much pains in cockering him during his infancy that there was no great appearance he could live long enough to beget Children The Archdutchess on the contrary was the most vigorous and jolly Princess of her Age and the Physicians were free enough to say that she would carry with her the rich Successions of Burgundy and Austria to the Family she married into besides a numerous Off-spring of which she gave no small hopes Ferdinand grounded upon that to get her into his Family and for that end laid the most Artificious and selfish Scheme that can be found in the Records of Spain He had one Son and four Daughters the Sons name was John from the Grandfather by the Father's side his eldest Daughters name was Isabella the seconds Jane the thirds Mary and the youngests Catharine The fundamental Laws of Spain gave to the Son all the Kingdoms of Arragon which his Father possessed and all the Kingdoms of Castile that his Mother had brought with her in Marriage his four Sisters having no Pretensions to any part of them and if he died without Children the eldest of his Sisters was to succeed him in full without sharing any thing with the younger Ferdinand was very willing that the States of Burgundy and Austria might enter into his Family but he would not have his own and Wifes Kingdoms to go into a foreign House That inconvenience seemed terrible unto him and he thought to remedy it by offering only to Maximilian his second Daughter for the Archduke because in all humane probability the marriage of the Infanto of Spain with the Archdutchess could not be barren and though by the greatest mischance imaginable it should happen to be so yet that of the eldest of the Infanta's of Spain designed for Manuel King of Portugal might not be and by consequent if the Succession of Ferdinand and Isabella went out of the House of Arragon it would not go out of Spain which by that means would be almost united into one sole Monarchy His Catholick Majesty then caused a double Alliance to be proposed to the Emperour with this disproportion that his only Son should marry the only Daughter of his Imperial Majesty and that nevertheless the only Son of his Imperial Majesty should marry but the second of his Daughters The Proposition was in it self ridiculous as contrary to the rules of Decency the advantage not being equal to both sides and nothing as yet pressing Maximilian to marry his Children It was nevertheless accepted by an extraordinary disposition of Divine Providence which intended to raise the House of Austria by ways unknown to Maximilian and Ferdinand The Emperour thought he had in that double Alliance with the Catholick King such as we have mentioned it to be a present interest which he could find no where else and which was strong enough to determine him We have already spoken of his eager desire of money and how it could not stay with him He was assured of raising three considerable Sums out of the hereditary Provinces of the House of Austria and of the Low Countries The two first Sums were to be given him as a Present for the Marriages of the Archduke and Archdutchess and the last for the Portion of the said Archdutchess He got all clear to himself without disbursing a Penny seeing in the Affair then in agitation the Portions of the two Archdutchesses went in exchange for one another and that besides he had no charges almost at all to be put to there being but very little Magnificence at that time in the Court of Spain whereas if the Emperour settled his Son and Daughter in any other Family of Europe first he would not find a double Alliance to be made and besides nothing of what the Flemings and Austrians might give would come into his Coffers In the second place the Charges of the Weddings would not be spared and the Emperour could have no pretext to excuse him from it The Subjects of his Imperial Majesty and of the Archduke acted not indeed in so interested a view but a consideration of honour inspired the same thoughts into them The Princess Isabella the eldest of the Infanta's of Spain was married very young to Alphonso the Infanto of Portugal She was not full Eighteen years of age when she was left a Widow but that hindered not the Flemings and those of Austria from looking upon it as a thing undecent that the Archduke Philip who was to be their Sovereign should be content with the leavings of the Infanto of Portugal Besides they knew that the Infanto's Grandfather by the Father's side was a Bastard the Son of a Jewish Concubine and seeing the People of the Lower Germany conspired with those of the Upper not to suffer their Princes to Allie into Families and with Persons that had the least blemish though Maximilian would have desired the eldest Infanta of Spain for his Son his own and his Sons Subjects would have universally opposed it Nor would the Princes of Germany have willingly suffered that he should have brought into the Empire the pernicious example of base Alliances And Maximilian would have cut out work for himself that he could not be able to make an end of So the Proposition of the Catholick King was without difficulty accepted and the two Marriages were concluded There was nothing particular in the Contracts that were made of them except that Chievres had the care of seeing them drawn and the Portion as well as the Dowry of the two Spouses was very moderate The King of France Charles the Eighth complained in vain of the infraction of his Treaty * In the Contracts betwixt Spain and Austria with Ferdinand and the answer which the Spanish Embassadour Ayala made him thereupon seemed to add Railery to the Injury He maintained that his Master the Catholick King was free to dispose of his Son and Daughter and that the Treaty mentioned could not tie his hands because it was contrary to good manners as well as the Law of Nations and seeing it would not be taken ill in Spain that the most Christian King should dispense with such an Obligation if it had been put upon him no more ought his most Christian Majesty think it strange that the Catholick King did the like Both Marriages were compleated much about the same time but they were not alike happy neither in their beginning nor in their consequences It may be observed in the Life of Louis the Eleventh that by the last Treaty of that Prince with Maximilian it was stipulated that the Archdutchess Margarite so soon as she was out of the Cradle should marry the Dauphin of France who was Charles the Eighth That she should bring him in Portion the Counties of Burgundy and Artois and lastly that it should not be in the power neither of the Father of the Princess nor of the Flemings to break their Marriage before she was of age to consummate it and that she should immediately
that Vladislaus should reign peaceably during life and that after his decease the Estates of Hungary and Bohemia should chuse a Prince to succeed him of the House of Austria but that Treaty was filled with so many illegal absurdities that no Lawyer who examined it judged it good in Law. Two foreign Princes in respect of Hungary and Bohemia had attempted by their own private Authority to overturn their fundamental Laws and to abolish their Election to take from the People the liberty of chusing their own Sovereign and to subject them to the Dominion of Austria without asking or receiving their approbation And therefore that Treaty subsisted no longer than the violence that had produced it and the Forces of Maximilian were no sooner dispersed for want of Pay but that the Estates of Hungary and Bohemia being well assured that for a long time he could not raise others protested against the transaction made to their prejudice without being called to it as null King Vladislaus was there discharged of the Oath which he had taken and the two Crowns acted with the same independence as before in regard of the House of Austria The People expected not till Louis the only Son of Vladislaus were of Age to reign to secure him that he should succeed to his Father They received him in reversion for all he was a Child and in that particular violated the custom of their Ancestors though what they had done might be used as a Precedent against their right of Election Affairs were in this posture when Chievres informed the Archduke of his true Interests and he told him that in so dangerous a matter to be stirred it would not be prudence in the House of Austria to pursue any more by way of Arms its pretensions upon Hungary and Bohemia and that it could not do it without occasioning a fearful scandal in Christendom nor without arming all the Neighbouring Powers against it but since Vladislaus had but one Son and one Daughter and that his Son was transported with a rashness of courage that would certainly undo him before he had Children it was extremely important by all means to negotiate and conclude a double Alliance betwixt the Houses of Austria and Hungary by marrying young Ferdinand the Brother of Charles and one of his Sisters with the Prince and Princess of Hungary and Boâ—emia the Children of Vladislaus to the â—nd that Ferdinand or at least his Posteâ—ity might be preserved to the succession â—f the two Growns when they came to be â—oid In fine Chievres obliged not the Archâ—uke to make any particular reflection â—pon Sigismond King of Poland He only told him that that Prince was so closely united with Vladislaus that as the House of Austria was sure to have the one for Enemy if it attacked the other so by a contrary conduct it might have both their friendship The knowledge of the Families whereof Charles was already Master or whereof he was one day to be came immediately after the notices that had been given him of the disposition of Christian Potentates in relation to him and he was particularly informed of the merit and several advantages of illustrious Families He was given to understand that in that distinct knowledge all the Justice which he should render to the great men and Nobility of his Dominions would consist and that thereby he would insinuate himself more into their affection than by any other means that they would not at all value his Liberalities nor the most singular favours that he might heap upon them in respect of the care he took in maintaining the Lords in the several Ranks and Priviledges which they enjoyed by Birth and that in so nice a Point he could hardly commit a fault but which would be irreparable Charles convinced by the force of these reasons learn'd so well and so universally retained the honorary Rights of the Flemish Spanish Italian and German Families that never any action of that nature was brought before him but that he was able to decide it upon the spot without the assistance of any other The speculations we have been speaking of ought to terminate in practice and Chievres had no sooner by them shaped the mind of the Archduke but he put the young Prince upon the practical part of what he had learn'd though he was but as yet in the age when nothing but pastime and recreation is talked of to those of his quality He would have him not only be present in his Council but also that he should be as assiduous in it or more than any of his Counsellours of State. He charged him with the examining of all Petitions of consequence that were addressed to him from the Provinces of the Low Countries and making report of them afterward to his Council and least â—e might not heed the matter with all necessary attention as waiting to deliver his mind concerning it until his Counselours had spoken to the end he might take â—he advantage of their stating the affair and of the reasons they might give to back their opinion His Governour obâ—ged him regularly to speak his Judgment first When any important dispatch came from foreign Countries Chievres made him lay all things aside to read it nay so far as that if he were asleep and that the matter required expedition he awoke him and obliged him to examine it in his presence If the Prince hapned to be mistaken in the manner he understood it or the Judgment he pass'd upon it he was immediately reproved and corrected by his Governour and if he was so happy as to find out at first the knot of the difficulty and the expedient for avoiding it that did not serve his turn seeing he must besides confirm what he had said by good reasons and answer pertinently to the objections which Chievres never failed to make to him When any long Negotiation happened and when a foreign Prince sent an Embassadour into the Low Countries Charles had double fatigue because then his Governour never gave Audience but in his presence did nothing without him and dispatched no business but by him If the Embassadour presented his Propositions in writing Charles had the charge of informing the Council of them and of declaring to them what might be said for or against the matter to the end that they who spake after him might give their opinion upon full knowledge of the Affair and if the Embassadour was satisfied to make his Proposals by word of mouth and that the Affair in agitation was too secret to be entrusted to Paper Charles must remember precisely and distinctly what he heard without forgetting one Syllable otherwise his defect of memory would have been taken notice of in full Council and his negligence censured in the place where it was his greatest ambition to purchase esteem Chievres had a care not to inform the Publick of the matters we have now represented because he would have attracted the indignation of those who were not so
in one and the same Family she had two Lovers that deserved her who offered to take her without putting her Brother to any trouble for a Portion We have taken notice before that Manuel King of Portugal Espoused in first marriage his Nephews Widow eldest Sister to the Mother of the Catholick King by whom he had a Son who if he had lived would have put by the Catholick King from the successions of Castille and Arragon But the Mother dying of her first Child and the Child not surviving her above two years Manuel for his second Wife married the Sister of his former younger than the Catholick Kings Mother by whom he had five Sons and four Daughters She also had left him a Widower at the Age of forty nine years and seeing he was not of the humour to spend the rest of his life in Widowhood he courted for a third Wife the elder Sister of the Catholick King and Niece to his two former Wives But he was rivall'd by his own eldest Son John Infanto of Portugal who pretended to the Infanta Leonora upon better ground as being of the same Age with her So that the Catholick King was to chuse Father or Son which he pleased and Chievres inclined him in favour of the Father by representing to him that if he took the Infanto of Portugal for his Brother-in-law he could draw no assistance from him when he stood in need of it for canvassing for the Empire it being the custom of Portugal that the eldest Sons of the Kings had no more subsistence but their Fathers Table with a small Pension until the Law of Nature and of the State called them to the Crown That in the mean time they ate with their Fathers their Servants of whom they had but a small number were payed with the Kings and that they received for Cloaths and their small pleasures but about a thousand Crowns a month Whereas Manuel being the King of Europe that had most money and having been governed by his two former Wives he would give the third no less dominion over him and would not have the power to refuse her when she should desire him to lend the King her Brother the vast summs of money that he would stand in need of for disposing the more scrupulous Electors to give him their Voices The Catholick King being prevailed upon by that Argument employed Chievres to perswade the Infanta his Sister to prefer the Father before the Son and Chievres for compleating what he had begun had no more to do but to take the Infanta by her weak side which was ambition He represented to her that Manuel Amongst the Pictures of Portugal who had always been reckoned the handsomest Monarch of his Age had not as yet lost any of his personal Charms That few men of his Age matched him in vigour That he had all the signs of a long life and by consequence the Prince of Portugal must wait long before he could come to the Crown That the Princess that should marry him would be in danger of never being Queen whereas she that married his Father would be sure of it the first day The Infanta Leonora was of the Age wherein Maids are only taken with what glisters to their Eyes She considered nothing but the outside of Royalty was charmed with it and fancied that she could not too soon be a Queen So she willingly fell into the snare that Chievres â—aid for her and consented to marry Manuel She was not long left in that inclination without giving her satisfaction for fear she might change her mind and she was Crowned the same day she was married by Proxy though it was still the custom to delay such Ceremonies till the Marriage were in effect consummated The Catholick King being thus discharged of his Brother and elder Sister went merrily into Arragon where he found a fresh the usefulness of the Council that Chievres had given him of removing with all expedition and by all means the Infanto Ferdinand out of Spain The Estates of Arragon assembled at Sarragossa in the Palace of the Archbishop made greater difficulty of acknowledging the Catholick King for their King during the life of the Queen his Mother than the Estates of Castille had done They demanded in the first place that they might be allowed to give their Oath at the same time to the Infanto Ferdinand as presumptive Heir of their Monarchy and it was the more positively refused them that it was seen that they thereby sought a pretext of revolting when they pleased by refusing to put in execution afterwards the Orders of the Catholick King that might in the least seem uneasie to them upon the only account that the concurrence of the Infanto might be wanting to them The Estates solicited that Article with so much zeal as made it visible that they would never have yielded in it had that young Prince been still in Spain And the truth is they yielded not till it was slily insinuated to them that their efforts were so far from recalling the Infanto back into Spain that they would hinder him from ever setting foot there again as it happened The second proposition which they added to the former had no better reception They condescended to acknowledge the Catholick King but they pretended it should be as Guardian and Administrator of the Estates of his Mother during her infirmity and not in quality of King. It was easie to be seen that their design was to Reign amongst themselves during the life of the Queen and the Grandees of Castille who had in honour to the Catholick King waited on him to Sarragossa were so scandalized at it that some of them went to words about it with the Deputies of Arragon and raised quarrels which occasioned bloud-shed But at length Chievres appeased them and the Catholick King was acknowledged for Monarch of Arragon without any other condition but that of confirming the priviledges of the Country as he had been acknowledged in Castille The ceremony of it was performed in the beginning of May one thousand five hundred and eighteen and six weeks after Chievres had much ado to ward the reverse blow of the Infanto's travels into Germany so hard a thing it is in Politicks to give good counsels in one sence which are not bad in another The Infanto Ferdinand being come to the Emperor Maximilian his Grandfather to Vienna in Austria moved him with pity at his misery and affected him with the same sentiments that Ferdinand the Catholick had heretofore had for him His Imperial Majesty resolved to make over to him the Territories which the house of Austria possessed in Germany and to assure to him the Succession to the Empire He needed the consent of the Catholick King for putting in execution the first of these projects but not of the second and that made him delay the one that he might mind the other The Diet was summoned at Ausbourg against the end of the year
received investiture of them that it was not in the power of the Feudatary for any cause or pretext that might be to frustrate his eldest Son or the Male Children of that eldest Son by giving them to his other Children nor to deprive the Paternal Cousins how remote soever of the same in favours of their own Daughters Constant and uninterrupted custom had exactly agreed with these Laws and no instance could be given that they had ever been violated as to that particular in whole or in part It was not so in the Succession which the Archduke expected from the Catholick King and he had more reasons than one to fear that he might be disappointed of it though at first view it appeared to be full as sure as that of the Emperour For in the first place Ferdinand had sufficiently testified his displeasure that his Dominions one day should fall to the House of Austria by omitting nothing that could naturally be done to prevent it He acted not with so much sincerity as the House of Austria in the marriage of his Son (1) John of Arragon Prince of Spain and Daughter (2) Joan of Arragon surnamed the Fool. with the Son (3) Marguerite of Austria and Daughter (4) The Archduke Philip. of the Emperour and whereas Maximilian had given him an only Daughter he had only given to Maximilian for Philip of Austria the second of his four Daughters The Eldest he married in Portugal shewing by so publick a preference that he had rather his Succession should descend upon a Prince whose Grandfather was a Bastard and great Grandmother the Daughter of a Shoomaker Jew than be wanting in circumspection to remove his Son-in-Law the Archduke Philip from the succession to the Crowns of Castile and Arragon His forecast nevertheless was vain and in a very few years the Emperours Sons Wife became Heir apparent of so many Kingdoms Any but the Catholick King would in so sudden a revolution have adored the Order of Divine Providence and wholly submitted to it Nevertheless that Prince opposed it by a longer and more steady obstinacy than that of Jonas in declining to go to Niniveh His Wife was no sooner dead but that he married another in the sole prospect of having a Son by her and because he drew towards fifty years of age and that the disorders of his youth gave him ground at that age to distrust his own vigour he had his recourse to Physick and took Potions that were thought fit to supply that defect In the second place the Catholick King had lusty handsome Bastards and if he preferred them before the Children of his lawful Daughter in succeeding to the Throne he would in that do nothing contrary neither to the Custom of Spain nor the inclination of the Spaniards It was no new thing in that Country the remotest of Europe on the Affrican side to promote Bastards to the Throne in exclusion of lawful Children and Ferdinand himself descended in right Line from Henry the Second who was a Bastard There was besides another instance of that irregularity in his Family For his Uncle Alphonso of Arragon Elder Brother to John of Arragon his Father dying without Children by Testament which in that part was executed frustrated John of Arragon of the Kingdom of Naples and left it to a Bastard whom he had by a Person of quality Educated in that prospect In the third place the Catholick King could not only take from the Archduke Arragon and the Crowns that depended upon it but also he might by the way we shall now treat of hinder him from reigning in Castile and in the Monarchies annexed to it This young Prince drew his Title to Castile from Queen Isabella his Grandmother by the Mothers side and yet that Princess had not inherited it without violence and encroaching upon the most sacred and inviolable Laws of Civil Society Henry the Fourth her Brother King of Castile married the Infanta of Portugal and that Infanta during his marriage with her was brought to bed of a Daughter the most beautiful as they say that ever was born in Spain This Daughter by the Fundamental Laws of the State excluded her Aunt from succeeeding to so many Kingdoms because she was nearest by a degree and represented her Father Nevertheless the Aunt pretended that her Brother was impotent and that the Daughter that was fathered on him was begotten by his Favourite Don Bertram de la Cueva Duke of Albuquerque For that reason or under that pretext she made a great Party and raised a War in Castile But the Party of the Daughter proving the stronger the Aunt had her recourse to Ferdinand and gave her self to him having no other way to engage him to espouse her interest against her Neece Ferdinand having married the Aunt transported all the Forces of Arragon into Castile He overcame them who favoured his Wives Neece and dispossessed her of the Kingdom But was now in a condition to repay the injury which he had done her by recalling her into Castile where he had the Power raising her to the Throne and marrying her to one of his Bastards Upon the Reasons we have been mentioning Chievres made the reflections they deserved He long considered with himself the prejudice that might befal the Archduke by not entertaining an entire correspondence with his maternal Grandfather Nevertheless having put into the balance together the hurt that might redound to that Prince by breaking with France during his minority if he Leagued too strictly with the Catholick King and the injury the Catholick King might do him if he united not so closely with him he found the first alone to weigh far more than all the others put together and by the boldest result of prudence that is to be found in the History of Spain he judged it to be avoided rather than the rest He kept the Archduke in friendship with the French and Germans He thought it enough not to give the Catholick King any cause or pretext to complain of him in particular and in the following Books we shall find that his conduct in that point was as fortunate as it had been judicious The End of the First Book THE HISTORY OF Monsieur De Chievres The Second BOOK CONTAINING The most remarkable Occurrences in the Monarchy of Spain during the years One thousand five hundred and thirteen and One thousand five hundred and fourteen THat we may conceive the motives which induced Chievres to prefer the Paternal Grandfather of Charles of Austria his Pupil before the Maternal and that we may understand the advantages which Charles drew from that preference we must necessarily presuppose that Ferdinand the Catholick King who was the Maternal Grandfather spoken of here bounded not his ambition within Spain after he had entirely driven the Moors from thence by the conquest of the Kingdom of Granada It troubled him to be confined to one of the extemities of Europe without any appearance of
after the signing of the Treaty be delivered into the hands of the Embassadours of France who should carry her to the Court of the most Christian King to be brought up with the Dauphin till both were in a condition to live together The Treaty was fully and faithfully executed and there are some Memoires which mention that not only the Archdutchess was brought up with the Dauphin but that besides the Ceremonies of their Marriage had been solemnized and that there was nothing wanting but the consummation when it was broken off by this accident Maximilian Father to the Princess in second marriage espoused the Heiress of Bretagne by Proxy and thereby rendered himself so much the more formidable to the French that his first marriage with the Heiress of Burgundy had brought the seventeen Provinces of the Low Countries and the Franche-County into his Family They found no other remedy than to oblige Charles the Eighth to prevent him by marrying the Heiress of Bretagne and the Archdutchess was sent home to her Father who married her as hath been already said with the Infanto of Spain The Ceremonies of the Marriage were performed at Ghent in February One thousand four hundred and ninety seven and the Princess embarked immediately after at Flushing on board the Admiral of the Fleet appointed to convoy her to Spain but she was no sooner out at Sea but that she had reason to prognosticate that her Second Marriage was not like to be more fortunate than the First She was tossed in a violent storm which still encreasing surpassed the skill of the Seamen and the experience of the Pilots all were persuaded that they could not avoid being cast away and intimated no less to the Passengers as much by their frighted and ghastly looks as by their discourse The Archdutchess alone seemed unconcerned at the dismal news and feared so much the less to lose her life as she had greater interest than the rest to preserve it Nay in so sad a Juncture she was capable of a gay thought which seemed not suitable to an imagination that ought to have been scared with frightful apprehensions She made a pleasant reflection upon the oddness of her adventures supposing that the like had never hapned in the world and their singularity in her opinion deserved it should be acquainted with them She thought that never any woman was twice married and yet died a Virgin and therefore to inform Posterity of it she took the following course She had the curiosity to make her own Epitaph and in two Verses to express therein what was most remarkable in her Life She had naturally a great disposition to Poetry and so composed a Distich upon the spot Manuscripts relate the words variously though they agree in the sense and it will not be amiss to transcribe them here as they have been found The Spanish Manuscripts thus have hem Cy gît Margot Noble Damoiselle Deux fois mariée morte pucelle And the Flemish Manuscripts Cy gît Margot la gente Damoiselle Qu' eat deux maris si mourat pucelle The sense in English is Here Maig a Noble Lady 's laid Twice married and yet dead a maid It was not enough for the Archdutchess to have composed her own Epitaph if she hindered not the Waters wherein she expected to perish from spoyling the Paper on which it was written and therefore she wrap'd it up in Cerecloath Besides it behoved her to oblige those on the shoar who might find her body and Epitaph where the Sea cast them out to give a burial to the one and cause the other to be engraven and therefore she took out of the Box where her Jewels were the richest Diamond she had and wrap'd it up in the Paper After all care must be taken that that Paper should not be separated from her Body and therefore the Archdutchess tied the Cerecloath wherein the Diamond and Verses were fast about her Arm. In that posture without fear or changing her countenance she expected when the Ship should sink to the bottom but her last hour was not as yet come and the Ship that carried her after it had been long beaten and tossed by the Winds and Sea run a shoar upon the Coast of St. Andrews in Galicia From thence she went by Land to Burgos where the Catholick Kings then had their residence Her marriage with the Infanto of Spain was there celebrated and her big belly which some time after began to appear renewed the joy of the Court but it continued but five or six months for the Infanto fell sick in the City of Salamanca of a distemper whereof he died the four and twentieth of October the same year One thousand four hundred and ninety seven The beginning and progress of his distemper was discreetly concealed from his Wife but the same circumspection was not used at last Instead of disposing her by degrees to receive so strange news and gradually acquainting her with the loss of her young Husband they told her plainly and point blanck that she was a Widow It is not exactly known who it was that was so imprudent as unseasonably to tell her the news because she would never discover it lest the party might have been too severely punished But it is certain that the unhappiness of her second Widowhood brought into her mind * In the Latine Panegyrick of that Princess the injury she received when Charles the Eighth rejected her and that the double grief she felt was so violent that she was brought to bed before her time of a dead Daughter Ferdinand the Catholick King supported the loss of an only Son come to the age of ninteen years three months and six days with a constancy of mind which gave occasion to those who loved him not to suspect him of insensibility He was convinced by long experience that his Queen Isabella had a mind as great as his own and yet he thought she could not without falling down dead hear of the death of their Son if the same fault were committed in acquainting her with it that had caused the untimely Labour of their Daughter-in-law and therefore he provided against it by a way that succeeded He had no other Philosophy but what he had from Nature and the violent grief wherewith he was then afflicted was the first of that kind that ever he had had Nevertheless he thought that though the Catholick Queen were told but by degrees and little and little of the death of the Infanto all the Lenitives that could be used in that case would not hinder the tenderness of a Mother so deeply wounded by so surprising an accident from producing in the body where it lodged an universal revolution which putting the soul out of condition of exerting its chief functions there would force it to be gone and forsake its habitation On the contrary the Catholick King considered that if the same Soul could receive two excessive passions that might succeed one another
married not again Manuel and his Issue who were not next of kin to her would not inherit any thing of hers In the mean time seeing Ferdinand only demanded the Princess of Castile to hinder the House of Austria from settling in Spain If Manuel granted her he would raise a Civil War in Castile the success whereof it was impossible for him to foresee If the Arms of Ferdinand prevailed there his Majesty of Portugal would not be the better for it since his Father-in-law was neither liberal nor grateful but if Ferdinand succumbed Portugal would immediately after have upon its back besides the Forces of Castile those of Germany and the Low Countries which he would be the less able to resist that there was no communication betwixt the Kingdoms of Portugal and those of Arragon to receive Succours from thence So that the Princess of Castile was fairly * In the Manual of Osorio denied to Ferdinand who not being able to carry her despaired of having her for Wife At the same time he lost all hopes of getting the Kingdoms of Castile from the House of Austria but despaired not of excluding it from his own Succession and that he might compass that he chose rather to court the Neece of his greatest Enemy than to remain a Widower John de Foix Vicecount of Narbonne married Mary Magdalen of Orleans Sister to Louis the Twelfth King of France by whom he had two Children the incomparable Gaston de Foix who was afterward killed at the Battel of Ravenna and Germana de Foix whom the most Christian King caused to be brought up with his Daughters Ferdinand pitched upon her for his second Wife and seeing he commonly proposed to himself more than one end in his actions he had two in this as you shall see The first was that Germana might one day furnish him with a plausible pretext of usurping Navarre in that the Viscount of Narbonne the Father of that Princess was concerned in that famous case of conscience upon which Theology had always been consulted though the determinations thereof were never acquiesced unto but always decided by the Sword. This is not a proper place of giving instances of it and the business here is only to lay down plainly the matter of fact Gaston de Foix Prince of Bearn had a Son already of his own name Gaston by Leonora of Arragon his Wife at that time when she succeeded to the Crown of Navarre by the death of Charles Prince of Vienne her only Brother and of Isabella her eldest Sister without Children Leonora being settled in the Succession of Navarre was brought to bed of a second Son who was John Viscount of Narbonne John pretended to the Crown of Navarre in exclusion of his elder Brother as being the Son of a Queen and a King whereas his elder Brother was but the Son of a Count and Countess The difference could not be sifted to the bottom because the elder Brother having married Magdalen of France Sister to King Charles the Seventh was put into possession of Navarre and left it to his Children The Viscount left also his Pretensions to Gaston de Foix his Son and to Germana his Daughter Gaston was of so warlike a temper that it was easie to be foreseen that he would be slain and Ferdinand looked upon Germana as a presumptive Heiress that might bring him a Title to the Crown of Navarre which he well knew how to make the best of in time and place convenient The second end that Ferdinand proposed to himself in his marriage with Germana was to strike in with France in a Juncture when possessing no longer the Kingdoms of Castile he was not now strong enough to return what he had usurped upon Louis the Twelfth in Italy In the three views then that we have been mentioning he caused an offer to be made to his most Christian Majesty of treating with him upon two conditions the one that he would give him in Marriage Germana his Neece the next that if Male Children sprung from that Marriage that might live to be in a condition one day to Reign the Kingdom of Naples should belong to them with the consent of France which in that case should yield to them all the claim it had to it but if the Marriage were barren or at least as to Male Children capable of reigning that then the Kingdom of Naples should return to the Monarchy of France in exclusion of the Daughters of Ferdinand's first marriage and of their Posterity Louis accepted the offer of Ferdinand because he only considered it on the side it was advantageous to him His most Christian Majesty had been unfortunate in the Wars of Naples he had lost three great Armies there his Treasures were exhausted by the prodigious charges he had been at and his most courteous disposition hindered him from oppressing the People as must needs have been done to continue that War. The occasion that presented for recovering the Kingdom of Naples was favourable He had the greater reason to embrace it that it would not cost him one drop of bloud and though it was not altogether certain that it would succeed yet there was but little wanting to make it infallible The truth was Ferdinand was not old but his former incontinence had so weakened him that his Physicians durst not hope for any more Children from him He had entertained frequent and long correspondences with the Countess of Eboly by whom he had had the Archbishop of Sarragossa Alphonso d' Arragon and a Daughter married to Bernardin de Valesco Constable of Castile with the Lady Tole de Bibao by whom he had had a Daughter that was a Nun in the Monastery of Madrigal and with a Portuguese Lady of the House of Perreira by whom he had another Daughter that was a Nun as well as the former * In the Book of Mayerne It was to be presumed that that amorous inclination seconded by the plumpness and vigour of Germana would quickly send Ferdinand into the other world and that by consequent France would not long expect to enter again into the Kingdom of Naples In fine the interests of Arragon were for ever or at least for some time divided from those of Castile and France found its advantage in both these Junctures though it would have found it far more in the first than in the second The Marriage of Ferdinand and Germana was no sooner consummated but that Prince made a project of securing himself entirely in the possession of the Kingdom of Naples upon pretext of being in a better condition of fulfilling the Treaty which he had concluded with Louis the Twelfth That Crown had been partly conquered and partly usurped by the Castillians which gave them occasion to pretend that it was annexed to their Monarchy and not to that of Arragon The great Captain Gonsalvo de Cordova had not expelled King Frederick and the French from thence and seeing he was born a Subject of
Grand-daughter the distemper of mind wherewith she had been afflicted without any blemish to the Conduit that conveyed it and by what frekishness of nature it happened that Isabella of Portugal in the time of her greatest extravagance was brought to bed of Isabella of Castile one of the wisest Queens that ever was that amongst the Daughters of Isabella of Castile the second only was subject to the distemper of her Grandmother and that that distemper stopt so precisely at that second Daughter that neither the two Sons and sour Daughters which she left nor the numerous Posterity since descended from them have shewn the least sign of it unless it be her great Grandson the Prince Don Carlos We shall only observe here that the Queen Widow of Castile religiously kept the body of her Husband so long as corruption hindred her not from kissing it and with much ado she suffered it afterward to be imbalmed and to be put into a Leaden Coffin but instead of sending it into the Church appointed for his burial she kept it by her and carried it about a long time all over Spain as if her Frenzy had moved her to verifie one of the oddest Prophesies that ever was It hath been already said that the King her Husband was one of the handsomest men of his Age and it is very well known that Princes in whom that perfection sets off the lustre of their virtues delight commonly to shew themselves Philip of Anstria was no sooner peaceable King of Castile by the accommodation that he made with his Father-in-law which we mentioned before that he went to see all the Towns and places any way considerable of his new Dominion He joyfully received the acclamations of the People but an old woman having stedfastly beheld him thought it not enough as the rest of the Spanish women to bloss the Womb of Mary of Burgundy that had born him but she farther added that it was to no purpose for him to travel over Castile in his life time for that he should travel it much more and longer after his death Which was punctually fulfilled No less extraordinary was the garb that the poor Queen put her self into for conducting from City to City and from Town to Town her Husbands body She was cloathed in plain ordinary Mourning her head muffled up in a kind of Capuchins hood her Sleeves covering her hands and a black Veil much like to that of Nuns save only that it was much thicker hindered her no less from seeing than from being seen She continued to wander up and down Spain till the King her Son shut her up in the Castle of Tordefillas under the care of the wise Don Ferrier of Valanca Tordefillas was a pleasant and delightful place and besides nothing was omitted that might serve to dispel the melancholy of the Queen Nevertheless she persisted obstinately in leading the most pitiful and wretched life that can be found in the Histories of Princesses of these latter Ages She chose the least darkest lowest and most incommodious Chamber of the Castle there to abide day and night There she lay upon the ground and it was after much importunity that she suffered them to lay a board under her covered with a Carpet She never warmed her self by a fire in Winter and would not be thicker cloathed in the coldest weather than she was in Summer She continued frequently three days and three nights without eating or drinking and when they spake to her of taking any diversion her constant answer was that it was unseemly for a Widow and upon that account alone would not She charged them not to bring her her Victuals but in Earthen dishes and when a great many dishes of that sort full of meat were brought to her she would not suffer them to be carried away before she had touched them Nor could she endure either to be made clean or to have her Chamber kept neat So that the meat corrupted there and sent out a smell that none but her self could endure She had no intervals in her distemper but when her Father the Catholick King was with her The truth is in his presence and so long as he was there she committed no irregularity but in exchange the notion that she retained of the respect she ought to have for him to whom she owed her being was so strong that being neither corrected nor moderated by reason it degenerated into a kind of insensibility that rendred her immovable like a Statue and took from her the use of her tongue At other times she was mightily prepossessed with an opinion of the injustice that was done her in detaining her Prisoner and the head-strong conceit she had of Grandeur suffered her not to forget that she was Queen of Castile by her own right When she was in her senses and during the life of her Husband she had suffered him to Reign nay and to Reign alone and she took no exceptions at all that he gave her no share in the Government Nevertheless she became excessively jealous of her Authority when she was no more in a condition of exerting it Night and day she made her complaints to Heaven and Earth of the inhumanity of those who confined her to Tordesillas She compared her self with her Mother and thought at least that she had as much prudence as she had for governing She knew that Ferdinand her Father had heretofore attempted to take upon himself alone the administration of Castile That Queen Isabella had opposed it That she had demanded Justice from the States and that by them she had been solemnly maintained in the possession of her right from whence Queen Jane concluded that since she was no less Queen of Castile than her Mother had been she ought upon stronger grounds to exert the Functions of Government by reason of her Widowhood so true it is that though the desire of independence be the first inclination that takes possession of the heart of man yet it is not the last that abandons it The Castilians so soon deprived of their new King and discouraged by the extravagance of their Queen were forced to have their recourse to Ferdinand There were some amongst them who made some difficulty of resolving upon that but it ceased when they who knew Ferdinand best told them that the joy which that Prince would conceive in recovering the administration of Castile would be so great and that the need he stood in of the Forces of that Monarchy for securing his Dominion in Naples was so urgent that though he might resent most deeply the sleight put upon him by the Castilians in preferring his Son-in-law before him yet not only he would shew no outward marks thereof but would also for the future more cautiously manage that People For then he would be apprehensive through his own experience that as they had once already shaken off his yoke when they found it too heavy so they might again shake it off with so much the
of Oran the Capital of a Kingdom to which it gave the name was afterwards attacked and taken by storm Bugy where the University of the Moors was and the only place known in Affrica where they went to learn the little of Arts and Sciences which they have was as easily conquered The occasion that Ximenes had of seizing it deserves to be known were it for no other reason but to convince us that if Christians took as much care to be informed of the affairs of Infidels as Infidels take to learn what news happen amongst Christians we should get more by it than they and find a a great many favourable occasions which are lost for want of that application The Uncle of the King of Bugy by the Father a few days before the Spaniards drew near that Kingdom thought it not enough to dethrone his Nephew but also put out his eye-sight with a hot Iron that thereby he might render him incapable of reigning and prevent according to the Custom of the Country the designs of those who pretended afterward to re-establish him upon the Throne during the life of the Usurper or immediately after his death Ximenes accidentally was informed of so barbarous an action and presently resolved to make his advantage of it He sent word to the friends of the dispossessed King that he would exemplarily revenge the injury that was done if they would act in concert with him and there needed no more to raise in the Kingdom of Bugy a second revolution as great as the former The Party that was worsted took courage again and quickly setled secret correspondences with the Spaniards who they thought had offered themselves to them out of a principle of generosity They took so just measures with them that they facilitated the taking of places that were capable to hinder them from approaching the Capital City and then brought them into Bugy by means that were kept so secret after the execution of them that the Spanish Historians disagree about the manner This is certain that an accident supervened which was so much the more favourable to the Spaniards for winning that other Crown of Barbary that not being so skilful in medicine as they had been in the time of Averroes and Avienne they took it for a miracle The red-hot Iron that had been made use of to blind the King by holding it near his eyes a quarter of an hour had indeed deprived him of sight but had not wholly dried up the humours whether it was that the Ministers of the Usurpers cruelty had taken it out of the fire before it was hot enough for the intended operation or that it was not put near enough his eyes and held there a sufficient time for drying entirely up the humidity which serves to the functions of sight The Spanish Chirurgions perceived it and undertook to cure the Moorish King. The cure was long and difficult but at length it succeeded and was look'd upon as well by him upon whom it was wrought as by his Subjects as an evident mark that it was the purpose of heaven that they should be Tributaries to the Spaniards The Corsairs of Algiers In the relation of that Conquest who till then had with impunity destroyed the Christian Fleets and spoil'd the Commerce of Europe in Africa followed the example of those of Bugy and submitted to the payment of the same tribute In a word the Spaniards by an excess of good fortune which they have not had since in their Wars against the Barbarians made themselves Masters of the Kingdom of Tripoli and Ximenes returned to his Church of Toledo with so much glory and booty that Ferdinand durst think no more of molesting him In this manner the Archduke Charles reaped so much advantage from the quarrel of that Prelate and his Maternal Grandfather that three illustrious Kingdoms and a more famous Republick were thereby subjected to him and shortly after in the year One thousand five hundred and twelve the same good fortune brought under his Dominion the Kingdom of Navarre when neither he himself nor his Governour Chievres had any hand in it That Monarchy had often fallen to Daughters and by consequent had successively passed into several Families By that way it was transferred from the ancient House of Navarre to that of Leon from the House of Leon to that of Castile from the House of Castile to that of Champagne from the House of Champagne to that of France from the House of France to that of Evreux from the House of Evreux to the House of Arragon and from the House of Arragon to that of Foix-Grailly Gaston de Foix married Eleanor Queen of Navarre second Sister to the Father of Ferdinand the Catholick King by whom he had twelve Children of both Sexes The eldest Son died at two and twenty years of age he left a Son and a Daughter whom he had of Magdalen the youngest Daughter of Charles the Seventh The Son named Francis Phoebus reigned not long in Navarre and died before he was married The Daughter named Catharine became thereby the richest Heiress of Europe She remained under the Guardianship of her Mother who would never hear of marrying again though she was a Widow at the age of seventeen years There were but few Princes in Europe that courted not the Alliance of the young Queen of Navarre and the most considerable Husband that was proposed to her was the Insanto of Spain John the Son of Ferdinand who was much of the same age with her That Prince was the only Son of Ferdinand and Isabella and if he had married Catharine all the Monarchies of Spain had been reunited except that of Portugal Ferdinand and Isabella designed that chiefly by the Match But Magdalen of France had not so great an aversion to the House she was come of as to contribute to the raising in Spain a Power almost equal to that of France She absolutely refused her Daughter to the Prince of Spain but for all that she had not so much kindness for the House of France as to marry her Daughter into it as she had not so much affection for her Daughter as to marry her into a Sovereign Family She gave her to John Son of Alan d' Albert a powerful Lord indeed in Gascony but who possessed not a foot of Land but what held of the Kings of France in quality of Dukes of Guyenne Irregularities in Politicks are of more dangerous consequence than others and it is rare to be found in History that Queens of themselves have married Husbands inferiour to them in quality without having great occasions of repenting it John d' Albert seemed born to verisie the old Proverb That the best men are not always the best Kings He had all the qualities that could accomplish a private man but he wanted those which distinguish Sovereigns from those that are not and were not cut out for being so He delighted only in study and minded nothing by his good
time to examine the question whether he ought in conscience any longer to keep the places they treated about John d' Albert who was not a man to make use of the occasion of constraining him to it and who besides was not moved with the money which he saw not in ready Cash returned to Navarre and the Constable accompanied him thither whether it was that he knew him so well as to confide in him or that the love of his Country at that time prevailed with him over all other considerations of policy and convenience It is not known neither if that frankness stifled all the remains of aversion that John d' Albert might still conceive against the Constable or if that which is said of his Majesty of Navarre was true that he easily forgot injuries received when he was persuaded that those who had done them remembred them no more but it is certain that after his return into Navarre he lived in so good a correspondence with the Constable that he passed from one extremity to the other and that whereas till then he had been of the Faction of Grammont he entered into that of Beaumont which thereby recovered fresh strength The Queen his Wife detesting his inconstancy continued firm in the Party of Grammont but that made nothing the more for her interest seeing the Nobility of Navarre seeing the Royal Family divided took Parties also and the People thereby conceived a greater contempt of John d' Albert than they had had for the excess of his familiarity It is said that Caesar Borgia Duke of Valentinois Bastard Son of Pope Alexander the Sixth who had Towards the end of the Life of Valentinois married the Sister of John d' Albert having made his escape out of Ferdinands Prisons came at time into Navarre and made an accommodation betwixt his Brother-in-law and the Queen That he convinced John d' Albert that he had done wrong in abandoning the Faction of Grammont and engaged him in it again but if that be so the Duke found the less resistance in it that an unexpected accident wrought in that particular all that he could have promised himself from his Eloquence John d' Albert sent an Officer to the Constable with an Order from his Majesty and the Constable pretending that the Officer in the discharge of his Commission had not shewn him the respect which was due to the chief Commander of the Armies caused him to be cudgelled and detained Prisoner The action in it self was insupportable Nevertheless it is probable John d' Albert would have slighted the affront done him in the person of his Officer or at least that he would not have driven his resentment so far as it went if the Duke of Valentinois whose Crimes God Almighty would no longer bear with had not offered to chastise the insolence of the Constable and had not obtained permission to do so John d' Albert granted it more out of importunity than the desire of revenge and the Duke laid siege to the Castle of Viane which held for the Faction of Beaumont The Constable being resolved to raise it cost what it would advanced with his Forces within view of the Besiegers and the Duke before he had resolved whether he should go out to meet him or expect him within his Lines went out to view them He met with three Troopers who killed him and John d' Albert being informed of his death changed all of a sudden his inclination He hastened to his Army gave no quarter to those of Beaumont took their Towns and Castles hanged up or put to the Sword those that defended them burnt their Farm and Country houses destroyed their Woods and his anger transported him so far that in the Town of Lerin which he took by storm he ruined the stately burying-place of the Constables Ancestors The Forces of Ferdinand came so late to the assistance of those of Beaumont that the Constable after his overthrow found them in their march upon the rode as he fled to Arragon Seeing they were not strong enough to buoy up a forlorn cause he sent them back and confined himself with his Wife within the Town of Aranda where some months after both died of grief Louis of Beaumont their eldest Son went to the Court of Ferdinand to sollicite an assistance capable to restore him to the rights of his Family but he prevailed not until the year One thousand five hundred and twelve when a favourable Juncture of usurping Navarre was offered to Ferdinand The hatred which Pope Julius the Second bore against the French was grown to such a heighth that being neither able to endure them in Italy nor yet to drive them thence any other way than by the Arms of Ferdinand In the last Treaty of Julius the Second with Ferdinand his Holiness acquainted him that he might expect any thing from him provided he would enter into a League with the holy See against Louis the Twelfth of France Ferdinand made answer that he would consent to it on condition the Pope caused a secret Bull of Excommunication to be expeded against John d' Albert and his Queen as favourers of Louis the Twelfth the declared enemy of the Church and that his Holiness sent it to his Catholick Majesty to be made use of in time and place as he should judge most convenient The Bull as it is said was expeded and was kept so secret that no man ever saw either the Original or a Copy of it Ferdinand received it or pretended he had and raised a powerful Army the Command whereof he gave to Frederick de Toledo Duke of Alva under pretext of attacking Guyenne on the side of Bayonne whilst Henry the Eighth King of England his Son-in-law should make a descent in that Province at the mouth of the River of Garonne John d' Albert was so little apprehensive of being attacked that he had not so much as raised one Soldier though the Maxims of good Government allowed him not to remain disarmed amidst all his Neighbours in Arms. He suffered the Duke of Alva to advance within Eight Leagues of Pampelona and never took the alarm till the Catholick King having without any difficulty brought all his Forces into the Centre of Navarre and taken just measures with the Constables Son and with the remnant of the Faction of Beaumont sent a Herald to tell the Queen and King of Navarre that the King of France and all his Adherents were Excommunicated for having called and held a Council in the City of Pisa in Tuscany against the holy See. That the Pope had given their Dominions to him who could first possess them and that his Catholick Majesty had confederated with the King of England for his seizing of Guienne which lay equally convenient for both that the English Fleet was to approach thither on the one side at the same time when his Catholick Majesty entered it on the other and that to the end Ferdinand might not fail
man in Spain seemed more remote than himself But at the very instant he intended to take possession of it the Dean opposed it in a manner that would have long perplexed the Ministers if he had not remitted after that it had been represented to him that an Affair of that importance so happily carried on till then would go near to be discomposed by the least resistance on his part However he shew'd them a Commission in ample form from the Archduke for governing in his name the Monarchies of Castile and Arragon in case the King his Grandfather should die and demanded at least that he might be allowed to execute one half of his Commission with the Cardinal seeing the occasion was come and that they would not suffer him to execute it alone But the Cardinal who was not a man to yield replied that it should cost him his life but that the Will of his Catholick Majesty should be fulfilled in its full extent The Council of Spain who knew him well had no hopes of bending him and did not indeed think it convenient to endeavour it They thought it better to apply themselves to the Dean and to tell him that in Spain they were so well satisfied with his great integrity that they could make him Judge in his own cause they were so well assured that he would condemn himself when he should be convinced of the badness of it That they thought it not strange that he who was a Fleming and by consequent born in a Country far distant from Spain was ignorant that Queen Isabella foreseeing the distemper of mind to which her eldest Daughter had some disposition had substituted the Archduke her eldest Son to her upon two conditions first that he should not reign in Castile before he were twenty years of age compleat and secondly that he could not during his Minority trust the administration of that Monarchy in the hands of any stranger whence it was necessarily to be concluded that seeing the Dean was debarred from the Government of Castile by so plain an Exclusion he could not as a man of honour pretend to it They further added that he was no less formally excluded from the administration of Arragon seeing the late Catholick King to whom it belonged as Castile had belonged to the Queen his Wife had left the Government of it to Cardinal Ximenes That if notwithstanding he undertook to make use of his Commission which he brought with him from Flanders he would raise a Civil War in Spain and must answer to God for all the murders and other crimes that might be committed in it as he himself had acknowledged beforehand in his excellent Commentary upon the Master of Sentences where he taught that a man raising troubles in a State when he could hinder them without injury to his Conscience or his Honour was answerable for all the evils that might thereupon ensue We have taken notice before that the Dean was an honest man and that he understood not fully the Trade he medled in He was so charmed with the deference that the Spaniards testified for him in referring to himself an Affair wherein he was a Party and with the honour they did him in citing the Writings which he had heretofore dictated in the University of Louvain and caused afterwards to be Printed that he promised to submit to what the Council of Spain should determine provided an expedient might be found to secure his reputation and might not expose the Commissions of the Archduke to be thought ridiculous The Council of Spain who did not expect that the Dean would condescend so far took him at his word and proposed to him to be satisfied with some share that the Cardinal should give him in the Government The offer was plausible in appearance but in effect was doubly captious For in the first place to share the Regency with a native Spaniard was to make him his Master seeing his Sentiments in the Council of Spain would always prevail over those of a Fleming and in the second place the reputation of the Cardinal so far surpassed that of the Dean that whatever might be his merit yet it was only to foresee that if there were two Regents it would happen in Spain as it commonly happens in the Heavens that the light of a higher Planet wholly obscures that of the lower Star and that the Dean would have no greater share in the Government than if he were not at all associated in it Nevertheless he condescended to the expedient on the terms proposed to him without desiring time to write about it to the Archduke and Chievres and without waiting for the resolution which the Council of Bruxelles might take upon an Affair of that importance And indeed he was the first that repented of his precipitancy because he had no sooner consented that the Cardinal should act joyntly with him in the administration of Affairs than that Prelate left him no more but the name of Regent He dispatched without him all Affairs that concerned not the Sovereign Authority and for the others he did indeed propose them in the Council where the Dean was present and they were exactly enough examined there If the resolution that was taken in Council were equally conform to the mind of the Cardinal and Dean In the Deans complaints to the Archduke it was the better for the Dean whose opinion was then followed But if the Cardinal and Dean were of contrary opinions as it hapned but too often the Dean must comply with the Cardinals opinion and if he did not yet the business still went as the Cardinal decided in it The Dean was then obliged to sign in the second place the Acts that passed against his advice and if he persisted to refuse to set his name to the resolutions which he had disapproved they were for all that put in execution It was to no purpose for him to take exceptions at it his complaints were patiently heard and that was all the satisfaction he had seeing after all there was no more regard had to them than if he had held his peace They shewed him a little more respect in the dispatches that were to be sent to the Low Countries and none were sent thither unless he had signed them but that Society was prejudicial instead of being advantageous to him since most of the Affairs that were treated there were not moulded as the Archdukes Council would have had them That Council instead of imputing all the fault to the Cardinal who alone was concerned in it attributed it to the Dean as thinking him sufficiently authorised to have prevented if he had pleased the Archduke from being importuned with such like dispatches Chievres nevertheless spied in the Cardinals Conduct that it aimed at fixing himself during life in an administration which was only given him during the time of a short minority and at rendering the Archduke contemptible upon his coming to the enjoyment of the two chief Monarchies
enough in her favours to oblige the Spaniards to preserve to her the Monarchies that were fallen to her by the Successions of her Father and Mother and to take it strictly they could not excuse themselves from doing so without committing a great injustice seeing by owning the Archduke for King during the life of his Mother they put him actually in possession of a right which by the consent of all civilized Nations did not belong to him till after the death of that Princess So that neither the factions of the Cardinal nor the reasons of Carvaial were sufficient to render the Archdukes party the stronger The Admiral of Castille and Duke of Alva declared openly that it was not in their power to grant the Archduke what he demanded That twelve years ago upon the death of Queen Isabelle they had received and sworn Allegiance to Jean her eldest Daughter as their only Sovereign That it would be a violation of their Oath to make her eldest Son her Colleague who was not to Reign till after her death and would furnish Historians an ample ground of blackening their memory That the Archduke had gone too far in taking of himself the title of King and that if the Queen recovered her health Nature might very well make peace betwixt them without any necessity of a Foreign mediation or intercession But if the chief men of Castille and Arragon favoured him in that excess of boldness they run the risk of being abandoned by himself and by consequent of being lookt upon as Rebels The Marquess of Villena started a second Opinion more politick than prudent and more proper for avoiding than resolving the difficulty He said that seeing the Archduke did not demand their counsel he thought it not fit that they should give it him nor that they should expose themselves to the inconvenience just before mentioned The first of the two Opinions appeared to be so just and the second so safe that the one or other of them had infallibly prevailed in the Assembly if the Cardinal who foresaw it had not put in practice a piece of boldness that succeeded with him He interrupted the course of Voting and told them that it was not the case in hand to deliberate about a thing to be done but to approve of a matter already done That if the Archduke had done him the honour to have proposed to him the design which he had of taking the title of King he would perhaps have endeavoured to disswade him from it but since he had proceeded in it without communicating any thing of it to the Spaniards their glory and interest were equally concerned not to make a young Prince born to be their Master ridiculous upon his first entry into the World seeing he was bred up in the best dispositions that ever were for enlarging one day the Spanish Monarchy That to oblige him to quit the name and ensigns of Royalty when once he had taken them would draw upon him the contempt of all the Nations of Europe render him the object of their scorn spoil his credit with them as long as he lived and so baulk his courage that he would not dare for the future to undertake any thing either for invading or resisting an Enemy That he Ximenes himself thought it fit to take the Assembly off from committing a mistake by informing them of that most important Truth that in that juncture there was no mean betwixt taking from the Archduke the title of King and declaring him absolutely incapable of Reigning one day in Spain when it came to his turn and that if the Spaniards were so imprudent as to make the first of those two steps in relation to him it would be impossible for them to clear themselves of the second and not to submit hereafter to the rule of a Prince whom they had shamefully degraded Ximenes having spoken in so positive a strain gave not them the time of taking the Votes He sternly commanded Don Pedro Correa his intimate friend whom he had made Corregidor of Madrid To go and proclaim through the Town Queen Jean and Don Carlos her Son joyntly Kings of Castille and Arragon The Corregidor who was one of the Assembly and who apparently had put all things in a readiness for execution of the orders which he had received went out immediately and soon after the solemnity of the Proclamation was heard The Deputies who had not as yet given their Votes seeing that if they spake against what was actually a doing they would instantly occasion a Civil War for which they and their relations must be accountable approved the Cardinals discourse and the Orders that he had given Thus the boldest project that hath happened in the memory of man In the act of Proclamation was brought about with little intrigue and without any opposition and the Bishop of Tortosa gave account of it to the new Catholick King whom hereafter we shall name Charles and to Chievres without robbing Ximenes of the praise he merited by it Both of them were so well satisfied with it that they heartily pardoned that Cardinal for all that had displeased them in his former conduct and all the business in Flanders was the hastening of Charles his voyage into Spain for taking possession of the Kingdoms he now was installed in They foresaw but one impediment to it which concerned the Treaty concluded with France by the ministry of the Count of Nassau It hath been said before that Charles when as yet but Archduke had engaged himself to restore the Kingdoms of Naples and Navarre to the most Christian King and to John d' Albert so soon as the Catholick King his Grandfather were dead The condition was come and the French Ambassador at Bruxelles pressed the accomplishment thereof There was no pretext of delaying the restitution of the two Crowns seeing if Charles did not resolve to do it willingly and frankly to perform his promise Francis the First was in a better condition to force him to it by way of Arms than ever he had been before or perhaps than ever he could be for the future He had at the field of Warignan quelled the insupportable pride of the Swisse and forced that warlike Nation who thought they could domineer over Kings to make peace with him as he himself had desired He had recovered the Dutchy of Milan from Maximilian Sforza He had confirmed himself in that Conquest in the year One Thousand Five Hundred and Sixteen by the utter overthrow of that formidable Army which the Emperor had led in person into the Milanese The Forces of his most Christian Majesty which he had opposed against that Army were still on foot and it would have been easie for him to have taken Flanders by causing them to march thither as soon as Charles were gone In the mean time his Catholick Majesty was not in a condition to ward so dangerous a blow He had no more Soldiers than were necessary for his Convoy
to meet in the City of Compostella in Galicia there to hold a Chapter for receiving him in quality of Great Master conform to the Bulls sent him from the Pope The chief Commanders were his Kinsmen or Allies and besides it was so much their interest that the Great Mastery should be cut off from the Crown that they made no scruple to obey him seeing in that case there was none of them who might not hope to be raised to it either by merit or faction whereas they must all be frustrated if it continued united to the Crown However the Assembly could not be kept so secret but that the Cardinal had notice of it and since there was a necessity of carrying high to chastize the attempt of Porto Carero or not at all to meddle in it he sent the Alcaide Villafanno with Forces to put a stop to the Chapter by fair means or foul The Commanders who were not prepared to fight separated so soon as the Alcaide had signified to them the Orders of the Cardinal and pretended to submit willingly to the Authority which they would not have regarded if it had been unarmed The Cardinal having sent them back to their several Commanderies caused them to be so narrowly observed there that it was impossible for them afterwards to meet again till the new Catholick King had obtained from the Pope the three great Masteries as vacant by the death of his Grandfather But the counter-blows in Politicks are sometimes more dangerous than the blows The Nobility of Castille took it ill that the Cardinal had so imperiously dispersed the Assembly of Galicia and accused him for having in that particular usurped a power which was not given him neither by the Testament of the late King nor by the Laws of the Monarchy whereof he was the Regent The Grandees made it a point of honour not to suffer the continuance of a procedure so unsuitable to a Priest and Monk and took the first occasion that they found to shake off a yoke which they called Tyrannical The occasion was this It had come into Ximenes his mind at an unseasonable time to endeavour the reformation of three abuses which in all likelihood ought to have been born with in the absence of the Sovereign if the Maxims of common Politicks had been followed The first was of some Officers of Court who by favour had obtained an augmentation of their Salaries the second of Pensions granted to Courtiers of Castille and Arragon who were known not to be deserving or not to have merited them by honest courses and the third consisted in recovering Crown Lands that had been alienated upon occasion of the Conquests of Grenada Naples and Navarre Before Ximenes put his design in execution he had demanded the advice of Chievres who counselled him to stay till the Catholick King were come into Castille But whether it was that he thought himself strong enough to bring about so bold a project without the assistance of his Master or that he imagined Chievres envied him the glory which he might thereby obtain he went on still with his work He moderated at first with pretty good success the new augmentations of Salaries and the Grandees of Spain were very well pleased with the reduction of Wages to the Ancient standard because on the one hand the high Nobility had hardly any concern in that and on the other those who were prejudiced by the Cardinals regulation were satisfied to repine at it in secret The retrenching of Pensions caused him more trouble by reason that the murmuring was more universal and more publick But the recovery of the Crown Lands reached too high not to meet with terrible impediments at the very first step It was pretended that the Catholick King must not only enter again into the Lands sold at an under-rate or given in gratuities but also into those which the detainers could not make out to have been alienated by good Contracts and for lawful causes There were but few Lords of the high Nobility who possessed not some of this nature and if they had no favour shew'd them it was almost certain they would be excited to a Revolt Nevertheless they were summoned as well as others and a shortenough time assigned them for making good their Titles The indignation that this wrought in them gave occasion to Pedro Giron eldest Son to the Count of Vregna to think that the time was now come for recovering the Dutchy of Medina Sidonia which he had been turned out of For understanding this Affair which raised all Spain almost we must know that Don Juan de Gusman Duke of Medina Sidonia Espoused in first marriage the eldest Daughter of the Duke of Bejar by whom he had a Son called Henry and a Daughter named Mentia Henry was importent and Mentia married to the Count of Vregna had by him Pedro Giron The Duke of Medina Sidonia enjoyed not long his first Wife having lost her the third year after their Marriage He was still young and his first alliance had given him often occasion of seeing the second Daughter of the Duke of Bejar his Sister-in-Law He had been extreamly much taken with her and if the inclination that he had for her remained within the bounds of a bare respect so long as he was married to her Sister it degenerated into love so soon as he became a Widower He was without contradiction the richest Lord of Andalusia had lived very well with his former Wife offered to marry her Sister upon the same conditions that is to say without a portion The great men of Spain minded not much at that time the proximity of bloud in their Alliances and the Duke of Bejar had a numerous Family These five considerations moved Bejar to condescend to accept of Medina Sidonia for his Son-in-Law a second time and seeing all ways were taken for obtaining a dispensation from the Holy See in the most favourable Form that then was in fashion In the History of Medina Sidonia it was at length granted Of the second Marriage he had a Son famous in History by the name of Alvaro de Gusman and the Duke his Father bred him up as the next lawful Heir of his vast Estate so soon as the impotency of Henry de Gusman the only Son of his first Bed came to be known Alvaro grew to be so accomplished a Lord that the Catholick King Ferdinand pitched upon him for a Husband to Anne of Arragon lawful Daughter to Alphonso of Arragon his Majestie 's Natural Son But there are few signal Incests amongst Christians which wholly escape unpunished till the other World and God commonly begins in this by dreadful chastisements to shew his aversion to such promiscuous mixtures which he only suffered in the beginning of the World and for the multiplication of Mankind Pedro Giron eldest Son of Mentia Daughter by the first Marriage to the Duke of Medina Sidonia claimed to be sole and universal Heir to his
endeavoured to repair the fault The chief Gentlemen of that party wrote so submissive Letters to John d' Albert that in every line there appeared evident marks of sorrow for what was past and of more than ordinary obedience for the future They conjured him to return into Navarre assured him that assoon as he were over the Pyrenees he should find it all in Arms and ready to encrease his Forces They promised to make him Master at first of one half of the Kingdom and did not think the rest could hold out above two or three months longer But it is not always true that the mutual love of married persons surpasses that of their Country and there may be found in History almost as many Wives who have betrayed their Husbands for the good of their Country as have sacrificed their Country to the welfare of their Husbands The Hereditary Constable of Navarre Son and Successor to him who called the Spaniards into it had gone so far as to resolve in time and place convenient to put himself at the head of a party formed to drive them out of it It consisted of twenty thousand men and which was very strange there was not one Soldier of all that great number who discovered the conspiracy to the Spaniards Had the Constable married a Navarrese woman Navarre would not have been reduced unto a Province to Castille but his project was discovered by the Castillian whom his Father had chosen him for a Wife Pedro Maurique Duke of Nagera had a fair Estate in Castille upon the borders of Navarre The leading men of the Faction of Beaumont could find a refuge there in case they were too much pressed by the party of Grammont or by John d' Albert and the Constables Father had no other view but that in marrying him with Briande Daughter to the Duke of Nagera But that signified nothing to him when he had put Navarre under subjection to Ferdinand the Catholick King and to compleat the misfortune of the young Constable his Son it proved his utter ruine There was a necessity seeing he was to form a revolution in his Country that might repair his Fathers fault by restoring John d' Albert that he must write an insinite number of Letters and receive as many It is not known by what accident but one of them came to his Ladies hands who without deliberating and considering the consequences of what she was about to do carried it to Ferdinand d' Acugua Viceroy of Navarre who in all hast sent it to Ximenes The Cardinal perceiving that the Conspiracy was ready formed and that it would suddenly break out took two extream resolutions very hard to be excused especially in a man of his character He sent into Navarre all the Forces he could draw together under the command of Ferdinand Vilalva the best Officer in War that he knew and gave him orders at first to labour only to disperse the Faction of Beaumont without making the leading men prisoners to the end he might not lose the time which he might more usefully employ in guarding the passage of Roucevaux If he were so successful as to defend it and there to cut in pieces the Army of John d' Albert as the Gascons heretofore had defeated the Rear-guard of Charlemagne he had Orders upon his return only to raze all the strong places of Navarre except Pampelona which he should secure with a good Cittadel that if at any other time the Navarrese might have a mind to revolt against the Kings of Castille they might be diverted from it by the consideration that having no Fortresses they would be opprest by the Spaniards before the French could come to their succour But if he could not upon what occasion soever hinder John d' Albert from passing the Pyrenees he should in all hast march back again and set Fire to all the Towns Castles Burroughs Villages and Country-houses of Navarre to the end that the French finding no subsistance there might return as fast as they came Vilalva obeyed the Cardinal In the Chronicle of Vilalva and yet put in execution but the first of the Orders which he had received because the extraordinary confidence of his adversaries gave him an easier opportunity of overcoming them than he hoped for John d' Albert being come to the foot of the Pyrenees on the side of France divided his Army into three Bodies and gave the first wherein was almost the whole Faction of Grammont and the other Navarrese who chose rather to be banished than to be disloyal to him to be commanded by Don Pedro Peralta Mareschal of Navarre The second which was the main Body was commanded by the Count and Cardinal de Foix the Paternal Uncles of Queen Catherine of Navarre and John d' Albert who by the maxims of Military discipline at that time ought to have been there yet kept in the reserve He made a stop very unseasonably with the Rear to besiege the Fort of St. John when he ought to have followed close the Van and main Body to oblige them by his presence to stand the better upon their guard and the first Body knowing that the Faction of Beaumont was for them and by consequence not expecting to find the passages of the Pyrenees guarded marched with so little circumspection that they fell wholly into the Ambushes that Vilalva had laid for them The Spaniards besetting them on all hands forced them to yield upon discretion having scarcely fought for it Vilalva sent the chief of them with the Mareschal prisoners to Castille where by their own hands or through misery they perished He put the rest to the Sword because there needed more men than he had to guard them and falling immediately after upon the main Body he put it to the rout The fugitives coming to the reserve where John d' Albert was put them into such a consternation that they immediately raised the Siege of the Castle of St. John and retreated into the Principality of Bearn John d' Albert either could not or would not out-live a second misfortune He died for grief at Pau and the Queen his Wife lived but seven months after him Vilalva returning victorious obeyed but too punctually the Orders which he had received from Ximenes in demolishing the strong places of Navarre seeing it cost him his life Only one escaped his fury which was that of Marsilla It belonged to Anne de Velasco Marchioness of Falsez who was there when one of the Commissioners for the demolitions demanded entrance She refused him admittance and gave this reason for it that she would faithfully keep to the young Catholick King Charles the Oath which the late Marquess her Husband had taken to the late King of preserving to him the Castle of Marsilla in the condition he had received it The Constables Lady had so much credit with Ximenes by means of the Duke of Nagera her Brother to whom the Cardinal immediately after gave the Vice-Royalty of Navarre