Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/394

368 CHAPTER XXIV. DEATH OF GONSALVO DE CORDOVA. — ILLNESS AND DEATH OF FERDINAND. — HIS CHARACTER. 1513—1516. Gonsalvo ordered to Italy. — General Enthusiasm. — The King's Dis- trust. — Gonsalvo in Retirement. — Decline of his Health. — His Death, and noble Character. — Ferdinand's Illness. — It increases. — He dies. — His Character. — A Contrast to Isabella. — The Judg- ment of his Contemporaries. PART 11. Maximil- ian's pre- tensions. Notwithstanding the good order which King Ferdinand maintained in Castile by his energetic conduct, as well as by his policy of diverting the effervescing spirits of the nation to foreign enter- prise, he still experienced annoyance from various causes. Among these were Maximilian's preten- sions to the regency, as paternal grandfather of the heir apparent. The emperor, indeed, had more than once threatened to assert his preposterous claims to Castile in person; and, although this Quix- otic monarch, who had been tilting against wind- mills all his life, failed to excite any powerful sen- sation, either by his threats or his promises, it fur- nished a plausible pretext for keeping alive a fac- tion hostile to the interests of the Catholic king.