Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/269

125 DEATH OF HENRY IV. 126 IV. Guienne, the destined spouse of her rival Joanna, chapter 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.'^ Subsequent negotiations for her marriage with two othfer 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 extra- ordinary proceeding, were sufficient to deter any one from a connexion, which must involve the party in all the disasters of a civil war.^^ 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 li- cense which disgraced that of Henry and his con- sort. Thinking men were led to conclude that the sagacious administration of Isabella must eventu- ally 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 17 Louis XI. is supposed with cousin of Ferdinand, and the king much probability to have assassi- of Portugal. The former, on his nated this brother. M. de Barante entrance into Castile, assumed sums up his examination of the such sovereign state, (giving his evidence with this remark. " Le hand, for instance, to the grandees roi Louis XL ne fit peut-etre pas to kiss,) as disgusted these haugh- mourir son frere, mais personne ty nobles, and was eventually the ne pensa qu'il en fut incapable." occasion of breaking off his match. Hist, des Dues de Bourgogne, Alonso de Palencia, Coronica, torn. ix. p. 433. MS., part. 2, cap. 62. — Faria 18 The two princes alluded to y Sousa, Europa Portuguesa, torn, were the duke of Segorbe, a ii. p. 392.