella with grief, caused her to be told that it was her husband, Ferdinand himself, that had died, so that when he presented himself before her, the—as he supposed—lesser grief of her son's death should be mitigated by seeing that her husband was alive. The experiment does not appear to have been very successful, as Isabella was profoundly affected when she heard the truth. (Florez, Reinas Catolicas.) The blow was one from which she never recovered. John was her only son, her 'angel' from the time of his birth, and the dearest wish of her heart had been the unification of Spain under him and his descendants.[13] Every honour which affection could devise was paid to Prince John's memory. The Court, to testify its unwonted grief, put on sackcloth instead of white serge usually worn as mourning. All offices, public and private, were closed for forty days; and every one dressed in black. The nobles and wealthy people draped their mules with black cloth down to the knees, showing only their eyes, and black flags were suspended from the walls and gates of the cities. Such extraordinary signs of public sorrow show in what regard the young prince was held. Peter Martyr, his tutor, is unbounded in his admiration of his royal pupil's character, whose brilliant promise and intellectual and moral excellence gave the happiest hopes for the future of his country. These hopes, alas, were destroyed by his untimely death, and that of his infant child.

Prince John's funeral was celebrated on a magnificent scale, and his body laid in the Dominican Monastery of Saint Thomas at Avila, which had been erected by his parents. A few years later his treasurer, Juan Velasquez, caused a beautiful monument to be raised to his memory, and himself added a short but pathetic epitaph. This tomb is the masterpiece of Micer Domenico of Florence, and resembles the exquisite royal sepulchres at Granada. It is placed under an elliptical arch, in front of the high altar, and is one of the finest specimens of an Italian Renaissance tomb. The handsome young prince is depicted lying full length on his marble couch, his hands together as if in prayer. The whole figure is exquisitely simple and dignified in its perfect repose; and if the beautiful marble effigy was true to life, we can understand the overwhelming grief of Spain at his loss.

TOMB OF DON JOHN, PRINCE OF ASTURIAS,
ONLY SON OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA AVILA
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