BOOK difficulty, nor without discovering such symptoms of alienI. ation and disgust among the Castilians as filled him with great Ferdinand uneasiness. The union of Castile and Aragon for almost acknow. thirty years, had not so entirely extirpated the ancient and ledged as hereditary enmity which subsisted between the natives of the Cortes. these kingdoms, that the Castilian pride could submit, without The Casti- murmuring, to the government of a king of Aragon. Ferlians dissa- dinand's own character, with which the Castilians were well 1505. tisfied. Philip endeavours to obtain ment of Castile. acquainted, was far from rendering his authority desirable. Suspicious, discerning, severe, and parsimonious, he was accustomed to observe the most minute actions of his subjects with a jealous attention, and to reward their highest services with little liberality; and they were now deprived of Isabella, whose gentle qualities, and partiality to her Castilian subjects, often tempered his austerity, or rendered it tolerable. The maxims of his government were especially odious to the grandees; for that artful prince, sensible of the dangerous privileges conferred upon them by the feudal institutions, had endeavoured to curb their exorbitant power 5, by extending the royal jurisdiction, by protecting their injured vassals, by increasing the immunities of cities, and by other measures equally prudent. From all these causes, a formidable party among the Castilians united against Ferdinand, and though the persons who composed it had not hitherto taken any public step in opposition to him, he plainly saw, that upon the least encouragement from their new king, they would proceed to the most violent extremities. THERE was no less agitation in the Netherlands upon receiving the accounts of Isabella's death, and of Ferdithe govern- nand's having assumed the government of Castile. Philip was not of a temper tamely to suffer himself to be supplanted by the ambition of his father-in-law. If Joanna's infirmities, and the non-age of Charles, rendered them incapable of government, he, as a husband, was the proper guardian of his wife, and, as a father, the natural tutor of his son. Nor was it sufficient to oppose to these just rights, and to the inclination of the people of Castile, the authority of a testament, g Marian. lib. 28. c. 12. I. the genuineness of which was perhaps doubtful, and its BOOK contents to him appeared certainly to be iniquitous. A keener edge was added to Philip's resentment, and new vigour infused into his councils by the arrival of Don John Manuel. He was Ferdinand's ambassador at the imperial court, but upon the first notice of Isabella's death repaired to Brussels, flattering himself, that under a young and liberal prince, he might attain to power and honours, which he could never have expected in the service of an old and frugal master. He had early paid court to Philip during his residence in Spain, with such assiduity as entirely gained his confidence ; and having been trained to business under Ferdinand, could oppose his schemes with equal abilities, and with arts not inferior to those for which that monarch was distinguished". By the advice of Manuel, ambassadors were dispatched He reto require Ferdinand to retire into Aragon, and to resign the dinand to quires Fergovernment of Castile to those persons whom Philip should resign the intrust with it, until his own arrival in that kingdom. Such regency. of the Castilian nobles as had discovered any dissatisfaction with Ferdinand's administration, were encouraged by every method to oppose it. At the same time a treaty was concluded with Louis XII. by which Philip flattered himself that he had secured the friendship and assistance of that monarch. MEANWHILE, Ferdinand employed all the arts of address and policy, in order to retain the power of which he had got possession. By means of Conchillos, an Aragonian gentleman, he entered into a private negociation with Joanna, and prevailed on that weak princess to confirm, by her authority, his right to the regency. But this intrigue did not escape the penetrating eye of Don John Manuel; Joanna's letter of consent was intercepted; Conchillos was thrown into a dungeon; she herself confined to an apartment in the palace, and all her Spanish domestics secluded from her presencei. h Zurita Annales de Aragon, tom. vi. p. 12. tilian no bles. BOOK THE mortification which the discovery of this intrigue ocI. casioned o Ferdinand, was much increased by his observ. Ferdinand ing the progress which Philip's emissaries made in Castile. abandoned Some of the nobles retired to their castles; others to the by the Castowns in which they had influence: they formed themselves into confederacies, and began to assemble their vassals. Ferdinand's court was almost totally deserted; not a person of distinction but Ximenes, archbishop of Toledo, the duke of Alva, and the marquis of Denia, remaining there; while the houses of Philip's ambassadors were daily crowded with noblemen of the highest rank. Ferdinand marry, in EXASPERATED at this universal defection, and mortified resolves to perhaps with seeing all his schemes defeated by a younger politician, Ferdinand resolved, in defiance of the law of na exclude his ture and of decency, to deprive his daughter and her posteridaughter order to from the throne. Marries a niece of the French king. ty of the crown of Castile, rather than renounce the regency of that kingdom. His plan for accomplishing this was no less bold, than the intention itself was wicked. He demanded in marriage Joanna, the supposed daughter of Henry IV. on the belief of whose illegitimacy Isabella's right to the crown of Castile was founded: and by reviving the claim of this princess, in opposition to which he himself had formerly led armies and fought battles, he hoped once more to get possession of the throne of that kingdom. But Emanuel, king of Portugal, in whose dominions Joanna resided, at that time having married one of Ferdinand's daughters by Isabella, refused his consent to that unnatural match; and the unhappy princess herself, having lost all relish for the objects of ambition by being long immured in a convent, discovered no less aversion to it *. THE resources, however, of Ferdinand's ambition were not exhausted. Upon meeting with a repulse in Portugal, he turned towards France, and sought in marriage Germain de Foix, a daughter of the viscount of Narbonne, and of Mary, the sister of Louis XII. The war which that monarch had carried on against Ferdinand in Naples, had been k Sandov. Hist. of Civil Wars in Castile. Lọn. 1655. p. 5. Zurita Annales de Aragon, tom. vi. p. 213. I. so unfortunate, that he listened with joy to a proposal, which BOOK furnished him with an honourable pretence for concluding peace: And though no prince was ever more. remarkable than Ferdinand for making all his passions bend to the maxims of interest, or become subservient to the purposes of ambition, yet so vehement was his resentment against his son-in-law, that the desire of gratifying it rendered him regardless of every other consideration. In order to be revenged of Philip, by detaching Louis from his interest, and in order to gain a chance of excluding him from his hereditary throne of Aragon, and the dominions annexed to it, he was ready once more to divide Spain into separate kingdoms, though the union of these was the great glory of his reign, and had been the chief object of his ambition; he consented to restore the Neapolitan nobles of the French faction to their possessions and honours; and submitted to the ridicule of marrying, in an advanced age, a princess of eighteen'. THE Conclusion of this match, which deprived Philip of his only ally, and threatened him with the loss of so many kingdoms, gave him a dreadful alarm, and convinced Don John Manuel that there was now a necessity of taking other measures with regard to the affairs of Spain". He accordingly instructed the Flemish ambassadors in the court of Spain, to testify the strong desire which their master had of terminating all differences between him and Ferdinand in an amicable manner, and his willingness to consent to any conditions that would re-establish the friendship which ought to subsist between a father and a son-in-law. Ferdinand, A treaty though he had made and broken more treaties than any Ferdinand prince of any age, was apt to confide so far in the sincerity and Philip of other men, or to depend so much upon his own address and their weakness, as to be always extremely fond of a negociation. He listened with eagerness to these declarations, and soon concluded a treaty at Salamanca; in which Nov. 24. it was stipulated, that the government of Castile should be carried on in the joint names of Joanna, of Ferdinand, and 1 P. Mart. Ep. 290. 292, Mariana, lib. 28. c. 16, 17. m P. Mart. Ep. 293. VOL. II. between BOOK of Philip; and that the revenues of the crown, as well as the right of conferring offices, should be shared between Ferdi nand and Philip, by an equal division ". 1506. Joanna set sail for Spain. NOTHING, however, was farther from Philip's thoughts Philip and than to observe this treaty. His sole intention in proposing it was to amuse Ferdinand, and to prevent him from taking any measures for obstructing his voyage into Spain. It had that effect. Ferdinand, sagacious as he was, did not for some time suspect his design; and though when he perceiv ed it, he prevailed on the king of France not only to remon strate against the archduke's journey, but to threaten hostilities if he should undertake it; though he solicited the duke of Gueldres to attack his son-in-law's dominions in the Low-countries, Philip and his consort nevertheless set sail with a numerous fleet and a good body of land forces. They were obliged by a violent tempest to take shelter in England, where Henry VII. in compliance with Ferdinand's solicitations, detained them upwards of three months; at last they were permitted to depart, and after a more prosApril 28. perous voyage, they arrived in safety at Corunna in Galicia, nor durst Ferdinand attempt, as he once intended, to oppose their landing by force of arms. The nobility of Cas THE Castilian nobles, who had been obliged hitherto to tile declare conceal or to dissemble their sentiments, now declared openfor Philip. ly in favour of Philip. From every corner of the kingdom, persons of the highest rank, with numerous retinues of their vassals, repaired to their new sovereign. The treaty of Salamanca was universally condemned, and all agreed to exclude from the government of Castile a prince, who, by consenting to disjoin Aragon and Naples from that crown, discovered so little concern for its true interests. Ferdinand, meanwhile, abandoned by almost all the Castilians, disconcerted by their revolt, and uncertain whether he should peaceably relinquish his power, or take arms in order to maintain it, earnestly solicited an interview with his son-in-law, who, by the advice of Manuel, studiously avoided it. n Zurita Annales de Aragon, vi. 19. P. Mart. Ep. 293, 294. o Ferrer. Hist. viii. 285. |