Italy, and his conquest of Naples, to which the
crown of Aragon had just claims. His plan was to oppose to the mighty
consolidated power of France a family alliance with the
Austro-Burgundian House, with Portugal, above all with England: he
hoped that this would react on Italy, always wont to adhere to the
most powerful party. Ferdinand offered the King of England a marriage
between his youngest daughter Catharine and the Prince of Wales. In
the English Privy Council many objections were made to this; they did
not wish to draw the enmity of France on themselves and would have
rather seen the prince united to a princess of the house of Bourbon,
as was then proposed. It was on Henry VII's own responsibility that
the offer was accepted. In September 1496 an agreement was come to
about the conditions: on 15th August 1497 the ceremony of betrothal
took place in the palace at Woodstock.[77]

The motive which impelled Henry to his decision is sufficiently clear;
it was his relation to Scotland, on which the Spaniards already
exercised influence.

There the second pretender, Perkin Warbeck, had found a warm reception
from the young and chivalrous James IV: he there married a lady of one
of the chief houses: accompanied in person by this sovereign he made
an attempt to invade England, which only failed owing to the
unfavourable time of the year. The Spanish ambassador Pedro de Ayala
then out of regard to Henry secured Perkin's withdrawal from Scotland.
But in 1497 the danger revived in a yet greater degree. Warbeck landed
in Cornwall where all the inhabitants rallied round him, and a revolt
already once suppressed broke out again; at this moment James IV,
urged on by the nobles of the land, crossed the border with a splendid
army: the co-operation of the two movements might have placed the King
in a serious difficulty. Again it was the Spanish ambassador who made
James IV determine not to let himself be urged on further; but rather
to give him the commission, to adjust his differences with England.
Henry VII was set free to suppress the revolt in Cornwall; Perkin
Warbeck was taken in his flight.

As the object of the Spaniards was to sever Scotland from her old
alliance with France, and that too by means of a family alliance, it
was an essential point in their mediation that Henry VII, as he
betrothed his son Arthur to a Spanish Infanta, should similarly
betroth his daughter Margaret to James IV. The understanding with
Spai