FACTIONS IN CASTILE.--WAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND ARAGON.--DEATH OF HENRY IV.,
OF CASTILE.
1469-1474.
Factions in Castile.--Ferdinand and Isabella.--Gallant Defence of
Perpignan against the French.--Ferdinand Raises the Siege.--Isabella's
Party gains Strength.--Interview between King Henry IV. and Isabella.--The
French Invade Roussillon.--Ferdinand's Summary Justice.--Death of Henry
IV., of Castile.--Influence of his Reign.
The marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella disconcerted the operations of the
marquis of Villena, or, as he should be styled, the grand master of St.
James, since he had resigned his marquisate to his elder son, on his
appointment to the command of the military order above mentioned, a
dignity inferior only to the primacy in importance. It was determined,
however, in the councils of Henry to oppose at once the pretensions of the
princess Joanna to those of Isabella; and an embassy was gladly received
from the king of France, offering to the former lady the hand of his
brother the duke of Guienne, the rejected suitor of Isabella. Louis the
Eleventh was willing to engage his relative in the unsettled politics of a
distant state, in order to relieve himself from his pretensions at home.
[1]
An interview took place between Henry the Fourth and the French
ambassadors in a little village in the vale of Lozoya, in October, 1470. A
proclamation was read, in which Henry declared his sister to have
forfeited whatever claims she had derived from the treaty of Toros de
Guisando, by marrying contrary to his approbation. He then with his queen
swore to the legitimacy of the princess Joanna, and announced her as his
true and lawful successor. The attendant nobles took the usual oaths of
allegiance, and the ceremony was concluded by affiancing the princess,
then in the ninth year of her age, with the formalities ordinarily
practised on such occasions, to the count of Boulogne, the representative
of the duke of Guienne. [2]
This farce, in which many of the actors were the same persons who
performed the principal parts at the convention of Toros de Guisando, had
on the whole an unfavorable influence on Isabella's cause. It exhibited
her rival to the world as one whose claims were to be supported by the
whole authority of the court of Castile, with the probable co-operation of
France. Many of the most considerable families in the kingdom, as the
Pachecos, [3] the Mendozas in all their extensive ramifications, [4] the
Zuñigas, the Velascos, [5] the Pimentels, [6] unmindful of the homage so
recently rendered to Isabella, now openly testified their adhesion to her
niece.
Ferdinand and his consort, who held their little court at Dueñas, [8] were
so poor as to be scarcely capable of defraying the ordinary charges of
their table. The northern provinces of Biscay and Guipuscoa had, however,
loudly declared against the French match; and the populous province of
Andalusia, with the house of Medina Sidonia at its head, still maintained
its loyalty to Isabella unshaken. But her principal reliance was on the
archbishop of Toledo, whose elevated station in the church and ample
revenues gave him perhaps less real influence, than his commanding and
resolute character, which had enabled him to triumph over every obstacle
devised by his more crafty adversary, the grand master of St. James. The
prelate, however, with all his generous self-devotion, was far from being
a comfortable ally. He would willingly have raised Isabella to the throne,
but he would have her indebted for her elevation exclusively to himself.
He looked with a jealous eye on her most intimate friends, and complained
that neither she nor her husband deferred sufficiently to his counsel. The
princess could not always conceal her disgust at these humors, and
Ferdinand, on one occasion, plainly told him that "he was not to be put in
leading-strings, like so many of the sovereigns of Castile." The old king
of Aragon, alarmed at the consequences of a rupture with so indispensable
an ally, wrote in the most earnest manner to his son, representing the
necessity of propitiating the offended prelate. But Ferdinand, although
educated in the school of dissimulation, had not yet acquired that self-
command, which enabled him in after-life to sacrifice his passions, and
sometimes indeed his principles, to his interests. [9]
The most frightful anarchy at this period prevailed throughout Castile.
While the court was abandoned to corrupt or frivolous pleasure, the
administration of justice was neglected, until crimes were committed with
a frequency and on a scale, which menaced the very foundations of society.
The nobles conducted their personal feuds with an array of numbers which
might compete with those of powerful princes. The duke of Infantado, the
head of the house of Mendoza, [10] could bring into the field, at four and
twenty hours' notice one thousand lances and ten thousand foot. The
battles, far from assuming the character of those waged by the Italian
_condottieri_ at this period, were of the most sanguinary and destructive
kind. Andalusia was in particular the theatre of this savage warfare. The
whole of that extensive district was divided by the factions of the
Guzmans and Ponces de Leon. The chiefs of these ancient houses having
recently died, the inheritance descended to young men, whose hot blood
soon revived the feuds, which had been permitted to cool under the
temperate sway of their fathers. One of these fiery cavaliers was Rodrigo
Ponce de Leon, so deservedly celebrated afterwards in the wars of Granada
as the marquis of Cadiz. He was an illegitimate and younger son of the
count of Arcos, but was preferred by his father to his other children in
consequence of the extraordinary qualities which he evinced at a very
early period. He served his apprenticeship to the art of war in the
campaigns against the Moors, displaying on several occasions an uncommon
degree of enterprise and personal heroism. On succeeding to his paternal
honors, his haughty spirit, impatient of a rival, led him to revive the
old feud with the duke of Medina Sidonia, the head of the Guzmans, who,
though the most powerful nobleman in Andalusia, was far his inferior in
capacity and military science. [11]
On one occasion the duke of Medina Sidonia mustered an army of twenty
thousand men against his antagonist; on another, no less than fifteen
hundred houses of the Ponce faction were burnt to the ground in Seville.
Such were the potent engines employed by these petty sovereigns in their
conflicts with one another, and such the havoc which they brought on the
fairest portion of the Peninsula. The husbandman, stripped of his harvest
and driven from his fields, abandoned himself to idleness, or sought
subsistence by plunder. A scarcity ensued in the years 1472 and 1473, in
which the prices of the most necessary commodities rose to such an
exorbitant height, as put them beyond the reach of any but the affluent.
But it would be wearisome to go into all the loathsome details of
wretchedness and crime brought on this unhappy country by an imbecile
government and a disputed succession, and which are portrayed with lively
fidelity in the chronicles, the letters, and the satires of the time. [12]
While Ferdinand's presence was more than ever necessary to support the
drooping spirits of his party in Castile, he was unexpectedly summoned
into Aragon to the assistance of his father. No sooner had Barcelona
submitted to King John, as mentioned in a preceding chapter, [13] than the
inhabitants of Roussillon and Cerdagne, which provinces, it will be
remembered, were placed in the custody of France, as a guaranty for the
king of Aragon's engagements, oppressed by the grievous exactions of their
new rulers, determined to break the yoke, and to put themselves again
under the protection of their ancient master, provided they could obtain
his support. The opportunity was favorable. A large part of the garrisons
in the principal cities had been withdrawn by Louis the Eleventh, to cover
the frontier on the side of Burgundy and Brittany. John, therefore, gladly
embraced the proposal, and on a concerted day a simultaneous insurrection
took place throughout the provinces, when such of the French, in the
principal towns, as had not the good fortune to escape into the citadels,
were indiscriminately massacred. Of all the country, Salces, Collioure,
and the castle of Perpignan alone remained in the hands of the French.
John then threw himself into the last-named city with a small body of
forces, and instantly set about the construction of works to protect the
inhabitants against the fire of the French garrison in the castle, as well
as from the army which might soon be expected to besiege them from
without. [14]
Louis the Eleventh, deeply incensed at the defection of his new subjects,
ordered the most formidable preparations for the siege of their capital.
John's officers, alarmed at these preparations, besought him not to expose
his person at his advanced age to the perils of a siege and of captivity.
But the lion-hearted monarch saw the necessity of animating the spirits of
the besieged by his own presence; and, assembling the inhabitants in one
of the churches of the city, he exhorted them resolutely to stand to their
defence, and made a solemn oath to abide the issue with them to the last.
Louis, in the mean while, had convoked the _ban_ and _arrière-ban_ of the
contiguous French provinces, and mustered an array of chivalry and feudal
militia amounting, according to the Spanish historians, to thirty thousand
men. With these ample forces, his lieutenant-general, the duke of Savoy,
closely invested Perpignan; and, as he was provided with a numerous train
of battering artillery, instantly opened a heavy fire on the inhabitants.
John, thus exposed to the double fire of the fortress and the besiegers,
was in a very critical situation. Far from being disheartened, however, he
was seen, armed cap-a-pie, on horseback from dawn till evening, rallying
the spirits of his troops, and always present at the point of danger. He
succeeded perfectly in communicating his own enthusiasm to the soldiers.
The French garrison were defeated in several sorties, and their governor
taken prisoner; while supplies were introduced into the city in the very
face of the blockading army. [15]
Ferdinand, on receiving intelligence of his father's perilous situation,
instantly resolved, by Isabella's advice, to march to his relief. Putting
himself at the head of a body of Castilian horse, generously furnished him
by the archbishop of Toledo and his friends, he passed into Aragon, where
he was speedily joined by the principal nobility of the kingdom, and an
army amounting in all to thirteen hundred lances and seven thousand
infantry. With this corps he rapidly descended the Pyrenees, by the way of
Mançanara, in the face of a driving tempest, which concealed him for some
time from the view of the enemy. The latter, during their protracted
operations, for nearly three months, had sustained a serious diminution of
numbers in their repeated skirmishes with the besieged, and still more
from an epidemic which broke out in their camp. They also began to suffer
not a little from want of provisions. At this crisis, the apparition of
this new army, thus unexpectedly descending on their rear, filled them
with such consternation, that they raised the siege at once, setting fire
to their tents, and retreating with such precipitation as to leave most of
the sick and wounded a prey to the devouring element. John marched out,
with colors flying and music playing, at the head of his little band, to
greet his deliverers; and, after an affecting interview in the presence of
the two armies, the father and son returned in triumph into Perpignan.
[16]
The French army, reinforced by command of Louis, made a second ineffectual
attempt (their own writers call it only a feint) upon the city; and the
campaign was finally concluded by a treaty between the two monarchs, in
which it was arranged, that the king of Aragon should disburse within the
year the sum originally stipulated for the services rendered him by Louis
in his late war with his Catalan subjects; and that, in case of failure,
the provinces of Roussillon and Cerdagne should be permanently ceded to
the French crown. The commanders of the fortified places in the contested
territory, selected by one monarch from the nominations of the other, were
excused during the interim from obedience to the mandates of either; at
least so far as they might contravene their reciprocal engagements. [17]
There is little reason to believe that this singular compact was
subscribed in good faith by either party. John, notwithstanding the
temporary succor which he had received from Louis at the commencement of
his difficulties with the Catalans, might justly complain of the
infraction of his engagements, at a subsequent period of the war; when he
not only withheld the stipulated aid, but indirectly gave every facility
in his power to the invasion of the duke of Lorraine. Neither was the king
of Aragon in a situation, had he been disposed, to make the requisite
disbursements. Louis, on the other hand, as the event soon proved, had no
other object in view but to gain time to reorganize his army, and to lull
his adversary into security, while he took effectual measures for
recovering the prize which had so unexpectedly eluded him.
During these occurrences Isabella's prospects were daily brightening in
Castile. The duke of Guienne, the destined spouse of her rival Joanna, had
died in France; but not until he had testified his contempt of his
engagements with the Castilian princess by openly soliciting the hand of
the heiress of Burgundy. [18] Subsequent negotiations for her marriage
with two other princes had entirely failed. The doubts which hung over her
birth, and which the public protestations of Henry and his queen, far from
dispelling, served only to augment, by the necessity which they implied
for such an extraordinary proceeding, were sufficient to deter any one
from a connection which must involve the party in all the disasters of a
civil war. [19]
Isabella's own character, moreover, contributed essentially to strengthen
her cause. Her sedate conduct, and the decorum maintained in her court,
formed a strong contrast with the frivolity and license which disgraced
that of Henry and his consort. Thinking men were led to conclude that the
sagacious administration of Isabella must eventually secure to her the
ascendency over her rival; while all, who sincerely loved their country,
could not but prognosticate for it, under her beneficent sway, a degree of
prosperity, which it could never reach under the rapacious and profligate
ministers who directed the councils of Henry, and most probably would
continue to direct those of his daughter.
Among the persons whose opinions experienced a decided revolution from
these considerations was Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, archbishop of Seville
and cardinal of Spain; a prelate, whose lofty station in the church was
supported by talents of the highest order; and whose restless ambition led
him, like many of the churchmen of the time, to take an active interest in
politics, for which he was admirably adapted by his knowledge of affairs
and discernment of character. Without deserting his former master, he
privately entered into a correspondence with Isabella; and a service,
which Ferdinand, on his return from Aragon, had an opportunity of
rendering the duke of Infantado, the head of the Mendozas, [20] secured
the attachment of the other members of this powerful family. [21]
A circumstance occurred at this time, which seemed to promise an
accommodation between the adverse factions, or at least between Henry and
his sister. The government of Segovia, whose impregnable citadel had been
made the depository of the royal treasure, was intrusted to Andres de
Cabrera, an officer of the king's household. This cavalier, influenced in
part by personal pique to the grand master of St. James, and still more
perhaps by the importunities of his wife, Beatriz de Bobadilla, the early
friend and companion of Isabella, entered into a correspondence with the
princess, and sought to open the way for her permanent reconciliation with
her brother. He accordingly invited her to Segovia, where Henry
occasionally resided, and, to dispel any suspicions which she might
entertain of his sincerity, despatched his wife secretly by night,
disguised in the garb of a peasant, to Aranda, where Isabella then held
her court. The latter, confirmed by the assurances of her friend, did not
hesitate to comply with the invitation, and, accompanied by the archbishop
of Toledo, proceeded to Segovia, where an interview took place between her
and Henry the Fourth, in which she vindicated her past conduct, and
endeavored to obtain her brother's sanction to her union with Ferdinand.
Henry, who was naturally of a placable temper, received her communication
with complacency, and, in order to give public demonstration of the good
understanding now subsisting between him and his sister, condescended to
walk by her side, holding the bridle of her palfrey, as she rode along the
streets of the city. Ferdinand, on his return into Castile, hastened to
Segovia, where he was welcomed by the monarch with every appearance of
satisfaction. A succession of and splendid entertainments, at which both
parties assisted, seemed to announce an entire oblivion of all past
animosities, and the nation welcomed with satisfaction these symptoms of
repose after the vexatious struggle by which it had been so long agitated.
[22]
The repose, however, was of no great duration. The slavish mind of Henry
gradually relapsed under its ancient bondage; and the grand master of St.
James succeeded, in consequence of an illness with which the monarch was
suddenly seized after an entertainment given by Cabrera, in infusing into
his mind suspicions of an attempt at assassination. Henry was so far
incensed or alarmed by the suggestion, that he concerted a scheme for
privately seizing the person of his sister, which was defeated by her own
prudence and the vigilance of her friends. [23]--But, if the visit to
Segovia failed in its destined purpose of a reconciliation with Henry, it
was attended with the important consequence of securing to Isabella a
faithful partisan in Cabrera, who, from the control which his situation
gave him over the royal coffers, proved a most seasonable ally in her
subsequent struggle with Joanna.
Not long after this event, Ferdinand received another summons from his
father to attend him in Aragon, where the storm of war, which had been for
some time gathering in the distance, now burst with pitiless fury. In the
beginning of February, 1474, an embassy consisting of two of his principal
nobles, accompanied by a brilliant train of cavaliers and attendants, had
been deputed by John to the court of Louis XI., for the ostensible purpose
of settling the preliminaries of the marriage, previously agreed on,
between the dauphin and the infanta Isabella, daughter of Ferdinand and
Isabella, then little more than three years of age. [24] The real object
of the mission was to effect some definitive adjustment or compromise of
the differences relating to the contested territories of Roussillon and
Cerdagne. The king of France, who, notwithstanding his late convention
with John, was making active preparations for the forcible occupation of
these provinces, determined to gain time by amusing the ambassadors with a
show of negotiation, and interposing every obstacle which his ingenuity
could devise to their progress through his dominions. He succeeded so well
in this latter part of his scheme, that the embassy did not reach Paris
until the close of Lent. Louis, who seldom resided in his capital, took
good care to be absent at this season. The ambassadors in the interim were
entertained with balls, military reviews, and whatever else might divert
them from the real objects of their mission. All communication was cut off
with their own government, as their couriers were stopped and their
despatches intercepted, so that John knew as little of his envoys or their
proceedings, as if they had been in Siberia or Japan. In the mean time,
formidable preparations were making in the south of France for a descent
on Roussillon; and when the ambassadors, after a fruitless attempt at
negotiation, which evaporated in mutual crimination and recrimination, set
out on their return to Aragon, they were twice detained, at Lyons and
Montpelier, from an extreme solicitude, as the French government expressed
it, to ascertain the safest route through a country intersected by hostile
armies; and all this, notwithstanding their repeated protestations against
this obliging disposition, which held them prisoners, in opposition to
their own will and the law of nations. The prince who descended to such
petty trickery passed for the wisest of his time. [25]
In the mean while, the Seigneur du Lude had invaded Roussillon at the head
of nine hundred French lances and ten thousand infantry, supported by a
powerful train of artillery, while a fleet of Genoese transports, laden
with supplies, accompanied the army along the coast. Elna surrendered
after a sturdy resistance; the governor and some of the principal
prisoners were shamefully beheaded as traitors; and the French then
proceeded to invest Perpignan. The king of Aragon was so much impoverished
by the incessant wars in which he had been engaged, that he was not only
unable to recruit his army, but was even obliged to pawn the robe of
costly fur, which he wore to defend his person against the inclemencies of
the season, in order to defray the expense of transporting his baggage. In
this extremity, finding himself disappointed in the cooperation, on which
he had reckoned, of his ancient allies the dukes of Burgundy and Brittany,
he again summoned Ferdinand to his assistance, who, after a brief
interview with his father in Barcelona, proceeded to Saragossa, to solicit
aid from the estates of Aragon.
An incident occurred on this visit of the prince worth noticing, as
strongly characteristic of the lawless habits of the age. A citizen of
Saragossa, named Ximenes Gordo, of noble family, but who had relinquished
the privileges of his rank in order to qualify himself for municipal
office, had acquired such ascendency over his townsmen, as to engross the
most considerable posts in the city for himself and his creatures. This
authority he abused in a shameless manner, making use of it not only for
the perversion of justice, but for the perpetration of the most flagrant
crimes. Although these facts were notorious, yet such were his power and
popularity with the lower classes, that Ferdinand, despairing of bringing
him to justice in the ordinary way, determined on a more summary process.
As Gordo occasionally visited the palace to pay his respects to the
prince, the latter affected to regard him with more than usual favor,
showing him such courtesy as might dissipate any distrust he had conceived
of him. Gordo, thus assured, was invited at one of those interviews to
withdraw into a retired apartment, where the prince wished to confer with
him on business of moment. On entering the chamber he was surprised by the
sight of the public executioner, the hangman of the city, whose presence,
together with that of a priest, and the apparatus of death with which the
apartment was garnished, revealed at once the dreadful nature of his
destiny.
He was then charged with the manifold crimes of which he had been guilty,
and sentence of death was pronounced on him. In vain did he appeal to
Ferdinand, pleading the services which he had rendered on more than one
occasion to his father. Ferdinand assured him that these should be
gratefully remembered in the protection of his children, and then, bidding
him unburden his conscience to his confessor, consigned him to the hand of
the executioner. His body was exposed that very day in the market-place of
the city, to the dismay of his friends and adherents, most of whom paid
the penalty of their crimes in the ordinary course of justice. This
extraordinary proceeding is highly characteristic of the unsettled times
in which it occurred; when acts of violence often superseded the regular
operation of the law, even in those countries, whose forms of government
approached the nearest to a determinate constitution. It will doubtless
remind the reader of the similar proceeding imputed to Louis the Eleventh,
in the admirable sketch given us of that monarch in "Quentin Durward."
[26]
The supplies furnished by the Aragonese cortes were inadequate to King
John's necessities, and he was compelled, while hovering with his little
force on the confines of Roussillon, to witness the gradual reduction of
its capital, without being able to strike a blow in its defence. The
inhabitants, indeed, who fought with a resolution worthy of ancient
Numantia or Saguntum, were reduced to the last extremity of famine,
supporting life by feeding on the most loathsome offal, on cats, dogs, the
corpses of their enemies, and even on such of their own dead as had fallen
in battle! And when at length an honorable capitulation was granted them
on the 14th of March, 1475, the garrison who evacuated the city, reduced
to the number of four hundred, were obliged to march on foot to Barcelona,
as they had consumed their horses during the siege. [27]
The terms of capitulation, which permitted every inhabitant to evacuate,
or reside unmolested in the city, at his option, were too liberal to
satisfy the vindictive temper of the king of France. He instantly wrote to
his generals, instructing them to depart from their engagements, to keep
the city so short of supplies as to compel an emigration of its original
inhabitants, and to confiscate for their own use the estates of the
principal nobility; and after delineating in detail the perfidious policy
which they were to pursue, he concluded with the assurance, "that, by the
blessing of God and our Lady, and Monsieur St. Martin, he would be with
them before the winter, in order to aid them in its execution." [28] Such
was the miserable medley of hypocrisy and superstition, which
characterized the politics of the European courts in this corrupt age, and
which dimmed the lustre of names, most conspicuous on the page of history.
The occupation of Roussillon was followed by a truce of six months between
the belligerent parties. The regular course of the narrative has been
somewhat anticipated, in order to conclude that portion of it relating to
the war with Prance, before again reverting to the affairs of Castile,
where Henry the Fourth, pining under an incurable malady, was gradually
approaching the termination of his disastrous reign.
This event, which, from the momentous consequences it involved, was
contemplated with the deepest solicitude, not only by those who had an
immediate and personal interest at stake, but by the whole nation, took
place on the night of the 11th of December, 1474. [29] It was precipitated
by the death of the grand master of St. James, on whom the feeble mind of
Henry had been long accustomed to rest for its support, and who was cut
off by an acute disorder but a few months previous, in the full prime of
his ambitious schemes. The king, notwithstanding the lingering nature of
his disease gave him ample time for preparation, expired without a will,
or even, as generally asserted, the designation of a successor. This was
the more remarkable, not only as being contrary to established usage, but
as occurring at a period when the succession had been so long and hotly
debated. [30] The testaments of the Castilian sovereigns, though never
esteemed positively binding, and occasionally, indeed, set aside, when
deemed unconstitutional or even inexpedient by the legislature, [31] were
always allowed to have great weight with the nation.
With Henry the Fourth terminated the male line of the house of Trastamara,
who had kept possession of the throne for more than a century, and in the
course of only four generations had exhibited every gradation of character
from the bold and chivalrous enterprise of the first Henry of that name,
down to the drivelling imbecility of the last.
The character of Henry the Fourth has been sufficiently delineated in that
of his reign. He was not without certain amiable qualities, and may be
considered as a weak, rather than a wicked prince. In persons, however,
intrusted with the degree of power exercised by sovereigns of even the
most limited monarchies of this period, a weak man may be deemed more
mischievous to the state over which he presides than a wicked one. The
latter, feeling himself responsible in the eyes of the nation for his
actions, is more likely to consult appearances, and, where his own
passions or interests are not immediately involved, to legislate with
reference to the general interests of his subjects. The former, on the
contrary, is too often a mere tool in the hands of favorites, who, finding
themselves screened by the interposition of royal authority from the
consequences of measures for which they should be justly responsible,
sacrifice without remorse the public weal to the advancement of their
private fortunes. Thus the state, made to minister to the voracious
appetites of many tyrants, suffers incalculably more than it would from
one. So fared it with Castile under Henry the Fourth; dismembered by
faction, her revenues squandered on worthless parasites, the grossest
violations of justice unredressed, public faith become a jest, the
treasury bankrupt, the court a brothel, and private morals too loose and
audacious to seek even the veil of hypocrisy! Never had the fortunes of
the kingdom reached so low an ebb since the great Saracen invasion.
* * * * *
The historian cannot complain of a want of authentic materials for the
reign of Henry IV. Two of the chroniclers of that period, Alonso de
Palencia and Enriquez del Castillo, were eye-witnesses and conspicuous
actors in the scenes which they recorded, and connected with opposite
factions. The former of these writers, Alonso de Palencia, was born, as
appears from his work, "De Synonymis," cited by Pellicer, (Bibliotheca de
Traductores, p. 7,) in 1423. Nic. Antonio has fallen into the error of
dating his birth nine years later. (Bibliotheca Vetus, tom. ii. p. 331.)
At the age of seventeen, he became page to Alfonso of Carthagena, bishop
of Burgos, and, in the family of that estimable prelate, acquired a taste
for letters, which never deserted him during a busy political career. He
afterwards visited Italy, where he became acquainted with Cardinal
Bessarion, and through him with the learned George of Trebizond, whose
lectures on philosophy and rhetoric he attended. On his return to his
native country, he was raised to the dignity of royal historiographer by
Alfonso, younger brother of Henry IV., and competitor with him for the
crown. He attached himself to the fortunes of Isabella after Alfonso's
death, and was employed by the archbishop of Toledo in many delicate
negotiations, particularly in arranging the marriage of the princess with
Ferdinand, for which purpose he made a secret journey into Aragon. On the
accession of Isabella, he was confirmed in the office of national
chronicler, and passed the remainder of his life in the composition of
philological and historical works and translations from the ancient
classics. The time of his death is uncertain. He lived to a good old age,
however, since it appears from his own statement, (see Mendez, Typographia
Española, (Madrid, 1796,) p. 190,) that his version of Josephus was not
completed till the year 1492.
The most popular of Palencia's writings are his "Chronicle of Henry IV.,"
and his Latin "Decades," continuing the reign of Isabella down to the
capture of Baza, in 1489. His historical style, far from scholastic
pedantry, exhibits the business-like manner of a man of the world. His
Chronicle, which, being composed in the Castilian, was probably intended
for popular use, is conducted with little artifice, and indeed with a
prolixity and minuteness of detail, arising no doubt from the deep
interest which as an actor he took in the scenes he describes. His
sentiments are expressed with boldness, and sometimes with the acerbity of
party feeling. He has been much commended by the best Spanish writers,
such as Zurita, Zuñiga, Marina, Clemencin, for his veracity. The internal
evidence of this is sufficiently strong in his delineation of those scenes
in which he was personally engaged; in his account of others, it will not
be difficult to find examples of negligence and inaccuracy. His Latin
"Decades" were probably composed with more care, as addressed to a learned
class of readers; and they are lauded by Nic. Antonio as an elegant
commentary, worthy to be assiduously studied by all who would acquaint
themselves with the history of their country. The art of printing has done
less perhaps for Spain than for any other country in Europe; and these two
valuable histories are still permitted to swell the rich treasure of
manuscripts with which her libraries are overloaded.
Enriquez del Castillo, a native of Segovia, was the chaplain and
historiographer of King Henry IV., and a member of his privy council. His
situation not only made him acquainted with the policy and intrigues of
the court, but with the personal feelings of the monarch, who reposed
entire confidence in him, which Castillo repaid with uniform loyalty. He
appears very early to have commenced his Chronicle of Henry's reign. On
the occupation of Segovia by the young Alfonso, after the battle of
Olmedo, in 1467, the chronicler, together with the portion of his history
then complied, was unfortunate enough to fall into the enemy's hands. The
author was soon summoned to the presence of Alfonso and his counsellors,
to hear and justify, as he could, certain passages of what they termed his
"false and frivolous narrative." Castillo, hoping little from a defence
before such a prejudiced tribunal, resolutely kept his peace; and it might
have gone hard with him, had it not been for his ecclesiastical
profession. He subsequently escaped, but never recovered his manuscripts,
which were probably destroyed; and, in the introduction to his Chronicle,
he laments, that he has been obliged to rewrite the first half of his
master's reign.
Notwithstanding Castillo's familiarity with public affairs, his work is
not written in the business-like style of Palencia's. The sentiments
exhibit a moral sensibility scarcely to have been expected, even from a
minister of religion, in the corrupt court of Henry IV.; and the honest
indignation of the writer, at the abuses which he witnessed, sometimes
breaks forth in a strain of considerable eloquence. The spirit of his
work, notwithstanding its abundant loyalty, may be also commended for its
candor in relation to the partisans of Isabella; which has led some
critics to suppose that it underwent a _rifacimento_ after the accession
of that princess to the throne.
Castillo's Chronicle, more fortunate than that of his rival, has been
published in a handsome form under the care of Don Jose Miguel de Flores,
Secretary of the Spanish Academy of History, to whose learned labors in
this way Castilian literature is so much indebted.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 2, cap. 21.--Gaillard,
Rivalité, tom. iii. p. 284.--Rades y Andrada, Las Tres Ordenes, fol. 65.--
Caro de Torres, Ordenes Militares, fol. 43.
[2] Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 23.--Castillo,
Crónica, p. 298.--Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 2, cap. 24.--
Henry, well knowing how little all this would avail without the
constitutional sanction of the cortes, twice issued his summons in 1470
for the convocation of the deputies, to obtain a recognition of the title
of Joanna. But without effect. In the letters of convocation issued for a
third assembly of the states, in 1471, this purpose was prudently omitted,
and thus the claims of Joanna failed to receive the countenance of the
only body which could give them validity. See the copies of the original
writs, addressed to the cities of Toledo and Segovia, cited by Marina,
Teoría, tom. ii. pp. 87-89.
[3] The grand master of St. James, and his son, the marquis of Villena,
afterwards duke of Escalona. The rents of the former nobleman, whose
avarice was as insatiable as his influence over the feeble mind of Henry
IV. was unlimited, exceeded those of any other grandee in the kingdom. See
Pulgar, Claros Varones, tit. 6.
[4] The marquis of Santillana, first duke of Infantado, and his brothers,
the counts of Coruña, and of Tendilla, and above all Pedro Gonzalez de
Mendoza, afterwards cardinal of Spain, and archbishop of Toledo, who was
indebted for the highest dignities in the church less to his birth than
his abilities. See Claros Varones, tit. 4, 9.--Salazar de Mendoza,
Dignidades, lib. 3, cap. 17.
[5] Alvaro de Zuñiga, count of Palencia, and created by Henry IV., duke of
Arevalo.--Pedro Fernandez de Velasco, count of Haro, was raised to the
post of constable of Castile in 1473, and the office continued to be
hereditary in the family from that period. Pulgar, Claros Varones, tit.
3.--Salazar de Mendoza, Dignidades, lib. 3, cap. 21.
[6] The Pimentels, counts of Benavente, had estates which gave them 60,000
ducats a year; a very large income for that period, and far exceeding that
of any other grandee of similar rank in the kingdom. L. Marineo, Cosas
Memorables, fol. 25.
[8] Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 70.
[9] Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 170.--Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS.,
cap. 45.
[10] This nobleman, Diego Hurtado, "muy gentil caballero y gran señor," as
Oviedo calls him, was at this time only marquis of Santillana, and was not
raised to the title of duke of Infantado till the reign of Isabella,
(Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 8.) To avoid confusion,
however, I have given him the title by which he is usually recognized by
Castilian writers.
[11] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 3.--Salazar de Mendoza, Crónica
de el Gran Cardenal de España, Don Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, (Toledo,
1625,) pp. 138, 150.--Zuñiga, Anales de Sevilla, p. 362.
[12] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 4, 5, 7.--Zuñiga, Anales de
Sevilla, pp. 363, 364.--Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 2, cap.
35, 38, 39, 42.--Saez, Monedas de Enrique IV., pp. 1-5.--Pulgar, in an
epistle addressed, in the autumn of 1473, to the bishop of Coria, adverts
to several circumstances which set in a strong light the anarchical state
of the kingdom and the total deficiency of police. The celebrated
satirical eclogue, also, entitled "Mingo Revulgo," exposes, with coarse
but cutting sarcasm, the license of the court, the corruption of the
clergy, and the prevalent depravity of the people. In one of its stanzas
it boldly ventures to promise another and a better sovereign to the
country. This performance, even more interesting to the antiquarian than
to the historian, has been attributed by some to Pulgar, (see Mariana,
Hist. de España, tom. ii. p. 475,) and by others to Rodrigo Cota, (see
Nic. Antonio, Bibliotheca Veins, tom. ii p. 264,) but without satisfactory
evidence in favor of either. Bouterwek is much mistaken in asserting it to
have been aimed at the government of John II. The gloss of Pulgar, whose
authority as a contemporary must be considered decisive, plainly proves it
to have been directed against Henry IV.
[13] See Chap. II.
[14] Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., cap. 56.--Mariana, Hist. de
España, tom. ii. p. 481.--Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 191.--Barante,
Histoire des Ducs de Bourgogne, (Paris, 1825,) tom. ix. pp. 101-106.
[15] Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., cap. 70.--Mariana, Hist. de
España, tom. ii. p. 482.--L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 148.--Zurita,
Anales, tom. iv. fol. 195.--Anquetil, Histoire de France, (Paris, 1805,)
tom. v. pp. 60, 61.
[16] Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 196.--Barante, Hist. des Ducs de
Bourgogne, tom. x. pp. 105, 106.--L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 149.
--Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., cap. 70, 71, 72.
[17] Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 200.--Gaillard, Rivalité, tom. iii. p.
266.--See the articles of the treaty cited by Duclos, Hist. de Louis XI.,
tom. ii. pp. 99, 101.--Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., cap. 73.
[18] Louis XI. is supposed with much probability to have assassinated this
brother. M. de Barante sums up his examination of the evidence with this
remark: "Le roi Louis XI. ne fit peut-être pas mourir son frère, mais
personne ne pensa qu'il en fut incapable." Hist. des Ducs de Bourgogne,
tom. ix. p. 433.
[19] The two princes alluded to were the duke of Segorbe, a cousin of
Ferdinand, and the king of Portugal. The former, on his entrance into
Castile, assumed such sovereign state, (giving his hand, for instance, to
the grandees to kiss,) as disgusted these haughty nobles, and was
eventually the occasion of breaking off his match. Alonso de Palencia,
Corónica, MS., part. 2, cap. 62.--Faria y Sousa, Europa Portuguesa, tom.
ii. p. 392.
[20] Oviedo assigns another reason for this change; the disgust occasioned
by Henry IV.'s transferring the custody of his daughter from the family of
Mendoza to the Pachecos. Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 8.
[21] Salazar de Mendoza, Crón. del Gran Cardenal, p. 133.--Alonso de
Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 2, cap. 46, 92.--Castillo, Crónica, cap.
163.--The influence of these new allies, especially of the cardinal, over
Isabella's councils, was an additional ground of umbrage to the archbishop
of Toledo, who, in a communication with the king of Aragon, declared
himself, though friendly to their cause, to be released from all further
obligations to serve it. See Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. lib. 46, cap. 19.
[22] Carbajal, Anales, MS., años 73, 74.--Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, p. 27.
--Castillo, Crónica, cap. 164.--Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part.
2, cap. 75.--Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 23.
[23] Mendoza, Crón. del Gran Cardenal, pp. 141, 142.--Castillo, Crónica,
cap. 164.--Oviedo has given a full account of this cavalier, who was
allied to an ancient Catalan family, but who raised himself to such pre-
eminence by his own deserts, says that writer, that he may well be
considered the founder of his house. Loc. cit.
[24] Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 70.--This was the eldest child of
Ferdinand and Isabella, born Oct. 1st, 1470; afterwards queen of Portugal.
[25] Gaillard, Rivalité, tom. iii. pp. 267-276.--Duclos, Hist. de Louis
XI., tom. ii. pp. 113, 115.--Chronique Scandaleuse, ed. Petitot, tom.
xiii. pp. 443, 444.
[26] Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 2, cap. 83.--Ferreras, Hist.
d'Espagne, tom. vii. p. 400.--Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. lib. 19, cap. 12.
[27] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 150.--Zurita, Anales, tom. iv.
lib. 19, cap. 13.--Chronique Scandaleuse, ed. Petitot, tom. xiii. p. 456.
--Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 2, cap. 91.
[28] Of the original letters, as given by M. Barante, in his History of
the Dukes of Burgundy, in which the author has so happily seized the tone
and picturesque coloring of the ancient chronicle; tom. x. pp. 289, 298.
[29] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 10.--Carbajal, Anales, MS., año
74.--Castillo, Crónica, cap. 148.
[30] This topic is involved in no little obscurity, and has been reported
with much discrepancy as well as inaccuracy by the modern Spanish
historians. Among the ancient, Castillo, the historiographer of Henry IV.,
mentions certain "testamentary executors," without, however, noticing in
any more direct way the existence of a will. (Crón. c. 168.) The Curate of
Los Palacios refers to a clause reported, he says, to have existed in the
testament of Henry IV., in which he declares Joanna his daughter and heir;
(Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 10.) Alonso de Palencia states positively that
there was no such instrument, and that Henry, on being asked who was to
succeed him, referred to his secretary Juan Gonzalez for a knowledge of
his intention. (Crón. c. 92.) L. Marineo also states that the king, "with
his usual improvidence," left no will. (Cosas Memorables, fol. 155.)
Pulgar, another contemporary, expressly declares that he executed no will,
and quotes the words dictated by him to his secretary, in which he simply
designates two of the grandees as "executors of his soul," (_albuceas de
su anima_,) and four others in conjunction with them as the guardians
of his daughter Joanna. (Reyes Cat. p. 31.) It seems not improbable that
the existence of this document has been confounded with that of a
testament, and that with reference to it, the phrase above quoted of
Castillo, as well as the passage of Bernaldez, is to be interpreted.
Carbajal's wild story of the existence of a will, of its secretion for
more than thirty years, and its final suppression by Ferdinand, is too
naked of testimony to deserve the least weight with the historian. (See
his Anales, MS., año 74.) It should be remembered, however, that most of
the above-mentioned writers compiled their works after the accession of
Isabella, and that none, save Castillo, were the partisans of her rival.
It should also be added that in the letters addressed by the princess
Joanna to the different cities of the kingdom, on her assuming the title
of queen of Castile, (bearing date May, 1475,) it is expressly stated that
Henry IV., on his deathbed, solemnly affirmed her to be his only daughter
and lawful heir. These letters were drafted by John de Oviedo, (Juan
Gonzalez,) the confidential secretary of Henry IV. See Zurita, Anales,
tom. iv. fol. 235-239.
[31] As was the case with the testaments of Alfonso of Leon and Alfonso
the Wise, in the thirteenth century, and with that of Peter the Cruel, in
the fourteenth.