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Enrique IV and Gregorio Marañón

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Daniel Eisenberg
Daniel Eisenberg*
Affiliation:
Florida State University
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Extract

Enrique IV is commonly acknowledged to be Spain's worst king; in the frequently picturesque words of Menéndez Pelayo, ‘son, sin duda, los veinte años de aquel reinado … uno de los más tristes y calamitosos períodos de nuestra historia.’ We can find favorable points about him, and there are many favorable comments in the early sources. We can point out that the contemporary opinion was much influenced by the comparison with his father, Juan II, whose reign was all show and little substance, and with his successor, Isabel la Católica, who with her husband concluded the reconquest of Granada, seen as the glorious culmination of eight centuries of struggle. Certain hard facts, however, remain.

Type
Research Article
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , Spring 1976 , pp. 21 - 29
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1976

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References

1 Antología de poetas líricos castellanos, ‘edición nacional,’ II (Madrid: CSIC, 1944), 285.

2 ‘Estas y otras virtudes tenía y cabían en él, aunque los que le erraron y dessirvieron le ynfamaron de lo contrario,’ concludes Pedro de Escavias in his chapter on Enrique in his Reportorio de príncipes, as edited by Juan Bautista Avalle-Arce, El cronista Pedro de Escavias, University of North Carolina Studies in Romance Languages and Literatures, No. 127 (Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1972), p. 232. (Escavias’ Reportorio was published in its entirety for the first time by Michel Garcia [Jaén: CSIC, 1972], an edition which I have not seen.)

With the exceptions of Escavias, Galíndez de Carvajal, and the anonymous Crónica castellana de Enrique IV, an edition of which, once promised by Mata Carriazo (see his ed. of Valera's Memorial de diversas hazañas [Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1941], p. lxvii), is long overdue, the early sources for study of Enrique are reviewed by Julio Puyol, ‘Los cronistas de Enrique IV,’ BRAH, 78 (1921), 399-414 and 488-495, and 79 (1921), 11-28 and 118-143; Puyol later discovered and edited the Crónica incompleta de los Reyes Católicos (Madrid: Academia de la Historia, 1946), which also includes extensive comments on Enrique. Little is added by Alonso, Benito Sánchez, Historia de la historiografia española, 1 (Madrid: CSIC, 1947).Google Scholar

3 ‘Nunca una ora sola quiso entender nin trabajar en el regimiento… . Tanta fue la negligençia e remision en la governaçóon del reino, dándose a otras obras más pazibles e deleitables que útiles nin onorables, que nunca en ello quiso entender… . La original cabsa de los daños de España fue la remisa e nigligente condiçión del rey,’ states de Guzmán, Fernán Pérez, Generaciones y semblanzas, ed. Tate, R. B. (London: Tamesis, 1965), pp. 39 and 47.Google Scholar

4 At the ‘farsa de Ávila,’ the cry was not ‘a tierra, tirano,’ but ‘a tierra, puto’ (Valera, pp. 97-99).

5 See Gary D. Keller, ‘Gregorio Marañón as Literary Critic, Literary Historian, and Biographer of Artists and Writers: His Impact and Significance,’ Diss. Columbia Univ. 1971; abstract in DAI, 34 (1974), 6644A-45A. This dissertation is in press for the University of North Carolina Studies in Romance Languages and Literatures.

6 I have used the edition in Marañón's Obras completas, v (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1970); it is also available in Espasa-Calpe's Colección Austral.

7 See Pidal, Ramón Menéndez, ed., Historia de España, xvii, Vol. 1 (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1969), xxx, and xv (1964), 221Google Scholar, and F. Soldevila, Historia de España, 2nd ed. (Barcelona: Ariel, 1962), II, 347. Marañón's conclusions are included in most histories of the period.

8 See Torres Fontes’ comments in the introduction to his edition of Lorenzo Galíndez de Carvajal's Crónica de Enrique IV (Madrid: CSIC, 1946).

9 Thus Georges Cirot, reviewing Marañón's book, ‘celle qu'émet D. Gregorio Marañón, en l'appuyant sur des considérants que je ne pouvais songer à mettre en ligne …’ (BHi, 33 [1931], 352). Other reviews, both favorable, are those of Erasmo Buceta (RFE, 18 [1931], 404-406) and J. Deleito y Piñuela (RBAM, 7 [1930], 410-412).

10 The question of the etiology or cause of homosexuality is one of the most controversial ones of contemporary psychiatry. The possibility of a physiological explanation has recently been revived; however, all modern authorities agree that neither a genetic nor hormonal disturbance, such as proposed by Marañón in his La evolución de la sexualidad y los estados intersexuales (Obras completas, viii [Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1972], 499-710), can be the sole cause. Most homosexuals, like most other people, are genetically normal, and homosexuality cannot be cured by hormonal therapy; see Hampson, John L. and Hampson, Joan G., ‘The Ontogenesis of Sexual Behavior in Man,’ in Sex and Internal Secretions, ed. Young, William C., 3rd ed. (Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, 1961), II, 1426-27Google Scholar; Money, John, ‘Sexual Dimorphism and Homosexual Gender Identity,’ Psychological Bulletin, 74 (1970), 425–440 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; and Money, John and Ehrhardt, Anke A., Man and Woman, Boy and Girl: The Differentiation in Dimorphism of Gender Identity (Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins, 1972), pp. 227–235.Google Scholar

11 For recent theories concerning the cause of acromegaly, see Cryer, Philip E. et al., ‘Diagnosis and Therapy of Acromegaly,’ Archives of Internal Medicine, 135 (1975), 338–343.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

12 Furno, Abel, ‘Studio di genetica e di clinica sopra cinque casi di eunucoidismo heredofamiliare,’ Rivista di Patologia Nervosa e Mentale, 26 (1922), 245–284.Google Scholar

13 In a standard reference work, Louis Soffer's Diseases of the Endocrine System, 2nd ed. (Philadelphia: Lea and Febiger, 1956), I find no mention of eunuchoidism as a cause of acromegaly. Eunuchoidism can cause gigantism, but this is primary eunuchoidism, ‘due to atrophy, destruction, or surgical removal of the gonads before puberty’ (p. 127), commonly caused by cryptorchidism (undescended testicles) with atrophy of the testes; certainly it could not be caused by such a mild disturbance as would leave the subject with an abundant beard.

14 Cronica de Enrique IV, BAE, 70 (1878; rpt. Madrid: Atlas, 1953), 101.

15 Crónica de Enrique IV, tr. A. Paz y Melia, 2nd ed., BAE, 257 (Madrid: Atlas, 1973), 11.

16 ‘Fue tan cortés, tan mensurado e gracioso, que a ninguno hablando jamás decía de tú, ni consintió que le besasen la mano. Hacía poca estima de sí mesmo’ (Enríquez del Castillo, p. 101; cf. Escavias, p. 231). Palencia (pp. 11-12) says that this apparently innocent act ‘dimanaba de causa menos pura’ than humility, no doubt attaching a political significance to it, an implication which completely escaped Marañón.

17 Claros varones de Castilla, ed. Robert B. Tate (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971), p. 5. Pulgar's later and broader statement of Enrique's impotence, in his Crónica de los Reyes Católicos, BAE, 70, p. 234, is transparently a justification of the accession of Isabel (Puyol, BRAH, 79 [1921], 131).

18 For the document, see Memorias de Enrique IV de Castilla, II [only vol. published] (Madrid: Academia de la Historia, 1835-1913), 62-64; I quote from Marañón, p. 110.

19 I am thus returning to the position of Sitges, J. B., Enrique IV y la excelente señora llamada vulgarmente La Beltraneja (Madrid, 1912).Google Scholar The only early statement that Enrique had any medical problem in his youth—the silence of the historians of the reign of Juan II is itself evidence that he was normal—is misquoted by Marañón; it is Palencia's statement that ‘desde su niñez había manifestado señales de futura impotencia’ (p. 10; Marañón, p. 110, changes ‘futura’ to ‘su’). What these ‘señales’ were is not explained. (At the same time Palencia tells us that his father, Juan, encouraged the marriage with Blanca because he wished to find out if Enrique was suited for marriage, a contradiction.) What the statement does clearly show is that Enrique's impotence was not present at that time, since it was ‘futura.’ The more impartial Pulgar (Claros varones, p. 6) states that Enrique's impotence was seen in his second marriage.

20 Males, James L. and Townsend, John L., ‘Acromegaly: An Analysis of 20 Cases,’ Southern Medical Journal, 65 (1972), 323 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Williams, Robert H., Textbook of Endocrinology, 4th ed. (Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders, 1968), p. 73.Google Scholar

21 The phrase is that of Miller, Townsend, Henry IV of Castile (Philadelphia and New-York: Lippincott, 1972), p. 118.Google Scholar

22 See Soldevila, pp. 351-371, and also Moreno, A. Ruiz, ‘Enfermedades y muertes de los reyes de Asturias, León y Castilla,’ Cuadernos de Historia de España, 6 (1946), 127–128.Google Scholar

23 As witness the heat of the answer of Llanos, F. de y Torriglia, (‘Isabel la Católica y Juana la Beltraneja,’ BRAH, 118 [1946], 207–217 Google Scholar) to the book of Ferrara, Orestes (Un pleito sucesorio. Enrique IV, Isabel de Castilla y La Beltraneja [Madrid: Ediciones ‘La Nave,’ 1945]Google Scholar), and of his further answer (‘Aclaraciones finales en lo de la Beltraneja,’ BRAH, 120 [1947], 471-492) to the reply of Ferrara (Madrid, 1947); on a somewhat higher level, there were two immediate Castilian responses, by Fernández, Luis Suárez, (‘En torno al pacto de los Toros de Guisando,’ Hispania [Madrid], 23 [1963], 345–364 Google Scholar,) and by Fontes, Juan Torres (‘La contratación de Guisando,’ Anuario de Estudios Medievales, 2 [1965], 399–428 Google Scholar), to the more recent attack on Isabel by the Vives, Catalan Jaime Vicens, in his Historia crítica de la vida y reinado de Fernando II de Aragón (Zaragoza, 1962).Google Scholar On the emotional content of discussions of medieval Spanish history, see also Bargebuhr, Frederick, The Alhambra (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1968), pp. 9–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

24 Blanca's father, Juan II of Aragon, put the blame on her (Miller, p. 29).

25 Francisco de Alesón's continuation of Moret's Anales del reino de Navarra, iv (1766; rpt. Bilbao: Gran Enciclopedia Vasca, 1969), 519: ‘le faltaba el apetito y aun la fuerza para el uso lícito del matrimonio, especialmente con quien estaba doncella.’

26 Miller attempts to reconstruct the scene, pp. 26-28.

27 William Phillips, Jr. (in ‘Castile in Crisis: The Reign of Enrique IV, 1454-1474,’ a heavily revised version of his dissertation, ‘Enrique IV of Castile, 1454-1474,’ Diss. NYU 1971; abstract in DAI, 32 [1972], 3903A), presents documentary evidence that Enrique's Moorish guard was composed of Christianized Moors, rewarded for their conversion; when added to the fact that Isabel as well as Enrique used Moorish dress ( Bernis, Carmen, ‘Modas moriscas en la sociedad cristiana española del siglo XV y principios del XVI,’ BRAH, 144 [1959], 199–228 Google Scholar), this provides convincing evidence that the maurophilia of Enrique has been distorted. Phillips also presents additional evidence in favor of the rehabilitation of Enrique; he sees him as less subject to the influence of his valido than commonly thought, and the appointment of lower-class figures to high posts as a deliberate political measure against the nobility. Many of the internal measures for which the Reyes Católicos are so admired have their origin in Enrique's reign. I should like to thank Dr. Phillips for letting me read his unpublished manuscript.

27 William Phillips, Jr. (in ‘Castile in Crisis: The Reign of Enrique IV, 1454-1474,’ a heavily revised version of his dissertation, ‘Enrique IV of Castile, 1454-1474,’ Diss. NYU 1971; abstract in DAI, 32 [1972], 3903A), presents documentary evidence that Enrique's Moorish guard was composed of Christianized Moors, rewarded for their conversion; when added to the fact that Isabel as well as Enrique used Moorish dress ( Bernis, Carmen, ‘Modas moriscas en la sociedad cristiana española del siglo XV y principios del XVI,’ BRAH, 144 [1959], 199–228 Google Scholar), this provides convincing evidence that the maurophilia of Enrique has been distorted. Phillips also presents additional evidence in favor of the rehabilitation of Enrique; he sees him as less subject to the influence of his valido than commonly thought, and the appointment of lower-class figures to high posts as a deliberate political measure against the nobility. Many of the internal measures for which the Reyes Católicos are so admired have their origin in Enrique's reign. I should like to thank Dr. Phillips for letting me read his unpublished manuscript.