The queen's levity might have sought some jus-
tification in the unveiled licentiousness of her hus-
band. One of the maids of honor, whom she
brought in her train, acquired an ascendency over
Henry, which he did not attempt to disguise ; and
the palace, after the exhibition of the most dis-
graceful scenes, became divided by the factions of
the hostile fair ones. The archbishop of Seville
did not blush to espouse the cause of the paramour,
who maintained a magnificence of state, which ri-
valled that of royalty itself. The public were still
more scandalized by Henry's sacrilegious intrusion
of another of his mistresses into the post of abbess
of a convent in Toledo, after the expulsion of her
predecessor, a lady of noble rank and irreproacha-
ble character.[1]
Oppression of the peopleThe Stream of corruption soon finds its way from the higher to the more humble walks of life. The middling classes, imitating their superiors, indulged in an excess of luxury equally demoralizing, and ruinous to their fortunes. The contagion of example infected even the higher ecclesiastics; and we find the archbishop of St. James hunted from his see by the indignant populace, in consequence of an out-
- ↑ Alonso de Palencia, Coronica, MS., cap. 42, 47.—Castillo, Cró nica, cap. 23.
Beltran de la Cueva indicated as the lady of his love on this occasion, (See Castillo, Crónica, cap. 23,24.) Two anecdotes may be mentioned as characteristic of the gallantry of the times. The archbishop of Seville concluded a superb f{{subst:e'}}te, given in honor of the royal nuptials,by introducing on the table two vases filled with rings garnished with precious stones, to be distributed among his female guests. At a ball given on another occasion, the young queen having condescended o dance with the French ambassador, the latter made a solemn vow in commemoration of so distinguished an honor, never to dance with any other woman.
