Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/441

413 I HIS DEATH AND CHARACTER. 413 in the mean while, outraged by these excesses, and chapter XXV. despairing of redress from a higher quarter, loudly clamored for a convocation of cortes, that they might take the matter into their own hands. The cardinal evaded this as long as possible. He was never a friend to popular assemblies, much less in the present inflamed state of public feeling, and in the absence of the sovereign. He was more anx- ious for his return than any other individual, proba- bly, in the kingdom. Braved by the aristocracy at home, thwarted in every favorite measure by the Flemings abroad, with an injured, indignant people to control, and oppressed, moreover, by infirmities and years, even his stern, inflexible spirit could scarcely sustain him under a burden too grievous, in these circumstances, for any subject. ^^ At length the voung monarch, having; made all Treaty of o ./ o ' o Noyon. preliminary arrangements, prepared, though still in opposition to the wishes of his courtiers, to embark for his Spanish dominions. Previously to this, on the 13th of August, 1516, the French and Spanish plenipotentiaries signed a treaty of peace at Noyon. The principal article, stipulated the marriage of Charles to the daughter of Francis the First, who was to cede, as her dowry, the French claims on Naples. The marriage, indeed, never took place. 18 Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., valuerat ; nunc recidivavit. * ** * * epist. 602. — Gomez, De Rebus Breves fore dies illius, medici au- Gestis, fol. 194. — Robles, Vida tumant. Est octogenario major; de Ximenez, cap. 18. ipse regis adventum afFeciu avidis- Martyr, in a letter written just simo desiderare videtur. Sentit before the king's landing, notices sine rege non rite posse corda His- the cardinal's low state of health panorummoderariacregi." Epist. and spirits. " Cardinalis gubernator 598. Matriti febribus aegrotaverat ; con