Posterity is the audience that can alone judge truly the drama of history, and in the thunder of its applause Columbus has long come to his own. “The world,” says Thacher, “did not observe his final exit from the stage. Yet he was a great character, one of the greatest ever passing before the eyes of men.” CHAPTER XI ISABEL AND HER CHILDREN If it is true that the trappings of the monk often conceal the wearer’s individuality, it might be added that so also do royal robes. The contemporary historian is apt to portray his King or Queen garbed in a cloak of politics, morality, or pageantry, according to his special enthusiasm; and, unless to his task he brings also the biographer’s instinct for personality, his likeness though regal and exemplary will leave the spectator cold. He has forgotten that the abiding measure of our interest in others is the very humanity he has neglected or tried to excel. In the case of “Isabel of Castile” the conventional atmosphere of a Court is intensified by her own determination to play a royal part. She rarely forgot that she was Queen. On one occasion the Admiral of Castile, Ferdinand’s uncle, had ventured to address the King as nephew; whereupon she, overhearing, reproved him sharply. “My Lord, the King has no kindred or friends but servants or subjects!” A petty snub! Unless in judging it we recall the Court of Henry IV., where Isabel had seen her brother mocked and bullied by insolent nobles, amongst them a former Admiral of Castile. Her lifework in building up the reputation of the monarchy must be carried out in detail as well as on the broad lines of governmental reform, and the dignity and magnificence of royalty formed part of the scheme, that aimed at the exaltation of the Crown, not only in the eyes of Europe but still more of Spain itself. The Castilian grandee might be losing his official status, the Admiral be no longer essential to the Fleet, the Constable to the Army, the Duke or Marquis to the Royal Council; but in the throne-room and ante-chambers of the palace etiquette more and more demanded their presence. Silken chains were binding the unruly in a peaceful servitude. Pulgar, the historian, commenting on Isabel’s insistence on the outward forms of state, declared that “it pleased her to be served by grandees and nobles,” while in another place he mentions her retinue of the daughters of great families “such that we do not read in the Chronicles that any Queen had before her.” A household maintained on this scale and with corresponding luxury was a costly item in royal expenses and, considering the chronic deficiencies of the Treasury, was perhaps excessive. Yet Ferdinand and Isabel were both by nature simple and abstemious in their tastes, and wont in other matters, as we have seen in the case of Columbus, to err rather on the side of economy than extravagance.