ttle that excites our
sympathy or respect. She was vain, jealous, and selfish, in the
extreme. She was capable of the deepest hypocrisy, and often practised
it. She sacrificed every thing to her despotic love of sway, her
pride, and her vanity, except the interests of her kingdom. These she
guarded with care, and, though a tyrannical and selfish monarch, she
must be ranked as among the best sovereigns of her time.

ISABELLA OF SPAIN.

Isabella, queen of Castile, was born at Madrigal, in that kingdom, on
the 22d of April, 1451. Her father, John II., after an inglorious
reign of forty-eight years, died in 1454, lamenting that he had not
been born the son of a mechanic, instead of king of Castile. Isabella
had but a slender prospect of obtaining the crown during the early
part of her life. She had two brothers, Henry and Alfonso, the former
of whom acceded to the throne at the death of John. Isabella retired,
with her mother, to the little town of Arevalo, where she lived many
years in obscurity. Her mother, who appears to have been a woman of a
strong, religious turn of mind, bestowed great care on her education,
and inculcated the strictest lessons of piety upon her daughter, which
did not fail to exercise an important influence upon her future
career. On the birth of a daughter to her brother, Isabella was
removed from her retirement to the royal palace, by Henry, who, being
disliked by his subjects, feared the formation of a party adverse to
his interests. At the royal court, surrounded by all the pleasures and
seductions most dazzling to youth, she did not forget the early
lessons imbibed in her seclusion, and the blameless purity of her
conduct shone with additional lustre amid the scenes of levity and
licentiousness by which she was surrounded.

Before this event, she had been solicited in marriage by various
suitors, among whom was Ferdinand of Arragon, who afterward became her
husband. His first application, however, was unsuccessful. She was
next betrothed to his elder brother Carlos, while yet a mere child.
That prince dying before the marriage could be completed, she was
promised by her brother to Alfonso, king of Portugal. Isabella was
but thirteen at this time, and the disparity of their ages was such
that neither threats nor entreaties could induce her to consent to the
union. The selfish and unprincipled Henry, who looked upon his sister
only as an object of trade, next made an attempt to dispose