Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/223

79 MARRIAGE OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA. 79 sovereign. Every man was compelled to choose chapter his side in this strange division of the kingdom. '■ — "^ _ Division ol Henry received intelligence of the defection, sue- !'""*«'*• cessively, of the capital cities of Burgos, Toledo, Cordova, Seville, together with a large part of the southern provinces, where lay the estates of some of the most powerful partisans of the opposite fac- tion. The unfortunate monarch, thus deserted by his subjects, abandoned himself to despair, and ex- pressed the extremity of his anguish in the strong language of Job: "Naked came I from my mother's womb, and naked must I go down to the earth ! " ^^ A large, probably the larger part of the nation, however, disapproved of the tumultuous proceed- ings of the confederates. However much they contemned the person of the monarch, they were not prepared to see the royal authority thus openly degraded. They indulged, too, some compassion for a prince, whose political vices, at least, were imputable to mental incapacity, and to evil counsel- lors, rather than to any natural turpitude of heart. Among the nobles who adhered to him, the most conspicuous were " the good count of Haro," and the powerful family of Mendoza, the worthy scions of an illustrious stock. The estates of the marquis of Santillana, the head of this house, lay chiefly in the Asturias, and gave him a considerable influence in the northern provinces, ^^ the majority of whose 18 Alonso de Palencia, Coronica, Santillana died in 1458, at the age MS., part. 1, cap. 63, 70. — Cas- of sixty. (Sanchez, Poesias Cas- tillo, Cronica, cap. 75, 76. tellanas, torn. i. p. 23.) The title 19 The celebrated marquis of descended to his eldest son, Diego