Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/241

215 HE RESIGNS TO PHILIP. 215 bade him to resign the trust he had voluntarily as- chapter . XVII. sumed into such incompetent hands as those of '— Philip and his counsellors; and partly, no doubt, by natural reluctance to relinquish the authority, which he had enjoyed for so many years. To keep it, he had recourse to an expedient, such as neither friend nor foe could have anticipated. He saw the only chance of maintaining; his pres- proposals '' ^ -"^ for a second ent position lay in detaching France from the in- ""'"'"s^. terests of Philip, and securing her to himself. The great obstacle to this was their conflicting claims on Naples. This he purposed to obviate by propo- sals of marriage to some member of the royal fam- ily, in whose favor these claims, with the consent of King Louis, might be resigned. He according- ly despatched a confidential envoy privately into France, with ample instructions for arranging the preliminaries. This person was Juan de Enguera, a Catalan monk of much repute for his learning, and a member of the royal council. ^^ 2^ Before venturing on this step, his legitimate daughter. See Car- it was currently reported, that Far- bajal. (Anales, MS., aiio 1474,) dinand had offered his hand, though the only authority for this last ru unsuccessfully, to Joanna Beltrane- nior. ja, Isabella's unfortunate competi- Robertson has given an incau- tor for the crown of Castile, who tious credence to the first story, still survived in Portugal. (Zurita, which has brought Dr. Dunham's Anales, tom. vi. lib. 6, cap. 14. — iron flail somewhat unmercifully on iNIariana, Hist, de Espafia, tom. ii. his shoulders again ; yet his easy lib. 28, cap. 13. — et al.) The re- faith in the matter may find some port originated, doubtless, in the palliation, at least sufficient to malice of the Castilian nobles, who screen him from the charge of wil- wished in this way to discredit the ful misstatement, in the fact, that king still more with the people. It Clemencin, a native historian, and received, perhaps, some degree of a most patient and fair inquirer af- credit from a silly story, in circu- ter truth, has come to the same lation, of a testament of Henry IV. conclusion. (Mem. de la Acad, de having lately come into Ferdinand's Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 19.) Both possession, avowing Joanna to be writers rely on the authority of