CHAPTER XII.

ITALIAN WARS.-NEGOTIATIONS WITH FRANCE.--VICTORY OF CERIGNOLA. SURRENDER OF NAPLES.

1503.

Birth of Charles V.-Philip and Joanna visit Spain.-Treaty of Lyons. -The Great Captain refuses to comply with it.-Encamps before Cerignola.- Battle, and Rout of the French.-Triumphant Entry of Gonsalvo into Naples.

BEFORE accompanying the Great Captain further in his warlike operations, it will be necessary to take a rapid glance at what was passing in the French and Spanish courts, where negotiations were in train for putting a stop to them altogether.

The reader has been made acquainted in a pre ceding chapter with the marriage of the infanta Joanna, second daughter of the Catholic sovereigns, with the archduke Philip, son of the emperor Maximilian, and sovereign, in right of his mother, of the Low Countries. The first fruit of this marriage was the celebrated Charles the Fifth, born at Ghent, February 24th, 1500, whose birth was no sooner announced to Queen Isabella than she predicted that to this infant would one day descend the rich inheritance of the Spanish monarchy.' The premature death of the heir apparent,

· Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1500.-Sandoval, Hist. del Emp. Carlos V., tom. i. p. 2.—The queen expressed herself in the language of Scripture, "Sors cecidit super Mathiam," in allusion to the circum

Prince Miguel, not long after, prepared the way for this event by devolving the succession on Joanna, Charles's mother. From that moment the sovereigns were pressing in their entreaties that the archduke and his wife would visit Spain, that they might receive the customary oaths of allegiance, and that the former might become acquainted with the character and institutions of his future subjects. The giddy young prince, however, thought too much of present pleasure to heed the call of ambition or duty, and suffered more than a year to glide away before he complied with the summons of his royal parents."

In the latter part of 1501, Philip and Joanna, attended by a numerous suite of Flemish courtiers, set Dut on their journey, proposing to take their way

stance of Charles being born on that saint's day ;* a day which, if we are to believe Garibay, was fortunate to him through the whole course of his life. Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 9.

A letter from Joanna, in the collection of Señor de Gayangos, shows much eagerness to vindicate herself and her husband, as far as may be, from any suspicions of unwillingness to visit Spain, caused by their delay: "Io no se que ninguno de mi casa diga que pueden retardar nuestra yda alla, y si lo dixese seria tambien castigado quanto nunca fue persona, y deseo tanto la yda alla que todos los impydimientos que se ysieren trabajare que quitarlos con todas mis fuerças." Carta al Secretario Almazan, Bruselas, Noviembre 4, 1500, MS.

[The day of Saint Matthias fell, not on the 24th, but on Tuesday the 25th of February, in the year 1500; and it is possible that the latter date was really that of Charles's birth, the error, if there be one, having arisen from the fact that the event took place within an hour after midnight. See Corónica de Felipe 1o llamado el Hermoso, escrita por Don Lorenzo de Pa filla y dirigida al Emperador Carlos V., published in the 8th volume of the Col. de Doc. inéd. para la Hist. de España.-ED.]

through France. They were entertained with profuse magnificence and hospitality at the French court, where the politic attentions of Louis the Twelfth not only effaced the recollection of ancient injuries to the house of Burgundy,' but left impressions of the most agreeable character on the mind of the young prince. After some weeks passed in a succession of splendid fêtes and amusements at Blois, where the archduke confirmed the treaty of Trent recently made between his father, the emperor, and the French king, stipulating the marriage of Louis's eldest daughter, the princess Claude, with Philip's son Charles, the royal pair resumed their journey towards Spain, which they

3 Charles VIII., Louis's predecessor, had contrived to secure the nand of Anne of Bretagne, notwithstanding she was already married by proxy to Philip's father, the emperor Maximilian; and this, too, in contempt of his own engagements to Margaret, the emperor's daughter to whom he had been affianced from her infancy. This twofold insult, which sank deep into the heart of Maximilian, seems to have made no impression on the volatile spirits of his son.

♦ Mariana, Hist. de España, lib. 27, cap. 11.-St. Gelais describes the cordial reception of Philip and Joanna by the court at Blois, where he was probably present himself. The historian shows his own opinion of the effect produced on their young minds by these flattering attentions, by remarking, "Le roy leur monstra si très grand semblant d'amour, que par noblesse et honesteté de cœur il les obligeoit envers luy de leur en souvenir toute leur vie." (Hist. de Louys XII., pp. 164, 165.) In passing through Paris, Philip took his seat in the parliament as peer of France, and subsequently did homage to Louis XII., as his suzerain for his estates in Flanders; an acknowledgment of inferiority not at all palatable to the Spanish historians, who insist with much satisfaction on the haughty refusal of his wife, the archduchess, to take part in the ceremony. Zurita, Anales, tom. v. lib. 4, cap. 55.-Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1502 -Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. rey 30, cap. 13, sec. 1.—Dumont, Corps diplomatique, tom. iv. part I. p. 17.

entered by the way of Fontarabia, January 29th, 1502.5

Magnificent preparations had been made for their reception. The grand constable of Castile, the duke of Najara, and many other of the principal grandees waited on the borders to receive them. Brilliant fêtes and illuminations, and all the usual marks of public rejoicing, greeted their progress through the principal cities of the north; and a pragmática relaxing the simplicity, or rather severity, of the sumptuary laws of the period, so far as to allow the use of silks and variouscolored apparel, shows the attention of the sovereigns to every circumstance, however trifling, which could affect the minds of the young princes agreeably and diffuse an air of cheerfulness over the scene."

Ferdinand and Isabella, who were occupied with the affairs of Andalusia at this period, no sooner heard of the arrival of Philip and Joanna than they hastened to the north. They reached Toledo towards the end of April, and in a few days the queen, who paid the usual penalties of royalty, in seeing her children, one after another, removed far from her into distant lands, had the satisfaction of again folding her beloved daughter in her arms.

On the 22d of the ensuing month the archduke and

5 Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1502.-Sandoval, Hist. del Emp. Carlos V., tom. i. p. 5.

6 Zurita, Anales, tom. v. lib. 4, cap. 55.-Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii. p. 220.-This extreme simplicity of attire, in which Zurita discerns "the modesty of the times," was enforced by laws the policy of which, whatever be thought of their moral import, may well be doubted in an economical view. I shall have occasion to draw the reader's attention to them hereafter.

nis wife received the usual oaths of fealty from the cortes, duly convoked for the purpose at Toledo.' King Ferdinand, not long after, made a journey into Aragon, in which the queen's feeble health would not permit her to accompany him, in order to prepare the way for a similar recognition by the estates of that realm. We are not informed what arguments the sagacious monarch made use of to dispel the scruples formerly entertained by that independent body, on a similar application in behalf of his daughter, the late queen of Portugal. They were completely successful, however; and Philip and Joanna, having ascertained the favorable disposition of cortes, made their entrance in great state into the ancient city of Saragossa, in the

7 The writ is dated at Llerena, March 8. It was extracted by Marina from the archives of Toledo, Teoría, tom. ii. p. 18.

8 It is remarkable that the Aragonese writers, generally so inquisitive on all points touching the constitutional history of their country, should have omitted to notice the grounds on which the cortes thought proper to reverse its former decision in the analogous case of the infanta Isabella. There seems to have been even less reason for departing from ancient usage in the present instance, since Joanna had a son, to whom the cortes might lawfully have tendered its oath of recognition; for a female, although excluded from the throne in her own person, was regarded as competent to transmit the title unimpaired to her male heirs. Blancas suggests no explanation of the affair (Coronaciones, lib. 3, cap. 20, and Commentarii, pp. 274, 511), and Zurita quietly dismisses it with the remark that "there was some opposition raised, but the king had managed it so discreetly beforehand that there was not the same difficulty as formerly." (Hist. del Rey Hernando, tom. i. lib. 5, cap. 5.) It is curious to see with what effrontery the prothonotary of the cortes, in the desire to varnish over the departure from constitutional precedent, declares, in the opening address, "the princess Joanna, true and lawful heir to the crown, to whom, in default of male heirs, the usage and law of the land require the oath of allegiance." Coronaciones, ubi supra.

VOL. III.-5