Her wish is fulfilled, and the Catholic sovereigns lie side by side in the Royal Chapel of Granada; but the love she gave in such ungrudging measure was never fully returned. Isabel was fair in her youth, not beautiful perhaps, but graceful and dignified, with soft chestnut-coloured hair, and blue-green eyes that looked out candidly upon the world; and to Ferdinand, arriving in disguise at Valladolid, his blood set on fire by romance and excitement, she had seemed a bride very worthy of his chivalrous care. Later he learned to respect and admire her both as his wife and Queen, to love her even after his fashion; but he was temperamentally cold and self-centred, and the age set no high standard of fidelity. The chronicles record that he had four illegitimate children by different mothers, of whom one, Alfonso, became Archbishop of Saragossa; and Isabel was destined to suffer bitterly from a jealousy intensified by her pride and strength of will.
TOMB OF FERDINAND AND ISABEL
FROM NERVO’S “ISABELLE LA CATHOLIQUE”
Her private life was not, however, unhappy, at least in those years when her own children were growing up around her, and she could find time amid the many cares of state to superintend their education and build dream kingdoms round their future. Her ambitions and Ferdinand’s were alike centred on their only son, Prince John, whose birth in Seville on June 30, 1478, we have mentioned in an earlier chapter.
“My angel” Isabel would playfully call the boy, alluding to his fair skin and halo of curls; and she spared no pains in moulding his character that he might one day satisfy her ideal of kingship. The retinue that attended the little Prince of Asturias was in miniature a counterpart of the elaborate household of officials and servants that surrounded his father and mother; and, while from this environment he imbibed a sense of the grandeur and aloofness of his position, he also learned early the lesson of regal responsibility.
As president of a miniature Council of State, he listened to frequent discussions of the economic and political problems of the day by men chosen for their ability and experience; but it must not be imagined that such strong diet was alone provided for his mental digestion. Youth cries out for the companionship of youth; and Isabel, recognizing the wisdom of this decree of nature, established a class of ten boys, five older and five of his own age, against whose wits the heir to the throne might sharpen his intellect in healthy competition.
His love of music, inheritance from his grandfather, John II. of Castile, was encouraged and developed; and often in the evenings the choir boys of the Royal Chapel would assemble in his room, and he and they sing together; or on other occasions he would summon his musicians and play on the organ, or on one of the stringed instruments of the day. Musical proficiency was a sure road to his interest and regard.
In his position as heir to the Spanish dominions, it was natural that Prince John’s life should stand more in the limelight of publicity than his sisters’: but their education was in fact scarcely less considered and planned than his. The Queen had always possessed an intense admiration for classical learning; and it was one of Ferdinand’s regrets that civil war had called him from the schoolroom to the camp, when he could do little more than read and write. He never understood Latin, the common language of cultured Europe; but Isabel made time to study its grammar and composition with Beatriz de Galindo, a famous teacher of her own sex, on whom the Court had bestowed the appropriate nickname “La Latina.”
This course of education the Queen pursued with her usual thoroughness and determination; and, if she did not achieve the true scholar’s facility in translation and speech, she was at any rate able to understand the orations of foreign ambassadors, and to interpret to her husband the letters of the young Italian diplomat, Peter Martyr, who took so lively an interest in her student’s career.
I am very anxious to know how your Highness is progressing with the Latin [he wrote on one occasion]. I say this, Señora, because a certain style of Latin is too difficult to be mastered by those who are much occupied with other matters. Nevertheless my belief in your powers of intelligence is so great that, if you really make up your mind to do it, I am convinced you will succeed as you have done with other languages.