[276] Prefacion de Carvajal.
[277] Fernan Gomez de Cibdareal, physician to John II., Centon Epistolario, Madrid, 1775, 4to, Epist. 23 and 74; a work, however, whose genuineness I shall be obliged to question hereafter.
[278] Prefacion de Carvajal. Poetry of Rodriguez del Padron is found in the Cancioneros Generales; and of Diego de Valera there is “La Crónica de España abreviada por Mandado de la muy Poderosa Señora Doña Isabel, Reyna de Castilla,” made in 1481, when its author was sixty-nine years old, and printed, 1482, 1493, 1495, etc.,—a chronicle of considerable merit for its style, and of some value, notwithstanding it is a compendium, for the original materials it contains towards the end, such as two eloquent and bold letters by Valera himself to John II., on the troubles of the time, and an account of what he personally saw of the last days of the Great Constable, (Parte IV. c. 125,)—the last and the most important chapter in the book. (Mendez, p. 138. Capmany, Eloquencia Española, Madrid, 1786, 8vo, Tom. I. p. 180.) It should be added, that the editor of the Chronicle of John II. (1779) thinks Valera was the person who finally arranged and settled that Chronicle; but the opinion of Carvajal seems the more probable. Certainly, I hope Valera had no hand in the praise bestowed on himself in the excellent story told of him in the Chronicle, (Ann. 1437, Cap. 3,) showing how, in presence of the king of Bohemia, at Prague, he defended the honor of his liege lord, the king of Castile. A treatise of a few pages on Providence, by Diego de Valera, printed in the edition of the “Vision Deleytable,” of 1489, and reprinted, almost entire, in the first volume of Capmany’s “Eloquencia Española,” is worth reading, as a specimen of the grave didactic prose of the fifteenth century. A Chronicle of Ferdinand and Isabella, by Valera, which may well have been the best and most important of his works, has never been printed. Gerónimo Gudiel, Compendio de Algunas Historias de España, Alcalá, 1577, fol., f. 101. b.
[279] From the phraseology of Carvajal, (p. 20,) we may infer that Fernan Perez de Guzman is chiefly responsible for the style and general character of the Chronicle. “Cogió de cada uno lo que le pareció mas probable, y abrevió algunas cosas, tomando la sustancia dellas; porque así creyó que convenia.” He adds, that this Chronicle was much valued by Isabella, who was the daughter of John II.
[280] Anno 1451, Cap. 2, and Anno 1453, Cap. 2. See, also, some remarks on the author of this Chronicle by the editor of the “Crónica de Alvaro de Luna,” (Madrid, 1784, 4to,) Prólogo, pp. xxv.-xxviii.
[281] For example, 1406, Cap. 6, etc.; 1430, Cap. 2; 1441, Cap. 30; 1453, Cap. 3.
[282] “Es sin duda la mas puntual i la mas segura de quantas se conservan antiguas.” Mondejar, Noticia y Juicio de los mas Principales Historiadores de España, Madrid, 1746, fol., p. 112.
[283] Anno 1453, Cap. 4.
[284] Anno 1406, Capp. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 15; Anno 1407, Capp. 6, 7, 8, etc.
[285] This Chronicle affords us, in one place that I have noticed,—probably not the only one,—a curious instance of the way in which the whole class of Spanish chronicles to which it belongs were sometimes used in the poetry of the old ballads we so much admire. The instance to which I refer is to be found in the account of the leading event of the time, the violent death of the Great Constable Alvaro de Luna, which the fine ballad beginning “Un Miercoles de mañana” takes plainly from this Chronicle of John II. The two are worth comparing throughout, and their coincidences can be properly felt only when this is done; but a little specimen may serve to show how curious is the whole.