counsel is that of a woman," and surely Isabella
acted upon that supposition. This is not all, however, for not only was
a woman called to give lessons to the queen, but women were intrusted
with important university positions, which they filled with no small
credit to themselves. Good Dr. Holmes has said: "Our ice-eyed
brain-women are really admirable if we only ask of them just what they
can give and no more," but the bluestockings of Isabella's day were by
no means ice-eyed or limited in their accomplishments, and they managed
to combine a rare grace and beauty of the dark southern type with a
scholarship which was most unusual, all things taken into consideration.
Dona Francisca de Lebrija, a daughter of the great Andalusian humanist
Antonio de Lebrija, followed her father's courses in the universities of
Seville, Salamanca, and Alcala, and finally, in recognition of her great
talents, she was invited to lecture upon rhetoric before the Alcala
students. At Salamanca, too, there was a liberal spirit shown toward
women, and there it was that Dona Lucia de Medrano delivered a course of
most learned lectures upon classical Latinity. These are merely the more
illustrious among the learned women of the time, and must not be
considered as the only cases on record. Educational standards for the
majority of both men and women were not high, as a matter of course,
and, from the very nature of things, there were more learned men than
learned women; but the fact remains that Isabella's position in the
whole matter, her desire to learn and her desire to give other women the
same opportunity and the same desire, did much to encourage an ambition
of this kind among the wives and daughters of Spain. The queen was a
conspicuous incarnation of woman's possibilities, and her enlightened
views did much to broaden the feminine horizon. Where she led the way
others dared to follow, and the net result was a distinct advance in
national culture.

In spite of all this intellectual advance, the game of politics was
still being played, and women were still, in more than one instance, the
unhappy pawns upon the board who were sacrificed from time to time in
the interest of some important move. The success of Spanish unity had
aroused Spanish ambition, Fernando and Isabella had arranged political
marriages for their children, and the sixteenth century was to show
that, in one instance at least, this practical and utilitarian view of
the marriag