Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/360

216 2] 6 ADMINISTRATION OF CASTILE. PART quently of violent collision. The monarchs, who '. had anciently reserved the right of testifying their approbation of an election, by presenting the stand- ard of the order to the new dignitary, began per- sonally to interfere in the deliberations of the chap- ter. While the pope, to whom a contested point was not unfrequently referred, assumed at length the prerogative of granting the masterships in ad- ministration on a vacancy, and even that of nomin- ation itself, which, if disputed, he enforced by his spiritual thunders. ^° Owing to these circumstances, there was prob- ably no one cause, among the many which occurred in Castile during the fifteenth century, more pro- lific of intestine discord, than the election to these posts, far too important to be intrusted to any sub- ject, and the succession to which was sure to be crand-inas contcstcd bv B host of compctitors. Isabella seems Icrbhip.s an- •' ^ crown.'" "** to have settled in her mind the course of policy to be adopted in this matter, at a very early period of her reign. On occasion of a vacancy in the grand- mastership of St. James, by the death of the in- cumbent, in 1476, she made a rapid journey on horseback, her usual mode of travelling, from Valla- dolid to the town of Ucles, where a chapter of the order was deliberating on the election of a new principal. The queen, presenting herself be- 40 Rades y Andrada, Las Tres sas Memorables, fol. 33. — Gari- Ordcnes, part. 1, fol. 12-15, 43, bay, Compendio, lib. II, cap. 13. 54, 61, 64, 66, 67; pari. 2, fol. — "Zurita, Anales, torn. v. lib. 1, 11,51; part. 3, fol. 42, 49, 50. cap. 19. — Oviedo, Quincuagenas, — Caro dc Torres, Ordcncs Mi- MS., bat. 1, quinc. 2, dial. 1. lilares, passim. — L. Marineo, Co-