[2] Histoire du Royaume de Navarre, pp. 567, 570.--Aleson, Annales de Navarra, tom. v. lib. 34, cap. 1, fol.--Diccionario Geográfico-Histórico de España, por la Real Academia de la Historia, (Madrid, 1802,) tom. ii. p. 117.
[3] Aleson, Annales de Navarra, tom. v. lib. 35, cap. 13.--Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 9, cap. 54.--Sismondi, Hist. des Français, tom. xv. p. 500.
[4] Aleson, Annales de Navarra, ubi supra.
[5] Dumont, Corps Diplomatique, tom. iv. part. 1, p. 147.--See also the king's letter to Deza, dated at Burgos, July 20th, 1512, apud Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 235.
[6] Aleson, Annales de Navarra, tom. v. p. 245.--Herbert, Life and Raigne of Henry VIII., (London, 1649,) p. 20.--Holinshed, Chronicles, p.568, (London, 1810.)--Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ix. p. 315.
His Valencian editors correct his text, by substituting marquis of Dorchester!
[7] The young poet, Garcilasso de la Vega, gives a brilliant sketch of this stern old nobleman in his younger days, such as our imagination would scarcely have formed of him at any period.
"Otro Marte 'n guerra, en corte Febo. Mostravase mancebo en las señales del rostro, qu' eran tales, qu' esperança i cierta confiança claro davan a cuantos le miravan; qu' el seria, en quien s' informaria un ser divino." Obras, ed. de Herrera, p. 505.
[8] Lebrija, De Bello Navariensi, lib. 1, cap. 3.--Zurita, Anales, tom. vi lib. 10, cap. 4, 5.--Aleson, Annales de Navarra, tom. v. lib. 35, cap. 15.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 488.--Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., ubi supra.--Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 29, cap. 25.--Sandoval, Hist. del Emp. Carlos V., tom. i. p. 25.
[9] Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 10, cap. 7, 8.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 487.--Garibay, Compendio, tom. iii. lib. 29, cap. 25.
[10] Dumont, Corps Diplomatique, tom. iv. part. 1, no. 69.--Carta del Rey a D. Diego Deza, apud Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 235.
[11] A confidential secretary of King Jean of Navarre was murdered in his sleep by his mistress. His papers, containing the heads of the proposed treaty with France, fell into the hands of a priest of Pampelona, who was induced by the hopes of a reward to betray them to Ferdinand. The story is told by Martyr, in a letter dated July 18th, 1512. (Opus Epist., epist. 490.) Its truth is attested by the conformity of the proposed terms with those of the actual treaty.
[12] Carta del Rey a D. Diego Deza, Burgos, July 26th, apud Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 236.--Histoire du Royaume de Navarre, pp. 620- 627.--Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. rey 30, cap. 21.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 495.--Aleson, Annales de Navarra, tom. v. lib. 35, cap. 15.
Bernaldez has incorporated into his chronicle several letters of King Ferdinand, written during the progress of the war. It is singular, that, coming from so high a source, they should not have been more freely resorted to by the Spanish writers. They are addressed to his confessor, Deza, archbishop of Seville, with whom Bernaldez, curate of a parish in his diocese, was, as appears from other parts of his work, on terms of intimacy.
[13] Aleson, Annales de Navarra, tom. v. lib. 35, cap. 15.--Histoire du Royaume de Navarre, p. 622.--Lebrija, De Bello Navariensi, lib. 1, cap. 4.--"Jean d'Albret you were born," said Catharine to her unfortunate husband, as they were flying from their kingdom, "and Jean d'Albret you will die. Had I been king, and you queen, we had been reigning in Navarre at this moment." (Garibay, Compendio, tom. iii. lib. 29, cap. 26.) Father Abarca treats the story as an old wife's tale, and Garibay as an old woman for repeating it. Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. rey 30, cap. 21.
[14] Manifiesto del Rey D. Fernando, July 30th, apud Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 236.--Lebrija, De Bello Navariensi, lib. 1, cap. 5.-- Garibay, Compendio, tom. iii. lib. 29, cap. 26.
[15] Aleson, Annales de Navarra, tom. v. lib. 35, cap. 2.--Histoire du Royaume de Navarre, pp. 603, 604.
[16] 16 See the king's third letter to Deza, Logroño, November 12th, apud Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 236.--Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 30, cap. 12.--Lebrija, De Bello Navariensi, lib. 1, cap. 7.-- Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 499.--Herbert, Life of Henry VIII., p. 24.--Holinshed, Chronicles, p. 571.
[17] Garcilasso de la Vega alludes to these military exploits of the duke, in his second eclogue.
"Con mas ilustre nombre los arneses de los fieros Franceses abollava." Obras, ed. de Herrera, p. 505.
[18] Such was the power of the old duke of Najara, that he brought into the field on this occasion 1100 horse and 3000 foot, raised and equipped on his own estates. Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 507.
[19] Mémoires de Bayard, chap. 55, 56.--Fleurange, Mémoires, chap. 33.-- Lebrija, De Bello Navariensi, lib. 1, cap. 8, 9.--Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. rey 30, cap. 21.--Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1512.
Jean and Catharine d'Albret passed the remainder of their days in their territories on the French side of the Pyrenees. They made one more faint and fruitless attempt to recover their dominions during the regency of Cardinal Ximenes. (Carbajal, Anales, MS., cap. 12.) Broken in spirits, their health gradually declined, and neither of them long survived the loss of their crown. Jean died June 23d, 1517, and Catharine followed on the 12th of February of the next year;--happy, at least, that, as misfortune had no power to divide them in life, so they were not long separated by death. (Histoire du Royaume de Navarre, p. 643.--Aleson, Annales de Navarra, tom. v. lib. 35, cap. 20, 21.) Their bodies sleep side by side in the cathedral church of Lescar, in their own dominions of Bearne; and their fate is justly noticed by the Spanish historians as one of the most striking examples of that stern decree, by which the sins of the fathers are visited on the children to the third and fourth generation.
[20] Flassan, Diplomatie Française, tom. i. p 296.--Rymer, Foedera, tom. xiii. pp. 350-352.--Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. vi. lib. 11, p82, lib. 12, p. 168.--Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 30, cap 22.--"Fu cosa ridicola," says Guicciardini in relation to this truce, "che nei medesimi giorni, che la si bandiva solennemente per tutta. Ja Spagna, venne en araldo a significargli in nome del Re d'Ingbilterra gli apparati potentissimi, che ei faceva per assaltare la Francia, e a sollecitare che egli medesimamente movesse, secondo che aveva promesso, la guerra dalla parte di Spagna." Istoria, tom. vi. lib. 12, p. 84.
[21] Francesco Vettori, the Florentine ambassador at the papal court, writes to Machiavelli, that he lay awake two hours that night speculating on the real motives of the Catholic king in making this truce, which, regarded simply as a matter of policy, he condemns in toto. He accompanies this with various predictions respecting the consequences likely to result from it. These consequences never occurred, however; and the failure of his predictions may be received as the best refutation of his arguments. Machiavelli, Opere, Lett. Famigl. Aprile 21 1513.
[22] Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. vi. lib. II, pp. 81, 82.--Machiavelli, Opere, ubi supra.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 538.
On the 5th of April a treaty was concluded at Mechlin, in the names of Ferdinand, the king of England, the emperor, and the pope. (Rymer, Foedera, tom. xiii. pp. 354-358.) The Castilian envoy, Don Luis Carroz, was not present at Mechlin, but it was ratified and solemnly sworn to by him, on behalf of his sovereign, in London, April 18th. (Ibid., tom. xiii. p. 363.) By this treaty, Spain agreed to attack France in Guienne, while the other powers were to cooperate by a descent on other quarters. (See also Dumont, Corps Diplomatique, tom. iv. part. 1, no 79.) This was in direct contradiction of the treaty signed only five days before at Orthès, and if made with the privity of King Ferdinand, must be allowed to be a gratuitous display of perfidy, not easily matched in that age. As such, of course, it is stigmatized by the French historians, that is the later ones, for I find no comment on it in contemporary writers. (See Rapin, History of England, translated by Tindal, (London, 1785-9,) vol. ii. pp. 93, 94. Sismondi, Hist. des Français, tom. xv. p. 626.) Ferdinand, when applied to by Henry VIII. to ratify the acts of his minister, in the following summer, refused, on the ground that the latter had transcended his powers. (Herbert, Life of Henry VIII., p. 29.) The Spanish writers are silent. His assertion derives some probability from the tenor of one of the articles, which provides, that in case he refuses to confirm the treaty, it shall still be binding between England and the emperor; language which, as it anticipates, may seem to authorize, such a contingency.
Public treaties have, for obvious reasons, been generally received as the surest basis for history. One might well doubt this, who attempts to reconcile the multifarious discrepancies and contradictions in those of the period under review. The science of diplomacy, as then practised, was a mere game of finesse and falsehood, in which the more solemn the protestations of the parties, the more ground for distrusting their sincerity.
[23] Carta del Rey a Don Diego Deza, Nov. 12th, 1512, apud Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 236.--Aleson, Annales de Navarra, tom. v. lib. 35, cap. 16.--Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 10, cap. 13, 36, 43.-- Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1512.
[24] Hist. du Royaume de Navarre, pp. 629, 630.--Aleson, Annales de Navarra, tom. v. lib. 35, cap. 16.--Garibay, Compendio, tom. iii. lib. 30, cap. 1.
[25] Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 10, cap. 92.--Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1515.--Garibay, Compendio, tom. iii. lib. 30, cap. 1.--Aleson, Annales de Navarra, tom, v. lib. 35, cap. 7.--Sandoval, Hist. del Emp. Carlos V., tom. i. p. 26.
[26] The honest canon Salazar de Mendoza, (taking the hint from Lebrija, indeed,) finds abundant warrant for Ferdinand's treatment of Navarre in the hard measure dealt by the Israelites of old to the people of Ephron, and to Sihon, king of the Amorites. (Monarquía, tom. i. lib. 3, cap. 6.) It might seem strange, that a Christian should look for authority in the practices of the race he so much abominates, instead of the inspired precepts of the Founder of his religion! But in truth your thoroughbred casuist is apt to be very little of a Christian.
[27] See the original bull of Julius II., apud Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ix. Apend. no. 2, ed. Valencia, 1796.--"Joannem et Catharinam," says the bull, in the usual conciliatory style of the Vatican, "perditionis filios,--excommunicatos, anathemizatos, maledictos, aeterni supplicii reos," etc., etc. "Our armies swore terribly in Flanders, cried my uncle Toby,--but nothing to this. For my own part I could not have a heart to curse my dog so."
[28] The ninth volume of the splendid Valencian edition of Mariana contains in the Appendix the famous bull of Julius II. of Feb. 18th, 1512, the original of which is to be found in the royal archives of Barcelona. The editor, Don Francisco Ortiz y Sanz, has accompanied it with an elaborate disquisition, in which he makes the apostolic sentence the great authority for the conquest. It was a great triumph undoubtedly, to be able to produce the document, to which the Spanish historians had been so long challenged in vain by foreign writers, and the existence of which might well be doubted, since no record of it appears on the papal register. (Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. rey 30, cap. 21.) Paris de Grassis, maître des cérémonies of the chapel of Julius II. and Leo X., makes no mention of bull or excommunication, although very exact and particular in reporting such facts. (Bréquigny, Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque du Roy, tom. ii. p. 570.) There is no reason that I know for doubting the genuineness of the present instrument. There are conclusive reasons to my mind, however, for rejecting its date, and assigning it to some time posterior to the conquest.
1st. The bull denounces John and Catharine as having openly joined themselves to Louis XII., and borne arms with him against England, Spain, and the church; a charge for which there was no pretence till five months later.--2d. With this bull the editor has given another, dated Rome, July 21st, 1512, noticed by Peter Martyr. (Opus Epist., epist. 497.) This latter is general in its import, being directed against all nations whatever, engaged in alliance with France against the church. The sovereigns of Navarre are not even mentioned, nor the nation itself, any further than to warn it of the imminent danger in which it stood of falling into the schism. Now it is obvious that this second bull, so general in its import, would have been entirely superfluous in reference to Navarre, after the publication of the first; while, on the other hand, nothing could be more natural than that these general menaces and warnings, having proved ineffectual, should be followed by the particular sentence of excommunication contained in the bull of February.--3d. In fact, the bull of February makes repeated allusion to a former one, in such a manner as to leave no doubt that the bull of July 21st is intended; since not only the sentiments, but the very form of expression, are perfectly coincident in both for whole sentences together.--4th. Ferdinand makes no mention of the papal excommunication, either in his private correspondence, where he discusses the grounds of the war, or in his manifesto to the Navarrese, where it would have served his purpose quite as effectually as his arms. I say nothing of the negative evidence afforded by the silence of contemporary writers, as Lebrija, Carbajal, Bernaldez, and Martyr, who, while they allude to a sentence of excommunication passed in the consistory, or to the publication of the bull of July, give no intimation of the existence of that of February; a silence altogether inexplicable. The inference from all this is, that the date of the bull of February 18th, 1512, is erroneous; that it should be placed at some period posterior to the conquest, and consequently could not have served as the ground of it; but was probably obtained at the instance of the Catholic king, in order, by the odium which it threw on the sovereigns of Navarre, as excommunicate, to remove that under which he lay himself, and at the same time secure what might be deemed a sufficient warrant for retaining his acquisitions.
Readers in general may think more time has been spent on the discussion than it is worth. But the important light, in which it is viewed by those who entertain more deference for a papal decree, is sufficiently attested by the length and number of disquisitions on it, down to the present century.
[29] Dumont, Corps Diplomatique, tom. iv. part. 1, no. 69.
[30] According to Galindez de Carbajal, only three fortresses were originally demanded by Ferdinand. (Anales, MS., año 1512.) He may have confounded the number with that said to have been finally conceded by the king of Navarre; a concession, however, which amounted to little, since it excluded by name two of the most important places required, and the sincerity of which may well be doubted, if, as it would seem, it was not made till after the negotiations with France had been adjusted. See Zurita, Anales, lib. 10, cap. 7.
[31] Aleson, Annales de Navarra, tom. v. lib. 35, cap. 1, 3.--Garibay, Compendio, tom. iii. lib. 29, cap. 13.
[32] See King Ferdinand's letter, July 20th, and his manifesto, July 30th, 1512, apud Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 235.--Lebrija, De Bello Navariensi, lib. 1, cap. 7.
[33] Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. rey 30, cap. 21.
DEATH OF GONSALVO DE CORDOVA.--ILLNESS AND DEATH OF FERDINAND.--HIS CHARACTER.
1513-1516.
Gonsalvo Ordered to Italy.--General Enthusiasm.--The King's Distrust.-- Gonsalvo in Retirement.--Decline of his Health.--His Death and Noble Character.--Ferdinand's Illness.--It Increases.--He Dies.--His Character. --A Contrast to Isabella.--The Judgment of his Contemporaries.
Notwithstanding the good order which King Ferdinand maintained in Castile by his energetic conduct, as well as by his policy of diverting the effervescing spirits of the nation to foreign enterprise, he still experienced annoyance from various causes. Among these were Maximilian's pretensions to the regency, as paternal grandfather of the heir apparent. The emperor, indeed, had more than once threatened to assert his preposterous claims to Castile in person; and, although this Quixotic monarch, who had been tilting against windmills all his life, failed to excite any powerful sensation, either by his threats or his promises, it furnished a plausible pretext for keeping alive a faction hostile to the interests of the Catholic king.
In the winter of 1509, an arrangement was made with the emperor, through the mediation of Louis the Twelfth, by which he finally relinquished his pretensions to the regency of Castile, in consideration of the aid of three hundred lances, and the transfer to him of the fifty thousand ducats, which Ferdinand was to receive from Pisa. [1] No bribe was too paltry for a prince, whose means were as narrow, as his projects were vast and chimerical. Even after this pacification, the Austrian party contrived to disquiet the king, by maintaining the archduke Charles's pretensions to the government in the name of his unfortunate mother; until at length, the Spanish monarch came to entertain not merely distrust, but positive aversion, for his grandson; while the latter, as he advanced in years, was taught to regard Ferdinand as one, who excluded him from his rightful inheritance by a most flagrant act of usurpation. [2]
Ferdinand's suspicious temper found other grounds for uneasiness, where there was less warrant for it, in his jealousy of his illustrious subject Gonsalvo de Cordova. This was particularly the case, when circumstances had disclosed the full extent of that general's popularity. After the defeat of Ravenna, the pope and the other allies of Ferdinand urged him in the most earnest manner to send the Great Captain into Italy, as the only man capable of checking the French arms, and restoring the fortunes of the league. The king, trembling for the immediate safety of his own dominions, gave a reluctant assent, and ordered Gonsalvo to hold himself in readiness to take command of an army to be instantly raised for Italy. [3]
These tidings were received with enthusiasm by the Castilians. Men of every rank pressed forward to serve under a chief, whose service was itself sufficient passport to fame. "It actually seemed," says Martyr, "as if Spain were to be drained of all her noble and generous blood. Nothing appeared impossible, or even difficult, under such a leader. Hardly a cavalier in the land, but would have thought it a reproach to remain behind. Truly marvellous," he adds, "is the authority which he has acquired over all orders of men!" [4]
Such was the zeal with which men enlisted under his banner, that great difficulty was found in completing the necessary levies for Navarre, then menaced by the French. The king, alarmed at this, and relieved from apprehensions of immediate danger to Naples, by subsequent advices from that country, sent orders greatly reducing the number of forces to be raised. But this had little effect, since every man, who had the means, preferred acting as a volunteer under the Great Captain to any other service, however gainful; and many a poor cavalier was there, who expended his little all, or incurred a heavy debt, in order to appear in the field in a style becoming the chivalry of Spain.
Ferdinand's former distrust of his general was now augmented tenfold by this evidence of his unbounded popularity. He saw in imagination much more danger to Naples from such a subject, than from any enemy, however formidable. He had received intelligence, moreover, that the French were in full retreat towards the north. He hesitated no longer, but sent instructions to the Great Captain at Cordova, to disband his levies, as the expedition would be postponed till after the present winter; at the same time inviting such as chose to enlist in the service of Navarre. [5]
These tidings were received with indignant feelings by the whole army. The officers refused, nearly to a man, to engage in the proposed service. Gonsalvo, who understood the motives of this change in the royal purpose, was deeply sensible to what he regarded as a personal affront. He, however, enjoined on his troops implicit obedience to the king's commands. Before dismissing them, as he knew that many had been drawn into expensive preparations far beyond their means, he distributed largesses among them, amounting to the immense sum, if we may credit his biographers, of one hundred thousand ducats. "Never stint your hand," said he to his steward, who remonstrated on the magnitude of the donative; "there is no mode of enjoying one's property, like giving it away." He then wrote a letter to the king, in which he gave free vent to his indignation, bitterly complaining of the ungenerous requital of his services, and asking leave to retire to his duchy of Terranova in Naples, since he could be no longer useful in Spain. This request was not calculated to lull Ferdinand's suspicions. He answered, however, "in the soft and pleasant style, which he knew so well how to assume," says Zurita; and, after specifying his motives for relinquishing, however reluctantly, the expedition, he recommended Gonsalvo's return to Loja, at least until some more definite arrangement could be made respecting the affairs of Italy.
Thus condemned to his former seclusion, the Great Captain resumed his late habits of life, freely opening his mansion to persons of merit, interesting himself in plans for ameliorating the condition of his tenantry and neighbors, and in this quiet way winning a more unquestionable title to human gratitude than when piling up the blood- stained trophies of victory. Alas for humanity, that it should have deemed otherwise! [6]
Another circumstance, which disquieted the Catholic king, was the failure of issue by his present wife. The natural desire of offspring was further stimulated by hatred of the house of Austria, which made him eager to abridge the ample inheritance about to descend on his grandson Charles. It must be confessed, that it reflects little credit on his heart or his understanding, that he should have been so ready to sacrifice to personal resentment those noble plans for the consolidation of the monarchy, which had so worthily occupied the attention both of himself and of Isabella, in his early life. His wishes had nearly been realized. Queen Germaine was delivered of a son, March 3d, 1509. Providence, however, as if unwilling to defeat the glorious consummation of the union of the Spanish kingdoms, so long desired and nearly achieved, permitted the infant to live only a few hours. [7]
Ferdinand repined at the blessing denied him, now more than ever. In order to invigorate his constitution, he resorted to artificial means. [8] The medicines which he took had the opposite effect. At least from this time, the spring of 1513, he was afflicted with infirmities before unknown to him. Instead of his habitual equanimity and cheerfulness, he became impatient, irritable, and frequently a prey to morbid melancholy. He lost all relish for business, and even for amusements, except field sports, to which he devoted the greater part of his time. The fever which consumed him made him impatient of long residence in any one place, and during these last years of his life the court was in perpetual migration. The unhappy monarch, alas! could not fly from disease, or from himself. [9]
In the summer of 1515, he was found one night by his attendants in a state of insensibility, from which it was difficult to rouse him. He exhibited flashes of his former energy after this, however. On one occasion he made a journey to Aragon, in order to preside at the deliberations of the cortes, and enforce the grant of supplies, to which the nobles, from selfish considerations, made resistance. The king failed, indeed, to bend their intractable tempers, but he displayed on the occasion all his wonted address and resolution. [10]
On his return to Castile, which, perhaps from the greater refinement and deference of the people, seems to have been always a more agreeable residence to him than his own kingdom of Aragon, he received intelligence very vexatious, in the irritable state of his mind. He learned that the Great Captain was preparing to embark for Flanders, with his friend the count of Ureña, the marquis of Priego his nephew, and his future son-in- law, the count of Cabra. Some surmised that Gonsalvo designed to take command of the papal army in Italy; others, to join himself with the archduke Charles, and introduce him, if possible, into Castile. Ferdinand, clinging to power more tenaciously as it was ready to slip of itself from his grasp, had little doubt that the latter was his purpose. He sent orders therefore to the south, to prevent the meditated embarkation, and, if necessary, to seize Gonsalvo's person. But the latter was soon to embark on a voyage, where no earthly arm could arrest him. [11]
In the autumn of 1515 he was attacked by a quartan fever. Its approaches at first were mild. His constitution, naturally good, had been invigorated by the severe training of a military life; and he had been so fortunate, that, notwithstanding the free exposure of his person to danger, he had never received a wound. But, although little alarm was occasioned at first by his illness, he found it impossible to throw it off; and he removed to his residence in Granada, in hopes of deriving benefit from its salubrious climate. Every effort to rally the declining powers of nature proved unavailing; and on the 2d of December, 1515, he expired in his own palace at Granada, in the arms of his wife, and his beloved daughter Elvira. [12]
The death of this illustrious man diffused universal sorrow throughout the nation. All envy and unworthy suspicion died with him. The king and the whole court went into mourning. Funeral services were performed in his honor, in the royal chapel and all the principal churches of the kingdom. Ferdinand addressed a letter of consolation to his duchess, in which he lamented the death of one, "who had rendered him inestimable services, and to whom he had ever borne such sincere affection!" [13] His obsequies were celebrated with great magnificence in the ancient Moorish capital, under the superintendence of the count of Tendilla, the son and successor of Gonsalvo's old friend, the late governor of Granada. [14] His remains, first deposited in the Franciscan monastery, were afterwards removed and laid beneath a sumptuous mausoleum in the church of San Geronimo; [15] and more than a hundred banners and royal pennons, waving in melancholy pomp around the walls of the chapel, proclaimed the glorious achievements of the warrior who slept beneath. [16] His noble wife, Doña Maria Manrique, survived him but a few days. His daughter Elvira inherited the princely titles and estates of her father, which, by her marriage with her kinsman, the count of Cabra, were perpetuated in the house of Cordova. [17]
Gonsalvo, or, as he is called in Castilian, Gonzalo Hernandez de Cordova, was sixty-two years old at the time of his death. His countenance and person are represented to have been extremely handsome; his manners, elegant and attractive, were stamped with that lofty dignity, which so often distinguishes his countrymen. "He still bears," says Martyr, speaking of him in the last years of his life, "the same majestic port as when in the height of his former authority; so that every one who visits him acknowledges the influence of his noble presence, as fully as when, at the head of armies, he gave laws to Italy." [18]
His splendid military successes, so gratifying to Castilian pride, have made the name of Gonsalvo as familiar to his countrymen as that of the Cid, which, floating down the stream of popular melody, has been treasured up as a part of the national history. His shining qualities, even more than his exploits, have been often made the theme of fiction; and fiction, as usual, has dealt with them in a fashion to leave only confused and erroneous conceptions of both. More is known of the Spanish hero, for instance, to foreign readers from Florian's agreeable novel, than from any authentic record of his actions. Yet Florian, by dwelling only on the dazzling and popular traits of his hero, has depicted him as the very personification of romantic chivalry. This certainly was not his character, which might be said to have been formed after a riper period of civilization than the age of chivalry. At least, it had none of the nonsense of that age,--its fanciful vagaries, reckless adventure, and wild romantic gallantry. [19] His characteristics were prudence, coolness, steadiness of purpose, and intimate knowledge of man. He understood, above all, the temper of his own countrymen. He may be said in some degree to have formed their military character; their patience of severe training and hardship, their unflinching obedience, their inflexible spirit under reverses, and their decisive energy in the hour of action. It is certain that the Spanish soldier under his hands assumed an entirely new aspect from that which he had displayed in the romantic wars of the Peninsula.
Gonsalvo was untainted with the coarser vices characteristic of the time. He discovered none of that griping avarice, too often the reproach of his countrymen in these wars. His hand and heart were liberal as the day. He betrayed none of the cruelty and licentiousness, which disgrace the age of chivalry. On all occasions he was prompt to protect women from injury or insult. Although his distinguished manners and rank gave him obvious advantages with the sex, he never abused them; [20] and he has left a character, unimpeached by any historian, of unblemished morality in his domestic relations. This was a rare virtue in the sixteenth century.
Gonsalvo's fame rests on his military prowess; yet his character would seem in many respects better suited to the calm and cultivated walks of civil life. His government of Naples exhibited much discretion and sound policy; [21] and there, as afterwards in his retirement, his polite and liberal manners secured not merely the good-will, but the strong attachment, of those around him. His early education, like that of most of the noble cavaliers who came forward before the improvements introduced under Isabella, was taken up with knightly exercises, more than intellectual accomplishments. He was never taught Latin, and had no pretensions to scholarship; but he honored and nobly recompensed it in others. His solid sense and liberal taste supplied all deficiencies in himself, and led him to select friends and companions from among the most enlightened and virtuous of the community. [22]
On this fair character there remains one foul reproach. This is his breach of faith in two memorable instances; first, to the young duke of Calabria, and afterwards to Caesar Borgia, both of whom he betrayed into the hands of King Ferdinand, their personal enemy; and in violation of his most solemn pledges. [23] True, it was in obedience to his master's commands, and not to serve his own purposes; and true also, this want of faith was the besetting sin of the age. But history has no warrant to tamper with right and wrong, or to brighten the character of its favorites by diminishing one shade of the abhorrence which attaches to their vices. They should rather be held up in their true deformity, as the more conspicuous from the very greatness with which they are associated. It may be remarked, however, that the reiterated and unsparing opprobrium with which foreign writers, who have been little sensible to Gonsalvo's merits, have visited these offences, affords tolerable evidence that they are the only ones of any magnitude that can be charged on him. [24]
As to the imputation of disloyalty, we have elsewhere had occasion to notice its apparent groundlessness. It would be strange, indeed, if the ungenerous treatment which he had experienced ever since his return from Naples had not provoked feelings of indignation in his bosom. Nor would it be surprising, under these circumstances, if he had been led to regard the archduke Charles's pretensions to the regency, as he came of age, with a favorable eye. There is no evidence, however, of this, or of any act unfriendly to Ferdinand's interests. His whole public life, on the contrary, exhibited the truest loyalty; and the only stains that darken his fame were incurred by too unhesitating devotion to the wishes of his master. He is not the first nor the last statesman, who has reaped the royal recompense of ingratitude, for serving his king with greater zeal than he had served his Maker.
Ferdinand's health, in the mean time, had declined so sensibly, that it was evident he could not long survive the object of his jealousy. [25] His disease had now settled into a dropsy, accompanied with a distressing affection of the heart. He found difficulty in breathing, complained that he was stifled in the crowded cities, and passed most of his time, even after the weather became cold, in the fields and forests, occupied, as far as his strength permitted, with the fatiguing pleasures of the chase. As the winter advanced, he bent his steps towards the south. He passed some time, in December, at a country-seat of the duke of Alva, near Placentia, where he hunted the stag. He then resumed his journey to Andalusia, but fell so ill on the way, at the little village of Madrigalejo, near Truxillo, that it was found impossible to advance further. [26]
The king seemed desirous of closing his eyes to the danger of his situation as long as possible. He would not confess, nor even admit his confessor into his chamber. [27] He showed similar jealousy of his grandson's envoy, Adrian of Utrecht. This person, the preceptor of Charles, and afterwards raised through his means to the papacy, had come into Castile some weeks before, with the ostensible view of making some permanent arrangement with Ferdinand in regard to the regency. The real motive, as the powers which he brought with him subsequently proved, was, that he might be on the spot when the king died, and assume the reins of government. Ferdinand received the minister with cold civility, and an agreement was entered into, by which the regency was guaranteed to the monarch, not only during Joanna's life, but his own. Concessions to a dying man cost nothing. Adrian, who was at Guadalupe at this time, no sooner heard of Ferdinand's illness, than he hastened to Madrigalejo. The king, however, suspected the motives of his visit. "He has come to see me die," said he; and, refusing to admit him into his presence, ordered the mortified envoy back again to Guadalupe. [28]
At length the medical attendants ventured to inform the king of his real situation, conjuring him if he had any affairs of moment to settle, to do it without delay. He listened to them with composure, and from that moment seemed to recover all his customary fortitude and equanimity. After receiving the sacrament, and attending to his spiritual concerns, he called his attendants around his bed, to advise with them respecting the disposition of the government. Among those present, at this time, were his faithful followers, the duke of Alva, and the marquis of Denia, his majordomo, with several bishops and members of his council. [29]
The king, it seems, had made several wills. By one, executed at Burgos, in 1512, he had committed the government of Castile and Aragon to the infante Ferdinand during his brother Charles's absence. This young prince had been educated in Spain under the eye of his grand-father, who entertained a strong affection for him. The counsellors remonstrated in the plainest terms against this disposition of the regency. Ferdinand, they said, was too young to take the helm into his own hands. His appointment would be sure to create new factions in Castile; it would raise him up to be in a manner a rival of his brother, and kindle ambitious desires in his bosom, which could not fail to end in his disappointment, and perhaps destruction. [30]
The king, who would never have made such a devise in his better days, was more easily turned from his purpose now, than he would once have been. "To whom then," he asked, "shall I leave the regency?" "To Ximenes, archbishop of Toledo," they replied. Ferdinand turned away his face, apparently in displeasure; but after a few moments' silence rejoined, "It is well; he is certainly a good man, with honest intentions. He has no importunate friends or family to provide for. He owes everything to Queen Isabella and myself; and, as he has always been true to the interests of our family, I believe he will always remain so." [31]
He, however, could not so readily abandon the idea of some splendid establishment for his favorite grandson; and he proposed to settle on him the grand-masterships of the military orders. But to this his attendants again objected, on the same grounds as before; adding, that this powerful patronage was too great for any subject, and imploring him not to defeat the object which the late queen had so much at heart, of incorporating it with the crown. "Ferdinand will be left very poor then," exclaimed the king, with tears in his eyes. "He will have the good-will of his brother," replied one of his honest counsellors, "the best legacy your Highness can leave him." [32]
The testament, as finally arranged, settled the succession of Aragon and Naples on his daughter Joanna and her heirs. The administration of Castile during Charles's absence was intrusted to Ximenes, and that of Aragon to the king's natural son, the archbishop of Saragossa, whose good sense and popular manners made him acceptable to the people. He granted several places in the kingdom of Naples to the infante Ferdinand, with an annual stipend of fifty thousand ducats, chargeable on the public revenues. To his queen Germaine he left the yearly income of thirty thousand gold florins, stipulated by the marriage settlement, with five thousand a year more during widowhood. [33] The will contained, besides, several appropriations for pious and charitable purposes, but nothing worthy of particular note. [34] Notwithstanding the simplicity of the various provisions of the testament, it was so long, from the formalities and periphrases with which it was encumbered, that there was scarce time to transcribe it in season for the royal signature. On the evening of the 22d of January, 1516, he executed the instrument; and a few hours later, between one and two of the morning of the 23d, Ferdinand breathed his last. [35] The scene of this event was a small house belonging to the friars of Guadalupe. "In so wretched a tenement," exclaims Martyr, in his usual moralizing vein, "did this lord of so many lands close his eyes upon the world." [36]
Ferdinand was nearly sixty-four years old, of which forty-one had elapsed since he first swayed the sceptre of Castile, and thirty-seven since he held that of Aragon. A long reign; long enough, indeed, to see most of those whom he had honored and trusted of his subjects gathered to the dust, and a succession of contemporary monarchs come and disappear like shadows. [37] He died deeply lamented by his native subjects, who entertained a partiality natural towards their own hereditary sovereign. The event was regarded with very different feelings by the Castilian nobles, who calculated their gains on the transfer of the reins from such old and steady hands into those of a young and inexperienced master. The commons, however, who had felt the good effect of this curb on the nobility, in their own personal security, held his memory in reverence as that of a national benefactor. [38]
Ferdinand's remains were interred, agreeably to his orders, in Granada. A few of his most faithful adherents accompanied them; the greater part being deterred by a prudent caution of giving umbrage to Charles. [39] The funeral train, however, was swelled by contributions from the various towns through which it passed. At Cordova, especially, it is worthy of note, that the marquis of Priego, who had slender obligations to Ferdinand, came out with all his household to pay the last melancholy honors to his remains. They were received with similar respect in Granada, where the people, while they gazed on the sad spectacle, says Zurita, were naturally affected as they called to mind the pomp and splendor of his triumphal entry on the first occupation of the Moorish capital. [40]
By his dying injunctions, all unnecessary ostentation was interdicted at his funeral. His body was laid by the side of Isabella's in the monastery of the Alhambra; and the year following, [41] when the royal chapel of the metropolitan church was completed, they were both transported thither. A magnificent mausoleum of white marble was erected over them, by their grandson, Charles the Fifth. It was executed in a style worthy of the age. The sides were adorned with figures of angels and saints, richly sculptured in bas-relief. On the top reposed the effigies of the illustrious pair, whose titles and merits were commemorated in the following brief, and not very felicitous inscription.
"MAHOMETICAE SECTAE PROSTRATORES, ET HAERETICAE PERVICACIAE EXTINCTORES, FERNANDUS ARAGONUM, ET HELISABETA CASTELLAE, VIR ET UXOR UNANIMES, CATHOLICI APPELLATI, MARMOREO CLAUDUNTUR HOC TUMULO." [42]
King Ferdinand's personal appearance has been elsewhere noticed. "He was of the middle size," says a contemporary, who knew him well. "His complexion was fresh; his eyes bright and animated; his nose and mouth small and finely formed, and his teeth white; his forehead lofty and serene; with flowing hair of a bright chestnut color. His manners were courteous, and his countenance seldom clouded by anything like spleen or melancholy. He was grave in speech and action, and had a marvellous dignity of presence. His whole demeanor, in fine, was truly that of a great king." For this flattering portrait Ferdinand must have sat at an earlier and happier period of his life. [43]
His education, owing to the troubled state of the times, had been neglected in his boyhood, though he was early instructed in all the generous pastimes and exercises of chivalry. [44] He was esteemed one of the most perfect horsemen of his court. He led an active life, and the only kind of reading he appeared to relish was history. It was natural that so busy an actor on the great political theatre should have found peculiar interest and instruction in this study. [45]
He was naturally of an equable temper, and inclined to moderation in all things. The only amusement for which he cared much was hunting, especially falconry, and that he never carried to excess till his last years. [46] He was indefatigable in application to business. He had no relish for the pleasures of the table, and, like Isabella, was temperate even to abstemiousness in his diet. [47] He was frugal in his domestic and personal expenditure; partly, no doubt, from a willingness to rebuke the opposite spirit of wastefulness and ostentation in his nobles. He lost no good opportunity of doing this. On one occasion, it is said, he turned to a gallant of the court noted for his extravagance in dress, and laying his hand on his own doublet, exclaimed, "Excellent stuff this; it has lasted me three pair of sleeves!" [48] This spirit of economy was carried so far as to bring on him the reproach of parsimony. [49] And parsimony, though not so pernicious on the whole as the opposite vice of prodigality, has always found far less favor with the multitude, from the appearance of disinterestedness, which the latter carries with it. Prodigality in a king, however, who draws not on his own resources, but on the public, forfeits even this equivocal claim to applause. But, in truth, Ferdinand was rather frugal, than parsimonious. His income was moderate; his enterprises numerous and vast. It was impossible that he could meet them without husbanding his resources with the most careful economy. [50] No one has accused him of attempting to enrich his exchequer by the venal sale of office, like Louis the Twelfth, or by griping extortion, like another royal contemporary, Henry the Seventh. He amassed no treasure, [51] and indeed died so poor, that he left scarcely enough in his coffers to defray the charges of his funeral. [52]
Ferdinand was devout; at least he was scrupulous in regard to the exterior of religion. He was punctual in attendance on mass; careful to observe all the ordinances and ceremonies of his church; and left many tokens of his piety, after the fashion of the time, in sumptuous edifices and endowments for religious purposes. Although not a superstitious man for the age, he is certainly obnoxious to the reproach of bigotry; for he co-operated with Isabella in all her exceptionable measures in Castile, and spared no effort to fasten the odious yoke of the Inquisition on Aragon, and subsequently, though happily with less success, on Naples. [53]
Ferdinand has incurred the more serious charge of hypocrisy. His Catholic zeal was observed to be marvellously efficacious in furthering his temporal interests. [54] His most objectionable enterprises, even, were covered with a veil of religion. In this, however, he did not materially differ from the practice of the age. Some of the most scandalous wars of that period were ostensibly at the bidding of the church, or in defence of Christendom against the infidel. This ostentation of a religious motive was indeed very usual with the Spanish and Portuguese. The crusading spirit, nourished by their struggle with the Moors, and subsequently by their African and American expeditions, gave such a religious tone habitually to their feelings, as shed an illusion over their actions and enterprises, frequently disguising their true character, even from themselves.
It will not be so easy to acquit Ferdinand of the reproach of perfidy which foreign writers have so deeply branded on his name, [55] and which those of his own nation have sought rather to palliate than to deny. [56] It is but fair to him, however, even here, to take a glance at the age. He came forward when government was in a state of transition from the feudal forms to those which it has assumed in modern times; when the superior strength of the great vassals was circumvented by the superior policy of the reigning princes. It was the dawn of the triumph of intellect over the brute force, which had hitherto controlled the movements of nations, as of individuals. The same policy which these monarchs had pursued in their own domestic relations, they introduced into those with foreign states, when, at the close of the fifteenth century, the barriers that had so long kept them asunder were broken down. Italy was the first field, on which the great powers were brought into anything like a general collision. It was the country, too, in which this crafty policy had been first studied, and reduced to a regular system. A single extract from the political manual of that age [57] may serve as a key to the whole science, as then understood. "A prudent prince," says Machiavelli, "will not, and ought not to observe his engagements, when it would operate to his disadvantage, and the causes no longer exist which induced him to make them." [58] Sufficient evidence of the practical application of the maxim may be found in the manifold treaties of the period, so contradictory, or, what is to the same purpose for our present argument, so confirmatory of one another in their tenor, as clearly to show the impotence of all engagements. There were no less than four several treaties in the course of three years, solemnly stipulating the marriage of the archduke Charles and Claude of France. Louis the Twelfth violated his engagements, and the marriage after all never took place. [59]
Such was the school in which Ferdinand was to make trial of his skill with his brother monarchs. He had an able instructor in his father, John the Second, of Aragon, and the result showed that the lessons were not lost on him. "He was vigilant, wary, and subtile," writes a French contemporary, "and few histories make mention of his being outwitted in the whole course of his life." [60] He played the game with more adroitness than his opponents, and he won it. Success, as usual, brought on him the reproaches of the losers. This is particularly true of the French, whose master, Louis the Twelfth, was more directly pitted against him. [61] Yet Ferdinand does not appear to be a whit more obnoxious to the charge of unfairness than his opponent. [62] If he deserted his allies when it suited his convenience, he, at least, did not deliberately plot their destruction, and betray them into the hands of their deadly enemy, as his rival did with Venice, in the league of Cambray. [63] The partition of Naples, the most scandalous transaction of the period, he shared equally with Louis; and if the latter has escaped the reproach of the usurpation of Navarre, it was because the premature death of his general deprived him of the pretext and means for achieving it. Yet Louis the Twelfth, the "father of his people," has gone down to posterity with a high and honorable reputation. [64]
Ferdinand, unfortunately for his popularity, had nothing of the frank and cordial temper, the genial expansion of the soul, which begets love. He carried the same cautious and impenetrable frigidity into private life, that he showed in public. "No one," says a writer of the time, "could read his thoughts by any change of his countenance." [65] Calm and calculating, even in trifles, it was too obvious that everything had exclusive reference to self. He seemed to estimate his friends only by the amount of services they could render him. He was not always mindful of these services. Witness his ungenerous treatment of Columbus, the Great Captain, Navarro, Ximenes,--the men who shed the brightest lustre, and the most substantial benefits, on his reign. Witness also his insensibility to the virtues and long attachment of Isabella, whose memory he could so soon dishonor by a union with one every way unworthy to be her successor.
Ferdinand's connection with Isabella, while it reflected infinite glory on his reign, suggests a contrast most unfavorable to his character. Hers was all magnanimity, disinterestedness, and deep devotion to the interests of her people. His was the spirit of egotism. The circle of his views might be more or less expanded, but self was the steady, unchangeable centre. Her heart beat with the generous sympathies of friendship, and the purest constancy to the first, the only object of her love. We have seen the measure of his sensibilities in other relations. They were not more refined in this; and he proved himself unworthy of the admirable woman with whom his destinies were united, by indulging in those vicious gallantries, too generally sanctioned by the age. [66] Ferdinand, in fine, a shrewd and politic prince, "surpassing," as a French writer, not his friend, has remarked, "all the statesmen of his time in the science of the cabinet," [67] may be taken as the representative of the peculiar genius of the age. While Isabella, discarding all the petty artifices of state policy, and pursuing the noblest ends by the noblest means, stands far above her age.
In his illustrious consort Ferdinand may be said to have lost his good genius. [68] From that time his fortunes were under a cloud. Not that victory sat less constantly on his banner; but at home he had lost
"All that should accompany old age, As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends."
His ill-advised marriage disgusted his Castilian subjects. He ruled over them, indeed, but more in severity than in love. The beauty of his young queen opened new sources of jealousy; [69] while the disparity of their ages, and her fondness for frivolous pleasure, as little qualified her to be his partner in prosperity, as his solace in declining years. [70] His tenacity of power drew him into vulgar squabbles with those most nearly allied to him by blood, which settled into a mortal aversion. Finally, bodily infirmity broke the energies of his mind, sour suspicions corroded his heart, and he had the misfortune to live, long after he had lost all that could make life desirable.
Let us turn from this gloomy picture to the brighter season of the morning and meridian of his life; when he sat with Isabella on the united thrones of Castile and Aragon, strong in the love of his own subjects, and in the fear and respect of his enemies. We shall then find much in his character to admire; his impartial justice in the administration of the laws; his watchful solicitude to shield the weak from the oppression of the strong; his wise economy, which achieved great results without burdening his people with oppressive taxes; his sobriety and moderation; the decorum, and respect for religion, which he maintained among his subjects; the industry he promoted by wholesome laws and his own example; his consummate sagacity, which crowned all his enterprises with brilliant success, and made him the oracle of the princes of the age.
Machiavelli, indeed, the most deeply read of his time in human character, imputes Ferdinand's successes, in one of his letters, to "cunning and good luck, rather than superior wisdom." [71] He was indeed fortunate; and the "star of Austria," which rose as his declined, shone not with a brighter or steadier lustre. But success through a long series of years sufficiently, of itself, attests good conduct. "The winds and waves," says Gibbon, truly enough, "are always on the side of the most skilful mariner." The Florentine statesman has recorded a riper and more deliberate judgment in the treatise, which he intended as a mirror for the rulers of the time. "Nothing," says he, "gains estimation for a prince like great enterprises. Our own age has furnished a splendid example of this in Ferdinand of Aragon. We may call him a new king, since from a feeble one he has made himself the most renowned and glorious monarch of Christendom; and, if we ponder well his manifold achievements, we must acknowledge all of them very great, and some truly extraordinary." [72]
Other eminent foreigners of the time join in this lofty strain of panegyric. [73] The Castilians, mindful of the general security and prosperity they had enjoyed under his reign, seem willing to bury his frailties in his grave. [74] While his own hereditary subjects, exulting with patriotic pride in the glory to which he had raised their petty state, and touched with grateful recollections of his mild, paternal government, deplore his loss in strains of national sorrow, as the last of the revered line, who was to preside over the destinies of Aragon, as a separate and independent kingdom. [75]
FOOTNOTES
[1] Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 29, cap. 21.--Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 8, cap. 45, 47. 834.
[2] Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 10, cap. 55, 69.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 531.
[3] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 486.--Chrónica del Gran Capitan, lib. 3, cap. 7.--Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 10, cap. 2.--Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, lib. 3, p. 288.
[4] Opus Epist., epist. 487.--Pulgar, Sumario, p. 201.
[5] Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, lib. 3, p. 289.--Chrónica del Gran Capitan, lib. 3, cap. 7, 8.--Ulloa, Vita di Carlo V., fol. 38.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 498.--Pulgar, Sumario, p. 201.
[6] Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 30, cap. 14.--Giovio, Vitae Illust. Virorum, pp. 290, 291.--Chrónica del Gran Capitan, lib. 3, cap. 7, 8, 9.--Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 10, cap. 28.--Quintana, Españoles Célebres, tom. i. pp. 328-332.--Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. rey 30, cap. 20.--Pulgar, Sumario, pp. 201-208.
[7] Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1509.--Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 10, cap. 55.
[8] They are detailed with such curious precision by Martyr,--who is much too precise, indeed, for our pages,--as to leave little doubt of the fact. Opus Epist., epist. 531.
[9] Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1513, et seq.--L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 188.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 146.--Sandoval, Hist. del Emp. Carlos V., tom. i. p. 27.
"Non idem est vultus," says Peter Martyr of the king in a letter dated in October, 1513, "non eadem facultas in audiendo, non eadem lenitas. Tria sunt illi, ne priores resumat vires, opposita: senilis aetas; secundum namque agit et sexagesimum annum: uxor, quam a latere nunquam abigit: et venatus coeloque vivendi cupiditas, quae illum in sylvis detinet, ultra quam in juvenili aetate, citra salutem, fas esset." Opus Epist., epist. 529.
[10] Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 10, cap. 93, 94.--Carbajal, Anales MS., año 1515.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 550.
[11] Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 10, cap. 96.--Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. rey 30, cap. 23.--Giovio, Vitae Illust. Virorum, p. 292.
[12] Giovio Vitae Illust. Virorum, pp. 271, 292.--Chrónica del Gran Capitan, lib. 3, cap. 9.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 560.-- Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1515.--Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 20, cap. 23.--Pulgar, Sumario, p. 209.
[13] See a copy of the original letter in the Chrónica del Gran Capitan, (fol. 164.) It is dated Jan. 3d, 1516, only three weeks before Ferdinand's death.
[14] Peter Martyr notices the death of this estimable nobleman, full of years and of honors, in a letter dated July 18th, 1515. It is addressed to Tendilla's son, and breathes the consolation flowing from the mild and philosophical spirit of its amiable author. The count was made marquis of Mondejar by Ferdinand, a short time before his death. His various titles and dignities, including the government of Granada, descended to his eldest son, Don Luis, Martyr's early pupil; his genius was inherited in full measure by a younger, the famous Diego Hurtado de Mendoza.
[15] The following inscription is placed over them.
"GONZALI FERNANDEZ DE CORDOVA,
Qui propria virtute Magni Ducis nomen Proprium sibi fecit, Ossa, Perpetuae tandem Luci restituenda, Huic interea tumulo Credita sunt; Gloria minime consepulta."
[16] Navagiero, Viaggio, fol. 24.
On the top of the monument was seen the marble effigy of the Great Captain, armed and kneeling. The banners and other military trophies, which continued to garnish the walls of the chapel, according to Pedraza, as late as 1600, had disappeared before the eighteenth century; at least we may infer so from Colmenar's silence respecting them in his account of the sepulchre. Pedraza, Antiguedad de Granada, fol. 114.--Colmenar, Délices de l'Espagne, tom. iii p. 505.
[±7] Chrónica del Gran Capitan, lib. 3, cap. 9.--Giovio, Vitae Illust. Virorum, fol. 292.
Gonsalvo was created duke of Terra Nuova and Sessa, and marquis of Bitonto, all in Italy, with estates of the value of 40,000 ducats rent. He was also grand constable of Naples, and a nobleman of Venice. His princely honors were transmitted by Doña Elvira to her son, Gonzalo Hernandez de Cordova, who filled the posts, under Charles V., of governor of Milan, and captain general of Italy. Under Philip II., his descendants were raised to a Spanish dukedom, with the title of Dukes of Baena. L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 24.--Ulloa, Vita di Carlo V., fol. 41.--Salazar de Mendoza, Dignidades, p. 307.
[18] Opus Epist., epist. 498.--Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, p. 292.-- Pulgar, Sumario, p. 212.
[19] Gonsalvo assumed for his device a cross-bow moved by a pulley, with the motto, "Ingenium superat vires." It was characteristic of a mind trusting more to policy than force and daring exploit. Brantôme, Oeuvres, tom. i. p. 75.
[20] Giovio, Vitae Illust. Virorum, p. 271.
[21] Ibid., p. 281.--Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, lib. 30, cap. 1, 5.
[22] Giovio, Vitae Illust. Virorum, p. 271.
"Amigo de sus amigos, ¡Qué Señor para criados Y parientes! ¡Qué enemigo de enemigos! ¡Qué maestro de esforzados Y valientes! ¡Qué seso para discretos! ¡Qué gracia para donosos! ¡Qué razon! Muy benigno á los sugetos, Y á los bravos y dañosos Un leon." Coplas de Don Jorge Manrique.
[23] Borgia, after his father Alexander VI.'s death, escaped to Naples under favor of a safe conduct signed by Gonsalvo. Here, however, his intriguing spirit soon engaged him in schemes for troubling the peace of Italy, and, indeed, for subverting the authority of the Spaniards there; in consequence of which the Great Captain seized his person, and sent him prisoner to Castile. Such, at least, is the Spanish version of the story, and of course the one most favorable to Gonsalvo. Mariana dismisses it with coolly remarking, that "the Great Captain seems to have consulted the public good, in the affair, more than his own fame; a conduct well worthy to be pondered and emulated by all princes and rulers!" Hist. de España, lib. 28, cap. 8.--Zurita, Anales, tom. v. lib. 5, cap. 72.--Quintana, Españoles Célebres, pp. 302, 303.
[24] That but one other troubled him, appears from the fact (if it be a fact) of Gonsalvo's declaring, on his death-bed, that "there were three acts of his life which he deeply repented." Two of these were his treatment of Borgia and the duke of Calabria. He was silent respecting the third. "Some historians suppose," says Quintana, "that by this last he meant his omission to possess himself of the crown of Naples when it was in his power!" These historians, no doubt, like Fouché, considered a blunder in politics as worse than a crime.
[25] The miraculous bell of Velilla, a little village in Aragon, nine leagues from Saragossa, about this time gave one of those prophetic tintinnabulations, which always boded some great calamity to the country. The side on which the blows fell denoted the quarter where the disaster was to happen. Its sound, says Dr. Dormer, caused dismay and contrition, with dismal "fear of change," in the hearts of all who heard it. No arm was strong enough to stop it on these occasions, as those found to their cost who profanely attempted it. Its ill-omened voice was heard for the twentieth and last time, in March, 1679. As no event of importance followed, it probably tolled for its own funeral.--See the edifying history, in Dr. Diego Dormer, of the miraculous powers and performances of this celebrated bell, as duly authenticated by a host of witnesses. Discursos Varios, pp. 198-244.
[26] Carbajal, Anales, MS., años 1513-1516.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 146.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 542, 558, 561, 564. Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 10, cap. 99.
Carbajal states, that the king had been warned, by some soothsayer, to beware of Madrigal, and that he had ever since avoided entering into the town of that name in Old Castile. The name of the place he was now in was not precisely that indicated, but corresponded near enough for a prediction. The event proved, that the witches of Spain, like those of Scotland,
"Could keep the word of promise to the ear, And break it to the hope."
The story derives little confirmation from the character of Ferdinand. He was not superstitious, at least while his faculties were in vigor.
[27] "A la verdad," says Carbajal, "le tentó mucho el enemigo en aquel paso con incredulidad que le ponia de no morir tan presto, para que ni confesase ni recibiese los Sacramentos." According to the same writer, Ferdinand was buoyed up by the prediction of an old sybil, "la beata del Barco," that "he should not die till he had conquered Jerusalem." (Anales, MS., cap. 2.) We are again reminded of Shakespeare,
"It hath been prophesied to me many years I should not die but in Jerusalem." King Henry IV.
[28] Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1516, cap. 1.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, ubi supra.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 565.--Sandoval, Hist. del Emp. Carlos V., tom. i. p. 35.
[29] Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1516, cap. 2.
Dr. Carbajal, who was a member of the royal council, was present with him during the whole of his last illness; and his circumstantial and spirited narrative of it forms an exception to the general character of his itinerary.
[30] Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1516, cap. 2.
[31] Ibid., ubi supra.
[32] Ibid., ubi supra.
[33] Ferdinand's gay widow did not long enjoy this latter pension. Soon after his death, she gave her hand to the marquis of Brandenburg, and, he dying, she again married the prince of Calabria, who had been detained in a sort of honorable captivity in Spain, ever since the dethronement of his father, King Frederic. (Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 4, dial. 44.) It was the second sterile match, says Guicciardini, which Charles V., for obvious politic reasons, provided for the rightful heir of Naples. Istoria, tom. viii. lib. 15, p. 10.
[34] Ferdinand's testament is to be found in Carbajal, Anales, MS.-- Dormer, Discursos Varies, p. 393 et seq.--Mariana, Hist. de España, ed. Valencia, tom. ix. Apend. no. 2.
[35] Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 3, dial. 9.--The queen was at Alcalá de Henares, when she received tidings of her husband's illness. She posted with all possible despatch to Madrigalejo, but, although she reached it on the 20th, she was not admitted, says Gomez, notwithstanding her tears, to a private interview with the king, till the testament was executed, a few hours only before his death. De Rebus Gestis, fol. 147.
[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.
Pulgar's portrait of the king, taken also in the morning of his life, the close of which the writer did not live to see, is equally bright and pleasing. "Habia," says he," una gracia singular, que qualquier con él fablese, luego le amaba é le deseaba servir, porque tenia la communicacion amigable." Reyes Católicos, p. 36.
[44] "He tilted lightly," says Pulgar, "and with a dexterity not surpassed by any man in the kingdom." Reyes Católicos, ubi supra.
[45] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 153.--Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. rey 30, cap. 24.--Sandoval, Hist. del Emp. Carlos V., tom. i. p. 37.
[46] Pulgar, indeed, notices his fondness for chess, tennis, and other games of skill, in early life. Reyes Católicos, part. 2, cap. 3.
[47] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 182.--Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 2, cap. 3.
"Stop and dine with us," he was known to say to his uncle, the grand admiral Henriquez; "we are to have a chicken for dinner today." (Sempere, Hist, del Luxo, tom. ii. p. 2, nota.) The royal cuisine would have afforded small scope for the talents of a Vatel or an Ude.
[48] Sempere, Hist. del Luxo, ubi supra.
[49] Machiavelli, by a single coup de pinceau, thus characterizes, or caricatures, the princes of his time. "Un imperatore instabile e vario; un re di Francia sdegnoso e pauroso; un re d'Inghilterra ricco, feroce, e cupido di gloria; un re di Spagna taccagno e avaro; per gli altri re, io no li conosco."
[50] The revenues of his own kingdom of Aragon were very limited. His principal foreign expeditions were undertaken solely on account of that crown; and this, notwithstanding the aid from Castile, may explain, and in some degree excuse, his very scanty remittances to his troops.
[51] On one occasion, having obtained a liberal supply from the states of Aragon, (a rare occurrence,) his counsellors advised him to lock it up against a day of need. "Mas el Rey," says Zurita, "que siempre supo gastar su dinero provechosamente, y nunca fue escosso en despendello en las cosas del estado, tuvo mas aparejo para emplearlo, que para encerrarlo." (Anales, tom. vi. fol. 225.) The historian, it must be allowed, lays quite as much emphasis on his liberality as it will bear.
[52] Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. rey 30, cap. 24.--Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 10, cap. 100.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 566.
"Vix ad funeris pompam et paucis familiaribus praebendas vestes pullatas, pecuniae apud eum, neqne alibi congestae repertae sunt; quod nemo unquam de vivente judicavit." (Peter Martyr, ubi supra.) Guicciardini alludes to the same fact, as evidence of the injustice of the imputations on Ferdinand; "Ma accade," adds the historian, truly enough, "quasi sempre per il giudizio corrotto degli uomini, che nei Re è più lodata la prodigalità, benche a quella sia annessa la rapacità, che la parsimonia congiunta con l'astinenza dalla roba di altri." (Istoria, tom. vi. lib. 12, p. 273.)
The state of Ferdinand's coffers formed, indeed, a strong contrast to that of his brother monarch's, Henry VII., "whose treasure of store," to borrow the words of Bacon, "left at his death, under his own key and keeping, amounted unto the sum of eighteen hundred thousand pounds sterling; a huge mass of money, even for these times." (Hist. of Henry VII., Works, vol. v. p. 183.) Sir Edward Coke swells this huge mass to "fifty and three hundred thousand pounds"! Institutes, part 4, chap. 35.
[53] Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. rey 30, cap. 24.--L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 182.--Zurita, Anales, lib. 9, cap. 26.
Ferdinand's conduct in regard to the Inquisition in Aragon displayed singular duplicity. In consequence of the remonstrance of cortes, in 1512, in which that high-spirited body set forth the various usurpations of the Holy Office, Ferdinand signed a compact, abridging its jurisdiction. He repented of these concessions, however, and in the following year obtained a dispensation from Rome from his engagements. This proceeding produced such an alarming excitement in the kingdom, that the monarch found it expedient to renounce the papal brief, and apply for another, confirming his former compact. (Llorente, Hist. de l'Inquisition, tom. i. pp. 371 et seq.) One may well doubt whether bigotry entered as largely, as less pardonable motives of state policy, into this miserable juggling.
[54] "Disoit-on," says Brantôme, "que la reyne Isabella de Castille estoit une fort devote et religieuse princesse, et que luy, quel grand zele qu'il y eust, n'estoit devotieux que par ypocrisie, couvrant ses actes et ambitions par ce sainct zele de religion." (Oeuvres, tom. i. p. 70.) "Copri," says Guicciardini, "quasi tutte le sue eupidità sotto colore di onesto zelo della religione e di santa intenzione al bene comune." (Istoria, tom. vi. lib. 12, p. 274.) The penetrating eye of Machiavelli glances at the same trait. II Principe, cap. 21.
[55] Guicciardini, Istoria, lib. 12, p. 273.--Du Bellay, Mémoires, apud Petitot, Collection des Mémoires, tom. xvii. p. 272.--Giovio, Hist. sui Temporis, lib. 11, p. 160; lib. 16, p. 336.--Machiavelli, Opere, tom. ix. Lett. Diverse, no. 6, ed. Milano, 1805.--Herbert, Life of Henry VIII., p. 63.--Sismondi, Républiques Italiennes, tom. xvi. cap. 112.--Voltaire sums up Ferdinand's character in the following pithy sentence. "On l'appellait en Espagne le sage, le prudent; en Italie le pieux; en France et à Londres le perfide." Essai sur les Moeurs, chap. 114.
[56] "Home era de verdad," says Pulgar, "como quiera que las necesidades grandes en que le pusieron las guerras, le facian algunas veces variar." (Reyes Católicos, part. 2, cap. 3.) Zurita exposes and condemns this blemish in his hero's character, with a candor which does him credit. "Fue muy notado, no solo de los estrangeros, pero de sus naturales, que no guardava la verdad, y fe que prometia; y que se anteponia siempre, y sobrepujava el respeto de su propria utilidad, a lo que era justo y honesto." Anales, tom. vi. fol. 406.
[57] Charles V., in particular, testified his respect for Machiavelli, by having the "Principe" translated for his own use.
[58] Machiavelli, Opera, tom. vi.--Il Principe, cap. 18, ed. Genova, 1798.
[59] Dumont, Corps Diplomatique, tom. iv. part. 1, nos. 7, 11, 28, 29.-- Seyssel, Hist. de Louys XII., pp. 228-230.--St. Gelais, Hist. de Louys XII., p. 184.
[60] Mémoires de Bayard, chap. 61.--"This prince," says Lord Herbert, who was not disposed to overrate the talents, any more than the virtues, of Ferdinand, "was thought the most active and politique of his time. No man knew better how to serve his turn on everybody, or to make their ends conduce to his." Life of Henry VIII., p. 63.
[61] According to them, the Catholic king took no great pains to conceal his treachery. "Quelqu'un disant un jour à Ferdinand, que Louis XII. l'accusoit de l'avoir trompé trois fois, Ferdinand parut mécontent qn'il lui ravît une partie de sa gloire; Il en a bien menti, l'ivrogne, dit-il, avec toute la grossièreté du temps, je l'ai trompé plus de dix." (Gaillard, Rivalité, tom. iv. p. 240.) The anecdote has been repeated by other modern writers, I know not on what authority. Ferdinand was too shrewd a politician, to hazard his game by playing the braggart.
[62] Paolo Giovio strikes the balance of their respective merits in this particular, in the following terms. "Ex horum enim longè maximorum nostrae tempestatis regum ingeniis, et turn liquidò et multùm anteà praclarè compertum est, nihil omnino sanctum et inviolabile, vel in ritè conceptis sancitisque foederibus reperiri, quòd, in proferendis imperiis augendisque opibus, apud eos nihil ad illustris famae decus interesset, dolone et nusquam sine fallaciis, an fide integrâ verâque virtute niterentur." Hist. sui Temporis, lib. 11, p. 160.
[63] An equally pertinent example occurs in the efficient support he gave Caesar Borgia in his flagitious enterprises against some of the most faithful allies of France. See Sismondi, Républiques Italiennes, tom. xiii. cap. 101.
[64] Read the honeyed panegyrics of Seyssel, St. Gelais, Voltaire even, to say nothing of Gaillard, Varillas, e lulti quanti, undiluted by scarce a drop of censure. Rare indeed is it to find one so imbued with the spirit of philosophy, as to raise himself above the local or national prejudices which pass for patriotism with the vulgar. Sismondi is the only writer in the French language, that has come under my notice, who has weighed the deserts of Louis XII. in the historic balance with impartiality and candor. And Sismondi is not a Frenchman.
[65] Giovio, Hist. sui Temporis, lib. 16, p. 335.
[66] Ferdinand left four natural children, one son and three daughters. The former, Don Alonso de Aragon, was born of the viscountess of Eboli, a Catalan lady. He was made archbishop of Saragossa when only six years old. There was little of the religious profession, however, in his life. He took an active part in the political and military movements of the period, and seems to have been even less scrupulous in his gallantries than his father. His manners in private life were attractive, and his public conduct discreet. His father always regarded him with peculiar affection, and intrusted him with the regency of Aragon, as we have seen, at his death.
Ferdinand had three daughters, also, by three different ladies, one of them a noble Portuguese. The eldest child was named Doña Juana, and married the grand constable of Castile. The others, each named Maria, embraced the religious profession in a convent in Madrigal. L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 188.--Salazar de Mendoza, Monarquía, tom. i. p. 410.
[67] "Enfin il surpassa tous les Princes de son siècle en la science du Cabinet, et c'est à lui qu'on doit attribuer le premier et le souverain usage de la politique moderne." Varillas, Politique de Ferdinand, liv. 3, disc. 10.
[68] Brantôme notices a sobriquet which his countrymen had given to Ferdinand. "Nos François appelloient ce roy Ferdinand Jehan Gipon, je ne sçay pour quelle dérision; mais il nous cousta bon, et nous fist bien du mal, et fust un grand roy et sage." Which his ancient editor thus explains: "Gipon de i'italien giubone, c'est que nous appellons jupon et jupe; voulant par là taxer ce prince de s'être laissé gouverner par Isabelle, reine de Castille, sa femme, dont il endossoit la jupe, pour ainsi dire, pendant qu'elle portoit les chausses." (Vies des Hommes Illustres, disc. 5.) There is more humor than truth in the etymology. The gipon was part of a man's attire, being, as Mr. Tyrwhitt defines it, "a short cassock," and was worn under the armor. Thus Chaucer, in the Prologue to his "Canterbury Tales," says of his knight's dress,
"Of fustian he wered a gipon Alle besmotred with his habergeon."
Again, in his "Knighte's Tale,"
"Som wol ben armed in an habergeon, And in a brest-plate, and in a gipon."
[69] When Ferdinand visited Aragon, in 1515, during his troubles with the cortes, he imprisoned the vice-chancellor, Antonio Augustin; being moved to this, according to Carbajal, by his jealousy of that minister's attentions to his young queen. (Anales, MS., año 1515.) It is possible. Zurita, however, treats it as mere scandal, referring the imprisonment to political offences exclusively. Anales, tom. vi. fol. 393.--See also Dormer, Anales de la Corona de Aragon, (Zaragoza, 1697,) lib. 1, cap. 9.
[70] "Era poco hermosa," says Sandoval, who grudges her even this quality, "algo coja, amiga mucho de holgarse, y andar en banquetes, huertos y jardines, y en fiestas. Introduxo esta Señora en Castilla comidas soberbias, siendo los Castellanos, y sun sus Reyes muy moderados en esto. Pasabansele pocos dias que no convidase, 6 fuese convidada. La que mas gastaba en fiestas y banquetes con ella, era mas su amiga." Hist. del Emp. Carlos V., tom. i. p. 12.
[71] Opere, tom. ix. Lettere Diverse, no. 6, ed. Milano, 1805. His correspondent, Vettori, is still more severe in his analysis of Ferdinand's public conduct. (Let. di 16 Maggio, 1514.) These statesmen were the friends of France, with whom Ferdinand was at war; and personal enemies of the Medici, whom that prince re-established in the government. As political antagonists therefore, every way, of the Catholic king, they were not likely to be altogether unbiassed in their judgments of his policy.--These views, however, find favor with Lord Herbert, who had evidently read, though he does not refer to, this correspondence. Life of Henry VIII., p. 63.
[72] Opere, tom. vi. II Principe, cap. 21, ed. Genova, 1798.
[73] Martyr, who had better opportunities than any other foreigner for estimating the character of Ferdinand, affords the most honorable testimony to his kingly qualities, in a letter written when the writer had no motive for flattery, after that monarch's death, to Charles V.'s physician. (Opus Epist., epist. 567.) Guicciardini, whose national prejudices did not lie in this scale, comprehends nearly as much in one brief sentence. "Re di eccellentissimo consiglio, e virtù, e nel quale, se fosse stato constante nelle promesse, no potresti facilmente riprendere cosa alcuna." (Istoria, tom. vi. lib. 12, p. 273.)
See also Brantôme, (Oeuvres, tom. iv. disc. 5.)--Giovio, with scarcely more qualification, Hist. sui Temporis, lib. 16, p. 336.--Navagiero, Viaggio, fol. 27,--et alios.
[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.
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]
The Castilian aristocracy, it may be believed, did not much relish the new yoke imposed on them by their priestly regent. On one occasion, it is said, they went in a body and demanded of Ximenes by what powers he held the government so absolutely. He referred them for answer to Ferdinand's testament and Charles's letter. As they objected to these, he led them to a window of the apartment, and showed them a park of artillery below, exclaiming, at the same time. "There are my credentials, then!" The story is characteristic; but, though often repeated, must be admitted to stand on slender authority. [7]
One of the regent's first acts was the famous ordinance, encouraging the burgesses, by liberal rewards, to enroll themselves into companies, and submit to regular military training, at stated seasons. The nobles saw the operation of this measure too well, not to use all their efforts to counteract it. In this they succeeded for a time, as the cardinal, with his usual boldness, had ventured on it without waiting for Charles's sanction, and in opposition to most of the council. The resolute spirit of the minister, however, eventually triumphed over all resistance, and a national corps was organized, competent, under proper guidance, to protect the liberties of the people, but which, unfortunately, was ultimately destined to be turned against them. [8]
Armed with this strong physical force, the cardinal now projected the boldest schemes of reform, especially in the finances, which had fallen into some disorder in the latter days of Ferdinand. He made a strict inquisition into the funds of the military orders, in which there had been much waste and misappropriation; he suppressed all superfluous offices in the state, retrenched excessive salaries, and cut short the pensions granted by Ferdinand and Isabella, which he contended should determine with their lives. Unfortunately, the state was not materially benefited by these economical arrangements, since the greater part of what was thus saved was drawn off to supply the waste and cupidity of the Flemish court, who dealt with Spain with all the merciless rapacity that could be shown to a conquered province. [9]
The foreign administration of the regent displayed the same courage and vigor. Arsenals were established in the southern maritime towns, and a numerous fleet was equipped in the Mediterranean, against the Barbary corsairs. A large force was sent into Navarre, which defeated an invading army of French; and the cardinal followed up the blow by demolishing the principal fortresses of the kingdom; a precautionary measure, to which, in all probability, Spain owes the permanent preservation of her conquest. [10]
The regent's eye penetrated to the farthest limits of the monarchy. He sent a commission to Hispaniola, to inquire into, and ameliorate, the condition of the natives. At the same time he earnestly opposed (though without success, being overruled in this by the Flemish counsellors,) the introduction of negro slaves into the colonies, which, he predicted, from the character of the race, must ultimately result in a servile war. It is needless to remark, how well the event has verified the prediction. [11]
It is with less satisfaction that we must contemplate his policy in regard to the Inquisition. As head of that tribunal, he enforced its authority and pretensions to the utmost. He extended a branch of it to Oran, and also to the Canaries, and the New World. [12] In 1512, the new Christians had offered Ferdinand a large sum of money to carry on the Navarrese war, if he would cause the trials before that tribunal to be conducted in the same manner as in other courts, where the accuser and the evidence were confronted openly with the defendant. To this reasonable petition Ximenes objected, on the wretched plea, that, in that event, none would be found willing to undertake the odious business of informer. He backed his remonstrance with such a liberal donative from his own funds, as supplied the king's immediate exigency, and effectually closed his heart against the petitioners. The application was renewed in 1516, by the unfortunate Israelites, who offered a liberal supply in like manner to Charles, on similar terms. But the proposal, to which his Flemish counsellors, who may be excused, at least, from the reproach of bigotry, would have inclined the young monarch, was firmly rejected through the interposition of Ximenes. [13]
The high-handed measures of the minister, while they disgusted the aristocracy, gave great umbrage to the dean of Louvain, who saw himself reduced to a mere cipher in the administration. In consequence of his representations a second, and afterwards a third minister was sent to Castile, with authority to divide the government with the cardinal. But all this was of little avail. On one occasion, the co-regents ventured to rebuke their haughty partner, and assert their own dignity, by subscribing their names first to the despatches, and then sending them to him for his signature. But Ximenes coolly ordered his secretary to tear the paper in pieces, and make out a new one, which he signed, and sent out without the participation of his brethren. And this course he continued during the remainder of his administration. [14]
The cardinal not only assumed the sole responsibility of the most important public acts, but, in the execution of them, seldom condescended to calculate the obstacles or the odds arrayed against him. He was thus brought into collision, at the same time, with three of the most powerful grandees of Castile; the dukes of Alva and Infantado, and the count of Ureña. Don Pedro Giron, the son of the latter, with several other young noblemen, had maltreated and resisted the royal officers, while in the discharge of their duty. They then took refuge in the little town of Villafrata, which they fortified and prepared for a defence. The cardinal without hesitation mustered several thousand of the national militia, and, investing the place, set it on fire, and deliberately razed it to the ground. The refractory nobles, struck with consternation, submitted. Their friends interceded for them in the most humble manner; and the cardinal, whose lofty spirit disdained to trample on a fallen foe, showed his usual clemency by soliciting their pardon from the king. [15]
But neither the talents nor authority of Ximenes, it was evident, could much longer maintain subordination among the people, exasperated by the shameless extortions of the Flemings, and the little interest shown for them by their new sovereign. The most considerable offices in church and state were put up to sale; and the kingdom was drained of its funds by the large remittances continually made, on one pretext or another, to Flanders. All this brought odium, undeserved indeed, on the cardinal's government; [16] for there is abundant evidence, that both he and the council remonstrated in the boldest manner on these enormities; while they endeavored to inspire nobler sentiments in Charles's bosom, by recalling the wise and patriotic administration of his grandparents. [17] The people, in the mean while, outraged by these excesses, and despairing of redress from a higher quarter, loudly clamored for a convocation of cortes, that they might take the matter into their own hands. The cardinal evaded this as long as possible. He was never a friend to popular assemblies, much less in the present inflamed state of public feeling, and in the absence of the sovereign. He was more anxious for his return than any other individual, probably, in the kingdom. Braved by the aristocracy at home, thwarted in every favorite measure by the Flemings abroad, with an injured, indignant people to control, and oppressed, moreover, by infirmities and years, even his stern, inflexible spirit could scarcely sustain him under a burden too grievous, in these circumstances, for any subject. [18]
At length, the young monarch, having made all preliminary arrangements, prepared, though still in opposition to the wishes of his courtiers, to embark for his Spanish dominions. Previously to this, on the 13th of August, 1516, the French and Spanish plenipotentiaries signed a treaty of peace at Noyon. The principal article stipulated the marriage of Charles to the daughter of Francis the First, who was to cede, as her dowry, the French claims on Naples. The marriage, indeed, never took place. But the treaty itself may be considered as finally adjusting the hostile relations which had subsisted, during so many years of Ferdinand's reign, with the rival monarchy of France, and as closing the long series of wars, which had grown out of the league of Cambray. [19]
On the 17th of September, 1517, Charles landed at Villaviciosa, in the Asturias. Ximenes at this time lay ill at the Franciscan monastery of Aguilera, near Aranda on the Douro. The good tidings of the royal landing operated like a cordial on his spirits, and he instantly despatched letters to the young monarch, filled with wholesome counsel as to the conduct he should pursue, in order to conciliate the affections of the people. He received at the same time messages from the king, couched in the most gracious terms, and expressing the liveliest interest in his restoration to health.
The Flemings in Charles's suite, however, looked with great apprehension to his meeting with the cardinal. They had been content that the latter should rule the state, when his arm was needed to curb the Castilian aristocracy; but they dreaded the ascendency of his powerful mind over their young sovereign, when brought into personal contact with him. They retarded this event, by keeping Charles in the north as long as possible. In the mean time, they endeavored to alienate his regards from the minister by exaggerated reports of his arbitrary conduct and temper, rendered more morose by the peevishness of age. Charles showed a facility to be directed by those around him in early years, which gave little augury of the greatness to which he afterwards rose. [20]
By the persuasions of his evil counsellors, he addressed that memorable letter to Ximenes, which is unmatched, even in court annals, for cool and base ingratitude. He thanked the regent for all his past services, named a place for a personal interview with him, where he might obtain the benefit of his counsels for his own conduct, and the government of the kingdom; after which he would be allowed to retire to his diocese, and seek from Heaven that reward, which Heaven alone could adequately bestow! [21]
Such was the tenor of this cold-blooded epistle, which, in the language of more than one writer, killed the cardinal. This, however, is stating the matter too strongly. The spirit of Ximenes was of too stern a stuff to be so easily extinguished by the breath of royal displeasure. [22] He was, indeed, deeply moved by the desertion of the sovereign whom he had served so faithfully, and the excitement which it occasioned brought on a return of his fever, according to Carbajal, in full force. But anxiety and disease had already done its work upon his once hardy constitution; and this ungrateful act could only serve to wean him more effectually from a world that he was soon to part with. [23]
In order to be near the king, he had previously transferred his residence to Roa. He now turned his thoughts to his approaching end. Death may be supposed to have but little terrors for the statesman, who in his last moments could aver, "that he had never intentionally wronged any man; but had rendered to every one his due, without being swayed, as far as he was conscious, by fear or affection." Yet Cardinal Richelieu on his death-bed declared the same! [24]
As a last attempt, he began a letter to the king. His fingers refused, however, to perform their office, and after tracing a few lines he gave it up. The purport of these seems to have been, to recommend his university at Alcalá to the royal protection. He now became wholly occupied with his devotions, and manifested such contrition for his errors, and such humble confidence in the divine mercy, as deeply affected all present. In this tranquil frame of mind, and in the perfect possession of his powers, he breathed his last, November 8th, 1517, in the eighty-first year of his age, and the twenty-second since his elevation to the primacy. The last words that he uttered were those of the Psalmist, which he used frequently to repeat in health, "In te, Domine, speravi,"--"In thee, Lord, have I trusted."
His body, arrayed in his pontifical robes, was seated in a chair of state, and multitudes of all degrees thronged into the apartment to kiss the hands and feet. It was afterwards transported to Alcalá, and laid in the chapel of the noble college of San Ildefonso, erected by himself. His obsequies were celebrated with great pomp, contrary to his own orders, by, all the religious and literary fraternities of the city; and his virtues commemorated in a funeral discourse by a doctor of the university, who, considering the death of the good a fitting occasion to lash the vices of the living, made the most caustic allusion to the Flemish favorites of Charles, and their pestilent influence on the country. [25]
Such was the end of this remarkable man; the most remarkable, in many respects, of his time. His character was of that stern and lofty cast, which seems to rise above the ordinary wants and weaknesses of humanity; his genius of the severest order, like Dante's and Michael Angelo's in the regions of fancy, impresses us with ideas of power, that excite admiration akin to terror. His enterprises, as we have seen, were of the boldest character. His execution of them equally bold. He disdained to woo fortune by any of those soft and pliant arts, which are often the most effectual. He pursued his ends by the most direct means. In this way he frequently multiplied difficulties; but difficulties seemed to have a charm for him, by the opportunity they afforded of displaying the energies of his soul.
With these qualities he combined a versatility of talent, usually found only in softer and more flexible characters. Though bred in the cloister, he distinguished himself both in the cabinet and the camp. For the latter, indeed, so repugnant to his regular profession, he had a natural genius, according to the testimony of his biographer; and he evinced his relish for it, by declaring, that "the smell of gunpowder was more grateful to him than the sweetest perfume of Arabia!" [26] In every situation, however, he exhibited the stamp of his peculiar calling; and the stern lineaments of the monk were never wholly concealed under the mask of the statesman, or the visor of the warrior. He had a full measure of the religious bigotry which belonged to the age; and he had melancholy scope for displaying it, as chief of that dread tribunal, over which he presided during the last ten years of his life. [27]
He carried the arbitrary ideas of his profession into political life. His regency was conducted on the principles of a military despotism. It was his maxim, that "a prince must rely mainly on his army for securing the respect and obedience of his subjects." [28] It is true he had to deal with a martial and factious nobility, and the end which he proposed was to curb their licentiousness, and enforce the equitable administration of justice; but, in accomplishing this, he showed little regard to the constitution, or to private rights. His first act, the proclaiming of Charles king, was in open contempt of the usages and rights of the nation. He evaded the urgent demands of the Castilians for a convocation of cortes; for it was his opinion, "that freedom of speech, especially in regard to their own grievances, made the people insolent and irreverent to their rulers." [29] The people, of course, had no voice in the measures which involved their most important interests. His whole policy, indeed, was to exalt the royal prerogative, at the expense of the inferior orders of the state. [30] And his regency, short as it was, and highly beneficial to the country in many respects, must be considered as opening the way to that career of despotism, which the Austrian family followed up with such hard-hearted constancy.
But, while we condemn the politics, we cannot but respect the principles of the man. However erroneous his conduct in our eyes, he was guided by his sense of duty. It was this, and the conviction of it in the minds of others, which constituted the secret of his great power. It made him reckless of difficulties, and fearless of all personal consequences. The consciousness of the integrity of his purposes rendered him, indeed, too unscrupulous as to the means of attaining them. He held his own life cheap, in comparison with the great reforms that he had at heart. Was it surprising, that he should hold as lightly the convenience and interests of others, when they thwarted their execution?
His views were raised far above considerations of self. As a statesman, he identified himself with the state; as a churchman, with the interests of his religion. He severely punished every offence against these. He as freely forgave every personal injury. He had many remarkable opportunities of showing this. His administration provoked numerous lampoons and libels. He despised them, as the miserable solace of spleen and discontent, and never persecuted their authors. [31] In this he formed an honorable contrast to Cardinal Richelieu, whose character and condition suggest many points of resemblance with his own.
His disinterestedness was further shown by his mode of dispensing his large revenues. It was among the poor, and on great public objects. He built up no family. He had brothers and nephews; but he contented himself with making their condition comfortable, without diverting to their benefit the great trusts confided to him for the public. [32] The greater part of the funds which he left at his death was settled on the university of Alcala. [33]
He had, however, none of that pride, which would make him ashamed of his poor and humble relatives. He had, indeed, a confidence in his own powers, approaching to arrogance, which led him to undervalue the abilities of others, and to look on them as his instruments rather than his equals. But he had none of the vulgar pride founded on wealth or station. He frequently alluded to his lowly condition in early life, with great humility, thanking Heaven, with tears in his eyes, for its extraordinary goodness to him. He not only remembered, but did many acts of kindness to his early friends, of which more than one touching anecdote is related. Such traits of sensibility, gleaming through the natural austerity and sternness of a disposition like his, like light breaking through a dark cloud, affect us the more sensibly by contrast.
He was irreproachable in his morals, and conformed literally to all the rigid exactions of his severe order, in the court as faithfully as in the cloister. He was sober, abstemious, chaste. In the latter particular, he was careful that no suspicion of the license which so often soiled the clergy of the period, should attach--to him. [34] On one occasion, while on a journey, he was invited to pass the night at the house of the duchess of Maqueda, being informed that she was absent. The duchess was at home, however, and entered the apartment before he retired to rest. "You have deceived me, lady," said Ximenes, rising in anger; "if you have any business with me, you will find me tomorrow at the confessional." So saying, he abruptly left the palace. [35]
He carried his austerities and mortifications so far, as to endanger his health. There is a curious brief extant of Pope Leo the Tenth, dated the last year of the cardinal's life, enjoining him to abate his severe penance, to eat meat and eggs on the ordinary fasts, to take off his Franciscan frock, and sleep in linen and on a bed. He would never consent, however, to divest himself of his monastic weeds. "Even laymen," said he, alluding to the custom of the Roman Catholics, "put these on when they are dying; and shall I, who have worn them all my life, take them off at that time!" [36]
Another anecdote is told in relation to his dress. Over his coarse woollen frock, he wore the costly apparel suited to his rank. An impertinent Franciscan preacher took occasion one day before him to launch out against the luxuries of the time, especially in dress, obviously alluding to the cardinal, who was attired in a superb suit of ermine, which had been presented to him. He heard the sermon, patiently to the end, and after the services were concluded, took the preacher into the sacristy, and, having commended the general tenor of his discourse, showed under his furs and fine linen the coarse frock of his order, next his skin. Some accounts add, that the friar, on the other hand, wore fine linen under his monkish frock. After the cardinal's death, a little box was found in his apartment, containing the implements with which he used to mend the rents of his threadbare garment, with his own hands. [37]
With so much to do, it may well be believed, that Ximenes was avaricious of time. He seldom slept more than four, or at most four hours and a half. He was shaved in the night, hearing at the same time some edifying reading. He followed the same practice at his meals, or varied it with listening to the arguments of some of his theological brethren, generally on some subtile question of school divinity. This was his only recreation. He had as little taste as time for lighter and more elegant amusements. He spoke briefly, and always to the point. He was no friend of idle ceremonies, and useless visits; though his situation exposed him more or less to both. He frequently had a volume lying open on the table before him, and when his visitor stayed too long, or took up his time with light and frivolous conversation, he intimated his dissatisfaction by resuming his reading. The cardinal's book must have been as fatal to a reputation as Fontenelle's ear trumpet. [38]
I will close this sketch of Ximenes de Cisneros with a brief outline of his person. His complexion was sallow; his countenance sharp and emaciated; his nose aquiline; his upper lip projected far over the lower. His eyes were small, deep-set in his head, dark, vivid, and penetrating. His forehead ample, and, what was remarkable, without a wrinkle, though the expression of his features was somewhat severe. [39] His voice was clear, but not agreeable; his enunciation measured and precise. His demeanor was grave, his carriage firm and erect; he was tall in stature, and his whole presence commanding. His constitution, naturally robust, was impaired by his severe austerities and severer cares; and, in the latter years of his life, was so delicate as to be extremely sensible to the vicissitudes and inclemency of the weather. [40]
I have noticed the resemblance which Ximenes bore to the great French minister, Cardinal Richelieu. It was, after all, however, more in the circumstances of situation, than in their characters; though the most prominent traits of these were not dissimilar. [41] Both, though bred ecclesiastics, reached the highest honors of the state, and indeed, may be said to have directed the destinies of their countries. [42] Richelieu's authority, however, was more absolute than that of Ximenes, for he was screened by the shadow of royalty; while the latter was exposed, by his insulated and unsheltered position, to the full blaze of envy, and, of course, opposition. Both were ambitious of military glory, and showed capacity for attaining it. Both achieved their great results by that rare union of high mental endowments and great efficiency in action, which is always irresistible.
The moral basis of their characters was entirely different. The French cardinal's was selfishness, pure and unmitigated. His religion, politics, his principles in short, in every sense, were subservient to this. Offences against the state he could forgive; those against himself he pursued with implacable rancor. His authority was literally cemented with blood. His immense powers and patronage were perverted to the aggrandizement of his family. Though bold to temerity in his plans, he betrayed more than once a want of true courage in their execution. Though violent and impetuous, he could stoop to be a dissembler. Though arrogant in the extreme, he courted the soft incense of flattery. In his manners he had the advantage over the Spanish prelate. He could be a courtier in courts, and had a more refined and cultivated taste. In one respect, he had the advantage over Ximenes in morals. He was not, like him, a bigot. He had not the religious basis in his composition, which is the foundation of bigotry.--Their deaths were typical of their characters. Richelieu died, as he had lived, so deeply execrated, that the enraged populace would scarcely allow his remains to be laid quietly in the grave. Ximenes, on the contrary, was buried amid the tears and lamentations of the people; his memory was honored even by his enemies, and his name is reverenced by his countrymen, to this day, as that of a Saint.
* * * * *
Dr. Lorenzo Galindez de Carbajal, one of the best authorities for transactions in the latter part of our History, was born of a respectable family, at Placencia, in 1472. Little is gathered of his early life, but that he was studious in his habits, devoting himself assiduously to the acquisition of the civil and canon law. He filled the chair of professor in this department, at Salamanca, for several years. His great attainments and respectable character recommended him to the notice of the Catholic queen, who gave him a place in the royal council. In this capacity, he was constantly at the court, where he seems to have maintained himself in the esteem of his royal mistress, and of Ferdinand after her death. The queen testified her respect for Carbajal, by appointing him one of the commissioners for preparing a digest of the Castilian law. He made considerable progress in this arduous work; but how great is uncertain, since, from whatever cause, (there appears to be a mystery about it,) the fruits of his labor were made public; a circumstance deeply regretted by the Castilian jurists. (Asso y Manuel, Instituciones, Introd. p. 99.)
Carbajal left behind him several historical works, according to Nic. Antonio, whose catalogue, however, rests on very slender grounds. (Bibliotheca Nova, tom. ii. p. 3.) The work by which he is best known to Spanish scholars, is his "Anales del Rey Don Fernando el Católico," which still remains in manuscript. There is certainly no Christian country, for which the invention of printing, so liberally patronized there at its birth, has done so little as for Spain. Her libraries teem at this day with manuscripts of the greatest interest for the illustration of every stage of her history; but which, alas! in the present gloomy condition of affairs, have less chance of coming to the light, than at the close of the fifteenth century, when the art of printing was in its infancy.
Carbajal's Annals cover the whole ground of our narrative, from the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella, to the coming of Charles V. into Spain. They are plainly written, without ambition of rhetorical show or refinement. The early part is little better than memoranda of the principal events of the period, with particular notice of all the migrations of the court. In the concluding portion of the work, however, comprehending Ferdinand's death, and the regency of Ximenes, the author is very full and circumstantial. As he had a conspicuous place in the government, and was always with the court, his testimony in regard to this important period is of the highest value as that of an eye-witness and an actor, and, it may be added, a man of sagacity and sound principles. No better commentary on the merit of his work need be required, than the brief tribute of Alvaro Gomez, the accomplished biographer of Cardinal Ximenes. "Porro Annales Laurentii Galendi Caravajali, quibus vir gravissimus rerumque illarum cum primis particeps quinquaginta fermè annorum memoriam complexus est, haud vulgariter meam operam juverunt." De Rebus Gestis, Praefatio.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1516, cap. 8.--Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 18.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 150.--Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 4, cap. 5.--Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., dial. de Ximeni.
[2] Carbajal has given us Charles's epistle, which is subscribed "El Principe." He did not venture on the title of king in his correspondence with the Castilians, though he affected it abroad. Anales, MS., año 1516, cap. 10.
[3] The letter of the council is dated March 14th, 1516. It is recorded by Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1516, cap. 10.
[4] It became permanently so in the following reign of Philip II. Semanario Erudito, tom. iii. p. 79.
[5] Carbajal penetrates into the remotest depths of Spanish history for an authority for Charles's claim. He can find none better, however, than the examples of Alfonso VIII. and Ferdinand III.; the former of whom used force, and the latter obtained the crown by the voluntary cession of his mother. His argument, it is clear, rests much stronger on expediency, than precedent. Anales, MS., año 1516, cap. 11.
[6] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 151 et seq.--Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1516, cap. 9-11.--Lanuza, Historias, tom. i. lib. 2, cap. 2.--Dormer, Anales de Aragon, lib. 1, cap. 1, 13.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 572, 590, 603.--Sandoval, Hist, del Emp. Carlos V., tom. i. p. 53.
[7] Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 18.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 158.-- Lanuza, Historias, tom. i. lib. 2, cap. 4.
Alvaro Gomez finds no better authority than vulgar rumor for this story. According to Robles, the cardinal, after this bravado, twirled his cordelier's belt about his fingers, saying, "he wanted nothing better than that to tame the pride of the Castilian nobles with!" But Ximenes was neither a fool nor a madman; although his over-zealous biographers make him sometimes one, and sometimes the other. Voltaire, who never lets the opportunity slip of seizing a paradox in character or conduct, speaks of Ximenes as one "qui, toujours vêtu en cordelier, met son faste à fouler sous ses sandales le faste Espagnol." Essai sur les Moeurs, chap. 121.
[8] Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1516, cap. 13.--Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 4, cap. 5.--Sempere, Hist. des Cortès, chap. 25.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 159.--Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.
[9] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 174 et seq.--Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 18.-Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1516, cap. 13.
[10] Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1516, cap. 11.--Aleson, Annales de Navarra, tom. v. p. 327.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 570.-- Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 4, cap. 5.
[11] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 164, 165.--Herrera, Indias Occidentales, tom. i. p. 278.--Las Casas, Oeuvres, ed. de Llorente, tom. i. p. 239.
Robertson states the ground of Ximenes's objection to have been, the iniquity of reducing one set of men to slavery, in order to liberate another. (History of America, vol. i. p. 285.) A very enlightened reason, for which, however, I find not the least warrant in Herrera, (the authority cited by the historian,) nor in Gomez, nor in any other writer.
[12] Llorente, Hist. de l'Inquisition, tom. i, chap. 10, art. 5.
[13] Paramo, De Origine Inquisitionis, lib. 2, tit. 2, cap. 5.--Llorente, Hist. de l'Inquisition, tom. i. chap. 11, art. l.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 184, 185.
[14] Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1517, cap. 2.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 189, 190.--Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 18.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 581.--Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.
"Ni properaveritis," says Martyr in a letter to Marliano, Prince Charles's physician, "ruent omnia. Nescit Hispania parere non regibus, aut non legitime regnaturis. Nauseam inducit magnanimis viris hujus fratris, licet potentis et reipublicae amatoris, gubernatio. Est quippe grandis animo, et ipse, ad aedificandum literatosqne viros fovendum natus magis qnam ad imperandum, bellicis colloquiis et apparatibus gaudet." Opus Epist., epist. 573.
[15] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 198-201.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 567, 584, 590.--Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1517, cap. 3, 6.-- Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.--Sandoval, Hist. del Emp. Carlos V., tom. i. p. 73.
[16] In a letter to Marliano, Martyr speaks of the large sums, "ab hoc gubernatore ad vos missae, sub parandae classis praetextu." (Opus Epist., epist. 576.) In a subsequent epistle to his Castilian correspondents, he speaks in a more sarcastic tone. "Bonus ille frater Ximenez Cardinalis gubernator thesauros ad Belgas transmittendos coacervavit. ***** Glacialis Oceani accolae ditabuntur, vestra expilabitur Castilla." (Epist. 606.) From some cause or other, it is evident the cardinal's government was not at all to honest Martyr's taste. Gomez suggests, as the reason, that his salary was clipped off in the general retrenchment, which he admits was a very hard case. (De Rebus Gestis, fol. 177.) Martyr, however, was never an extravagant encomiast of the cardinal, and one may imagine much more creditable reasons, than that assigned, for his disgust with him now.
[17] See a letter in Carbajal, containing this honest tribute to the illustrious dead. (Anales, MS., año 1517, cap. 4.) Charles might have found an antidote to the poison of his Flemish sycophants in the faithful counsels of his Castilian ministers.
[18] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 602.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 194.-Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 18.
Martyr, in a letter written just before the king's landing, notices the cardinal's low state of health and spirits. "Cardinalis gubernator Matriti febribus aegrotaverat; convaluerat; nunc recidivavit. ***** Breves fore dies illius, medici automant. Est octogenario major; ipse regis adventum affectu avidissimo desiderare videtur. Sentit sine rege non rite posse corda Hispanorum moderari ac regi." Epist. 598.
[19] Flassan, Diplomatic Français, tom. i. p. 313.--Dumont, Corps Diplomatique, tom. iv. part. 1, no. 106.
[20] Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1517, cap. 9.--Dormer, Anales de Aragon, lib. 1. cap. 1.--Ulloa, Vita di Carlo V., fol. 43.--Dolce, Vita di. Carlo V., p. 12.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 212.--Sandoval, Hist, del Emp. Carlos V., tom. i. p. 83.
[21] Carbajal, Anales, MS., ubi supra.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 215. --Sandoval, Hist. del Emp. Carlos V., tom. i. p. 84.
[22] "Cette terrible lettre qui fut la cause de sa mort," says Marsollier, plumply; a writer who is sure either to misstate or overstate. (Ministère du Card. Ximenez, p. 447.) Byron, alluding to the fate of a modern poet, ridicules the idea of
"The mind, that fiery particle, Being extinguished by an Article!"
The frown of a critic, however, might as well prove fatal as that of a king. In both cases, I imagine, it would be hard to prove any closer connection between the two events, than that of time.
[23] "Con aquel despedimiento," says Galindez de Carbajal, "con esto acabó de tantos servicios luego que Ilegó esta carta el Cardenal rescibió alteracion y tomole recia calentnra que en pocos dias le des-pacho." (Anales, MS., año 1517, cap. 9.) Gomez tells a long story of poison administered to the cardinal in a trout, (De Rebus Gestis, fol. 206.) Others say, in a letter from Flanders, (see Moreri, Dictionnaire Historique, voce Ximenes.) Oviedo notices a rumor of his having been poisoned by one of his secretaries; but vouches for the innocence of the individual accused, whom he personally knew. (Quincuagenas, MS., dial, de Xim.) Reports of this kind were too rife in these days, to deserve credit, unless supported by very clear evidence. Martyr and Carbajal, both with the court at the time, intimate no suspicion of foul play.
[24] Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1517, cap. 9.--Gomez, de Rebus Gestis, fol. 213, 214.--Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 4, cap. 8.--Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.
"'Voilà mon juge, qui prononcera bientôt ma sentence. Je le prie de tout mon coeur de me condamner, si, dans mon ministère, je me suis proposé autre chose que le bien de la religion et celui de l'état.' Le lendemain, au point du jour, il voulut recevoir l'extrême onction." Jay, Histoire du Ministère du Cardinal Richelieu, (Paris, 1816,) tom. ii. p. 217.
[25] Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 18.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 215- 217.--Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 4, cap. 12-15; who quotes Maraño, an eye-witness.--Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1517, cap. 9, who dates the cardinal's death December 8th, in which he is followed by Lanuza.
The following epitaph, of no great merit, was inscribed on his sepulchre, composed by the learned John Vergara in his younger days.
"Condideram musis Franciscus grande lyceum, Condor in exiguo nune ego sarcophago. Praelextam junxi saccho, galeamque galero, Frater, dux, praesul, cardineusque pater. Quin virtute reel junctum est diadema cucullo, Cum mibi regnanti paruit Hesperia."
[26] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 160.--Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 17. --"And who can doubt," exclaimed Gonzalo de Oviedo, "that powder, against the infidel, is incense to the Lord?" Quincuagenas, MS.
[27] During this period, Ximenes "permit la condamnation," to use the mild language of Llorente, of more than 2500 individuals to the stake, and nearly 50,000 to other punishments! (Hist. de l'Inquisition, tom. i. chap. 10, art. 5; tom. iv. chap. 46.) In order to do justice to what is really good in the characters of this age, one must absolutely close his eyes against that odious fanaticism, which enters more or less into all, and into the best, unfortunately, most largely.
[28] "Persuasum haberet, non alia ratione animos humanos imperia aliorum laturos, nisi vi facta aut adhibita. Quare pro certo affirmare solebat, nullum unquam principem exteris populis formidini, aut suis reverentiae fuisse, nisi comparato militum exercitu, atque omnibus belli instrumentis ad manum paratis." (Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 95.) We may well apply to the cardinal what Cato, or rather Lucan, applied to Pompey;
"Praetulit arma togae; sed pacem armatus amavit." Pharsalia, lib. 9.
[29] "Nulla enim re magis populos insolescere, et irreverentiam omnem exhibere, quam cum libertatem loquendi nacti sunt, et pro libidine suas vulgo jactant querimonias." Gomez quotes the language of Ximenes in his correspondence with Charles. De Rebus Gestis, fol. 194.
[30] Oviedo makes a reflection, showing that he conceived the cardinal's policy better than most of his biographers. He states, that the various immunities, and the military organization, which he gave to the towns enabled them to raise the insurrection, known as the war of the "comunidades," at the beginning of Charles's reign. But he rightly considers this as only an indirect consequence of his policy, which made use of the popular arm only to break down the power of the nobles, and establish the supremacy of the crown. Quincuagenas, MS., dial, de Xim.
[31] Quincuagenas, MS., ubi supra. Mr. Burke notices this noble trait, in a splendid panegyric which he poured forth on the character of Ximenes, at Sir Joshua Reynolds's table, as related by Madame d'Arblay, in the last, and not least remarkable of her productions. (Memoirs of Dr. Burney, vol. ii. pp. 231 et seq.) The orator, if the lady reports him right, notices, as two of the cardinal's characteristics, his freedom from bigotry and despotism!
[32] Their connection with so distinguished a person, however enabled most of them to form high alliances; of which Oviedo gives some account. Quincuagenas, MS.
[33] "Die, and endow a college or a cat!"
The verse is somewhat stale, but expresses, better than a page of prose can, the credit due to such posthumous benefactions, when they set aside the dearest natural ties for the mere indulgence of a selfish vanity, which motives cannot be imputed to Ximenes. He had always conscientiously abstained from appropriating his archi-episcopal revenues, as we have seen, to himself or his family. His dying bequest, therefore, was only in keeping with his whole life.
[34] The good father Quintanilla vindicates his hero's chastity, somewhat at the expense of his breeding. "His purity was unexampled," says he. "He shunned the sex, like so many evil spirits; looking on every woman as a devil, let her be never so holy. Had it not been in the way of his professional calling, it is not too much to say he would never have suffered his eyes to light on one of them!" Archetypo, p. 80.
[35] Fléchier, Histoire de Ximenés, liv. 6, p. 634.
[36] Quintanilla has given the brief of his Holiness in extenso, with commentaries thereon, twice as long. See Archeotypo, lib. 4, cap. 10.
[37] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 219.--Quintanilla, Archetype, lib. 2, cap. 4. The reader may find a pendant to this anecdote in a similar one recorded of Ximenes's predecessor, the grand cardinal Mendoza, in