Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/289

WAR OF THE SUCCESSION. 145 Ferdinand, it is said, was so much dissatisfied chapter with an arrangement which vested the essential '■ — rights of sovereignty in his consort, that he threat- ened to return to Aragon ; but Isabella reminded him, that this distribution of power was rather nominal than real ; that their interests were indi- visible ; that his will would be hers ; and that the principle of the exclusion of females from the suc- cession, if now established, would operate to the disqualification of their only child, who was a daughter. By these and similar arguments the queen succeeded in soothing her offended hus- band, without compromising the prerogatives of her crown. Although the principal body of the nobility, as partisans o. has been stated, supported Isabella's cause, there were a few families, and some of them the most potent in Castile, who seemed determined to abide the fortunes of her rival. Among these was the marquis of Villena, who, inferior to his father in talent for intrigue, was of an intrepid spirit, and is commended by one of the Spanish historians as " the best lance in the kingdom." His immense original instrument signed by Fer- other auspices or sanction, than dinand and Isabella, cited at length that of the great nobility and cava- in Dormer's Discursos Varies de liers. Marina's eagerness to find Historia, (Zaragoza, 1683,) pp. a precedent for the interference of 295 - 313. — It does not appear the popular branch in all the great that the settlement was ever con- concerns of government, has usual- firmed by, or indeed presented to, ly quickened, but sometimes cloud- the cortes. Marina speaks of it, ed, his optics. In the present in- however, as emanating from that stance he has undoubtedly con- body. (Teoria, tom. ii. pp.63, 64.) founded the irregular proceedings From Pulgar's statement, as well of the aristocracy exclusively, with as from the instrument itself, it the deliberate acts of the legisla- seems to have been made under no ture. VOL. I. 19