On the 24th of November 1504 Isabella died. Ferdinand at once resigned the title of king of Castile in favour of his daughter Joan and her husband the archduke Philip, assuming instead that of regent. Philip was keenly jealous of Ferdinand's pretensions to the regency; and it required all the tact of Jimenes to bring about a friendly interview between the princes. Ferdinand finally retired from Castile; and, though Jimenes remained, his political weight was less than before. The sudden death of Philip in September 1506 quite overset the already tottering intellect of his wife; his son and heir Charles was still a child; and Ferdinand was at Naples. The nobles of Castile, mutually jealous, agreed to entrust affairs to the archbishop of Toledo, who, moved more by patriotic regard for his country's welfare than by special friendship for Ferdinand, strove to establish the final influence of that king in Castile. Ferdinand did not return till August 1507; and he brought a cardinal's hat for Jimenes. Shortly afterwards the new cardinal of Spain was appointed grand inquisitor-general for Castile and Leon. The next great event in the cardinal's life was the expedition against the Moorish city of Oran in the north of Africa, in which his religious zeal was supported by the prospect of the political and material gain that would accrue to Spain from the possession of such a station. A preliminary expedition, equipped, like that which followed, at the expense of Jimenes, captured the port of Mers-el-Kebir in 1505; and in 1509 a strong force, accompanied by the cardinal in person, set sail for Africa, and in one day the wealthy city was taken by storm. Though the army remained to make fresh conquests, Jimenes returned to Spain, and occupied himself with the administration of his diocese, and in endeavouring to recover from the regent the expenses of his Oran expedition. On the 28th of January 1516 Ferdinand died, leaving Jimenes as regent of Castile for Charles (afterwards Charles V.), then a youth of sixteen in the Netherlands. Though Jimenes at once took firm hold of the reins of government, and ruled in a determined and even autocratic manner, the haughty and turbulent Castilian nobility and the jealous intriguing Flemish councillors of Charles combined to render his position peculiarly difficult; while the evils consequent upon the unlimited demands of Charles for money threw much undeserved odium upon the regent. In violation of the laws, Jimenes acceded to Charles's desire to be proclaimed king; he secured the person of Charles's younger brother Ferdinand; he fixed the seat of the cortes at Madrid; and he established a standing army by drilling the citizens of the great towns. Immediately on Ferdinand's death, Adrian, dean of Louvain, afterwards pope, produced a commission from Charles appointing him regent. Jimenes admitted him to a nominal equality, but took care that neither he nor