Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/91

65 VICTORY OF CERIGNOLA. 65 were completely successful, however ; and Philip chapter and Joanna, having ascertained the favorable dispo- ._J sition of cortes, made their entrance in great state into the ancient city of Saragossa, in the month of October. On the 27th, having first made oath be- fore the Justice, to observe the laws and liberties of the realm, Joanna as future queen proprietor, and Philip as her husband, were solemnly recognised by the four arms of Aragon as successors to the crown, in default of male issue of King Ferdinand. The circumstance is memorable, as affording the first ex- ample of the parliamentary recognition of a female heir apparent in Aragonese history.^ Amidst all the honors so liberally lavished on Philip, his bosom secretly swelled with discontent, fomented still further by his followers, who pressed him to hasten his return to Flanders, where the free and social manners of the people were much more congenial to their tastes, than the reserve and state- Philip's dis- content. suggests no explanation of the af- fair, (Coronaciones, lib. 3, cap. 20, and Comraentarii, pp. 274, 511,) and Zurita quietly dismisses it with the remark, that " there was some opposition raised, but the king had managed it so discreetly beforehand, that there was not the same diffi- culty as formerly." (Hist, del Rey Hernando, torn. i. lib. 5, cap. 5.) It is curious to see with what ef- frontery the prothonotary of the cortes, in the desire to varnish over the departure from constitutional precedent, declares, in the opening address, " the princess Joanna, true and lawful heir to the crown, to whom, in default of male heirs, the usage and law of the land require the oath of allegiance." Corona- oiones, ubi supra. VOL. III. 9 8 Carbajal, Anales, MS., afio 1500. — Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, torn. ii. rey 30, cap. 12, sec. 6. — Robles, Vida de Ximenez, p. 126. — Garibay, Compendio, torn. ii. lib. 19, cap. 14. — Sandoval, Hist, del Emp. Carlos V., tom. i. p. 5. Petronilla, the only female who ever sat, in her own right, on the throne of Aragon, never received the homage of cortes as heir ap- parent ; the custom not having been established at that time, the middle of the twelfth century. (Zurita, Anales, tom. v. lib. 5, cap. 5.) Blancas has described the ceremo- ny of Joanna's recognition with quite as much circumstantiality as the novelty of the case could war- rant. Coronaciones, lib. 3, cap. 20.