Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/226

82 CASTILE UNDER HENRY IV. PART until he was very generally execrated as the real '■ — source of the disturbances in the kingdom. In the '&^ for the mar- riage of Isa- bella. mean while, the singular spectacle was exhibited of two monarchs presiding over one nation, surrounded by their respective courts, administering the laws, convoking cortes, and in fine assuming the state and exercising all the functions of sovereignty. It was apparent that this state of things could not last long ; and that the political ferment, which now agitated the minds of men from one extremity of the kingdom to the other, and which occasionally displayed itself in tumults and acts of violence, would soon burst forth with all the horrors of a civil war. Proposition At this juncture, a proposition was made to frir the mnr- ^ ' X J. Henry for detaching the powerful family of Pacheco from the interests of the confederates, by the mar- riage of his sister Isabella with the brother of the marquis of Villena, Don Pedro Giron, grand master of the order of Calatrava, a nobleman of aspiring views, and one of the most active partisans of his faction. The archbishop of Toledo would naturally follow the fortunes of his nephew, and thus the league, deprived of its principal supports, must soon crumble to pieces. Instead of resenting this pro- posal as an affront upon his honor, the abject mind of Henry was content to purchase repose even by the most humiliating sacrifice. He acceded to the conditions ; application was made to Rome for a dispensation from the vows of celibacy imposed on the grand master as the companion of a religious