[74] "Principe el mas señalado," says the prince of the Castilian historians, in his pithy manner, "en valor y justicia y prudencia que en muchos siglos España tuvo. Tachas á nadie pueden faltar sea por la fragilidad propia, ò por la malicia y envidia agena que combate principalmente los altos lugares. Espejo sin duda por sus grandes virtudes en que todos los Principes de España se deben mirar." (Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ix. p. 375, cap. ult.) See also a similar tribute to his deserts, with greater amplification, in Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 20, cap. 24.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 148.—Ulloa, Vita di Carlo V., fol. 42.—Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. ix. p. 426 et seq.—et plurimis auct. antiq. et recentibus.
[75] See the closing chapter of the great Aragonese annalist, who terminates his historic labors with the death of Ferdinand the Catholic. (Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 10, cap. 100.) I will cite only one extract from the profuse panegyrics of the national writers; which attests the veneration in which Ferdinand's memory was held in Aragon. It is from one, whose penis never prostituted to parasitical or party purposes, and whose judgment is usually as correct as the expression of it is candid. "Quo plangore ac lamentatione universa civitas complebatur. Neque solùm homines, sed ipsa tecta, et parietes urbis videbantur acerbum illius, qui omnibus charissimus erat, interitum lugere. Et meritò. Erat enim, ut scitis, exemplum prudentiae ac fortitudinis: summae in re domesticâ continentiae: eximiae in publicâ dignitatis: humanitatis praetereà, ac leporis admirabilis. ***** Neque eos solùm, sed omnes certè tantâ amplectebatur benevolentiâ, ut interdum non nobis Rex, sed uniuscujusque nostrûm genitor ac parens videretur. Post ejus interitum omnis nostra juventus languet, deliciis plus dedita quàm deceret: nec perinde, ac debuerat, in laudis et gloriae cupiditate versatur. ***** Quid plura? nulla res fuit in usu bene regnandi posita, quae illius Regis scientiam effugeret. ***** Fuit enim aeximiâ corporis venustate praeditus. Sed pluris facere deberent consiliorum ac virtutum suarum, quam posteris reliquit, effigiem: quibus denique factum videmus, ut ab eo usque ad hoc tempus, non solùm nobis, sed Hispaniae cunctae, diuturnitas pacis otium confirmarit. Haec aliaque ejusmodi quotidie à nostris senibus de Catholici Regis memoriâ enarrantur: quae à rei veritate nequaquam abhorrent." Blancas, Commentarii, p. 276.
CHAPTER XXV.
ADMINISTRATION, DEATH, AND CHARACTER OF CARDINAL XIMENES.
1516, 1517.
Ximenes Governor of Castile.—Charles Proclaimed King.—Ximenes's Domestic
Policy.—He Intimidates the Nobles.—Public Discontents.—Charles Lands in
Spain.—His Ingratitude to Ximenes.—The Cardinal's Illness and Death.—
His Extraordinary Character.
The personal history of Ferdinand the Catholic terminates, of course, with the preceding chapter. In order to bring the history of his reign, however, to a suitable close, it is necessary to continue the narrative through the brief regency of Ximenes, to the period when the government was delivered into the hands of Ferdinand's grandson and successor, Charles the Fifth.
By the testament of the deceased monarch, as we have seen, Cardinal Ximenez de Cisneros was appointed sole regent of Castile. He met with opposition, however, from Adrian, the dean of Louvain, who produced powers of similar purport from Prince Charles. Neither party could boast a sufficient warrant for exercising this important trust; the one claiming it by the appointment of an individual, who, acting merely as regent himself, had certainly no right to name his successor; while the other had only the sanction of a prince, who, at the time of giving it, had no jurisdiction whatever in Castile. The misunderstanding which ensued, was finally settled by an agreement of the parties to share the authority in common, till further instructions should be received from Charles. [1]
It was not long before they arrived. They confirmed the cardinal's authority in the fullest manner; while they spoke of Adrian only as an ambassador, They intimated, however, the most entire confidence in the latter; and the two prelates continued as before to administer the government jointly. Ximenes sacrificed nothing by this arrangement; for the tame and quiet temper of Adrian was too much overawed by the bold genius of his partner, to raise any opposition to his measures. [2]
The first requisition of prince Charles, was one that taxed severely the power and popularity of the new regent. This was to have himself proclaimed king; a measure extremely distasteful to the Castilians, who regarded it not only as contrary to established usage, during the lifetime of his mother, but as ah indignity to her. It was in vain that Ximenes and the council remonstrated on the impropriety and impolicy of the measure. [3] Charles, fortified by his Flemish advisers, sturdily persisted in his purpose. The cardinal, consequently, called a meeting of the prelates and principal nobles in Madrid, to which he had transferred the seat of government, and whose central position and other local advantages made it, from this time forward, with little variation, the regular capital of the kingdom. [4] The doctor Carbajal prepared a studied and plausible argument in support of the measure. [5] As it failed, however, to produce conviction in his audience, Ximenes, chafed by the opposition, and probably distrusting its real motives, peremptorily declared, that those who refused to acknowledge Charles as king, in the present state of things, would refuse to obey him when he was so. "I will have him proclaimed in Madrid to-morrow," said he, "and I doubt not every other city in the kingdom will follow the example." He was as good as his word; and the conduct of the capital was imitated, with little opposition, by all the other cities in Castile. Not so in Aragon, whose people were too much attached to their institutions to consent to it, till Charles first made oath in person to respect the laws and liberties of the realm. [6]