The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Volume III Part 32

[19] Gonsalvo a.s.sumed 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. Brantome, Oeuvres, tom. i. p. 75.

[20] Giovio, Vitae Ill.u.s.t. Virorum, p. 271.

[21] Ibid., p. 281.--Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, lib. 30, cap. 1, 5.

[22] Giovio, Vitae Ill.u.s.t. Virorum, p. 271.

"Amigo de sus amigos, Que Senor para criados Y parientes!

Que enemigo de enemigos!

Que maestro de esforzados Y valientes!

Que seso para discretos!

Que gracia para donosos!

Que razon!

Muy benigno a los sugetos, Y a los bravos y danosos 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 Espana, lib. 28, cap. 8.--Zurita, a.n.a.les, tom. v. lib. 5, cap. 72.--Quintana, Espanoles Celebres, 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 Fouche, 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, a.n.a.les, MS., anos 1513-1516.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol.

146.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 542, 558, 561, 564. Zurita, a.n.a.les, 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 superst.i.tious, at least while his faculties were in vigor.

[27] "A la verdad," says Carbajal, "le tento 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." (a.n.a.les, 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, a.n.a.les, MS., ano 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, a.n.a.les, MS., ano 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 circ.u.mstantial and spirited narrative of it forms an exception to the general character of his _itinerary_.

[30] Carbajal, a.n.a.les, MS., ano 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, a.n.a.les, MS.-- Dormer, Discursos Varies, p. 393 et seq.--Mariana, Hist. de Espana, ed.

Valencia, tom. ix. Apend. no. 2.

[35] Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 3, dial. 9.--The queen was at Alcala 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, a.n.a.les, MS., ano 1516.--L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol.

188.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 148.

"Tot regnorum dominus, totque palmarum c.u.mulis ornatus, Christianae religionis amplificator et prostrator hostium, Rex in rusticana obiit casa, et pauper contra hominum opinionem obiit." Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 588.--Brantome, (Vies des Hommes Ill.u.s.tres, 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, a.n.a.les, tom. vi. lib. 10, cap. 100.--Blancas, Commentarii, p.

275.--Lanuza, Historias, tom. i. lib. 1, cap. 25.

[39] Zurita, a.n.a.les, 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] a.n.a.les, tom. vi. lib. 10, cap. 100.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 572.--Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. rey 30, cap. 24.--Carbajal, a.n.a.les, MS., ano 1516, cap. 5.

[41] Mem de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ill.u.s.t. 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.--"a.s.sai 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 a.s.signs 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, a la fois d'une belle execution et d'une conception n.o.ble." 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 el fablese, luego le amaba e le deseaba servir, porque tenia la communicacion amigable." Reyes Catolicos, p. 36.

[44] "He tilted lightly," says Pulgar, "and with a dexterity not surpa.s.sed by any man in the kingdom." Reyes Catolicos, 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 Catolicos, part. 2, cap. 3.

[47] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 182.--Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, 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.