There was now a Spain, though the government of the two kingdoms was separately administered under separate constitutions long after the time of Ferdinand and Isabella; yet the double throne was after all one throne, and Spain was at last a nation, fronting the world united, as far as the Spaniards of that time could be united, and the first reign of the new realm was the most glorious of all.[a] FOOTNOTES [44] Let us hope that the atrocities of the English allies--so gently noticed by Froissart[d]--are exaggerated; yet certain it is that the old Portuguese chroniclers dwelt largely on them: “_Nao se cançaõ os nossos chronistas de encarecer as atrocidades que estas tropas auxiliares cometteraõ em todos os terrenos de Portugal por onde andaraõ_,” says Lemos.[e] “King Ferdinand,” says the _Chronicon Conimbricense_[f] “had to seize the church plate to satisfy his allies: _Mandou o ditto senhor rey tomar os thesouros das igrejas, convem a saber, frontaes, e calices et magestades, para pagar o soldo aos dittos Ingrezos._” [45] [Hume[i] calls him “one of the noblest personages of Spanish history.”] [46] [While there are discrepant statements as to the date and place of Isabella’s birth, Prescott accepts April 22nd, 1451, as the date, and Madrigal as the place.[l] Burke[h] emphasises the fact that in her veins flowed the blood both of Guzmans and of Plantagenets; both her great-grandmother and her grandmother were English.] [47] Juan, king of Navarre, who in 1458 had succeeded his brother Alfonso as king of Aragon. [48] In this battle it was somewhat singular to see two eminent ecclesiastical dignitaries, the cardinal De Mendoza and the archbishop of Toledo, fighting on opposite sides. There was something not exactly apostolic in the former’s hastening along the Castilian ranks, with a crucifix borne before him, shouting, “Knaves, fight away! have ye not a cardinal with you?” [In honour of this victory Isabella walked barefoot in a religious procession through the streets.] [49] Alfonso later abdicated and went into a monastery. [Illustration] [Illustration] CHAPTER VI. FERDINAND AND ISABELLA [Sidenote: [1474-1504 A.D.]] It was fortunate for Spain that her sceptre, at this crisis, was swayed by a sovereign possessed of sufficient wisdom to devise, and energy to execute the most salutary schemes of reform, and thus to infuse a new principle of vitality into a government fast sinking into premature decrepitude.