LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 CALT'^NIA 
 SAN DIEGO
 
 /d 
 
 Ls 

 
 CTB
 
 Isabella of (Castile.
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE.
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE, 
 
 14921892. 
 
 BY 
 
 ELIZA ALLEN STARR. 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 C. V. WAI TE & COMPANY 
 1889
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1889, by the 
 
 QUEEN ISABELLA ASSOCIATION, 
 
 in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 DANIELS & PITKIN, PKINTBKS.
 
 TO THE LADIES 
 
 OF 
 
 THE QUEEN ISABELLA ASSOCIATION, 
 
 who, by a two- fold inspiration of patriotic and womanly 
 honor, have championed the claims of 
 
 op 
 
 as 
 CO-DISCOVERER OF THE NEW WORLD, 
 
 These pages, prepared under their patronage, are 
 cordially dedicated by the Author,
 
 PKEFACE. 
 
 In the following narrative no attempt 
 is made to give the history of the times 
 in which it is laid; but rather to set 
 before tjie mind, as distinctly as a 
 picture or statue could set before the 
 eyes, the noble personality of Isabella of 
 Spain 
 
 Two notable examples of the honor 
 to be paid to a woman by writing her 
 story detached from all the events of 
 her period, excepting those directly 
 connected with her, are given in the 
 Holy Scriptures. One of the Books of 
 the Old Testament recites with the en- 
 thusiasm born of poesy and patriotism, 
 the glorious acts of Judith, whose valor 
 and chastity brought to naught the de- 
 vices of Holofernes. 
 
 Another Book recounts the holy con- 
 quest of the beautiful Esther over the 
 heart of the king, Ahasuerus, not only
 
 till PREFACE. 
 
 by the charms of her unrivaled loveli- 
 ness, but the might of her self-abnega- 
 tion in behalf of her people. 
 
 Art, which wrought marvels on the 
 floor of the Cathedral of Siena, has 
 represented there, in one of its most ex- 
 quisite compositions, the whole story of 
 Judith of Bethulia; in the Loggia dei 
 Lanzi of Florence, Donatello has left 
 his triumphant Judith; and in the same 
 city of Etruria, Botticelli's brush has 
 given a Judith which surpasses criticism 
 in the eyes of Ruskin; while on one 
 of the corners of the ceiling of the 
 Sistine Chapel, Michael Angelo gives 
 scenes from the story of Esther ; prov- 
 ing how suggestively attractive these 
 narratives have been to the masters of 
 both plastic and pictorial ideals. 
 
 Nor can we forget, or in any way 
 omit to remind others, how the homi- 
 lies of a Gregory of Rome, a Jerome of 
 Bethlehem, an Ambrose of Milan, an 
 Augustine of Hippo, a Chrysostom of
 
 PREFACE. IX 
 
 Constantinople, a Bernard of Clairvaux, 
 teem with praises bestowed upon the 
 valor of holy women. 
 
 No apology, then, can be called for 
 by the historian, when he sees Isabella 
 detached from his exhaustive volumes 
 of contemporaneous history, and stand- 
 ing forth' in her marvelous beauty to 
 the eyes of the unlettered as well as 
 the learned ; to hold her place in the 
 heart of the world like a Judith or an 
 Esther; supplying to the artist an ideal 
 of such nobleness and benignity as to 
 captivate the imagination, aggrandize 
 the touch of the sculptor and painter, 
 and bequeathing to the youthful en- 
 thusiast a heroine graced with the dig- 
 nity of the ancient Cornelia or Christian 
 Paula of Home, with that added charm 
 of a personal association with our very 
 existence as a nation. 
 
 In order, however, to supply any 
 lack which may be felt of certain sur- 
 roundings that link Isabella to the
 
 X PREFACE. 
 
 century which she glorified, we have 
 given, in our Addendum, copious notes, 
 which, we trust, will give s'Uch details, 
 and introduce such personages as a 
 youthful reader might need for historic 
 memoranda, without breaking in upon 
 the harmonious outlines we have so 
 studiously kept intact, of the personal- 
 ity of Queen Isabella.
 
 of 
 
 (Chivalry, being a quality of the 
 soul, can be claimed by no age, can 
 be determined by no circumstance; 
 to be prophesied of, indeed, in some 
 moment of high inspiration, but 
 never to be counted upon by hu- 
 man wisdom. 
 
 Amid the night of barbarous ages, 
 in the midst of an enervating, luxu- 
 rious civilization, in peace as in 
 war, in the huts of peasants as 
 in kings' houses, among mountain 
 
 peaks or the level of broad plains, 
 (ii)
 
 12 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 this mysterious germ, planted in 
 the human soul, puts forth its blos- 
 som to be the marvel, the admira- 
 tion, the glory of a day, or of an 
 epoch, then passes into the annals 
 of history, into the traditions of 
 races, thus to let fall its seed into 
 the bosom of future generations. 
 
 In the very heart and core of the 
 fifteenth century, the 22d of April, 
 1451, this root of chivalry, running 
 like a fiber of indestructible life 
 among the nations, disclosed the 
 bud of this marvelous flower at Ma- 
 drigal, in old Castile, Spain. Cas- 
 tile, on its plateau from twenty-five 
 to thirty thousand feet above the 
 sea, with the wild Cantabrian moun-
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 13 
 
 tains for its northern horizon, be- 
 yond which dwelt the Basque peo- 
 ple, with their never to be trans- 
 lated language, themselves never 
 to be transplanted; Castile, with a 
 language so noble, so fiery, that it 
 could chant the story of the daunt- 
 less Cid, yet so melodious as to 
 need no music for its verse; Castile, 
 with its lords of such goodly metal 
 that they have passed into pro- 
 verbs, and warriors whose prowess 
 was equaled by their generosity to 
 the vanquished; Castile, with so 
 stanch a mind running through 
 its ranks of spurred and cuirassed 
 knights, its tonsured ecclesiastics, 
 the representatives of its States,
 
 lit ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 all holding themselves with so fear- 
 less a face towards their sovereign, 
 that, how direct soever his de- 
 scent, he could reign only by their 
 will, giving their oath of allegiance, 
 through their Cortes, in such words 
 as these, ringing like purest steel : 
 
 "We, who are each of us as good 
 as you, and, altogether more power- 
 ful than you, promise obedience to 
 your government, if you maintain 
 our rights and liberties, not other- 
 wise:" and, moreover, what they 
 swore they fulfilled to the letter, for 
 both issues. 
 
 It was of this Castile that was 
 born, as surely as of John the Sec- 
 ond, its king, and Isabella of Portu-
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 15 
 
 gal, its queen, on the 22d of April, 
 1451, that peerless Christian sover- 
 eign, with "all the royal makings of 
 a Queen," as of a woman, 
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE; 
 the events of whose life, like some 
 rugged mountain range on a day 
 of October, stand sheathed in the 
 charmed atmosphere of her own 
 heroic excellence, of her own ex- 
 quisite womanly goodness; for she 
 was the flower of chivalry, even in 
 old Castile, Spain. 
 
 John the Second died regretting 
 that he had not been born a car- 
 penter instead of a king; and Hen- 
 ry, his son by his first queen, Maria 
 of Aragon, having received the al-
 
 16 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 legiance of the Cortez, the widowed 
 queen, Isabella of Portugal, retired 
 immediately from the court to the 
 little town of Arevalo, with her 
 young son, Alphonso, and the in- 
 fant Isabella, then only four years 
 old. 
 
 Under the maternal eye of one 
 who would have redeemed her hus- 
 band's reign from disgrace had it 
 been possible, the royal children 
 were reared in a seclusion which 
 preserved them from the flattery 
 which is the curse of princes, and 
 from all the pernicious influences of 
 a court. Were instructed, too, in 
 that code of chivalrous honor, that 
 morality which searches to the mar-
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 17 
 
 row of the bone and the intention 
 of the hidden thought, and that 
 love, as well as deference, for re- 
 ligion, which Isabella of Portu- 
 gal knew could alone secure them 
 from the evil of their times; and 
 which proved sources of inexhausti- 
 ble strength to the beloved daugh- 
 ter in whom Providence had willed 
 should be bound up, as in a bun- 
 dle of precious spices, the best in- 
 terests of her time as well as of 
 her kingdom. 
 
 The natural graces of mind and 
 heart of the young Isabella sent 
 out their tender shoots in this gar- 
 den, all enclosed, with a vigorous 
 beauty and freshness which defied
 
 18 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 every deteriorating influence of her 
 subsequent life. At the age of thir- 
 teen, she was recalled to the pal- 
 ace by her brother, Henry the 
 Fourth, only to make conspicuous 
 the blameless purity of her life and 
 the exalted motives by which it 
 was uniformly actuated. 
 
 When she found herself, at the 
 age of sixteen, constantly in dan- 
 ger of becoming a victim to the 
 selfish policy of the king, by the 
 proposing of alliances utterly dis- 
 tasteful to her and even unsuitable, 
 if not by rank at least by dispari- 
 ty of years, with the discretion 
 characteristic of her even at this 
 early age, she rested her refusal on
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 19 
 
 the ground that "the infantas of 
 Castile could not be disposed of in 
 marriage, without the consent of 
 the nobles of the realm." 
 
 When Henry had proved himself 
 so unworth} r of the fealty of his 
 subjects that he was deposed in effi- 
 gy, and her brother Alphonso being 
 dead, she was proffered and even 
 entreated to accept the throne; 
 was informed, moreover, that Se- 
 ville, in common with the other 
 cities of Andalusia, had unfurled 
 its standard in her name, she re- 
 plied: "While my brother Henry 
 lives, none other has a right to the 
 crown." At the same time she of- 
 fered to assist her brother in re-
 
 SO ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 forming abuses and thus to recon- 
 cile all parties. 
 
 The result of her magnanimity 
 was an amnesty, restoring the king 
 to his throne, her own succession 
 to the crown and the settlement 
 usual to the heir apparent, be- 
 ing constitutionally secured to her 
 by the unanimous voice of the 
 Cortez; which, among other privi- 
 leges, declared that she should not 
 be constrained to marry in opposi- 
 tion to her own wishes. Her pref- 
 erence was given to her kinsman, 
 Ferdinand of Aragon, whom his fa- 
 ther, John the Second, in order to 
 make him more acceptable as her 
 suitor, had named king of Sicily.
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 21 
 
 Isabella's choice vindicated not 
 only her judgment but her taste. 
 In the bloom of life and distin- 
 guished for the comeliness of his 
 person, Ferdinand had displayed in 
 the important scenes in which he 
 had borne a part from his boyhood, 
 a chivalrous valor combined with 
 maturity of judgment far above 
 his years. Themselves descendants 
 of the same venerated ancestors, 
 speaking the same noble language, 
 molded by similar traditions to a 
 similarity of manners and even 
 characteristics, while their king- 
 doms, by their geographical posi- 
 tion, might be regarded as natural 
 allies, the union of two such mon-
 
 SS ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 archies might well strike the far- 
 reaching mind of Isabella, as of all 
 others to be desired for Castile. 
 With her habitual prudence, how- 
 ever, she fortified her action in this 
 matter by the approbation of the 
 archbishop of Toledo, and also of 
 the admiral of Castile, a nobleman 
 who could answer for the mind of 
 all the grandees of the kingdom. 
 
 It was under such protection and 
 advice that her romantic marriage 
 to Ferdinand was accomplished, 
 notwithstanding Henry's opposition 
 and even threats of imprisonment, 
 on the morning of the 19th of Octo- 
 ber, 1469, in the palace temporarily 
 occupied by Isabella, at Valladolid;
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 23 
 
 in the presence, too, of the nobility 
 with those of inferior rank num- 
 bering, all together, not less than 
 two thousand. 
 
 At this time, Ferdinand was in 
 the eighteenth year of his age. 
 His complexion was fair, although 
 somewhat bronzed by constant ex- 
 posure to the sun; his eye quick 
 and cheerful; his forehead ample, 
 and approaching to baldness; his 
 muscular, well-proportioned frame 
 invigorated by the toils of war and 
 by the chivalrous exercises in which 
 he delighted. He was one of the 
 best horsemen in his court and ex- 
 celled in field sports of every kind. 
 His voice was somewhat sharp, but
 
 S4 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 he was fluent in his eloquence and 
 when he had a point to carry, was 
 courteous and even insinuating. 
 His health was insured by extreme 
 temperance in his diet, and such 
 were his habits of activity, that he 
 seemed to find rest in business. 
 
 Isabella was a year older than 
 Ferdinand. In stature she was 
 somewhat above the middle size. 
 Her complexion was fair, her hair 
 of a bright chestnut color, inclin- 
 ing to red, and her mild blue eye 
 beamed with sensibility and in- 
 telligence. She was, in fact, ex- 
 ceedingly beautiful; "the handsom- 
 est lady," said one of her house- 
 hold, "whom I ever beheld, and
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 25 
 
 the most gracious in her manners." 
 The portrait still existing of her 
 in the royal palace, charms one ir- 
 resistibly by the open symmetry 
 of features, indicating a natural 
 serenity of temper, and also that 
 rare harmony of intellectual, mor- 
 al and womanly qualities, which 
 formed a character seldom to be 
 portrayed in history. Her demean- 
 or was dignified, while her modesty 
 bore upon reserve. The Castilian 
 language was spoken by her with 
 even more than usual elegance; in 
 which we see the trace of her royal 
 father's love of literature, which 
 had fostered a golden age of poesy 
 at the court of Castile. Yet with
 
 26 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 all these satisfactory endowments 
 of mind and person, it is to be ac- 
 knowledged, such was the pover- 
 ty of these royal personages, that 
 money was borrowed for the ex- 
 penses of the wedding. 
 
 But the heart of Isabella was not 
 one to rest easy while one element 
 of discord remained in hand to dis- 
 pel. Henry was her brother. A 
 meeting was arranged for them at 
 Segovia, and Henry, who, with all 
 his faults, possessed a natural amia- 
 bility which could not resist the 
 explanations of one as candid as 
 Isabella, whom he must have loved 
 in his heart, gave public expression 
 to the good understanding existing
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 27 
 
 between them, by walking at her 
 side and holding the bridle of her 
 palfrey, as she rode along the streets 
 of the city. Ferdinand was then 
 in Aragon, but on his return to Cas- 
 tile, hastened to Segovia and was 
 welcomed by Henry with every ap- 
 pearance of satisfaction. Nor was 
 this too soon for his sister's peace 
 of mind, for Henry the Fourth died 
 on the llth of December, 1474. 
 
 Immediately upon the death of 
 Henry, Isabella was proclaimed 
 queen, with the usual solemnities, 
 on the great square of Segovia, from 
 which the royal procession moved 
 to the Cathedral; where, after the 
 Te Deum had been chanted, she
 
 28 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 prostrated herself before the high 
 altar, returning solemn thanks to 
 Almighty God who had thus pre- 
 served her for his service, and im- 
 ploring the light of heavenly wis- 
 dom for the proper discharge of 
 her high duties. 
 
 As a proof that her prayer for 
 wisdom had been heard, may be 
 given, not only the clear-sighted- 
 ness which kept in her own hand 
 all the essential rights of sover- 
 eignty in her dominion of Castile, 
 but the candor of the arguments 
 by which she reconciled Ferdinand 
 to a distribution of power; which, 
 she assured him, was more nominal 
 than real between themselves, for
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 29 
 
 their interests could not be di- 
 vided in the present or the future; 
 while the prerogatives of the crown 
 would be irrevocably and peace- 
 fully preserved to their successor, 
 even if this proved to be a daugh- 
 ter. Nor were these the merely 
 plausible pretexts of a woman of 
 tact. From first to last, Ferdinand 
 found himself not only associated 
 with her, but his own plans filled 
 out by her wisdom and energy. 
 
 *'I well remember," writes one 
 of her court, "to have seen the 
 queen with the king, her husband, 
 sitting in judgment in the alcazar 
 of Madrid, every Friday as was the 
 law in Castile, dispensing justice to
 
 30 ISABELLA OF CASTIL& 
 
 great or small who came to ask 
 for it;" and it might be remarked of 
 other countries as it has been of 
 Castile, that it is not so infrequent 
 to have good laws as to have rulers 
 who observe them. 
 
 But Isabella did not wait for the 
 attendance of her royal consort to 
 enforce justice or quell insurrec- 
 tion. She was at Tordesillas when 
 tidings came that the people of Se- 
 govia had risen up against Cabrera, 
 to whom the government of the 
 city had been entrusted, and com- 
 pelled him to retire to the citadel. 
 Mounting her horse and attended 
 by Cardinal Mendoza and other 
 dignities of her court, she pushed
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 1 
 
 on to Segovia, entered the citadel 
 and then descended alone to the 
 court yard, ordering the gates to be 
 flung wide open that the people 
 might enter. As the excited crowd 
 poured in, she said, with a perfect- 
 ly calm voice and manner: 
 
 "Tell me your grievances and I 
 will do all in my power to redress 
 them. I am sure what is for your 
 interest must be also for mine and 
 for that of the whole city." All 
 they desired was the removal of 
 Cabrera. "He is deposed already," 
 said the queen, "and you have my 
 authority to turn out such of his 
 officers as are still in the castle, 
 which I shall intrust to my own
 
 S3 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 servants on whom I can rely." The 
 reply to this was a shout: "Long 
 live the Queen!" and order was im- 
 mediately restored. Having thus 
 turned the edge of popular fury, 
 she took up her residence in the 
 city long enough to secure a thor- 
 ough investigation of facts, when 
 the official, whose only offense 
 had been the strict administration 
 of law, was peaceably restored to 
 his office. The highest encomium 
 passed upon him is, that he re- 
 tained the full confidence of this 
 just sovereign to the end of her 
 life. 
 
 During her husband's absence in 
 Aragon in the spring of 1481, a
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. SB 
 
 quarrel took place in the ante- 
 chamber of her palace at Valla- 
 dolid, between two young noble- 
 men, one of whom was a son of her 
 old friend, the admiral of Castile 
 and a kinsman of Ferdinand. Hav- 
 ing taken the weaker party, the 
 young lord of Toral, under her pro- 
 tection by granting him a safe con- 
 duct until the affair was adjusted, 
 she was filled with indignation on 
 learning that the kinsman of Ferdi- 
 nand and son too of the admiral, 
 had violated the peace by cudgeling 
 his foe at evening in the streets 
 of the city. She mounted her horse 
 immediately, though in the midst 
 of a heavy rain storm, and rode
 
 34 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 so rapidly towards the castle, then 
 in possession of the admiral, where 
 she supposed the offender had taken 
 refuge, that the officers in attend- 
 ance could not overtake her until 
 she had reached the fortress, where 
 she demanded of the admiral his 
 son. He replied that he was not 
 there. Whereupon she demanded 
 the keys and searched for herself; to 
 return, disappointed, to Valladolid. 
 The next day the queen was ill 
 in bed as much from chagrin as ex- 
 posure. "My body is lame," she 
 said, "with the blows given by Don 
 Frederic in contempt of my safe 
 conduct." Don Frederic, however, 
 was given up afterward by his fa-
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 35 
 
 ther who pleaded his youth; but 
 not so much to the satisfaction of 
 the sovereigns as to have him es- 
 cape imprisonment. 
 
 A nobleman had been convicted 
 of an aggravated capital offense. 
 To obtain some commutation of his 
 sentence, he offered a payment to 
 the queen of a sum exceeding the 
 annual rents of the crown. This 
 was refused, but his estates, legally 
 confiscated, were allowed to de- 
 scend to his heirs while he suffered 
 the full penalty of his crime. 
 
 Castile was now one with its 
 queen. The consideration that she 
 had won for it by her very mar- 
 riage contract with the king of
 
 S6 ISA BELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 Aragon, the renewal of this consid- 
 eration at the time of her actual 
 succession to the throne, notwith- 
 standing the danger of a rupture 
 with a husband she had chosen and 
 to whom she was devotedly at- 
 tached, had gained, from the first, 
 the confidence and love of the no- 
 bles and the people of her realm. 
 No one interest of theirs had been 
 overlooked nor had one honorable 
 custom been disturbed. To name 
 Isabella was to name Castile. 
 
 When, therefore, Zahara, a small 
 fortified town on the frontier of 
 Andalusia, crowning a lofty emi- 
 nence, its foot laved by the Guada- 
 lete, was surprised by the Moors,
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 37 
 
 its guard, inhabitants, men, women 
 and children, put to the sword or 
 hurried into Moslem slavery, the 
 pulse of Isabella was the pulse of 
 her people, of her nobles, of the 
 ecclesiastics of her realm. Feuds 
 were forgotten and Zahara was 
 avenged by the surprise of Albania. 
 But those who had won it doubted 
 if it would be possible to retain 
 their prize and proposed to destroy 
 it. When Isabella with Ferdinand 
 reached the captured town, she ex- 
 claimed: "Let us hear no more of 
 the destruction of Alhama. The 
 h'rst fruit of our victorious arms, 
 let its walls be sacred, as a strong- 
 hold granted to us by Heaven in
 
 38 ISABELLA OF CASTILE, 
 
 the midst of a hostile land." The 
 city was formally taken posses- 
 sion of with the most magnificent 
 ceremonies, and its three principal 
 mosques consecrated as Christian 
 churches by Cardinal Mendoza. 
 
 Bells, crosses, a sumptuous sup- 
 ply of altar vessels, were furnished 
 by the queen, and the principal 
 church, Saint Mary of the Incarna- 
 tion, long exhibited a covering for 
 the high altar, richly embroidered 
 by her own hands. 
 
 The key-note to the conquest of 
 Granada had been struck by Isa- 
 bella. It was not a war for de- 
 struction, not a war for treasures; 
 but the love of that faith whose
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 39 
 
 martyrs the Spanish poet, Pru- 
 dentius, had sung so sweetly in the 
 fourth century, and which had been 
 nourished in her innocent soul dur- 
 ing her childhood and first girl- 
 hood in the seclusion of Arevalo, 
 was now bearing its fruit, by turn- 
 ing the perishing glories of mortal 
 conquest into one which assured 
 the civilization of her dominions 
 under the only banner, which, as a 
 Christian, she could recognize. 
 
 From this time there was no 
 swerving from the path, however 
 arduous, which, under such inspira- 
 tions, must lead to victory. She 
 was the soul of the war; for while 
 Ferdinand with his gallant leaders,
 
 40 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 spurred on to every encounter, 
 there was never the long siege, 
 the more than ordinary danger, at 
 which the queen did not appear 
 in person, giving new courage by 
 her own enthusiasm, consoling the 
 sufferings of the sick and wounded. 
 It was during this memorable war, 
 and during one of its most pro- 
 tracted sieges, that Isabella raised 
 spacious tents, supplied with every 
 possible comfort for the sufferers, 
 attended by her own physicians 
 and which were called ''the queen's 
 hospitals;" the first instance on 
 record of such an alleviation of the 
 horrors of war. Nor was it alone 
 when in the camp and on the actu-
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 41 
 
 al ground of battle, that her arm 
 was the strong arm upon which 
 all leaned. 
 
 During the siege of Cordova, 
 where the amount of forces gath- 
 ered was at one time eighty thou- 
 sand, and beasts of burden the only 
 means for transportation, it was 
 Isabella who directed their supplies 
 as well as of the conquered cities; 
 moving along the frontier, station- 
 ing herself at points nearest the 
 scene of action, where, by means of 
 posts regularly established, she re- 
 ceived hourly intelligence of the 
 war; transmitting supplies of mu- 
 nition and provisions along the 
 mountain ways with convoys pro-
 
 4S ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 portioned to the dangers of sur- 
 prise. 
 
 Another care was to assemble 
 new levies of troops, and the alacri- 
 ty with which all ranks of men 
 from every quarter of the king- 
 dom, answered her summons, is 
 still one of the marvels of this war. 
 Roads were constructed for artil- 
 lery across mountain passes by 
 leveling their summits, filling up 
 valleys with rocks or cork trees 
 that grew to an enormous size in 
 the wilderness, and by throwing 
 bridges over torrents. 
 
 But her chief solicitude was to 
 raise the sums necessary to meet 
 this enormous expenditure; to do
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 43 
 
 which she had recourse to loans 
 from individuals arid religious cor- 
 porations, obtained without diffi- 
 culty from the universal confidence 
 in her good faith. As time went 
 on, these* loans were secured by 
 mortgages on the royal domains; 
 and at last, the queen pawnedr the 
 crown jewels and her own personal 
 ornaments, to the merchants of 
 Barcelona and Valencia, for such 
 sums as they were willing to ad- 
 vance on them. 
 
 The empire of Isabella was not 
 bounded by Castile and Leon, nor 
 by her authority as sovereign ; for it 
 was true of her as of hardly any 
 sovereign in any age, that her em-
 
 44 ISA BELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 pire was in the hearts of her people. 
 She had endeared herself to them 
 by her womanly sympathy, by the 
 tears shed over their misfortunes; 
 but when they saw her directing 
 the national counsels, sharing fa- 
 tigues, dangers, and all this with 
 a broad intellectual power of com- 
 prehension usually denied to her 
 sex, the devotion to her was more 
 than loyalty; was mingled with 
 a chivalrous veneration which wo- 
 man alone can inspire; and wo- 
 man, too, in an age and country 
 which honors her who was called 
 "Blessed among women," as the 
 ideal type of all succeeding genera- 
 tions.
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 45 
 
 Into the presence of this woman, 
 whose royal endowments of heart, 
 of mind, and of soul, had been re- 
 inforced by a life of unselfishly 
 heroic action, now advances one 
 whose fame is to be henceforth as- 
 sociated with hers as the crown- 
 ing glory of Isabella, queen of Cas- 
 tile. He bears with him no trap- 
 pings of knighthood, and yet he 
 stands forth from that background 
 of grand Christian knights, of val- 
 orous leaders and conquerors, as 
 if he, alone, could have worthily 
 filled that page of Spain's glorious 
 history. He brings with him no 
 credentials from other powers, al- 
 though he has visited courts, has
 
 46 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 laid his cause before princes. His 
 only endorsement that of a humble 
 Franciscan friar, guardian of the 
 convent of La Rabida, close to the 
 little sea-port town of Palos in An- 
 dalusia. 
 
 To Fra Juan Perez de Marchena 
 he had become known, by asking 
 hospitality at the convent gate for 
 himself and his young son, Diego. 
 But the brother who reported their 
 guest to the father guardian, had 
 spoken of him as a man of singular 
 nobleness of bearing, and when Fra 
 Perez joined him he found him 
 already deep in conversation with 
 his friend, Doctor Garcia Hernan- 
 dez. His angel had surely guided
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. . 47 
 
 the stranger to La Rabida and to 
 Fra Perez; for not only was the soul 
 of the pious Franciscan accustomed 
 in the hour of meditation to soar 
 "where the King of kings sits upon 
 his starry throne," but from his 
 observatory on the convent roof 
 he watched, hour after hour, the 
 course of the celestial worlds, and 
 night after night had gone to his 
 hard couch to wonder if they did 
 not shine upon other continents 
 on this earth than the one on which 
 he dwelt, and if the salt sea waves 
 that licked his shore, did not break 
 upon others beyond the ken of 
 their present voyagers. No sooner 
 then had his guest, the Genoese,
 
 48 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 Christopher Columbus, disclosed the 
 dream of his life to Fra Perez, than 
 he saw his own dreams realized. 
 
 The Franciscan, humbly as he 
 bore himself, had been the con- 
 fessor of queen Isabella, and like 
 every one who had once been near 
 her, his confidence in her wisdom, 
 as well as in her goodness, was 
 unbounded. He would write a let- 
 ter, not directly to her majesty, but 
 in a way to secure to Columbus 
 a friend at court; no other than 
 his own friend, Fra Fernando de 
 Talavera, prior of our Lady of Pra- 
 do at Valladolid. But Talavera 
 was more learned in theology and 
 morals than in geography, and he
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 49 
 
 only wondered at the credulity of 
 Fra Perez, resolving not to disturb 
 their majesties with any such wild 
 schemes. 
 
 There was a keener eye than 
 that of Talavera, however, which 
 
 was at last directed towards Colum- 
 
 i 
 
 bus; that of Cardinal Mendoza, an 
 elegant scholar, lofty and venerable 
 in his deportment, and who con- 
 tinued, during his life, to be the 
 chief advisor of the queen. The 
 extraordinary merit of this Genoese 
 must be made known to the queen, 
 and he felt it his duty to obtain 
 an audience for him. 
 
 The motives which Columbus had 
 put before the merchants of Ven-
 
 50 ISABELLA OF CASTILE, 
 
 ice aiid Genoa, before King John 
 of Portugal, by an inspiration, it 
 would seem, an instinctive appre- 
 ciation of the motives which con- 
 trolled Isabella, were laid aside in 
 her presence. He spoke to her as 
 he had spoken so often to Fra Perez 
 under the stars at La Rabid a, of 
 the absolute certainty of continents 
 on the other side of this round 
 world; continents peopled by races 
 to whom the true God was not 
 known, to whom the Gospel of the 
 Nazarene had not been preached; 
 nations sitting in the shades of 
 death. The intellect of Isabella 
 seized, instantly, the geographical 
 problem and her woman's heart
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 51 
 
 and her lofty faith appropriated the 
 future destiny of those races for 
 time and eternity as in her hand. 
 Her cheeks glowed, her blue eyes 
 kindled, the delicate nostrils di- 
 lated, as. Columbus grew eloquent 
 under the thrill of her sympathy. 
 The Cardinal was satisfied. 
 
 Columbus, his genius, his exalted 
 motives, had been appreciated by 
 the queen as they deserved. There 
 was still another ecclesiastic whose 
 white habit and cowl covered a 
 soul large enough to take in the 
 views of Columbus; this was Deza, 
 archbishop of Seville, a Dominican. 
 When the freezing policy of Ferdi- 
 nand had placed Talavera over a
 
 52 TSA BELLA OF CASTILE 
 
 council which was to judge of the 
 merits of this idea of discovery, 
 the council was held in the Domini- 
 can convent of Saint Stephen at 
 Salamanca, where the court of the 
 sovereigns then was. The council 
 decided against Columbus and his 
 new world; but the Dominicans, 
 at whose own expense he was then 
 lodged, were favorable in their 
 judgment, and their first professor 
 of theology, Diego de Deza, our 
 archbishop of Seville, was com- 
 pletely convinced by the reasoning 
 of Columbus, and finally gained the 
 leading men of the University of 
 Salamanca to his side. 
 The winter passed away before
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 53 
 
 the council at Salamanca came to 
 any decision, and early in the 
 spring of 1487, Ferdinand took the 
 field with twenty thousand cavalry 
 and fifty thousand foot, while the 
 queen remained at Cordova to pre- 
 side over the affairs of government, 
 to provide for the necessities of 
 the vast army. How could Colum- 
 bus expect Isabella in the face 
 of such immediate exigencies, to 
 give her attention to a project, 
 which, however momentous, could 
 be delayed without positive danger 
 or utter ruin; which could not be 
 said of the war against Granada? 
 When he reminded the sovereigns 
 that their answer was still pending,
 
 54 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 Talavera was instructed to give 
 the decision of the council, but 
 to add this mollifying clause, that 
 as soon as the war was over there 
 should be a fresh investigation of 
 his claims. 
 
 From this time Columbus might 
 be considered as in some manner 
 attached to the court; and Isabella, 
 so mindful of all claims upon her, 
 did not neglect to furnish him with 
 the means of maintaining this un- 
 defined position. Still, the war 
 seemed no nearer its end than 
 years before, and his heart must 
 have been sorely wounded at the 
 altogether secondary importance of 
 his cause.
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 55 
 
 The siege of Baza had come to a 
 glorious close, and the festivities in 
 1490 for the marriage of the be- 
 loved daughter of the sovereigns, 
 the infanta Isabella, to Don Al- 
 phonso, t ( he prince of Portugal, had 
 been conducted in a manner suited 
 to the virtues of this amiable prin- 
 cess arid the attachment felt for 
 her; above all by her mother, to 
 whom she had been, from her earli- 
 est years and in seasons of danger, 
 an unspeakably dear companion. 
 But the utter desolation of soul 
 which, with all these scenes before 
 him, gradually overcame the confi- 
 dence of Columbus in the patron- 
 age of the Spanish sovereigns, de-
 
 56 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 termined him to leave Spain; yet 
 he could not go without making 
 one more effort. If the king and 
 queen were too engrossed with the 
 campaign, there were other Span- 
 'iards, of almost regal wealth, who 
 could fit out his little armament. 
 
 He applied to the duke of Medina 
 Sidonia, but his mind, also, was 
 wholly upon Granada. He then 
 turned to the duke of Medina Celi, 
 who consented to furnish him with 
 the really small sum needed; but, 
 at the last moment, bethought him- 
 self that an enterprise of such im- 
 portance belonged to the crown, 
 rather than to a subject, and he 
 wrote to the queen to give it her
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. to 
 
 sanction. Her answer was gra- 
 cious, begging him to leave the 
 honor of the expedition to the 
 sovereigns, while at the same time 
 she summoned Columbus to her 
 presence, assuring him that at the 
 end of the war he should receive 
 full satisfaction. 
 
 This indefmiteness no longer con- 
 soled him and his mind was turned 
 towards the king of France, who 
 had written him an encouraging 
 letter. But he could not leave 
 Spain without visiting, perhaps bid- 
 ding farewell to his faithful friend, 
 Fra Perez at La Rabida. The heart 
 of the good Franciscan ached, as he 
 listened to the story of hope de-
 
 8 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 ferred from the lips of Columbus. 
 It could not be that he had been 
 mistaken in the project itself; and 
 calling in his friend, Don Garcia 
 Hernandez, they put Columbus 
 through his proofs, with the objec- 
 tions and solutions, as severely as 
 another council of Salamanca could 
 do. Both were convinced, and the 
 friar of La Rabida saw no time was 
 to be lost if Spain and his royal 
 mistress were to bear off the honors 
 of the expedition, secure the spirit- 
 ual graces of such a harvest of 
 souls. 
 
 As the former confessor of the 
 queen, he was certain that she 
 would listen to him, and this time 
 
 V
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 69 
 
 there should be no intervention. 
 He wrote with his own hand a 
 letter to Isabella, which should be 
 placed without delay in hers. The 
 messenger was an experienced sail- 
 or and a trusty envoy, Sebastian 
 Rodriguez. It found the queen at 
 Santa Fe, still in the midst of 
 ever increasing exigencies. In two 
 weeks, however, Rodriguez returned 
 with an invitation to the Fran- 
 ciscan friar to visit the queen, and 
 a message of encouragement to Co- 
 lumbus. The friar had no mule 
 of his own, but one was borrowed. 
 He found the ear of his royal peni- 
 tent still open to him ; for she heard 
 the same unworldly voice calling
 
 60 ISA BELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 her to scale the heights, and his 
 call was irresistible. 
 
 The next summons was to Colum- 
 bus himself, but the last struggle 
 with Granada was under the eyes 
 of the world, and the world's ear 
 was listening for "the last sigh of 
 the Moor." All things must wait 
 a few days to watch the death 
 agony of a war that had lasted 
 eight hundred years. On the 2d of 
 January, 1492, the Moorish king 
 delivered to Ferdinand the keys of 
 Alhambra; the standards of Castile 
 and Saint James waved from the 
 red towers of the capital of Grana- 
 da, and the silver cross borne by 
 the king through the whole crusade
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 61 
 
 sparkled in the sunbeams. At this 
 sight the choir of the royal chapel 
 broke forth in the solemn anthem 
 of the Te Deum, and the whole 
 army, penetrated with the same 
 emotions of gratitude as their sover- 
 eign lady and her consort, pros- 
 trated themselves on their knees in 
 adoration of the Lord of Hosts, who 
 had granted this triumph of the 
 Cross. 
 
 In the midst of these solemn re- 
 joicings, the queen kept her prom- 
 ise and sent for Columbus. She 
 had full faith in him, she accepted 
 his project; but there were terms to 
 be arranged, and unfortunately it 
 seemed proper that Fra Talavera,
 
 C2 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 now bishop of Granada, should ar- 
 range them. Years of waiting had 
 not changed the mind of Columbus 
 concerning the peaceful conquest 
 of a new world for the crown of 
 Castile and Leon, and this was too 
 exalted a view to take of the enter- 
 prise to the mind of Talavera. 
 Against her better judgment, Isa- 
 bella was persuaded to say this 
 and Columbus took his departure. 
 Spain would not pay the price and 
 the price would not be altered. 
 
 Columbus mounted his mule and 
 rode from Santa Fe towards Cordo- 
 va. This was the end of eighteen 
 years of waiting upon the powers 
 of this world! They must have
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. es 
 
 seemed small indeed to the eyes 
 of Columbus in this hour of bitter- 
 est disappointment. Even Isabel- 
 la, so far exalted above the other 
 sovereigns of the world, had dis- 
 puted with him the small boon 
 he had named as his price for 
 what would be the noblest and the 
 most precious gem in her crown! 
 What more was there to hope 
 for? Whither should he turn? 
 But there was One in whom Co- 
 lumbus trusted with a faith, a 
 habitual, practical confidence, of 
 which only sublime natures are ca- 
 pable. He had never lost faith in 
 his cause, for it was, to him, mani- 
 festly the cause of God, and at that
 
 64 ISABELLA OF CASTlLti. 
 
 moment his confidence in God him- 
 self, was at high tide. After all, 
 what was this price which had 
 been deemed too exorbitant for 
 him to demand? Not treasures of 
 gold unless gold was found; noth- 
 ing, in fact unless the enterprise 
 were successful. He had, indeed, 
 stipulated for himself and his heirs 
 the title and the authority of Ad- 
 miral and Viceroy, but only over 
 the lands discovered by him, with 
 one tenth of the profits; was this 
 too much even for an adventurer to 
 ask? 
 
 But while these thoughts were 
 coursing so bitterly through his 
 mind, a tide, counter to that of
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 65 
 
 Talavera, had set towards Isabella. 
 Luis de Saint Angel, receiver of 
 ecclesiastical revenues, Alonzo de 
 Quintanilla, comptroller general of 
 finance, at whose house Colum- 
 bus had .been staying, were over- 
 whelmed with shame and grief. 
 Saint Angel went immediately to 
 the queen and remonstrated with 
 her on her refusal of such terms, 
 which, if they seemed high, were 
 contingent upon success when they 
 would be, most certainly, deserved. 
 He ventured even to remind her 
 that this refusal did not accord with 
 the magnanimity she had shown 
 in every great enterprise, above all, 
 those involving the interests of
 
 66 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 Christendom. So far from resent- 
 ing his plain speech, it was in ac- 
 cordance with her own inmost con- 
 victions, and their support from 
 such a quarter was like giving 
 her her freedom, while QuintanilJa 
 urged upon her the sajne considera- 
 tions. 
 
 But where was he who shared 
 the exalted confidence of Colum- 
 bus in One who "holds" not only 
 "the waters," but what must have 
 seemed, at that moment, more 
 fickle still, the hearts of princes "in 
 the hollow of his hand?" From 
 the moment Columbus turned the 
 head of his mule from Santa Fe, 
 Fra Juan Perez had betaken him-
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 6? 
 
 self to the Queen's own chapel; 
 before the altar, before the hidden 
 Guest of its tabernacle, praying 
 that the spirit of wisdom and coun- 
 sel might come to her soul, inspire 
 her decision. While Saint Angel 
 pleaded and Quintanilla urged, the 
 sighs of the Franciscan monk 
 opened the heaven of heavens from 
 which descended that Spirit which 
 comes not at the call of human 
 eloquence, and Isabella's irrevoca- 
 ble decision triumphed over the in- 
 difference of Ferdinand, over the 
 short-sightedness of Talavera, over 
 the very emptiness of her exhausted 
 treasury. 
 With all the warmth and en-
 
 68 TSA BELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 thusiasm of her chivalrous soul, 
 she exclaimed: "I will assume the 
 undertaking for my own crown of 
 Castile and am ready to pawn my 
 jewels to meet the expenses of the 
 expedition, if the funds of the royal 
 treasury do not suffice." It was 
 solely as Isabella of Castile, that 
 she pledged her support to Christo- 
 pher Columbus, and as Isabella of 
 Castile, she would be the co-dis- 
 coverer of the New World. 
 
 A courier was dispatched to over- 
 take and bring back Columbus to 
 the royal presence. She could not 
 cielay the assurance that his long 
 years of waiting were over. She 
 longed to give him her royal hand,
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 69 
 
 to pour into his proud and deeply 
 injured spirit the wine of joy and 
 the oil of a supreme consolation. 
 There was a reparation to be made 
 by her, Isabella of Castile, to the 
 man who had waited so long at her 
 gates, pleaded so long at the posts 
 of her doors, and no one should 
 say that it had not been made right 
 royally, as became Isabella of old 
 Castile, Spain. There was no duke 
 or marquis in all her train, upon 
 whom she had bestowed the largess 
 of her peerless approbation, who 
 should not honor this Columbus, 
 and envy him the conquest sure 
 to be won by his genius, by his 
 unflinching perseverance and the
 
 70 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 exaltation of his motives, which 
 made his enterprise sacred in his 
 eyes as it was, from that hour, in 
 the eyes of Isabella. 
 
 The courier reached Columbus at 
 the bridge of Pinos, two or three 
 leagues from Granada. For a mo- 
 ment he hesitated; -but when con- 
 vinced that the messenger was from 
 the queen and bore her pledge and 
 promise, he confided in her royal 
 word, turned his mule at once and 
 retraced his steps to Santa Fe, 
 chanting, in the silence of his great 
 and deeply tried soul, IN TE, DOMI- 
 NE, SPERAVI; "In thee, Lord, have 
 I hoped." 
 
 There was no delay now that Isa-
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 71 
 
 bella's hand had been put forth. 
 Three caravels were manned, pro- 
 visioned, ready to sail in three 
 months. Moreover, in addition to 
 the winning graciousness of her 
 manner to him personally, and to 
 the unconditional grants for what- 
 ever was necessary, she conferred, 
 what must have been a balm to a 
 sensitive and wounded spirit, the 
 appointment of his son, Don Diego, 
 as one of the pages of honor to 
 prince Juan, a distinction coveted 
 by the highest grandees of Spain; 
 while the same distinction was ex- 
 tended by her, a few days after, 
 to Diego's half brother, Don Fer- 
 nando.
 
 72 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 The little sea-port town of Palos, 
 overlooked by La Rabida and its 
 prior, Fra Perez, was the port from 
 which Columbus was to sail, as if 
 the good Franciscan, with all his 
 other godly service, were to bring 
 him fair winds. On Friday, the 3d 
 of August, 1492, the Santa Maria, 
 Pinta and Nina, unfurled their 
 sails in the name of Jesus. The 
 Santa Maria, the Admiral's ship, 
 carried the royal ensign of the 
 fleet, bearing the image of Jesus 
 crucified. 
 
 Every evening as they ploughed 
 through that waste of waters, on 
 which no sail had ever before been 
 spread, the anthem of the season,
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 73 
 
 SALVE REGINA, to which Saint Ber- 
 nard of Clairvaux had already 
 added his ejaculation: 
 
 O clemens, O pia, 
 O dulcis Virgo Maria! 
 "0 clement, pious, sweet Virgin 
 Mary!" was intoned on the admi- 
 ral's ship, to be caught up by 
 the crews of the Pinta and Nina. 
 Every evening, Isabella of Castile, 
 as she closed her Book of Hours, re- 
 cited the same; and as the constel- 
 lations came out one by one, must 
 have added that sweet Hymn: AVE 
 MARTS STELLA, "Hail, Star of the 
 Sea," as did those mariners, moving 
 forward in a double darkness of 
 night and of knowledge.
 
 74 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 There were months of silence, ab- 
 solute-, unbroken; but on the 15th 
 of March, 1493, the caravel with the 
 admiral's flag at the mast head, 
 sailed into the harbor of Palos, and 
 to Fra Perez came the joy of saying 
 the Mass of Thanksgiving. Colum- 
 bus went forward to Seville, dis- 
 patching from thence the announce- 
 ment of his return to the sover- 
 eigns. The summons to appear be- 
 fore their majesties was addressed 
 thus: "To Don Christopher Colum- 
 bus, our Admiral of the Ocean Sea, 
 Viceroy and Governor of the islands 
 discovered in the Indies," and he 
 was to come forthwith to Barce- 
 lona. His faithful sailors had been
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 75 
 
 called by Columbus to join in his 
 triumph. . 
 
 The whole country was alive with 
 curiosity and a reception, in the 
 grandest style of Spanish cere- 
 monial, was prepared for him. As 
 he approached the town, he was 
 met by an escort of noble young 
 cavaliers and a surging throng of 
 citizens. Himself on horseback, he 
 was fit, by his stately bearing and 
 commanding presence, to be the 
 central figure of this almost Ro- 
 man triumph. A seat, splendidly 
 adorned, was placed close in front 
 of the two royal thrones, which 
 that day surpassed their usual mag- 
 nificence, where the sovereigns
 
 76 TSA BELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 were already seated to receive Co- 
 lumbus, while the doors of the 
 great audience hall were thrown 
 wide open. 
 
 Both sovereigns rose to greet him 
 as he approached. In vain he tried 
 to kneel, to kiss their hands; nor, 
 till he had taken his seat would 
 they resume their own, requesting 
 him to narrate the events of his 
 voyage. With a modesty and self- 
 possession which charmed every 
 one, above all, Isabella, he told 
 them of the new dominions which 
 God had put into their hands, and 
 when his narrative was concluded, 
 the king and the queen, with the 
 vast multitude present, fell on their
 
 I 
 
 J 

 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 77 
 
 knees, thanking God for the mighty 
 deeds of Christopher Columbus. 
 
 The new hero of Spain remained 
 in Barcelona until the 28th of May, 
 receiving continual proofs of the 
 confidence of the sovereigns; their 
 instructions being, really, his own 
 suggestions adopted without an 
 amendment or addition, and rati- 
 fied by the royal authority. The 
 royal seal was committed to him to 
 use at his discretion and the first 
 articles as agreed upon at San- 
 ta Fe, solemnly confirmed. The 
 queen showed the greatest regard 
 for his personal comfort, provided 
 liberally for his expenses and re- 
 quired implicit deference to his
 
 78 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 wishes. The equipment of the fleet 
 for a second voyage, under the ac- 
 tive management of Isabella, was 
 conceived in a most generous spirit 
 and vigorously carried out. 
 
 Fra Perez de Marchena was ap- 
 pointed to accompany Columbus, 
 "because," as the queen said, "he 
 is a good astronomer and has al- 
 ways seemed to me in complete 
 accord with you." Was not that 
 courtier right, who said: "She is 
 the most gracious lady I ever be- 
 held?" for her approbation was ir- 
 radiated by a charm altogether her 
 own. During the interval between 
 his setting sail on the 25th of Sep- 
 tember, 1493, and his arrival in
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 79 
 
 Cadiz on the llth of June, 1496, 
 enemies had been silenced by a 
 letter from Isabella addressed not 
 only to her viceroy of the Indies, 
 but to the colonists, bidding them 
 obey him as herself, and no mis- 
 representations prevented her re- 
 ceiving him with all the cordiality 
 of her ingenuous nature; while soon 
 after, an unofficial letter written 
 to him by Isabella, and still extant, 
 bears witness to her undirninished 
 approbation for the discoverer, and 
 even her veneration. 
 
 On his third expedition, still 
 more virulent enmity was excited 
 against Columbus, and in his ab- 
 sence, his accusers were so far sue-
 
 80 ISA BELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 cessful as to induce Isabella to con- 
 sent to the writing of a letter run- 
 ning thus: "Don Christopher Co- 
 lumbus, our Admiral of the Ocean 
 sea, we have charged the comman- 
 der, Francis de Bobadilla. bearer of 
 these presents, to make known to 
 you, in our name, certain matters 
 with which he is intrusted. We 
 pray you to yield to him faith and 
 credit, and to act accordingly." 
 
 Great was the indignation, untold 
 was the grief of Isabella, when she 
 learned from a letter written by 
 Columbus himself to the intimate 
 friend of the queen, Dona de la 
 Torre, that the royal missive had 
 resulted in his being utterly de-
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 81 
 
 prived of his command and sent 
 home as a prisoner, actually in 
 chains, and as it would seem, at her 
 royal command! This letter was 
 read to her at Granada. 
 
 A courier was dispatched in hot 
 haste to Cadiz, peremptorily order- 
 ing the magistrate to strike off his 
 chains. Moreover, a letter was sent 
 to Columbus, signed by herself and 
 Ferdinand, deploring this shameful 
 misconstruction of the royal orders 
 and inviting him to court at once. 
 His enemies, in their blind malice, 
 had outraged the hearts of all 
 honest men ; but the third voyage of 
 Columbus from the New World, re- 
 mains one of the lessons of history.
 
 82 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 Ferdinand himself was alarmed. 
 The name of Columbus was known 
 and honored in every land, and 
 he knew that, as sovereigns, the 
 king and queen of Spain would be 
 called to answer before the Europe 
 of that day and at the bar of histo- 
 ry, for what, without an instant and 
 most public disavowal of their com- 
 plicity, would certainly be taken as 
 an instance of ingratitude almost 
 without parallel. Columbus and 
 his brothers were received at court 
 with every mark of respect and in 
 a solemn audience the sovereigns 
 strove to make public reparation. 
 
 But it was in the private audi- 
 ence given to him by Isabella a
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 83 
 
 few days later that the wound in 
 the great soul of Columbus was 
 consoled if not healed. At her 
 summons he came richly dressed 
 and with all the marks of rank and 
 distinction. But Isabella could not 
 forget the chains which had mana- 
 cled and fettered the majestic pres- 
 ence before her, and burst into a 
 flood of womanly tears so over- 
 powering that she could only ex- 
 tend her hand to him. Columbus, 
 who had borne with so sublime a 
 patience the insults and injuries 
 heaped upon him by his enemies, 
 the apparent withdrawal even of 
 the approbation of his sovereign 
 lady, his most faithful friend, no
 
 84 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 sooner beheld her emotion than he 
 lost all control of his own. He 
 threw himself at her feet unable 
 to utter a word for his tears and 
 sobbings; but the tears of an Isa- 
 bella of Castile were like balm to 
 the sorrows of a soul as magnani- 
 mous as that of Christopher Colum- 
 bus. 
 
 It was under her individual pat- 
 ronage that he sailed on his fourth 
 voyage of discovery in 1502. Isa- 
 bella did not see him on his return 
 from this disastrous voyage more 
 than ever under the malignant 
 interference of his enemies. When 
 Columbus reached Spain on the 7th 
 of November, 1504, Isabella of Cas-
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 85 
 
 tile was dying. It was not the 
 hardships of war, not the care of 
 a vast realm that had undermined 
 the citadel of her strength. 
 
 Under the panoply of an energy 
 so persistent, so fearless as to en- 
 title her to the name of a valiant 
 woman, and under that sense of 
 justice so keen as to allow no kin- 
 ship, no apparent danger to her 
 personal happiness to warp her de- 
 cisions, there beat a heart as tender 
 as that of the merest peasant wo- 
 man in all her dominions, living 
 only for the little ones around her 
 humble board. The queen, who, 
 with the bearing of a Semiramis, 
 mounted on her war-horse, her slen-
 
 86 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 der limbs cased in knightly mail, 
 rode through the drooping ranks of 
 dispirited soldiers during a cruel 
 siege, breathing new courage into 
 their hearts by her own intrepid 
 bearing, would return to her tent 
 to caress the youngest of her little 
 ones with the cooing tenderness 
 of the dove brooding her nestlings. 
 For in this woman was the forti- 
 tude spun of finest steel and purest 
 gold, their delicate threads wrought 
 into a fibre never to be broken; 
 yet the very fineness of their text- 
 ure exacting a sensibility to im- 
 pressions in proportion to their 
 strength. 
 The career of Isabella, emerging
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 87 
 
 from the seclusion of Arevalo to 
 the publicity of a court, through 
 years of steadfast adhesion to the 
 noblest ideals until she sat right- 
 fully on the throne of Castile in the 
 fullness ,of her prerogatives; the 
 war of ten years for the deliverance 
 of her country from the yoke of 
 Islamism, which, with all its ex- 
 quisite garniture of learning and 
 the arts, was Islamism still, with its 
 degrading conditions and certainty 
 of degrading issues; the patronage 
 which had given a new world to 
 the old as well as to Castile; all had 
 been a series of successes, of brill- 
 iant achievements, which will glow, 
 to the end of time, not only on the
 
 88 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 page of history, in the mem or} 7 of 
 the scholar, in the wisdom of the 
 statesman and the valor of the mili- 
 tary leader, but in the imagination 
 of the young, with an enthusiasm 
 similar to that felt for her by 
 her own leal subjects, the beloved 
 children of her realm. 
 
 Isabella had indeed learned of 
 her royal mother in her girlhood at 
 Arevalo, of the fallacy of earthly 
 hopes; but when had an expecta- 
 tion of Isabella's been disappointed? 
 When kneeling before her confess- 
 or, a.s a queen, she had been told to 
 hold herself prepared for the sor- 
 rows which inevitably overtake 
 even the just man; if not as punish-
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 89 
 
 ments, as trials of the soul's fealty 
 as with holy Job, and to humble 
 herself continually under the hand 
 of God. But all this had been pro- 
 spective. Perhaps, in all time, 
 there has not been so happy a 
 queen, so happy a woman while 
 a queen, as Isabella. There had 
 been no softness in her life, no ease, 
 no leisure; but the happiness had 
 been that of a life prolific in great 
 and good deeds. What was there 
 needed to ripen this precious fruit 
 before dropping into the treasury 
 of heaven? 
 
 In 1496, her mother, Isabella of 
 Portugal, queen-dowager of Castile, 
 died in the arms of her devoted
 
 90 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 daughter. History does not give 
 us, in so many words, the counsels of 
 this wise mother, who removed her 
 at so early an age from the mischiefs 
 of a court, but we can see what 
 those counsels must have been dur- 
 ing the early part of Isabella's ca- 
 reer; and her devotion to this moth- 
 er was so tender that the first sorrow 
 of Isabella coining with her death, 
 she seems never to have recovered 
 from the shock. Then followed the 
 death of her son, prince Juan, five 
 months after his marriage with the 
 beautiful and accomplished Marga- 
 ret of Austria; and to this succeeded 
 what was the death-knell to Isa- 
 bella's happiness, the death of her
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 91 
 
 own Isabella, queen of Portugal, 
 and also of her infant son, in whom 
 centered the succession to Castile, 
 Aragon, Granada, Portugal, Na- 
 varre, Naples, Sicily and the open- 
 ing glories of the eastern and west- 
 ern world, as if the infant had 
 pined under the weight of too great 
 destinies. 
 
 But this did not fill the appointed 
 measure of Isabella's sorrow. To 
 her daughter Joanna, wife of Philip 
 of Flanders, had been born a son, 
 who, had Isabella foreseen his mag- 
 nificent career, might have con- 
 soled somewhat her fears for her 
 beloved Castile and for the royal 
 house. But the infancy of Charles
 
 92 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 the Fifth, gave no sign of his mighty 
 powers, while the domestic dis- 
 cords between Philip and Joanna 
 added the sting of grievous mortifi- 
 cation to the hearts of both Ferdi- 
 nand and Isabella. 
 
 It was these accumulated sorrows 
 which undermined the citadel of 
 Isabella's life, which confirmed the 
 truth of lessons she had received as 
 a child and into early womanhood. 
 Three weeks after the arrival of 
 Columbus from his fourth voyage, 
 the heart of the most gracious and 
 beloved of sovereigns was cold in 
 death, and no more affectionate 
 homage could be penned than that 
 of Columbus in the moment when
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 93 
 
 he knew that his earthly hopes 
 were buried in her grave. 
 
 "A memorial for thee, my dear 
 son, Diego, of what is at present 
 to be done. The principal thing is 
 to commend affectionately and with 
 great devotion, the soul of the 
 Queen our sovereign to God. Her 
 life was always Catholic and prompt 
 to all things in his holy service; 
 for this reason we may rest assured 
 that she is received into his glory 
 and beyond the cares of this rough 
 and weary world." 
 
 On the 12th of October, she exe- 
 cuted that celebrated testament, 
 which has been said to reflect so 
 clearly the peculiar qualities of her
 
 V4 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 mind and heart. Her remains were 
 to be deposited in the Franciscan 
 convent of Santa Isabella in the 
 Alhambra; unless the king might 
 wish to be laid elsewhere, when she 
 was to be removed to his side, that 
 the union they had enjoyed in this 
 world, and which, by the mercy 
 of God, they hoped for their souls 
 in heaven, might be represented by 
 their bodies in the earth. Her 
 jewels, or such as he might select, 
 were given with the most touching 
 expressions of tenderness to the 
 king, her lord, to remind him of the 
 singular love she had always borne 
 to him, and that she was waiting 
 for him in a better world, there-
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 95 
 
 by to encourage him to live more 
 holily in this. 
 
 She enjoined upon her successors, 
 in the most earnest manner, to 
 quicken the good work of Christian- 
 izing and civilizing her subjects 
 in the New World; to treat them 
 with the greatest gentleness and re- 
 dress any wrongs they had suffered 
 in person or property; to look well 
 that no revenues came to the crown 
 unjustly or without the consent 
 of the people ''all measures de- 
 pending for their validity on the 
 pleasure of the subjects of the 
 realm." To Joanna and Philip she 
 recommended the same conjugal 
 hnrmonv which had ever existed
 
 96 ISABELLA OF CASTILE, 
 
 between her and her husband, and 
 besought them to show to him 
 all the deference and filial affection 
 "due to him beyond any other par- 
 ent for his eminent virtues." No 
 friend was forgotten, no attendant. 
 At length, having received all the 
 sacraments and performed all the 
 offices of a sincere and devout Chris- 
 tian, with that sensitive delicacy 
 and decorum which had distin- 
 guished her through life, she gently 
 expired, a little before noon on 
 Wednesday, November 26, 1504, in 
 the fifty-fourth year of her age and 
 thirtieth of her reign. 
 
 But what has Isabella of Castile, 
 beautiful and noble and even chiv-
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 97 
 
 alrous, if you will, done for Ameri- 
 ca, that we should claim for her 
 the veneration of an entire conti- 
 nent, from the Atlantic to the Pa- 
 cific, from Behring Strait to Terra 
 del Fuego? The furnishing of three 
 miserable little ships, hardly sea- 
 worthy, and one eighth of their ex- 
 pense borne by the discoverer him- 
 self, constituting the wonderful 
 share which she had in the dis- 
 covery of the New World. 
 
 These three small ships, be it re- 
 membered, were all that Columbus 
 asked for. But the expense of 
 these, small as it was, must be met, 
 not by the people of her realm, 
 but from the royal treasury, de-
 
 98 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 pleted by the exhausting war of ten 
 years, just ended. ' To meet the de- 
 ficiency, the queen, who had begged 
 one of the most opulent of her 
 nobles to leave the honor of the ex- 
 pedition to the crown, would be 
 compelled to raise money in her 
 own name; not as in the case of 
 the war when all Spain was ready 
 to lay its treasures at her feet, but 
 for an enterprise which had been 
 declared a mere venture by a coun- 
 cil of the learned men of the na- 
 tion. The exceptions, like cardinal 
 Mendoza and archbishop Deza, 
 might be supposed chimerical even 
 quixotic in their views, and it is 
 quite certain that Ferdinand was
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 99 
 
 freezingly indifferent. He would 
 not oppose the wife, whose voice 
 had more than once decided him 
 amid divided counselors; but she 
 should have no encouragement 
 from hiin in what seemed a vagary 
 of a navigator's imagination. 
 
 Even religious enthusiasm, in the 
 prospect of bringing whole nations 
 into the light of Christianity, was 
 damped by the confessor whose 
 counsels had upheld her during the 
 war on Granada, by motives the 
 most powerful to a nature like 
 hers; when, suddenly, the instinc- 
 tive conviction which had been in 
 her mind from her first interview 
 with Columbus, re-asserted itself.
 
 100 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 There was no balancing of coun- 
 sels, there was no call to be made 
 upon her own Castile, none upon 
 Ferdinand, her husband. The jew- 
 els which she could command as 
 personal, and which many a woman 
 has shrunk from sacrificing to save 
 even a husband's honor, should 
 meet the demand that the enter- 
 prise would make upon her. Not 
 only, too, will she pawn her jewels, 
 but she will meet the chilling in- 
 credulity of her sovereign consort, 
 of the whole nation, of Europe it- 
 self. 
 
 It was not the money which Isa- 
 bella put into this scheme, even at 
 a mortifying sacrifice, which se-
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 101 
 
 cured its success; but her confi- 
 dence in Columbus personally, and 
 what we must call a wonderful 
 enlightenment of mind and soul, by 
 which she took in at a glance all 
 the favoring possibilities until they 
 became probabilities, and these 
 once grasped, all the chivalry of an 
 exalted nature was pledged to their 
 fulfillment. There was no with- 
 drawing of confidence when once 
 given. The sounding line of her 
 womanly instinct, guided by the 
 experiences of an extraordinary 
 reign, had fathomed the sublime re- 
 sources of Columbus and his mo- 
 tives, and no dastardly maligner 
 could uncrown him for Isabella.
 
 102 ISABELLA OF CASTILfi. 
 
 The provisions for the first voy- 
 age may seem meagre, but the 
 three succeeding ones were fur- 
 nished with a royal generosity leav- 
 ing nothing to ask. Her patronage 
 had, in fact, that undefinable quali- 
 ty which defies analysis; like some 
 deed of heroism, unpremeditated, 
 but suddenly disclosing a noble 
 soul transfigured. 
 
 It was not during the war on 
 Granada, noble as that war was in 
 its motive and conduct, but when a 
 woman and the sovereign of a 
 mighty nation, rose above the learn- 
 ing of the worldly wise, above the 
 caution of the wordly prudent, that 
 the mysterious root, running, as we
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 103 
 
 have said, like a fibre of indestructi- 
 ble life among the nations, sudden- 
 ly unfolded that flower of chivalry 
 in old Spain, honored to-day, in 
 America, as a glory to our Christian 
 womanhood and the co-discoverer 
 of the New World, 
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE.
 
 ADDENDA. 
 
 'That doughty warrior and noble 
 knight, Rpdrigo diaz de Bivar, was the 
 son of Diego Laynez, one of the two 
 judges chosen for Castile by the people, 
 when left without a chief, by his wife 
 Dona Teresa Rodriguez, daughter of 
 Don Rodrigo Alvarez, count and gov- 
 ernor of Asturias. 
 
 He was born in 1066 in the city of 
 Burgos, in the street of Saint Martin, 
 hard by the palace of the counts of 
 Castile, and in Saint Martin's church he 
 was baptized. To this church he was 
 most affectionate, and built the belfry 
 tower thereof. 
 
 His first act of prowess, was to avenge 
 
 (105)
 
 106 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 the insult given to his father Diego, 
 now old and unable to defend himself, 
 by the count Don Gomez. This count 
 was a mighty man in war, who gave 
 his voice first in the Cortez, and so 
 powerful that he had a thousand friends 
 among the mountains. Our Rodrigo 
 was but a youth, but he thought not of 
 the mightiness of the count, only of the 
 insult done to his father, the insult and 
 the blow; and his father, seeing him 
 of such good heart, gave him his sword 
 and his blessing. The sword had be- 
 longed of old to Mudarra, and when 
 our Rodrigo held its cross in his hand, 
 his arm felt as strong as Mudarra's had 
 ever been. So he went forth, defied 
 count Don Gomez and slew him in fair 
 combat. Returning to his father, he 
 said : "The tongue which insulted you 
 is no longer a tongue, and the hand
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 107 
 
 which wronged you is no longer a 
 hand." 
 
 When the Moors entered Castile in 
 great power, with them came five 
 kings. They passed beyond Burgos, 
 and crossed the mountains, plundering 
 castles, hamlets, carrying off, as cap- 
 tives, men and women and flocks of 
 all sorts. But as this victorious horde 
 were returning with all speed, Rodrigo 
 of Bivar raised the country, fell upon 
 them in the mountains, won back all 
 their booty and took the five kings 
 prisoners. All this he brought duly to 
 the feet of his mother; but he would 
 not keep the kings prisoners, choosing, 
 rather, to send them to their own coun- 
 tries, blessing him for their deliverance, 
 gladly sending him tribute and declar- 
 ing themselves his willing vassals. For 
 this reason, that five kings in one
 
 108 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 battle acknowledged him as conqueror, 
 he was called their Seid or Cid which 
 means lord ; and as he was campeador 
 or champion of his countrymen against 
 the Moors, he was st}ded the Lord 
 Champion El Cid Campeador. 
 
 He died before the year eleven hun- 
 dred, and the story of his brave acts in 
 the "Poem of the Cid," was written 
 before the year twelve hundred. The 
 Cid is the foremost hero of the Spanish 
 ballads. In the "Chronicle of the 
 Cid," by the English poet, Robert 
 Southey, we have the story, the poem, 
 and everything given in the Spanish 
 annals to illustrate the romantic narra- 
 tive. 
 
 1. P. 13, 1. 8. 
 
 "The first instance on record of the 
 meeting of the Cortez, was that at Bur-
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 109 
 
 gos in Castile, the city of the Cid, in 
 the year 1169. But in those days, 
 there was more promptness in the per- 
 formance of great deeds, than in the re- 
 cording of them. We know that the 
 Cortez held sway in Castile more than 
 a hundred years before this date. 
 
 The members of the Cortez were sent, 
 first by the householders or great land- 
 holders, afterward by the cities. But 
 it was always, more or less, a represen- 
 tation of the people. These delegates 
 assembled in the same chamber as the 
 nobility and higher order of clergy; 
 but when questions of moment came be- 
 fore them, retired to deliberate among 
 themselves, inasmuch as they were the 
 most powerful. For, while the nobili- 
 ty and clergy could attend in Cortez, 
 their sanction was not necessary to the 
 validity of legislative acts, this validi-
 
 no ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 ty, in reality, being vested solely in 
 the representatives of the people; a 
 fact which explains many, otherwise, 
 astonishing proceedings in the history 
 of the Spanish monarchy. 
 2. P. 14, 1. 6. 
 
 "The indisposition, if not utter inca- 
 pacity for business of John the Second 
 of Castile, inclined him to leave the 
 government of his kingdom in the 
 hands of his favorites. Conspicuous 
 among them, was Alvaro de Luna. 
 Descended, although irregularly, from 
 a noble house of Aragon, he was early 
 introduced as a page into the royal 
 household of which Maria of Aragon 
 was queen. Here he soon distinguished 
 himself by his amiable manners and 
 personal accomplishments. He could 
 ride, fence, dance, sing, better than any
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. Ill 
 
 other cavalier of the court, while his 
 proficiency in music and poetry com- 
 pletely won the heart of John, who was 
 devoted to both. Moreover, he was in- 
 defatigable in his application to busi- 
 ness, to which John had a positive aver- 
 sion; so that he was allowed to take 
 the reins of government with its drudg- 
 ery. So acceptably did he serve his 
 royal master, that he was made grand- 
 master of St. James and constable of 
 Castile, in which offices he became the 
 channel of all promotions. His cupidi- 
 ty, however, was as insatiable as his 
 ambition, and he abused the unwise 
 confidence reposed in him, by keeping 
 all the important posts for himself and 
 his kindred. 
 
 At his death, he is said to have left a 
 larger amount of treasure than was 
 possessed by the whole nobility of the
 
 112 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 kingdom. With all this, he presumed 
 upon a royal splendor in his retinue, 
 to which, instead of the king's, the sons 
 of the grandees aspired, so that his 
 sovereign's court was comparatively de- 
 serted. All this roused the fiercest 
 opposition, and for thirty years the 
 blind partiality of John for his favorite, 
 was the key to the dissensions of the 
 kingdom ; the address of Alvero, how- 
 ever, giving him, in the end, the as- 
 cendency over all his enemies, even 
 when obliged to retire for a while from 
 the court. So unaccountable was his 
 influence over the king that he was ac- 
 cused of witchcraft, but it was only the 
 power of a strong and active mind over 
 an indolent one. 
 
 On the death of Maria of Aragon, 
 Alvero had the audacity to arrange a 
 marriage for the king which was really
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 113 
 
 contrary to the wishes of his majesty, 
 but from which he saw no way of es- 
 cape. This was with the princess Isa- 
 bella, grand-daughter of John the First 
 of Portugal. .But although she owed 
 her elevation to Alvero, she was not 
 one to come under his control. Dis- 
 gusted with the supremacy he had ac- 
 quired over the king, she set her own 
 influence against his and prevailed. 
 His overthrow was complete, and to 
 her strong mind and unswerving will, 
 Castile owed its deliverance from a 
 bondage as odious as it was disgrace- 
 ful ; preserving, as far as it could then 
 be preserved, the dignity of the crown 
 as well as the rights of the people. 
 3. P. 16, 1. 11. 
 
 4 Henry the Fourth seems to have 
 inherited from his father a certain
 
 114 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 weakness of nature which often passes 
 for amiability. While committing the 
 most fragrant injustices, violating ev- 
 ery code of honor, he shrank from the 
 infliction of bodily pain or the shedding 
 of blood. When urged by his old pre- 
 ceptor to proceed boldly against the 
 revolutionary measures set on foot, he 
 utterly refused to inaugurate violent or 
 even vigorous resistance. The precep- 
 tor replied with warmth: "Since you 
 are not true to your own honor at a 
 time like this, I shall live to see you 
 the most degraded monarch in Spain ; 
 when you will repent, but too late, this 
 unseasonable pusillanimity." The pre- 
 diction was fulfilled, for the confeder- 
 ates, disgusted with his breach of faith 
 whenever he promised any concession, 
 decided on the execution of a bold 
 measure, for the justification of which
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 115 
 
 we must turn to the oath of allegiance 
 given by the Cortez to their sovereigns. 
 
 "In an open plain, not far from the 
 city of Avila, they caused a scaffold 
 to be erected, of sufficient elevation 
 to be easily seen from the surrounding 
 country. A chair of state was placed 
 on it, and in this was seated an effigy 
 of King Henry, clad in sable robes and 
 adorned with all the insignia of royalty ; 
 a sword at its side, a sceptre in its 
 hand and a crown upon its head. 
 
 "A manifesto was then read, ex- 
 hibiting in glowing colors the tyranni- 
 cal conduct of the king and the con- 
 sequent determination to depose him ; 
 and vindicating the proceeding by sev- 
 eral precedents drawn from the history 
 of the monarchy. The archbishop of 
 Toledo, then ascending the platform, 
 tore the diadem from the head of the
 
 116 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 statue ; the marquis of Villena removed 
 the sceptre, the count of Placeucia the 
 sword, the grand master of Alcantara 
 and the counts of Benavente and Pare- 
 des the rest of the royal insignia; when 
 the image, thus despoiled of its honors, 
 Avas rolled in the dust, amid the 
 mingled groans and clamors of the spec- 
 tators." Prescott. 
 4. P. 19, 1. 8. 
 
 ''Immediately upon the deposition 
 of Henry the Fourth, his half-brother, 
 the young Alphonso, then only eleven 
 years of age, but to whom Henry had 
 solemnly promised to resign his royal 
 birth-right, was proclaimed king. This 
 young prince who, under better aus- 
 pices and at a more mature age, might 
 have ruled over his country with a wis- 
 dom equal to any of its monarchs, died
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 117 
 
 after a reign of three years. But even 
 in this brief time and under such dis- 
 advantages, he gave promise of su- 
 perior excellence. 
 
 Isabella of Portugal was his mother, 
 and from her he had taken a delicate 
 conscience and vigorous mind. Once 
 when solicited by the citizens of Toledo 
 to sanction some act of extortion which 
 they had committed, he replied : "God 
 forbid that I should countenance such 
 injustice." And on bc>ing told that the 
 city, unless sustained in its action, 
 would, in all probability, transfer its 
 allegiance to Henry, he added : "Much 
 as I love power, I am not willing to 
 purchase it at such a price." His sel- 
 fish nobles and turbulent people saw, 
 with alarm, that nothing of the yield- 
 ing to dictation of John the Second, 
 would be found in this young lion, who,
 
 118 TSA BELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 with all his inexperience, could not 
 be entangled in the meshes they might 
 spread for him. 
 
 5. P. 19, 1. 9. 
 
 "The principality of Asturias was the 
 usual demesne of the heir apparent to 
 the crown; that Asturias, which still 
 comes in to the story of the Cid and his 
 noble ancestry. 
 
 6. P. 20, 1. T. 
 
 'Isabella of Portugal may have re- 
 minded her daughter, that as the young 
 Infanta, when only six yetirs of age, 
 her hand had been sought by John the 
 Second of Aragon, for this same son. 
 We may feel certain that the queen- 
 dowager's influence was altogether on 
 the side of Ferdinand, whose superiori- 
 ty to his rivals, in merit as well as per-
 
 ISABELLA OP CASTILE. 119 
 
 sonal attractions, might well re-enforce 
 her natural partiality for the alliance. 
 7. P. 20, 1. 15. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the King 
 of Aragon, John the Second, from the 
 first proposal made by him for the hand 
 of the infant Isabella in behalf of his 
 son, had understood the peculiar ad- 
 vantage of the union of the two mon- 
 archies. He was accounted one of the 
 shrewdest princes of his time; and what 
 had seemed to him desirable when there 
 was a possibility, only, of Isabella's 
 succession to the throne, was tenfold 
 more so, when the succession was se- 
 cured to her by every constitutional 
 safeguard. With the consent of his 
 States, he lost no time in giving to 
 Ferdinand the title of King of Sicily, 
 and furthermore, sent a confidential
 
 10 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 agent to Castile, with instructions to 
 gain over to his interest all who had 
 any influence with the princess Isa- 
 bella. 
 
 Her favorable reply to the Aragonese 
 embassy, was received by the old king 
 with the keenest satisfaction, and 110 
 delay was allowed in the signing of the 
 marriage articles. In these, Ferdinand 
 promised faithfully to respect the laws 
 and usages of Castile; to fix his resi- 
 dence in Castile and not to quit it with- 
 out the consent of Isabella; to alienate 
 no property belonging to the crown; 
 to prefer no foreigners to municipal 
 offices, and to make no appointments, 
 civil or military, without her approba- 
 tion and to leave ecclesiastical nomina- 
 tions altogether to her. There was 
 a promise concerning the Moors, and 
 the respect to be paid invariably to
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 121 
 
 King Henry. The treaty, which al- 
 lowed no past claims by Aragon upon 
 Castile, settled a dowry upon Isabella 
 more generous than that usually as-? 
 signed to the queens of Aragon. This 
 contract gave the liveliest satisfaction 
 to the Caslilian nobility, as it imposed 
 important restrictions on Ferdinand 
 and the relinquishment of all the es 
 sential rights of sovereignty to Isabella. 
 8. P. 20, 1. 18. 
 
 "The story of the dangers as well as 
 difficulties which beset Isabella at this 
 juncture, is too novel in the course 
 of royal weddings to be omitted. The 
 negotiations for the marriage had been 
 conducted with the greatest secrecy, as 
 it was understood that Henry had quite 
 different plans for his sister. With the 
 intention to be under the protection
 
 123 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 of her mother, Isabella had gone to 
 
 7 O 
 
 Madrigal. But the quick ears of those 
 on the side of Henry had caught echoes 
 of the royal negotiations. Instructions 
 were given to secure the person of Isa- 
 bella, and letters sent to the citizens of 
 Madrigal threatening them with the 
 royal displeasure should they interfere 
 with this command. The intimidation 
 of citizens and even personal friends 
 was complete, but the royal ladies were 
 not daunted. A message sent to Ad- 
 miral Hcnriqucz and the archbishop 
 of Toledo, brought a body of horse and 
 troops to her rescue, which bore her 
 off in triumph to the friendly city of 
 Valladolid, where she was received by 
 a burst of genuine enthusiasm. 
 
 But it was necessary to quicken the 
 steps of Ferdinand under such circum- 
 stances. The envoys, concealing with
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 123 
 
 rare tact the object of their mission, 
 reached Saragossa where they found 
 Ferdinand. Tlxey could not have ar- 
 rived at a more unfortunate time. The 
 old king of Aragon was in the heat 
 of a war against, hitherto, victorious 
 insurgents, and the royal treasury Avas 
 til most empty. The funds or the forces 
 necessary to cover his son's entrance in- 
 to Castile, now a hostile country, were 
 utterly lacking, and his long cherished 
 project was seemingly to be defeated, 
 when the younger heads announced 
 a plan which suited the emergency. 
 The prince and his attendants were 
 to pass themselves off as common 
 travelers, the prince being the servant 
 of the party, feeding the mules, serving 
 his companions at table, while the 
 journey was continued by night as far 
 as possible.
 
 134 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 They arrived, on the 9th of October, 
 cold and hungry, the prince certainly 
 so, for he had taken no repose, at the 
 outpost of Isabella's dominions in the 
 kingdom of Leon, where he was met by 
 the Castilian nobles as became his rank. 
 On the 15th of October, he passed 
 privately from Duenas, accompanied 
 only by four attendants, to Valladolid, 
 where he was received by the arch- 
 bishop of Toledo and conducted to the 
 apartments of Isabella. The interview 
 lasted more than two hours; and all 
 the preliminaries of the marriage ad- 
 justed, Ferdinand returned to his quar- 
 ters at Duenas as quietly as he left 
 them. 
 
 9. P. 22, 1. 15. 
 
 "While Aragon had its poetic courts 
 that vied with each other in chivalrous
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 126 
 
 verse, Castile had disdained these oc- 
 cupations as unworthy of the profession 
 of arms, which held the first rank in 
 in the eyes of its nobles. To John the 
 Second, with all his faults as a king, 
 must be given the praise of rousing' the 
 poesy latent in the court of Castile. 
 He was fond of books, wrote and spoke 
 Latin with elegance, composed verses 
 and even corrected those submitted to 
 him by his courtiers. Poetry thus re- 
 ceived the stamp of royalty as well as 
 the smile of its patronage. Henry, 
 marquis of Villena, descended from the 
 royal houses of Castile and Aragon, 
 consecrated his whole life to letters dur- 
 ing the reign of John. He translated 
 Dante's Commedia into prose and is 
 said to have been the first to give a 
 translation of Virgil's ^Eneid, into a 
 modern language.
 
 m ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 Another celebrated wit as well as 
 scholar of this reign, was Inigo Lopez 
 fie Mendoza, marquis of Santillana. 
 While he made his house an academy 
 for the martial exercises of the young 
 cavaliers, he drew around him men 
 eminent for genius and learning, which 
 he generously encouraged by his purse 
 as well as by his example. 
 
 But the most conspicuous for his 
 poetical talent, of all the brilliant cir- 
 cle which surrounded John the Second, 
 was John de Mena, a native of "fair 
 Cordova, the flower of science and of 
 chivalry," as he calls her in his song. 
 He was born of the middle class with 
 only humble expectations, but was 
 "smitten with the love of letters." He 
 is declared to have given a new aspect 
 to Castilian poetry, and King John 
 was so fond of his poems, that he "had
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 127 
 
 Mena's verses on his table as constantly 
 as his prayer-book." 
 10. P. 25, 1. 18. 
 
 ""On the morning of the 13th of De- 
 cember, 1474, a numerous assembly, 
 consisting 'of the nobles, clergy and 
 public magistrates in their robes of of- 
 fice, waited on Isabella at the alcazar, 
 or castle, and, receiving her under a 
 canopy of rich brocade, escorted her in 
 solemn procession to the principal 
 square of the city, where a broad plat- 
 form had been erected for the perform- 
 ance of the ceremony. Isabella, royally 
 attired, rode on a Spanish jennet whose 
 bridle was held by two of the civil 
 functionaries, while an officer of her 
 court preceded her on horseback, bear- 
 ing a naked sword, the symbol of sover- 
 eignty. On arriving at the square, she
 
 128 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 alighted from her palfrey, and, ascend 
 ing the platform, seated herself on a 
 throne which had been prepared for 
 her. A herald with a loud voice pro- 
 claimed: 'Castile, Castile for the king 
 Don Ferdinand and his consort Dona 
 Isabella, queen proprieter of these king- 
 doms.' 
 
 "The royal standards were then un- 
 furled, while the peal of bells and the 
 discharge of ordnance from the castle, 
 publicly announced the accession of the 
 new sovereign. Isabella, after receiv- 
 ing the homage of her subjects and 
 swearing to maintain inviolate the 
 liberties of the realm, descended from 
 the platform." "Such," says Prescott, 
 "were the simple forms, that attended 
 the coronation of the monarchs of Cas- 
 tile, previous to the sixteenth century." 
 
 11. P. 27, 1. 15.
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 1M 
 
 "Perhaps this was the most decisive 
 crisis in the career of Isabella. Her 
 honor as a ruler, her happiness as a 
 wife were to be reconciled. Ferdinand 
 was in Aragon at the time of Henry's 
 death and the coronation of Isabella. 
 "A disagreeable discussion" is said to 
 have taken place on his return, concern- 
 ing the respective authority to be en- 
 joyed by the husband and wife in 
 the administration of the government. 
 The relatives of Ferdinand contended 
 for his right to the crown of Castile 
 as exclusive sovereign; but Isabella's 
 friends, with all the precedents of the 
 kingdom in mind, stood up for her 
 rights as sole sovereign. 
 
 The result of an arbitration, however, 
 referred to the archbishop of Toledo 
 and the cardinal of Spain, established, 
 by undoubted precedent, that females
 
 ISO ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 were not excluded from the succession 
 of Castile and Leon as in Aragon ; that 
 Isabella was sole heir of the kingdom, 
 and that whatever authority Ferdinand 
 might possess, could be derived only 
 through her. A settlement was then 
 made on the original marriage contract, 
 which Ferdinand, under the influence 
 of the moment, and also under the wise 
 foresight of shrewd King John, had so 
 willingly signed. 
 
 All this seems to have been forgotten 
 by Ferdinand, so loyal had Isabella 
 been to him as her husband. When 
 the question came up after the coro- 
 nation, he was so dissatisfied as to 
 threaten to return to Aragon. But the 
 candor of Isabella prevailed, and their 
 images stamped on the public coin, and 
 the united arms of Castile and Aragon 
 emblazoned on a common seal, were
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 131 
 
 true exponents and symbols of their 
 united sovereignty. 
 
 12. P. 29, 1.12. 
 
 "Isabella actually held in her arms, 
 pressed to her heart so sensible to all 
 womanly' tendernesses, this worthy suc- 
 cessor to her throne. As the eldest 
 child of Joanna, heir to the kingdom of 
 Castile, Charles the Fifth was crowned 
 immediately upon the death of Ferdi- 
 nand in 1517. 
 
 13. P. 92, 1. 1. 
 
 I4 These domestic discords must be ac- 
 knowledged as the result of Philip's 
 levity. Joanna's love for her husband 
 was as sincere and devoted as that of 
 Isabella for Ferdinand. Unfortunate- 
 ly, Joanna had not the wonderfully 
 balanced mind of her mother; yet even
 
 1S2 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 Ijer physical infirmity, called by some 
 imbecility, by others insanity, did njot 
 take from her the strong sense, gener- 
 ous pride and high feeling, inherited 
 from Isabella; which should have made 
 the derangement of her faculties appeal 
 still more affectingly to a generous 
 mind. That she gave Charles the Fifth 
 to the German empire, to Castile and 
 to the world, must forever shield her 
 from contempt. 
 14. P. 92, 1. 3. 
 
 15 "The day following the Queen's 
 death, her body, unembalmed, in strict 
 conformity to her orders, began its last 
 journey to Granada, escorted by a nu- 
 merous cortege of cavaliers and ecclesi- 
 astics. A violent tempest set in which 
 continued with little interruption dur- 
 ing the whole mournful journey, and
 
 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 133 
 
 dangerous floods interrupted their prog- 
 ress, while neither sun nor stars lyere 
 see,n for all those days and nights." At 
 length, on the 18th of December, the 
 way-worn cavalcade reached its destina- 
 tion, and amid the wild strife of the 
 elements,' the peaceful lemains of Isa- 
 bella were laid, with simple solemnities, 
 in the Franciscan monastery of the Al- 
 hambra. Here, under the shadow of 
 these venerable Moslem towers, and in 
 the heart of the capital, which her no- 
 ble constancy had recovered for her 
 country, they continued to repose till 
 after the death of Ferdinand, when they 
 were removed to be laid by his side, 
 in the stately mausoleum of the Cathe- 
 dral church of Granada." 
 
 Prescott. 
 
 The traveler still lingers, however, 
 in the shadow of the Franciscan con-
 
 134 ISABELLA OF CASTILE. 
 
 vent, where Isabella was laid at her 
 own request. 
 
 15. P. 96, 1. 16. 
 
 The photo-gravure in this volume, 
 representing the reception of Columbus 
 "by Ferdinand and Isabella, is from the 
 1ms relievi on the monument erected to 
 Columbus at Genoa. Among the offer- 
 ings brought by Columbus to the Queen 
 on his return from his first voyage, was 
 the first gold sent by the New World 
 to the Old. The American who stands 
 under the gilded ceiling of Santa Maria 
 Maggiore, Rome, beholds this virgin 
 gold, which was presented by Isabella 
 to the reigning pontiff, and devoted by 
 him to give a golden canopy to one 
 of the loveliest of Christian temples. 
 It was as if he had been inspired by 
 a Columbus and an Isabella.
 
 Ji. 
 
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