Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/197

171 HER CHARACTER. 171 alarmed, petitioned her to provide for the govern- chapter inent of the kingdom after her decease, in case of the absence or incapacity of Joanna.^ She seems to have rallied in some measure after this, but it was onlj to relapse into a state of greater debility, as her spirits sunk under the conviction, which now forced itself on her, of her daughter's settled insanity. Early in the spring; of the followino; year, that Mad conduct J 1 o O J ' of Joanna. unfortunate lady embarked for Flanders, where soon 1504. after her arrival, the inconstancy of her husband, and her own ungovernable sensibilities, occasioned the most scandalous scenes. Philip became openly enamoured of one of the ladies of her suite, and his injured wife, in a paroxysm of jealousy, personally assaulted her fair rival in the palace, and caused the beautiful locks, which had excited the admiration of her fickle husban^, to be shorn from her head. This outrage so affected Philip, that he vented his indignation against Joanna in the coarsest and most unmanly terms, and finally refused to have any fur- ther intercourse with her. - The account of this disgraceful scene reached The queen " seized will) Castile in the month of June. It occasioned the '"'^''"■ deepest chagrin and mortification to the unhappy parents. Ferdinand soon after fell ill of a fever, and the queen was seized with the same disorder, accompanied by more alarming symptoms. Her 1 Mariana, Hist. deEspaHa, torn. lib. 19, cap. 16. — Peter Martyr, ii. lib. 28, cap. 11. — Zuriia, Ana- Opus Epist., epist. 271, 272. — les, torn. v. lib. 5, cap. 84. Gomez, JDe Rebus Gestis, fol.46. — 2 Garibay, Compendio, torn. ii. Carbajal, Anales, MS., ailo 1504.