108 CASTILE UNDER HENRY IV. F.iRT tj eagerly thronged to render him the homage due ^ — - to his rank. ^° The intelligence of Ferdinand's arrival diffused universal joy in the little court of Isabella at Valla- dolid. Her first step was to transmit a letter to her brother Henry, in which she informed him of the presence of the prince in his dominions, and of their intended marriage. She excused the course she had taken by the embarrassments, in which she had been involved by the malice of her enemies. She represented the political advantages of the con- nexion, and the sanction it had received from the Castilian nobles ; and she concluded with soliciting his approbation of it, giving him at the same time affectionate assurances of the most dutiful submis- sion both on the part of Ferdinand and of herself. ^^ Arrangements were then made for an interview between the royal pair, in which some courtly parasites would fain have persuaded their mistress to require some act of homage from Ferdinand, in token of the inferiority of the crown of Aragon to that of Castile ; a proposition which she rejected with her usual discretion. ^^ Private in- Agrceablv to these arranjrcments, Ferdinand, on terviewbe- b .7 fe ' 5 Immnm"!'!" ^^^ evcuiug of the 15th of October, passed private- ly from Dueilas, accompanied only by four attend- ants, to the neighbouring city of Valladolid, where he was received by the archbishop of Toledo, and CO Alonso de Palencia, Cor6nica, 12th, is cited at length by Castillo, MS., part. 2, cap. 14. — Zurita, Cronica, cap. 136. Anales, loc. cit. 6- Alonso de Palencia, Cor6nica, 61 This letter, dated October MS., part. 2, cap. 15.
