Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/383

359 ALLIANCES AND DEATHS. 359 alted station ; similar, and perhaps more unequivocal chapter evidence of his worth, is afforded bj abundance of '■ — contemporary notices, not merely in works designed for the public, but in private correspondence. The learned Martyr, in particular, whose situation, as prince John's preceptor, afforded him the best op- portunities of observation, is unbounded in com- mendations of his royal pupil, whose extraordinary promise of intellectual and moral excellence had furnished him with the happiest, alas ! delusive auguries, for the future destiny of his country.^'' By the death of John without heirs, the succes- The king I'll • /•■!-» °'"^ queen sion devolved on his eldest sister, the queen of Por- orpwt"g^i ' T visit Spain. tugal.^^ Intelligence, however, was received soon after that event, that the archduke Philip, with the restless ambition which distinguished him in later 27 Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 182. — Garibay, Compendio, torn. ii. lib. 19, cap. 6. — L. Mari- neo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 182. — Blancas, Coronaciones, p. 248. It must be allowed to furnish no mean proof of the excellence of Prince John's heart, that it was not corrupted by the liberal doses of flattery with which his worthy tutor was in the habit of regaling him, from time to time. Take the beginning of one of Martyr's letters to his pupil, in the following mod- est strain. " Mirande in pueritia senex, salve. Quotquot tecum ver- santur homines, sive genere pol- leant, sive ad obsequium fortunes humiliores destinati ministri, te laudani, extollunt, admirantur." Opus Epist., epist. 98. ^ Hopes were entertained of a male heir at the time of John's death, as his widow was left preg- nant ; but these were frustrated by her being delivered of a still-born infant at the end of a few months. Margaret did not coiitinue long in Spain. She experienced the most affectionate treatment from the king and queen, who made her an ex- tremely liberal provision. (Zurita, Hist, del Rey Hernando, tom. v. lib. 3, cap. 4.) But her Flemish followers could not reconcile them- selves to the reserve and burden- some ceremonial of the Castilian court, so different from the free and jocund life to which they had been accustomed at home ; and they pre- vailed on their mistress to return to her native land in the course of the year 1499. She was subsequently married to the duke of Savoy, who died without issue in less than three years, and Margaret passed the remainder of her life in widow- hood, being appointed by her fa- ther, the emperor, to the govern- ment of the Netherlands, which she administered with ability. She died in 1530.