PART II. His perfidy. over their actions and enterprises, frequently dis- 55 Guicciardini, Istoria, lib. 12, 56" Home era de verdad," says Pulgar, "como quiera que las necesidades grandes en que le pusieron las guerras, le facian algunas veces variar." (Reyes Católicos, part. 2, cap. 3.) Zurita exposes and condemns this blemish in his hero's character, with a candor which does him credit. "Fue muy notado, no solo de los estrangeros, pero de sus naturales, que no guardava la verdad, y fe que prometia; y que se anteponia siempre, y sobrepujava el respeto de su propria utilidad, a lo que era justo y honesto." Anales, tom. vi. fol. 406. XXIV. which the great powers were brought into any CHAPTER thing like a general collision. It was the country, too, in which this crafty policy had been first studied, and reduced to a regular system. A single extract from the political manual of that age" may serve as a key to the whole science, as then understood. "A prudent prince," says Machiavelli, "will not, and ought not to observe his engagements, when it would operate to his disadvantage, and the causes no longer exist which induced him to make them." 58 Sufficient evidence of the practical application of the maxim may be found in the manifold treaties of the period, so contradictory, or, what is to the same purpose for our present argument, so confirmatory of one another in their tenor, as clearly to show the impotence of all engagements. There were no less than four several treaties in the course. of three years, solemnly stipulating the marriage of the archduke Charles and Claude of France. Louis the Twelfth violated his engagements, and the marriage after all never took place. 59 policy. Such was the school in which Ferdinand was to His shrewd make trial of his skill with his brother monarchs. He had an able instructer in his father, John the Second, of Aragon, and the result showed that the lessons were not lost on him. "He was vigilant, wary, and subtile," writes a French contemporary, PART II. "and few histories make mention of his being outwitted in the whole course of his life." 60 He played the game with more adroitness than his opponents, and he won it. Success, as usual, brought on him the reproaches of the losers. This is particularly true of the French, whose master, Louis the Twelfth, was more directly pitted against him.61 Yet Ferdinand does not appear to be a whit more obnoxious to the charge of unfairness than his opponent.62 If he deserted his allies when it suited his convenience, he, at least, did not deliberately plot their destruction, and betray them into the hands of their deadly enemy, as his rival did with Venice, in the league of Cambray. The partition of Naples, the most scandalous transaction of the period, he shared equally with Louis; and 66 60 Mémoires de Bayard, chap. 61. "This prince," says lord Herbert, who was not disposed to overrate the talents, any more than the virtues, of Ferdinand, was thought the most active and politique of his time. No man knew better how to serve his turn on everybody, or to make their ends conduce to his." Life of Henry VIII. p. 63. 61 According to them, the Catholic king took no great pains to conceal his treachery. " Quelqu'un disant un jour à Ferdinand, que Louis XII. l'accusoit de l'avoir trompé trois fois, Ferdinand parut mécontent qu'il lui ravit une partie de sa gloire; Il en a bien menti, l'ivrogne, dit-il, avec toute la grossièreté du temps, je l'ai trompé plus de dix." (Gaillard, Rivalité, tom. iv. p. 240.) The anecdote has been repeated by other modern writers, I know not on what authority. Ferdinand was too shrewd a 63 politician, to hazard his game by playing the braggart. 62 Paolo Giovio strikes the balance of their respective merits in this particular, in the following terms. "Ex horum enim longè maximorum nostræ tempestatis regum ingeniis, et tum liquidò et multùm anteà præclarè compertum est, nihil omnino sanctum et inviolabile, vel in ritè conceptis sancitisque fœderibus reperiri, quòd, in proferendis imperiis augendisque opibus, apud eos nihil ad illustris famæ decus interesset, dolone et nusquam sine fallaciis, an fide integra verâque virtute niterentur." Hist. sui Temporis, lib. 11, p. 160. 63 An equally pertinent example occurs in the efficient support he gave Cæsar Borgia in his flagitious enterprises against some of the most faithful allies of France. See Sismondi, Républiques Italiennes, tom. xiii. cap. 101. if the latter has escaped the reproach of the usurpation of Navarre, it was because the premature death of his general deprived him of the pretext and means for achieving it. Yet Louis the Twelfth, the "father of his people," has gone down to posterity with a high and honorable reputation.64 CHAPTER XXIV. bility. Ferdinand, unfortunately for his popularity, had His insensi nothing of the frank and cordial temper, the genial expansion of the soul, which begets love. He carried the same cautious and impenetrable frigidity into private life, that he showed in public. "No one," says a writer of the time, "could read his thoughts by any change of his countenance.” 65 Calm and calculating, even in trifles, it was too obvious that every thing had exclusive reference to self. He seemed to estimate his friends only by the amount of services they could render him. He was not always mindful of these services. Witness his ungenerous treatment of Columbus, the Great Captain, Navarro, Ximenes, the men who shed the brightest lustre, and the most substantial benefits, on his reign. Witness also his insensibility to the virtues and long attachment of Isabella, whose memory he could so soon dishonor by a union with one every way unworthy to be her successor. 64 Read the honeyed panegyrics of Seyssel, St. Gelais, Voltaire even, to say nothing of Gaillard, Varillas, e tutti quanti, undiluted by scarce a drop of censure. Rare indeed is it to find one so imbued with the spirit of philosophy, as to raise himself above the local or national prejudices which pass for patriotism with the vulgar. Sis mondi is the only writer in the 65 Giovio, Hist. sui Temporis, PART II. Contrast with Isabella. Ferdinand's connexion with Isabella, while it reflected infinite glory on his reign, suggests a contrast most unfavorable to his character. Hers was all magnanimity, disinterestedness, and deep devotion to the interests of her people. His was the spirit of egotism. The circle of his views might be more or less expanded, but self was the steady, unchangeable centre. Her heart beat with the generous sympathies of friendship, and the purest constancy to the first, the only object of her love. We have seen the measure of his sensibilities in other relations. They were not more refined in this; and he proved himself unworthy of the admirable woman with whom his destinies were united, by indulging in those vicious gallantries, too generally sanctioned by the age. 66 Ferdinand, in fine, a shrewd and politic prince, "surpassing," as a French writer, not his friend, has remarked, “all the statesmen of his time in the science of the cabinet, may be taken as the representative of the 99 67 66 Ferdinand left four natural children, one son and three daughters. The former, Don Alonso de Aragon, was born of the viscountess of Eboli, a Catalan lady. He was made archbishop of Saragossa when only six years old. There was little of the religious profession, however, in his life. He took an active part in the political and military movements of the period, and seems to have been even less scrupulous in his gallantries than his father. His manners in private life were attractive, and his public conduct discreet. His father always regarded him with peculiar affection, and intrusted him with the regency of Aragon, as we have seen, at his death. Ferdinand had three daughters, also, by three different ladies, one of them a noble Portuguese. The eldest child was named Doña Juana, and married the grand constable of Castile. The others, each named Maria, embraced the religious profession in a convent in Madrigal. L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 188.- Salazar de Mendoza, Monarquía, tom. i. p. 410. 67 Enfin il surpassa tous les Princes de son siècle en la science du Cabinet, et c'est à lui qu'on doit attribuer le premier et le souverain usage de la politique mo |