[2] The only exception to these remarks, was that afforded by the infanta Joanna, whose unfortunate eccentricities, developed in later life, must be imputed, indeed, to bodily infirmity.
[3] Nine different matches were proposed for Joanna in the course of her life; but they all vanished into air, and the "excellent lady," as she was usually called by the Portuguese, died as she had lived, in single blessedness, at the ripe age of sixty-eight. In the Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi., the 19th Ilustracion is devoted to this topic, in regard to which Father Florez shows sufficient ignorance, or inaccuracy. Reynas Cathólicas, tom. ii. p. 780.
[4] Instructions relating to this matter, written with the queen's own hand, still exist in the archives of Simancas. Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., ubi supra.
[5] La Clède, Histoire de Portugal, tom. iv. p. 100.
The Portuguese historian, Faria y Sousa, expends half a dozen folio pages on these royal revelries, which cost six months' preparation, and taxed the wits of the most finished artists and artificers in France, England, Flanders, Castile, and Portugal. (Europa Portuguesa, tom. ii. pp. 452 et seq.) We see, throughout, the same luxury of spectacle, the same elegant games of chivalry, as the tilt of reeds, the rings, and the like, which the Castilians adopted from the Spanish Arabs.
[6] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, tom. v. fol. 38.—Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 312.
[7] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, tom. v. fol. 78, 82.—La Clède, Hist. de Portugal, tom. iv. p. 95.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 146.
Martyr, in a letter written at the close of 1496, thus speaks of the princess Isabella's faithful attachment to her husband's memory; "Mira fuit hujus foeminae in abjiciendis secundis nuptiis constantia. Tanta est ejus modestia, tanta vidualis castitas, ut neo mensa post mariti mortem comederit, nec lauti quicquam degustaverit. Jejuniis sese vigiliisque ita maceravit, ut sicco stipite siccior sit effecta. Suffulta rubore perturbatur, quandocunque de jugali thalamo sermo intexitur. Parentum tamen aliquando precibus, veluti olfacimus, inflectetur. Viget fama, futuram vestri regis Emmanuelis uxorem." Epist. 171.
[8] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, tom. v. fol. 63.
[9] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, tom. v. lib. 2, cap. 5.—Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii. p. 160.