Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/499

ROUT IN THE AXARQUIA. 353 in which at a later period he was destined to act chapter so prominent a part. " ' The affairs of Navarre at this time, were such as o^^ Navarre. to engage still more deeply the attention of the Spanish sovereigns. The crown of that kingdom had devolved, on the death of Leonora, the guilty sister of Ferdinand, on her grandchild, Francis Phoebus, whose mother, Magdeleine of France, held the reins of government during her son's minor- ity. ^^ The near relationship of this princess to Louis the Eleventh, gave that monarch an absolute influence in the councils of Navarre. He made use of this to bring about a marriage between the young king, Francis Phoebus, and Joanna Bel- traneja, Isabella's former competitor for the crown of Castile, notwithstanding this princess had long since taken the veil in the convent of Santa Clara at Coimbra. It is not easy to unravel the tortuous politics of King Louis. The Spanish writers im- pute to him the design of enabling Joanna by this alliance to establish her pretensions to the Castilian throne, or at least to give such employment to its present proprietors, as should efiectually prevent 11 Sismondi, R6publiques Ital- of whom in turn succeeded to the iennes, torn. xi. cap. 88. — Pulgar, crown of Navarre. Francis PhcE- Reyes Catolicos, pp. 195 - 198. — bus ascended the throne on the Zurita, Anales, torn. iv. fol. 218. demise of his grandmother Leono- 12 Aleson, Annales de Navarra, ra, in 1479. He was distinguish- lib. 34, cap. 1. — Histoire du Roy- ed by his personal graces and aume de Navarre, p. 558. beauty, and especially by the gold- Leonora's son, Gaston de Foix, en lustre of his hair from which, prince of Viana, was slain by an according to Aleson, he derived accidental wound from a lance, at a his cognomen of Phoebus. As it tourney at Lisbon, in 1469. By the was an ancestral name, however, princess Magdeleine, his wife, sis- such an etymology may be thought ter of Louis XL, he left two chil- somewhat fanciful, dren, a son and daughter, each VOL. I. 45