madeleine92posts:Fernando and Isabel’s first meeting as described by Peggy K. Liss:„Two days later,
madeleine92posts:Fernando and Isabel’s first meeting as described by Peggy K. Liss:„Two days later, she and Fernando met for the first time. He came to Valladolid from Dueñas, secretly, with only three retainers, in the middle of the night, and entered the house by a postern gate. Carrillo greeted him—the archbishop tried to kiss his hand but Fernando instead embraced him—and led him inside to meet Isabel. As they entered the room, Cárdenas excitedly pointed him out to her: ¡ése es, ése es!—that is he, that is he! Cárdenas, as authorized by Isabel, ever after proudly bore two ss emblazoned on his coat of arms.Isabel was eighteen, auburn haired and comely, her blue-green eyes steady. From all indications she was tall and stately, her bearing regal. (Her surviving portraits show only a much older and ill queen). She saw enter the room a gallant youth, eyes sparkling, taut with energy, a cousin, and a very welcome one.40 She and he talked for two hours. “The presence of the Archbishop repressed the amorous impulses of the lovers,” according to Palencia, “though they soon enjoyed the licit joys of matrimony.”41 By all accounts, theirs was an instant attraction, and, remarkably, it proved a passionate and long-lasting love.A notary took down their formal promises to marry. Fernando gave Isabel customary, if unspecified, gifts and that night he returned to Dueñas. Through the formality of that first meeting is discernible mutual delight and the sense of a triumphal and momentous encounter, of danger and complicity heightening emotions. There is about that meeting too something calling to mind the chivalric and religious feat, St. George slaying the dragon and rescuing the maiden, a favorite in Catalan art. Even so, this was not simply a romantic encounter. It was a formal meeting of state concerning the union of Castile’s princess with Aragón’s prince and Sicily’s king. There were final contractual stipulations to be considered and there remained to be decided the many questions of protocol so vitally important to the rites of royalty.”The description of the meeting will differ depending on the author. Jaime Vicens Vives and Manuel Fernández Álvarez doubt that Cárdenas would present Fernando to Isabel in this way. Palencia does not cite it and they claim it was Carrillo who guided Fernando to Isabel’s chamber, so she couldn’t confuse him with other Aragoneses. However it is true Cárdenas had two ‘ss’ on his coat of arms. Luis Suárez Fernández tends to agree with Peggy K. Liss.Source: Peggy K. Liss. „Isabel the Queen” -- source link
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