[45] [Hume[i] calls him “one of the noblest personages of Spanish history.”]
[46] [While there are discrepant statements as to the date and place of Isabella’s birth, Prescott accepts April 22nd, 1451, as the date, and Madrigal as the place.[l] Burke[h] emphasises the fact that in her veins flowed the blood both of Guzmans and of Plantagenets; both her great-grandmother and her grandmother were English.]
[47] Juan, king of Navarre, who in 1458 had succeeded his brother Alfonso as king of Aragon.
[48] In this battle it was somewhat singular to see two eminent ecclesiastical dignitaries, the cardinal De Mendoza and the archbishop of Toledo, fighting on opposite sides. There was something not exactly apostolic in the former’s hastening along the Castilian ranks, with a crucifix borne before him, shouting, “Knaves, fight away! have ye not a cardinal with you?”
[In honour of this victory Isabella walked barefoot in a religious procession through the streets.]
[49] Alfonso later abdicated and went into a monastery.
