Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/175

MINORITY OF FERDINAND. 31 event of her death, the eldest heir male, and, in chapter default of sons, female, should inherit the kingdom '■ — to the exclusion of her husband.^ This provision, which had been confirmed bj her father, Charles the Third, in his testament, was also recognised in her own, accompanied however with a request, that her son Carlos, then twenty-one years of age, would, before assuming the sovereignty, solicit " the good will and approbation of his father."* Whether this approbation was withheld, or wheth- er it was ever solicited, does not appear. It seems probable, however, that Carlos, perceiving no dis- position in his father to relinquish the rank and nominal title of king of Navarre, was willing he should retain them, so long as he himself should be allowed to exercise the actual rights of sovereign- ty ; which indeed he did, as lieutenant-general or governor of the kingdom, at the time of his moth- er's decease, and for some years after.'^ In 1447, John of Aragon contracted a second alliance with Joan Henriquez, of the blood royal of Castile, and daughter of Don Frederic Henri- quez, admiral of that kingdom ;^ a woman consid- erably younger than himself, of consummate ad- dress, intrepid spirit, and unprincipled ambition. i 5 This fact, vaguely and various- pp. 365, 366.) This industrious ly reported by Spanish writers, is writer has established the title of fully established by Aleson, who Prince Carlos to Navarre, so fre- cites the original instrument, con- quently misunderstood or misrep- tained in the archives of the resented by the national historians, counts of Lerin. Anales de Navar- on an incontestable basis. ra, torn. iv. pp. 354, 365. ' Ibid., tom. iv. p. 467. 6 See the reference to the origi- 8 See Part I. Chap. 3, of this nal document in Aleson. (Tom. iv. work.