The first keen blade of sorrow that transfixed the Queen’s soul [says Bernaldez] was the death of the Prince; the second the death of Doña Isabel her eldest daughter, Queen of Portugal; the third the death of her grandson Don Miguel, for in him she had found consolation. From this time the life of the famous and very virtuous Queen Isabel, protector of Castile, was without pleasure; and her days and her health were alike shortened. CHAPTER XII THE ITALIAN WARS 1494–1504 A cloud of grief hung over Spain, but abroad her sun was rising. The union of Castile and Aragon, the Conquest of the Moors, the campaign against heresy, the discovery of unknown islands in the West—all these had brought her prominently before the eyes of Europe; while yet another harvest of glory still remained for Ferdinand’s diplomacy to reap on foreign shores. In the early years of his rivalry with France the Pyrenees had formed his battleground, but for all his efforts, political or military, he had never succeeded in regaining Roussillon or Cerdagne nor in undermining French influence in Navarre. Diplomacy is a game where the practised hand will always be at an immense advantage; and Louis XI. proved more than a match for the young Aragonese opponent who was to succeed him eventually as the craftiest statesman in Europe. _Qui nescit dissimulare nescit regnare_ is said to be the only paternal sermon to which the Dauphin Charles was ever subjected; but since Louis XI.’s craven fear of his son denied the boy all but the most rudimentary education, there was little likelihood that he would be able to make use of so subtle a maxim. Ill-developed in brain as in body, his weak but obstinate nature nourished its vanity on schemes requiring the strength of a Hannibal or an Alexander for their realization. His father had with tireless energy extended the boundaries of France north, east, and south; employing the weapons of force, bribery, and lies, as the moment demanded. His success, save on moral grounds, might have prompted the continuation of his policy; but Charles chafed not at its immorality only its apparent pettiness of scope. To make peace with his neighbours, if necessary, by the surrender of lately-won possessions; and then, freed from Christian molestation, to lead an army in person that should add the kingdom of Jerusalem to French dominions—this was the fantasy that floated ever before his eyes.