In the case of “Isabel of Castile” the conventional atmosphere of a Court is intensified by her own determination to play a royal part. She rarely forgot that she was Queen. On one occasion the Admiral of Castile, Ferdinand’s uncle, had ventured to address the King as nephew; whereupon she, overhearing, reproved him sharply.
“My Lord, the King has no kindred or friends but servants or subjects!” A petty snub! Unless in judging it we recall the Court of Henry IV., where Isabel had seen her brother mocked and bullied by insolent nobles, amongst them a former Admiral of Castile.
Her lifework in building up the reputation of the monarchy must be carried out in detail as well as on the broad lines of governmental reform, and the dignity and magnificence of royalty formed part of the scheme, that aimed at the exaltation of the Crown, not only in the eyes of Europe but still more of Spain itself. The Castilian grandee might be losing his official status, the Admiral be no longer essential to the Fleet, the Constable to the Army, the Duke or Marquis to the Royal Council; but in the throne-room and ante-chambers of the palace etiquette more and more demanded their presence. Silken chains were binding the unruly in a peaceful servitude.
Pulgar, the historian, commenting on Isabel’s insistence on the outward forms of state, declared that “it pleased her to be served by grandees and nobles,” while in another place he mentions her retinue of the daughters of great families “such that we do not read in the Chronicles that any Queen had before her.”
A household maintained on this scale and with corresponding luxury was a costly item in royal expenses and, considering the chronic deficiencies of the Treasury, was perhaps excessive. Yet Ferdinand and Isabel were both by nature simple and abstemious in their tastes, and wont in other matters, as we have seen in the case of Columbus, to err rather on the side of economy than extravagance.
“A King must outshine his subjects,” says Pulgar with a conviction born of his intimate knowledge of Spanish character. The easy familiarity of the Emperor Maximilian, “Max the Penniless,” and his son might be appreciated in Germany and Flanders; the private thrift of a Louis XI., or lack of ostentation of a Lorenzo de Medici respected in France or Florence; but the Castilian nature demanded magnificence and aloofness in its rulers. Even a Ximenes de Cisneros had been unable to shake off the outward glory of his office when he accepted the Archbishopric of Toledo; and Ferdinand and Isabel, children of their race, were fully alive to the appeal of surroundings suitable to their rank.
Of the impression made by their magnificence on foreigners we can gather from the diary of a certain Roger Machado who, in the capacity of king-at-arms, accompanied an English embassy to the Spanish Court at Medina del Campo in 1488. “People speak,” he says, “of the honour done to Ambassadors in England; but it is not to be compared to the honour which is done to Ambassadors in the kingdom of Castile.”
The torchlight procession that accompanied them from their lodgings to their evening reception at the palace; the majesty and condescension of the sovereigns; the speeches, dances, bull-fights, tourneys; each in turn arouses his admiration; but it is in his account of the costumes and jewellery that his diary really reaches its apogee of enthusiasm. The King is “dressed in a rich robe of cloth-of-gold, woven entirely of gold, and furred with a rich trimming of fine sable.” The Queen has “a rich robe of the same woven cloth-of-gold ... and over the said robe a riding-hood of black velvet, all slashed in large holes so as to show under the said velvet the cloth-of-gold in which she is dressed.” She wears “crosswise over her left side ... a short cloak of fine crimson satin furred with ermine, very handsome in appearance and very brilliant.”
ISABEL OF CASTILE
CARVED WOODEN STATUE FROM THE CATHEDRAL AT GRANADA
FROM “A QUEEN OF QUEENS” BY CHRISTOPHER HARE, PUBLISHED BY MESSRS. HARPER