[231]. Life of Sor Maria de Agreda, quoted by Father Florez.
[232]. Cartas de la Venerable Madre Sor Maria de Agreda, edited by F. Silvela. For two years after Isabel’s death all comedies and theatrical representations were forbidden at the instance of Sor Maria, but in 1648 Philip consented to their resumption.
[233]. ‘Cartas de la Venerable Madre Sor Maria de Agreda y Felipe IV.’ Edited by Silvela.
[234]. Marie Anne de Montpensier, the daughter of Gaston, Duke of Orleans (La Grande Demoiselle), was suggested, but rejected at once as impossible, both from the French and Spanish point of view! It would, indeed, have further alienated, rather than have drawn together, the French regency and Spain.
[235]. ‘Cartas de la Venerable Madre Sor Maria de Agreda y Felipe IV.‘
[236]. The progress and events from day to day are related by Mascarenhas, Bishop of Leyria, who accompanied the Queen, in ‘Viage de la Serenisima Reina Doña Margarita de Austria.’ Madrid, 1650.
[237]. It has puzzled many inquirers why the marriages of the kings of Spain should usually have taken place in poverty-stricken little villages like Navalcarnero and Quintanapalla, where no adequate accommodation existed, or could be created. The real reason appears to be that when a royal marriage took place in a town the latter was freed for ever after from paying tribute. The poorer the place, therefore, the smaller the sacrifice of public revenue.
[238]. It is all described in Amador de los Rios Historia de Madrid, and the prodigious sums spent are given.
[239]. Cartas de Sor Maria.
[240]. Ibid.