of
Castile as well. This fact caused much uneasiness in Spain, as such an
outcome was most unexpected. Secret agents who had been sent to Flanders
to inquire into the political and religious views of the archduchess
brought back most discouraging reports. It was asserted that she was no
longer a careful Catholic, that she "had little or no devotion," and
that she was "in the hands of worthless clerics from Paris." As a matter
of fact, Juana, once freed from the ecclesiastical restraints which had
been imposed upon her in her younger days by her pious mother, did what
it was most natural for her to do,--she went to the opposite extreme.
Spain, at that time, with its Inquisition and its fervid zeal for Rome,
was the most religious country in Europe, while in the Netherlands there
was a growing liberal spirit which attracted the archduchess. It must
have been annoying to her to feel that her mother, Isabella, was in a
constant fret about the condition of her soul, while otherwise she was
treated with a distant formality, entirely devoid of a mother's love,
and it is no small wonder that she refused to accept a spiritual
director and father confessor who had been sent from Spain to save her
from perdition.

With all these facts in mind, Isabella was greatly troubled, for the
thought that the indifferent Juana might some day reign in her stead and
undo all that she had done with so much labor for the glory of the
Church was naturally repugnant to her devout nature. Finally, after a
son was born to Juana, Charles, who was to become at a later day the
Emperor Charles V., the queen decided upon a somewhat doubtful procedure
to avert, for a time at least, the impending catastrophe. The Cortes,
under royal pressure, was induced to provide for the government after
Isabella's death, in case Juana might be absent from the kingdom, or in
case of her "being present in Castile, but, unwilling or unable to
reign." Under any or all of those circumstances, it was provided that
Fernando should act as regent until her son Charles had reached his
twentieth year, a rather unusual age, at a time when young princes were
frequently declared to have attained their majority at fifteen or
sixteen. Isabella's intention in all this was too obvious, for it was
plainly a part of her plan that Juana should never have any share in the
government of the country of which she was the rightful heir. The whole
transaction smacks strongly of duplicity of the w