gory X. then was, to advocate his
rights before that dignitary. But the sovereign pontiff decided in
favour of Rodolph of Hapsburg, a scion of the house of Austria.

C, page 136.

_Sancho reigned in his father's stead, &c._

This Sancho, surnamed _the Brave_, who took up arms against his father
and afterward obtained his throne, was the second son of Alphonso the
Sage. His elder brother, Ferdinand de la Cerda, a mild and virtuous
prince, died in the {223} flower of his age, leaving two infant sons,
the offspring of his marriage with Blanche, the daughter of St. Lewis
of France. It was to deprive these children of their reversionary
right to the crown of Castile that the ambitious Sancho made war upon
his father. He succeeded in his criminal designs; but the princes of
La Cerda, protected by France and Aragon, rallied around them all the
malecontents of Castile, and the claims they were thus enabled to
support long formed a pretext or occasion for the most bloody
dissensions.

D, page 149.

_Ferdinand IV., surnamed the Summoned, &c._

Ferdinand IV., the son and successor of Sancho the Brave, was still in
his infancy when he succeeded to the throne. His minority was
overshadowed by impending clouds; but the power and influence of Queen
Mary, his mother, enabled her eventually to dissipate the dangers which
threatened the safety of her son. This prince obtained his appellation
of _the Summoned_ from the following circumstance. Actuated by
feelings of strong indignation, Ferdinand commanded that two brothers,
named Carvajal, who had been accused, but not convicted, of the crime
of assassination, should be precipitated from a rocky precipice. Both
the supposed criminals, in their last moments, asserted their innocence
of the crime alleged against them, appealed to Heaven and the laws to
verify the truth of their protestations, and summoned the passionate
Ferdinand to appear before the Great Judge of all men at the end of
thirty days. At the precise time thus indicated, the Castilian king,
who was marching against the Moors, retired for repose after dinner,
and was found dead upon his couch. The Spaniards attributed this
sudden death to the effects of Divine justice. It had been well if the
{224} monarchs who succeeded Ferdinand, Peter the Cruel in particular,
had been convinced of the truth of this sentiment.

E, page 149.

_Retiring within the walls of Tariffe, &c._

After Sancho the Brave becam