Re: Children of Isabel II
Edited by StevenL on 11/12/2019, 23:22:08
Francisco was well known to be so excessively 'delicate' and effeminate that it was ignorantly assumed by diplomats in the Affair of the Spanish Marriages that he was sexually impotent. His utter lack of attributes traditionally associated with manliness is precisely why his candidacy was championed over that of more “manly” prospective suitors such as the Duke of Sevilla. The pairing of Isabel with Francisco has to be one of the worse "jokes" ever played on an unstable monarchy. Francisco's plain-speaking wife was sufficienly horrified that even in her later years she was known to speak despairingly of having been married off to a man who, on their wedding night, came to bed wearing even more lace than his bride.
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