Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/257

231 HE RESIGNS TO PHILIP. 231 what he was about to do was not of his own free chapter will, but from necessity, to extricate himself from '- — his perilous situation, and shield the country from the impending evils of a civil war. He concluded with asserting, that, so far from relinquishing his claims to the regency, it was his design to enforce them, as well as to rescue his daughter from her captivity, as soon as he was in a condition to do so. ^'^ Finally, he completed this chain of inconsist- encies by addressing a circular letter, dated July 1st, to the different parts of the kingdom, announcing his resignation of the government into the hands of Philip and Joanna, and declaring the act one, which, notwithstanding his own right and power to the contrary, he had previously determined on exe- cuting, so soon as his children should set foot in Spain. ^^ It is not easy to reconcile this monstrous tissue iiismotiv«. of incongruity and dissimulation with any motives of necessity or expediency. Why should he, so soon after preparing to raise the kingdom in his daughter's cause, thus publicly avow her imbecility, and deposit the whole authority in the hands of 50 Zurita, Anales, ubi supra. discriminates between fact and ru- 51 Idem, ubi supra. mor. It is very remarkable, how- Ferdinand's manifesto, as well ever, that Peter Martyr, with ev- as the instrument declaring his ery opportunity for information, as daughter's incapacity, are given at a member of the royal household, length by Zurita. The secret pro- apparently high in the king's con- test rests on the unsupported au- fidence, should have made no allu- thority of the historian ; and surely sion to this secret protest in his a better authority cannot easily be correspondence with Tendilla and found, considering his proximity to Talavera, both attached to the the period, his resources as national royal party, and to whom he ap- historiographer, and the extreme pears to have communicated all caution and candor with which he matters of interest without reserve.