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by William H. Prescott

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Title: History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella V1

Author: William H. Prescott

Release Date: November, 2004  [EBook #6918]
[This file was first posted on February 11, 2003]

Edition: 10

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, HISTORY OF THE REIGN OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA V1 ***




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HISTORY OF THE REIGN OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA, THE CATHOLIC.

BY WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT.

IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. I.




TO
THE HONORABLE
WILLIAM PRESCOTT, LL.D.,
THE GUIDE OF MY YOUTH,
MY BEST FRIEND IN RIPER YEARS,
THESE VOLUMES,
WITH THE WARMEST FEELINGS OF FILIAL AFFECTION,
ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED.




PREFACE

TO THE FIRST EDITION.


English writers have done more for the illustration of Spanish history,
than for that of any other except their own. To say nothing of the recent
general compendium, executed for the "Cabinet Cyclopaedia," a work of
singular acuteness and information, we have particular narratives of the
several reigns, in an unbroken series, from the emperor Charles the Fifth
(the First of Spain) to Charles the Third, at the close of the last
century, by authors whose names are a sufficient guaranty for the
excellence of their productions. It is singular, that, with this attention
to the modern history of the Peninsula, there should be no particular
account of the period which may be considered as the proper basis of it,--
the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella.

In this reign, the several States, into which the country had been broken
up for ages, were brought under a common rule; the kingdom of Naples was
conquered; America discovered and colonized; the ancient empire of the
Spanish Arabs subverted; the dread tribunal of the Modern Inquisition
established; the Jews, who contributed so sensibly to the wealth and
civilization of the country, were banished; and, in fine, such changes
were introduced into the interior administration of the monarchy, as have
left a permanent impression on the character and condition of the nation.

The actors in these events were every way suited to their importance.
Besides the reigning sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isabella, the latter
certainly one of the most interesting personages in history, we have, in
political affairs, that consummate statesman, Cardinal Ximenes, in
military, the "Great Captain," Gonsalvo de Cordova, and in maritime, the
most successful navigator of any age, Christopher Columbus; whose entire
biographies fall within the limits of this period. Even such portions of
it as have been incidentally touched by English writers, as the Italian
wars, for example, have been drawn so exclusively from French and Italian
sources, that they may be said to be untrodden ground for the historian of
Spain. [1]

It must be admitted, however, that an account of this reign could not have
been undertaken at any preceding period, with anything like the advantages
at present afforded; owing to the light which recent researches of Spanish
scholars, in the greater freedom of inquiry now enjoyed, have shed on some
of its most interesting and least familiar features. The most important of
the works to which I allude are, the History of the Inquisition, from
official documents, by its secretary, Llorente; the analysis of the
political institutions of the kingdom, by such writers as Marina, Sempere,
and Capmany; the literal version, now made for the first time, of the
Spanish-Arab chronicles, by Conde; the collection of original and
unpublished documents, illustrating the history of Columbus and the early
Castilian navigators, by Navarrete; and, lastly, the copious illustrations
of Isabella's reign, by Clemencin, the late lamented secretary of the
Royal Academy of History, forming the sixth volume of its valuable
Memoirs.

It was the knowledge of these facilities for doing justice to this
subject, as well as its intrinsic merits, which led me, ten years since,
to select it; and surely no subject could be found more suitable for the
pen of an American, than a history of that reign, under the auspices of
which the existence of his own favored quarter of the globe was first
revealed. As I was conscious that the value of the history must depend
mainly on that of its materials, I have spared neither pains nor expense,
from the first, in collecting the most authentic. In accomplishing this, I
must acknowledge the services of my friends, Mr. Alexander H. Everett,
then minister plenipotentiary from the United States to the court of
Madrid, Mr. Arthur Middleton, secretary of the American legation, and,
above all, Mr. O. Rich, now American consul for the Balearic Islands, a
gentleman, whose extensive bibliographical knowledge, and unwearied
researches, during a long residence in the Peninsula, have been liberally
employed for the benefit both of his own country and of England. With such
assistance, I flatter myself that I have been enabled to secure whatever
can materially conduce to the illustration of the period in question,
whether in the form of chronicle, memoir, private correspondence, legal
codes, or official documents. Among these are various contemporary
manuscripts, covering the whole ground of the narrative, none of which
have been printed, and some of them but little known to Spanish scholars.
In obtaining copies of these from the public libraries, I must add, that I
have found facilities under the present liberal government, which were
denied me under the preceding. In addition to these sources of
information, I have availed myself, in the part of the work occupied with
literary criticism and history, of the library of my friend, Mr. George
Ticknor, who during a visit to Spain, some years since, collected whatever
was rare and valuable in the literature of the Peninsula. I must further
acknowledge my obligations to the library of Harvard University, in
Cambridge, from whose rich repository of books relating to our own country
I have derived material aid. And, lastly, I must not omit to notice the
favors of another kind for which I am indebted to my friend, Mr. William
H. Gardiner, whose judicious counsels have been of essential benefit to me
in the revision of my labors.

In the plan of the work, I have not limited myself to a strict
chronological narrative of passing events, but have occasionally paused,
at the expense, perhaps, of some interest in the story, to seek such
collateral information as might bring these events into a clearer view. I
have devoted a liberal portion of the work to the literary progress of the
nation, conceiving this quite as essential a part of its history as civil
and military details. I have occasionally introduced, at the close of the
chapters, a critical notice of the authorities used, that the reader may
form some estimate of their comparative value and credibility. Finally, I
have endeavored to present him with such an account of the state of
affairs, both before the accession, and at the demise of the Catholic
sovereigns, as might afford him the best points of view for surveying the
entire results of their reign.

How far I have succeeded in the execution of this plan, must be left to
the reader's candid judgment. Many errors he may be able to detect. Sure I
am, there can be no one more sensible of my deficiencies than myself;
although it was not till after practical experience, that I could fully
estimate the difficulty of obtaining anything like a faithful portraiture
of a distant age, amidst the shifting hues and perplexing cross lights of
historic testimony. From one class of errors my subject necessarily
exempts me; those founded on national or party feeling. I may have been
more open to another fault; that of too strong a bias in favor of my
principal actors; for characters, noble and interesting in themselves,
naturally beget a sort of partiality akin to friendship, in the
historian's mind, accustomed to the daily contemplation of them. Whatever
defects may be charged on the work, I can at least assure myself, that it
is an honest record of a reign important in itself, new to the reader in
an English dress, and resting on a solid basis of authentic materials,
such as probably could not be met with out of Spain, nor in it without
much difficulty.

I hope I shall be acquitted of egotism, although I add a few words
respecting the peculiar embarrassments I have encountered, in composing
these volumes. Soon after my arrangements were made, early in 1826, for
obtaining the necessary materials from Madrid, I was deprived of the use
of my eyes for all purposes of reading and writing, and had no prospect of
again recovering it. This was a serious obstacle to the prosecution of a
work requiring the perusal of a large mass of authorities, in various
languages, the contents of which were to be carefully collated, and
transferred to my own pages, verified by minute reference. [2] Thus shut
out from one sense, I was driven to rely exclusively on another, and to
make the ear do the work of the eye. With the assistance of a reader,
uninitiated, it may be added, in any modern language but his own, I worked
my way through several venerable Castilian quartos, until I was satisfied
of the practicability of the undertaking. I next procured the services of
one more competent to aid me in pursuing my historical inquiries. The
process was slow and irksome enough, doubtless, to both parties, at least
till my ear was accommodated to foreign sounds, and an antiquated,
oftentimes barbarous phraseology, when my progress became more sensible,
and I was cheered with the prospect of success. It certainly would have
been a far more serious misfortune, to be led thus blindfold through the
pleasant paths of literature; but my track stretched, for the most part,
across dreary wastes, where no beauty lurked, to arrest the traveller's
eye and charm his senses. After persevering in this course for some years,
my eyes, by the blessing of Providence, recovered sufficient strength to
allow me to use them, with tolerable freedom, in the prosecution of my
labors, and in the revision of all previously written. I hope I shall not
be misunderstood, as stating these circumstances to deprecate the severity
of criticism, since I am inclined to think the greater circumspection I
have been compelled to use has left me, on the whole, less exposed to
inaccuracies, than I should have been in the ordinary mode of composition.
But, as I reflect on the many sober hours I have passed in wading through
black letter tomes, and through manuscripts whose doubtful orthography and
defiance of all punctuation were so many stumbling-blocks to my
amanuensis, it calls up a scene of whimsical distresses, not usually
encountered, on which the good-natured reader may, perhaps, allow I have
some right, now that I have got the better of them, to dwell with
satisfaction.

I will only remark, in conclusion of this too prolix discussion about
myself, that while making my tortoise-like progress, I saw what I had
fondly looked upon as my own ground, (having indeed lain unmolested by any
other invader for so many ages,) suddenly entered, and in part occupied,
by one of my countrymen. I allude to Mr. Irving's "History of Columbus,"
and "Chronicle of Granada;" the subjects of which, although covering but a
small part of my whole plan, form certainly two of its most brilliant
portions. Now, alas! if not devoid of interest, they are, at least,
stripped of the charm of novelty. For what eye has not been attracted to
the spot on which the light of that writer's genius has fallen?

I cannot quit the subject which has so long occupied me, without one
glance at the present unhappy condition of Spain; who, shorn of her
ancient splendor, humbled by the loss of empire abroad, and credit at
home, is abandoned to all the evils of anarchy. Yet, deplorable as this
condition is, it is not so bad as the lethargy in which she has been sunk
for ages. Better be hurried forward for a season on the wings of the
tempest, than stagnate in a deathlike calm, fatal alike to intellectual
and moral progress. The crisis of a revolution, when old things are
passing away, and new ones are not yet established, is, indeed, fearful.
Even the immediate consequences of its achievement are scarcely less so to
a people who have yet to learn by experiment the precise form of
institutions best suited to their wants, and to accommodate their
character to these institutions. Such results must come with time,
however, if the nation be but true to itself. And that they will come,
sooner or later, to the Spaniards, surely no one can distrust who is at
all conversant with their earlier history, and has witnessed the examples
it affords of heroic virtue, devoted patriotism, and generous love of
freedom;

  "Chè l'antico valore
  ----non è ancor morto."

Clouds and darkness have, indeed, settled thick around the throne of the
youthful Isabella; but not a deeper darkness than that which covered the
land in the first years of her illustrious namesake; and we may humbly
trust, that the same Providence, which guided her reign to so prosperous a
termination, may carry the nation safe through its present perils, and
secure to it the greatest of earthly blessings, civil and religious
liberty.

_November_, 1837.


FOOTNOTES

[1] The only histories of this reign by continental writers, with which I
am acquainted, are the "Histoire des Rois Catholiques Ferdinand et
Isabelle, par l'Abbé Mignot, Paris, 1766," and the "Geschichte der
Regierung Ferdinand des Katholischen, von Rupert Becker, Prag und Leipzig,
1790." Their authors have employed the most accessible materials only in
the compilation; and, indeed, they lay claim to no great research, which
would seem to be precluded by the extent of their works, in neither
instance exceeding two volumes duodecimo. They have the merit of
exhibiting, in a simple, perspicuous form, those events, which, lying on
the surface, may be found more or less expanded in moat general histories.

[2] "To compile a history from various authors, when they can only be
consulted by other eyes, is not easy, nor possible, but with more skilful
and attentive help than can be commonly obtained." [Johnson's _Life of
Milton_.] This remark of the great critic, which first engaged my
attention in the midst of my embarrassments, although discouraging at
first, in the end stimulated the desire to overcome them.




PREFACE

TO THE THIRD ENGLISH EDITION.


Since the publication of the First Edition of this work, it has undergone
a careful revision; and this, aided by the communications of several
intelligent friends, who have taken an interest in its success, has
enabled me to correct several verbal inaccuracies, and a few typographical
errors, which had been previously overlooked. While the Second Edition was
passing through the press, I received, also, copies of two valuable
Spanish works, having relation to the reign of the Catholic sovereigns,
but which, as they appeared during the recent troubles of the Peninsula,
had not before come to my knowledge. For these I am indebted to the
politeness of Don Angel Calderon de la Barca, late Spanish Minister at
Washington; a gentleman, whose frank and liberal manners, personal
accomplishments, and independent conduct in public life, have secured for
him deservedly high consideration in the United States, as well as in his
own country.

I must still further acknowledge my obligation to Don Pascual de Gayangos,
the learned author of the "Mahommedan Dynasties in Spain," recently
published in London,--a work, which, from its thorough investigation of
original sources, and fine spirit of criticism, must supply, what has been
so long felt as an important desideratum with the student,--the means of
forming a perfect acquaintance with the Arabian portion of the Peninsular
annals. There fell into the hands of this gentleman, on the breaking up of
the convents of Saragossa in 1835, a rich collection of original
documents, comprehending, among other things, the autograph correspondence
of Ferdinand and Isabella, and of the principal persons of their court. It
formed, probably, part of the library of Geronimo Zurita,--historiographer
of Aragon, under Philip the Second,--who, by virtue of his office, was
intrusted with whatever documents could illustrate the history of the
country. This rare collection was left at his death to a monastery in his
native city. Although Zurita is one of the principal authorities for the
present work, there are many details of interest in this correspondence,
which have passed unnoticed by him, although forming the basis of his
conclusions; and I have gladly availed myself of the liberality and great
kindness of Señor de Gayangos, who has placed these manuscripts at my
disposal, transcribing such as I have selected, for the corroboration and
further illustration of my work. The difficulties attending this labor of
love will be better appreciated, when it is understood, that the original
writing is in an antiquated character, which _few_ Spanish scholars of the
present day could comprehend, and often in cipher, which requires much
patience and ingenuity to explain. With these various emendations, it is
hoped that the present Edition may be found more deserving of that favor
from the public, which has been so courteously accorded to the preceding.

_March_, 1841.




CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.


INTRODUCTION.

SECTION I.
  VIEW OF THE CASTILIAN MONARCHY BEFORE THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
  STATE OF SPAIN AT THE MIDDLE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY
  EARLY HISTORY AND CONSTITUTION OF CASTILE
  THE VISIGOTHS
  INVASION OF THE ARABS
  ITS INFLUENCE ON THE CONDITION OF THE SPANIARDS
  CAUSES OF THEIR SLOW RECONQUEST OF THE COUNTRY
  THEIR ULTIMATE SUCCESS CERTAIN
  THEIR RELIGIOUS ENTHUSIASM
  INFLUENCE OF THEIR MINSTRELSY
  THEIR CHARITY TO THE INFIDEL
  THEIR CHIVALRY
  EARLY IMPORTANCE OF THE CASTILIAN TOWNS
  THEIR PRIVILEGES
  CASTILIAN CORTES
  ITS GREAT POWERS
  ITS BOLDNESS
  HERMANDADES OF CASTILE
  WEALTH OF THE CITIES
  PERIOD OF THE HIGHEST POWER OF THE COMMONS
  THE NOBILITY
  THEIR PRIVILEGES
  THEIR GREAT WEALTH
  THEIR TURBULENT SPIRIT
  THE CAVALLEROS OR KNIGHTS
  THE CLERGY
  INFLUENCE OF THE PAPAL COURT
  CORRUPTION OP THE CLERGY
  THEIR RICH POSSESSIONS
  LIMITED EXTENT OF THE ROYAL PREROGATIVE
  POVERTY OF THE CROWN
  ITS CAUSES
  ANECDOTE OF HENRY III., OF CASTILE
  CONSTITUTIONAL WRITERS ON CASTILE
  CONSTITUTION AT THE BEGINNING OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY
  NOTICE OF MARINA AND SEMPERE

SECTION II.
  REVIEW OF THE CONSTITUTION OF ARAGON TO THE MIDDLE OF THE FIFTEENTH
    CENTURY.
  RISE OF ARAGON
  FOREIGN CONQUESTS
  CODE OF SOPRARBE
  THE RICOS HOMBRES
  THEIR IMMUNITIES
  THEIR TURBULENCE
  PRIVILEGES OF UNION
  THEIR ABROGATION
  THE LEGISLATURE OF ARAGON
  ITS FORMS OF PROCEEDING
  ITS POWERS
  THE GENERAL PRIVILEGE
  JUDICIAL FUNCTIONS OF CORTES
  PREPONDERANCE OF THE COMMONS
  THE JUSTICE OF ARAGON
  HIS GREAT AUTHORITY
  SECURITY AGAINST ITS ABUSE
  INDEPENDENT EXECUTION OF IT
  VALENCIA AND CATALONIA
  RISE AND OPULENCE OF BARCELONA
  HER FREE INSTITUTIONS
  HAUGHTY SPIRIT OF THE CATALANS
  INTELLECTUAL CULTURE
  POETICAL ACADEMY OF TORTOSA
  BRIEF GLORY OF THE LIMOUSIN
  CONSTITUTIONAL WRITERS ON ARAGON
  NOTICES OF BLANCAS, MARTEL, AND CAPMANY

PART FIRST.

THE PERIOD WHEN THE DIFFERENT KINGDOMS OF SPAIN WERE FIRST UNITED UNDER
ONE MONARCHY, AND A THOROUGH REFORM WAS INTRODUCED INTO THEIR INTERNAL
ADMINISTRATION; OR THE PERIOD EXHIBITING MOST FULLY THE DOMESTIC POLICY OF
FERDINAND AND ISABELLA.

CHAPTER I.
  STATE OF CASTILE AT THE BIRTH OF ISABELLA.--REIGN OF JOHN II.,
    OF CASTILE.
  REVOLUTION OF TRASTAMARA
  ACCESSION OF JOHN II.
  RISE OF ALVARO DE LUNA
  JEALOUSY OF THE NOBLES
  OPPRESSION OF THE COMMONS
  ITS CONSEQUENCES
  EARLY LITERATURE OF CASTILE
  ITS ENCOURAGEMENT UNDER JOHN II.
  MARQUIS OF VILLENA
  MARQUIS OF SANTILLANA
  JOHN DE MENA
  HIS INFLUENCE
  BAENA'S CANCIONERO
  CASTILIAN LITERATURE UNDER JOHN II
  DECLINE OF ALVARO DE LUNA
  HIS FALL
  HIS DEATH
  LAMENTED BY JOHN
  DEATH OF JOHN II
  BIRTH OF ISABELLA

CHAPTER II.
  CONDITION OF ARAGON DURING THE MINORITY OF FERDINAND.--REIGN OF JOHN
    II., OF ARAGON.
  JOHN OF ARAGON
  TITLE OF HIS SON CARLOS TO NAVARRE
  HE TAKES ARMS AGAINST HIS FATHER
  IS DEFEATED
  BIRTH OF FERDINAND
  CARLOS RETIRES TO NAPLES
  HE PASSES INTO SICILY
  JOHN II. SUCCEEDS TO THE CROWN OF ARAGON
  CARLOS RECONCILED WITH HIS FATHER
  IS IMPRISONED
  INSURRECTION OF THE CATALANS
  CARLOS RELEASED
  HIS DEATH
  HIS CHARACTER
  TRAGICAL STORY OF BLANCHE
  FERDINAND SWORN HEIR TO THE CROWN
  BESIEGED BY THE CATALANS IN GERONA
  TREATY BETWEEN FRANCE AND ARAGON
  GENERAL REVOLT IN CATALONIA
  SUCCESSES OF JOHN
  CROWN OF CATALONIA OFFERED TO RENÉ OF ANJOU
  DISTRESS AND EMBARRASSMENTS OF JOHN
  POPULARITY OF THE DUKE OF LORRAINE
  DEATH OF THE QUEEN OF ARAGON
  IMPROVEMENT IN JOHN'S AFFAIRS
  SIEGE OF BARCELONA
  IT SURRENDERS

CHAPTER III.
  REIGN OF HENRY IV., OF CASTILE.--CIVIL WAR.--MARRIAGE OF FERDINAND
    AND ISABELLA.
  POPULARITY OF HENRY IV
  HE DISAPPOINTS EXPECTATIONS
  HIS DISSOLUTE HABITS
  OPPRESSION OF THE PEOPLE
  DEBASEMENT OF THE COIN
  CHARACTER OF PACHECO, MARQUIS OF VILLENA
  CHARACTER OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF TOLEDO
  INTERVIEW BETWEEN HENRY IV. AND LOUIS XI
  DISGRACE OF VILLENA AND THE ARCHBISHOP OF TOLEDO
  LEAGUE OF THE NOBLES
  DEPOSITION OF HENRY AT AVILA
  DIVISION OF PARTIES
  INTRIGUES OF THE MARQUIS OF VILLENA
  HENRY DISBANDS HIS FORCES
  PROPOSITION FOR THE MARRIAGE OF ISABELLA
  HER EARLY EDUCATION
  PROJECTED UNION WITH THE GRAND MASTER OF CALATRAVA
  HIS SUDDEN DEATH
  BATTLE OF OLMEDO
  CIVIL ANARCHY
  DEATH AND CHARACTER OF ALFONSO
  HIS REIGN A USURPATION
  THE CROWN OFFERED TO ISABELLA
  SHE DECLINES IT
  TREATY BETWEEN HENRY AND THE CONFEDERATES
  ISABELLA ACKNOWLEDGED HEIR TO THE CROWN AT TOROS DE GUISANDO
  SUITORS TO ISABELLA
  FERDINAND OF ARAGON
  SUPPORT OF JOANNA BELTRANEJA
  PROPOSAL OF THE KING OF PORTUGAL REJECTED BY ISABELLA
  SHE ACCEPTS FERDINAND
  ARTICLES OF MARRIAGE
  CRITICAL SITUATION OF ISABELLA
  FERDINAND ENTERS CASTILE
  PRIVATE INTERVIEW BETWEEN FERDINAND AND ISABELLA
  THEIR MARRIAGE
  NOTICE OF THE QUINCUAGENAS OF OVIEDO

CHAPTER IV.
  FACTIONS IN CASTILE.--WAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND ARAGON.--DEATH OF HENRY
    IV., OF CASTILE.
  FACTIONS IN CASTILE
  FERDINAND AND ISABELLA
  CIVIL ANARCHY
  REVOLT OF ROUSSILLON FROM LOUIS XI.
  GALLANT DEFENCE OF PERPIGNAN
  FERDINAND RAISES THE SIEGE
  TREATY BETWEEN FRANCE AND ARAGON
  ISABELLA'S PARTY GAINS STRENGTH
  INTERVIEW BETWEEN HENRY IV. AND ISABELLA AT SEGOVIA
  SECOND FRENCH INVASION OF ROUSSILLON
  FERDINAND'S SUMMARY EXECUTION OF JUSTICE
  SIEGE AND REDUCTION OF PERPIGNAN
  PERFIDY OF LOUIS XI.
  ILLNESS OF HENRY IV., OF CASTILE
  HIS DEATH
  INFLUENCE OF HIS REIGN
  NOTICE OF ALONSO DE PALENCIA
  NOTICE OF ENRIQUEZ DE CASTILLO

CHAPTER V.
  ACCESSION OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA.--WAR OF THE SUCCESSION.--BATTLE OF
    TORO.
  TITLE OF ISABELLA
  SHE IS PROCLAIMED QUEEN
  SETTLEMENT OF THE CROWN
  PARTISANS OF JOANNA
  ALFONSO OF PORTUGAL SUPPORTS HER CAUSE
  HE INVADES CASTILE
  HE ESPOUSES JOANNA
  CASTILIAN ARMY
  FERDINAND MARCHES AGAINST ALFONSO
  HE CHALLENGES HIM TO PERSONAL COMBAT
  DISORDERLY RETREAT OF THE CASTILIANS
  APPROPRIATION OF THE CHURCH PLATE
  REORGANIZATION OF THE ARMY
  KING OF PORTUGAL ARRIVES BEFORE ZAMORA
  ABSURD POSITION
  HE SUDDENLY DECAMPS
  OVERTAKEN BY FERDINAND
  BATTLE OF TORO
  THE PORTUGUESE ROUTED
  ISABELLA'S THANKSGIVING FOR THE VICTORY
  SUBMISSION OF THE WHOLE KINGDOM
  THE KING OF PORTUGAL VISITS FRANCE
  RETURNS TO PORTUGAL
  PEACE WITH FRANCE
  ACTIVE MEASURES OF ISABELLA
  TREATY OF PEACE WITH PORTUGAL
  JOANNA TAKES THE VEIL
  DEATH OF THE KING OF PORTUGAL
  DEATH OF THE KING OF ARAGON

CHAPTER VI.
  INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION OF CASTILE.
  SCHEME OF REFORM FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF CASTILE
  ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE
  ESTABLISHMENT OF THE HERMANDAD
  CODE OF THE HERMANDAD
  INEFFECTUAL OPPOSITION OF THE NOBILITY
  TUMULT AT SEGOVIA
  ISABELLA'S PRESENCE OF MIND
  ISABELLA VISITS SEVILLE
  HER SPLENDID RECEPTION THERE
  SEVERE EXECUTION OF JUSTICE
  MARQUIS OF CADIZ AND DUKE OF MEDINA SIDONIA
  ROYAL PROGRESS THROUGH ANDALUSIA
  IMPARTIAL EXECUTION OP THE LAWS
  REORGANIZATION OP THE TRIBUNALS
  KING AND QUEEN PRESIDE IN COURTS OF JUSTICE
  RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF ORDER
  REFORM OF THE JURISPRUDENCE
  CODE OF ORDENANÇAS REALES
  SCHEMES FOR REDUCING THE NOBILITY
  REVOCATION OF THE ROYAL GRANTS
  LEGISLATIVE ENACTMENTS
  THE QUEEN'S SPIRITED CONDUCT TO THE NOBILITY
  MILITARY ORDERS OF CASTILE
  ORDER OF ST. JAGO
  ORDER OF CALATRAVA
  ORDER OF ALCANTARA
  GRAND-MASTERSHIPS ANNEXED TO THE CROWN
  THEIR REFORMATION
  USURPATIONS OF THE CHURCH
  RESISTED BY CORTES
  DIFFERENCE WITH THE POPE
  RESTORATION OF TRADE
  SALUTARY ENACTMENTS OF CORTES
  PROSPERITY OF THE KINGDOM
  NOTICE OF CLEMENCIN

CHAPTER VII.
  ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MODERN INQUISITION.
  ORIGIN OF THE ANCIENT INQUISITION
  ITS INTRODUCTION INTO ARAGON
  RETROSPECTIVE VIEW OF THE JEWS IN SPAIN
  UNDER THE ARABS
  UNDER THE CASTILIANS
  PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS
  THEIR STATE AT THE ACCESSION OF ISABELLA
  CHARGES AGAINST THEM
  BIGOTRY OF THE AGE
  ITS INFLUENCE ON ISABELLA
  CHARACTER OF HER CONFESSOR, TORQUEMADA
  PAPAL BULL AUTHORIZING THE INQUISITION
  ISABELLA RESORTS TO MILDER MEASURES
  ENFORCES THE PAPAL BULL
  INQUISITION AT SEVILLE
  PROOFS OF JUDAISM
  THE SANGUINARY PROCEEDINGS OF THE INQUISITORS
  CONDUCT OF THE PAPAL COURT
  FINAL ORGANIZATION OF THE INQUISITION
  FORMS OF TRIAL
  TORTURE
  INJUSTICE OF ITS PROCEEDINGS
  AUTOS DA FE
  CONVICTIONS UNDER TORQUEMADA
  PERFIDIOUS POLICY OF ROME
  NOTICE OF LLORENTE'S HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION

CHAPTER VIII.

  REVIEW OF THE POLITICAL AND INTELLECTUAL CONDITION OF THE SPANISH ARABS
    PREVIOUS TO THE WAR OF GRANADA.
  EARLY SUCCESSES OF MAHOMETANISM
  CONQUEST OF SPAIN
  WESTERN CALIPHATE
  FORM OF GOVERNMENT
  CHARACTER OF THE SOVEREIGNS
  MILITARY ESTABLISHMENT
  SUMPTUOUS PUBLIC WORKS
  GREAT MOSQUE OF CORDOVA
  REVENUES
  MINERAL WEALTH OF SPAIN
  HUSBANDRY AND MANUFACTURES
  POPULATION
  CHARACTER OF ALHAKEM II.
  INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT
  DISMEMBERMENT OF THE CORDOVAN EMPIRE
  KINGDOM OF GRANADA
  AGRICULTURE AND COMMERCE
  RESOURCES OF THE CROWN
  LUXURIOUS CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE
  MOORISH GALLANTRY
  CHIVALRY
  UNSETTLED STATE OF GRANADA
  CAUSES OF HER SUCCESSFUL RESISTANCE
  LITERATURE OF THE SPANISH ARABS
  CIRCUMSTANCES FAVORABLE TO IT
  PROVISIONS FOR LEARNING
  THE ACTUAL RESULTS
  AVERROES
  THEIR HISTORICAL MERITS
  USEFUL DISCOVERIES
  THE IMPULSE GIVEN BY THEM TO EUROPE
  THEIR ELEGANT LITERATURE
  POETICAL CHARACTER
  INFLUENCE ON THE CASTILIAN
  CIRCUMSTANCES PREJUDICIAL TO THEIR REPUTATION
  NOTICES OF CASIRI, CONDE, AND CARDONNE

CHAPTER IX.
  WAR OF GRANADA.--SURPRISE OF ZAHARA.--CAPTURE OF ALHAMA.
  ZAHARA SURPRISED BY THE MOORS
  DESCRIPTION OF ALHAMA
  THE MARQUIS OF CADIZ
  HIS EXPEDITION AGAINST ALHAMA
  SURPRISE OF THE FORTRESS
  VALOR OF THE CITIZENS
  SALLY UPON THE MOORS
  DESPERATE COMBAT
  FALL OF ALHAMA
  CONSTERNATION OF THE MOORS
  THE MOORS BESIEGE ALHAMA
  DISTRESS OF THE GARRISON
  THE DUKE OF MEDINA SIDONIA
  MARCHES TO RELIEVE ALHAMA
  RAISES THE SIEGE
  MEETING OF THE TWO ARMIES
  THE SOVEREIGNS AT CORDOVA
  ALHAMA INVESTED AGAIN BY THE MOORS
  ISABELLA'S FIRMNESS
  FERDINAND RAISES THE SIEGE
  VIGOROUS MEASURES OF THE QUEEN

CHAPTER X.
  WAR OF GRANADA.--UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT ON LOJA.--DEFEAT IN THE AXARQUIA.
  SIEGE OF LOJA
  CASTILIAN FORCES
  ENCAMPMENT BEFORE LOJA
  SKIRMISH WITH THE ENEMY
  RETREAT OF THE SPANIARDS
  REVOLUTION IN GRANADA
  DEATH OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF TOLEDO
  AFFAIRS OF ITALY
  OF NAVARRE
  RESOURCES OF THE CROWN
  JUSTICE OF THE SOVEREIGNS
  EXPEDITION TO THE AXARQUIA
  THE MILITARY ARRAY
  PROGRESS OF THE ARMY
  MOORISH PREPARATIONS
  SKIRMISH AMONG THE MOUNTAINS
  RETREAT OF THE SPANIARDS
  THEIR DISASTROUS SITUATION
  THEY RESOLVE TO FORCE A PASSAGE
  DIFFICULTIES OF THE ASCENT
  DREADFUL SLAUGHTER
  MARQUIS OF CADIZ ESCAPES
  LOSSES OF THE CHRISTIANS

CHAPTER XI.
  WAR OF GRANADA.--GENERAL VIEW OF THE POLICY PURSUED IN THE CONDUCT OF
    THIS WAR.
  ABDALLAH MARCHES AGAINST THE CHRISTIANS
  ILL OMENS
  MARCHES ON LUCENA
  BATTLE OF LUCENA
  CAPTURE OF ABDALLAH
  LOSSES OF THE MOORS
  MOORISH EMBASSY TO CORDOVA
  DEBATES IN THE SPANISH COUNCIL
  TREATY WITH ABDALLAH
  INTERVIEW BETWEEN THE TWO KINGS
  GENERAL POLICY OF THE WAR
  INCESSANT HOSTILITIES
  DEVASTATING FORAYS
  STRENGTH OF THE MOORISH FORTRESSES
  DESCRIPTION OF THE PIECES
  OF THE KINDS OF AMMUNITION
  ROADS FOR THE ARTILLERY
  DEFENCES OF THE MOORS
  TERMS TO THE VANQUISHED
  SUPPLIES FOR THE ARMY
  ISABELLA'S CARE OF THE TROOPS
  HER PERSEVERANCE IN THE WAR
  POLICY TOWARDS THE NOBLES
  COMPOSITION OF THE ARMY
  SWISS MERCENARIES
  THE ENGLISH LORD SCALES
  THE QUEEN'S COURTESY
  MAGNIFICENCE OF THE NOBLES
  THEIR GALLANTRY
  ISABELLA VISITS THE CAMP
  ROYAL COSTUME
  DEVOUT DEMEANOR OF THE SOVEREIGNS
  CEREMONIES ON THE OCCUPATION OF A CITY
  RELEASE OF CHRISTIAN CAPTIVES
  POLICY IN FOMENTING THE MOORISH FACTIONS
  CHRISTIAN CONQUESTS
  NOTICE OF FERNANDO DEL PULGAR
  NOTICE OF ANTONIO DE LEBRIJA




INTRODUCTION.


SECTION I.

VIEW OF THE CASTILIAN MONARCHY BEFORE THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

Early History and Constitution of Castile.--Invasion of the Arabs.--Slow
Reconquest of the Country.--Religious Enthusiasm of the Spaniards.--
Influence of their Minstrelsy.--Their Chivalry.--Castilian Towns.--
Cortes.--Its Powers.--Its Boldness.--Wealth of the Cities.--The Nobility.
--Their Privileges and Wealth.--Knights.--Clergy.--Poverty of the Crown.--
Limited Extent of the Prerogative.


For several hundred years after the great Saracen invasion in the
beginning of the eighth century, Spain was broken up into a number of
small but independent states, divided in their interests, and often in
deadly hostility with one another. It was inhabited by races, the most
dissimilar in their origin, religion, and government, the least important
of which has exerted a sensible influence on the character and
institutions of its present inhabitants. At the close of the fifteenth
century, these various races were blended into one great nation, under one
common rule. Its territorial limits were widely extended by discovery and
conquest. Its domestic institutions, and even its literature, were moulded
into the form, which, to a considerable extent, they have maintained to
the present day. It is the object of the present narrative to exhibit the
period in which these momentous results were effected,--the reign of
Ferdinand and Isabella.

By the middle of the fifteenth century, the number of states, into which
the country had been divided, was reduced to four; Castile, Aragon,
Navarre, and the Moorish kingdom of Granada. The last, comprised within
nearly the same limits as the modern province of that name, was all that
remained to the Moslems of their once vast possessions in the Peninsula.
Its concentrated population gave it a degree of strength altogether
disproportioned to the extent of its territory; and the profuse
magnificence of its court, which rivalled that of the ancient caliphs, was
supported by the labors of a sober, industrious people, under whom
agriculture and several of the mechanic arts had reached a degree of
excellence, probably unequalled in any other part of Europe during the
Middle Ages.

The little kingdom of Navarre, embosomed within the Pyrenees, had often
attracted the avarice of neighboring and more powerful states. But, since
their selfish schemes operated as a mutual check upon each other, Navarre
still continued to maintain her independence, when all the smaller states
in the Peninsula had been absorbed in the gradually increasing dominion of
Castile and Aragon.

This latter kingdom comprehended the province of that name, together with
Catalonia and Valencia. Under its auspicious climate and free political
institutions, its inhabitants displayed an uncommon share of intellectual
and moral energy. Its long line of coast opened the way to an extensive
and flourishing commerce; and its enterprising navy indemnified the nation
for the scantiness of its territory at home, by the important foreign
conquests of Sardinia, Sicily, Naples, and the Balearic Isles.

The remaining provinces of Leon, Biscay, the Asturias, Galicia, Old and
New Castile, Estremadura, Murcia, and Andalusia, fell to the crown of
Castile, which, thus extending its sway over an unbroken line of country
from the Bay of Biscay to the Mediterranean, seemed by the magnitude, of
its territory, as well as by its antiquity, (for it was there that the old
Gothic monarchy may be said to have first revived after the great Saracen
invasion,) to be entitled to a pre-eminence over the other states of the
Peninsula. This claim, indeed, appears to have been recognized at an early
period of her history. Aragon did homage to Castile for her territory on
the western bank of the Ebro, until the twelfth century, as did Navarre,
Portugal, and, at a later period, the Moorish kingdom of Granada. [1] And,
when at length the various states of Spain were consolidated into one
monarchy, the capital of Castile became the capital of the new empire, and
her language the language of the court and of literature.

It will facilitate our inquiry into the circumstances which immediately
led to these results, if we briefly glance at the prominent features in
the early history and constitution of the two principal Christian states,
Castile and Aragon, previous to the fifteenth century. [2]

The Visigoths who overran the Peninsula, in the fifth century, brought
with them the same liberal principles of government which distinguished
their Teutonic brethren. Their crown was declared elective by a formal
legislative act. [3] Laws were enacted in the great national councils,
composed of prelates and nobility, and not unfrequently ratified in an
assembly of the people. Their code of jurisprudence, although abounding in
frivolous detail, contained many admirable provisions for the security of
justice; and, in the degree of civil liberty which it accorded to the
Roman inhabitants of the country, far transcended those of most of the
other barbarians of the north. [4] In short, their simple polity exhibited
the germ of some of those institutions, which, with other nations, and
under happier auspices, have formed the basis of a well-regulated
constitutional liberty. [5]

But, while in other countries the principles of a free government were
slowly and gradually unfolded, their development was much accelerated in
Spain by an event, which, at the time, seemed to threaten their total
extinction,--the great Saracen invasion at the beginning of the eighth
century. The religious, as well as the political institutions of the
Arabs, were too dissimilar to those of the conquered nation, to allow the
former to exercise any very sensible influence over the latter in these
particulars. In the Spirit of toleration, which distinguished the early
followers of Mahomet, they conceded to such of the Goths, as were willing
to continue among them after the conquest, the free enjoyment of their
religious, as well as of many of the civil privileges which they possessed
under the ancient monarchy. [6] Under this liberal dispensation it cannot
be doubted, that many preferred remaining in the pleasant regions of their
ancestors, to quitting them for a life of poverty and toil. These,
however, appear to have been chiefly of the lower order; [7] and the men
of higher rank, or of more generous sentiments, who refused to accept a
nominal and precarious independence at the hands of their oppressors,
escaped from the overwhelming inundation into the neighboring countries of
France, Italy, and Britain, or retreated behind those natural fortresses
of the north, the Asturian hills and the Pyrenees, whither the victorious
Saracen disdained to pursue them. [8]

Here the broken remnant of the nation endeavored to revive the forms, at
least, of the ancient government. But it may well be conceived, how
imperfect these must have been under a calamity, which, breaking up all
the artificial distinctions of society, seemed to resolve it at once into
its primitive equality. The monarch, once master of the whole Peninsula,
now beheld his empire contracted to a few barren, inhospitable rocks. The
noble, instead of the broad lands and thronged halls of his ancestors, saw
himself at best but the chief of some wandering horde, seeking a doubtful
subsistence, like himself, by rapine. The peasantry, indeed, may be said
to have gained by the exchange; and, in a situation, in which all
factitious distinctions were of less worth than individual prowess and
efficiency, they rose in political consequence. Even slavery, a sore evil
among the Visigoths, as indeed among all the barbarians of German origin,
though not effaced, lost many of its most revolting features, under the
more generous legislation of later times. [9]

A sensible and salutary influence, at the same time, was exerted on the
moral energies of the nation, which had been corrupted in the long
enjoyment of uninterrupted prosperity. Indeed, so relaxed were the morals
of the court, as well as of the clergy, and so enervated had all classes
become, in the general diffusion of luxury, that some authors have not
scrupled to refer to these causes principally the perdition of the Gothic
monarchy. An entire reformation in these habits was necessarily effected
in a situation, where a scanty subsistence could only be earned by a life
of extreme temperance and toil, and where it was often to be sought, sword
in hand, from an enemy far superior in numbers. Whatever may have been the
vices of the Spaniards, they cannot have been those of effeminate sloth.
Thus a sober, hardy, and independent race was gradually formed, prepared
to assert their ancient inheritance, and to lay the foundations of far
more liberal and equitable forms of government, than were known to their
ancestors.

At first, their progress was slow and almost imperceptible. The Saracens,
indeed, reposing under the sunny skies of Andalusia, so congenial with
their own, seemed willing to relinquish the sterile regions of the north
to an enemy whom they despised. But, when the Spaniards, quitting the
shelter of their mountains, descended into the open plains of Leon and
Castile, they found themselves exposed to the predatory incursions of the
Arab cavalry, who, sweeping over the face of the country, carried off in a
single foray the hard-earned produce of a summer's toil. It was not until
they had reached some natural boundary, as the river Douro, or the chain
of the Guadarrama, that they were enabled, by constructing a line of
fortifications along these primitive bulwarks, to secure their conquests,
and oppose an effectual resistance to the destructive inroads of their
enemies.

Their own dissensions were another cause of their tardy progress. The
numerous petty states, which rose from the ruins of the ancient monarchy,
seemed to regard each other with even a fiercer hatred than that with
which they viewed the enemies of their faith; a circumstance that more
than once brought the nation to the verge of ruin. More Christian blood
was wasted in these national feuds, than in all their encounters with the
infidel. The soldiers of Fernan Gonçalez, a chieftain of the tenth
century, complained that their master made them lead the life of very
devils, keeping them in the harness day and night, in wars, not against
the Saracens, but one another. [10]

These circumstances so far palsied the arm of the Christians, that a
century and a half elapsed after the invasion, before they had penetrated
to the Douro, [11] and nearly thrice that period before they had advanced
the line of conquest to the Tagus, [12] notwithstanding this portion of
the country had been comparatively deserted by the Mahometans. But it was
easy to foresee that a people, living, as they did, under circumstances so
well adapted to the development of both physical and moral energy, must
ultimately prevail over a nation oppressed by despotism, and the
effeminate indulgence, to which it was naturally disposed by a sensual
religion and a voluptuous climate. In truth, the early Spaniard was urged
by every motive that can give efficacy to human purpose. Pent up in his
barren mountains, he beheld the pleasant valleys and fruitful vineyards of
his ancestors delivered over to the spoiler, the holy places polluted by
his abominable rites, and the crescent glittering on the domes, which were
once consecrated by the venerated symbol of his faith. His cause became
the cause of Heaven. The church published her bulls of crusade, offering
liberal indulgences to those who served, and Paradise to those who fell in
battle, against the infidel. The ancient Castilian was remarkable for his
independent resistance of papal encroachment; but the peculiarity of his
situation subjected him in an uncommon degree to ecclesiastical influence
at home. Priests mingled in the council and the camp, and, arrayed in
their sacerdotal robes, not unfrequently led the armies to battle. [13]
They interpreted the will of Heaven as mysteriously revealed in dreams and
visions. Miracles were a familiar occurrence. The violated tombs of the
saints sent forth thunders and lightnings to consume the invaders; and,
when the Christians fainted in the fight, the apparition of their patron,
St. James, mounted on a milk-white steed, and bearing aloft the banner of
the cross, was seen hovering in the air, to rally their broken squadrons,
and lead them on to victory. [14] Thus the Spaniard looked upon himself as
in a peculiar manner the care of Providence. For him the laws of nature
were suspended. He was a soldier of the Cross, fighting not only for his
country, but for Christendom. Indeed, volunteers from the remotest parts
of Christendom eagerly thronged to serve under his banner; and the cause
of religion was debated with the same ardor in Spain, as on the plains of
Palestine. [15] Hence the national character became exalted by a religious
fervor, which in later days, alas! settled into a fierce fanaticism. Hence
that solicitude for the purity of the faith, the peculiar boast of the
Spaniards, and that deep tinge of superstition, for which they have ever
been distinguished above the other nations of Europe.

The long wars with the Mahometans served to keep alive in their bosoms the
ardent glow of patriotism; and this was still further heightened by the
body of traditional minstrelsy, which commemorated in these wars the
heroic deeds of their ancestors. The influence of such popular
compositions on a simple people is undeniable. A sagacious critic ventures
to pronounce the poems of Homer the principal bond which united the
Grecian states. [16] Such an opinion may be deemed somewhat extravagant.
It cannot be doubted, however, that a poem like that of the "Cid," which
appeared as early as the twelfth century, [17] by calling up the most
inspiring national recollections in connection with their favorite hero,
must have operated powerfully on the moral sensibilities of the people.

It is pleasing to observe, in the cordial spirit of these early effusions,
little of the ferocious bigotry which sullied the character of the nation
in after ages. [18] The Mahometans of this period far excelled their
enemies in general refinement, and had carried some branches of
intellectual culture to a height scarcely surpassed by Europeans in later
times. The Christians, therefore, notwithstanding their political aversion
to the Saracens, conceded to them a degree of respect, which subsided into
feelings of a very different complexion, as they themselves rose in the
scale of civilization. This sentiment of respect tempered the ferocity of
a warfare, which, although sufficiently disastrous in its details, affords
examples of a generous courtesy, that would do honor to the politest ages
of Europe. [19] The Spanish Arabs were accomplished in all knightly
exercises, and their natural fondness for magnificence, which shed a
lustre over the rugged features of chivalry, easily communicated itself to
the Christian cavaliers. In the intervals of peace, these latter
frequented the courts of the Moorish princes, and mingled with their
adversaries in the comparatively peaceful pleasures of the tourney, as in
war they vied with them in feats of Quixotic gallantry. [20]

The nature of this warfare between two nations, inhabitants of the same
country, yet so dissimilar in their religious and social institutions as
to be almost the natural enemies of each other, was extremely favorable to
the exhibition of the characteristic virtues of chivalry. The contiguity
of the hostile parties afforded abundant opportunities for personal
rencounter and bold romantic enterprise. Each nation had its regular
military associations, who swore to devote their lives to the service of
God and their country, in perpetual war against the _infidel_ [21] The
Spanish knight became the true hero of romance, wandering over his own
land, and even into the remotest climes, in quest of adventures; and, as
late as the fifteenth century, we find him in the courts of England and
Burgundy, doing battle in honor of his mistress, and challenging general
admiration by his uncommon personal intrepidity. [22] This romantic spirit
lingered in Castile, long after the age of chivalry had become extinct in
other parts of Europe, continuing to nourish itself on those illusions of
fancy, which were at length dispelled by the caustic satire of Cervantes.

Thus patriotism, religious loyalty, and a proud sense of independence,
founded on the consciousness of owing their possessions to their personal
valor, became characteristic traits of the Castilians previously to the
sixteenth century, when the oppressive policy and fanaticism of the
Austrian dynasty contrived to throw into the shade these generous virtues.
Glimpses of them, however, might long be discerned in the haughty bearing
of the Castilian noble, and in that erect, high-minded peasantry, whom
oppression has not yet been able wholly to subdue. [23]

To the extraordinary position, in which the nation was placed, may also be
referred the liberal forms of its political institutions, as well as a
more early development of them than took place in other countries of
Europe. From the exposure of the Castilian towns to the predatory
incursions of the Arabs, it became necessary, not only that they should be
strongly fortified, but that every citizen should be trained to bear arms
in their defence. An immense increase of consequence was given to the
burgesses, who thus constituted the most effective part of the national
militia. To this circumstance, as well as to the policy of inviting the
settlement of frontier places by the grant of extraordinary privileges to
the inhabitants, is to be imputed the early date, as well as liberal
character, of the charters of community in Castile and Leon. [24] These,
although varying a good deal in their details, generally conceded to the
citizens the right of electing their own magistrates for the regulation of
municipal affairs. Judges were appointed by this body for the
administration of civil and criminal law, subject to an appeal to the
royal tribunal. No person could be affected in life or property, except by
a decision of this municipal court; and no cause while pending before it
could be evoked thence into the superior tribunal. In order to secure the
barriers of justice more effectually against the violence of power, so
often superior to law in an imperfect state of society, it was provided in
many of the charters that no nobles should be permitted to acquire real
property within the limits of the community; that no fortress or palace
should be erected by them there; that such as might reside within its
territory, should be subject to its jurisdiction; and that any violence,
offered by them to its inhabitants, might be forcibly resisted with
impunity. Ample and inalienable funds were provided for the maintenance of
the municipal functionaries, and for other public expenses. A large extent
of circumjacent country, embracing frequently many towns and villages, was
annexed to each city with the right of jurisdiction over it. All arbitrary
tallages were commuted for a certain fixed and moderate rent. An officer
was appointed by the crown to reside within each community, whose province
it was to superintend the collection of this tribute, to maintain public
order, and to be associated with the magistrates of each city in the
command of the forces it was bound to contribute towards the national
defence. Thus while the inhabitants of the great towns in other parts of
Europe were languishing in feudal servitude, the members of the Castilian
corporations, living under the protection of their own laws and
magistrates in time of peace, and commanded by their own officers in war,
were in full enjoyment of all the essential rights and privileges of
freemen. [25]

It is true, that they were often convulsed by intestine feuds; that the
laws were often loosely administered by incompetent judges; and that the
exercise of so many important prerogatives of independent states inspired
them with feelings of independence, which led to mutual rivalry, and
sometimes to open collision. But with all this, long after similar
immunities in the free cities of other countries, as Italy for example,
[26] had been sacrificed to the violence of faction or the lust of power,
those of the Castilian cities not only remained unimpaired, but seemed to
acquire additional stability with age. This circumstance is chiefly
imputable to the constancy of the national legislature, which, until the
voice of liberty was stifled by a military despotism, was ever ready to
interpose its protecting arm in defence of constitutional rights.

The earliest instance on record of popular representation in Castile
occurred at Burgos, in 1169; [27] nearly a century antecedent to the
celebrated Leicester parliament. Each city had but one vote, whatever
might be the number of its representatives. A much greater irregularity,
in regard to the number of cities required to send deputies to cortes on
different occasions, prevailed in Castile, than ever existed in England;
[28] though, previously to the fifteenth century, this does not seem to
have proceeded from any design of infringing on the liberties of the
people. The nomination of these was originally vested in the householders
at large, but was afterwards confined to the municipalities; a most
mischievous alteration, which subjected their election eventually to the
corrupt influence of the crown. [29] They assembled in the same chamber
with the higher orders of the nobility and clergy; but, on questions of
moment, retired to deliberate by themselves. [30] After the transaction of
other business, their own petitions were presented to the sovereign, and
his assent gave them the validity of laws. The Castilian commons, by
neglecting to make their money grants depend on correspondent concessions
from the crown, relinquished that powerful check on its operations so
beneficially exerted in the British parliament, but in vain contended for
even there, till a much later period than that now under consideration.
Whatever may have been the right of the nobility and clergy to attend in
cortes, their sanction was not deemed essential to the validity of
legislative acts; [31] for their presence was not even required in many
assemblies of the nation which occurred in the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries. [32] The extraordinary power thus committed to the commons was,
on the whole, unfavorable to their liberties. It deprived them of the
sympathy and co-operation of the great orders of the state, whose
authority alone could have enabled them to withstand the encroachments of
arbitrary power, and who, in fact, did eventually desert them in their
utmost need. [33]

But, notwithstanding these defects, the popular branch of the Castilian
cortes, very soon after its admission into that body, assumed functions
and exercised a degree of power on the whole superior to that enjoyed by
it in other European legislatures. It was soon recognized as a fundamental
principle of the constitution, that no tax could be imposed without its
consent; [34] and an express enactment to this effect was suffered to
remain on the statute book, after it had become a dead letter, as if to
remind the nation of the liberties it had lost. [35] The commons showed a
wise solicitude in regard to the mode of collecting the public revenue,
oftentimes more onerous to the subject than the tax itself. They watched
carefully over its appropriation to its destined uses. They restrained a
too prodigal expenditure, and ventured more than once to regulate the
economy of the royal household. [36] They kept a vigilant eye on the
conduct of public officers, as well as on the right administration of
justice, and commissions were appointed at their suggestion for inquiring
into its abuses. They entered into negotiation for alliances with foreign
powers, and, by determining the amount of supplies for the maintenance of
troops in time of war, preserved a salutary check over military
operations. [37] The nomination of regencies was subject to their
approbation, and they defined the nature of the authority to be entrusted
to them. Their consent was esteemed indispensable to the validity of a
title to the crown, and this prerogative, or at least the image of it, has
continued to survive the wreck of their ancient liberties. [38] Finally,
they more than once set aside the testamentary provisions of the
sovereigns in regard to the succession. [39]

Without going further into detail, enough has been said to show the high
powers claimed by the commons, previously to the fifteenth century, which,
instead of being confined to ordinary subjects of legislation, seem, in
some instances, to have reached to the executive duties of the
administration. It would, indeed, show but little acquaintance with the
social condition of the Middle Ages, to suppose that the practical
exercise of these powers always corresponded with their theory. We trace
repeated instances, it is true, in which they were claimed and
successfully exerted; while, on the other hand, the multiplicity of
remedial statutes proves too plainly how often the rights of the people
were invaded by the violence of the privileged orders, or the more artful
and systematic usurpations of the crown. But, far from being intimidated
by such acts, the representatives in cortes were ever ready to stand
forward as the intrepid advocates of constitutional freedom; and the
unqualified boldness of their language on such occasions, and the
consequent concessions of the sovereign, are satisfactory evidence of the
real extent of their power, and show how cordially they must have been
supported by public opinion.

It would be improper to pass by without notice an anomalous institution
peculiar to Castile, which sought to secure the public tranquillity by
means scarcely compatible themselves with civil subordination. I refer to
the celebrated _Hermandad_, or Holy Brotherhood, as the association was
sometimes called, a name familiar to most readers in the lively fictions
of Le Sage, though conveying there no very adequate idea of the
extraordinary functions which it assumed at the period under review.
Instead of a regularly organized police, it then consisted of a
confederation of the principal cities bound together by solemn league and
covenant, for the defence of their liberties in seasons of civil anarchy.
Its affairs were conducted by deputies, who assembled at stated intervals
for this purpose, transacting their business under a common seal, enacting
laws which they were careful to transmit to the nobles and even the
sovereign himself, and enforcing their measures by an armed force. This
wild kind of justice, so characteristic of an unsettled state of society,
repeatedly received the legislative sanction; and, however formidable such
a popular engine may have appeared to the eye of the monarch, he was often
led to countenance it by a sense of his own impotence, as well as of the
overweening power of the nobles, against whom it was principally directed.
Hence these associations, although the epithet may seem somewhat
overstrained, have received the appellation of "cortès extraordinary."
[40]

With these immunities, the cities of Castile attained a degree of opulence
and splendor unrivalled, unless in Italy, during the middle ages. At a
very early period, indeed, their contact with the Arabs had familiarized
them with a better system of agriculture, and a dexterity in the mechanic
arts unknown in other parts of Christendom. [41]

On the occupation of a conquered town, we find it distributed into
quarters or districts, appropriated to the several crafts, whose members
were incorporated into guilds, under the regulation of magistrates and by-
laws of their own appointment. Instead of the unworthy disrepute, into
which the more humble occupations have since fallen in Spain, they were
fostered by a liberal patronage, and their professors in some instances
elevated to the rank of knighthood. [42] The excellent breed of sheep,
which early became the subject of legislative solicitude, furnished them
with an important staple which, together with the simpler manufactures and
the various products of a prolific soil, formed the materials of a
profitable commerce. [43] Augmentation of wealth brought with it the usual
appetite for expensive pleasures; and the popular diffusion of luxury in
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries is attested by the fashionable
invective of the satirist, and by the impotence of repeated sumptuary
enactments. [44] Much of this superfluous wealth, however, was expended on
the construction of useful public works. Cities, from which the nobles had
once been so jealously excluded, came now to be their favorite residence.
[45] But, while their sumptuous edifices and splendid retinues dazzled the
eyes of the peaceful burghers, their turbulent spirit was preparing the
way for those dismal scenes of faction, which convulsed the little
commonwealths to their centre during the latter half of the fifteenth
century.

The flourishing condition of the communities gave their representatives a
proportional increase of importance in the national assembly. The
liberties of the people seemed to take deeper root in the midst of those
political convulsions, so frequent in Castile, which unsettled the ancient
prerogatives of the crown. Every new revolution was followed by new
concessions on the part of the sovereign, and the popular authority
continued to advance with a steady progress until the accession of Henry
the Third, of Trastamara, in 1393, when it may be said to have reached its
zenith. A disputed title and a disastrous war compelled the father of this
prince, John the First, to treat the commons with a deference unknown to
his predecessors. We find four of their number admitted into his privy
council, and six associated in the regency, to which he confided the
government of the kingdom during his son's minority. [46] A remarkable
fact, which occurred in this reign, showing the important advances made by
the commons in political estimation, was the substitution of the sons of
burgesses for an equal number of those of the nobility, who were
stipulated to be delivered as hostages for the fulfilment of a treaty with
Portugal, in 1393. [47] There will be occasion to notice, in the first
chapter of this History, some of the circumstances, which, contributing to
undermine the power of the commons, prepared the way for the eventual
subversion of the constitution.

The peculiar situation of Castile, which had been so favorable to popular
rights, was eminently so to those of the aristocracy. The nobles, embarked
with their sovereign in the same common enterprise of rescuing their
ancient patrimony from its invaders, felt entitled to divide with him the
spoils of victory. Issuing forth, at the head of their own retainers, from
their strong-holds or castles, (the great number of which was originally
implied in the name of the country,) [48] they were continually enlarging
the circuit of their territories, with no other assistance than that of
their own good swords. [49] This independent mode of effecting their
conquests would appear unfavorable to the introduction of the feudal
system, which, although its existence in Castile is clearly ascertained,
by positive law, as well as usage, never prevailed to anything like the
same extent as it did in the sister kingdom of Aragon, and other parts of
Europe. [50]

The higher nobility, or _ricos hombres_, were exempted from general
taxation, and the occasional attempt to infringe on this privilege in
seasons of great public emergency, was uniformly repelled by this jealous
body. [51] They could not be imprisoned for debt; nor be subjected to
torture, so repeatedly sanctioned in other cases by the municipal law of
Castile. They had the right of deciding their private feuds by an appeal
to arms; a right of which they liberally availed themselves. [52] They
also claimed the privilege, when aggrieved, of denaturalizing themselves,
or, in other words, of publicly renouncing their allegiance to their
sovereign, and of enlisting under the banners of his enemy. [53] The
number of petty states, which swarmed over the Peninsula, afforded ample
opportunity for the exercise of this disorganizing prerogative. The Laras
are particularly noticed by Mariana, as having a "great relish for
rebellion," and the Castros as being much in the habit of going over to
the Moors. [54] They assumed the license of arraying themselves in armed
confederacy against the monarch, on any occasion of popular disgust, and
they solemnized the act by the most imposing ceremonials of religion. [55]
Their rights of jurisdiction, derived to them, it would seem, originally
from royal grant, [56] were in a great measure defeated by the liberal
charters of incorporation, which, in imitation of the sovereign, they
conceded to their vassals, as well as by the gradual encroachment of the
royal judicatures. [57] In virtue of their birth they monopolized all the
higher offices of state, as those of constable and admiral of Castile,
_adelantados_ or governors of the provinces, cities, etc. [58] They
secured to themselves the grand-masterships of the military orders, which
placed at their disposal an immense amount of revenue and patronage.
Finally, they entered into the royal or privy council, and formed a
constituent portion of the national legislature.

These important prerogatives were of course favorable to the accumulation
of great wealth. Their estates were scattered over every part of the
kingdom, and, unlike the grandees of Spain at the present day, [59] they
resided on them in person, maintaining the state of petty sovereigns, and
surrounded by a numerous retinue, who served the purposes of a pageant in
time of peace, and an efficient military force in war. The demesnes of
John, lord of Biscay, confiscated by Alfonso the Eleventh to the use of
the crown, in 1327, amounted to more than eighty towns and castles. [60]
The "good constable" Davalos, in the time of Henry the Third, could ride
through his own estates all the way from Seville to Compostella, almost
the two extremities of the kingdom. [61] Alvaro de Luna, the powerful
favorite of John the Second, could muster twenty thousand vassals. [62] A
contemporary, who gives a catalogue of the annual rents of the principal
Castilian nobility at the close of the fifteenth or beginning of the
following century, computes several at fifty and sixty thousand ducats a
year, [63] an immense income, if we take into consideration the value of
money in that age. The same writer estimates their united revenues as
equal to one-third of those in the whole kingdom. [64]

These ambitious nobles did not consume their fortunes, or their energies
in a life of effeminate luxury. From their earliest boyhood they were
accustomed to serve in the ranks against the infidel, [65] and their whole
subsequent lives were occupied either with war, or with those martial
exercises which reflect the image of it. Looking back with pride to their
ancient Gothic descent, and to those times, when they had stood forward as
the peers, the electors of their sovereign, they could ill brook the
slightest indignity at his hand. [66] With these haughty feelings and
martial habits, and this enormous assumption of power, it may readily be
conceived that they would not suffer the anarchical provisions of the
constitution, which seemed to concede an almost unlimited license of
rebellion, to remain a dead letter. Accordingly, we find them perpetually
convulsing the kingdom with their schemes of selfish aggrandizement. The
petitions of the commons are filled with remonstrances on their various
oppressions, and the evils resulting from their long, desolating feuds. So
that, notwithstanding the liberal forms of its constitution, there was
probably no country in Europe, during the Middle Ages, so sorely afflicted
with the vices of intestine anarchy, as Castile. These were still further
aggravated by the improvident donations of the monarch to the aristocracy,
in the vain hope of conciliating their attachment, but which swelled their
already overgrown power to such a height, that, by the middle of the
fifteenth century, it not only overshadowed that of the throne, but
threatened to subvert the liberties of the state.

Their self-confidence, however, proved eventually their ruin. They
disdained a co-operation with the lower orders in defence of their
privileges, and relied too unhesitatingly on their power as a body, to
feel jealous of their exclusion from the national legislature, where alone
they could have made an effectual stand against the usurpations of the
crown.--The course of this work will bring under review the dexterous
policy, by which the crown contrived to strip the aristocracy of its
substantial privileges, and prepared the way for the period, when it
should retain possession only of a few barren though ostentatious
dignities. [67]

The inferior orders of nobility, the _hidalgos_, (whose dignity, like
that of the _ricos hombres_, would seem, as their name imports, to
have been originally founded on wealth,) [68] and the _cavalleros_, or
knights, enjoyed many of the immunities of the higher class, especially
that of exemption from taxation. [69] Knighthood appears to have been
regarded with especial favor by the law of Castile. Its ample privileges
and its duties are defined with a precision and in a spirit of romance,
that might have served for the court of King Arthur. [70] Spain was indeed
the land of chivalry. The respect for the sex, which had descended from
the Visigoths, [71] was mingled with the religious enthusiasm, which had
been kindled in the long wars with the infidel. The apotheosis of
chivalry, in the person of their apostle and patron, St. James, [72]
contributed still further to this exaltation of sentiment, which was
maintained by the various military orders, who devoted themselves, in the
bold language of the age, to the service "of God and the ladies." So that
the Spaniard may be said to have put in action what, in other countries,
passed for the extravagances of the minstrel. An example of this occurs in
the fifteenth century, when a passage of arms was defended at Orbigo, not
far from the shrine of Compostella, by a Castilian knight, named Sueño de
Quenones, and his nine companions, against all comers, in the presence of
John the Second and his court. Its object was to release the knight from
the obligation, imposed on him by his mistress, of publicly wearing an
iron collar round his neck every Thursday. The jousts continued for thirty
days, and the doughty champions fought without shield or target, with
weapons bearing points of Milan steel. Six hundred and twenty-seven
encounters took place, and one hundred and sixty-six lances were broken,
when the emprise was declared to be fairly achieved. The whole affair is
narrated with becoming gravity by an eye-witness, and the reader may fancy
himself perusing the adventures of a Launcelot or an Amadis. [73]

The influence of the ecclesiastics in Spain may be traced back to the age
of the Visigoths, when they controlled the affairs of the state in the
great national councils of Toledo. This influence was maintained by the
extraordinary position of the nation after the conquest. The holy warfare,
in which it was embarked, seemed to require the co-operation of the
clergy, to propitiate Heaven in its behalf, to interpret its mysterious
omens, and to move all the machinery of miracles, by which the imagination
is so powerfully affected in a rude and superstitious age. They even
condescended, in imitation of their patron saint, to mingle in the ranks,
and, with the crucifix in their hands, to lead the soldiers on to battle.
Examples of these militant prelates are to be found in Spain so late as
the sixteenth century. [74]

But, while the native ecclesiastics obtained such complete ascendency over
the popular mind, the Roman See could boast of less influence in Spain
than in any other country in Europe. The Gothic liturgy was alone
received, as canonical until the eleventh century; [75] and, until the
twelfth, the sovereign held the right of jurisdiction over all
ecclesiastical causes, of collating to benefices, or at least of
confirming or annulling the election of the chapters. The code of Alfonso
the Tenth, however, which borrowed its principles of jurisprudence from
the civil and canon law, completed a revolution already begun, and
transferred these important prerogatives to the pope, who now succeeded in
establishing a usurpation over ecclesiastical rights in Castile, similar
to that which had been before effected in other parts of Christendom. Some
of these abuses, as that of the nomination of foreigners to benefices,
were carried to such an impudent height, as repeatedly provoked the
indignant remonstrances of the cortes. The ecclesiastics, eager to
indemnify themselves for what they had sacrificed to Rome, were more than
ever solicitous to assert their independence of the royal jurisdiction.
They particularly insisted on their immunity from taxation, and were even
reluctant to divide with the laity the necessary burdens of a war, which,
from its sacred character, would seem to have imperative claims on them.
[76]

Notwithstanding the immediate dependence thus established on the head of
the church by the legislation of Alfonso the Tenth, the general immunities
secured by it to the ecclesiastics operated as a powerful bounty on their
increase; and the mendicant orders in particular, that spiritual militia
of the popes, were multiplied over the country to an alarming extent. Many
of their members were not only incompetent to the duties of their
profession, being without the least tincture of liberal culture, but fixed
a deep stain on it by the careless laxity of their morals. Open
concubinage was familiarly practised by the clergy, as well as laity, of
the period; and, so far from being reprobated by the law of the land,
seems anciently to have been countenanced by it. [77] This moral
insensibility may probably be referred to the contagious example of their
Mahometan neighbors; but, from whatever source derived, the practice was
indulged to such a shameless extent, that, as the nation advanced in
refinement, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, it became the
subject of frequent legislative enactments, in which the concubines of the
clergy are described as causing general scandal by their lawless
effrontery and ostentatious magnificence of apparel. [78]

Notwithstanding this prevalent licentiousness of the Spanish
ecclesiastics, their influence became every day more widely extended,
while this ascendency, for which they were particularly indebted in that
rude age to their superior learning and capacity, was perpetuated by their
enormous acquisitions of wealth. Scarcely a town was reconquered from the
Moors, without a considerable portion of its territory being appropriated
to the support of some ancient, or the foundation of some new, religious
establishment. These were the common reservoir, into which flowed the
copious streams of private as well as royal bounty; and, when the
consequences of these alienations in mortmain came to be visible in the
impoverishment of the public revenue, every attempt at legislative
interference was in a great measure defeated by the piety or superstition
of the age. The abbess of the monastery of Huelgas, which was situated
within the precincts of Burgos, and contained within its walls one hundred
and fifty nuns of the noblest families in Castile, exercised jurisdiction
ever fourteen capital towns, and more than fifty smaller places; and she
was accounted inferior to the queen only in dignity. [79] The archbishop
of Toledo, by virtue of his office primate of Spain and grand chancellor
of Castile, was esteemed, after the pope, the highest ecclesiastical
dignitary in Christendom. His revenues, at the close of the fifteenth
century, exceeded eighty thousand ducats; while the gross amount of those
of the subordinate beneficiaries of his church rose to one hundred and
eighty thousand. He could muster a greater number of vassals than any
other subject in the kingdom, and held jurisdiction over fifteen large and
populous towns, besides a great number of inferior places. [80]

These princely funds, when intrusted to pious prelates, were munificently
dispensed in useful public works, and especially in the foundation of
eleemosynary institutions, with which every great city in Castile was
liberally supplied. [81] But, in the hands of worldly men, they were
perverted from these noble uses to the gratification of personal vanity,
or the disorganizing schemes of faction. The moral perceptions of the
people, in the mean time, were confused by the visible demeanor of a
hierarchy, so repugnant to the natural conceptions of religious duty. They
learned to attach an exclusive value to external rites, to the forms
rather than the spirit of Christianity; estimating the piety of men by
their speculative opinions, rather than their practical conduct.--The
ancient Spaniards, notwithstanding their prevalent superstition, were
untinctured with the fiercer religious bigotry of later times; and the
uncharitable temper of their priests, occasionally disclosed in the heats
of religious war, was controlled by public opinion, which accorded a high
degree of respect to the intellectual, as well as political superiority of
the Arabs. But the time was now coming when these ancient barriers were to
be broken down; when a difference of religious sentiment was to dissolve
all the ties of human brotherhood; when uniformity of faith was to be
purchased by the sacrifice of any rights, even those of intellectual
freedom; when, in fine, the Christian and the Mussulman, the oppressor and
the oppressed, were to be alike bowed down under the strong arm of
ecclesiastical tyranny. The means by which a revolution so disastrous to
Spain was effected, as well as the incipient stages of its progress, are
topics that fall within the scope of the present history.

From the preceding survey of the constitutional privileges enjoyed by the
different orders of the Castilian monarchy, previous to the fifteenth
century, it is evident that the royal authority must have been
circumscribed within very narrow limits. The numerous states, into which
the great Gothic empire was broken after the conquest, were individually
too insignificant to confer on their respective sovereigns the possession
of extensive power, or even to authorize their assumption of that state,
by which, it is supported in the eyes of the vulgar. When some more
fortunate prince, by conquest or alliance, had enlarged the circle of his
dominions, and thus in some measure remedied the evil, it was sure to
recur upon his death, by the subdivision of his estates among his
children. This mischievous practice was even countenanced by public
opinion; for the different districts of the country, in their habitual
independence of each other, acquired an exclusiveness of feeling, which
made it difficult for them ever cordially to coalesce; and traces of this
early repugnance to each other are to be discerned in the mutual
jealousies and local peculiarities which still distinguish the different
sections of the Peninsula, after their consolidation into one monarchy for
more than three centuries.

The election to the crown, although no longer vested in the hands of the
national assembly, as with the Visigoths, was yet subject to its
approbation. The title of the heir apparent was formerly recognized by a
cortes convoked for the purpose; and, on the demise of his parent, the new
sovereign again convened the estates to receive their oath of allegiance,
which they cautiously withheld until he had first sworn to preserve
inviolate the liberties of the constitution. Nor was this a merely nominal
privilege, as was evinced on more than one memorable occasion. [82]

We have seen, in our review of the popular branch of the government, how
closely its authority pressed even on the executive functions of the
administration. The monarch was still further controlled, in this
department, by his Royal or Privy Council, consisting of the chief
nobility and great officers of state, to which, in later times, a
deputation of the commons was sometimes added. [83] This body, together
with the king, had cognizance of the most important public transactions,
whether of a civil, military, or diplomatic nature. It was established by
positive enactment, that the prince, without its consent, had no right to
alienate the royal demesne, to confer pensions beyond a very limited
amount, or to nominate to vacant benefices. [84] His legislative powers
were to be exercised in concurrence with the cortes; [85] and, in the
judicial department, his authority, during the latter part of the period
under review, seems to have been chiefly exercised in the selection of
officers for the higher judicatures, from a list of candidates presented
to him on a vacancy by their members concurrently with his privy council.
[86]

The scantiness of the king's revenue corresponded with that of his
constitutional authority. By an ancient law, indeed, of similar tenor with
one familiar to the Saracens, the sovereign was entitled to a fifth of the
spoils of victory. [87] This, in the course of the long wars with the
Moslems, would have secured him more ample possessions than were enjoyed
by any prince in Christendom. But several circumstances concurred to
prevent it.

The long minorities, with which Castile was afflicted perhaps more than
any country in Europe, frequently threw the government into the hands of
the principal nobility, who perverted to their own emoluments the high
powers intrusted to them. They usurped the possessions of the crown, and
invaded some of its most valuable privileges; so that the sovereign's
subsequent life was often consumed in fruitless attempts to repair the
losses of his minority. He sometimes, indeed, in the impotence of other
resources, resorted to such unhappy expedients as treachery and
assassination. [88] A pleasant tale is told by the Spanish historians, of
the more innocent device of Henry the Third, for the recovery of the
estates extorted from the crown by the rapacious nobles during his
minority.

Returning home late one evening, fatigued and half famished, from a
hunting expedition, he was chagrined to find no refreshment prepared for
him, and still more so, to learn from his steward, that he had neither
money nor credit to purchase it. The day's sport, however, fortunately
furnished the means of appeasing the royal appetite; and, while this was
in progress, the steward took occasion to contrast the indigent condition
of the king with that of his nobles, who habitually indulged in the most
expensive entertainments, and were that very evening feasting with the
archbishop of Toledo. The prince, suppressing his indignation, determined,
like the far-famed caliph in the "Arabian Nights," to inspect the affair
in person, and, assuming a disguise, introduced himself privately into the
archbishop's palace, where he witnessed with his own eyes the prodigal
magnificence of the banquet, teeming with costly wines and the most
luxurious viands.

The next day he caused a rumor to be circulated through the court, that he
had fallen suddenly and dangerously ill. The courtiers, at these tidings,
thronged to the palace; and, when they had all assembled, the king made
his appearance among them, bearing his naked sword in his hand, and, with
an aspect of unusual severity, seated himself on his throne at the upper
extremity of the apartment.

After an interval of silence in the astonished assembly, the monarch,
addressing himself to the primate, inquired of him, "How many sovereigns
he had known in Castile?" The prelate answering four, Henry put the same
question to the duke of Benevente, and so on to the other courtiers in
succession. None of them, however, having answered more than five, "How is
this," said the prince, "that you, who are so old, should have known so
few, while I, young as I am, have beheld more than twenty! Yes," continued
he, raising his voice, to the astonished multitude, "you are the real
sovereigns of Castile, enjoying all the rights and revenues of royalty,
while I, stripped of my patrimony, have scarcely wherewithal to procure
the necessaries of life." Then giving a concerted signal, his guards
entered the apartment, followed by the public executioner bearing along
with him the implements of death. The dismayed nobles, not relishing the
turn the jest appeared likely to take, fell on their knees before the
monarch and besought his forgiveness, promising, in requital, complete
restitution of the fruits of their rapacity. Henry, content with having so
cheaply gained his point, allowed himself to soften at their entreaties,
taking care, however, to detain their persons as security for their
engagements, until such time as the rents, royal fortresses, and whatever
effects had been filched from the crown, were restored. The story,
although repeated by the gravest Castilian writers, wears, it must be
owned, a marvellous tinge of romance. But, whether fact, or founded on it,
it may serve to show the dilapidated condition of the revenues at the
beginning of the fourteenth century, and its immediate causes. [89]

Another circumstance, which contributed to impoverish the exchequer, was
the occasional political revolutions in Castile, in which the adhesion of
a faction was to be purchased only by the most ample concessions of the
crown.--Such was the violent revolution, which placed the House of
Trastamara on the throne, in the middle of the fourteenth century.

But perhaps a more operative cause, than all these, of the alleged evil,
was the conduct of those imbecile princes, who, with heedless prodigality,
squandered the public resources on their own personal pleasures and
unworthy minions. The disastrous reigns of John the Second and Henry the
Fourth, extending over the greater portion of the fifteenth century,
furnish pertinent examples of this. It was not unusual, indeed, for the
cortes, interposing its paternal authority, by passing an act for the
partial resumption of grants thus illegally made, in some degree to repair
the broken condition of the finances. Nor was such a resumption unfair to
the actual proprietors. The promise to maintain the integrity of the royal
demesnes formed an essential part of the coronation oath of every
sovereign; and the subject, on whom he afterwards conferred them, knew
well by what a precarious, illicit tenure he was to hold them.

From the view which has been presented of the Castilian constitution at
the beginning of the fifteenth century, it is apparent, that the sovereign
was possessed of less power, and the people of greater, than in other
European monarchies at that period. It must be owned, however, as before
intimated, that the practical operation did not always correspond with the
theory of their respective functions in these rude times; and that the
powers of the executive, being susceptible of greater compactness and
energy in their movements, than could possibly belong to those of more
complex bodies, were sufficiently strong in the hands of a resolute
prince, to break down the comparatively feeble barriers of the law.
Neither were the relative privileges, assigned to the different orders of
the state, equitably adjusted. Those of the aristocracy were indefinite
and exorbitant. The license of armed combinations too, so freely assumed
both by this order and the commons, although operating as a safety-valve
for the escape of the effervescing spirit of the age, was itself obviously
repugnant to all principles of civil obedience, and exposed the state to
evils scarcely less disastrous than those which it was intended to
prevent.

It was apparent, that, notwithstanding the magnitude of the powers
conceded to the nobility and the commons, there were important defects,
which prevented them from resting on any sound and permanent basis. The
representation of the people in cortes, instead of partially emanating, as
in England, from an independent body of landed proprietors, constituting
the real strength of the nation, proceeded exclusively from the cities,
whose elections were much more open to popular caprice and ministerial
corruption, and whose numerous local jealousies prevented them from acting
in cordial co-operation. The nobles, notwithstanding their occasional
coalitions, were often arrayed in feuds against each other. They relied,
for the defence of their privileges, solely on their physical strength,
and heartily disdained, in any emergency, to support their own cause by
identifying it with that of the commons. Hence, it became obvious, that
the monarch, who, notwithstanding his limited prerogative, assumed the
anomalous privilege of transacting public business with the advice of only
one branch of the legislature, and of occasionally dispensing altogether
with the attendance of the other, might, by throwing his own influence
into the scale, give the preponderance to whichever party he should
prefer; and, by thus dexterously availing himself of their opposite
forces, erect his own authority on the ruins of the weaker.--How far and
how successfully this policy was pursued by Ferdinand and Isabella, will
be seen in the course of this History.

       *       *       *       *       *

Notwithstanding the general diligence of the Spanish historians, they have
done little towards the investigation of the constitutional antiquities of
Castile, until the present century. Dr. Geddes's meagre notice of the
cortes preceded probably, by a long interval, any native work upon that
subject. Robertson frequently complains of the total deficiency of
authentic sources of information respecting the laws and government of
Castile; a circumstance, that suggests to a candid mind an obvious
explanation of several errors, into which he has fallen. Capmany, in the
preface to a work, compiled by order of the central junta in Seville, in
1809, on the ancient organization of the cortes in the different states of
the Peninsula, remarks, that "no author has appeared, down to the present
day, to instruct us in regard to the origin, constitution, and celebration
of the Castilian cortes, on all which topics there remains the most
profound ignorance." The melancholy results to which such an investigation
must necessarily lead, from the contrast it suggests of existing
institutions to the freer forms of antiquity, might well have deterred the
modern Spaniard from these inquiries; which, moreover, it can hardly be
supposed, would have received the countenance of government. The brief
interval, however, in the early part of the present century, when the
nation so ineffectually struggled to resume its ancient liberties, gave
birth to two productions, which have gone far to supply the
_desiderata_ in this department. I allude to the valuable works of
Marina, on the early legislation, and on the cortes, of Castile, to which
repeated reference has been made in this section. The latter, especially,
presents us with a full exposition of the appropriate functions assigned
to the several departments of government, and with the parliamentary
history of Castile deduced from original unpublished records.

It is unfortunate that his copious illustrations are arranged in so
unskilful a manner as to give a dry and repulsive air to the whole work.
The original documents, on which it is established, instead of being
reserved for an appendix, and their import only conveyed in the text,
stare at the reader in every page, arrayed in all the technicalities,
periphrases, and repetitions incident to legal enactments. The course of
the investigation is, moreover, frequently interrupted by impertinent
dissertations on the constitution of 1812, in which the author has fallen
into abundance of crudities, which he would have escaped, had he but
witnessed the practical operation of those liberal forms of government,
which he so justly admires. The sanguine temper of Marina has also
betrayed him into the error of putting, too uniformly, a favorable
construction on the proceedings of the commons, and of frequently deriving
a constitutional precedent from what can only be regarded as an accidental
and transient exertion of power in a season of popular excitement.

The student of this department of Spanish history may consult, in
conjunction with Marina, Sempere's little treatise, often quoted, on the
History of the Castilian Cortes. It is, indeed, too limited and desultory
in its plan to afford anything like a complete view of the subject. But,
as a sensible commentary, by one well skilled in the topics that he
discusses, it is of undoubted value. Since the political principles and
bias of the author were of an opposite character to Marina's, they
frequently lead him to opposite conclusions in the investigation of the
same facts. Making all allowance for obvious prejudices, Sempere's work,
therefore, may be of much use in correcting the erroneous impressions made
by the former writer, whose fabric of liberty too often rests, as
exemplified more than once in the preceding pages, on an ideal basis.

But, with every deduction, Marina's publications must be considered an
important contribution to political science. They exhibit an able analysis
of a constitution, which becomes singularly interesting, from its having
furnished, together with that of the sister kingdom of Aragon, the
earliest example of representative government, as well as from the liberal
principles on which that government was long administered.


FOOTNOTES

[1] Aragon was formally released from this homage in 1177, and Portugal in
1264. (Mariana, Historia General de España, (Madrid, 1780,) lib. 11, cap.
14; lib. 13, cap. 20.) The king of Granada, Aben Alahmar, swore fealty to
St. Ferdinand, in 1245, binding himself to the payment of an annual rent,
to serve under him with a stipulated number of his knights in war, and
personally _attend cortes when summoned_;--a whimsical stipulation this
for a Mahometan prince. Conde, Historia de la Dominacion de los Arabes en
España, (Madrid, 1820, 1821,) tom. iii. cap. 30.

[2] Navarre was too inconsiderable, and bore too near a resemblance in its
government to the other Peninsular kingdoms, to require a separate notice;
for which, indeed, the national writers afford but very scanty materials.
The Moorish empire of Granada, so interesting in itself, and so
dissimilar, in all respects, to Christian Spain, merits particular
attention. I have deferred the consideration of it, however, to that
period of the history which is occupied with its subversion. See Part I.,
Chapter 8.

[3] See the Canons of the fifth Council of Toledo. Florez, España Sagrada,
(Madrid, 1747-1776,) tom. vi. p. 168.

[4] Recesvinto, in order more effectually to bring about the consolidation
of his Gothic and Roman subjects into one nation, abrogated the law
prohibiting their intermarriage. The terms in which his enactment is
conceived disclose a far more enlightened policy than that pursued either
by the Franks or Lombards. (See the Fuero Juzgo, (ed. de la Acad., Madrid,
1815,) lib. 3, tit. 1, ley 1.)--The Visigothic code, Fuero Juzgo, (Forum
Judicum,) originally compiled in Latin, was translated into Spanish under
St. Ferdinand; a copy of which version was first printed in 1600, at
Madrid. (Los Doctores Asso y Manuel, Instituciones del Derecho Civil de
Castilla, (Madrid, 1792,) pp. 6, 7.) A second edition, under the
supervision of the Royal Spanish Academy, was published in 1815. This
compilation, notwithstanding the apparent rudeness and even ferocity of
some of its features, may be said to have formed the basis of all the
subsequent legislation of Castile. It was, doubtless, the exclusive
contemplation of these features, which brought upon these laws the
sweeping condemnation of Montesquieu, as "puériles, gauches, idiotes,--
frivoles dans le fond et gigantesques dans le style." Espirit des Loix,
liv. 28, chap. 1.

[5] Some of the local usages, afterwards incorporated in the _fueros_, or
charters, of the Castilian communities, may probably be derived from the
time of the Visigoths. The English reader may form a good idea of the
tenor of the legal institutions of this people and their immediate
descendants, from an article in the sixty-first Number of the Edinburgh
Review, written with equal learning and vivacity.

[6] The Christians, in all matters exclusively relating to themselves,
were governed by their own laws, (See the Fuero Juzgo, Introd. p. 40,)
administered by their own judges, subject only in capital cases to an
appeal to the Moorish tribunals. Their churches and monasteries (_rosae
inter spinas_, says the historian) were scattered over the principal
towns, Cordova retaining seven, Toledo six, etc.; and their clergy were
allowed to display the costume, and celebrate the pompous ceremonial, of
the Romish communion. Florez, España Sagrada, tom. x. trat. 33, cap, 7.--
Morales, Corónica General de España, (Obras, Madrid, 1791-1793,) lib. 12,
cap. 78.--Conde, Domination de los Arabes, part 1, cap. 15, 22.

[7] Morales, Corónica, lib. 12, cap. 77.--Yet the names of several nobles
resident among the Moors appear in the record of those times. (See Salazar
de Mendoza, Monarquía de España, (Madrid, 1770,) tom. i. p. 34, note.) If
we could rely on a singular fact, quoted by Zurita, we might infer that a
large proportion of the Goths were content to reside among their Saracen
conquerors. The intermarriages among the two nations had been so frequent,
that, in 1311, the ambassador of James II., of Aragon, stated to his
Holiness, Pope Clement V., that of 200.000 persons composing the
population of Granada, not more than 500 were of pure Moorish descent!
(Anales de la Corona de Aragon, (Zaragoza, 1610,) lib. 5, cap. 93.) As the
object of the statement was to obtain certain ecclesiastical aids from the
pontiff, in the prosecution of the Moorish war, it appears very
suspicious, notwithstanding the emphasis laid on it by the historian.

[8] Bleda, Corónica de los Moros de España, (Valencia, 1618,) p. 171.--
This author states, that in his time there were several families in
Ireland, whose patronymics bore testimony to their descent from these
Spanish exiles. That careful antiquarian, Morales, considers the regions
of the Pyrenees lying betwixt Aragon and Navarre, together with the
Asturias, Biscay, Guipuscoa, the northern portion of Galicia and the
Alpuxarras, (the last retreat, too, of the Moors, under the Christian
domination,) to have been untouched by the Saracen invaders. See lib. 12,
cap. 76.

[9] The lot of the Visigothic slave was sufficiently hard. The
oppressions, which this unhappy race endured, were such as to lead Mr.
Southey, in his excellent Introduction to the "Chronicle of the Cid," to
impute to their co-operation, in part, the easy conquest of the country by
the Arabs. But, although the laws, in relation to them, seem to be taken
up with determining their incapacities rather than their privileges, it is
probable that they secured to them, on the whole, quite as great a degree
of civil consequence, as was enjoyed by similar classes in the rest of
Europe. By the Fuero Juzgo, the slave was allowed to acquire property for
himself, and with it to purchase his own redemption. (Lib. 5, tit. 4, ley
16.) A certain proportion of every man's slaves were also required to bear
arms, and to accompany their master to the field. (Lib. 9, tit 2, ley 8.)
But their relative rank is better ascertained by the amount of composition
(that accurate measurement of civil rights with all the barbarians of the
north) prescribed for any personal violence inflicted on them. Thus, by
the Salic law, the life of a free Roman was estimated at only one-fifth of
that of a Frank, (Lex Salica, tit. 43, sec. 1, 8;) while, by the law of
the Visigoths, the life of a slave was valued at half of that of a
freeman, (lib. 6, tit. 4, ley 1.) In the latter code, moreover, the master
was prohibited, under the severe penalties of banishment and sequestration
of property, from either maiming or murdering his own slave, (lib. 6, tit.
5, leyes 12, 13;) while, in other codes of the barbarians, the penalty was
confined to similar trespasses on the slaves of another; and, by the Salic
law, no higher mulct was imposed for killing, than for kidnapping a slave.
(Lex Salica, tit. 11, sec. 1, 3.) The legislation of the Visigoths, in
those particulars, seems to have regarded this unhappy race as not merely
a distinct species of property. It provided for their personal security,
instead of limiting itself to the indemnification of their masters.

[10] Corónica General, part. 3, fol. 54.

[11] According to Morales, (Corónica, lib. 13, cap. 57,) this took place
about 850.

[12] Toledo was not reconquered until 1085; Lisbon, in 1147.

[13] The archbishops of Toledo, whose revenues and retinues far exceeded
those of the other ecclesiastics, were particularly conspicuous in these
holy wars. Mariana, speaking of one of these belligerent prelates,
considers it worthy of encomium, that "it is not easy to decide whether he
was most conspicuous for his good government in peace, or his conduct and
valor in war." Hist. de España, tom. ii. p. 14.

[14] The first occasion, on which the military apostle condescended to
reveal himself to the Leonese, was the memorable day of Clavijo, A. D.
844, when 70,000 infidels fell on the field. From that time, the name of
St. Jago became the battle-cry of the Spaniards. The truth of the story is
attested by a contemporary charter of Ramiro I. to the church of the
saint, granting it an annual tribute of corn and wine from the towns in
his dominions, and a knight's portion of the spoils of every victory over
the Mussulmans. The _privilegio del voto_, as it is called, is given
at length by Florez in his Collection, (España Sagrada, tom. xix. p. 329,)
and is unhesitatingly cited by most of the Spanish historians, as Garibay,
Mariana, Morales, and others.--More sharp-sighted critics discover, in its
anachronisms, and other palpable blunders, ample evidence of its forgery.
(Mondejar, Advertencies &, la Historia de Mariana (Valencia, 1746,) no.
157,--Masdeu, Historia Crítica de España, y de la Cultura Española,
(Madrid, 1783-1805,) tom. xvi. supl. 18.) The canons of Compostella,
however, seem to have found their account in it, as the tribute of good
cheer, which it imposed, continued to be paid by some of the Castilian
towns, according to Mariana, in his day. Hist. de España, tom. i. p. 416.

[15] French, Flemish, Italian, and English volunteers, led by men of
distinguished rank, are recorded by the Spanish writers to have been
present at the sieges of Toledo, Lisbon, Algeziras, and various others.
More than sixty, or, as some accounts state, a hundred thousand, joined
the army before the battle of Navas de Tolosa; a round exaggeration,
which, however, implies the great number of such auxiliaries. (Garibay,
Compendio Historial de las Chrónicas de España, (Barcelona, 1628,) lib.
12, cap. 33.) The crusades in Spain were as rational enterprises, as those
in the East were vain and chimerical. Pope Pascal II. acted like a man of
sense, when he sent back certain Spanish adventurers, who had embarked in
the wars of Palestine, telling them that "the cause of religion could be
much better served by them at home."

[16] See Heeren, Politics of Ancient Greece, translated by Bancroft, chap.
7.

[17] The oldest manuscript extant of this poem, (still preserved at Bivar,
the hero's birth-place,) bears the date of 1207, or at latest 1307, for
there is some obscurity in the writing. Its learned editor, Sanchez, has
been led by the peculiarities of its orthography, metre, and idiom, to
refer its composition to as early a date as 1153. (Coleccion de Poesías
Castellanas anteriores al Siglo XV. (Madrid 1779-90,) tom. i. p. 223.)

Some of the late Spanish antiquaries have manifested a skepticism in
relation to the "Cid," truly alarming. A volume was published at Madrid,
in 1792, by Risco, under the title of "Castilla, o Historia de Rodrigo
Diaz," etc., which the worthy father ushered into the world with much
solemnity, as a transcript of an original manuscript coeval with the time
of the "Cid," and fortunately discovered by him in an obscure corner of
some Leonese monastery. (Prólogo). Masdeu, in an analysis of this precious
document, has been led to scrutinize the grounds on which the reputed
achievements of the "Cid" have rested from time immemorial, and concludes
with the startling assertion, that "of Rodrigo Diaz, el Campeador, we
absolutely know nothing with any degree of probability, not even his
existence!" (Hist. Crítica, tom. xx. p. 370.) There are probably few of
his countrymen, that will thus coolly acquiesce in the annihilation of
their favorite hero, whose exploits have been the burden of chronicle, as
well as romance, from the twelfth century down to the present day.

They may find a warrant for their fond credulity, in the dispassionate
judgment of one of the greatest of modern historians, John Muller, who, so
far from doubting the existence of the Campeador, has succeeded, in his
own opinion at least, in clearing from his history the "mists of fable and
extravagance," in which it has been shrouded. See his Life of the Cid,
appended to Escobar's "Romancero," edited by the learned and estimable Dr.
Julius, of Berlin. Frankfort, 1828.

[18] A modern minstrel inveighs loudly against this charity of his
ancestors, who devoted their "cantos de cigarra," to the glorification of
this "Moorish rabble," instead of celebrating the prowess of the Cid,
Bernardo, and other worthies of their own nation. His discourtesy,
however, is well rebuked by a more generous brother of the craft.

  "No es culpa si de los Moros
  los valientes hechos cantan,
  pues tanto mas resplandecen
  nuestras celebres hazañas;
  que el encarecer los hechos
  del vencido en la batalla,
  engrandece al vencedor,
  aunque no hablen de el palabra."

Duran, Romancero de Romances Moriscos, (Madrid, 1828.) p. 227.

[19] When the empress queen of Alfonso VII. was besieged in the castle of
Azeca, in 1139, she reproached the Moslem cavaliers for their want of
courtesy and courage in attacking a fortress defended by a female. They
acknowledged the justice of the rebuke, and only requested that she would
condescend to show herself to them from her palace; when the Moorish
chivalry, after paying their obeisance to her in the most respectful
manner, instantly raised the siege, and departed. (Ferreras, Histoire
Générale d'Espagne, traduite par d'Hermilly, (Paris, 1742-51.) tom. in. p.
410.) It was a frequent occurrence to restore a noble captive to liberty
without ransom, and even with costly presents. Thus Alfonso XI. sent back
to their father two daughters of a Moorish prince, who formed part of the
spoils of the battle of Tarifa. (Mariana, Hist. die España, tom. ii. p.
32.) When this same Castilian sovereign, after a career of almost
uninterrupted victory over the Moslems, died of the plague before
Gibraltar, in 1350, the knights of Granada put on mourning for him,
saying, that "he was a noble prince, and one that knew how to honor his
enemies as well as his friends." Conde, Domination de los Arabes, tom.
iii. p. 149.

[20] One of the most extraordinary achievements, in this way, was that of
the grand master of Alcantara, in 1394, who, after ineffectually
challenging the king of Granada to meet him in single combat, or with a
force double that of his own, marched boldly up to the gates of his
capital, where he was assailed by such an overwhelming host, that he with
all his little band perished on the field. (Mariana, Hist. de España, lib.
19, cap. 3.) It was over this worthy compeer of Don Quixote that the
epitaph was inscribed, "Here lies one who never knew fear," which led
Charles V. to remark to one of his courtiers, that "the good knight could
never have tried to snuff a candle with his fingers."

[21] This singular fact, of the existence of an Arabic military order, is
recorded by Conde. (Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. i. p. 619, note.) The
brethren were distinguished for the simplicity of their attire, and their
austere and frugal habits. They were stationed on the Moorish marches, and
were bound by a vow of perpetual war against the Christian infidel. As
their existence is traced as far back as 1030, they may possibly have
suggested the organization of similar institutions in Christendom, which
they preceded by a century at least. The loyal historians of the Spanish
military orders, it is true, would carry that of St. Jago as far back as
the time of Ramiro I., in the ninth century; (Caro de Torres, Historia de
las Ordenes Militares de Santiago, Calatrava, y Alcantara, (Madrid, 1629,)
fol. 2.--Rades y Andrada, Chrónica de las Tres Ordenes y Cavallerías,
(Toledo, 1572,) fol. 4,) but less prejudiced critics, as Zurita and
Mariana, are content with dating it from the papal bull of Alexander III.,
1175.

[22] In one of the Paston letters, we find the notice of a Spanish knight
appearing at the court of Henry VI., "wyth a Kercheff of Plesaunce
iwrapped aboute hys arme, the gwych Knight," says the writer, "wyl renne a
cours wyth a sharpe spere for his sou'eyn lady sake." (Fenn, Original
Letters, (1787,) vol. i. p. 6.) The practice of using sharp spears,
instead of the guarded and blunted weapons usual in the tournament, seems
to have been affected by the chivalrous nobles of Castile; many of whom,
says the chronicle of Juan II., lost their lives from this circumstance,
in the splendid tourney given in honor of the nuptials of Blanche of
Navarre and Henry, son of John II. (Crónica de D. Juan II., (Valencia,
1779,) p. 411.) Monstrelet records the adventures of a Spanish cavalier,
who "travelled all the way to the court of Burgundy to seek honor and
reverence" by his feats of arms. His antagonist was the Lord of Chargny;
on the second day they fought with battle-axes, and "the Castilian
attracted general admiration, by his uncommon daring in fighting with his
visor up." Chroniques, (Paris, 1595,) tom. ii. p. 109.

[23] The Venetian ambassador, Navagiero, speaking of the manners of the
Castilian nobles, in Charles V.'s time, remarks somewhat bluntly, that,
"if their power were equal to their pride, the whole world would not be
able to withstand them." Viaggio fatto in Spagna et in Francia, (Vinegia,
1563,) fol. 10.

[24] The most ancient of these regular charters of incorporation, now
extant, was granted by Alfonso V., in 1020, to the city of Leon and its
territory. (Mariana rejects those of an earlier date, adduced by Asso and
Manuel and other writers. Ensayo Histórico-Crítico, sobre la Antigua
Legislation de Castilla, (Madrid, 1808,) pp. 80-82.) It preceded, by a
long interval, those granted to the burgesses in other parts of Europe,
with the exception, perhaps, of Italy; where several of the cities, as
Milan, Pavia, and Pisa, seem early in the eleventh century to have
exercised some of the functions of independent states. But the extent of
municipal immunities conceded to, or rather assumed by, the Italian cities
at this early period, is very equivocal; for their indefatigable
antiquarian confesses that all, or nearly all their archives, previous to
the time of Frederick I., (the latter part of the twelfth century,) had
perished amid their frequent civil convulsions. (See the subject in
detail, in Muratori, Dissertazioni sopra le Antichità Italiane, (Napoli,
1752,) dissert. 45.) Acts of enfranchisement became frequent in Spain
during the eleventh century; several of which are preserved, and exhibit,
with sufficient precision, the nature of the privileges accorded to the
inhabitants.--Robertson, who wrote when the constitutional antiquities of
Castile had been but slightly investigated, would seem to have little
authority, therefore, for deriving the establishment of communities from
Italy, and still less for tracing their progress through France and
Germany to Spain. See his History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles V,
(London, 1796,) vol. i. pp. 29, 30.

[25] For this account of the ancient polity of the Castilian cities, the
reader is referred to Sempere, Histoire des Cortès d'Espagne, (Bordeaux,
1815,) and Marina's valuable works, Ensayo Histórico-Crítico sobre la
Antigua Legislacion de Camilla, (Nos. 160-196,) and Teoría de las Cortes,
(Madrid, 1813, part. 2, cap. 21-23,) where the meagre outline given above
is filled up with copious illustration.

[26] The independence of the Lombard cities had been sacrificed, according
to the admission of their enthusiastic historian, about the middle of the
thirteenth century. Sismondi, Histoire des Républiques Italiennes du
Moyen-Age, (Paris, 1818,) ch. 20.

[27] Or in 1160, according to the Corónica General, (part. 4, fol. 344,
345,) where the fact is mentioned; Mariana refers this celebration of
cortes to 1170, (Hist. de España, lib. 11, cap. 2;) but Ferreras, who
often rectifies the chronological inaccuracies of his predecessor, fixes
it in 1169. (Hist. d'Espagne, tom. iii. p. 484) Neither of these authors
notices the presence of the commons in this assembly; although the phrase
used by the Chronicle, _los cibdadanos_, is perfectly unequivocal.

[28] Capmany, Práctica y Estilo de Celebrar Cortes en Aragon, Cataluña, y
Valencia, (Madrid, 1821,) pp. 230, 231.--Whether the convocation of the
third estate to the national councils proceeded from politic calculation
in the sovereign, or was in a manner forced on him by the growing power
and importance of the cities, it is now too late to inquire. It is nearly
as difficult to settle on what principles the selection of cities to be
represented depended. Marina asserts, that every great town and community
was entitled to a seat in the legislature, from the time of receiving its
municipal charter from the sovereign, (Teoría, tom. i. p. 138;) and
Sempere agrees, that this right became general, from the first, to all who
chose to avail themselves of it. (Histoire des Cortès, p. 56.) The right,
probably, was not much insisted on by the smaller and poorer places,
which, from the charges it involved, felt it often, no doubt, less of a
boon than a burden. This, we know, was the case in England.

[29] It was an evil of scarcely less magnitude, that contested elections
were settled by the crown. (Capmany, Práctica y Estilo, p. 231.) The
latter of these practices, and, indeed, the former to a certain extent,
are to be met with in English history.

[30] Marina leaves this point in some obscurity. (Teoría, tom. i. cap.
28.) Indeed, there seems to have been some irregularity in the
parliamentary usages themselves. From minutes of a meeting of cortes at
Toledo, in 1538, too soon for any material innovation on the ancient
practice, we find the three estates sitting in separate chambers, from the
very commencement to the close of the session. See the account drawn up by
the count of Coruña, apud Capmany, Práctica y Estilo, pp. 240 et seq.

[31] This, however, so contrary to the analogy of other European
governments, is expressly contradicted by the declaration of the nobles,
at the cortes of Toledo, in 1538. "Oida esta respuesta se dijo, que pues
S. M. habia dicho que no eran Córtes ni habia Brazos, no podian tratar
cosa alguna, _que ellos sin procuradores, y los procuradores sin ellos,
no seria válido lo que hicieren._" Relacion del Conde de Coruña, apud
Capmany, Práctica y Estilo, p. 247.

[32] This omission of the privileged orders was almost uniform under
Charles V. and his successors. But it would be unfair to seek for
constitutional precedent in the usages of a government, whose avowed
policy was altogether subversive of the constitution.

[33] During the famous war of the _Comunidades_, under Charles V. For
the preceding paragraph consult Marina, (Teoría, part. 1, cap. 10, 20, 26,
29,) and Capmany. (Práctica y Estilo, pp. 220-250.) The municipalities of
Castile seem to have reposed but a very limited confidence in their
delegates, whom they furnished with instructions, to which they were bound
to conform themselves literally. See Marina, Teoría, part. 1, cap. 23.

[34] The term "fundamental principle" is fully authorized by the existence
of repeated enactments to this effect. Sempere, who admits the "usage,"
objects to the phrase "fundamental law," on the ground that these acts
were specific, not general, in their character. Histoire des Cortès, p.
254.

[35] "Los Reyes en nuestros Reynos progenitores establecieron por leyes, y
ordenanças fechas en Cortes, que no se echassen, ni repartiessen ningunos
pechos, seruicios, pedidos, ni monedas, ni otros tributes nueuos,
especial, ni generalmente en todos nuestros Reynos, sin que primeramente
sean llamados à Cortes los procuradores de todas las Ciudades, y villas de
nuestros Reynos, y sean otorgados por los dichos procuradores que á las
Cortes vinieren." (Recopilacion de las Leyes, (Madrid, 1640,) tom. ii.
fol. 124.) This law, passed under Alfonso XI., was confirmed by John II.,
Henry III., and Charles V.

[36] In 1258, they presented a variety of petitions to the king, in
relation to his own personal expenditure, as well as that of his
courtiers; requiring him to diminish the charges of his table, attire,
etc., and, bluntly, to "bring his appetite within a more reasonable
compass;" to all which he readily gave his assent. (Sempere y Guarinos,
Historia del Luxo, y de las Leyes Suntuarias de España, (Madrid, 1788,)
tom. i. pp. 91, 92.) The English reader is reminded of a very different
result, which attended a similar interposition of the commons in the time
of Richard II., more than a century later.

[37] Marina claims also the right of the cortes to be consulted on
questions of war and peace, of which he adduces several precedents.
(Teoría, part. 2, cap. 19, 20.) Their interference in what is so generally
held the peculiar province of the executive, was perhaps encouraged by the
sovereign, with the politic design of relieving himself of the
responsibility of measures whose success must depend eventually on their
support. Hallam notices a similar policy of the crown, under Edward III.,
in his view of the English constitution during the Middle Ages. View of
the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, (London, 1819,) vol. iii.
chap. 8.

[38] The recognition of the title of the heir apparent, by a cortes
convoked for that purpose, has continued to be observed in Castile down to
the present time. Práctica y Estilo, p. 229.

[39] For the preceding notice of the cortes, see Marina, Teoría, part. 2,
cap. 13, 19, 20, 21, 31, 35, 37, 38.

[40] So at least they are styled by Marina. See his account of these
institutions; (Teoría, part. 2, cap. 39;) also Salazar de Mendoza,
(Monarquía, lib. 3, cap. 15, 16,) and Sempere, (Histoire des Cortès, chap.
12, 13.) One hundred cities associated in the Hermandad of 1315. In that
of 1295, were thirty-four. The knights and inferior nobility frequently
made part of the association. The articles of confederation are given by
Risco, in his continuation of Florez. (España Sagrada, (Madrid, 1775-
1826,) tom. xxxvi. p. 162.) In one of these articles it is declared, that,
if any noble shall deprive a member of the association of his property,
and refuse restitution, his house shall be razed to the ground. (Art. 4.)
In another, that if any one, by command of the king, shall attempt to
collect an unlawful tax, he shall be put to death on the spot. Art. 9.

[41] See Sempere, Historia del Luxo, tom. i. p. 97.--Masdeu, Hist.
Crítica, tom. xiii. nos. 90, 91.--Gold and silver, curiously wrought into
plate, were exported in considerable quantities from Spain, the tenth and
eleventh centuries. They were much used in the churches. The tiara of the
pope was so richly encrusted with the precious metals, says Masdeu, as to
receive the name of _Spanodista_. The familiar use of these metals as
ornaments of dress is attested by the ancient poem of the "Cid." See, in
particular, the costume of the Campeador; vv. 3099 et seq.

[42] Zuñiga, Annales Eclesiasticos y Seculares de Sevilla, (Madrid, 1677,)
pp. 74, 75.--Sempere, Historia del Luxo, tom. i. p. 80.

[43] The historian of Seville describes that city, about the middle of the
fifteenth century, as possessing a flourishing commerce and a degree of
opulence unexampled since the conquest. It was filled with an active
population, employed in the various mechanic arts. Its domestic fabrics,
as well as natural products, of oil, wine, wool, etc., supplied a trade
with Prance, Flanders, Italy, and England. (Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, p.
341.--See also Sempere, Historia del Luxo, p. 81, nota 2.) The ports of
Biscay, which belonged to the Castilian crown, were the marts of an
extensive trade with the north, during the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries. This province entered into repeated treaties of commerce with
France and England; and her factories were established at Bruges, the
great emporium of commercial intercourse during this period between the
north and south, before those of any other people in Europe, except the
Germans. (Diccionario Geográfico-Histórico de España, por la Real Academia
de la Historia, (Madrid, 1802,) tom. i. p. 333.)

The institution of the _mesta_ is referred, says Laborde, (Itinéraire
Descriptif de l'Espagne, (Paris, 1827-1830,) tom. iv. p. 47,) to the
middle of the fourteenth century, when the great plague, which devastated
the country so sorely, left large depopulated tracts open to pasturage.
This popular opinion is erroneous, since it engaged the attention of
government, and became the subject of legislation as anciently as 1273,
under Alfonso the Wise. (See Asso y Manuel, Instituciones, Introd. p. 56.)
Capmany, however, dates the great improvement in the breed of Spanish
sheep from the year 1394, when Catharine of Lancaster brought with her, as
a part of her dowry to the heir apparent of Castile, a flock of English
merinos, distinguished, at that time, above those of every other country,
for the beauty and delicacy of their fleece. (Memorias Históricas sobre la
Marina, Comercio, y Artes de Barcelona, (Madrid, 1779-1792,) tom. iii. pp.
336, 337.) This acute writer, after a very careful examination of the
subject, differing from those already quoted, considers the raw material
for manufacture, and the natural productions of the soil, to have
constituted almost the only articles of export from Spain, until after the
fifteenth century. (Ibid., p. 338.) We will remark, in conclusion of this
desultory note, that the term _merinos_ is derived, by Conde, from
_moedinos_, signifying "wandering;" the name of an Arabian tribe, who
shifted their place of residence with the season. (Hist. de los Arabes en
España, tom. i. p. 488, nota.) The derivation might startle any but a
professed etymologist.

[44] See the original acts, cited by Sempere. (Historia del Luxo, passim.)
The archpriest of Hita indulges his vein freely against the luxury,
cupidity, and other fashionable sins of his age. (See Sanchez, Poesias
Castellanas, tom. iv.)--The influence of Mammon appears to have been as
supreme in the fourteenth century as at any later period.

  "Sea un ome nescio, et rudo labrador,
  Los dineros le fasen fidalgo e sabidor,
  Quanto mas algo tiene, tanto es mas de valor,
  El que no ba dineros, non es de si señor."
                         Vv. 465 et seq.

[45] Marina, Ensayo, nos. 199, 297.--Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, p. 341.

[46] Marina, Teoría, part. 2, cap. 28.--Mariana, Hist. de España, lib. 18,
cap. 15.--The admission of citizens into the king's council would have
formed a most important epoch for the commons, had they not soon been
replaced by jurisconsults, whose studies and sentiments inclined them less
to the popular side than to that of prerogative.

[47] Ibid., lib. 18, cap. 17.

[48] _Castilla_. See Salazar de Mendoza, Monarquía, tom. i. p. 108.--
Livy mentions the great number of these towers in Spain in his day.
"Multas et locis altis positas turres Hispania habet." (Lib. 22, cap.
19.)--A castle was emblazoned on the escutcheon of Castile, as far back as
the reign of Urraca, in the beginning of the twelfth century, according to
Salazar de Mendoza, (Monarquía, tom. i. p. 142,) although Garibay discerns
no vestige of these arms on any instrument of a much older date than the
beginning of the thirteenth century. Compendio, lib. 12, cap. 32.

[49]
  "Hizo guerra a los Moros,
  Ganando sus fortalezas
  Y sus villas.
  Y en las lides que Venció
  Caballeros y Caballos
  Se perdiéron,
  Y en este ofloio ganó
  Las rentas y los vasallos
  Que le dieron."     Coplas de Manrique, copla 31.

[50] Asso and Manuel derive the introduction of fiefs into Castile, from
Catalonia. (Instituciones, p. 96.) The twenty-sixth title, part. 4, of
Alfonso X.'s code, (Siete Partidas,) treats exclusively of them. (De los
Feudos.) The laws 2, 4, 5, are expressly devoted to a brief exposition of
the nature of a fief, the ceremonies of investiture, and the reciprocal
obligations of lord and vassal. Those of the latter consisted in keeping
his lord's counsel, maintaining his interest, and aiding him in war. With
all this, there are anomalies in this code, and still more in the usages
of the country, not easy to explain on the usual principles of the feudal
relation; a circumstance, which has led to much discrepancy of opinion on
the subject, in political writers, as well as to some inconsistency.
Sempere, who entertains no doubt of the establishment of feudal
institutions in Castile, tells us, that "the nobles, after the Conquest,
succeeded in obtaining an exemption from military service,"--one of the
most conspicuous and essential of all the feudal relations. Histoire des
Cortès, pp. 30, 72, 249.

[51] Asso y Manuel, Instituciones, p. 26.--Sempere, Histoire des Cortès,
chap. 4.--The incensed nobles quitted the cortes in disgust, and
threatened to vindicate their rights by arms, on one such occasion, 1176.
Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. i. p. 644. See also tom. ii. p. 176.

[52] Idem auctores, ubi supra.--Prieto y Sotelo, Historia del Derecho Real
de España, (Madrid, 1738,) lib. 2, cap. 23; lib. 3, cap. 8.

[53] Siete Partidas, (ed. de la Real Acad., Madrid, 1807,) part. 4, tit.
25, ley 11. On such occasions they sent him a formal defiance by their
king at arms. Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. i. pp. 768, 912.

[54] Ibid., tom. i. pp. 707, 713.

[55] The forms of this solemnity may be found in Mariana, Hist. de España,
tom. i. p. 907.

[56] Marina, Ensayo, p. 128.

[57] John I., in 1390, authorized appeals from the seignorial tribunals to
those of the crown. Ibid., tom. ii. p. 179.

[58] The nature of these dignities is explained in Salazar de Mendoza,
Monarquía, tom. i. pp. 155, 166, 203.

[59] From the scarcity of these baronial residences, some fanciful
etymologists have derived the familiar saying of "Châteaux en Espagne."
See Bourgoanne, Travels in Spain, tom. ii. chap. 12.

[60] Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. i. p. 910.

[61] Crónica de Don Alvaro de Luna, (ed. de la Acad. Madrid, 1784,) App.
p. 465.

[62] Guzman, Generaciones y Semblanzas, (Madrid, 1775,) cap. 84.--His
annual revenue is computed by Perez de Guzman, at 100,000 doblas of gold;
a sum equivalent to 856,000 dollars at the present day.

[63] The former of these two sums is equivalent to $438,875, or £91,474
sterling; and the latter to $526,650, or £109,716, nearly. I have been
guided by a dissertation of Clemencin, in the sixth volume of the Memorias
de la Real Academia de la Historia, (Madrid, 1821, pp. 507-566,) in the
reduction of sums in this History. That treatise is very elaborate and
ample, and brings under view all the different coins of Ferdinand and
Isabella's time, settling their specific value with great accuracy. The
calculation is attended with considerable difficulty, owing to the
depreciation of the value of the precious metals, and the repeated
adulteration of the _real_. In his tables, at the end, he exhibits the
commercial value of the different denominations, ascertained by the
quantity of wheat (as sure a standard as any), which they would buy at
that day. Taking the average of values, which varied considerably in
different years of Ferdinand and Isabella, it appears that the ducat,
reduced to our own currency, will be equal to about eight dollars and
seventy-seven cents, and the dobla to eight dollars and fifty-six cents.

[64] The ample revenues of the Spanish grandee of the present time,
instead of being lavished on a band of military retainers, as of yore, are
sometimes dispensed in the more peaceful hospitality of supporting an
almost equally formidable host of needy relations and dependants.
According to Bourgoanne (Travels in Spain, vol. 1. chap. 4), no less than
3000 of these gentry were maintained on the estates of the duke of Arcos,
who died in 1780.

[65] Mendoza records the circumstance of the head of the family of Ponce
de Leon, (a descendant of the celebrated marquis of Cadiz,) carrying his
son, then thirteen years old, with him into battle; "an ancient usage," he
says, "in that noble house." (Guerra de Granada, (Valencia, 1776,) p.
318.) The only son of Alfonso VI. was slain, fighting manfully in the
ranks, at the battle of Ucles, in 1109, when only eleven years of age.
Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. i. p. 565.

[66] The northern provinces, the theatre of this primitive independence,
have always been consecrated by this very circumstance, in the eyes of a
Spaniard. "The proudest lord," says Navagiero, "feels it an honor to trace
his pedigree to this quarter." (Viaggio, fol. 44.) The same feeling has
continued, and the meanest native of Biscay, or the Asturias, at the
present day, claims to be noble; a pretension, which often contrasts
ridiculously enough with the humble character of his occupation, and has
furnished many a pleasant anecdote to travellers.

[67] An elaborate dissertation, by the advocate Don Alonso Carillo, on the
pre-eminence and privileges of the Castilian grandee, is appended to
Salazar de Mendoza's Origen de las Dignidades Seglares de Castilla,
(Madrid, 1794.) The most prized of these appears to be that of keeping the
head covered in the presence of the sovereign; "prerogativa tan ilustre,"
says the writer, "que ella sola imprime el principal caracter de la
Grandeza. Y considerada _por sus efectos admirables_, ocupa dignamente el
primero lugar." (Discurso 3.) The sentimental citizen Bourgoanne, finds it
necessary to apologize to his republican brethren, for noticing these
"important trifles." Travels in Spain, vol. i. chap. 4.

[68] "Los llamaron fijosdalgo, que muestra a tanto como fijos de bien."
(Siete Partidas, part. 2, tit. 21.) "Por hidalgos se entienden _los
hombres escogidos de buenos lugares é con algo_." Asso y Manuel,
Instituciones, pp. 33, 34.

[69] Recop. de las Leyes, lib. 6, tit. 1, leyes 2, 9; tit. 2, leyes 3, 4,
10; tit. 14, leyes 14, 19.--They were obliged to contribute to the repair
of fortifications and public works, although, as the statute expresses it,
"tengan privilegios para que sean essentos de todos pechos."

[70] The knight was to array himself in light and cheerful vestments, and,
in the cities and public places his person was to be enveloped in a long
and flowing mantle, in order to impose greater reverence on the people.
His good steed was to be distinguished by the beauty and richness of his
caparisons. He was to live abstemiously, indulging himself in none of the
effeminate delights of couch or banquet. During his repast, his mind was
to be refreshed with the recital, from history, of deeds of ancient
heroism; and in the fight he was commanded to invoke the name of his
mistress, that it might infuse new ardor into his soul, and preserve him
from the commission of unknightly actions. See Siete Partidas, part, 2,
tit. 21, which is taken up with defining the obligations of chivalry.

[71] See Fuero Juzgo, lib. 3, which is devoted almost exclusively to the
sex. Montesquieu discerns in the jealous surveillance, which the Visigoths
maintained over the honor of their women, so close an analogy with
oriental usages, as must have greatly facilitated the conquest of the
country by the Arabians. Esprit des Loix, liv. 14, chap. 14.

[72] Warton's expression. See vol. i. p. 245, of the late learned edition
of his History of English Poetry, (London, 1824.)

[73] See the "Passo Honroso" appended to the Crónica de Alvaro de Luna.

[74] The present narrative will introduce the reader to more than one
belligerent prelate, who filled the very highest post in the Spanish, and,
I may say, the Christian Church, next the papacy. (See Alvaro Gomez, De
Rebus Gestis a Francisco Ximenio Cisnerio, (Compluti, 1569,) fol. 110 et
seq.) The practice, indeed, was familiar in other countries, as well as
Spain, at this late period. In the bloody battle of Ravenna, in 1512, two
cardinal legates, one of them the future Leo X., fought on opposite sides.
Paolo Giovo, Vita Leonis X., apud "Vitae Illustrium Virorum," (Basiliae,
1578,) lib. 2.

[75] The contest for supremacy, between the Mozarabic ritual and the
Roman, is familiar to the reader, in the curious narrative extracted by
Robertson from Mariana, Hist. de España, lib. 9, cap. 18.

[76] Siete Partidas, part. 1, tit. 6.--Florez, España Sagrada, tom. xx. p.
16.--The Jesuit Mariana appears to grudge this appropriation of the
"sacred revenues of the Church" to defray the expenses of the holy war
against the Saracen. (Hist. de España, tom. i. p. 177.) See also the
Ensayo, (nos. 322-364,) where Marina has analyzed and discussed the
general import of the first of the Partidas.

[77] Marina, Ensayo, ubi supra, and nos. 220 et seq.

[78] See the original acts quoted by Sempere, in his Historia del Luxo,
tom. i. pp. 166 et seq.

[79] Lucio Marineo Siculo, Cosas Memorables de España, (Alcalá de Henares,
1539,) fol. 16.

[80] Navagiero, Viaggio, fol. 9.--L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 12.--
Laborde reckons the revenues of this prelate, in his tables, at 12,000,000
reals, or 600,000 dollars. (Itinéraire, tom. vi. p. 9.) The estimate is
grossly exaggerated for the present day. The rents of this see, like those
of every other in the kingdom, have been grievously clipped in the late
political troubles. They are stated by the intelligent author of "A Year
in Spain," on the authority of the clergy of the diocese, at one-third of
the above sum, only; (p. 217, Boston ed. 1829;) an estimate confirmed by
Mr. Inglis, who computes them at £40,000. Spain in 1830, vol. i. ch. 11.

[81] Modern travellers, who condemn without reserve the corruption of the
inferior clergy, bear uniform testimony to the exemplary piety and
munificent charities of the higher dignitaries of the church.

[82] Marina, Teoría, part. 2, cap. 2, 5, 6.--A remarkable instance of this
occurred as late as the accession of Charles V.

[83] The earliest example of this permanent committee of the commons,
residing at court, and entering into the king's council, was in the
minority of Ferdinand IV., in 1295. The subject is involved in some
obscurity, which Marina has not succeeded in dispelling. He considers the
deputation to have formed a necessary and constituent part of the council,
from the time of its first appointment. (Teoría, tom. ii. cap. 27, 28.)
Sempere, on the other hand, discerns no warrant for this, after its
introduction, till the time of the Austrian dynasty. (Histoire des Cortès,
chap. 29.) Marina, who too often mistakes anomaly for practice, is
certainly not justified, even by his own showing, in the sweeping
conclusions to which he arrives. But, if his prejudices lead him to see
more than has happened, on the one hand, those of Sempere, on the other,
make him sometimes high gravel blind.

[84] The important functions and history of this body are investigated by
Marina. (Teoría, part. 2, cap. 27, 28, 29.) See also Sempere, (Histoire
des Cortès, cap. 16,) and the Informe de Don Agustin Riol, (apud Semanario
Erudito, tom. iii. pp. 113 et seq.) where, however, its subsequent
condition is chiefly considered.

[85] Not so exclusively, however, by any means, as Marina pretends.
(Teoría, part. 2, cap. 17, 18.) He borrows a pertinent illustration from
the famous code of Alfonso X., which was not received as law of the land
till it had been formally published in cortes, in 1348, more than seventy
years after its original compilation. In his zeal for popular rights, he
omits to notice, however, the power so frequently assumed by the sovereign
of granting _fueros_, or municipal charters; a right, indeed, which
the great lords, spiritual and temporal, exercised in common with him,
subject to his sanction. See a multitude of these seignorial codes,
enumerated by Asso and Manuel. (Instituciones, Introd., pp. 31 et seq.)
The monarch claimed, moreover, though not by any means so freely as in
later times, the privilege of issuing _pragmáticas_, ordinances of an
executive character, or for the redress of grievances submitted to him by
the national legislature. Within certain limits, this was undoubtedly a
constitutional prerogative; But the history of Castile, like that of most
other countries in Europe, shows how easily it was abused in the hands of
an arbitrary prince.

[86] The civil and criminal business of the kingdom was committed, in the
last resort, to the very ancient tribunal of _alcaldes de casa y corte_,
until, in 1371, a new one, entitled the royal audience or chancery, was
constituted under Henry II., with supreme and ultimate jurisdiction in
civil causes. These, in the first instance, however, might be brought
before the _alcaldes de la corte_, which continued, and has since
continued, the high court in criminal matters.

The _audiencia_, or chancery, consisted at first of seven judges, whose
number varied a good deal afterwards. They were appointed by the crown, in
the manner mentioned in the text. Their salaries were such as to secure
their independence, as far as possible, of any undue influence; and this
was still further done by the supervision of cortes, whose acts show
the deep solicitude with which it watched over the concerns and conduct of
this important tribunal. For a notice of the original organization and
subsequent modifications of the Castilian courts, consult Marina, (Teoría,
part. 2, cap. 21-25,) Riol, (Informe, apud Semanario Erudito, tom. iii.
pp. 129 et seq.) and Sempere, (Histoire des Cortès, chap. 15,) whose loose
and desultory remarks show perfect familiarity with the subject, and
presuppose more than is likely to be found in the reader.

[87] Siete Partidas, part. 2, tit. 26, leyes 5, 6, 7.--Mendoza notices
this custom as recently as Philip II.'s day. Guerra de Granada, p. 170.

[88] Mariana, Hist. de España, lib. 15, cap. 19, 20.

[89] Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. p. 399.--Mariana, Hist. de España, tom.
ii. pp. 234, 235.--Pedro Lopez de Ayala, chancellor of Castile and
chronicler of the reigns of four of its successive monarchs, terminated
his labors abruptly with the sixth year of Henry III., the subsequent
period of whose administration is singularly barren of authentic materials
for history. The editor of Ayala's Chronicle considers the adventure,
quoted in the text, as fictitious, and probably suggested by a stratagem
employed by Henry for the seizure of the duke of Benevente, and by his
subsequent imprisonment at Burgos. See Ayala, Crónica de Castilla, p. 355,
note, (ed. de la Acad., 1780.)




SECTION II.

REVIEW OF THE CONSTITUTION OF ARAGON TO THE MIDDLE OF THE FIFTEENTH
CENTURY.

Rise of Aragon.--Ricos Hombres.--Their Immunities.--Their Turbulence.--
Privileges of Union.--The Legislature.--Its Forms.--Its Powers.--General
Privilege.--Judicial Functions of Cortes.--The Justice.--His Great
Authority.--Else and Opulence of Barcelona.--Her Free Institutions.--
Intellectual Culture.


The political institutions of Aragon, although bearing a general
resemblance to those of Castile, were sufficiently dissimilar to stamp a
peculiar physiognomy on the character of the nation, which still continued
after it had been incorporated with the great mass of the Spanish
monarchy.--It was not until the expiration of nearly five centuries after
the Saracen invasion, that the little district of Aragon, growing up under
the shelter of the Pyrenees, was expanded into the dimensions of the
province which now bears that name. During this period, it was painfully
struggling into being, like the other states of the Peninsula, by dint of
fierce, unintermitted warfare with the infidel.

Even after this period, it would probably have filled but an insignificant
space in the map of history, and, instead of assuming an independent
station, have been compelled, like Navarre, to accommodate itself to the
politics of the potent monarchies by which it was surrounded, had it not
extended its empire by a fortunate union with Catalonia in the twelfth,
and the conquest of Valencia in the thirteenth century. [1] These new
territories were not only far more productive than its own, but, by their
long line of coast and commodious ports, enabled the Aragonese, hitherto
pent up within their barren mountains, to open a communication with
distant regions.

The ancient county of Barcelona had reached a higher degree of
civilization than Aragon, and was distinguished by institutions quite as
liberal. The sea-board would seem to be the natural seat of liberty. There
is something in the very presence, in the atmosphere of the ocean, which
invigorates not only the physical, but the moral energies of man. The
adventurous life of the mariner familiarizes him with dangers, and early
accustoms him to independence. Intercourse with various climes opens new
and more copious sources of knowledge; and increased wealth brings with it
an augmentation of power and consequence. It was in the maritime cities
scattered along the Mediterranean that the seeds of liberty, both in
ancient and modern times, were implanted and brought to maturity. During
the Middle Ages, when the people of Europe generally maintained a toilsome
and infrequent intercourse with each other, those situated on the margin
of this inland ocean found an easy mode of communication across the high
road of its waters. They mingled in war too as in peace, and this long
period is filled with their international contests, while the other free
cities of Christendom were wasting themselves in civil feuds and degrading
domestic broils. In this wide and various collision their moral powers
were quickened by constant activity; and more enlarged views were formed,
with a deeper consciousness of their own strength, than could be obtained
by those inhabitants of the interior, who were conversant only with a
limited range of objects, and subjected to the influence of the same dull,
monotonous circumstances.

Among these maritime republics, those of Catalonia were eminently
conspicuous. By the incorporation of this country with the kingdom of
Aragon, therefore, the strength of the latter was greatly augmented. The
Aragonese princes, well aware of this, liberally fostered institutions to
which the country owed its prosperity, and skilfully availed themselves of
its resources for the aggrandizement of their own dominions. They paid
particular attention to the navy, for the more perfect discipline of which
a body of laws was prepared by Peter the Fourth, in 1354, that was
designed to render it invincible. No allusion whatever is made in this
stern code to the mode of surrendering to, or retreating from the enemy.
The commander, who declined attacking any force not exceeding his own by
more than one vessel, was punished with death. [2] The Catalan navy
successfully disputed the empire of the Mediterranean with the fleets of
Pisa, and still more of Genoa. With its aid, the Aragonese monarchs
achieved the conquest successively of Sicily, Sardinia, and the Balearic
Isles, and annexed them to the empire. [3] It penetrated into the farthest
regions of the Levant; and the expedition of the Catalans into Asia, which
terminated with the more splendid than useful acquisition of Athens, forms
one of the most romantic passages in this stirring and adventurous era.
[4]

But, while the princes of Aragon were thus enlarging the bounds of their
dominion abroad, there was probably not a sovereign in Europe possessed of
such limited authority at home. The three great states with their
dependencies, which constituted the Aragonese monarchy, had been declared
by a statute of James the Second, in 1319, inalienable and indivisible.
[5] Each of them, however, maintained a separate constitution of
government, and was administered by distinct laws. As it would be
fruitless to investigate the peculiarities of their respective
institutions, which bear a very close affinity to one another, we may
confine ourselves to those of Aragon, which exhibit a more perfect model
than those either of Catalonia or Valencia, and have been far more
copiously illustrated by her writers.

The national historians refer the origin of their government to a written
constitution of about the middle of the ninth century, fragments of which
are still preserved in certain ancient documents and chronicles. On
occurrence of a vacancy in the throne, at this epoch, a monarch was
elected by the twelve principal nobles, who prescribed a code of laws, to
the observance of which he was obliged to swear before assuming the
sceptre. The import of these laws was to circumscribe within very narrow
limits the authority of the sovereign, distributing the principal
functions to a _Justicia_, or Justice, and these same peers, who, in
case of a violation of the compact by the monarch, were authorized to
withdraw their allegiance, and, in the bold language of the ordinance, "to
substitute any other ruler in his stead, even a pagan, if they listed."
[6] The whole of this wears much of a fabulous aspect, and may remind the
reader of the government which Ulysses met with in Phaeacia; where King
Alcinous is surrounded by his "twelve illustrious peers or archons,"
subordinate to himself, "who," says he, "rule over the people, I myself
being the thirteenth." [7] But, whether true or not, this venerable
tradition must be admitted to have been well calculated to repress the
arrogance of the Aragonese monarchs, and to exalt the minds of their
subjects by the image of ancient liberty which it presented. [8]

The great barons of Aragon were few in number. They affected to derive
their descent from the twelve peers above mentioned, and were styled
_ricos hombres de natura_, implying by this epithet, that they were
not indebted for their creation to the will of the sovereign. No estate
could be legally conferred by the crown, as an _honor_ (the denomination
of fiefs in Aragon), on any but one of these high nobles. This, however,
was in time evaded by the monarchs, who advanced certain of their own
retainers to a level with the ancient peers of the land; a measure which
proved a fruitful source of disquietude. [9] No baron could be divested of
his fief, unless by public sentence of the Justice and the cortes. The
proprietor, however, was required, as usual, to attend the king in
council, and to perform military service, when summoned, during two months
in the year, at his own charge. [10]

The privileges, both honorary and substantial, enjoyed by the _ricos
hombres_, were very considerable. They filled the highest posts in the
state. They originally appointed judges in their domains for the
cognizance of certain civil causes, and over a class of their vassals
exercised an unlimited criminal jurisdiction. They were excused from
taxation except in specified cases; were exempted from all corporal and
capital punishment; nor could they be imprisoned, although their estates
might be sequestrated for debt. A lower class of nobility styled
_infanzones_, equivalent to the Castilian _hidalgos_, together with the
_caballeros_, or knights, were also possessed of important though inferior
immunities. [11] The king distributed among the great barons the territory
reconquered from the Moors, in proportions determined by the amount of
their respective services. We find a stipulation to this effect from James
the First to his nobles, previous to his invasion of Majorca. [12] On a
similar principle they claimed nearly the whole of Valencia. [13] On
occupying a city, it was usual to divide it into _barrios_, or districts,
each of which was granted by way of fief to some one of the ricos hombres,
from which he was to derive his revenue. What proportion of the conquered
territory was reserved for the royal demesne does not appear. [14] We find
one of these nobles, Bernard de Cabrera, in the latter part of the
fourteenth century, manning a fleet of king's ships on his own credit;
another, of the ancient family of Luna, in the fifteenth century, so
wealthy that he could travel through an almost unbroken line of his
estates all the way from Castile to France. [15] With all this, their
incomes in general, in this comparatively poor country, were very inferior
to those of the great Castilian lords. [16]

The laws conceded certain powers to the aristocracy of a most dangerous
character. They were entitled, like the nobles of the sister kingdom, to
defy, and publicly renounce their allegiance to their sovereign, with the
whimsical privilege, in addition, of commending their families and estates
to his protection, which he was obliged to accord, until they were again
reconciled. [17] The mischievous right of private war was repeatedly
recognized by statute. It was claimed and exercised in its full extent,
and occasionally with circumstances of peculiar atrocity. An instance is
recorded by Zurita of a bloody feud between two of these nobles,
prosecuted with such inveteracy that the parties bound themselves by
solemn oath never to desist from it during their lives, and to resist
every effort, even on the part of the crown itself, to effect a
pacification between them. [18] This remnant of barbarism lingered longer
in Aragon than in any other country in Christendom.

The Aragonese sovereigns, who were many of them possessed of singular
capacity and vigor, [19] made repeated efforts to reduce the authority of
their nobles within more temperate limits. Peter the Second, by a bold
stretch of prerogative, stripped them of their most important rights of
jurisdiction. [20] James the Conqueror artfully endeavored to
counterbalance their weight by that of the commons and the ecclesiastics.
[21] But they were too formidable when united, and too easily united, to
be successfully assailed. The Moorish wars terminated, in Aragon, with the
conquest of Valencia, or rather the invasion of Murcia, by the middle of
the thirteenth century. The tumultuous spirits of the aristocracy,
therefore, instead of finding a vent, as in Castile, in these foreign
expeditions, were turned within, and convulsed their own country with
perpetual revolution. Haughty from the consciousness of their exclusive
privileges and of the limited number who monopolized them, the Aragonese
barons regarded themselves rather as the rivals of their sovereign, than
as his inferiors. Intrenched within the mountain fastnesses, which the
rugged nature of the country everywhere afforded, they easily bade
defiance to his authority. Their small number gave a compactness and
concert to their operations, which could not have been obtained in a
multitudinous body. Ferdinand the Catholic well discriminated the relative
position of the Aragonese and Castilian nobility, by saying, "it was as
difficult to divide the one, as to unite the other." [22]

These combinations became still more frequent after formally receiving the
approbation of King Alfonso the Third, who, in 1287, signed the two
celebrated ordinances entitled the "Privileges of Union," by which his
subjects were authorized to resort to arms on an infringement of their
liberties. [23] The _hermandad_ of Castile had never been countenanced by
legislative sanction; it was chiefly resorted to as a measure of police,
and was directed more frequently against the disorders of the nobility,
than of the sovereign; it was organized with difficulty, and, compared
with the union of Aragon, was cumbrous and languid in its operations.
While these privileges continued in force, the nation was delivered over
to the most frightful anarchy. The least offensive movement on the part of
the monarch, the slightest encroachment on personal right or privilege,
was the signal for a general revolt. At the cry of _Union_, that "last
voice," says the enthusiastic historian, "of the expiring republic, full
of authority and majesty, and an open indication of the insolence of
kings," the nobles and the citizens eagerly rushed to arms. The principal
castles belonging to the former were pledged as security for their
fidelity, and intrusted to conservators, as they were styled, whose duty
it was to direct the operations and watch over the interests of the Union.
A common seal was prepared, bearing the device of armed men kneeling
before their king, intimating at once their loyalty and their resolution,
and a similar device was displayed on the standard and the other military
insignia of the confederates. [24]

The power of the monarch was as nothing before this formidable array. The
Union appointed a council to control all his movements, and, in fact,
during the whole period of its existence, the reigns of four successive
monarchs, it may be said to have dictated law to the land. At length Peter
the Fourth, a despot in heart, and naturally enough impatient of this
eclipse of regal prerogative, brought the matter to an issue, by defeating
the army of the Union, at the memorable battle of Epila, in 1348, "the
last," says Zurita, "in which it was permitted to the subject to take up
arms against the sovereign for the cause of liberty." Then, convoking an
assembly of the states at Saragossa, he produced before them the
instrument containing the two Privileges, and cut it in pieces with his
dagger. In doing this, having wounded himself in the hand, he suffered the
blood to trickle upon the parchment, exclaiming, that "a law which had
been the occasion of so much blood, should be blotted out by the blood of
a king." [25] All copies of it, whether in the public archives, or in the
possession of private individuals, were ordered, under a heavy penalty, to
be destroyed. The statute passed to that effect carefully omits the date
of the detested instrument, that all evidence of its existence might
perish with it. [26]

Instead of abusing his victory, as might have been anticipated from his
character, Peter adopted a far more magnanimous policy. He confirmed the
ancient privileges of the realm, and made in addition other wise and
salutary concessions. From this period, therefore, is to be dated the
possession of constitutional liberty in Aragon; (for surely the reign of
unbridled license, above described, is not deserving that name;) and this
not so much from the acquisition of new immunities, as from the more
perfect security afforded for the enjoyment of the old. The court of the
_Justicia_, that great barrier interposed by the constitution between
despotism on the one hand and popular license on the other, was more
strongly protected, and causes hitherto decided by arms were referred for
adjudication to this tribunal. [27] From this period, too, the cortes,
whose voice was scarcely heard amid the wild uproar of preceding times,
was allowed to extend a beneficial and protecting sway over the land. And,
although the social history of Aragon, like that of other countries in
this rude age, is too often stained with deeds of violence and personal
feuds, yet the state at large, under the steady operation of its laws,
probably enjoyed a more uninterrupted tranquillity than fell to the lot of
any other nation in Europe.

The Aragonese cortes was composed of four branches, or arms; [28] the
ricos hombres, or great barons; the lesser nobles, comprehending the
knights; the clergy, and the commons. The nobility of every denomination
were entitled to a seat in the legislature. The ricos hombres were allowed
to appear by proxy, and a similar privilege was enjoyed by baronial
heiresses. The number of this body was very limited, twelve of them
constituting a quorum. [29]

The arm of the ecclesiastics embraced an ample delegation from the
inferior as well as higher clergy. [30] It is affirmed not to have been a
component of the national legislature until more than a century and a half
after the admission of the commons. [31] Indeed, the influence of the
church was much less sensible in Aragon, than in the other kingdoms of the
peninsula. Notwithstanding the humiliating concessions of certain of their
princes to the papal see, they were never recognized by the nation, who
uniformly asserted their independence of the temporal supremacy of Rome;
and who, as we shall see hereafter, resisted the introduction of the
Inquisition, that last stretch of ecclesiastical usurpation, even to
blood. [32]

The commons enjoyed higher consideration and civil privileges than in
Castile. For this they were perhaps somewhat indebted to the example of
their Catalan neighbors, the influence of whose democratic institutions
naturally extended to other parts of the Aragonese monarchy. The charters
of certain cities accorded to the inhabitants privileges of nobility,
particularly that of immunity from taxation; while the magistrates of
others were permitted to take their seats in the order of hidalgos. [33]
From a very early period we find them employed in offices of public trust,
and on important missions. [34] The epoch of their admission into the
national assembly is traced as far back as 1133, several years earlier
than the commencement of popular representation in Castile. [35] Each city
had the right of sending two or more deputies selected from persons
eligible to its magistracy; but with the privilege of only one vote,
whatever might be the number of its deputies. Any place, which had been
once represented in cortes, might always claim to be so. [36]

By a statute of 1307, the convocation of the states, which had been
annual, was declared biennial. The kings, however, paid little regard to
this provision, rarely summoning them except for some specific necessity.
[37] The great officers of the crown, whatever might be their personal
rank, were jealously excluded from their deliberations. The session was
opened by an address from the king in person, a point of which they were
very tenacious; after which the different _arms_ withdrew to their
separate apartments. [38] The greatest scrupulousness was manifested in
maintaining the rights and dignity of the body; and their intercourse with
one another, and with the king, was regulated by the most precise forms of
parliamentary etiquette. [39] The subjects of deliberation were referred
to a committee from each order, who, after conferring together, reported
to their several departments. Every question, it may be presumed,
underwent a careful examination; as the legislature, we are told, was
usually divided into two parties, "the one maintaining the rights of the
monarch, the other, those of the nation," corresponding nearly enough with
those of our day. It was in the power of any member to defeat the passage
of a bill, by opposing to it his _veto_ or dissent, formally registered to
that effect. He might even interpose his negative on the proceedings of
the house, and thus put a stop to the prosecution of all further business
during the session. This anomalous privilege, transcending even that
claimed in the Polish diet, must have been too invidious in its exercise,
and too pernicious in its consequences, to have been often resorted to.
This may be inferred from the fact, that it was not formally repealed
until the reign of Philip the Second, in 1592. During the interval of the
sessions of the legislature, a deputation of eight was appointed, two from
each arm, to preside over public affairs, particularly in regard to the
revenue, and the security of justice; with authority to convoke a cortes
extraordinary, whenever the exigency might demand it. [40]

The cortes exercised the highest functions whether of a deliberative,
legislative, or judicial nature. It had a right to be consulted on all
matters of importance, especially on those of peace and war. No law was
valid, no tax could be imposed, without its consent; and it carefully
provided for the application of the revenue to its destined uses. [41] It
determined the succession to the crown; removed obnoxious ministers;
reformed the household, and domestic expenditure, of the monarch; and
exercised the power, in the most unreserved manner, of withholding
supplies, as well as of resisting what it regarded as an encroachment on
the liberties of the nation. [42]

The excellent commentators on the constitution of Aragon have bestowed
comparatively little attention on the development of its parliamentary
history; confining themselves too exclusively to mere forms of procedure.
The defect has been greatly obviated by the copiousness of their general
historians. But the statute-book affords the most unequivocal evidence of
the fidelity with which the guardians of the realm discharged the high
trust reposed in them, in the numerous enactments it exhibits, for the
security both of person and property. Almost the first page which meets
the eye in this venerable record contains the General Privilege, the Magna
Charta, as it has been well denominated, of Aragon. It was granted by
Peter the Great to the cortes at Saragossa, in 1283. It embraces a variety
of provisions for the fair and open administration of justice; for
ascertaining the legitimate powers intrusted to the cortes; for the
security of property against exactions of the crown; and for the
conservation of their legal immunities to the municipal corporations and
the different orders of nobility. In short, the distinguishing excellence
of this instrument, like that of Magna Charta, consists in the wise and
equitable protection which it affords to all classes of the community.
[43] The General Privilege, instead of being wrested, like King John's
charter, from a pusillanimous prince, was conceded, reluctantly enough, it
is true, in an assembly of the nation, by one of the ablest monarchs who
ever sat on the throne of Aragon, at a time when his arms, crowned with
repeated victory, had secured to the state the most important of her
foreign acquisitions. The Aragonese, who rightly regarded the General
Privilege as the broadest basis of their liberties, repeatedly procured
its confirmation by succeeding sovereigns. "By so many and such various
precautions," says Blancas, "did our ancestors establish that freedom
which their posterity have enjoyed; manifesting a wise solicitude, that
all orders of men, even kings themselves, confined within their own
sphere, should discharge their legitimate functions without jostling or
jarring with one another; for in this harmony consists the temperance of
our government. Alas!" he adds, "how much of all this has fallen into
desuetude from its antiquity, or been effaced by new customs." [44]

The judicial functions of the cortes have not been sufficiently noticed by
writers. They were extensive in their operation, and gave it the name of
the General Court. They were principally directed to protect the subject
from the oppressions of the crown and its officers; over all which cases
it possessed original and ultimate jurisdiction. The suit was conducted
before the Justice, as president of the cortes, in its judicial capacity,
who delivered an opinion conformable to the will of the majority. [45] The
authority, indeed, of this magistrate in his own court was fully equal to
providing adequate relief in all these cases. [46] But for several reasons
this parliamentary tribunal was preferred. The process was both more
expeditious and less expensive to the suitor. Indeed, "the most obscure
inhabitant of the most obscure village in the kingdom, although a
foreigner," might demand redress of this body; and, if he was incapable of
bearing the burden himself, the state was bound to maintain his suit, and
provide him with counsel at its own charge. But the most important
consequence, resulting from this legislative investigation, was the
remedial laws frequently attendant on it. "And our ancestors," says
Blancas, "deemed it great wisdom patiently to endure contumely and
oppression for a season, rather than seek redress before an inferior
tribunal, since, by postponing their suit till the meeting of cortes, they
would not only obtain a remedy for their own grievance, but one of a
universal and permanent application." [47]

The Aragonese cortes maintained a steady control over the operations of
government, especially after the dissolution of the Union; and the weight
of the commons was more decisive in it, than in other similar assemblies
of that period. Its singular distribution into four estates was favorable
to this. The knights and _hidalgos_, an intermediate order between
the great nobility and the people, when detached from the former,
naturally lent additional support to the latter, with whom, indeed, they
had considerable affinity. The representatives of certain cities, as well
as a certain class of citizens, were entitled to a seat in this body; [48]
so that it approached both in spirit and substance to something like a
popular representation. Indeed, this arm of the cortes was so uniformly
vigilant in resisting any encroachment on the part of the crown, that it
has been said to represent, more than any other, the liberties of the
nation. [49] In some other particulars the Aragonese commons possessed an
advantage over those of Castile. 1. By postponing their money grants to
the conclusion of the session, and regulating them in some degree by the
previous dispositions of the crown, they availed themselves of an
important lever relinquished by the Castilian cortes. [50] 2. The kingdom
of Aragon proper was circumscribed within too narrow limits to allow of
such local jealousies and estrangements, growing out of an apparent
diversity of interests, as existed in the neighboring monarchy. Their
representatives, therefore, were enabled to move with a more hearty
concert, and on a more consistent line of policy. 3. Lastly, the
acknowledged right to a seat in cortes, possessed by every city which had
once been represented there, and this equally whether summoned or not, if
we may credit Capmany, [51] must have gone far to preserve the popular
branch from the melancholy state of dilapidation to which it was reduced
in Castile by the arts of despotic princes. Indeed, the kings of Aragon,
notwithstanding occasional excesses, seem never to have attempted any
systematic invasion of the constitutional rights of their subjects. They
well knew, that the spirit of liberty was too high among them to endure
it. When the queen of Alfonso the Fourth urged her husband, by quoting the
example of her brother the king of Castile, to punish certain refractory
citizens of Valencia, he prudently replied, "My people are free, and not
so submissive as the Castilians. They respect me as their prince, and I
hold them for good vassals and comrades."[52]

No part of the constitution of Aragon has excited more interest, or more
deservedly, than the office of the _Justicia_, or Justice; [53] whose
extraordinary functions were far from being limited to judicial matters,
although in these his authority was supreme. The origin of this
institution is affirmed to have been coeval with that of the constitution
or frame of government itself. [54] If it were so, his authority may be
said, in the language of Blancas, "to have slept in the scabbard" until
the dissolution of the Union; when the control of a tumultuous aristocracy
was exchanged for the mild and uniform operation of the law, administered
by this, its supreme interpreter.

His most important duties may be briefly enumerated. He was authorized to
pronounce on the validity of all royal letters and ordinances. He
possessed, as has been said, concurrent jurisdiction with the cortes over
all suits against the crown and its officers. Inferior judges were bound
to consult him in all doubtful cases, and to abide by his opinion, as of
"equal authority," in the words of an ancient jurist, "with the law
itself." [55] An appeal lay to his tribunal from those of the territorial
and royal judges. [56] He could even evoke a cause, while pending before
them, into his own court, and secure the defendant from molestation on his
giving surety for his appearance. By another process, he might remove a
person under arrest from the place in which he had been confined by order
of an inferior court, to the public prison appropriated to this purpose,
there to abide his own examination of the legality of his detention. These
two provisions, by which the precipitate and perhaps intemperate
proceedings of subordinate judicatures were subjected to the revision of a
dignified and dispassionate tribunal, might seem to afford sufficient
security for personal liberty and property. [57] In addition to these
official functions, the Justice of Aragon was constituted a permanent
counsellor of the sovereign, and, as such, was required to accompany him
where-ever he might reside. He was to advise the king on all
constitutional questions of a doubtful complexion; and finally, on a new
accession to the throne, it was his province to administer the coronation
oath; this he performed with his head covered, and sitting, while the
monarch, kneeling before him bare-headed, solemnly promised to maintain
the liberties of the kingdom. A ceremony eminently symbolical of that
superiority of law over prerogative, which was so constantly asserted in
Aragon. [58]

It was the avowed purpose of the institution of the Justicia to interpose
such an authority between the crown and the people, as might suffice for
the entire protection of the latter. This is the express import of one of
the laws of Soprarbe, which, whatever he thought of their authenticity,
are undeniably of very high antiquity. [59] This part of his duties is
particularly insisted on by the most eminent juridical writers of the
nation. Whatever estimate, therefore, may be formed of the real extent of
his powers, as compared with those of similar functionaries in other
states of Europe, there can be no doubt that this ostensible object of
their creation, thus openly asserted, must have had a great tendency to
enforce their practical operation. Accordingly we find repeated examples,
in the history of Aragon, of successful interposition on the part of the
Justice for the protection of individuals persecuted by the crown, and in
defiance of every attempt at intimidation. [60] The kings of Aragon,
chafed by this opposition, procured the resignation or deposition, on more
than one occasion, of the obnoxious magistrate. [61] But, as such an
exercise of prerogative must have been altogether subversive of an
independent discharge of the duties of this office, it was provided by a
statute of Alfonso the Fifth, in 1442, that the Justice should continue in
office during life, removable only, on sufficient cause, by the king and
the cortes united. [62]

Several provisions were enacted, in order to secure the nation more
effectually against the abuse of the high trust reposed in this officer.
He was to be taken from the equestrian order, which, as intermediate
between the high nobility and the people, was less likely to be influenced
by undue partiality to either. He could not be selected from the ricos
hombres, since this class was exempted from corporal punishment, while the
Justice was made responsible to the cortes for the faithful discharge of
his duties, under penalty of death. [63] As this supervision of the whole
legislature was found unwieldy in practice, it was superseded, after
various modifications by a commission of members elected from each one of
the four estates, empowered to sit every year in Saragossa, with authority
to investigate the charges preferred against the Justice, and to pronounce
sentence upon him. [64]

The Aragonese writers are prodigal of their encomiums on the pre-eminence
and dignity of this functionary, whose office might seem, indeed, but a
doubtful expedient for balancing the authority of the sovereign; depending
for its success less on any legal powers confided to it, than on the
efficient and constant support of public opinion. Fortunately the Justice
of Aragon uniformly received such support, and was thus enabled to carry
the original design of the institution into effect, to check the
usurpations of the crown, as well as to control the license of the
nobility and the people. A series of learned and independent magistrates,
by the weight of their own character, gave additional dignity to the
office. The people, familiarized with the benignant operation of the law,
referred to peaceful arbitration those great political questions, which,
in other countries at this period, must have been settled by a sanguinary
revolution. [65] While, in the rest of Europe, the law seemed only the web
to ensnare the weak, the Aragonese historians could exult in the
reflection, that the fearless administration of justice in their land
"protected the weak equally with the strong, the foreigner with the
native." Well might their legislature assert, that the value of their
liberties more than counterbalanced "the poverty of the nation, and the
sterility of their soil." [66]

The governments of Valencia and Catalonia, which, as has been already
remarked, were administered independently of each other after their
consolidation into one monarchy, bore a very near resemblance to that of
Aragon. [67] No institution, however, corresponding in its functions with
that of the Justicia, seems to have obtained in either. [68] Valencia,
which had derived a large portion of its primitive population, after the
conquest, from Aragon, preserved the most intimate relations with the
parent kingdom, and was constantly at its side during the tempestuous
season of the Union. The Catalans were peculiarly jealous of their
exclusive privileges, and their civil institutions wore a more
democratical aspect than those of any other of the confederated states;
circumstances, which led to important results that fall within the compass
of our narrative. [69]

The city of Barcelona, which originally gave its name to the county of
which it was the capital, was distinguished from a very early period by
ample municipal privileges. [70] After the union with Aragon in the
twelfth century, the monarchs of the latter kingdom extended towards it
the same liberal legislation; so that, by the thirteenth, Barcelona had
reached a degree of commercial prosperity rivalling that of any of the
Italian republics. She divided with them the lucrative commerce with
Alexandria; and her port, thronged with foreigners from every nation,
became a principal emporium in the Mediterranean for the spices, drugs,
perfumes, and other rich commodities of the east, whence they were
diffused over the interior of Spain and the European continent. [71] Her
consuls, and her commercial factories, were established in every
considerable port in the Mediterranean and in the north of Europe. [72]
The natural products of her soil, and her various domestic fabrics,
supplied her with abundant articles of export. Fine wool was imported by
her in considerable quantities from England in the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries, and returned there manufactured into cloth; an
exchange of commodities the reverse of that existing between the two
nations at the present day. [73] Barcelona claims the merit of having
established the first bank of exchange and deposit in Europe, in 1401; it
was devoted to the accommodation of foreigners as well as of her own
citizens. She claims the glory, too, of having compiled the most ancient
written code, among the moderns, of maritime law now extant, digested from
the usages of commercial nations, and which formed the basis of the
mercantile jurisprudence of Europe during the Middle Ages. [74]

The wealth which flowed in upon Barcelona, as the result of her activity
and enterprise, was evinced by her numerous public works, her docks,
arsenal, warehouses, exchange, hospitals, and other constructions of
general utility. Strangers, who visited Spain in the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries, expatiate on the magnificence of this city, its
commodious private edifices, the cleanliness of its streets and public
squares (a virtue by no means usual in that day), and on the amenity of
its gardens and cultivated environs. [75]

But the peculiar glory of Barcelona was the freedom of her municipal
institutions. Her government consisted of a senate or council of one
hundred, and a body of _regidores_ or counsellors, as they were styled,
varying at times from four to six in number; the former intrusted
with the legislative, the latter with the executive functions of
administration. A large proportion of these bodies were selected from the
merchants, tradesmen, and mechanics of the city. They were invested, not
merely with municipal authority, but with many of the rights of
sovereignty. They entered into commercial treaties with foreign powers;
superintended the defence of the city in time of war; provided for the
security of trade; granted letters of reprisal against any nation who
might violate it; and raised and appropriated the public moneys for the
construction of useful works, or the encouragement of such commercial
adventures as were too hazardous or expensive for individual enterprise.
[76]

The counsellors, who presided over the municipality, were complimented
with certain honorary privileges, not even accorded to the nobility. They
were addressed by the title of _magníficos_; were seated, with their
heads covered, in the presence of royalty; were preceded by mace-bearers,
or lictors, in their progress through the country; and deputies from their
body to the court were admitted on the footing, and received the honors,
of foreign ambassadors. [77] These, it will be recollected, were
plebeians,--merchants and mechanics. Trade never was esteemed a
degradation in Catalonia, as it came to be in Castile. [78] The professors
of the different arts, as they were called, organized into guilds or
companies, constituted so many independent associations, whose members
were eligible to the highest municipal offices. And such was the
importance attached to these offices, that the nobility in many instances,
resigning the privileges of their rank, a necessary preliminary, were
desirous of being enrolled among the candidates for them. [79] One cannot
but observe in the peculiar organization of this little commonwealth, and
in the equality assumed by every class of its citizens, a close analogy to
the constitutions of the Italian republics; which the Catalans, having
become familiar with in their intimate commercial intercourse with Italy,
may have adopted as the model of their own.

Under the influence of these democratic institutions, the burghers of
Barcelona, and indeed of Catalonia in general, which enjoyed more or less
of a similar freedom, assumed a haughty independence of character beyond
what existed among the same class in other parts of Spain; and this,
combined with the martial daring fostered by a life of maritime adventure
and warfare, made them impatient, not merely of oppression, but of
contradiction, on the part of their sovereigns, who have experienced more
frequent and more sturdy resistance from this quarter of their dominions,
than from every other. [80] Navagiero, the Venetian ambassador to Spain,
early in the sixteenth century, although a republican himself, was so
struck with what he deemed the insubordination of the Barcelonians, that
he asserts, "The inhabitants have so many privileges, that the king
scarcely retains any authority over them; their liberty," he adds, "should
rather go by the name of license." [81] One example among many, may be
given, of the tenacity with which they adhered to their most
inconsiderable immunities.

Ferdinand the First, in 1416, being desirous, in consequence of the
exhausted state of the finances on his coming to the throne, to evade the
payment of a certain tax or subsidy customarily paid by the kings of
Aragon to the city of Barcelona, sent for the president of the council,
John Fiveller, to require the consent of that body to this measure. The
magistrate, having previously advised with his colleagues, determined to
encounter any hazard, says Zurita, rather than compromise the rights of
the city. He reminded the king of his coronation oath, expressed his
regret that he was willing so soon to deviate from the good usages of his
predecessors, and plainly told him, that he and his comrades would never
betray the liberties entrusted to them. Ferdinand, indignant at this
language, ordered the patriot to withdraw into another apartment, where he
remained in much uncertainty as to the consequences of his temerity. But
the king was dissuaded from violent measures, if he ever contemplated
them, by the representation of his courtiers, who warned him not to reckon
too much on the patience of the people, who bore small affection to his
person, from _the little familiarity with which he had treated them_
in comparison with their preceding monarchs, and who were already in arms
to protect their magistrate. In consequence of these suggestions,
Ferdinand deemed it prudent to release the counsellor, and withdrew
abruptly from the city on the ensuing day, disgusted at the ill success of
his enterprise. [82]

The Aragonese monarchs well understood the value of their Catalan
dominions, which sustained a proportion of the public burdens equal in
amount to that of both the other states of the kingdom. [83]
Notwithstanding the mortifications, which they occasionally experienced
from this quarter, therefore, they uniformly extended towards it the most
liberal protection. A register of the various customs paid in the ports of
Catalonia, compiled in 1413, under the above-mentioned Ferdinand, exhibits
a discriminating legislation, extraordinary in an age when the true
principles of financial policy were so little understood. [84] Under James
the First, in 1227, a navigation act, limited in its application, was
published, and another under Alfonso the Fifth, in 1454, embracing all the
dominions of Aragon; thus preceding by some centuries the celebrated
ordinance, to which England owes so much of her commercial grandeur. [85]

The brisk concussion given to the minds of the Catalans in the busy career
in which they were engaged, seems to have been favorable to the
development of poetical talent, in the same manner as it was in Italy.
Catalonia may divide with Provence the glory of being the region where the
voice of song was first awakened in modern Europe. Whatever may be the
relative claims of the two countries to precedence in this respect, [86]
it is certain that under the family of Barcelona, the Provençal of the
south of France reached its highest perfection; and, when the tempest of
persecution in the beginning of the thirteenth century fell on the lovely
valleys of that unhappy country, its minstrels found a hospitable asylum
in the court of the kings of Aragon; many of whom not only protected, but
cultivated the _gay science_ with considerable success. [87] Their
names have descended to us, as well as those of less illustrious
troubadours, whom Petrarch and his contemporaries did not disdain to
imitate; [88] but their compositions, for the most part, lie still buried
in those cemeteries of the intellect so numerous in Spain, and call loudly
for the diligence of some Sainte Palaye or Raynouard to disinter them.
[89]

The languishing condition of the poetic art, at the close of the
fourteenth century, induced John the First, who mingled somewhat of the
ridiculous even with his most respectable tastes, to depute a solemn
embassy to the king of France, requesting that a commission might be
detached from the Floral Academy of Toulouse, into Spain, to erect there a
similar institution. This was accordingly done, and the Consistory of
Barcelona was organized, in 1390. The kings of Aragon endowed it with
funds, and with a library valuable for that day, presiding over its
meetings in person, and distributing the poetical premiums with their own
hands. During the troubles consequent on the death of Martin, this
establishment fell into decay, until it was again revived, on the
accession of Ferdinand the First, by the celebrated Henry, marquis of
Villena, who transplanted it to Tortosa. [90]

The marquis, in his treatise on the _gaya sciencia_, details with
becoming gravity the pompous ceremonial observed in his academy on the
event of a public celebration. The topics of discussion were "the praises
of the Virgin, love, arms, and other good usages." The performances of the
candidates, "inscribed on parchment of various colors, richly enamelled
with gold and silver, and beautifully illuminated," were publicly recited,
and then referred to a committee, who made solemn oath to decide
impartially and according to the rules of the art. On the delivery of the
verdict, a wreath of gold was deposited on the victorious poem, which was
registered in the academic archives; and the fortunate troubadour, greeted
with a magnificent prize, was escorted to the royal palace amid a
_cortège_ of minstrelsy and chivalry; "thus manifesting to the world,"
says the marquis, "the superiority which God and nature have assigned to
genius over dulness." [91]

The influence of such an institution in awakening a poetic spirit is at
best very questionable. Whatever effect an academy may have in stimulating
the researches of science, the inspirations of genius must come unbidden;

  "Adflata est numine quando
  Jam propiore del."

The Catalans, indeed, seem to have been of this opinion; for they suffered
the Consistory of Tortosa to expire with its founder. Somewhat later, in
1430, was established the University of Barcelona, placed under the
direction of the municipality, and endowed by the city with ample funds
for instruction in the various departments of law, theology, medicine, and
the belles-lettres. This institution survived until the commencement of
the last century. [92]

During the first half of the fifteenth century, long after the genuine
race of the troubadours had passed away, the Provençal or Limousin verse
was carried to its highest excellence by the poets of Valencia. [93] It
would be presumptuous for any one, who has not made the _Romance_
dialects his particular study, to attempt a discriminating criticism of
these compositions, so much of the merit of which necessarily consists in
the almost impalpable beauties of style and expression. The Spaniards,
however, applaud, in the verses of Ausias March, the same musical
combinations of sound, and the same tone of moral melancholy, which
pervade the productions of Petrarch. [94] In prose too, they have (to
borrow the words of Andres) their Boccaccio in Martorell; whose fiction of
"Tirante el Blanco" is honored by the commendation of the curate in Don
Quixote, as "the best book in the world of the kind, since the knights-
errant in it eat, drink, sleep, and die quietly in their beds, like other
folk, and very unlike most heroes of romance." The productions of these,
and some other of their distinguished contemporaries, obtained a general
circulation very early by means of the recently invented art of printing,
and subsequently passed into repeated editions.[95] But their language has
long since ceased to be the language of literature. On the union of the
two crowns of Castile and Aragon, the dialect of the former became that of
the court and of the Muses. The beautiful Provençal, once more rich and
melodious than any other idiom in the Peninsula, was abandoned as a
_patois_ to the lower orders of the Catalans, who, with the language,
may boast that they also have inherited the noble principles of freedom
which distinguished their ancestors.

       *       *       *       *       *

The influence of free institutions in Aragon is perceptible in the
familiarity displayed by its writers with public affairs, and in the
freedom with which they have discussed the organization, and general
economy of its government. The creation of the office of national
chronicler, under Charles V., gave wider scope to the development of
historic talent. Among the most conspicuous of these historiographers was
Jerome Blancas, several of whose productions, as the "Coronaciones de los
Reyes," "Modo de Proceder en Cortes," and "Commentarii Rerum
Aragonensium," especially the last, have been repeatedly quoted in the
preceding section. This work presents a view of the different orders of
the state, and particularly of the office of the Justicia, with their
peculiar functions and privileges. The author, omitting the usual details
of history, has devoted himself to the illustration of the constitutional
antiquities of his country, in the execution of which he has shown a
sagacity and erudition equally profound. His sentiments breathe a generous
love of freedom, which one would scarcely suppose to have existed, and
still less to have been promulgated, under Philip II. His style is
distinguished by the purity and even elegance of its latinity. The first
edition, being that which I have used, appeared in 1588, in folio, at
Saragossa, executed with much typographical beauty. The work was
afterwards incorporated into Schottus's "Hispania Illustrata."--Blancas,
after having held his office for ten years, died in his native city of
Saragossa, in 1590.

Jerome Martel, from whose little treatise, "Forma de Celebrar Cortes," I
have also liberally cited, was appointed public historiographer in 1597.
His continuation of Zurita's Annals, which he left unpublished at his
decease, was never admitted to the honors of the press, because, says his
biographer, Uztarroz, _verdades lastiman_; a reason as creditable to
the author as disgraceful to the government.

A third writer, and the one chiefly relied on for the account of
Catalonia, is Don Antonio Capmany. His "Memorias Históricas de Barcelona,"
(5 tom. 4to, Madrid, 1779-1792,) may be thought somewhat too discursive
and circumstantial for his subject; but it is hardly right to quarrel with
information so rare, and painfully collected; the sin of exuberance at any
rate is much less frequent, and more easily corrected, than that of
sterility. His work is a vast repertory of facts relating to the commerce,
manufactures, general policy, and public prosperity, not only of
Barcelona, but of Catalonia. It is written with an independent and liberal
spirit, which may be regarded as affording the best commentary on the
genius of the institutions which he celebrates.--Capmany closed his useful
labors at Madrid, in 1810, at the age of fifty-six.

Notwithstanding the interesting character of the Aragonese constitution,
and the amplitude of materials for its history, the subject has been
hitherto neglected, as far as I am aware, by continental writers.
Robertson and Hallam, more especially the latter, have given such a view
of its prominent features to the English reader, as must, I fear, deprive
the sketch which I have attempted, in a great degree, of novelty. To these
names must now be added that of the author of the "History of Spain and
Portugal," (Cabinet Cyclopaedia,) whose work, published since the
preceding pages were written, contains much curious and learned
disquisition on the early jurisprudence and municipal institutions of
both Castile and Aragon.


FOOTNOTES

[1] Catalonia was united with Aragon by the marriage of queen Petronilla
with Raymond Berengere, count of Barcelona, in 1150. Valencia was
conquered from the Moors by James I., in 1238.

[2] Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, tom. iii. pp. 45-47.--The Catalans were
much celebrated during the Middle Ages for their skill with the crossbow;
for a more perfect instruction in which, the municipality of Barcelona
established games and gymnasiums. Ibid., tom. i. p. 113.

[3] Sicily revolted to Peter III., in 1282.--Sardinia was conquered by
James II., in 1324, and the Balearic Isles by Peter IV., in 1343-4.
Zurita, Anales, tom. i. fol. 247; tom. ii. fol. 60.--Hermilly, Histoire du
Royaume de Majorque, (Maestricht, 1777,) pp. 227-268.

[4] Hence the title of duke of Athens, assumed by the Spanish sovereigns.
The brilliant fortunes of Roger de Flor are related by count Moncada,
(Expedicion de los Catalanes y Aragoneses contrá Turcos y Griegos, Madrid,
1805) in a style much commended by Spanish critics for its elegance. See
Mondejar, Advertencias, p. 184.

[5] It was confirmed by Alfonso III., in 1328. Zurita, Anales, tom. ii.
fol. 90.

[6] See the fragments of the _Fuero de Soprarbe_, cited by Blancas,
Aragonensium Rerum Commentarii, (Caesaraugustae, 1588.) pp. 25-29.--The
well-known oath of the Aragonese to their sovereign on his accession, "Nos
que valemos tanto como vos," etc., frequently quoted by historians, rests
on the authority of Antonio Perez, the unfortunate minister of Philip II.,
who, however good a voucher for the usages of his own time, has made a
blunder in the very sentence preceding this, by confounding the Privilege
of Union with one of the Laws of Soprarbe, which shows him to be
insufficient, especially as he is the only, authority for this ancient
ceremony. See Antonio Perez, Relaciones, (Paris, 1598,) fol. 92.

[7]
  Dodeka gar kata daemon aripretees Basilaees
  Archoi krainonsi, triskaidekatos d' ego autos.
                          Odyss. O 390.

In like manner Alfonso III. alludes to "the ancient times in Aragon, when
there were as many kings as ricos hombres." See Zurita, Anales, tom. i.
fol. 316.

[8] The authenticity of the "Fuero de Soprarbe" has been keenly debated by
the Aragonese and Navarrese writers. Moret, in refutation of Blancas, who
espouses it, (see Commentarii, p. 289,) states, that after a diligent
investigation of the archives of that region, he finds no mention of the
laws, nor even of the name, of Soprarbe, until the eleventh century; a
startling circumstance for the antiquary. (Investigaciones Históricas de
las Antiguedades del Reyno de Navarra, (Pamplona, 1766,) tom. vi. lib. 2,
cap. 11.) Indeed, the historians of Aragon admit, that the public
documents previous to the fourteenth century suffered so much from various
causes as to leave comparatively few materials for authentic narrative.
(Blancas, Commentarii, Pref.--Risco, España Sagrada, tom. xxx. Prólogo.)
Blancas transcribed his extract of the laws of Soprarbe principally from
Prince Charles of Viana's History, written in the fifteenth century. See
Commentarii, p. 25.

[9] Asso y Manuel, Instituciones, pp. 39, 40.--Blancas, Commentarii, pp.
333, 334, 340.--Fueros y Observancias del Reyno de Aragon, (Zaragoza,
1667,) tom. i. fol. 130.--The _ricos hombres_, thus created by the
monarch, were styled _de mesnada_, signifying "of the household." It
was lawful for a _rico hombre_ to bequeath his honors to whichsoever
of his legitimate children he might prefer, and, in default of issue, to
his nearest of kin. He was bound to distribute the bulk of his estates in
fiefs among his knights, so that a complete system of sub-infeudation was
established. The knights, on restoring their fiefs, might change their
suzerains at pleasure.

[10] Asso y Manuel, Instituciones, p. 41.--Blancas, Commentarii, pp. 307,
322, 331.

[11] Fueros y Observancias, tom. i. fol. 130.--Martel, Forma de Celebrar
Cortes en Aragon, (Zaragoza, 1641,) p. 98.--Blancas, Commentarii, pp. 306,
312-317, 323, 360.--Asso y Manual, Instituciones, pp. 40-43.

[12] Zurita, Anales, tom. i. fol. 124.

[13] Blancas, Commentarii, p. 334.

[14] See the partition of Saragossa by Alonso the Warrior. Zurita, Anales,
tom. i. fol. 43.

[15] Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. p. 198.--Blancas, Commentarii, p.
218. [16] See a register of these at the beginning of the sixteenth
century, apud L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 25.

[17] Zurita, Anales, tom. ii. fol. 127.--Blancas, Commentarii, p. 324.--
"Adhaec Ricis hominibus ipsis majorum more institutisque concedebatur, ut
sese possent, dum ipsi vellent, a nostrorum Regum jure et potestare, quasi
nodum aliquem, expedire; neque expedire solum, _sed dimisso prius, quo
potirentur, Honore_, bellum ipsis inferre; Reges vero Rici hominis sic
expediti uxorem, filios, familiam, res, bona, et fortunas omnes in suam
recipere fidem tenebantur. Neque ulla erat eorum utilitatis facienda
jactura."

[18] Fueros y Observancias, tom. i. p. 84.--Zurita, Anales, tom. i. fol.
350.

[19] Blancas somewhere boasts, that no one of the kings of Aragon has been
stigmatized by a cognomen of infamy, as in most of the other royal races
of Europe. Peter IV., "the Ceremonious," richly deserved one.

[20] Zurita, Anales, tom. i. fol. 102.

[21] Zurita, Anales, tom. i. fol. 198.--He recommended this policy to his
son-in-law, the king of Castile.

[22] Sempere, Histoire des Cortès, p. 164.

[23] Zurita, Anales, lib. 4, cap. 96.--Abarca dates this event in the year
preceding. Reyes de Aragon, en Anales Históricos, (Madrid, 1682-1684,)
tom. ii. fol. 8.

[24] Blancas, Commentarii, pp. 192, 193.--Zurita, Anales, tom. i. fol. 266
et alibi.

[25] Zurita, Anales, tom. ii. fol. 126-130.--Blancas, Commentarii, pp.
195-197.--Hence he was styled "Peter of the Dagger;" and a statue of him,
bearing in one hand this weapon, and in the other the Privilege, stood in
the Chamber of Deputation at Saragossa in Philip II.'s time. See Antonio
Perez, Relaciones, fol. 95.

[26] See the statute, De Prohibità Unione, etc. Fueros y Observancias,
tom. i. fol. 178.--A copy of the original Privileges was detected by
Blancas among the manuscripts of the archbishop of Saragossa; but he
declined publishing it from deference to the prohibition of his ancestors.
Commentarii, p. 179.

[27] "Haec itaque domestica Regis victoria, quae miserrimum universae
Reipublicae interitum videbatur esse allatura, stabilem nobis constituit
pacem, tranquillitatem, et otium. Inde enim Magistratus Justitiae Aragonum
in eam, quam nunc colimus, amplitudinem dignitatis devenit." Ibid., p.
197.

[28] Martel, Forma de Celebrar Cortes, cap. 8.--"Bracos del reino, porque
_abraçan_, y tienen en si."--The cortes consisted only of three arms
in Catalonia and Valencia; both the greater and lesser nobility sitting in
the same chamber. Perguera, Cortes en Cataluña, and Matheu y Sanz,
Constitucion de Valencia, apud Capmany, Práctica y Estilo, pp. 65, 183,
184.

[29] Martel, Forma de Celebrar Cortes, cap. 10, 17, 21, 46.--Blancas, Modo
de Proceder en Cortes de Aragon, (Zaragoza, 1641,) fol. 17, 18.

[30] Capmany, Práctica y Estilo, p. 12.

[31] Blancas, Modo de Proceder, fol. 14,--and Commentarii, p. 374.--
Zurita, indeed, gives repeated instances of their convocation in the
thirteenth and twelfth centuries, from a date almost coeval with that of
the commons; yet Blancas, who made this subject his particular study, who
wrote posterior to Zurita, and occasionally refers to him, postpones the
era of their admission into the legislature to the beginning of the
fourteenth century.

[32] One of the monarchs of Aragon, Alfonso the Warrior, according to
Mariana, bequeathed all his dominions to the Templars and Hospitallers.
Another, Peter II., agreed to hold his kingdom as a fief of the see of
Rome, and to pay it an annual tribute. (Hist. de España, tom. i. pp. 596,
664.) This so much disgusted the people, that they compelled his
successors to make a public protest against the claims of the church,
before their coronation.--See Blancas, Coronaciones de los Serenisimos
Reyes de Aragon, (Zaragoza, 1641,) Cap. 2.

[33] Martel, Forma de Celebrar Cortes, cap. 22.--Asso y Manuel,
Instituciones, p. 44.

[34] Zurita, Anales, tom. i. fol. 163, A.D. 1250.

[35] Ibid., tom. i. fol. 51.--The earliest appearance of popular
representation in Catalonia is fixed by Ripoll at 1283, (apud Capmany,
Práctica y Estilo, p. 135.) What can Capmany mean by postponing the
introduction of the commons into the cortes of Aragon to 1300? (See p.
55.) Their presence and names are commemorated by the exact Zurita,
several times before the close of the twelfth century.

[36] Práctica y Estilo, pp. 14, 17, 18, 30.--Martel, Forma de Celebrar
Cortes, cap. 10.--Those who followed a mechanical occupation, _including
surgeons and apothecaries_, were excluded from a seat in cortes. (Cap.
17.) The faculty have rarely been treated with so little ceremony.

[37] Martel, Forma de Celebrar Cortes, cap. 7.--The cortes appear to have
been more frequently convoked in the fourteenth century, than in any
other. Blancas refers to no less than twenty-three within that period,
averaging nearly one in four years. (Commentarii, Index, _voce_ Comitia.)
In Catalonia and Valencia, the cortes was to be summoned every three
years. Berart, Discurso Breve sobre la Celebracion de Cortes de Aragon,
(1626,) fol. 12.

[38] Capmany, Práctica y Estilo, p. 15.--Blancas has preserved a specimen
of an address from the throne, in 1398, in which the king, after selecting
some moral apothegm as a text, rambles for the space of half an hour
through Scripture history, etc., and concludes with announcing the object
of his convening the cortes together, in three lines. Commentarii, pp.
376-380.

[39] See the ceremonial detailed with sufficient prolixity by Martel,
(Forma de Celebrar Cortes, cap. 52, 53,) and a curious illustration of it
in Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 313.

[40] Capmany, Práctica y Estilo, pp. 44 et seq.--Martel, Forma de Celebrar
Cortes, cap. 50, 60 et seq.--Fueros y Observancias, tom. i. fol. 229.--
Blancas, Modo de Proceder, fol. 2-4.--Zurita, Anales, tom. iii. fol. 321.
--Robertson, misinterpreting a passage of Blancas, (Commentarii, p. 375,)
states, that a "session of Cortes continued forty days." (History of
Charles V., vol. i. p. 140.) It usually lasted months.

[41] Fueros y Observancias, fol. 6, tit. Privileg. Gen.--Blancas,
Commentarii, p. 371.--Capmany, Práctica y Estilo, p. 51.--It was anciently
the practice of the legislature to grant supplies of troops, but not of
money. When Peter IV. requested a pecuniary subsidy, the cortes told him,
that "such thing had not been usual; that his Christian subjects were wont
to serve him with their persons, and it was only for Jews and Moors to
serve him with money." Blancas, Modo de Proceder, cap. 18.

[42] See examples of them in Zurita, Anales, tom. i. fol. 51, 263; tom.
ii. fol. 391, 394, 424.--Blancas, Modo de Proceder, fol. 98, 106.

[43] "There was such a conformity of sentiment among all parties," says
Zurita, "that the privileges of the nobility were no better secured than
those of the commons. For the Aragonese deemed that the existence of the
commonwealth depended not so much on its strength, as on its liberties."
(Anales, lib. 4, cap. 38.) In the confirmation of the privilege by James
the Second, in 1325, torture, then generally recognized by the municipal
law of Europe, was expressly prohibited in Aragon, "as unworthy of
freemen." See Zurita, Anales, lib. 6, cap. 61,--and Fueros y Observancias,
tom. i. fol. 9. Declaratio Priv. Generalis.

[44] The patriotism of Blancas warms as he dwells on the illusory picture
of ancient virtue, and contrasts it with the degeneracy of his own day.
"Et vero prisca haec tanta severitas, desertaque illa et inculta vita,
quando dies noctesque nostri armati concursabant, ac in bello et Maurorum
sanguine assidui versabantur; verè quidem parsimoniae, fortitudinis,
temperantiae, caeterarumque virtutum omnium magistra fuit. In quá
maleficia ac scelera, quae nunc in otiosâ hac nostrâ umbratili et delicatâ
gignuntur, gigni non solebant; quinimmo ita tunc aequaliter omnes omni
genere virtutum floruere, ut egregia haec laus videatur non hominum solum,
verum illorum etiam temporum fuisse." Commentarii, p. 340.

[45] It was more frequently referred, both for the sake of expedition, and
of obtaining a more full investigation, to commissioners nominated
conjointly by the cortes and the party demanding redress. The nature of
the _greuges_, or grievances, which might be brought before the
legislature, and the mode of proceeding in relation to them, are
circumstantially detailed by the parliamentary historians of Aragon. See
Berart, Discurso sobre la Celebracion de Cortes, cap. 7.--Capmany,
Práctica y Estilo, pp. 37-44.--Blancas, Modo de Proceder, cap. 14,--and
Martel, Forma de Celebrar Cortes, cap. 54-59.

[46] Blancas, Modo de Proceder, cap. 14.--Yet Peter IV., in his dispute
with the justice Fernandez de Castro, denied this. Zurita, Anales, tom.
ii. fol. 170.

[47] Blancas, Modo de Proceder, ubi supra.

[48] As for example the _ciudadanos honrados_ of Saragossa. (Capmany,
Práctica y Estilo, p. 14.) A _ciudadano honrado_ in Catalonia, and I
presume the same in Aragon, was a landholder, who lived on his rents
without being engaged in commerce or trade of any kind, answering to the
French _propriétaire_. See Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, tom. ii. Apend. no.
30.

[49] Blancas, Modo de Proceder, fol. 102.

[50] Not, however, it must be allowed, without a manly struggle in its
defence, and which, in the early part of Charles V.'s reign, in 1525,
wrenched a promise from the crown, to answer all petitions definitively,
before the rising of cortes. The law still remains on the statute-book,
(Recop. de las Leyes, lib. 6, tit. 7, ley 8,) a sad commentary on the
faith of princes.

[51] Práctica y Estilo, p. 14.

[52] "Y nos tenemos á ellos como buenos vassallos y compañeros."--Zurita,
Anales, lib. 7, cap. 17.

[53] The noun "justicia" was made masculine for the accommodation of this
magistrate, who was styled "_el_ justicia." Antonio Perez, Relaciones,
fol. 91.

[54] Blancas, Commentarii, p. 26.--Zurita, Anales, tom. i. fol. 9.

[55] Molinus, apud Blancas, Commentarii, pp. 343, 344.--Fueros y
Observancias, tom. i. fol. 21, 25.

[56] Blancas, Commentarii, p. 536.--The principal of these jurisdictions
was the royal audience in which the king himself presided in person.
Ibid., p. 355.

[57] Fueros y Observancias, tom. i. fol. 23, 60 et seq., 155, lib. 3, tit.
De Manifestationibus Personarum.--Also fol. 137 et seq., tit. 7, De Firmis
Juris.--Blancas, Commentarii, pp. 350, 351.--Zurita, Anales, lib. 10, cap.
37.--The first of these processes was styled _firma de derecho_, the
last, _manifestation_. The Spanish writers are warm in their encomiums of
these two provisions. "Quibus duobus praesidiis," says Blancas, "ita
nostrae reipublicae status continetur, ut nulla pars communium fortunarum
tutelâ vacua relinquatur." Both this author and Zurita have amplified the
details respecting them, which the reader may find extracted, and in part
translated, by Mr. Hallam, Middle Ages, vol. ii. pp. 75-77, notes.

When complex litigation became more frequent, the Justice was allowed one,
afterwards two, and at a still later period, in 1528, five lieutenants, as
they were called, who aided him in the discharge of his onerous duties.
Martel, Forma de Celebrar Cortes, Notas de Uztarroz, pp. 92-96.--Blancas,
Commentarii, pp. 361-366.

[58] Ibid., pp. 343, 346, 347.--Idem, Coronaciones, pp. 200, 202.--Antonio
Perez, Relaciones, fol. 92.

Sempere cites the opinion of an ancient canonist, Canellas, bishop of
Huesca, as conclusive against the existence of the vast powers imputed by
later commentators to the Justicia. (Histoire des Cortès, chap. 19.) The
vague, rhapsodical tone of the extract shows it to be altogether
undeserving of the emphasis laid on it; not to add, that it was written
more than a century before the period, when the Justicia possessed the
influence or the legal authority claimed for him by Aragonese writers,--by
Blancas, in particular, from whom Sempere borrowed the passage at second
hand.

[59] The law alluded to runs thus: "Ne quid autem damni detrimentive leges
aut libertates nostrae patiantur, judex quidam medius adesto, ad quem a
Rege provocare, si aliquem laeserit, injuriasque arcere si quas forsan
Reipub. intulerit, jus fasque esto." Blancas, Commentarii, p. 26.

[60] Such instances may he found in Zurita, Anales, tom. ii. fol. 385,
414.--Blancas, Commentarii, pp. 199, 202-206, 214, 225.--When Ximenes
Cerdan, the independent Justice of John I., removed certain citizens from
the prison, in which they had been unlawfully confined by the king, in
defiance equally of that officer's importunities and menaces, the
inhabitants of Saragossa, says Abarca, came out in a body to receive him
on his return to the city, and greeted him as the defender of their
ancient and natural liberties. (Reyes de Aragon, tom. i. fol. 155.) So
openly did the Aragonese support their magistrate in the boldest exercise
of his authority.

[61] This occurred once under Peter III., and twice under Alfonso V.
(Zurita, Anales, tom. iii. fol. 255.--Blancas, Commentarii, pp. 174, 489,
499.) The Justice was appointed by the king.

[62] Fueros y Observancias, tom. i. fol. 22.

[63] Ibid., tom. i. fol. 25.

[64] Ibid., tom. i. lib. 3, tit. Forum Inquisitionis Officii Just. Arag.,
and tom. ii. fol. 37-41.--Blancas, Commentarii, pp. 391-399.

The examination was conducted in the first instance before a court of four
inquisitors, as they were termed; who, after a patient hearing of both
sides, reported the result of their examination to a council of seventeen,
chosen like them from the cortes, from whose decision there was no appeal.
No lawyer was admitted into this council, lest the law might be distorted
by verbal quibbles, says Blancas. The council, however, was allowed the
advice of two of the profession. They voted by ballot, and the majority
decided. Such, after various modifications, were the regulations
ultimately adopted in 1461, or rather 1467. Robertson appears to have
confounded the council of seventeen with the court of inquisition. See his
History of Charles V., vol. i. note 31.

[65] Probably no nation of the period would have displayed a temperance
similar to that exhibited by the Aragonese at the beginning of the
fifteenth century, in 1412; when the people, having been split into
factions by a contested succession, agreed to refer the dispute to a
committee of judges, elected equally from the three great provinces of the
kingdom; who, after an examination conducted with all the forms of law,
and on the same equitable principles as would have guided the
determination of a private suit, delivered an opinion, which was received
as obligatory on the whole nation.

[66] See Zurita, Anales, lib. 8, cap. 29,--and the admirable sentiments
cited by Blancas from the parliamentary acts, in 1451. Commentarii, p.
350.

From this independent position must be excepted, indeed, the lower classes
of the peasantry, who seem to have been in a more abject state in Aragon
than in most other feudal countries. "Era tan absolute su dominio (of
their lords) que podian mater con hambre, sed, y frio á sus vasallos de
servidumbre." (Asso y Manuel, Instituciones, p. 40,--also Blancas,
Commentarii, p. 309.) These serfs extorted, in an insurrection, the
recognition of certain rights from their masters, on condition of paying a
specified tax; whence the name _villanos de parada_.

[67] Although the legislatures of the different states of the crown of
Aragon were never united in one body when convened in the same town, yet
they were so averse to all appearance of incorporation, that the monarch
frequently appointed for the places of meeting three distinct towns,
within their respective territories and contiguous, in order that he might
pass the more expeditiously from one to the other. See Blancas, Modo de
Proceder, cap. 4.

[68] It is indeed true, that Peter III., at the request of the Valencians,
appointed an Aragonese knight Justice of that kingdom, in 1283. (Zurita,
Anales, tom. i. fol. 281.) But we find no further mention of this officer,
or of the office. Nor have I met with any notice of it in the details of
the Valencian constitution, compiled by Capmany from various writers.
(Práctica y Estilo, pp. 161-208.) An anecdote of Ximenes Cerdan, recorded
by Blancas, (Commentarii, p. 214,) may lead one to infer, that the places
in Valencia, which received the laws of Aragon, acknowledged the
jurisdiction of its Justicia.

[69] Capmany, Práctica y Estilo, pp. 62-214.--Capmany has collected
copious materials, from a variety of authors, for the parliamentary
history of Catalonia and Valencia, forming a striking contrast to the
scantiness of information he was able to glean respecting Castile. The
indifference of the Spanish writers, till very recently, to the
constitutional antiquities of the latter kingdom, so much more important
than the other states of the Peninsula, is altogether inexplicable.

[70] Corbera, Cataluña Illustrada, (Nápoles, 1678,) lib. 1, c. 17.--Petrus
de Marca cites a charter of Raymond Berenger, count of Barcelona, to the
city, as ancient as 1025, confirming its former privileges. See Marca
Hispanica, sive Limes Hispanicus, (Parisiis, 1688,) Apend. no. 198.

[71] Navarrete, Discurso Histórico, apud Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom.
v. pp. 81, 82, 112, 113.--Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, tom. i. part. 1,
cap. 1, pp. 4, 8, 10, 11.

[72] Mem. de Barcelona, part. 1, cap. 2, 3.--Capmany has given a register
of the consuls and of the numerous stations, at which they were
established throughout Africa and Europe, in the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, (tom. ii. Apend. no. 23.) These officers during the Middle Ages
discharged much more important duties than at the present day, if we
except those few residing with the Barbary powers. They settled the
disputes arising between their countrymen, in the ports where they were
established; they protected the trade of their own nation with these
ports; and were employed in adjusting commercial relations, treaties, etc.
In short, they filled in some sort the post of a modern ambassador, or
resident minister, at a period when this functionary was only employed on
extraordinary occasions.

[73] Macpherson, Annals of Commerce, (London, 1825,) vol. i. p. 655.--The
woollen manufacture constituted the principal staple of Barcelona.
(Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, tom. i. p. 241.) The English sovereigns
encouraged the Catalan traders by considerable immunities to frequent
their ports during the fourteenth century. Macpherson, ubi supra, pp. 502,
551, 588.

[74] Heeren, Essai sur l'Influence des Croisades, traduit par Villers,
(Paris, 1808,) p. 376.--Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, tom. i. p. 213, also
pp. 170-180.--Capmany fixes the date of the publication of the
_Consulado del Mar_ at the middle of the thirteenth century, under
James I. He discusses and refutes the claims of the Pisans to precedence
in this codification. See his Preliminary Discourse to the Costumbres
Maritimas de Barcelona.

[75] Navagiero, Viaggio, fol. 3.--L. Marineo styles it "the most beautiful
city he had ever seen, or, to speak more correctly, in the whole world."
(Cosas Memorables, fol. 18.) Alfonso V., in one of his ordinances, in
1438, calls it "urbs venerabilis in egregiis templis, tuta ut in optimis,
pulchra in caeteris aedificiis," etc. Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, tom. ii.
Apend. no. 13.

[76] Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, Apend. no. 24.--The senate or great
council, though styled the "one hundred," seems to have fluctuated at
different times between that number and double its amount.

[77] Corbera, Cataluña Illustrada, p. 84.--Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona,
tom. ii. Apend. no. 29.

[78] Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, tom. i. part. 3, p. 40, tom. iii. part.
2, pp. 317, 318.

[79] Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, tom. i. part. 2, p. 187.--tom. ii. Apend.
30.--Capmany says _principal nobleza_; yet it may be presumed that much
the larger proportion of these noble candidates for office was drawn
from the inferior class of the privileged orders, the knights and
hidalgos. The great barons of Catalonia, fortified with extensive
immunities and wealth, lived on their estates in the country, probably
little relishing the levelling spirit of the burghers of Barcelona.

[80] Barcelona revolted and was twice besieged by the royal arms under
John II., once under Philip IV., twice under Charles II., and twice under
Philip V. This last siege, 1713-14, in which it held out against the
combined forces of France and Spain under Marshal Berwick, is one of the
most memorable events in the eighteenth century. An interesting account of
the siege may be found in Coxe's Memoirs of the Kings of Spain of the
House of Bourbon, (London, 1815,) vol. ii. chap. 21.--The late monarch,
Ferdinand VII., also had occasion to feel, that the independent spirit of
the Catalans did not become extinct with their ancient constitution.

[81] Viaggio, fol. 3.

[82] Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 183.--Zurita, Anales, tom.
iii. lib. 12, cap. 59.--The king turned his back on the magistrates, who
came to pay their respects to him, on learning his intention of quitting
the city. He seems, however, to have had the magnanimity to forgive,
perhaps to admire, the independent conduct of Fiveller; for at his death,
which occurred very soon after, we find this citizen mentioned as one of
his executors. See Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, tom. ii. Apend. 29.

[83] The taxes were assessed in the ratio of one-sixth on Valencia, two-
sixths on Aragon, and three-sixths on Catalonia. See Martel, Forma de
Celebrar Cortes, cap. 71.

[84] See the items specified by Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, tom. i. pp.
231, 232.

[85] Idem, tom. i. pp. 221, 234.--Capmany states, that the statute of
Alfonso V. prohibited "all foreign ships from taking cargoes in the ports
of his dominions." (See also Colec. Dipl., tom. ii. no. 187.) The object
of this law, like that of the British Navigation Act, was the
encouragement of the national marine. It deviated far, however, from the
sagacious policy of the latter, which imposed no restriction on the
exportation of domestic produce to foreign countries, except, indeed, its
own colonies.

[86] Andres, Dell' Origine, de' Progressi, e dello Stato Attuale d' Ogni
Letteratura, (Venezia, 1783,) part. 1, cap. 11.--Lampillas, Saggio
Storico-Apologetico della Letteratura Spagnuola, (Genova, 1778,) part. 1,
dis. 6, sec. 7.--Andres conjectures, and Lampillas decides, in favor of
Catalonia. _Arcades ambo_; and the latter critic, the worst possible
authority on all questions of national preference.

[87] Velazquez, Orígenes de la Poesía Castellana, (Málaga, 1797,) pp. 20-
22.--Andres, Letteratura, part. 1, cap. 11.--Alfonso II., Peter II., Peter
III, James I., Peter IV., have all left compositions in the Limousin
tongue behind them; the three former in verse; the two latter in prose,
setting forth the history of their own time. For a particular account of
their respective productions, see Latassa, (Escritores Aragoneses, tom. i.
pp. 175-179, 185-189, 222, 224, 242-248; tom. ii. p. 28,) also Lanuza,
(Historias Eclesiásticas y Seculares de Aragon, (Zaragoza, 1622,) tom. i.
p. 553.) The Chronicle of James I. is particularly esteemed for its
fidelity.

[88] Whether Jordi stole from Petrarch, or Petrarch from Jordi, has been
matter of hot debate between the Spanish and French _littérateurs_.
Sanchez, after a careful examination of the evidence, candidly decides
against his countryman, (Poesías Castellanas, tom. i. pp. 81-84.) A
competent critic in the Retrospective Review, (No. 7, art. 2,) who enjoyed
the advantage over Sanchez of perusing a MS. copy of Jordi's original
poem, makes out a very plausible argument in favor of the originality of
the Valencian poet. After all, as the amount stolen, or, to speak more
reverently, borrowed, does not exceed half a dozen lines, it is not of
vital importance to the reputation of either poet.

[89] The abate Andres lamented fifty years ago, that the worms and moths
should be allowed to revel among the precious relics of ancient Castilian
literature. (Letteratura, tom. ii. p. 306.) Have their revels been
disturbed yet?

[90] Mayáns y Siscár, Orígenes de la Lengua Española, (Madrid, 1737,) tom.
ii. pp. 323, 324.--Crescimbeni, Istoria della Volgar Poesia, (Venezia,
1731,) tom. ii. p. 170.--Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. i. p. 183.--
Velazquez, Poesía Castellana, pp. 23, 24.

[91] Mayáns y Siscár, Orígenes, tom. ii. pp. 325-327.

[92] Andres, Letteratura, tom. iv. pp. 85, 86.--Capmany, Mem. de
Barcelona, tom. ii. Apend. no. 16.--There were thirty-two chairs, or
professorships, founded and maintained at the expense of the city; six of
theology; six of jurisprudence; five of medicine; six of philosophy; four
of grammar; one of rhetoric; one of surgery; one of anatomy; one of
Hebrew, and another of Greek. It is singular, that none should have
existed for the Latin, so much more currently studied at that time, and of
so much more practical application always, than either of the other
ancient languages.

[93] The Valencian, "the sweetest and most graceful of the Limousin
dialects," says Mayáns y Siscár, Orígenes, tom. i. p. 58.

[94] Nicolás Antonio, Bibliotheca, Hispana Vetus, (Matriti, 1788,) tom.
ii. p. 146.--Andres, Letteratura, tom. iv. p. 87.

[95] Cervantes, Don Quixote, (ed. de Pellicer, Madrid, 1787,) tom. i, p.
62.--Mendez, Typographia Española, (Madrid, 1796,) pp. 72-75.--Andres,
Letteratura, ubi supra.--Pellicer seems to take Martorell's word in good
earnest, that his book is only a version from the Castilian.

The _names_ of some of the most noted troubadours are collected by
Velazquez, Poesía Castellana, (pp. 20-24.--Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona,
tom. ii. Apend. no. 5.) Some extracts and pertinent criticisms on their
productions may be found by the English reader in the Retrospective
Review. (No. 7, art. 2.) It is to be regretted that the author has not
redeemed his pledge of continuing his notices to the Castilian era of
Spanish poetry.


[Illustration: GENEALOGY OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA.]




PART FIRST.

1406-1492.

THE PERIOD WHEN THE DIFFERENT KINGDOMS OF SPAIN WERE FIRST UNITED UNDER
ONE MONARCHY, AND A THOROUGH REFORM WAS INTRODUCED INTO THEIR INTERNAL
ADMINISTRATION; OR THE PERIOD EXHIBITING MOST FULLY THE DOMESTIC POLICY OF
FERDINAND AND ISABELLA.




CHAPTER I.

STATE OF CASTILE AT THE BIRTH OF ISABELLA.--REIGN OF JOHN II., OF CASTILE.

1406-1454.

Revolution of Trastamara.--Accession of John II.--Rise of Alvaro de Luna.
--Jealousy of the Nobles.--Oppression of the Commons.--Its Consequences.--
Early Literature of Castile.--Its Encouragement under John II.--Decline of
Alvaro de Luna.--His Fall.--Death of John II.--Birth of Isabella.


The fierce civil feuds, which preceded the accession of the House of
Trastamara in 1368, were as fatal to the nobility of Castile, as the wars
of the Hoses were to that of England. There was scarcely a family of note,
which had not poured out its blood on the field or the scaffold. The
influence of the aristocracy was, of course, much diminished with its
numbers. The long wars with foreign powers, which a disputed succession
entailed on the country, were almost equally prejudicial to the authority
of the monarch, who was willing to buoy up his tottering title by the most
liberal concession of privileges to the people. Thus the commons rose in
proportion as the crown and the privileged orders descended in the scale;
and, when the claims of the several competitors for the throne were
finally extinguished, and the tranquillity of the kingdom was secured, by
the union of Henry the Third with Catharine of Lancaster at the close of
the fourteenth century, the third estate may be said to have attained to
the highest degree of political consequence which it ever reached in
Castile.

The healthful action of the body politic, during the long interval of
peace that followed this auspicious union, enabled it to repair the
strength, which had been wasted in its murderous civil contests. The
ancient channels of commerce were again opened; various new manufactures
were introduced, and carried to a considerable perfection; [1] wealth,
with its usual concomitants, elegance and comfort, flowed in apace; and
the nation promised itself a long career of prosperity under a monarch,
who respected the laws in his own person, and administered them with
vigor. All these fair hopes were blasted by the premature death of Henry
the Third, before he had reached his twenty-eighth year. The crown
devolved on his son John the Second, then a minor, whose reign was one of
the longest and the most disastrous in the Castilian annals. [2] As it was
that, however, which gave birth to Isabella, the illustrious subject of
our narrative, it will be necessary to pass its principal features under
review, in order to obtain a correct idea of her government.

The wise administration of the regency, during a long minority, postponed
the season of calamity; and when it at length arrived, it was concealed
for some time from the eyes of the vulgar by the pomp and brilliant
festivities, which distinguished the court of the young monarch. His
indisposition, if not incapacity for business, however, gradually became
manifest; and, while he resigned himself without reserve to pleasures,
which it must be confessed were not unfrequently of a refined and
intellectual character, he abandoned the government of his kingdom to the
control of favorites.

The most conspicuous of these was Alvaro de Luna, grand master of St.
James, and constable of Castile. This remarkable person, the illegitimate
descendant of a noble house in Aragon, was introduced very early as a page
into the royal household, where he soon distinguished himself by his
amiable manners and personal accomplishments. He could ride, fence, dance,
sing, if we may credit his loyal biographer, better than any other
cavalier in the court; while his proficiency in music and poetry
recommended him most effectually to the favor of the monarch, who
professed to be a connoisseur in both. With these showy qualities, Alvaro
de Luna united others of a more dangerous complexion. His insinuating
address easily conciliated confidence, and enabled him to master the
motives of others, while his own were masked by consummate dissimulation.
He was as fearless in executing his ambitious schemes, as he was cautious
in devising them. He was indefatigable in his application to business, so
that John, whose aversion to it we have noticed, willingly reposed on him
the whole burden of government. The king, it was said, only signed, while
the constable dictated and executed. He was the only channel of promotion
to public office, whether secular or ecclesiastical. As his cupidity was
insatiable, he perverted the great trust confided to him to the
acquisition of the principal posts in the government for himself or his
kindred, and at his death is said to have left a larger amount of treasure
than was possessed by the whole nobility of the kingdom. He affected a
magnificence of state corresponding with his elevated rank. The most
considerable grandees in Castile contended for the honor of having their
sons, after the fashion of the time, educated in his family. When he rode
abroad, he was accompanied by a numerous retinue of knights and nobles,
which left his sovereign's court comparatively deserted; so that royalty
might be said on all occasions, whether of business or pleasure, to be
eclipsed by the superior splendors of its satellite. [3] The history of
this man may remind the English reader of that of Cardinal Wolsey, whom he
somewhat resembled in character, and still more in his extraordinary
fortunes.

It may easily be believed, that the haughty aristocracy of Castile would
ill brook this exaltation of an individual so inferior to them in birth,
and who withal did not wear his honors with exemplary meekness. John's
blind partiality for his favorite is the key to all the troubles which
agitated the kingdom during the last thirty years of his reign. The
disgusted nobles organized confederacies for the purpose of deposing the
minister. The whole nation took sides in this unhappy struggle. The heats
of civil discord were still further heightened by the interference of the
royal house of Aragon, which, descended from a common stock with that of
Castile, was proprietor of large estates in the latter country. The
wretched monarch beheld even his own son Henry, the heir to the crown,
enlisted in the opposite faction, and saw himself reduced to the extremity
of shedding the blood of his subjects in the fatal battle of Olmedo. Still
the address, or the good fortune, of the constable enabled him to triumph
over his enemies; and, although he was obliged occasionally to yield to
the violence of the storm and withdraw a while from the court, he was soon
recalled and reinstated in all his former dignities. This melancholy
infatuation of the king is imputed by the writers of that age to sorcery
on the part of the favorite. [4] But the only witchcraft which he used,
was the ascendency of a strong mind over a weak one.

During this long-protracted anarchy, the people lost whatever they had
gained in the two preceding reigns. By the advice of his minister, who
seems to have possessed a full measure of the insolence, so usual with
persons suddenly advanced from low to elevated station, the king not only
abandoned the constitutional policy of his predecessors in regard to the
commons, but entered on the most arbitrary and systematic violation of
their rights. Their deputies were excluded from the privy council, or lost
all influence in it. Attempts were made to impose taxes without the
legislative sanction. The municipal territories were alienated, and
lavished on the royal minions. The freedom of elections was invaded, and
delegates to cortes were frequently nominated by the crown; and, to
complete the iniquitous scheme of oppression, _pragmaticas_, or royal
proclamations, were issued, containing provisions repugnant to the
acknowledged law of the land, and affirming in the most unqualified terms
the right of the sovereign to legislate for his subjects. [5] The commons
indeed, when assembled in cortes, stoutly resisted the assumption of such
unconstitutional powers by the crown, and compelled the prince not only to
revoke his pretensions, but to accompany his revocation with the most
humiliating concessions. [6] They even ventured so far, during this reign,
as to regulate the expenses of the royal household; [7] and their language
to the throne on all these occasions, though temperate and loyal, breathed
a generous spirit of patriotism, evincing a perfect consciousness of their
own rights, and a steady determination to maintain them. [8]

Alas! what could such resolution avail, in this season of misrule, against
the intrigues of a cunning and profligate minister, unsupported too, as
the commons were, by any sympathy or co-operation on the part of the
higher orders of the state! A scheme was devised for bringing the popular
branch of the legislature more effectually within the control of the
crown, by diminishing the number of its constituents. It has been already
remarked, in the Introduction, that a great irregularity prevailed in
Castile as to the number of cities which, at different times, exercised
the right of representation. During the fourteenth century, the deputation
from this order had been uncommonly full. The king, however, availing
himself of this indeterminateness, caused writs to be issued to a very
small proportion of the towns which had usually enjoyed the privilege.
Some of those that were excluded indignantly though ineffectually
remonstrated against this abuse. Others, previously despoiled of their
possessions by the rapacity of the crown, or impoverished by the
disastrous feuds into which the country had been thrown, acquiesced in the
measure from motives of economy. From the same mistaken policy several
cities, again, as Burgos, Toledo, and others, petitioned the sovereign to
defray the charges of their representatives from the royal treasury; a
most ill-advised parsimony, which suggested to the crown a plausible
pretext for the new system of exclusion. In this manner the Castilian
cortes, which, notwithstanding its occasional fluctuations, had exhibited
during the preceding century what might be regarded as a representation of
the whole commonwealth, was gradually reduced, during the reigns of John
the Second and his son Henry the Fourth, to the deputations of some
seventeen or eighteen cities. And to this number, with slight variation,
it has been restricted until the occurrence of the recent revolutionary
movements in that kingdom. [9]

The non-represented were required to transmit their instructions to the
deputies of the privileged cities. Thus Salamanca appeared in behalf of
five hundred towns and fourteen hundred villages; and the populous
province of Galicia was represented by the little town of Zamora, which is
not even included within its geographical limits. [10] The privilege of a
_voice in cortes_, as it was called, came at length to be prized so
highly by the favored cities, that when, in 1506, some of those which were
excluded solicited the restitution of their ancient rights, their petition
was opposed by the former on the impudent pretence, that "the right of
deputation had been reserved by ancient law and usage to only eighteen
cities of the realm." [11] In this short-sighted and most unhappy policy,
we see the operation of those local jealousies and estrangements, to which
we have alluded in the Introduction. But, although the cortes, thus
reduced in numbers, necessarily lost much of its weight, it still
maintained a bold front against the usurpations of the crown. It does not
appear, indeed, that any attempt was made under John the Second, or his
successor, to corrupt its members, or to control the freedom of debate;
although such a proceeding is not improbable, as altogether conformable to
their ordinary policy, and as the natural result of their preliminary
measures. But, however true the deputies continued to themselves and to
those who sent them, it is evident that so limited and partial a selection
no longer afforded a representation of the interests of the whole country.
Their necessarily imperfect acquaintance with the principles or even
wishes of their widely scattered constituents, in an age when knowledge
was not circulated on the thousand wings of the press, as in our day, must
have left them oftentimes in painful uncertainty, and deprived them of the
cheering support of public opinion. The voice of remonstrance, which
derives such confidence from numbers, would hardly now be raised in their
deserted halls with the same frequency or energy as before; and, however
the representatives of that day might maintain their integrity
uncorrupted, yet, as every facility was afforded to the undue influence of
the crown, the time might come when venality would prove stronger than
principle, and the unworthy patriot be tempted to sacrifice his birthright
for a mess of pottage. Thus early was the fair dawn of freedom overcast,
which opened in Castile under more brilliant auspices, perhaps, than in
any other country in Europe.

While the reign of John the Second is so deservedly odious in a political
view, in a literary, it may be inscribed with what Giovio calls "the
golden pen of history." It was an epoch in the Castilian, corresponding
with that of the reign of Francis the First in French literature,
distinguished not so much by any production of extraordinary genius, as by
the effort made for the introduction of an elegant culture, by conducting
it on more scientific principles than had been hitherto known. The early
literature of Castile could boast of the "Poem of the Cid," in some
respects the most remarkable performance of the middle ages. It was
enriched, moreover, with other elaborate compositions, displaying
occasional glimpses of a buoyant fancy, or of sensibility to external
beauty, to say nothing of those delightful romantic ballads, which seemed
to spring up spontaneously in every quarter of the country, like the
natural wild flowers of the soil. But the unaffected beauties of
sentiment, which seem rather the result of accident than design, were
dearly purchased, in the more extended pieces, at the expense of such a
crude mass of grotesque and undigested verse, as shows an entire ignorance
of the principles of the art. [12]

The profession of letters itself was held in little repute by the higher
orders of the nation, who were altogether untinctured with liberal
learning. While the nobles of the sister kingdom of Aragon, assembled in
their poetic courts, in imitation of their Provençal neighbors, vied with
each other in lays of love and chivalry, those of Castile disdained these
effeminate pleasures as unworthy of the profession of arms, the only one
of any estimation in their eyes. The benignant influence of John was
perceptible in softening this ferocious temper. He was himself
sufficiently accomplished, for a king; and, notwithstanding his aversion
to business, manifested, as has been noticed, a lively relish for
intellectual enjoyment. He was fond of books, wrote and spoke Latin with
facility, composed verses, and condescended occasionally to correct those
of his loving subjects. [13] Whatever might be the value of his
criticisms, that of his example cannot be doubted. The courtiers, with the
quick scent for their own interest which distinguished the tribe in every
country, soon turned their attention to the same polite studies; [14] and
thus Castilian poetry received very early the courtly stamp, which
continued its prominent characteristic down to the age of its meridian
glory.

Among the most eminent of these noble _savans_, was Henry, marquis of
Villena, descended from the royal houses of Castile and Aragon, [15] but
more illustrious, as one of his countrymen has observed, by his talents
and attainments, than by his birth. His whole life was consecrated to
letters, and especially to the study of natural science. I am not aware
that any specimen of his poetry, although much lauded by his
contemporaries, [16] has come down to us. [17] He translated Dante's
"Commedia" into prose, and is said to have given the first example of a
version of the AEneid into a modern language. [18] He labored assiduously
to introduce a more cultivated taste among his countrymen, and his little
treatise on the _gaya sciencia_, as the divine art was then called,
in which he gives an historical and critical view of the poetical
Consistory of Barcelona, is the first approximation, however faint, to an
Art of Poetry in the Castilian tongue. [19] The exclusiveness with which
he devoted himself to science, and especially astronomy, to the utter
neglect of his temporal concerns, led the wits of that day to remark, that
"he knew much of heaven, and nothing of earth." He paid the usual penalty
of such indifference to worldly weal, by seeing himself eventually
stripped of his lordly possessions, and reduced, at the close of life, to
extreme poverty. [20] His secluded habits brought on him the appalling
imputation of necromancy. A scene took place at his death, in 1434, which
is sufficiently characteristic of the age, and may possibly have suggested
a similar adventure to Cervantes. The king commissioned his son's
preceptor, Brother Lope de Barrientos, afterwards bishop of Cuença, to
examine the valuable library of the deceased; and the worthy ecclesiastic
consigned more than a hundred volumes of it to the flames, as savoring too
strongly of the black art. The Bachelor Cibdareal, the confidential
physician of John the Second, in a lively letter on this occurrence to the
poet John de Mena, remarks, that "some would fain get the reputation of
saints, by making others necromancers;" and requests his friend "to allow
him to solicit, in his behalf, some of the surviving volumes from the
king, that in this way the soul of Brother Lope might be saved from
further sin, and the spirit of the defunct marquis consoled by the
consciousness, that his books no longer rested on the shelves of the man
who had converted him into a conjuror." [21] John de Mena denounces this
_auto da fe_ of science in a similar, but graver tone of sarcasm, in
his "Laberinto." These liberal sentiments in the Spanish writers of the
fifteenth century may put to shame the more bigoted criticism of the
seventeenth. [22]

Another of the illustrious wits of this reign was Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza,
marquis of Santillana, "the glory and delight of the Castilian nobility,"
whose celebrity was such, that foreigners, it was said, journeyed to Spain
from distant parts of Europe to see him. Although passionately devoted to
letters, he did not, like his friend the marquis of Villena, neglect his
public or domestic duties for them. On the contrary, he discharged the
most important civil and military functions. He made his house an academy,
in which the young cavaliers of the court might practise the martial
exercises of the age; and he assembled around him at the same time men
eminent for genius and science, whom he munificently recompensed, and
encouraged by his example. [23] His own taste led him to poetry, of which
he has left some elaborate specimens. They are chiefly of a moral and
preceptive character; but, although replete with noble sentiment, and
finished in a style of literary excellence far more correct than that of
the preceding age, they are too much infected with mythology and
metaphorical affectations to suit the palate of the present day. He
possessed, however, the soul of a poet; and when he abandons himself to
his native _redondillas_, delivers his sentiments with a sweetness
and grace inimitable. To him is to be ascribed the glory, such as it is,
of having naturalized the Italian sonnet in Castile, which Boscan, many
years later, claimed for himself with no small degree of self-
congratulation. [24] His epistle on the primitive history of Spanish
verse, although containing notices sufficiently curious from the age and
the source whence they proceed, has perhaps done more service to letters
by the valuable illustrations it has called forth from its learned editor.
[25]

This great man, who found so much leisure for the cultivation of letters
amidst the busy strife of politics, closed his career at the age of sixty,
in 1458. Though a conspicuous actor in the revolutionary scenes of the
period, he maintained a character for honor and purity of motive,
unimpeached even by his enemies. The king, notwithstanding his devotion to
the faction of his son Henry, conferred on him the dignities of count of
Real de Manzanares and marquis of Santillana; this being the oldest
creation of a marquis in Castile, with the exception of Villena. [26] His
eldest son was subsequently made duke of Infantado, by which title his
descendants have continued to be distinguished to the present day.

But the most conspicuous, for his poetical talents, of the brilliant
circle which graced the court of John the Second, was John de Mena, a
native of fair Cordova, "the flower of science and of chivalry," [27] as
he fondly styles her. Although born in a middling condition of life, with
humble prospects, he was early smitten with a love of letters; and, after
passing through the usual course of discipline at Salamanca, he repaired
to Rome, where, in the study of those immortal masters whose writings had
but recently revealed the full capacities of a modern idiom, he imbibed
principles of taste, which gave a direction to his own genius, and, in
some degree, to that of his countrymen. On his return to Spain, his
literary merit soon attracted general admiration, and introduced him to
the patronage of the great, and above all to the friendship of the marquis
of Santillana. [28] He was admitted into the private circle of the
monarch, who, as his gossiping physician informs us, "used to have Mena's
verses lying on his table, as constantly as his prayer-book." The poet
repaid the debt of gratitude by administering a due quantity of honeyed
rhyme, for which the royal palate seems to have possessed a more than
ordinary relish. [29] He continued faithful to his master amidst all the
fluctuations of faction, and survived him less than two years. He died in
1456; and his friend, the marquis of Santillana, raised a sumptuous
monument over his remains, in commemoration of his virtues and of their
mutual affection.

John de Mena is affirmed by some of the national critics to have given a
new aspect to Castilian poetry. [30] His great work was his "Laberinto,"
the outlines of whose plan may faintly remind us of that portion of the
"Divina Commedia" where Dante resigns himself to the guidance of Beatrice.
In like manner the Spanish poet, under the escort of a beautiful
personification of Providence, witnesses the apparition of the most
eminent individuals, whether of history or fable; and, as they revolve on
the wheel of destiny, they give occasion to some animated portraiture, and
much dull, pedantic disquisition. In these delineations we now and then
meet with a touch of his pencil, which, from its simplicity and vigor, may
be called truly _Dantesque_. Indeed, the Castilian Muse never before
ventured on so bold a flight; and, notwithstanding the deformity of the
general plan, the obsolete barbarisms of the phraseology, its quaintness
and pedantry, notwithstanding the cantering dactylic measure in which it
is composed, and which to the ear of a foreigner can scarcely be made
tolerable, the work abounds in conceptions, nay in whole episodes, of such
mingled energy and beauty, as indicate genius of the highest order. In
some of his smaller pieces his style assumes a graceful flexibility, too
generally denied to his more strained and elaborate efforts. [31]

It will not be necessary to bring under review the minor luminaries of
this period. Alfonso de Baena, a converted Jew, secretary of John the
Second, compiled the fugitive pieces of more than fifty of these ancient
troubadours into a _cancionero_, "for the disport and divertisement
of his highness the king, when he should find himself too sorely oppressed
with cares of state," a case we may imagine of no rare occurrence. The
original manuscript of Baena, transcribed in beautiful characters of the
fifteenth century, lies, or did lie until very lately, unheeded in the
cemetery of the Escurial, with the dust of many a better worthy. [32] The
extracts selected from it by Castro, although occasionally exhibiting some
fluent graces with considerable variety of versification, convey, on the
whole, no very high idea of taste or poetic talent. [33].

Indeed, this epoch, as before remarked, was not so much distinguished by
uncommon displays of genius, as by its general intellectual movement and
the enthusiasm kindled for liberal studies. Thus we find the corporation
of Seville granting a hundred _doblas_ of gold as the guerdon of a
poet who had celebrated in some score of verses the glories of their
native city; and appropriating the same sum as an annual premium for a
similar performance. [34] It is not often that the productions of a poet
laureate have been more liberally recompensed even by royal bounty. But
the gifted spirits of that day mistook the road to immortality. Disdaining
the untutored simplicity of their predecessors, they sought to rise above
them by an ostentation of learning, as well as by a more classical idiom.
In the latter particular they succeeded. They much improved the external
forms of poetry, and their compositions exhibit a high degree of literary
finish, compared with all that preceded them. But their happiest
sentiments are frequently involved in such a cloud of metaphor, as to
become nearly unintelligible; while they invoke the pagan deities with a
shameless prodigality that would scandalize even a French lyric. This
cheap display of school-boy erudition, however it may have appalled their
own age, has been a principal cause of their comparative oblivion with
posterity. How far superior is one touch of nature, as the "Finojosa" or
"Querella de Amor," for example, of the marquis of Santillana, to all this
farrago of metaphor and mythology!

The impulse, given to Castilian poetry, extended to other departments of
elegant literature. Epistolary and historical composition were cultivated
with considerable success. The latter, especially, might admit of
advantageous comparison with that of any other country in Europe at the
same period; [35] and it is remarkable, that, after such early promise,
the modern Spaniards have not been more successful in perfecting a
classical prose style.

Enough has been said to give an idea of the state of mental improvement in
Castile under John the Second. The Muses, who had found a shelter in his
court from the anarchy which reigned abroad, soon fled from its polluted
precincts under the reign of his successor Henry the Fourth, whose sordid
appetites were incapable of being elevated above the objects of the
senses. If we have dwelt somewhat long on a more pleasing picture, it is
because our road is now to lead us across a dreary waste exhibiting
scarcely a vestige of civilization.

While a small portion of the higher orders of the nation was thus
endeavoring to forget the public calamities in the tranquillizing pursuit
of letters, and a much larger portion in the indulgence of pleasure, [36]
the popular aversion for the minister Luna had been gradually infusing
itself into the royal bosom. His too obvious assumption of superiority,
even over the monarch who had raised him from the dust, was probably the
real though secret cause of this disgust. But the habitual ascendency of
the favorite over his master prevented the latter from disclosing this
feeling until it was heightened by an occurrence which sets in a strong
light the imbecility of the one and the presumption of the other. John, on
the death of his wife, Maria of Aragon, had formed the design of
connecting himself with a daughter of the king of France. But the
constable, in the mean time, without even the privity of his master,
entered into negotiations for his marriage with the princess Isabella,
granddaughter of John the First of Portugal; and the monarch, with an
unprecedented degree of complaisance, acquiesced in an arrangement
professedly repugnant to his own inclinations. [37] By one of those
dispensations of Providence, however, which often confound the plans of
the wisest, as of the weakest, the column, which the minister had so
artfully raised for his support, served only to crush him.

The new queen, disgusted with his haughty bearing, and probably not much
gratified with the subordinate situation to which he had reduced her
husband, entered heartily into the feelings of the latter, and indeed
contrived to extinguish whatever spark of latent affection for his ancient
favorite lurked within his breast. John, yet fearing the overgrown power
of the constable too much to encounter him openly, condescended to adopt
the dastardly policy of Tiberius on a similar occasion, by caressing the
man whom he designed to ruin, and he eventually obtained possession of his
person, only by a violation of the royal safe-conduct. The constable's
trial was referred to a commission of jurists and privy counsellors, who,
after a summary and informal investigation, pronounced on him the sentence
of death on a specification of charges either general and indeterminate,
or of the most trivial import. "If the king," says Garibay, "had dispensed
similar justice to all his nobles, who equally deserved it in those
turbulent times, he would have had but few to reign over." [38]

The constable had supported his disgrace, from the first, with an
equanimity not to have been expected from his elation in prosperity; and
he now received the tidings of his fate with a similar fortitude. As he
rode along the streets to the place of execution, clad in the sable livery
of an ordinary criminal, and deserted by those who had been reared by his
bounty, the populace, who before called so loudly for his disgrace, struck
with this astonishing reverse of his brilliant fortunes, were melted into
tears. [39] They called to mind the numerous instances of his magnanimity.
They reflected, that the ambitious schemes of his rivals had been not a
whit less selfish, though less successful, than his own; and that, if his
cupidity appeared insatiable, he had dispensed the fruits of it in acts of
princely munificence. He himself maintained a serene and even cheerful
aspect. Meeting one of the domestics of Prince Henry, he bade him request
the prince "to reward the attachment of his servants with a different
guerdon from what his master had assigned to him." As he ascended the
scaffold, he surveyed the apparatus of death with composure, and calmly
submitted himself to the stroke of the executioner, who, in the savage
style of the executions of that day, plunged his knife into the throat of
his victim, and deliberately severed his head from his body. A basin, for
the reception of alms to defray the expenses of his interment, was placed
at one extremity of the scaffold; and his mutilated remains, after having
been exposed for several days to the gaze of the populace, were removed,
by the brethren of a charitable order, to a place called the hermitage of
St. Andrew, appropriated as the cemetery for malefactors. [40]

Such was the tragical end of Alvaro de Luna; a man, who, for more than
thirty years, controlled the counsels of the sovereign, or, to speak more
properly, was himself the sovereign of Castile. His fate furnishes one of
the most memorable lessons in history. It was not lost on his
contemporaries; and the marquis of Santillana has made use of it to point
the moral of perhaps the most pleasing of his didactic compositions. [41]
John did not long survive his favorite's death, which he was seen
afterwards to lament even with tears. Indeed, during the whole of the
trial he had exhibited the most pitiable agitation, having twice issued
and recalled his orders countermanding the constable's execution; and, had
it not been for the superior constancy, or vindictive temper of the queen,
he would probably have yielded to these impulses of returning affection.
[42]

So far from deriving a wholesome warning from experience, John confided
the entire direction of his kingdom to individuals not less interested,
but possessed of far less enlarged capacities, than the former minister.
Penetrated with remorse at the retrospect of his unprofitable life, and
filled with melancholy presages of the future, the unhappy prince lamented
to his faithful attendant Cibdareal, on his deathbed, that "he had not
been born the son of a mechanic, instead of king of Castile." He died July
21st, 1454, after a reign of eight and forty years, if reign it may be
called, which was more properly one protracted minority. John left one
child by his first wife, Henry, who succeeded him on the throne; and by
his second wife two others, Alfonso, then an infant, and Isabella,
afterwards queen of Castile, the subject of the present narrative. She had
scarcely reached her fourth year at the time of her father's decease,
having been born on the 22d of April, 1451, at Madrigal. The king
recommended his younger children to the especial care and protection of
their brother Henry, and assigned the town of Cuellar, with its territory
and a considerable sum of money, for the maintenance of the Infanta
Isabella. [43]


FOOTNOTES

[1] Sempere y Guarinos, Historia del Luxo, y de las Leyes Suntuarias de
España, (Madrid, 1788,) tom. i. p. 171.

[2] Crónica de Enrique III., edicion de la Academia, (Madrid, 1780,)
passim.--Crónica de Juan II., (Valencia, 1779,) p. 6.

[3] Crónica de Alvaro de Luna, edition de la Academia, (Madrid, 1784,)
tit. 3, 5, 68, 74.--Guzman, Generaciones y Semblanzas, (Madrid, 1775,)
cap. 33, 34.--Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, en Anales Históricos, (Madrid,
1682,) tom. i. fol. 227.--Crónica de Juan II., passim.--He possessed sixty
towns and fortresses, and kept three thousand lances constantly in pay.
Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.

[4] Guzman, Generaciones, cap. 33.--Crónica de Don Juan II., p. 491, et
alibi. His complaisance for the favorite, indeed, must be admitted, if we
believe Guzman, to have been of a most extraordinary kind. "E lo que con
mayor maravilla se puede decir é oír, que aun en los autos naturales se
dió así á la ordenanza del condestable, que seyendo él mozo bien
complexionado, é teniendo á la reyna su muger moza y hermosa, si el
condestable se lo contradixiese, no iria á dormir á su cama della." Ubi
supra.

[5] Marina, Teoría de las Cortes, (Madrid, 1813,) tom. i. cap. 20.--tom.
ii. pp. 216, 390, 391.--tom. iii. part. 2, no. 4.--Capmany, Práctica y
Estilo de Celebrar Cortes en Aragon, Cataluña y Valencia, (Madrid, 1821,)
pp. 234, 235.--Sempere, Histoire des Cortès d'Espagne, (Bordeaux, 1815,)
ch. 18, 24.

[6] Several of this prince's laws for redressing the alleged grievances
are incorporated in the great code of Philip II., (Recopilacion de las
Leyes, (Madrid, 1640,) lib. 6, tit. 7, leyes 5, 7, 2,) which declares, in
the most unequivocal language, the right of the commons to be consulted on
all important matters. "Porque en los hechos arduos de nuestros reynos es
necessario consejo de nuestros subditos, y naturales, _especialmente de
los procuradores de las nuestras ciudades, villas, y lugares de los
nuestros reynos._" It was much easier to extort good laws from this
monarch, than to enforce them.

[7] Mariana, Historia de España, (Madrid, 1780,) tom. ii. p. 299.

[8] Marina, Teoría, ubi supra.

[9] Capmany, Práctica y Estilo, p. 228.--Sempere, Hist. des Cortès, chap.
19.--Marina, Teoría, part. 1, cap. 16.--In 1656, the city of Palencia was
content to repurchase its ancient right of representation from the crown,
at an expense of 80,000 ducats.

[10] Capmany, Práctica y Estilo, p. 230.--Sempere, Histoire des Cortès
d'Espagne, chap. 19.

[11] Marina, Teoría, tom. i. p. 161.

[12] See the ample collections of Sanchez, "Poesías Castellanas anteriores
al Siglo XV." 4 tom. Madrid, 1779-1790.

[13] Guzman, Generaciones, cap. 33.--Gomez de Cibdareal, Centon
Epistolario, (Madrid, 1775,) epist. 20, 49.--Cibdareal has given us a
specimen of this royal criticism, which Juan de Mena, the subject of it,
was courtier enough to adopt.

[14] Velazquez, Orígenes de la Poesía Castellana, (Málaga, 1797,) p. 45.--
Sanchez, Poesías Castellanas, tom. i. p. 10.--"The Cancioneros Generales,
in print and in manuscript," says Sanchez, "show the great number of
dukes, counts, marquises, and other nobles, who cultivated this art."

[15] He was the grandson, not, as Sanchez supposes (tom. i. p.15), the
son, of Alonso de Villena, the first marquis as well as constable created
in Castile, descended from James II. of Aragon. (See Dormer, Enmiendas y
Advertencias de Zurita, (Zaragoza, 1683,) pp. 371-376.) His mother was an
illegitimate daughter of Henry II., of Castile. Guzman, Generaciones, cap.
28.--Salazar de Mendoza, Monarquía de España, (Madrid, 1770,) tom. i. pp.
203, 339.

[16] Guzman, Generaciones, cap. 28.--Juan de Mena introduces Villena into
his "Laberinto," in an agreeable stanza, which has something of the
mannerism of Dante.

  "Aquel claro padre aquel dulce fuente
  aquel que en el castolo monte resuena
  es don Enrique Señor de Villena
  honrra de España y del siglo presente," etc.
                           Juan de Mena, Obras, (Alcalá, 1566,) fol. 138.

[17] The recent Castilian translators of Bouterwek's History of Spanish
Literature have fallen into an error in imputing the beautiful
_cancion_ of the "Querella de Amor" to Villena. It was composed by
the Marquis of Santillana. (Bouterwek, Historia de la Literatura Española,
traducida por Cortina y Hugalde y Mollinedo, (Madrid, 1829,) p. 196, and
Sanchez, Poesías Castellanas, tom. i. pp. 38, 143.)

[18] Velazquez, Orígenes de la Poesía Castellana, p. 45.--Bouterwek,
Literatura Española, trad. de Cortina y Mollinedo, nota S.

[19] See an abstract of it in Mayans y Siscar, Orígines de la Lengua
Española, (Madrid, 1737,) tom. ii. pp. 321 et seq.

[20] Zurita, Anales de la Corona de Aragon, (Zaragoza, 1669,) tom. iii. p.
227.--Guzman, Generaciones, cap. 28.

[21] Centon Epistolario, epist. 66.--The bishop endeavored to transfer the
blame of the conflagration to the king. There can be little doubt,
however, that the good father infused the suspicions of necromancy into
his master's bosom. "The angels," he says in one of his works, "who
guarded Paradise, presented a treatise on magic to one of the posterity of
Adam, from a copy of which Villena derived his science." (See Juan de
Mena, Obras, fol. 139, glosa.) One would think that such an orthodox
source might have justified Villena in the use of it.

[22] Comp. Juan de Mena, Obras, copl. 127, 128; and Nic. Antonio,
Bibliotheca Vetus, tom. ii. p. 220.

[23] Pulgar, Claros Varones de Castilla, y Letras, (Madrid, 1755,) tit.
4.--Nic. Antonio, Bibliotheca Vetus, lib. 10, cap. 9.--Quincuagenas de
Gonzalo de Oviedo, MS., batalla 1, quinc. 1, dial. 8.

[24] Garcilasso de la Vega, Obras, ed. de Herrera, (1580,) pp. 75, 76--
Sanchez, Poesías Castellanas, tom. i. p. 21.--Boscan, Obras, (1543,) fol.
19.--It must be admitted, however, that the attempt was premature, and
that it required a riper stage of the language to give a permanent
character to the innovation.

[25] See Sanchez, Poesías Castellanas, tom. i. pp. 1-119.--A copious
catalogue of the marquis de Santillana's writings is given in the same
volume, (pp. 33 et seq.) Several of his poetical pieces are collected in
the Cancionero General, (Anvers, 1573,) fol. 34 et seq.

[26] Pulgar, Claros Varones, tit. 4.--Salazar de Mendoza, Monarquía, tom.
i. p. 218.--Idem, Orígen de las Dignidades Seglares de Castilla y Leon,
(Madrid, 1794,) p. 285.--Oviedo makes the marquis much older, seventy-five
years of age, when he died. He left, besides daughters, six sons, who all
became the founders of noble and powerful houses. See the whole genealogy,
in Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 8.

[27] "Flor de saber y cabellería." El Laberinto, copla 114.

[28] Nic. Antonio, Bibliotheca Vetus, tom. ii. pp. 265 et seq.

[29] Cibdareal, Centon Epistolario, epist. 47, 49.

[30] See Velazquez, Poesía Castellana, p. 49.

[31] A collection of them is incorporated in the Cancionero General, fol.
41 et seq.

[32] Castro, Biblioteca Española, (Madrid, 1781,) tom. i, pp. 266, 267.--
This interesting document, the most primitive of all the Spanish
_cancioneros_, notwithstanding its local position in the library is
specified by Castro with great precision, eluded the search of the
industrious translators of Bouterwek, who think it may have disappeared
during the French invasion. Literatura Española, trad. de Cortina y
Mollinedo, p. 205, nota Hh.

[33] See these collected in Castro, Biblioteca Española, tom. ii. p. 265
et seq.--The veneration entertained for the poetic art in that day may be
conceived from Baena's whimsical prologue. "Poetry," he says, "or the gay
science, is a very subtile and delightsome composition. It demands in him,
who would hope to excel in it, a curious invention, a sane judgment, a
various scholarship, familiarity with courts and public affairs, high
birth and breeding, a temperate, courteous, and liberal disposition, and,
in fine, honey, sugar, salt, freedom, and hilarity in his discourse." p.
268.

[34] Castro, Biblioteca Española, tom. i. p. 273.

[35] Perhaps the most conspicuous of these historical compositions for
mere literary execution is the Chronicle of Alvaro de Luna, to which I
have had occasion to refer, edited in 1784, by Flores, the diligent
secretary of the Royal Academy of History. He justly commends it for the
purity and harmony of its diction. The loyalty of the chronicler seduces
him sometimes into a swell of panegyric, which may he thought to savor too
strongly of the current defect of Castilian prose; but it more frequently
imparts to his narrative a generous glow of sentiment, raising it far
above the lifeless details of ordinary history, and occasionally even to
positive eloquence.

Nic. Antonio, in the tenth book of his great repository, has assembled the
biographical and bibliographical notices of the various Spanish authors of
the fifteenth century, whose labors diffused a glimmering of light over
their own age, which has become faint in the superior illumination of the
succeeding.

[36] Sempere, in his Historia del Luxo, (tom. i. p. 177,) has published an
extract from an unprinted manuscript of the celebrated marquis of Villena,
entitled _Triunfo de las Doñas_, in which, adverting to the _petits-
maîtres_ of his time, he recapitulates the fashionable arts employed by
them for the embellishment of the person, with a degree of minuteness
which might edify a modern _dandy_.

[37] Crónica de Juan II., p. 499.--Faria y Sousa, Europa Portuguesa,
(1679,) tom. ii. pp. 335, 372.

[38] Crónica de Alvaro de Luna, tit. 128.--Crónica de Juan II., pp. 457,
460, 572.--Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 227, 228.--Garibay,
Compendio Historial de las Chrónicas de España, (Barcelona, 1628,) tom.
ii. p. 493.

[39] Crónica de Alvaro de Luna, tit. 128.--What a contrast to all this is
afforded by the vivid portrait, sketched by John de Mena, of the constable
in the noontide of his glory.

  "Este caualga sobre la fortuna
  y doma su cuello con asperas riendas
  y aunque del tenga tan muchas de prendas
  ella non le osa tocar de ninguna," etc.
                                         Laberinto, coplas 235 et seq.

[40] Cibdareal, Centon Epistolario, ep. 103.--Crónica de Juan II., p.
564.--Crónica de Alvaro de Luna, tit. 128, and Apend. p. 458.

[41] Entitled "Doctrinal de Privados." See the Cancionero General, fol. 37
et seq.--In the following stanza, the constable is made to moralize with
good effect on the instability of worldly grandeur.

  "Quo se hizo la moneda
  que guarde para mis daños
  tantos tiempos tantos años
  plata joyas oro y seda
  y de todo no me queda
  sine este cadahalso;
  mundo malo mundo falso
  no ay quien contigo pueda."

Manrique has the same sentiments in his exquisite "Coplas." I give
Longfellow's version, as spirited as it is literal.

  "Spain's haughty Constable,--the great
  And gallant Master,--cruel fate
    Stripped him of all.
  Breathe not a whisper of his pride,
  He on the gloomy scaffold died,
    Ignoble fall!
  The countless treasures of his care,
  Hamlets and villas green and fair,
    His mighty power,--
  What were they all but grief and shame,
  Tears and a broken heart,--when came.
    The parting hour!"
                            Stanza 21.

[42] Cibdareal, Centon Epistolario, ep. 103.--Crónica de Alvaro de Luna,
tit. 128.

[43] Crónica de Juan II., p. 576.--Cibdareal, Centon Epistolario, epist.
105.

There has been considerable discrepancy, even among cotemporary writers,
both as to the place and the epoch of Isabella's birth, amounting, as
regards the latter, to nearly two years. I have adopted the conclusion of
Señor Clemencin, formed from a careful collation of the various
authorities, in the sixth volume of the Memorias de la Real Academia de
Historia, (Madrid, 1821,) Ilust. 1, pp. 56-60. Isabella was descended both
on the father's and mother's side from the famous John of Gaunt, duke of
Lancaster. See Florez, Memorias de las Reynas Cathólicas, (2d ed. Madrid,
1770,) tom. ii. pp. 743, 787.




CHAPTER II.

CONDITION OF ARAGON DURING THE MINORITY OF FERDINAND.--REIGN OF JOHN II.,
OF ARAGON.

1452-1472.

John of Aragon.--Difficulties with his Son Carlos.--Birth of Ferdinand.--
Insurrection of Catalonia.--Death of Carlos.--His Character.--Tragical
Story of Blanche.--Young Ferdinand besieged by the Catalans.--Treaty
between France and Aragon.--Distress and Embarrassments of John.--Siege
and Surrender of Barcelona.


We must now transport the reader to Aragon, in order to take a view of the
extraordinary circumstances, which opened the way for Ferdinand's
succession in that kingdom. The throne, which had become vacant by the
death of Martin, in 1410, was awarded by the committee of judges to whom
the nation had referred the great question of the succession, to
Ferdinand, regent of Castile during the minority of his nephew, John the
Second; and thus the sceptre, after having for more than two centuries
descended in the family of Barcelona, was transferred to the same bastard
branch of Trastamara, that ruled over the Castilian monarchy. [1]
Ferdinand the First was succeeded after a brief reign by his son Alfonso
the Fifth, whose personal history belongs less to Aragon than to Naples,
which kingdom he acquired by his own prowess, and where he established his
residence, attracted, no doubt, by the superior amenity of the climate and
the higher intellectual culture, as well as the pliant temper of the
people, far more grateful to the monarch than the sturdy independence of
his own countrymen.

During his long absence, the government of his hereditary domains devolved
on his brother John, as his lieutenant-general in Aragon. [2] This prince
had married Blanche, widow of Martin, king of Sicily, and daughter of
Charles the Third, of Navarre. By her he had three children; Carlos,
prince of Viana; [3] Blanche, married to and afterwards repudiated by
Henry the Fourth, of Castile; [4] and Eleanor, who espoused a French
noble, Gaston, count of Foix. On the demise of the elder Blanche, the
crown of Navarre rightfully belonged to her son, the prince of Viana,
conformably to a stipulation in her marriage contract, that, on the event
of her death, the eldest heir male, and, in default of sons, female,
should inherit the kingdom, to the exclusion of her husband. [5] This
provision, which had been confirmed by her father, Charles the Third, in
his testament, was also recognized in her own, accompanied however with a
request, that her son Carlos, then twenty-one years of age, would, before
assuming the sovereignty, solicit "the good will and approbation of his
father." [6] Whether this approbation was withheld, or whether it was ever
solicited, does not appear. It seems probable, however, that Carlos,
perceiving no disposition in his father to relinquish the rank and nominal
title of king of Navarre, was willing he should retain them, so long as he
himself should be allowed to exercise the actual rights of sovereignty;
which indeed he did, as lieutenant-general or governor of the kingdom, at
the time of his mother's decease, and for some years after. [7]

In 1447, John of Aragon contracted a second alliance with Joan Henriquez,
of the blood royal of Castile, and daughter of Don Frederic Henriquez,
admiral of that kingdom; [8] a woman considerably younger than himself, of
consummate address, intrepid spirit, and unprincipled ambition. Some years
after this union, John sent his wife into Navarre, with authority to
divide with his son Carlos the administration of the government there.
This encroachment on his rights, for such Carlos reasonably deemed it, was
not mitigated by the deportment of the young queen, who displayed all the
insolence of sudden elevation, and who from the first seems to have
regarded the prince with the malevolent eye of a step-mother.

Navarre was at that time divided by two potent factions, styled, from
their ancient leaders, Beaumonts and Agramonts; whose hostility,
originating in a personal feud, had continued long after its original
cause had become extinct. [9]

The prince of Viana was intimately connected with some of the principal
partisans of the Beaumont faction, who heightened by their suggestions the
indignation to which his naturally gentle temper had been roused by the
usurpation of Joan, and who even called on him to assume openly, and in
defiance of his father, the sovereignty which of right belonged to him.
The emissaries of Castile, too, eagerly seized this occasion of
retaliating on John his interference in the domestic concerns of that
monarchy, by fanning the spark of discord into a flame. The Agramonts, on
the other hand, induced rather by hostility to their political adversaries
than to the prince of Viana, vehemently espoused the cause of the queen.
In this revival of half-buried animosities, fresh causes of disgust were
multiplied, and matters soon came to the worst extremity. The queen, who
had retired to Estella, was besieged there by the forces of the prince.
The king, her husband, on receiving intelligence of this, instantly
marched to her relief; and the father and son confronted each other at the
head of their respective armies near the town of Aybar. [10] The unnatural
position, in which they thus found themselves, seems to have sobered their
minds, and to have opened the way to an accommodation, the terms of which
were actually arranged, when the long-smothered rancor of the ancient
factions of Navarre thus brought in martial array against each other,
refusing all control, precipitated them into an engagement. The royal
forces were inferior in number, but superior in discipline, to those of
the prince, who, after a well contested action, saw his own party entirely
discomfited, and himself a prisoner. [11]

Some months before this event, Queen Joan had been delivered of a son,
afterwards so famous as Ferdinand the Catholic; whose humble prospects, at
the time of his birth, as a younger brother, afforded a striking contrast
with the splendid destiny which eventually awaited him. This auspicious
event occurred in the little town of Sos, in Aragon, on the 10th of March,
1452; and, as it was nearly contemporary with the capture of
Constantinople, is regarded by Garibay to have been providentially
assigned to this period, as affording, in a religious view, an ample
counterpoise to the loss of the capital of Christendom. [12]

The demonstrations of satisfaction, exhibited by John and his court on
this occasion, contrasted strangely with the stern severity with which he
continued to visit the offences of his elder offspring. It was not till
after many months of captivity that the king, in deference to public
opinion rather than the movements of his own heart, was induced to release
his son, on conditions, however, so illiberal (his indisputable claim to
Navarre not being even touched upon) as to afford no reasonable basis of
reconciliation. The young prince accordingly, on his return to Navarre,
became again involved in the factions which desolated that unhappy
kingdom, and, after an ineffectual struggle against his enemies, resolved
to seek an asylum at the court of his uncle Alfonso the Fifth, of Naples,
and to refer to him the final arbitration of his differences with his
father. [13]

On his passage through France and the various courts of Italy, he was
received with the attentions due to his rank, and still more to his
personal character and misfortunes. Nor was he disappointed in the
sympathy and favorable reception, which he had anticipated from his uncle.
Assured of protection from so high a quarter, Carlos might now reasonably
flatter himself with the restitution of his legitimate rights, when these
bright prospects were suddenly overcast by the death of Alfonso, who
expired at Naples of a fever in the month of May, 1458, bequeathing his
hereditary dominions of Spain, Sicily, and Sardinia to his brother John,
and his kingdom of Naples to his illegitimate son Ferdinand. [14]

The frank and courteous manners of Carlos had won so powerfully on the
affections of the Neapolitans, who distrusted the dark, ambiguous
character of Ferdinand, Alfonso's heir, that a large party eagerly pressed
the prince to assert his title to the vacant throne, assuring him of a
general support from the people. But Carlos, from motives of prudence or
magnanimity, declined engaging in this new contest, [15] and passed over
to Sicily, whence he resolved to solicit a final reconciliation with his
father. He was received with much kindness by the Sicilians, who,
preserving a grateful recollection of the beneficent sway of his mother
Blanche, when queen of that island, readily transferred to the son their
ancient attachment to the parent. An assembly of the states voted a
liberal supply for his present exigencies, and even urged him, if we are
to credit the Catalan ambassador at the court of Castile, to assume the
sovereignty of the island. [16] Carlos, however, far from entertaining so
rash an ambition, seems to have been willing to seclude himself from
public observation. He passed the greater portion of his time at a convent
of Benedictine friars not far from Messina, where, in the society of
learned men, and with the facilities of an extensive library, he
endeavored to recall the happier hours of youth in the pursuit of his
favorite studies of philosophy and history. [17]

In the mean while, John, now king of Aragon and its dependencies, alarmed
by the reports of his son's popularity in Sicily, became as solicitous for
the security of his authority there, as he had before been for it in
Navarre. He accordingly sought to soothe the mind of the prince by the
fairest professions, and to allure him back to Spain by the prospect of an
effectual reconciliation. Carlos, believing what he most earnestly wished,
in opposition to the advice of his Sicilian counsellors, embarked for
Majorca, and, after some preliminary negotiations, crossed over to the
coast of Barcelona. Postponing, for fear of giving offence to his father,
his entrance into that city, which, indignant at his persecution, had made
the most brilliant preparations for his reception, he proceeded to
Igualada, where an interview took place between him and the king and
queen, in which he conducted himself with unfeigned humility and
penitence, reciprocated on their part by the most consummate
dissimulation. [18]

All parties now confided in the stability of a pacification so anxiously
desired, and effected with such apparent cordiality. It was expected that
John would hasten to acknowledge his son's title as heir apparent to the
crown of Aragon, and convene an assembly of the states to tender him the
customary oath of allegiance. But nothing was further from the monarch's
intention. He indeed summoned the Aragonese cortes at Fraga for the
purpose of receiving their homage to himself; but he expressly refused
their request touching a similar ceremony to the prince of Viana; and he
openly rebuked the Catalans for presuming to address him as the successor
to the crown. [19]

In this unnatural procedure it was easy to discern the influence of the
queen. In addition to her original causes of aversion to Carlos, she
regarded him with hatred as the insuperable obstacle to her own child
Ferdinand's advancement. Even the affection of John seemed to be now
wholly transferred from the offspring of his first to that of his second
marriage; and, as the queen's influence over him was unbounded, she found
it easy by artful suggestions to put a dark construction on every action
of Carlos, and to close up every avenue of returning affection within his
bosom.

Convinced at length of the hopeless alienation of his father, the prince
of Viana turned his attention to other quarters, whence he might obtain
support, and eagerly entered into a negotiation, which had been opened
with him on the part of Henry the Fourth, of Castile, for a union with his
sister the princess Isabella. This was coming in direct collision with the
favorite scheme of his parents. The marriage of Isabella with the young
Ferdinand, which indeed, from the parity of their ages, was a much more
suitable connection than that with Carlos, had long been the darling
object of their policy, and they resolved to effect it in the face of
every obstacle. In conformity with this purpose, John invited the prince
of Viana to attend him at Lerida, where he was then holding the cortes of
Catalonia. The latter fondly, and indeed foolishly, after his manifold
experience to the contrary, confiding in the relenting disposition of his
father, hastened to obey the summons, in expectation of being publicly
acknowledged as his heir in the assembly of the states. After a brief
interview he was arrested, and his person placed in strict confinement.
[20]

The intelligence of this perfidious procedure diffused general
consternation among all classes. They understood too well the artifices of
the queen and the vindictive temper of the king, not to feel the most
serious apprehensions, not only for the liberty, but for the life of their
prisoner. The cortes of Lerida, which, though dissolved on that very day,
had not yet separated, sent an embassy to John, requesting to know the
nature of the crimes imputed to his son. The permanent deputation of
Aragon, and a delegation from the council of Barcelona, waited on him for
a similar purpose, remonstrating at the same time against any violent and
unconstitutional proceeding. To all these John returned a cold, evasive
answer, darkly intimating a suspicion of conspiracy by his son against his
life, and reserving to himself the punishment of the offense. [21]

No sooner was the result of their mission communicated, than the whole
kingdom was thrown into a ferment. The high-spirited Catalans rose in
arms, almost to a man. The royal governor, after a fruitless attempt to
escape, was seized and imprisoned in Barcelona. Troops were levied, and
placed under the command of experienced officers of the highest rank. The
heated populace, outstripping the tardy movement of military operations,
marched forward to Lerida in order to get possession of the royal person.
The king, who had seasonable notice of this, displayed his wonted presence
of mind. He ordered supper to be prepared for him at the usual hour, but,
on the approach of night, made his escape on horseback with one or two
attendants only, on the road to Fraga, a town within the territory of
Aragon; while the mob, traversing the streets of Lerida, and finding
little resistance at the gate, burst into the palace and ransacked every
corner of it, piercing, in their fury, even the curtains and beds with
their swords and lances. [22]

The Catalan army, ascertaining the route of the royal fugitive, marched
directly on Fraga, and arrived so promptly that John, with his wife, and
the deputies of the Aragonese cortes assembled there, had barely time to
make their escape on the road to Saragossa, while the insurgents poured
into the city from the opposite quarter. The person of Carlos, in the mean
time, was secured in the inaccessible fortress of Morella, situated in a
mountainous district on the confines of Valencia. John, on halting at
Saragossa, endeavored to assemble an Aragonese force capable of resisting
the Catalan rebels. But the flame of insurrection had spread throughout
Aragon, Valencia, and Navarre, and was speedily communicated to his
transmarine possessions of Sardinia and Sicily. The king of Castile
supported Carlos at the same time by an irruption into Navarre, and his
partisans, the Beaumonts, co-operated with these movements by a descent on
Aragon. [23]

John, alarmed at the tempest which his precipitate conduct had roused, at
length saw the necessity of releasing his prisoner; and, as the queen had
incurred general odium as the chief instigator of his persecution, he
affected to do this in consequence of her interposition. As Carlos with
his mother-in-law traversed the country on their way to Barcelona, he was
everywhere greeted, by the inhabitants of the villages thronging out to
meet him, with the most touching enthusiasm. The queen, however, having
been informed by the magistrates that her presence would not be permitted
in the capital, deemed it prudent to remain at Villa Franca, about twenty
miles distant; while the prince, entering Barcelona, was welcomed with the
triumphant acclamation due to a conqueror returning from a campaign of
victories. [24]

The conditions on which the Catalans proposed to resume their allegiance
to their sovereign were sufficiently humiliating. They insisted not only
on his public acknowledgment of Carlos as his rightful heir and successor,
with the office, conferred on him for life, of lieutenant-general of
Catalonia, but on an obligation on his own part, that he would never enter
the province without their express permission. Such was John's extremity,
that he not only accepted these unpalatable conditions, but did it with
affected cheerfulness.

Fortune seemed now weary of persecution, and Carlos, happy in the
attachment of a brave and powerful people, appeared at length to have
reached a haven of permanent security. But at this crisis he fell ill of a
fever, or, as some historians insinuate, of a disorder occasioned by
poison administered during his imprisonment; a fact, which, although
unsupported by positive evidence, seems, notwithstanding its atrocity, to
be no wise improbable, considering the character of the parties
implicated. He expired on the 23d of September, 1461, in the forty-first
year of his age, bequeathing his title to the crown of Navarre, in
conformity with the original marriage contract of his parents, to his
sister Blanche and her posterity. [25]

Thus in the prime of life, and at the moment when he seemed to have
triumphed over the malice of his enemies, died the prince of Viana, whose
character, conspicuous for many virtues, has become still more so for his
misfortunes. His first act of rebellion, if such, considering his
legitimate pretensions to the crown, it can be called, was severely
requited by his subsequent calamities; while the vindictive and
persecuting temper of his parents excited a very general commiseration in
his behalf, and brought him more effectual support, than could have been
derived from his own merits or the justice of his cause. The character of
Don Carlos has been portrayed by Lucio Marineo, who, as he wrote an
account of these transactions by the command of Ferdinand the Catholic,
cannot be suspected of any undue partiality in favor of the prince of
Viana. "Such," says he, "were his temperance and moderation, such the
excellence of his breeding, the purity of his life, his liberality and
munificence, and such the sweetness of his demeanor, that no one thing
seemed to be wanting in him which belongs to a true and perfect prince."
[26] He is described by another contemporary, as "in person somewhat above
the middle stature, having a thin visage, with a serene and modest
expression of countenance, and withal somewhat inclined to melancholy."
[27] He was a considerable proficient in music, painting, and several
mechanic arts. He frequently amused himself with poetical composition, and
was the intimate friend of some of the most eminent bards of his time. But
he was above all devoted to the study of philosophy and history. He made a
version of Aristotle's Ethics into the vernacular, which was first printed
nearly fifty years after his death, at Saragossa, in 1509. He compiled
also a Chronicle of Navarre from the earliest period to his own times,
which, although suffered to remain in manuscript, has been liberally used
and cited by the Spanish antiquaries, Garibay, Blancas, and others. [28]
His natural taste and his habits fitted him much better for the quiet
enjoyment of letters, than for the tumultuous scenes in which it was his
misfortune to be involved, and in which he was no match for enemies grown
gray in the field and in the intrigues of the cabinet. But, if his
devotion to learning, so rare in his own age, and so very rare among
princes in any age, was unpropitious to his success on the busy theatre on
which he was engaged, it must surely elevate his character in the
estimation of an enlightened posterity.

The tragedy did not terminate with the death of Carlos. His sister
Blanche, notwithstanding the inoffensive gentleness of her demeanor, had
long been involved, by her adhesion to her unfortunate brother, in a
similar proscription with him. The succession to Navarre having now
devolved on her, she became tenfold an object of jealousy both to her
father, the present possessor of that kingdom, and to her sister Eleanor,
countess of Foix, to whom the reversion of it had been promised by John,
on his own decease. The son of this lady, Gaston de Foix, had lately
married a sister of Louis the Eleventh, of France; and, in a treaty
subsequently contracted between that monarch and the king of Aragon, it
was stipulated that Blanche should be delivered into the custody of the
countess of Foix, as surety for the succession of the latter, and of her
posterity, to the crown of Navarre. [29]

Conformably to this provision, John endeavored to persuade the princess
Blanche to accompany him into France, under the pretext of forming an
alliance for her with Louis's brother, the duke of Berri. The unfortunate
lady, comprehending too well her father's real purpose, besought him with
the most piteous entreaties not to deliver her into the hands of her
enemies; but, closing his heart against all natural affection, he caused
her to be torn from her residence at Olit, in the heart of her own
dominions, and forcibly transported across the mountains into those of the
count of Foix. On arriving at St. Jean Pied de Port, a little town on the
French side of the Pyrenees, being convinced that she had nothing further
to hope from human succor, she made a formal renunciation of her right to
Navarre in favor of her cousin and former husband, Henry the Fourth, of
Castile, who had uniformly supported the cause of her brother Carlos.
Henry, though debased by sensual indulgence, was naturally of a gentle
disposition, and had never treated her personally with unkindness. In a
letter, which she now addressed to him, and which, says a Spanish
historian, cannot be read, after the lapse of so many years, without
affecting the most insensible heart, [30] she reminded him of the dawn of
happiness which she had enjoyed under his protection, of his early
engagements to her, and of her subsequent calamities; and, anticipating
the gloomy destiny which awaited her, she settled on him her inheritance
of Navarre, to the entire exclusion of her intended assassins, the count
and countess of Foix. [31]

On the same day, the last of April, she was delivered over to one of their
emissaries, who conducted her to the castle of Ortes in Bearne, where,
after languishing in dreadful suspense for nearly two years, she was
poisoned by the command of her sister. [32] The retribution of Providence
not unfrequently overtakes the guilty even in this world. The countess
survived her father to reign in Navarre only three short weeks; while the
crown was ravished from her posterity for ever by that very Ferdinand,
whose elevation had been the object to his parents of so much solicitude
and so many crimes.

Within a fortnight after the decease of Carlos, the customary oaths of
allegiance, so pertinaciously withheld from that unfortunate prince, were
tendered by the Aragonese deputation, at Calatayud, to his brother
Ferdinand, then only ten years of age, as heir apparent of the monarchy;
after which he was conducted by his mother into Catalonia, in order to
receive the more doubtful homage of that province. The extremities of
Catalonia at this time seemed to be in perfect repose, but the capital was
still agitated by secret discontent. The ghost of Carlos was seen stalking
by night through the streets of Barcelona, bewailing in piteous accents
his untimely end, and invoking vengeance on his unnatural murderers. The
manifold miracles wrought at his tomb soon gained him the reputation of a
saint, and his image received the devotional honors reserved for such as
have been duly canonized by the church. [33]

The revolutionary spirit of the Barcelonians, kept alive by the
recollection of past injury, as well as by the apprehensions of future
vengeance, should John succeed in reestablishing his authority over them,
soon became so alarming, that the queen, whose consummate address,
however, had first accomplished the object of her visit, found it
advisable to withdraw from the capital; and she sought refuge, with her
son and such few adherents as still remained faithful to them, in the
fortified city of Gerona, about fifty miles north of Barcelona.

Hither, however, she was speedily pursued by the Catalan militia, embodied
under the command of their ancient leader Roger, count of Pallas, and
eager to regain the prize which they had so inadvertently lost. The city
was quickly entered, but the queen, with her handful of followers, had
retreated to a tower belonging to the principal church in the place,
which, as was very frequent in Spain, in those wild times, was so strongly
fortified as to be capable of maintaining a formidable resistance. To
oppose this, a wooden fortress of the same height was constructed by the
assailants, and planted with lombards and other pieces of artillery then
in use, which kept up an unintermitting discharge of stone bullets on the
little garrison. [34] The Catalans also succeeded in running a mine
beneath the fortress, through which a considerable body of troops
penetrated into it, when, their premature cries of exultation having
discovered them to the besieged, they were repulsed, after a desperate
struggle, with great slaughter. The queen displayed the most intrepid
spirit in the midst of these alarming scenes; unappalled by the sense of
her own danger and that of her child, and by the dismal lamentations of
the females by whom she was surrounded, she visited every part of the
works in person, cheering her defenders by her presence and dauntless
resolution. Such were the stormy and disastrous scenes in which the
youthful Ferdinand commenced a career, whose subsequent prosperity was
destined to be checkered by scarcely a reverse of fortune. [35]

In the mean while, John, having in vain attempted to penetrate through
Catalonia to the relief of his wife, effected this by the co-operation of
his French ally, Louis the Eleventh. That monarch, with his usual
insidious policy, had covertly despatched an envoy to Barcelona on the
death of Carlos, assuring the Catalans of his protection, should they
still continue averse to a reconciliation with their own sovereign. These
offers were but coldly received; and Louis found it more for his interest
to accept the propositions made to him by the king of Aragon himself,
which subsequently led to most important consequences. By three several
treaties, of the 3d, 21st, and 23d of May, 1462, it was stipulated, that
Louis should furnish his ally with seven hundred lances and a
proportionate number of archers and artillery during the war with
Barcelona, to be indemnified by the payment of two hundred thousand gold
crowns within one year after the reduction of that city; as security for
which the counties of Roussillon and Cerdagne were pledged by John, with
the cession of their revenues to the French king, until such time as the
original debt should be redeemed. In this transaction both monarchs
manifested their usual policy; Louis believing that this temporary
mortgage would become a permanent alienation, from John's inability to
discharge it; while the latter anticipated, as the event showed, with more
justice, that the aversion of the inhabitants to the dismemberment of
their country from the Aragonese monarchy would baffle every attempt on
the part of the French to occupy it permanently. [36]

In pursuance of these arrangements, seven hundred French lances with a
considerable body of archers and artillery [37] crossed the mountains,
and, rapidly advancing on Gerona, compelled the insurgent army to raise
the siege, and to decamp with such precipitation as to leave their cannon
in the hands of the royalists. The Catalans now threw aside the thin veil,
with which they had hitherto covered their proceedings. The authorities of
the principality, established in Barcelona, publicly renounced their
allegiance to King John and his son Ferdinand, and proclaimed them enemies
of the republic. Writings at the same time were circulated, denouncing
from scriptural authority, as well as natural reason, the doctrine of
legitimacy in the broadest terms, and insisting that the Aragonese
monarchs, far from being absolute, might be lawfully deposed for an
infringement of the liberties of the nation. "The good of the
commonwealth," it was said, "must always be considered paramount to that
of the prince." Extraordinary doctrines these for the age in which they
were promulged, affording a still more extraordinary contrast with those
which have been since familiar in that unhappy country! [38]

The government then enforced levies of all such as were above the age of
fourteen, and, distrusting the sufficiency of its own resources, offered
the sovereignty of the principality to Henry the Fourth, of Castile. The
court of Aragon, however, had so successfully insinuated its influence
into the council of this imbecile monarch, that he was not permitted to
afford the Catalans any effectual support; and, as he abandoned their
cause altogether before the expiration of the year, [39] the crown was
offered to Don Pedro, constable of Portugal, a descendant of the ancient
house of Barcelona. In the mean while, the old king of Aragon, attended by
his youthful son, had made himself master, with his characteristic
activity, of considerable acquisitions in the revolted territory,
successively reducing Lerida, [40] Cervera, Amposta, [41] Tortosa, and the
most important places in the south of Catalonia. Many of these places were
strongly fortified, and most of them defended with a resolution which cost
the conqueror a prodigious sacrifice of time and money. John, like Philip
of Macedon, made use of gold even more than arms, for the reduction of his
enemies; and, though he indulged in occasional acts of resentment, his
general treatment of those who submitted was as liberal as it was politic.
His competitor, Don Pedro, had brought little foreign aid to the support
of his enterprise; he had failed altogether in conciliating the attachment
of his new subjects; and, as the operations of the war had been conducted
on his part in the most languid manner, the whole of the principality
seemed destined soon to relapse under the dominion of its ancient master.
At this juncture the Portuguese prince fell ill of a fever, of which he
died on the 29th of June, 1466. This event, which seemed likely to lead to
a termination of the war, proved ultimately the cause of its protraction.
[42]

It appeared, however, to present a favorable opportunity to John for
opening a negotiation with the insurgents. But, so resolute were they in
maintaining their independence, that the council of Barcelona condemned
two of the principal citizens, suspected of defection from the cause, to
be publicly executed; it refused moreover to admit an envoy from the
Aragonese cortes within the city, and caused the despatches, with which he
was intrusted by that body, to be torn in pieces before his face.

The Catalans then proceeded to elect René le Bon, as he was styled, of
Anjou, to the vacant throne, brother of one of the original competitors
for the crown of Aragon on the demise of Martin; whose cognomen of "Good"
is indicative of a sway far more salutary to his subjects than the more
coveted and imposing title of Great. [43] This titular sovereign of half a
dozen empires, in which he did not actually possess a rood of land, was
too far advanced in years to assume this perilous enterprise himself; and
he accordingly intrusted it to his son John, duke of Calabria and
Lorraine, who, in his romantic expeditions in southern Italy, had acquired
a reputation for courtesy and knightly prowess, inferior to none other of
his time. [44] Crowds of adventurers flocked to the standard of a leader,
whose ample inheritance of pretensions had made him familiar with war from
his earliest boyhood; and he soon found himself at the head of eight
thousand effective troops. Louis the Eleventh, although not directly
aiding his enterprise with supplies of men or money, was willing so far to
countenance it, as to open a passage for him through the mountain
fastnesses of Roussillon, then in his keeping, and thus enable him to
descend with his whole army at once on the northern borders of Catalonia.
[45]

The king of Aragon could oppose no force capable of resisting this
formidable army. His exchequer, always low, was completely exhausted by
the extraordinary efforts, which he had made in the late campaigns; and,
as the king of France, either disgusted with the long protraction of the
war, or from secret good-will to the enterprise of his feudal subject,
withheld from King John the stipulated subsidies, the latter monarch found
himself unable, with every expedient of loan and exaction, to raise
sufficient money to pay his troops, or to supply his magazines. In
addition to this, he was now involved in a dispute with the count and
countess of Foix, who, eager to anticipate the possession of Navarre,
which had been guaranteed to them on their father's decease, threatened a
similar rebellion, though on much less justifiable pretences, to that
which he had just experienced from Don Carlos. To crown the whole of
John's calamities, his eyesight, which had been impaired by exposure and
protracted sufferings during the winter siege of Amposta, now failed him
altogether. [46]

In this extremity, his intrepid wife, putting herself at the head of such
forces as she could collect, passed by water to the eastern shores of
Catalonia, besieging Rosas in person, and checking the operations of the
enemy by the capture of several inferior places; while Prince Ferdinand,
effecting a junction with her before Gerona, compelled the duke of
Lorraine to abandon the siege of that important city. Ferdinand's ardor,
however, had nearly proved fatal to him; as, in an accidental encounter
with a more numerous party of the enemy, his jaded horse would infallibly
have betrayed him into their hands, had it not been for the devotion of
his officers, several of whom, throwing themselves between him and his
pursuers, enabled him to escape by the sacrifice of their own liberty.

These ineffectual struggles could not turn the tide of fortune. The duke
of Lorraine succeeded in this and the two following campaigns in making
himself master of all the rich district of Ampurdan, northeast of
Barcelona. In the capital itself, his truly princely qualities and his
popular address secured him the most unbounded influence. Such was the
enthusiasm for his person, that, when he rode abroad, the people thronged
around him, embracing his knees, the trappings of his steed, and even the
animal himself, in their extravagance; while the ladies, it is said,
pawned their rings, necklaces, and other ornaments of their attire, in
order to defray the expenses of the war. [47]

King John, in the mean while, was draining the cup of bitterness to the
dregs. In the winter of 1468, his queen, Joan Henriquez, fell a victim to
a painful disorder, which had been secretly corroding her constitution for
a number of years. In many respects, she was the most remarkable woman of
her time. She took an active part in the politics of her husband, and may
be even said to have given them a direction. She conducted several
important diplomatic negotiations to a happy issue, and, what was more
uncommon in her sex, displayed considerable capacity for military affairs.
Her persecution of her step-son, Carlos, has left a deep stain on her
memory. It was the cause of all her husband's subsequent misfortunes. Her
invincible spirit, however, and the resources of her genius, supplied him
with the best means of surmounting many of the difficulties in which she
had involved him, and her loss at this crisis seemed to leave him at once
without solace or support. [48]

At this period, he was further embarrassed, as will appear in the ensuing
chapter, by negotiations for Ferdinand's marriage, which was to deprive
him, in a great measure, of his son's co-operation in the struggle with
his subjects, and which, as he lamented, while he had scarcely three
hundred _enríques_ in his coffers, called on him for additional
disbursements.

As the darkest hour, however, is commonly said to precede the dawning, so
light now seemed to break upon the affairs of John. A physician in Lerida,
of the Hebrew race, which monopolized at that time almost all the medical
science in Spain, persuaded the king to submit to the then unusual
operation of couching, and succeeded in restoring sight to one of his
eyes. As the Jew, after the fashion of the Arabs, debased his real science
with astrology, he refused to operate on the other eye, since the planets,
he said, wore a malignant aspect. But John's rugged nature was insensible
to the timorous superstitions of his age, and he compelled the physician
to repeat his experiment, which in the end proved perfectly successful.
Thus restored to his natural faculties, the octogenarian chief, for such
he might now almost be called, regained his wonted elasticity, and
prepared to resume offensive operations against the enemy with all his
accustomed energy. [49] Heaven, too, as if taking compassion on his
accumulated misfortunes, now removed the principal obstacle to his success
by the death of the duke of Lorraine, who was summoned from the theatre of
his short-lived triumphs on the 16th of December, 1469. The Barcelonians
were thrown into the greatest consternation by his death, imputed, as
usual, though without apparent foundation, to poison; and their respect
for his memory was attested by the honors no less than royal, which they
paid to his remains. His body, sumptuously attired, with his victorious
sword by his side, was paraded in solemn procession through the
illuminated streets of the city, and, after lying nine days in state, was
deposited amid the lamentations of the people in the sepulchre of the
sovereigns of Catalonia. [50]

As the father of the deceased prince was too old, and his children too
young, to give effectual aid to their cause, the Catalans might be now
said to be again without a leader. But their spirit was unbroken, and with
the same resolution in which they refused submission more than two
centuries after, in 1714, when the combined forces of France and Spain
were at the gates of the capital, they rejected the conciliatory advances
made them anew by John. That monarch, however, having succeeded by
extraordinary efforts in assembling a competent force, was proceeding with
his usual alacrity in the reduction of such places in the eastern quarter
of Catalonia as had revolted to the enemy, while at the same time he
instituted a rigorous blockade of Barcelona by sea and land. The
fortifications were strong, and the king was unwilling to expose so fair a
city to the devastating horrors of a storm. The inhabitants made one
vigorous effort in a sally against the royal forces; but the civic militia
were soon broken, and the loss of four thousand men, killed and prisoners,
admonished them of their inability to cope with the veterans of Aragon.
[51]

At length, reduced to the last extremity, they consented to enter into
negotiations, which were concluded by a treaty equally honorable to both
parties. It was stipulated, that Barcelona should retain all its ancient
privileges and rights of jurisdiction, and, with some exceptions, its
large territorial possessions. A general amnesty was to be granted for
offences. The foreign mercenaries were to be allowed to depart in safety;
and such of the natives, as should refuse to renew their allegiance to
their ancient sovereign within a year, might have the liberty of removing
with their effects wherever they would. One provision may be thought
somewhat singular, after what had occurred; it was agreed that the king
should cause the Barcelonians to be publicly proclaimed, throughout all
his dominions, good, faithful, and loyal subjects; which was accordingly
done!

The king, after the adjustment of the preliminaries, "declining," says a
contemporary, "the triumphal car which had been prepared for him, made his
entrance into the city by the gate of St. Anthony, mounted on a white
charger; and, as he rode along the principal streets, the sight of so many
pallid countenances and emaciated figures, bespeaking the extremity of
famine, smote his heart with sorrow." He then proceeded to the hall of the
great palace, and on the 22d of December, 1472, solemnly swore there to
respect the constitution and laws of Catalonia. [52]

Thus ended this long, disastrous civil war, the fruit of parental
injustice and oppression, which had nearly cost the king of Aragon the
fairest portion of his dominions; which devoted to disquietude and
disappointment more than ten years of life, at a period when repose is
most grateful; and which opened the way to foreign wars, that continued to
hang like a dark cloud over the evening of his days. It was attended,
however, with one important result; that of establishing Ferdinand's
succession over the whole of the domains of his ancestors.


FOOTNOTES

[1] The reader who may be curious in this matter will find the pedigree
exhibiting the titles of the several competitors to the crown given by Mr.
Hallam. (State of Europe during the Middle Ages, (2d ed. London, 1819,)
vol. ii. p. 60, note.) The claims of Ferdinand were certainly not derived
from the usual laws of descent.

[2] The reader of Spanish history often experiences embarrassment from the
identity of names in the various princes of the Peninsula. Thus the John,
mentioned in the text, afterwards John II., might be easily confounded
with his namesake and contemporary, John II., of Castile. The genealogical
table, at the beginning of this History, will show their relationship to
each other.

[3] His grandfather, Charles III., created this title in favor of Carlos,
appropriating it as the designation henceforth of the heir apparent.--
Aleson, Anales del Reyno de Navarra, contin. de Moret, (Pamplona, 1766,)
tom. iv. p. 398.--Salazar de Mendoza, Monarquia, tom. ii. p. 331.

[4] See Part I. Chap. 3, Note 5, of this History.

[5] This fact, vaguely and variously reported by Spanish writers, is fully
established by Aleson, who cites the original instrument, contained in the
archives of the counts of Lerin. Anales de Navarra, tom. iv. pp. 354, 365.

[6] See the reference to the original document in Aleson. (Tom. iv. pp.
365, 366.) This industrious writer has established the title of Prince
Carlos to Navarre, so frequently misunderstood or misrepresented by the
national historians, on an incontestable basis.

[7] Ibid., tom. iv. p. 467.

[8] See Part I. Chap. 3, of this work.

[9] Gaillard errs in referring the origin of these factions to this epoch.
(Histoire de la Rivalité de France et de l'Espagne, (Paris, 1801,) tom.
iii. p. 227.) Aleson quotes a proclamation of John in relation to them in
the lifetime of Queen Blanche. Annales de Navarra, tom. iv. p. 494.

[10] Zurita, Anales, tom. iii. fol. 278.--Lucio Marineo Siculo, Coronista
de sus Magestades, Las Cosas Memorables de España, (Alcalà de Henares,
1539,) fol. 104.--Aleson, Anales de Navarra, tom. iv. pp. 494-498.

[11] Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 223.--Aleson, Anales de
Navarra, tom. iv. pp. 501-503.--L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 105.

[12] Compendio, tom. iii. p. 419.--L. Marineo describes the heavens as
uncommonly serene at the moment of Ferdinand's birth. "The sun, which had
been obscured with clouds during the whole day, suddenly broke forth with
unwonted splendor. A crown was also beheld in the sky, composed of various
brilliant colors like those of a rainbow. All which appearances were
interpreted by the spectators as an omen, that the child then born would
be the most illustrious among men." (Cosas Memorables, fol. 153.) Garibay
postpones the nativity of Ferdinand to the year 1453, and L. Marineo, who
ascertains with curious precision even the date of his conception, fixes
his birth in 1450, (fol. 153.) But Alonso de Palencia in his History,
(Verdadera Corónica de Don Enrique IV., Rei de Castilla y Leon, y del Rei
Don Alonso su Hermano, MS.) and Andrés Bernaldez, Cura de Los Palacios,
(Historia de los Reyes Católicos, MS., c. 8,) both of them contemporaries,
refer this event to the period assigned in the text; and, as the same
epoch is adopted by the accurate Zurita, (Anales, tom. iv. fol. 9,) I have
given it the preference.

[13] Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 3-48.--Aleson, Anales de Navarra, tom.
iv. pp. 508-526.--L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 105.

[14] Giannone, Istoria Civile del Regno di Napoli, (Milano, 1823,) lib.
26, c. 7.--Ferreras, Histoire Générale d'Espagne, trad. par D'Hermilly,
(Paris, 1751,) tom. vii. p. 60.--L'Histoire du Royaume de Navarre, par
l'un des Secrétaires Interprettes de sa Majesté, (Paris, 1596,) p. 468.

[15] Compare the narrative of the Neapolitan historians, Summonte
(Historia della Città e Regno di Napoli, (Napoli, 1675,) lib. 5, c. 2) and
Giannone, (Istoria Civile, lib. 26, c. 7.--lib. 27. Introd.) with the
opposite statements of L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, (fol. 106,) himself a
contemporary, Aleson, (Anales de Navarra, tom. iv. p. 546,) and other
Spanish writers.

[16] Enriquez del Castillo, Crónica de Enrique el Quarto, (Madrid, 1787,)
cap. 43.

[17] Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 97.--Nic. Antonio, Bibliotheca Vetus,
tom. ii. p. 282.--L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 106.--Abarca, Reyes
de Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 250.--Carlos bargained with Pope Pius II. for a
transfer of this library, particularly rich in the ancient classics, to
Spain, which was eventually defeated by his death. Zurita, who visited the
monastery containing it nearly a century after this period, found its
inmates possessed of many traditionary anecdotes respecting the prince
during his seclusion among them.

[18] Aleson, Anales de Navarra, tom. iv. pp. 548-554.--Abarca, Reyes de
Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 251.--Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 60-69.

[19] Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, ubi supra.--Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol.
70-75.--Aleson, Anales de Navarra, tom. iv. p. 556.

[20] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 108.--Zurita, Anales, lib. 17,
cap. 3.--Aleson, Anales de Navarra, tom. iv. pp. 556, 557.--Castillo,
Crónica, cap. 27.

[21] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 108, 109.--Abarca, Reyes de
Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 252.--Zurita, Anales, lib. 17, cap. 45.--Aleson,
Anales de Navarra, tom. ii. p. 357.

[22] Aleson, Anales de Navarra, tom. ii. p. 358.--Zurita, Anales, lib. 17,
cap. 6.--Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 253.--L. Marineo, Cosas
Memorables, fol. 111.

[23] Zurita, Anales, lib. 17, cap. 6.--L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol.
111.

[24] Castillo, Crónica, cap. 28.--Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, fol. 253, 254.
--L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 111, 112.--Aleson, Anales de Navarra,
tom. iv. pp. 559, 560.--The inhabitants of Tarraca closed their gates upon
the queen, and rung the bells on her approach, the signal of alarm on the
appearance of an enemy, or for the pursuit of a malefactor.

[25] Alonso de Palencia, Crónica, MS., part. 2, cap. 51.--L. Marineo,
Cosas Memorables, fol. 114.--Aleson, Anales de Navarra, tom. iv. pp. 561-
563.--Zurita, Anales, cap. 19, 24.

[26] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 106.--"Por quanto era la templança
y mesura de aquel principe; tan grande el concierto y su criança y
costumbres, la limpieza de su vida, su liberalidad y magnificencia, y
finalmente su dulce conversacion, que ninguna cosa en el faltava de
aquellas que pertenescen a recta vivir; y que arman el verdadero y
perfecto principe y señor."

[27] Gundisalvus Garsias, apud Nic. Antonio, Bibliotheca Vetus, tom. ii.
p. 281.

[28] Nic. Antonio, Bibliotheca Vetus, tom. ii. pp. 281, 282.--Mariana,
Hist. de España, tom. ii. p. 434.

[29] This treaty was signed at Olit in Navarre, April 12th, 1462.--Zurita,
Anales, lib. 17, cap. 38, 39.--Gaillard, Rivalité, tom. iii. p. 235.--
Gaillard confounds it with the subsequent one made in the month of May,
near the town of Salvatierra in Bearne.

[30] Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom., vii. p. 110.

[31] Hist. du Royaume de Navarre, p. 496.--Aleson, Anales de Navarra, tom.
iv. pp. 590-593.--Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 258, 259.--
Zurita, Anales, lib. 17, cap. 38.

[32] Lebrija, De Bello Navariensi, (Granatae, 1545,) lib. 1, cap. 1, fol.
74.--Aleson, Anales de Navarra, ubi supra.--Zurita, Anales, lib. 17, cap.
38.--The Spanish historians are not agreed as to the time or even mode of
Blanche's death. All concur, however, in attributing it to assassination,
and most of them, with the learned Antonio Lebrija, a contemporary, (loc.
cit.,) in imputing it to poison. The fact of her death, which Aleson, on I
know not what authority, refers to the 2d of December, 1464, was not
publicly disclosed till some months after its occurrence, when disclosure
became necessary in consequence of the proposed interposition of the
Navarrese cortes.

[33] Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 2, cap. 51.--Zurita, Anales,
tom. iv. fol. 98.--Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 256.--Aleson,
Anales de Navarra, tom. iv. pp. 563 et seq.--L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables,
fol. 114.--According to Lanuza, who wrote nearly two centuries after the
death of Carlos, the flesh upon his right arm, which had been amputated
for the purpose of a more convenient application to the diseased members
of the pilgrims who visited his shrine, remained in his day in a perfectly
sound and healthful state! (Historias Ecclesiásticas y Seculares de
Aragon, (Zaragoza, 1622,) tom. i. p. 553.) Aleson wonders that any should
doubt the truth of miracles, attested by the monks of the very monastery
in which Carlos was interred.

[34] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 116.--Alonso de Palencia,
Corónica, MS., part. 2, cap. 51.--Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 113. The
Spaniards, deriving the knowledge of artillery from the Arabs, had become
familiar with it before the other nations of Christendom. The affirmation
of Zurita, however, that 5000 balls were fired from the battery of the
besiegers at Gerona in one day, is perfectly absurd. So little was the
science of gunnery advanced in other parts of Europe at this period, and
indeed later, that it was usual for a field-piece not to be discharged
more than twice in the course of an action, if we may credit Machiavelli,
who, indeed, recommends dispensing with the use of artillery altogether.
Arte della Guerra, lib. 3. (Opere, Genova, 1798.)

[35] Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 2, c. 51.--L. Marineo, Cosas
Memorables, fol. 116.--Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 113.--Abarca, Reyes
de Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 259.

[36] Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 111.--Another 100,000 crowns were to be
paid in case further assistance should be required from the French monarch
after the reduction of Barcelona. This treaty has been incorrectly
reported by most of the French and all the Spanish historians whom I have
consulted, save the accurate Zurita. An abstract from the original
documents, compiled by the Abbé Legrand, has been given by M. Petitot in
his recent edition of the Collection des Mémoires relatifs à l'Histoire de
France, (Paris, 1836,) tom. xi. Introd. p. 245.

[37] A French lance, it may be stated, of that day, according to L.
Marineo, was accompanied by two horsemen; so that the whole contingent of
cavalry to be furnished on this occasion amounted to 2100. (Cosas
Memorables, fol. 117.) Nothing could be more indeterminate than the
complement of a lance in the Middle Ages. It is not unusual to find it
reckoned at five or six horsemen.

[38] Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 113-115.--Alonso de Palencia, Corónica,
MS., part. 2, cap. 1.

[39] In conformity with the famous verdict given by Louis XI. at Bayonne,
April 23d, 1463, previously to the interview between him and Henry IV. on
the shores of the Bidassoa. See Part I. Chap. 3, of this History.

[40] This was the battle-ground of Julius Caesar in his wars with Pompey.
See his ingenious military manoeuvre as simply narrated in his own
Commentaries, (De Bello Civili, tom. i. p. 54,) and by Lucan, (Pharsalia,
lib. 4,) with his usual swell of hyperbole.

[41] The cold was so intense at the siege of Amposta, that serpents of an
enormous magnitude are reported by L. Marineo to have descended from the
mountains, and taken refuge in the camp of the besiegers. Portentous and
supernatural voices were frequently heard during the nights. Indeed, the
superstition of the soldiers appears to have been so lively as to have
prepared them for seeing and hearing anything.

[42] Faria y Sousa, Europa Portuguesa, tom. ii. p. 390.--Alonso de
Palencia, MS., part. 2, cap. 60, 61--Castillo, Crónica, pp. 43, 44, 46,
49, 50, 54.--Zurita, Anales, tom. ii. fol. 116, 124, 127, 128, 130, 137,
147.--M. La Clède states, that "Don Pedro no sooner arrived in Catalonia,
than he was poisoned."(Histoire Générale de Portugal, (Paris, 1735,) tom.
iii. p. 245.) It must have been a very slow poison. He arrived January
21st, 1464, and died June 29th, 1466.

[43] Sir Walter Scott, in his "Anne of Geierstein," has brought into full
relief the ridiculous side of René's character. The good king's fondness
for poetry and the arts, however, although showing itself occasionally in
puerile eccentricities, may compare advantageously with the coarse
appetites and mischievous activity of most of the contemporary princes.
After all, the best tribute to his worth was the earnest attachment of his
people. His biography has been well and diligently compiled by the
viscount of Villeneuve Bargemont, (Histoire de René d'Anjou, Paris, 1825,)
who has, however, indulged in greater detail than was perhaps to have been
desired by René, or his readers.

[44] Comines says of him, "A tous alarmes c'estoit le premier homme armé,
et de toutes pièces, et son cheval tousjours bardé. Il portoit un
habillement que ces conducteurs portent en Italie, et sembloit bien prince
et chef de guerre; et y avoit d'obéissance autant que monseigneur de
Charolois, et luy obéissoit tout l'ost de meilleur coeur, car à la vérité
il estoit digne d'estre honoré." Philippe de Comines, Mémoires, apud
Petitot; (Paris, 1826,) liv. 1, chap. 11.

[45] Villeneuve Bargemont, Hist. de René, tom. ii. pp. 168, 169.--Histoire
de Louys XI., autrement dicte La Chronique Scandaleuse, par un Greffier de
l'Hostel de Ville de Paris, (Paris, 1620,) p. 145.--Zurita, Anales, tom.
iv. fol. 150, 153.--Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 2, cap. 17.--
Palencia swells the numbers of the French in the service of the duke of
Lorraine to 20,000.

[46] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 139.--Zurita, Anales, tom. iv.
fol. 148, 149, 158.--Aleson, Anales de Navarra, tom. iv. pp. 611-613.--
Duclos, Hist. de Louis XI., (Amsterdam, 1746,) tom. ii. p. 114.--Mém. de
Comines, Introd., p. 258, apud Petitot.

[47] Villeneuve Bargemont, Hist. de René, tom. ii. pp. 182, 183.--L.
Marineo, fol. 140.--Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 153-164.--Abarca, Reyes
de Aragon, tom. ii. rey 29, cap. 7.

[48] Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 2, cap. 88.--L. Marineo,
Cosas Memorables, fol. 143.--Aleson, Anales de Navarra, tom. iv. p. 609.--
The queen's death was said to have been caused by a cancer. According to
Aleson and some other Spanish writers, Joan was heard several times, in
her last illness, to exclaim, in allusion, as was supposed, to her
assassination of Carlos, "Alas! Ferdinand, how dear thou hast cost thy
mother!" I find no notice of this improbable confession in any
contemporary author.

[49] Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. pp. 459, 460.--L. Marineo, Cosas
Memorables, fol. 151.--Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., cap. 88.

[50] Villeneuve Bargemont, Hist. de René, tom. ii. pp. 182,333, 334.--L.
Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 142.--Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, part.
2, cap. 39.--Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 178.--According to M. de
Villeneuve Bargemont, the princess Isabella's hand had been offered to the
duke of Lorraine, and the envoy despatched to notify his acceptance of it,
on arriving at the court of Castile, received from the lips of Henry IV.
the first tidings of his master's death, (tom. ii. p. 184.) He must have
learned too with no less surprise that Isabella had already been married
at that time more than a year! See the date of the official marriage
recorded in Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Apend. no. 4.

[51] Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 2, cap. 29, 45.--Zurita,
Anales, tom. iv. fol. 180-183.-Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, rey 29, cap. 29.

[52] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 144, 147.--Zurita, Anales, tom.
iv. fol. 187, 188.--Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 2, cap. 1.




CHAPTER III.

REIGN OF HENRY IV., OF CASTILE--CIVIL WAR.--MARRIAGE OF FERDINAND AND
ISABELLA.

1454-1469.

Henry IV. disappoints Expectations.--Oppression of the People.--League of
the Nobles.--Extraordinary Scene at Avila.--Early Education of Isabella.--
Death of her Brother Alfonso.--Intestine Anarchy.--The Crown offered to
Isabella.--She declines it.--Her Suitors.--She accepts Ferdinand of
Aragon.--Marriage Articles.--Critical Situation of Isabella.--Ferdinand
enters Castile.--Their Marriage.


While these stormy events were occurring in Aragon, the Infanta Isabella,
whose birth was mentioned at the close of the first chapter, was passing
her youth amidst scenes scarcely less tumultuous. At the date of her
birth, her prospect of succeeding to the throne of her ancestors was even
more remote than Ferdinand's prospect of inheriting that of his; and it is
interesting to observe through what trials, and by what a series of
remarkable events, Providence was pleased to bring about this result, and
through it the union, so long deferred, of the great Spanish monarchies.

The accession of her elder brother, Henry the Fourth, was welcomed with an
enthusiasm, proportioned to the disgust which had been excited by the
long-protracted and imbecile reign of his predecessor. Some few, indeed,
who looked back to the time when he was arrayed in arms against his
father, distrusted the soundness either of his principles or of his
judgment. But far the larger portion of the nation was disposed to refer
this to inexperience, or the ebullition of youthful spirit, and indulged
the cheering anticipations which are usually entertained of a new reign
and a young monarch. [1] Henry was distinguished by a benign temper, and
by a condescension, which might be called familiarity, in his intercourse
with his inferiors, virtues peculiarly engaging in persons of his elevated
station; and as vices, which wear the gloss of youth, are not only
pardoned, but are oftentimes popular with the vulgar, the reckless
extravagance in which he indulged himself was favorably contrasted with
the severe parsimony of his father in his latter years, and gained him the
surname of "the Liberal." His treasurer having remonstrated with him on
the prodigality of his expenditure, he replied, "Kings, instead of
hoarding treasure like private persons, are bound to dispense it for the
happiness of their subjects. We must give to our enemies to make them
friends, and to our friends to keep them so." He suited the action so well
to the word, that, in a few years, there was scarcely a _mara-vedi_
remaining in the royal coffers. [2]

He maintained greater state than was usual with the monarchs of Castile,
keeping in pay a body-guard of thirty-six hundred lances, splendidly
equipped, and officered by the sons of the nobility. He proclaimed a
crusade against the Moors, a measure always popular in Castile; assuming
the pomegranate branch, the device of Granada, on his escutcheon, in token
of his intention to extirpate the Moslems from the Peninsula. He assembled
the chivalry of the remote provinces; and, in the early part of his reign,
scarce a year elapsed without one or more incursions into the hostile
territory, with armies of thirty or forty thousand men. The results did
not correspond with the magnificence of the apparatus; and these brilliant
expeditions too often evaporated in a mere border foray, or in an empty
gasconade under the walls of Granada. Orchards were cut down, harvests
plundered, villages burnt to the ground, and all the other modes of
annoyance peculiar to this barbarous warfare put in practice by the
invading armies as they swept over the face of the country; individual
feats of prowess, too, commemorated in the romantic ballads of the time,
were achieved; but no victory was gained, no important post acquired. The
king in vain excused his hasty retreats and abortive enterprises by
saying, "that he prized the life of one of his soldiers more than those of
a thousand Mussulmans." His troops murmured at this timorous policy, and
the people of the south, on whom the charges of the expeditions fell with
peculiar heaviness, from their neighborhood to the scene of operations,
complained that "the war was carried on against them, not against the
infidel." On one occasion an attempt was made to detain the king's person,
and thus prevent him from disbanding his forces. So soon had the royal
authority fallen into contempt! The king of Granada himself, when summoned
to pay tribute after a series of these ineffectual operations, replied
"that, in the first years of Henry's reign, he would have offered
anything, even his children, to preserve peace to his dominions; but now
he would give nothing." [3]

The contempt, to which the king exposed himself by his public conduct, was
still further heightened by his domestic. With even a greater
indisposition to business, than was manifested by his father, [4] he
possessed none of the cultivated tastes, which were the redeeming
qualities of the latter. Having been addicted from his earliest youth to
debauchery, when he had lost the powers, he retained all the relish, for
the brutish pleasures of a voluptuary. He had repudiated his wife, Blanche
of Aragon, after a union of twelve years, on grounds sufficiently
ridiculous and humiliating. [5] In 1455, he espoused Joanna, a Portuguese
princess, sister of Alfonso the Fifth, the reigning monarch. This lady,
then in the bloom of youth, was possessed of personal graces, and a lively
wit, which, say the historians, made her the delight of the court of
Portugal. She was accompanied by a brilliant train of maidens, and her
entrance into Castile was greeted by the festivities and military
pageants, which belong to an age of chivalry. The light and lively manners
of the young queen, however, which seemed to defy the formal etiquette of
the Castilian court, gave occasion to the grossest suspicions. The tongue
of scandal indicated Beltran de la Cueva, one of the handsomest cavaliers
in the kingdom, and then newly risen in the royal graces, as the person to
whom she most liberally dispensed her favors. This knight defended a
passage of arms, in presence of the court, near Madrid, in which he
maintained the superior beauty of his mistress, against all comers. The
king was so much delighted with his prowess, that he commemorated the
event by the erection of a monastery dedicated to St. Jerome; a whimsical
origin for a religious institution. [6]

The queen's levity might have sought some justification in the unveiled
licentiousness of her husband. One of the maids of honor, whom she brought
in her train, acquired an ascendency over Henry, which he did not attempt
to disguise; and the palace, after the exhibition of the most disgraceful
scenes, became divided by the factions of the hostile fair ones. The
archbishop of Seville did not blush to espouse the cause of the paramour,
who maintained a magnificence of state, which rivalled that of royalty
itself. The public were still more scandalized by Henry's sacrilegious
intrusion of another of his mistresses into the post of abbess of a
convent in Toledo, after the expulsion of her predecessor, a lady of noble
rank and irreproachable character. [7]

The stream of corruption soon finds its way from the higher to the more
humble walks of life. The middling classes, imitating their superiors,
indulged in an excess of luxury equally demoralizing, and ruinous to their
fortunes. The contagion of example infected even the higher ecclesiastics;
and we find the archbishop of St. James hunted from his see by the
indignant populace in consequence of an outrage attempted on a youthful
bride, as she was returning from church, after the performance of the
nuptial ceremony. The rights of the people could be but little consulted,
or cared for, in a court thus abandoned to unbounded license. Accordingly
we find a repetition of most of the unconstitutional and oppressive acts
which occurred under John the Second, of Castile; attempts at arbitrary
taxation, interference in the freedom of elections, and in the right
exercised by the cities of nominating the commanders of such contingents
of troops as they might contribute to the public defence. Their
territories were repeatedly alienated, and, as well as the immense sums
raised by the sale of papal indulgences for the prosecution of the Moorish
war, were lavished on the royal satellites. [8]

But, perhaps, the most crying evil of this period was the shameless
adulteration of the coin. Instead of five royal mints, which formerly
existed, there were now one hundred and fifty in the hands of authorized
individuals, who debased the coin to such a deplorable extent, that the
most common articles of life were enhanced in value three, four, and even
six fold. Those who owed debts eagerly anticipated the season of payment;
and, as the creditors refused to accept it in the depreciated currency, it
became a fruitful source of litigation and tumult, until the whole nation
seemed on the verge of bankruptcy. In this general license, the right of
the strongest was the only one which could make itself heard. The nobles,
converting their castles into dens of robbers, plundered the property of
the traveller, which was afterwards sold publicly in the cities. One of
these robber chieftains, who held an important command on the frontiers of
Murcia, was in the habit of carrying on an infamous traffic with the Moors
by selling to them as slaves the Christian prisoners of either sex whom he
had captured in his marauding expeditions. When subdued by Henry, after a
sturdy resistance, he was again received into favor, and reinstated in his
possessions. The pusillanimous monarch knew neither when to pardon, nor
when to punish. [9]

But no part of Henry's conduct gave such umbrage to his nobles, as the
facility with which he resigned himself to the control of favorites, whom
he had created as it were from nothing, and whom he advanced over the
heads of the ancient aristocracy of the land. Among those especially
disgusted by this proceeding Were Juan Pacheco, marquis of Villena, and
Alfonso Carillo, archbishop of Toledo. These two personages exercised so
important an influence over the destinies of Henry, as to deserve more
particular notice. The former was of noble Portuguese extraction, and
originally a page in the service of the constable Alvaro de Luna, by whom
he had been introduced into the household of Prince Henry, during the
lifetime of John the Second. His polished and plausible address soon
acquired him a complete ascendency over the feeble mind of his master, who
was guided by his pernicious counsels, in his frequent dissensions with
his father. His invention was ever busy in devising intrigues, which he
recommended by his subtile, insinuating eloquence; and he seemed to prefer
the attainment of his purposes by a crooked rather than by a direct
policy, even when the latter might equally well have answered. He
sustained reverses with imperturbable composure; and, when his schemes
were most successful, he was willing to risk all for the excitement of a
new revolution. Although naturally humane, and without violent or
revengeful passions, his restless spirit was perpetually involving his
country in all the disasters of civil war. He was created marquis of
Villena, by John the Second; and his ample domains, lying on the confines
of Toledo, Murcia, and Valencia, and embracing an immense extent of
populous and well-fortified territory, made him the most powerful vassal
in the kingdom. [10]

His uncle, the archbishop of Toledo, was of a sterner character. He was
one of those turbulent prelates, not unfrequent in a rude age, who seem
intended by nature for the camp rather than the church. He was fierce,
haughty, intractable; and he was supported in the execution of his
ambitious enterprises, no less by his undaunted resolution, than by the
extraordinary resources, which he enjoyed as primate of Spain. He was
capable of warm attachments, and of making great personal sacrifices for
his friends, from whom, in return, he exacted the most implicit deference;
and, as he was both easily offended and implacable in his resentments, he
seems to have been almost equally formidable as a friend and as an enemy.
[11]

These early adherents of Henry, little satisfied with seeing their own
consequence eclipsed by the rising glories of the newly-created favorites,
began secretly to stir up cabals and confederacies among the nobles, until
the occurrence of other circumstances obviated the necessity, and indeed
the possibility, of further dissimulation. Henry had been persuaded to
take part in the internal dissensions which then agitated the kingdom of
Aragon, and had supported the Catalans in their opposition to their
sovereign by seasonable supplies of men and money. He had even made some
considerable conquests for himself, when he was induced, by the advice of
the marquis of Villena and the archbishop of Toledo, to refer the
arbitration of his differences with the king of Aragon to Louis the
Eleventh, of France; a monarch whose habitual policy allowed him to refuse
no opportunity of interference in the concerns of his neighbors.

The conferences were conducted at Bayonne, and an interview was
subsequently agreed on between the kings of France and Castile, to be held
near that city, on the banks of the Bidassoa, which divides the dominions
of the respective monarchs. The contrast exhibited by the two princes at
this interview, in their style of dress and equipage, was sufficiently
striking to deserve notice. Louis, who was even worse attired than usual,
according to Comines, wore a coat of coarse woollen cloth cut short, a
fashion then deemed very unsuitable to persons of rank, with a doublet of
fustian, and a weather-beaten hat, surmounted by a little leaden image of
the Virgin. His imitative courtiers adopted a similar costume. The
Castilians, on the other hand, displayed uncommon magnificence. The barge
of the royal favorite, Beltran de la Cueva, was resplendent with sails of
cloth of gold, and his apparel glittered with a profusion of costly
jewels. Henry was escorted by his Moorish guard gorgeously equipped, and
the cavaliers of his train vied with each other in the sumptuous
decorations of dress and equipage. The two nations appear to have been
mutually disgusted with the contrast exhibited by their opposite
affectations. The French sneered at the ostentation of the Spaniards, and
the latter, in their turn, derided the sordid parsimony of their
neighbors; and thus the seeds of a national aversion were implanted,
which, under the influence of more important circumstances, ripened into
open hostility. [12]

The monarchs seem to have separated with as little esteem for each other
as did their respective courtiers; and Comines profits by the occasion to
inculcate the inexpediency of such interviews between princes, who have
exchanged the careless jollity of youth for the cold and calculating
policy of riper years. The award of Louis dissatisfied all parties; a
tolerable proof of its impartiality. The Castilians, in particular,
complained, that the marquis of Villena and the archbishop of Toledo had
compromised the honor of the nation, by allowing their sovereign to cross
over to the French shore of the Bidassoa, and its interests, by the
cession of the conquered territory to Aragon. They loudly accused them of
being pensioners of Louis, a fact which does not appear improbable,
considering the usual policy of this prince, who, as is well known,
maintained an espionage over the councils of most of his neighbors. Henry
was so far convinced of the truth of these imputations, that he dismissed
the obnoxious ministers from their employments. [13]

The disgraced nobles instantly set about the organization of one of those
formidable confederacies, which had so often shaken the monarchs of
Castile upon their throne, and which, although not authorized by positive
law, as in Aragon, seemed to have derived somewhat of a constitutional
sanction from ancient usage. Some of the members of this coalition were
doubtless influenced exclusively by personal jealousies; but many others
entered into it from disgust at the imbecile and arbitrary proceedings of
the crown.

In 1462, the queen had been delivered of a daughter, who was named like
herself Joanna, but who, from her reputed father, Beltran de la Cueva, was
better known in the progress of her unfortunate history by the cognomen of
Beltraneja. Henry, however, had required the usual oath of allegiance to
be tendered to her as presumptive heir to the crown. The confederates,
assembled at Burgos, declared this oath of fealty a compulsory act, and
that many of them had privately protested against it at the time, from a
conviction of the illegitimacy of Joanna. In the bill of grievances, which
they now presented to the monarch, they required that he should deliver
his brother Alfonso into their hands, to be publicly acknowledged as his
successor; they enumerated the manifold abuses, which pervaded every
department of government, which they freely imputed to the unwholesome
influence exercised by the favorite, Beltran de la Cueva, over the royal
counsels, doubtless the true key to much of their patriotic sensibility;
and they entered into a covenant, sanctioned by all the solemnities of
religion usual on these occasions, not to re-enter the service of their
sovereign, or accept any favor from him until he had redressed their
wrongs. [14]

The king, who by an efficient policy might perhaps have crushed these
revolutionary movements in their birth, was naturally averse to violent,
or even vigorous measures. He replied to the bishop of Cuença, his ancient
preceptor, who recommended these measures; "You priests, who are not
called to engage in the fight, are very liberal of the blood of others."
To which the prelate rejoined, with more warmth than breeding, "Since you
are not true to your own honor, at a time like this, I shall live to see
you the most degraded monarch in Spain; when you will repent too late this
unseasonable pusillanimity." [15]

Henry, unmoved either by the entreaties or remonstrances of his adherents,
resorted to the milder method of negotiation. He consented to an interview
with the confederates, in which he was induced, by the plausible arguments
of the marquis of Villena, to comply with most of their demands. He
delivered his brother Alfonso into their hands, to be recognized as the
lawful heir to the crown, on condition of his subsequent union with
Joanna; and he agreed to nominate, in conjunction with his opponents, a
commission of five, who should deliberate on the state of the kingdom, and
provide an effectual reform of abuses. [16] The result of this
deliberation, however, proved so prejudicial to the royal authority, that
the feeble monarch was easily persuaded to disavow the proceedings of the
commissioners, on the ground of their secret collusion with his enemies,
and even to attempt the seizure of their persons. The confederates,
disgusted with this breach of faith, and in pursuance, perhaps, of their
original design, instantly decided on the execution of that bold measure,
which some writers denounce as a flagrant act of rebellion, and others
vindicate as a just and constitutional proceeding.

In an open plain, not far from the city of Avila, they caused a scaffold
to be erected, of sufficient elevation to be easily seen from the
surrounding country. A chair of state was placed on it, and in this was
seated an effigy of King Henry, clad in sable robes and adorned with all
the insignia of royalty, a sword at its side, a sceptre in its hand, and a
crown upon its head. A manifesto was then read, exhibiting in glowing
colors the tyrannical conduct of the king, and the consequent
determination to depose him; and vindicating the proceeding by several
precedents drawn from the history of the monarchy. The archbishop of
Toledo, then ascending the platform, tore the diadem from the head of the
statue; the marquis of Villena removed the sceptre, the count of Placencia
the sword, the grand master of Alcantara and the counts of Benavente and
Paredes the rest of the regal insignia; when the image, thus despoiled of
its honors, was rolled in the dust, amid the mingled groans and clamors of
the spectators. The young prince Alfonso, at that time only eleven years
of age, was seated on the vacant throne, and the assembled grandees
severally kissed his hand in token of their homage; the trumpets announced
the completion of the ceremony, and the populace greeted with joyful
acclamations the accession of their new sovereign. [17]

Such are the details of this extraordinary transaction, as recorded by the
two contemporary historians of the rival factions. The tidings were borne,
with the usual celerity of evil news, to the remotest parts of the
kingdom. The pulpit and the forum resounded with the debates of
disputants, who denied, or defended, the right of the subject to sit in
judgment on the conduct of his sovereign. Every man was compelled to
choose his side in this strange division of the kingdom. Henry received
intelligence of the defection, successively, of the capital cities of
Burgos, Toledo, Cordova, Seville, together with a large part of the
southern provinces, where lay the estates of some of the most powerful
partisans of the opposite faction. The unfortunate monarch, thus deserted
by his subjects, abandoned himself to despair, and expressed the extremity
of his anguish in the strong language of Job: "Naked came I from my
mother's womb, and naked must I go down to the earth!" [18]

A large, probably the larger part of the nation, however, disapproved of
the tumultuous proceedings of the confederates. However much they
contemned the person of the monarch, they were not prepared to see the
royal authority thus openly degraded. They indulged, too, some compassion
for a prince, whose political vices, at least, were imputable to mental
incapacity, and to evil counsellors, rather than to any natural turpitude
of heart. Among the nobles who adhered to him, the most conspicuous were
"the good count of Haro," and the powerful family of Mendoza, the worthy
scions of an illustrious stock. The estates of the marquis of Santillana,
the head of this house, lay chiefly in the Asturias, and gave him a
considerable influence in the northern provinces, [19] the majority of
whose inhabitants remained constant in their attachment to the royal
cause.

When Henry's summons, therefore, was issued for the attendance of all his
loyal subjects capable of bearing arms, it was answered by a formidable
array of numbers, that must have greatly exceeded that of his rival, and
which is swelled by his biographer to seventy thousand foot and fourteen
thousand horse; a much smaller force, under the direction of an efficient
leader, would doubtless have sufficed to extinguish the rising spirit of
revolt. But Henry's temper led him to adopt a more conciliatory policy,
and to try what could be effected by negotiation, before resorting to
arms. In the former, however, he was no match for the confederates, or
rather the marquis of Villena, their representative on these occasions.
This nobleman, who had so zealously co-operated with his party in
conferring the title of king on Alfonso, had intended to reserve the
authority to himself. He probably found more difficulty in controlling the
operations of the jealous and aspiring aristocracy, with whom he was
associated, than he had imagined; and he was willing to aid the opposite
party in maintaining a sufficient degree of strength to form a
counterpoise to that of the confederates, and thus, while he made his own
services the more necessary to the latter, to provide a safe retreat for
himself, in case of the shipwreck of their fortunes. [20]

In conformity with this dubious policy, he had, soon after the occurrence
at Avila, opened a secret correspondence with his former master, and
suggested to him the idea of terminating their differences by some
amicable adjustment. In consequence of these intimations, Henry consented
to enter into a negotiation with the confederates; and it was agreed, that
the forces on both sides should be disbanded, and that a suspension of
hostilities for six months should take place, during which some definitive
and permanent scheme of reconciliation might be devised. Henry, in
compliance with this arrangement, instantly disbanded his levies; they
retired overwhelmed with indignation at the conduct of their sovereign,
who so readily relinquished the only means of redress that he possessed,
and whom they now saw it would be unavailing to assist, since he was so
ready to desert himself. [21]

It would be an unprofitable task to attempt to unravel all the fine-spun
intrigues, by which the marquis of Villena contrived to defeat every
attempt at an ultimate accommodation between the parties, until he was
very generally execrated as the real source of the disturbances in the
kingdom. In the mean while, the singular spectacle was exhibited of two
monarchs presiding over one nation, surrounded by their respective courts,
administering the laws, convoking cortes, and in fine assuming the state
and exercising all the functions of sovereignty. It was apparent that this
state of things could not last long; and that the political ferment, which
now agitated the minds of men from one extremity of the kingdom to the
other, and which occasionally displayed itself in tumults and acts of
violence, would soon burst forth with all the horrors of a civil war.

At this juncture, a proposition was made to Henry for detaching the
powerful family of Pacheco from the interests of the confederates, by the
marriage of his sister Isabella with the brother of the marquis of
Villena, Don Pedro Giron, grand master of the order of Calatrava, a
nobleman of aspiring views, and one of the most active partisans of his
faction. The archbishop of Toledo would naturally follow the fortunes of
his nephew, and thus the league, deprived of its principal supports, must
soon crumble to pieces. Instead of resenting this proposal as an affront
upon his honor, the abject mind of Henry was content to purchase repose
even by the most humiliating sacrifice. He acceded to the conditions;
application was made to Rome for a dispensation from the vows of celibacy
imposed on the grand master as the companion of a religious order; and
splendid preparations were instantly commenced for the approaching
nuptials. [22]

Isabella was then in her sixteenth year. On her father's death, she
retired with her mother to the little town of Arevalo, where, in
seclusion, and far from the voice of flattery and falsehood, she had been
permitted to unfold the natural graces of mind and person, which might
have been blighted in the pestilent atmosphere of a court. Here, under the
maternal eye, she was carefully instructed in those lessons of practical
piety, and in the deep reverence for religion, which distinguished her
maturer years. On the birth of the princess Joanna, she was removed,
together with her brother Alfonso, by Henry to the royal palace, in order
more effectually to discourage the formation of any faction adverse to the
interests of his supposed daughter. In this abode of pleasure, surrounded
by all the seductions most dazzling to youth, she did not forget the early
lessons that she had imbibed; and the blameless purity of her conduct
shone with additional lustre amid the scenes of levity and licentiousness
by which she was surrounded. [23]

The near connection of Isabella with the crown, as well as her personal
character, invited the application of numerous suitors. Her hand was first
solicited for that very Ferdinand, who was destined to be her future
husband, though not till after the intervention of many inauspicious
circumstances. She was next betrothed to his elder brother, Carlos; and
some years after his decease, when thirteen years of age, was promised by
Henry to Alfonso, of Portugal. Isabella was present with her brother at a
personal interview with that monarch in 1464, but neither threats nor
entreaties could induce her to accede to a union so unsuitable from the
disparity of their years; and with her characteristic discretion, even at
this early age, she rested her refusal on the ground, that "the infantas
of Castile could not be disposed of in marriage, without the consent of
the nobles of the realm." [25]

When Isabella understood in what manner she was now to be sacrificed to
the selfish policy of her brother, in the prosecution of which, compulsory
measures if necessary were to be employed, she was filled with the
liveliest emotions of grief and resentment. The master of Calatrava was
well known as a fierce and turbulent leader of faction, and his private
life was stained with most of the licentious vices of the age. He was even
accused of having invaded the privacy of the queen dowager, Isabella's
mother, by proposals of the most degrading nature, an outrage which the
king had either not the power, or the inclination, to resent. [26] With
this person, then, so inferior to her in birth, and so much more unworthy
of her in every other point of view, Isabella was now to be united. On
receiving the intelligence, she confined herself to her apartment,
abstaining from all nourishment and sleep for a day and night, says a
contemporary writer, and imploring Heaven, in the most piteous manner, to
save her from this dishonor, by her own death or that of her enemy. As she
was bewailing her hard fate to her faithful friend, Beatriz de Bobadilla,
"God will not permit it," exclaimed the high-spirited lady, "neither will
I;" then drawing forth a dagger from her bosom, which she kept there for
the purpose, she solemnly vowed to plunge it in the heart of the master of
Calatrava, as soon as he appeared! [27]

Happily her loyalty was not put to so severe a test. No sooner had the
grand master received the bull of dispensation from the pope, than,
resigning his dignities in his military order, he set about such sumptuous
preparations for his wedding, as were due to the rank of his intended
bride. When these were completed, he began his journey from his residence
at Almagro to Madrid, where the nuptial ceremony was to be performed,
attended by a splendid retinue of friends and followers. But, on the very
first evening after his departure, he was attacked by an acute disorder
while at Villarubia, a village not far from Ciudad Real, which terminated
his life in four days. He died, says Palencia, with imprecations on his
lips, because his life had not been spared some few weeks longer. [28] His
death was attributed by many to poison, administered to him by some of the
nobles, who were envious of his good fortune. But, notwithstanding the
seasonableness of the event, and the familiarity of the crime in that age,
no shadow of imputation was ever cast on the pure fame of Isabella. [29]

The death of the grand master dissipated, at a blow, all the fine schemes
of the marquis of Villena, as well as every hope of reconciliation between
the parties. The passions, which had been only smothered, now burst forth
into open hostility; and it was resolved to refer the decision of the
question to the issue of a battle. The two armies met on the plains of
Olmedo, where, two and twenty years before, John, the father of Henry, had
been in like manner confronted by his insurgent subjects. The royal army
was considerably the larger; but the deficiency of numbers in the other
was amply supplied by the intrepid spirit of its leaders. The archbishop
of Toledo appeared at the head of its squadrons, conspicuous by a rich
scarlet mantle, embroidered with a white cross, thrown over his armor. The
young prince Alfonso, scarcely fourteen years of age, rode by his side,
clad like him in complete mail. Before the action commenced, the
archbishop sent a message to Beltran de la Cueva, then raised to the title
of duke of Albuquerque, cautioning him not to venture in the field, as no
less than forty cavaliers had sworn his death. The gallant nobleman, who,
on this as on some other occasions, displayed a magnanimity which in some
degree excused the partiality of his master, returned by the envoy a
particular description of the dress he intended to wear; a chivalrous
defiance, which wellnigh cost him his life. Henry did not care to expose
his person in the engagement, and, on receiving erroneous intelligence of
the discomfiture of his party, retreated precipitately with some thirty or
forty horsemen to the shelter of a neighboring village. The action lasted
three hours, until the combatants were separated by the shades of evening,
without either party having decidedly the advantage, although that of
Henry retained possession of the field of battle. The archbishop of Toledo
and Prince Alfonso were the last to retire; and the former was seen
repeatedly to rally his broken squadrons, notwithstanding his arm had been
pierced through with a lance early in the engagement. The king and the
prelate may be thought to have exchanged characters in this tragedy. [30]

The battle was attended with no result, except that of inspiring
appetites, which had tasted of blood, with a relish for more unlicensed
carnage. The most frightful anarchy now prevailed throughout the kingdom,
dismembered by factions, which the extreme youth of one monarch and the
imbecility of the other made it impossible to control. In vain did the
papal legate, who had received a commission to that effect from his
master, interpose his mediation, and even fulminate sentence of
excommunication against the confederates. The independent barons plainly
told him, that "those who advised the pope that he had a right to
interfere in the temporal concerns of Castile deceived him; and that they
had a perfect right to depose their monarch on sufficient grounds, and
should exercise it." [31]

Every city, nay, almost every family, became now divided within itself. In
Seville and in Cordova, the inhabitants of one street carried on open war
against those in another. The churches, which were fortified, and occupied
with bodies of armed men, were many of them sacked and burnt to the
ground. In Toledo no less than four thousand dwellings were consumed in
one general conflagration. The ancient family feuds, as those between the
great houses of Guzman and Ponce de Leon in Andalusia, being revived,
carried new division into the cities, whose streets literally ran with
blood. [32] In the country, the nobles and gentry, issuing from their
castles, captured the defenceless traveller, who was obliged to redeem his
liberty by the payment of a heavier ransom than was exacted even by the
Mahometans. All communication on the high roads was suspended, and no man,
says a contemporary, dared move abroad beyond the walls of his city,
unless attended by an armed escort. The organization of one of those
popular confederacies, known under the name of _Hermandad_, in 1465,
which continued in operation during the remainder of this gloomy period,
brought some mitigation to these evils by the fearlessness with which it
exercised its functions, even against offenders of the highest rank, some
of whose castles were razed to the ground by its orders. But this relief
was only partial; and the successful opposition, which the Hermandad
sometimes encountered on these occasions, served to aggravate the horrors
of the scene. Meanwhile, fearful omens, the usual accompaniments of such
troubled times, were witnessed; the heated imagination interpreted the
ordinary operations of nature as signs of celestial wrath; [33] and the
minds of men were filled with dismal bodings of some inevitable evil, like
that which overwhelmed the monarchy in the days of their Gothic ancestors.
[34]

At this crisis, a circumstance occurred, which gave a new face to affairs,
and totally disconcerted the operations of the confederates. This was the
loss of their young leader, Alfonso; who was found dead in his bed, on the
5th of July, 1468, at the village of Cardeñosa, about two leagues from
Avila, which had so recently been the theatre of his glory. His sudden
death was imputed, in the usual suspicious temper of that corrupt age, to
poison, supposed to have been conveyed to him in a trout, on which he
dined the day preceding. Others attributed it to the plague, which had
followed in the train of evils, that desolated this unhappy country. Thus
at the age of fifteen, and after a brief reign, if reign it may be called,
of three years, perished this young prince, who, under happier auspices
and in maturer life, might have ruled over his country with a wisdom equal
to that of any of its monarchs. Even in the disadvantageous position, in
which he had been placed, he gave clear indications of future excellence.
A short time before his death, he was heard to remark, on witnessing the
oppressive acts of some of the nobles, "I must endure this patiently,
until I am a little older." On another occasion, being solicited by the
citizens of Toledo to approve of some act of extortion which they had
committed, he replied, "God forbid I should countenance such injustice!"
And on being told that the city in that case would probably transfer its
allegiance to Henry, he added, "Much as I love power, I am not willing to
purchase it at such a price." Noble sentiments, but not at all palatable
to the grandees of his party, who saw with alarm that the young lion, when
he had reached his strength, would be likely to burst the bonds with which
they had enthralled him. [35]

It is not easy to consider the reign of Alfonso in any other light, than
that of a usurpation; although some Spanish writers, and among the rest
Marina, a competent critic when not blinded by prejudice, regard him as a
rightful sovereign, and as such to be enrolled among the monarchs of
Castile. [36] Marina, indeed, admits the ceremony at Avila to have been
originally the work of a faction, and in itself informal and
unconstitutional; but he considers it to have received a legitimate
sanction from its subsequent recognition by the people. But I do not find,
that the deposition of Henry the Fourth was ever confirmed by an act of
cortes. He still continued to reign with the consent of a large portion,
probably the majority, of his subjects; and it is evident that
proceedings, so irregular as those at Avila, could have no pretence to
constitutional validity, without a very general expression of approbation
on the part of the nation.

The leaders of the confederates were thrown into consternation by an
event, which threatened to dissolve their league, and to leave them
exposed to the resentment of an offended sovereign. In this conjuncture,
they naturally turned their eyes on Isabella, whose dignified and
commanding character might counterbalance the disadvantages arising from
the unsuitableness of her sex for so perilous a situation, and justify her
election in the eyes of the people. She had continued in the family of
Henry during the greater part of the civil war; until the occupation of
Segovia by the insurgents, after the battle of Olmedo, enabled her to seek
the protection of her younger brother Alfonso, to which she was the more
inclined by her disgust with the license of a court, where the love of
pleasure scorned even the veil of hypocrisy. On the death of her brother,
she withdrew to a monastery at Avila, where she was visited by the
archbishop of Toledo, who, in behalf of the confederates, requested her to
occupy the station lately filled by Alfonso, and allow herself to be
proclaimed queen of Castile. [37]

Isabella discerned too clearly, however, the path of duty and probably of
interest. She unhesitatingly refused the seductive proffer, and replied,
that, "while her brother Henry lived, none other had a right to the crown;
that the country had been divided long enough under the rule of two
contending monarchs; and that the death of Alfonso might perhaps be
interpreted into an indication from Heaven of its disapprobation of their
cause." She expressed herself desirous of establishing a reconciliation
between the parties, and offered heartily to co-operate with her brother
in the reformation of existing abuses. Neither the eloquence nor
entreaties of the primate could move her from her purpose; and, when a
deputation from Seville announced to her that that city, in common with
the rest of Andalusia, had unfurled its standards in her name and
proclaimed her sovereign of Castile, she still persisted in the same wise
and temperate policy. [38]

The confederates were not prepared for this magnanimous act from one so
young, and in opposition to the advice of her most venerated counsellors.
No alternative remained, however, but that of negotiating an accommodation
on the best terms possible with Henry, whose facility of temper and love
of repose naturally disposed him to an amicable adjustment of his
differences. With these dispositions, a reconciliation was effected
between the parties on the following conditions; namely, that a general
amnesty should be granted by the king for all past offences; that the
queen, whose dissolute conduct was admitted to be matter of notoriety,
should be divorced from her husband, and sent back to Portugal; that
Isabella should have the principality of the Asturias (the usual demesne
of the heir apparent to the crown) settled on her, together with a
specific provision suitable to her rank; that she should be immediately
recognized heir to the crowns of Castile and Leon; that a cortes should be
convoked within forty days for the purpose of bestowing a legal sanction
on her title, as well as of reforming the various abuses of government;
and finally, that Isabella should not be constrained to marry in
opposition to her own wishes, nor should she do so without the consent of
her brother. [39]

In pursuance of these arrangements, an interview took place between Henry
and Isabella, each attended by a brilliant _cortège_ of cavaliers and
nobles, at a place called Toros de Guisando, in New Castile. [40] The
monarch embraced his sister with the tenderest marks of affection, and
then proceeded solemnly to recognize her as his future and rightful heir.
An oath of allegiance was repeated by the attendant nobles, who concluded
the ceremony by kissing the hand of the princess in token of their homage.
In due time the representatives of the nation, convened in cortes at
Ocaña, unanimously concurred in their approbation of these preliminary
proceedings, and thus Isabella was announced to the world as the lawful
successor to the crowns of Castile and Leon. [41]

It can hardly be believed, that Henry was sincere in subscribing
conditions so humiliating; nor can his easy and lethargic temper account
for his so readily relinquishing the pretensions of the Princess Joanna,
whom, notwithstanding the popular imputations on her birth, he seems
always to have cherished as his own offspring. He was accused, even while
actually signing the treaty, of a secret collusion with the marquis of
Villena for the purpose of evading it; an accusation, which derives a
plausible coloring from subsequent events.

The new and legitimate basis, on which the pretensions of Isabella to the
throne now rested, drew the attention of neighboring princes, who
contended with each other for the honor of her hand. Among these suitors,
was a brother of Edward the Fourth, of England, not improbably Richard,
duke of Gloucester, since Clarence was then engaged in his intrigues with
the earl of Warwick, which led a few months later to his marriage with the
daughter of that nobleman. Had she listened to his proposals, the duke
would in all likelihood have exchanged his residence in England for
Castile, where his ambition, satisfied with the certain reversion of a
crown, might have been spared the commission of the catalogue of crimes
which blacken his memory. [42]

Another suitor was the duke of Guienne, the unfortunate brother of Louis
the Eleventh, and at that time the presumptive heir of the French
monarchy. Although the ancient intimacy, which subsisted between the royal
families of France and Castile, in some measure favored his pretensions,
the disadvantages resulting from such a union were too obvious to escape
attention. The two countries were too remote from each other, [43] and
their inhabitants too dissimiliar in character and institutions, to permit
the idea of their ever cordially coalescing as one people under a common
sovereign. Should the duke of Guienne fail in the inheritance of the
crown, it was argued, he would be every way an unequal match for the
heiress of Castile; should he succeed to it, it might be feared, that, in
case of a union, the smaller kingdom would be considered only as an
appendage, and sacrificed to the interests of the larger. [44]

The person on whom Isabella turned the most favorable eye was her kinsman
Ferdinand of Aragon. The superior advantages of a connection, which should
be the means of uniting the people of Aragon and Castile into one nation,
were indeed manifest. They were the descendants of one common stock,
speaking one language, and living under the influence of similar
institutions, which had moulded them into a common resemblance of
character and manners. From their geographical position, too, they seemed
destined by nature to be one nation; and, while separately they were
condemned to the rank of petty and subordinate states, they might hope,
when consolidated into one monarchy, to rise at once to the first class of
European powers. While arguments of this public nature pressed on the mind
of Isabella, she was not insensible to those which most powerfully affect
the female heart. Ferdinand was then in the bloom of life, and
distinguished for the comeliness of his person. In the busy scenes, in
which he had been engaged from his boyhood, he had displayed a chivalrous
valor, combined with maturity of judgment far above his years. Indeed, he
was decidedly superior to his rivals in personal merit and attractions.
[45] But, while private inclinations thus happily coincided with
considerations of expediency for inclining her to prefer the Aragonese
match, a scheme was devised in another quarter for the express purpose of
defeating it.

A fraction of the royal party, with the family of Mendoza at their head,
had retired in disgust with the convention of Toros de Guisando, and
openly espoused the cause of the princess Joanna. They even instructed her
to institute an appeal before the tribunal of the supreme pontiff, and
caused a placard, exhibiting a protest against the validity of the late
proceedings, to be nailed secretly in the night to the gate of Isabella's
mansion. [46] Thus were sown the seeds of new dissensions, before the old
were completely eradicated. With this disaffected party the marquis of
Villena, who, since his reconciliation, had resumed his ancient ascendency
over Henry, now associated himself. Nothing, in the opinion of this
nobleman, could be more repugnant to his interests, than the projected
union between the houses of Castile and Aragon; to the latter of which, as
already noticed, [47] once belonged the ample domains of his own
marquisate, which he imagined would be held by a very precarious tenure
should any of this family obtain a footing in Castile.

In the hope of counteracting this project, he endeavored to revive the
obsolete pretensions of Alfonso, king of Portugal; and, the more
effectually to secure the co-operation of Henry, he connected with his
scheme a proposition for marrying his daughter Joanna with the son and
heir of the Portuguese monarch; and thus this unfortunate princess might
be enabled to assume at once a station suitable to her birth, and at some
future opportunity assert with success her claim to the Castilian crown.
In furtherance of this complicated intrigue, Alfonso was invited to renew
his addresses to Isabella in a more public manner than he had hitherto
done; and a pompous embassy, with the archbishop of Lisbon at its head,
appeared at Ocaña, where Isabella was then residing, bearing the proposals
of their master. The princess returned, as before, a decided though
temperate refusal. [48] Henry, or rather the marquis of Villena, piqued at
this opposition to his wishes, resolved to intimidate her into compliance;
and menaced her with imprisonment in the royal fortress at Madrid. Neither
her tears nor entreaties would have availed against this tyrannical
proceeding; and the marquis was only deterred from putting it in execution
by his fear of the inhabitants of Ocaña, who openly espoused the cause of
Isabella. Indeed, the common people of Castile very generally supported
her in her preference of the Aragonese match. Boys paraded the streets,
bearing banners emblazoned with the arms of Aragon, and singing verses
prophetic of the glories of the auspicious union. They even assembled
round the palace gates, and insulted the ears of Henry and his minister by
the repetition of satirical stanzas, which contrasted Alfonso's years with
the youthful graces of Ferdinand. [49] Notwithstanding this popular
expression of opinion, however, the constancy of Isabella might at length
have yielded to the importunity of her persecutors, had she not been
encouraged by her friend, the archbishop of Toledo, who had warmly entered
into the interests of Aragon, and who promised, should matters come to
extremity, to march in person to her relief at the head of a sufficient
force to insure it.

Isabella, indignant at the oppressive treatment, which she experienced
from her brother, as well as at his notorious infraction of almost every
article in the treaty of Toros de Guisando, felt herself released from her
corresponding engagements, and determined to conclude the negotiations
relative to her marriage, without any further deference to his opinion.
Before taking any decisive step, however, she was desirous of obtaining
the concurrence of the leading nobles of her party. This was effected
without difficulty, through the intervention of the archbishop of Toledo,
and of Don Frederic Henriquez, admiral of Castile, and the maternal
grandfather of Ferdinand; a person of high consideration, both from his
rank and character, and connected by blood with the principal families in
the kingdom. [50] Fortified by their approbation, Isabella dismissed the
Aragonese envoy with a favorable answer to his master's suit. [51]

Her reply was received with almost as much satisfaction by the old king of
Aragon, John the Second, as by his son. This monarch, who was one of the
shrewdest princes of his time, had always been deeply sensible of the
importance of consolidating the scattered monarchies of Spain under one
head. He had solicited the hand of Isabella for his son, when she
possessed only a contingent reversion of the crown. But, when her
succession had been settled on a more secure basis, he lost no time in
effecting this favorite object of his policy. With the consent of the
states, he had transferred to his son the title of king of Sicily, and
associated him with himself in the government at home, in order to give
him greater consequence in the eyes of his mistress. He then despatched a
confidential agent into Castile, with instructions to gain over to his
interests all who exercised any influence on the mind of the princess;
furnishing him for this purpose with _cartes blanches_, signed by
himself and Ferdinand, which he was empowered to fill at his discretion.
[52]

Between parties thus favorably disposed, there was no unnecessary delay.
The marriage articles were signed, and sworn to by Ferdinand at Cervera,
on the 7th of January. He promised faithfully to respect the laws and
usages of Castile; to fix his residence in that kingdom, and not to quit
it without the consent of Isabella; to alienate no property belonging to
the crown; to prefer no foreigners to municipal offices, and indeed to
make no appointments of a civil or military nature, without her consent
and approbation; and to resign to her exclusively the right of nomination
to ecclesiastical benefices. All ordinances of a public nature were to be
subscribed equally by both. Ferdinand engaged, moreover, to prosecute the
war against the Moors; to respect King Henry; to suffer every noble to
remain unmolested in the possession of his dignities, and not to demand
restitution of the domains formerly owned by his father in Castile. The
treaty concluded with a specification of a magnificent dower to be settled
on Isabella, far more ample than that usually assigned to the queens of
Aragon. [53] The circumspection of the framers of this instrument is
apparent from the various provisions introduced into it solely to calm the
apprehensions and to conciliate the good will of the party disaffected to
the marriage; while the national partialities of the Castilians in general
were gratified by the jealous restrictions imposed on Ferdinand, and the
relinquishment of all the essential rights of sovereignty to his consort.

While these affairs were in progress, Isabella's situation was becoming
extremely critical. She had availed herself of the absence of her brother
and the marquis of Villena in the south, whither they had gone for the
purpose of suppressing the still lingering spark of insurrection, to
transfer her residence from Ocaña to Madrigal, where, under the protection
of her mother, she intended to abide the issue of the pending negotiations
with Aragon. Far, however, from escaping the vigilant eye of the marquis
of Villena by this movement, she laid herself more open to it. She found
the bishop of Burgos, the nephew of the marquis, stationed at Madrigal,
who now served as an effectual spy upon her actions. Her most confidential
servants were corrupted, and conveyed intelligence of her proceedings to
her enemy. Alarmed at the actual progress made in the negotiations for her
marriage, the marquis was now convinced that he could only hope to defeat
them by resorting to the coercive system, which he had before abandoned.
He accordingly instructed the archbishop of Seville to march at once to
Madrigal with a sufficient force to secure Isabella's person; and letters
were at the same time addressed by Henry to the citizens of that place,
menacing them with his resentment, if they should presume to interpose in
her behalf. The timid inhabitants disclosed the purport of the mandate to
Isabella, and besought her to provide for her own safety. This was perhaps
the most critical period in her life. Betrayed by her own domestics,
deserted even by those friends of her own sex who might have afforded her
sympathy and counsel, but who fled affrighted from the scene of danger,
and on the eve of falling into the snares of her enemies, she beheld the
sudden extinction of those hopes, which she had so long and so fondly
cherished. [54]

In this exigency, she contrived to convey a knowledge of her situation to
Admiral Henriquez, and the archbishop of Toledo. The active prelate, on
receiving the summons, collected a body of horse, and, reinforced by the
admiral's troops, advanced with such expedition to Madrigal, that he
succeeded in anticipating the arrival of the enemy. Isabella received her
friends with unfeigned satisfaction; and, bidding adieu to her dismayed
guardian, the bishop of Burgos, and his attendants, she was borne off by
her little army in a sort of military triumph to the friendly city of
Valladolid, where she was welcomed by the citizens with a general burst of
enthusiasm. [55]

In the mean time Gutierre de Cardenas, one of the household of the
princess, [56] and Alfonso de Palencia, the faithful chronicler of these
events, were despatched into Aragon in order to quicken Ferdinand's
operations, during the auspicious interval afforded by the absence of
Henry in Andalusia. On arriving at the frontier town of Osma, they were
dismayed to find that the bishop of that place, together with the duke of
Medina Celi, on whose active co-operation they had relied for the safe
introduction of Ferdinand into Castile, had been gained over to the
interests of the marquis of Villena. [57] The envoys, however, adroitly
concealing the real object of their mission, were permitted to pass
unmolested to Saragossa, where Ferdinand was then residing. They could not
have arrived at a more inopportune season. The old king of Aragon was in
the very heat of the war against the insurgent Catalans, headed by the
victorious John of Anjou. Although so sorely pressed, his forces were on
the eve of disbanding for want of the requisite funds to maintain them.
His exhausted treasury did not contain more than three hundred enriques.
[58] In this exigency he was agitated by the most distressing doubts. As
he could spare neither the funds nor the force necessary for covering his
son's entrance into Castile, he must either send him unprotected into a
hostile country, already aware of his intended enterprise and in arms to
defeat it, or abandon the long-cherished object of his policy, at the
moment when his plans were ripe for execution. Unable to extricate himself
from this dilemma, he referred the whole matter to Ferdinand and his
council. [59]

It was at length determined, that the prince should undertake the journey,
accompanied by half a dozen attendants only, in the disguise of merchants,
by the direct route from Saragossa; while another party, in order to
divert the attention of the Castilians, should proceed in a different
direction, with all the ostentation of a public embassy from the king of
Aragon to Henry the Fourth. The distance was not great, which Ferdinand
and his suite were to travel before reaching a place of safety; but this
intervening country was patrolled by squadrons of cavalry for the purpose
of intercepting their progress; and the whole extent of the frontier, from
Almazan to Guadalajara, was defended by a line of fortified castles in the
hands of the family of Mendoza. [60] The greatest circumspection therefore
was necessary. The party journeyed chiefly in the night; Ferdinand assumed
the disguise of a servant, and, when they halted on the road, took care of
the mules, and served his companions at table. In this guise, with no
other disaster except that of leaving at an inn the purse which contained
the funds for the expedition, they arrived, late on the second night, at a
little place called the Burgo or Borough, of Osma, which the count of
Treviño, one of the partisans of Isabella, had occupied with a
considerable body of men-at-arms. On knocking at the gate, cold and faint
with travelling, during which the prince had allowed himself to take no
repose, they were saluted by a large stone discharged by a sentinel from
the battlements, which, glancing near Ferdinand's head, had wellnigh
brought his romantic enterprise to a tragical conclusion; when his voice
was recognized by his friends within, and, the trumpets proclaiming his
arrival, he was received with great joy and festivity by the count and his
followers. The remainder of his journey, which he commenced before dawn,
was performed under the convoy of a numerous and well-armed escort; and on
the 9th of October he reached Dueñas in the kingdom of Leon, where the
Castilian nobles and cavaliers of his party eagerly thronged to render him
the homage due to his rank. [61]

The intelligence of Ferdinand's arrival diffused universal joy in the
little court of Isabella at Valladolid. Her first step was to transmit a
letter to her brother Henry, in which she informed him of the presence of
the prince in his dominions, and of their intended marriage. She excused
the course she had taken by the embarrassments, in which she had been
involved by the malice of her enemies. She represented the political
advantages of the connection, and the sanction it had received from the
Castilian nobles; and she concluded with soliciting his approbation of it,
giving him at the same time affectionate assurances of the most dutiful
submission both on the part of Ferdinand and of herself. [62] Arrangements
were then made for an interview between the royal pair, in which some
courtly parasites would fain have persuaded their mistress to require some
act of homage from Ferdinand; in token of the inferiority of the crown of
Aragon to that of Castile; a proposition which she rejected with her usual
discretion. [63]

Agreeably to these arrangements, Ferdinand, on the evening of the 15th of
October, passed privately from Dueñas, accompanied only by four
attendants, to the neighboring city of Valladolid, where he was received
by the archbishop of Toledo, and conducted to the apartment of his
mistress. [64] Ferdinand was at this time in the eighteenth year of his
age. His complexion was fair, though somewhat bronzed by constant exposure
to the sun; his eye quick and cheerful; his forehead ample, and
approaching to baldness. His muscular and well-proportioned frame was
invigorated by the toils of war, and by the chivalrous exercises in which
he delighted. He was one of the best horsemen in his court, and excelled
in field sports of every kind. His voice was somewhat sharp, but he
possessed a fluent eloquence; and, when he had a point to carry, his
address was courteous and even insinuating. He secured his health by
extreme temperance in his diet, and by such habits of activity, that it
was said he seemed to find repose in business. [65] Isabella was a year
older than her lover. In stature she was somewhat above the middle size.
Her complexion was fair; her hair of a bright chestnut color, inclining to
red; and her mild blue eye beamed with intelligence and sensibility. She
was exceedingly beautiful; "the handsomest lady," says one of her
household, "whom I ever beheld, and the most gracious in her manners."
[66] The portrait still existing of her in the royal palace, is
conspicuous for an open symmetry of features, indicative of the natural
serenity of temper, and that beautiful harmony of intellectual and moral
qualities, which most distinguished her. She was dignified in her
demeanor, and modest even to a degree of reserve. She spoke the Castilian
language with more than usual elegance; and early imbibed a relish for
letters, in which she was superior to Ferdinand, whose education in this
particular seems to have been neglected. [67] It is not easy to obtain a
dispassionate portrait of Isabella. The Spaniards, who revert to her
glorious reign, are so smitten with her moral perfections, that even in
depicting her personal, they borrow somewhat of the exaggerated coloring
of romance.

The interview lasted more than two hours, when Ferdinand retired to his
quarters at Dueñas, as privately as he came. The preliminaries of the
marriage, however, were first adjusted; but so great was the poverty of
the parties, that it was found necessary to borrow money to defray the
expenses of the ceremony. [68] Such were the humiliating circumstances
attending the commencement of a union destined to open the way to the
highest prosperity and grandeur of the Spanish monarchy!

The marriage between Ferdinand and Isabella was publicly celebrated, on
the morning of the 19th of October, in the palace of John de Vivero, the
temporary residence of the princess, and subsequently appropriated to the
chancery of Valladolid. The nuptials were solemnized in the presence of
Ferdinand's grandfather, the admiral of Castile, of the archbishop of
Toledo, and a multitude of persons of rank, as well as of inferior
condition, amounting in all to no less than two thousand. [69] A papal
bull of dispensation was produced by the archbishop, relieving the parties
from the impediment incurred by their falling within the prohibited
degrees of consanguinity. This spurious document was afterwards discovered
to have been devised by the old king of Aragon, Ferdinand, and the
archbishop, who were deterred from applying to the court of Rome by the
zeal with which it openly espoused the interests of Henry, and who knew
that Isabella would never consent to a union repugnant to the canons of
the established church, and one which involved such heavy ecclesiastical
censures. A genuine bull of dispensation was obtained, some years later,
from Sixtus the Fourth; but Isabella, whose honest mind abhorred
everything like artifice, was filled with no little uneasiness and
mortification at the discovery of the imposition. [70] The ensuing week
was consumed in the usual festivities of this joyous season; at the
expiration of which, the new-married pair attended publicly the
celebration of mass, agreeably to the usage of the time, in the collegiate
church of Sante Maria. [71]

An embassy was despatched by Ferdinand and Isabella to Henry, to acquaint
him with their proceedings, and again request his approbation of them.
They repeated their assurances of loyal submission, and accompanied the
message with a copious extract from such of the articles of marriage, as,
by their import, would be most likely to conciliate his favorable
disposition. Henry coldly replied, that "he must advise with his
ministers." [72]

       *       *       *       *       *

Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdés, author of the "Quincuagenas"
frequently cited in this History, was born at Madrid, in 1478. He was of
noble Asturian descent. Indeed, every peasant in the Asturias claims
nobility as his birthright. At the age of twelve he was introduced into
the royal palace, as one of the pages of Prince John. He continued with
the court several years, and was present, though a boy, in the closing
campaigns of the Moorish war. In 1514, according to his own statement, he
embarked for the Indies, where, although he revisited his native country
several times, he continued during the remainder of his long life. The
time of his death is uncertain.

Oviedo occupied several important posts under the government, and he was
appointed to one of a literary nature, for which he was well qualified by
his long residence abroad; that of historiographer of the Indies. It was
in this capacity that he produced his principal work, "Historia General de
las Indias," in fifty books. Las Casas denounces the book as a wholesale
fabrication, "as full of lies, almost, as pages." (Oeuvres, trad. de
Llorente, tom. i. p. 382.) But Las Casas entertained too hearty an
aversion for the man, whom he publicly accused of rapacity and cruelty,
and was too decidedly opposed to his ideas on the government of the
Indies, to be a fair critic. Oviedo, though somewhat loose and rambling,
possessed extensive stores of information, by which those who have had
occasion to follow in his track have liberally profited.

The work with which we are concerned is his Quincuagenas. It is entitled
"Las Quincuagenas de los generosos é ilustres é no menos famosos Reyes,
Príncipes, Duques, Marqueses y Condes et Caballeros, et Personas notables
de España, que escribió el Capitan Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdez,
Alcáide de sus Magestades de la Fortaleza de la Cibdad é Puerto de Sancto
Domingo de la Isla Españiola, Coronista de las Indias," etc. At the close
of the third volume is this record of the octogenarian author; "Acabé de
escribir de mi mano este famoso tractado de la nobleza de España, domingo
1730; dia de Páscua de Pentecostes XXIII. de mayo de 1556 años. Laus
Deo. Y de mi edad 79 años." This very curious work is in the form of
dialogues, in which the author is the chief interlocutor. It contains a
very full, and, indeed, prolix notice of the principal persons in Spain,
their lineage, revenues, and arms, with an inexhaustible fund of private
anecdote. The author, who was well acquainted with most of the individuals
of note in his time, amused himself, during his absence in the New World,
with keeping alive the images of home by this minute record of early
reminiscences. In this mass of gossip, there is a good deal, indeed, of
very little value. It contains, however, much for the illustration of
domestic manners, and copious particulars, as I have intimated, respecting
the characters and habits of eminent personages, which could have been
known only to one familiar with them. On all topics of descent and
heraldry, he is uncommonly full; and one would think his services in this
department alone might have secured him, in a land where these are so much
respected, the honors of the press. His book, however, still remains in
manuscript, apparently little known, and less used, by Castilian scholars.
Besides the three folio volumes in the Royal Library at Madrid, from which
the transcript in my possession was obtained, Clemencin, whose
commendations of this work, as illustrative of Isabella's reign, are
unqualified. (Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 10,) enumerates
three others, two in the king's private library, and one in that of the
Academy.


FOOTNOTES

[1]
  "Nil pudet assuetos sceptris: mitissima sors est
  Regnorum sub rege novo." Lucan, Pharsalia, lib. 8.

[2] Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 8.--Rodericus
Sanctius, Historia Hispanica, cap. 38, 39.--Pulgar, Claros Varones, tit.
1.--Castillo, Crónica, i. 20.--Guzman, Generaciones, cap. 33.--Although
Henry's lavish expenditure, particularly on works of architecture, gained
him in early life the appellation of "the Liberal," he is better known on
the roll of Castilian sovereigns by the less flattering title of "the
Impotent."

[3] Zuñiga, Anales Eclesiasticos y Seculares de Sevilla, (Madrid, 1667,)
p. 344.--Castillo, Crónica, cap. 20.--Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii.
pp. 415, 419.--Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 1, cap. 14 et
seq.--The surprise of Gibraltar, the unhappy source of feud between the
families of Guzman and Ponce de Leon, did not occur till a later period,
1462.

[4] Such was his apathy, says Mariana, that he would subscribe his name to
public ordinances, without taking the trouble to acquaint himself with
their contents. Hist. de España, tom. ii. p. 423.

[5] Pulgar, Crónica de los Reyes Católicos, (Valencia, 1780,) cap. 2.--
Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 1, cap. 4.--Aleson, Anales de
Navarra, tom. iv. pp. 519, 520.--The marriage between Blanche and Henry
was publicly declared void by the bishop of Segovia, confirmed by the
archbishop of Toledo, "por impotencia respectiva, owing to some malign
influence"!

[6] La Clède, Hist. de. Portugal, tom. iii. pp. 325, 345.--Florez, Reynas
Cathólicas, tom. ii. pp. 763, 766.--Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS.,
part. 1, cap. 20, 21.--It does not appear, however, whom Beltran de la
Cueva indicated as the lady of his love on this occasion. (See Castillo,
Crónica, cap. 23, 24.) Two anecdotes may he mentioned as characteristic of
the gallantry of the times. The archbishop of Seville concluded a superb
_fête_, given in honor of the royal nuptials, by introducing on the
table two vases filled with rings garnished with precious stones, to be
distributed among his female guests. At a ball given on another occasion,
the young queen having condescended to dance with the French ambassador,
the latter made a solemn vow, in commemoration of so distinguished an
honor, never to dance with any other woman.

[7] Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., cap. 42, 47.--Castillo, Crónica,
cap. 23.

[8] Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., cap. 35.--Sempere, Hist. del. Luxo,
tom. i. p. 183.--Idem, Hist. des Cortès, ch. 19.--Marina, Teoría, part. 1,
cap. 20.--part. 2, pp. 390, 391.--Zuñiga, Anales de Sevilla, pp. 346,
349.--The papal bulls of crusade issued on these occasions, says Palencia,
contained among other indulgences an exemption from the pains and
penalties of purgatory, assuring to the soul of the purchaser, after
death, an immediate translation into a state of glory. Some of the more
orthodox casuists doubted the validity of such a bull. But it was decided,
after due examination, that, as the holy father possessed plenary power of
absolution of all offenses committed upon earth, and as purgatory is
situated upon earth, it properly fell within his jurisdiction, (cap. 32.)
Bulls of crusade were sold at the rate of 200 maravedies each; and it is
computed by the same historian, that no less than 4,000,000 maravedies
were amassed by this traffic in Castile, in the space of four years!

[9] Saez, Monedas de Enrique IV., (Madrid, 1805,) pp. 2-5.--Alonso de
Palencia, Corónica, MS., cap. 36, 39.--Castillo, Crónica, cap. 19.

[10] Pulgar, Claros Varones, tit. 6.--Castillo, Crónica, cap. 15.--
Mendoza, Monarquía de España, tom. i. p. 328.--The ancient marquisate of
Villena, having been incorporated into the crown of Castile, devolved to
Prince Henry of Aragon, on his marriage with the daughter of John II. It
was subsequently confiscated by that monarch, in consequence of the
repeated rebellions of Prince Henry; and the title, together with a large
proportion of the domains originally attached to it, was conferred on Don
Juan Pacheco, by whom it was transmitted to his son, afterwards raised to
the rank of duke of Escalona, in the reign of Isabella. Salazar de
Mendoza, Dignidades de Castilla y Leon, (Madrid, 1794,) lib. 3, cap. 12,
17.

[11] Pulgar, Claros Varones, tit. 20.--Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS.,
cap. 10, 11.

[12] At least these are the important consequences imputed to this
interview by the French writers. See Gaillard, Rivalité, tom. iii. pp.
241-243.--Comines, Mémoires, liv. 3, chap. 8.--Also Castillo, Crónica,
cap. 48, 49.--Zurita, Anales, lib. 17, cap. 50.

[13] Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. ii. p. 122.--Zurita, Anales, lib. 17,
cap. 56.--Castillo, Crónica, cap. 51, 52, 58.--The queen of Aragon, who
was as skilful a diplomatist as her husband, John I., assailed the vanity
of Villena, quite as much as his interest. On one of his missions to her
court, she invited him to dine with her _tête-à-tête_ at her own table,
while during the repast they were served by the ladies of the palace.
Ibid., cap. 40.

[14] See the memorial presented to the king, cited at length in Marina,
Teoría, tom. iii. Apend. no. 7.--Castillo, Crónica, cap. 58, 64.--Zurita,
Anales, lib. 17, cap. 56.--Lebrija, Hispanarum Rerum Ferdinando Rege et
Elisabe Reginâ Gestarum Decades, (apud Granatam, 1545,) lib. 1, cap. 1,
2.--Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 1, cap. 6.--Bernaldez, Reyes
Católicos, MS., cap. 9.

[15] Castillo, Crónica, cap. 65.

[16] See copies from the original instruments, which are still preserved
in the archives of the house of Villena, in Marina, Teoría, tom. iii.
part. 2, Ap. 6, 8.--Castillo, Crónica, cap. 66, 67.--Alonso de Palencia,
Corónica, MS., part. 1, cap. 57.

[17] Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 1, cap. 62.--Castillo,
Crónica, cap. 68, 69, 74.

[18] Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 1, cap. 63, 70.--Castillo,
Crónica, cap. 75, 76.

[19] The celebrated marquis of Santillana died in 1458, at the age of
sixty. (Sanchez, Poesías Castellanas, tom. i. p. 23.) The title descended
to his eldest son, Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, who is represented by his
contemporaries to have been worthy of his sire. Like him, he was imbued
with a love of letters; he was conspicuous for his magnanimity and
chivalrous honor, his moderation, constancy, and uniform loyalty to his
sovereign, virtues of rare worth in those rapacious and turbulent times.
(Pulgar, Claros Varones, tit. 9.) Ferdinand and Isabella created him duke
del Infantado. This domain derives its name from its having been once the
patrimony of the _infantes_ of Castile. See Salazar de Mendoza, Monarquía,
tom. i. p. 219,--and Dignidades de Castilla, lib. 3, cap. 17.--Oviedo,
Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 8.

[20] Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 1, cap. 64.--Castillo,
Crónica, cap. 78.

[21] Castillo, Crónica, cap. 80, 82.

[22] Rades y Andrada, Chrónica de Las Tres Ordenes y Cavallerías, (Toledo,
1572,) fol. 76.--Castillo, Crónica, cap. 85.--Alonso de Palencia,
Corónica, MS., part. 1, cap. 73.

[24] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 154.-Florez, Reynas Cathólicas,
tom. ii. p. 789.-Castillo, Crónica, cap. 37.

[25] Aleson, Anales de Navarra, tom. iv. pp. 561, 562.--Zurita, Anales,
lib. 16, cap. 46, lib. 17, cap. 3.--Castillo, Crónica, cap. 31, 57.--
Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., cap. 55.

[26] Decad. de Palencia, apud Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. p. 65,
nota.

[27] Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., cap. 73.--Mariana, Hist. de
España, tom. ii. p. 450.--Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. p. 532.

This lady, Doña Beatriz Fernandez de Bobadilla, the most intimate personal
friend of Isabella, will appear often in the course of our narrative.
Gonzalo de Oviedo, who knew her well, describes her as "illustrating her
generous lineage by her conduct, which was wise, virtuous, and valiant."
(Quincuagenas, MS., dial. de Cabrera.) The last epithet, rather singular
for a female character, was not unmerited.

[28] Palencia imputes his death to an attack of the quinsy. Corónica, MS.,
cap. 73.

[29] Rades y Andrada, Las Tres Ordenes, fol. 77.--Caro de Torres, Historia
de las Ordenes Militares de Santiago, Calatrava, y Alcantara, (Madrid,
1629,) lib. 2, cap. 59.--Castillo, Crónica, cap. 85.--Alonso de Palencia,
Corónica, MS., cap. 73.--Gaillard remarks on this event, "Chacun crut sur
cette mort ce qu'il voulut." And again in a few pages after, speaking of
Isabella, he says, "On remarqua que tons ceux qui pouvoient faire obstacle
à la satisfaction ou à la fortune d'Isabelle, mouroient toujours à propos
pour elle." (Rivalité, tom. iii. pp. 280, 286.) This ingenious writer is
fond of seasoning his style with those piquant sarcasms, in which
oftentimes more is meant than meets the ear, and which Voltaire rendered
fashionable in history. I doubt, however, if, amid all the heats of
controversy and faction, there is a single Spanish writer of that age, or
indeed of any subsequent one, who has ventured to impute to the
contrivance of Isabella any one of the fortunate coincidences, to which
the author alludes.

[30] Lebrija, Rerum Gestarum Decades, lib. 1, cap. 2--Zurita, Anales, lib.
18, cap. 10--Castillo, Cronies, cap. 93, 97.--Alonso de Palencia,
Corónica, MS., part. 1, cap 80.

[31] Alonso de Palencia, Corónica MS., cap. 82.

[32] Zuñiga, Anales de Sevilla, pp. 851, 352.--Carta del Levantamiento de
Toledo, apud Castillo, Crónica, p. 109.--The historian of Seville has
quoted an animated apostrophe addressed to the citizens by one of their
number in this season of discord:

  "Mezquina Sevilla en la sangre bañada
  de los tus fijos, i tus cavalleros,
  que fado enemigo te tiene minguada," etc.

The poem concludes with a summons to throw off the yoke of their
oppressors:

  "Despierta Sevilla e sacude el imperio,
  que faze a tus nobles tanto vituperio."

See Anales, p. 359.

[33] "Quod in pace fore, sen natura, tune fatum et ira dei vocabatur;"
says Tacitus, (Historiae, lib. 4, cap. 26,) adverting to a similar state
of excitement.

[34] Saez quotes a MS. letter of a contemporary, exhibiting a frightful
picture of these disorders. (Monedas de Enrique IV., p. 1, not.--Castillo,
Crónica, cap. 83, 87, et passim.--Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. p.
451.--Marina, Teoría, tom. ii. p. 487.--Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS.,
part. 1, cap. 69.) The active force kept on duty by the Hermandad amounted
to 3000 horse. Ibid., cap. 89, 90.

[35] Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., cap. 87, 92.--Castillo, Crónica,
cap. 94.--Garibay, Compendio, lib. 17, cap. 20.

[36] Marina, Teoría, part. 2, cap. 88.

[37] Lebrija, Rerum Gestarum Decad., lib. 1, cap. 3.--Alonso de Palencia,
Corónica, MS., part. 1, cap. 92.--Florez, Reynas Cathólicas, tom. ii. p.
790.

[38] Lebrija, Rerum Gestarum Decad., lib. 1, cap. 3.--Ferreras, Hist.
d'Espagne, tom. vii. p. 218.-Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, part. 1, cap.
92.--part. 2, cap. 5.

[39] See a copy of the original compact cited at length by Marina, Teoría,
Apend. no. 11.--Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 1, cap. 2.

[40] So called from four bulls, sculptured in stone, discovered there,
with Latin inscriptions thereon, indicating it to have been the site of
one of Julius Caesar's victories during the civil war. (Estrada, Poblacion
General de España, (Madrid, 1748,) tom. i. p. 306.)--Galindez de Carbaja,
a
contemporary, fixes the date of this convention in August. Apales del Rey
Fernando el Católico, MS., año 1468.

[41] Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 2, cap. 4.--Castillo,
Crónica, cap. 18.--Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. pp. 461, 462.--
Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 1, cap. 2.--Castillo affirms that Henry,
incensed by his sister's refusal of the king of Portugal, dissolved the
cortes at Ocaña, before it had taken the oath of allegiance to her.
(Crónica, cap. 127.) This assertion, however, is counterbalanced by the
opposite one of Pulgar, a contemporary writer, like himself. (Reyes
Católicos, cap. 5.) And as Ferdinand and Isabella, in a letter addressed,
after their marriage, to Henry IV., transcribed also by Castillo, allude
incidentally to such a recognition as to a well-known fact, the balance of
testimony must be admitted to be in favor of it. See Castillo, Crónica,
cap. 114.

[42] Isabella, who in a letter to Henry IV., dated Oct. 12th, 1469,
adverts to these proposals of the English prince, as being under
consideration at the time of the convention of Toros de Guisando, does not
specify which of the brothers of Edward IV. was intended. (Castillo,
Crónica, cap. 136.)

Mr. Turner, in his History of England during the Middle Ages, (London,
1825,) quotes part of the address delivered by the Spanish envoy to
Richard III., in 1483, in which the orator speaks of "the unkindness,
which his queen Isabella had conceived for Edward IV., for his refusal of
her, and his taking instead to wife a widow of England." (Vol. iii. p.
274.) The old chronicler Hall, on the other hand, mentions, that it was
currently reported, although he does not appear to credit it, that the
earl of Warwick had been despatched into Spain in order to request the
hand of the princess Isabella for his master Edward IV., in 1463. (See his
Chronicle of England, (London, 1809,) pp. 263, 264.)--I find nothing in
the Spanish accounts of that period, which throws any light on these
obvious contradictions.

[43] The territories of France and Castile touched, indeed, on one point
(Guipuscoa), but were separated along the whole remaining line of frontier
by the kingdoms of Aragon and Navarre.

[44] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 8.--Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS.,
part. 2, cap. 10.

[45] Isabella, in order to acquaint herself more intimately with the
personal qualities of her respective suitors, had privately despatched her
confidential chaplain, Alonso de Coca, to the courts of France and of
Aragon, and his report on his return was altogether favorable to
Ferdinand. The duke of Guienne he represented as "a feeble, effeminate
prince, with limbs so emaciated as to be almost deformed, and with eyes so
weak and watery as to incapacitate him for the ordinary exercises of
chivalry. While Ferdinand, on the other hand, was possessed of a comely,
symmetrical figure, a graceful demeanor, and a spirit that was up to
anything;" _mui dispuesto para toda coga que hacer ginsiese_. It is
not improbable that the queen of Aragon condescended to practise some of
those agreeable arts on the worthy chaplain, which made so sensible an
impression on the marquis of Villena.

[46] Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 2, cap. 5.

[47] See ante, note 10.

[48] Faria y Sousa, Europa Portuguesa, tom. ii. p. 391.--Castillo,
Crónica, cap. 121, 127.--Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 2, cap.
7.--Lebrija, Rerum Gestarum Decad., lib. 1, cap. 7.

[49] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 7.--Alonso de Palencia,
Corónica, MS., part. 2, cap. 7.

[50] Pulgar, Claros Varones, tit. 2.

[51] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 154.--Zurita, Anales, tom. iv.
fol. 162.--Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 2, cap. 7.--Pulgar,
Reyes Católicos, cap. 9.

[52] Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 157, 163.

[53] See the copy of the original marriage contract, as it exists in the
archives of Simancas, extracted in tom. vi. of Memorias de la Acad. de
Hist., Apend. no. 1.--Zurita, Anales, lib. 18, cap. 21.--Ferreras, Hist.
d'Espagne, tom. vii. p. 236.

[54] Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 2, cap. 12.--Castillo,
Crónica, cap. 128, 131, 136.--Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 162.--Beatrice
de Bobadilla and Mencia de la Torre, the two ladies most in her
confidence, had escaped to the neighboring town of Coca.

[55] Castillo, Crónica, cap. 136.--Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS.,
part. 2, cap. 12.--Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 69.

[56] This cavalier, who was of an ancient and honorable family in Castile,
was introduced to the princess's service by the archbishop of Toledo. He
is represented by Gonzalo de Oviedo as a man of much sagacity and
knowledge of the world, qualities with which he united a steady devotion
to the interests of his mistress. Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1,
quinc. 2, dial. 1.

[57] Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., cap. 14.-The bishop told Palencia,
that "if his own servants deserted him, he would oppose the entrance of
Ferdinand into the kingdom."

[58] Zurita, Anales, lib. 18, cap. 26.--The enrique was a gold coin, so
denominated from Henry II.

[59] Zurita, Anales, lib. 18, cap. 26.--Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii.
p. 273.

[60] Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. p. 78, Ilust. 2.

[61] Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 2, cap. 14.--Zurita, Anales,
loc. cit.

[62] This letter, dated October 12th, is cited at length by Castillo,
Crónica, cap. 136.

[63] Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 2, cap. 15.

[64] Gutierre de Cardenas was the first who pointed him out to the
princess, exclaiming at the same time, "_Ese es, ese es_," "This is he;"
in commemoration of which he was permitted to place on his escutcheon
the letters SS, whose pronunciation in Spanish resembles that of the
exclamation which he had uttered. Ibid., part. 2, cap. 15.--Oviedo,
Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 2, dial. 1.

[65] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 182.--Garibay, Compendio, lib. 18,
cap. 1.--"Tan amigo de los negocios," says Mariana, "que parecia con el
trabajo descansaba." Hist. de España, lib. 25, cap. 18.

[66] "En hermosura, puestas delante S. A. todas las mugeres que yo he
visto, ninguna vi tan graciosa, ni tanto de ver corao su persona, ni de
tal manera e sanctidad honestísíma." Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.

[67] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 201.--Abarca, Reyes de Aragon,
tom. ii. p. 362.--Garibay, Compendío, lib. 18, cap. 1.

[68] Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. p. 465.

[69] Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1469.--Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS.,
part. 2, cap. 16.--Zurita, Anales, lib. 18, cap. 26.--See a copy of the
official record of the marriage, Mem. de la Acad., tom. vi. Apend. 4. See
also the Ilust. 2.

[70] The intricacies of this affair, at once the scandal and the
stumbling-block of the Spanish historians, have been unravelled by Señor
Clemencin, with his usual perspicuity. See Mem. de la Acad., tom. vi. pp.
105-116, Ilust. 2.

[71] Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 2, cap. 16.--A lively
narrative of the adventures of Prince Ferdinand, detailed in this chapter,
may be found in Cushing's Reminiscences of Spain, (Boston, 1833,) vol. i.
pp. 225-255.

[72] Castillo, Crónica, cap. 137.--Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS.,
part. 2, cap. 16.




CHAPTER IV.

FACTIONS IN CASTILE.--WAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND ARAGON.--DEATH OF HENRY IV.,
OF CASTILE.

1469-1474.

Factions in Castile.--Ferdinand and Isabella.--Gallant Defence of
Perpignan against the French.--Ferdinand Raises the Siege.--Isabella's
Party gains Strength.--Interview between King Henry IV. and Isabella.--The
French Invade Roussillon.--Ferdinand's Summary Justice.--Death of Henry
IV., of Castile.--Influence of his Reign.


The marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella disconcerted the operations of the
marquis of Villena, or, as he should be styled, the grand master of St.
James, since he had resigned his marquisate to his elder son, on his
appointment to the command of the military order above mentioned, a
dignity inferior only to the primacy in importance. It was determined,
however, in the councils of Henry to oppose at once the pretensions of the
princess Joanna to those of Isabella; and an embassy was gladly received
from the king of France, offering to the former lady the hand of his
brother the duke of Guienne, the rejected suitor of Isabella. Louis the
Eleventh was willing to engage his relative in the unsettled politics of a
distant state, in order to relieve himself from his pretensions at home.
[1]

An interview took place between Henry the Fourth and the French
ambassadors in a little village in the vale of Lozoya, in October, 1470. A
proclamation was read, in which Henry declared his sister to have
forfeited whatever claims she had derived from the treaty of Toros de
Guisando, by marrying contrary to his approbation. He then with his queen
swore to the legitimacy of the princess Joanna, and announced her as his
true and lawful successor. The attendant nobles took the usual oaths of
allegiance, and the ceremony was concluded by affiancing the princess,
then in the ninth year of her age, with the formalities ordinarily
practised on such occasions, to the count of Boulogne, the representative
of the duke of Guienne. [2]

This farce, in which many of the actors were the same persons who
performed the principal parts at the convention of Toros de Guisando, had
on the whole an unfavorable influence on Isabella's cause. It exhibited
her rival to the world as one whose claims were to be supported by the
whole authority of the court of Castile, with the probable co-operation of
France. Many of the most considerable families in the kingdom, as the
Pachecos, [3] the Mendozas in all their extensive ramifications, [4] the
Zuñigas, the Velascos, [5] the Pimentels, [6] unmindful of the homage so
recently rendered to Isabella, now openly testified their adhesion to her
niece.

Ferdinand and his consort, who held their little court at Dueñas, [8] were
so poor as to be scarcely capable of defraying the ordinary charges of
their table. The northern provinces of Biscay and Guipuscoa had, however,
loudly declared against the French match; and the populous province of
Andalusia, with the house of Medina Sidonia at its head, still maintained
its loyalty to Isabella unshaken. But her principal reliance was on the
archbishop of Toledo, whose elevated station in the church and ample
revenues gave him perhaps less real influence, than his commanding and
resolute character, which had enabled him to triumph over every obstacle
devised by his more crafty adversary, the grand master of St. James. The
prelate, however, with all his generous self-devotion, was far from being
a comfortable ally. He would willingly have raised Isabella to the throne,
but he would have her indebted for her elevation exclusively to himself.
He looked with a jealous eye on her most intimate friends, and complained
that neither she nor her husband deferred sufficiently to his counsel. The
princess could not always conceal her disgust at these humors, and
Ferdinand, on one occasion, plainly told him that "he was not to be put in
leading-strings, like so many of the sovereigns of Castile." The old king
of Aragon, alarmed at the consequences of a rupture with so indispensable
an ally, wrote in the most earnest manner to his son, representing the
necessity of propitiating the offended prelate. But Ferdinand, although
educated in the school of dissimulation, had not yet acquired that self-
command, which enabled him in after-life to sacrifice his passions, and
sometimes indeed his principles, to his interests. [9]

The most frightful anarchy at this period prevailed throughout Castile.
While the court was abandoned to corrupt or frivolous pleasure, the
administration of justice was neglected, until crimes were committed with
a frequency and on a scale, which menaced the very foundations of society.
The nobles conducted their personal feuds with an array of numbers which
might compete with those of powerful princes. The duke of Infantado, the
head of the house of Mendoza, [10] could bring into the field, at four and
twenty hours' notice one thousand lances and ten thousand foot. The
battles, far from assuming the character of those waged by the Italian
_condottieri_ at this period, were of the most sanguinary and destructive
kind. Andalusia was in particular the theatre of this savage warfare. The
whole of that extensive district was divided by the factions of the
Guzmans and Ponces de Leon. The chiefs of these ancient houses having
recently died, the inheritance descended to young men, whose hot blood
soon revived the feuds, which had been permitted to cool under the
temperate sway of their fathers. One of these fiery cavaliers was Rodrigo
Ponce de Leon, so deservedly celebrated afterwards in the wars of Granada
as the marquis of Cadiz. He was an illegitimate and younger son of the
count of Arcos, but was preferred by his father to his other children in
consequence of the extraordinary qualities which he evinced at a very
early period. He served his apprenticeship to the art of war in the
campaigns against the Moors, displaying on several occasions an uncommon
degree of enterprise and personal heroism. On succeeding to his paternal
honors, his haughty spirit, impatient of a rival, led him to revive the
old feud with the duke of Medina Sidonia, the head of the Guzmans, who,
though the most powerful nobleman in Andalusia, was far his inferior in
capacity and military science. [11]

On one occasion the duke of Medina Sidonia mustered an army of twenty
thousand men against his antagonist; on another, no less than fifteen
hundred houses of the Ponce faction were burnt to the ground in Seville.
Such were the potent engines employed by these petty sovereigns in their
conflicts with one another, and such the havoc which they brought on the
fairest portion of the Peninsula. The husbandman, stripped of his harvest
and driven from his fields, abandoned himself to idleness, or sought
subsistence by plunder. A scarcity ensued in the years 1472 and 1473, in
which the prices of the most necessary commodities rose to such an
exorbitant height, as put them beyond the reach of any but the affluent.
But it would be wearisome to go into all the loathsome details of
wretchedness and crime brought on this unhappy country by an imbecile
government and a disputed succession, and which are portrayed with lively
fidelity in the chronicles, the letters, and the satires of the time. [12]

While Ferdinand's presence was more than ever necessary to support the
drooping spirits of his party in Castile, he was unexpectedly summoned
into Aragon to the assistance of his father. No sooner had Barcelona
submitted to King John, as mentioned in a preceding chapter, [13] than the
inhabitants of Roussillon and Cerdagne, which provinces, it will be
remembered, were placed in the custody of France, as a guaranty for the
king of Aragon's engagements, oppressed by the grievous exactions of their
new rulers, determined to break the yoke, and to put themselves again
under the protection of their ancient master, provided they could obtain
his support. The opportunity was favorable. A large part of the garrisons
in the principal cities had been withdrawn by Louis the Eleventh, to cover
the frontier on the side of Burgundy and Brittany. John, therefore, gladly
embraced the proposal, and on a concerted day a simultaneous insurrection
took place throughout the provinces, when such of the French, in the
principal towns, as had not the good fortune to escape into the citadels,
were indiscriminately massacred. Of all the country, Salces, Collioure,
and the castle of Perpignan alone remained in the hands of the French.
John then threw himself into the last-named city with a small body of
forces, and instantly set about the construction of works to protect the
inhabitants against the fire of the French garrison in the castle, as well
as from the army which might soon be expected to besiege them from
without. [14]

Louis the Eleventh, deeply incensed at the defection of his new subjects,
ordered the most formidable preparations for the siege of their capital.
John's officers, alarmed at these preparations, besought him not to expose
his person at his advanced age to the perils of a siege and of captivity.
But the lion-hearted monarch saw the necessity of animating the spirits of
the besieged by his own presence; and, assembling the inhabitants in one
of the churches of the city, he exhorted them resolutely to stand to their
defence, and made a solemn oath to abide the issue with them to the last.

Louis, in the mean while, had convoked the _ban_ and _arrière-ban_ of the
contiguous French provinces, and mustered an array of chivalry and feudal
militia amounting, according to the Spanish historians, to thirty thousand
men. With these ample forces, his lieutenant-general, the duke of Savoy,
closely invested Perpignan; and, as he was provided with a numerous train
of battering artillery, instantly opened a heavy fire on the inhabitants.
John, thus exposed to the double fire of the fortress and the besiegers,
was in a very critical situation. Far from being disheartened, however, he
was seen, armed cap-a-pie, on horseback from dawn till evening, rallying
the spirits of his troops, and always present at the point of danger. He
succeeded perfectly in communicating his own enthusiasm to the soldiers.
The French garrison were defeated in several sorties, and their governor
taken prisoner; while supplies were introduced into the city in the very
face of the blockading army. [15]

Ferdinand, on receiving intelligence of his father's perilous situation,
instantly resolved, by Isabella's advice, to march to his relief. Putting
himself at the head of a body of Castilian horse, generously furnished him
by the archbishop of Toledo and his friends, he passed into Aragon, where
he was speedily joined by the principal nobility of the kingdom, and an
army amounting in all to thirteen hundred lances and seven thousand
infantry. With this corps he rapidly descended the Pyrenees, by the way of
Mançanara, in the face of a driving tempest, which concealed him for some
time from the view of the enemy. The latter, during their protracted
operations, for nearly three months, had sustained a serious diminution of
numbers in their repeated skirmishes with the besieged, and still more
from an epidemic which broke out in their camp. They also began to suffer
not a little from want of provisions. At this crisis, the apparition of
this new army, thus unexpectedly descending on their rear, filled them
with such consternation, that they raised the siege at once, setting fire
to their tents, and retreating with such precipitation as to leave most of
the sick and wounded a prey to the devouring element. John marched out,
with colors flying and music playing, at the head of his little band, to
greet his deliverers; and, after an affecting interview in the presence of
the two armies, the father and son returned in triumph into Perpignan.
[16]

The French army, reinforced by command of Louis, made a second ineffectual
attempt (their own writers call it only a feint) upon the city; and the
campaign was finally concluded by a treaty between the two monarchs, in
which it was arranged, that the king of Aragon should disburse within the
year the sum originally stipulated for the services rendered him by Louis
in his late war with his Catalan subjects; and that, in case of failure,
the provinces of Roussillon and Cerdagne should be permanently ceded to
the French crown. The commanders of the fortified places in the contested
territory, selected by one monarch from the nominations of the other, were
excused during the interim from obedience to the mandates of either; at
least so far as they might contravene their reciprocal engagements. [17]

There is little reason to believe that this singular compact was
subscribed in good faith by either party. John, notwithstanding the
temporary succor which he had received from Louis at the commencement of
his difficulties with the Catalans, might justly complain of the
infraction of his engagements, at a subsequent period of the war; when he
not only withheld the stipulated aid, but indirectly gave every facility
in his power to the invasion of the duke of Lorraine. Neither was the king
of Aragon in a situation, had he been disposed, to make the requisite
disbursements. Louis, on the other hand, as the event soon proved, had no
other object in view but to gain time to reorganize his army, and to lull
his adversary into security, while he took effectual measures for
recovering the prize which had so unexpectedly eluded him.

During these occurrences Isabella's prospects were daily brightening in
Castile. The duke of Guienne, the destined spouse of her rival Joanna, had
died in France; but not until he had testified his contempt of his
engagements with the Castilian princess by openly soliciting the hand of
the heiress of Burgundy. [18] Subsequent negotiations for her marriage
with two other princes had entirely failed. The doubts which hung over her
birth, and which the public protestations of Henry and his queen, far from
dispelling, served only to augment, by the necessity which they implied
for such an extraordinary proceeding, were sufficient to deter any one
from a connection which must involve the party in all the disasters of a
civil war. [19]

Isabella's own character, moreover, contributed essentially to strengthen
her cause. Her sedate conduct, and the decorum maintained in her court,
formed a strong contrast with the frivolity and license which disgraced
that of Henry and his consort. Thinking men were led to conclude that the
sagacious administration of Isabella must eventually secure to her the
ascendency over her rival; while all, who sincerely loved their country,
could not but prognosticate for it, under her beneficent sway, a degree of
prosperity, which it could never reach under the rapacious and profligate
ministers who directed the councils of Henry, and most probably would
continue to direct those of his daughter.

Among the persons whose opinions experienced a decided revolution from
these considerations was Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, archbishop of Seville
and cardinal of Spain; a prelate, whose lofty station in the church was
supported by talents of the highest order; and whose restless ambition led
him, like many of the churchmen of the time, to take an active interest in
politics, for which he was admirably adapted by his knowledge of affairs
and discernment of character. Without deserting his former master, he
privately entered into a correspondence with Isabella; and a service,
which Ferdinand, on his return from Aragon, had an opportunity of
rendering the duke of Infantado, the head of the Mendozas, [20] secured
the attachment of the other members of this powerful family. [21]

A circumstance occurred at this time, which seemed to promise an
accommodation between the adverse factions, or at least between Henry and
his sister. The government of Segovia, whose impregnable citadel had been
made the depository of the royal treasure, was intrusted to Andres de
Cabrera, an officer of the king's household. This cavalier, influenced in
part by personal pique to the grand master of St. James, and still more
perhaps by the importunities of his wife, Beatriz de Bobadilla, the early
friend and companion of Isabella, entered into a correspondence with the
princess, and sought to open the way for her permanent reconciliation with
her brother. He accordingly invited her to Segovia, where Henry
occasionally resided, and, to dispel any suspicions which she might
entertain of his sincerity, despatched his wife secretly by night,
disguised in the garb of a peasant, to Aranda, where Isabella then held
her court. The latter, confirmed by the assurances of her friend, did not
hesitate to comply with the invitation, and, accompanied by the archbishop
of Toledo, proceeded to Segovia, where an interview took place between her
and Henry the Fourth, in which she vindicated her past conduct, and
endeavored to obtain her brother's sanction to her union with Ferdinand.
Henry, who was naturally of a placable temper, received her communication
with complacency, and, in order to give public demonstration of the good
understanding now subsisting between him and his sister, condescended to
walk by her side, holding the bridle of her palfrey, as she rode along the
streets of the city. Ferdinand, on his return into Castile, hastened to
Segovia, where he was welcomed by the monarch with every appearance of
satisfaction. A succession of and splendid entertainments, at which both
parties assisted, seemed to announce an entire oblivion of all past
animosities, and the nation welcomed with satisfaction these symptoms of
repose after the vexatious struggle by which it had been so long agitated.
[22]

The repose, however, was of no great duration. The slavish mind of Henry
gradually relapsed under its ancient bondage; and the grand master of St.
James succeeded, in consequence of an illness with which the monarch was
suddenly seized after an entertainment given by Cabrera, in infusing into
his mind suspicions of an attempt at assassination. Henry was so far
incensed or alarmed by the suggestion, that he concerted a scheme for
privately seizing the person of his sister, which was defeated by her own
prudence and the vigilance of her friends. [23]--But, if the visit to
Segovia failed in its destined purpose of a reconciliation with Henry, it
was attended with the important consequence of securing to Isabella a
faithful partisan in Cabrera, who, from the control which his situation
gave him over the royal coffers, proved a most seasonable ally in her
subsequent struggle with Joanna.

Not long after this event, Ferdinand received another summons from his
father to attend him in Aragon, where the storm of war, which had been for
some time gathering in the distance, now burst with pitiless fury. In the
beginning of February, 1474, an embassy consisting of two of his principal
nobles, accompanied by a brilliant train of cavaliers and attendants, had
been deputed by John to the court of Louis XI., for the ostensible purpose
of settling the preliminaries of the marriage, previously agreed on,
between the dauphin and the infanta Isabella, daughter of Ferdinand and
Isabella, then little more than three years of age. [24] The real object
of the mission was to effect some definitive adjustment or compromise of
the differences relating to the contested territories of Roussillon and
Cerdagne. The king of France, who, notwithstanding his late convention
with John, was making active preparations for the forcible occupation of
these provinces, determined to gain time by amusing the ambassadors with a
show of negotiation, and interposing every obstacle which his ingenuity
could devise to their progress through his dominions. He succeeded so well
in this latter part of his scheme, that the embassy did not reach Paris
until the close of Lent. Louis, who seldom resided in his capital, took
good care to be absent at this season. The ambassadors in the interim were
entertained with balls, military reviews, and whatever else might divert
them from the real objects of their mission. All communication was cut off
with their own government, as their couriers were stopped and their
despatches intercepted, so that John knew as little of his envoys or their
proceedings, as if they had been in Siberia or Japan. In the mean time,
formidable preparations were making in the south of France for a descent
on Roussillon; and when the ambassadors, after a fruitless attempt at
negotiation, which evaporated in mutual crimination and recrimination, set
out on their return to Aragon, they were twice detained, at Lyons and
Montpelier, from an extreme solicitude, as the French government expressed
it, to ascertain the safest route through a country intersected by hostile
armies; and all this, notwithstanding their repeated protestations against
this obliging disposition, which held them prisoners, in opposition to
their own will and the law of nations. The prince who descended to such
petty trickery passed for the wisest of his time. [25]

In the mean while, the Seigneur du Lude had invaded Roussillon at the head
of nine hundred French lances and ten thousand infantry, supported by a
powerful train of artillery, while a fleet of Genoese transports, laden
with supplies, accompanied the army along the coast. Elna surrendered
after a sturdy resistance; the governor and some of the principal
prisoners were shamefully beheaded as traitors; and the French then
proceeded to invest Perpignan. The king of Aragon was so much impoverished
by the incessant wars in which he had been engaged, that he was not only
unable to recruit his army, but was even obliged to pawn the robe of
costly fur, which he wore to defend his person against the inclemencies of
the season, in order to defray the expense of transporting his baggage. In
this extremity, finding himself disappointed in the cooperation, on which
he had reckoned, of his ancient allies the dukes of Burgundy and Brittany,
he again summoned Ferdinand to his assistance, who, after a brief
interview with his father in Barcelona, proceeded to Saragossa, to solicit
aid from the estates of Aragon.

An incident occurred on this visit of the prince worth noticing, as
strongly characteristic of the lawless habits of the age. A citizen of
Saragossa, named Ximenes Gordo, of noble family, but who had relinquished
the privileges of his rank in order to qualify himself for municipal
office, had acquired such ascendency over his townsmen, as to engross the
most considerable posts in the city for himself and his creatures. This
authority he abused in a shameless manner, making use of it not only for
the perversion of justice, but for the perpetration of the most flagrant
crimes. Although these facts were notorious, yet such were his power and
popularity with the lower classes, that Ferdinand, despairing of bringing
him to justice in the ordinary way, determined on a more summary process.
As Gordo occasionally visited the palace to pay his respects to the
prince, the latter affected to regard him with more than usual favor,
showing him such courtesy as might dissipate any distrust he had conceived
of him. Gordo, thus assured, was invited at one of those interviews to
withdraw into a retired apartment, where the prince wished to confer with
him on business of moment. On entering the chamber he was surprised by the
sight of the public executioner, the hangman of the city, whose presence,
together with that of a priest, and the apparatus of death with which the
apartment was garnished, revealed at once the dreadful nature of his
destiny.

He was then charged with the manifold crimes of which he had been guilty,
and sentence of death was pronounced on him. In vain did he appeal to
Ferdinand, pleading the services which he had rendered on more than one
occasion to his father. Ferdinand assured him that these should be
gratefully remembered in the protection of his children, and then, bidding
him unburden his conscience to his confessor, consigned him to the hand of
the executioner. His body was exposed that very day in the market-place of
the city, to the dismay of his friends and adherents, most of whom paid
the penalty of their crimes in the ordinary course of justice. This
extraordinary proceeding is highly characteristic of the unsettled times
in which it occurred; when acts of violence often superseded the regular
operation of the law, even in those countries, whose forms of government
approached the nearest to a determinate constitution. It will doubtless
remind the reader of the similar proceeding imputed to Louis the Eleventh,
in the admirable sketch given us of that monarch in "Quentin Durward."
[26]

The supplies furnished by the Aragonese cortes were inadequate to King
John's necessities, and he was compelled, while hovering with his little
force on the confines of Roussillon, to witness the gradual reduction of
its capital, without being able to strike a blow in its defence. The
inhabitants, indeed, who fought with a resolution worthy of ancient
Numantia or Saguntum, were reduced to the last extremity of famine,
supporting life by feeding on the most loathsome offal, on cats, dogs, the
corpses of their enemies, and even on such of their own dead as had fallen
in battle! And when at length an honorable capitulation was granted them
on the 14th of March, 1475, the garrison who evacuated the city, reduced
to the number of four hundred, were obliged to march on foot to Barcelona,
as they had consumed their horses during the siege. [27]

The terms of capitulation, which permitted every inhabitant to evacuate,
or reside unmolested in the city, at his option, were too liberal to
satisfy the vindictive temper of the king of France. He instantly wrote to
his generals, instructing them to depart from their engagements, to keep
the city so short of supplies as to compel an emigration of its original
inhabitants, and to confiscate for their own use the estates of the
principal nobility; and after delineating in detail the perfidious policy
which they were to pursue, he concluded with the assurance, "that, by the
blessing of God and our Lady, and Monsieur St. Martin, he would be with
them before the winter, in order to aid them in its execution." [28] Such
was the miserable medley of hypocrisy and superstition, which
characterized the politics of the European courts in this corrupt age, and
which dimmed the lustre of names, most conspicuous on the page of history.

The occupation of Roussillon was followed by a truce of six months between
the belligerent parties. The regular course of the narrative has been
somewhat anticipated, in order to conclude that portion of it relating to
the war with Prance, before again reverting to the affairs of Castile,
where Henry the Fourth, pining under an incurable malady, was gradually
approaching the termination of his disastrous reign.

This event, which, from the momentous consequences it involved, was
contemplated with the deepest solicitude, not only by those who had an
immediate and personal interest at stake, but by the whole nation, took
place on the night of the 11th of December, 1474. [29] It was precipitated
by the death of the grand master of St. James, on whom the feeble mind of
Henry had been long accustomed to rest for its support, and who was cut
off by an acute disorder but a few months previous, in the full prime of
his ambitious schemes. The king, notwithstanding the lingering nature of
his disease gave him ample time for preparation, expired without a will,
or even, as generally asserted, the designation of a successor. This was
the more remarkable, not only as being contrary to established usage, but
as occurring at a period when the succession had been so long and hotly
debated. [30] The testaments of the Castilian sovereigns, though never
esteemed positively binding, and occasionally, indeed, set aside, when
deemed unconstitutional or even inexpedient by the legislature, [31] were
always allowed to have great weight with the nation.

With Henry the Fourth terminated the male line of the house of Trastamara,
who had kept possession of the throne for more than a century, and in the
course of only four generations had exhibited every gradation of character
from the bold and chivalrous enterprise of the first Henry of that name,
down to the drivelling imbecility of the last.

The character of Henry the Fourth has been sufficiently delineated in that
of his reign. He was not without certain amiable qualities, and may be
considered as a weak, rather than a wicked prince. In persons, however,
intrusted with the degree of power exercised by sovereigns of even the
most limited monarchies of this period, a weak man may be deemed more
mischievous to the state over which he presides than a wicked one. The
latter, feeling himself responsible in the eyes of the nation for his
actions, is more likely to consult appearances, and, where his own
passions or interests are not immediately involved, to legislate with
reference to the general interests of his subjects. The former, on the
contrary, is too often a mere tool in the hands of favorites, who, finding
themselves screened by the interposition of royal authority from the
consequences of measures for which they should be justly responsible,
sacrifice without remorse the public weal to the advancement of their
private fortunes. Thus the state, made to minister to the voracious
appetites of many tyrants, suffers incalculably more than it would from
one. So fared it with Castile under Henry the Fourth; dismembered by
faction, her revenues squandered on worthless parasites, the grossest
violations of justice unredressed, public faith become a jest, the
treasury bankrupt, the court a brothel, and private morals too loose and
audacious to seek even the veil of hypocrisy! Never had the fortunes of
the kingdom reached so low an ebb since the great Saracen invasion.

       *       *       *       *       *

The historian cannot complain of a want of authentic materials for the
reign of Henry IV. Two of the chroniclers of that period, Alonso de
Palencia and Enriquez del Castillo, were eye-witnesses and conspicuous
actors in the scenes which they recorded, and connected with opposite
factions. The former of these writers, Alonso de Palencia, was born, as
appears from his work, "De Synonymis," cited by Pellicer, (Bibliotheca de
Traductores, p. 7,) in 1423. Nic. Antonio has fallen into the error of
dating his birth nine years later. (Bibliotheca Vetus, tom. ii. p. 331.)
At the age of seventeen, he became page to Alfonso of Carthagena, bishop
of Burgos, and, in the family of that estimable prelate, acquired a taste
for letters, which never deserted him during a busy political career. He
afterwards visited Italy, where he became acquainted with Cardinal
Bessarion, and through him with the learned George of Trebizond, whose
lectures on philosophy and rhetoric he attended. On his return to his
native country, he was raised to the dignity of royal historiographer by
Alfonso, younger brother of Henry IV., and competitor with him for the
crown. He attached himself to the fortunes of Isabella after Alfonso's
death, and was employed by the archbishop of Toledo in many delicate
negotiations, particularly in arranging the marriage of the princess with
Ferdinand, for which purpose he made a secret journey into Aragon. On the
accession of Isabella, he was confirmed in the office of national
chronicler, and passed the remainder of his life in the composition of
philological and historical works and translations from the ancient
classics. The time of his death is uncertain. He lived to a good old age,
however, since it appears from his own statement, (see Mendez, Typographia
Española, (Madrid, 1796,) p. 190,) that his version of Josephus was not
completed till the year 1492.

The most popular of Palencia's writings are his "Chronicle of Henry IV.,"
and his Latin "Decades," continuing the reign of Isabella down to the
capture of Baza, in 1489. His historical style, far from scholastic
pedantry, exhibits the business-like manner of a man of the world. His
Chronicle, which, being composed in the Castilian, was probably intended
for popular use, is conducted with little artifice, and indeed with a
prolixity and minuteness of detail, arising no doubt from the deep
interest which as an actor he took in the scenes he describes. His
sentiments are expressed with boldness, and sometimes with the acerbity of
party feeling. He has been much commended by the best Spanish writers,
such as Zurita, Zuñiga, Marina, Clemencin, for his veracity. The internal
evidence of this is sufficiently strong in his delineation of those scenes
in which he was personally engaged; in his account of others, it will not
be difficult to find examples of negligence and inaccuracy. His Latin
"Decades" were probably composed with more care, as addressed to a learned
class of readers; and they are lauded by Nic. Antonio as an elegant
commentary, worthy to be assiduously studied by all who would acquaint
themselves with the history of their country. The art of printing has done
less perhaps for Spain than for any other country in Europe; and these two
valuable histories are still permitted to swell the rich treasure of
manuscripts with which her libraries are overloaded.

Enriquez del Castillo, a native of Segovia, was the chaplain and
historiographer of King Henry IV., and a member of his privy council. His
situation not only made him acquainted with the policy and intrigues of
the court, but with the personal feelings of the monarch, who reposed
entire confidence in him, which Castillo repaid with uniform loyalty. He
appears very early to have commenced his Chronicle of Henry's reign. On
the occupation of Segovia by the young Alfonso, after the battle of
Olmedo, in 1467, the chronicler, together with the portion of his history
then complied, was unfortunate enough to fall into the enemy's hands. The
author was soon summoned to the presence of Alfonso and his counsellors,
to hear and justify, as he could, certain passages of what they termed his
"false and frivolous narrative." Castillo, hoping little from a defence
before such a prejudiced tribunal, resolutely kept his peace; and it might
have gone hard with him, had it not been for his ecclesiastical
profession. He subsequently escaped, but never recovered his manuscripts,
which were probably destroyed; and, in the introduction to his Chronicle,
he laments, that he has been obliged to rewrite the first half of his
master's reign.

Notwithstanding Castillo's familiarity with public affairs, his work is
not written in the business-like style of Palencia's. The sentiments
exhibit a moral sensibility scarcely to have been expected, even from a
minister of religion, in the corrupt court of Henry IV.; and the honest
indignation of the writer, at the abuses which he witnessed, sometimes
breaks forth in a strain of considerable eloquence. The spirit of his
work, notwithstanding its abundant loyalty, may be also commended for its
candor in relation to the partisans of Isabella; which has led some
critics to suppose that it underwent a _rifacimento_ after the accession
of that princess to the throne.

Castillo's Chronicle, more fortunate than that of his rival, has been
published in a handsome form under the care of Don Jose Miguel de Flores,
Secretary of the Spanish Academy of History, to whose learned labors in
this way Castilian literature is so much indebted.


FOOTNOTES

[1] Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 2, cap. 21.--Gaillard,
Rivalité, tom. iii. p. 284.--Rades y Andrada, Las Tres Ordenes, fol. 65.--
Caro de Torres, Ordenes Militares, fol. 43.

[2] Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 23.--Castillo,
Crónica, p. 298.--Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 2, cap. 24.--
Henry, well knowing how little all this would avail without the
constitutional sanction of the cortes, twice issued his summons in 1470
for the convocation of the deputies, to obtain a recognition of the title
of Joanna. But without effect. In the letters of convocation issued for a
third assembly of the states, in 1471, this purpose was prudently omitted,
and thus the claims of Joanna failed to receive the countenance of the
only body which could give them validity. See the copies of the original
writs, addressed to the cities of Toledo and Segovia, cited by Marina,
Teoría, tom. ii. pp. 87-89.

[3] The grand master of St. James, and his son, the marquis of Villena,
afterwards duke of Escalona. The rents of the former nobleman, whose
avarice was as insatiable as his influence over the feeble mind of Henry
IV. was unlimited, exceeded those of any other grandee in the kingdom. See
Pulgar, Claros Varones, tit. 6.

[4] The marquis of Santillana, first duke of Infantado, and his brothers,
the counts of Coruña, and of Tendilla, and above all Pedro Gonzalez de
Mendoza, afterwards cardinal of Spain, and archbishop of Toledo, who was
indebted for the highest dignities in the church less to his birth than
his abilities. See Claros Varones, tit. 4, 9.--Salazar de Mendoza,
Dignidades, lib. 3, cap. 17.

[5] Alvaro de Zuñiga, count of Palencia, and created by Henry IV., duke of
Arevalo.--Pedro Fernandez de Velasco, count of Haro, was raised to the
post of constable of Castile in 1473, and the office continued to be
hereditary in the family from that period. Pulgar, Claros Varones, tit.
3.--Salazar de Mendoza, Dignidades, lib. 3, cap. 21.

[6] The Pimentels, counts of Benavente, had estates which gave them 60,000
ducats a year; a very large income for that period, and far exceeding that
of any other grandee of similar rank in the kingdom. L. Marineo, Cosas
Memorables, fol. 25.

[8] Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 70.

[9] Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 170.--Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS.,
cap. 45.

[10] This nobleman, Diego Hurtado, "muy gentil caballero y gran señor," as
Oviedo calls him, was at this time only marquis of Santillana, and was not
raised to the title of duke of Infantado till the reign of Isabella,
(Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 8.) To avoid confusion,
however, I have given him the title by which he is usually recognized by
Castilian writers.

[11] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 3.--Salazar de Mendoza, Crónica
de el Gran Cardenal de España, Don Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, (Toledo,
1625,) pp. 138, 150.--Zuñiga, Anales de Sevilla, p. 362.

[12] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 4, 5, 7.--Zuñiga, Anales de
Sevilla, pp. 363, 364.--Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 2, cap.
35, 38, 39, 42.--Saez, Monedas de Enrique IV., pp. 1-5.--Pulgar, in an
epistle addressed, in the autumn of 1473, to the bishop of Coria, adverts
to several circumstances which set in a strong light the anarchical state
of the kingdom and the total deficiency of police. The celebrated
satirical eclogue, also, entitled "Mingo Revulgo," exposes, with coarse
but cutting sarcasm, the license of the court, the corruption of the
clergy, and the prevalent depravity of the people. In one of its stanzas
it boldly ventures to promise another and a better sovereign to the
country. This performance, even more interesting to the antiquarian than
to the historian, has been attributed by some to Pulgar, (see Mariana,
Hist. de España, tom. ii. p. 475,) and by others to Rodrigo Cota, (see
Nic. Antonio, Bibliotheca Veins, tom. ii p. 264,) but without satisfactory
evidence in favor of either. Bouterwek is much mistaken in asserting it to
have been aimed at the government of John II. The gloss of Pulgar, whose
authority as a contemporary must be considered decisive, plainly proves it
to have been directed against Henry IV.

[13] See Chap. II.

[14] Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., cap. 56.--Mariana, Hist. de
España, tom. ii. p. 481.--Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 191.--Barante,
Histoire des Ducs de Bourgogne, (Paris, 1825,) tom. ix. pp. 101-106.

[15] Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., cap. 70.--Mariana, Hist. de
España, tom. ii. p. 482.--L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 148.--Zurita,
Anales, tom. iv. fol. 195.--Anquetil, Histoire de France, (Paris, 1805,)
tom. v. pp. 60, 61.

[16] Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 196.--Barante, Hist. des Ducs de
Bourgogne, tom. x. pp. 105, 106.--L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 149.
--Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., cap. 70, 71, 72.

[17] Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 200.--Gaillard, Rivalité, tom. iii. p.
266.--See the articles of the treaty cited by Duclos, Hist. de Louis XI.,
tom. ii. pp. 99, 101.--Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., cap. 73.

[18] Louis XI. is supposed with much probability to have assassinated this
brother. M. de Barante sums up his examination of the evidence with this
remark: "Le roi Louis XI. ne fit peut-être pas mourir son frère, mais
personne ne pensa qu'il en fut incapable." Hist. des Ducs de Bourgogne,
tom. ix. p. 433.

[19] The two princes alluded to were the duke of Segorbe, a cousin of
Ferdinand, and the king of Portugal. The former, on his entrance into
Castile, assumed such sovereign state, (giving his hand, for instance, to
the grandees to kiss,) as disgusted these haughty nobles, and was
eventually the occasion of breaking off his match. Alonso de Palencia,
Corónica, MS., part. 2, cap. 62.--Faria y Sousa, Europa Portuguesa, tom.
ii. p. 392.

[20] Oviedo assigns another reason for this change; the disgust occasioned
by Henry IV.'s transferring the custody of his daughter from the family of
Mendoza to the Pachecos. Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 8.

[21] Salazar de Mendoza, Crón. del Gran Cardenal, p. 133.--Alonso de
Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 2, cap. 46, 92.--Castillo, Crónica, cap.
163.--The influence of these new allies, especially of the cardinal, over
Isabella's councils, was an additional ground of umbrage to the archbishop
of Toledo, who, in a communication with the king of Aragon, declared
himself, though friendly to their cause, to be released from all further
obligations to serve it. See Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. lib. 46, cap. 19.

[22] Carbajal, Anales, MS., años 73, 74.--Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, p. 27.
--Castillo, Crónica, cap. 164.--Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part.
2, cap. 75.--Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 23.

[23] Mendoza, Crón. del Gran Cardenal, pp. 141, 142.--Castillo, Crónica,
cap. 164.--Oviedo has given a full account of this cavalier, who was
allied to an ancient Catalan family, but who raised himself to such pre-
eminence by his own deserts, says that writer, that he may well be
considered the founder of his house. Loc. cit.

[24] Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 70.--This was the eldest child of
Ferdinand and Isabella, born Oct. 1st, 1470; afterwards queen of Portugal.

[25] Gaillard, Rivalité, tom. iii. pp. 267-276.--Duclos, Hist. de Louis
XI., tom. ii. pp. 113, 115.--Chronique Scandaleuse, ed. Petitot, tom.
xiii. pp. 443, 444.

[26] Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 2, cap. 83.--Ferreras, Hist.
d'Espagne, tom. vii. p. 400.--Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. lib. 19, cap. 12.

[27] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 150.--Zurita, Anales, tom. iv.
lib. 19, cap. 13.--Chronique Scandaleuse, ed. Petitot, tom. xiii. p. 456.
--Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 2, cap. 91.

[28] Of the original letters, as given by M. Barante, in his History of
the Dukes of Burgundy, in which the author has so happily seized the tone
and picturesque coloring of the ancient chronicle; tom. x. pp. 289, 298.

[29] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 10.--Carbajal, Anales, MS., año
74.--Castillo, Crónica, cap. 148.

[30] This topic is involved in no little obscurity, and has been reported
with much discrepancy as well as inaccuracy by the modern Spanish
historians. Among the ancient, Castillo, the historiographer of Henry IV.,
mentions certain "testamentary executors," without, however, noticing in
any more direct way the existence of a will. (Crón. c. 168.) The Curate of
Los Palacios refers to a clause reported, he says, to have existed in the
testament of Henry IV., in which he declares Joanna his daughter and heir;
(Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 10.) Alonso de Palencia states positively that
there was no such instrument, and that Henry, on being asked who was to
succeed him, referred to his secretary Juan Gonzalez for a knowledge of
his intention. (Crón. c. 92.) L. Marineo also states that the king, "with
his usual improvidence," left no will. (Cosas Memorables, fol. 155.)
Pulgar, another contemporary, expressly declares that he executed no will,
and quotes the words dictated by him to his secretary, in which he simply
designates two of the grandees as "executors of his soul," (_albuceas de
su anima_,) and four others in conjunction with them as the guardians
of his daughter Joanna. (Reyes Cat. p. 31.) It seems not improbable that
the existence of this document has been confounded with that of a
testament, and that with reference to it, the phrase above quoted of
Castillo, as well as the passage of Bernaldez, is to be interpreted.
Carbajal's wild story of the existence of a will, of its secretion for
more than thirty years, and its final suppression by Ferdinand, is too
naked of testimony to deserve the least weight with the historian. (See
his Anales, MS., año 74.) It should be remembered, however, that most of
the above-mentioned writers compiled their works after the accession of
Isabella, and that none, save Castillo, were the partisans of her rival.
It should also be added that in the letters addressed by the princess
Joanna to the different cities of the kingdom, on her assuming the title
of queen of Castile, (bearing date May, 1475,) it is expressly stated that
Henry IV., on his deathbed, solemnly affirmed her to be his only daughter
and lawful heir. These letters were drafted by John de Oviedo, (Juan
Gonzalez,) the confidential secretary of Henry IV. See Zurita, Anales,
tom. iv. fol. 235-239.

[31] As was the case with the testaments of Alfonso of Leon and Alfonso
the Wise, in the thirteenth century, and with that of Peter the Cruel, in
the fourteenth.




CHAPTER V.

ACCESSION OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA.--WAR OF THE SUCCESSION.--BATTLE OF
TORO.

1474-1476.

Isabella proclaimed Queen.--Settlement of the Crown.--Alfonso of Portugal
supports Joanna.--Invades Castile.--Retreat of the Castilians.--
Appropriation of the Church Plate.--Reorganization of the Army.--Battle of
Toro.--Submission of the whole Kingdom.--Peace with France and Portugal.--
Joanna takes the Veil.--Death of John II., of Aragon.


Most of the contemporary writers are content to derive Isabella's title to
the crown of Castile from the illegitimacy of her rival Joanna. But, as
this fact, whatever probability it may receive from the avowed
licentiousness of the queen, and some other collateral circumstances, was
never established by legal evidence, or even made the subject of legal
inquiry, it cannot reasonably be adduced as affording in itself a
satisfactory basis for the pretensions of Isabella. [1]

These are to be derived from the will of the nation as expressed by its
representatives in cortes. The power of this body to interpret the laws
regulating the succession, and to determine the succession itself, in the
most absolute manner, is incontrovertible, having been established by
repeated precedents from a very ancient period. [2] In the present
instance, the legislature, soon after the birth of Joanna, tendered the
usual oaths of allegiance to her as heir apparent to the monarchy. On a
subsequent occasion, however, the cortes, for reasons deemed sufficient by
itself, and under a conviction that its consent to the preceding measure
had been obtained through an undue influence on the part of the crown,
reversed its former acts, and did homage to Isabella as the only true and
lawful successor. [3] In this disposition the legislature continued so
resolute, that, notwithstanding Henry twice convoked the states for the
express purpose of renewing their allegiance to Joanna, they refused to
comply with the summons; [4] and thus Isabella, at the time of her
brother's death, possessed a title to the crown unimpaired, and derived
from the sole authority which could give it a constitutional validity. It
may be added that the princess was so well aware of the real basis of her
pretensions, that in her several manifestoes, although she adverts to the
popular notion of her rival's illegitimacy, she rests the strength of her
cause on the sanction of the cortes.

On learning Henry's death, Isabella signified to the inhabitants of
Segovia, where she then resided, her desire of being proclaimed queen in
that city, with the solemnities usual on such occasions. [5] Accordingly,
on the following morning, being the 13th of December, 1474, a numerous
assembly, consisting of the nobles, clergy, and public magistrates in
their robes of office, waited on her at the alcazar or castle, and,
receiving her under a canopy of rich brocade, escorted her in solemn
procession to the principal square of the city, where a broad platform or
scaffold had been erected for the performance of the ceremony. Isabella,
royally attired, rode on a Spanish jennet whose bridle was held by two of
the civic functionaries, while an officer of her court preceded her on
horseback, bearing aloft a naked sword, the symbol of sovereignty. On
arriving at the square she alighted from her palfrey, and, ascending the
platform, seated herself on a throne which had been prepared for her. A
herald with a loud voice proclaimed, "Castile, Castile for the king Don
Ferdinand and his consort Doña Isabella, queen proprietor (_reina
proprietaria_) of these kingdoms!" The royal standards were then
unfurled, while the peal of bells and the discharge of ordnance from the
castle publicly announced the accession of the new sovereign. Isabella,
after receiving the homage of her subjects, and swearing to maintain
inviolate the liberties of the realm, descended from the platform, and,
attended by the same _cortège_, moved slowly towards the cathedral
church; where, after Te Deum had been chanted, she prostrated herself
before the principal altar, and, returning thanks to the Almighty for the
protection hitherto vouchsafed her, implored him to enlighten her future
counsels, so that she might discharge the high trust reposed in her, with
equity and wisdom. Such were the simple forms, that attended the
coronation of the monarchs of Castile, previously to the sixteenth
century. [6]

The cities favorable to Isabella's cause, comprehending far the most
populous and wealthy throughout the kingdom, followed the example of
Segovia, and raised the royal standard for their new sovereign. The
principal grandees, as well as most of the inferior nobility, soon
presented themselves from all quarters, in order to tender the customary
oaths of allegiance; and an assembly of the estates, convened for the
ensuing month of February at Segovia, imparted, by a similar ceremony, a
constitutional sanction to these proceedings. [7]

On Ferdinand's arrival from Aragon, where he was staying at the time of
Henry's death, occupied with the war of Roussillon, a disagreeable
discussion took place in regard to the respective authority to be enjoyed
by the husband and wife in the administration of the government.
Ferdinand's relatives, with the admiral Henriquez at their head, contended
that the crown of Castile, and of course the exclusive sovereignty, was
limited to him as the nearest male representative of the house of
Trastamara. Isabella's friends, on the other hand, insisted that these
rights devolved solely on her, as the lawful heir and proprietor of the
kingdom. The affair was finally referred to the arbitration of the
cardinal of Spain and the archbishop of Toledo, who, after careful
examination, established by undoubted precedent, that the exclusion of
females from the succession did not obtain in Castile and Leon, as was the
case in Aragon; [8] that Isabella was consequently sole heir of these
dominions; and that whatever authority Ferdinand might possess, could only
be derived through her. A settlement was then made on the basis of the
original marriage contract. [9] All municipal appointments, and collation
to ecclesiastical benefices, were to be made in the name of both with the
advice and consent of the queen. All fiscal nominations, and issues from
the treasury, were to be subject to her order. The commanders of the
fortified places were to render homage to her alone. Justice was to be
administered by both conjointly, when residing in the same place, and by
each independently, when separate. Proclamations and letters patent were
to be subscribed with the signatures of both; their images were to be
stamped on the public coin, and the united arms of Castile and Aragon
emblazoned on a common seal. [10]

Ferdinand, it is said, was so much dissatisfied with an arrangement which
vested the essential rights of sovereignty in his consort, that he
threatened to return to Aragon; but Isabella reminded him, that this
distribution of power was rather nominal than real; that their interests
were indivisible; that his will would be hers; and that the principle of
the exclusion of females from the succession, if now established, would
operate to the disqualification of their only child, who was a daughter.
By these and similar arguments the queen succeeded in soothing her
offended husband, without compromising the prerogatives of her crown.

Although the principal body of the nobility, as has been stated, supported
Isabella's cause, there were a few families, and some of them the most
potent in Castile, who seemed determined to abide the fortunes of her
rival. Among these was the marquis of Villena, who, inferior to his father
in talent for intrigue, was of an intrepid spirit, and is commended by one
of the Spanish historians as "the best lance in the kingdom." His immense
estates, stretching from Toledo to Murcia, gave him an extensive influence
over the southern regions of New Castile. The duke of Arevalo possessed a
similar interest in the frontier province of Estremadura. With these were
combined the grand master of Calatrava and his brother, together with the
young marquis of Cadiz, and, as it soon appeared, the archbishop of
Toledo. This latter dignitary, whose heart had long swelled with secret
jealousy at the rising fortunes of the cardinal Mendoza, could no longer
brook the ascendency which that prelate's consummate sagacity and
insinuating address had given him over the counsels of his young
sovereigns. After some awkward excuses, he abruptly withdrew to his own
estates; nor could the most conciliatory advances on the part of the
queen, nor the deprecatory letters of the old king of Aragon, soften his
inflexible temper, or induce him to resume his station at the court; until
it soon became apparent from his correspondence with Isabella's enemies,
that he was busy in undermining the fortunes of the very individual, whom
he had so zealously labored to elevate. [11]

Under the auspices of this coalition, propositions were made to Alfonso
the Fifth, king of Portugal, to vindicate the title of his niece Joanna to
the throne of Castile, and, by espousing her, to secure to himself the
same rich inheritance. An exaggerated estimate was, at the same time,
exhibited of the resources of the confederates, which, when combined with
those of Portugal, would readily enable them to crush the usurpers,
unsupported, as the latter must be, by the co-operation of Aragon, whose
arms already found sufficient occupation with the French.

Alfonso, whose victories over the Barbary Moors had given him the cognomen
of "the African," was precisely of a character to be dazzled by the nature
of this enterprise. The protection of an injured princess, his near
relative, was congenial with the spirit of chivalry; while the conquest of
an opulent territory, adjacent to his own, would not only satisfy his
dreams of glory, but the more solid cravings of avarice. In this
disposition he was confirmed by his son, Prince John, whose hot and
enterprising temper found a nobler scope for ambition in such a war, than
in the conquest of a horde of African savages. [12]

Still, there were a few among Alfonso's counsellors possessed of
sufficient coolness to discern the difficulties of the undertaking. They
reminded him that the Castilian nobles on whom he principally relied were
the very persons who had formerly been most instrumental in defeating the
claims of Joanna, and securing the succession to her rival; that Ferdinand
was connected by blood with the most powerful families of Castile; that
the great body of the people, the middle as well as the lower classes,
were fully penetrated not only with a conviction of the legality of
Isabella's title, but with a deep attachment to her person; while, on the
other hand, their proverbial hatred of Portugal would make them too
impatient of interference from that quarter, to admit the prospect of
permanent success. [13]

These objections, sound as they were, were overruled by John's
impetuosity, and the ambition or avarice of his father. War was
accordingly resolved on; and Alfonso, after a vaunting, and, as may be
supposed, ineffectual summons to the Castilian sovereigns to resign their
crown in favor of Joanna, prepared for the immediate invasion of the
kingdom at the head of an army amounting, according to the Portuguese
historians, to five thousand six hundred horse and fourteen thousand foot.
This force, though numerically not so formidable as might have been
expected, comprised the flower of the Portuguese chivalry, burning with
the hope of reaping similar laurels to those won of old by their fathers
on the plains of Aljubarrotta; while its deficiency in numbers was to be
amply compensated by recruits from the disaffected party in Castile, who
would eagerly flock to its banners, on its advance across the borders. At
the same time negotiations were entered into with the king of France, who
was invited to make a descent upon Biscay, by a promise, somewhat
premature, of a cession of the conquered territory.

Early in May, the king of Portugal put his army in motion, and, entering
Castile by the way of Estremadura, held a northerly course towards
Placencia, where he was met by the duke of Arevalo and the marquis of
Villena, and by the latter nobleman presented to the princess Joanna, his
destined bride. On the 12th of the month he was affianced with all
becoming pomp to this lady, then scarcely thirteen years of age; and a
messenger was despatched to the court of Rome, to solicit a dispensation
for their marriage, rendered necessary by the consanguinity of the
parties. The royal pair were then proclaimed, with the usual solemnities,
sovereigns of Castile; and circulars were transmitted to the different
cities, setting forth Joanna's title and requiring their allegiance. [14]

After some days given to festivity, the army resumed its march, still in a
northerly direction, upon Arevalo, where Alfonso determined to await the
arrival of the reinforcements which he expected from his Castilian allies.
Had he struck at once into the southern districts of Castile, where most
of those friendly to his cause were to be found, and immediately commenced
active operations with the aid of the marquis of Cadiz, who it was
understood was prepared to support him in that quarter, it is difficult to
say what might have been the result. Ferdinand and Isabella were so wholly
unprepared at the time of Alfonso's invasion, that it is said they could
scarcely bring five hundred horse to oppose it. By this opportune delay at
Arevalo, they obtained space for preparation. Both of them were
indefatigable in their efforts. Isabella, we are told, was frequently
engaged through the whole night in dictating despatches to her
secretaries. She visited in person such of the garrisoned towns as
required to be confirmed in their allegiance, performing long and painful
journeys on horseback with surprising celerity, and enduring fatigues,
which, as she was at that time in delicate health, wellnigh proved fatal
to her constitution. [15] On an excursion to Toledo, she determined to
make one effort more to regain the confidence of her ancient minister the
archbishop. She accordingly sent an envoy to inform him of her intention
to wait on him in person at his residence in Alcalá de Henares. But as the
surly prelate, far from being moved by this condescension, returned for
answer, that, "if the queen entered by one door, he would go out at the
other," she did not choose to compromise her dignity by any further
advances.

By Isabella's extraordinary exertions, as well as those of her husband,
the latter found himself, in the beginning of July, at the head of a force
amounting in all to four thousand men-at-arms, eight thousand light horse,
and thirty thousand foot, an ill-disciplined militia, chiefly drawn from
the mountainous districts of the north, which manifested peculiar devotion
to his cause; his partisans in the south being preoccupied with
suppressing domestic revolt, and with incursions on the frontiers of
Portugal. [16]

Meanwhile Alfonso, after an unprofitable detention of nearly two months at
Arevalo, marched on Toro, which, by a preconcerted agreement, was
delivered into his hands by the governor of the city, although the
fortress, under the conduct of a woman, continued to maintain a gallant
defence. While occupied with its reduction, Alfonso was invited to receive
the submission of the adjacent city and castle of Zamora. The defection of
these places, two of the most considerable in the province of Leon, and
peculiarly important to the king of Portugal from their vicinity to his
dominions, was severely felt by Ferdinand, who determined to advance at
once against his rival, and bring their quarrel to the issue of a battle;
in this, acting in opposition to the more cautious counsel of his father,
who recommended the policy, usually judged most prudent for an invaded
country, of acting on the defensive, instead of risking all on the chances
of a single action.

Ferdinand arrived before Toro on the 19th of July, and immediately drew up
his army, before its walls, in order of battle. As the king of Portugal,
however, still kept within his defences, Ferdinand sent a herald into his
camp, to defy him to a fair field of fight with his whole army, or, if he
declined this, to invite him to decide their differences by personal
combat. Alfonso accepted the latter alternative; but, a dispute arising
respecting the guaranty for the performance of the engagements on either
side, the whole affair evaporated, as usual, in an empty vaunt of
chivalry.

The Castilian army, from the haste with which it had been mustered, was
wholly deficient in battering artillery, and in other means for annoying a
fortified city; and, as its communications were cut off, in consequence of
the neighboring fortresses being in possession of the enemy, it soon
became straitened for provisions. It was accordingly decided in a council
of war to retreat without further delay. No sooner was this determination
known, than it excited general dissatisfaction throughout the camp. The
soldiers loudly complained that the king was betrayed by his nobles; and a
party of over-loyal Biscayans, inflamed by the suspicions of a conspiracy
against his person, actually broke into the church where Ferdinand was
conferring with his officers, and bore him off in their arms from the
midst of them to his own tent, notwithstanding his reiterated explanations
and remonstrances. The ensuing retreat was conducted in so disorderly a
manner by the mutinous soldiery, that Alfonso, says a contemporary, had he
but sallied with two thousand horse, might have routed and perhaps
annihilated the whole army. Some of the troops were detached to reinforce
the garrisons of the loyal cities, but most of them dispersed again among
their native mountains. The citadel of Toro soon afterwards capitulated.
The archbishop of Toledo, considering these events as decisive of the
fortunes of the war, now openly joined the king of Portugal at the head of
five hundred lances, boasting at the same time, that "he had raised
Isabella from the distaff, and would soon send her back to it again." [17]

So disastrous an introduction to the campaign might indeed well fill
Isabella's bosom with anxiety. The revolutionary movements, which had so
long agitated Castile, had so far unsettled every man's political
principles, and the allegiance of even the most loyal hung so loosely
about them, that it was difficult to estimate how far it might be shaken
by such a blow occurring at this crisis. [18] Fortunately, Alfonso was in
no condition to profit by his success. His Castilian allies had
experienced the greatest difficulty in enlisting their vassals in the
Portuguese cause; and, far from furnishing him with the contingents which
he had expected, found sufficient occupation in the defence of their own
territories against the loyal partisans of Isabella. At the same time,
numerous squadrons of light cavalry from Estremadura and Andalusia,
penetrating into Portugal, carried the most terrible desolation over the
whole extent of its unprotected borders. The Portuguese knights loudly
murmured at being cooped up in Toro, while their own country was made the
theatre of war; and Alfonso saw himself under the necessity of detaching
so considerable a portion of his army for the defence of his frontier, as
entirely to cripple his future operations. So deeply, indeed, was he
impressed, by these circumstances, with the difficulty of his enterprise,
that, in a negotiation with the Castilian sovereigns at this time, he
expressed a willingness to resign his claims to their crown in
consideration of the cession of Galicia, together with the cities of Toro
and Zamora, and a considerable sum of money. Ferdinand and his ministers,
it is reported, would have accepted the proposal; but Isabella, although
acquiescing in the stipulated money payment, would not consent to the
dismemberment of a single inch of the Castilian territory.

In the mean time both the queen and her husband, undismayed by past
reverses, were making every exertion for the reorganization of an army on
a more efficient footing. To accomplish this object, an additional supply
of funds became necessary, since the treasure of King Henry, delivered
into their hands by Andres de Cabrera, at Segovia, had been exhausted by
the preceding operations. [19] The old king of Aragon advised them to
imitate their ancestor Henry the Second, of glorious memory, by making
liberal grants and alienations in favor of their subjects, which they
might, when more firmly seated on the throne, resume at pleasure.
Isabella, however, chose rather to trust to the patriotism of her people,
than have recourse to so unworthy a stratagem. She accordingly convened an
assembly of the states, in the month of August, at Medina del Campo. As
the nation had been too far impoverished under the late reign to admit of
fresh exactions, a most extraordinary expedient was devised for meeting
the stipulated requisitions. It was proposed to deliver into the royal
treasury half the amount of plate belonging to the churches throughout the
kingdom, to be redeemed in the term of three years, for the sum of thirty
_cuentos_, or millions, of maravedies. The clergy, who were very
generally attached to Isabella's interests, far from discouraging this
startling proposal, endeavored to vanquish the queen's repugnance to it by
arguments and pertinent illustrations drawn from Scripture. This
transaction certainly exhibits a degree of disinterestedness, on the part
of this body, most unusual in that age and country, as well as a generous
confidence in the good faith of Isabella, of which she proved herself
worthy by the punctuality with which she redeemed it. [20]

Thus provided with the necessary funds, the sovereigns set about enforcing
new levies and bringing them under better discipline, as well as providing
for their equipment in a manner more suitable to the exigencies of the
service, than was done for the preceding army. The remainder of the summer
and the ensuing autumn were consumed in these preparations, as well as in
placing their fortified towns in a proper posture of defence, and in the
reduction of such places as held out against them. The king of Portugal,
all this while, lay with his diminished forces in Toro, making a sally on
one occasion only, for the relief of his friends, which was frustrated by
the sleepless vigilance of Isabella.

Early in December, Ferdinand passed from the siege of Burgos, in Old
Castile, to Zamora, whose inhabitants expressed a desire to return to
their ancient allegiance; and, with the co-operation of the citizens,
supported by a large detachment from his main army, he prepared to invest
its citadel. As the possession of this post would effectually intercept
Alfonso's communications with his own country, he determined to relieve it
at every hazard, and for this purpose despatched a messenger into Portugal
requiring his son, Prince John, to reinforce him with such levies as he
could speedily raise. All parties now looked forward with eagerness to a
general battle, as to a termination of the evils of this long-protracted
war.

The Portuguese prince, having with difficulty assembled a corps amounting
to two thousand lances and eight thousand infantry, took a northerly
circuit round Galicia, and effected a junction with his father in Toro, on
the 14th of February, 1476. Alfonso, thus reinforced, transmitted a
pompous circular to the pope, the king of France, his own dominions, and
those well affected to him in Castile, proclaiming his immediate intention
of taking the usurper, or of driving him from the kingdom. On the night of
the 17th, having first provided for the security of the city by leaving in
it a powerful reserve, Alfonso drew off the residue of his army, probably
not much exceeding three thousand five hundred horse and five thousand
foot, well provided with artillery and with arquebuses, which latter
engine was still of so clumsy and unwieldy construction, as not to have
entirely superseded the ancient weapons of European warfare. The
Portuguese army, traversing the bridge of Toro, pursued their march along
the southern side of the Douro, and reached Zamora, distant only a few
leagues, before the dawn. [21]

At break of day, the Castilians were surprised by the array of floating
banners, and martial panoply glittering in the sun, from the opposite side
of the river, while the discharges of artillery still more unequivocally
announced the presence of the enemy. Ferdinand could scarcely believe that
the Portuguese monarch, whose avowed object had been the relief of the
castle of Zamora, should have selected a position so obviously unsuitable
for this purpose. The intervention of the river, between him and the
fortress situated at the northern extremity of the town, prevented him
from relieving it, either by throwing succors into it, or by annoying the
Castilian troops, who, intrenched in comparative security within the walls
and houses of the city, were enabled by means of certain elevated
positions, well garnished with artillery, to inflict much heavier injury
on their opponents, than they could possibly receive from them. Still,
Ferdinand's men, exposed to the double fire of the fortress and the
besiegers, would willingly have come to an engagement with the latter; but
the river, swollen by winter torrents, was not fordable, and the bridge,
the only direct avenue to the city, was enfiladed by the enemy's cannon,
so as to render a sally in that direction altogether impracticable. During
this time, Isabella's squadrons of light cavalry, hovering on the skirts
of the Portuguese camp, effectually cut off its supplies, and soon reduced
it to great straits for subsistence. This circumstance, together with the
tidings of the rapid advance of additional forces to the support of
Ferdinand, determined Alfonso, contrary to all expectation, on an
immediate retreat; and accordingly on the morning of the 1st of March,
being little less than a fortnight from the time in which he commenced
this empty gasconade, the Portuguese army quitted its position before
Zamora, with the same silence and celerity with which it had occupied it.

Ferdinand's troops would instantly have pushed after the fugitives, but
the latter had demolished the southern extremity of the bridge before
their departure; so that, although some few effected an immediate passage
in boats, the great body of the army was necessarily detained until the
repairs were completed, which occupied more than three hours. With all the
expedition they could use, therefore, and leaving their artillery behind
them, they did not succeed in coming up with the enemy until nearly four
o'clock in the afternoon, as the latter was defiling through a narrow pass
formed by a crest of precipitous hills on the one side, and the Douro on
the other, at the distance of about five miles from the city of Toro. [22]

A council of war was then called, to decide on the expediency of an
immediate assault. It was objected, that the strong position of Toro would
effectually cover the retreat of the Portuguese in case of their
discomfiture; that they would speedily be reinforced by fresh recruits
from that city, which would make them more than a match for Ferdinand's
army, exhausted by a toilsome march, as well as by its long fast, which it
had not broken since the morning; and that the celerity, with which it had
moved, had compelled it, not only to abandon its artillery, but to leave a
considerable portion of the heavy-armed infantry in the rear.
Notwithstanding the weight of these objections, such were the high spirit
of the troops and their eagerness to come to action, sharpened by the view
of the quarry, which after a wearisome chase seemed ready to fall into
their hands, that they were thought more than sufficient to counterbalance
every physical disadvantage; and the question of battle was decided in the
affirmative.

As the Castilian army emerged from the defile into a wide and open plain,
they found that the enemy had halted, and was already forming in order of
battle. The king of Portugal led the centre, with the archbishop of Toledo
on his right wing, its extremity resting on the Douro; while the left,
comprehending the arquebusiers and the strength of the cavalry, was placed
under the command of his son, Prince John. The numerical force of the two
armies, although in favor of the Portuguese, was nearly equal, amounting
probably in each to less than ten thousand men, about one-third being
cavalry. Ferdinand took his station in the centre, opposite his rival,
having the admiral and the duke of Alva on his left; while his right wing,
distributed into six battles or divisions, under their several commanders,
was supported by a detachment of men-at-arms from the provinces of Leon
and Galicia.

The action commenced in this quarter. The Castilians, raising the war-cry
of "St. James and St. Lazarus," advanced on the enemy's left under Prince
John, but were saluted with such a brisk and well-directed fire from his
arquebusiers, that their ranks were disconcerted. The Portuguese men-at-
arms, charging them at the same time, augmented their confusion, and
compelled them to fall back precipitately on the narrow pass in their
rear, where, being supported by some fresh detachments from the reserve,
they were with difficulty rallied by their officers, and again brought
into the field. In the mean while, Ferdinand closed with the enemy's
centre, and the action soon became general along the whole line. The
battle raged with redoubled fierceness in the quarter where the presence
of the two monarchs infused new ardor into their soldiers, who fought as
if conscious that this struggle was to decide the fate of their masters.
The lances were shivered at the first encounter, and, as the ranks of the
two armies mingled with each other, the men fought hand to hand with their
swords, with a fury sharpened by the ancient rivalry of the two nations,
making the whole a contest of physical strength rather than skill. [23]

The royal standard of Portugal was torn to shreds in the attempt to seize
it on the one side and to preserve it on the other, while its gallant
bearer, Edward de Almeyda, after losing first his right arm, and then his
left, in its defence, held it firmly with his teeth until he was cut down
by the assailants. The armor of this knight was to be seen as late as
Mariana's time, in the cathedral church of Toledo, where it was preserved
as a trophy of this desperate act of heroism, which brings to mind a
similar feat recorded in Grecian story.

The old archbishop of Toledo, and the cardinal Mendoza, who, like his
reverend rival, had exchanged the crosier for the corslet, were to be seen
on that day in the thickest of the _mêlée_. The holy wars with the infidel
perpetuated the unbecoming spectacle of militant ecclesiastics among the
Spaniards, to a still later period, and long after it had disappeared from
the rest of civilized Europe.

At length, after an obstinate struggle of more than three hours, the valor
of the Castilian troops prevailed, and the Portuguese were seen to give
way in all directions. The duke of Alva, by succeeding in turning their
flank, while they were thus vigorously pressed in front, completed their
disorder, and soon converted their retreat into a rout. Some, attempting
to cross the Douro, were drowned, and many, who endeavored to effect an
entrance into Toro, were entangled in the narrow defile of the bridge, and
fell by the sword of their pursuers, or miserably perished in the river,
which, bearing along their mutilated corpses, brought tidings of the fatal
victory to Zamora. Such were the heat and fury of the pursuit, that the
intervening night, rendered darker than usual by a driving rain storm,
alone saved the scattered remains of the army from destruction. Several
Portuguese companies, under favor of this obscurity, contrived to elude
their foes by shouting the Castilian battle-cry. Prince John, retiring
with a fragment of his broken squadrons to a neighboring eminence,
succeeded, by lighting fires and sounding his trumpets, in rallying round
him a number of fugitives; and, as the position he occupied was too strong
to be readily forced, and the Castilian troops were too weary, and well
satisfied with their victory, to attempt it, he retained possession of it
till morning, when he made good his retreat into Toro. The king of
Portugal, who was missing, was supposed to have perished in the battle,
until, by advices received from him late on the following day, it was
ascertained that he had escaped without personal injury, and with three or
four attendants only, to the fortified castle of Castro Nuño, some leagues
distant from the field of action. Numbers of his troops, attempting to
escape across the neighboring frontiers into their own country, were
maimed or massacred by the Spanish peasants, in retaliation of the
excesses wantonly committed by them in their invasion of Castile.
Ferdinand, shocked at this barbarity, issued orders for the protection of
their persons, and freely gave safe-conducts to such as desired to return
into Portugal. He even, with a degree of humanity more honorable, as well
as more rare, than military success, distributed clothes and money to
several prisoners brought into Zamora in a state of utter destitution, and
enabled them to return in safety to their own country. [24]

The Castilian monarch remained on the field of battle till after midnight,
when he returned to Zamora, being followed in the morning by the cardinal
of Spain and the admiral Henriquez, at the head of the victorious legions.
Eight standards with the greater part of the baggage were taken in the
engagement, and more than two thousand of the enemy slain or made
prisoners. Queen Isabella, on receiving tidings of the event at
Tordesillas, where she then was, ordered a procession to the church of St.
Paul in the suburbs, in which she herself joined, walking barefoot with
all humility, and offered up a devout thanksgiving to the God of battles
for the victory with which he had crowned her arms. [25]

It was indeed a most auspicious victory, not so much from the immediate
loss inflicted on the enemy, as from its moral influence on the Castilian
nation. Such as had before vacillated in their faith,--who, in the
expressive language of Bernaldez, "estaban aviva quien vence,"--who were
prepared to take sides with the strongest, now openly proclaimed their
allegiance to Ferdinand and Isabella; while most of those, who had been
arrayed in arms or had manifested by any other overt act their hostility
to the government, vied with each other in demonstrations of the most
loyal submission, and sought to make the best terms for themselves which
they could. Among these latter, the duke of Arevalo, who indeed had made
overtures to this effect some time previous through the agency of his son,
together with the grand master of Calatrava, and the count of Urueña, his
brother, experienced the lenity of government, and were confirmed in the
entire possession of their estates. The two principal delinquents, the
marquis of Villena and the archbishop of Toledo, made a show of resistance
for some time longer; but, after witnessing the demolition of their
castles, the capture of their towns, the desertion of their vassals, and
the sequestration of their revenues, were fain to purchase a pardon at the
price of the most humble concessions, and the forfeiture of an ample
portion of domain.

The castle of Zamora, expecting no further succors from Portugal, speedily
surrendered, and this event was soon followed by the reduction of Madrid,
Baeza, Toro, and other principal cities; so that, in little more than six
months from the date of the battle, the whole kingdom, with the exception
of a few insignificant posts still garrisoned by the enemy, had
acknowledged the supremacy of Ferdinand and Isabella. [26]

Soon after the victory of Toro, Ferdinand was enabled to concentrate a
force amounting to fifty thousand men, for the purpose of repelling the
French from Guipuscoa, from which they had already twice been driven by
the intrepid natives, and whence they again retired with precipitation on
receiving news of the king's approach. [27]

Alfonso, finding his authority in Castile thus rapidly melting away before
the rising influence of Ferdinand and Isabella, withdrew with his virgin
bride into Portugal, where he formed the resolution of visiting France in
person, and soliciting succor from his ancient ally, Louis the Eleventh.
In spite of every remonstrance, he put this extraordinary scheme into
execution. He reached France, with a retinue of two hundred followers, in
the month of September. He experienced everywhere the honors due to his
exalted rank, and to the signal mark of confidence, which he thus
exhibited towards the French king. The keys of the cities were delivered
into his hands, the prisoners were released from their dungeons, and his
progress was attended by a general jubilee. His brother monarch, however,
excused himself from affording more substantial proofs of his regard,
until he should have closed the war then pending between him and Burgundy,
and until Alfonso should have fortified his title to the Castilian crown,
by obtaining from the pope a dispensation for his marriage with Joanna.

The defeat and death of the duke of Burgundy, whose camp, before Nanci,
Alfonso visited in the depth of winter, with the chimerical purpose of
effecting a reconciliation between him and Louis, removed the former of
these impediments; as, in good time, the compliance of the pope did the
latter. But the king of Portugal found himself no nearer the object of his
negotiations; and, after waiting a whole year a needy supplicant at the
court of Louis, he at length ascertained that his insidious host was
concerting an arrangement with his mortal foes, Ferdinand and Isabella.
Alfonso, whose character always had a spice of Quixotism in it, seems to
have completely lost his wits at this last reverse of fortune. Overwhelmed
with shame at his own credulity, he felt himself unable to encounter the
ridicule which awaited his return to Portugal, and secretly withdrew, with
two or three domestics only, to an obscure village in Normandy, whence he
transmitted an epistle to Prince John, his son, declaring, "that, as all
earthly vanities were dead within his bosom, he resolved to lay up an
imperishable crown by performing a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and
devoting himself to the service of God, in some retired monastery;" and he
concluded with requesting his son "to assume the sovereignty, at once, in
the same manner as if he had heard of his father's death." [28]

Fortunately Alfonso's retreat was detected before he had time to put his
extravagant project in execution, and his trusty followers succeeded,
though with considerable difficulty, in diverting him from it; while the
king of France, willing to be rid of his importunate guest, and unwilling
perhaps to incur the odium of having driven him to so desperate an
extremity as that of his projected pilgrimage, provided a fleet of ships
to transport him back to his own dominions, where, to complete the farce,
he arrived just five days after the ceremony of his son's coronation as
king of Portugal. Nor was it destined that the luckless monarch should
solace himself, as he had hoped, in the arms of his youthful bride; since
the pliant pontiff, Sixtus the Fourth, was ultimately persuaded by the
court of Castile to issue a new bull overruling the dispensation formerly
conceded, on the ground that it had been obtained by a misrepresentation
of facts.

Prince John, whether influenced by filial piety, or prudence, resigned the
crown of Portugal to his father, soon after his return; [29] and the old
monarch was no sooner reinstated in his authority, than, burning with a
thirst for vengeance, which made him insensible to every remonstrance, he
again prepared to throw his country into combustion by reviving his
enterprise against Castile. [30]

While these hostile movements were in progress, Ferdinand, leaving his
consort in possession of a sufficient force for the protection of the
frontiers, made a journey into Biscay for the purpose of an interview with
his father, the king of Aragon, to concert measures for the pacification
of Navarre, which still continued to be rent with those sanguinary feuds,
that were bequeathed like a precious legacy from one generation to
another. [31] In the autumn of the same year a treaty of peace was
definitively adjusted between the plenipotentiaries of Castile and France,
at St. Jean de Luz, in which it was stipulated as a principle article,
that Louis the Eleventh should disconnect himself from his alliance with
Portugal, and give no further support to the pretensions of Joanna. [32]

Thus released from apprehension in this quarter, the sovereigns were
enabled to give their undivided attention to the defence of the western
borders. Isabella, accordingly, early in the ensuing winter, passed into
Estremadura for the purpose of repelling the Portuguese, and still more of
suppressing the insurrectionary movements of certain of her own subjects,
who, encouraged by the vicinity of Portugal, carried on from their private
fortresses a most desolating and predatory warfare over the circumjacent
territory. Private mansions and farm-houses were pillaged and burnt to the
ground, the cattle and crops swept away in their forays, the highways
beset, so that all travelling was at an end, all communication cut off,
and a rich and populous district converted at once into a desert.
Isabella, supported by a body of regular troops and a detachment of the
Holy Brotherhood, took her station at Truxillo, as a central position,
whence she might operate on the various points with greatest facility. Her
counsellors remonstrated against this exposure of her person in the very
heart of the disaffected country; but she replied that "it was not for her
to calculate perils or fatigues in her own cause, nor by an unseasonable
timidity to dishearten her friends, with whom she was now resolved to
remain until she had brought the war to a conclusion." She then gave
immediate orders for laying siege at the same time to the fortified towns
of Medellin, Merida, and Deleytosa.

At this juncture the infanta Doña Beatriz of Portugal, sister-in-law of
King Alfonso, and maternal aunt of Isabella, touched with grief at the
calamities, in which she saw her country involved by the chimerical
ambition of her brother, offered herself as the mediator of peace between
the belligerent nations. Agreeably to her proposal, an interview took
place between her and Queen Isabella at the frontier town of Alcantara. As
the conferences of the fair negotiators experienced none of the
embarrassments usually incident to such deliberations, growing out of
jealousy, distrust, and a mutual design to overreach, but were conducted
in perfect good faith, and a sincere desire, on both sides, of
establishing a cordial reconciliation, they resulted, after eight days'
discussion, in a treaty of peace, with which the Portuguese infanta
returned into her own country, in order to obtain the sanction of her
royal brother. The articles contained in it, however, were too unpalatable
to receive an immediate assent; and it was not until the expiration of six
months, during which Isabella, far from relaxing, persevered with
increased energy in her original plan of operations, that the treaty was
formally ratified by the court of Lisbon. [33]

It was stipulated in this compact, that Alfonso should relinquish the
title and armorial bearings, which he had assumed as king of Castile; that
he should resign his claims to the hand of Joanna, and no longer maintain
her pretensions to the Castilian throne; that that lady should make the
election within six months, either to quit Portugal for ever, or to remain
there on the condition of wedding Don John, the infant son of Ferdinand
and Isabella, [34] so soon as he should attain a marriageable age, or to
retire into a convent, and take the veil; that a general amnesty should be
granted to all such Castilians as had supported Joanna's cause; and,
finally, that the concord between the two nations should be cemented by
the union of Alonso, son of the prince of Portugal, with the infanta
Isabella, of Castile. [35]

Thus terminated, after a duration of four years and a half, the War of the
Succession. It had fallen with peculiar fury on the border provinces of
Leon and Estremadura, which, from their local position, had necessarily
been kept in constant collision with the enemy. Its baneful effects were
long visible there, not only in the general devastation and distress of
the country, but in the moral disorganization, which the licentious and
predatory habits of soldiers necessarily introduced among a simple
peasantry. In a personal view, however, the war had terminated most
triumphantly for Isabella, whose wise and vigorous administration,
seconded by her husband's vigilance, had dispelled the storm, which
threatened to overwhelm her from abroad, and established her in
undisturbed possession of the throne of her ancestors.

Joanna's interests were alone compromised, or rather sacrificed, by the
treaty. She readily discerned in the provision for her marriage with an
infant still in the cradle, only a flimsy veil intended to disguise the
king of Portugal's desertion of her cause. Disgusted with a world, in
which she had hitherto experienced nothing but misfortune herself, and
been the innocent cause of so much to others, she determined to renounce
it for ever, and seek a shelter in the peaceful shades of the cloister.
She accordingly entered the convent of Santa Clara at Coimbra, where, in
the following year, she pronounced the irrevocable vows, which divorce the
unhappy subject of them for ever from her species. Two envoys from
Castile, Ferdinand de Talavera, Isabella's confessor, and Dr. Diaz de
Madrigal, one of her council, assisted at this affecting ceremony; and the
reverend father, in a copious exhortation addressed to the youthful
novice, assured her "that she had chosen the better part approved in the
Evangelists; that, as spouse of the church, her chastity would be prolific
of all spiritual delights; her subjection, liberty,--the only true
liberty, partaking more of Heaven than of earth. No kinsman," continued
the disinterested preacher, "no true friend, or faithful counsellor, would
divert you from so holy a purpose." [36]

Not long after this event, King Alfonso, penetrated with grief at the loss
of his destined bride,--the "excellent lady," as the Portuguese continue
to call her,--resolved to imitate her example, and exchange his royal
robes for the humble habit of a Franciscan friar. He consequently made
preparation for resigning his crown anew, and retiring to the monastery of
Varatojo, on a bleak eminence near the Atlantic Ocean, when he suddenly
fell ill, at Cintra, of a disorder which terminated his existence, on the
28th of August, 1481. Alfonso's fiery character, in which all the elements
of love, chivalry, and religion were blended together, resembled that of
some paladin of romance; as the chimerical enterprises, in which he was
perpetually engaged, seem rather to belong to the age of knight-errantry,
than to the fifteenth century. [37]

In the beginning of the same year in which the pacification with Portugal
secured to the sovereigns the undisputed possession of Castile, another
crown devolved on Ferdinand by the death of his father, the king of
Aragon, who expired at Barcelona, on the 20th of January, 1479, in the
eighty-third year of his age. [38] Such was his admirable constitution
that he retained not only his intellectual, but his bodily vigor,
unimpaired to the last. His long life was consumed in civil faction or
foreign wars; and his restless spirit seemed to take delight in these
tumultuous scenes, as best fitted to develop its various energies. He
combined, however, with this intrepid and even ferocious temper, an
address in the management of affairs, which led him to rely, for the
accomplishment of his purposes, much more on negotiation than on positive
force. He may be said to have been one of the first monarchs who brought
into vogue that refined science of the cabinet, which was so profoundly
studied by statesmen at the close of the fifteenth century, and on which
his own son Ferdinand furnished the most practical commentary.

The crown of Navarre, which he had so shamelessly usurped, devolved, on
his decease, on his guilty daughter Leonora, countess of Foix, who, as we
have before noticed, survived to enjoy it only three short weeks. Aragon,
with its extensive dependencies, descended to Ferdinand. Thus the two
crowns of Aragon and Castile, after a separation of more than four
centuries, became indissolubly united, and the foundations were laid of
the magnificent empire which was destined to overshadow every other
European monarchy.


FOOTNOTES

[1] The popular belief of Joanna's illegitimacy was founded on the
following circumstances. 1. King Henry's first marriage with Blanche of
Navarre was dissolved, after it had subsisted twelve years, on the
publicly alleged ground of "impotence in the parties." 2. The princess
Joanna, the only child of his second queen, Joanna of Portugal, was not
born until the eighth year of her marriage, and long after she had become
notorious for her gallantries. 3. Although Henry kept several mistresses,
whom he maintained in so ostentatious a manner as to excite general
scandal, he was never known to have had issue by any one of them.--To
counterbalance the presumption afforded by these facts, it should be
stated, that Henry appears, to the day of his death, to have cherished the
princess Joanna as his own offspring, and that Beltran de la Cueva, duke
of Albuquerque, her reputed father, instead of supporting her claims to
the crown on the demise of Henry, as would have been natural had he been
entitled to the honors of paternity, attached himself to the adverse
faction of Isabella.

Queen Joanna survived her husband about six months only. Father Florez
(Reynas Cathólicas, tom. ii. pp. 760-786) has made a flimsy attempt to
whitewash her character; but, to say nothing of almost every contemporary
historian, as well as of the official documents of that day (see Marina,
Teoría, tom. iii. part. 2, num. 11), the stain has been too deeply fixed
by the repeated testimony of Castillo, the loyal adherent of her own
party, to be thus easily effaced.

It is said, however, that the queen died in the odor of sanctity; and
Ferdinand and Isabella caused her to be deposited in a rich mausoleum,
erected by the ambassador to the court of the Great Tamerlane for himself,
but from which his remains were somewhat unceremoniously ejected, in order
to make room for those of his royal mistress.

[2] See this subject discussed _in extenso_, by Marina, Teoría, part. 2,
cap. 1-10.--See, also, Introd. Sect. I. of this History.

[3] See Part I. Chap. 3.

[4] See Part I. Chap. 4, Note 2.

[5] Fortunately, this strong place, in which the royal treasure was
deposited, was in the keeping of Andres de Cabrera, the husband of
Isabella's friend, Beatriz de Bobadilla. His co-operation at this juncture
was so important, that Oviedo does not hesitate to declare, "It lay with
him to make Isabella or her rival queen, as he listed." Quincuagenas, MS.,
bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 23.

[6] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 10.--Carbajal, Anales, MS., año
75.--Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 2, cap. 93.--L. Marineo,
Cosas Memorables, fol. 155.--Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 2,
dial. 3.

[7] Marina, whose peculiar researches and opportunities make him the best,
is my only authority for this convention of the cortes. (Teoría, tom. ii.
pp. 63, 89.) The extracts he makes from the writ of summons, however, seem
to imply, that the object was not the recognition of Ferdinand and
Isabella, but of their daughter, as successor to the crown. Among the
nobles, who openly testified their adhesion to Isabella, were no less than
four of the six individuals, to whom the late king had intrusted the
guardianship of his daughter Joanna; viz. the grand cardinal of Spain, the
constable of Castile, the duke of Infantado, and the count of Benavente.

[8] A precedent for female inheritance, in the latter kingdom, was
subsequently furnished by the undisputed succession and long reign of
Joanna, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, and mother of Charles V. The
introduction of the Salic law, under the Bourbon dynasty, opposed a new
barrier, indeed; but this has been since swept away by the decree of the
late monarch, Ferdinand VII., and the paramount authority of the cortes;
and we may hope that the successful assertion of her lawful rights by
Isabella II. will put this much vexed question at rest for ever.

[9] See Part I. Chap. 3.--Ferdinand's powers are not so narrowly limited,
at least not so carefully defined, in this settlement, as in the marriage
articles. Indeed, the instrument is much more concise and general in its
whole import.

[10] Salazar de Mendoza, Crón. del Gran Cardenal, lib. 1, cap. 40.--L.
Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 155, 156.--Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol.
222-224.--Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, pp. 35, 36.--See the original
instrument signed by Ferdinand and Isabella, cited at length in Dormer's
Discursos Varios de Historia, (Zaragoza, 1683,) pp. 295-313.--It does not
appear that the settlement was ever confirmed by, or indeed presented to,
the cortes. Marina speaks of it, however, as emanating from that body.
(Teoría, tom. ii. pp. 63, 64.) From Pulgar's statement, as well as from
the instrument itself, it seems to have been made under no other auspices
or sanction, than that of the great nobility and cavaliers. Marina's
eagerness to find a precedent for the interference of the popular branch
in all the great concerns of government, has usually quickened, but
sometimes clouded, his optics. In the present instance he has undoubtedly
confounded the irregular proceedings of the aristocracy exclusively, with
the deliberate acts of the legislature.

[11] Alonso de Palencia, Corónica, MS., part. 2, cap. 94.--Garibay,
Compendio, lib. 18, cap. 3.--Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 10,
11.--Pulgar, Letras, (Madrid, 1775,) let. 3, al Arzobispo de Toledo.--The
archbishop's jealousy of cardinal Mendoza is uniformly reported by the
Spanish writers as the true cause of his defection from the queen.

[12] Ruy de Pina, Chrónica d'el Rey Alfonso V., cap. 173, apud Collecçaö
de Livros Inéditos de Historia Portugueza, (Lisboa, 1790-93,) tom. i.

[13] The ancient rivalry between the two nations was exasperated into the
most deadly rancor, by the fatal defeat at Aljubarrotta, in 1235, in which
fell the flower of the Castilian nobility. King John I. wore mourning, it
is said, to the day of his death, in commemoration of this disaster.
(Faria y Sousa, Europa Portuguesa, tom. ii. pp. 394-396.--La Clède, Hist.
de Portugal, tom. iii. pp. 357-359.) Pulgar, the secretary of Ferdinand
and Isabella, addressed, by their order, a letter of remonstrance to the
king of Portugal, in which he endeavors, by numerous arguments founded on
expediency and justice, to dissuade him from his meditated enterprise.
Pulgar, Letras, No. 7.

[14] Ruy de Pina, Chrónica d'el Rey Alfonso V., cap. 174-178.--Bernaldez,
Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 16, 17, 18.--Bernaldez states, that Alfonso,
previously to his invasion, caused largesses of plate and money to be
distributed among the Castilian nobles, whom he imagined to be well
affected towards him. Some of them, the duke of Alva in particular,
received his presents and used them in the cause of Isabella.--Faria y
Sousa, Europa Portuguesa, tom. ii. pp. 396-398.--Zurita, Anales, tom. iv.
fol. 230-240.--La Clède, Hist. de Portugal, tom. iii. pp. 360-362.-Pulgar,
Crónica, p. 51.--L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 156.--Oviedo,
Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 2, dial. 3.

[15] The queen, who was, at that time, in a state of pregnancy, brought on
a miscarriage by her incessant personal exposure. Zurita, Anales, tom. iv.
fol. 234.

[16] Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 75.--Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, pp. 45-55.--
Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. vii. p. 411.--Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos,
MS., cap. 23.

[17] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 18.--Faria y Sousa, Europa
Portuguesa, tom. ii. pp. 398-400.--Pulgar, Crónica, pp. 55-60.--Ruy de
Pina, Chrón. d'el Rey Alfonso V., cap. 179.--La Clède, Hist. de Portugal,
tom. iii. p. 366.--Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 240-243.

[18] "Pues no os maravilleis de eso," says Oviedo, in relation to these
troubles, "que nó solo entre hermanos suele haber esas diferencias, mas
entre padre é hijo lo vimos ayer, como suelen decir." Quincuagenas, MS.,
bat. 1, quinc. 2, dial. 3.

[19] The royal coffers were found to contain about 1