Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/243

MARRIAGE OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA. 99 were completely eradicated. With this disaffected chapter party the marquis of Villena, who, since his recon- '. — ciliation, had resumed his ancient ascendency over Henry, now associated himself. Nothing, in the opinion of this nobleman, could be more repugnant to his interests, than the projected union between the houses of Castile and Aragon ; to the latter of which, as already noticed, ^^ once belonged the ample domains of his own marquisate, which he imagined would be held by a very precarious tenure should any of this family obtain a footing in Castile. In the hope of counteracting this project, he JJ[°f^?f] °[ endeavoured to revive the obsolete pretensions of j^cteu" b'v u Alfonso, king of Portugal ; and, the more effectual- ly to secure the cooperation of Henry, he connect- ed with his scheme a proposition for marrying his daughter Joanna with the son and heir of the Por- tuguese monarch ; and thus this unfortunate prin- cess might be enabled to assume at once a station suitable to her birth, and at some future opportu- nity assert with success her claim to the Castilian crown. In furtherance of this complicated intrigue, Alfonso was invited to renew his addresses to Isabella in a more public manner than he had hitherto done ; and a pompous embassy, w4th the 1 4 c 9 archbishop of Lisbon at its head, appeared at Ocafia, where Isabella was then residing, bearing the proposals of their master. The princess return- ed, as before, a decided though temperate refusal.^' 46 See ante, note 10. Alonso de Palencia, Coronica, 47 Faria y Sousa, Europa Por- MS., part. 2, cap. 7. — Lebrija, tuguesa, torn. ii. p. 391. — Cas- Rerum Gestarum Decad., lib. 1, tillo, Cr6nica, cap. 121, 127. — cap. 7.