[Note 4:  Consult Hefele, Vie de Ximenez; Cartas de los Secretarios del Cardinal; Ferrer del Rio, Comunidades de Castilla; Ranke, Spanien unter Karl V.]

During the opening years of his reign, the boy-king proved a docile pupil under the control of his ministers.[5] Peter Martyr wrote of him:  “He directs nothing but is himself directed.  He has a happy disposition, is magnanimous, liberal, generous—­but what of it, since these qualities contribute to his country’s ruin?” So reserved was the royal youth in his manner, so slow of speech, that his mental capacity began to be suspected.  People remembered his mother.  The story of the troubled beginnings of what proved to be one of the most remarkable reigns in modern history, is related in the Opus Epistolarum.  The writer watched from vantage-ground the conflict of interests, the strife of parties; zealous for the welfare of his adopted country, he was still a foreigner, identified with no party.  Gifted with rare perspicacity, moderation, and keen judgment, he maintained his attitude of impartial observation.  By temperament and habit he was an aristrocrat—­placet Hispana nobilitas—­he confessed, admitting also that de populo nil mihi curae, yet he sided with the comuneros against the Crown.  While deploring their excesses, he sympathised with the cause they defended, and he lashed the insolence and the rapacity of the Flemish favourites with all the resources of invective and sarcasm of which he was master.  In one of his letters (Ep. 709), he describes the disorders everywhere prevalent throughout the country.  “The safest roads are no longer secure from brigands and you enrich bandits and criminals, and oppress honest folks.  The ruling power is now in the hands of assassins.”  Despite his undisguised hostility to the Flemings and his outspoken criticisms on the abuses they fomented, Charles V. bestowed new honours and emoluments upon the favoured counsellor of his grandparents.  In September, 1518, the Royal Council proposed his name to the King as ambassador to Constantinople, there to treat with the victorious Sultan, whose sanguinary triumphs in Persia and Egypt were feared to foreshadow an Ottoman invasion of Europe.  Alleging his advanced age and infirmities, the cautious nominee declined the honour, preferring doubtless to abide by his facile diplomatic laurels won in Cairo.  There was reason to anticipate that the formidable Selim would be found less pliant than Cansu Alguri.  The event proved his wisdom, as Garcia Loaysa who went in his stead, learned to his cost.

[Note 5:  Guillaume de Croy, Sieur de Chievres, who had been the young prince’s governor during his minority, became all powerful in Spain, where he and his Flemish associates pillaged the treasury, trafficked in benefices and offices, and provoked the universal hatred of the Spaniards.  Peter Martyr shared the indignation of his adopted countrymen against the King’s Flemish parasites.  His sympathies for the Comuneros were frankly avowed in numerous of his letters.  Consult Hoefler, Der Aufstand der Castillianischen Staedte; Robertson, Charles V.]