ABSTRACT
Nor, passing by many· celebrities and approaching our own day, can we ever forget Elizabeth ofEngland, a woman to the formation of whosecharacter the three Furies and the three Graces contributed in equal measure; and whose conduct as a sovereign would always command . the admiration of the whole of Europe, had her life agreed with her maxims; but her image is always presl:mted to posterity tinged with the blood of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland. Nor Catherine of Medici, Queen of France, with her sagacity in maintaining in equilibrium the two contending parties of Catholics and Calvinists, that she
might delay .the fall of the crown. She acted as with the agility of a tight-rope dancer on a high and delicate rope; holding in her hand the. two opposing weights, she saved herself from falling and watched the course of circumstances, daring the risk and avoiding defeat. Our Isabella the Catholic would have been inferior to none of those already named in her administration of government, if she had possessed the regal power of a queen. . As ~t was, occasions were not wanting when her actiOns displayed consummate prudenc~. Laurence Beyerlink remarks in his eulogium that nothing great was done in her day of which she was not either the part or the whole:-·" Quidmagni in regno, sine illa, imo nisi per illam fere gestum est ? '' · At any rate the discovery of theN ew World, the most glorious triumph of Spain during many centuries, could not have been accomplished if the magnanimity of Isabella. had not conquered the fears and the inertia. of Ferdinand_
In conclusion, it appears clearly (though an accurate calculation is difficult) that amongt:t the queens called absolute, the greater part have been celebrated in history as excellent governors. Unfortunately we have the examples of Brunhilda and Fredigonda, of the two J oanna.s of Naples, and of others. With regard, however, to the two first, though they excelled in ma.lice, they were not wanting in sagacity.
