[21] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 187, 188.—Sandoval, Hist. del Emp. Carlos V., ubi supra.
Martyr, touched with the melancholy fate of his young sovereign, pays the following not inelegant, and certainly not parsimonious tribute to his memory, in a letter written a few days after his death, which, it may be noticed, he makes a day earlier than other contemporary accounts. "Octavo Calendas Octobris animam emisit ille juvenis, formosus, pulcher, elegans, animo pollens et ingesio, procerae validaeque naturae, uti flos vernus evanuit." Opus Epist., epist. 316.
[22] Garcilasso de la Vega appears to have been one of those dubious politicians, who, to make use of a modern phrase, are always "on the fence." The wags of his day applied to him a coarse saying of the old duke of Alva in Henry IV.'s time, "Que era como el perro del ventero, que ladra a los de fuera, y muerde a los de dentro." Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 7, cap. 39.
[23] Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 29, cap. 2.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 206.—Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 7, cap. 22.
[24] Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 7, cap. 15.—Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 29, cap. 1.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 317.—Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, año 1506.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 67.
[25] Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 7, cap. 16.
I find no authority for the statement made by Alvaro Gomez (De Rebus Gestis, fol. 68), and faithfully echoed by Robles (Vida de Ximenez, cap. 17) and Quintanilla (Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 14), that Ximenes filled the office of sole regent at this juncture. It is not warranted by Martyr, (Opus Epist., epist. 317,) and is contradicted by the words of the original instrument cited as usual by Zurita, (ubi supra.) The archbishop's biographers, one and all, claim as many merits and services for their hero, as if, like Quintanilla, they were working expressly for his beatification.
[26] The duke of Alva, the staunch supporter of King Ferdinand in all his difficulties, objected to calling the cortes together, on the grounds, that the summonses, not being by the proper authority, would be informal; that many cities might consequently refuse to obey them, and the acts of the remainder be open to objection, as not those of the nation; that, after all, should cortes assemble, it was quite uncertain under what influences it might be made to act, and whether it would pursue the course most expedient for Ferdinand's interests; and finally, that if the intention was to procure the appointment of a regency, this had already been done by the nomination of King Ferdinand at Toro, in 1505; that to start the question anew was unnecessarily to bring that act into doubt. The duke does not seem to have considered that Ferdinand had forfeited his original claim to the regency by his abdication; perhaps, on the ground, that it had never been formally accepted by the commons. I shall have occasion to return to this hereafter. See the discussion in extenso, apud Zurita, Anales, lib. 7, cap. 26.
[27] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 318.—Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 29, cap. 2.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 71-73.
[28] Zurita, Anales, lib. 7, cap. 22.