Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/241

MARRIAGE OF FERDINAxD AND ISABELLA 97 inhabitants too dissimilar in character and institu- chapter tions, to permit the idea of their ever cordially coa- '- — lescing as one people under a common sovereign. Should the duke of Guienne fail in the inheritance of the crown, it was argued, he would be every way an unequal match for the heiress of Castile ; should he succeed to it, it might be feared, that, in case of a union, the smaller kingdom would be considered only as an appendage, and sacrificed to the interests of the larger. ^^ The person, on whom Isabella turned the most Ferdinand of favorable eye, was her kinsman Ferdinand of Ara- gon. The superior advantages of a connexion, which should be the means of uniting the people of Aragon and Castile into one nation, were in- deed manifest. They were the descendants of one common stock, speaking one language, and living under the influence of similar institutions, which had moulded them into a common resemblance of character and manners. From their geographical position, too, they seemed destined by nature to be one nation ; and, while separately they were con- demned to the rank of petty and subordinate states, they might hope, when consolidated into one mon- archy, to rise at once to the first class of European powers. While arguments of this public nature pressed on the mind of Isabella, she was not insen- sible to those which most powerfully afiect the point (Guipuscoa), but were sep- ^^ Pulgar, Reyes Cat6Iicos, cap. arated along the whole remaining 8. — Alonso de Paleneia, Coroiiica, line of frontier by the kingdoms of MS., part. 2, cap. 10. Aragon and Navarre. VOL. I. 13