to have lavished on his lovely consort those attentions for
which the unfortunate Mary Tudor had pined in vain. Besides a rare
display of jewels, Isabella's wardrobe was exceedingly rich. Few of her
robes cost less than three or four hundred crowns each,--a great sum for
the time. Like her namesake and contemporary, Elizabeth of England, she
rarely wore the same dress twice. But she gave away the discarded suit
to her attendants,[479] unlike in this to the English queen, who hoarded
up her wardrobe so carefully, that at her death it must have displayed
every fashion of her reign. Brantome, who, both as a Frenchman and as
one who had seen the queen often in the court of Castile, may be
considered a judge in the matter, dwells with rapture on the elegance of
her costume, the matchless taste in its arrangement, and the perfection
of her _coiffure_.

A manuscript of the time, by an eye-witness, gives a few particulars
respecting her manner of living, in which some readers may take an
interest. Among the persons connected with the queen's establishment,
the writer mentions her confessor, her almoner, and four physicians. The
medical art seems to have been always held in high repute in Spain,
though in no country, considering the empirical character of its
professors, with so little reason. At dinner the queen was usually
attended by some thirty of her ladies. Two of them, singularly enough as
it may seem to us, performed the office of carvers. Another served as
cupbearer, and stood by her majesty's chair. The rest of her attendants
stood round the apartment, conversing with their gallants, who, in a
style to which she had not been used in the French courts, kept their
heads covered during the repast. "They were there," they said, "not to
wait on the queen, but her ladies." After her solitary meal was over,
Isabella retired with her attendants to her chamber, where, with the aid
of music, and such mirth as the buffoons and jesters of the palace could
afford, she made shift to pass the evening.[480]

Such is the portrait which her contemporaries have left us of Elizabeth
of France; and such the accounts of her popularity with the nation, and
the state maintained in her establishment. Well might Brantome sadly
exclaim, "Alas! what did it all avail?" A few brief years only were to
pass away before this spoiled child of fortune, the delight of the
monarch, the ornament and pride of the court, was to exchange the pomps
and glori