In Italy, Louis threw fresh energy into the war; and Gonsalvo found his own forces greatly out-numbered.  In the late autumn there was a sharp but indecisive contest at the Garigliano Bridge.  Gonsalvo held to his position, despite the destitution of his troops, until he received reinforcements.  Then, on December 28, he suddenly and unexpectedly crossed the river; the French retired rapidly, gallantly covered by the rear-guard, hotly attacked by the Spanish advance guard.  The retreat being checked at a bridge, the Spanish rear was enabled to come up, and the French were driven in route.  Gaeta surrendered on January 4; no further resistance was offered.  South Italy was in the hands of Gonsalvo.

IV.—­After Isabella

Throughout 1503 and 1504 Queen Isabella’s strength was failing.  In November 1504 she died, leaving the succession to the Castilian crown to her daughter Joanna, and naming Ferdinand regent.  Magnanimity, unselfishness, openness, piety had been her most marked moral traits; justice, loyalty, practical good sense her political characteristics—­a most rare and virtuous lady.

Her death gives a new complexion to our history.  Joanna was proclaimed Queen of Castile; Ferdinand was governor of that kingdom in her name, but his regency was not accepted without demur.  To secure his brief authority he made alliance with Louis, including a marriage contract with Louis’ niece, Germaine de Ford.  Six weeks after the wedding, the Archduke Philip landed in Spain.  Ferdinand’s action had ruined his popularity, and he saw security only in a compact assuring Philip the complete sovereignty—­Joanna being insane.

Philip’s rule was very unpopular and very brief.  A sudden illness, in which for once poison was not suspected of playing a part, carried him off.  Ferdinand, absent at the time in Italy, was restored to the regency of Castile, which he held undisputed—­except for futile claims of the Emperor Maximilian—­for the rest of his life.

The years of Ferdinand’s sole rule displayed his worst characteristics, which had been restrained during his noble consort’s life.  He was involved in the utterly unscrupulous and immoral wars issuing out of the League of Cambray for the partition of Venice.  The suspicion and ingratitude with which he treated Gonsalvo de Cordova drove the Great Captain into a privacy not less honourable than his glorious public career.  Within a twelvemonth of Gonsalvo’s death, Ferdinand followed him to the grave in January 1516—­lamented in Aragon, but not in Castile.

During the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, the overgrown powers and factious spirit of the nobility had been restrained.  That genuine piety of the queen which had won for the monarchs the title of “The Catholic” had not prevented them from firmly resisting the encroachments of ecclesiastical authority.  The condition of the commons had been greatly advanced, but political power had been concentrated in the crown, and the crowns of Castile and Aragon were permanently united on the accession of Charles—­afterwards Charles V.—­to both the thrones.