In April, Philip and Juana embarked at Weymouth and on a calm sea they set out for Spain.
Katharine remembered all the hopes that had come to her when Doña Elvira had first suggested such a meeting. How different the reality had been!
She knew, as she had never known before, that she was alone, and her future lay not with her own people but the English rulers.
Philip and Ferdinand Meet
NEWS WAS BROUGHT TO FERDINAND THAT HIS SON-IN-LAW had landed at Corunna.
This was disquieting news. Ferdinand knew he had good reason to mistrust Philip and that his son-in-law’s intention was to drive him out of Castile, become King himself and reduce Ferdinand to nothing but a petty monarch of Aragon.
This Ferdinand would fight against with all his might.
He was not an old man, he reminded himself. He felt younger than he had for many years. This was doubtless due to the fact that he had acquired a new wife, his beautiful Germaine.
Many eyebrows had been raised when Germaine had arrived at Dueñas, close by Valladolid, for there, thirty-seven years before, he had come in disguise from Aragon for his marriage to Isabella.
There were many people in Castile who looked upon Isabella as a saint, and they were deeply shocked that Ferdinand should consider replacing her; and to do so by a young and beautiful girl seemed double sacrilege; moreover as any fruit of the union might result in the breaking up of Spain into two kingdoms, this was not a popular marriage.
Ferdinand was realizing how much of his popularity he had owed to Isabella. Yet he had lost none of his ambition; and he was ready enough to end his six weeks’ honeymoon with the entrancing Germaine in order to go forward and meet Philip, to match his son-in-law’s rashness with his own experience and cunning.
There was one man in Spain whom he heartily disliked but who, he knew, was the country’s most brilliant statesman. This man was Ximenes, whom, against Ferdinand’s advice, Isabella had created Archbishop of Toledo and Primate of Spain. Ferdinand summoned Ximenes to his presence and Ximenes came.
There was a faint contempt in the ascetic face, which Ferdinand guessed meant that the Archbishop was despising the bridegroom. This was a marriage which would seem unholy to Ximenes, and when he received him Ferdinand was conscious of a rising indignation. But he calmed himself. Ferdinand had learned to subdue his hot temper for the sake of policy.
“You have heard the news, Archbishop?” he asked when the Archbishop had greeted him in his somewhat superior manner, which Ferdinand thought implied that he, Ximenes, was the ruler.
“I have indeed, Highness.”
“Well?”
“It will be necessary to walk carefully. There should be a meeting between you and the Archduke, and it should be a peaceful one.”
“Will he agree to this?”
“He will if he is wise.”
“He is young, Archbishop. Wisdom and youth rarely go together.”
“Wisdom and age mate almost as rarely,” replied the Archbishop.
That allusion to the marriage made the hot blood rush to Ferdinand’s cheeks. He had often advised Isabella to send the insolent fellow back to his hermit’s cell. But he was too useful. He was too clever. And he was ready to devote that usefulness and cleverness to Spain.
“What in your opinion should be done in the matter?” asked Ferdinand shortly.
The Archbishop was silent for a while; then he said: “As husband of the Reina Proprietaria, Philip has a stronger claim to the Regency than Your Highness. Yet since you are a ruler of great experience and this is a young man who has had a greater experience of light living than of serious government, it might be that the grandees of Spain would prefer to see you as Regent rather than your son-in-law.”
“And you would support my claim?”
“I would consider Your Highness the more likely to do good for Spain, and for that reason I would give you my support.”
Ferdinand was relieved. Much depended on the Archbishop. It was fortunate that Philip’s reputation for licentious behavior had travelled ahead of him; it would not serve him well with Ximenes.
“Philip is now in Galicia,” said Ferdinand. “It will take a little time for us to meet; and in the meantime, I understand that many of the grandees are flocking to him, to welcome him to Spain.”
Ximenes nodded. “I fear the recent marriage has not endeared Your Highness to many of the late Queen’s subjects.”
“She would not have wished me to remain unmarried.”
“One of her most proud achievements was the union of Castile and Aragon under one crown.”
Ferdinand’s brows were drawn together in a frown and he needed a great deal of restraint not to send this insolent fellow about his own business. But this was his business. Ximenes was Primate of Spain and he was not a man to diverge from what he considered his duty, no matter whom he upset by doing it. Such a man would go cheerfully to the stake for his opinions.
One should rejoice in him, thought Ferdinand grudgingly. He seeks no honors for himself. He thinks only of Spain; and because he believes I shall make a better Regent than Philip he will support me.
“There must be a speedy meeting between Your Highness and your sonin-law.”
“Should I go cap in hand, across a country which I have ruled, to implore audience of this young man who has no right to be here except for the fact that he is married to my daughter?”
Ximenes was silent for a few seconds; then he said: “I myself could go to him as your emissary. I could arrange this meeting.”
Ferdinand studied the gaunt figure of the Archbishop in those magnificent robes of office which he wore carelessly and under protest. It was only an order from the Pope which had made him put on such vestments, and Ferdinand knew that beneath them he would be wearing the hair shirt, and the rough Franciscan robe. Such a man would surely overawe any—even such as Philip the Handsome.
Ferdinand knew he could trust this affair in such hands. He was greatly relieved and it occurred to him in that moment that Isabella had been right when she had insisted on giving this man the high office of Archbishop of Toledo, even though Ferdinand had wanted it for his illegitimate son.
It seemed that, now she was dead, Ferdinand was continually discovering how right Isabella had so often been.
IN THE VILLAGE of Sanabria, on the borders of Leon and Galicia, Ferdinand met Philip. Philip came at the head of a large force of well-armed troops, but Ferdinand brought with him only some two hundred of his courtiers riding mules. On the right hand of Philip rode Juan Manuel, but on the right hand of Ferdinand rode Ximenes.
The meeting was to take place in a church and, when Philip entered, only Juan Manuel accompanied him; and Ximenes was the sole companion of Ferdinand.
Ximenes studied the young man and found that he did not despise him as he had thought he would. Philip was not merely a philanderer and seeker after pleasure. There was ambition there also. The mind of this extraordinarily handsome young man was light, and he had never learned to concentrate on one subject for long. He had been born heir to Maximilian; and consequently all his life he had been petted and pampered. But there was material there, mused Ximenes, which could be molded by such as himself; once this young man had realized the brief satisfaction which the indulgence of his sensuality could bring him, a ruler of significance might emerge.
As for Ferdinand, he and Ximenes had never been friends. It was the Queen whom Ximenes had served from the time Isabella had brought him from his hermit’s hut until her death, when he had occupied the highest position in Spain; and although Ximenes had not—so he assured himself—ever sought such honors, since they were thrust upon him he had done all in his power to deserve them. The welfare of Spain was of the utmost importance to him. He would serve Spain with his life; and now he was ranged on the side of Ferdinand, and his great desire was to prevent civil strife between these two.