Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/198

54 54 REIGN OF JOHN II., OF ARAGON. PART I. Crown (if Catalonia offered to Rent of Aii- jou. suspected of defection from the cause, to be pub- licly executed ; it refused moreover to admit an envoy from the Aragonese cortes within the city, and caused the despatches, with which he was in- trusted by that body, to be torn in pieces before his face. The Catalans then proceeded to elect Rene le Bon, as he was styled, of Aiijou, to the vacant throne, brother of one of the original competitors for the crown of Aragon on the demise of Martin ; whose cognomen of " Good " is indicative of a sway far more salutary to his subjects than the more coveted and imposing title of Great.^^ This titular sovereign of half a dozen empires, in which he did not actually possess a rood of land, was too far advanced in years to assume this perilous enter- prise himself; and he accordingly intrusted it to his son John, duke of Calabria and Lorraine, who, in his romantic expeditions in southern Italy, had acquired a reputation for courtesy and knightly prowess, inferior to none other of his time. ^* 43 Sir Walter Scott, in his ' ' Anne of Geierstein," lias brought into full relief the ridiculous side of Rent's character. Tlie good king's fondness for poetry and the arts, however, although showing itself occasionally in puerile eccen- tricities, m:iy compare advanta- geously with the coarse appetites and mischievous activity of most of the contemporary princes. After all, the best tribute to his worth was the earnest attachment of his people. His biography has been well and diligently compiled hytho viscount of Villencuve Bargemont, (Histoire de Ren<^ d'Anjou, Paris, 1825,) who has, however, indulged in greater detail than was perhaps to have been desired by Ren6, or his readers. 44 Comines says of him, "A tous alarmes c'estoit le premier homme arm^, et de toutes pieces, et son cheval tousjours bard6. II portoit un habillement que ccs con- ducteurs portent en Italic, et sem- bloit bien prince et chef de guerre ; et y avoit d'obdissance autant que monseigneur de Charolois, et luy ob^issoit tout Tost de meilleur cceur, car a la v^rite il estoit digne d'estre honor*^." Philippe de Comines, ll(?moircs, apud Petitot ; (Paris, 1826,) liv. 1, chap. 11.