Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/225

199 HER CHARACTER. 199 over her illustrious namesake, Elizabeth of Eng- chapter XVI land/^ whose history presents some features parallel ^' - to her own. Both were disciplined in early life by the teachings of that stern nurse of wisdom, adver- sity. Both were made to experience the deepest humiliation at the hands of their nearest relative, who should have cherished and protected them. Both succeeded in establishing themselves on the throne after the most precarious vicissitudes. Each conducted her kingdom, through a long and trium- phant reign, to a height of glory, which it had never before reached. Both lived to see the vanity of all earthly grandeur, and to fall the victims of an in- consolable melancholy ; and both left behind an illustrious name, unrivalled in the subsequent annals of their country. But, with these few circumstances of their his- tory, the resemblance ceases. Their characters afford scarcely a point of contact. Elizabeth, in- heriting a large share of the bold and bluff King Harry's temperament, was haughty, arrogant, coarse, and irascible ; while with these fiercer qualities she mingled deep dissimulation and strange irresolution. Isabella, on the other hand, tempered the dignity of royal station with the most bland and courteous manners. Once resolved, she was constant in her purposes, and her conduct in public and private life was characterized by candor and integrity. Both may be said to have shown that magnanimity, would attend anotherof these spec- 66 Isabel, the name of the Cath- tacles until this piecantion had been olic queen, is correctly rendered adopted. Oviedo, Quincuagenas, into English by that of Elizabeth. MS.