Ferdinand for regarding
the marriage treaty between Arthur and Katharine as in abeyance, and once
more pressure was put upon Henry to buy its fulfilment by another warlike
coalition. The King of England stood out for a time, especially against an
alliance with the King of the Romans, who had acted so badly about
Brittany; but at length the English contingent was led against Boulogne by
the King himself, as part of the allied action agreed upon. This time,
however, it was Henry who, to prevent the betrayal he foresaw, scored off
his allies, and without striking a blow he suddenly made a separate peace
with France (November 1492). But yet he was the only party who had not
gained what he had bid for. Roussillon and Cerdagne were restored to
Ferdinand, in consequence of Henry's threat against Boulogne; France had
been kept in check during the time that all the resources of Spain were
strained in the supreme effort to capture the last Moorish foothold in the
Peninsula, the peerless Granada; the King of France had married the
Duchess of Brittany and had thus consolidated and strengthened his realm;
whilst Henry, to his chagrin, found that not only had he not regained
Normandy and Guienne, but that in the new treaty of peace between Spain
and France, "Ferdinand and Isabel engage their loyal word and faith as
Christians, not to conclude or permit any marriage of their children with
any member of the royal family of England; and they bind themselves to
assist the King of France against all his enemies, and _particularly
against the English_." This was Henry's first experience of Ferdinand's
diplomacy, and he found himself outwitted at every point. Katharine, all
unconscious as she conned her childish lessons at Granada, ceased for a
time to be called "Princess of Wales."

With the astute King of England thus cozened by Ferdinand, it is not
wonderful that the vain and foolish young King of France should also have
found himself no match for his new Spanish ally. Trusting upon his
alliance, Charles VIII. determined to strike for the possession of the
kingdom of Naples, which he claimed as representing the house of Anjou.
Naples at the time was ruled by a close kinsman of Ferdinand, and it is
not conceivable that the latter ever intended to allow the French to expel
him for the purpose of ruling there themselves. But he smiled, not
unkindly at first, upon Charles's Italian adventure, for he knew the
French king was rash and incompet