occurs in Epistle DCCCII.  Peter Martyr describes the visit paid her by her daughter Isabella, who was about to be married to the Infante of Portugal.  The insanity of the Queen was used as a political pawn by both her husband and her father, each affirming or denying as it suited his purpose for the moment.  The husband, however, was stronger than the father, for the unhappy Juana would have signed away her crown at his bidding in exchange for a caress.  Consult Hoefler, Dona Juana; Gachard, Jeanne la Folle; Maurenbrecher, Studien und Skizzen zur Geschichte der Reformationszeit; Pedro de Alcocer, Relacion de algunas Cosas; and Bergenroth’s Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, etc. (1869).]

Upon the death of King Ferdinand in 1516, the regency devolved upon Cardinal Ximenes, pending the arrival of the young King, Charles, from the Netherlands.  The character of Cardinal Ximenes and his methods of government have been extolled by his admirers and condemned by his adversaries.  The judgment of Peter Martyr is perhaps the least biassed of any expressed by that statesman’s contemporaries.  His personal dislike of the Cardinal did not blind him to his qualities, nor dull his appreciation of the obstacles with which the latter had to contend.  In the Opus Epistolarum he seeks, not always with entire success, to do justice to the great regent.  Through his laborious efforts to be fair to the statesman, there pierces his personal dislike of the man.  Trivial jibes and small criticisms at the Cardinal’s expense are not wanting.  The writer shared the feeling of the Spanish Grandees, that it was “odious to be governed by a friar.”  He also derided the Cardinal’s military spirit.  One of the regent’s earliest measures suppressed all pensions, but though he excepted Martyr by name, pending the King’s decision, no answer came from the Netherlands; the Italian fared as did other pensioners, and he never forgave the Cardinal.  Many of his letters of this period were addressed to his compatriot, Marliano, who was the young King’s doctor, and were evidently intended for the monarch’s eye.  In these epistles, adverse judgments and censures of Cardinal Ximenes frequently recur, and the writer used the greatest frankness in describing men and events in Spain, and even in offering suggestions as to the King’s policy upon his arrival.

Yielding to the repeated instances of the regent, Charles finally set out to take possession of his unknown kingdom.  He landed, after a tempestuous voyage, near Gijon, bringing with him a numerous train of Flemish courtiers and officials, whose primary interest lay in preventing a meeting between himself and the regent, and whose presence was destined to cause a serious estrangement between the monarch and his Castilian subjects.  Their first purpose was easily accomplished.  While the Cardinal awaited him near Roa, the King avoided him by proceeding directly to Tordesillas to visit his mother.  This ungracious and unmerited snub was applauded by Martyr, who dismissed the incident with almost flippant mention; nor did he afterwards touch upon the aged Cardinal’s death which occurred simultaneously with the reception of the unfeeling message sent by Charles to the greatest, the most faithful and the most disinterested of his servants.[4]