[47] The public acts of this reign afford repeated evidence of the pertinacity with which Isabella insisted on reserving the benefits of the Moorish conquests and the American discoveries for her own subjects of Castile, by whom and for whom they had been mainly achieved. The same thing is reiterated in the most emphatic manner in her testament.
[48] Opus Epist., epist. 31.
[49] Mem. de la. Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. p. 49.
[50] The preamble of one of her pragmáticas against this lavish expenditure at funerals, contains some reflections worth quoting for the evidence they afford of her practical good sense. "Nos deseando proveer e remediar al tal gasto sin provecho, e considerando que esto no redunda en sufragio e alivio de las animas de los defuntos," etc. "Pero los Católicos Christianos que creemos que hai otra vida despues desta, donde las animas esperan folganza e vida perdurable, desta habemos de curar e procurar de la ganar por obras meritorias, e no por cosas transitorias e vanas como son los lutos e gastos excesivos," Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. p. 318.
[51] Her exposure in this way on one occasion brought on a miscarriage. According to Gomez, indeed, she finally died of a painful internal disorder, occasioned by her long and laborious journeys. (De Rebus Gestis, fol. 47.) Giovio adopts the same account. (Vitae Illust. Virorum, p. 275.) The authorities are good, certainly; but Martyr, who was in the palace, with every opportunity of correct information, and with no reason for concealment of the truth, in his private correspondence with Tendilla and Talavera, makes no allusion whatever to such a complaint, in his circumstantial account of the queen's illness.
[52] Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. vii. p. 411.—Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. p. 29.
[53] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 182.—"Pronunciaba con primor el latin, y era tan habil en la prosodia, que si erraban algun acento, luego le corregia." Idem., apud Florez, Reynas Cathólicas, tom. ii. pp. 834.
[54] If we are to believe Florez, the king wore no shirt but of the queen's making. "Preciabase de no haverse puesto su marido camisa, que elle no huviesse hilado y cosido." (Reynas Cathólicas, tom. ii. p. 832.) If this be taken literally, his wardrobe, considering the multitude of her avocations, must have been indifferently furnished.
[55] Among many evidences of this, what other need be given than her conduct at the famous riot at Segovia? Part I. Chapter 6, of this History.
[56] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 1, cap. 4.—"No fue la Reyna," says L. Marineo, "de animo menos fuerte para sufrir los dolores corporales. Porque como yo fuy informado de las dueñas que le servian en la camara, ni en los dolores que padescia de sus enfermidades, ni en los del parto (que es cosa de grande admiracion) nunca la vieron quexar se; antes con increyble y maravillosa fortaleza los suffria y dissimulava." (Cosas Memorables, fol. 186.) To the same effect writes the anonymous author of the "Carro de las Doñas," apud Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. p. 559.