Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/286

262 IL 262 ITALIAN WARS. PART nand and Isabella, who deprecated the scandal it must bring upon the church, and who had little to hope for themselves, in a political view, from the elevation of one of their own subjects even, whose mercenary spirit placed him at the control of the highest bidder. ® The Neapolitan sceptre was swayed bj Ferdi- nand the First, whose father, Alfonso the Fifth, the uncle of Ferdinand of Aragon, had obtained the crown by the adoption of Joanna of Naples, or rather by his own good sword. Alfonso settled his conquest on his illegitimate son Ferdinand, to the prejudice of the rights of Aragon, by whose blood and treasure he had achieved it. Ferdinand's char- acter, the very opposite of his noble father's, was dark, wily, and ferocious. His life was spent in conflict with his great feudal nobility, many of whom supported the pretensions of the Angevin family. But his superior craft enabled him to foil every attempt of his enemies. In effecting this, indeed, he shrunk from no deed of treachery or vio- lence, however atrocious, and in the end had the satisfaction of establishing his authority, undisput- ed, on the fears of his subjects. He was about 8 Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., had assisted at his election, in the epist. 119, 123. — Fleury, His- following unequivocal language, toire Ecclesiastiquc,contin. (Paris, " Sed hoc habeto, princeps illus- 1722,) torn. xxiv. lib. 117, p. 515. trissime, non placuisse meis Regi- — Peter Martyr, whose residence bus pontificatum ad Alcxandrum, and rank at the Spanish court gave (juamvis eorum ditioiiariuni, per- him access to the best sources of venisse. Verentur namque ne illi- information as to the repute in us cupiditas, ne ambitio, ne (qiod which the new pontiff was held gravius) mollities filialis Christia- there, expresses liinisclf ia one of nam religionemin praecepstrahat." his letters to Cardinal Sforza, who Epist. 119.