The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic — Volume 3

by William Hickling Prescott

[36] Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1516.—L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 188.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 148.

"Tot regnorum dominus, totque palmarum cumulis ornatus, Christianae religionis amplificator et prostrator hostium, Rex in rusticanâ obiit casâ, et pauper contra hominum opinionem obiit." Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 588.—Brantôme, (Vies des Hommes Illustres, Footnote: p. 72,) who speaks of Madrigalejo as a "meschant village," which he had seen.

[37] Since Ferdinand ascended the throne he had seen no less than four kings of England, as many of France, and also of Naples, three of Portugal, two German emperors, and half a dozen popes. As to his own subjects, scarcely one of all those familiar to the reader in the course of our history now survived, except, indeed, the Nestor of his time, the octogenarian Ximenes.

[38] Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 10, cap. 100.—Blancas, Commentarii, p. 275.—Lanuza, Historias, tom. i. lib. 1, cap. 25.

[39] Zurita, Anales, ubi supra.

The honest Martyr was one of the few who paid this last tribute of respect to their ancient master. "Ego ut mortuo debitum praestem," says he, in a letter to Prince Charles's physician, "corpus ejus exanime, Granatam, sepulchro sedem destinatam, comitabor." Opus Epist., epist. 566.

[40] Anales, tom. vi. lib. 10, cap. 100.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 572.—Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. rey 30, cap. 24.—Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1516, cap. 5.

[41] Mem de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Illust. 21. According to Pedraza, this event did not take place till 1525. Antiguedad de Granada, lib. 3, cap. 7.

[42] Pedraza, Antiguedad de Granada, lib. 3, cap. 7.—"Assai bello per Spagna;" says Navagiero, who, as an Italian, had a right to be fastidious. (Viaggio, fol. 23.) The artist, however, was not a Spaniard; at least common tradition assigns the work to Philip of Burgundy, an eminent sculptor of the period, who has left many specimens of his excellence in Toledo and other parts of Spain. (Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. p. 577.) Laborde's magnificent work contains an engraving of the monuments of the Catholic sovereigns and Philip and Joanna; "qui rappellent la renaissance des arts en Italie, et sont, à la fois d'une belle exécution et d'une conception noble." Laborde, Voyage Pittoresque, tom. ii. p. 25.

[43] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 182.