out children, and
with health very infirm, his young sister Isabella unexpectedly found
herself the acknowledged heir to the throne of Castile. She suddenly
became a very important young person. The old King of Portugal was a
suitor for her hand, and a brother of the King of England, and also a
brother of the King of France, were striving for the same honor. But
Isabella had very decided views of her own. Her hero was the young
Ferdinand of Aragon, and heir to that throne. She resisted all her
brother's efforts to coerce her, and finally took the matter into her
own hands by sending an envoy to her handsome young lover to come
to her at Valladolid, with a letter telling him they had better be
married at once.

Accompanied by a few knights disguised as merchants, Ferdinand,
pretending to be their servant, during the entire journey waited on
them at table and took care of their mules. He entered Valladolid,
where he was received by the Archbishop of Toledo, who was in the
conspiracy, and was by him conveyed to Isabella's apartments. We are
told that when he entered someone exclaimed: _Ese-es, Ese-es_ (that
is he); and the escutcheon of the descendants of that knight has ever
since borne a double _S.S._, which sounds like this exclamation.

The marriage was arranged to take place in four days. An embarrassment
then occurred of which no one had before thought. Neither of them had
any money. But someone was found who would lend them enough for
the wedding expenses, and so on the 19th of October, 1469, the
most important marriage ever yet consummated in Spain took place--a
marriage which would forever set at rest the rivalries between Castile
and Aragon, and bring honors undreamed of to a united Spain.

Isabella was fair, intelligent, accomplished, and lovely. She was
eighteen and her boy husband was a year younger. Of course her royal
brother stormed and raged. But, of course, it did no good. In five
years from that time (1474) he died, and Isabella, royally attired,
and seated on a white palfrey, proceeded to the throne prepared
for her, and was there proclaimed "Queen of Castile." At the end
of another five years, Ferdinand came into his inheritance. His
old father, Juan II., King of Aragon and Navarre, died in 1479,
and Castile, Aragon, and Navarre--all of Spain except Portugal and
Granada--had come under the double crown of Ferdinand and Isabella.

The war with Portugal still existed, and their reign began in the
mi