Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/61

35 RESOLUTION OF THE SPANIARDS. 35 do as much, when he should be in a situation to chapter assert his claims with success.^ — It was altogether improbable, whatever might be the good faith of the parties, that an arrangement could long subsist, which so rudely rent asunder the members of this ancient monarchy ; or that a thousand points of collision should not arise be- tween rival hosts, lying as it were on their arms within bowshot of each other, and in view of the rich spoil which each regarded as its own. Such grounds for rupture did occur, sooner probably than either party had foreseen, and certainly before the king of Aragon was prepared to meet it. The immediate cause was the extremely loose ^''"^e of •^ rupture. language of the partition treaty, which assumed such a geographical division of the kingdom into four provinces, as did not correspond with any an- cient division, and still less with the modern, by which the number was multiplied to twelve.^ The central portion, comprehending the Capitanate, the Basilicate, and the Principality, became debatable ground between the parties, each of whom insisted 2 Martyr, after noticing the in Apulia, according to the ancient grounds of the partition treaty, division ; Guicciardini according to comments with his usual shrewd- the modern ; and the Spanish his- ness on tiie politic views of the torian Mariana, according to both. Spanish sovereigns. " Facilius The last writer, it may be observed, namque se sperant, earn partem, discusses the matter with equal quam sibi Galli sortiti sunt, habi- learning and candor, and more per- turos aliquando, quam si univer- spicuity than either of the preced- sum regnum occuparint." Opus ing. He admits reasonable grounds Epist., epist. 218. for doubt to which moiety of the 3 The Italian historians, who kingdom the Basilicate and Princi- have investigated the subject with palities should be assigned. Mari- some parade of erudition, treat it so ana. Hist, de Espaila, torn. ii. p. vaguely, as to leave it after all 670. — Guicciardini, Istoria, torn. i. nearly as perplexed as they found lib. 5, pp. 274,275. — Giovio, Vita it. Giovio includes the Capitanate Magni Gonsalvi, lib. 1, pp. 234, 235.