[15] The name of this cavalier, as well as that of his cousin, Alonso de Cardenas, grand master of St. James, have become familiar to us in the Granadine war. If Don Gutierre made a less brilliant figure than the latter, he acquired, by means of his intimacy with the sovereigns, and his personal qualities, as great weight in the royal councils as any subject in the kingdom. "Nothing of any importance," says Oviedo, "was done without his advice." He was raised to the important posts of comendador de Leon, and contador mayor, which last, in the words of the same author, "made its possessor a second king over the public treasury." He left large estates, and more than five thousand vassals. His eldest son was created duke of Maqueda. Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 2, dial. 1.—Col. de Céd., tom. v. no. 182.
[16] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 255.—Gomez, de Rebus Gestis, fol. 45.—For some further account of these individuals see Part I, Chapter 14, note 10.
Martyr thus panegyrizes the queen's fortitude under her accumulated sorrows. "Sentit, licet constantissima sit, et supra foeminam prudens, has alapas fortunae saevientis regina, ita concussa fluctibus undique, veluti vasta rupes, maris in medio." Opus Epist., loc. cit.
[17] Garnier, Hist. de France, tom. v. pp. 405, 406.—Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii. pp. 235-238.—Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. i. pp. 300, 301.—Mémoires de la Trémoille, chap. 19, apud Petitot, Collection des Mémoires, tom. xiv.
[18] Aleson, Annales de Navarra, tom. v. pp. 110-112.
The king of Navarre promised to oppose the passage of the French, if attempted, through his dominions; and, in order to obviate any distrust on the part of Ferdinand, sent his daughter Margaret to reside at the court of Castile, as a pledge for his fidelity. Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii. p. 235.
[19] Younger brother of Robert, third duke of Bouillon. (D'Auton, Hist. de Louys XII., part. 2, pp. 103, 186.) The reader will not confound him with his namesake, the famous "boar of Ardennes,"—more familiar to us now in the pages of romance than history,—who perished ignominiously some twenty years before this period, in 1484, not in fight, but by the hands of the common executioner at Utrecht. Duclos, Hist. de Louis XI., tom. ii. p. 379.
[20] Gonzalo Ayora, Capitan de la Guardia Real, Cartas al Rey, Don Fernando, (Madrid, 1794,) carta 9.—Aleson, Annales de Navarra, tom. v. pp. 112, 113.—Garnier, Hist. de France, tom. v. p. 407.—Zurita, Anales, tom. v. lib. 5, cap. 51.—Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom, ii, rey 30, cap. 13, sec. 11.
[21] Gonzalo Ayora, Cartas, cap. 9.—Zurita, Anales, ubi supra.— Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 197, 198.—Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1503.—Sandoval, Hist. del Emp. Carlos V., tom. i. p. 8.—Col. de Cédulas, tom. i. no. 97.
The most authentic account of the siege of Salsas is to be found in the correspondence of Gonzalo Ayora, dated in the Spanish camp. This individual, equally eminent in letters and arms, filled the dissimilar posts of captain of the royal guard and historiographer of the crown. He served in the army at this time, and was present at all its operations. Pref. ad Cartas, de Ayora; and Nic. Antonio, Biliotheca Nova, tom. i. p. 551.