The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Volume III Part 15

[35] Isabella at her brother's court might well have sat for the whole of Milton's beautiful portraiture.

"So dear to heaven is saintly chast.i.ty, That, when a soul is found sincerely so, A thousand liveried angels lackey her.

Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt, And, in clear dream and solemn vision.

Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear, Till oft converse with heavenly habitants Begin to cast a beam on the outward shape, The unpolluted temple of the mind, And turns it by degrees to the soul's essence, Till all be made immortal."

[36] "Era tanto," says L. Marineo, "el ardor y diligencia que tenia cerca el culto divino, que aunque de dia y de noche estava muy ocupada en grandes y arduos negocios de la governacion de muchos reynos y senorios, parescia que _su vida era mas contemplativa que activa_. Porque siempre se hallava presente a los divinos oficios y a la palabra de Dios. Era tanta su atencion que si alguno de los que celebravan o cantavan los psalmos, o otras cosas de la yglesia errava alguna dicion o syllaba, lo sintia y lo notava, y despues como maestro a discipulo se lo emendava y corregia.

Acostumbrava cada dia dezir todas las horas canonicas demas de otras muchas votivas y extraordinarias devociones que tenia." Cosas Memorables, fol. 183.

[37] Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, part. 1, cap. 4.--Lucio Marineo enumerates many of these splendid charities.--(Cosas Memorables, fol. 165.) See also the notices scattered over the Itinerary (Viaggio in Spagna) of Navagiero, who travelled through the country a few years after.

[38] The archbishop's letters are little better than a homily on the sins of dancing, feasting, dressing, and the like, garnished with scriptural allusions, and conveyed in a tone of sour rebuke, that would have done credit to the most canting Roundhead in Oliver Cromwell's court. The queen, far from taking exception at it, vindicates herself from the grave imputations with a degree of earnestness and simplicity, which may provoke a smile in the reader. "I am aware," she concludes, "that custom cannot make an action, bad in itself, good; but I wish your opinion, whether, under all the circ.u.mstances, these can be considered bad; that, if so, they may be discontinued in future." See this curious correspondence in Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Il.u.s.t. 13.

[39] Such encomiums become still more striking in writers of sound and expansive views like Zurita and Blancas, who, although flouris.h.i.+ng in a better instructed age, do not scruple to p.r.o.nounce the Inquisition "the greatest evidence of her prudence and piety, whose uncommon utility, not only Spain, but all Christendom, freely acknowledged!" Blancas, Commentarii, p. 263.--Zurita, a.n.a.les, tom. v. lib. 1, cap. 6.

[40] Sismondi displays the mischievous influence of these theological dogmas in Italy, as well as Spain, under the pontificate of Alexander VI.

and his immediate predecessors, in the 90th chapter of his eloquent and philosophical "Histoire des Republiques Italiennes."

[41] I borrow almost the words of Mr. Hallam, who, noticing the penal statutes against Catholics under Elizabeth, says, "They established a persecution, which fell not at all short in principle of that for which the Inquisition had become so odious." (Const.i.tutional History of England, (Paris, 1827,) vol. i. chap. 3.) Even Lord Burleigh, commenting on the mode of examination adopted in certain cases by the High Commission court, does not hesitate to say, the interrogatories were "so curiously penned, so full of branches and circ.u.mstances, as he thought the inquisitors of Spain used not so many questions to comprehend and to trap their preys."

Ibid., chap. 4.

[42] Even Milton, in his essay on the "Liberty of Unlicensed Printing,"

the most splendid argument, perhaps, the world had then witnessed in behalf of intellectual liberty, would exclude Popery from the benefits of toleration, as a religion which the public good required at all events to be extirpated. Such were the crude views of the rights of conscience entertained in the latter half of the seventeenth century, by one of those gifted minds, whose extraordinary elevation enabled it to catch and reflect back the coming light of knowledge, long before it had fallen on the rest of mankind.

[43] The most remarkable example of this, perhaps, occurred in the case of the wealthy Galician knight, Yanez de Lugo, who endeavored to purchase a pardon of the queen by the enormous bribe of 40,000 doblas of gold. The attempt failed, though warmly supported by some of the royal counsellors.

The story is well vouched. Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, part. 2, cap. 97.--L.

Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 180.

[44] The reader may recollect a pertinent ill.u.s.tration of this, on the occasion of Ximenes's appointment to the primacy. See Part II. Chapter 5, of this History.

[45] See, among other instances, her exemplary chastis.e.m.e.nt of the ecclesiastics of Truxillo. Part I. Chapter 12, of this History.

[46] Ibid., Part I. Chapter 6, Part II. Chapter 10, et alibi. Indeed, this independent att.i.tude was shown, as I have more than once had occasion to notice, not merely in s.h.i.+elding the rights of her own crown, but in the boldest remonstrances against the corrupt practices and personal immorality of those who filled the chair of St. Peter at this period.

[47] The public acts of this reign afford repeated evidence of the pertinacity with which Isabella insisted on reserving the benefits of the Moorish conquests and the American discoveries for her own subjects of Castile, by whom and for whom they had been mainly achieved. The same thing is reiterated in the most emphatic manner in her testament.

[48] Opus Epist., epist. 31.

[49] Mem. de la. Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. p. 49.

[50] The preamble of one of her _pragmaticas_ against this lavish expenditure at funerals, contains some reflections worth quoting for the evidence they afford of her practical good sense. "Nos deseando proveer e remediar al tal gasto sin provecho, e considerando que esto no redunda en sufragio e alivio de las animas de los defuntos," etc. "Pero los Catolicos Christianos que creemos que hai otra vida despues desta, donde las animas esperan folganza e vida perdurable, _desta habemos de curar e procurar de la ganar por obras meritorias, e no por cosas transitorias e vanas como son los lutos e gastos excesivos_," Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi.

p. 318.

[51] Her exposure in this way on one occasion brought on a miscarriage.

According to Gomez, indeed, she finally died of a painful internal disorder, occasioned by her long and laborious journeys. (De Rebus Gestis, fol. 47.) Giovio adopts the same account. (Vitae Ill.u.s.t. Virorum, p. 275.) The authorities are good, certainly; but Martyr, who was in the palace, with every opportunity of correct information, and with no reason for concealment of the truth, in his private correspondence with Tendilla and Talavera, makes no allusion whatever to such a complaint, in his circ.u.mstantial account of the queen's illness.

[52] Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. vii. p. 411.--Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. p. 29.

[53] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 182.--"p.r.o.nunciaba con primor el latin, y era tan habil en la prosodia, que si erraban algun acento, luego le corregia." Idem., apud Florez, Reynas Catholicas, tom. ii. pp. 834.

[54] If we are to believe Florez, the king wore no s.h.i.+rt but of the queen's making. "Preciabase de no haverse puesto su marido camisa, que elle no huviesse hilado y cosido." (Reynas Catholicas, tom. ii. p. 832.) If this be taken literally, his wardrobe, considering the mult.i.tude of her avocations, must have been indifferently furnished.

[55] Among many evidences of this, what other need be given than her conduct at the famous riot at Segovia? Part I. Chapter 6, of this History.

[56] Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, part. 1, cap. 4.--"No fue la Reyna," says L.

Marineo, "de animo menos fuerte para sufrir los dolores corporales. Porque como yo fuy informado de las duenas que le servian en la camara, ni en los dolores que padescia de sus enfermidades, ni en los del parto (que es cosa de grande admiracion) nunca la vieron quexar se; antes con increyble y maravillosa fortaleza los suffria y dissimulava." (Cosas Memorables, fol.

186.) To the same effect writes the anonymous author of the "Carro de las Donas," apud Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. p. 559.

[57] "Era firme en sus propositos, de los quales se retraia con gran dificultad." Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, part. 1, cap. 4.

[58] The reader may refresh his recollection of Ta.s.so's graceful sketch of Erminia in similar warlike panoply.

"Col durissimo acciar preme ed offende Il delicato collo e l'aurea chioma; E la tenera man lo scudo prende Pur troppo grave e insopportabil soma.

Cosi tutta di ferro intorno splende, E in atto militar se stessa doma."

Gerusalemme Liberata, canto 6, stanza 92.

[59] Viaggio, fol. 27.

[60] We find one of the first articles in the marriage treaty with Ferdinand enjoining him to cherish, and treat her mother with all reverence, and to provide suitably for her royal maintenance. (Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Apend. no. 1.) The author of the "Carro de las Donas" thus notices her tender devotedness to her parent, at a later period. "Y esto me dijo quien lo vido por sus proprios ojos, que la Reyna Dona Isabel, nuestra senora, cuando estaba alli en Arevalo visitando a su madre, ella misma por su persona servia a su misma madre. E aqui tomen ejemplo los hijos como han de servir a sus padres, pues una Reina tan poderosa y en negocios tan arduos puesta, todos los mas de los anos (puesto todo aparte y pospuesto) iba a visitar a su madre y la servia humilmente." Viaggio, p. 557.

[61] Among other little tokens of mutual affection, it may be mentioned that not only the public coin, but their furniture, books, and other articles of personal property, were stamped with their initials, F & I, or emblazoned with their devices, his being a yoke, and hers a sheaf of arrows. (Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 2, dial. 3.) It was common, says Oviedo, for each party to take a device, whose initial corresponded with that of the name of the other; as was the case here, with _jugo_ and _flechas_.

[62] Marineo thus speaks of the queen's discreet and most amiable conduct in these delicate matters. "Amava en tanta manera al Rey su marido, que andava sobre aviso con celos a ver si el amava a otras. Y si sentia que mirava a alguna dama o donzella de su casa con senal de amores, con mucha prudencia buscava medios y maneras con que despedir aquella tal persona de su casa, con su mucha honrra y provecho." (Cosas Memorables, fol. 182.) There was unfortunately too much cause for this uneasiness. See Part II.

Chapter 24, of this History.

[63] The best beloved of her friends, probably, was the marchioness of Moya, who, seldom separated from her royal mistress through life, had the melancholy satisfaction of closing her eyes in death. Oviedo, who saw them frequently together, says, that the queen never addressed this lady, even in later life, with any other than the endearing t.i.tle of _hija marquesa_, "daughter marchioness." Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 23

[64] As was the case with Cardenas, the comendador mayor, and the grand cardinal Mendoza, to whom, as we have already seen, she paid the kindest attentions during their last illness. While in this way she indulged the natural dictates of her heart, she was careful to render every outward mark of respect to the memory of those whose rank or services ent.i.tled them to such consideration. "Quando," says the author so often quoted, "quiera que fallescia alguno de los grandes de su reyno, o algun principe Christiano, luego embiavan varones sabios y religiosos para consolar a sus heredores y deudos. Y demas desto se vestian de ropas de luto en testimonio del dolor y sentimiento que hazian." L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 185.

[65] Her humanity was shown in her attempts to mitigate the ferocious character of those national amus.e.m.e.nts, the bull-fights, the popularity of which throughout the country was too great, as she intimates in one of her letters, to admit of her abolis.h.i.+ng them altogether. She was so much moved at the sanguinary issue of one of these combats, which she witnessed at Arevalo, says a contemporary, that she devised a plan, by guarding the horns of the bulls, for preventing any serious injury to the men and horses; and she never would attend another of these spectacles until this precaution had been adopted. Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.

[66] Isabella, the name of the Catholic queen, is correctly rendered into English by that of Elizabeth.

[67] She gave evidence of this, in the commutation of the sentence she obtained for the wretch who stabbed her husband, and whom her ferocious n.o.bles would have put to death, without the opportunity of confession and absolution, that "his soul might perish with his body!" (See her letter to Talavera.) She showed this merciful temper, so rare in that rough age, by dispensing altogether with the preliminary barbarities, sometimes prescribed by the law in capital executions. Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Il.u.s.t. 13.

[68] Hume admits, that, "unhappily for literature, at least for the learned of this age, Queen Elizabeth's vanity lay more in s.h.i.+ning by her own learning, than in encouraging men of genius by her liberality."

[69] Which of the two, the reader of the records of these times may be somewhat puzzled to determine.--If one need be convinced how many faces history can wear, and how difficult it is to get at the true one, he has only to compare Dr. Lingard's account of this reign with Mr. Turner's.

Much obliquity was to be expected, indeed, from the avowed apologist of a persecuted party, like the former writer. But it attaches, I fear, to the latter in more than one instance,--as in the reign of Richard III., for example. Does it proceed from the desire of saying something new on a beaten topic, where the new cannot always be true? Or, as is most probable, from that confiding benevolence, which throws somewhat of its own light over the darkest shades of human character? The unprejudiced reader may perhaps agree, that the balance of this great queen's good and bad qualities is held with a more steady and impartial hand by Mr. Hallam than any preceding writer.

[70] The unsuspicious testimony of her G.o.dson, Harrington, places these foibles in the most ludicrous light. If the well-known story, repeated by historians, of the three thousand dresses left in her wardrobe at her decease, be true, or near truth, it affords a singular contrast with Isabella's taste in these matters.

[71] The reader will remember how effectually they answered this purpose in the Moorish war. See Part I. Chapter 14, of this History.

[72] It is scarcely necessary to mention the names of Hatton and Leicester, both recommended to the first offices in the state chiefly by their personal attractions, and the latter of whom continued to maintain the highest place in his sovereign's favor for thirty years or more, in despite of his total dest.i.tution of moral worth.

[73] Queen Elizabeth, indeed, in a declaration to her people, proclaims, "We know not, nor have any meaning to allow, that any of our subjects should be molested, either by examination or inquisition, in any matter of faith, as long as they shall profess the Christian faith." (Turner's Elizabeth, vol. ii. p. 241, note.) One is reminded of Parson Thwack.u.m's definition in "Tom Jones," "When I mention religion, I mean the Christian religion; and not only the Christian religion, but the Protestant religion; and not only the Protestant religion, but the church of England." It would be difficult to say which fared worst, Puritans or Catholics, under this system of toleration.

[74] "Quum generosi," says Paolo Giovio, speaking of her, "prudentisque animi magnitudine, tum pudicitiae et pietatis laude antiquis heroidibus comparanda." (Vitae Ill.u.s.t. Virorum, p. 205.) Guicciardini eulogizes her as "Donna di onestissimi costumi, e in concetto grandissimo nei Regni suoi di magnanimita e prudenza." (Istoria, lib. 6.) The _loyal serviteur_ notices her death in the following chivalrous strain. "L'an 1506, une des plus triumphantes e glorieuses dames qui puis mille ans ait este sur terre alla de vie a trespas; ce fut la royne Ysabel de Castille, qui ayda, le bras arme, a conquester le royaulme de Grenade sur les Mores. Je veux bien a.s.seurer aux lecteurs de ceste presente hystoire, que sa vie a este telle, qu'elle a bien merite couronne de laurier apres sa mort." Memoires de Bayard, chap. 26.--See also Comines, Memoires, chap. 23.--Navagiero, Viaggio, fol. 27.--et al. auct.