Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III THE LITERARY COURT OF JUAN II. ..'.'; - The reign of Juan n. is one of the longest and most troubled in the history of Castile. In his second year he succeeded his father, Enrique el Doliente, at the end of 1406, and for almost half a century he was the sport of fortune. Enrique m.'s frail body was tenanted by a masterful spirit: his son was a puppet in the hands of favourites or of factions. Juan n.'s uncle Fernando de Antequera (so called from his brilliant campaign against the Moors in 1410, celebrated in the popular romances) acted as regent of Castile till he was called to the throne of Aragon in 1412, when the regency was assumed by the Queen-Mother, Catherine of Lancaster. The generosity of contemporaries and the gallantry of elderly historians lead them to judge Queen- Mothers with indulgence ; but Catherine is admitted to have been a grotesque and incapable figurehead, controlled by Fernan Alonso de Robles, a clever upstart. Declared of age in 1419, Juan n. soon fell under the dominion of Alvaro de Luna, a young Aragonese who had come to court in 1408, and had therefore known the king from childhood. Raised to the high post of Constable of Castile, Alvaro de Luna resolved to crush the seditious nobles, and to make his master a sovereign in fact as well as in name. But the king was a weakling who could be bullied out of any resolution. Factious revolts were met with alternate savagery and weakness. Opportunities were thrown away. The victory over the Moors at La Higuera in 1431, and the routof the rebel nobles at Olraedo in 1445, failed to strengthen the royal authority. At a critical moment, when he seemed in a fair way to triumph, Alvaro de Luna made an irremediable mistake. In 1447 he promoted the marriage of Juan n. with Isabel of Portugal: she was ' th...