For Ferdinand, Isabella's death not only meant that he had become a widower, but worse, he had found himself in an extremely difficult situation.

The rebellion in the south and the clash with the Portuguese made the situation in Castile tense for a moment, and it was only at this time that the report of the defeat of the Aragonese fleet was even worse.

Ferdinand was not without such a dilemma, and when he and Isabella married despite Enrique's strong opposition, they faced a difficult situation, and even though they later overthrew Enrique and made Isabella queen, they were still in a difficult situation when they fought with Juana for the throne of Castile.

But those are nothing compared to the predicament at hand.

Ferdinand now faced real internal and external troubles, he had to deal with those enemies in the open, and at the same time he had to compete with those in the shadows, and even in Aragon, he did not know who was secretly against him, and even within Aragon, some people were also adamantly opposed to the complete annexation of Aragon after the union of the two countries due to the strength of Castile.

Ferdinand was exhausted by all these obstacles, and in the delicate circumstances of the situation, he feared that perhaps a small spark might ignite a raging fire.

And this fear of his has just become a reality.

On the fifth day of February 1502, the first Sunday after Queen Isabella's burial, all the churches of the parish of Barriaridud were opened, and people went into the churches to pray for the Queen's soul and to bless her in heaven for her glory.

According to the diocese, the Barriarides were required to wear dark clothes to herald mourning on this day, and all shops were closed, and the vaudevilles who could often be seen on the streets temporarily closed their stalls, the last day of civil mourning for the queen and the beginning of the "post-Isabella era".

From this day on, Isabella will truly become the history of Castile, and the next step will be to prepare for the coronation of a new queen.

And now it seems that Juana's accession to the throne is bound to be presided over by the pope himself.

Despite his resentment of Alexander VI's duplicity, Ferdinand sent an invitation to the pope, who was now residing in Toledo, asking Alexander VI to crown Juana, while hinting that Alexander VI could be offered a "fairly generous annuity" as proof of his respect for the pope.

Ferdinand was so generous because he needed Alexander VI to help him stand firm at this time, and he thought that the pope might have been waiting for such a good moment of blackmail, so he decided to satisfy Alexander VI's greed in exchange for precious time to deal with the troubles at hand.

In the early morning of February 5th, people were leaving their homes early, and the streets were full of flowing dark water, and the city of Ariaridotus had never been so quiet as it was today.

Ferdinand arrived at the cathedral before dawn, where he received the audience of the princes and nobles who had been waiting there, and then led the people to pray for the last time to the sarcophagus placed in the cathedral's chamber.

The chamber was not small, and Isabella's sarcophagus, covered with a statue of her life, was placed on a marble platform on the right side, and the one on the left was now empty, which Ferdinand had prepared for himself, and when he died, he and his wife would be placed in this chamber, and they would spend the long years to come.

In other parts of the city, such prayers are performed at the same time, and the churches celebrate the Queen's Requiem Mass throughout the day.

A few men walked down the alley on the dirty water that had accumulated on the ground from the rain on the previous day, and the swaying figures of the people on both sides of the street were cast into the alley, making these people look even more sneaky.

These people were dressed in dirty clothes, and they looked like beggars who often appeared in the streets, but their eyes were shining, and there was a sly look in their eyes as they looked at the crowd.

"They look so pleasant," said one of the men to his companion suddenly, and although it seemed too strange to say such a thing at this time, it did not make his companion feel uncomfortable, but instead his companion smiled knowingly, "I don't know how many people go to church to pray." ”

"Don't worry about the number of people, it's enough for us," a man who looked like a leader turned back to a few of his companions, "don't be too greedy, sometimes discontentment can make people lose their heads." ”

"I'm teaching again." The man who had spoken before muttered something under his breath, but he didn't say anything else, and stared at the crowd as his companions walked by.

Gradually, there were fewer people on the street, and then every once in a while someone passed by the alleyway, and the eyes of these people began to become impatiently impatient, and even the leader, who seemed calm at first, had licked the corners of his dry mouth more than once.

Eventually, the streets became more crowded, and the nearby church was filled with the sound of prayers.

A few people began to move, they first ran to the entrance of the alley to look on both sides, and when they saw that there was no one on the street, they quickly ran down the street towards a house in the opposite direction of the church.

This is where the wealthy of the city of Barriaridud lived, with houses of various styles stretching along the streets and terrain in the distance, and in contrast to the apparently old places of the school street, most of the people living here were wealthy merchants, especially with the development of the new colonies, some of the nouveau riche who did make a lot of money bought real estate in the city, and this area became the first choice of the rich because of the many luxurious mansions.

A few beggar-like men hurried across the street to the outside of a house with a high wall, and when they looked to both sides of the street to make sure that no one was noticed, several men immediately climbed up the wall and climbed into the courtyard with their hands and feet.

This scene was not discovered, and the Barriedodians all went to the church, and many of them could not squeeze into the church gates, so they could only pray for the queen in the open space of the square outside.

During Isabella's reign, the Castilian saw a majestic and courageous queen, whose status in the eyes of the people was so high that a poet proclaimed in her lifetime with exclamations, "If such a queen cannot be a saint, then I do not know who meets that demanding standard."

Now, she was finally able to lie quietly in the sarcophagus, no longer having to worry about the people of her country, except that the Castilian people were more worried about their future after she left.

People prayed, some worried about the future of the country, others worried about whether the new queen's accession to the throne would bring all kinds of changes to their lives.

Suddenly, several panicked figures ran out of a diagonal street, and these people ran towards the crowd in a panic, shouting and shouting regardless of the solemn atmosphere in the square, which destroyed people's already depressed mood.

The people in the square began to shout at these guys who didn't understand the rules, and some people grabbed them and prepared to teach them a good lesson.

But the men didn't care about it at all, and one of them, after falling, got up and ran forward covered in mud, while they kept shouting, "Thief! Thief! ”

A few guards guarding the edge of the square finally noticed these people, and they immediately rushed up and forced a few people to stop with their spears, and one of the leading soldiers even drew his sword and smashed a guy in front of him who was still screaming with a heavy hilt.

The confusion in the square attracted the attention of the people in the church, and a man who was also dressed in black, but whose embroidery was quite cumbersome, came out of it, and at first he tried to ask the soldiers impatiently what was going on, but when he saw one of them, he immediately became nervous.

"That man is my servant," he said first to the soldiers, and then shouted to the servant who saw that his master was already eager to rush over, "what has happened?" ”

"Oh sir, it's so bad!" The servant shouted and shouted to his master, and his shout was clearly heard by everyone around him, "The house has been stolen, no!" It's robbed! ”

"What did you say, who was robbed?" When the old man was startled, although he knew that his own family was likely to suffer when he saw his servant, he still asked with a fluke thought.

"They were all robbed master, and many people were robbed by those thieves! They broke through the empty door while the owners of the house came to pray, and some of the people in the house let them faint or tie them up, God, sir, go and see, our family is terrible! ”

The shouts of the servants caused a commotion among the people around them, and although most of the people in the square were ordinary people, many of them could no longer hold their breath when they heard what the servants said.

At first, some people just looked at the people next to them and didn't dare to leave, but when they saw that someone had slipped away quietly in the crowd far away, those people couldn't bear it anymore, and vaguely said to the people next to them that they didn't know what it was, and they hurried to their own direction.

The old man couldn't hold his breath at this time, he knew that since his own servants had come to report the news, the family must have suffered a lot of losses after being patronized by those thieves, although it was indeed important to make a requiem mass for the queen, but the loss of his own family could not be ignored.

He hesitated for a moment and was about to follow the servants back, but the servants of the other families immediately shouted again.

The noise outside finally attracted the attention of more people in the church, and some people came out to see who was so bold as to disturb such a solemn ceremony, but the news they brought back made the church chaotic as well.

The priests had to ring the bell to try to warn the parishioners to be silent, but the majesty of the Church was no longer in force.

More and more people became nervous when they heard about what was going on outside, whether their homes had been ransacked or not, and people who feared that they would no longer be able to pray began to quietly leave the church and run for their lives.

This kind of thing happened in many places in Barrialidod, and when reports of people breaking into the empty door because they had gone out to attend the queen's requiem prayer reached the cathedral, some of the great nobles who had received the news finally couldn't sit still.

Ferdinand, who was sitting at the front, sensed the commotion behind him, but he just quietly adjusted to the people around him to see what was happening.

The report that followed made Ferdinand stunned and furious!

The Barrialydots, who rushed home to check on the situation, soon discovered that they were not the only ones who had been unlucky, as the homes of some commoners had been ransacked, and the homes of some nobles had suffered heavy losses.

What is even more surprising is that some citizens rushed back early because they heard the news, and inadvertently collided with those bandits.

Although the men immediately and cleverly fled, the typical eastern Catalan accent could still be heard in the tone of the voices in which they greeted their companions as they fled.

Aragonese!

The Barriarides immediately determined that the people who had ransacked their houses while they were praying were homeless men from Aragon, who had apparently been prepared to make a big deal on the Queen's Requiem Day.

Aragonese!

On the solemn and sacred Day of Requiem, the Aragonese took the opportunity to rob the poor citizens of Barrialydot in mourning!

When the news was reported to Ferdinand, who was still in the cathedral for requiem prayers, Ferdinand was shocked and then angry, and then quickly fell into a great panic.

He was keenly aware that this was a conspiracy, and while he didn't know who was planning to frame him, he knew that the conspiracy must have pushed him to the edge of a terrible abyss.

Listening to the angry shouts of the Bararidots outside the cathedral, Fidinan could no longer hold on, he resolutely stood up and walked up to the archbishop, took his hand and kissed it, and then hurriedly apologized, and immediately walked outside with a group of noble ministers who were also already nervous.

At this time, even the Castilian nobles, who had little affection for Ferdinand, became nervous because they knew that something serious might happen, and some of the nobles had ordered the city defenses to be mobilized to prepare for possible riots, while the officials of Aragon sent letters to the Aragonese places in the city, asking them to prepare for possible riots.

But these orders were still too late.

There were already many Aragonese people attending Isabella's Requiem Mass, and when rumors spread that the "Forty Thieves of Catalonia" had sacked Barriedot, the eyes of the people on those Aragonese became more and more fierce.

Some of the clever Aragonese immediately fled or panicked to find their companions and gather together, but the unfortunate Aragonese became the target of their anger.

No one knew where to start, and someone shouted and rushed towards the Aragonese.

The anger of the thieves was instantly taken out on every Aragonese they saw, beating up strangers who didn't look like Castile in the streets, whether they were from Aragon, Portugal or somewhere else.

Anger makes people not want to tell the difference.

More people shouted and poured into the Aragonese neighborhood with whatever weapons they could get their hands on, and even though bands of the city guards appeared in the streets, the crowd seemed to be a surging wave, instantly drowning the rows of city guard soldiers.

At this time, some of the Aragonese who had already received the news were hurriedly closing the doors and windows and closing the bunks, but this did nothing to stop the Castilian who had lost their last sanity due to anger.

They stormed the homes and shops of the Aragonese and vandalized them, and in some places there was already terrible bloodshed.

Ferdinand's worst fears finally happened, when he led his men to the streets of the Aragonese settlement, they saw the devastation and the shocking puddles of blood on the ground.

Ferdinand, who was on his horse, trembled slightly, he didn't know how many people had been killed and wounded in the riot that had just occurred, but the blood on the ground seemed to remind him that a great rift that might split Castile and Aragon was in front of him.

"Order the city defense forces to maintain order, and from now on the whole city will be under martial law, and anyone who disobeys the order will be severely punished."

Ferdinand commanded the generals with a gloomy expression, he had never been more angry, not only because of what had happened to the Aragonese, but also because he realized that the riot had threatened him.

Many Castilians were nervous about the sudden riots, and they knew very well what terrible things the angry people would do, and some of the veterans who had participated in the Reconquista still remembered the atrocities that had taken place during the occupation of Granada, and they had told their children and grandchildren about them as feats, but now that they saw them in Barrialidod, they could not help but become afraid

"I beg your pardon, your majesty, such an order can only be given by the queen," Don Marcolosbine, who had been silently accompanying him, suddenly spoke, and his words made everyone around him look surprised, although he soon realized that the queen he was talking about was actually Juana, but at that moment, people could not help but have a strange thought in their hearts.

"But Juana hasn't succeeded to the throne yet!"

Ferdinand looked at the treasurer in disgust, who had refused to hand over the keys to the Queen's treasury and accounts after Isabella's death, on the grounds that they were for the Queen's heirs.

Now seeing that he was again opposing his martial law on such grounds, Ferdinand could not help but feel a deep disgust with Don Marcellosbeine from the bottom of his heart.

He said in a stiff tone, "I am the regent of Juana." ”

"I'm sorry Your Majesty, but the current regent of Castile is Princess Juana," the treasurer retorted quietly, "unless the Queen has now succeeded to the throne and you have officially assumed the duties of regent, and you can only fulfill your regency power when the Queen is unable to fulfill her duties, you must obtain Princess Juana's authorization to order martial law throughout the city." ”

Ferdinand glared at Don Marcellosbyne, he knew that this man was deliberately using these so-called red tape to remind him that he was not the monarch of Castile, which might not have annoyed him in normal times, but now it made Ferdinand feel that this Don Marcellosbyne was deliberately working against him.

But he also knew that what the treasurer said was not wrong, and if he continued to dwell on this matter, it would only make the situation even more awkward.

Ferdinand wisely chose to avoid this problem that might embarrass him, and he ordered to return to the palace immediately, because Juana, who had been sent back to the palace in the event of a commotion, was waiting for him.

What Ferdinand didn't expect was that when he returned to the palace and tried to find Juana as regent and ordered martial law throughout the city, the answer he heard from the servants was that Juana had taken the seriously ill Philip to the castle in the Highlands on the other side of the river.

Ferdinand could no longer suppress his anger, and he asked the squires why they didn't stop Juana, who reluctantly told him that Juana seemed to think that the riots were directed at her and Philip, and that they were trying to harm him, so she protected her husband and hid in the castle in the Highlands.

Hearing this self-righteous reason, which was entirely based on imagination, Ferdinand could not help but feel a strong sense of powerlessness in his heart.

Although he never thought that Juana would be a promising monarch, and was ready to treat her completely as his puppet, he now found with some sadness that Juana, who was indeed incapable of governing the country as he wished, had become a stumbling block to him because of her incompetence.

The anti-Aragonese riots that took place on 5 February spread across Astile, as people from both countries fled the Barriarides for fear of being affected by the riots.

Although the riots gradually subsided, the Castilians, who had deep doubts about Ferdinand, became even more estranged from him.

The phrase "let the Castilian people be the monarchs of Castile" began to spread in Castile at some point, and it was gradually given a new meaning.

People began to care about the title of Juana, which had not stimulated the sensitive nerves of Castile people, but now it has become a thorn in the hearts of many people that cannot be pulled out.

Let the Castilians be the monarchs of Castile, the phrase that swept through the Iberian Peninsula with the spring breeze of 1502.

It was in this season of revival that the earth came with amazing news from Andalusia.

In Seville, an heir to the throne of the House of Astamara, who also had the title of Castile, appeared.

Meanwhile in Lisbon, King Manuel of Portugal officially dissolved his marriage to Maria of Aragon and married Juana of Castile.

"It's finally begun," after hearing these two things in succession, Alexander, who was in Galicia, said to Schell, who was with him, and then looked at the chief of the guard who just nodded but obviously didn't know the real meaning of what he said, Alexander shook his head and smiled and patted Schell's shoulder and walked towards the town in front, "Let's go, go have a drink, I'll have a treat." ”