Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1869-01-20


of fat Flemish beauties who pesterei
his court, and cost him a great man.
doubloOns. If Philip could be sup
piled with money for his pleasures
backed by a promise of power ant
show, he would not be the man 4
haggle about terms, especially will
his wife's own father. Knowing thi
well, Fernando sent word TO Philil
that a party. headed by the famous
Don Bernaldino de VelascO, Constable
of CASTLE, was arming to expel then
both, and TO set up their Queen Juani
as the sole ruler of her Kingdom
Cardinal Ximenes, the bearer of thi:
message, was to propose an Interview
between the two princes, at which they
might consider the means of a COM
mon defense against Velasco; in 9TH
er words they were TO contrive how
they could best rob the Queen of heI
just rights. Ximenes was the man tO
manage such treaty, and when Phil
ip consented to meet his father-in-law
for a secret parley, the Cardinal ar
ranged the details. The two kings
met at Villafafila, Philip dashing up
in front of q troop of horse, Fernando
trotting meekly on a donkey. They
entered the village church alone.
| Those keeping watch at the door could
| hear their voices, but not their words.
Fernando spoke much, and in a deep,
charged voice; Philip unused, uneasy
and perpleXed; but their talk, though
it lasted long, came to what Philip
thought a happy end at last. The
King of Aragon seemed very humble
in his presence; and, with the excep-
ton of the young Queens insanity,
gave way to him ON almost every
point. Fernando insisted only that
his daughter was mad, and therefore
unfit to reign. Itwas q curious scene.
thatin the small, white village church;
alike in the crowd of Castilian horse
men, lounging outside in the sun; in
the string of humble asses in the
crowd of eager listeners, who could
not catch a word in the sly old man
and the mock brilliant youth; in the
Gospel open before them on the COM
muniOn table; in the papers of agree
ment TO which they occasionally put
their hands and seals. In this church
of Villafafila, so kindly provided for
them by a Cardinal, they arranged
that Philip was to have, so long as he
lived, great deal of money and pow
er, and that Queen Juana should be
declared incapable of governing her
estates. In fact, Philip was to rule as
King ConsOrt-as long as he tired.
Poor Philip! The two princes bound
hemselves-first, by oath on the holy
Gospels, afterward by treaties proper
ly drawn and signed-to take charge
of the Queens person, and to resist by
their united forces any attempt to set
up government in her name.
These secret and iniquitOus treaties /
being signed, Fernando made two /
moves in his game, one of which eX-
planned why he had gone to Nillafa-
fila on donkey. First, he called AL
mazan, the Apostolic Notary, to his
closet, and told him that, in going
through the country without his
guard, he had fallen into the hands of
Philip, at the head of a great force,
md been compelled to sign q treaty
which his soul abhorred. The arch
luke, he added, was a tyrant and
Isurper, who kept the Queen, his
wife, prisoner; but having, for his
,wn part, escaped from Philips pow
II, he wished to make a solemn pro-
est against the treaties which he had
,een made to sign, and to declare that
lie could never consent to his daugh-
er being deprived of her liberty and {
Ter crown. AlmaZan made all this .
,nown in Rome and in friendly courts.
Then Fernando took leave of his chill ]
Iren, as he called them, Philip and
uana, eXhorting them TO love each !
ther, and to live together in peace, as ;
good husband and wife should do. |
hen he sailed for Naples, in order to 1
how the whole world that his words ]
fere sincere, and that he would not '
leddle any more with affairs of gov
in Castillo
Before leaving for Naples, Fernando =,
ent secret agent, one Moses Ferrers,
} Philip; and one week after his ar
ival at Court Philip was dead. No
ne doubted that he had been poisoned;
o one doubts it now. A few weeks I
fter leaving Villafafila on his donkey, Q
'ernando reaped the sole advantage
T that treaty which he had signed .
nd denounced. His daughter was a
Onsidered insane, and incapable of
lling. He was the administrator of I
er Kingdom in the interest of his {
randson, Carlos, afterward to be z
nown as Charles the Fifth. From l.
lis time Queen Juana was prisoner {
first in the hands of her father, af- L
,rward in the hands of her son. By
rder of these princes she was shut up ;
18th her jailers and her priests-she Il
as never allowed to see the outside
'orld-she was not suffered to speak II
'itha strange person-she was carried !
trough the country in midnight l,
was condemned to the
of her husbands Z
,rpse. Even of this last horrible de- =
Ill there seems to be hardly any II
Dubt. No evidence is found in these p
ate papers that Juana voluntarily Z
ung to the dead body of Philip. L
Ome evidence to the contrary is =
und. The dead body was the in si
by which Fernando and s.
harles imposed on the ignorant u
an idea of the Queens mad 0
ess-a midnight cortege, with funer- G
torches and trains of monks being 3
D bad contrivance for impressing the q
naginatiOn of superstitiOus and ro- L
antic people. Philips body was
ept for many years in chapel of n
lie Convent of Santa Clara. Juana II
sry often expressed wish to visit U
Ie convent. She never once, of her q
yn will, desired to see the chapel, >.
uch less the corpse. In fact, the a.
hole affair would seem to have been .
fraud, and Crazy Jane a fictitious ~
gure, invented by Fernando, and u
by Charles the Fifth. II