PART Policy of Louis the Twelfth had viewed with much satisfaction the growing misunderstanding betwixt PhilLouis XII. ip and his father-in-law, and had cunningly used his influence over the young prince to foment it. He felt the deepest disquietude at the prospect of the enormous inheritance which was to devolve on the former, comprehending Burgundy and Flanders, Austria, and probably the Empire, together with the united crowns of Spain and their rich dependencies. By the proposed marriage, a dismemberment might be made at least of the Spanish monarchy; and the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, passing under different sceptres, might serve, as they had formerly done, to neutralize each other. It was true, this would involve a rupture with Philip, to whose son his own daughter was promised in marriage. But this match, extremely distasteful to his subjects, gradually became so to Louis, as every way prejudicial to the interests of France. 23 Without much delay, therefore, preliminaries were arranged with the Aragonese envoy, and imme1505. diately after, in the month of August, the count of Cifuentes, and Thomas Malferit, regent of the royal chancery, were publicly sent as plenipotentiaries on Sandoval, an historian of the latter Sismondi, not content with this first offer of King Ferdinand, makes him afterwards propose for a daughter of King Emanuel, or in other words, his own granddaughter! Hist. des Français, tom. xv. chap. 30. 23 Fleurange, Mémoires, chap. 15.-Seyssel, Hist. de Louys XII., pp. 223-229. the part of King Ferdinand, to conclude and exe- CHAPTER cute the treaty. XVII. France. It was agreed, as the basis of the alliance, that Treaty with the Catholic king should be married to Germaine, daughter of Jean de Foix, viscount of Narbonne, and of one of the sisters of Louis the Twelfth, and granddaughter to Leonora, queen of Navarre, that guilty sister of King Ferdinand, whose fate is recorded in the earlier part of our History. The princess Germaine, it will be seen, therefore, was nearly related to both the contracting parties. She was at this time eighteen years of age, and very beautiful. 24 She had been educated in the palace of her royal uncle, where she had imbibed the free and volatile manners of his gay, luxurious court. To this lady Louis the Twelfth consented to resign his claims on Naples, to be secured by way of dowry to her and her heirs, male or female, in perpetuity. In case of her decease without issue, the moiety of the kingdom recognised as his by the partition treaty with Spain was to revert to him. It was further agreed, that Ferdinand should reimburse Louis the Twelfth for the expenses of the Neapolitan war, by the payment of one million gold ducats, in ten yearly instalments; and lastly, that a 24 Aleson, Annales de Navarra, tom. v. lib. 35, cap. 7, sec. 4. Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 56. Salazar de Mendoza, Monarquía, tom. i. p. 410. "Laquelle," says Fleurange, who had doubtless often seen the princess, "étoit bonne et fort belle princesse, du moins elle n'avoit 28 VOL. III. point perdu son embonpoint." (Mé- PART II. Its impolicy. complete amnesty should be granted by him to the lords of the Angevin or French party in Naples, who should receive full restitution of their confiscated honors and estates. A mutual treaty of alliance and commerce was to subsist henceforth between France and Spain, and the two monarchs, holding one another, to quote the words of the instrument, "as two souls, in one and the same body," pledged themselves to the maintenance and defence of their respective rights and kingdoms against every other power whatever. This treaty was signed by the French king at Blois, October 12th, 1505, and ratified by Ferdinand the Catholic, at Segovia, on the 16th of the same month. 25 Such were the disgraceful and most impolitic terms of this compact, by which Ferdinand, in order to secure the brief possession of a barren authority, and perhaps to gratify some unworthy feelings of revenge, was content to barter away all those solid advantages, flowing from the union of the Spanish monarchies, which had been the great and wise object of his own and Isabella's policy. For, in the event of male issue, and that he should have issue was by no means improbable, considering he was not yet fifty-four years of age,― Aragon and its dependencies must be totally severed from Castile. 26 In the other alternative, the splendid Italian 25 Dumont, Corps Diplomatique, tom. iv. no. 40, pp. 72-74. 26 These dependencies did not embrace, however, the half of Granada and the West Indies, as supposed by Mons. Gaillard, who gravely assures us, that "Les états conquis par Ferdinand étoient conquêtes de communauté, dont la moitié appartenoit au mari, et la moitié aux enfans." (Rivalité, tom. iv. p. 306.) Such are the gross misconceptions of fact, on which this writer's speculations rest! XVII. conquests, which after such cost of toil and treasure CHAPTER he had finally secured to himself, must be shared with his unsuccessful competitor. In any event, he had pledged himself to such an indemnification of the Angevin faction in Naples, as must create inextricable embarrassment, and inflict great injury on his loyal partisans, into whose hands their estates had already passed. And last, though not least, he dishonored by this unsuitable and precipitate alliance his late illustrious queen, the memory of whose transcendent excellence, if it had faded in any degree from his own breast, was too deeply seated in those of her subjects, to allow them to look on the present union otherwise than as a national indignity. So, indeed, they did regard it; although the people of Aragon, in whom late events had rekindled their ancient jealousy of Castile, viewed the match with more complacency, as likely to restore them to that political importance which had been somewhat impaired by the union with their more powerful neighbour.27 The European nations could not comprehend an arrangement, so irreconcilable with the usual sagacious policy of the Catholic king. The petty Italian powers, who, since the introduction of France and Spain into their political system, were controlled by them more or less in all their movements, viewed this sinister conjunction as auspicious of no good to 27 Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 6, cap. 19. - Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 28, cap. 16. PART II. Concord of their interests or independence. As for the archduke Philip, he could scarcely credit the possibility of this desperate act, which struck off at a blow so rich a portion of his inheritance. He soon received confirmation, however, of its truth, by a prohibition from Louis the Twelfth, to attempt a passage through his dominions into Spain, until he should come to some amicable understanding with his father-in-law. 28 Philip, or rather Manuel, who exercised unbounded influence over his counsels, saw the necessity now of temporizing. The correspondence was resumed with Ferdinand, and an arrangement was at length concluded between the parties, known as the concord of Salamanca, November 24th, 1505. The substance of it was, that Castile should be governed in the joint names of Ferdinand, Philip, and Joanna, but that the first should be entitled, as his share, to one half of the public revenue. treaty, executed in good faith by the Catholic king, was only intended by Philip to lull the suspicions of the former, until he could effect a landing in the 28 Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. rey 30, cap. 15, sec. 8.Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 6, cap. 21.- Guicciardini, Istoria, lib. 7. He received much more unequivocal intimation in a letter from Ferdinand, curious as showing that the latter sensibly felt the nature and extent of the sacrifices he was making. "You," says he to Philip, "by lending yourself to be the easy dupe of France, have driven me most reluctantly into a second marriage; have stripped me of the fair fruits of my Neapoli This tan conquests," &c. He concludes with this appeal to him. "Sit satis, fili, pervagatum; redi in te, si filius, non hostis accesseris; his non obstantibus, mi filius, amplexabere. Magna est paternæ vis naturæ." Philip may have thought his father-in-law's late conduct an indifferent commentary on the "paternæ vis naturæ." See the king's letter quoted by Peter Martyr in his correspondence with the count of Tendilla. Opus Epist., epist. 293. |