216 THE REGENCY OF FERDINAND. I'ART liouis the Twelfth had viewed with much satis- '- — faction the OTowing; misunderstanding; betwixt Phil- Policyof . . . . j.ouisXH. ip and his father-in-law, and had cunningly used his influence over the young prince to foment it. He felt the deepest disquietude at the prospect of the enormous inheritance which was to devolve on the former, comprehending Burgundy and Flanders, Austria, and probably the Empire, together with the united crowns of Spain and their rich depen- dencies. By the proposed marriage, a dismem- berment might be made at least of the Spanish monarchy ; and the kingdoms of Castile and Ara- gon, passing under different sceptres, might serve, as they had formerly done, to neutralize each other. It was true, this would involve a rupture with Philip, to whose son his own daughter was prom- ised in marriage. But this match, extremely dis- tasteful to his subjects, gradually became so to Louis, as every way prejudicial to the interests of France.-^ Without much delay, therefore, preliminaries were arranged with the Aragoncse envoy, and imme- 1505. diately after, in the month of August, the count of Cifuentes, and Thomas Malferit, regent of the royal chancery, were publicly sent as plenipotentiaries on Sandoval, an historian of the latter firstoffer of King Ferdinand, makes half of the sixteenth century, whose him afterwards propose for a daujih- naked assertion cannot be p(^rmil- tor of King iMuaiinel, or in oilier ted to counterbalance the strong words, his own {rranildaugiiter ! testimony afforded by the silence of Ilist. des Fran^ais, torn. xv. chap. contemporaries and the general dis- 30. creditof succeeding writers. (Hist. 23 flcurange. II6moircs, chap, del Emp. Carlos V., torn. i. p. 10.) 15. — Seyssel, IIist.de LouysXIl., Sismondi, not content with this pp. 2"J3 -2'J'J.
