Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/260

16 TROUBLES IN CASTILE AND ARAGON. lART I. Ferdinand tiud Isabella. claims were to be supported bj the whole authority of the court of Castile, with the probable coopera- tion of France. Many of the most considerable families in the kingdom, as the Pachecos,^ the Mendozas in all their extensive ramifications,^ the Zunigas, the Velascos,^ the Pimentels,^ unmindful of the homage so recently rendered to Isabella, now openly testified their adhesion to her niece. Ferdinand and his consort, who held their little court at Duenas,^ were so poor as to be scarcely capable of defraying the ordinary charges of their table. The northern provinces of Biscay and Gui- puscoa had, however, loudly declared against the French match ; and the populous province of Anda- lusia, with the house of Medina Sidonia at its head, still maintained its loyalty to Isabella unshaken. But her principal reliance was on the archbishop of Tole- do, whose elevated station in the church and ample 3 The grand master of St. James, and his son, the marquis of Villena, afterwards duke of Escalona. The rents of the former nobleman, whose avarice was as insatiable, as his influence over the feeble mind of Henry IV. was unlimited, exceeded those of any other gran- dee in the kingdom. See Pulgar, Claros Varones, tit. 6. 4 The marquis of Santillana, first dukeof Infantado, and his brothers, the counts of Corufia, and of Ten- dilla, and above all Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, afterwards cardinal of Spain, and archbishop of Toledo, who was indebted for the highest dignities in the church less to his birth than his abilities. See Cla- ros Varones, tit. 4, 9. — Salazar de Mendoza, Dignidades, Ub. 3, cap. 17. 5 Alvaro de Zuiliga, count of Palencia, and created by Henry IV. duke of Arevalo. — Pedro Fernan- dez de Velasco, count of Haro, was raised to the post of constable of Castile in 1473, and the office con- tinued to be hereditary in the family from that period. Pulgar, Claros Varones, tit. 3. — Salazar de Mendoza, Dignidades, lib. 3, cap. 21. 6 The Pimentels, counts of Be- navente, had estates which gave them 60,000 ducats a year ; a very large income for that per'<"l, and far exceeding that of any other grandee of similar rank in the king- dom. L. Marineo, Cosas Memo- rables, fol. 25. 7 Carbajal, Anales, MS., afio 70.