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

BY
WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT.

IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. II.




CONTENTS OF VOLUME II.


PART FIRST. [CONTINUED.]

CHAPTER XII.
  INTERNAL AFFAIRS OF THE KINGDOM.--INQUISITION IN ARAGON.
  ISABELLA ENFORCES THE LAWS
  CHASTISEMENT OF CERTAIN ECCLESIASTICS
  MARRIAGE OF CATHARINE OF NAVARRE
  LIBERATION OF CATALAN SERFS
  INQUISITION IN ARAGON
  REMONSTRANCES OF CORTES
  CONSPIRACY FORMED
  ASSASSINATION OF ARBUES
  CRUEL PERSECUTIONS
  INQUISITION THROUGHOUT FERDINAND'S DOMINIONS

CHAPTER XIII.
  WAR OF GRANADA.--SURRENDER OF VELEZ MALAGA.--SIEGE AND CONQUEST
    OF MALAGA.
  POSITION OF VELEZ MALAGA
  ARMY BEFORE VELEZ
  DEFEAT OF EL ZAGAL
  NARROW ESCAPE OF FERDINAND
  SURRENDER OF VELEZ
  DESCRIPTION OF MALAGA
  SHARP RECONTRE
  MALAGA INVESTED BY SEA AND LAND
  BRILLIANT SPECTACLE
  EXTENSIVE PREPARATIONS
  THE QUEEN VISITS THE CAMP
  SUMMONS OF THE TOWN
  DANGER OF THE MARQUIS OF CADIZ
  CIVIL FEUDS OF THE MOORS
  ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE THE SOVEREIGNS
  DISTRESS AND RESOLUTION OF THE BESIEGED
  ENTHUSIASM OF THE CHRISTIANS
  DISCIPLINE OF THE ARMY
  GENERAL SALLY
  GENEROSITY OF A MOORISH KNIGHT
  OUTWORKS CARRIED
  GRIEVOUS FAMINE
  PROPOSALS FOR SURRENDER
  HAUGHTY DEMEANOR OF FERDINAND
  MALAGA SURRENDERS AT DISCRETION
  PURIFICATION OF THE CITY
  ENTRANCE OF THE SOVEREIGNS
  RELEASE OF CHRISTIAN CAPTIVES
  LAMENT OF THE MALAGANS
  SENTENCE PASSED ON THEM
  WARY DEVICE OF FERDINAND
  CRUEL POLICY OF THE VICTORS
  MEASURES FOR REPEOPLING MALAGA

CHAPTER XIV.
  WAR OF GRANADA.--CONQUEST OF BAZA.--SUBMISSION OF EL ZAGAL.
  THE SOVEREIGNS VISIT ARAGON
  INROADS INTO GRANADA
  BORDER WAR
  EMBASSY FROM MAXIMILIAN
  PREPARATIONS FOR THE SIEGE OF BAZA
  THE KING TAKES COMMAND OF THE ARMY
  POSITION AND STRENGTH OF BAZA
  ASSAULT ON THE GARDEN
  DESPONDENCY OF THE SPANISH CHIEFS
  DISPELLED BY ISABELLA
  GARDENS CLEARED OF THEIR TIMBER
  CITY CLOSELY INVESTED
  MISSION FROM THE SULTAN OF EGYPT
  HOUSES ERECTED FOB THE ARMY
  ITS STRICT DISCIPLINE
  HEAVY TEMPEST
  ISABELLA'S ENERGY
  HER PATRIOTIC SACRIFICES
  RESOLUTION OF THE BESIEGED
  ISABELLA VISITS THE CAMP
  SUSPENSION OF ARMS
  BAZA SURRENDERS
  CONDITIONS
  OCCUPATION OF THE CITY
  TREATY OF SURRENDER WITH EL ZAGAL
  PAINFUL MARCH OF THE SPANISH ARMY
  INTERVIEW BETWEEN FERDINAND AND EL ZAGAL
  OCCUPATION OF EL ZAGAL'S DOMAIN
  EQUIVALENT ASSIGNED TO HIM
  DIFFICULTIES OF THIS CAMPAIGN
  ISABELLA'S POPULARITY AND INFLUENCE
  NOTICE OF PETER MARTYR

CHAPTER XV.
  WAR OF GRANADA.-SIEGE AND SURRENDER OF THE CITY OF GRANADA.
  THE INFANTA ISABELLA
  PUBLIC FESTIVITIES
  GRANADA SUMMONED IN VAIN
  KNIGHTHOOD OF DON JUAN
  FERDINAND'S POLICY
  ISABELLA DEPOSES THE JUDGES OF CHANCERY
  FERDINAND MUSTERS HIS FORCES
  ENCAMPS IN THE VEGA
  POSITION OF GRANADA
  MOSLEM AND CHRISTIAN CHIVALRY
  THE QUEEN SURVEYS THE CITY
  SKIRMISH WITH THE ENEMY
  CONFLAGRATION OF THE CHRISTIAN CAMP
  ERECTION OF SANTA FE
  NEGOTIATIONS FOR SURRENDER
  CAPITULATION OF GRANADA
  COMMOTIONS IN GRANADA
  PREPARATIONS FOR OCCUPYING THE CITY
  THE CROSS RAISED ON THE ALHAMBRA
  FATE OF ABDALLAH
  RESULTS OF THE WAR OF GRANADA
  ITS MORAL INFLUENCE
  ITS MILITARY INFLUENCE
  DESTINY OF THE MOORS
  DEATH AND CHARACTER OF THE MARQUIS OF CADIZ
  NOTICE OF BERNALDEZ, CURATE OF LOS PALACIOS
  IRVING'S CHRONICLE OF GRANADA

CHAPTER XVI.
  APPLICATION OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AT THE SPANISH COURT.
  MARITIME ENTERPRISE OF THE PORTUGUESE
  EARLY SPANISH DISCOVERIES
  EARLY HISTORY OF COLUMBUS
  BELIEF OF LAND IN THE WEST
  COLUMBUS APPLIES TO PORTUGAL
  TO THE COURT OF CASTILE
  REFERRED TO A COUNCIL
  HIS APPLICATION REJECTED
  HE PREPARES TO LEAVE SPAIN
  INTERPOSITION IN HIS BEHALF
  COLUMBUS AT SANTA FE
  NEGOTIATIONS AGAIN BROKEN OFF
  THE QUEEN'S FAVORABLE DISPOSITION
  FINAL ARRANGEMENT WITH COLUMBUS
  HE SAILS ON HIS FIRST VOYAGE
  INDIFFERENCE TO HIS ENTERPRISE
  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS DUE TO ISABELLA
  NOTICE OF NAVARRETE

CHAPTER XVII.
  EXPULSION OF THE JEWS FROM SPAIN.
  EXCITEMENT AGAINST THE JEWS
  FOMENTED BY THE CLERGY
  VIOLENT CONDUCT OF TORQUEMADA
  EDICT OF EXPULSION
  ITS SEVERE OPERATION
  CONSTANCY OF THE JEWS
  ROUTES OF THE EMIGRANTS
  THEIR SUFFERINGS IN AFRICA
  IN OTHER COUNTRIES
  WHOLE NUMBER OF EXILES
  DISASTROUS RESULTS
  TRUE MOTIVES OF THE EDICT
  CONTEMPORARY JUDGMENTS
  MISTAKEN PIETY OF THE QUEEN

CHAPTER XVIII.
  ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF FERDINAND.--RETURN AND SECOND VOYAGE OF
    COLUMBUS.
  THE SOVEREIGNS VISIT ARAGON
  ATTEMPT ON FERDINAND'S LIFE
  GENERAL CONSTERNATION
  LOYALTY OF THE PEOPLE
  SLOW RECOVERY OF THE KING
  PUNISHMENT OF THE ASSASSIN
  RETURN OF COLUMBUS
  DISCOVERY OF THE WEST INDIES
  JOYOUS RECEPTION OF COLUMBUS
  HIS PROGRESS TO BARCELONA
  INTERVIEW WITH THE SOVEREIGNS
  SENSATIONS CAUSED BY THE DISCOVERY
  BOARD FOR INDIAN AFFAIRS
  REGULATIONS OF TRADE
  PREPARATIONS FOR A SECOND VOYAGE
  CONVERSION OF THE NATIVES
  NEW POWERS GRANTED TO COLUMBUS
  APPLICATION TO ROME
  FAMOUS BULLS OF ALEXANDER VI
  JEALOUSY OF THE COURT OF LISBON
  WARY DIPLOMACY
  SECOND VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS
  MISSION TO PORTUGAL
  DISGUST OF JOHN II
  TREATY OF TORDESILLAS

CHAPTER XIX.
  CASTILIAN LITERATURE.--CULTIVATION OF THE COURT.--CLASSICAL LEARNING.--
    SCIENCE.
  FERDINAND'S EDUCATION NEGLECTED
  INSTRUCTION OF ISABELLA
  HER COLLECTION OF BOOKS
  TUITION OF THE INFANTAS
  OF PRINCE JOHN
  THE QUEEN'S CARE FOR THE EDUCATION OF HER NOBLES
  LABORS OF MARTYR
  OF LUCIO MARINEO
  SCHOLARSHIP OF THE NOBLES
  ACCOMPLISHED WOMEN
  CLASSICAL LEARNING
  LEBRIJA
  ARIAS BARBOSA
  MERITS OF THE SPANISH SCHOLARS
  UNIVERSITIES
  SACRED STUDIES
  OTHER SCIENCES
  PRINTING INTRODUCED
  THE QUEEN ENCOURAGES IT
  ITS RAPID DIFFUSION
  ACTUAL PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

CHAPTER XX.
  CASTILIAN LITERATURE.--ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY.--LYRICAL POETRY.--
    THE DRAMA.
  THIS REIGN AN EPOCH IN POLITE LETTERS
  ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY
  THEIR PERNICIOUS EFFECTS
  BALLADS OR ROMANCES
  EARLY CULTIVATION IN SPAIN
  RESEMBLANCE TO THE ENGLISH
  MOORISH MINSTRELSY
  ITS DATE AND ORIGIN
  ITS HIGH REPUTE
  NUMEROUS EDITIONS OF THE BALLADS
  LYRIC POETRY
  CANCIONERO GENERAL
  ITS LITERARY VALUE
  LOW STATE OF LYRIC POETRY
  COPLAS OF MANRIQUE
  RISE OF THE SPANISH DRAMA
  TRAGICOMEDY OF CELESTINA
  CRITICISM ON IT
  IT OPENED THE WAY TO DRAMATIC WRITING
  NUMEROUS EDITIONS OF IT
  JUAN DE LA ENCINA
  HIS DRAMATIC ECLOGUES
  TORRES DE NAHARRO
  HIS COMEDIES
  SIMILAR IN SPIRIT WITH THE LATER DRAMAS
  NOT ACTED IN SPAIN
  LOW CONDITION OF THE STAGE
  TRAGIC DRAMA
  OLIVA'S CLASSIC IMITATIONS
  NOT POPULAR
  NATIONAL SPIRIT OF THE LITERATURE OF THIS EPOCH
  MORATIN'S DRAMATIC CRITICISM

PART SECOND.

THE PERIOD WHEN, THE INTERIOR ORGANIZATION OF THE MONARCHY HAVING BEEN
COMPLETED, THE SPANISH NATION ENTERED ON ITS SCHEMES OF DISCOVERY AND
CONQUEST; OR THE PERIOD ILLUSTRATING MORE PARTICULARLY THE FOREIGN POLICY
OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA.

CHAPTER I.
  ITALIAN WARS.--GENERAL VIEW OF EUROPE.--INVASION OF ITALY BY CHARLES
    VIII., OF FRANCE.
  FOREIGN POLITICS DIRECTED BY FERDINAND
  EUROPE AT THE CLOSE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY
  CHARACTER OF THE REIGNING SOVEREIGNS
  IMPROVED POLITICAL AND MORAL CONDITION
  MORE INTIMATE RELATIONS BETWEEN STATES
  FOREIGN RELATIONS CONDUCTED BY THE SOVEREIGN
  ITALY THE SCHOOL OF POLITICS
  HER MOST POWERFUL STATES
  CHARACTER OF ITALIAN POLITICS
  INTERNAL PROSPERITY
  INTRIGUES OF SFORZA
  CHARLES VIII., OF FRANCE
  HIS PRETENSIONS TO NAPLES
  NEGOTIATIONS RESPECTING ROUSSILLON
  CHARLES'S COUNSELLORS IN THE PAY OP FERDINAND
  TREATY OF BARCELONA
  ITS IMPORTANCE TO SPAIN
  ALARM AT THE FRENCH INVASION, IN ITALY
  IN EUROPE, ESPECIALLY SPAIN
  PREPARATIONS OF CHARLES
  AN ENVOY SENT TO THE FRENCH COURT
  ANNOUNCES FERDINAND'S VIEWS
  CHARLES'S DISSATISFACTION
  THE FRENCH CROSS THE ALPS
  ITALIAN TACTICS
  THE SWISS INFANTRY
  FRENCH ARTILLERY
  SFORZA JEALOUS OF THE FRENCH
  THE POPE CONFERS THE TITLE OF CATHOLIC
  NAVAL PREPARATIONS IN SPAIN
  SECOND MISSION TO CHARLES VIII
  BOLD CONDUCT OF THE ENVOYS
  THE KING OF NAPLES FLIES TO SICILY
  THE FRENCH ENTER NAPLES
  GENERAL HOSTILITY TO THEM
  LEAGUE OF VENICE
  ZURITA'S LIFE AND WRITINGS

CHAPTER II.
  ITALIAN WARS.--RETREAT OF CHARLES VIII.--CAMPAIGNS OF GONSALVO DE
    CORDOVA.--FINAL EXPULSION OF THE FRENCH.
  CONDUCT OF CHARLES
  PLUNDERS THE WORKS OF ART
  RETREAT OF THE FRENCH  GONSALVO DE CORDOVA
  HIS EARLY LIFE
  HIS BRILLIANT QUALITIES
  RAISED TO THE ITALIAN COMMAND
  ARRIVES IN ITALY
  LANDS IN CALABRIA
  MARCHES ON SEMINARA
  GONSALVO'S PRUDENCE
  BATTLE OF SEMINARA
  DEFEAT OF THE NEAPOLITANS
  GONSALVO RETREATS TO REGGIO
  FERDINAND RECOVERS HIS CAPITAL
  GONSALVO IN CALABRIA
  HIS SUCCESSES
  DECLINE OF THE FRENCH
  BESIEGED IN ATELLA
  GONSALVO SURPRISES LAINO
  ARRIVES BEFORE ATELLA
  RECEIVES THE TITLE OF GREAT CAPTAIN
  BEATS A DETACHMENT OF SWISS
  CAPITULATION OF MONTPENSIER
  MISERABLE STATE OF THE FRENCH
  DEATH OF FERDINAND OF NAPLES
  ACCESSION OF FREDERIC II
  TOTAL EXPULSION OF THE FRENCH
  REMARKS ON GUICCIARDINI AND GIOVIO
  SISMONDI

CHAPTER III.
  ITALIAN WARS.--GONSALVO SUCCORS THE POPE.--TREATY WITH FRANCE.--
    ORGANIZATION OF THE SPANISH MILITIA.
  WAR ON THE SIDE OF ROUSSILLON
  THE POPE ASKS THE AID OF GONSALVO
  STORMING AND CAPTURE OF OSTIA
  GONSALVO ENTERS ROME
  HIS RECEPTION BY THE POPE
  RETURNS TO SPAIN
  PEACE WITH FRANCE
  FERDINAND'S VIEWS RESPECTING NAPLES
  HIS FAME ACQUIRED BY THE WAR
  INFLUENCE OF THE WAR ON SPAIN
  ORGANIZATION OF THE MILITIA

CHAPTER IV.
  ALLIANCES OF THE ROYAL FAMILY.--DEATH OF PRINCE JOHN AND PRINCESS
    ISABELLA.
  ROYAL FAMILY OF CASTILE
  JOANNA BELTRANEJA
  MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCESS ISABELLA
  DEATH OF HER HUSBAND
  ALLIANCES WITH THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA
  AND THAT OF ENGLAND
  JOANNA EMBARKS
  THE QUEEN'S ANXIETY
  MARGARET OF AUSTRIA
  RETURNS IN THE FLEET
  MARRIAGE OF JOHN AND MARGARET
  SECOND MARRIAGE OF PRINCESS ISABELLA
  SUDDEN ILLNESS OF PRINCE JOHN
  HIS DEATH
  HIS AMIABLE CHARACTER
  THE KING AND QUEEN OF PORTUGAL VISIT SPAIN
  OBJECTIONS TO THEIR RECOGNITION
  ISABELLA DISPLEASED
  HER DAUGHTER'S DEATH
  ITS EFFECTS ON ISABELLA
  PRINCE MIGUEL'S RECOGNITION

CHAPTER V.
  DEATH OF CARDINAL MENDOZA.--RISE OF XIMENES.--ECCLESIASTICAL REFORM.
  DEATH OF MENDOZA
  HIS EARLY LIFE
  AND CHARACTER
  HIS AMOURS
  THE QUEEN HIS EXECUTOR
  BIRTH OF XIMENES
  HE VISITS ROME
  HIS RETURN AND IMPRISONMENT
  ESTABLISHED AT SIGUENZA
  ENTERS THE FRANCISCAN ORDER
  HIS SEVERE PENANCE
  HIS ASCETIC LIFE
  HE IS MADE GUARDIAN OF SALZEDA
  INTRODUCED TO THE QUEEN
  MADE HER CONFESSOR
  ELECTED PROVINCIAL
  CORRUPTION OF THE MONASTERIES
  ATTEMPTS AT REFORM
  SEE OF TOLEDO VACANT
  OFFERED TO XIMENES
  HE RELUCTANTLY ACCEPTS
  CHARACTERISTIC ANECDOTES OF XIMENES
  HIS AUSTERE LIFE
  REFORM IN HIS DIOCESE
  EXAMPLE OF HIS SEVERITY
  REFORM OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS
  GREAT EXCITEMENT CAUSED BY IT
  VISIT OF THE FRANCISCAN GENERAL
  INSULTS THE QUEEN
  THE POPE'S INTERFERENCE
  CONSENTS TO THE REFORM
  ITS OPERATION AND EFFECTS
  ALVARO GOMEZ, AND BIOGRAPHERS OF XIMENES

CHAPTER VI.
  XIMENES IN GRANADA.--PERSECUTION, INSURRECTION, AND CONVERSION OF THE
    MOORS.
  INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
  XIMENES, HIS CONSTANCY OF PURPOSE
  TRANQUIL STATE OF GRANADA
  TENDILLA
  TALAVERA
  ARCHBISHOP OF GRANADA
  HIS MILD POLICY
  THE CLERGY DISSATISFIED WITH IT
  TEMPERATE SWAY OF THE SOVEREIGNS
  XIMENES IN GRANADA
  HIS VIOLENT MEASURES
  DESTROYS ARABIC BOOKS
  MISCHIEVOUS EFFECTS
  REVOLT OF THE ALBAYCIN
  XIMENES BESIEGED IN HIS PALACE
  THE INSURGENTS APPEASED BY TALAVERA
  DISPLEASURE OF THE SOVEREIGNS
  XIMENES HASTENS TO COURT
  CONVERSION OP GRANADA
  APPLAUDED BY THE SPANIARDS

CHAPTER VII.
  RISING IN THE ALPUXARRAS.--DEATH OF ALONSO DE AGUILAR.--EDICT AGAINST
    THE MOORS.
  THE ALPUXARRAS
  RISING OF THE MOORS
  HUEJA SACKED
  FERDINAND MARCHES INTO THE MOUNTAINS
  CARRIES LANJARON
  PUNISHMENT OF THE REBELS
  REVOLT OF THE SIERRA VERMEJA
  RENDEZVOUS AT RONDA
  EXPEDITION INTO THE SIERRA
  THE MOORS RETREAT UP THE MOUNTAINS
  RETURN ON THE SPANIARDS
  ALONSO DE AGUILAR
  HIS GALLANTRY AND DEATH
  HIS NOBLE CHARACTER
  BLOODY ROUT OF THE SPANIARDS
  DISMAY OF THE NATION
  THE REBELS SUBMIT TO FERDINAND
  BANISHMENT OR CONVERSION
  COMMEMORATIVE BALLADS
  MELANCHOLY REMINISCENCES
  EDICT AGAINST THE MOORS OF CASTILE
  CHRISTIANITY AND MAHOMETANISM
  CAUSES OF INTOLERANCE
  AGGRAVATED IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY
  EFFECTS OF THE INQUISITION
  DEFECTS OF THE TREATY OF GRANADA
  EVASION OF IT BY THE CHRISTIANS
  PRIESTLY CASUISTRY
  LAST NOTICE OF THE MOORS IN THE PRESENT REIGN

CHAPTER VIII.
  COLUMBUS.--PROSECUTION OF DISCOVERY.--HIS TREATMENT BY THE COURT.
  PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY
  MISCONDUCT OF THE COLONISTS
  COMPLAINTS AGAINST COLUMBUS
  HIS SECOND RETURN
  THE QUEEN'S CONFIDENCE IN HIM UNSHAKEN
  HONORS CONFERRED ON HIM
  HIS THIRD VOYAGE
  DISCOVERS TERRA FIRMA
  MUTINY IN THE COLONY
  LOUD COMPLAINTS AGAINST COLUMBUS
  BIGOTED VIEWS IN REGARD TO THE HEATHEN
  MORE LIBERAL SENTIMENTS OF ISABELLA
  SHE SENDS BACK THE INDIAN SLAVES
  AUTHORITY TO BOBADILLA
  OUTRAGE ON COLUMBUS
  DEEP REGRET OF THE SOVEREIGNS
  RECEPTION OF COLUMBUS
  VINDICATION OF THE SOVEREIGNS
  COMMISSION TO OVANDO
  GROUNDLESS IMPUTATIONS ON THE GOVERNMENT
  THE ADMIRAL'S DESPONDENCY
  HIS FOURTH AND LAST VOYAGE
  REMARKABLE FATE OF HIS ENEMIES

CHAPTER IX.
  SPANISH COLONIAL POLICY.
  CAREFUL PROVISION FOR THE COLONIES
  LIBERAL GRANTS
  LICENSE FOR PRIVATE VOYAGES
  THEIR SUCCESS
  INDIAN DEPARTMENT
  CASA DE CONTRATACION
  IMPORTANT PAPAL CONCESSIONS
  SPIRIT OF THE COLONIAL LEGISLATION
  THE QUEEN'S ZEAL FOB CONVERTING THE NATIVES
  UNHAPPILY DEFEATED
  IMMEDIATE PROFITS FROM THE DISCOVERIES
  ORIGIN OF THE VENEREAL DISEASE
  MORAL CONSEQUENCES OP THE DISCOVERIES
  THEIR GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENT
  HISTORIANS OF THE NEW WORLD
  PETER MARTYR
  HERRERA AND MUÑOZ




PART FIRST. [CONTINUED.]


CHAPTER XII.

INTERNAL AFFAIRS OF THE KINGDOM.--INQUISITION IN ARAGON.

1483-1487.

Isabella enforces the Laws.--Punishment of Ecclesiastics.--Inquisition in
Aragon.--Remonstrances of the Cortes.--Conspiracy.--Assassination of the
Inquisitor Arbues.--Cruel Persecutions.--Inquisition throughout
Ferdinand's Dominions.


In such intervals of leisure as occurred amid their military operations,
Ferdinand and Isabella were diligently occupied with the interior
government of the kingdom, and especially with the rigid administration of
justice, the most difficult of all duties in an imperfectly civilized
state of society. The queen found especial demand for this in the northern
provinces, whose rude inhabitants were little used to subordination. She
compelled the great nobles to lay aside their arms, and refer their
disputes to legal arbitration. She caused a number of the fortresses,
which were still garrisoned by the baronial banditti, to be razed to the
ground; and she enforced the utmost severity of the law against such
inferior criminals as violated the public peace. [1]

Even ecclesiastical immunities, which proved so effectual a protection in
most countries at this period, were not permitted to screen the offender.
A remarkable instance of this occurred at the city of Truxillo, in 1486.
An inhabitant of that place had been committed to prison for some offence
by order of the civil magistrate. Certain priests, relations of the
offender, alleged that his religious profession exempted him from all but
ecclesiastical jurisdiction; and, as the authorities refused to deliver
him up, they inflamed the populace to such a degree, by their
representations of the insult offered to the church, that they rose in a
body, and, forcing the prison, set at liberty not only the malefactor in
question, but all those confined there. The queen no sooner heard of this
outrage on the royal authority, than she sent a detachment of her guard to
Truxillo, which secured the persons of the principal rioters, some of whom
were capitally punished, while the ecclesiastics, who had stirred up the
sedition, were banished the realm. Isabella, while by her example she
inculcated the deepest reverence for the sacred profession, uniformly
resisted every attempt from that quarter to encroach on the royal
prerogative. The tendency of her administration was decidedly, as there
will be occasion more particularly to notice, to abridge the authority
which that body had exercised in civil matters under preceding reigns. [2]

Nothing of interest occurred in the foreign relations of the kingdom,
during the period embraced by the preceding chapter; except perhaps the
marriage of Catharine, the young queen of Navarre, with Jean d'Albret, a
French nobleman, whose extensive hereditary domains, in the southwest
corner of France, lay adjacent to her kingdom. This connection was
extremely distasteful to the Spanish sovereigns, and indeed to many of the
Navarrese, who were desirous of the alliance with Castile. This was
ultimately defeated by the queen-mother, an artful woman, who, being of
the blood royal of France, was naturally disposed to a union with that
kingdom. Ferdinand did not neglect to maintain such an understanding with
the malcontents of Navarre, as should enable him to counteract any undue
advantage which the French monarch might derive from the possession of
this key, as it were, to the Castilian territory. [3]

In Aragon, two circumstances took place in the period under review,
deserving historical notice. The first relates to an order of the Catalan
peasantry, denominated vassals _de remenza_. These persons were subjected
to a feudal bondage, which had its origin in very remote ages, but which
had become in no degree mitigated, while the peasantry of every other part
of Europe had been gradually rising to the rank of freemen. The grievous
nature of the impositions had led to repeated rebellions in preceding
reigns. At length, Ferdinand, after many fruitless attempts at a mediation
between these unfortunate people and their arrogant masters, prevailed on
the latter, rather by force of authority than argument, to relinquish the
extraordinary seignorial rights, which they had hitherto enjoyed, in
consideration of a stipulated annual payment from their vassals. [4]

The other circumstance worthy of record, but not in like manner creditable
to the character of the sovereign, is the introduction of the modern
Inquisition into Aragon. The ancient tribunal had existed there, as has
been stated in a previous chapter, since the middle of the thirteenth
century, but seems to have lost all its venom in the atmosphere of that
free country; scarcely assuming a jurisdiction beyond that of an ordinary
ecclesiastical court. No sooner, however, was the institution organized on
its new basis in Castile, than Ferdinand resolved on its introduction, in
a similar form, in his own dominions.

Measures were accordingly taken to that effect in a meeting of a privy
council convened by the king at Taraçona, during the session of the cortes
in that place, in April, 1484; and a royal order was issued, requiring all
the constituted authorities throughout the kingdom to support the new
tribunal in the exercise of its functions. A Dominican monk, Fray Gaspard
Juglar, and Pedro Arbues de Epila, a canon of the metropolitan church,
were appointed by the general, Torquemada, inquisitors over the diocese of
Saragossa; and, in the month of September following, the chief justiciary
and the other great officers of the realm took the prescribed oaths. [5]

The new institution, opposed to the ideas of independence common to all
the Aragonese, was particularly offensive to the higher orders, many of
whose members, including persons filling the most considerable official
stations, were of Jewish descent, and of course precisely the class
exposed to the scrutiny of the Inquisition. Without difficulty, therefore,
the cortes was persuaded in the following year to send a deputation to the
court of Rome, and another to Ferdinand, representing the repugnance of
the new tribunal to the liberties of the nation, as well as to their
settled opinions and habits, and praying that its operation might be
suspended for the present, so far at least as concerned the confiscation
of property, which it rightly regarded as the moving power of the whole
terrible machinery. [6]

Both the pope and the king, as may be imagined, turned a deaf ear to these
remonstrances. In the mean while the Inquisition commenced operations, and
autos da fe were celebrated at Saragossa, with all their usual horrors, in
the months of May and June, in 1485. The discontented Aragonese,
despairing of redress in any regular way, resolved to intimidate their
oppressors by some appalling act of violence. They formed a conspiracy for
the assassination of Arbues, the most odious of the inquisitors
established over the diocese of Saragossa. The conspiracy, set on foot by
some of the principal nobility, was entered into by most of the new
Christians, or persons of Jewish extraction in the district. A sum of ten
thousand reals was subscribed to defray the necessary expenses for the
execution of their project. This was not easy, however, since Arbues,
conscious of the popular odium that he had incurred, protected his person
by wearing under his monastic robes a suit of mail, complete even to the
helmet beneath his hood. With similar vigilance, he defended, also, every
avenue to his sleeping apartment. [7]

At length, however, the conspirators found an opportunity of surprising
him while at his devotions. Arbues was on his knees before the great altar
of the cathedral, near midnight, when his enemies, who had entered the
church in two separate bodies, suddenly surrounded him, and one of them
wounded him in the arm with a dagger, while another dealt him a fatal blow
in the back of his neck. The priests, who were preparing to celebrate
matins in the choir of the church, hastened to the spot; but not before
the assassins had effected their escape. They transported the bleeding
body of the inquisitor to his apartment, where he survived only two days,
blessing the Lord that he had been permitted to seal so good a cause with
his blood. The whole scene will readily remind the English reader of the
assassination of Thomas à Becket. [8]

The event did not correspond with the expectations of the conspirators.
Sectarian jealousy proved stronger than hatred of the Inquisition. The
populace, ignorant of the extent or ultimate object of the conspiracy,
were filled with vague apprehensions of an insurrection of the new
Christians, who had so often been the objects of outrage; and they could
only be appeased by the archbishop of Saragossa, riding through the
streets, and proclaiming that no time should be lost in detecting and
punishing the assassins.

This promise was abundantly fulfilled; and wide was the ruin occasioned by
the indefatigable zeal, with which the bloodhounds of the tribunal
followed up the scent. In the course of this persecution, two hundred
individuals perished at the stake, and a still greater number in the
dungeons of the Inquisition; and there was scarcely a noble family in
Aragon but witnessed one or more of its members condemned to humiliating
penance in the autos da fe. The immediate perpetrators of the murder were
all hanged, after suffering the amputation of their right hands. One, who
had appeared as evidence against the rest, under assurance of pardon, had
his sentence so far commuted, that his hand was not cut off till after he
had been hanged. It was thus that the Holy Office interpreted its promises
of grace. [9]

Arbues received all the honors of a martyr. His ashes were interred on the
spot where he had been assassinated. [10] A superb mausoleum was erected
over them, and, beneath his effigy, a bas-relief was sculptured
representing his tragical death, with an inscription containing a suitable
denunciation of the race of Israel. And at length, when the lapse of
nearly two centuries had supplied the requisite amount of miracles, the
Spanish Inquisition had the glory of adding a new saint to the calendar,
by the canonization of the martyr under Pope Alexander the Seventh, in
1664. [11]

The failure of the attempt to shake off the tribunal served only, as usual
in such cases, to establish it more firmly than before. Efforts at
resistance were subsequently, but ineffectually, made in other parts of
Aragon, and in Valencia and Catalonia. It was not established in the
latter province till 1487, and some years later in Sicily, Sardinia, and
the Balearic Isles. Thus Ferdinand had the melancholy satisfaction of
riveting the most galling yoke ever devised by fanaticism, round the necks
of a people, who till that period had enjoyed probably the greatest degree
of constitutional freedom which the world had witnessed.


FOOTNOTES

[1] Lebrija, Rerum Gestarum Decades, iii. lib. 1, cap. 10.--Pulgar, Reyes
Católicos, part. 3, cap. 27, 39, 67, et alibi.--L. Marineo, Cosas
Memorables, fol. 175.--Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 348.

[2] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 66.--A pertinent example of this
occurred, December, 1485, at Alcalá de Henares, where the court was
detained during the queen's illness, who there gave birth to her youngest
child, Doña Catalina, afterwards so celebrated in English history as
Catharine of Aragon. A collision took place in this city between the royal
judges and those of the archbishop of Toledo, to whose diocese it
belonged. The later stoutly maintained the pretensions of the church. The
queen with equal pertinacity asserted the supremacy of the royal
jurisdiction over every other in the kingdom, secular or ecclesiastical.
The affair was ultimately referred to the arbitration of certain learned
men, named conjointly by the adverse parties. It was not then determined,
however, and Pulgar has neglected to acquaint us with the award. Reyes
Católicos, cap. 53.--Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1485.

[3] Aleson, Annales de Navarra, tom. v. lib. 35, cap. 2.

[4] Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. cap. 52, 67.--Mariana, Hist. de España, lib.
25, cap. 8.

[5] Llorente, Hist. de l'Inquisition, tom. i. chap. 6, art. 2.--Zurita,
Anales, lib. 20, cap. 65.

At this cortes, convened at Taraçona, Ferdinand and Isabella experienced
an instance of the haughty spirit of their Catalan subjects, who refused
to attend, alleging it to be a violation of their liberties to be summoned
to a place without the limits of their principality. The Valencians also
protested, that their attendance should not operate as a precedent to
their prejudice. It was usual to convene a central or general cortes at
Fraga, or Monzon, or some town, which the Catalans, who were peculiarly
jealous of their privileges, claimed to be within their territory. It was
still more usual, to hold separate cortes of the three kingdoms
simultaneously in such contiguous places in each, as would permit the
royal presence in all during their session. See Blancas, Mode de Proceder
en Cortes de Aragon, (Zaragoza, 1641,) cap. 4.

[6] By one of the articles in the Privilegium Generale, the Magna Charta
of Aragon, it is declared, "Que turment: ni inquisicion; no sian en Aragon
como sian contra Fuero el qual dize que alguna pesquisa no hauemos: et
contra el privilegio general, el qual vieda que inquisicion so sia feyta."
(Fueros y Observancias, fol. 11.) The tenor of this clause (although the
term _inquisicion_ must not be confounded with the name of the modern
institution) was sufficiently precise, one might have thought, to secure
the Aragonese from the fangs of this terrible tribunal.

[7] Llorente, Hist. de l'Inquisition, chap. 6, art. 2, 3.

[8] Llorente, ubi supra.--Paramo, De Origine Inquisitionis, pp. 182, 183.
--Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii. pp. 37, 38.

[9] Llorente, Hist. de l'Inquisition, tom. i. chap. 6, art. 5.--Blancas,
Aragonensium Rerum Commentarii, (Caesaraugustae, 1588,) p. 266. Among
those, who after a tedious imprisonment were condemned to do penance in an
auto da fe, was a nephew of King Ferdinand, Don James of Navarre. Mariana,
willing to point the tale with a suitable moral, informs us, that,
although none of the conspirators were ever brought to trial, they all
perished miserably within a year, in different ways, by the judgment of
God. (Hist. de España, tom. ii. p. 368.) Unfortunately for the effect of
this moral, Llorente, who consulted the original processes, must be
received as the better authority of the two.

[10] According to Paramo, when the corpse of the inquisitor was brought to
the place where he had been assassinated, the blood, which had been
coagulated on the pavement, smoked up and boiled with most miraculous
fervor! De Origine Inquisitionis, p. 382.

[11] Paramo, De Origine Inquisitionis, p. 183.--Llorente, Hist. de
l'Inquisition, chap. 6, art. 4. France and Italy also, according to
Llorente, could each boast a saint inquisitor. Their renown, however, has
been, eclipsed by the superior splendors of their great master, St.
Dominic;

  --"Fils inconnus d'un si glorieux père."




CHAPTER XIII.

WAR OF GRANADA.--SURRENDER OF VELEZ MALAGA.--SIEGE AND CONQUEST OF MALAGA.

1487.

Narrow Escape of Ferdinand before Velez.--Malaga invested by Sea and
Land.--Brilliant Spectacle.--The Queen visits the Camp.--Attempt to
Assassinate the Sovereigns.--Distress and Resolution of the Besieged.--
Enthusiasm of the Christians.--Outworks Carried by them.--Proposals for
Surrender.--Haughty Demeanor of Ferdinand.--Malaga Surrenders at
Discretion.--Cruel Policy of the Victors.


Before commencing operations against Malaga, it was thought expedient by
the Spanish council of war to obtain possession of Velez Malaga, situated
about five leagues distant from the former. This strong town stood along
the southern extremity of a range of mountains that extend to Granada. Its
position afforded an easy communication with that capital, and obvious
means of annoyance to an enemy interposed between itself and the adjacent
city of Malaga. The reduction of this place, therefore, became the first
object of the campaign.

The forces assembled at Cordova, consisting of the levies of the
Andalusian cities principally, of the retainers of the great nobility, and
of the well-appointed chivalry which thronged from all quarters of the
kingdom, amounted on this occasion to twelve thousand horse and forty
thousand foot; a number, which sufficiently attests the unslackened ardor
of the nation in the prosecution of the war. On the 7th of April, King
Ferdinand, putting himself at the head of this formidable host, quitted
the fair city of Cordova amid the cheering acclamations of its
inhabitants, although these were somewhat damped by the ominous occurrence
of an earthquake, which demolished a part of the royal residence, among
other edifices, during the preceding night. The route, after traversing
the Yeguas and the old town of Antequera, struck into a wild, hilly
country, that stretches towards Velez. The rivers were so much swollen by
excessive rains, and the passes so rough and difficult, that the army in
part of its march advanced only a league a day; and on one occasion, when
no suitable place occurred for encampment for the space of five leagues,
the men fainted with exhaustion, and the beasts dropped down dead in the
harness. At length, on the 17th of April, the Spanish army sat down before
Velez Malaga, where in a few days they were joined by the lighter pieces
of their battering ordnance; the roads, notwithstanding the immense labor
expended on them, being found impracticable for the heavier. [1]

The Moors were aware of the importance of Velez to the security of Malaga.
The sensation excited in Granada by the tidings of its danger was so
strong, that the old chief, El Zagal, found it necessary to make an effort
to relieve the beleaguered city, notwithstanding the critical posture in
which his absence would leave his affairs in the capital. Dark clouds of
the enemy were seen throughout the day mustering along the heights, which
by night were illumined with a hundred fires. Ferdinand's utmost vigilance
was required for the protection of his camp against the ambuscades and
nocturnal sallies of his wily foe. At length, however, El Zagal, having
been foiled in a well-concerted attempt to surprise the Christian quarters
by night, was driven across the mountains by the marquis of Cadiz, and
compelled to retreat on his capital, completely baffled in his enterprise.
There the tidings of his disaster had preceded him. The fickle populace,
with whom misfortune passes for misconduct, unmindful of his former
successes, now hastened to transfer their allegiance to his rival,
Abdallah, and closed the gates against him; and the unfortunate chief
withdrew to Guadix, which, with Almeria, Baza, and some less considerable
places, still remained faithful. [2]

Ferdinand conducted the siege all the while with his usual vigor, and
spared no exposure of his person to peril or fatigue. On one occasion,
seeing a party of Christians retreating in disorder before a squadron of
the enemy, who had surprised them while fortifying an eminence near the
city, the king, who was at dinner in his tent, rushed out with no other
defensive armor than his cuirass, and, leaping on his horse, charged
briskly into the midst of the enemy, and succeeded in rallying his own
men. In the midst of the rencontre, however, when he had discharged his
lance, he found himself unable to extricate his sword from the scabbard
which hung from the saddle-bow. At this moment he was assaulted by several
Moors, and must have been either slain or taken, but for the timely rescue
of the marquis of Cadiz, and a brave cavalier, Garcilasso de la Vega, who,
galloping up to the spot with their attendants, succeeded after a sharp
skirmish in beating off the enemy. Ferdinand's nobles remonstrated with
him on this wanton exposure of his person, representing that he could
serve them more effectually with his head than his hand. But he answered,
that "he could not stop to calculate chances, when his subjects were
perilling their lives for his sake;" a reply, says Pulgar, which endeared
him to the whole army. [3]

At length, the inhabitants of Velez, seeing the ruin impending from the
bombardment of the Christians, whose rigorous blockade both by sea and
land excluded all hopes of relief from without, consented to capitulate on
the usual conditions of security to persons, property, and religion. The
capitulation of this place, April 27th, 1487, was followed by that of more
than twenty places of inferior note lying between it and Malaga, so that
the approaches to this latter city were now left open to the victorious
Spaniards. [4]

This ancient city, which, under the Spanish Arabs in the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries, formed the capital of an independent principality,
was second only to the metropolis itself, in the kingdom of Granada. Its
fruitful environs furnished abundant articles of export, while its
commodious port on the Mediterranean opened a traffic with the various
countries washed by that inland sea, and with the remoter regions of
India. Owing to these advantages, the inhabitants acquired unbounded
opulence, which showed itself in the embellishments of their city, whose
light forms of architecture, mingling after the eastern fashion with
odoriferous gardens and fountains of sparkling water, presented an
appearance most refreshing to the senses in this sultry climate. [5]

The city was encompassed by fortifications of great strength, and in
perfect repair. It was commanded by a citadel, connected by a covered way
with a second fortress impregnable from its position, denominated
Gebalfaro, which stood along the declivities of the bold sierra of the
Axarquia, whose defiles had proved so disastrous to the Christians. The
city lay between two spacious suburbs, the one on the land side being also
encircled by a formidable wall; and the other declining towards the sea,
showing an expanse of olive, orange, and pomegranate gardens, intermingled
with the rich vineyards that furnished the celebrated staple for its
export.

Malaga was well prepared for a siege by supplies of artillery and
ammunition. Its ordinary garrison was reinforced by volunteers from the
neighboring towns, and by a corps of African mercenaries, Gomeres, as they
were called, men of ferocious temper, but of tried valor and military
discipline. The command of this important post had been intrusted by El
Zagal to a noble Moor, named Hamet Zeli, whose renown in the present war
had been established by his resolute defence of Ronda. [6]

Ferdinand, while lying before Velez, received intelligence that many of
the wealthy burghers of Malaga were inclined to capitulate at once, rather
than hazard the demolition of their city by an obstinate resistance. He
instructed the marquis of Cadiz, therefore, to open a negotiation with
Hamet Zeli, authorizing him to make the most liberal offers to the alcayde
himself, as well as his garrison, and the principal citizens of the place,
on condition of immediate surrender. The sturdy chief, however, rejected
the proposal with disdain, replying, that he had been commissioned by his
master to defend the place to the last extremity, and that the Christian
king could not offer a bribe large enough to make him betray his trust.
Ferdinand, finding little prospect of operating on this Spartan temper,
broke up his camp before Velez, on the 7th of May, and advanced with his
whole army as far as Bezmillana, a place on the seaboard about two leagues
distant from Malaga. [7]

The line of march now lay through a valley commanded at the extremity
nearest the city by two eminences; the one on the sea-coast, the other
facing the fortress of the Gebalfaro, and forming part of the wild sierra
which overshadowed Malaga on the north. The enemy occupied both these
important positions. A corps of Galicians were sent forward to dislodge
them from the eminence towards the sea. But it failed in the assault, and,
notwithstanding it was led up a second time by the commander of Leon and
the brave Garcilasso de la Vega, [8] was again repulsed by the intrepid
foe.

A similar fate attended the assault on the sierra, which was conducted by
the troops of the royal household. They were driven back on the vanguard,
which had halted in the valley under command of the grand master of St.
James, prepared to support the attack on either side. Being reinforced,
the Spaniards returned to the charge with the most determined resolution.
They were encountered by the enemy with equal spirit. The latter, throwing
away their lances, precipitated themselves on the ranks of the assailants,
making use only of their daggers, grappling closely man to man, till both
rolled promiscuously together down the steep sides of the ravine. No mercy
was asked or shown. None thought of sparing or of spoiling, for hatred,
says the chronicler, was stronger than avarice. The main body of the army,
in the mean while, pent up in the valley, were compelled to witness the
mortal conflict, and listen to the exulting cries of the enemy, which,
after the Moorish custom, rose high and shrill above the din of battle,
without being able to advance a step in support of their companions, who
were again forced to give way before their impetuous adversaries, and fall
back on the vanguard under the grand master of St. James. Here, however,
they speedily rallied; and, being reinforced, advanced to the charge a
third time, with such inflexible courage as bore down all opposition, and
compelled the enemy, exhausted, or rather overpowered by superior numbers,
to abandon his position. At the same time the rising ground on the seaside
was carried by the Spaniards under the commander of Leon and Garcilasso de
la Vega, who, dividing their forces, charged the Moors so briskly in front
and rear, that they were compelled to retreat on the neighboring fortress
of Gebalfaro. [9]

As it was evening before these advantages were obtained, the army did not
defile into the plains around Malaga before the following morning, when
dispositions were made for its encampment. The eminence on the sierra, so
bravely contested, was assigned as the post of greatest danger to the
marquis duke of Cadiz. It was protected by strong works lined with
artillery, and a corps of two thousand five hundred horse and fourteen
thousand foot was placed under the immediate command of that nobleman. A
line of defence was constructed along the declivity from this redoubt to
the seashore. Similar works, consisting of a deep trench and palisades,
or, where the soil was too rocky to admit of them, of an embankment or
mound of earth, were formed in front of the encampment, which embraced the
whole circuit of the city; and the blockade was completed by a fleet of
armed vessels, galleys and caravels, which rode in the harbor under the
command of the Catalan admiral, Requesens, and effectually cut off all
communication by water. [10]

The old chronicler Bernaldez warms at the aspect of the fair city of
Malaga, thus encompassed by Christian legions, whose deep lines,
stretching far over hill and valley, reached quite round from one arm of
the sea to the other. In the midst of this brilliant encampment was seen
the royal pavilion, proudly displaying the united banners of Castile and
Aragon, and forming so conspicuous a mark for the enemy's artillery, that
Ferdinand, after imminent hazard, was at length compelled to shift his
quarters. The Christians were not slow in erecting counter-batteries; but
the work was obliged to be carried on at night, in order to screen them
from the fire of the besieged. [11]

The first operations of the Spaniards were directed against the suburb, on
the land side of the city. The attack was intrusted to the count of
Cifuentes, the nobleman who had been made prisoner in the affair of the
Axarquia, and subsequently ransomed. The Spanish ordnance was served with
such effect, that a practicable breach was soon made in the wall. The
combatants now poured their murderous volleys on each other through the
opening, and at length met on the ruins of the breach. After a desperate
struggle the Moors gave way. The Christians rushed into the enclosure, at
the same time effecting a lodgment on the rampart; and, although a part of
it, undermined by the enemy, gave way with a terrible crash, they still
kept possession of the remainder, and at length drove their antagonists,
who sullenly retreated step by step, within the fortifications of the
city. The lines were then drawn close around the place. Every avenue of
communication was strictly guarded, and every preparation was made for
reducing the town by regular blockade. [12]

In addition to the cannon brought round by water from Velez, the heavier
lombards, which from the difficulty of transportation had been left during
the late Siege at Antequera, were now conducted across roads, levelled for
the purpose, to the camp. Supplies of marble bullets were also brought
from the ancient and depopulated city of Algezira, where they had lain
ever since its capture in the preceding century by Alfonso the Eleventh.
The camp was filled with operatives, employed in the manufacture of balls
and powder, which were stored in subterranean magazines, and in the
fabrication of those various kinds of battering enginery, which continued
in use long after the introduction of gunpowder. [13]

During the early part of the siege, the camp experienced some temporary
inconvenience from the occasional interruption of the supplies transported
by water. Rumors of the appearance of the plague in some of the adjacent
villages caused additional uneasiness; and deserters, who passed into
Malaga, reported these particulars with the usual exaggeration, and
encouraged the besieged to persevere, by the assurance that Ferdinand
could not much longer keep the field, and that the queen had actually
written to advise his breaking up the camp. Under these circumstances,
Ferdinand saw at once the importance of the queen's presence in order to
dispel the delusion of the enemy, and to give new heart to his soldiers.
He accordingly sent a message to Cordova, where she was holding her court,
requesting her appearance in the camp.

Isabella had proposed to join her husband before Velez, on receiving
tidings of El Zagal's march from Granada, and had actually enforced levies
of all persons capable of bearing arms, between twenty and seventy years
of age, throughout Andalusia, but subsequently disbanded them, on learning
the discomfiture of the Moorish army. Without hesitation, she now set
forward, accompanied by the cardinal of Spain and other dignitaries of the
church, together with the infanta Isabella, and a courtly train of ladies
and cavaliers in attendance on her person. She was received at a short
distance from the camp by the marquis of Cadiz and the grand master of St.
James, and escorted to her quarters amidst the enthusiastic greetings of
the soldiery. Hope now brightened every countenance. A grace seemed to be
shed over the rugged features of war; and the young gallants thronged from
all quarters to the camp, eager to win the guerdon of valor from the hands
of those from whom it is most grateful to receive it. [14]

Ferdinand, who had hitherto brought into action only the lighter pieces of
ordnance, from a willingness to spare the noble edifices of the city, now
pointed his heaviest guns against its walls. Before opening his fire,
however, he again summoned the place, offering the usual liberal terms in
case of immediate, compliance, and engaging otherwise, "with the blessing
of God, to make them all slaves"! But the heart of the alcayde was
hardened like that of Pharaoh, says the Andalusian chronicler, and the
people were swelled with vain hopes, so that their ears were closed
against the proposal; orders were even issued to punish with death any
attempt at a parley. On the contrary, they made answer by a more lively
cannonade than before, along the whole line of ramparts and fortresses
which overhung the city. Sallies were also made at almost every hour of
the day and night on every assailable point of the Christian lines, so
that the camp was kept in perpetual alarm. In one of the nocturnal
sallies, a body of two thousand men from the castle of Gebalfaro succeeded
in surprising the quarters of the marquis of Cadiz, who, with his
followers, was exhausted by fatigue and watching, during the two preceding
nights. The Christians, bewildered with the sudden tumult which broke
their slumber, were thrown into the greatest confusion; and the marquis,
who rushed half armed from his tent, found no little difficulty in
bringing them to order, and beating off the assailants, after receiving a
wound in the arm from an arrow; while he had a still narrower escape from
the ball of an arquebus, that penetrated his buckler and hit him below the
cuirass, but fortunately so much spent as to do him no injury. [15]

The Moors were not unmindful of the importance of Malaga, or the gallantry
with which it was defended. They made several attempts to relieve it,
whose failure was less owing to the Christians than to treachery and their
own miserable feuds. A body of cavalry, which El Zagal despatched from
Guadix to throw succors into the beleaguered city, was encountered and cut
to pieces by a superior force of the young king Abdallah, who consummated
his baseness by sending an embassy to the Christian camp, charged with a
present of Arabian horses sumptuously caparisoned to Ferdinand, and of
costly silks and Oriental perfumes to the queen; at the same time
complimenting them on their successes, and soliciting the continuance of
their friendly dispositions towards himself. Ferdinand and Isabella
requited this act of humiliation by securing to Abdallah's subjects the
right of cultivating their fields in quiet, and of trafficking with the
Spaniards in every commodity, save military stores. At this paltry price
did the dastard prince consent to stay his arm, at the only moment when it
could be used effectually for his country. [16]

More serious consequences were like to have resulted from an attempt made
by another party of Moors from Guadix to penetrate the Christian lines.
Part of them succeeded, and threw themselves into the besieged city. The
remainder were cut in pieces. There was one, however, who, making no show
of resistance, was made prisoner without harm to his person. Being brought
before the marquis of Cadiz, he informed that nobleman, that he could make
some important disclosures to the sovereigns. He was accordingly conducted
to the royal tent; but, as Ferdinand was taking his siesta, in the sultry
hour of the day, the queen, moved by divine inspiration, according to the
Castilian historian, deferred the audience till her husband should awake,
and commanded the prisoner to be detained in the adjoining tent. This was
occupied by Doña Beatrix de Bobadilla, marchioness of Moya, Isabella's
early friend, who happened to be at that time engaged in discourse with a
Portuguese nobleman, Don Alvaro, son of the duke of Braganza. [17]

The Moor did not understand the Castilian language, and, deceived by the
rich attire and courtly bearing of these personages, he mistook them for
the king and queen. While in the act of refreshing himself with a glass of
water, he suddenly drew a dagger from beneath the broad folds of his
_albornoz_, or Moorish mantle, which he had been incautiously suffered to
retain, and, darting on the Portuguese prince, gave him a deep wound on
the head; and then, turning like lightning on the marchioness, aimed a
stroke at her, which fortunately glanced without injury, the point of the
weapon being turned by the heavy embroidery of her robes. Before he could
repeat his blow, the Moorish Scaevola, with a fate very different from
that of his Roman prototype, was pierced with a hundred wounds by the
attendants, who rushed to the spot, alarmed by the cries of the
marchioness, and his mangled remains were soon after discharged from a
catapult into the city; a foolish bravado, which the besieged requited by
slaying a Galician gentleman, and sending his corpse astride upon a mule
through the gates of the town into the Christian camp. [18]

This daring attempt on the lives of the king and queen spread general
consternation throughout the army. Precautions were taken for the future,
by ordinances prohibiting the introduction of any unknown person armed, or
any Moor whatever, into the royal quarters; and the bodyguard was
augmented by the addition of two hundred hidalgos of Castile and Aragon,
who, with their retainers, were to keep constant watch over the persons of
the sovereigns.

Meanwhile, the city of Malaga, whose natural population was greatly
swelled by the influx of its foreign auxiliaries, began to be straitened
for supplies, while its distress was aggravated by the spectacle of
abundance which reigned throughout the Spanish camp. Still, however, the
people, overawed by the soldiery, did not break out into murmurs, nor did
they relax in any degree the pertinacity of their resistance. Their
drooping spirits were cheered by the predictions of a fanatic, who
promised that they should eat the grain which they saw in the Christian
camp; a prediction, which came to be verified, like most others that are
verified at all, in a very different sense from that intended or
understood.

The incessant cannonade kept up by the besieging army, in the mean time,
so far exhausted their ammunition, that they were constrained to seek
supplies from the most distant parts of the kingdom, and from foreign
countries. The arrival of two Flemish transports at this juncture, from
the emperor of Germany, whose interest had been roused in the crusade,
afforded a seasonable reinforcement of military stores and munitions.

The obstinate defence of Malaga had given the siege such celebrity, that
volunteers, eager to share in it, flocked from all parts of the Peninsula
to the royal standard. Among others, the duke of Medina Sidonia, who had
furnished his quota of troops at the opening of the campaign, now arrived
in person with a reinforcement, together with a hundred galleys freighted
with supplies, and a loan of twenty thousand doblas of gold to the
sovereigns for the expenses of the war. Such was the deep interest in it
excited throughout the nation, and the alacrity which every order of men
exhibited in supporting its enormous burdens. [19]

The Castilian army, swelled by these daily augmentations, varied in its
amount, according to different estimates, from sixty to ninety thousand
men. Throughout this immense host, the most perfect discipline was
maintained. Gaming was restrained by ordinances interdicting the use of
dice and cards, of which the lower orders were passionately fond.
Blasphemy was severely punished. Prostitutes, the common pest of a camp,
were excluded; and so entire was the subordination, that not a knife was
drawn, and scarcely a brawl occurred, says the historian, among the motley
multitude. Besides the higher ecclesiastics who attended the court, the
camp was well supplied with holy men, priests, friars, and the chaplains
of the great nobility, who performed the exercises of religion in their
respective quarters with all the pomp and splendor of the Roman Catholic
worship; exalting the imaginations of the soldiers into the high
devotional feeling, which became those who were fighting the battles of
the Cross. [20]

Hitherto, Ferdinand, relying on the blockade, and yielding to the queen's
desire to spare the lives of her soldiers, had formed no regular plan of
assault upon the town. But, as the season rolled on without the least
demonstration of submission on the part of the besieged, he resolved to
storm the works, which, if attended by no other consequences, might at
least serve to distress the enemy, and hasten the hour of surrender. Large
wooden towers on rollers were accordingly constructed, and provided with
an apparatus of drawbridges and ladders, which, when brought near to the
ramparts, would open a descent into the city. Galleries were also wrought,
some for the purpose of penetrating into the place, and others to sap the
foundations of the walls. The whole of these operations was placed under
the direction of Francisco Ramirez, the celebrated engineer of Madrid.

But the Moors anticipated the completion of these formidable preparations
by a brisk, well-concerted attack on all points of the Spanish lines. They
countermined the assailants, and, encountering them in the subterraneous
passages, drove them back, and demolished the frame-work of the galleries.
At the same time, a little squadron of armed vessels, which had been
riding in safety under the guns of the city, pushed out and engaged the
Spanish fleet. Thus the battle raged with fire and sword, above and under
ground, along the ramparts, the ocean, and the land, at the same time.
Even Pulgar cannot withhold his tribute of admiration to this
unconquerable spirit in an enemy, wasted by all the extremities of famine
and fatigue. "Who does not marvel," he says, "at the bold heart of these
infidels in battle, their prompt obedience to their chiefs, their
dexterity in the wiles of war, their patience under privation, and
undaunted perseverance in their purposes?" [21]

A circumstance occurred in a sortie from the city, indicating a trait of
character worth recording. A noble Moor, named Abrahen Zenete, fell in
with a number of Spanish children who had wandered from their quarters.
Without injuring them, he touched them gently with the handle of his
lance, saying, "Get ye gone, varlets, to your mothers." On being rebuked
by his comrades, who inquired why he had let them escape so easily, he
replied, "Because I saw no beard upon their chins." "An example of
magnanimity," says the Curate of Los Palacios, "truly wonderful in a
heathen, and which might have reflected credit on a Christian hidalgo."
[22]

But no virtue nor valor could avail the unfortunate Malagans against the
overwhelming force of their enemies, who, driving them back from every
point, compelled them, after a desperate struggle of six hours, to shelter
themselves within the defences of the town. The Christians followed up
their success. A mine was sprung near a tower, connected by a bridge of
four arches with the main works of the place. The Moors, scattered and
intimidated by the explosion, retreated across the bridge, and the
Spaniards, carrying the tower, whose guns completely enfiladed it,
obtained possession of this important pass into the beleaguered city. For
these and other signal services during the siege, Francisco Ramirez, the
master of the ordnance, received the honors of knighthood from the hand of
King Ferdinand. [23]

The citizens of Malaga, dismayed at beholding the enemy established in
their defences, and fainting under exhaustion from a siege which had
already lasted more than three months, now began to murmur at the
obstinacy of the garrison, and to demand a capitulation. Their magazines
of grain were emptied, and for some weeks they had been compelled to
devour the flesh of horses, dogs, cats, and even the boiled hides of these
animals, or, in default of other nutriment, vine leaves dressed with oil,
and leaves of the palm tree, pounded fine, and baked into a sort of cake.
In consequence of this loathsome and unwholesome diet, diseases were
engendered. Multitudes were seen dying about the streets. Many deserted to
the Spanish camp, eager to barter their liberty for bread; and the city
exhibited all the extremes of squalid and disgusting wretchedness, bred by
pestilence and famine among an overcrowded population. The sufferings of
the citizens softened the stern heart of the alcayde, Hamet Zeli, who at
length yielded to their importunities, and, withdrawing his forces into
the Gebalfaro, consented that the Malagans should make the best terms they
could with their conqueror.

A deputation of the principal inhabitants, with an eminent merchant named
Ali Dordux at their head, was then despatched to the Christian quarters,
with the offer of the city to capitulate, on the same liberal conditions
which had been uniformly granted by the Spaniards. The king refused to
admit the embassy into his presence, and haughtily answered through the
commander of Leon, "that these terms had been twice offered to the people
of Malaga, and rejected; that it was too late for them to stipulate
conditions, and nothing now remained but to abide by those which he, as
their conqueror, should vouchsafe to them." [24]

Ferdinand's answer spread general consternation throughout Malaga. The
inhabitants saw too plainly that nothing was to be hoped from an appeal to
sentiments of humanity. After a tumultuous debate, the deputies were
despatched a second time to the Christian camp, charged with propositions
in which concession was mingled with menace. They represented that the
severe response of King Ferdinand to the citizens had rendered them
desperate. That, however, they were willing to resign to him their
fortifications, their city, in short, their property of every description,
on his assurance of their personal security and freedom. If he refused
this, they would take their Christian captives, amounting to five or six
hundred, from the dungeons in which they lay, and hang them like dogs over
the battlements; and then, placing their old men, women, and children in
the fortress, they would set fire to the town, and cut a way for
themselves through their enemies, or fall in the attempt. "So," they
continued, "if you gain a victory, it shall be such a one as shall make
the name of Malaga ring throughout the world, and to ages yet unborn!"
Ferdinand, unmoved by these menaces, coolly replied, that he saw no
occasion to change his former determination; but they might rest assured,
if they harmed a single hair of a Christian, he would put every soul in
the place, man, woman, and child, to the sword.

The anxious people, who thronged forth to meet the embassy on its return
to the city, were overwhelmed with the deepest gloom at its ominous
tidings. Their fate was now sealed. Every avenue to hope seemed closed by
the stern response of the victor. Yet hope will still linger; and,
although there were some frantic enough to urge the execution of their
desperate menaces, the greater number of the inhabitants, and among them
those most considerable for wealth and influence, preferred the chance of
Ferdinand's clemency to certain, irretrievable ruin.

For the last time, therefore, the deputies issued from the gates of the
city, charged with an epistle to the sovereigns from their unfortunate
countrymen, in which, after deprecating their anger, and lamenting their
own blind obstinacy, they reminded their highnesses of the liberal terms
which their ancestors had granted to Cordova, Antequera, and other cities,
after a defence as pertinacious as their own. They expatiated on the fame
which the sovereigns had established by the generous policy of their past
conquests, and, appealing to their magnanimity, concluded with submitting
themselves, their families, and their fortunes to their disposal. Twenty
of the principal citizens were then delivered up as hostages for the
peaceable demeanor of the city until its occupation by the Spaniards.
"Thus," says the Curate of Los Palacios, "did the Almighty harden the
hearts of these heathen, like to those of the Egyptians, in order that
they might receive the full wages of the manifold oppressions which they
had wrought on his people, from the days of King Roderic to the present
time." [25]

On the appointed day, the commander of Leon rode through the gates of
Malaga, at the head of his well-appointed chivalry, and took possession of
the _alcazaba_, or lower citadel. The troops were then posted on their
respective stations along the fortifications, and the banners of Christian
Spain triumphantly unfurled from the towers of the city, where the
crescent had been displayed for an uninterrupted period of nearly eight
centuries.

The first act was to purify the town from the numerous dead bodies, and
other offensive matter, which had accumulated during this long siege, and
lay festering in the streets, poisoning the atmosphere. The principal
mosque was next consecrated with due solemnity to the service of Santa
Maria de la Encarnacion. Crosses and bells, the symbols of Christian
worship, were distributed in profusion among the sacred edifices; where,
says the Catholic chronicler last quoted, "the celestial music of their
chimes, sounding at every hour of the day and night, caused perpetual
torment to the ears of the infidel." [26]

On the eighteenth day of August, being somewhat more than three months
from the date of opening trenches, Ferdinand and Isabella made their
entrance into the conquered city, attended by the court, the clergy, and
the whole of their military array. The procession moved in solemn state up
the principal streets, now deserted, and hushed in ominous silence, to the
new cathedral of St. Mary, where mass was performed; and as the glorious
anthem of the Te Deum rose for the first time within its ancient walls,
the sovereigns, together with the whole army, prostrated themselves in
grateful adoration of the Lord of hosts, who had thus reinstated them in
the domains of their ancestors.

The most affecting incident was afforded by the multitude of Christian
captives, who were rescued from the Moorish dungeons. They were brought
before the sovereigns, with their limbs heavily manacled, their beards
descending to their waists, and their sallow visages emaciated by
captivity and famine. Every eye was suffused with tears at the spectacle.
Many recognized their ancient friends, of whose fate they had long been
ignorant. Some, had lingered in captivity ten or fifteen years; and among
them were several belonging to the best families in Spain. On entering the
presence, they would have testified their gratitude by throwing themselves
at the feet of the sovereigns; but the latter, raising them up and
mingling their tears with those of the liberated captives, caused their
fetters to be removed, and, after administering to their necessities,
dismissed them with liberal presents. [27]

 The fortress of Gebalfaro surrendered on the day after the occupation of
Malaga by the Spaniards. The gallant Zegri chieftain, Hamet Zeli, was
loaded with chains; and, being asked why he had persisted so obstinately
in his _rebellion_, boldly answered, "Because I was commissioned to
defend the place to the last extremity; and, if I had been properly
supported, I would have died sooner than surrender now!"

The doom of the vanquished was now to be pronounced. On entering the city,
orders had been issued to the Spanish soldiery, prohibiting them under the
severest penalties from molesting either the persons or property of the
inhabitants. These latter were directed to remain in their respective
mansions with a guard set over them, while the cravings of appetite were
supplied by a liberal distribution of food. At length, the whole
population of the city, comprehending every age and sex, was commanded to
repair to the great courtyard of the alcazaba, which was overlooked on all
sides by lofty ramparts garrisoned by the Spanish soldiery. To this place,
the scene of many a Moorish triumph, where the spoil of the border foray
had been often displayed, and which still might be emblazoned with the
trophy of many a Christian banner, the people of Malaga now directed their
steps. As the multitude swarmed through the streets, filled with boding
apprehensions of their fate, they wrung their hands, and, raising their
eyes to heaven, uttered the most piteous lamentations. "Oh, Malaga," they
cried, "renowned and beautiful city, how are thy sons about to forsake
thee! Could not thy soil, on which they first drew breath, be suffered to
cover them in death? Where is now the strength of thy towers, where the
beauty of thy edifices? The strength of thy walls, alas, could not avail
thy children, for they had sorely displeased their Creator. What shall
become of thy old men and thy matrons, or of thy young maidens delicately
nurtured within thy halls, when they shall feel the iron yoke of bondage?
Can thy barbarous conquerors without remorse thus tear asunder the dearest
ties of life?" Such are the melancholy strains, in which the Castilian
chronicler has given utterance to the sorrows of the captive city. [28]

The dreadful doom of slavery was denounced on the assembled multitude.
One-third was to be transported into Africa in exchange for an equal
number of Christian captives detained there; and all, who had relatives or
friends in this predicament, were required to furnish a specification of
them. Another third was appropriated to reimburse the state for the
expenses of the war. The remainder were to be distributed as presents at
home and abroad. Thus, one hundred of the flower of the African warriors
were sent to the pope, who incorporated them into his guard, and converted
them all in the course of the year, says the Curate of Los Palacios, into
very good Christians. Fifty of the most beautiful Moorish girls were
presented by Isabella to the queen of Naples, thirty to the queen of
Portugal, others to the ladies of her court; and the residue of both sexes
were apportioned among the nobles, cavaliers, and inferior members of the
army, according to their respective rank and services. [29]

As it was apprehended that the Malagans, rendered desperate by the
prospect of a hopeless, interminable captivity, might destroy or secrete
their jewels, plate, and other precious effects, in which this wealthy
city abounded, rather than suffer them to fall into the hands of their
enemies, Ferdinand devised a politic expedient for preventing it. He
proclaimed that he would receive a certain sum, if paid within nine
months, as the ransom of the whole population, and that their personal
effects should be admitted in part payment. This sum averaged about thirty
doblas a head, including in the estimate all those who might die before
the determination of the period assigned. The ransom, thus stipulated,
proved more than the unhappy people could raise, either by themselves, or
agents employed to solicit contributions among their brethren of Granada
and Africa; at the same time, it so far deluded their hopes, that they
gave in a full inventory of their effects to the treasury. By this shrewd
device, Ferdinand obtained complete possession both of the persons and
property of his victims. [30]

Malaga was computed to contain from eleven to fifteen thousand
inhabitants, exclusive of several thousand foreign auxiliaries, within its
gates at the time of surrender. One cannot, at this day, read the
melancholy details of its story, without feelings of horror and
indignation. It is impossible to vindicate the dreadful sentence passed on
this unfortunate people for a display of heroism, which should have
excited admiration in every generous bosom. It was obviously most
repugnant to Isabella's natural disposition, and must be admitted to leave
a stain on her memory, which no coloring of history can conceal. It may
find some palliation, however, in the bigotry of the age, the more
excusable in a woman whom education, general example, and natural distrust
of herself accustomed to rely, in matters of conscience, on the spiritual
guides, whose piety and professional learning seemed to qualify them for
the trust. Even in this very transaction, she fell far short of the
suggestions of some of her counsellors, who urged her to put every
inhabitant without exception to the sword; which, they affirmed, would be
a just requital of their obstinate _rebellion_, and would prove a
wholesome warning to others! We are not told who the advisers of this
precious measure were; but the whole experience of this reign shows, that
we shall scarcely wrong the clergy much by imputing it to them. That their
arguments could warp so enlightened a mind, as that of Isabella, from the
natural principles of justice and humanity, furnishes a remarkable proof
of the ascendency which the priesthood usurped over the most gifted
intellects, and of their gross abuse of it, before the Reformation, by
breaking the seals set on the sacred volume, opened to mankind the
uncorrupted channel of divine truth. [31]

The fate of Malaga may be said to have decided that of Granada. The latter
was now shut out from the most important ports along her coast; and she
was environed on every point of her territory by her warlike foe, so that
she could hardly hope more from subsequent efforts, however strenuous and
united, than to postpone the inevitable hour of dissolution. The cruel
treatment of Malaga was the prelude to the long series of persecutions,
which awaited the wretched Moslems in the land of their ancestors; in that
land, over which the "star of Islamism," to borrow their own metaphor, had
shone in full brightness for nearly eight centuries, but where it was now
fast descending amid clouds and tempests to the horizon.

The first care of the sovereigns was directed towards repeopling the
depopulated city with their own subjects. Houses and lands were freely
granted to such as would settle there. Numerous towns and villages with a
wide circuit of territory were placed under its civil jurisdiction, and it
was made the head of a diocese embracing most of the recent conquests in
the south and west of Granada. These inducements, combined with the
natural advantages of position and climate, soon caused the tide of
Christian population to flow into the deserted city; but it was very long
before it again reached the degree of commercial consequence to which it
had been raised by the Moors. [32]

After these salutary arrangements, the Spanish sovereigns led back their
victorious legions in triumph to Cordova, whence dispersing to their
various homes, they prepared, by a winter's repose, for new campaigns and
more brilliant conquests.


FOOTNOTES

[1] Vedmar, Antiguedad y Grandezas de la Ciudad de Velez, (Granada, 1652,)
fol. 148.--Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 27, cap. 10.--Pulgar,
Reyes Católicos, part. iii. cap. 70.--Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1487.--
Bleda, Corónica, lib. 5, cap. 14.

[2] Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii. pp. 292-294.--
Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, ubi supra.--Vedmar, Antiguedad de Velez, fol.
151.

[3] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 175.--Vedmar, Antiguedad.--de
Velez, fol. 150, 151.--Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 14.

In commemoration of this event, the city incorporated into its escutcheon
the figure of a king on horseback, in the act of piercing a Moor with his
javelin. Vedmar, Antiguedad de Velez, fol. 12.

[4] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 52.--Marmol, Rebelion de
Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 14.

[5] Conde doubts whether the name of Malaga is derived from the Greek
_malakè_, signifying "agreeable," or the Arabic _malka_, meaning "royal."
Either etymology is sufficiently pertinent. (See El Nubiense, Descripcion
de España, p. 186, not.) For notices of sovereigns who swayed the sceptre
of Malaga, see Casiri, Bibliotheca Escurialensis, tom. ii. pp. 41, 56, 99,
et alibi.

[6] Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. p. 237.--Pulgar, Reyes
Católicos, cap. 74.--El Nubiense, Descripcion de España, not., p. 144.

[7] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 82.--Vedmar, Antiguedad de
Velez, fol. 154.--Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 74.

[8] This cavalier, who took a conspicuous part both in the military and
civil transactions of this reign, was descended from one of the most
ancient and honorable houses in Castile. Hyta, (Guerras Civiles de
Granada, tom. i. p. 399,) with more effrontery than usual, has imputed to
him a chivalrous rencontre with a Saracen, which is recorded of an
ancestor, in the ancient Chronicle of Alonso XI.

  "Garcilaso de la Vega
  desde alli se ha intitulado,
  porque en la Vega hiciera
  campo con aquel pagano."

Oviedo, however, with good reason, distrusts the etymology and the story,
as he traces both the cognomen and the peculiar device of the family to a
much older date than the period assigned in the Chronicle. Quincuagenas,
MS., bat. 1, quinc. 3, dial. 43.

[9] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 75.--Salazar de Mendoza, Crón. del Gran
Cardenal, lib. 1, cap. 64.

[10] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 83.--Pulgar, Reyes Católicos,
cap. 76.--Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1487.

[11] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, ubi supra.--Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS.,
ubi supra.

[12] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 1, epist. 83--Pulgar, Reyes
Católicos, cap. 76.--Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, cap. 83.--Oviedo,
Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 36.

[13] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 76.

[14] Salazar de Mendoza, Crón. del Gran Cardenal, lib. 1, cap. 64.--
Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. cap. 70.--Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap.
83.

[15] Bleda, Corónica, lib. 5, cap. 15.--Conde, Dominacion, tom. iv. pp.
237, 238.--Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 83.--Pulgar, Reyes
Católicos, cap. 79.

[16] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, ubi supra.

During the siege, ambassadors arrived from an African potentate, the king
of Tremecen, bearing a magnificent present to the Castilian sovereigns,
interceding for the Malagans, and at the same time asking protection for
his subjects from the Spanish cruisers in the Mediterranean. The
sovereigns graciously complied with the latter request, and complimented
the African monarch with a plate of gold, on which the royal arms were
curiously embossed, says Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, cap. 84.

[17] This nobleman, Don Alvaro de Portugal, had fled his native country,
and sought an asylum in Castile from the vindictive enmity of John II, who
had been put to death by the duke of Braganza, his elder brother. He was
kindly received by Isabella, to whom he was nearly related, and
subsequently preferred to several important offices of state. His son, the
count of Gelves, married a granddaughter of Christopher Columbus. Oviedo,
Quincuagenas, MS.

[18] Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 23.--Peter Martyr,
Opus Epist., lib. 1, epist. 63.--Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap.
84.--Bleda, Corónica de los Moros, lib. 5, cap. 15.--L. Marineo, Cosas
Memorables, fol. 175, 176.

[19] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 87-89.--Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos,
MS., cap. 84.

[20] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 87.--Pulgar, Reyes Católicos,
cap. 71.

[21] Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. pp. 237, 238.--Pulgar,
Reyes Católicos, cap. 80.--Caro de Torres, Ordenes Militares, fol. 82, 83.

[22] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 9l.--Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS.,
cap. 84. The honest exclamation of the Curate brings to mind the similar
encomium of the old Moorish ballad,

  "Caballeros Granadinos, Aunque Moros, hijosdalgo."

Hyta, Guerras de Granada, tom. i., p. 257.

[23] There is no older well-authenticated account of the employment of
gunpowder in mining in European warfare, so far as I am aware, than this
by Ramirez. Tiraboschi, indeed, refers, on the authority of another
writer, to a work in the library of the Academy of Siena, composed by one
Francesco Giorgio, architect of the duke of Urbino, about 1480, in which
that person claims the merit of the invention. (Letteratura Italiana, tom.
vi. p. 370.) The whole statement is obviously too loose to warrant any
such conclusion. The Italian historians notice the use of gunpowder mines
at the siege of the little town of Serezanello in Tuscany, by the Genoese,
in 1487, precisely contemporaneous with the siege of Malaga. (Machiavelli,
Istorie Fiorentine, lib. 8.--Guicciardini, Istoria d'Italia, (Milano,
1803,) tom. iii. lib. 6.) This singular coincidence, in nations having
then but little intercourse, would seem to infer some common origin of
greater antiquity. However this may be, the writers of both nations are
agreed in ascribing the first successful use of such mines on any extended
scale to the celebrated Spanish engineer, Pedro Navarro, when serving
under Gonsalvo of Cordova, in his Italian campaigns at the beginning of
the sixteenth century. Guicciardini, ubi supra.--Paolo Giovio, de Vitâ
Magni Gonsalvi, (Vitae Illustrium Virorum, Basiliae, 1578,) lib. 2.--
Aleson, Annales de Navarra, tom. v. lib. 35, cap. 12.

[24] Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii. p. 296.--L.
Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 175.--Rades y Andrada, Las Tres Ordenes,
fol. 54.--Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 92.--Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos,
MS., cap. 85.

[25] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 93.--Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et
d'Espagne, tom. iii. p. 296.

The Arabic historians state that Malaga was betrayed by Ali Dordux, who
admitted the Spaniards into the castle, while the citizens were debating
on Ferdinand's terms. (See Conde, Domination de los Arabes, tom. iii. cap.
39.) The letter of the inhabitants, quoted at length by Pulgar, would seem
to be a refutation of this. And yet there are good grounds for suspecting
false play on the part of the ambassador Dordux, since the Castilian
writers admit that he was exempted, with forty of his friends, from the
doom of slavery and forfeiture of property, passed upon his fellow-
citizens.

[26] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 85.

[27] Carbajal, whose meagre annals have scarcely any merit beyond that of
a mere chronological table, postpones the surrender till September.
Anales, año 1487.--Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 14.

[28] Bleda, Corónica, lib. 5, cap. 15.

As a counterpart to the above scene, twelve Christian renegades, found in
the city, were transfixed with canes, _acañavereados_, a barbarous
punishment derived from the Moors, which was inflicted by horsemen at full
gallop, who discharged pointed reeds at the criminal, until he expired
under repeated wounds. A number of relapsed Jews were at the same time
condemned to the flames. "These," says Father Abarca, "were the _fêtes_
and illuminations most grateful to the Catholic piety of our sovereigns"!
Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. rey 30, cap. 3.

[29] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, ubi supra.--Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS.,
ubi supra.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 62.

[30] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 87.--L. Marineo, Cosas
Memorables, fol. 176.--Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. p. 238.
--Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii. p. 296.--Carbajal,
Anales, MS., año 1487.

Not a word of comment escapes the Castilian historians on this merciless
rigor of the conqueror towards the vanquished. It is evident that
Ferdinand did no violence to the feelings of his orthodox subjects.
_Tacendo clamant._

[31] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 87.--Bleda, Corónica, lib. 5,
cap. 15.

About four hundred and fifty Moorish Jews were ransomed by a wealthy
Israelite of Castile for 27,000 doblas of gold. A proof that the Jewish
stock was one which thrived amidst persecution.

It is scarcely possible that the circumstantial Pulgar should have omitted
to notice so important a fact as the scheme of the Moorish ransom, had it
occurred. It is still more improbable, that the honest Curate of Los
Palacios should have fabricated it. Any one who attempts to reconcile the
discrepancies of contemporary historians even, will have Lord Orford's
exclamation to his son Horace brought to his mind ten times a day; "Oh!
read me not history, for that I know to be false."

[32] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 94.--Col. de Céd., tom. vi. no. 321.




CHAPTER XIV.

WAR OF GRANADA.--CONQUEST OF BAZA.--SUBMISSION OF EL ZAGAL.

1487-1489.

The Sovereigns visit Aragon.--The King lays Siege to Baza.--Its Great
Strength.--Gardens Cleared of their Timber.--The Queen Raises the Spirits
of her Troops.--Her Patriotic Sacrifices.--Suspension of Arms.--Baza
Surrenders.--Treaty with Zagal.--Difficulties of the Campaign.--Isabella's
Popularity and Influence.


In the autumn of 1487, Ferdinand and Isabella, accompanied by the younger
branches of the royal family, visited Aragon, to obtain the recognition
from the cortes of Prince John's succession, now in his tenth year, as
well as to repress the disorders into which the country had fallen during
the long absence of its sovereigns. To this end, the principal cities and
communities of Aragon had recently adopted the institution of the
hermandad, organized on similar principles to that of Castile. Ferdinand,
on his arrival at Saragossa in the month of November, gave his royal
sanction to the association, extending the term of its duration to five
years, a measure extremely unpalatable to the great feudal nobility, whose
power, or rather abuse of power, was considerably abridged by this popular
military force. [1]

The sovereigns, after accomplishing the objects of their visit, and
obtaining an appropriation from the cortes for the Moorish war, passed
into Valencia, where measures of like efficiency were adopted for
restoring the authority of the law, which was exposed to such perpetual
lapses in this turbulent age, even in the best constituted governments, as
required for its protection the utmost vigilance, on the part of those
intrusted with the supreme executive power. From Valencia the court
proceeded to Murcia, where Ferdinand, in the month of June, 1488, assumed
the command of an army amounting to less than twenty thousand men, a small
force compared with those usually levied on these occasions; it being
thought advisable to suffer the nation to breathe a while, after the
exhausting efforts in which it had been unintermittingly engaged for so
many years.

Ferdinand, crossing the eastern borders of Granada, at no great distance
from Vera, which speedily opened its gates, kept along the southern slant
of the coast as far as Almeria; whence, after experiencing some rough
treatment from a sortie of the garrison, he marched by a northerly circuit
on Baza, for the purpose of reconnoitring its position, as his numbers
were altogether inadequate to its siege. A division of the army under the
marquis duke of Cadiz suffered itself to be drawn here into an ambuscade
by the wily old monarch El Zagal, who lay in Baza with a strong force.
After extricating his troops with some difficulty and loss from this
perilous predicament, Ferdinand retreated on his own dominions by the way
of Huescar, where he disbanded his army, and withdrew to offer up his
devotions at the cross of Caravaca. The campaign, though signalized by no
brilliant achievement, and indeed clouded with some slight reverses,
secured the surrender of a considerable number of fortresses and towns of
inferior note. [2]

The Moorish chief, El Zagal, elated by his recent success, made frequent
forays into the Christian territories, sweeping off the flocks, herds, and
growing crops of the husbandman; while the garrisons of Almeria and
Salobrena, and the bold inhabitants of the valley of Purchena, poured a
similar devastating warfare over the eastern borders of Granada into
Murcia. To meet this pressure, the Spanish sovereigns reinforced the
frontier with additional levies under Juan de Benavides and Garcilasso de
la Vega; while Christian knights, whose prowess is attested in many a
Moorish lay, flocked there from all quarters, as to the theatre of war.

During the following winter, of 1488, Ferdinand and Isabella occupied
themselves with the interior government of Castile, and particularly the
administration of justice. A commission was specially appointed to
supervise the conduct of the corregidors and subordinate magistrates, "so
that every one," says Pulgar, "was most careful to discharge his duty
faithfully, in order to escape the penalty, which was otherwise sure to
overtake him." [3]

While at Valladolid, the sovereigns received an embassy from Maximilian,
son of the emperor Frederic the Fourth, of Germany, soliciting their co-
operation in his designs against France for the restitution of his late
wife's rightful inheritance, the duchy of Burgundy, and engaging in turn
to support them in their claims on Roussillon and Cerdagne. The Spanish
monarchs had long entertained many causes of discontent with the French
court, both with regard to the mortgaged territory of Roussillon, and the
kingdom of Navarre; and they watched with jealous eye the daily increasing
authority of their formidable neighbor on their own frontier. They had
been induced, in the preceding summer, to equip an armanent at Biscay and
Guipuscoa, to support the duke of Brittany in his wars with the French
regent, the celebrated Anne de Beaujeu. This expedition, which proved
disastrous, was followed by another in the spring of the succeeding year.
[4] But, notwithstanding these occasional episodes to the great work in
which they were engaged, they had little leisure for extended operations;
and, although they entered into the proposed treaty of alliance with
Maximilian, they do not seem to have contemplated any movement of
importance before the termination of the Moorish war. The Flemish
ambassadors, after being entertained for forty days in a style suited to
impress them with high ideas of the magnificence of the Spanish court, and
of its friendly disposition towards their master, were dismissed with
costly presents, and returned to their own country. [5]

These negotiations show the increasing intimacy growing up between the
European states, who, as they settled their domestic feuds, had leisure to
turn their eyes abroad, and enter into the more extended field of
international politics. The tenor of this treaty indicates also the
direction which affairs were to take, when the great powers should be
brought into collision with each other on a common theatre of action.

All thoughts were now concentrated on the prosecution of the war with
Granada, which, it was determined, should be conducted on a more enlarged
scale than it had yet been; notwithstanding the fearful pest which had
desolated the country during the past year, and the extreme scarcity of
grain, owing to the inundations caused by excessive rains in the fruitful
provinces of the south. The great object proposed in this campaign was the
reduction of Baza, the capital of that division of the empire which
belonged to El Zagal. Besides this important city, that monarch's
dominions embraced the wealthy sea-port of Almeria, Guadix, and numerous
other towns and villages of less consequence, together with the mountain
region of the Alpuxarras, rich in mineral wealth; whose inhabitants,
famous for the perfection to which they had carried the silk manufacture,
were equally known for their enterprise and courage in war, so that El
Zagal's division comprehended the most potent and opulent portion of the
empire. [6] In the spring of 1489, the Castilian court passed to Jaen, at
which place the queen was to establish her residence, as presenting the
most favorable point of communication with the invading army. Ferdinand
advanced as far as Sotogordo, where, on the 27th of May, he put himself at
the head of a numerous force, amounting to about fifteen thousand horse
and eighty thousand foot, including persons of every description; among
whom was gathered, as usual, that chivalrous array of nobility and
knighthood, who, with stately and well-appointed retinues, were accustomed
to follow the royal standard in these crusades. [8]

The first point, against which operations were directed, was the strong
post of Cuxar, two leagues only from Baza, which surrendered after a brief
but desperate resistance. The occupation of this place, and some adjacent
fortresses, left the approaches open to El Zagal's capital. As the Spanish
army toiled up the heights of the mountain barrier, which towers above
Baza on the west, their advance was menaced by clouds of Moorish light
troops, who poured down a tempest of musket-balls and arrows on their
heads. These however were quickly dispersed by the advancing vanguard; and
the Spaniards, as they gained the summits of the hills, beheld the lordly
city of Baza, reposing in the shadows of the bold sierra that stretches
towards the coast, and lying in the bosom of a fruitful valley, extending
eight leagues in length, and three in breadth. Through this valley flowed
the waters of the Guadalentin and the Guadalquiton, whose streams were
conducted by a thousand canals over the surface of the vega. In the midst
of the plain, adjoining the suburbs, might be descried the orchard or
garden, as it was termed, of Baza, a league in length, covered with a
thick growth of wood, and with numerous villas and pleasure-houses of the
wealthy citizens, now converted into garrisoned fortresses. The suburbs
were encompassed by a low mud wall; but the fortifications of the city
were of uncommon strength. The place, in addition to ten thousand troops
of its own, was garrisoned by an equal number from Almeria; picked men,
under the command of the Moorish prince Cidi Yahye, a relative of El
Zagal, who lay at this time in Guadix, prepared to cover his own dominions
against any hostile movement of his rival in Granada. These veterans were
commissioned to defend the place to the last extremity; and, as due time
had been given for preparation, the town was victualled with fifteen
months' provisions, and even the crops growing in the vega had been
garnered before their prime, to save them from the hands of the enemy. [8]

The first operation, after the Christian army had encamped before the
walls of Baza, was to get possession of the garden, without which it would
be impossible to enforce a thorough blockade, since its labyrinth of
avenues afforded the inhabitants abundant facilities of communication with
the surrounding country. The assault was intrusted to the grand master of
St. James, supported by the principal cavaliers, and the king in person.
Their reception by the enemy was such as gave them a foretaste of the
perils and desperate daring they were to encounter in the present siege.
The broken surface of the ground, bewildered with intricate passes, and
thickly studded with trees and edifices, was peculiarly favorable to the
desultory and illusory tactics of the Moors. The Spanish cavalry was
brought at once to a stand; the ground proving impracticable for it, it
was dismounted, and led to the charge by its officers on foot. The men,
however, were soon scattered far asunder from their banners and their
leaders. Ferdinand, who from a central position endeavored to overlook the
field, with the design of supporting the attack on the points most
requiring it, soon lost sight of his columns amid the precipitous ravines,
and the dense masses of foliage which everywhere intercepted the view. The
combat was carried on, hand to hand, in the utmost confusion. Still the
Spaniards pressed forward, and, after a desperate struggle for twelve
hours, in which many of the bravest on both sides fell, and the Moslem
chief Reduan Zafarga had four horses successively killed under him, the
enemy were beaten back behind the intrenchments that covered the suburbs,
and the Spaniards, hastily constructing a defence of palisades, pitched
their tents on the field of battle. [9]

The following morning Ferdinand had the mortification to observe, that the
ground was too much broken and obstructed with wood, to afford a suitable
place for a general encampment. To evacuate his position, however, in the
face of the enemy, was a delicate manoeuvre, and must necessarily expose
him to severe loss. This he obviated, in a great measure, by a fortunate
stratagem. He commanded the tents nearest the town to be left standing,
and thus succeeded in drawing off the greater part of his forces, before
the enemy was aware of his intention.

After regaining his former position, a council of war was summoned to
deliberate on the course next to be pursued. The chiefs were filled with
despondency, as they revolved the difficulties of their situation. They
almost despaired of enforcing the blockade of a place, whose peculiar
situation gave it such advantages. Even could this be effected, the camp
would be exposed, they argued, to the assaults of a desperate garrison on
the one hand, and of the populous city of Guadix, hardly twenty miles
distant, on the other; while the good faith of Granada could scarcely be
expected to outlive a single reverse of fortune; so that, instead of
besieging, they might be more properly regarded as themselves besieged. In
addition to these evils, the winter frequently set in with much rigor in
this quarter; and the torrents, descending from the mountains, and
mingling with the waters of the valley, might overwhelm the camp with an
inundation, which, if it did not sweep it away at once, would expose it to
the perils of famine by cutting off all external communication. Under
these gloomy impressions, many of the council urged Ferdinand to break up
his position at once, and postpone all operations on Baza, until the
reduction of the surrounding country should make it comparatively easy.
Even the marquis of Cadiz gave in to this opinion; and Gutierre de
Cardenas, commander of Leon, a cavalier deservedly high in the confidence
of the king, was almost the only person of consideration decidedly opposed
to it. In this perplexity, Ferdinand, as usual in similar exigencies,
resolved to take counsel of the queen. [10]

Isabella received her husband's despatches a few hours after they were
written, by means of the regular line of posts maintained between the camp
and her station at Jaen. She was filled with chagrin at their import, from
which she plainly saw, that all her mighty preparations were about to
vanish into air. Without assuming the responsibility of deciding the
proposed question, however, she besought her husband not to distrust the
providence of God, which had conducted them through so many perils towards
the consummation of their wishes. She reminded him, that the Moorish
fortunes were never at so low an ebb as at present, and that their own
operations could probably never be resumed on such a formidable scale or
under so favorable auspices as now, when their arms had not been stained
with a single important reverse. She concluded with the assurance, that,
if his soldiers would be true to their duty, they might rely on her for
the faithful discharge of hers in furnishing them with all the requisite
supplies.

The exhilarating tone of this letter had an instantaneous effect,
silencing the scruples of the most timid, and confirming the confidence of
the others. The soldiers, in particular, who had received with
dissatisfaction some intimation of what was passing in the council,
welcomed it with general enthusiasm; and every heart seemed now intent on
furthering the wishes of their heroic queen by prosecuting the siege with
the utmost vigor.

The army was accordingly distributed into two encampments; one under the
marquis duke of Cadiz, supported by the artillery, the other under King
Ferdinand on the opposite side of the city. Between the two lay the garden
or orchard before mentioned, extending a league in length; so that, in
order to connect the works of the two camps, it became necessary to get
possession of this contested ground, and to clear it of the heavy timber
with which it was covered.

This laborious operation was intrusted to the commander of Leon, and the
work was covered by a detachment of seven thousand troops, posted in such
a manner as to check the sallies of the garrison. Notwithstanding four
thousand _taladores_, or pioneers, were employed in the task, the
forest was so dense, and the sorties from the city so annoying, that the
work of devastation did not advance more than ten paces a day, and was not
completed before the expiration of seven weeks. When the ancient groves,
so long the ornament and protection of the city, were levelled to the
ground, preparations were made for connecting the two camps, by a deep
trench, through which the mountain waters were made to flow; while the
borders were fortified with palisades, constructed of the timber lately
hewn, together with strong towers of mud or clay, arranged at regular
intervals. In this manner, the investment of the city was complete on the
side of the vega. [11]

As means of communication still remained open, however, by the opposite
sierra, defences of similar strength, consisting of two stone walls
separated by a deep trench, were made to run along the rocky heights and
ravines of the mountains until they touched the extremities of the
fortifications on the plain; and thus Baza was encompassed by an unbroken
line of circumvallation.

In the progress of the laborious work, which occupied ten thousand men,
under the indefatigable commander of Leon, for the space of two months, it
would have been easy for the people of Guadix, or of Granada, by co-
operation with the sallies of the besieged, to place the Christian army in
great peril. Some feeble demonstration of such a movement was made at
Guadix, but it was easily disconcerted. Indeed, El Zagal was kept in check
by the fear of leaving his own territory open to his rival, should he
march against the Christians. Abdallah, in the mean while, lay inactive in
Granada, incurring the odium and contempt of his people, who stigmatized
him as a Christian in heart, and a pensioner of the Spanish sovereigns.
Their discontent gradually swelled into a rebellion, which was suppressed
by him with a severity, that at length induced a sullen acquiescence in a
rule, which, however inglorious, was at least attended with temporary
security. [12]

While the camp lay before Baza, a singular mission was received from the
sultan of Egypt, who had been solicited by the Moors of Granada to
interpose in their behalf with the Spanish sovereigns. Two Franciscan
friars, members of a religious community in Palestine, were bearers of
despatches; which, after remonstrating with the sovereigns on. their
persecution of the Moors, contrasted it with the protection uniformly
extended by the sultan to the Christians in his dominions. The
communication concluded with menacing a retaliation of similar severities
on these latter, unless the sovereigns desisted from their hostilities
towards Granada.

From the camp, the two ambassadors proceeded to Jaen, where they were
received by the queen with all the deference due to their holy profession,
which seemed to derive additional sanctity from the spot in which it was
exercised. The menacing import of the sultan's communication, however, had
no power to shake the purposes of Ferdinand and Isabella, who made answer,
that they had uniformly observed the same policy in regard to their
Mahometan, as to their Christian subjects; but that they could no longer
submit to see their ancient and rightful inheritance in the hands of
strangers; and that, if these latter would consent to live under their
rule, as true and loyal subjects, they should experience the same paternal
indulgence which had been shown to their brethren. With this answer the
reverend emissaries returned to the Holy Land, accompanied by substantial
marks of the royal favor, in a yearly pension of one thousand ducats,
which the queen settled in perpetuity on their monastery, together with a
richly embroidered veil, the work of her own fair hands, to be suspended
over the Holy Sepulchre. The sovereigns subsequently despatched the
learned Peter Martyr as their envoy to the Moslem court, in order to
explain their proceedings more at length, and avert any disastrous
consequences from the Christian residents. [13]

In the mean while, the siege went forward with spirit; skirmishes and
single rencontres taking place every day between the high-mettled
cavaliers on both sides. These chivalrous combats, however, were
discouraged by Ferdinand, who would have confined his operations to strict
blockade, and avoided the unnecessary effusion of blood; especially as the
advantage was most commonly on the side of the enemy, from the peculiar
adaptation of their tactics to this desultory warfare. Although some
months had elapsed, the besieged rejected with scorn every summons to
surrender; relying on their own resources, and still more on the
tempestuous season of autumn, now fast advancing, which, if it did not
break up the encampment at once, would at least, by demolishing the roads,
cut off all external communication.

In order to guard against these impending evils, Ferdinand caused more
than a thousand houses, or rather huts, to be erected, with walls of earth
or clay, and roofs made of timber and tiles; while the common soldiers
constructed cabins by means of palisades loosely thatched with the
branches of trees. The whole work was accomplished in four days; and the
inhabitants of Baza beheld with amazement a city of solid edifices, with
all its streets and squares in regular order, springing as it were by
magic out of the ground, which had before been covered with the light and
airy pavilions of the camp. The new city was well supplied, owing to the
providence of the queen, not merely with the necessaries, but the luxuries
of life. Traders flocked there as to a fair, from Aragon, Valencia,
Catalonia, and even Sicily, freighted with costly merchandise, and with
jewelry and other articles of luxury; such as, in the indignant lament of
an old chronicler, "too often corrupt the souls of the soldiery, and bring
waste and dissipation into a camp."

That this was not the result, however, in the present instance, is
attested by more than one historian. Among others, Peter Martyr, the
Italian scholar before mentioned, who was present at this siege, dwells
with astonishment on the severe decorum and military discipline, which
everywhere obtained among this motley congregation of soldiers. "Who would
have believed," says he, "that the Galician, the fierce Asturian, and the
rude inhabitant of the Pyrenees, men accustomed to deeds of atrocious
violence, and to brawl and battle on the lightest occasions at home,
should mingle amicably, not only with one another, but with the Toledans,
La-Manchans, and the wily and jealous Andalusian; all living together in
harmonious subordination to authority, like members of one family,
speaking one tongue, and nurtured under a common discipline; so that the
camp seemed like a community modelled on the principles of Plato's
republic!" In another part of this letter, which was addressed to a
Milanese prelate, he panegyrizes the camp hospital of the queen, then a
novelty in war; which, he says, "is so profusely supplied with medical
attendants, apparatus, and whatever may contribute to the restoration or
solace of the sick, that it is scarcely surpassed in these respects by the
magnificent establishments of Milan." [14]

During the five months which the siege had now lasted, the weather had
proved uncommonly propitious to the Spaniards, being for the most part of
a bland and equal temperature, while the sultry heats of midsummer were
mitigated by cool and moderate showers. As the autumnal season advanced,
however, the clouds began to settle heavily around the mountains; and at
length one of those storms, predicted by the people of Baza, burst forth
with incredible fury, pouring a volume of waters down the rocky sides of
the sierra, which, mingling with those of the vega, inundated the camp of
the besiegers, and swept away most of the frail edifices constructed for
the use of the common soldiery. A still greater calamity befell them in
the dilapidation of the roads, which, broken up or worn into deep gullies
by the force of the waters, were rendered perfectly impassable. All
communication was of course suspended with Jaen, and a temporary
interruption of the convoys filled the camp with consternation. This
disaster, however, was speedily repaired by the queen, who, with an energy
always equal to the occasion, caused six thousand pioneers to be at once
employed in reconstructing the roads; the rivers were bridged over,
causeways new laid, and two separate passes opened through the mountains,
by which the convoys might visit the camp, and return without interrupting
each other. At the same time, the queen bought up immense quantities of
grain from all parts of Andalusia, which she caused to be ground in her
own mills; and, when the roads, which extended more than seven leagues in
length, were completed, fourteen thousand mules might be seen daily
traversing the sierra, laden with supplies, which from that time forward
were poured abundantly, and with the most perfect regularity, into the
camp. [15]

Isabella's next care was to assemble new levies of troops, to relieve or
reinforce those now in the camp; and the alacrity with which all orders of
men from every quarter of the kingdom answered her summons is worthy of
remark. But her chief solicitude was to devise expedients for meeting the
enormous expenditures incurred by the protracted operations of the year.
For this purpose, she had recourse to loans from individuals and religious
corporations, which were obtained without much difficulty, from the
general confidence in her good faith. As the sum thus raised, although
exceedingly large for that period, proved inadequate to the expenses,
further supplies were obtained from wealthy individuals, whose loans were
secured by mortgage of the royal demesne; and, as a deficiency still
remained in the treasury, the queen, as a last resource, pawned the crown
jewels and her own personal ornaments to the merchants of Barcelona and
Valencia, for such sums as they were willing to advance on them. [16] Such
were the efforts made by this high-spirited woman, for the furtherance of
her patriotic enterprise. The extraordinary results, which she was enabled
to effect, are less to be ascribed to the authority of her station, than
to that perfect confidence in her wisdom and virtue, with which she had
inspired the whole nation, and which secured their earnest co-operation in
all her undertakings. The empire, which she thus exercised, indeed, was
far more extended than any station, however exalted, or any authority,
however despotic, can confer; for it was over the hearts of her people.

Notwithstanding the vigor with which the siege was pressed, Baza made no
demonstration of submission. The garrison was indeed greatly reduced in
number; the ammunition was nearly expended; yet there still remained
abundant supplies of provisions in the town, and no signs of despondency
appeared among the people. Even the women of the place, with a spirit
emulating that of the dames of ancient Carthage, freely gave up their
jewels, bracelets, necklaces, and other personal ornaments, of which the
Moorish ladies were exceedingly fond, in order to defray the charges of
the mercenaries.

The camp of the besiegers, in the mean while, was also greatly wasted both
by sickness and the sword. Many, desponding under perils and fatigues,
which seemed to have no end, would even at this late hour have abandoned
the siege; and they earnestly solicited the queen's appearance in the
camp, in the hope that she would herself countenance this measure, on
witnessing their sufferings. Others, and by far the larger part, anxiously
desired the queen's visit, as likely to quicken the operations of the
siege, and bring it to a favorable issue. There seemed to be a virtue in
her presence, which, on some account or other, made it earnestly desired
by all.

Isabella yielded to the general wish, and on the 7th of November arrived
before the camp, attended by the infanta Isabella, the cardinal of Spain,
her friend, the marchioness of Moya, and other ladies of the royal
household. The inhabitants of Baza, says Bernaldez, lined the battlements
and housetops, to gaze at the glittering cavalcade as it emerged from the
depths of the mountains, amidst flaunting banners and strains of martial
music, while the Spanish cavaliers thronged forth in a body from the camp
to receive their beloved mistress, and gave her the most animated welcome.
"She came," says Martyr, "surrounded by a choir of nymphs, as if to
celebrate the nuptials of her child; and her presence seemed at once to
gladden and reanimate our spirits, drooping under long vigils, dangers,
and fatigue." Another writer, also present, remarks that, from the moment
of her appearance, a change seemed to come over the scene. No more of the
cruel skirmishes, which had before occurred every day; no report of
artillery, or clashing of arms, or any of the rude sounds of war, was to
be heard, but all seemed disposed to reconciliation and peace. [17]

The Moors probably interpreted Isabella's visit into an assurance, that
the Christian army would never rise from before the place until its
surrender. Whatever hopes they had once entertained of wearying out the
besiegers, were therefore now dispelled. Accordingly, a few days after the
queen's arrival, we find them proposing a parley for arranging terms of
capitulation.

On the third day after her arrival, Isabella reviewed her army, stretched
out in order of battle along the slope of the western hills; after which,
she proceeded to reconnoitre the beleaguered city, accompanied by the king
and the cardinal of Spain, together with a brilliant escort of the Spanish
chivalry. On the same day, a conference was opened with the enemy through
the _comendador_ of Leon; and an armistice arranged, to continue until the
old monarch, El Zagal, who then lay at Guadix, could be informed of the
real condition of the besieged, and his instructions be received,
determining the course to be adopted.

The alcayde of Baza represented to his master the low state to which the
garrison was reduced by the loss of lives and the failure of ammunition.
Still, he expressed such confidence in the spirit of his people, that he
undertook to make good his defence some time longer, provided any
reasonable expectation of succor could be afforded; otherwise, it would be
a mere waste of life, and must deprive him of such vantage ground as he
now possessed, for enforcing an honorable capitulation. The Moslem prince
acquiesced in the reasonableness of these representations. He paid a just
tribute to his brave kinsman Cidi Yahye's loyalty, and the gallantry of
his defence; but, confessing at the same time his own inability to relieve
him, authorized him to negotiate the best terms of surrender which he
could, for himself and garrison. [18]

A mutual desire of terminating the protracted hostilities infused a spirit
of moderation into both parties, which greatly facilitated the adjustment
of the articles. Ferdinand showed none of the arrogant bearing, which
marked his conduct towards the unfortunate people of Malaga, whether from
a conviction of its impolicy, or, as is more probable, because the city of
Baza was itself in a condition to assume a more imposing attitude. The
principal stipulations of the treaty were, that the foreign mercenaries
employed in the defence of the place should be allowed to march out with
the honors of war; that the city should be delivered up to the Christians;
but that the natives might have the choice of retiring with their personal
effects where they listed; or of occupying the suburbs, as subjects of the
Castilian crown, liable only to the same tribute which they paid to their
Moslem rulers, and secured in the enjoyment of their property, religion,
laws, and usages. [19]

On the fourth day of December, 1489, Ferdinand and Isabella took
possession of Baza, at the head of their legions, amid the ringing of
bells, the peals of artillery, and all the other usual accompaniments of
this triumphant ceremony; while the standard of the Cross, floating from
the ancient battlements of the city, proclaimed the triumph of the
Christian arms. The brave alcayde, Cidi Yahye, experienced a reception
from the sovereigns very different from that of the bold defender of
Malaga. He was loaded with civilities and presents; and these acts of
courtesy so won upon his heart, that he expressed a willingness to enter
into their service. "Isabella's compliments," says the Arabian historian,
dryly, "were repaid in more substantial coin."

Cidi Yahye was soon prevailed on to visit his royal kinsman El Zagal, at
Guadix, for the purpose of urging his submission to the Christian
sovereigns. In his interview with that prince, he represented the
fruitlessness of any attempt to withstand the accumulated forces of the
Spanish monarchies; that he would only see town after town pared away from
his territory, until no ground was left for him to stand on, and make
terms with the victor. He reminded him, that the baleful horoscope of
Abdallah had predicted the downfall of Granada, and that experience had
abundantly shown how vain it was to struggle against the tide of destiny.
The unfortunate monarch listened, says the Arabian annalist, without so
much as moving an eyelid; and, after a long and deep meditation, replied
with the resignation characteristic of the Moslems, "What Allah wills, he
brings to pass in his own way. Had he not decreed the fall of Granada,
this good sword might have saved it; but his will be done!" It was then
arranged, that the principal cities of Almeria, Guadix, and their
dependencies, constituting the domain of El Zagal, should be formally
surrendered by that prince to Ferdinand and Isabella, who should instantly
proceed at the head of their army to take possession of them. [20]

On the seventh day of December, therefore, the Spanish sovereigns, without
allowing themselves or their jaded troops any time for repose, marched out
of the gates of Baza, King Ferdinand occupying the centre, and the queen
the rear of the army. Their route lay across the most savage district of
the long sierra, which stretches towards Almeria; leading through many a
narrow pass, which a handful of resolute Moors, says an eye-witness, might
have made good against the whole Christian army, over mountains whose
peaks were lost in clouds, and valleys whose depths were never warmed by a
sun. The winds were exceedingly bleak, and the weather inclement, so that
men, as well as horses, exhausted by the fatigues of previous service,
were benumbed by the intense cold, and many of them frozen to death. Many
more, losing their way in the intricacies of the sierra, would have
experienced the same miserable fate, had it not been for the marquis of
Cadiz, whose tent was pitched on one of the loftiest hills, and who caused
beacon fires to be lighted around it, in order to guide the stragglers
back to their quarters.

At no great distance from Almeria, Ferdinand was met, conformably to the
previous arrangement, by El Zagal, escorted by a numerous body of Moslem
cavaliers. Ferdinand commanded his nobles to ride forward and receive the
Moorish prince. "His appearance," says Martyr, who was in the royal
retinue, "touched my soul with compassion; for, although a lawless
barbarian, he was a king, and had given signal proofs of heroism." El
Zagal, without waiting to receive the courtesies of the Spanish nobles,
threw himself from his horse, and advanced towards Ferdinand with the
design of kissing his hand; but the latter, rebuking his followers for
their "rusticity," in allowing such an act of humiliation in the
unfortunate monarch, prevailed on him to remount, and then rode by his
side towards Almeria. [21]

This city was one of the most precious jewels in the diadem of Granada. It
had amassed great wealth by its extensive commerce with Syria, Egypt, and
Africa; and its corsairs had for ages been the terror of the Catalan and
Pisan marine. It might have stood a siege as long as that of Baza, but it
was now surrendered without a blow, on conditions similar to those granted
to the former city. After allowing some days for the refreshment of their
wearied forces in this pleasant region, which, sheltered from the bleak
winds of the north by the sierra they had lately traversed, and fanned by
the gentle breezes of the Mediterranean, is compared by Martyr to the
gardens of the Hesperides, the sovereigns established a strong garrison
there, under the commander of Leon, and then, striking again into the
recesses of the mountains, marched on Guadix, which, after some opposition
on the part of the populace, threw open its gates to them. The surrender
of these principal cities was followed by that of all the subordinate
dependencies belonging to El Zagal's territory, comprehending a multitude
of hamlets scattered along the green sides of the mountain chain that
stretched from Granada to the coast. To all these places the same liberal
terms, in regard to personal rights and property, were secured, as to
Baza.

As an equivalent for these broad domains, the Moorish chief was placed in
possession of the _taha_, or district, of Andaraz, the vale of Alhaurin,
and half the salt-pits of Maleha, together with a considerable revenue in
money. He was, moreover, to receive the title of King of Andaraz, and to
render homage for his estates to the crown of Castile.

This shadow of royalty could not long amuse the mind of the unfortunate
prince. He pined away amid the scenes of his ancient empire; and, after
experiencing some insubordination on the part of his new vassals, he
determined to relinquish his petty principality, and withdraw for ever
from his native land. Having received a large sum of money, as an
indemnification for the entire cession of his territorial rights and
possessions to the Castilian crown, he passed over to Africa, where, it is
reported, he was plundered of his property by the barbarians, and
condemned to starve out the remainder of his days in miserable indigence.
[22]

The suspicious circumstances attending this prince's accession to the
throne throw a dark cloud over his fame, which would otherwise seem, at
least as far as his public life is concerned, to be unstained by any
opprobrious act. He possessed such energy, talent, and military science,
as, had he been fortunate enough to unite the Moorish nation under him by
an undisputed title, might have postponed the fall of Granada for many
years. As it was, these very talents, by dividing the state in his favor,
served only to precipitate its ruin.

The Spanish sovereigns, having accomplished the object of the campaign,
after stationing part of their forces on such points as would secure the
permanence of their conquests, returned with the remainder to Jaen, where
they disbanded the army on the 4th of January, 1490. The losses sustained
by the troops, during the whole period of their prolonged service, greatly
exceeded those of any former year, amounting to not less than twenty
thousand men, by far the larger portion of whom are said to have fallen
victims to diseases incident to severe and long-continued hardships and
exposure. [23]

Thus terminated the eighth year of the war of Granada, a year more
glorious to the Christian arms, and more important in its results, than
any of the preceding. During this period, an army of eighty thousand men
had kept the field, amid all the inclemencies of winter, for more than
seven months; an effort scarcely paralleled in these times, when both the
amount of levies, and period of service, were on the limited scale adapted
to the exigencies of feudal warfare. [24] Supplies for this immense host,
notwithstanding the severe famine of the preceding year, were punctually
furnished, in spite of every embarrassment presented by the want of
navigable rivers, and the interposition of a precipitous and pathless
sierra.

The history of this campaign is, indeed, most honorable to the courage,
constancy, and thorough discipline of the Spanish soldier, and to the
patriotism and general resources of the nation; but most of all to
Isabella. She it was, who fortified the timid councils of the leaders,
after the disasters of the garden, and encouraged them to persevere in the
siege. She procured all the supplies, constructed the roads, took charge
of the sick, and furnished, at no little personal sacrifice, the immense
sums demanded for carrying on the war; and when at last the hearts of the
soldiers were fainting under long-protracted sufferings, she appeared
among them, like some celestial visitant, to cheer their faltering
spirits, and inspire them with her own energy. The attachment to Isabella
seemed to be a pervading principle, which animated the whole nation by one
common impulse, impressing a unity of design on all its movements. This
attachment was imputable to her sex as well as character. The sympathy and
tender care, with which she regarded her people, naturally raised a
reciprocal sentiment in their bosoms. But when they beheld her directing
their counsels, sharing their fatigues and dangers, and displaying all the
comprehensive intellectual powers of the other sex, they looked up to her
as to some superior being, with feelings far more exalted than those of
mere loyalty. The chivalrous heart of the Spaniard did homage to her, as
to his tutelar saint; and she held a control over her people, such as no
man could have acquired in any age,--and probably no woman, in an age and
country less romantic.

        *       *       *       *       *

Pietro Martire, or, as he is called in English, Peter Martyr, so often
quoted in the present chapter, and who will constitute one of our best
authorities during the remainder of the history, was a native of Arona
(not of Anghiera, as commonly supposed), a place situated on the borders
of Lake Maggiore in Italy. (Mazzuchelli, Scrittori d'ltalia, (Brescia,
1753-63,) tom. ii. _voce_ Anghiera.) He was of noble Milanese extraction.
In 1477, at twenty-two years of age, he was sent to complete his education
at Rome, where he continued ten years, and formed an intimacy with the
most distinguished literary characters of that cultivated capital. In
1487, he was persuaded by the Castilian ambassador, the count of Tendilla,
to accompany him to Spain, where he was received with marked distinction
by the queen, who would have at once engaged him in the tuition of the
young nobility of the court, but, Martyr having expressed a preference of
a military life, she, with her usual delicacy, declined to press him on
the point. He was present, as we have seen, at the siege of Baza, and
continued with the army during the subsequent campaigns of the Moorish
war. Many passages of his correspondence, at this period, show a whimsical
mixture of self-complacency with a consciousness of the ludicrous figure
which he made in "exchanging the Muses for Mars."

At the close of the war, he entered the ecclesiastical profession, for
which he had been originally destined, and was persuaded to resume his
literary vocation. He opened his school at Valladolid, Saragossa,
Barcelona, Alcalá de Henares, and other places; and it was thronged with
the principal young nobility from all parts of Spain, who, as he boasts in
one of his letters, drew their literary nourishment from him. "Suxerunt
mea literalia ubera Castellae principes fere omnes." His important
services were fully estimated by the queen, and, after her death, by
Ferdinand and Charles V., and he was recompensed with high ecclesiastical
preferment as well as civil dignities. He died about the year 1525, at the
age of seventy, and his remains were interred beneath a monument in the
cathedral church of Granada, of which he was prior.

Among Martyr's principal works is a treatise "De Legatione Babylonica,"
being an account of a visit to the sultan of Egypt, in 1501, for the
purpose of deprecating the retaliation with which he had menaced the
Christian residents in Palestine, for the injuries inflicted on the
Spanish Moslems. Peter Martyr conducted his negotiation with such address,
that he not only appeased the sultan's resentment, but obtained several
important immunities for his Christian subjects, in addition to those
previously enjoyed by them.

He also wrote an account of the discoveries of the New World, entitled "De
Rebus Oceanicis et Novo Orbe," (Coloniae, 1574,) a book largely consulted
and commended by subsequent historians. But the work of principal value in
our researches is his "Opus Epistolarum," being a collection of his
multifarious correspondence with the most considerable persons of his
time, whether in political or literary life. The letters are in Latin, and
extend from the year 1488 to the time of his death. Although not
conspicuous for elegance of diction, they are most valuable to the
historian, from the fidelity and general accuracy of the details, as well
as for the intelligent criticism in which they abound, for all which,
uncommon facilities were afforded by the writer's intimacy with the
leading actors, and the most recondite sources of information of the
period.

This high character is fully authorized by the judgments of those best
qualified to pronounce on their merits,--Martyr's own contemporaries.
Among these, Dr. Galindez de Carbajal, a counsellor of King Ferdinand, and
constantly employed in the highest concerns of state, commends these
epistles as "the work of a learned and upright man, well calculated to
throw light on the transactions of the period." (Anales, MS., prólogo.)
Alvaro Gomez, another contemporary who survived Martyr, in the Life of
Ximenes, which he was selected to write by the University of Alcalá,
declares, that "Martyr's Letters abundantly compensate by their fidelity
for the unpolished style in which they are written." (De Rebus Gestis,
fol. 6.) And John de Vergara, a name of the highest celebrity in the
literary annals of the period, expresses himself in the following emphatic
terms. "I know no record of the time more accurate and valuable. I myself
have often witnessed the promptness with which he put down things the
moment they occurred. I have sometimes seen him write one or two letters,
while they were setting the table. For, as he did not pay much attention
to style and mere finish of expression, his composition required but
little time, and experienced no interruption from his ordinary
avocations." (See his letter to Florian de Ocampo, apud Quintanilla y
Mendoza, Archetypo de Virtudes, Espejo de Prelados, el Venerable Padre y
Siervo de Dios, F. Francisco Ximenez de Cisneros, (Palermo, 1653,)
Archivo, p. 4.) This account of the precipitate manner in which the
epistles were composed, may help to explain the cause of the occasional
inconsistencies and anachronisms, that are to be found in them; and which
their author, had he been more patient of the labor of revision, would
doubtless have corrected. But he seems to have had little relish for this,
even in his more elaborate works, composed with a view to publication.
(See his own honest confessions in his book "De Rebus Oceanicis," dec. 8,
cap. 8, 9.) After all, the errors, such as they are, in his Epistles, may
probably be chiefly charged on the publisher. The first edition appeared
at Alcalá de Henares, in 1530, about four years after the author's death.
It has now become exceedingly rare. The second and last, being the one
used in the present History, came out in a more beautiful form from the
Elzevir press, Amsterdam, in 1670, folio. Of this also but a small number
of copies were struck off. The learned editor takes much credit to himself
for having purified the work from many errors, which had flowed from the
heedlessness of his predecessor. It will not be difficult to detect
several yet remaining. Such, for example, as a memorable letter on the
_lues venerea_, (No. 68,) obviously misplaced, even according to its
own date; and that numbered 168, in which two letters are evidently
blended into one. But it is unnecessary to multiply examples.--It is very
desirable, that an edition of this valuable correspondence should be
published, under the care of some one qualified to illustrate it by his
intimacy with the history of the period, as well as to correct the various
inaccuracies which have crept into it, whether through the carelessness of
the author or of his editors.

I have been led into this length of remark by some strictures which met my
eye in the recent work of Mr. Hallam; who intimates his belief, that the
Epistles of Martyr, instead of being written at their respective dates,
were produced by him at some later period; (Introduction to the Literature
of Europe, (London, 1837,) vol. i. pp. 439-441;) a conclusion which I
suspect this acute and candid critic would have been slow to adopt, had he
perused the correspondence in connection with the history of the times, or
weighed the unqualified testimony borne by contemporaries to its minute
accuracy.


FOOTNOTES

[1] Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 351, 352, 356.--Mariana, Hist. de
España, tom. ii. lib. 25, cap. 12.--Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 3,
cap. 95.

[2] Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii. p. 76.--Pulgar, Reyes Católicos,
cap. 98.--Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, p. 402.--Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique
et d'Espagne, tom. iii. pp. 298, 299.--Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1488.

[3] Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. pp. 239, 240.--Pulgar,
Reyes Católicos, cap. 100, 101.--During the preceding year, while the
court was at Murcia, we find one of the examples of prompt and severe
exercise of justice, which sometimes occur in this reign. One of the royal
collectors having been resisted and personally maltreated by the alcayde
of Salvatierra, a place belonging to the crown, and by the alcalde of a
territorial court of the duke of Alva, the queen caused one of the royal
judges privately to enter into the place, and take cognizance of the
affair. The latter, after a brief investigation, commanded the alcayde to
be hung up over his fortress, and the alcalde to be delivered over to the
court of chancery at Valladolid, who ordered his right hand to be
amputated, and banished him the realm. This summary justice was perhaps
necessary in a community, that might be said to be in transition from a
state of barbarism to that of civilization, and had a salutary effect in
proving to the people that no rank was elevated enough to raise the
offender above the law. Pulgar, cap. 99.

[4] Ialigny, Hist. de Charles VIII., pp. 92, 94.--Sismondi, Hist. des
Français, tom. xv. p. 77.--Aleson, Annales de Navarra, tom. v. p. 61.--
Histoire du Royaume de Navarre, pp. 578, 579.--Pulgar, Reyes Católicos,
cap. 102.

In the first of these expeditions, more than a thousand Spaniards were
slain or taken at the disastrous battle of St. Aubin, in 1488, being the
same in which Lord Rivers, the English noble, who made such a gallant
figure at the siege of Loja, lost his life. In the spring of 1489, the
levies sent into France amounted to two thousand in number. These efforts
abroad, simultaneous with the great operations of the Moorish war, show
the resources as well as energy of the sovereigns.

[5] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, ubi supra.

[6] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 91.--Zurita, Anales, tom. iv.
fol. 354.--Bleda, Corónica, fol. 607.--Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii.
fol. 307.

Such was the scarcity of grain that the prices in 1489, quoted by
Bernaldez, are double those of the preceding year.--Both Abarca and Zurita
mention the report, that four-fifths of the whole population were swept
away by the pestilence of 1488. Zurita finds more difficulty in swallowing
this monstrous statement than Father Abarca, whose appetite for the
marvellous appears to have been fully equal to that of most of his calling
in Spain.

[7] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 2, epist. 70.--Pulgar, Reyes
Católicos, cap. 104.

It may not be amiss to specify the names of the most distinguished
cavaliers who usually attended the king in these Moorish wars; the heroic
ancestors of many a noble house still extant in Spain.

  Alonso de Cardenas, master of Saint Jago.
  Juan de Zuñiga, master of Alcantara.
  Juan Garcia de Padilla, master of Calatrava.
  Rodrigo Ponce de Leon, marquis duke of Cadiz.
  Enrique de Guzman, duke of Medina Sidonia.
  Pedro Manrique, duke of Najera.
  Juan Pacheco, duke of Escalona, marquis of Villena.
  Juan Pimentel, count of Benavente.
  Fadrique de Toledo, son of the duke of Alva.
  Diego Fernandez de Cordova, count of Cabra.
  Gomez Alvarez de Figueroa, count of Feria.
  Alvaro Tellez Giron, count of Ureña.
  Juan de Silva, count of Cifuentes.
  Fadrique Enriquez, adelantado of Andalusia.
  Alonso Fernandez de Cordova, lord of Aguilar.
  Gonsalvo de Cordova, brother of the last, known afterwards as the Great
    Captain.
  Luis Porto-Carrero, lord of Palma.
  Gutierre de Cardenas, first commander of Leon.
  Pedro Fernandez de Velasco, count of Haro, constable of Castile.
  Beltran de la Cueva, duke of Albuquerque.
  Diego Fernandez de Cordova, alcayde of the royal pages, afterwards
    marquis of Comaras.
  Alvaro de Zuñiga, duke of Bejar.
  Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza, count of Tendilla, afterwards marquis of
    Mondejar.
  Luis de Cerda, duke of Medina Celi.
  Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza, marquis of Santillana, second duke of Infantado.
  Garcilasso de la Vega, lord of Batras.

[8] Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 360.--Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes,
tom. iii. p. 241.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 2, epist. 70.--Estrada,
Poblacion de España, tom. ii. fol. 239.--Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos,
lib. 1, cap. 16.

[9] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 106, 107.--Conde, Dominacion de los
Arabes, tom. iii. cap. 40.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 71. Pulgar
relates these particulars with a perspicuity very different from his
entangled narrative of some of the preceding operations in this war. Both
he and Martyr were present during the whole siege of Baza.

[10] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 92.--Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique
et d'Espagne, tom. iii. pp. 299, 300.--Bleda, Corónica, p. 611.--Garibay,
Compendio, tom. ii. p. 664.

Don Gutierre de Cardenas, who possessed so high a place in the confidence
of the sovereigns, occupied a station in the queen's household, as we have
seen, at the time of her marriage with Ferdinand. His discretion and
general ability enabled him to retain the influence which he had early
acquired, as is shown by a popular distich of that time.

  "Cardenas, y el Cardenal, y Chacon, y Fray Mortero,
  Traen la Corte al retortero."

Fray Mortero was Don Alonso de Burgos, bishop of Palencia, confessor of
the sovereigns. Don Juan Chacon was the son of Gonsalvo, who had the care
of Don Alfonso and the queen during her minority, when he was induced by
the liberal largesses of John II., of Aragon, to promote her marriage with
his son Ferdinand. The elder Chacon was treated by the sovereigns with the
greatest deference and respect, being usually called by them "father."
After his death, they continued to manifest a similar regard towards Don
Juan, his eldest son, and heir of his ample honors and estates. Salazar de
Mendoza, Dignidades, lib. 4, cap. 1.--Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1,
quinc. 2, dial. 1, 2.

[11] Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii. p. 304.--Pulgar,
Reyes Católicos, cap. 109.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 2, epist. 73.
--Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 92.

[12] Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. cap. 40.--Mariana, Hist.
de España, tom. ii. lib. 25, cap. 12.--Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 111.

[13] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 112.--Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom.
viii. p. 86.

[14] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 2,
epist. 73, 80.--Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 113, 114, 117.--Garibay,
Compendio, tom. ii. p. 667.--Bleda, Corónica, p. 64.

The plague, which fell heavily this year on some parts of Andalusia, does
not appear to have attacked the camp, which Bleda imputes to the healing
influence of the Spanish sovereigns, "whose good faith, religion, and
virtue banished the contagion from their army, where it must otherwise
have prevailed." Personal comforts and cleanliness of the soldiers, though
not quite so miraculous a cause, may be considered perhaps full as
efficacious.

[15] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 2, epist. 73.--Pulgar, Reyes
Católicos, cap. 116.

[16] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 118.--Archivo de Simancas, in Mem. de
la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. p. 311.

The city of Valencia lent 35,000 florins on the crown and 20,000 on a
collar of rubies. They were not wholly redeemed till 1495. Señor Clemencin
has given a catalogue of the royal jewels, (see Mem. de la Acad. de Hist.,
tom. vi. Ilustracion 6,) which appear to have been extremely rich and
numerous, for a period anterior to the discovery of those countries, whose
mines have since furnished Europe with its _bijouterie_. Isabella,
however, set so little value on them, that she divested herself of most of
them in favor of her daughters.

[17] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 92.--Pulgar, Reyes Católicos,
cap. 120, 121.--Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii. p. 93.--Peter
Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 3, epist. 80.

[18] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 3, epist. 80.--Conde, Dominacion de
los Arabes, tom. iii. p. 242.--Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1489.--Cardonne,
Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii. p. 305.

[19] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 124.--Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos,
lib. 1, cap. 16.

[20] Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. cap. 40.--Bleda, Corónica,
p. 612.--Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 92.--Marmol, Rebelion de
Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 16.

[21] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 3, epist. 81.--Cardonne, Hist.
d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii. p. 340.--Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, loc.
cit.--Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. cap. 40.

[22] El Nubiense, Descripcion de España, p. 160, not.--Carbajal, Anales,
MS., año 1488.--Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii. p. 304.
--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 3, epist. 81.--Conde, Dominacion de los
Arabes, tom. iii. pp. 245, 246.--Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 93.

[23] Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 360.--Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii.
fol. 308.

[24] The city of Seville alone maintained 600 horse and 8000 foot under
the count of Cifuentes, for the space of eight months during this siege.
See Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, p. 404.




CHAPTER XV.

WAR OF GRANADA.--SIEGE AND SURRENDER OF THE CITY OF GRANADA.

1490-1492.

The Infanta Isabella Affianced to the Prince of Portugal.--Isabella
Deposes Judges at Valladolid.--Encampment before Granada.--The Queen
Surveys the City.--Moslem and Christian Chivalry.--Conflagration of the
Christian Camp.--Erection of Santa Fe.--Capitulation of Granada.--Results
of the War.--Its Moral Influence.--Its Military Influence.--Fate of the
Moors.--Death and Character of the Marquis of Cadiz.


In the spring of 1490, ambassadors arrived from Lisbon for the purpose of
carrying into effect the treaty of marriage, which had been arranged
between Alonso, heir of the Portuguese monarchy, and Isabella, infanta of
Castile. An alliance with this kingdom, which from its contiguity
possessed such ready means of annoyance to Castile, and which had shown
such willingness to employ them in enforcing the pretensions of Joanna
Beltraneja, was an object of importance to Ferdinand and Isabella. No
inferior consideration could have reconciled the queen to a separation
from this beloved daughter, her eldest child, whose gentle and uncommonly
amiable disposition seems to have endeared her beyond their other children
to her parents.

The ceremony of the affiancing took place at Seville, in the month of
April, Don Fernando de Silveira appearing as the representative of the
prince of Portugal; and it was followed by a succession of splendid
_fêtes_ and tourneys. Lists were enclosed, at some distance from the
city on the shores of the Guadalquivir, and surrounded with galleries hung
with silk and cloth of gold, and protected from the noontide heat by
canopies or awnings richly embroidered with the armorial bearings of the
ancient houses of Castile. The spectacle was graced by all the rank and
beauty of the court, with the infanta Isabella in the midst, attended by
seventy noble ladies, and a hundred pages of the royal household. The
cavaliers of Spain, young and old, thronged to the tournament, as eager to
win laurels on the mimic theatre of war, in the presence of so brilliant
an assemblage, as they had shown themselves in the sterner contests with
the Moors. King Ferdinand, who broke several lances on the occasion, was
among the most distinguished of the combatants for personal dexterity and
horsemanship. The martial exercises of the day were relieved by the more
effeminate recreations of dancing and music in the evening; and every one
seemed willing to welcome the season of hilarity, after the long-
protracted fatigues of war. [1]

In the following autumn, the infanta was escorted into Portugal by the
cardinal of Spain, the grand master of St. James, and a numerous and
magnificent retinue. Her dowry exceeded that usually assigned to the
infantas of Castile, by five hundred marks of gold and a thousand of
silver; and her wardrobe was estimated at one hundred and twenty thousand
gold florins. The contemporary chroniclers dwell with much complacency on
these evidences of the stateliness and splendor of the Castilian court.
Unfortunately, these fair auspices were destined to be clouded too soon by
the death of the prince, her husband. [2]

No sooner had the campaign of the preceding year been brought to a close,
than Ferdinand and Isabella sent an embassy to the king of Granada,
requiring a surrender of his capital, conformably to his stipulations at
Loja, which guaranteed this, on the capitulation of Baza, Almeria, and
Guadix. That time had now arrived; King Abdallah, however, excused himself
from obeying the summons of the Spanish sovereigns; replying that he was
no longer his own master, and that, although he had all the inclination to
keep his engagements, he was prevented by the inhabitants of the city, now
swollen much beyond its natural population, who resolutely insisted on its
defence. [3]

It is not probable that the Moorish king did any great violence to his
feelings, in this evasion of a promise extorted from him in captivity. At
least, it would seem so from the hostile movements which immediately
succeeded. The people of Granada resumed all at once their ancient
activity, foraying into the Christian territories, surprising Alhendin and
some other places of less importance, and stirring up the spirit of revolt
in Guadix and other conquered cities. Granada, which had slept through the
heat of the struggle, seemed to revive at the very moment when exertion
became hopeless.

Ferdinand was not slow in retaliating these acts of aggression. In the
spring of 1490, he marched with a strong force into the cultivated plain
of Granada, sweeping off, as usual, the crops and cattle, and rolling the
tide of devastation up to the very walls of the city. In this campaign he
conferred the honor of knighthood on his son, prince John, then only
twelve years of age, whom he had brought with him, after the ancient usage
of the Castilian nobles, of training up their children from very tender
years in the Moorish wars. The ceremony was performed on the banks of the
grand canal, under the battlements almost of the beleaguered city. The
dukes of Cadiz and Medina Sidonia were prince John's sponsors; and, after
the completion of the ceremony, the new knight conferred the honors of
chivalry in like manner on several of his young companions in arms. [4]

In the following autumn, Ferdinand repeated his ravages in the vega, and,
at the same time appearing before the disaffected city of Guadix with a
force large enough to awe it into submission, proposed an immediate
investigation of the conspiracy. He promised to inflict summary justice on
all who had been in any degree concerned in it; at the same time offering
permission to the inhabitants, in the abundance of his clemency, to depart
with all their personal effects wherever they would, provided they should
prefer this to a judicial investigation of their conduct. This politic
proffer had its effect. There were few, if any, of the citizens who had
not been either directly concerned in the conspiracy, or privy to it. With
one accord, therefore, they preferred exile to trusting to the tender
mercies of their judges. In this way, says the Curate of Los Palacios, by
the mystery of our Lord, was the ancient city of Guadix brought again
within the Christian fold; the mosques converted into Christian temples,
filled with the harmonies of Catholic worship, and the pleasant places,
which for nearly eight centuries had been trampled under the foot of the
infidel, were once more restored to the followers of the Cross.

A similar policy produced similar results in the cities of Almeria and
Baza, whose inhabitants, evacuating their ancient homes, transported
themselves, with such personal effects as they could carry, to the city of
Granada, or the coast of Africa. The space thus opened by the fugitive
population was quickly filled by the rushing tide of Spaniards. [5]

It is impossible at this day to contemplate these events with the
triumphant swell of exultation, with which they are recorded by
contemporary chroniclers. That the Moors were guilty (though not so
generally as pretended) of the alleged conspiracy, is not in itself
improbable, and is corroborated indeed by the Arabic statements. But the
punishment was altogether disproportionate to the offence. Justice might
surely have been satisfied by a selection of the authors and principal
agents of the meditated insurrection;--for no overt act appears to have
occurred. But avarice was too strong for justice; and this act, which is
in perfect conformity to the policy systematically pursued by the Spanish
crown for more than a century afterwards, may be considered as one of the
first links in the long chain of persecution, which terminated in the
expulsion of the Moriscoes.

During the following year, 1491, a circumstance occurred illustrative of
the policy of the present government in reference to ecclesiastical
matters. The chancery of Valladolid having appealed to the pope in a case
coming within its own exclusive jurisdiction, the queen commanded Alonso
de Valdivieso, bishop of Leon, the president of the court, together with
all the auditors, to be removed from their respective offices, which she
delivered to a new board, having the bishop of Oviedo at its head. This is
one among many examples of the constancy with which Isabella,
notwithstanding her reverence for religion, and respect for its ministers,
refused to compromise the national independence by recognizing in any
degree the usurpations of Rome. From this dignified attitude, so often
abandoned by her successors, she never swerved for a moment during the
course of her long reign. [6]

The winter of 1490 was busily occupied with preparations for the closing
campaign against Granada. Ferdinand took command of the army in the month
of April, 1491, with the purpose of sitting down before the Moorish
capital, not to rise until its final surrender. The troops, which mustered
in the Val de Velillos, are computed by most historians at fifty thousand
horse and foot, although Martyr, who served as a volunteer, swells the
number to eighty thousand. They were drawn from the different cities,
chiefly, as usual, from Andalusia, which had been stimulated to truly
gigantic efforts throughout this protracted war, [7] and from the nobility
of every quarter, many of whom, wearied out with the contest, contented
themselves with sending their quotas, while many others, as the marquises
of Cadiz, Villena, the counts of Tendilla, Cabra, Ureña, and Alonso de
Aguilar, appeared in person, eager, as they had borne the brunt of so many
hard campaigns, to share in the closing scene of triumph.

On the 26th of the month, the army encamped near the fountain of Ojos de
Huescar, in the vega, about two leagues distant from Granada. Ferdinand's
first movement was to detach a considerable force, under the marquis of
Villena, which he subsequently supported in person with the remainder of
the army, for the purpose of scouring the fruitful regions of the
Alpuxarras, which served as the granary of the capital. This service was
performed with such unsparing rigor, that no less than twenty-four towns
and hamlets in the mountains were ransacked, and razed to the ground.
After this, Ferdinand returned loaded with spoil to his former position on
the banks of the Xenil, in full view of the Moorish metropolis, which
seemed to stand alone, like some sturdy oak, the last of the forest,
bidding defiance to the storm which had prostrated all its brethren.

Notwithstanding the failure of all external resources, Granada was still
formidable from its local position and its defences. On the east it was
fenced in by a wild mountain barrier, the _Sierra Nevada_, whose snow-clad
summits diffused a grateful coolness over the city through the sultry
heats of summer. The side towards the vega, facing the Christian
encampment, was encircled by walls and towers of massive strength and
solidity. The population, swelled to two hundred thousand by the
immigration from the surrounding country, was likely, indeed, to be a
burden in a protracted siege; but among them were twenty thousand, the
flower of the Moslem chivalry, who had escaped the edge of the Christian
sword. In front of the city, for an extent of nearly ten leagues, lay
unrolled the magnificent vega,

  "Fresca y regalada vega,
  Dulce recreacion de damas
  Y de hombres gloria immensa,"

whose prolific beauties could scarcely be exaggerated in the most florid
strains of the Arabian minstrel, and which still bloomed luxuriant,
notwithstanding the repeated ravages of the preceding season. [8]

The inhabitants of Granada were filled with indignation at the sight of
their enemy, thus encamped under the shadow, as it were, of their
battlements. They sallied forth in small bodies, or singly, challenging
the Spaniards to equal encounter. Numerous were the combats which took
place between the high-mettled cavaliers on both sides, who met on the
level arena, as on a tilting-ground, where they might display their
prowess in the presence of the assembled beauty and chivalry of their
respective nations; for the Spanish camp was graced, as usual, by the
presence of Queen Isabella and the infantas, with the courtly train of
ladies who had accompanied their royal mistress from Alcalá la Real. The
Spanish ballads glow with picturesque details of these knightly tourneys,
forming the most attractive portion of this romantic minstrelsy, which,
celebrating the prowess of Moslem, as well as Christian warriors, sheds a
dying glory round the last hours of Granada. [9]

The festivity, which reigned throughout the camp on the arrival of
Isabella, did not divert her attention from the stern business of war. She
superintended the military preparations, and personally inspected every
part of the encampment. She appeared on the field superbly mounted, and
dressed in complete armor; and, as she visited the different quarters and
reviewed her troops, she administered words of commendation or sympathy,
suited to the condition of the soldier. [10]

On one occasion, she expressed a desire to take a nearer survey of the
city. For this purpose, a house was selected, affording the best point of
view, in the little village of Zubia, at no great distance from Granada.
The king and queen stationed themselves before a window, which commanded
an unbroken prospect of the Alhambra, and the most beautiful quarter of
the town. In the mean while, a considerable force, under the marquis duke
of Cadiz, had been ordered, for the protection of the royal persons, to
take up a position between the village and the city of Granada, with
strict injunctions on no account to engage the enemy, as Isabella was
unwilling to stain the pleasures of the day with unnecessary effusion of
blood.

The people of Granada, however, were too impatient long to endure the
presence, and, as they deemed it, the bravado of their enemy. They burst
forth from the gates of the capital, dragging along with them several
pieces of ordnance, and commenced a brisk assault on the Spanish lines.
The latter sustained the shock with firmness, till the marquis of Cadiz,
seeing them thrown into some disorder, found it necessary to assume the
offensive, and, mustering his followers around him, made one of those
desperate charges, which had so often broken the enemy. The Moorish
cavalry faltered; but might have disputed the ground, had it not been for
the infantry, which, composed of the rabble population of the city, was
easily thrown into confusion, and hurried the horse along with it. The
rout now became general. The Spanish cavaliers, whose blood was up,
pursued to the very gates of Granada, "and not a lance," says Bernaldez,
"that day, but was dyed in the blood of the infidel." Two thousand of the
enemy were slain and taken in the engagement, which lasted only a short
time; and the slaughter was stopped only by the escape of the fugitives
within the walls of the city. [11]

About the middle of July, an accident occurred in the camp, which had like
to have been attended with fatal consequences. The queen was lodged in a
superb pavilion, belonging to the marquis of Cadiz, and always used by him
in the Moorish war. By the carelessness of one of her attendants, a lamp
was placed in such a situation, that, during the night, perhaps owing to a
gust of wind, it set fire to the drapery or loose hangings of the
pavilion, which was instantly in a blaze. The flame communicated with
fearful rapidity to the neighboring tents, made of light, combustible
materials, and the camp was menaced with general conflagration. This
occurred at the dead of night, when all but the sentinels were buried in
sleep. The queen and her children, whose apartments were near hers, were
in great peril, and escaped with difficulty, though fortunately without
injury. The alarm soon spread. The trumpets sounded to arms, for it was
supposed to be some night attack of the enemy. Ferdinand, snatching up his
arms hastily, put himself at the head of his troops; but, soon
ascertaining the nature of the disaster, contented himself with posting
the marquis of Cadiz, with a strong body of horse, over against the city,
in order to repel any sally from that quarter. None, however, was
attempted, and the fire was at length extinguished without personal
injury, though not without loss of much valuable property, in jewels,
plate, brocade, and other costly decorations of the tents of the nobility.
[12]

In order to guard against a similar disaster, as well as to provide
comfortable winter quarters for the army, should the siege be so long
protracted as to require it, it was resolved to build a town of
substantial edifices on the place of the present encampment. The plan was
immediately put in execution. The work was distributed in due proportions
among the troops of the several cities and of the great nobility; the
soldier was on a sudden converted into an artisan, and, instead of war,
the camp echoed with the sounds of peaceful labor.

In less than three months, this stupendous task was accomplished. The spot
so recently occupied by light, fluttering pavilions, was thickly covered
with solid structures of stone and mortar, comprehending, besides
dwelling-houses, stables for a thousand horses. The town was thrown into a
quadrangular form, traversed by two spacious avenues, intersecting each
other at right angles in the centre, in the form of a cross, with stately
portals at each of the four extremities. Inscriptions on blocks of marble
in the various quarters, recorded the respective shares of the several
cities in the execution of the work. When it was completed, the whole army
was desirous that the new city should bear the name of their illustrious
queen, but Isabella modestly declined this tribute, and bestowed on the
place the title of _Santa Fe_, in token of the unshaken trust, manifested
by her people throughout this war, in Divine Providence. With this name it
still stands as it was erected in 1491, a monument of the constancy and
enduring patience of the Spaniards, "the only city in Spain," in the words
of a Castilian writer, "that has never been contaminated by the Moslem
heresy." [13]

The erection of Santa Fe by the Spaniards struck a greater damp into the
people of Granada, than the most successful military achievement could
have done. They beheld the enemy setting foot on their soil, with a
resolution never more to resign it. They already began to suffer from the
rigorous blockade, which effectually excluded supplies from their own
territories, while all communication with Africa was jealously
intercepted. Symptoms of insubordination had begun to show themselves
among the overgrown population of the city, as it felt more and more the
pressure of famine. In this crisis, the unfortunate Abdallah and his
principal counsellors became convinced, that the place could not be
maintained much longer; and at length, in the month of October,
propositions were made through the vizier Abul Cazim Abdelmalic, to open a
negotiation for the surrender of the place. The affair was to be conducted
with the utmost caution; since the people of Granada, notwithstanding
their precarious condition, and their disquietude, were buoyed up by
indefinite expectations of relief from Africa, or some other quarter.

The Spanish sovereigns intrusted the negotiation to their secretary
Fernando de Zafra, and to Gonsalvo de Cordova, the latter of whom was
selected for this delicate business, from his uncommon address, and his
familiarity with the Moorish habits and language. Thus the capitulation of
Granada was referred to the man, who acquired in her long wars the
military science, which enabled him, at a later period, to foil the most
distinguished generals of Europe.

The conferences were conducted by night with the utmost secrecy, sometimes
within the walls of Granada, and at others, in the little hamlet of
Churriana, about a league distant from it. At length, after large
discussion on both sides, the terms of capitulation were definitively
settled, and ratified by the respective monarchs on the 25th of November,
1491. [14]

The conditions were of similar, though somewhat more liberal import, than
those granted to Baza. The inhabitants of Granada were to retain
possession of their mosques, with the free exercise of their religion,
with all its peculiar rites and ceremonies; they were to be judged by
their own laws, under their own cadis or magistrates, subject to the
general control of the Castilian governor; they were to be unmolested in
their ancient usages, manners, language, and dress; to be protected in the
full enjoyment of their property, with the right of disposing of it on
their own account, and of migrating when and where they would; and to be
furnished with vessels for the conveyance of such as chose within three
years to pass into Africa. No heavier taxes were to be imposed than those
customarily paid to their Arabian sovereigns, and none whatever before the
expiration of three years. King Abdallah was to reign over a specified
territory in the Alpuxarras, for which he was to do homage to the
Castilian crown. The artillery and the fortifications were to be delivered
into the hands of the Christians, and the city was to be surrendered in
sixty days from the date of the capitulation. Such were the principal
terms of the surrender of Granada, as authenticated by the most accredited
Castilian and Arabian authorities; which I have stated the more precisely,
as affording the best data for estimating the extent of Spanish perfidy in
later times. [15]

The conferences could not be conducted so secretly, but that some report
of them got air among the populace of the city, who now regarded Abdallah
with an evil eye for his connection with the Christians. When the fact of
the capitulation became known, the agitation speedily mounted into an open
insurrection, which menaced the safety of the city, as well as of
Abdallah's person. In this alarming state of things, it was thought best
by that monarch's counsellors, to anticipate the appointed day of
surrender; and the 2d of January, 1492, was accordingly fixed on for that
purpose.

Every preparation was made by the Spaniards for performing this last act
of the drama with suitable pomp and effect. The mourning which the court
had put on for the death of Prince Alonso of Portugal, occasioned by a
fall from his horse a few months after his marriage with the infanta
Isabella, was exchanged for gay and magnificent apparel. On the morning of
the 2d, the whole Christian camp exhibited a scene of the most animating
bustle. The grand cardinal Mendoza was sent forward at the head of a large
detachment, comprehending his household troops, and the veteran infantry
grown grey in the Moorish wars, to occupy the Alhambra preparatory to the
entrance of the sovereigns. [16] Ferdinand stationed himself at some
distance in the rear, near an Arabian mosque, since consecrated as the
hermitage of St. Sebastian. He was surrounded by his courtiers, with their
stately retinues, glittering in gorgeous panoply, and proudly displaying
the armorial bearings of their ancient houses. The queen halted still
farther in the rear, at the village of Armilla. [17]

As the column under the grand cardinal advanced up the Hill of Martyrs,
over which a road had been constructed for the passage of the artillery,
he was met by the Moorish prince Abdallah, attended by fifty cavaliers,
who, descending the hill, rode up to the position occupied by Ferdinand on
the banks of the Xenil. As the Moor approached the Spanish king, he would
have thrown himself from his horse, and saluted his hand in token of
homage, but Ferdinand hastily prevented him, embracing him with every mark
of sympathy and regard. Abdallah then delivered up the keys of the
Alhambra to his conqueror, saying, "They are thine, O king, since Allah so
decrees it; use thy success with clemency and moderation." Ferdinand would
have uttered some words of consolation to the unfortunate prince, but he
moved forward with dejected air to the spot occupied by Isabella, and,
after similar acts of obeisance, passed on to join his family, who had
preceded him with his most valuable effects on the route to the
Alpuxarras. [18]

The sovereigns during this time waited with impatience the signal of the
occupation of the city by the cardinal's troops, which, winding slowly
along the outer circuit of the walls, as previously arranged, in order to
spare the feelings of the citizens as far as possible, entered by what is
now called the gate of Los Molinos. In a short time, the large silver
cross, borne by Ferdinand throughout the crusade, was seen sparkling in
the sunbeams, while the standards of Castile and St. Jago waved
triumphantly from the red towers of the Alhambra. At this glorious
spectacle, the choir of the royal chapel broke forth into the solemn
anthem of the Te Deum, and the whole army, penetrated with deep emotion,
prostrated themselves on their knees in adoration of the Lord of hosts,
who had at length granted the consummation of their wishes, in this last
and glorious triumph of the Cross. [19] The grandees who surrounded
Ferdinand then advanced towards the queen, and kneeling down saluted her
hand in token of homage to her as sovereign of Granada. The procession
took up its march towards the city, "the king and queen moving in the
midst," says an historian, "emblazoned with royal magnificence; and, as
they were in the prime of life, and had now achieved the completion of
this glorious conquest, they seemed to represent even more than their
wonted majesty. Equal with each other, they were raised far above the rest
of the world. They appeared, indeed, more than mortal, and as if sent by
Heaven for the salvation of Spain." [20]

In the mean while the Moorish king, traversing the route of the
Alpuxarras, reached a rocky eminence which commanded a last view of
Granada. He checked his horse, and, as his eye for the last time wandered
over the scenes of his departed greatness, his heart swelled, and he burst
into tears. "You do well," said his more masculine mother, "to weep like a
woman, for what you could not defend like a man!" "Alas!" exclaimed the
unhappy exile, "when were woes ever equal to mine!" The scene of this
event is still pointed out to the traveller by the people of the district;
and the rocky height, from which the Moorish chief took his sad farewell
of the princely abodes of his youth, is commemorated by the poetical title
of _El Ultimo Sospiro del Moro_, "The Last Sigh of the Moor."

The sequel of Abdallah's history is soon told. Like his uncle, El Zagal,
he pined away in his barren domain of the Alpuxarras, under the shadow, as
it were, of his ancient palaces. In the following year, he passed over to
Fez with his family, having commuted his petty sovereignty for a
considerable sum of money paid him by Ferdinand and Isabella, and soon
after fell in battle in the service of an African prince, his kinsman.
"Wretched man," exclaims a caustic chronicler of his nation, "who could
lose his life in another's cause, though he did not dare to die in his
own. Such," continues the Arabian, with characteristic resignation, "was
the immutable decree of destiny. Blessed be Allah, who exalteth and
debaseth the kings of the earth, according to his divine will, in whose
fulfilment consists that eternal justice, which regulates all human
affairs." The portal, through which King Abdallah for the last time issued
from his capital, was at his request walled up, that none other might
again pass through it. In this condition it remains to this day, a
memorial of the sad destiny of the last of the kings of Granada. [21]

The fall of Granada excited general sensation throughout Christendom,
where it was received as counterbalancing, in a manner, the loss of
Constantinople, nearly half a century before. At Rome, the event was
commemorated by a solemn procession of the pope and cardinals to St.
Peter's, where high mass was celebrated, and the public rejoicing
continued for several days. [22] The intelligence was welcomed with no
less satisfaction in England, where Henry the Seventh was seated on the
throne. The circumstances attending it, as related by Lord Bacon, will not
be devoid of interest for the reader. [23]

Thus ended the war of Granada, which is often compared by the Castilian
chroniclers to that of Troy in its duration, and which certainly fully
equalled the latter in variety of picturesque and romantic incidents, and
in circumstances of poetical interest. With the surrender of its capital,
terminated the Arabian empire in the Peninsula, after an existence of
seven hundred and forty-one years from the date of the original conquest.
The consequences of this closing war were of the highest moment to Spain.
The most obvious, was the recovery of an extensive territory, hitherto
held by a people, whose difference of religion, language, and general
habits, made them not only incapable of assimilating with their Christian
neighbors, but almost their natural enemies; while their local position
was a matter of just concern, as interposed between the great divisions of
the Spanish monarchy, and opening an obvious avenue to invasion from
Africa. By the new conquest, moreover, the Spaniards gained a large extent
of country, possessing the highest capacities for production, in its
natural fruitfulness of soil, temperature of climate, and in the state of
cultivation to which it had been brought by its ancient occupants; while
its shores were lined with commodious havens, that afforded every facility
for commerce. The scattered fragments of the ancient Visigothic empire
were now again, with the exception of the little state of Navarre,
combined into one great monarchy, as originally destined by nature; and
Christian Spain gradually rose by means of her new acquisitions from a
subordinate situation, to the level of a first-rate European power.

The moral influence of the Moorish war, its influence on the Spanish
character, was highly important. The inhabitants of the great divisions of
the country, as in most countries during the feudal ages, had been brought
too frequently into collision with each other to allow the existence of a
pervading national feeling. This was particularly the case in Spain, where
independent states insensibly grew out of the detached fragments of
territory recovered at different times from the Moorish monarchy. The war
of Granada subjected all the various sections of the country to one common
action, under the influence of common motives of the most exciting
interest; while it brought them in conflict with a race, the extreme
repugnance of whose institutions and character to their own, served
greatly to nourish the nationality of sentiment. In this way, the spark of
patriotism was kindled throughout the whole nation, and the most distant
provinces of the Peninsula were knit together by a bond of union, which
has remained indissoluble.

The consequences of these wars in a military aspect are also worthy of
notice. Up to this period, war had been carried on by irregular levies,
extremely limited in numerical amount and in period of service; under
little subordination, except to their own immediate chiefs, and wholly
unprovided with the apparatus required for extended operations. The
Spaniards were even lower than most of the European nations in military
science, as is apparent from the infinite pains of Isabella to avail
herself of all foreign resources for their improvement. In the war of
Granada, masses of men were brought together, far greater than had
hitherto been known in modern warfare. They were kept in the field not
only through long campaigns, but far into the winter; a thing altogether
unprecedented. They were made to act in concert, and the numerous petty
chiefs brought in complete subjection to one common head, whose personal
character enforced the authority of station. Lastly, they were supplied
with all the requisite munitions, through the providence of Isabella, who
introduced into the service the most skilful engineers from other
countries, and kept in pay bodies of mercenaries, as the Swiss for
example, reputed the best disciplined troops of that day. In this
admirable school, the Spanish soldier was gradually trained to patient
endurance, fortitude, and thorough subordination; and those celebrated
captains were formed, with that invincible infantry, which in the
beginning of the sixteenth century spread the military fame of their
country over all Christendom.

But, with all our sympathy for the conquerors, it is impossible, without a
deep feeling of regret, to contemplate the decay and final extinction of a
race, who had made such high advances in civilization as the Spanish
Arabs; to see them driven from the stately palaces reared by their own
hands, wandering as exiles over the lands, which still blossomed with the
fruits of their industry, and wasting away under persecution, until their
very name as a nation was blotted out from the map of history. [24] It
must be admitted, however, that they had long since reached their utmost
limit of advancement as a people. The light shed over their history shines
from distant ages; for, during the later period of their existence, they
appear to have reposed in a state of torpid, luxurious indulgence, which
would seem to argue, that, when causes of external excitement were
withdrawn, the inherent vices of their social institutions had
incapacitated them for the further production of excellence. In this
impotent condition, it was wisely ordered, that their territory should be
occupied by a people, whose religion and more liberal form of government,
however frequently misunderstood or perverted, qualified them for
advancing still higher the interests of humanity.

It will not be amiss to terminate the narrative of the war of Granada with
some notice of the fate of Rodrigo Ponce de Leon, marquis duke of Cadiz;
for he may be regarded in a peculiar manner as the hero of it, having
struck the first stroke by the surprise of Alhama, and witnessed every
campaign till the surrender of Granada. A circumstantial account of his
last moments is afforded by the pen of his worthy countryman, the
Andalusian Curate of Los Palacios. The gallant marquis survived the close
of the war only a short time, terminating his days at his mansion in
Seville, on the 28th of August, 1492, with a disorder brought on by
fatigue and incessant exposure. He had reached the forty-ninth year of his
age, and, although twice married, left no legitimate issue. In his person,
he was of about the middle stature, of a compact, symmetrical frame, a
fair complexion, with light hair inclining to red. He was an excellent
horseman, and well skilled indeed in most of the exercises of chivalry. He
had the rare merit of combining sagacity with intrepidity in action.
Though somewhat impatient, and slow to forgive, he was frank and generous,
a warm friend, and a kind master to his vassals. [25]

He was strict in his observance of the Catholic worship, punctilious in
keeping all the church festivals and in enforcing their observance
throughout his domains; and, in war, he was a most devout champion of the
Virgin. He was ambitious of acquisitions, but lavish of expenditure,
especially in the embellishment and fortification of his towns and
castles; spending on Alcalá de Guadaira, Xerez, and Alanis, the enormous
sum of seventeen million maravedies. To the ladies he was courteous, as
became a true knight. At his death, the king and queen with the whole
court went into mourning; "for he was a much-loved cavalier," says the
Curate, "and was esteemed, like the Cid, both by friend and foe; and no
Moor durst abide in that quarter of the field where his banner was
displayed."

His body, after lying in state for several days in his palace at Seville,
with his trusty sword by his side, with which he had fought all his
battles, was borne in solemn procession by night through the streets of
the city, which was everywhere filled with the deepest lamentation; and
was finally deposited in the great chapel of the Augustine church, in the
tomb of his ancestors. Ten Moorish banners, which he had taken in battle
with the infidel, before the war of Granada, were borne along at his
funeral, "and still wave over his sepulchre," says Bernaldez, "keeping
alive the memory of his exploits, as undying as his soul." The banners
have long since mouldered into dust; the very tomb which contained his
ashes has been sacrilegiously demolished; but the fame of the hero will
survive as long as anything like respect for valor, courtesy, unblemished
honor, or any other attribute of chivalry, shall be found in Spain. [26]

       *       *       *       *       *

One of the chief authorities on which the account of the Moorish war
rests, is Andres Bernaldez, Curate of Los Palacios. He was a native of
Fuente in Leon, and appears to have received his early education under the
care of his grandfather, a notary of that place, whose commendations of a
juvenile essay in historical writing led him later in life, according to
his own account, to record the events of his time in the extended and
regular form of a chronicle. After admission to orders, he was made
chaplain to Deza, archbishop of Seville, and curate of Los Palacios, an
Andalusian town not far from Seville, where he discharged his
ecclesiastical functions with credit, from 1488 to 1513, at which time, as
we find no later mention of him, he probably closed his life with his
labors. Bernaldez had ample opportunities for accurate information
relative to the Moorish war, since he lived, as it were, in the theatre of
action, and was personally intimate with the most considerable men of
Andalusia, especially the marquis of Cadiz, whom he has made the Achilles
of his epic, assigning him a much more important part in the principal
transactions, than is always warranted by other authorities. His Chronicle
is just such as might have been anticipated from a person of lively
imagination, and competent scholarship for the time, deeply dyed with the
bigotry and superstition of the Spanish clergy in that century. There is
no great discrimination apparent in the work of the worthy curate, who
dwells with goggle-eyed credulity on the most absurd marvels, and expends
more pages on an empty court show, than on the most important schemes of
policy. But if he is no philosopher, he has, perhaps for that very reason,
succeeded in making us completely master of the popular feelings and
prejudices of the time; while he gives a most vivid portraiture of the
principal scenes and actors in this stirring war, with all their
chivalrous exploit, and rich theatrical accompaniment. His credulity and
fanaticism, moreover, are well compensated by a simplicity and loyalty of
purpose, which secure much more credit to his narrative than attaches to
those of more ambitious writers, whose judgment is perpetually swayed by
personal or party interests. The chronicle descends as late as 1513,
although, as might be expected from the author's character, it is entitled
to much less confidence in the discussion of events which fell without the
scope of his personal observation. Notwithstanding its historical value is
fully recognized by the Castilian critics, it has never been admitted to
the press, but still remains ingulfed in the ocean of manuscripts, with
which the Spanish libraries are deluged.

It is remarkable that the war of Granada, which is so admirably suited in
all its circumstances to poetical purposes, should not have been more
frequently commemorated by the epic muse. The only successful attempt in
this way, with which I am acquainted, is the "Conquisto di Granata," by
the Florentine Girolamo Gratiani, Modena, 1650. The author has taken the
license, independently of his machinery, of deviating very freely from the
historic track; among other things, introducing Columbus and the Great
Captain as principal actors in the drama, in which they played at most but
a very subordinate part. The poem, which swells into twenty-six cantos, is
in such repute with the Italian critics, that Quadrio does not hesitate to
rank it "among the best epical productions of the age." A translation of
this work has recently appeared at Nuremberg, from the pen of C. M.
Winterling, which is much commended by the German critics.

Mr. Irving's late publication, the "Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada,"
has superseded all further necessity for poetry, and, unfortunately for
me, for history. He has fully availed himself of all the picturesque and
animating movements of this romantic era; and the reader who will take the
trouble to compare his Chronicle with the present more prosaic and literal
narrative, will see how little he has been seduced from historic accuracy
by the poetical aspect of his subject. The fictitious and romantic dress
of his work has enabled him to make it the medium for reflecting more
vividly the floating opinions and chimerical fancies of the age, while he
has illuminated the picture with the dramatic brilliancy of coloring
denied to sober history.


FOOTNOTES

[1] Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1490.--Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS.,
cap. 95.--Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, pp. 404, 405.--Pulgar, Reyes
Católicos, part. 3, cap. 127.--La Clède, Hist. de Portugal, tom. iv. p.
19.--Faria y Sousa, Europa Portuguesa, tom. ii. p. 452.

[2] Faria y Sousa, Europa Portuguesa, tom. ii. pp. 452-456.--Florez,
Reynas Cathólicas, p. 845.--Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 129.--Oviedo,
Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 2, dial. 3.

[3] Conde, Domination de los Arabes, tom. iii. cap. 41.--Bernaldez, Reyes
Católicos, MS., cap. 90.

Neither the Arabic nor Castilian authorities impeach the justice of the
summons made by the Spanish sovereigns. I do not, however, find any other
foundation for the obligation imputed to Abdallah in them, than that
monarch's agreement during his captivity at Loja, in 1486, to surrender
his capital in exchange for Guadix, provided the latter should be
conquered within six months. Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, p. 275.--Garibay,
Compendio, tom. iv. p. 418.

[4] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 176.--Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap.
130.--Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. cap. 85.--Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et
d'Espagne, tom. iii. p. 309.

[5] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 131, 132.--Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos,
MS., cap. 97.--Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. cap. 41.--Peter
Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 3, epist. 84.--Garibay, Compendio, tom. iv. p.
424.--Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii. pp. 309, 310.

[6] Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1491.

[7] According to Zuñiga, the quota furnished by Seville this season
amounted to 6000 foot and 500 horse, who were recruited by fresh
reinforcements no less than five times during the campaign. Annales de
Sevilla, p. 406.--See also Col. de Cédulas, tom. iii. no. 3.

[8] Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. cap. 42.--Bernaldez, Reyes
Católicos, MS., cap. 100.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 3, epist. 89.--
Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 18.--L. Marineo, Cosas
Memorables, fol. 177.

Martyr remarks, that the Genoese merchants, "voyagers to every clime,
declare this to be the largest fortified city in the world." Casiri has
collected a body of interesting particulars respecting the wealth,
population, and social habits of Granada, from various Arabic authorities.
Bibliotheca Escurialensis, tom. ii. pp. 247-260.

The French work of Laborde, Voyage Pittoresque, (Paris, 1807,) and the
English one of Murphy, Engravings of Arabian Antiquities of Spain,
(London, 1816,) do ample justice in their finished designs to the general
topography and architectural magnificence of Granada.

[9] On one occasion, a Christian knight having discomfited with a handful
of men a much superior body of Moslem chivalry, King Abdallah testified
his admiration of his prowess by sending him on the following day a
magnificent present, together with his own sword superbly mounted. (Mem.
de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. p. 178.) The Moorish ballad beginning

  "Al Rey Chico de Granada"

describes the panic occasioned in the city by the Christian encampment on
the Xenil.

  "For ese fresco Genil
  un campo viene marchando,
  todo de lucida gente,
  las armas van relumbrando.

  "Las vanderas traen tendidas,
  y un estandarte dorado;
  el General de esta gente
  es el invicto Fernando.
  Y tambien viene la Reyna,
  Muger del Hey don Fernando,
  la qual tiene tanto esfuerzo
  que anima a qualquier soldado."

[10] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 101.

[11] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 101.--Conde, Dominacion de los
Arabes, tom. iii. cap. 42.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 4, epist. 90.
--Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 133.--Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. cap. 88.

Isabella afterwards caused a Franciscan monastery to be built in
commemoration of this event at Zubia, where, according to Mr. Irving, the
house from which she witnessed the action is to be seen at the present
day. See Conquest of Granada, chap. 90, note.

[12] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 4, epist. 91.--Bernaldez, Reyes
Católicos, MS., cap. 101.--Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. p. 673.--Bleda,
Corónica, p. 619.--Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 18.

[13] Estrada, Poblacion de España, tom. ii. pp. 344, 348.--Peter Martyr,
Opus Epist., lib. 4, epist. 91.--Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1,
cap. 18.

Hyta, who embellishes his florid prose with occasional extracts from the
beautiful ballad poetry of Spain, gives one commemorating the erection of
Santa Fe.

  "Cercada esta Santa Fe
  con mucho lienzo encerado
  al rededor muchas tiendas
  de seda, oro, y brocado.

  "Donde estan Duques, y Condes,
  Señores de gran estado," etc.

Guerras de Granada, p. 515.

[14] Pedraza, Antiguedad de Granada, fol. 74.--Giovio, De Vita Gonsalvi,
apud Vitae Illust. Virorum, pp. 211, 212.--Salazar de Mendoza, Crón. del
Gran Cardenal, p. 236.--Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii.
pp. 316, 317.--Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. cap. 42.--L.
Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 178.--Marmol, however, assigns the date in
the text to a separate capitulation respecting Abdallah, dating that made
in behalf of the city three days later. (Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1,
cap. 19.) This author has given the articles of the treaty with greater
fulness and precision than any other Spanish historian.

[15] Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 19.--Conde, Dominacion de
los Arabes, tom. iii. cap. 42.--Zurita, Anales, tom. ii. cap. 90.--
Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii. pp. 317, 318.--Oviedo,
Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 28. Martyr adds, that the
principal Moorish nobility were to remove from the city. (Opus Epist.,
lib. 4, epist. 92.) Pedraza, who has devoted a volume to the history of
Granada, does not seem to think the capitulations worth specifying. Most
of the modern Castilians pass very lightly over them. They furnish too
bitter a comment on the conduct of subsequent Spanish monarchs. Marmol and
the judicious Zurita agree in every substantial particular with Conde, and
this coincidence may be considered as establishing the actual terms of the
treaty.

[16] Oviedo, whose narrative exhibits many discrepancies with those of
other contemporaries, assigns this part to the count of Tendilla, the
first captain-general of Granada. Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1,
dial. 28. But, as this writer, though an eye-witness, was but thirteen or
fourteen years of age at the time of the capture, and wrote some sixty
years later from his early recollections, his authority cannot be
considered of equal weight with that of persons who, like Martyr,
described events as they were passing before them.

[17] Pedraza, Antiguedad de Granada, fol. 75.--Salazar de Mendoza, Crón.
del Gran Cardenal, p. 238.--Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. cap. 90.--Peter
Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 4, epist. 92.--Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii.
fol. 309.--Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 20.

[18] Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, ubi supra.--Conde, Dominacion de los
Arabes, tom. iii. cap. 43.--Pedraza, Antiguedad de Granada, fol. 76.--
Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 102.--Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. cap.
90.--Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 28.

[19] Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., ubi supra.--One is reminded of Tasso's
description of the somewhat similar feelings exhibited by the crusaders on
their entrance into Jerusalem.

  "Ecco apparir Gerusalem si vede,
  Ecco additar Gerusalem si scorge;
  Ecco da mille voci unitamente
  Gerusalemme salutar si sente.

       *       *       *       *       *

  "Al gran placer che quella prima vista
  Dolcemente spirò nell' altruì petto,
  Alta contrizion successe, mista
  Di timoroso e riverente affetto,
  Osano appena d'innalzar la vista
  Ver la città."

Gerusalemme Liberata,--Cant. iii. st. 3, 5.

[20] Mariana, Hist. de España tom. ii. p. 597.--Pedraza, Antiguedad de
Granada, fol. 76.--Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1492.--Conde, Dominacion de
los Arabes, tom. iii. cap. 43.--Bleda, Corónica, pp. 621, 622.--Zurita,
Anales, tom. iv. cap. 90.--Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. i. cap. 20.
--L. Marineo, and indeed most of the Spanish authorities, represent the
sovereigns as having postponed their entrance into the city until the 5th
or 6th of January. A letter transcribed by Pedraza, addressed by the queen
to the prior of Guadalupe, one of her council, dated from the city of
Granada on the 2d of January, 1492, shows the inaccuracy of this
statement. See folio 76.

In Mr. Lockhart's picturesque version of the Moorish ballads, the reader
may find an animated description of the triumphant entry of the Christian
army into Granada.

  "There was crying in Granada when the sun was going down,
  Some calling on the Trinity, some calling on Mahoun;
  Here passed away the Koran, there in the cross was borne,
  And here was heard the Christian bell, and there the Moorish horn;
  _Te Deum laudamus_ was up the Alcala sung,
  Down from the Alhambra's minarets were all the crescents flung;
  The arms thereon of Aragon and Castile they display;
  One king comes in in triumph, one weeping goes away."

[21] Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. cap. 90.--Cardonne, Hist.
d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. ii. pp. 319, 320.--Garibay, Compendio, tom.
iv. lib. 40, cap. 42.--Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 20.

Mr. Irving, in his beautiful Spanish Sketch-book, "The Alhambra," devotes
a chapter to mementos of Boabdil, in which he traces minutely the route of
the deposed monarch after quitting the gates of his capital. The same
author, in the Appendix to his Chronicle of Granada, concludes a notice of
Abdallah's fate with the following description of his person. "A portrait
of Boabdil el Chico is to be seen in the picture gallery of the
Generalife. He is represented with a mild, handsome face, a fair
complexion, and yellow hair. His dress is of yellow brocade, relieved with
black velvet; and he has a black velvet cap, surmounted with a crown. In
the armory of Madrid are two suits of armor said to have belonged to him,
one of solid steel, with very little ornament; the morion closed. From the
proportions of these suits of armor, he must have been of full stature and
vigorous form." Note, p. 398.

[22] Senarega, Commentarii de Rebus Genuensibus, apud Muratori, Rerum
Italicarum Scriptores, (Mediolani, 1723-51,) tom. xxiv. p. 531.--It formed
the subject of a theatrical representation before the court at Naples, in
the same year. This drama, or _Farsa_, as it is called by its
distinguished author, Sannazaro, is an allegorical medley, in which Faith,
Joy, and the false prophet Mahomet play the principal parts. The
difficulty of a precise classification of this piece, has given rise to
warmer discussion among Italian critics, than the subject may be thought
to warrant. See Signorelli, Vicende della Coltura nelle due Sicilie,
(Napoli, 1810,) tom. iii. pp. 543 et seq.

[23] "Somewhat about this time, came letters from Ferdinando and Isabella,
king and queen of Spain; signifying the final conquest of Granada from the
Moors; which action, in itself so worthy, King Ferdinando, whose manner
was, never to lose any virtue for the showing, had expressed and displayed
in his letters, at large, with all the particularities and religious
punctos and ceremonies, that were observed in the reception of that city
and kingdom; showing amongst other things, that the king would not by any
means in person enter the city until he had first aloof seen the Cross set
up upon the greater tower of Granada, whereby it became Christian ground.
That likewise, before he would enter, he did homage to God above,
pronouncing by an herald from the height of that tower, that he did
acknowledge to have recovered that kingdom by the help of God Almighty,
and the glorious Virgin, and the virtuous apostle St. James, and the holy
father Innocent VIII., together with the aids and services of his
prelates, nobles, and commons. That yet he stirred not from his camp, till
he had seen a little army of martyrs, to the number of seven hundred and
more Christians, that had lived in bonds and servitude, as slaves to the
Moors, pass before his eyes, singing a psalm for their redemption; and
that he had given tribute unto God, by alms and relief extended to them
all, for his admission into the city. These things were in the letters,
with many more ceremonies of a kind of holy ostentation.

"The king, ever willing to put himself into the consort or quire of all
religious actions, and naturally affecting much the king of Spain, as far
as one king can affect another, partly for his virtues, and partly for a
counterpoise to France; upon the receipt of these letters, sent all his
nobles and prelates that were about the court, together with the mayor and
aldermen of London, in great solemnity to the church of Paul; there to
hear a declaration from the lord chancellor, now cardinal. When they were
assembled, the cardinal, standing upon the uppermost step, or halfpace,
before the quire, and all the nobles, prelates, and governors of the city
at the foot of the stairs, made a speech to them; letting them know that
they were assembled in that consecrated place to sing unto God a new song.
For that, said he, these many years the Christians have not gained new
ground or territory upon the infidels, nor enlarged and set farther the
bounds of the Christian world. But this is now done by the prowess and
devotion of Ferdinando and Isabella, kings of Spain; who have, to their
immortal honor, recovered the great and rich kingdom of Granada, and the
populous and mighty city of the same name from the Moors, having been in
possession thereof by the space of seven hundred years, and more; for
which this assembly and all Christians are to render laud and thanks to
God, and to celebrate this noble act of the king of Spain; who in this is
not only victorious but apostolical, in the gaining of new provinces to
the Christian faith. And the rather for that this victory and conquest is
obtained without much effusion of blood. Whereby it is to be hoped, that
there shall be gained not only new territory, but infinite souls to the
Church of Christ, whom the Almighty, as it seems, would have live to be
converted. Herewithal he did relate some of the most memorable particulars
of the war and victory. And, after his speech ended, the whole assembly
went solemnly in procession, and Te Deum was sung." Lord Bacon, History of
the Reign of King Henry VII., in his Works, (ed. London, 1819,) vol. v.
pp. 85, 86.--See also Hall, Chronicle, p. 453.

[24] The African descendants of the Spanish Moors, unable wholly to
relinquish the hope of restoration to the delicious abodes of their
ancestors, continued for many generations, and perhaps still continue, to
put up a petition to that effect in their mosques every Friday. Pedraza,
Antiguedad de Granada, fol. 7.

[25] Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1492.

Don Henrique de Guzman, duke of Medina Sidonia, the ancient enemy, and,
since the commencement of the Moorish war, the firm friend of the marquis
of Cadiz, died the 28th of August, on the same day with the latter.

[26] Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, p. 411.--Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS.,
cap. 104.

The marquis left three illegitimate daughters by a noble Spanish lady, who
all formed high connections. He was succeeded in his titles and estates,
by the permission of Ferdinand and Isabella, by Don Rodrigo Ponce de Leon,
the son of his eldest daughter, who had married with one of her kinsmen.
Cadiz was subsequently annexed by the Spanish sovereigns to the crown,
from which it had been detached in Henry IV.'s time, and considerable
estates were given as an equivalent, together with the title of Duke of
Arcos, to the family of Ponce de Leon.




CHAPTER XVI.

APPLICATION OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AT THE SPANISH COURT.

1492.

Early Discoveries of the Portuguese.--Of the Spaniards.--Columbus.--His
Application at the Castilian Court.--Rejected.--Negotiations Resumed.--
Favorable Disposition of the Queen.--Arrangement with Columbus.--He Sails
on his First Voyage.--Indifference to the Enterprise.--Acknowledgments due
to Isabella.


While Ferdinand and Isabella were at Santa Fe, the capitulation was
signed, that opened the way to an extent of empire, compared with which
their recent conquests, and indeed all their present dominions, were
insignificant. The extraordinary intellectual activity of the Europeans in
the fifteenth century, after the torpor of ages, carried them forward to
high advancement in almost every department of science, but especially
nautical, whose surprising results have acquired for the age, the glory of
being designated as peculiarly that of maritime discovery. This was
eminently favored by the political condition of modern Europe. Under the
Roman empire, the traffic with the east naturally centred in Rome, the
commercial capital of the west. After the dismemberment of the empire, it
continued to be conducted principally through the channel of the Italian
ports, whence it was diffused over the remoter regions of Christendom. But
these countries, which had now risen from the rank of subordinate
provinces to that of separate independent states, viewed with jealousy
this monopoly of the Italian cities, by means of which these latter were
rapidly advancing beyond them in power and opulence. This was especially
the case with Portugal and Castile, [1] which, placed on the remote
frontiers of the European continent, were far removed from the great
routes of Asiatic intercourse; while this disadvantage was not compensated
by such an extent of territory, as secured consideration to some other of
the European states, equally unfavorably situated for commercial purposes
with themselves. Thus circumstanced, the two nations of Castile and
Portugal were naturally led to turn their eyes on the great ocean which
washed their western borders, and to seek in its hitherto unexplored
recesses for new domains, and if possible strike out some undiscovered
track towards the opulent regions of the east.

The spirit of maritime enterprise was fomented, and greatly facilitated in
its operation, by the invention of the astrolabe, and the important
discovery of the polarity of the magnet, whose first application to the
purposes of navigation on an extended scale may be referred to the
fifteenth century. [2] The Portuguese were the first to enter on the
brilliant path of nautical discovery, which they pursued under the infant
Don Henry with such activity, that, before the middle of the fifteenth
century, they had penetrated as far as Cape de Verd, doubling many a
fearful headland, which had shut in the timid navigator of former days;
until at length, in 1486, they descried the lofty promontory which
terminates Africa on the south, and which, hailed by King John the Second,
under whom it was discovered, as the harbinger of the long-sought passage
to the east, received the cheering appellation of the Cape of Good Hope.

The Spaniards, in the mean while, did not languish in the career of
maritime enterprise. Certain adventurers from the northern provinces of
Biscay and Guipuscoa, in 1393, had made themselves masters of one of the
smallest of the group of islands, supposed to be the Fortunate Isles of
the ancients, since known as the Canaries. Other private adventurers from
Seville extended their conquests over these islands in the beginning of
the following century. These were completed in behalf of the crown under
Ferdinand and Isabella, who equipped several fleets for their reduction,
which at length terminated in 1495 with that of Teneriffe. [3] From the
commencement of their reign, Ferdinand and Isabella had shown an earnest
solicitude for the encouragement of commerce and nautical science, as is
evinced by a variety of regulations which, however imperfect, from the
misconception of the true principles of trade in that day, are
sufficiently indicative of the dispositions of the government. [4] Under
them, and indeed under their predecessors as far back as Henry the Third,
a considerable traffic had been carried on with the western coast of
Africa, from which gold dust and slaves were imported into the city of
Seville. The annalist of that city notices the repeated interference of
Isabella in behalf of these unfortunate beings, by ordinances tending to
secure them a more equal protection of the laws, or opening such social
indulgences as might mitigate the hardships of their condition. A
misunderstanding gradually arose between the subjects of Castile and
Portugal, in relation to their respective rights of discovery and commerce
on the African coast, which promised a fruitful source of collision
between the two crowns; but which was happily adjusted by an article in
the treaty of 1479, that terminated the war of the succession. By this it
was settled, that the right of traffic and of discovery on the western
coast of Africa should be exclusively reserved to the Portuguese, who in
their turn should resign all claims on the Canaries to the crown of
Castile. The Spaniards, thus excluded from further progress to the south,
seemed to have no other opening left for naval adventure than the hitherto
untravelled regions of the great western ocean. Fortunately, at this
juncture, an individual appeared among them, in the person of Christopher
Columbus, endowed with capacity for stimulating them to this heroic
enterprise, and conducting it to a glorious issue. [5]

This extraordinary man was a native of Genoa, of humble parentage, though
perhaps honorable descent. [6] He was instructed in his early youth at
Pavia, where he acquired a strong relish for the mathematical sciences, in
which he subsequently excelled. At the age of fourteen, he engaged in a
seafaring life, which he followed with little intermission till 1470;
when, probably little more than thirty years of age, [7] he landed in
Portugal, the country to which adventurous spirits from all parts of the
world then resorted, as the great theatre of maritime enterprise. After
his arrival, he continued to make voyages to the then known parts of the
world, and, when on shore, occupied himself with the construction and sale
of charts and maps; while his geographical researches were considerably
aided by the possession of papers belonging to an eminent Portuguese
navigator, a deceased relative of his wife. Thus stored with all that
nautical science in that day could supply, and fortified by large
practical experience, the reflecting mind of Columbus was naturally led to
speculate on the existence of some other land beyond the western waters;
and he conceived the possibility of reaching the eastern shores of Asia,
whose provinces of Zipango and Cathay were emblazoned in such gorgeous
colors in the narratives of Mandeville and the Poli, by a more direct and
commodious route than that which traversed the eastern continent. [8]

The existence of land beyond the Atlantic, which was not discredited by
some of the most enlightened ancients, [9] had become matter of common
speculation at the close of the fifteenth century; when maritime adventure
was daily disclosing the mysteries of the deep, and bringing to light new
regions, that had hitherto existed only in fancy. A proof of this popular
belief occurs in a curious passage of the "Morgante Maggiore" of the
Florentine poet Palci, a man of letters, but not distinguished for
scientific attainments beyond his day. [10] The passage is remarkable,
independently of the cosmographical knowledge it implies, for its allusion
to phenomena in physical science, not established till more than a century
later. The Devil, alluding to the vulgar superstition respecting the
pillars of Hercules, thus addresses his companion Rinaldo:

  "Know that this theory is false; his bark
  The daring mariner shall urge far o'er
  The western wave, a smooth and level plain,
  Albeit the earth is fashioned like a wheel.
  Man was in ancient days of grosser mould,
  And Hercules might blush to learn how far
  Beyond the limits he had vainly set,
  The dullest sea-boat soon shall wing her way.
  Men shall descry another hemisphere,
  Since to one common centre all things tend;
  So earth, by curious mystery divine
  Well balanced, hangs amid the starry spheres.
  At our antipodes are cities, states,
  And thronged empires, ne'er divined of yore.
  But see, the Sun speeds on his western path
  To glad the nations with expected light." [11]

Columbus's hypothesis rested on much higher ground than mere popular
belief. What indeed was credulity with the vulgar, and speculation with
the learned, amounted in his mind to a settled practical conviction, that
made him ready to peril life and fortune on the result of the experiment.
He was fortified still further in his conclusions by a correspondence with
the learned Italian Toscanelli, who furnished him with a map of his own
projection, in which the eastern coast of Asia was delineated opposite to
the western frontier of Europe. [12]

Filled with lofty anticipations of achieving a discovery, which would
settle a question of such moment, so long involved in obscurity, Columbus
submitted the theory on which he had founded his belief in the existence
of a western route to King John the Second, of Portugal. Here he was
doomed to encounter for the first time the embarrassments and
mortifications, which so often obstruct the conceptions of genius, too
sublime for the age in which they are formed. After a long and fruitless
negotiation, and a dishonorable attempt on the part of the Portuguese to
avail themselves clandestinely of his information, he quitted Lisbon in
disgust, determined to submit his proposals to the Spanish sovereigns,
relying on their reputed character for wisdom and enterprise. [13]

The period of his arrival in Spain, being the latter part of 1484, would
seem to have been the most unpropitious possible to his design. The nation
was then in the heat of the Moorish war, and the sovereigns were
unintermittingly engaged, as we have seen, in prosecuting their campaigns,
or in active preparation for them. The large expenditure, incident to
this, exhausted all their resources; and indeed the engrossing character
of this domestic conquest left them little leisure for indulging in dreams
of distant and doubtful discovery. Columbus, moreover, was unfortunate in
his first channel of communication with the court. He was furnished by
Fray Juan Perez de Marchena, guardian of the convent of La Rabida in
Andalusia, who had early taken a deep interest in his plans, with an
introduction to Fernando de Talavera, prior of Prado, and confessor of the
queen, a person high in the royal confidence, and gradually raised through
a succession of ecclesiastical dignities to the archiepiscopal see of
Granada. He was a man of irreproachable morals, and of comprehensive
benevolence for that day, as is shown in his subsequent treatment of the
unfortunate Moriscoes. [14] He was also learned; although his learning was
that of the cloister, deeply tinctured with pedantry and superstition, and
debased by such servile deference even to the errors of antiquity, as at
once led him to discountenance everything like innovation or enterprise.
[15]

With these timid and exclusive views, Talavera was so far from
comprehending the vast conceptions of Columbus, that he seems to have
regarded him as a mere visionary, and his hypothesis as involving
principles not altogether orthodox. Ferdinand and Isabella, desirous of
obtaining the opinion of the most competent judges on the merits of
Columbus's theory, referred him to a council selected by Talavera from the
most eminent scholars of the kingdom, chiefly ecclesiastics, whose
profession embodied most of the science of that day. Such was the apathy
exhibited by this learned conclave, and so numerous the impediments
suggested by dulness, prejudice, or skepticism, that years glided away
before it came to a decision. During this time, Columbus appears to have
remained in attendance on the court, bearing arms occasionally in the
campaigns, and experiencing from the sovereigns an unusual degree of
deference and personal attention; an evidence of which is afforded in the
disbursements repeatedly made by the royal order for his private expenses,
and in the instructions, issued to the municipalities of the different
towns in Andalusia, to supply him gratuitously with lodging and other
personal accommodations. [16]

At length, however, Columbus, wearied out by this painful procrastination,
pressed the court for a definite answer to his propositions; when he was
informed, that the council of Salamanca pronounced his scheme to be "vain,
impracticable, and resting on grounds too weak to merit the support of the
government." Many in the council, however, were too enlightened to
acquiesce in this sentence of the majority. Some of the most considerable
persons of the court, indeed, moved by the cogency of Columbus's
arguments, and affected by the elevation and grandeur of his views, not
only cordially embraced his scheme, but extended their personal intimacy
and friendship to him. Such, among others, were the grand cardinal
Mendoza, a man whose enlarged capacity and acquaintance with affairs
raised him above many of the narrow prejudices of his order, and Deza,
archbishop of Seville, a Dominican friar, whose commanding talents were
afterwards unhappily perverted in the service of the Holy Office, over
which he presided as successor to Torquemada. [17] The authority of these
individuals had undoubtedly great weight with the sovereigns, who softened
the verdict of the junto, by an assurance to Columbus, that, "although
they were too much occupied at present to embark in his undertaking, yet,
at the conclusion of the war, they should find both time and inclination
to treat with him." Such was the ineffectual result of Columbus's long and
painful solicitation; and, far from receiving the qualified assurance of
the sovereigns in mitigation of their refusal, he seems to have considered
it as peremptory and final. In great dejection of mind, therefore, but
without further delay, he quitted the court, and bent his way to the
south, with the apparently almost desperate intent of seeking out some
other patron to his undertaking. [18]

Columbus had already visited his native city of Genoa, for the purpose of
interesting it in his scheme of discovery; but the attempt proved
unsuccessful. He now made application, it would seem, to the dukes of
Medina Sidonia and Medina Celi, successively, from the latter of whom he
experienced much kindness and hospitality; but neither of these nobles,
whose large estates lying along the sea-shore had often invited them to
maritime adventure, was disposed to assume one which seemed too hazardous
for the resources of the crown. Without wasting time in further
solicitation, Columbus prepared with a heavy heart to bid adieu to Spain,
and carry his proposals to the king of France, from whom he had received a
letter of encouragement while detained in Andalusia. [19]

His progress, however, was arrested at the convent of La Rabida, which he
visited previous to his departure, by his friend the guardian, who
prevailed on him to postpone his journey till another effort had been made
to move the Spanish court in his favor. For this purpose the worthy
ecclesiastic undertook an expedition in person to the newly erected city
of Santa Fe, where the sovereigns lay encamped before Granada. Juan Perez
had formerly been confessor of Isabella, and was held in great
consideration by her for his excellent qualities. On arriving at the camp,
he was readily admitted to an audience, when he pressed the suit of
Columbus with all the earnestness and reasoning of which he was capable.
The friar's eloquence was supported by that of several eminent persons,
whom Columbus during his long residence in the country had interested in
his project, and who viewed with sincere regret the prospect of its
abandonment. Among these individuals are particularly mentioned Alonso de
Quintanilla, comptroller general of Castile, Louis de St. Angel, a fiscal
officer of the crown of Aragon, and the marchioness of Moya, the personal
friend of Isabella, all of whom exercised considerable influence over her
counsels. Their representations, combined with the opportune season of the
application, occurring at the moment when the approaching termination of
the Moorish war allowed room for interest in other objects, wrought so
favorable a change in the dispositions of the sovereigns, that they
consented to resume the negotiation with Columbus. An invitation was
accordingly sent to him to repair to Santa Fe, and a considerable sum
provided for his suitable equipment, and his expenses on the road. [20]

Columbus, who lost no time in availing himself of this welcome
intelligence, arrived at the camp in season to witness the surrender of
Granada, when every heart, swelling with exultation at the triumphant
termination of the war, was naturally disposed to enter with greater
confidence on a new career of adventure. At his interview with the king
and queen, he once more exhibited the arguments on which his hypothesis
was founded. He then endeavored to stimulate the cupidity of his audience,
by picturing the realms of Mangi and Cathay, which he confidently expected
to reach by this western route, in all the barbaric splendors which had
been shed over them by the lively fancy of Marco Polo and other travellers
of the Middle Ages; and he concluded with appealing to a higher principle,
by holding out the prospect of extending the empire of the Cross over
nations of benighted heathen, while he proposed to devote the profits of
his enterprise to the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre. This last
ebullition, which might well have passed for fanaticism in a later day,
and given a visionary tinge to his whole project, was not quite so
preposterous in an age, in which the spirit of the crusades might be said
still to linger, and the romance of religion had not yet been dispelled by
sober reason. The more temperate suggestion of the diffusion of the gospel
was well suited to affect Isabella, in whose heart the principle of
devotion was deeply seated, and who, in all her undertakings, seems to
have been far less sensible to the vulgar impulses of avarice or ambition,
than to any argument connected, however remotely, with the interests of
religion. [21]

Amidst all these propitious demonstrations towards Columbus, an obstacle
unexpectedly arose in the nature of his demands, which stipulated for
himself and heirs the title and authority of Admiral and Viceroy over all
lands discovered by him, with one-tenth of the profits. This was deemed
wholly inadmissible. Ferdinand, who had looked with cold distrust on the
expedition from the first, was supported by the remonstrances of Talavera,
the new archbishop of Granada; who declared, that "such demands savored of
the highest degree of arrogance, and would be unbecoming in their
Highnesses to grant to a needy foreign adventurer." Columbus, however,
steadily resisted every attempt to induce him to modify his propositions.
On this ground, the conferences were abruptly broken off, and he once more
turned his back upon the Spanish court, resolved rather to forego his
splendid anticipations of discovery, at the very moment when the career so
long sought was thrown open to him, than surrender one of the honorable
distinctions due to his services. This last act is perhaps the most
remarkable exhibition in his whole life, of that proud, unyielding spirit,
which sustained him through so many years of trial, and enabled him at
length to achieve his great enterprise, in the face of every obstacle
which man and nature had opposed to it. [22]

The misunderstanding was not suffered to be of long duration. Columbus's
friends, and especially Louis de St. Angel, remonstrated with the queen on
these proceedings in the most earnest manner. He frankly told her, that
Columbus's demands, if high, were at least contingent on success, when
they would be well deserved; that, if he failed, he required nothing. He
expatiated on his qualifications for the undertaking, so signal as to
insure in all probability the patronage of some other monarch, who would
reap the fruits of his discoveries; and he ventured to remind the queen,
that her present policy was not in accordance with the magnanimous spirit,
which had hitherto made her the ready patron of great and heroic
enterprise. Far from being displeased, Isabella was moved by his honest
eloquence. She contemplated the proposals of Columbus in their true light;
and, refusing to hearken any longer to the suggestions of cold and timid
counsellors, she gave way to the natural impulses of her own noble and
generous heart; "I will assume the undertaking," said she, "for my own
crown of Castile, and am ready to pawn my jewels to defray the expenses of
it, if the funds in the treasury shall be found inadequate." The treasury
had been reduced to the lowest ebb by the late war, but the receiver, St.
Angel, advanced the sums required, from the Aragonese revenues deposited
in his hands. Aragon however was not considered as adventuring in the
expedition, the charges and emoluments of which were reserved exclusively
for Castile. [23]

Columbus, who was overtaken by the royal messenger at a few leagues'
distance only from Granada, experienced the most courteous reception on
his return to Santa Fe, where a definitive arrangement was concluded with
the Spanish sovereigns, April 17th, 1492. By the terms of the
capitulation, Ferdinand and Isabella, as lords of the ocean-seas,
constituted Christopher Columbus their admiral, viceroy, and governor-
general of all such islands and continents as he should discover in the
western ocean, with the privilege of nominating three candidates, for the
selection of one by the crown, for the government of each of these
territories. He was to be vested with exclusive right of jurisdiction over
all commercial transactions within his admiralty. He was to be entitled to
one-tenth of all the products and profits within the limits of his
discoveries, and an additional eighth, provided he should contribute one-
eighth part of the expense. By a subsequent ordinance, the official
dignities above enumerated were settled on him and his heirs for ever,
with the privilege of prefixing the title of Don to their names, which had
not then degenerated into an appellation of mere courtesy. [24]

No sooner were the arrangements completed, than Isabella prepared with her
characteristic promptness to forward the expedition by the most efficient
measures. Orders were sent to Seville and the other ports of Andalusia, to
furnish stores and other articles requisite for the voyage, free of duty,
and at as low rates as possible. The fleet, consisting of three vessels,
was to sail from the little port of Palos in Andalusia, which had been
condemned for some delinquency to maintain two caravels for a twelvemonth
for the public service. The third vessel was furnished by the admiral,
aided, as it would seem, in defraying the charges, by his friend the
guardian of La Rabida, and the Pinzons, a family in Palos long
distinguished for its enterprise among the mariners of that active
community. With their assistance, Columbus was enabled to surmount the
disinclination, and indeed open opposition, manifested by the Andalusian
mariners to his perilous voyage; so that in less than three months his
little squadron was equipped for sea. A sufficient evidence of the extreme
unpopularity of the expedition is afforded by a royal ordinance of the
30th of April, promising protection to all persons, who should embark in
it, from criminal prosecution of whatever kind, until two months after
their return. The armament consisted of two caravels, or light vessels
without decks, and a third of larger burden. The total number of persons
who embarked amounted to one hundred and twenty; and the whole charges of
the crown for the expedition did not exceed seventeen thousand florins,
The fleet was instructed to keep clear of the African coast, and other
maritime possessions of Portugal. At length, all things being in
readiness, Columbus and his whole crew partook of the sacrament, and
confessed themselves, after the devout manner of the ancient Spanish
voyagers, when engaged in any important enterprise; and on the morning of
the 3d of August, 1492, the intrepid navigator, bidding adieu to the Old
World, launched forth on that unfathomed waste of waters where no sail had
been ever spread before. [25]

It is impossible to peruse the story of Columbus without assigning to him
almost exclusively the glory of his great discovery; for, from the first
moment of its conception to that of its final execution, he was
encountered by every species of mortification and embarrassment, with
scarcely a heart to cheer, or a hand to help him. [26] Those more
enlightened persons whom, during his long residence in Spain, he succeeded
in interesting in his expedition, looked to it probably as the means of
solving a dubious problem, with the same sort of vague and skeptical
curiosity as to its successful result, with which we contemplate, in our
day, an attempt to arrive at the Northwest passage. How feeble was the
interest excited, even among those who from their science and situation
would seem to have their attention most naturally drawn towards it, may be
inferred from the infrequency of allusion to it in the correspondence and
other writings of that time, previous to the actual discovery. Peter
Martyr, one of the most accomplished scholars of the period, whose
residence at the Castilian court must have fully instructed him in the
designs of Columbus, and whose inquisitive mind led him subsequently to
take the deepest interest in the results of his discoveries, does not, so
far as I am aware, allude to him in any part of his voluminous
correspondence with the learned men of his time, previous to the first
expedition. The common people regarded, not merely with apathy, but with
terror, the prospect of a voyage, that was to take the mariner from the
safe and pleasant seas which he was accustomed to navigate, and send him
roving on the boundless wilderness of waters, which tradition and
superstitious fancy had peopled with innumerable forms of horror.

It is true that Columbus experienced a most honorable reception at the
Castilian court; such as naturally flowed from the benevolent spirit of
Isabella, and her just appreciation of his pure and elevated character.
But the queen was too little of a proficient in science to be able to
estimate the merits of his hypothesis; and, as many of those, on whose
judgment she leaned, deemed it chimerical, it is probable that she never
entertained a deep conviction of its truth; at least not enough to warrant
the liberal expenditure, which she never refused to schemes of real
importance. This is certainly inferred by the paltry amount actually
expended on the armament, far inferior to that appropriated to the
equipment of two several fleets in the course of the late war for a
foreign expedition, as well as to that, with which in the ensuing year she
followed up Columbus's discoveries.

But while, on a review of the circumstances, we are led more and more to
admire the constancy and unconquerable spirit, which carried Columbus
victorious through all the difficulties of his undertaking, we must
remember, in justice to Isabella, that, although tardily, she did in fact
furnish the resources essential to its execution; that she undertook the
enterprise when it had been explicitly declined by other powers, and when
probably none other of that age would have been found to countenance it;
and that, after once plighting her faith to Columbus, she became his
steady friend, shielding him against the calumnies of his enemies,
reposing in him the most generous confidence, and serving him in the most
acceptable manner, by supplying ample resources for the prosecution of his
glorious discoveries. [27]

       *       *       *       *       *

It is now more than thirty years since the Spanish government intrusted
Don Martin Fernandez de Navarrete, one of the most eminent scholars of the
country, with the care of exploring the public archives, for the purpose
of collecting information relative to the voyages and discoveries of the
early Spanish navigators. In 1825, Señor Navarrete gave to the world the
first fruits of his indefatigable researches, in two volumes, the
commencement of a series, comprehending letters, private journals, royal
ordinances, and other original documents, illustrative of the discovery of
America. These two volumes are devoted exclusively to the adventures and
personal history of Columbus, and must be regarded as the only authentic
basis, on which any notice of the great navigator can hereafter rest.
Fortunately, Mr. Irving's visit to Spain, at this period, enabled the
world to derive the full benefit of Señor Navarrete's researches, by
presenting their results in connection with whatever had been before known
of Columbus, in the lucid and attractive form, which engages the interest
of every reader. It would seem highly proper, that the fortunes of the
discoverer of America should engage the pen of an inhabitant of her most
favored and enlightened region; and it is unnecessary to add, that the
task has been executed in a manner which must secure to the historian a
share in the imperishable renown of his subject. The adventures of
Columbus, which form so splendid an episode to the reign of Ferdinand and
Isabella, cannot properly come within the scope of its historian, except
so far as relates to his personal intercourse with the government, or
their results on the fortunes of the Spanish monarchy.


FOOTNOTES

[1] Aragon, or rather Catalonia, maintained an extensive commerce with the
Levant, and the remote regions of the east, during the Middle Ages,
through the flourishing port of Barcelona. See Capmany y Montpalau,
Memorias Históricas sobre la Marina, Comercio y Artes de Barcelona,
(Madrid, 1779-92,) passim.

[2] A council of mathematicians in the court of John II., of Portugal,
first devised the application of the ancient astrolabe to navigation, thus
affording to the mariner the essential advantages appertaining to the
modern quadrant. The discovery of the polarity of the needle, which vulgar
tradition assigned to the Amalfite Flavio Gioja, and which Robertson has
sanctioned without scruple, is clearly proved to have occurred more than a
century earlier. Tiraboschi, who investigates the matter with his usual
erudition, passing by the doubtful reference of Guiot de Provins, whose
age and personal identity even are contested, traces the familiar use of
the magnetic needle as far back as the first half of the thirteenth
century, by a pertinent passage from Cardinal Vitri, who died 1244; and
sustains this by several similar references to other authors of the same
century. Capmany finds no notice of its use by the Castilian navigators
earlier than 1403. It was not until considerably later in the fifteenth
century, that the Portuguese voyagers, trusting to its guidance, ventured
to quit the Mediterranean and African coasts, and extend their navigation
to Madeira and the Azores. See Navarrete, Coleccion de los Viages y
Descubrimientos que hicieron por Mar los Españoles, (Madrid, 1825-29,)
tom. i. Int. sec. 33.--Tiraboschi, Letteratura Italiana, tom. iv. pp. 173,
174.--Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, tom. iii. part. 1, cap. 4.--Koch,
Tableau des Révolutions de l'Europe, (Paris, 1814,) tom. i. pp. 358-360.

[3] Four of the islands were conquered on behalf of private adventurers,
chiefly from Andalusia, before the accession of Ferdinand and Isabella,
and under their reign were held as the property of a noble Castilian
family, named Peraza. The sovereigns sent a considerable armament from
Seville in 1480, which subdued the great island of Canary on behalf of the
crown, and another in 1493, which effected the reduction of Palma and
Teneriffe after a sturdy resistance from the natives. Bernaldez postpones
the last conquest to 1495. Salazar de Mendoza, Monarquía, tom. i. pp. 347-
349.--Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, pp. 136, 203.--Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos,
MS., cap. 64, 65, 66, 133.--Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i.
Introd., sec. 28.

[4] Among the provisions of the sovereigns enacted previous to the present
date, may be noted those for regulating the coin and weights; for opening
a free trade between Castile and Aragon; for security to Genoese and
Venetian trading vessels; for safe conduct to mariners and fishermen; for
privileges to the seamen of Palos; for prohibiting the plunder of vessels
wrecked on the coast; and an ordinance of the very last year, requiring
foreigners to take their return cargoes in the products of the country.
See these laws as extracted from the Ordenanças Reales and the various
public archives, in Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 11.

[5] Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, pp. 373, 374, 398.--Zurita, Anales, tom.
iv. lib. 20, cap. 30, 34.--Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages.

[6] Spotorno, Memorials of Columbus, (London, 1823,) p. 14.--Senarega,
apud Muratori, Rerum Ital. Script., tom. xxiv. p. 535.--Antonio Gallo, De
Navigatione Columbi, apud Muratori, Rerum Ital. Script., tom. xxiii. p.
202.

It is very generally agreed that the father of Columbus exercised the
craft of a wool-carder, or weaver. The admiral's son Ferdinand, after some
speculation on the genealogy of his illustrious parent, concludes with
remarking, that, after all, a noble descent would confer less lustre on
him than to have sprung from such a father; a philosophical sentiment,
indicating pretty strongly that he had no great ancestry to boast of.
Ferdinand finds something extremely mysterious and typical in his father's
name of _Columbus_, signifying a _dove_, in token of his being ordained to
"carry the olive-branch and oil of baptism over the ocean, like Noah's
dove, to denote the peace and union of the heathen people with the church,
after they had been shut up in the ark of darkness and confusion."
Fernando Colon, Historia del Almirante, cap. 1, 2, apud Barcia,
Historiadores Primitivos de las Indian Occidentals, (Madrid, 1749,) tom.
i., tom. i. Introd., sec. 21, 24.--Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. vii. p.
548.

[7] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 131.--Muñoz, Historia del Nuevo-
Mundo, (Madrid, 1793,) lib. 2, sec. 13.

There are no sufficient data for determining the period of Columbus's
birth. The learned Muñoz places it in 1446. (Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib.
2, sec. 12.) Navarrete, who has weighed the various authorities with
caution, seems inclined to remove it back eight or ten years further,
resting chiefly on a remark of Bernaldez, that he died in 1506, "in a good
old age, at the age of seventy, a little more or less." (Cap. 131.) The
expression is somewhat vague. In order to reconcile the facts with this
hypothesis, Navarrete is compelled to reject, as a chirographical blunder,
a passage in a letter of the admiral, placing his birth in 1456, and to
distort another passage in his book of "Prophecies," which, if literally
taken, would seem to establish his birth near the time assigned by Muñoz.
Incidental allusions in some other authorities, speaking of Columbus's old
age at or near the time of his death, strongly corroborate Navarrete's
inference. (See Coleccion de Viages, tom. i. Introd., sec. 54.)--Mr.
Irving seems willing to rely exclusively on the authority of Bernaldez.

[8] Antonio de Herrera, Historia General de las Indias Occidentales,
(Amberes, 1728,) tom. i. dec. 1, lib. 1, cap. 7.--Gomara, Historia de las
Indias, cap. 14, apud Barcia, Hist. Primitivos, tom. ii.--Bernaldez, Reyes
Católicos, MS., cap. 118.--Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i.
Introd., sec. 30.

Ferdinand Columbus enumerates three grounds on which his father's
conviction of land in the west was founded. First, natural reason,--or
conclusions drawn from science; secondly, authority of writers,--amounting
to little more than vague speculations of the ancients; thirdly, testimony
of sailors, comprehending, in addition to popular rumors of land described
in western voyages, such relics as appeared to have floated to the
European shores from the other side of the Atlantic. Hist. del Almirante,
cap. 6-8.

[9] None of the intimations are so precise as that contained in the well-
known lines of Seneca's Medea,

  "Venient annuis saecula," etc.,

although, when regarded as a mere poetical vagary, it has not the weight
which belongs to more serious suggestions, of similar import, in the
writings of Aristotle and Strabo. The various allusions in the ancient
classic writers to an undiscovered world form the subject of an elaborate
essay in the Memorias da Acad. Real das Sciencias de Lisboa, (tom. v. pp.
101-112,) and are embodied, in much greater detail, in the first section
of Hnmboldt's "Histoire de la Géographie du Nouveau Continent;" a work in
which the author, with his usual acuteness, has successfully applied the
vast stores of his erudition and experience to the illustration of many
interesting points connected with the discovery of the New World, and the
personal history of Columbus.

[10] It is probably the knowledge of this which has led some writers to
impute part of his work to the learned Marsilio Ficino, and others, with
still less charity and probability, to refer the authorship of the whole
to Politian. Comp. Tasso, Opere, (Venezia, 1735-42,) tom. x. p. 129.--and
Crescimbeni, Istoria della Volgar Poesia, (Venezia, 1731,) tom. iii. pp.
273, 274.

[11] Pulci, Morgante Maggiore, canto 25, st. 229, 230.--I have used blank
verse, as affording facility for a more literal version than the
corresponding _ottava rima_ of the original. This passage of Pulci,
which has not fallen under the notice of Humboldt, or any other writer on
the same subject whom I have consulted, affords, probably, the most
circumstantial prediction that is to be found of the existence of a
western world. Dante, two centuries before, had intimated more vaguely his
belief in an undiscovered quarter of the globe.

  "De' vostri sensi, ch' è del rimanente,
  Non vogliate negar l'esperienza,
  Diretro al sol, del mondo senza gente."

Inferno, cant. 26, v. 115.

[12] Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Col. Dipl., no. 1.--Muñoz,
Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 2, sec. 17.--It is singular that Columbus, in
his visit to Iceland, in 1477, (see Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante,
cap. 4,) should have learned nothing of the Scandinavian voyages to the
northern shores of America in the tenth and following centuries; yet if he
was acquainted with them, it appears equally surprising that he should not
have adduced the fact in support of his own hypothesis of the existence of
land in the west; and that he should have taken a route so different from
that of his predecessors in the path of discovery. It may be, however, as
M. de Humboldt has well remarked, that the information he obtained in
Iceland was too vague to suggest the idea, that the lands thus discovered
by the Northmen had any connection with the Indies, of which he was in
pursuit. In Columbus's day, indeed, so little was understood of the true
position of these countries, that Greenland is laid down on the maps in
the European seas, and as a peninsular prolongation of Scandinavia. See
Humboldt, Géographie du Nouveau Continent, tom. ii. pp. 118, 125.

[13] Herrera, Indias Occidentals, tom. i. dec. 1, lib. 1, cap. 7.--Muñoz,
Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 2, sec. 19.--Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, cap.
15.--Benzoni, Novi Orbis Historia, lib. 1, cap. 6.--Fernando Colon, Hist.
del Almirante, cap. 10.--Faria y Sousa, Europa Portuguesa, tom. ii. part.
3, cap. 4.

[14] Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., dial. de Talavera.

[15] Salazar de Mendoza, Crón. del Gran Cardenal, p. 214.--Herrera, Indias
Occidentales, tom. i. dec. 1, lib. 1, cap. 8.--Fernando Colon, Hist. del
Almirante, cap. 11.

[16] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 1, cap. 8.--Zuñiga,
Annales de Sevilla, p. 104.--Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i. sec.
60, 61, tom. ii., Col. Dipl., nos. 2, 4.

[17] This prelate, Diego de Deza, was born of poor but respectable
parents, at Toro. He early entered the Dominican order, where his learning
and exemplary life recommended him to the notice of the sovereigns, who
called him to court to take charge of Prince John's education. He was
afterwards raised, through the usual course of episcopal preferment, to
the metropolitan see of Seville. His situation, as confessor of Ferdinand,
gave him great influence over that monarch, with whom he appears to have
maintained an intimate correspondence, to the day of his death. Oviedo,
Quincuagenas, MS., dial. de Deza.

[18] Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 11.--Salazar de Mendoza,
Crón. del Gran Cardenal, p. 215.--Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 2,
sec. 25, 29.--Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i., Introd., sec. 60.

[19] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 1, cap. 8.--Muñoz, Hist.
del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 2, sec. 27.--Spotorno, Memorials of Columbus, pp.
31-33.--The last dates the application to Genoa prior to that to Portugal.

A letter from the duke of Medina Celi to the cardinal of Spain, dated 19th
March, 1493, refers to his entertaining Columbus as his guest for two
years. It is very difficult to determine the date of these two years. If
Herrera is correct in the statement, that, after a five years' residence
at court, whose commencement he had previously referred to 1484, he
carried his proposals to the duke of Medina Celi, (see cap. 7, 8.) the two
years may have intervened between 1489-1491. Navarrete places them between
the departure from Portugal and the first application to the court of
Castile, in 1486. Some other writers, and among them Muñoz and Irving,
referring his application to Genoa to 1485, and his first appearance in
Spain to a subsequent period, make no provision for the residence with the
duke of Medina Celi. Mr. Irving indeed is betrayed into a chronological
inaccuracy, in speaking of a seven years' residence at the court in 1491,
which he had previously noticed as having before begun in 1486. (Life of
Columbus, (London, 1828,) comp. vol. i. pp. 109, 141.) In fact, the
discrepancies among the earliest authorities are such as to render
hopeless any attempt to settle with precision the chronology of Columbus's
movements previous to his first voyage.

[20] Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii. pp. 129, 130.--Muñoz, Hist. del
Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 2, sec. 31.--Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib.
1, cap. 8.--Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i., Introd., sec. 60.

[21] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 1, cap. 8.--Primer Viage
de Colon, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i. pp. 2, 117.--
Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 13.

[22] Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 2, sec. 28, 29.--Fernando Colon,
Hist. del Almirante, ubi supra.

[23] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 1, cap. 8.--Muñoz, Hist.
del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 2, sec. 32, 33.--Fernando Colon, Hist. del
Almirante, cap. 14.--Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, cap. 15.

[24] Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Col. Diplomat., nos. 5, 6.
--Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, p. 412.--Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii.
p. 605.

[25] Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis et Novo Orbe, (Coloniae, 1574,) dec.
1, lib. 1.--Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Col. Diplomat., nos.
7, 8, 9, 10, 12.--Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 1, cap. 9.--
Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 14.--Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-
Mundo, lib. 2, sec. 33.--Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 6.--
Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, cap. 15.

The expression in the text will not seem too strong, even admitting the
previous discoveries of the Northmen, which were made in so much higher
latitudes. Humboldt has well shown the probability, _a priori_, of
such discoveries, made in a narrow part of the Atlantic, where the
Orcades, the Feroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland afforded the voyager so
many intermediate stations, at moderate distances from each other.
(Géographie du Nouveau Continent, tom. ii. pp. 183 et seq.) The
publication of the original Scandinavian MSS., (of which imperfect notices
and selections, only, have hitherto found their way into the world,) by
the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries, at Copenhagen, is a matter of
the deepest interest; and it is fortunate that it is to be conducted under
auspices, which must insure its execution in the most faithful and able
manner. It may be doubted, however, whether the declaration of the
Prospectus, that "it was the knowledge of the Scandinavian voyages, in all
probability, which prompted the expedition of Columbus," can ever be
established. His personal history furnishes strong internal evidence to
the contrary.

[26] How strikingly are the forlorn condition and indomitable energy of
Columbus depicted in the following noble verses of Chiabrera;

  "Certo da cor, ch' alto destin non scelse,
  Son l' imprese magnanime neglette;
  Ma le bell' alme alle bell' opre elette
  Sanno gioir nelle fatiche eccelse;
  Nè biasnio popolar, frale catena,
  Spirto d'onore, il suo cammin reffrena.
  Così lunga stagion per modi indegni
  Europa disprezzò l'inclita speme,
  Schernendo il vulgo, e seco i Regi insieme,
  _Nudo nocchier, promettitor di Regni._"

Rime, parte 1, canzone 12.

[27] Columbus, in a letter written on his third voyage, pays an honest,
heartfelt tribute to the effectual patronage which he experienced from the
queen. "In the midst of the general incredulity," says he, "the Almighty
infused into the queen, my lady, the spirit of intelligence and energy;
and, whilst every one else, in his ignorance, was expatiating only on the
inconvenience and cost, her Highness approved it, on the contrary, and
gave it all the support in her power." See Carta al Ama del Principe D.
Juan, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i. p. 266.




CHAPTER XVII.

EXPULSION OF THE JEWS FROM SPAIN.

1492.

Excitement against the Jews.--Edict of Expulsion.--Dreadful Sufferings of
the Emigrants.--Whole Number of Exiles.--Disastrous Results.--True Motives
of the Edict.--Contemporary Judgments.


While the Spanish sovereigns were detained before Granada, they published
their memorable and most disastrous edict against the Jews; inscribing it,
as it were, with the same pen which drew up the glorious capitulation of
Granada and the treaty with Columbus. The reader has been made acquainted
in a preceding chapter with the prosperous condition of the Jews in the
Peninsula, and the pre-eminent consideration, which they attained there
beyond any other part of Christendom. The envy raised by their prosperity,
combined with the high religious excitement kindled in the long war with
the infidel, directed the terrible arm of the Inquisition, as has been
already stated, against this unfortunate people; but the result showed the
failure of the experiment, since comparatively few conversions, and those
frequently of a suspicious character, were effected, while the great mass
still maintained a pertinacious attachment to ancient errors. [1]

Under these circumstances, the popular odium, inflamed by the discontent
of the clergy at the resistance which they encountered in the work of
proselytism, gradually grew stronger and stronger against the unhappy
Israelites. Old traditions, as old indeed as the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries, were revived, and charged on the present generation, with all
the details of place and action. Christian children were said to be
kidnapped, in order to be crucified in derision of the Saviour; the host,
it was rumored, was exposed to the grossest indignities; and physicians
and apothecaries, whose science was particularly cultivated by the Jews in
the Middle Ages, were accused of poisoning their Christian patients. No
rumor was too absurd for the easy credulity of the people. The Israelites
were charged with the more probable offence of attempting to convert to
their own faith the _ancient Christians_, as well as to reclaim such
of their own race as had recently embraced Christianity. A great scandal
was occasioned also by the inter-marriages, which still occasionally took
place between Jews and Christians; the latter condescending to repair
their dilapidated fortunes by these wealthy alliances, though at the
expense of their vaunted purity of blood. [2]

These various offences were urged against the Jews with great pertinacity
by their enemies, and the sovereigns were importuned to adopt a more
rigorous policy. The inquisitors, in particular, to whom the work of
conversion had been specially intrusted, represented the incompetence of
all lenient measures to the end proposed. They asserted, that the only
mode left for the extirpation of the Jewish heresy, was to eradicate the
seed; and they boldly demanded the immediate and total banishment of every
unbaptized Israelite from the land. [3]

The Jews, who had obtained an intimation of these proceedings, resorted to
their usual crafty policy for propitiating the sovereigns. They
commissioned one of their body to tender a donative of thirty thousand
ducats towards defraying the expenses of the Moorish war. The negotiation,
however, was suddenly interrupted by the inquisitor-general, Torquemada,
who burst into the apartment of the palace, where the sovereigns were
giving audience to the Jewish deputy, and, drawing forth a crucifix from
beneath his mantle, held it up, exclaiming, "Judas Iscariot sold his
master for thirty pieces of silver. Your Highnesses would sell him anew
for thirty thousand; here he is, take him, and barter him away." So
saying, the frantic priest threw the crucifix on the table, and left the
apartment. The sovereigns, instead of chastising this presumption, or
despising it as a mere freak of insanity, were overawed by it. Neither
Ferdinand nor Isabella, had they been left to the unbiassed dictates of
their own reason, could have sanctioned for a moment so impolitic a
measure, which involved the loss of the most industrious and skilful
portion of their subjects. Its extreme injustice and cruelty rendered it
especially repugnant to the naturally humane disposition of the queen. [4]
But she had been early schooled to distrust her own reason, and indeed the
natural suggestions of humanity, in cases of conscience. Among the
reverend counsellors, on whom she most relied in these matters, was the
Dominican Torquemada. The situation which this man enjoyed as the queen's
confessor, during the tender years of her youth, gave him an ascendency
over her mind, which must have been denied to a person of his savage,
fanatical temper, even with the advantages of this spiritual connection,
had it been formed at a riper period of her life. Without opposing further
resistance to the representations, so emphatically expressed, of the holy
persons in whom she most confided, Isabella, at length, silenced her own
scruples, and consented to the fatal measure of proscription.

The edict for the expulsion of the Jews was signed by the Spanish
sovereigns at Granada, March 30th, 1492. The preamble alleges, in
vindication of the measure, the danger of allowing further intercourse
between the Jews and their Christian subjects, in consequence of the
incorrigible obstinacy, with which the former persisted in their attempts
to make converts of the latter to their own faith, and to instruct them in
their heretical rites, in open defiance of every legal prohibition and
penalty. When a college or corporation of any kind,--the instrument goes
on to state,--is convicted of any great or detestable crime, it is right
that it should be disfranchised, the less suffering with the greater, the
innocent with the guilty. If this be the case in temporal concerns, it is
much more so in those which affect the eternal welfare of the soul. It
finally decrees, that all unbaptized Jews, of whatever sex, age, or
condition, should depart from the realm by the end of July next ensuing;
prohibiting them from revisiting it, on any pretext whatever, under
penalty of death and confiscation of property. It was, moreover,
interdicted to every subject, to harbor, succor, or minister to the
necessities of any Jew, after the expiration of the term limited for his
departure. The persons and property of the Jews, in the mean time, were
taken under the royal protection. They were allowed to dispose of their
effects of every kind on their own account, and to carry the proceeds
along with them, in bills of exchange, or merchandise not prohibited, but
neither in gold nor silver. [5]

The doom of exile fell like a thunderbolt on the heads of the Israelites.
A large proportion of them had hitherto succeeded in shielding themselves
from the searching eye of the Inquisition, by an affectation of reverence
for the forms of Catholic worship, and a discreet forbearance of whatever
might offend the prejudices of their Christian brethren. They had even
hoped, that their steady loyalty, and a quiet and orderly discharge of
their social duties, would in time secure them higher immunities. Many had
risen to a degree of opulence, by means of the thrift and dexterity
peculiar to the race, which gave them a still deeper interest in the land
of their residence. [6] Their families were reared in all the elegant
refinements of life; and their wealth and education often disposed them to
turn their attention to liberal pursuits, which ennobled the character,
indeed, but rendered them personally more sensible to physical annoyance,
and less fitted to encounter the perils and privations of their dreary
pilgrimage. Even the mass of the common people possessed a dexterity in
various handicrafts, which afforded a comfortable livelihood, raising them
far above similar classes in most other nations, who might readily be
detached from the soil on which they happened to be cast, with
comparatively little sacrifice of local interests. [7] These ties were now
severed at a blow. They were to go forth as exiles from the land of their
birth; the land where all whom they ever loved had lived or died; the
land, not so much of their adoption, as of inheritance; which had been the
home of their ancestors for centuries, and with whose prosperity and glory
they were of course as intimately associated, as was any ancient Spaniard.
They were to be cast out helpless and defenceless, with a brand of infamy
set on them, among nations who had always held them in derision and
hatred.

Those provisions of the edict, which affected a show of kindness to the
Jews, were contrived so artfully, as to be nearly nugatory. As they were
excluded from the use of gold and silver, the only medium for representing
their property was bills of exchange. But commerce was too limited and
imperfect to allow of these being promptly obtained to any very
considerable, much less to the enormous amount required in the present
instance. It was impossible, moreover, to negotiate a sale of their
effects under existing circumstances, since the market was soon glutted
with commodities; and few would be found willing to give anything like an
equivalent for what, if not disposed of within the prescribed term, the
proprietors must relinquish at any rate. So deplorable, indeed, was the
sacrifice of property, that a chronicler of the day mentions, that he had
seen a house exchanged for an ass, and a vineyard for a suit of clothes!
In Aragon, matters were still worse. The government there discovered, that
the Jews were largely indebted to individuals and to certain corporations.
It accordingly caused their property to be sequestrated for the benefit of
their creditors, until their debts should be liquidated. Strange, indeed,
that the balance should be found against the people, who have been
everywhere conspicuous for their commercial sagacity and resources, and
who, as factors of the great nobility and farmers of the revenue, enjoyed
at least equal advantages in Spain with those possessed in other
countries, for the accumulation of wealth. [8]

While the gloomy aspect of their fortunes pressed heavily on the hearts of
the Israelites, the Spanish clergy were indefatigable in the work of
conversion. They lectured in the synagogues and public squares, expounding
the doctrines of Christianity, and thundering forth both argument and
invective against the Hebrew heresy. But their laudable endeavors were in
a great measure counteracted by the more authoritative rhetoric of the
Jewish Rabbins, who compared the persecutions of their brethren to those
which their ancestors had suffered under Pharaoh. They encouraged them to
persevere, representing that the present afflictions were intended as a
trial of their faith by the Almighty, who designed in this way to guide
them to the promised land, by opening a path through the waters, as he had
done to their fathers of old. The more wealthy Israelites enforced their
exhortations by liberal contributions for the relief of their indigent
brethren. Thus strengthened, there were found but very few, when the day
of departure arrived, who were not prepared to abandon their country
rather than their religion. The extraordinary act of self-devotion by a
whole people for conscience' sake may be thought, in the nineteenth
century, to merit other epithets than those of "perfidy, incredulity, and
stiff-necked obstinacy," with which the worthy Curate of Los Palacios, in
the charitable feeling of that day, has seen fit to stigmatize it. [9]

When the period of departure arrived, all the principal routes through the
country might be seen swarming with emigrants, old and young, the sick and
the helpless, men, women, and children, mingled promiscuously together,
some mounted on horses or mules, but far the greater part undertaking
their painful pilgrimage on foot. The sight of so much misery touched even
the Spaniards with pity, though none might succor them; for the grand
inquisitor, Torquemada, enforced the ordinance to that effect, by
denouncing heavy ecclesiastical censures on all who should presume to
violate it. The fugitives were distributed along various routes, being
determined in their destination by accidental circumstances, much more
than any knowledge of the respective countries to which they were bound.
Much the largest division, amounting according to some estimates to eighty
thousand souls, passed into Portugal; whose monarch, John the Second,
dispensed with his scruples of conscience so far as to give them a free
passage through his dominions on their way to Africa, in consideration of
a tax of a _cruzado_ a head. He is even said to have silenced his
scruples so far as to allow certain ingenious artisans to establish
themselves permanently in the kingdom. [10]

A considerable number found their way to the ports of Santa Maria and
Cadiz, where, after lingering some time in the vain hope of seeing the
waters open for their egress, according to the promises of the Rabbins,
they embarked on board a Spanish fleet for the Barbary coast. Having
crossed over to Ercilla, a Christian settlement in Africa, whence they
proceeded by land towards Fez, where a considerable body of their
countrymen resided, they were assaulted on their route by the roving
tribes of the desert, in quest of plunder. Notwithstanding the interdict,
the Jews had contrived to secrete small sums of money, sewed up in their
garments or the linings of their saddles. These did not escape the
avaricious eyes of their spoilers, who are even said to have ripped open
the bodies of their victims, in search of gold, which they were supposed
to have swallowed. The lawless barbarians, mingling lust with avarice,
abandoned themselves to still more frightful excesses, violating the wives
and daughters of the unresisting Jews, or massacring in cold blood such as
offered resistance. But without pursuing these loathsome details further,
it need only be added, that the miserable exiles endured such extremity of
famine, that they were glad to force a nourishment from the grass which
grew scantily among the sands of the desert; until at length great numbers
of them, wasted by disease, and broken in spirit, retraced their steps to
Ercilla, and consented to be baptized, in the hope of being permitted to
revisit their native land. The number, indeed, was so considerable, that
the priest who officiated was obliged to make use of the mop, or hyssop,
with which the Roman Catholic missionaries were wont to scatter the holy
drops, whose mystic virtue could cleanse the soul in a moment from the
foulest stains of infidelity. "Thus," says a Castilian historian, "the
calamities of these poor blind creatures proved in the end an excellent
remedy, that God made use of to unseal their eyes, which they now opened
to the vain promises of the Rabbins; so that, renouncing their ancient
heresies, they became faithful followers of the Cross!" [11]

Many of the emigrants took the direction of Italy. Those who landed at
Naples brought with them an infectious disorder, contracted by long
confinement in small, crowded, and ill-provided vessels. The disorder was
so malignant, and spread with such frightful celerity, as to sweep off
more than twenty thousand inhabitants of the city, in the course of the
year, whence it extended its devastation over the whole Italian peninsula.

A graphic picture of these horrors is thus given by a Genoese historian,
an eye-witness of the scenes he describes. "No one," he says, "could
behold the sufferings of the Jewish exiles unmoved. A great many perished
of hunger, especially those of tender years. Mothers, with scarcely
strength to support themselves, carried their famished infants in their
arms, and died with them. Many fell victims to the cold, others to intense
thirst, while the unaccustomed distresses incident to a sea-voyage
aggravated their maladies. I will not enlarge on the cruelty and the
avarice which they frequently experienced from the masters of the ships
which transported them from Spain. Some were murdered to gratify their
cupidity, others forced to sell their children for the expenses of the
passage. They arrived in Genoa in crowds, but were not suffered to tarry
there long, by reason of the ancient law which interdicted the Jewish
traveller from a longer residence than three days. They were allowed,
however, to refit their vessels, and to recruit themselves for some days
from the fatigues of their voyage. One might have taken them for spectres,
so emaciated were they, so cadaverous in their aspect, and with eyes so
sunken; they differed in nothing from the dead, except in the power of
motion, which indeed they scarcely retained. Many fainted and expired on
the mole, which, being completely surrounded by the sea, was the only
quarter vouchsafed to the wretched emigrants. The infection bred by such a
swarm of dead and dying persons was not at once perceived; but, when the
winter broke up, ulcers began to make their appearance, and the malady,
which lurked for a long time in the city, broke out into the plague in the
following year." [12]

Many of the exiles passed into Turkey, and to different parts of the
Levant, where their descendants continued to speak the Castilian language
far into the following century. Others found their way to France, and even
England. Part of their religious services is recited to this day in
Spanish, in one or more of the London synagogues; and the modern Jew still
reverts with fond partiality to Spain, as the cherished land of his
fathers, illustrated by the most glorious recollections in their eventful
history. [13]

The whole number of Jews expelled from Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella is
variously computed from one hundred and sixty thousand to eight hundred
thousand souls; a discrepancy sufficiently indicating the paucity of
authentic data. Most modern writers, with the usual predilection for
startling results, have assumed the latter estimate; and Llorente has made
it the basis of some important calculations, in his History of the
Inquisition. A view of all the circumstances will lead us without much
hesitation to adopt the more moderate computation. [14] This, moreover, is
placed beyond reasonable doubt by the direct testimony of the Curate of
Los Palacios. He reports, that a Jewish Rabbin, one of the exiles,
subsequently returned to Spain, where he was baptized by him. This person,
whom Bernaldez commends for his intelligence, estimated the whole number
of his unbaptized countrymen in the dominions of Ferdinand and Isabella,
at the publication of the edict, at thirty-six thousand families. Another
Jewish authority, quoted by the Curate, reckoned them at thirty-five
thousand. This, assuming an average of four and a half to a family, gives
the sum total of about one hundred and sixty thousand individuals,
agreeably to the computation of Bernaldez. There is little reason for
supposing, that the actual amount would suffer diminution in the hands of
either the Jewish or Castilian authority; since the one might naturally be
led to exaggerate, in order to heighten sympathy with the calamities of
his nation, and the other, to magnify as far as possible the glorious
triumphs of the Cross. [15]

The detriment incurred by the state, however, is not founded so much on
any numerical estimate, as on the subtraction of the mechanical skill,
intelligence, and general resources of an orderly, industrious population.
In this view, the mischief was incalculably greater than that inferred by
the mere number of the exiled; and, although even this might have been
gradually repaired in a country allowed the free and healthful development
of its energies, yet in Spain this was so effectually counteracted by the
Inquisition, and other causes in the following century, that the loss may
be deemed irretrievable.

The expulsion of so numerous a class of subjects by an independent act of
the sovereign, might well be regarded as an enormous stretch of
prerogative, altogether incompatible with anything like a free government.
But to judge the matter rightly, we must take into view the actual
position of the Jews at that time. Far from forming an integral part of
the commonwealth, they were regarded as alien to it, as a mere
excrescence, which, so far from contributing to the healthful action of
the body politic, was nourished by its vicious humors, and might be lopped
off at any time, when the health of the system demanded it. Far from being
protected by the laws, the only aim of the laws, in reference to them, was
to define more precisely their civil incapacities, and to draw the line of
division more broadly between them and the Christians. Even this
humiliation by no means satisfied the national prejudices, as is evinced
by the great number of tumults and massacres of which they were the
victims. In these circumstances, it seemed to be no great assumption of
authority, to pronounce sentence of exile against those whom public
opinion had so long proscribed as enemies to the state. It was only
carrying into effect that opinion, expressed as it had been in a great
variety of ways; and, as far as the rights of the nation were concerned,
the banishment of a single Spaniard would have been held a grosser
violation of them, than that of the whole race of Israelites.

It has been common with modern historians to detect a principal motive for
the expulsion of the Jews, in the avarice of the government. It is only
necessary, however, to transport ourselves back to those times, to find it
in perfect accordance with their spirit, at least in Spain. It is indeed
incredible, that persons possessing the political sagacity of Ferdinand
and Isabella could indulge a temporary cupidity at the sacrifice of the
most important and permanent interests, converting their wealthiest
districts into a wilderness, and dispeopling them of a class of citizens
who contributed beyond all others, not only to the general resources, but
the direct revenues of the crown; a measure so manifestly unsound, as to
lead even a barbarian monarch of that day to exclaim, "Do they call this
Ferdinand a politic prince, who can thus impoverish his own kingdom and
enrich ours!" [16]  It would seem, indeed, when the measure had been
determined on, that the Aragonese monarch was willing, by his expedient of
sequestration, to control its operation in such a manner as to secure to
his own subjects the full pecuniary benefit of it. [17] No imputation of
this kind attaches to Castile. The clause of the ordinance, which might
imply such a design, by interdicting the exportation of gold and silver,
was only enforcing a law, which had been already twice enacted by cortes
in the present reign, and which was deemed of such moment, that the
offence was made capital. [18]

We need look no further for the principle of action, in this case, than
the spirit of religious bigotry, which led to a similar expulsion of the
Jews from England, France, and other parts of Europe, as well as from
Portugal, under circumstances of peculiar atrocity, a few years later.
[19] Indeed, the spirit of persecution did not expire with the fifteenth
century, but extended far into the more luminous periods of the
seventeenth and eighteenth; and that, too, under a ruler of the enlarged
capacity of Frederic the Great, whose intolerance could not plead in
excuse the blindness of fanaticism. [20] How far the banishment of the
Jews was conformable to the opinions of the most enlightened
contemporaries, may be gathered from the encomiums lavished on its authors
from more than one quarter. Spanish writers, without exception, celebrate
it as a sublime sacrifice of all temporal interests to religious
principle. The best instructed foreigners, in like manner, however they
may condemn the details of its execution, or commiserate the sufferings of
the Jews, commend the act, as evincing the most lively and laudable zeal
for the true faith. [21]

It cannot be denied, that Spain at this period surpassed most of the
nations of Christendom in religious enthusiasm, or, to speak more
correctly, in bigotry. This is doubtless imputable to the long war with
the Moslems, and its recent glorious issue, which swelled every heart with
exultation, disposing it to consummate the triumphs of the Cross by
purging the land from a heresy, which, strange as it may seem, was
scarcely less detested than that of Mahomet. Both the sovereigns partook
largely of these feelings. With regard to Isabella, moreover, it must be
borne constantly in mind, as has been repeatedly remarked in the course of
this History, that she had been used to surrender her own judgment, in
matters of conscience, to those spiritual guardians, who were supposed in
that age to be its rightful depositaries, and the only casuists who could
safely determine the doubtful line of duty. Isabella's pious disposition,
and her trembling solicitude to discharge her duty, at whatever cost of
personal inclination, greatly enforced the precepts of education. In this
way, her very virtues became the source of her errors. Unfortunately, she
lived in an age and station, which attached to these errors the most
momentous consequences. [22]--But we gladly turn from these dark prospects
to a brighter page of her history.


FOOTNOTES

[1] It is a proof of the high consideration in which such Israelites as
were willing to embrace Christianity were held, that three of that number,
Alvarez, Avila, and Pulgar, were private secretaries of the queen. (Mem.
de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 18.)

An incidental expression of Martyr's, among many similar ones by
contemporaries, affords the true key to the popular odium against the
Jews. "Cum namque viderent, Judaeorum tabido commercio, qui hac horâ sunt
in Hispaniâ _innumeri Christianis ditiores_, plurimorum animos corrumpi ac
seduci," etc. Opus Epist., epist. 92.

[2] Paramo, De Origine Inquisitionis, p. 164.--Llorente, Hist. de
l'Inquisition, tom. i. cap. 7, sec. 3.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist.
94.--Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii. p. 128.

[3] Paramo, De Origine Inquisitionis, p. 163.

Salazar de Mendoza refers the sovereign's consent to the banishment of the
Jews, in a great measure, to the urgent remonstrances of the cardinal of
Spain. The bigotry of the biographer makes him claim the credit of every
fanatical act for his illustrious hero. See Crón. del Gran Cardenal, p.
250.

[4] Llorente, Hist. de l'Inquisition, tom. i. chap. 7, sect. 5.

Pulgar, in a letter to the cardinal of Spain, animadverting with much
severity on the tenor of certain municipal ordinances against the Jews in
Guipuscoa and Toledo, in 1482, plainly intimates, that they were not at
all to the taste of the queen. See Letras, (Amstelodami, 1670,) let. 31.

[5] Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1492.--Recep. de las Leyes, lib. 8, tit. 2,
ley 2.--Pragmáticas del Reyno, ed. 1520, fol. 3.

[6] The Curate of Los Palacios speaks of several Israelites worth one or
two millions of maravedies, and another even as having amassed ten. He
mentions one in particular, by the name of Abraham, as renting the
_greater part of Castile_! It will hardly do to take the good Curate's
statement _à la lettre_. See Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 112.

[7] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, ubi supra.

[8] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 10.--Zurita, Analos, tom. v.
fol. 9.

Capmany notices the number of synagogues existing in Aragon, in 1428, as
amounting to nineteen. In Galicia at the same time there were but three,
and in Catalonia but one. See Mem. de Barcelona, tom. iv. Apend. num. 11.

[9] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 10, 113.--Ferreras, Hist.
d'Espagne, tom. viii. p. 131.

[10] Zurita, Anales, tom. v. fol. 9.--Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom.
viii. p. 133.--Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, ubi supra.--La Clède, Hist. de
Portugal, tom. iv. p. 95.--Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. p. 602.

[11] Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii. p. 133.--Bernaldez, Reyes
Católicos, MS., cap. 113.

[12] Senarega, apud Muratori, Rerum Ital. Script., tom. xxiv. pp. 531,
532.

[13] See a sensible notice of Hebrew literature in Spain, in the
Retrospective Review, vol. iii. p. 209.--Mariana, Hist. de España, tom.
ii. lib. 26, cap. 1.--Zurita, Anales, tom. v. fol. 9.

Not a few of the learned exiles attained to eminence in those countries of
Europe where they transferred their residence. One is mentioned by Castro
as a leading practitioner of medicine in Genoa; another, as filling the
posts of astronomer and chronicler, under King Emanuel of Portugal. Many
of them published works in various departments of science, which were
translated into the Spanish and other European languages. Biblioteca
Española, tom. i. pp. 359-372.

[14] From a curious document in the _Archives of Simancas_, consisting of
a report made to the Spanish sovereigns by their accountant general,
Quintanilla, in 1492, it would appear, that the population of the kingdom
of Castile, exclusive of Granada, was then estimated at 1,500,000
_vecinos_, or householders. (See Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., Apend.
no. 12.) This, allowing four and a half to a family, would make the whole
population 6,750,000. It appears from the statement of Bernaldez, that the
kingdom of Castile contained five-sixths of the whole amount of Jews in
the Spanish monarchy. This proportion, if 800,000 be received as the
total, would amount in round numbers to 670,000, or ten per cent, of the
whole population of the kingdom. Now, it is manifestly improbable that so
large a portion of the whole nation, conspicuous moreover for wealth and
intelligence, could have been held so light in a political aspect, as the
Jews certainly were, or have tamely submitted for so many years to the
most wanton indignities without resistance; or finally, that the Spanish
government would have ventured on so bold a measure as the banishment of
so numerous and powerful a class, and that too with as few precautions,
apparently, as would be required for driving out of the country a roving
gang of gypsies.

[15] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 110.--Llorente, Hist. de
l'Inquisition, tom. i. chap. 7, sect. 7.--Mariana, Hist. de España, tom.
ii. lib. 26.--Zurita, Anales, tom. v. fol. 9.

[16] Bajazet. See Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. p. 310.--Paramo, De
Origine Inquisitionis, p. 168.

[17] "In truth," Father Abarca somewhat innocently remarks, "King
Ferdinand was a politic Christian, making the interests of church and
state mutually subservient to each other"! Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. fol.
310.

[18] Once at Toledo, 1480, and at Murcia, 1488. See Recop. de las Leyes,
lib. 6, tit. 18, ley 1.

[19] The Portuguese government caused all children of fourteen years of
age, or under, to be taken from their parents and retained in the country,
as fit subjects for a Christian education. The distress occasioned by this
cruel provision may be well imagined. Many of the unhappy parents murdered
their children to defeat the ordinance; and many laid violent hands on
themselves. Faria y Sousa coolly remarks, that "It was a great mistake in
King Emanuel to think of converting any Jew to Christianity, old enough to
pronounce the name of Moses!" He fixes three years of age as the utmost
limit. (Europa Portuguesa, tom. ii. p. 496.)

Mr. Turner has condensed, with his usual industry, the most essential
chronological facts relative to modern Jewish history, into a note
contained in the second volume of his History of England, pp. 114-120.

[20] They were also rejected from Vienna, in 1669. The illiberal, and
indeed most cruel legislation of Frederic II., in reference to his Jewish
subjects, transports us back to the darkest periods of the Visigothic
monarchy. The reader will find a summary of these enactments in the third
volume of Milman's agreeable History of the Jews.

[21] The accomplished and amiable Florentine, Pico di Mirandola, in his
treatise on Judicial Astrology, remarks that, "the sufferings of the Jews,
_in which the glory of divine justice delighted_, were so extreme as
to fill us Christians with commiseration." The Genoese historian,
Senarega, indeed admits that the measure savored _of some slight degree
of cruelty_. "Res haec primo conspectu laudabilis visa est, quia decus
nostrae Religionis respiceret, sed aliquantulum in se crudelitatis
continere, si eos non belluas, sed homines a Deo creatos, consideravimus."
De Rebus Genuensibus, apud Muratori, Rerum Ital. Script., tom. xxiv.--
Illescas, Hist. Pontif., apud Paramo, De Origine Inquisitionis, p. 167.

[22] Llorente sums up his account of the expulsion, by assigning the
following motives to the principal agents in the business. "The measure,"
he says, "may be referred to the fanaticism of Torquemada, to the avarice
and superstition of Ferdinand, to the false ideas and inconsiderate zeal
with which they had inspired Isabella, to whom history cannot refuse the
praise of great sweetness of disposition, and an enlightened mind." Hist.
de l'Inquisition, tom. i. ch. 7, sec. 10.




CHAPTER XVIII.

ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF FERDINAND.--RETURN AND SECOND VOYAGE OF
COLUMBUS.

1492-1493.

Attempt on Ferdinand's Life.--Consternation and Loyalty of the People.--
Return of Columbus.--His Progress to Barcelona.--Interviews with the
Sovereigns.--Sensations caused by the Discovery.--Regulations of Trade.--
Conversion of the Natives.--Famous Bulls of Alexander VI.--Jealousy of
Portugal.--Second Voyage of Columbus.--Treaty of Tordesillas.


Towards the latter end of May, 1492, the Spanish sovereigns quitted
Granada, between which and Santa Fe they had divided their time since the
surrender of the Moorish metropolis. They were occupied during the two
following months with the affairs of Castile. In August they visited
Aragon, proposing to establish their winter residence there in order to
provide for its internal administration, and conclude the negotiations for
the final surrender of Roussillon and Cerdagne by France, to which these
provinces had been mortgaged by Ferdinand's father, John the Second;
proving ever since a fruitful source of diplomacy, which threatened more
than once to terminate in open rupture.

Ferdinand and Isabella arrived in Aragon on the 8th of August, accompanied
by Prince John and the infantas, and a brilliant train of Castilian
nobles. In their progress through the country they were everywhere
received with the most lively enthusiasm. The whole nation seemed to
abandon itself to jubilee, at the approach of its illustrious sovereigns,
whose heroic constancy had rescued Spain from the detested empire of the
Saracens. After devoting some months to the internal police of the
kingdom, the court transferred its residence to Catalonia, whose capital
it reached about the middle of October. During its detention in this
place, Ferdinand's career was wellnigh brought to an untimely close. [1]

It was a good old custom of Catalonia, long since fallen into desuetude,
for the monarch to preside in the tribunals of justice, at least once a
week, for the purpose of determining the suits of the poorer classes
especially, who could not afford the more expensive forms of litigation.
King Ferdinand, in conformity with this usage, held a court in the house
of deputation, on the 7th of December, being the vigil of the conception
of the Virgin. At noon, as he was preparing to quit the palace, after the
conclusion of business, he lingered in the rear of his retinue, conversing
with some of the officers of the court. As the party was issuing from a
little chapel contiguous to the royal saloon, and just as the king was
descending a flight of stairs, a ruffian darted from an obscure recess in
which he had concealed himself early in the morning, and aimed a blow with
a short sword, or knife, at the back of Ferdinand's neck. Fortunately the
edge of the weapon was turned by a gold chain or collar which he was in
the habit of wearing. It inflicted, however, a deep wound between the
shoulders. Ferdinand instantly cried out, "St. Mary preserve us! treason,
treason!" and his attendants, rushing on the assassin, stabbed him in
three places with their poniards, and would have despatched him on the
spot, had not the king, with his usual presence of mind, commanded them to
desist, and take the man alive, that they might ascertain the real authors
of the conspiracy. This was done accordingly, and Ferdinand, fainting with
loss of blood, was carefully removed to his apartments in the royal
palace. [2]

The report of the catastrophe spread like wildfire through the city. All
classes were thrown into consternation by so foul an act, which seemed to
cast a stain on the honor and good faith of the Catalans. Some suspected
it to be the work of a vindictive Moor, others of a disappointed courtier.
The queen, who had swooned on first receiving intelligence of the event,
suspected the ancient enmity of the Catalans, who had shown such
determined opposition to her husband in his early youth. She gave instant
orders to hold in readiness one of the galleys lying in the port, in order
to transport her children from the place, as she feared the conspiracy
might be designed to embrace other victims. [3]

The populace, in the mean while, assembled in great numbers round the
palace where the king lay. All feelings of hostility had long since given
way to devoted loyalty towards a government, which had uniformly respected
the liberties of its subjects, and whose paternal sway had secured similar
blessings to Barcelona with the rest of the empire. They thronged round
the building, crying out that the king was slain, and demanding that his
murderers should be delivered up to them. Ferdinand, exhausted as he was,
would have presented himself at the window of his apartment, but was
prevented from making the effort by his physicians. It was with great
difficulty that the people were at length satisfied that he was still
living, and that they finally consented to disperse, on the assurance,
that the assassin should be brought to condign punishment.

The king's wound, which did not appear dangerous at first, gradually
exhibited more alarming symptoms. One of the bones was found to be
fractured, and a part of it was removed by the surgeons. On the seventh
day his situation was considered extremely critical. During this time, the
queen was constantly by his side, watching with him day and night, and
administering all his medicines with her own hand. At length, the
unfavorable symptoms yielded; and his excellent constitution enabled him
so far to recover, that in less than three weeks he was able to show
himself to the eyes of his anxious subjects, who gave themselves up to a
delirium of joy, offering thanksgivings and grateful oblations in the
churches; while many a pilgrimage, which had been vowed for his
restoration to health, was performed by the good people of Barcelona, with
naked feet, and even on their knees, among the wild sierras that surround
the city.

The author of the crime proved to be a peasant, about sixty years of age,
of that humble class, _de remensa_, as it was termed, which Ferdinand
had been so instrumental some few years since in releasing from the baser
and more grinding pains of servitude. The man appeared to be insane;
alleging, in vindication of his conduct, that he was the rightful
proprietor of the crown, which he expected to obtain by Ferdinand's death.
He declared himself willing, however, to give up his pretensions, on
condition of being set at liberty. The king, convinced of his alienation
of mind, would have discharged him; but the Catalans, indignant at the
reproach which such a crime seemed to attach to their own honor, and
perhaps distrusting the plea of insanity, thought it necessary to expiate
it by the blood of the offender, and condemned the unhappy wretch to the
dreadful doom of a traitor; the preliminary barbarities of the sentence,
however, were remitted, at the intercession of the queen. [4]

In the spring of 1493, while the court was still at Barcelona, letters
were received from Christopher Columbus, announcing his return to Spain,
and the successful achievement of his great enterprise, by the discovery
of land beyond the western ocean. The delight and astonishment, raised by
this intelligence, were proportioned to the skepticism, with which his
project had been originally viewed. The sovereigns were now filled with a
natural impatience to ascertain the extent and other particulars of the
important discovery; and they transmitted instant instructions to the
admiral to repair to Barcelona, as soon as he should have made the
preliminary arrangements for the further prosecution of his enterprise.
[5]

The great navigator had succeeded, as is well known, after a voyage the
natural difficulties of which had been much augmented by the distrust and
mutinous spirit of his followers, in descrying land on Friday, the 12th of
October, 1492. After some months spent in exploring the delightful
regions, now for the first time thrown open to the eyes of a European, he
embarked in the month of January, 1493, for Spain. One of his vessels had
previously foundered, and another had deserted him; so that he was left
alone to retrace his course across the Atlantic. After a most tempestuous
voyage, he was compelled to take shelter in the Tagus, sorely against his
inclination. [6] He experienced, however, the most honorable reception
from the Portuguese monarch, John the Second, who did ample justice to the
great qualities of Columbus, although he had failed to profit by them. [7]
After a brief delay, the admiral resumed his voyage, and crossing the bar
of Saltes entered the harbor of Palos about noon, on the 15th of March,
1493, being exactly seven months and eleven days since his departure from
that port. [8]

Great was the agitation in the little community of Palos, as they beheld
the well-known vessel of the admiral re-entering their harbor. Their
desponding imaginations had long since consigned him to a watery grave;
for, in addition to the preternatural horrors which hung over the voyage,
they had experienced the most stormy and disastrous winter within the
recollection of the oldest mariners. [9] Most of them had relatives or
friends on board. They thronged immediately to the shore, to assure
themselves with their own eyes of the truth of their return. When they
beheld their faces once more, and saw them accompanied by the numerous
evidences which they brought back of the success of the expedition, they
burst forth in acclamations of joy and gratulation. They awaited the
landing of Columbus, when the whole population of the place accompanied
him and his crew to the principal church, where solemn thanksgivings were
offered up for their return; while every bell in the village sent forth a
joyous peal in honor of the glorious event. The admiral was too desirous
of presenting himself before the sovereigns, to protract his stay long at
Palos. He took with him on his journey specimens of the multifarious
products of the newly discovered regions. He was accompanied by several of
the native islanders, arrayed in their simple barbaric costume, and
decorated, as he passed through the principal cities, with collars,
bracelets, and other ornaments of gold, rudely fashioned; he exhibited
also considerable quantities of the same metal in dust, or in crude
masses, [10] numerous vegetable exotics, possessed of aromatic or
medicinal virtue, and several kinds of quadrupeds unknown in Europe, and
birds, whose varieties of gaudy plumage gave a brilliant effect to the
pageant. The admiral's progress through the country was everywhere impeded
by the multitudes thronging forth to gaze at the extraordinary spectacle,
and the more extraordinary man, who, in the emphatic language of that
time, which has now lost its force from its familiarity, first revealed
the existence of a "New World." As he passed through the busy, populous
city of Seville, every window, balcony, and housetop, which could afford a
glimpse of him, is described to have been crowded with spectators. It was
the middle of April before Columbus reached Barcelona. The nobility and
cavaliers in attendance on the court, together with the authorities of the
city, came to the gates to receive him, and escorted him to the royal
presence. Ferdinand and Isabella were seated, with their son, Prince John,
under a superb canopy of state, awaiting his arrival. On his approach,
they rose from their seats, and, extending their hands to him to salute,
caused him to be seated before them. These were unprecedented marks of
condescension to a person of Columbus's rank, in the haughty and
ceremonious court of Castile. It was, indeed, the proudest moment in the
life of Columbus. He had fully established the truth of his long-contested
theory, in the face of argument, sophistry, sneer, skepticism, and
contempt. He had achieved this, not by chance, but by calculation,
supported through the most adverse circumstances by consummate conduct.
The honors paid him, which had hitherto been reserved only for rank, or
fortune, or military success, purchased by the blood and tears of
thousands, were, in his case, a homage to intellectual power, successfully
exerted in behalf of the noblest interests of humanity. [11]

After a brief interval, the sovereigns requested from Columbus a recital
of his adventures. His manner was sedate and dignified, but warmed by the
glow of natural enthusiasm. He enumerated the several islands which he had
visited, expatiated on the temperate character of the climate, and the
capacity of the soil for every variety of agricultural production,
appealing to the samples imported by him, as evidence of their natural
fruitfulness. He dwelt more at large on the precious metals to be found in
these islands, which he inferred, less from the specimens actually
obtained, than from the uniform testimony of the natives to their
abundance in the unexplored regions of the interior. Lastly, he pointed
out the wide scope afforded to Christian zeal, in the illumination of a
race of men, whose minds, far from being wedded to any system of idolatry,
were prepared by their extreme simplicity for the reception of pure and
uncorrupted doctrine. The last consideration touched Isabella's heart most
sensibly; and the whole audience, kindled with various emotions by the
speaker's eloquence, filled up the perspective with the gorgeous coloring
of their own fancies, as ambition, or avarice, or devotional feeling
predominated in their bosoms. When Columbus ceased, the king and queen,
together with all present, prostrated themselves on their knees in
grateful thanksgivings, while the solemn strains of the Te Deum were
poured forth by the choir of the royal chapel, as in commemoration of some
glorious victory. [12]

The discoveries of Columbus excited a sensation, particularly among men of
science, in the most distant parts of Europe, strongly contrasting with
the apathy which had preceded them. They congratulated one another on
being reserved for an age which had witnessed the consummation of so grand
an event. The learned Martyr, who, in his multifarious correspondence, had
not even deigned to notice the preparations for the voyage of discovery,
now lavished the most unbounded panegyric on its results; which he
contemplated with the eye of a philosopher, having far less reference to
considerations of profit or policy, than to the prospect which they
unfolded of enlarging the boundaries of knowledge. [12]

Most of the scholars of the day, however, adopted the erroneous hypothesis
of Columbus, who considered the lands he had discovered, as bordering on
the eastern shores of Asia, and lying adjacent to the vast and opulent
regions depicted in such golden colors by Mandeville and the Poli. This
conjecture, which was conformable to the admiral's opinions before
undertaking the voyage, was corroborated by the apparent similarity
between various natural productions of these islands, and of the east.
From this misapprehension, the new dominions soon came to be distinguished
as the West Indies, an appellation by which they are still recognized in
the titles of the Spanish. crown. [13]

Columbus, during his residence at Barcelona, continued to receive from the
Spanish sovereigns the most honorable distinctions which royal bounty
could confer. When Ferdinand rode abroad, he was accompanied by the
admiral at his side. The courtiers, in emulation of their master, made
frequent entertainments, at which he was treated with the punctilious
deference paid to a noble of the highest class. [14] But the attentions
most grateful to his lofty spirit were the preparations of the Spanish
court for prosecuting his discoveries, on a scale commensurate with their
importance. A board was established for the direction of Indian affairs,
consisting of a superintendent and two subordinate functionaries. The
first of these officers was Juan de Fonseca, archdeacon of Seville, an
active, ambitious prelate, subsequently raised to high episcopal
preferment, whose shrewdness, and capacity for business, enabled him to
maintain the control of the Indian department during the whole of the
present reign. An office for the transaction of business was instituted at
Seville, and a custom-house placed under its direction at Cadiz. This was
the origin of the important establishment of the _Casa de la Contratacion
de las Indias_, or India House. [15]

The commercial regulations adopted exhibit a narrow policy in some of
their features, for which a justification may be found in the spirit of
the age, and in the practice of the Portuguese particularly, but which
entered still more largely into the colonial legislation of Spain under
later princes. The new territories, far from being permitted free
intercourse with foreign nations, were opened only under strict
limitations to Spanish subjects, and were reserved, as forming, in some
sort, part of the exclusive revenue of the crown. All persons of whatever
description were interdicted, under the severest penalties, from trading
with, or even visiting the Indies, without license from the constituted
authorities. It was impossible to evade this, as a minute specification of
the ships; cargoes, crews, with the property appertaining to each
individual, was required to be taken at the office in Cadiz, and a
corresponding registration in a similar office established at Hispaniola.
A more sagacious spirit was manifested in the ample provision made of
whatever could contribute to the support or permanent prosperity of the
infant colony. Grain, plants, the seeds of numerous vegetable products,
which in the genial climate of the Indies might be made valuable articles
for domestic consumption or export, were liberally furnished. Commodities
of every description for the supply of the fleet were exempted from duty.
The owners of all vessels throughout the ports of Andalusia were required,
by an ordinance somewhat arbitrary, to hold them in readiness for the
expedition. Still further authority was given to impress both officers and
men, if necessary, into the service. Artisans of every sort, provided with
the implements of their various crafts, including a great number of miners
for exploring the subterraneous treasures of the new regions, were
enrolled in the expedition; in order to defray the heavy charges of which,
the government, in addition to the regular resources, had recourse to a
loan, and to the sequestrated property of the exiled Jews. [16]

Amid their own temporal concerns, the Spanish sovereigns did not forget
the spiritual interests of their new subjects. The Indians, who
accompanied Columbus to Barcelona, had been all of them baptized, being
offered up, in the language of a Castilian writer, as the first-fruits of
the gentiles. King Ferdinand, and his son, Prince John, stood as sponsors
to two of them, who were permitted to take their names. One of the Indians
remained attached to the prince's establishment; the residue were sent to
Seville, whence, after suitable religious instruction, they were to be
returned as missionaries for the propagation of the faith among their own
countrymen. Twelve Spanish ecclesiastics were also destined to this
service; among whom was the celebrated Las Casas, so conspicuous
afterwards for his benevolent exertions in behalf of the unfortunate
natives. The most explicit directions were given to the admiral, to use
every effort for the illumination of the poor heathen, which was set forth
as the primary object of the expedition. He was particularly enjoined "to
abstain from all means of annoyance, and to treat them well and lovingly,
maintaining a familiar intercourse with them, rendering them all the kind
offices in his power, distributing presents of the merchandise and various
commodities, which their Highnesses had caused to be embarked on board the
fleet for that purpose; and finally, to chastise, in the most exemplary
manner, all who should offer the natives the slightest molestation." Such
were the instructions emphatically urged on Columbus for the regulation of
his intercourse with the savages; and their indulgent tenor sufficiently
attests the benevolent and rational views of Isabella, in religious
matters, when not warped by any foreign influence. [17]

Towards the last of May, Columbus quitted Barcelona for the purpose of
superintending and expediting the preparations for departure on his second
voyage. He was accompanied to the gates of the city by all the nobility
and cavaliers of the court. Orders were issued to the different towns to
provide him and his suite with lodgings free of expense. His former
commission was not only confirmed in its full extent, but considerably
enlarged. For the sake of despatch, he was authorized to nominate to all
offices, without application to government; and ordinances and letters
patent, bearing the royal seal, were to be issued by him, subscribed by
himself or his deputy. He was intrusted, in fine, with such unlimited
jurisdiction, as showed, that, however tardy the sovereigns may have been
in granting him their confidence, they were not disposed to stint the
measure of it, when his deserts were once established. [18]

Soon after Columbus's return to Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella applied to
the court of Rome, to confirm them in the possession of their recent
discoveries, and invest them with similar extent of jurisdiction with that
formerly conferred on the kings of Portugal. It was an opinion, as ancient
perhaps as the crusades, that the pope, as vicar of Christ, had competent
authority to dispose of all countries inhabited by heathen nations, in
favor of Christian potentates. Although Ferdinand and Isabella do not seem
to have been fully satisfied of this right, yet they were willing to
acquiesce in its assumption in the present instance, from the conviction
that the papal sanction would most effectually exclude the pretensions of
all others, and especially their Portuguese rivals. In their application
to the Holy See, they were careful to represent their own discoveries as
in no way interfering with the rights formerly conceded by it to their
neighbors. They enlarged on their services in the propagation of the
faith, which they affirmed to be a principal motive of their present
operations. They intimated, finally, that, although many competent persons
deemed their application to the court of Rome, for a title to territories
already in their possession, to be unnecessary, yet, as pious princes, and
dutiful children of the church, they were unwilling to proceed further
without the sanction of him, to whose keeping its highest interests were
intrusted. [19]

The pontifical throne was at that time filled by Alexander the Sixth; a
man who, although degraded by unrestrained indulgence of the most sordid
appetites, was endowed by nature with singular acuteness, as well as
energy of character. He lent a willing ear to the application of the
Spanish government, and made no hesitation in granting what cost him
nothing, while it recognized the assumption of powers, which had already
begun to totter in the opinion of mankind.

On the 3d of May, 1493, he published a bull, in which, taking into
consideration the eminent services of the Spanish monarchs in the cause of
the church, especially in the subversion of the Mahometan empire in Spain,
and willing to afford still wider scope for the prosecution of their pious
labors, he, "out of his pure liberality, infallible knowledge, and
plenitude of apostolic power," confirmed them in the possession of all
lands discovered or hereafter to be discovered by them in the western
ocean, comprehending the same extensive rights of jurisdiction with those
formerly conceded to the kings of Portugal.

This bull he supported by another, dated on the following day, in which
the pope, in order to obviate any misunderstanding with the Portuguese,
and acting no doubt on the suggestion of the Spanish sovereigns, defined
with greater precision the intention of his original grant to the latter,
by bestowing on them all such lands as they should discover to the west
and south of an imaginary line, to be drawn from pole to pole, at the
distance of one hundred leagues to the west of the Azores and Cape de Verd
Islands. [20] It seems to have escaped his Holiness, that the Spaniards,
by pursuing a western route, might in time reach the eastern limits of
countries previously granted to the Portuguese. At least this would appear
from the import of a third bull, issued September 25th of the same year,
which invested the sovereigns with plenary authority over all countries
discovered by them, whether in the east, or within the boundaries of
India, all previous concessions to the contrary notwithstanding. With the
title derived from actual possession, thus fortified by the highest
ecclesiastical sanction, the Spaniards might have promised themselves an
uninterrupted career of discovery, but for the jealousy of their rivals,
the Portuguese. [21]

The court of Lisbon viewed with secret disquietude the increasing maritime
enterprise of its neighbors. While the Portuguese were timidly creeping
along the barren shores of Africa, the Spaniards had boldly launched into
the deep, and rescued unknown realms from its embraces, which teemed in
their fancies with treasures of inestimable wealth. Their mortification
was greatly enhanced by the reflection, that all this might have been
achieved for themselves, had they but known how to profit by the proposals
of Columbus. [22] From the first moment in which the success of the
admiral's enterprise was established, John the Second, a politic and
ambitious prince, had sought some pretence to check the career of
discovery, or at least to share in the spoils of it. [23]

In his interview with Columbus, at Lisbon, he suggested, that the
discoveries of the Spaniards might interfere with the rights secured to
the Portuguese by repeated papal sanctions since the beginning of the
present century, and guaranteed by the treaty with Spain, in 1479.
Columbus, without entering into the discussion, contented himself with
declaring, that he had been instructed by his own government to steer
clear of all Portuguese settlements on the African coast, and that his
course indeed had led him in an entirely different direction. Although
John professed himself satisfied with the explanation, he soon after
despatched an ambassador to Barcelona, who, after dwelling on some
irrelevant topics, touched, as it were, incidentally on the real object of
his mission, the late voyage of discovery. He congratulated the Spanish
sovereigns on its success; expatiated on the civilities shown by the court
of Lisbon to Columbus, on his late arrival there; and acknowledged the
satisfaction felt by his master at the orders given to the admiral, to
hold a western course from the Canaries, expressing a hope that the same
course would be pursued in future, without interfering with the rights of
Portugal by deviation to the south. This was the first occasion, on which
the existence of such claims had been intimated by the Portuguese.

In the mean while, Ferdinand and Isabella received intelligence that King
John was equipping a considerable armament in order to anticipate or
defeat their discoveries in the west. They instantly sent one of their
household, Don Lope de Herrera, as ambassador to Lisbon, with instructions
to make their acknowledgments to the king for his hospitable reception of
Columbus, accompanied with a request that he would prohibit his subjects
from interference with the discoveries of the Spaniards in the west, in
the same manner as these latter had been excluded from the Portuguese
possessions in Africa. The ambassador was furnished with orders of a
different import, provided he should find the reports correct, respecting
the equipment and probable destination of a Portuguese armada. Instead of
a conciliatory deportment, he was, in that case, to assume a tone of
remonstrance, and to demand a full explanation from King John, of his
designs. The cautious prince, who had received, through his secret agents
in Castile, intelligence of these latter instructions, managed matters so
discreetly as to give no occasion for their exercise. He abandoned, or at
least postponed, his meditated expedition, in the hope of adjusting the
dispute by negotiation, in which he excelled. In order to quiet the
apprehensions of the Spanish court, he engaged to fit out no fleet from
his dominions within sixty days; at the same time he sent a fresh mission
to Barcelona, with directions to propose an amicable adjustment of the
conflicting claims of the two nations, by making the parallel of the
Canaries a line of partition between them; the right of discovery to the
north being reserved to the Spaniards, and that to the south to the
Portuguese. [24]

While this game of diplomacy was going on, the Castilian court availed
itself of the interval afforded by its rival, to expedite preparations for
the second voyage of discovery; which, through the personal activity of
the admiral, and the facilities everywhere afforded him, were fully
completed before the close of September. Instead of the reluctance, and
indeed avowed disgust, which had been manifested by all classes to his
former voyage, the only embarrassment now arose from the difficulty of
selection among the multitude of competitors, who pressed to be enrolled
in the present expedition. The reports and sanguine speculations of the
first adventurers had inflamed the cupidity of many, which was still
further heightened by the exhibition of the rich and curious products
which Columbus had brought back with him, and by the popular belief that
the new discoveries formed part of that gorgeous east,

                       "whose caverns teem
  With diamond flaming, and with seeds of gold,"

and which tradition and romance had alike invested with the supernatural
splendors of enchantment. Many others were stimulated by the wild love of
adventure, kindled in the long Moorish war, but which, now excluded from
that career, sought other objects in the vast, untravelled regions of the
New World. The complement of the fleet was originally fixed at twelve
hundred souls, which, through importunity or various pretences of the
applicants, was eventually swelled to fifteen hundred. Among these were
many who enlisted without compensation, including several persons of rank,
hidalgos, and members of the royal household. The whole squadron amounted
to seventeen vessels, three of them of one hundred tons' burden each. With
this gallant navy, Columbus, dropping down the Guadalquivir, took his
departure from the bay of Cadiz, on the 25th of September, 1493;
presenting a striking contrast to the melancholy plight, in which, but the
year previous, he sallied forth like some forlorn knight-errant, on a
desperate and chimerical enterprise. [25]

No sooner had the fleet weighed anchor, than Ferdinand and Isabella
despatched an embassy in solemn state to advise the king of Portugal of
it. This embassy was composed of two persons of distinguished rank, Don
Pedro de Ayala, and Don Garci Lopez de Carbajal. Agreeably to their
instructions, they represented to the Portuguese monarch the
inadmissibility of his propositions respecting the boundary line of
navigation; they argued that the grants of the Holy See, and the treaty
with Spain in 1479, had reference merely to the actual possessions of
Portugal, and the right of discovery by an eastern route along the coasts
of Africa to the Indies; that these rights had been invariably respected
by Spain; that the late voyage of Columbus struck into a directly opposite
track; and that the several bulls of Pope Alexander the Sixth, prescribing
the line of partition, not from east to west, but from the north to the
south pole, were intended to secure to the Spaniards the exclusive right
of discovery in the western ocean. The ambassadors concluded with
offering, in the name of their sovereigns, to refer the whole matter in
dispute to the arbitration of the court of Rome, or of any common umpire.

King John was deeply chagrined at learning the departure of the Spanish
expedition. He saw that his rivals had been acting while he had been
amused with negotiation. He at first threw out hints of an immediate
rupture; and endeavored, it is said, to intimidate the Castilian
ambassadors, by bringing them accidentally, as it were, in presence of a
splendid array of cavalry, mounted and ready for immediate service. He
vented his spleen on the embassy, by declaring, that "it was a mere
abortion; having neither head nor feet;" alluding to the personal
infirmity of Ayala, who was lame, and to the light, frivolous character of
the other envoy. [26]

These symptoms of discontent were duly notified to the Spanish government;
who commanded the superintendent, Fonseca, to keep a vigilant eye on the
movements of the Portuguese, and, in case any hostile armament should quit
their ports, to be in readiness to act against it with one double its
force. King John, however, was too shrewd a prince to be drawn into so
impolitic a measure as war with a powerful adversary, quite as likely to
baffle him in the field, as in the council. Neither did he relish the
suggestion of deciding the dispute by arbitration; since he well knew,
that his claim rested on too unsound a basis, to authorize the expectation
of a favorable award from any impartial umpire. He had already failed in
an application for redress to the court of Rome, which answered him by
reference to its bulls, recently published. In this emergency, he came to
the resolution at last, which should have been first adopted, of deciding
the matter by a fair and open conference. It was not until the following
year, however, that his discontent so far subsided as to allow his
acquiescence in this measure.

At length, commissioners named by the two crowns convened at Tordesillas,
and on the 7th of June, 1494, subscribed articles of agreement, which were
ratified, in the course of the same year, by the respective powers. In
this treaty, the Spaniards were secured in the exclusive right of
navigation and discovery in the western ocean. At the urgent remonstrance
of the Portuguese, however, who complained that the papal line of
demarcation cooped up their enterprises within too narrow limits, they
consented, that instead of one hundred, it should be removed three hundred
and seventy leagues west of the Cape de Verd islands, beyond which all
discoveries should appertain to the Spanish nation. It was agreed that one
or two caravels should be provided by each nation, to meet at the Grand
Canary, and proceed due west, the appointed distance, with a number of
scientific men on board, for the purpose of accurately determining the
longitude; and if any lands should fall under the meridian, the direction
of the line should be ascertained by the erection of beacons at suitable
distances. The proposed meeting never took place. But the removal of the
partition line was followed by important consequences to the Portuguese,
who derived from it their pretensions to the noble empire of Brazil. [27]

Thus this singular misunderstanding, which menaced an open rupture at one
time, was happily adjusted. Fortunately, the accomplishment of the passage
round the Cape of Good Hope, which occurred soon afterwards, led the
Portuguese in an opposite direction to their Spanish rivals, their
Brazilian possessions having too little attractions, at first, to turn
them from the splendid path of discovery thrown open in the east. It was
not many years, however, before the two nations, by pursuing opposite
routes of circumnavigation, were brought into collision on the other side
of the globe; a circumstance never contemplated, apparently, by the treaty
of Tordesillas. Their mutual pretensions were founded, however, on the
provisions of that treaty, which, as the reader is aware, was itself only
supplementary to the original bull of demarcation of Alexander the Sixth.
[28]

Thus this bold stretch of papal authority, so often ridiculed as
chimerical and absurd, was in a measure justified by the event, since it
did, in fact, determine the principles on which the vast extent of
unappropriated empire in the eastern and western hemispheres was
ultimately divided between two petty states of Europe.


FOOTNOTES

[1] Zurita, Anales, tom. v. fol. 13.--Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1,
quinc. 1, dial. 28.

[2] Zurita, Anales, tom. v. fol. 15.--Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS.,
cap. 116.--Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. pp. 678, 679.--Abarca, Reyes de
Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 315.--Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1492.--Oviedo,
Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 4, dial. 9.

[3] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 125.--Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos,
MS., cap. 116.--Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, ubi supra.

The great bell of Velilla, whose miraculous tolling always announced some
disaster to the monarchy, was heard to strike at the time of this assault
on Ferdinand, being the fifth time since the subversion of the kingdom by
the Moors. The fourth was on the assassination of the inquisitor Arbues.
All which is established by a score of good orthodox witnesses, as
reported by Dr. Diego Dormer, in his Discursos Varies, pp. 206, 207.

[4] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 136.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist.,
epist. 125, 127, 131.--Zurita, Anales, tom. v. fol. 16.--Bernaldez, Reyes
Católicos, MS., loc. cit.--Garibay, after harrowing the reader's feelings
with half a column of inhuman cruelties inflicted on the miserable man,
concludes with the comfortable assurance, "Pero abogaronle primero por
clemencia y misericordia de la Reyna." (Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap.
1.)

A letter written by Isabella to her confessor, Fernando de Talavera,
during her husband's illness, shows the deep anxiety of her own mind, as
well as that of the citizens of Barcelona, at his critical situation,
furnishing abundant evidence, if it were needed, of her tenderness of
heart, and the warmth of her conjugal attachment. See Correspondencia
Epistolar, apud Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 13.

[5] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 2, cap. 3.--Muñoz, Hist.
del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 4, sect. 13, 14.

Columbus concludes a letter addressed, on his arrival at Lisbon, to the
treasurer Sanchez, in the following glowing terms; "Let processions be
made, festivals held, temples be filled with branches and flowers, for
Christ rejoices on earth as in Heaven, seeing the future redemption of
souls. Let us rejoice, also, for the temporal benefit likely to result,
not merely to Spain, but to all Christendom." See Primer Viage de Colon,
apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i.

[6] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, tom. i. dec. 1, lib. 2, cap. 2.--Primer
Viage de Colon, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i.--Fernando
Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 39.

The Portuguese historian, Faria y Sousa, appears to be nettled at the
prosperous issue of the voyage; for he testily remarks, that "the admiral
entered Lisbon with a vainglorious exultation, in order to make Portugal
feel, by displaying the tokens of his discovery, how much she had erred in
not acceding to his propositions." Europa Portuguesa, tom. ii. pp. 462,
463.

[7] My learned friend, Mr. John Pickering, has pointed out to me a passage
in a Portuguese author, giving some particulars of Columbus's visit to
Portugal. The passage, which I have not seen noticed by any writer, is
extremely interesting, coming, as it does, from a person high in the royal
confidence, and an eye-witness of what he relates. "In the year 1493, on
the sixth day of March, arrived in Lisbon Christopher Columbus, an
Italian, who came from the discovery, made under the authority of the
sovereigns of Castile, of the islands of Cipango and Antilia; from which
countries he brought with him the first specimens of the people, as well
as of the gold and other things to be found there; and he was entitled
admiral of them. The king, being forthwith informed of this, commanded him
into his presence; and appeared to be annoyed and vexed, as well from the
belief that the said discovery was made within the seas and boundaries of
his seigniory of Guinea,--which might give rise to disputes,--as because
the said admiral, having become somewhat haughty by his situation, and in
the relation of his adventures always exceeding the bounds of truth, made
this affair, as to gold, silver, and riches, much greater than it was.
Especially did the king accuse himself of negligence, in having declined
this enterprise, when Columbus first came to ask his assistance, from want
of credit and confidence in it. And, notwithstanding the king was
importuned to kill kim on the spot; since with his death the prosecution
of the undertaking, so far as the sovereigns of Castile were concerned,
would cease, from want of a suitable person to take charge of it; and
notwithstanding this might be done without suspicion of the king's being
privy to it,--for inasmuch as the admiral was overbearing and puffed up by
his success, they could easily bring it about, that his own indiscretion
should appear the occasion of his death,--yet the king, as he was a prince
greatly fearing God, not only forbade this, but even showed the, admiral
honor and much favor, and therewith dismissed him." Ruy de Pina, Chronica
d'el Rei Dom Joaõ II., cap. 66, apud Collecçaõ de Livros Ineditos de
Historia Portugueza, (Lisboa, 1790-93,) tom. ii.

[8] Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 40, 41.--Charlevoix,
Histoire de S. Domingue, (Paris, 1730,) tom. i. pp. 84-90.--Primer Viage
de Colon, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i.--La Clède, Hist. de
Portugal, tom. iv. pp. 53-58.

Columbus sailed from Spain on Friday, discovered land on Friday, and re-
entered the port of Palos on Friday. These curious coincidences should
have sufficed, one might think, to dispel, especially with American
mariners, the superstitions dread, still so prevalent, of commencing a
voyage on that ominous day.

[9] Primer Viage de Colon, Let 2.

[10] Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 4, sec. 14.--Fernando Colon, Hist.
del Almirante, cap. 41.

Among other specimens, was a lump of gold, of sufficient magnitude to be
fashioned into a vessel for containing the host; "thus," says Salazar de
Mendoza, "converting the first fruits of the new dominions to pious uses."
Monarquía, pp. 351, 352.

[11] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 133, 134, 140.--Bernaldez, Reyes
Católicos, MS., cap. 118.--Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii. pp. 141,
142.--Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, ubi supra.--Zuñiga, Annales de
Sevilla, p. 413.--Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, cap. 17.--Benzoni, Novi
Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 8, 9.--Gallo, apud Muratori, Rerum Ital.
Script., tom. xxiii. p. 203.

[12] Herrera, Indias Occidental., tom. i. dec. 1, lib. 2, cap. 3.--Muñoz,
Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 4, sec. 15, 16, 17.--Fernando Colon, Hist. del
Almirante, ubi supra.

[12] In a letter, written soon after the admiral's return, Martyr
announces the discovery to his correspondent, Cardinal Sforza, in the
following manner. "Mira res ex eo terrarum orbe, quem sol horarum quatuor
et viginti spatio circuit, ad nostra usque tempora, quod minime te latet,
trita cognitaque dimidia taptum pars, ab Aurea utpote Chersoneso, ad Gades
nostras Hispanas, reliqua vero a cosmographis pro incognitâ relicta est.
Et si quae mentio facta, ea tenuis et incerta. Nunc autem, o beatum
facinus! meorum regum auspiciis, quod latuit hactenus a rerum primordio,
intelligi coeptum est." In a subsequent epistle to the learned Pomponio
Leto, he breaks out in a strain of warm and generous sentiment. "Prae
laetitia prosiliisse te, vixque a lachrymis prae gaudio temperasse, quando
literas adspexisti meas, quibus de Antipodum Orbe latenti hactenus, te
certiorem feci, mi suavissime Pomponi, insinuasti. Ex tuis ipse literis
colligo, quid senseris. Sensisti autem, tantique rem fecisti, quanti virum
summâ doctrinâ insignitum decuit. Quis namque cibus sublimibus praestari
potest ingeniis isto suavior? quod condimentum gravius? a me facio
conjecturam. Beari sentio spiritus meos, quando accitos alloquor prudentes
aliquos ex his qui ab eâ redeunt provinciâ. Implicent animos pecuniarum
cumulis augendis miseri avari, libidinibus obscoeni; noetras nos mentes,
postquam Deo pleni aliquandiu fuerimus, contemplando, hujuscemodi rerum
notitiâ demulceamus." Opus Epist., epist. 124, 152.

[13] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 118.--Gallo, apud Muratori,
Rerum Ital. Script., tom. xxiii. p. 203.--Gomara, Hist. de las Indias,
cap. 18.

Peter Martyr seems to have received the popular inference, respecting the
identity of the new discoveries with the East Indies, with some distrust.
"Insulas reperit plures; has esse, de quibus fit apud cosmographos mentio
extra Oceanum Orientalem, adjacentes Indiae arbitrantur. Nec inficior ego
penitus, quamvis sphaerae magnitudo aliter sentire videatur; neque enim
desunt qui parvo tractu a finibus Hispanis distare littus Indicum,
putent." Opus Epist., epist. 135.

[14] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 2, cap. 3.--Benzoni, Novi
Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 8.--Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, cap. 17.--
Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, p. 413.--Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante,
ubi supra.

He was permitted to quarter the royal arms with his own, which consisted
of a group of golden islands amid azure billows. To these were afterwards
added five anchors, with the celebrated motto, well known as being carved
on his sepulchre. (See Part II. Chap. 18.) He received besides, soon after
his return, the substantial gratuity of a thousand doblas of gold, from
the royal treasury, and the premium of 10,000 maravedies, promised to the
person who first descried land. See Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, Col.
Diplom., nos. 20, 32, 38.

[15] Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii. Col. Diplom., no. 45.--
Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 4, sec. 21.

[16] Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, Col. Diplom., nos. 33, 35, 45.--
Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 2, cap. 4.--Muñoz, Hist. del
Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 4, sec. 21.

[17] See the original instructions, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages,
Col. Diplom., no. 45.--Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 4, sec. 22.--
Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, p. 413.

L. Marineo eagerly claims the conversion of the natives, as the prime
object of the expedition with the sovereigns, far outweighing all temporal
considerations. The passage is worth quoting, if only to show what
egregious blunders a contemporary may make in the relation of events
passing, as it were, under his own eyes. "The Catholic sovereigns having
subjugated the Canaries, and established Christian worship there, sent
_Peter Colon_, with _thirty-five_ ships, called caravels, and _a great
number of men_ to other much larger islands abounding in mines of gold,
not so much, however, for the sake of the gold, as for the salvation of
the poor heathen natives." Cosas Memorables, fol. 161.

[18] See copies of the original documents, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de
Viages, tom. ii., Col. Diplom., nos. 39, 41, 42, 43.

[19] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 2, cap. 4.--Muñoz, Hist.
del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 4, sec. 18.

[20] A point south of the meridian is something new in geometry; yet so
says the bull of his Holiness. "Omnes insulas et terras firmas inventas et
inveniendas, detectas et detegendas, versus Occidentem et meridiem,
fabricando et constituendo unam lineam a Polo Arctico, scilicet
septentrione, ad Polum Antarcticum, scilicet meridiem."

[21] See the original papal grants, transcribed by Navarrete, Coleccion de
Viages, tom. ii., Col. Diplom., nos. 17, 18. Appendice al Col. Diplom.,
no. 11.

[22] Padre Abarca considers "that the discovery of a new world, first
offered to the kings of Portugal and England, was reserved by Heaven for
Spain, being forced, in a manner, on Ferdinand, in recompense for the
subjugation of the Moors, and the expulsion of the Jews!" Reyes de Aragon,
fol. 310, 311.

[23] La Clède, Hist. de Portugal, tom. iv. pp. 53-58.

[24] Faria y Sousa, Europa Portuguesa, tom. ii. p. 463.--Herrera, Indias
Occidentales, loc. cit.--Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 4, sec. 27,
28.--Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. pp. 606, 607.--La Clède, Hist. de
Portugal, tom. iv. pp. 53-58.

[25] Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, p. 413.--Fernando Colon, Hist. del
Almirante, cap. 44.--Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 118.--Peter
Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. 1.--Benzoni, Novi Orbis Historia,
lib. 1, cap. 9.--Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, cap. 20.

[26] La Clède, Hist. de Portugal, tom. iv. pp. 53-58.--Muñoz, Hist. del
Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 4, sec. 27, 28.

[27] Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, Doc. Diplom., no. 75.--Faria y Sousa,
Europa Portuguesa, tom. ii. p. 463.--Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1,
lib. 2, cap. 8, 10.--Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. pp. 606, 607.--La
Clède, Hist. de Portugal, tom. iv. pp. 60-62.--Zurita, Anales, tom. v.
fol. 31.

[28] The contested territory was the Molucca Islands, which each party
claimed for itself, by virtue of the treaty of Tordesillas. After more
than one congress, in which all the cosmographical science of the day was
put in requisition, the affair was terminated _à l'amiable_ by the Spanish
government's relinquishing its pretensions, in consideration of 350,000
ducats, paid by the court of Lisbon. See La Clède, Hist. De Portugal, tom.
iv. pp. 309, 401, 402, 480.--Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. pp. 607,
875.--Salazar de Mendoza, Monarquía, tom. ii. pp. 205, 206.




CHAPTER XIX.

CASTILIAN LITERATURE.--CULTIVATION OF THE COURT.--CLASSICAL LEARNING.--
SCIENCE.

Early Education of Ferdinand.--Of Isabella.--Her Library.--Early Promise
of Prince John.--Scholarship of the Nobles.--Accomplished Women.--
Classical Learning.--Universities.--Printing Introduced.--Encouraged by
the Queen.--Actual Progress of Science.


We have now arrived at the period, when the history of Spain becomes
incorporated with that of the other states of Europe. Before embarking on
the wide sea of European politics, however, and bidding adieu, for a
season, to the shores of Spain, it will be necessary, in order to complete
the view of the internal administration of Ferdinand and Isabella, to show
its operation on the intellectual culture of the nation. This, as it
constitutes, when taken in its broadest sense, a principal end of all
government, should never be altogether divorced from any history. It is
particularly deserving of note in the present reign, which stimulated the
active development of the national energies in every department of
science, and which forms a leading epoch in the ornamental literature of
the country. The present and the following chapter will embrace the mental
progress of the kingdom, not merely down to the period at which we have
arrived, but through the whole of Isabella's reign, in order to exhibit as
far as possible its entire results, at a single glance, to the eye of the
reader.

We have beheld, in a preceding chapter, the auspicious literary promise
afforded by the reign of Isabella's father, John the Second, of Castile.
Under the anarchical sway of his son, Henry the Fourth, the court, as we
have seen, was abandoned to unbounded license, and the whole nation sunk
into a mental torpor, from which it was roused only by the tumults of
civil war. In this deplorable state of things, the few blossoms of
literature, which had begun to open under the benign influence of the
preceding reign, were speedily trampled under foot, and every vestige of
civilization seemed in a fair way to be effaced from the land.

The first years of Ferdinand and Isabella's government were too much
clouded by civil dissensions, to afford a much more cheering prospect.
Ferdinand's early education, moreover, had been greatly neglected. Before
the age of ten, he was called to take part in the Catalan wars. His
boyhood was spent among soldiers, in camps instead of schools, and the
wisdom which he so eminently displayed in later life, was drawn far more
from his own resources, than from books. [1]

Isabella was reared under more favorable auspices; at least more favorable
to mental culture. She was allowed to pass her youth in retirement, and
indeed oblivion, as far as the world was concerned, under her mother's
care, at Arevalo. In this modest seclusion, free from the engrossing
vanities and vexations of court life, she had full leisure to indulge the
habits of study and reflection to which her temper naturally disposed her.
She was acquainted with several modern languages, and both wrote and
discoursed in her own with great precision and elegance. No great expense
or solicitude, however, appears to have been lavished on her education.
She was uninstructed in the Latin, which in that day was of greater
importance than at present; since it was not only the common medium of
communication between learned men, and the language in which the most
familiar treatises were often composed, but was frequently used by well-
educated foreigners at court, and especially employed in diplomatic
intercourse and negotiation. [2]

Isabella resolved to repair the defects of education, by devoting herself
to the acquisition of the Latin tongue, so soon as the distracting wars
with Portugal, which attended her accession, were terminated. We have a
letter from Pulgar, addressed to the queen soon after that event, in which
he inquires concerning her progress, intimating his surprise, that she can
find time for study amidst her multitude of engrossing occupations, and
expressing his confidence that she will acquire the Latin with the same
facility with which she had already mastered other languages. The result
justified his prediction; for "in less than a year," observes another
contemporary, "her admirable genius enabled her to obtain a good knowledge
of the Latin language, so that she could understand without much
difficulty whatever was written or spoken in it." [3]

Isabella inherited the taste of her father, John the Second, for the
collecting of books. She endowed the convent of San Juan de los Reyes at
Toledo, at the time of its foundation, 1477, with a library consisting
principally of manuscripts. [4] The archives of Simancas contain
catalogues of part of two separate collections, belonging to her, whose
broken remains have contributed to swell the magnificent library of the
Escurial. Most of them are in manuscript; the richly colored and highly
decorated binding of these volumes (an art which the Spaniards derived
from the Arabs) show how highly they were prized, and the worn and
battered condition of some of them prove that they were not kept merely
for show. [5]

The queen manifested the most earnest solicitude for the instruction of
her own children. Her daughters were endowed by nature with amiable
dispositions, that seconded her maternal efforts. The most competent
masters, native and foreign, especially from Italy, then so active in the
revival of ancient learning, were employed in their tuition. This was
particularly intrusted to two brothers, Antonio and Alessandro Geraldino,
natives of that country. Both were conspicuous for their abilities and
classical erudition, and the latter, who survived his brother Antonio, was
subsequently raised to high ecclesiastical preferments. [6] Under these
masters, the infantas made attainments rarely permitted to the sex, and
acquired such familiarity with the Latin tongue especially, as excited
lively admiration among those over whom they were called to preside in
riper years. [7]

A still deeper anxiety was shown in the education of her only son, Prince
John, heir of the united Spanish monarchies. Every precaution was taken to
train him up in a manner that might tend to the formation of the character
suited to his exalted station. He was placed in a class consisting of ten
youths, selected from the sons of the principal nobility. Five of them
were of his own age, and five of riper years, and they were all brought to
reside with him in the palace. By this means it was hoped to combine the
advantages of public with those of private education; which last, from its
solitary character, necessarily excludes the subject of it from the
wholesome influence exerted by bringing the powers into daily collision
with antagonists of a similar age. [8]

A mimic council was also formed on the model of a council of state,
composed of suitable persons of more advanced standing, whose province it
was to deliberate on, and to discuss, topics connected with government and
public policy. Over this body the prince presided, and here he was
initiated into a practical acquaintance with the important duties, which
were to devolve on him at a future period of life. The pages, in
attendance on his person, were also selected with great care from the
cavaliers and young nobility of the court, many of whom afterwards filled
with credit the most considerable posts in the state. The severer
discipline of the prince was relieved by attention to more light and
elegant accomplishments. He devoted many of his leisure hours to music,
for which he had a fine natural taste, and in which he attained sufficient
proficiency to perform with skill on a variety of instruments. In short,
his education was happily designed to produce that combination of mental
and moral excellence, which should fit him for reigning over his subjects
with benevolence and wisdom. How well the scheme succeeded is abundantly
attested by the commendations of contemporary writers, both at home and
abroad, who enlarge on his fondness for letters, and for the society of
learned men, on his various attainments, and more especially his Latin
scholarship, and above all on his disposition, so amiable as to give
promise of the highest excellence in maturer life,--a promise, alas! most
unfortunately for his own nation, destined never to be realized. [9]

Next to her family, there was no object which the queen had so much at
heart, as the improvement of the young nobility. During the troubled reign
of her predecessor, they had abandoned themselves to frivolous pleasure,
or to a sullen apathy, from which nothing was potent enough to arouse
them, but the voice of war. [10] She was obliged to relinquish her plans
of amelioration, during the all-engrossing struggle with Granada, when it
would have been esteemed a reproach for a Spanish knight to have exchanged
the post of danger in the field for the effeminate pursuit of letters. But
no sooner was the war brought to a close, than Isabella resumed her
purpose. She requested the learned Peter Martyr, who had come into Spain
with the count of Tendilla, a few years previous, to repair to the court,
and open a school there for the instruction of the young nobility. [11] In
an epistle addressed by Martyr to Cardinal Mendoza, dated at Granada,
April, 1492, he alludes to the promise of a liberal recompense from the
queen, if he would assist in reclaiming the young cavaliers of the court
from the idle and unprofitable pursuits, in which, to her great
mortification, they consumed their hours. The prejudices to be encountered
seem to have filled him with natural distrust of his success; for he
remarks, "Like their ancestors, they hold the pursuit of letters in light
estimation, considering them an obstacle to success in the profession of
arms, which alone they esteem worthy of honor." He however expresses his
confidence, that the generous nature of the Spaniards will make it easy to
infuse into them a more liberal taste; and, in a subsequent letter, he
enlarges on the "good effects likely to result from the literary ambition
exhibited by the heir apparent, on whom the eyes of the nation were
naturally turned." [12]  Martyr, in obedience to the royal summons,
instantly repaired to court, and in the month of September following, we
have a letter dated from Saragossa, in which he thus speaks of his
success. "My house, all day long, swarms with noble youths, who, reclaimed
from ignoble pursuits to those of letters, are now convinced that these,
so far from being a hindrance, are rather a help in the profession of
arms. I earnestly inculcate on them, that consummate excellence in any
department, whether of war or peace, is unattainable without science. It
has pleased our royal mistress, the pattern of every exalted virtue, that
her own near kinsman, the duke of Guimaraena, as well as the young duke of
Villahermosa, the king's nephew, should remain under my roof during the
whole day; an example which has been imitated by the principal cavaliers
of the court, who, after attending my lectures in company with their
private tutors, retire at evening to review them with these latter in
their own quarters." [13]  Another Italian scholar, often cited as
authority in the preceding portion of this work, Lucio Marineo Siculo, co-
operated with Martyr in the introduction of a more liberal scholarship
among the Castilian nobles. He was born at Bedino in Sicily, and, after
completing his studies at Rome under the celebrated Pomponio Leto, opened
a school in his native island, where he continued to teach for five years.
He was then induced to visit Spain, in 1486, with the admiral Henriquez,
and soon took his place among the professors of Salamanca, where he filled
the chairs of poetry and grammar with great applause for twelve years. He
was subsequently transferred to the court, which he helped to illumine, by
his exposition of the ancient classics, particularly the Latin. [14] Under
the auspices of these and other eminent scholars, both native and foreign,
the young nobility of Castile shook off the indolence in which they had so
long rusted, and applied with generous ardor to the cultivation of
science; so that, in the language of a contemporary, "while it was a most
rare occurrence, to meet with a person of illustrious birth, before the
present reign, who had even studied Latin in his youth, there were now to
be seen numbers every day, who sought to shed the lustre of letters over
the martial glory inherited from their ancestors." [15]

The extent of this generous emulation may be gathered from the large
correspondence both of Martyr and Marineo with their disciples, including
the most considerable persons of the Castilian court; it may be still
further inferred from the numerous dedications to these persons, of
contemporary publications, attesting their munificent patronage of
literary enterprise; [16] and, still more unequivocally, from the zeal
with which many of the highest rank entered on such severe literary labor
as few, from the mere love of letters, are found willing to encounter. Don
Gutierre de Toledo, son of the duke of Alva, and a cousin of the king,
taught in the university of Salamanca. At the same place, Don Pedro
Fernandez de Velasco, son of the count of Haro, who subsequently succeeded
his father in the hereditary dignity of grand constable of Castile, read
lectures on Pliny and Ovid. Don Alfonso de Manrique, son of the count of
Paredes, was professor of Greek in the university of Alcalá. All ages
seemed to catch the generous enthusiasm; and the marquis of Denia,
although turned of sixty, made amends for the sins of his youth, by
learning the elements of the Latin tongue, at this late period. In short,
as Giovio remarks in his eulogium on Lebrija, "No Spaniard was accounted
noble who held science in indifference." From a very early period, a
courtly stamp was impressed on the poetic literature of Spain. A similar
character was now imparted to its erudition; and men of the most
illustrious birth seemed eager to lead the way in the difficult career of
science, which was thrown open to the nation. [17]

In this brilliant exhibition, those of the other sex must not be omitted,
who contributed by their intellectual endowments to the general
illumination of the period. Among them, the writers of that day lavish
their panegyrics on the marchioness of Monteagudo, and Doña Maria Pacheco,
of the ancient house of Mendoza, sisters of the historian, Don Diego
Hurtado, [18] and daughters of the accomplished count of Tendilla, [19]
who, while ambassador at Rome, induced Martyr to visit Spain, and who was
grandson of the famous marquis of Santillana, and nephew of the grand
cardinal. [20] This illustrious family, rendered yet more illustrious by
its merits than its birth, is worthy of specification, as affording
altogether the most remarkable combination of literary talent in the
enlightened court of Castile. The queen's instructor in the Latin language
was a lady named Doña Beatriz de Galindo, called from her peculiar
attainments _la Latina_. Another lady, Doña Lucia de Medrano, publicly
lectured on the Latin classics in the university of Salamanca. And
another, Doña Francisca de Lebrija, daughter of the historian of that
name, filled the chair of rhetoric with applause at Alcalá. But our limits
will not allow a further enumeration of names, which should never be
permitted to sink into oblivion, were it only for the rare scholarship,
peculiarly rare in the female sex, which they displayed, in an age
comparatively unenlightened. [21] Female education in that day embraced a
wider compass of erudition, in reference to the ancient languages, than is
common at present; a circumstance attributable, probably, to the poverty
of modern literature at that time, and the new and general appetite
excited by the revival of classical learning in Italy. I am not aware,
however, that it was usual for learned ladies, in any other country than
Spain, to take part in the public exercises of the gymnasium, and deliver
lectures from the chairs of the universities. This peculiarity, which may
be referred in part to the queen's influence, who encouraged the love of
study by her own example, as well as by personal attendance on the
academic examinations, may have been also suggested by a similar usage,
already noticed, among the Spanish Arabs. [22]

While the study of the ancient tongues came thus into fashion with persons
of both sexes, and of the highest rank, it was widely and most thoroughly
cultivated by professed scholars. Men of letters, some of whom have been
already noticed, were invited into Spain from Italy, the theatre, at that
time, on which, from obvious local advantages, classical discovery was
pursued with greatest ardor and success. To this country it was usual also
for Spanish students to repair, in order to complete their discipline in
classical literature, especially the Greek, as first taught on sound
principles of criticism, by the learned exiles from Constantinople. The
most remarkable of the Spanish scholars, who made this literary pilgrimage
to Italy, was Antonio de Lebrija, or Nebrissensis, as he is more
frequently called from his Latin name. [23] After ten years passed at
Bologna and other seminaries of repute, with particular attention to their
interior discipline, he returned, in 1473, to his native land, richly
laden with the stores of various erudition. He was invited to fill the
Latin chair at Seville, whence he was successively transferred to
Salamanca and Alcalá, both of which places he long continued to enlighten
by his oral instruction and publications. The earliest of these was his
_Introducciones Latinas_, the third edition of which was printed in
1485, being four years only from the date of the first; a remarkable
evidence of the growing taste for classical learning. A translation in the
vernacular accompanied the last edition, arranged, at the queen's
suggestion, in columns parallel with those of the original text; a form
which, since become common, was then a novelty. [24] The publication of
his Castilian grammar, "_Grammatica Castillana_," followed in 1492; a
treatise designed particularly for the instruction of the ladies of the
court. The other productions of this indefatigable scholar embrace a large
circle of topics, independently of his various treatises on philology and
criticism. Some were translated into French and Italian, and their
republication has been continued to the last century. No man of his own,
or of later times, contributed more essentially than Lebrija to the
introduction of a pure and healthful erudition into Spain. It is not too
much to say, that there was scarcely an eminent Spanish scholar in the
beginning of the sixteenth century, who had not formed himself on the
instructions of this master. [25]

Another name worthy of commemoration, is that of Arias Barbosa, a learned
Portuguese, who, after passing some years, like Lebrija, in the schools of
Italy, where he studied the ancient tongues under the guidance of
Politiano, was induced to establish his residence in Spain. In 1489, we
find him at Salamanca, where he continued for twenty, or, according to
some accounts, forty years, teaching in the departments of Greek and
rhetoric. At the close of that period he returned to Portugal, where he
superintended the education of some of the members of the royal family,
and survived to a good old age. Barbosa was esteemed inferior to Lebrija
in extent of various erudition, but to have surpassed him in an accurate
knowledge of the Greek and poetical criticism. In the former, indeed, he
seems to have obtained a greater repute than any Spanish scholar of the
time. He composed some valuable works, especially on ancient prosody. The
unwearied assiduity and complete success of his academic labors have
secured to him a high reputation among the restorers of ancient learning,
and especially that of reviving a livelier relish for the study of the
Greek, by conducting it on principles of pure criticism, in the same
manner as Lebrija did with the Latin. [26]

The scope of the present work precludes the possibility of a copious
enumeration of the pioneers of ancient learning, to whom Spain owes so
large a debt of gratitude. [27]

The Castilian scholars of the close of the fifteenth, and the beginning of
the sixteenth century, may take rank with their illustrious contemporaries
of Italy. They could not indeed achieve such brilliant results in the
discovery of the remains of antiquity, for such remains had been long
scattered and lost amid the centuries of exile and disastrous warfare
consequent on the Saracen invasion. But they were unwearied in their
illustrations, both oral and written, of the ancient authors; and their
numerous commentaries, translations, dictionaries, grammars, and various
works of criticism, many of which, though now obsolete, passed into
repeated editions in their own day, bear ample testimony to the generous
zeal with which they conspired to raise their contemporaries to a proper
level for contemplating the works of the great masters of antiquity; and
well entitled them to the high eulogium of Erasmus, that "liberal studies
were brought, in the course of a few years, in Spain to so flourishing a
condition, as might not only excite the admiration, but serve as a model
to the most cultivated nations of Europe." [28]

The Spanish universities were the theatre on which this classical
erudition was more especially displayed. Previous to Isabella's reign,
there were but few schools in the kingdom; not one indeed of any note,
except in Salamanca; and this did not escape the blight which fell on
every generous study. But under the cheering patronage of the present
government, they were soon filled, and widely multiplied. Academies of
repute were to be found in Seville, Toledo, Salamanca, Granada, and
Alcalá; and learned teachers were drawn from abroad by the most liberal
emoluments. At the head of these establishments stood "the illustrious
city of Salamanca," as Marineo fondly terms it, "mother of all liberal
arts and virtues, alike renowned for noble cavaliers and learned men."
[29] Such was its reputation, that foreigners as well as natives were
attracted to its schools, and at one time, according to the authority of
the same professor, seven thousand students were assembled within its
walls. A letter of Peter Martyr, to his patron the count of Tendilla,
gives a whimsical picture of the literary enthusiasm of this place. The
throng was so great to hear his introductory lecture on one of the Satires
of Juvenal, that every avenue to the hall was blockaded, and the professor
was borne in on the shoulders of the students. Professorships in every
department of science then studied, as well as of polite letters, were
established at the university, the "new Athens," as Martyr somewhere
styles it. Before the close of Isabella's reign, however, its glories were
rivalled, if not eclipsed, by those of Alcalá; [30] which combined higher
advantages for ecclesiastical with civil education, and which, under the
splendid patronage of Cardinal Ximenes, executed the famous polyglot
version of the Scriptures, the most stupendous literary enterprise of that
age. [31]

This active cultivation was not confined to the dead languages, but spread
more or less over every department of knowledge. Theological science, in
particular, received a large share of attention. It had always formed a
principal object of academic instruction, though suffered to languish
under the universal corruption of the preceding reign. It was so common
for the clergy to be ignorant of the most elementary knowledge, that the
council of Aranda found it necessary to pass an ordinance, the year before
Isabella's accession, that no person should be admitted to orders who was
ignorant of Latin. The queen took the most effectual means for correcting
this abuse, by raising only competent persons to ecclesiastical dignities.
The highest stations in the church were reserved for those who combined
the highest intellectual endowments with unblemished piety. Cardinal
Mendoza, whose acute and comprehensive mind entered with interest into
every scheme for the promotion of science, was archbishop of Toledo;
Talavera, whose hospitable mansion was itself an academy for men of
letters, and whose princely revenues were liberally dispensed for their
support, was raised to the see of Granada; and Ximenes, whose splendid
literary projects will require more particular notice hereafter, succeeded
Mendoza in the primacy of Spain. Under the protection of these enlightened
patrons, theological studies were pursued with ardor, the Scriptures
copiously illustrated, and sacred eloquence cultivated with success.

A similar impulse was felt in the other walks of science. Jurisprudence
assumed a new aspect, under the learned labors of Montalvo. [32] The
mathematics formed a principal branch of education, and were successfully
applied to astronomy and geography. Valuable treatises were produced on
medicine, and on the more familiar practical arts, as husbandry, for
example. [33] History, which since the time of Alfonso the Tenth had been
held in higher honor and more widely Cultivated in Castile than in any
other European state, began to lay aside the garb of chronicle, and to be
studied on more scientific principles. Charters and diplomas were
consulted, manuscripts collated, coins and lapidary inscriptions
deciphered, and collections made of these materials, the true basis of
authentic history; and an office of public archives, like that now
existing at Simancas, was established at Burgos, and placed under the care
of Alonso de Mota, as keeper, with a liberal salary. [34]

Nothing could have been more opportune for the enlightened purposes of
Isabella, than the introduction of the art of printing into Spain, at the
commencement, indeed in the very first year, of her reign. She saw, from
the first moment, all the advantages which it promised for diffusing and
perpetuating the discoveries of science. She encouraged its establishment
by large privileges to those who exercised it, whether natives or
foreigners, and by causing many of the works, composed by her subjects, to
be printed at her own charge. [35]

Among the earlier printers we frequently find the names of Germans; a
people, who to the original merits of the discovery may justly add that of
its propagation among every nation of Europe. We meet with a
_pragmática_, or royal ordinance, dated in 1477, exempting a German,
named Theodoric, from taxation, on the ground of being "one of the
principal persons in the discovery and practice of the art of printing
books, which he had brought with him into Spain at great risk and expense,
with the design of ennobling the libraries of the kingdom." [36]
Monopolies for printing and selling books for a limited period, answering
to the modern copyright, were granted to certain persons, in consideration
of their doing so at a reasonable rate. [37] It seems to have been usual
for the printers to be also the publishers and venders of books. These
exclusive privileges, however, do not appear to have been carried to a
mischievous extent. Foreign books, of every description, by a law of 1480,
were allowed to be imported into the kingdom, free of all duty whatever;
an enlightened provision, which might furnish a useful hint to legislators
of the nineteenth century. [38]

The first press appears to have been erected at Valencia, in 1474;
although the glory of precedence is stoutly contested by several places,
and especially by Barcelona. [39] The first work printed was a collection
of songs, composed for a poetical contest in honor of the Virgin, for the
most part in the Limousin or Valencian dialect. [40] In the following year
the first ancient classic, being the works of Sallust, was printed; and,
in 1478, there appeared from the same press a translation of the
Scriptures, in the Limousin, by Father Boniface Ferrer, brother of the
famous Dominican, St. Vincent Ferrer. [41] Through the liberal patronage
of the government, the art was widely diffused; and before the end of the
fifteenth century, presses were established and in active operation in the
principal cities of the united kingdom; in Toledo, Seville, Ciudad Real,
Granada, Valladolid, Burgos, Salamanca, Zamora, Saragossa, Valencia,
Barcelona, Monte Rey, Lerida, Murcia, Tolosa, Tarragona, Alcalá de
Henares, and Madrid.

It is painful to notice amidst the judicious provisions for the
encouragement of science, one so entirely repugnant to their spirit as the
establishment of the censorship. By an ordinance, dated at Toledo, July
8th, 1502, it was decreed, that, "as many of the books sold in the kingdom
were defective, or false, or apocryphal, or pregnant with vain and
superstitious novelties, it was therefore ordered that no book should
hereafter be printed without special license from the king, or some person
regularly commissioned by him for the purpose." The names of the
commissioners then follow, consisting mostly of ecclesiastics, archbishops
and bishops, with authority respectively over their several dioceses. [42]
This authority was devolved in later times, under Charles the Fifth and
his successors, on the Council of the Supreme, over which the inquisitor-
general presided _ex-officio_. The immediate agents employed in the
examination were also drawn from the Inquisition, who exercised this
important trust, as is well known, in a manner most fatal to the interests
of letters and humanity. Thus a provision, destined in its origin for the
advancement of science, by purifying it from the crudities and corruptions
which naturally infect it in a primitive age, contributed more effectually
to its discouragement, than any other which could have been devised, by
interdicting the freedom of expression, so indispensable to freedom of
inquiry. [43]

While endeavoring to do justice to the progress of civilization in this
reign, I should regret to present to the reader an over-colored picture of
its results. Indeed, less emphasis should be laid on any actual results,
than on the spirit of improvement, which they imply in the nation, and the
liberal dispositions of the government. The fifteenth century was
distinguished by a zeal for research and laborious acquisition, especially
in ancient literature, throughout Europe, which showed itself in Italy in
the beginning of the age, and in Spain, and some other countries, towards
the close. It was natural that men should explore the long-buried
treasures descended from their ancestors, before venturing on anything of
their own creation. Their efforts were eminently successful; and, by
opening an acquaintance with the immortal productions of ancient
literature, they laid the best foundation for the cultivation of the
modern.

In the sciences, their success was more equivocal. A blind reverence for
authority, a habit of speculation, instead of experiment, so pernicious in
physics, in short, an ignorance of the true principles of philosophy,
often led the scholars of that day in a wrong direction. Even when they
took a right one, their attainments, under all these impediments, were
necessarily so small, as to be scarcely perceptible, when viewed from the
brilliant heights to which science has arrived in our own age.
Unfortunately for Spain, its subsequent advancement has been so retarded,
that a comparison of the fifteenth century with those which succeeded it,
is by no means so humiliating to the former as in some other countries of
Europe; and, it is certain, that in general intellectual fermentation, no
period has surpassed, if it can be said to have rivalled, the age of
Isabella.


FOOTNOTES

[1] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 153.

[2] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 154, 182.

[3] Carro de las Doñas, lib. 2, cap. 62 et seq., apud Mem. de la Acad. de
Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 21.--Pulgar, Letras, (Amstelodami, 1670,) let. 11.
--L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 182.--It is sufficient evidence of
her familiarity with the Latin, that the letters addressed to her by her
confessor seem to have been written in that language and the Castilian
indifferently, exhibiting occasionally a curious patchwork in the
alternate use of each in the same epistle. See Correspondencia Epistolar,
apud Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 13.

[4] Previous to the introduction of printing, collections of books were
necessarily very small and thinly scattered, owing to the extreme cost of
manuscripts. The learned Saez has collected some curious particulars
relative to this matter. The most copious library which he could find any
account of, in the middle of the fifteenth century, was owned by the
counts of Benavente, and contained not more than one hundred and twenty
volumes. Many of these were duplicates; of Livy alone there were eight
copies. The cathedral churches in Spain rented their books every year by
auction to the highest bidders, whence they derived a considerable
revenue.

It would appear from a copy of Gratian's Canons, preserved in the
Celestine monastery in Paris, that the copyist was engaged twenty-one
months in transcribing that manuscript. At this rate, the production of
four thousand copies by one hand would require nearly eight thousand
years, a work now easily performed in less than four months. Such was the
tardiness in multiplying copies before the invention of printing. Two
thousand volumes may be procured now at a price, which in those days would
hardly have sufficed to purchase fifty. See Tratado de Monedas de Enrique
III., apud Moratin, Obras, ed. de la Acad., (Madrid, 1830,) tom. i. pp.
91, 92. Moratin argues from extreme cases.

[5] Navagiero, Viaggio fatto in Spagna et in Francia, (Vinegia, 1563,)
fol. 23.--Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust, 17. The largest
collection comprised about two hundred and one articles, or distinct
works. Of these, about a third is taken up with theology, comprehending
Bibles, psalters, missals, lives of saints, and works of the fathers; one-
fifth, civil law and the municipal code of Spain; one-fourth, ancient
classics, modern literature, and romances of chivalry; one-tenth, history;
the residue is devoted to ethics, medicine, grammar, astrology, etc. The
only Italian author, besides Leonardo Bruno d'Arezzo, is Boccaccio. The
works of the latter writer consisted of the "Fiammetta," the treatises "De
Casibus Illustrium Virorum," and "De Claris Mulieribus," and probably the
"Decameron;" the first in the Italian, and the three last translated into
the Spanish. It is singular, that neither of Boccaccio's great
contemporaries, Dante and Petrarch, the former of whom had been translated
by Villena, and imitated by Juan de Mena, half a century before, should
have found a place in the collection.

[6] Antonio, the eldest, died in 1488. Part of his Latin poetical works,
entitled "Sacred Bucolics," was printed in 1505, at Salamanca. The younger
brother, Alessandro, after bearing arms in the Portuguese war, was
subsequently employed in the instruction of the infantas, finally embraced
the ecclesiastical state, and died bishop of St. Domingo, in 1525. Mem. de
la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 16.--Tiraboschi, Letteratura Italiana,
tom. vi. part. 2, p. 285.

[7] The learned Valencian, Luis Vives, in his treatise "De Christianâ
Feminâ," remarks, "Aetas noster quatuor illas Isabellae reginae filias,
quas paullo ante memoravi, eruditas vidit. Non sine laudibus et
admiratione refertur mihi passim in hae terrâ Joannam, Philippi conjugem,
Caroli hujus matrem, extempore latinis orationibus, quae de more apud
novos principes oppidatim habentur, latine respondisse. Idem de reginâ
suâ, Joannae sorore, Britanni praedicant; idem omnes de duabus aliis, quae
in Lusitaniâ fato concessere." (De Christianâ Feminâ, cap. 4, apud Mem. de
la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 16.)--It appears, however, that
Isabella was not inattentive to the more humble accomplishments, in the
education of her daughters. "Regina," says the same author, "nere, suere,
acu pingere quatuor filias auas doctas esse voluit." Another contemporary,
the author of the Carro de las Doñas, (lib. 2, cap. 62, apud Mem. de la
Acad.  de Hist., Ilust. 21,) says, "she educated her son and daughters,
giving them masters of life and letters, and surrounding them with such
persons as tended to make them vessels of election, and kings in Heaven."

Erasmus notices the literary attainments of the youngest daughter of the
sovereigns, the unfortunate Catharine of Aragon, with unqualified
admiration. In one of his letters, he styles her "egregie doctam;" and in
another he remarks, "Regina non tantum in sexus miraculum literata est;
nec minus pietate suspicienda, quam eruditione." Epistolae, (Londini,
1642,) lib. 19, epist. 31; lib. 2, epist. 24.

[8] Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., dial. de Deza.--Mem. de la Acad. de Hist.,
tom. vi. Ilust. 14.

[9] Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 14.

Juan de la Eucina, in the dedication to the prince, of his translation of
Virgil's Bucolics, pays the following compliment to the enlightened and
liberal taste of Prince John. "Favoresceis tanto la sciencia andando
acompañado de tantos e tan doctísimos varones, que no menos dejareis
perdurable memoria de haber alargado e estendido los límites e términos de
la sciencia que los del imperio." The extraordinary promise of this young
prince made his name known in distant parts of Europe, and his untimely
death, which occurred in the twentieth year of his age, was commemorated
by an epitaph of the learned Greek exile, Constantine Lascaris.

[10] "Aficionados á la guerra," says Oviedo, speaking of some young nobles
of his time, "_por su Española y natural inclinacion_." Quincuagenas,
MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 36.

[11] For some account of this eminent Italian scholar, see the postscript
to Part I. Chap. 14, of this History.

[12] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 102, 103.

Lucio Marineo, in a discourse addressed to Charles V., thus notices the
queen's solicitude for the instruction of her young nobility. "Isabella
praesertim Regina magnanima, virtutum omnium maxima cultrix. Quae quidem
multis et magnis occupata negotiis, ut aliis exemplum praeberet, a primis
grammaticae rudimentis studere coepit, et omnes suae domûs adolescentes
utriusque sexûs nobilium liberos, praeceptoribus liberaliter et honorifice
conductis erudiendos commendabat." Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi.
Apend. 16.--See also Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial.
36.

[13] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 115.

[14] A  particular account of Marineo's writings may be found in Nic.
Antonio. (Bibliotheca Nova, tom. ii. Apend. p. 369.) The most important of
these is his work "De Rebus Hispaniae Memorabilibus," often cited, in the
Castilian, in this History. It is a rich repository of details respecting
the geography, statistics, and manners of the Peninsula, with a copious
historical notice of events in Ferdinand and Isabella's reign. The
author's insatiable curiosity, during a long residence in the country,
enabled him to collect many facts, of a kind that do not fall within the
ordinary compass of history; while his extensive learning, and his
familiarity with foreign models, peculiarly qualified him for estimating
the institutions he describes. It must be confessed he is sufficiently
partial to the land of his adoption. The edition, referred to in this
work, is in black letter, printed before, or soon after, the author's
death (the date of which is uncertain), in 1539, at Alcalá de Henares, by
Juan Brocar, one of a family long celebrated in the annals of Castilian
printing. Marineo's prologue concludes with the following noble tribute to
letters. "Porque todos los otros bienes son subjectos a la fortuna y
mudables y en poco tiempo mudan muchos dueños passando de unos señores en
otros, mas los dones de letras y hystorias que se ofrescen para
perpetuidad de memoria y fama son immortales y prorogan y guardan para
siempre la memoria assi de los que los reciben, como de los que los
ofrescen."

[15] Sepulveda, Democrites, apud Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi.
Ilust. 16.--Signorelli, Coltura nelle Sicilie, tom. iv. p. 318.--
Tiraboschi, Letteratura Italiana, tom. vii. part. 3, lib. 3, cap. 4.--
Comp. Lampillas, Saggio Storico-Apologetico de la Letteratura Spagnuola,
(Genova, 1778,) tom. ii. dis. 2, sect. 5.--The patriotic Abate is greatly
scandalized by the degree of influence which Tiraboschi and other Italian
critics ascribe to their own language over the Castilian, especially at
this period. The seven volumes, in which he has discharged his bile on the
heads of the offenders, afford valuable materials for the historian of
Spanish literature. Tiraboschi must be admitted to have the better of his
antagonist in temper, if not in argument.

[16] Among these we find copious translations from the ancient classics,
as Caesar, Appian, Plutarch, Plautus, Sallust, Aesop, Justin, Boëthius,
Apulius, Herodian, affording strong evidence of the activity of the
Castilian scholars in this department. Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi.
pp. 406, 407.--Mendez, Typographia Española, pp. 133, 139.

[17] Salazar de Mendoza, Dignidades, cap. 21.

Lucio Marineo Siculo, in his discourse above alluded to, in which he
exhibits the condition of letters under the reign of Ferdinand and
Isabella, enumerates the names of the nobility most conspicuous for their
scholarship. This valuable document was to be found only in the edition of
Marineo's work, "De Rebus Hispaniae Memorabilibus," printed at Alcalá, in
1630, whence it has been transferred by Clemencin to the sixth volume of
the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of History.

[18] His work "Guerra de Granada," was first published at Madrid, in 1610,
and "may be compared," says Nic. Antonio, in a judgment which has been
ratified by the general consent of his countrymen, "with the compositions
of Sallust, or any other ancient historian." His poetry and his celebrated
_picaresco_ novel "Lazarillo de Tormes," have made an epoch in the
ornamental literature of Spain.

[19] Oviedo has devoted one of his dialogues to this nobleman, equally
distinguished by his successes in arms, letters, and love; the last of
which, according to that writer, he had not entirely resigned at the age
of seventy.--Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 28.

[20] For an account of Santillana, see the First Chapter of this History.
The cardinal, in early life, is said to have translated for his father the
Aeneid, the Odyssey, Ovid, Valerius Maximus, and Sallust. (Mem. de la
Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 16.) This Herculean feat would put modern
school-boys to shame, and we may suppose that partial versions only of
these authors are intended.

[21] Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 16.--Oviedo, Quincuagenas,
MS., dial. de Grizio.

Señor Clemencin has examined with much care the intellectual culture of
the nation under Isabella, in the sixteenth _Ilustracion_ of his work. He
has touched lightly on its poetical character, considering, no doubt, that
this had been sufficiently developed by other critics. His essay, however,
is rich in information in regard to the scholarship and severer studies of
the period. The reader, who would pursue the inquiry still further, may
find abundant materials in Nic. Antonio, Bibliotheca Vetus, tom. ii. lib.
10, cap. 13 et seq.--Idem, Bibliotheca Hispana Nova, (Matriti, 1783-8,)
tom. i. ii. passim.

[22] See Part I. Chap. 8, of this History.

[23] For a notice of this scholar, see the postscript to Part I. Chap. 11,
of this History.

[24] Mendez, Typographia Española, pp. 271, 272. In the second edition,
published 1482, the author states, that no work of the time had a greater
circulation, more than a thousand copies of it, at a high price, having
been disposed of in the preceding year. Ibid., p. 237.

[25] Nic. Antonio, Bibliotheca Nova, tom. i. pp. 132-139.--Lampillas,
Letteratura Spagnuola, tom. ii. dis. 2, sec. 3.--Dialogo de las Lenguas,
apud Mayans y Siscar, Orígenes, (Madrid, 1737,) tom. ii. pp. 46, 47.

Lucio Marineo pays the following elegant compliment to this learned
Spaniard, in his discourse before quoted. "Amisit nuper Hispania maximum
sui cultorem in re litterariâ, Antonium Nebrissensem, qui primus ex Italiâ
in Hispaniam Musas adduxit, quibuscum barbariem ex suâ patriâ fugavit, et
Hispaniam totam linguae Latinae lectionibus illustravit." "Meruerat id,"
says Gomez de Castro of Lebrija, "et multo majora hominis eruditio, cui
Hispania debet, quicquid habet bonarum literarum."

The acute author of the "Dialogo de las Lenguas," while he renders ample
homage to Lebrija's Latin erudition, disputes his critical acquaintance
with his own language, from his being a native of Andalusia, where the
Castilian was not spoken with purity. "Hablaba y escrivia como en el
Andalucia y no como en la Castilla." P. 92. See also pp. 9, 10, 46, 53.

[26] Barbosa, Bibliotheca Lusitana, (Lisboa Occidental, 1741,) tom. i. pp.
76-78.--Signorelli, Coltura nelle Sicilie, tom. iv. pp. 315-321.--Mayans y
Siscar, Origenes, tom. i. p. 173.--Lampillas, Letteratura Spagnuola, tom.
ii. dis. 2, sect. 5.--Nic. Antonio, Bibliotheca Nova, tom. i. pp. 170,
171.

[27] Among these are particularly deserving of attention the brothers John
and Francis Vergara, professors at Alcalá, the latter of whom was esteemed
one of the most accomplished scholars of the age; Nuñez de Guzman, of the
ancient house of that name, professor for many years at Salamanca and
Alcalá, and the author of the Latin version in the famous Polyglot of
Cardinal Ximenes; he left behind him numerous works, especially
commentaries on the classics; Olivario, whose curious erudition was
abundantly exhibited in his illustrations of Cicero and other Latin
authors; and lastly Vives, whose fame rather belongs to Europe than his
own country, who, when only twenty-six years old, drew from Erasmus the
encomium, that "there was scarcely any one of the age whom he could
venture to compare with him in philosophy, eloquence, and liberal
learning." But the most unequivocal testimony to the deep and various
scholarship of the period is afforded by that stupendous literary work of
Cardinal Ximenes, the Polyglot Bible, whose versions in the Greek, Latin,
and Oriental tongues were collated, with a single exception, by Spanish
scholars. Erasmus, Epistolae, lib. 19, epist. 101.--Lampillas, Letteratura
Spagnuola, tom. ii. pp. 382-384, 495, 792-794; tom. ii. p. 208 et seq.--
Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 37.

[28] Erasmus, Epistolae, p. 977.

[29] "La muy esclarecida ciudad de Salamanca, madre de las artes
liberales, y todas virtudes, y ansi de cavalleros como de letrados
varones, muy ilustre." Cosas Memorables, fol. 11.--Chacon, Hist. de la
Universidad de Salamanca, apud Semanario Erudito, tom. xviii. pp. 1-61.

[30] "Academia Complutensis," says Erasmus of this university, "non
aliunde celebritatem nominis auspicata est quàm a complectendo linguae ac
bonas literas. Cujus praecipuum oramentum est egregius ille senex,
planéque dignus qui multos vincat Nestoras, Antonius Nebrissensis." Epist.
ad Ludovicum Vivem, 1521. Epistolae, p. 755.

[31] Cosas Memorables, ubi supra.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 57.--
Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, lib. 4.--Chacon, Universidad de Salamanca, ubi
supra.

It appears that the practice of scraping with the feet as an expression of
disapprobation, familiar in our universities, is of venerable antiquity;
for Martyr mentions, that he was saluted with it before finishing his
discourse by one or two idle youths, dissatisfied with its length. The
lecturer, however, seems to have given general satisfaction, for he was
escorted back in triumph to his lodgings, to use his own language, "like a
victor in the Olympic games," after the conclusion of the exercise.

[32] For some remarks on the labors of this distinguished jurisconsult,
see Part I. Chap. 6, and Part II. Chap. 26, of the present work.

[33] The most remarkable of these latter is Herrera's treatise on
Agriculture, which since its publication in Toledo, in 1520, has passed
through a variety of editions at home and translations abroad. Nic.
Antonio, Bibliotheca Nova, tom. i. p. 503.

[34] This collection, with the ill luck which has too often befallen such
repositories in Spain, was burnt in the war of the Communities, in the
time of Charles V. Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 16.--
Morales, Obras, tom. vii. p. 18.--Informe de Ríol, who particularly
notices the solicitude of Ferdinand and Isabella for preserving the public
documents.

[35] Mendez, Typographia Española, p. 51.

[36] Archivo de Murcia, apud Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. p. 244.

[37] Mendez, Typographia Española, pp. 52, 332.

[38] Ordenanças Reales, lib. 4, tit. 4, ley 22.--The preamble of this
statute is expressed in the following enlightened terms; "Considerando los
Reyes de gloriosa memoria quanto era provechoso y honroso, que a estos sus
reynos se truxessen libros de otras partes para que con ellos se hiziessen
los hombres letrados, quisieron y ordenaron, que de los libros no se
pagasse el alcavala.... Lo qual parece que redunda en provecho universal
de todos, y en ennoblecimiento de nuestros Reynos."

[39] Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, tom. i. part. 2, lib. 2, cap. 6.--Mendez,
Typographia Española, pp. 55, 93.

Bouterwek intimates, that the art of printing was first practised in Spain
by German printers at Seville, _in the beginning of the sixteenth
century_. (Bouterwek, Geschichte der Poesie und Beredsamkeit, (Göttingen,
1801-17,) band iii. p. 98.)--He appears to have been misled by a solitary
example quoted from Mayans y Siscar. The want of materials has more than
once led this eminent critic to build sweeping conclusions on slender
premises.

[40] The title of the book is "Certamen poetich en lohor de la Concecio,"
Valencia, 1474, 4to. The name of the printer is wanting. Mendez,
Typographia Española, p. 56.

[41] Ibid., pp. 61-63.

[42] Mendez, Typographia Española, pp. 52, 53.--Pragmáticas del Reyno,
fol. 138, 139.

[43] Llorente, Hist. de l'Inquisition, tom. i. chap. 13, art. 1.

"Adempto per _inquisitiones_," says Tacitus of the gloomy times of
Domitian, "et loquendi audiendique commercio." (Vita Agricolae, sec. 2.)
Beaumarchais, in a merrier vein, indeed, makes the same bitter
reflections. "Il s'est établi dans Madrid un système de liberté sur la
vente des productions, qui s'étend même a celles de la presse; et que,
pourvu que je ne parle en mes écrits ni de l'autorité, ni de culte, ni de
la politique, ni de la morale, ni des gens en place, ni des corps en
crédit, ni de l'Opéra, ni des autres spectacles, ni de personne qui tienne
à quelque chose, je puis tout imprimer librement, sous l'inspection de
deux ou trois censeurs," Mariage de Figaro, acte 5, sc. 3.




CHAPTER XX.

CASTILIAN LITERATURE.--ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY.--LYRICAL POETRY.-THE DRAMA.

This Reign an Epoch in Polite Letters.--Romances of Chivalry.--Ballads or
_Romances_.--Moorish Minstrelsy.--"Cancionero General."--Its Literary
Value.--Rise of the Spanish Drama.--Criticism on "Celestina."--Encina.--
Naharro.--Low Condition of the Stage.--National Spirit of the Literature
of this Epoch.


Ornamental or polite literature, which, emanating from the taste and
sensibility of a nation, readily exhibits its various fluctuations of
fashion and feeling, was stamped in Spain with the distinguishing
characteristics of this revolutionary age. The Provencal, which reached
such high perfection in Catalonia, and subsequently in Aragon, as noticed
in an introductory chapter, [1] expired with the union of this monarchy
with Castile, and the dialect ceased to be applied to literary purposes
altogether, after the Castilian became the language of the court in the
united kingdoms. The poetry of Castile, which throughout the present reign
continued to breathe the same patriotic spirit, and to exhibit the same
national peculiarities that had distinguished it from the time of the Cid,
submitted soon after Ferdinand's death to the influence of the more
polished Tuscan, and henceforth, losing somewhat of its distinctive
physiognomy, assumed many of the prevalent features of continental
literature. Thus the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella becomes an epoch as
memorable in literary, as in civil history.

The most copious vein of fancy, in that day, was turned in the direction
of the prose romance of chivalry; now seldom disturbed, even in its own
country, except by the antiquary. The circumstances of the age naturally
led to its production. The romantic Moorish wars, teeming with adventurous
exploit and picturesque incident, carried on with the natural enemies of
the Christian knight, and opening moreover all the legendary stores of
Oriental fable,--the stirring adventures by sea as well as land,--above
all, the discovery of a world beyond the waters, whose unknown regions
gave full scope to the play of the imagination, all contributed to
stimulate the appetite for the incredible chimeras, the _magnanime
menzogne_, of chivalry. The publication of "Amadis de Gaula" gave a
decided impulse to this popular feeling. This romance, which seems now
well ascertained to be the production of a Portuguese in the latter half
of the fourteenth century, [2] was first printed in a Spanish version,
probably not far from 1490. [3] Its editor, Garci Ordoñez de Montalvo,
states, in his prologue, that "he corrected it from the ancient originals,
pruning it of all superfluous phrases, and substituting others of a more
polished and elegant style." [4] How far its character was benefited by
this work of purification may be doubted; although it is probable it did
not suffer so much by such a process as it would have done in a later and
more cultivated period. The simple beauties of this fine old romance, its
bustling incidents, relieved by the delicate play of Oriental machinery,
its general truth of portraiture, above all, the knightly character of the
hero, who graced the prowess of chivalry with a courtesy, modesty, and
fidelity unrivalled in the creations of romance, soon recommended it to
popular favor and imitation. A continuation, bearing the title of "Las
Sergas de Esplandian," was given to the world by Montalvo himself, and
grafted on the original stock, as the fifth book of the Amadis, before
1510. A sixth, containing the adventures of his nephew, was printed at
Salamanca in the course of the last-mentioned year; and thus the idle
writers of the day continued to propagate dulness through a series of
heavy tomes, amounting in all to four and twenty books, until the much-
abused public would no longer suffer the name of Amadis to cloak the
manifold sins of his posterity. [5] Other knights-errant were sent roving
about the world at the same time, whose exploits would fill a library; but
fortunately they have been permitted to pass into oblivion, from which a
few of their names only have been rescued by the caustic criticism of the
curate in Don Quixote; who, it will be remembered, after declaring that
the virtues of the parent shall not avail his posterity, condemns them and
their companions, with one or two exceptions only, to the fatal funeral
pile. [6]

These romances of chivalry must have undoubtedly contributed to nourish
those exaggerated sentiments, which from a very early period entered into
the Spanish character. Their evil influence, in a literary view, resulted
less from their improbabilities of situation, which they possessed in
common with the inimitable Italian epics, than from the false pictures
which they presented of human character, familiarizing the eye of the
reader with such models as debauched the taste, and rendered him incapable
of relishing the chaste and sober productions of art. It is remarkable
that the chivalrous romance, which was so copiously cultivated through the
greater part of the sixteenth century, should not have assumed the poetic
form, as in Italy, and indeed among our Norman ancestors; and that, in its
prose dress, no name of note appears to raise it to a high degree of
literary merit. Perhaps such a result might have been achieved, but for
the sublime parody of Cervantes, which cut short the whole race of
knights-errant, and by the fine irony, which it threw around the mock
heroes of chivalry, extinguished them for ever. [7]

The most popular poetry of this period, that springing from the body of
the people, and most intimately addressed to it, is the ballads, or
_romances_, as they are termed in Spain. These indeed were familiar
to the Peninsula as far back as the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; but
in the present reign they received a fresh impulse from the war with
Granada, and composed, under the name of the Moorish ballads, what may
perhaps be regarded, without too high praise, as the most exquisite
popular minstrelsy of any age or country.

The humble narrative lyrics making up the mass of ballad poetry, and
forming the natural expression of a simple state of society, would seem to
be most abundant in nations endowed with keen sensibilities, and placed in
situations of excitement and powerful interest, fitted to develop them.
The light and lively French have little to boast of in this way. [8] The
Italians, with a deeper poetic feeling, were too early absorbed in the
gross business habits of trade, and their literature received too high a
direction from its master spirits, at its very commencement, to allow any
considerable deviation in this track. The countries where it has most
thriven, are probably Great Britain and Spain. The English and the Scotch,
whose constitutionally pensive and even melancholy temperament has been
deepened by the sober complexion of the climate, were led to the
cultivation of this poetry still further by the stirring scenes of feudal
warfare in which they were engaged, especially along the borders. The
Spaniards, to similar sources of excitement, added that of high religious
feeling in their struggles with the Saracens, which gave a somewhat
loftier character to their effusions. Fortunately for them, their early
annals gave birth, in the Cid, to a hero whose personal renown was
identified with that of his country, round whose name might be
concentrated all the scattered lights of song, thus enabling the nation to
build up its poetry on the proudest historic recollections. [9] The feats
of many other heroes, fabulous as well as real, were permitted to swell
the stream of traditionary verse; and thus a body of poetical annals,
springing up as it were from the depths of the people, was bequeathed from
sire to son, contributing, perhaps, more powerfully than any real history
could have done, to infuse a common principle of patriotism into the
scattered members of the nation.

There is considerable resemblance between the early Spanish ballad and the
British. The latter affords more situations of pathos and deep tenderness,
particularly those of suffering, uncomplaining love, a favorite theme with
old English poets of every description. [10] We do not find, either, in
the ballads of the Peninsula, the wild, romantic adventures of the roving
outlaw, of the Robin Hood genus, which enter so largely into English
minstrelsy. The former are in general of a more sustained and chivalrous
character, less gloomy, and although fierce not so ferocious, nor so
decidedly tragical in their aspect, as the latter. The ballads of the Cid,
however, have many points in common with the border poetry; the same free
and cordial manner, the same love of military exploit, relieved by a
certain tone of generous gallantry, and accompanied by a strong expression
of national feeling.

The resemblance between the minstrelsy of the two countries vanishes,
however, as we approach the Moorish ballads. The Moorish wars had always
afforded abundant themes of interest for the Castilian muse; but it was
not till the fall of the capital, that the very fountains of song were
broken up, and those beautiful ballads were produced, which seem like the
echoes of departed glory, lingering round the ruins of Granada.
Incompetent as these pieces may be as historical records, they are
doubtless sufficiently true to manners. [11] They present a most
remarkable combination, of not merely the exterior form, but the noble
spirit of European chivalry, with the gorgeousness and effeminate luxury
of the east. They are brief, seizing single situations of the highest
poetic interest, and striking the eye of the reader with a brilliancy of
execution, so artless in appearance withal as to seem rather the effect of
accident than study. We are transported to the gay seat of Moorish power,
and witness the animating bustle, its pomp and its revelry, prolonged to
the last hour of its existence. The bull-fight of the Vivarrambla, the
graceful tilt of reeds, the amorous knights with their quaint significant
devices, the dark Zegris, or Gomeres, and the royal, self-devoted
Abencerrages, the Moorish maiden radiant at the tourney, the moonlight
serenade, the stolen interview, where the lover gives vent to all the
intoxication of passion in the burning language of Arabian metaphor and
hyperbole, [12]--these, and a thousand similar scenes, are brought before
the eye, by a succession of rapid and animated touches, like the lights
and shadows of a landscape. The light trochaic structure of the
_redondilla_ [13], as the Spanish ballad measure is called, rolling
on its graceful, negligent _asonante_, [14] whose continued repetition
seems by its monotonous melody to prolong the note of feeling originally
struck, is admirably suited by its flexibility to the most varied and
opposite expression; a circumstance which has recommended it as the
ordinary measure of dramatic dialogue.

Nothing can be more agreeable than the general effect of the Moorish
ballads, which combine the elegance of a riper period of literature, with
the natural sweetness and simplicity, savoring sometimes even of the
rudeness, of a primitive age. Their merits have raised them to a sort of
classical dignity in Spain, and have led to their cultivation by a higher
order of writers, and down to a far later period, than in any other
country in Europe. The most successful specimens of this imitation may be
assigned to the early part of the seventeenth century; but the age was too
late to enable the artist, with all his skill, to seize the true coloring
of the antique. It is impossible, at this period, to ascertain the authors
of these venerable lyrics, nor can the exact time of their production be
now determined; although, as their subjects are chiefly taken from the
last days of the Spanish Arabian empire, the larger part of them was
probably posterior, and, as they were printed in collections at the
beginning of the sixteenth century, could not have been long posterior, to
the capture of Granada. How far they may be referred to the conquered
Moors, is uncertain. Many of these wrote and spoke the Castilian with
elegance, and there is nothing improbable in the supposition, that they
should seek some solace under present evils in the splendid visions of the
past. The bulk of this poetry, however, was in all probability the
creation of the Spaniards themselves, naturally attracted by the
picturesque circumstances in the character and condition of the conquered
nation to invest them with poetic interest.

The Moorish _romances_ fortunately appeared after the introduction of
printing into the Peninsula, so that they were secured a permanent
existence, instead of perishing with the breath that made them, like so
many of their predecessors. This misfortune, which attaches to so much of
popular poetry in all nations, is not imputable to any insensibility in
the Spaniards to the excellence of their own. Men of more erudition than
taste may have held them light, in comparison with more ostentatious and
learned productions. This fate has befallen them in other countries than
Spain. [15] But persons of finer poetic feeling, and more enlarged spirit
of criticism, have estimated them as a most essential and characteristic
portion of Castilian literature. Such was the judgment of the great Lope
de Vega, who, after expatiating on the extraordinary compass and sweetness
of the _romance_, and its adaptation to the highest subjects, commends it
as worthy of all estimation for its peculiar national character. [16] The
modern Spanish writers have adopted a similar tone of criticism, insisting
on its study, as essential to a correct appreciation and comprehension of
the genius of the language. [17]

The Castilian ballads were first printed in the "Cancionero General" of
Fernando del Castillo, in 1511. They were first incorporated into a
separate work, by Sepulveda, under the name of "Romances sacados de
Historias Antiguas," printed at Antwerp, in 1551. [18] Since that period,
they have passed into repeated editions, at home and abroad, especially in
Germany, where they have been illustrated by able critics. [19] Ignorance
of their authors, and of the era of their production, has prevented any
attempt at exact chronological arrangement; a circumstance rendered,
moreover, nearly impossible, by the perpetual modification which the
original style of the more ancient ballads has experienced, in their
transition through successive generations; so that, with one or two
exceptions, no earlier date should probably be assigned to the oldest of
them, in their present form, than the fifteenth century. [20] Another
system of classification has been adopted, of distributing them according
to their subjects; and independent collections also of the separate
departments, as ballads of the Cid, of the Twelve Peers, the Morisco
ballads, and the like, have been repeatedly published, both at home and
abroad. [21]

The higher and educated classes of the nation were not insensible to the
poetic spirit, which drew forth such excellent minstrelsy from the body of
the people. Indeed, Castilian poetry bore the same patrician stamp through
the whole of the present reign, which had been impressed on it in its
infancy. Fortunately, the new art of printing was employed here, as in the
case of the _romances_, to arrest those fugitive sallies of imagination,
which in other countries were permitted, from want of this care, to pass
into oblivion; and _cancioneros_, or collections of lyrics, were
published, embodying the productions of this reign and that of John the
Second, thus bringing under one view the poetic culture of the fifteenth
century.

The earliest _cancionero_ printed was at Saragossa, in 1492. It
comprehended the works of Mena, Manrique, and six or seven other bards of
less note. [22] A far more copious collection was made by Fernando del
Castillo, and first published at Valencia, in 1511, under the title of
"Cancionero General," since which period it has passed into repeated
editions. This compilation is certainly more creditable to Castillo's
industry, than to his discrimination or power of arrangement. Indeed, in
this latter respect it is so defective, that it would almost seem to have
been put together fortuitously, as the pieces came to hand. A large
portion of the authors appear to have been persons of rank; a circumstance
to which perhaps they were indebted, more than to any poetic merit, for a
place in the miscellany, which might have been decidedly increased in
value by being diminished in bulk. [23]

The _works of devotion_ with which the collection opens, are on the
whole the feeblest portion of it. We discern none of the inspiration and
lyric glow, which were to have been anticipated from the devout,
enthusiastic Spaniard. We meet with anagrams on the Virgin, glosses on the
creed and pater noster, _canciones_ on original sin and the like
unpromising topics, all discussed in the most bald, prosaic manner, with
abundance of Latin phrase, scriptural allusion, and commonplace precept,
unenlivened by a single spark of true poetic fire, and presenting
altogether a farrago of the most fantastic pedantry.

The lighter, especially the amatory poems, are much more successfully
executed, and the primitive forms of the old Castilian versification are
developed with considerable variety and beauty. Among the most agreeable
effusions in this way, may be noticed those of Diego Lopez de Haro, who,
to borrow the encomium of a contemporary, was "the mirror of gallantry for
the young cavaliers of the time." There are few verses in the collection
composed with more facility and grace. [24] Among the more elaborate
pieces, Diego de San Pedro's "Desprecio de la Fortuna" may be
distinguished, not so much for any poetic talent which it exhibits, as for
its mercurial and somewhat sarcastic tone of sentiment. [25] The
similarity of subject may suggest a parallel between it and the Italian
poet Guidi's celebrated ode on Fortune; and the different styles of
execution may perhaps be taken, as indicating pretty fairly the
distinctive peculiarities of the Tuscan and the old Spanish school of
poetry. The Italian, introducing the fickle goddess, in person, on the
scene, describes her triumphant march over the ruins of empires and
dynasties, from the earliest time, in a flow of lofty dithyrambic
eloquence, adorned with all the brilliant coloring of a stimulated fancy
and a highly finished language. The Castilian, on the other hand, instead
of this splendid personification, deepens his verse into a moral tone,
and, dwelling on the vicissitudes and vanities of human life, points his
reflections with some caustic warning, often conveyed with enchanting
simplicity, but without the least approach to lyric exaltation, or indeed
the affectation of it.

This proneness to moralize the song is in truth a characteristic of the
old Spanish bard. He rarely abandons himself, without reserve, to the
frolic puerilities so common with the sister Muse of Italy,

  "Scritta così come la penna getta,
  Per fuggir l'ozio, e non per cercar gloria."

It is true, he is occasionally betrayed by verbal subtilties and other
affectations of the age; [26] but even his liveliest sallies are apt to be
seasoned with a moral, or sharpened by a satiric sentiment. His defects,
indeed, are of the kind most opposed to those of the Italian poet, showing
themselves, especially in the more elaborate pieces, in a certain tumid
stateliness and overstrained energy of diction.

On the whole, one cannot survey the "Cancionero General" without some
disappointment at the little progress of the poetic art, since the reign
of John the Second, at the beginning of the century. The best pieces in
the collection are of that date, and no rival subsequently arose to
compete with the masculine strength of Mena, or the delicacy and
fascinating graces of Santillana. One cause of this tardy progress may
have been the direction to utility manifested in this active reign, which
led such as had leisure for intellectual pursuits to cultivate science,
rather than abandon themselves to the mere revels of the imagination.

Another cause may be found in the rudeness of the language, whose delicate
finish is so essential to the purposes of the poet, but which was so
imperfect at this period that Juan de la Encina, a popular writer of the
time, complained that he was obliged, in his version of Virgil's Eclogues,
to coin, as it were, a new vocabulary, from the want of terms
corresponding with the original, in the old one. [27] It was not until the
close of the present reign, when the nation began to breathe awhile from
its tumultuous career, that the fruits of the patient cultivation which it
had been steadily, though silently experiencing, began to manifest
themselves in the improved condition of the language, and its adaptation
to the highest poetical uses. The intercourse with Italy, moreover, by
naturalizing new and more finished forms of versification, afforded a
scope for the nobler efforts of the poet, to which the old Castilian
measures, however well suited to the wild and artless movements of the
popular minstrelsy, were altogether inadequate.

We must not dismiss the miscellaneous poetry of this period, without some
notice of the "Coplas" of Don Jorge Manrique, [28] on the death of his
father, the count of Paredes, in 1474 [29]. The elegy is of considerable
length, and is sustained throughout in a tone of the highest moral
dignity, while the poet leads us up from the transitory objects of this
lower world to the contemplation of that imperishable existence, which
Christianity has opened beyond the grave. A tenderness pervades the piece,
which may remind us of the best manner of Petrarch; while, with the
exception of a slight taint of pedantry, it is exempt from the
meretricious vices that belong to the poetry of the age. The effect of the
sentiment is heightened by the simple turns and broken melody of the old
Castilian verse, of which perhaps this may be accounted the most finished
specimen; such would seem to be the judgment of his own countrymen, [30]
whose glosses and commentaries on it have swelled into a separate volume.
[31]

I shall close this survey with a brief notice of the drama, whose
foundations may be said to have been laid during this reign. The sacred
plays, or mysteries, so popular throughout Europe in the Middle Ages, may
be traced in Spain to an ancient date. Their familiar performance in the
churches, by the clergy, is recognized in the middle of the thirteenth
century, by a law of Alfonso the Tenth, which, while it interdicted
certain profane mummeries that had come into vogue, prescribed the
legitimate topics for exhibition. [32]

The transition from these rude spectacles to more regular dramatic
efforts, was very slow and gradual. In 1414, an allegorical comedy,
composed by the celebrated Henry, marquis of Villena, was performed at
Saragossa, in the presence of the court. [33] In 1469, a dramatic eclogue
by an anonymous author was exhibited in the palace of the count of Ureña,
in the presence of Ferdinand, on his coming into Castile to espouse the
infanta Isabella. [34] These pieces may be regarded as the earliest
theatrical attempts, after the religious dramas and popular pantomimes
already noticed; but unfortunately they have not come down to us. The next
production deserving attention is a "Dialogue between Love and an Old
Man," imputed to Rodrigo Cota, a poet of whose history nothing seems to be
known, and little conjectured, but that he flourished during the reigns of
John the Second, and Henry the Fourth. The dialogue is written with much
vivacity and grace, and with as much dramatic movement as is compatible
with only two interlocutors. [35]

A much more memorable production is referred to the same author, the
tragicomedy of "Celestina," or "Calisto and Melibea," as it is frequently
called. The first act, indeed, constituting nearly one-third of the piece,
is all that is ascribed to Cota. The remaining twenty, which however
should rather be denominated scenes, were continued by another hand, some,
though to judge from the internal evidence afforded by the style, not many
years later. The second author was Fernando de Roxas, bachelor of law, as
he informs us, who composed this work as a sort of intellectual
relaxation, during one of his vacations. The time was certainly not
misspent. The continuation, however, is not esteemed by the Castilian
critics to have risen quite to the level of the original act. [36]

The story turns on a love intrigue. A Spanish youth of rank is enamoured
of a lady, whose affections he gains with some difficulty, but whom he
finally seduces, through the arts of an accomplished courtesan, whom the
author has introduced under the romantic name of Celestina. The piece,
although comic, or rather sentimental in its progress, terminates in the
most tragical catastrophe, in which all the principal actors are involved.
The general texture, of the plot is exceedingly clumsy, yet it affords
many situations of deep and varied interest in its progress. The principal
characters are delineated in the piece with considerable skill. The part
of Celestina, in particular, in which a veil of plausible hypocrisy is
thrown over the deepest profligacy of conduct, is managed with much
address. The subordinate parts are brought into brisk comic action, with
natural dialogue, though sufficiently obscene; and an interest of a graver
complexion is raised by the passion of the lovers, the timid, confiding
tenderness of the lady, and the sorrows of the broken-hearted parent. The
execution of the play reminds us on the whole less of the Spanish, than of
the old English theatre, in many of its defects, as well as beauties; in
the contrasted strength and imbecility of various passages; its
intermixture of broad farce and deep tragedy; the unseasonable
introduction of frigid metaphor and pedantic allusion in the midst of the
most passionate discourses; in the unveiled voluptuousness of its
coloring, occasionally too gross for any public exhibition; but, above
all, in the general strength and fidelity of its portraiture.

The tragicomedy, as it is styled, of Celestina, was obviously never
intended for representation, to which, not merely the grossness of some of
the details, but the length and arrangement of the piece, are unsuitable.
But, notwithstanding this, and its approximation to the character of a
romance, it must be admitted to contain within itself the essential
elements of dramatic composition; and, as such, is extolled by the Spanish
critics, as opening the theatrical career of Europe. A similar claim has
been maintained for nearly contemporaneous productions in other countries,
and especially for Politian's "Orfeo," which, there is little doubt, was
publicly acted before 1483. Notwithstanding its representation, however,
the "Orfeo," presenting a combination of the eclogue and the ode, without
any proper theatrical movement, or attempt at development of character,
cannot fairly come within the limits of dramatic writing. A more ancient
example than either, at least as far as the exterior forms are concerned,
may be probably found in the celebrated French farce of Pierre Pathelin,
printed as early as 1474, having been repeatedly played during the
preceding century, and which, with the requisite modifications, still
keeps possession of the stage. The pretensions of this piece, however, as
a work of art, are comparatively humble; and it seems fair to admit, that
in the higher and more important elements of dramatic composition, and
especially in the delicate, and at the same time powerful delineation of
character and passion, the Spanish critics may be justified in regarding
the "Celestina" as having led the way in modern Europe. [37]

Without deciding on its proper classification as a work of art, however,
its real merits are settled by its wide popularity, both at home and
abroad. It has been translated into most of the European languages, and
the preface to the last edition, published in Madrid, so recently as 1822,
enumerates thirty editions of it in Spain alone, in the course of the
sixteenth century. Impressions were multiplied in Italy, and at the very
time when it was interdicted at home on the score of its immoral tendency.
A popularity thus extending through distant ages and nations, shows how
faithfully it is built on the principles of human nature. [38]

The drama assumed the pastoral form, in its early stages, in Spain, as in
Italy. The oldest specimens in this way, which have come down to us, are
the productions of Juan de la Encina, a contemporary of Roxas. He was born
in 1469, and, after completing his education at Salamanca, was received
into the family of the duke of Alva. He continued there several years,
employed in the composition of various poetical works, among others, a
version of Virgil's Eclogues, which he so altered as to accommodate them
to the principal events in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. He visited
Italy in the beginning of the following century, and was attracted by the
munificent patronage of Leo the Tenth to fix his residence at the papal
court. While there, he continued his literary labors. He embraced the
ecclesiastical profession; and his skill in music recommended him to the
office of principal director of the pontifical chapel. He was subsequently
presented with the priory of Leon, and returned to Spain, where he died in
1534. [39]

Encina's works first appeared at Salamanca, in 1496, collected into one
volume, folio. [40] Besides other poetry, they comprehend a number of
dramatic eclogues, sacred and profane; the former, suggested by topics
drawn from Scripture, like the ancient mysteries; the latter, chiefly
amatory. They were performed in the palace of his patron, the duke of
Alva, in the presence of Prince John, the duke of Infantado, and other
eminent persons of the court; and the poet himself occasionally assisted
at the representation. [41]

 Encina's eclogues are simple compositions, with little pretence to
dramatic artifice. The story is too meagre to admit of much ingenuity or
contrivance, or to excite any depth of interest. There are few
interlocutors, seldom more than three or four, although on one occasion
rising to as many as seven; of course, there is little scope for
theatrical action. The characters are of the humble class belonging to
pastoral life, and the dialogue, which is extremely appropriate, is
conducted with facility; but the rustic condition of the speakers
precludes anything like literary elegance or finish, in which respect they
are doubtless surpassed by some of his more ambitious compositions. There
is a comic air imparted to them, however, and a lively colloquial turn,
which renders them very agreeable. Still, whatever be their merit as
pastorals, they are entitled to little consideration as specimens of
dramatic art; and, in the vital spirit of dramatic composition, must be
regarded as far inferior to the "Celestina." The simplicity of these
productions, and the facility of their exhibition, which required little
theatrical decoration or costume, recommended them to popular imitation,
which continued long after the regular forms of the drama were introduced
into Spain. [42]

The credit of this introduction belongs to Bartholomeo Torres de Naharro,
often confounded by the Castilian writers themselves with a player of the
same name, who flourished half a century later. [43] Few particulars have
been ascertained of his personal history. He was born at Torre, in the
province of Estremadura. In the early part of his life he fell into the
hands of the Algerines, and was finally released from captivity by the
exertions of certain benevolent Italians, who generously paid his ransom.
He then established his residence in Italy, at the court of Leo the Tenth.
Under the genial influence of that patronage, which quickened so many of
the seeds of genius to production in every department, he composed his
"Propaladia," a work embracing a variety of lyrical and dramatic poetry,
first published at Rome, in 1517. Unfortunately, the caustic satire,
levelled in some of the higher pieces of this collection at the license of
the pontifical court, brought such obloquy on the head of the author as
compelled him to take refuge in Naples, where he remained under the
protection of the noble family of Colonna. No further particulars are
recorded of him except that he embraced the ecclesiastical profession; and
the time and place of his death are alike uncertain. In person he is said
to have been comely, with an amiable disposition, and sedate and dignified
demeanor. [44]

His "Propaladia," first published at Rome, passed through several editions
subsequently in Spain, where it was alternately prohibited, or permitted,
according to the caprice of the Holy Office. It contains, among other
things, eight comedies, written in the native _redondillas_; which
continue to be regarded as the suitable measure for the drama. They afford
the earliest example of the division into _jornadas_, or days, and of
the _intróito_, or prologue, in which the author, after propitiating
the audience by suitable compliment, and witticisms not over delicate,
gives a view of the length and general scope of his play. [45]

The scenes of Naharro's comedies, with a single exception, are laid in
Spain and Italy; those in the latter country probably being selected with
reference to the audiences before whom they were acted. The diction is
easy and correct, without much affectation of refinement or rhetorical
ornament. The dialogue, especially in the lower parts, is sustained with
much comic vivacity; indeed, Naharro seems to have had a nicer perception
of character as it is found in lower life, than as it exists in the
higher; and more than one of his plays are devoted exclusively to its
illustration. On some occasions, however, the author assumes a more
elevated tone, and his verse rises to a degree of poetic beauty, deepened
by the moral reflection so characteristic of the Spaniards. At other
times, his pieces are disfigured by such a Babel-like confusion of
tongues, as makes it doubtful which may be the poet's vernacular. French,
Spanish, Italian, with a variety of barbarous _patois_, and mongrel
Latin, are all brought into play at the same time, and all comprehended,
apparently with equal facility, by each one of the _dramatis personae_.
But it is difficult to conceive how such a jargon could have been
comprehended, far more relished, by an Italian audience. [46]

Naharro's comedies are not much to be commended for the intrigue, which
generally excites but a languid interest, and shows little power or
adroitness in the contrivance. With every defect, however, they must be
allowed to have given the first forms to Spanish comedy, and to exhibit
many of the features which continued to be characteristic of it in a state
of more perfect development under Lope de Vega and Calderon. Such, for
instance, is the amorous jealousy, and especially the point of honor, so
conspicuous on the Spanish theatre; and such, too, the moral confusion too
often produced by blending the foulest crimes with zeal for religion. [47]

These comedies, moreover, far from blind conformity with the ancients,
discovered much of the spirit of independence, and deviated into many of
the eccentricities which distinguish the national theatre in later times;
and which the criticism of our own day has so successfully explained and
defended on philosophical principles.

Naharro's plays were represented, as appears from his prologue, in Italy,
probably not at Rome, which he quitted soon after their publication, but
at Naples, which, then forming a part of the Spanish dominions, might more
easily furnish an audience capable of comprehending them. [48] It is
remarkable that, notwithstanding their repeated editions in Spain, they do
not appear to have ever been performed there. The cause of this, probably,
was the low state of the histrionic art, and the total deficiency in
theatrical costume and decoration; yet it was not easy to dispense with
these in the representation of pieces, which brought more than a score of
persons occasionally, and these crowned heads, at the same time, upon the
stage. [49]

Some conception may be afforded of the lamentable poverty of the
theatrical equipment, from the account given of its condition, half a
century later, by Cervantes. "The whole wardrobe of a manager of the
theatre, at that time," says he, "was contained in a single sack, and
amounted only to four dresses of white fur trimmed, with gilt leather,
four beards, four wigs, and four crooks, more or less. There were no
trapdoors, movable clouds, or machinery of any kind. The stage itself
consisted only of four or six planks, placed across as many benches,
arranged in the form of a square, and elevated but four palms from the
ground. The only decoration of the theatre was an old coverlet, drawn from
side to side by cords, behind which the musicians sang some ancient
_romance_, without the guitar." [50] In fact, no further apparatus
was employed than that demanded for the exhibition of mysteries, or the
pastoral dialogues which succeeded them. The Spaniards, notwithstanding
their precocity, compared with most of the nations of Europe, in dramatic
art, were unaccountably tardy in all its histrionic accompaniments. The
public remained content with such poor mummeries, as could be got up by
strolling players and mountebanks. There was no fixed theatre in Madrid
until the latter part of the sixteenth century; and that consisted of a
courtyard, with only a roof to shelter it, while the spectators sat on
benches ranged around, or at the windows of the surrounding houses. [51]

A similar impulse with that experienced by comic writing, was given to
tragedy. The first that entered on this department were professed
scholars, who adopted the error of the Italian dramatists, in fashioning
their pieces servilely after the antique, instead of seizing the
expression of their own age. The most conspicuous attempts in this way
were made by Fernan Perez de Oliva. [52] He was born at Cordova, in 1494,
and, after many years passed in the various schools of Spain, France, and
Italy, returned to his native land, and became a lecturer in the
university of Salamanca. He instructed in moral philosophy and
mathematics, and established the highest reputation for his critical
acquaintance with the ancient languages and his own. He died young, at the
age of thirty-nine, deeply lamented for his moral, no less than for his
intellectual worth. [53]

His various works were published by the learned Morales, his nephew, some
fifty years after his death. Among them are translations in prose of the
Electra of Sophocles, and the Hecuba of Euripides. They may with more
propriety be termed imitations, and those too of the freest kind. Although
they conform, in the general arrangement and progress of the story, to
their originals, yet characters, nay whole scenes and dialogues, are
occasionally omitted; and in those retained, it is not always easy to
recognize the hand of the Grecian artist, whose modest beauties are thrown
into shade by the ambitious ones of his imitator. [54] But with all this,
Oliva's tragedies must be admitted to be executed, on the whole, with
vigor; and the diction, notwithstanding the national tendency to
exaggeration above alluded to, may be generally commended for decorum and
an imposing dignity, quite worthy of the tragic drama; indeed, they may be
selected as affording probably the best specimen of the progress of prose
composition during the present reign. [55]

Oliva's reputation led to a similar imitation of the antique. But the
Spaniards were too national in all their tastes to sanction it. These
classical compositions did not obtain possession of the stage, but were
confined to the closet, serving only as a relaxation for the man of
letters; while the voice of the people compelled all who courted it, to
accommodate their inventions to those romantic forms, which were
subsequently developed in such variety of beauty by the great Spanish
dramatists. [56]

We have now surveyed the different kinds of poetic culture familiar to
Spain under Ferdinand and Isabella. Their most conspicuous element is the
national spirit which pervades them, and the exclusive attachment which
they manifest to the primitive forms of versification peculiar to the
Peninsula. The most remarkable portion of this body of poetry may
doubtless be considered the Spanish _romances_, or ballads; that
popular minstrelsy, which, commemorating the picturesque and chivalrous
incidents of the age, reflects most faithfully the romantic genius of the
people who gave it utterance. The lyric efforts of the period were less
successful. There were few elaborate attempts in this field, indeed, by
men of decided genius. But the great obstacle may be found in the
imperfection of the language and the deficiency of the more exact and
finished metrical forms, indispensable to high poetic execution.

The whole period, however, comprehending, as it does, the first decided
approaches to a regular drama, may be regarded as very important in a
literary aspect; since it exhibits the indigenous peculiarities of
Castilian literature in all their freshness, and shows to what a degree of
excellence it could attain, while untouched by any foreign influence. The
present reign may be regarded as the epoch which divides the ancient from
the modern school of Spanish poetry; in which the language was slowly but
steadily undergoing the process of refinement, that "made the knowledge of
it," to borrow the words of a contemporary critic, "pass for an elegant
accomplishment, even with the cavaliers and dames of cultivated Italy;"
[57] and which finally gave full scope to the poetic talent, that raised
the literature of the country to such brilliant heights in the sixteenth
century.

       *       *       *       *       *

I have had occasion to advert more than once in the course of this chapter
to the superficial acquaintance of the Spanish critics with the early
history of their own drama, authentic materials for which are so extremely
rare and difficult of access, as to preclude the expectation of anything
like a satisfactory account of it out of the Peninsula. The nearest
approach to this within my knowledge is made in an article in the eighth
number of the American Quarterly Review, ascribed to Mr. Ticknor, late
Professor of Modern Literature in Harvard University. This gentleman,
during a residence in the Peninsula, had every facility for replenishing
his library with the most curious and valuable works, both printed and
manuscript, in this department; and his essay embodies in a brief compass
the results of a well-directed industry, which he has expanded in greater
detail in his lectures on Spanish literature, delivered before the classes
of the University. The subject is discussed with his usual elegance and
perspicuity of style; and the foreign, and indeed Castilian scholar, may
find much novel information there, in the views presented of the early
progress of the dramatic and the histrionic art in the Peninsula.

Since the publication of this article, Moratin's treatise, so long and
anxiously expected, "Orígenes del Teatro Español," has made its appearance
under the auspices of the Royal Academy of History, which has enriched the
national literature with so many admirable editions of its ancient
authors. Moratin states in his Preface, that he was employed from his
earliest youth in collecting notices, both at home and abroad, of whatever
might illustrate the origin of the Spanish drama. The results have been
two volumes, containing in the First Part an historical discussion, with
ample explanatory notes, and a catalogue of dramatic pieces from the
earliest epoch down to the time of Lope de Vega, chronologically arranged,
and accompanied with critical analyses, and copious illustrative extracts
from pieces of the greatest merit. The Second Part is devoted to the
publication of entire pieces of various authors, which from their extreme
rarity, or their existence only in manuscript, have had but little
circulation. The selections throughout are made with that careful
discrimination, which resulted from poetic talent combined with extensive
and thorough erudition. The criticisms, although sometimes warped by the
peculiar dramatic principles of the author, are conducted in general with
great fairness; and ample, but not extravagant, commendation is bestowed
on productions, whose merit, to be properly appreciated, must be weighed
by one conversant with the character and intellectual culture of the
period. The work unfortunately did not receive the last touches of its
author, and undoubtedly something may be found wanting to the full
completion of his design. On the whole, it must be considered as a rich
repertory of old Castilian literature, much of it of the most rare and
recondite nature, directed to the illustration of a department, that has
hitherto been suffered to languish in the lowest obscurity, but which is
now so arranged that it may be contemplated, as it were, under one aspect,
and its real merits accurately determined.

It was not till some time after the publication of this History, that my
attention was called to that portion of the writings of Don Martinez de la
Rosa, in which he criticizes the various departments of the national
literature. This criticism is embodied in the annotations and appendix to
his elegant "Poetica" (Obras Literarias, (Paris, 1827,) tom. i. ii.) The
former discuss the general laws, by which the various kinds of poetry are
to be regulated; the latter presents a very searching and scientific
analysis of the principal productions of the Spanish poets, down to the
close of the last century. The critic exemplifies his own views by copious
extracts from the subjects of his criticism, and throws much collateral
light on the argument by illustrations borrowed from foreign literature.
In the examination of the Spanish drama, especially comedy, which he
modestly qualifies as a "succinct notice, not very exact," he is very
elaborate; and discovers the same taste and sagacity in estimating the
merits of individual writers, which he had shown in discussing the general
principles of the art. Had I read his work sooner, it would have greatly
facilitated my own inquiries in the same obscure path; and I should have
recognized, at least, one brilliant exception to my sweeping remark on the
apathy manifested by the Castilian scholars to the antiquities of the
national drama.


FOOTNOTES

[1] Eichhorn, Geschichte der Kultur und Litteratur der Neueren Europa,
(Göttingen, 1796-1811,) pp. 129, 130.--See also the conclusion of the
Introduction, Sec. 2, of this History.

[2] Nic. Antonio seems unwilling to relinquish the pretensions of his own
nation to the authorship of this romance. (See Bibliotheca Nova, tom. ii.
p. 394.) Later critics, and among them Lampillas, (Ensayo Historico-
Apologético de la Literatura Española, (Madrid, 1789,) tom. v. p. 168,)
who resigns no more than he is compelled to do, are less disposed to
contest the claims of the Portuguese. Mr. Southey has cited two documents,
one historical, the other poetical, which seem to place its composition by
Lobeira in the latter part of the fourteenth century beyond any reasonable
doubt. (See Amadis of Gaul, pref.,--also Sarmiento, Memorias para la
Historia de la Poesía y Poetas Españoles, Obras Posthumas, (Madrid, 1775,)
tom. i. p. 239.) Bouterwek, and after him Sismondi, without adducing any
authority, have fixed the era of Lobeira's death at 1325. Dante, who died
but four years previous to that date, furnishes a negative argument, at
least, against this, since, in his notice of some doughty names of
chivalry then popular, he makes no allusion to Amadis, the best of all.
Inferno, cantos v., xxxi.

[3] The excellent old romance "Tirante the White," _Tirant lo Blanch_, was
printed at Valencia in 1490. (See Mendez, Typographia Española, tom. i.
pp. 72-75.) If, as Cervantes asserts, the "Amadis" was the first book of
chivalry printed in Spain, it must have been anterior to this date. This
is rendered probable by Montalvo's prologue to his edition at Saragossa,
in 1521, still preserved in the royal library at Madrid, where he alludes
to his former publication of it in the time of Ferdinand and Isabella.
(Cervantes, Don Quixote, ed. Pellicer, Discurso Prelim.)

Mr. Dunlop, who has analyzed these romances with a patience that more will
be disposed to commend than imitate, has been led into the error of
supposing that the first edition of the "Amadis" was printed at Seville,
in 1526, from detached fragments appearing in the time of Ferdinand and
Isabella, and subsequently by Montalvo, at Salamanca, in 1547. See History
of Prose Fiction, vol. ii. chap. 10.

[4] The following is Montalvo's brief prologue to the introduction of the
first book. "Aqvi comiença el primero libro del esforçado et virtuoso
cauallero Amadis hijo del rey Perion de Gaula; y dela reyna Elisena: el
qual fue coregido y emendado por el honrado y virtuoso cauallero
Garciordoñes de Montalvo, regidor dela noble uilla de Medina del campo; et
corregiole delos antiguos originales que estauan corruptos, et compuestos
en antiguo estilo: por falta delos diferentes escriptores. Quitando muchas
palabras superfluas; et poniendo otras de mas polido y elegante estilo:
tocantes ala caualleria et actos della, animando los coraçones gentiles de
manzebos belicosos que con grandissimo affetto abrazan el arte dela
milicia corporal animando la immortal memoria del arte de caualleria no
menos honestissimo que glorioso." Amadis de Gaula, (Venecia, 1533,) fol.
1.

[5] Nic. Antonio enumerates the editions of thirteen of this doughty
family of knights-errant. (Bibliotheca Nova, tom. ii. pp. 394, 395.) He
dismisses his notice with the reflection, somewhat more charitable than
that of Don Quixote's curate, that "he had felt little interest in
investigating these fables, yet was willing to admit, with others, that
their reading was not wholly useless."

Moratin has collected an appalling catalogue of _part_ of the books
of chivalry published in Spain at the close of the fifteenth and the
following century. The first on the list is the _Carcel de Amor_, por
Diego Hernandez de San Pedro, en Burgos, año de 1496. Obras, tom. i. pp.
93-98.

[6] Cervantes, Don Quixote, tom. i. part. 1, cap. 6.

The curate's wrath is very emphatically expressed. "Pues vayan todos al
corral, dixo el Cura, que a trueco de quemar a la reyna Pintiquïniestra, y
al pastor Darinel y a sus eglogas, y a las endiabladas y revueltas razones
de su autor, quemara con ellos al padre que me engendro si andubiera en
figura de caballero andante." The author of the "Dialogo de las Lenguas"
chimes in with the same tone of criticism. "Los quales," he says, speaking
of books of chivalry, "de mas de ser mentirossissimos, son tal mal
compuestos, assi por dezir las mentiras tan desvergonçadas, como por tener
el estilo desbaraçado, que no ay buen estomago que lo pueda leer." Apud
Mayans y Siscar, Orígenes, tom. ii. p. 158.

[7] The labors of Bowles, Rios, Arrieta, Pellicer, and Navarrete would
seem to have left little to desire in regard to the illustration of
Cervantes. But the commentaries of Clemencin, published since this chapter
was written, in 1833, show how much yet remained to be supplied. They
afford the most copious illustrations, both literary and historical, of
his author, and exhibit that nice taste in verbal criticism, which is not
always joined with such extensive erudition. Unfortunately, the premature
death of Clemencin has left the work unfinished; but the fragment
completed, which reaches to the close of the First Part, is of sufficient
value permanently to associate the name of its author with that of the
greatest genius of his country.

[8] The fabliaux cannot fairly be considered as an exception to this.
These graceful little performances, the work of professed bards, who had
nothing further in view than the amusement of a listless audience, have
little claim to be considered as the expression of national feeling or
sentiment. The poetry of the south of France, more impassioned and lyrical
in its character, wears the stamp, not merely of patrician elegance, but
refined artifice, which must not be confounded with the natural flow of
popular minstrelsy.

[9] How far the achievements claimed for the Campeador are strictly true,
is little to the purpose. It is enough that they were received as true,
throughout the Peninsula, as far back as the twelfth, or, at latest, the
thirteenth century.

[10] One exception, among others, readily occurs in the pathetic old
ballad of the Conde Alarcos, whose woful catastrophe, with the unresisting
suffering of the countess, suggests many points of coincidence with the
English minstrelsy. The English reader will find a version of it in the
"Ancient Poetry and Romances of Spain," from the pen of Mr. Bowring, to
whom the literary world is so largely indebted for an acquaintance with
the popular minstrelsy of Europe.

[11] I have already noticed the insufficiency of the _romances_ to
authentic history, Part I. Chap. 8, Note 30. My conclusions there have
been confirmed by Mr. Irving, (whose researches have led him in a similar
direction,) in his "Alhambra," published nearly a year after the above
note was written.

The great source of the popular misconceptions respecting the domestic
history of Granada is Gines Perez de Hyta, whose work, under the title of
"Historia de los Vandos de los Zegries y Abencerrages, Cavalleros Moros de
Granada, y las Guerras Civiles que huvo en ella," was published at Alcalá
in 1604. This romance, written in prose, embodied many of the old Moorish
ballads in it, whose singular beauty, combined with the romantic and
picturesque character of the work itself, soon made it extremely popular,
until at length it seems to have acquired a degree of the historical
credit claimed for it by its author as a translation from an Arabian
chronicle; a credit which has stood it in good stead with the tribe of
travel-mongers and _raconteurs_, persons always of easy faith, who
have propagated its fables far and wide. Their credulity, however, may be
pardoned in what has imposed on the perspicacity of so cautions an
historian as Müller. Allgemeine Geschichte, (1817,) band ii. p. 504.

[12] Thus, in one of their _romances_, we have a Moorish lady "shedding
drops of liquid silver, and scattering her hair of Arabian gold" over the
corpse of her murdered husband!

  "Sobre el cuerpo de Albencayde
  Destila liquida plata,
  Y convertida en cabellos
  Esparce el oro de Arabia."

Can anything be more Oriental than this imagery? In another we have "an
hour of years of impatient hopes;" a passionate sally, that can scarcely
be outmatched by Scriblerus. This taint of exaggeration, however, so far
from being peculiar to the popular minstrelsy, has found its way, probably
through this channel in part, into most of the poetry of the Peninsula.

[13] The _redondilla_ may be considered as the basis of Spanish
versification. It is of great antiquity, and compositions in it are still
extant, as old as the time of the infante Don Manuel, at the close of the
thirteenth century. (See Cancionero General, fol. 207.) The redondilla
admits of great variety; but in the romances it is most frequently found
to consist of eight syllables, the last foot, and some or all of the
preceding, as the case may be, being trochees. (Rengifo, Arte Poetica
Espanola, (Barcelona, 1727,) cap. 9, 44.) Critics have derived this
delightful measure from various sources. Sarmiento traces it to the
hexameter of the ancient Romans, which may be bisected into something
analogous to the redondillas. (Memorias, pp. 168-171.) Bouterwek thinks it
may have been suggested by the songs of the Roman soldiery. (Geschichte
der Poesie und Beredsamkeit, band iii., Einleitung, p. 20.)--Velazquez
borrows it from the rhyming hexameters of the Spanish Latin poets, of
which he gives specimens of the beginning of the fourteenth century.
(Poesía Castellana, pp. 77, 78.) Later critics refer its derivation to the
Arabic. Conde has given a translation of certain Spanish-Arabian poems, in
the measure of the original, from which it is evident, that the hemistich
of an Arabian verse corresponds perfectly with the redondilla. (See his
Dominacion de los Arabes, passim.) The same author, in a treatise, which
he never published, on the "poesía oriental," shows more precisely the
intimate affinity subsisting between the metrical form of the Arabian and
the old Castilian verse. The reader will find an analysis of his
manuscript in Part I. Chap. 8, Note 49, of this History.

This theory is rendered the more plausible by the influence which the
Arabic has exercised on Castilian versification in other respects, as in
the prolonged repetition of the rhyme, for example, which is wholly
borrowed from the Spanish Arabs; whose superior cultivation naturally
affected the unformed literature of their neighbors, and through no
channel more obviously than its popular minstrelsy.

[14] The _asonante_ is a rhyme made by uniformity of the vowels, without
reference to the consonants; the regular rhyme, which obtains in other
European literatures, is distinguished in Spain by the term _consonante_.
Thus the four following words, taken at random from a Spanish ballad, are
consecutive _asonantes_; _regozijo_, _pellico_, _luzido_, _amarillo_. In
this example, the two last syllables have the assonance; although this is
not invariable, it sometimes falling on the antepenultima and the final
syllable. (See Rengifo, Arte Poética Española, pp. 214, 215, 218.) There
is a wild, artless melody in the _asonante_, and a graceful movement
coming somewhere, as it does, betwixt regular rhyme and blank verse, which
would make its introduction very desirable, but not very feasible, in our
own language. An attempt of the kind has been made by a clever writer, in
the Retrospective Review. (Vol. iv. art. 2.) If it has failed, it is from
the impediments presented by the language, which has not nearly the same
amount of vowel terminations, nor of simple uniform vowel sounds, as the
Spanish; the double termination, however full of grace and beauty in the
Castilian, assumes, perhaps from the effect of association, rather a
doggerel air in the English.

[15] This may be still further inferred from the tenor of a humorous,
satirical old _romance_, in which the writer implores the justice of
Apollo on the heads of the swarm of traitor poets, who have deserted the
ancient themes of song, the Cids, the Laras, the Gonzalez, to celebrate
the Ganzuls and Abderrahmans and the fantastical fables of the Moors.

  "Tanta Zayda y Adalifa,
  tanta Draguta y Daraxa,
  tanto Azarque y tanto Adulce,
  tanto Gazul, y Abenamar,
  tanto alquizer y marlota,
  tanto almayzar, y almalafa,
  tantas emprisas y plumas,
  tantas cifras y medallas,
  tanta roperia Mora.
  Y en vanderillas y adargas,
  tanto mote, y tantas motas
  muera yo sino me cansan."

       *       *       *       *       *

  "Los Alfonsos, los Henricos,
  los Sanchos, y los de Lara,
  que es dellos, y que es del Cid?
  tanto olvido en glorias tantas?
  ninguna pluma las buela,
  ninguna Musa las canta?
  Justicia, Apollo, justicia,
  vengadores rayos lança
  contra Poetas Moriscos."

Dr. Johnson's opinions are well known, in regard to this department of
English literature, which, by his ridiculous parodies, he succeeded for a
time in throwing into the shade, or, in the language of his admiring
biographer, made "perfectly contemptible."

Petrarch, with like pedantry, rested his hopes of fame on his Latin epic,
and gave away his lyrics, as alms to ballad-singers. Posterity, deciding
on surer principles of taste, has reversed both these decisions.

[16] "Algunos quieren que sean la cartilla de los Poetas; yo no lo siento
assi; antes bien los hallo capaces, no solo de exprimir y declarar
qualquier concepto con facil dulzura, pero de prosequir toda grave accion
de numeroso Poema. Y soy tan de veras Español, que por ser en nuestro
idioma natural este genero, no me puedo persuadir que no sea digno de toda
estimacion."(Coleccion de Obras Sueltas, (Madrid, 1776-9,) tom. iv. p.
176, Prólogo.) In another place he finely styles them "Iliads without a
Homer."

[17] See, among others, the encomiastic and animated criticism of
Fernandez and Quintana. Fernandez, Poesías Escogidas, de Nuestros
Cancioneros y Romanceros Antiguos, (Madrid, 1796,) tom. xvi., Prólogo.--
Quintana, Poesías Selectas Castellanas, Introd. art. 4.

[18] Nic. Antonio, Bibliotheca Nova, tom. ii. p. 10.--The Spanish
translators of Bouterwek have noticed the principal "collections and
earliest editions" of the _Romances_. This original edition of Sepulveda
has escaped their notice. See Literatura Española, pp. 217, 218.

[19] See Grimm, Depping, Herder, etc. This last poet has embraced a
selection of the Cid ballads, chronologically arranged, and translated
with eminent simplicity and spirit, if not with the scrupulous fidelity
usually aimed at by the Germans. See his Sämmtliche Werke, (Wien, 1813,)
band iii.

[20] Sarmiento, Memorias, pp. 242, 243.--Moratin considers that none have
come down to us, in their original costume, of an earlier date than John
II.'s reign, the first half of the fifteenth century. (Obras, tom. i. p.
84.) The Spanish translators of Bouterwek transcribe a _romance_,
relating to the Cid, from the fathers Berganza and Merino, purporting to
exhibit the primitive, uncorrupted diction of the thirteenth century.
Native critics are of course the only ones competent to questions of this
sort; but, to the less experienced eye of a foreigner, the style of this
ballad would seem to resemble much less that genuine specimen of the
versification of the preceding age, the poem of the Cid, than the
compositions of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

[21] The principle of philosophical arrangement, if it may so be called,
is pursued still further in the latest Spanish publications of the
_romances_, where the Moorish minstrelsy is embodied in a separate
volume, and distributed with reference to its topics. This system is the
more practicable with this class of ballads, since it far exceeds in
number any other. See Duran, Romancero de Romances Moriscos.

The Romancero I have used is the ancient edition of Medina del Campo,
1602. It is divided into nine parts, though it is not easy to see on what
principle, since the productions of most opposite date and tenor are
brought into juxtaposition. The collection contains nearly a thousand
ballads, which, however, fall far short of the entire number preserved, as
may easily be seen by reference to other compilations. When to this is
added the consideration of the large number which insensibly glided into
oblivion without ever coming to the press, one may form a notion of the
immense mass of these humble lyrics, which floated among the common people
of Spain; and we shall be the less disposed to wonder at the proud and
chivalrous bearing that marks even the peasantry of a nation, which seems
to breathe the very air of romantic song.

[22] The title of this work was "Coplas de Vita Christi, de la Cena con la
Pasion, y de la Veronica con la Resurreccion de nuestro Redemtor. E las
siete Angustias e siete Gozos de nuestra Señora, con otras obras mucho
provechosas." It concludes with the following notice, "Fue la presente
obra emprentada en la insigne Ciudad de Zaragoza de Aragon por industria e
expensas de Paulo Hurus de Constancia aleman. A 27 dias de Noviembre,
1492." (Mendez, Typographia Española, pp. 134, 136.) It appears there were
two or three other cancioneros compiled, none of which, however, were
admitted to the honors of the press. (Bouterwek, Literatura Española,
nota.) The learned Castro, some fifty years since, published an analysis
with copious extracts from one of these made by Baena, the Jewish
physician of John II., a copy of which existed in the royal library of the
Escurial. Bibliotheca Española, tom. i. p. 265 et seq.

[23] Cancionero General, passim.--Moratin has given a list of the men of
rank who contributed to this miscellany; it contains the names of the
highest nobility of Spain. (Orig. del Teatro Español, Obras, tom. i. pp.
85, 86.) Castillo's Cancionero passed through several editions, the latest
of which appeared in 1573. See a catalogue, not entirely complete, of the
different Spanish Cancioneros in Bouterwek, Literatura Española, trad., p.
217.

[24] Cancionero General, pp. 83-89.--Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.

[25] Cancionero General, pp. 158-161.--Some meagre information of this
person is given by Nic. Antonio, whose biographical notices may be often
charged with deficiency in chronological data; a circumstance perhaps
unavoidable from the obscurity of their subjects. Biblioteca Vetus, tom.
ii. lib. 10, cap. 6.

[26] There are probably more direct puns in Petrarch's lyrics alone, than
in all the Cancionero General. There is another kind of _niaiserie_,
however, to which the Spanish poets were much addicted, being the
transposition of the word in every variety of sense and combination; as,
for example,

  "Acordad Vuestros olvidos
  Y olvida vuestros acuerdos
  Porque tales desacuerdos
  Acuerden vuestros sentidos," etc.

Cancionero General, fol. 226.

It was such subtilties as these, _entricadas razones_, as Cervantes
calls them, that addled the brains of poor Don Quixote. Tom. i. cap. 1.

[27] Velasquez, Poesía Castellana, p. 122.--More than half a century
later, the learned Ambrosio Morales complained of the barrenness of the
Castilian, which he imputed to the too exclusive adoption of the Latin
upon all subjects of dignity and importance. Obras, tom. xiv. pp. 147,
148.

[28] L. Marineo, speaking of this accomplished nobleman, styles him "virum
satis illustrem.--Eum enim poetam et philosophum natura formavit ac
peperit." He unfortunately fell in a skirmish, five years after his
father's death, in 1479. Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. p. 531.

[29] An elaborate character of this Quixotic old cavalier may be found in
Pulgar, Claros Varones, tit. 13.

[30] "Don Jorge Manrique," says Lope de Vega, "cuyas coplas Castellanas
admiren los ingenios estrangeros y merecen estar escritas con letras de
oro." Obras Sueltas, tom. xii. Prólogo.

[31] Coplas de Don Jorge Manrique, ed. Madrid, 1779.--Diálogo de las
Lenguas, apud Mayans y Siscar, Orígenes, tom. ii. p. 149.--Manrique's
Coplas have also been the subject of a separate publication in the United
States. Professor Longfellow's version, accompanying it, is well
calculated to give the English reader a correct notion of the Castilian
bard, and, of course, a very exaggerated one of the literary culture of
the age.

[32] After proscribing certain profane mummeries, the law confines the
clergy to the representation of such subjects as "the birth of our
Saviour, in which is shown how the angels appeared, announcing his
nativity; also his advent, and the coming of the three Magi kings to
worship him; and his resurrection, showing his crucifixion and ascension
on the third day; and other such things leading men to do well and live
constant in the faith." (Siete Partidas, tit. 6, ley 34.) It is worth
noting, that similar abuses continued common among the ecclesiastics, down
to Isabella's reign, as may be inferred from a decree, very similar to the
law of the Partidas above cited, published by the council of Aranda, in
1473. (Apud Moratin, Obras, tom. i. p. 87.) Moratin considers it certain,
that the representation of the mysteries existed in Spain, as far back as
the eleventh century. The principal grounds for this conjecture appear to
be, the fact that such notorious abuses had crept into practice by the
middle of the thirteenth century, as to require the intervention of the
law. (Ibid., pp. 11, 13.) The circumstance would seem compatible with a
much more recent origin.

[33] Cervantes, Comedias y Entremeses, (Madrid, 1749,) tom. i. prólogo de
Nasarre.--Velazquez, Poesía Castellana, p. 86.--The fifth volume of the
Memoirs of the Spanish Royal Academy of History contains a dissertation on
the "national diversions," by Don Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, replete
with curious erudition, and exhibiting the discriminating taste to have
been expected from its accomplished author. Among these antiquarian
researches, the writer has included a brief view of the first theatrical
attempts in Spain. See Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. v. Mem. 6.

[34] Moratin, Obras, tom. i. p. 115.--Nasarre (Cervantes, Comedias,
pról.), Jovellanos (Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. v. Memor. 6), Pellicer
(Orígen y Progreso de la Comedia, (1804,) tom. i. p. 12), and others,
refer the authorship of this little piece, without hesitation, to Juan de
la Encina, although the year of its representation corresponds precisely
with that of his birth. The prevalence of so gross a blunder among the
Spanish scholars, shows how little the antiquities of their theatre were
studied before the time of Moratin.

[35] This little piece has been published at length by Moratin, in the
first volume of his works. (See Orígenes del Teatro Español, Obras, tom.
i. pp. 303-314.)

The celebrated marquis of Santillana's poetical dialogue, "Comedieta da
Ponza," has no pretensions to rank as a dramatic composition,
notwithstanding its title, which is indeed as little significant of its
real character, as the term "Commedia" is of Dante's epic. It is a
discourse on the vicissitudes of human life, suggested by a sea-fight near
Ponza, in 1435. It is conducted without any attempt at dramatic action or
character, or, indeed, dramatic development of any sort. The same remarks
may be made of the political satire, "Mingo Revulgo," which appeared in
Henry IV.'s reign. Dialogue was selected by these authors as a more
popular and spirited medium than direct narrative for conveying their
sentiments. The "Comedieta da Ponza" has never appeared in print; the copy
which I have used is a transcript from the one in the royal library at
Madrid, and belongs to Mr. George Ticknor.

[36] Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea, (Alcalá, 1586,) Introd.--Nothing
is positively ascertained respecting the authorship of the first act of
the Celestina. Some impute it to Juan de Mena; others with more
probability to Rodrigo Cota el Tio, of Toledo, a person who, although
literally nothing is known of him, has in some way or other obtained the
credit of the authorship of some of the most popular effusions of the
fifteenth century; such, for example, as the Dialogue above cited of "Love
and an Old Man," the Coplas of "Mingo Revulgo," and this first act of the
"Celestina." The principal foundation of these imputations would appear to
be the bare assertion of an editor of the "Dialogue between Love and an
Old Man," which appeared at Medina del Campo, in 1569, nearly a century,
probably, after Cota's death; another example of the obscurity which
involves the history of the early Spanish drama. Many of the Castilian
critics detect a flavor of antiquity in the first act which should carry
back its composition as far as John II.'s reign. Moratin does not discern
this, however, and is inclined to refer its production to a date not much
more distant, if any, than Isabella's time. To the unpractised eye of a
foreigner, as far as style is concerned, the whole work might well seem
the production of the same period. Moratin, Obras, tom. i. pp. 88, 115,
116.--Diálogo de las Lenguas, apud Mayans y Siscar, Orígenes, pp. 165-
167.--Nic. Antonio, Bibliotheca Nova, tom. ii. p. 263.

[37] Such is the high encomium of the Abate Andres, (Letteratura, tom. v.
part. 2, lib. 1.)--Cervantes does not hesitate to call it "libro divino;"
and the acute author of the "Diálogo de las Lenguas" concludes a criticism
upon it with the remark, that "there is no book in the Castilian which
surpasses it in the propriety and elegance of its diction." (Don Quixote,
ed. de Pellicer, tom. i., p. 239.--Mayans y Siscar, tom. ii. p. 167.)

Its merits indeed seem in some degree to have disarmed even the severity
of foreign critics; and Signorelli, after standing up stoutly in defence
of the precedence of the "Orfeo" as a dramatic composition, admits the
"Celestina" to be a "work, rich in various beauties, and meriting
undoubted applause. In fact," he continues, "the vivacity of the
description of character, and faithful portraiture of manners, have made
it immortal." Storia Critica de' Teatri Antichi e Moderni, (Napoli, 1813,)
tom. vi. pp. 146, 147.

[38] Bouterwek, Literatura Española, notas de traductores, p. 234.--
Andres, Letteratura, tom. v. pp. 170, 171.--Lampillas, Letteratura
Spagnuola, tom. vi. pp. 57-59.

[39] Rojas, Viage Entretenido, (1614,) fol. 46.--Nic. Antonio, Bibliotheca
Nova, tom. i. p. 684.--Moratin, Obras, tom. i. pp. 126, 127.--Pellicer,
Orígen de la Comedia, tom. i. pp. 11, 12.

[40] They were published under the title "Cancionero de todas las Obras de
Juan de la Encina con otras añadidas." (Mendez, Typographia Española, p.
247.) Subsequent impressions of his works, more or less complete, appeared
at Salamanca in 1509, and at Saragossa in 1512 and 1516.--Moratin, Obras,
tom. i. p. 127, nota.

[41] The comedian Rojas, who flourished in the beginning of the following
century, and whose "Viage Entretenido" is so essential to the knowledge of
the early histrionic art in Spain, identifies the appearance of Encina's
Eclogues with the dawn of the Castilian drama. His verses may be worth
quoting.

  "Que es en nuestra madre España,
  porque en la dichosa era,
  que aquellos gloriosos Reyes
  dignos de memoria eterna
  Don Fernando e Ysabel
  (que ya con los santos reynan)
  de echar de España acabavan
  todos los Moriscos, que eran
  De aquel Reyno de Granada,
  y entonces se dava en ella
  princípio a la Inquisicion,
  se le dio a nuestra comedia.
  Juan de la Encina el primero,
  aquel insigne poeta,
  que tanto bien empezo
  de quien tenemos tres eglogas
  Que el mismo represento
  al Almirante y Duquessa
  de Castilla, y de Infantado
  que estas fueron las primeras
  Y para mas honra suya,
  y de la comedia nuestra,
  en los dias que Colon
  descubrio la gran riqueza
  De Indias y nuevo mundo,
  y el gran Capitan empieza,
  a sugetar aquel Reyno
  de Napoles, y su tierra.
  A descubrirse empezo
  el uso de la comedia
  porque todos se animassen
  a emprender cosas tan buenas."

Fol. 46, 47.

[42] Signorelli, correcting what he denominates the "romance" of
Lampillas, considers Encina to have composed only one pastoral drama, and
that, on occasion of Ferdinand's entrance into Castile. The critic should
have been more charitable, as he has made two blunders himself in
correcting one. Storia Critica de' Teatri, tom. iv. pp. 192, 193.

[43] Andres, confounding Torres de Naharro, the poet, with Naharro the
comedian, who flourished about half a century later, is led into a
ludicrous train of errors in controverting Cervantes, whose criticism of
the actor is perpetually misapplied by Andres to the poet. Velasquez seems
to have confounded them in like manner. Another evidence of the extremely
superficial acquaintance of the Spanish critics with their early drama.
Comp. Cervantes, Comedias y Entremeses, tom. i. prólogo.--Andres,
Letteratura, tom. v. p. 179.--Velazquez, Poesía Castellana, p. 88.

[44] Nic. Antonio, Bibliotheca Nova, tom. i. p. 202.--Cervantes, Comedias,
tom. i. pról. de Nasarre.--Pellicer, Orígen de la Comedia, tom. ii. p.
17.--Moratin, Obras, tom. i. p. 48.

[45] Bartolomé Torres de Naharro, Propaladia, (Madrid, 1573.)--The
deficiency of the earlier Spanish books, of which Bouterwek repeatedly
complains, has led him into an error respecting the "Propaladia," which he
had never seen. He states that Naharro was the first to distribute the
play into three jornadas or acts, and takes Cervantes roundly to task for
assuming the original merit of this distribution to himself. In fact,
Naharro did introduce the division into _five_ jornadas, and Cervantes
assumes only the credit of having been the first to _reduce them to
three_. Comp. Bouterwek, Geschichte der Poesie und Beredsamkeit, band iii.
p. 285,--and Cervantes, Comedias, tom. i. pról.

[46] In the argument to the "Seraphina," he thus prepares the audience for
this colloquial _olla podrida_.

  "Mas haveis de estar alerta
  por sentir los personages
  que hablan quatro lenguages,
  hasta acabar su rehyerta
  no salen de cuenta cierta
  por Latin e Italiano
  Castellano y Valenciano
  que ninguno desconcierta."

Propaladia, p. 50.

[47] The following is an example of the precious reasoning with which
Floristan, in the play above quoted, reconciles his conscience to the
murder of his wife Orfea, in order to gratify the jealousy of his mistress
Seraphina. Floristan is addressing himself to a priest.

  "Y por mas daño escusar
  no lo quiero hora hazer,
  sino que es menester,
  que yo mate luego a Orfea
  do Serafina lo vea
  porque lo pueda creer.
  Que yo bien me mataria,
  pues toda razon me inclina;
  pero se de Serafina
  que se desesperaría.
  y Orfea, pues que haria?
  quando mi muerte supiesse;
  que creo que no pudiesse
  sostener la vida un dia.
  Pues hablando aca entre nos
  a Orfea cabe la suerte;
  porque con su sola muerte
  se escusaran otras dos:
  de modo que padre vos
  si llamar me la quereys,
  a mi merced me hareys
  y tambien servicio a dios.

       *       *       *       *       *

  porque si yo la matare
  morira christianamente;
  yo morire penitente,
  quando mi suerte llegare."

Propaladia, fol. 68.

[48] Signorelli waxes exceedingly wroth with Don Blas Nasarre for the
assertion, that Naharro first taught the Italians to write comedy, taxing
him with downright mendacity; and he stoutly denies the probability of
Naharro's comedies ever having been performed on the Italian boards. The
critic seems to be in the right, as far as regards the influence of the
Spanish dramatist; but he might have been spared all doubts respecting
their representation in the country, had he consulted the prologue of
Naharro himself, where he asserts the fact in the most explicit manner.
Comp. Propaladia, pról., and Signorelli, Storia Critica de' Teatri, tom.
vi. pp. 171-179.--See also Moratin, Orígenes, Obras, tom. i. pp. 149, 150.

[49] Propaladia; see the comedies of "Trofea" and "Tinelaria."--
Jovellanos, Memoria sobre las Diversiones Públicas, apud Mem. de la Acad.
de Hist., tom. v.

[50] Cervantes, Comedias, tom. i. pról.

[51] Pellicer, Orígen de la Comedia, tom. ii. pp. 58-62.--See also
American Quarterly Review, no. viii. art. 3.

[52] Oliva, Obras, (Madrid, 1787.)--Vasco Diaz Tanco, a native of
Estremadura, who flourished in the first half of the sixteenth century,
mentions in one of his works three tragedies composed by himself on
Scripture subjects. As there is no evidence, however, of their having been
printed, or performed, or even read in manuscript by any one, they hardly
deserve to be included in the catalogue of dramatic compositions.
(Moratin, Obras, tom. i. pp. 150, 151.--Lampillas, Letteratura Spagnuola,
tom. v. dis. 1, sec. 5.) This patriotic _littérateur_ endeavors to
establish the production of Oliva's tragedies in the year 1515, in the
hope of antedating that of Trissino's "Sophonisba," composed a year later,
and thus securing to his nation the palm of precedence, in time at least,
though it should be only for a few months, on the tragic theatre of modern
Europe. Letteratura Spagnuola, ubi supra.

[53] Nic. Antonio, Bibliotheca Nova, tom. i. p. 386.--Oliva, Obras, pref.
de Morales.

[54] The following passage, for example, in the "Venganza de Agamemnon,"
imitated from the Electra of Sophocles, will hardly be charged on the
Greek dramatist.

"Habed, yo os ruego, de mi compassion, no querais atapar con vuestros
consejos los respiraderos de las hornazas de fuego, que dentro me
atormentan." See Oliva, Obras, p. 185.

[55] Compare the diction of these tragedies with that of the "Centon
Epistolario," for instance, esteemed one of the best literary compositions
of John II.'s reign, and see the advance made, not only in orthography,
but in the verbal arrangement generally, and the whole complexion of the
style.

[56] Notwithstanding some Spanish critics, as Cueva, for example, have
vindicated the romantic forms of the drama on scientific principles, it is
apparent that the most successful writers in this department have been
constrained to adopt them by public opinion, rather than their own, which
would have suggested a nearer imitation of the classical models of
antiquity, so generally followed by the Italians, and which naturally
recommends itself to the scholar. See the canon's discourse in Cervantes,
Don Quixote, ed. de Pellicer, tom. iii. pp. 207-220,--and, more
explicitly, Lope de Vega, Obras Sueltas, tom. iv. p. 406.

[57] "Ya en Italia, assi entre Damas, como entre Caballeros, se tiene por
gentileza y galania, saber hablar Castellano." Diálogo de las Lenguas,
apud Mayans y Siscar, Orígenes, tom. ii. p. 4.




PART SECOND.

1493-1517.

THE PERIOD WHEN, THE INTERIOR ORGANIZATION OF THE MONARCHY HAVING BEEN
COMPLETED, THE SPANISH NATION ENTERED ON ITS SCHEMES OF DISCOVERY AND
CONQUEST; OR THE PERIOD ILLUSTRATING MORE PARTICULARLY THE FOREIGN POLICY
OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA.


CHAPTER I.

ITALIAN WARS.--GENERAL VIEW OF EUROPE.--INVASION OF ITALY BY CHARLES VIII.
OF FRANCE.

1493-1495.

Europe at the Close of the Fifteenth Century.--More Intimate Relations
between States.--Italy the School of Politics.--Pretensions of Charles
VIII. to Naples.--Treaty of Barcelona.--The French Invade Naples.--
Ferdinand's Dissatisfaction.--Tactics and Arms of the Different Nations.--
Preparations of Spain.--Mission to Charles VIII.--Bold Conduct of the
Envoys.--The French enter Naples.


We have now reached that memorable epoch, when the different nations of
Europe, surmounting the barriers which had hitherto confined them within
their respective limits, brought their forces, as if by a simultaneous
impulse, against each other on a common theatre of action. In the
preceding part of this work, we have seen in what manner Spain was
prepared for the contest, by the concentration of her various states under
one government, and by such internal reforms, as enabled the government to
act with vigor. The genius of Ferdinand will appear as predominant in what
concerns the foreign relations of the country, as did that of Isabella in
its interior administration. So much so, indeed, that the accurate and
well-informed historian, who has most copiously illustrated this portion
of the national annals, does not even mention, in his introductory notice,
the name of Isabella, but refers the agency in these events exclusively to
her more ambitious consort. [1] In this he is abundantly justified, both
by the prevailing character of the policy pursued, widely differing from
that which distinguished the queen's measures, and by the circumstance
that the foreign conquests, although achieved by the united efforts of
both crowns, were undertaken on, behalf of Ferdinand's own dominions of
Aragon, to which in the end they exclusively appertained.

The close of the fifteenth century presents, on the whole, the most
striking point of view in modern history; one from which we may
contemplate the consummation of an important revolution in the structure
of political society, and the first application of several inventions
destined to exercise the widest influence on human civilization. The
feudal institutions, or rather the feudal principle, which operated even
where the institutions, strictly speaking, did not exist, after having
wrought its appointed uses, had gradually fallen into decay; for it had
not the power of accommodating itself to the increased demands and
improved condition of society. However well suited to a barbarous age, it
was found that the distribution of power among the members of an
independent aristocracy was unfavorable to that degree of personal
security and tranquillity indispensable to great proficiency in the higher
arts of civilization. It was equally repugnant to the principle of
patriotism, so essential to national independence, but which must have
operated feebly among a people whose sympathies, instead of being
concentrated on the state, were claimed by a hundred masters, as was the
case in every feudal community. The conviction of this reconciled the
nation to the transfer of authority into other hands; not those of the
people, indeed, who were too ignorant, and too long accustomed to a
subordinate, dependent situation, to admit of it,--but into the hands of
the sovereign. It was not until three centuries more had elapsed, that the
condition of the great mass of the people was to be so far improved, as to
qualify them for asserting and maintaining the political consideration
which of right belongs to them.

In whatever degree public opinion and the progress of events might favor
the transition of power from the aristocracy to the monarch, it is obvious
that much would depend on his personal character; since the advantages of
his station alone made him by no means a match for the combined forces of
his great nobility. The remarkable adaptation of the characters of the
principal sovereigns of Europe to this exigency, in the latter half of the
fifteenth century, would seem to have something providential in it. Henry
the Seventh of England, Louis the Eleventh of France, Ferdinand of Naples,
John the Second of Aragon, and his son Ferdinand, and John the Second of
Portugal, however differing in other respects, were all distinguished by a
sagacity, which enabled them to devise the most subtile and comprehensive
schemes of policy, and which was prolific in expedients for the
circumvention of enemies too potent to be encountered by open force.

Their operations, all directed towards the same point, were attended with
similar success, resulting in the exaltation of the royal prerogative at
the expense of the aristocracy, with more or less deference to the rights
of the people, as the case might be; in France, for example, with almost
total indifference to them, while in Spain they were regarded, under the
parental administration of Isabella, which tempered the less scrupulous
policy of her husband, with tenderness and respect. In every country,
however, the nation at large gained greatly by the revolution, which came
on insensibly, at least without any violent shock to the fabric of
society, and which, by securing internal tranquillity and the ascendency
of law over brute force, gave ample scope for those intellectual pursuits,
that withdraw mankind from sensual indulgence, and too exclusive devotion
to the animal wants of our nature.

No sooner was the internal organization of the different nations of Europe
placed on a secure basis, than they found leisure to direct their views,
hitherto confined within their own limits, to a bolder and more distant
sphere of action. Their international communication was greatly
facilitated by several useful inventions coincident with this period, or
then first extensively applied. Such was the art of printing, diffusing
knowledge with the speed and universality of light; the establishment of
posts, which, after its adoption by Louis the Eleventh, came into frequent
use in the beginning of the sixteenth century; and lastly, the compass,
which, guiding the mariner unerringly through the trackless wastes of the
ocean, brought the remotest regions into contact. With these increased
facilities for intercommunication, the different European states might be
said to be brought into as intimate relation with one another, as the
different provinces of the same kingdom were before. They now for the
first time regarded each other as members of one great community, in whose
action they were all mutually concerned. A greater anxiety was manifested
to detect the springs of every political movement of their neighbors.
Missions became frequent, and accredited agents were stationed, as a sort
of honorable spies, at the different courts. The science of diplomacy, on
narrower grounds, indeed, than it is now practised, began to be studied.
[2] Schemes of aggression and resistance, leading to political
combinations the most complex and extended, were gradually formed. We are
not to imagine, however, the existence of any well-defined ideas of a
balance of power at this early period. The object of these combinations
was some positive act of aggression or resistance, for purposes of
conquest or defence, not for the maintenance of any abstract theory of
political equilibrium. This was the result of much deeper reflection, and
of prolonged experience.

The management of the foreign relations of the nation, at the close of the
fifteenth century, was resigned wholly to the sovereign. The people took
no further part or interest in the matter, than if it had concerned only
the disposition of his private property. His measures were, therefore,
often characterized by a degree of temerity and precipitation, that could
not have been permitted under the salutary checks afforded by popular
interposition. A strange insensibility, indeed, was shown to the rights
and interests of the nation. War was regarded as a game, in which the
sovereign parties engaged, not on behalf of their subjects, but
exclusively on their own. Like desperate gamblers, they contended for the
spoils or the honors of victory, with so much the more recklessness as
their own station was too elevated to be materially prejudiced by the
results. They contended with all the animosity of personal feeling; every
device, however paltry, was resorted to; and no advantage was deemed
unwarrantable, which could tend to secure the victory. The most profligate
maxims of state policy were openly avowed by men of reputed honor and
integrity. In short, the diplomacy of that day is very generally
characterized by a low cunning, subterfuge, and petty trickery, which
would leave an indelible stain on the transactions of private individuals.

Italy was, doubtless, the great school where this political morality was
taught. That country was broken up into a number of small states, too
nearly equal to allow the absolute supremacy of any one; while, at the
same time, it demanded the most restless vigilance on the part of each to
maintain its independence against its neighbors. Hence such a complexity
of intrigues and combinations as the world had never before witnessed. A
subtile, refined policy was conformable to the genius of the Italians. It
was partly the result, moreover, of their higher cultivation, which
naturally led them to trust the settlement of their disputes to superior
intellectual dexterity, rather than to brute force, like the
_barbarians_ beyond the Alps. [3] From these and other causes, maxims
were gradually established, so monstrous in their nature as to give the
work, which first embodied them in a regular system, the air of a satire
rather than a serious performance, while the name of its author has been
converted into a by-word of political knavery. [4]

At the period before us, the principal states of Italy were, the republics
of Venice and Florence, the duchy of Milan, the papal see, and the kingdom
of Naples. The others may be regarded merely as satellites, revolving
round some one or other of these superior powers, by whom their respective
movements were regulated and controlled. Venice may be considered as the
most formidable of the great powers, taking into consideration her wealth,
her powerful navy, her territory in the north, and princely colonial
domain. There was no government in that age which attracted such general
admiration, both from natives and foreigners; who seem to have looked upon
it as affording the very best model of political wisdom. [5] Yet there was
no country where the citizen enjoyed less positive freedom; none whose
foreign relations were conducted with more absolute selfishness, and with
a more narrow, bargaining spirit, savoring rather of a company of traders
than of a great and powerful state. But all this was compensated, in the
eyes of her contemporaries, by the stability of her institutions, which
still remained unshaken, amidst revolutions which had convulsed or
overturned every other social fabric in Italy. [6]

The government of Milan was at this time under the direction of Lodovico
Sforza, or Lodovico the Moor, as he is commonly called; an epithet
suggested by his complexion, but which he willingly retained, as
indicating the superior craftiness on which he valued himself. [7] He held
the reins in the name of his nephew, then a minor, until a convenient
season should arrive for assuming them in his own. His cool, perfidious
character was stained with the worst vices of the most profligate class of
Italian statesmen of that period.

The central parts of Italy were occupied by the republic of Florence,
which had ever been the rallying point of the friends of freedom, too
often of faction; but which had now resigned itself to the dominion of the
Medici, whose cultivated tastes and munificent patronage shed a splendid
illusion over their administration, which has blinded the eyes of
contemporaries, and even of posterity.

The papal chair was filled by Alexander the Sixth, a pontiff whose
licentiousness, avarice, and unblushing effrontery have been the theme of
unmingled reproach, with Catholic as well as Protestant writers. His
preferment was effected by lavish bribery, and by his consummate address,
as well as energy of character. Although a native Spaniard, his election
was extremely unpalatable to Ferdinand and Isabella, who deprecated the
scandal it must bring upon the church, and who had little to hope for
themselves, in a political view, from the elevation of one of their own
subjects even, whose mercenary spirit placed him at the control of the
highest bidder. [8]

The Neapolitan sceptre was swayed by Ferdinand the First, whose father,
Alfonso the Fifth, the uncle of Ferdinand of Aragon, had obtained the
crown by the adoption of Joanna of Naples, or rather by his own good
sword. Alfonso settled his conquest on his illegitimate son Ferdinand, to
the prejudice of the rights of Aragon, by whose blood and treasure he had
achieved it. Ferdinand's character, the very opposite of his noble
father's, was dark, wily, and ferocious. His life was spent in conflict
with his great feudal nobility, many of whom supported the pretensions of
the Angevin family. But his superior craft enabled him to foil every
attempt of his enemies. In effecting this, indeed, he shrunk from no deed
of treachery or violence, however atrocious, and in the end had the
satisfaction of establishing his authority, undisputed, on the fears of
his subjects. He was about seventy years of age at the period of which we
are treating, 1493. The heir apparent, Alfonso, was equally sanguinary in
his temper, though possessing less talent for dissimulation than his
father.

Such was the character of the principal Italian courts at the close of the
fifteenth century. The politics of the country were necessarily regulated
by the temper and views of the leading powers. They were essentially
selfish and personal. The ancient republican forms had been gradually
effaced during this century, and more arbitrary ones introduced. The name
of freedom, indeed, was still inscribed on their banners, but the spirit
had disappeared. In almost every state, great or small, some military
adventurer, or crafty statesman, had succeeded in raising his own
authority on the liberties of his country; and his sole aim seemed to be
to enlarge it still further, and to secure it against the conspiracies and
revolutions, which the reminiscence of ancient independence naturally
called forth. Such was the case with Tuscany, Milan, Naples, and the
numerous subordinate states. In Rome, the pontiff proposed no higher
object than the concentration of wealth and public honors in the hands of
his own family. In short, the administration of every state seemed to be
managed with exclusive reference to the personal interests of its chief.
Venice was the only power of sufficient strength and stability to engage
in more extended schemes of policy, and even these were conducted, as has
been already noticed, in the narrow and calculating spirit of a trading
corporation.

But, while no spark of generous patriotism seemed to warm the bosoms of
the Italians; while no sense of public good, or even menace of foreign
invasion, could bring them to act in concert with one another, [9] the
internal condition of the country was eminently prosperous. Italy had far
outstripped the rest of Europe in the various arts of civilized life; and
she everywhere afforded the evidence of faculties developed by unceasing
intellectual action. The face of the country itself was like a garden;
"cultivated through all its plains to the very tops of the mountains;
teeming with population, with riches, and an unlimited commerce;
illustrated by many munificent princes, by the splendor of many noble and
beautiful cities, and by the majesty of religion; and adorned with all
those rare and precious gifts, which render a name glorious among the
nations." [10] Such are the glowing strains in which the Tuscan historian
celebrates the prosperity of his country, ere yet the storm of war had
descended on her beautiful valleys.

This scene of domestic tranquillity was destined to be changed by that
terrible invasion which the ambition of Lodovico Sforza brought upon his
country. He had already organized a coalition of the northern powers of
Italy, to defeat the interference of the king of Naples in behalf of his
grandson, the rightful duke of Milan, whom his uncle held in subjection
during a protracted minority, while he exercised all the real functions of
sovereignty in his name. Not feeling sufficiently secure from his Italian
confederacy, Sforza invited the king of France to revive the hereditary
claims of the house of Anjou to the crown of Naples, promising to aid him
in the enterprise with all his resources. In this way, this wily
politician proposed to divert the storm from his own head, by giving
Ferdinand sufficient occupation at home.

The throne of France was at that time filled by Charles the Eighth, a
monarch scarcely twenty-two years of age. His father, Louis the Eleventh,
had given him an education unbecoming, not only a great prince, but even a
private gentleman. He would allow him to learn no other Latin, says
Brantôme, than his favorite maxim, "Qui nescit dissimulare, nescit
regnare." [11] Charles made some amends for this, though with little
judgment, in later life, when left to his own disposal. His favorite
studies were the exploits of celebrated conquerors, of Caesar and
Charlemagne particularly, which filled his young mind with vague and
visionary ideas of glory. These dreams were still further nourished by the
tourneys and other chivalrous spectacles of the age, in which he
delighted, until he seems to have imagined himself some doughty paladin of
romance, destined to the achievement of a grand and perilous enterprise.
It affords some proof of this exalted state of his imagination, that he
gave his only son the name of Orlando, after the celebrated hero of
Roncesvalles. [12]

With a mind thus excited by chimerical visions of military glory, he lent
a willing ear to the artful propositions of Sforza. In the extravagance of
vanity, fed by the adulation of interested parasites, he affected to
regard the enterprise against Naples as only opening the way to a career
of more splendid conquests, which were to terminate in the capture of
Constantinople, and the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre. He even went so
far as to purchase of Andrew Paleologus, the nephew and heir of
Constantine, the last of the Caesars, his title to the Greek empire. [13]

Nothing could be more unsound, according to the principles of the present
day, than Charles's claims to the crown of Naples. Without discussing the
original pretensions of the rival houses of Aragon and Anjou, it is
sufficient to state, that, at the time of Charles the Eighth's invasion,
the Neapolitan throne had been in the possession of the Aragonese family
more than half a century, under three successive princes solemnly
recognized by the people, sanctioned by repeated investitures of the papal
suzerain, and admitted by all the states of Europe. If all this did not
give validity to their title, when was the nation to expect repose?
Charles's claim, on the other hand, was derived originally from a
testamentary bequest of René, count of Provence, operating to the
exclusion of the son of his own daughter, the rightful heir of the house
of Anjou; Naples being too notoriously a female fief to afford any pretext
for the action of the Salic law. The pretensions of Ferdinand, of Spain,
as representative of the legitimate branch of Aragon, were far more
plausible. [14]

Independently of the defects in Charles's title, his position was such as
to make the projected expedition every way impolitic. A misunderstanding
had for some time subsisted between him and the Spanish sovereigns, and he
was at open war with Germany and England; so that it was only by large
concessions that he could hope to secure their acquiescence in an
enterprise most precarious in its character, and where even complete
success could be of no permanent benefit to his kingdom. "He did not
understand," says Voltaire, "that a dozen villages adjacent to one's
territory, are of more value than a kingdom four hundred leagues distant."
[15] By the treaties of Etaples and Senlis, he purchased a reconciliation
with Henry the Seventh of England, and with Maximilian, the emperor elect;
and finally, by that of Barcelona, effected an amicable adjustment of his
difficulties with Spain. [16]

This treaty, which involved the restoration of Roussillon and Cerdagne,
was of great importance to the crown of Aragon. These provinces, it will
be remembered, had been originally mortgaged by Ferdinand's father, King
John the Second, to Louis the Eleventh of France, for the sum of three
hundred thousand crowns, in consideration of aid to be afforded by the
latter monarch against the Catalan insurgents. Although the stipulated sum
had never been paid by Aragon, yet a plausible pretext for requiring the
restitution was afforded by Louis the Eleventh's incomplete performance of
his engagements, as well as by the ample reimbursement, which the French
government had already derived from the revenues of these countries. [17]
This treaty had long been a principal object of Ferdinand's policy. He had
not, indeed, confined himself to negotiation, but had made active
demonstrations more than once of occupying the contested territory by
force. Negotiation, however, was more consonant to his habitual policy;
and, after the termination of the Moorish war, he pressed it with the
utmost vigor, repairing with the queen to Barcelona, in order to watch
over the deliberations of the envoys of the two nations at Figueras. [18]

The French historians accuse Ferdinand of bribing two ecclesiastics, in
high influence at their court, to make such a representation of the
affair, as should alarm the conscience of the young monarch. These holy
men insisted on the restoration of Roussillon as an act of justice; since
the sums for which it had been mortgaged, though not repaid, had been
spent in the common cause of Christendom, the Moorish war. The soul, they
said, could never hope to escape from purgatory, until restitution was
made of all property unlawfully held during life. His royal father, Louis
the Eleventh, was clearly in this predicament, as he himself would
hereafter be, unless the Spanish territories should be relinquished; a
measure, moreover, the more obligatory on him, since it was well known to
be the dying request of his parent. These arguments made a suitable
impression on the young monarch, and a still deeper on his sister, the
duchess of Beaujeu, who exercised great influence over him, and who
believed her own soul in peril of eternal damnation by deferring the act
of restoration any longer. The effect of this cogent reasoning was no
doubt greatly enhanced by the reckless impatience of Charles, who
calculated no cost in the prosecution of his chimerical enterprise. With
these amicable dispositions an arrangement was at length concluded, and
received the signatures of the respective monarchs on the same day, being
signed by Charles at Tours, and by Ferdinand and Isabella at Barcelona,
January 19th, 1493. [19]

The principal articles of the treaty provided, that the contracting
parties should mutually aid each other against all enemies; that they
should reciprocally prefer this alliance to that with any other, _the
vicar of Christ excepted_; that the Spanish sovereigns should enter
into no understanding with any power, _the vicar of Christ excepted_,
prejudicial to the interests of France; that their children should not be
disposed of in marriage to the kings of England, or of the Romans, or to
any enemy of France, without the French king's consent. It was finally
stipulated that Roussillon and Cerdagne should be restored to Aragon; but
that, as doubts might be entertained to which power the possession of
these countries rightfully appertained, arbitrators _named by Ferdinand
and Isabella_ should be appointed, if requested by the French monarch,
with full power to decide the question, by whose judgment the contracting
parties mutually promised to abide. This last provision, obviously too
well guarded to jeopard the interests of the Spanish sovereigns, was
introduced to allay in some measure the discontents of the French, who
loudly inveighed against their cabinet, as sacrificing the interests of
the nation; accusing, indeed, the Cardinal D'Albi, the principal agent in
the negotiation, of being in the pay of Ferdinand. [20]

The treaty excited equal surprise and satisfaction in Spain, where
Roussillon was regarded as of the last importance, not merely from the
extent of its resources, but from its local position, which made it the
key of Catalonia. The nation, says Zurita, looked on its recovery as
scarcely less important than the conquest of Granada; and they doubted
some sinister motive, or deeper policy than appeared in the conduct of the
French king. He was influenced, however, by no deeper policy than the
cravings of a puerile ambition. [21]

The preparations of Charles, in the mean while, excited general alarm
throughout Italy. Ferdinand, the old king of Naples, who in vain
endeavored to arrest them by negotiation, had died in the beginning of
1494. He was succeeded by his son Alfonso, a prince of bolder but less
politic character, and equally odious, from the cruelty of his
disposition, with his father. He lost no time in putting his kingdom in a
posture of defence; but he wanted the best of all defences, the attachment
of his subjects. His interests were supported by the Florentine republic
and the pope, whose family had intermarried with the royal house of
Naples. Venice stood aloof, secure in her remoteness, unwilling to
compromise her interests by too precipitate a declaration in favor of
either party.

The European powers regarded the expedition of Charles the Eighth with
somewhat different feelings; most of them were not unwilling to see so
formidable a prince waste his resources in a remote and chimerical
expedition; Ferdinand, however, contemplated with more anxiety an event,
which might terminate in the subversion of the Neapolitan branch of his
house, and bring a powerful and active neighbor in contact with his own
dominions in Sicily. He lost no time in fortifying the faltering courage
of the pope by assurances of support. His ambassador, then resident at the
papal court, was Garcilasso de la Vega, father of the illustrious poet of
that name, and familiar to the reader by his exploits in the Granadine
war. This personage with rare political sagacity combined an energy of
purpose, which could not fail to infuse courage into the hearts of others.
He urged the pope to rely on his master, the king of Aragon, who, he
assured him, would devote his whole resources, if necessary, to the
protection of his person, honor, and estate. Alexander would gladly have
had this promise under the hand of Ferdinand; but the latter did not think
it expedient, considering his delicate relations with France, to put
himself so far in the power of the wily pontiff. [22]

In the mean time, Charles's preparations went forward with the languor and
vacillation resulting from divided councils and multiplied embarrassments.
"Nothing essential to the conduct of a war was at hand," says Comines. The
king was very young, weak in person, headstrong in will, surrounded by few
discreet counsellors, and wholly destitute of the requisite funds. [23]
His own impatience, however, was stimulated by that of the youthful
chivalry of his court, who burned for an opportunity of distinction; as
well as by the representations of the Neapolitan exiles, who hoped, under
his protection, to re-establish themselves in their own country. Several
of these, weary with the delay already experienced, made overtures to King
Ferdinand to undertake the enterprise on his own behalf, and to assert his
legitimate pretensions to the crown of Naples, which, they assured him, a
large party in the country was ready to sustain. The sagacious monarch,
however, knew how little reliance was to be placed on the reports of
exiles, whose imaginations readily exaggerated the amount of disaffection
in their own country. But, although the season had not yet arrived for
asserting his own paramount claims, he was determined to tolerate those of
no other potentate. [24]

Charles entertained so little suspicion of this, that, in the month of
June, he despatched an envoy to the Spanish court, requiring Ferdinand's
fulfilment of the treaty of Barcelona, by aiding him with men and money,
and by throwing open his ports in Sicily for the French navy. "This
gracious proposition," says the Aragonese historian, "he accompanied with
information of his proposed expedition against the Turks; stating
incidentally, as a thing of no consequence, his intention to take Naples
by the way." [25]

Ferdinand saw the time was arrived for coming to an explicit declaration
with the French court. He appointed a special mission, in order to do this
in the least offensive manner possible. The person selected for this
delicate task was Alonso de Silva, brother of the count of Cifuentes, and
_clavero_ of Calatrava, a cavalier possessed of the coolness and address
requisite for diplomatic success. [26]

The ambassador, on arriving at the French court, found it at Vienne in all
the bustle of preparation for immediate departure. After seeking in vain a
private audience from King Charles, he explained to him the purport of his
mission in the presence of his courtiers. He assured him of the
satisfaction which the king of Aragon had experienced, at receiving
intelligence of his projected expedition against the infidel. Nothing gave
his master so great contentment, as to see his brother monarchs employing
their arms, and expending their revenues, against the enemies of the
Cross; where even failure was greater gain than success in other wars. He
offered Ferdinand's assistance in the prosecution of such wars, even
though they should be directed against the Mahometans of Africa, over whom
the papal sanction had given Spain exclusive rights of conquest. He
besought the king not to employ the forces destined to so glorious a
purpose against any one of the princes of Europe, but to reflect how great
a scandal this must necessarily bring on the Christian cause; above all,
he cautioned him against forming any designs on Naples, since that kingdom
was a fief of the church, in whose favor an exception was expressly made
by the treaty of Barcelona, which recognized her alliance and protection
as paramount to every other obligation. Silva's discourse was responded to
by the president of the parliament of Paris in a formal Latin oration,
asserting generally Charles's right to Naples, and his resolution to
enforce it previously to his crusade against the infidel. As soon as it
was concluded, the king rose and abruptly quitted the apartment. [27]

Some days after, he interrogated the Spanish ambassador, whether his
master would not, in case of a war with Portugal, feel warranted by the
terms of the late treaty in requiring the co-operation of France, and on
what plea the latter power could pretend to withhold it. To the first of
these propositions the ambassador answered in the affirmative, if it were
a defensive war, but not, if an offensive one, of his own seeking; an
explanation by no means satisfactory to the French monarch. Indeed, he
seems not to have been at all prepared for this interpretation of the
compact. He had relied on this, as securing without any doubt the non-
interference of Ferdinand, if not his actual co-operation in his designs
against Naples. The clause touching the rights of the church was too
frequent in public treaties to excite any particular attention; and he was
astounded at the broad ground, which it was now made to cover, and which
defeated the sole object proposed by the cession of Roussillon. He could
not disguise his chagrin and indignation at what he deemed the perfidy of
the Spanish court. He refused all further intercourse with Silva, and even
stationed a sentinel at his gate, to prevent his communication with his
subjects; treating him as the envoy, not of an ally, but of an open enemy.
[28]

The unexpected and menacing attitude, however, assumed by Ferdinand,
failed to arrest the operations of the French monarch, who, having
completed his preparations, left Vienne in the month of August, 1494, and
crossed the Alps at the head of the most formidable host which had scaled
that mountain barrier since the irruption of the northern barbarians. [29]
It will be unnecessary to follow his movements in detail. It is sufficient
to remark, that his conduct throughout was equally defective in principle
and in sound policy. He alienated his allies by the most signal acts of
perfidy, seizing their fortresses for himself, and entering their capitals
with all the vaunt and insolent port of a conquerer. On his approach to
Rome, the pope and the cardinals took refuge in the castle of St. Angelo,
and on the 31st of December, Charles defiled into the city at the head of
his victorious chivalry; if victorious they could be called, when, as an
Italian historian remarks, they had scarcely broken a lance, or spread a
tent, in the whole of their progress. [30]

The Italians were panic-struck at the aspect of troops so different from
their own, and so superior to them in organization, science, and military
equipment; and still more in a remorseless ferocity of temper, which had
rarely been witnessed in their own feuds. Warfare was conducted on
peculiar principles in Italy, adapted to the character and circumstances
of the people. The business of fighting, in her thriving communities,
instead of forming part of the regular profession of a gentleman, as in
other countries at this period, was intrusted to the hands of a few
soldiers of fortune, _condottieri_, as they were called, who hired
themselves out, with the forces under their command, consisting
exclusively of heavy-armed cavalry, to whatever state would pay them best.
These forces constituted the capital, as it were, of the military chief,
whose obvious interest it was to economize as far as possible all
unnecessary expenditure of his resources. Hence, the science of defence
was almost exclusively studied. The object seemed to be, not so much the
annoyance of the enemy, as self-preservation. The common interests of the
_condottieri_ being paramount to every obligation towards the state
which they served, they easily came to an understanding with one another
to spare their troops as much as possible; until at length battles were
fought with little more personal hazard than would be incurred in an
ordinary tourney. The man-at-arms was riveted into plates of steel of
sufficient thickness to turn a musket-ball. The ease of the soldier was so
far consulted, that the artillery, in a siege, was not allowed to be fired
on either side from sunset to sunrise, for fear of disturbing his repose.
Prisoners were made for the sake of their ransom, and but little blood was
spilled in an action. Machiavelli records two engagements, at Anghiari and
Castracaro, among the most noted of the time for their important
consequences. The one lasted four hours, and the other half a day. The
reader is hurried along through all the bustle of a well-contested fight,
in the course of which the field is won and lost several times; but, when
he comes to the close, and looks for the list of killed and wounded, he
finds to his surprise not a single man slain, in the first of these
actions; and, in the second, only one, who, having tumbled from his horse,
and being unable to rise, from the weight of his armor, was suffocated in
the mud! Thus war became disarmed of its terrors. Courage was no longer
essential in a soldier; and the Italian, made effeminate, if not timid,
was incapable of encountering the adventurous daring and severe discipline
of the northern warrior. [31]

The astonishing success of the French was still more imputable to the free
use and admirable organization of their infantry, whose strength lay in
the Swiss mercenaries. Machiavelli ascribes the misfortunes of his nation
chiefly to its exclusive reliance on cavalry. [32] This service, during
the whole of the Middle Ages, was considered among the European nations
the most important; the horse being styled by way of eminence "the
battle." The memorable conflict of Charles the Bold with the Swiss
mountaineers, however, in which the latter broke in pieces the celebrated
Burgundian _ordonnance_, constituting the finest body of chivalry of
the age, demonstrated the capacity of infantry; and the Italian wars, in
which we are now engaged, at length fully re-established its ancient
superiority.

The Swiss were formed into battalions varying from three to eight thousand
men each. They wore little defensive armor, and their principal weapon was
the pike, eighteen feet long. Formed into these solid battalions, which,
bristling with spears all around, received the technical appellation of
the _hedgehog_, they presented an invulnerable front on every quarter. In
the level field, with free scope allowed for action, they bore down all
opposition, and received unshaken the most desperate charges of the steel-
clad cavalry on their terrible array of pikes. They were too unwieldy,
however, for rapid or complicated manoeuvres; they were easily
disconcerted by any unforseen impediment, or irregularity of the ground;
and the event proved, that the Spanish foot, armed with its short swords
and bucklers, by breaking in under the long pikes of its enemy, could
succeed in bringing him to close action, where his formidable weapon was
of no avail. It was repeating the ancient lesson of the Roman legion and
the Macedonian phalanx. [33]

In artillery, the French were at this time in advance of the Italians,
perhaps of every nation in Europe. The Italians, indeed, were so
exceedingly defective in this department, that their best field-pieces
consisted of small copper tubes, covered with wood and hides. They were
mounted on unwieldy carriages drawn by oxen, and followed by cars or
wagons loaded with stone balls. These guns were worked so awkwardly, that
the besieged, says Guicciardini, had time between the discharges to repair
the mischief inflicted by them. From these circumstances, artillery was
held in so little repute, that some of the most competent Italian writers
thought it might be dispensed with altogether in field engagements. [34]

The French, on the other hand, were provided with a beautiful train of
ordnance, consisting of bronze cannon about eight feet in length, and many
smaller pieces. [35] They were lightly mounted, drawn by horses, and
easily kept pace with the rapid movements of the army. They discharged
iron balls, and were served with admirable skill, intimidating their
enemies by the rapidity and accuracy of their fire, and easily demolishing
their fortifications, which, before this invasion, were constructed with
little strength or science. [36]

The rapid successes of the French spread consternation among the Italian
states, who now for the first time seemed to feel the existence of a
common interest, and the necessity of efficient concert. Ferdinand was
active in promoting these dispositions, through his ministers, Garcilasso
de la Vega and Alonso de Silva. The latter had quitted the French court on
its entrance into Italy, and withdrawn to Genoa. From this point he opened
a correspondence with Lodovico Sforza, who now began to understand, that
he had brought a terrible engine into play, the movements of which,
however mischievous to himself, were beyond his strength to control. Silva
endeavored to inflame still further his jealousy of the French, who had
already given him many serious causes of disgust; and, in order to detach
him more effectually from Charles's interests, encouraged him with the
hopes of forming a matrimonial alliance for his son with one of the
infantas of Spain. At the same time, he used every effort to bring about a
co-operation between the duke and the republic of Venice, thus opening the
way to the celebrated league which was concluded in the following year.
[37]

The Roman pontiff had lost no time, after the appearance of the French
army in Italy, in pressing the Spanish court to fulfil its engagements. He
endeavored to propitiate the good-will of the sovereigns by several
important concessions. He granted to them and their successors the
_tercias_, or two-ninths of the tithes, throughout the dominions of
Castile; an impost still forming part of the regular revenue of the crown.
[38] He caused bulls of crusade to be promulgated throughout Spain,
granting at the same time a tenth of the ecclesiastical rents, with the
understanding that the proceeds should be devoted to the protection of the
Holy See. Towards the close of this year, 1494, or the beginning of the
following, he conferred the title of Catholic on the Spanish sovereigns,
in consideration, as is stated, of their eminent virtues, their zeal in
defence of the true faith of the apostolic see, their reformation of
conventual discipline, their subjugation of the Moors of Granada, and the
purification of their dominions from the Jewish heresy. This orthodox
title, which still continues to be the jewel most prized in the Spanish
crown, has been appropriated in a peculiar manner to Ferdinand and
Isabella, who are universally recognized in history as _Los Reyes
Católicos_. [39]

Ferdinand was too sensible of the peril, to which the occupation of Naples
by the French would expose his own interests, to require any stimulant to
action from the Roman pontiff. Naval preparations had been going forward
during the summer, in the ports of Galicia and Guipuscoa. A considerable
armament was made ready for sea by the latter part of December, at
Alicant, and placed under the command of Galceran de Requesens, count of
Trevento. The land forces were intrusted to Gonsalvo de Cordova, better
known in history as the Great Captain. Instructions were at the same time
sent to the viceroy of Sicily, to provide for the security of that island,
and to hold himself in readiness to act in concert with the Spanish fleet.
[40]

Ferdinand, however, determined to send one more embassy to Charles the
Eighth, before coming to an open rupture with him. He selected for this
mission Juan de Albion and Antonio de Fonseca, brother of the bishop of
that name, whom we have already noticed as superintendent of the Indian
department. The two envoys reached Rome, January 28th, 1495, the same day
on which Charles set out on his march for Naples. They followed the army,
and on arriving at Veletri, about twenty miles from the capital, were
admitted to an audience by the monarch, who received them in the presence
of his officers. The ambassadors freely enumerated the various causes of
complaint entertained by their master against the French king; the insult
offered to him in the person of his minister Alonso de Silva; the
contumelious treatment of the pope, and forcible occupation of the
fortresses and estates of the church; and finally, the enterprise against
Naples, the claims to which as a papal fief could of right be determined
in no other way than by the arbitration of the pontiff himself. Should
King Charles consent to accept this arbitration, they tendered the good
offices of their master as mediator between the parties; should he decline
it, however, the king of Spain stood absolved from all further obligations
of amity with him, by the terms of the treaty of Barcelona, which
expressly recognized his right to interfere in defence of the church. [41]

Charles, who could not dissemble his indignation during this discourse,
retorted with great acrimony, when it was concluded, on the conduct of
Ferdinand, which he stigmatized as perfidious, accusing him, at the same
time, of a deliberate design to circumvent him, by introducing into their
treaty the clause respecting the pope. As to the expedition against
Naples, he had now gone too far to recede; and it would be soon enough to
canvass the question of right, when he had got possession of it. His
courtiers, at the same time, with the impetuosity of their nation,
heightened by the insolence of success, told the envoys, that they knew
well enough how to defend their rights with their arms, and that King
Ferdinand would find the French chivalry enemies of quite another sort
from the holiday tilters of Granada.

These taunts led to mutual recrimination, until at length Fonseca, though
naturally a sedate person, was so far transported with anger, that he
exclaimed, "The issue then must be left to God,--arms must decide it;"
and, producing the original treaty, bearing the signatures of the two
monarchs, he tore it in pieces before the eyes of Charles and his court.
At the same time he commanded two Spanish knights who served in the French
army to withdraw from it, under pain of incurring the penalties of
treason. The French cavaliers were so much incensed by this audacious
action, that they would have seized the envoys, and, in all probability,
offered violence to their persons, but for Charles's interposition, who
with more coolness caused them to be conducted from his presence, and sent
back under a safe escort to Rome. Such are the circumstances reported by
the French and Italian writers of this remarkable interview. They were not
aware that the dramatic exhibition, as far as the ambassadors were
concerned, was all previously concerted before their departure from Spain.
[42]

Charles pressed forward on his march without further delay. Alfonso the
Second, losing his confidence and martial courage, the only virtues that
he possessed, at the crisis when they were most demanded, had
precipitately abandoned his kingdom while the French were at Rome, and
taken refuge in Sicily, where he formally abdicated the crown in favor of
his son, Ferdinand the Second. This prince, then twenty-five years of age,
whose amiable manners were rendered still more attractive by contrast with
the ferocious temper of his father, was possessed of talent and energy
competent to the present emergency, had he been sustained by his subjects.
But the latter, besides being struck with the same panic which had
paralyzed the other people of Italy, had too little interest in the
government to be willing to hazard much in its defence. A change of
dynasty was only a change of masters, by which they had little either to
gain or to lose. Though favorably inclined to Ferdinand, they refused to
stand by him in his perilous extremity. They gave way in every direction,
as the French advanced, rendering hopeless every attempt of their spirited
young monarch to rally them, till at length no alternative was left, but
to abandon his dominions to the enemy, without striking a blow in their
defence. He withdrew to the neighboring island of Ischia, whence he soon
after passed into Sicily, and occupied himself there in collecting the
fragments of his party, until the time should arrive for more decisive
action. [43]

Charles the Eighth made his entrance into Naples at the head of his
legions, February 22d, 1495, having traversed this whole extent of hostile
territory in less time than would be occupied by a fashionable tourist of
the present day. The object of his expedition was now achieved. He seemed
to have reached the consummation of his wishes; and, although he assumed
the titles of King of Sicily and of Jerusalem, and affected the state and
authority of Emperor, he took no measures for prosecuting his chimerical
enterprise further. He even neglected to provide for the security of his
present conquest; and, without bestowing a thought on the government of
his new dominions, resigned himself to the licentious and effeminate
pleasures so congenial with the soft voluptuousness of the climate, and
his own character. [44]

While Charles was thus wasting his time and resources in frivolous
amusements, a dark storm was gathering in the north. There was not a state
through which he had passed, however friendly to his cause, which had not
complaints to make of his insolence, his breach of faith, his infringement
of their rights, and his exorbitant exactions. His impolitic treatment of
Sforza had long since alienated that wily and restless politician, and
raised suspicions in his mind of Charles's designs against his own duchy
of Milan. The emperor elect, Maximilian, whom the French king thought to
have bound to his interests by the treaty of Senlis, took umbrage at his
assumption of the imperial title and dignity. The Spanish ambassadors,
Garcilasso de la Vega, and his brother Lorenzo Suarez, the latter of whom
resided at Venice, were indefatigable in stimulating the spirit of
discontent. Suarez, in particular, used every effort to secure the co-
operation of Venice, representing to the government, in the most urgent
terms, the necessity of general concert and instant action among the great
powers of Italy, if they would preserve their own liberties. [45]

Venice, from its remote position, seemed to afford the best point for
coolly contemplating the general interests of Italy. Envoys of the
different European powers were assembled there, as if by common consent,
with the view of concerting some scheme of operation for their mutual
good. The conferences were conducted by night, and with such secrecy as to
elude for some time the vigilant eye of Comines, the sagacious minister of
Charles, then resident at the capital. The result was the celebrated
league of Venice. It was signed the last day of March, 1495, on the part
of Spain, Austria, Rome, Milan, and the Venetian republic. The ostensible
object of the treaty, which was to last twenty-five years, was the
preservation of the estates and rights of the confederates, especially of
the Roman see. A large force, amounting in all to thirty-four thousand
horse and twenty thousand foot, was to be assessed in stipulated
proportions on each of the contracting parties. The secret articles of the
treaty, however, went much further, providing a formidable plan of
offensive operations. It was agreed in these, that King Ferdinand should
employ the Spanish armament, now arrived in Sicily, in re-establishing his
kinsman on the throne of Naples; that a Venetian fleet of forty galleys
should attack the French positions on the Neapolitan coasts; that the duke
of Milan should expel the French from Asti, and blockade the passes of the
Alps, so as to intercept the passage of further reinforcements; and that
the emperor and the king of Spain should invade the French frontiers, and
their expenses be defrayed by subsidies from the allies. [46] Such were
the terms of this treaty, which may be regarded as forming an era in
modern political history, since it exhibits the first example of those
extensive combinations among European princes, for mutual defence, which
afterwards became so frequent. It shared the fate of many other
coalitions, where the name and authority of the whole have been made
subservient to the interests of some one of the parties, more powerful, or
more cunning, than the rest.

The intelligence of the new treaty diffused general joy throughout Italy.
In Venice, in particular, it was greeted with _fêtes_, illuminations,
and the most emphatic public rejoicing, in the very eyes of the French
minister, who was compelled to witness this unequivocal testimony of the
detestation in which his countrymen were held. [47] The tidings fell
heavily on the ears of the French in Naples. It dispelled the dream of
idle dissipation in which they were dissolved. They felt little concern,
indeed, on the score of their Italian enemies, whom their easy victories
taught them to regard with the same insolent contempt, that the paladins
of romance are made to feel for the unknightly rabble, myriads of whom
they could overturn with a single lance. But they felt serious alarm as
they beheld the storm of war gathering from other quarters,--from Spain
and Germany, in defiance of the treaties by which they had hoped to secure
them. Charles saw the necessity of instant action. Two courses presented
themselves: either to strengthen himself in his new conquests, and prepare
to maintain them until he could receive fresh reinforcements from home, or
to abandon them altogether and retreat across the Alps, before the allies
could muster in sufficient strength to oppose him. With the indiscretion
characteristic of his whole enterprise, he embraced a middle course, and
lost the advantages which would have resulted from the exclusive adoption
of either.

        *       *       *       *        *

The principal light, by which we are to be guided through the remainder of
this history, is the Aragonese annalist, Zurita, whose great work,
although less known abroad than those of some more recent Castilian
writers, sustains a reputation at home, unsurpassed by any other, in the
great, substantial qualities of an historian. The notice of his life and
writings has been swelled into a bulky quarto by Dr. Diego Dormer, in a
work entitled, "Progressos de la Historia en el Reyno de Aragon. Zaragoza,
1680;" from which I extract a few particulars.

Gerónimo Zurita, descended from an ancient and noble family, was born at
Saragossa, December 4th, 1512. He was matriculated at an early age in the
university of Alcalá. He there made extraordinary proficiency, under the
immediate instruction of the learned Nuñez de Guzman, commonly called El
Pinciano. He became familiar with the ancient, and a variety of modern
tongues, and attracted particular attention by the purity and elegance of
his Latinity. His personal merits, and his father's influence, recommended
him, soon after quitting the university, to the notice of the emperor
Charles V. He was consulted and employed in affairs of public importance,
and subsequently raised to several posts of honor, attesting the entire
confidence reposed in his integrity and abilities. His most honorable
appointment, however, was that of national historiographer.

In 1547, an act passed the cortes general of Aragon, providing for the
office of national chronicler, with a fixed salary, whose duty it should
be to compile, from authentic sources, a faithful history of the monarchy.
The talents and eminent qualifications of Zurita recommended him to this
post, and he was raised to it by the unanimous consent of the legislature,
in the following year, 1548. From this time he conscientiously devoted
himself to the execution of his great task. He visited every part of his
own country, as well as Sicily and Italy, for the purpose of collecting
materials. The public archives, and every accessible source of
information, were freely thrown open to his inspection, by order of the
government; and he returned from his literary pilgrimage with a large
accumulation of rare and original documents. The first portion of his
annals was published at Saragossa, in two volumes folio, 1562. The work
was not completed until nearly twenty years later, and the last two
volumes were printed under his own eye at Saragossa, in 1580, a few months
only before his death. This edition, being one of those used in the
present history, is in large folio, fairly executed, with double columns
on the page, in the fashion of most of the ancient Spanish historians. The
whole work was again published, as before, at the expense of the state, in
1585, by his son, amended and somewhat enlarged, from the manuscripts left
by his father. Bouterwek has fallen into the error of supposing, that no
edition of Zurita's Annals appeared till after the reign of Philip II.,
who died in 1592. (Geschichte der Poesie und Beredsamkeit, band iii. p.
319.)

No incidents worthy of note seem to have broken the peaceful tenor of
Zurita's life; which he terminated at Saragossa, in the sixty-eighth year
of his age, in the monastery of Santa Engracia, to which he had retired
during a temporary residence in the city, to superintend the publication
of his Annals. His rich collection of books and manuscripts was left to
the Carthusian monastery of Aula Dei; but from accident or neglect, the
greater part have long since perished. His remains were interred in the
convent where he died, and a monument, bearing a modest inscription, was
erected over them by his son.

The best monument of Zurita, however, is his Annals. They take up the
history of Aragon from its first rise after the Arabic conquest, and
continue it to the death of Ferdinand the Catholic. The reign of this
prince, as possessing the largest interest and importance, is expanded
into two volumes folio; being one-third of the whole work.

The minuteness of Zurita's investigations has laid him open to the charge
of prolixity, especially in the earlier and less important periods. It
should be remembered, however, that his work was to be the great national
repository of facts, interesting to his own countrymen, but which, from
difficulty of access to authentic sources, could never before be fully
exhibited to their inspection. But, whatever he thought of his redundancy,
in this or the subsequent parts of his narrative, it must be admitted that
he has uniformly and emphatically directed the attention of the reader to
the topics most worthy of it; sparing no pains to illustrate the
constitutional antiquities of the country, and to trace the gradual
formation of her liberal polity, instead of wasting his strength on mere
superficial gossip, like most of the chroniclers of the period.

There is no Spanish historian less swayed by party or religious prejudice,
or by the feeling of nationality, which is so apt to overflow in the loyal
effusions of the Castilian writers. This laudable temperance, indeed, has
brought on him the rebuke of more than one of his patriotic countrymen.
There is a sobriety and coolness in his estimate of historical evidence,
equally removed from temerity on the one hand, and credulity on the other;
in short, his whole manner is that of a man conversant with public
business, and free from the closet pedantry which too often characterizes
the monkish annalists. The greater part of his life was passed under the
reign of Charles V., when the spirit of the nation was not yet broken by
arbitrary power, nor debased by the melancholy superstition which settled
on it under his successor; an age, in which the memory of ancient liberty
had not wholly faded away, and when, if men did not dare express all they
thought, they at least thought with a degree of independence which gave a
masculine character to their expression. In this, as well as in the
liberality of his religious sentiments, he may be compared favorably with
his celebrated countryman Mariana, who, educated in the cloister, and at a
period when the nation was schooled to maxims of despotism, exhibits few
glimpses of the sound criticism and reflection, which are to be found in
the writings of his Aragonese rival. The seductions of style, however, the
more fastidious selection of incidents, in short, the superior graces of
narration, have given a wider fame to the former, whose works have passed
into most of the cultivated languages of Europe, while those of Zurita
remain, as far as I am aware, still undisturbed in the vernacular.


FOOTNOTES

[1] Zurita, Historia del Rey Don Hernando el Cathólico, (Anales, tom. v.
vi., Zaragoza, 1580,) lib. 1, Introd.

[2] The "Legazione," or official correspondence of Machiavelli, while
stationed at the different European courts, may be regarded as the most
complete manual of diplomacy as it existed at the beginning of the
sixteenth century. It affords more copious and curious information
respecting the interior workings of the governments with whom he resided,
than is to be found in any regular history; and it shows the variety and
extent of duties attached to the office of resident minister, from the
first moment of its creation.

[3] "Sed diu," says Sallust, noticing the similar consequence of increased
refinement among the ancients, "magnum inter mortales certamen fuit, vine
corporis an virtute animi res militaris magis procederet. ***** Tum demum
periculo atque negotiis compertum est, in bello plurimum ingenium posse."
Bellum Catilinarium, cap. 1, 2.

[4] Machiavelli's political treatises, his "Principe" and "Discorsi sopra
Tito Livio," which appeared after his death, excited no scandal at the
time of their publication. They came into the world, indeed, from the
pontifical press, under the privilege of the reigning pope, Clement VII.
It was not until thirty years later that they were placed on the Index;
and this not from any exceptions taken at the immorality of their
doctrines, as Ginguené has well proved, (Histoire Littéraire d'Italie,
(Paris, 1811-19,) tom. viii. pp. 32, 74,) but from the imputations they
contained on the court of Rome.

[5] "Aquel Senado é Señoría de Venecianos," says Gonzalo de Oviedo, "donde
me parece á mi que esta recogido todo el saber é prudencia de los hombres
humanos; porque és la gente del mundo que mejor se sabe gobernar; é la
republica, que mas tiempo há durado en el mundo por la buena forma de su
regimiento, é donde con mejor manera hán los hombres vivido en comunidad
sin tener Rey;" etc. Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 3, dial. 44.

[6] Of all the incense which poets and politicians have offered to the
Queen of the Adriatic, none is more exquisite than that conveyed in these
few lines, where Sannazaro notices her position as the bulwark of
Christendom.

  "Una Italum regina, altae pulcherrima Romae
  Aemula, quae terris, quae dominaris aquis!
  Tu tibi vel reges cives facis; O decus! O lux
  Ausoniae, per quam libera turba sumus;
  Per quam barbaries nobis non imperat, et Sol
  Exoriens nostro clarius orbe micat!"

Opera Latina, lib. 3, eleg. 1, 95.

[7] Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. i. lib. 3, p. 147.

[8] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 119, 123.--Fleury, Histoire
Ecclésiastique, contin. (Paris, 1722,) tom. xxiv. lib. 117, p. 545.--Peter
Martyr, whose residence and rank at the Spanish court gave him access to
the best sources of information as to the repute in which the new pontiff
was held there, expresses himself in one of his letters to Cardinal
Sforza, who had assisted at his election, in the following unequivocal
language. "Sed hoc habeto, princeps illustrissime, non placuisse meis
Regibus pontificatum ad Alexandrum, quamvis eorum ditionarium, pervenisse.
Verentur namque ne illius cupiditas, ne ambitio, ne (quod gravius)
mollities filialis Christianam religionem in praeceps trahat." Epist. 119.

[9] A remarkable example of this occurred in the middle of the fifteenth
century, when the inundation of the Turks, which seemed ready to burst
upon them, after overwhelming the Arabian and Greek empires, had no power
to still the voice of faction, or to concentrate the attention of the
Italian states, even for a moment.

[10] Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. i. lib. 1, p. 2.

[11] Brantôme, Vies des Hommes Illustres, Oeuvres Complètes, (Paris, 1822-
3,) tom. ii. disc. i. pp. 2, 20.

[12] Sismondi, Hist. des Français, tom. xv. p. 112.--Gaillard, Rivalité,
tom. iv. pp. 2, 3.

[13] Daru, Histoire de la République de Venise, (Paris, 1821,) tom. iii.
liv. 20.--See the deed of cession, in the memoir of M. de Foncemagne.
(Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, tom. xvii. pp.
539-579.) This document, as well as some others which appeared on the eve
of Charles's expedition, breathes a tone of Quixotic and religious
enthusiasm that transports us back to the days of the crusades.

[14] The conflicting claims of Anjou and Aragon are stated at length by
Gaillard, with more candor and impartiality than were to be expected from
a French writer. (Histoire de François I., (Paris, 1769,) tom. i. pp. 71-
92.) They form the subject of a juvenile essay of Gibbon, in which we may
discern the germs of many of the peculiarities which afterwards
characterized the historian of the Decline and Fall. Miscellaneous Works,
(London, 1814.) vol. iii. pp. 206-222.

[15] Essai sur les Moeurs, chap. 107.--His politic father, Louis XI.,
acted on this principle, for he made no attempt to maintain his
pretensions to Naples; although Mably affects to doubt whether this were
not the result of necessity rather than policy. "Il est douteux si cette
modération fut l'ouvrage d'une connoissance approfondie de ses vrais
intérêts, ou seulement de cette défiance qu'il avoit des grands de son
royaume, et qu'il n'osoit perdre de vue." Observations sur l'Histoire de
France, Oeuvres, (Paris, 1794-5,) liv. 6, chap. 4.

[16] Flassan, Histoire de la Diplomatic Française, (Paris, 1809,) tom. i.
pp. 254-259.--Dumont, Corps Universel Diplomatique du Droit des Gens,
(Amsterdam, 1726-31,) tom. iii. pp. 297-300.

[17] See the narrative of these transactions in the Fifth and Sixth
Chapters of Part I. of this History.

Most historians seem to take it for granted, that Louis XI. advanced a sum
of money to the king of Aragon; and some state, that payment of the debt,
for which the provinces were mortgaged, was subsequently tendered to the
French king. (See, among others, Sismondi, Républiques Italiennes, tom.
xii. p. 93.--Roscoe, Life and Pontificate of Leo X., (London, 1827,) vol.
i. p. 147.) The first of these statements is a palpable error; and I find
no evidence of the last in any Spanish authority, where, if true, it would
naturally have been noticed. I must, indeed, except Bernaldez, who says,
that Ferdinand having repaid the money, borrowed by his father from Louis
XI., to Charles VIII., the latter monarch returned it to Isabella, in
consideration of the great expenses incurred by the Moorish war. It is a
pity that this romantic piece of gallantry does not rest on any better
foundation than the Curate of Los Palacios, who shows a degree of
ignorance in the first part of his statement, that entitles him to little
credit in the last. Indeed, the worthy curate, although much to be relied
on for what passed in his own province, may be found frequently tripping
in the details of what passed out of it. Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS.,
cap. 117.

[18] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib. 1, cap. 4, 7, 10.

[19] Fleury, Histoire Ecclésiastique, contin., tom. xxiv. pp. 533-555.--
Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib. 1, cap. 14.--Daru, Hist. de Venise,
tom. iii. pp. 51, 52.--Gaillard, Rivalité, tom. iv. p. 10.--Abarca, Reyes
de Aragon, tom. ii. rey 30, cap. 6.

Comines, alluding to the affair of Roussillon, says that Ferdinand and
Isabella, whether from motives of economy or hypocrisy, always employed
priests in their negotiations. "Car toutes leurs oeuvres ont fait mener et
conduire par telles gens (religieux), ou par hypocrisie, ou afin de moins
despendre." (Mémoires, p. 211.) The French king, however, made more use of
the clergy in this very transaction than the Spanish. Zurita, Hist. del
Rey Hernando, lib. 1, cap. 10.

[20] Paolo Giovio, Historia sui Temporis, (Basiliae, 1578,) lib. 1, p.
16.--The treaty of Barcelona is given at length by Dumont. (Corps
Diplomatique, tom. iii. pp. 297-300.) It is reported with sufficient
inaccuracy by many historians, who make no hesitation in saying, that
Ferdinand expressly bound himself, by one of the articles, not to
interfere with Charles's meditated attempt on Naples. (Gaillard, Rivalité,
tom. iv. p. 11.--Voltaire, Essai sur les Moeurs, chap. 107.--Comines,
Mémoires, liv. 8, chap. 23.--Giovio, Hist. sui Temporis, lib. 1, p. 16.--
Varillas, Politique d'Espagne, ou du Roi Ferdinand, (Amsterdam, 1688,) pp.
11, 12.--Roscoe, Life of Leo X., tom. i. chap. 3.) So far from this, there
is no allusion whatever to the proposed expedition in the treaty, nor is
the name of Naples once mentioned in it.

[21] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib. 1, cap. 18.--Abarca, Reyes de
Aragon, ubi supra.

[22] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib. 1, cap. 28.--Bembo, Istoria
Viniziana, (Milano, 1809,) tom. i. lib. 2, pp. 118, 119.--Oviedo,
Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 3, dial. 43.

[23] Comines, Mémoires, liv. 7, introd.

[24] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib. 1, cap. 20.--Peter Martyr, Opus
Epist., epist. 123.--Comines, Mémoires, liv. 7, chap. 3.--Mariana, Hist.
de España, tom. ii. lib. 26, cap. 6.--Zurita concludes the arguments which
decided Ferdinand against assuming the enterprise, with one which may be
considered the gist of the whole matter. "El Rey entendia bien que no era
tan facil la causa que se proponia." Lib. 1, cap. 20.

[25] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib. 1, cap. 31.

[26] Oviedo notices Silva as one of three brothers, all gentle cavaliers,
of unblemished honor, remarkable for the plainness of their persons, the
elegance and courtesy of their manners, and the magnificence of their
style of living. This one, Alonso, he describes as a man of a singularly
clear head. Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 4.

[27] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, ubi supra.

[28] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib, 1, cap. 31, 41.

[29] Villeneuve, Mémoires, apud Petitot, Collection des Mémoires, tom.
xiv. pp. 255, 256.

The French army consisted of 3600 gens d'armes, 20,000 French infantry,
and 8000 Swiss, without including the regular camp followers. (Sismondi,
Républiques Italiennes, tom. xii. p. 132.)

The splendor and novelty of their appearance excited a degree of
admiration, which disarmed in some measure the terror of the Italians.
Peter Martyr, whose distance from the theatre of action enabled him to
contemplate more calmly the operation of events, beheld with a prophetic
eye the magnitude of the calamities impending over his country. In one of
his letters, he writes thus; "Scribitur exercitum visum fuisse nostra
tempestate nullum unquam nitidiorem. Et qui futuri sunt calamitatis
participes, Carolum aciesque illius ac peditum turmas laudibus extollunt;
sed Italorum impensâ instructas." (Opus Epist., epist. 143.) He concludes
another with this remarkable prediction; "Perimeris, Galle, ex majori
parte, nec in patriam redibis. Jacebis insepultus; sed tua non restituetur
strages, Italia." Epist. 123.

[30] Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. i. lib. 1, p. 71.--Scipione Ammirato,
Istorie Fiorentine, (Firenze, 1647,) p. 205.--Giannone, Istoria di Napoli,
tom. iii. lib. 29, introd.--Comines, Mémoires, liv. 7, chap. 17.--Oviedo,
Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 3, dial. 43.

[31] Du Bos, Histoire de la Ligue faite à Cambray, (Paris, 1728), tom. i.
dissert, prélim.--Machiavelli, Istorie Fiorentine, lib. 5.--Denina,
Rivoluzioni d'Italia, lib. 18, cap. 3.

[32] Arte della Guerra, lib. 2.

[33] Machiavelli, Arte della Guerra, lib. 3.--Du Bos, Ligue de Cambray,
tom. i. dis. prélim.--Giovio, Hist. sui Temporis, lib. 2, p. 41. Polybius,
in his minute account of this celebrated military institution of the
Greeks, has recapitulated nearly all the advantages and defects imputed to
the Swiss _hérisson_, by modern European writers. (See lib. 17, sec.
25 et seq.) It is singular, that these exploded arms and tactics should be
revived, after the lapse of nearly seventeen centuries, to be foiled again
in the same manner as before.

[34] Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. i. pp. 45, 46.--Machiavelli, Arte della
Guerra, lib. 3.--Du Bos, Ligue de Cambray, ubi supra.

[35] Guicciardini speaks of the name of "cannon," which the French gave to
their pieces, as a novelty at that time in Italy. Istoria, pp. 45, 46.

[36] Giovio, Hist. sui Temporis, lib. 2, p. 42.--Machiavelli, Arte della
Guerra, lib. 7.

[37] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib. 1, cap. 35.--Alonso da Silva
acquitted himself to the entire satisfaction of the sovereigns, in his
difficult mission. He was subsequently sent on various others to the
different Italian courts, and uniformly sustained his reputation for
ability and prudence. He did not live to be old. Oviedo, Quincuagenas,
MS., bat. 1, quinc. 4.

[38] Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 26, cap. 6.--Salazar de
Mendoza, Monarquía, lib. 3, cap. 14.

This branch of the revenue yields at the present day, according to
Laborde, about 6,000,000 reals, or 1,500,000 francs. Itinéraire, tom. vi.
p. 51.

[39] Zurita, Abarca, and other Spanish historians, fix the date of
Alexander's grant at the close of 1496. (Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib, 2,
cap. 40.--Reyes de Aragon, rey 30, cap. 9.) Martyr notices it with great
particularity as already conferred, in a letter of February, 1495. (Opus
Epist., epist. 157.) The pope, according to Comines, designed to
compliment Ferdinand and Isabella for their conquest of Granada, by
transferring to them the title of Most Christian, hitherto enjoyed by the
kings of France. He had even gone so far as to address them thus in more
than one of his briefs. This produced a remonstrance from a number of the
cardinals; which led him to substitute the title of Most Catholic. The
epithet of Catholic was not new in the royal house of Castile, nor indeed
of Aragon; having been given to the Asturian prince Alfonso I. about the
middle of the eighth, and to Pedro II., of Aragon, at the beginning of the
thirteenth century.

I will remark, in conclusion, that, although the phrase _Los Reyes
Católicos_, as applied to a female equally with a male, would have a
whimsical appearance literally translated into English, it is perfectly
consonant to the Spanish idiom, which requires that all words, having
reference to both a masculine and a feminine noun, should be expressed in
the former gender. So also in the ancient languages; _Aemen tyrannoi_,
says Queen Hecuba; (Euripides, _Troad_, v. 476.) But it is clearly
incorrect to render _Los Reyes Católicos_, as usually done by English
writers, by the corresponding term of "Catholic kings."

[40] Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1495.

[41] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 138.--Sismondi, Républiques
Italiennes, tom. xii. pp. 192-194.--Garibay, Compendio, lib. 19, cap. 4.

[42] Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 3, dial. 43.--Zurita, Hist.
del Rey Hernando, lib. 1, cap. 43.--Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap.
138.--Giovio, Hist. sui Temporis, lib. 2, p. 46.--Lanuza, Historias, tom.
i. lib. 1, cap. 6.

This appears from a letter of Martyr's, dated three months before the
interview; in which he says, "Antonius Fonseca, vir equestris ordinis, et
armis clarus, destinatus est orator, qui eum moneat, ne, priusquam de jure
inter ipsum et Alfonsum regem Neapolitanum decernatur, ulterius procedat.
Fert in mandatis Antonius Fonseca, ut Carolo capitulum id sonans ostendat,
anteque ipsius oculos (si detrectaverit) pacti veteris chirographum
laceret, atque indicat inimicitias." Opus Epist., epist. 144.

[43] Comines, Mémoires, liv. 7, chap. 16.--Villeneuve, Mémoires, apud
Petitot, Collection des Mémoires, tom. xii., p. 260.--Ammirato, Istorie
Florentine, tom. iii. lib. 26.--Summonte, Hist. di Napoli, tom. iii. lib.
6, cap. 1, 2.

[44] Giovio, Hist. sui Temporis, lib. 2, p. 55.--Giannone, Istoria di
Napoli, lib. 29, cap. 1, 2.--André de la Vigne, Histoire de Charles VIII.,
(Paris, 1617,) p. 201.

[45] Giovio, Hist. sui Temporis, lib. 2, p. 56.--Guicciardini, Istoria,
tom. i. pp. 86, 87.--Bembo, Istoria Viniziana, tom. i. lib. 2, p. 120--
Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib. 2, chap. 3, 5.--Comines, Mémoires,
liv. 7, chap. 19.

[46] Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. i. lib. 2, p. 88.--Comines, Mémoires,
liv. 7, chap. 20.--Bembo, Istoria Viniziana, tom. i. lib. 2, pp. 122,
123.--Daru, Hist. de Venise, tom. iii. pp. 255, 256.--Zurita, Hist. del
Rey Hernando, lib. 2, cap. 5.

[47] Comines, Mémoires, p. 96.--Comines takes great credit to himself for
his perspicacity in detecting the secret negotiations carried on at Venice
against his master. According to Bembo, however, the affair was managed
with such profound caution, as to escape his notice until it was
officially announced by the doge himself; when he was so much astounded by
the intelligence, that he was obliged to ask the secretary of the senate,
who accompanied him home, the particulars of what the doge had said, as
his ideas were so confused at the time, that he had not perfectly
comprehended it. Istoria Viniziana, lib. 2, pp. 128, 129.




CHAPTER II.

ITALIAN WARS.--RETREAT OF CHARLES VIII.--CAMPAIGNS OF GONSALVO DE
CORDOVA.--FINAL EXPULSION OF THE FRENCH.

1495-1496.

Impolitic Conduct of Charles.--He Plunders the Works of Art.--Gonsalvo de
Cordova.--His Brilliant Qualities.--Raised to the Italian Command.--Battle
of Seminara.--Gonsalvo's Successes.--Decline of the French.--He Receives
the Title of Great Captain.--Expulsion of the French from Italy.


Charles the Eighth might have found abundant occupation, during his brief
residence at Naples, in placing the kingdom in a proper posture of
defence, and in conciliating the good-will of the inhabitants, without
which he could scarcely hope to maintain himself permanently in his
conquest. So far from this, however, he showed the utmost aversion to
business, wasting his hours, as has been already noticed, in the most
frivolous amusements. He treated the great feudal aristocracy of the
country with utter neglect; rendering himself difficult of access, and
lavishing all dignities and emoluments with partial prodigality on his
French subjects. His followers disgusted the nation still further by their
insolence and unbridled licentiousness. The people naturally called to
mind the virtues of the exiled Ferdinand, whose temperate rule they
contrasted with the rash and rapacious conduct of their new masters. The
spirit of discontent spread more widely, as the French were too thinly
scattered to enforce subordination. A correspondence was entered into with
Ferdinand in Sicily, and in a short time several of the most considerable
cities of the kingdom openly avowed their allegiance to the house of
Aragon. [1]

In the mean time, Charles and his nobles, satiated with a life of
inactivity and pleasure, and feeling that they had accomplished the great
object of the expedition, began to look with longing eyes towards their
own country. Their impatience was converted into anxiety on receiving
tidings of the coalition mustering in the north. Charles, however, took
care to secure to himself some of the spoils of victory, in a manner which
we have seen practised, on a much greater scale, by his countrymen in our
day. He collected the various works of art with which Naples was adorned,
precious antiques, sculptured marble and alabaster, gates of bronze
curiously wrought, and such architectural ornaments as were capable of
transportation, and caused them to be embarked on board his fleet for the
south of France, "endeavoring," says the Curate of Los Palacios, "to build
up his own renown on the ruins of the kings of Naples, of glorious
memory." His vessels, however, did not reach their place of destination,
but were captured by a Biscayan and Genoese fleet off Pisa. [2]

Charles had entirely failed in his application to Pope Alexander the Sixth
for a recognition of his right to Naples, by a formal act of investiture.
[3] He determined, however, to go through the ceremony of a coronation;
and, on the 12th of May, he made his public entrance into the city,
arrayed in splendid robes of scarlet and ermine, with the imperial diadem
on his head, a sceptre in one hand, and a globe, the symbol of universal
sovereignty, in the other; while the adulatory populace saluted his royal
ear with the august title of Emperor. After the conclusion of this farce,
he made preparations for his instant departure from Naples. On the 20th of
May, he set out on his homeward march, at the head of one-half of his
army, amounting in all to not more than nine thousand fighting men. The
other half was left for the defence of his new conquest. This arrangement
was highly impolitic, since he neither took with him enough to cover his
retreat, nor left enough to secure the preservation of Naples. [4]

It is not necessary to follow the French army in its retrograde movement
through Italy. It is enough to say, that this was not conducted with
sufficient despatch to anticipate the junction of the allied forces, who
assembled to dispute its passage on the banks of the Taro, near Fornovo.
An action was there fought, in which King Charles, at the head of his
loyal chivalry, achieved such deeds of heroism, as shed a lustre over his
ill-concerted enterprise, and which, if they did not gain him an
undisputed victory, secured the fruits of it, by enabling him to effect
his retreat without further molestation. At Turin he entered into
negotiation with the calculating duke of Milan, which terminated in the
treaty of Vercelli, October 10th, 1495. By this treaty Charles obtained no
other advantage than that of detaching his cunning adversary from the
coalition. The Venetians, although refusing to accede to it, made no
opposition to any arrangement, which would expedite the removal of their
formidable foe beyond the Alps. This was speedily accomplished; and
Charles, yielding to his own impatience and that of his nobles, recrossed
that mountain rampart which nature has so ineffectually provided for the
security of Italy, and reached Grenoble with his army on the 27th of the
month. Once more restored to his own dominions, the young monarch
abandoned himself without reserve to the licentious pleasures to which he
was passionately addicted, forgetting alike his dreams of ambition, and
the brave companions in arms whom he had deserted in Italy. Thus ended
this memorable expedition, which, though crowned with complete success,
was attended with no other permanent result to its authors, than that of
opening the way to those disastrous wars, which wasted the resources of
their country for a great part of the sixteenth century. [5]

Charles the Eighth had left as his viceroy in Naples Gilbert de Bourbon,
duke of Montpensier, a prince of the blood, and a brave and loyal
nobleman, but of slender military capacity, and so fond of his bed, says
Comines, that he seldom left it before noon. The command of the forces in
Calabria was intrusted to M. d'Aubigny, a Scottish cavalier of the house
of Stuart, raised by Charles to the dignity of grand constable of France.
He was so much esteemed for his noble and chivalrous qualities, that he
was styled by the annalists of that day, says Brantôme, "grand chevalier
sans reproche." He had large experience in military matters, and was
reputed one of the best officers in the French service. Besides these
principal commanders, there were others of subordinate rank stationed at
the head of small detachments on different points of the kingdom, and
especially in the fortified cities along the coasts. [6]

Scarcely had Charles the Eighth quitted Naples, when his rival, Ferdinand,
who had already completed his preparations in Sicily, made a descent on
the southern extremity of Calabria. He was supported in this by the
Spanish levies under the admiral Requesens, and Gonsalvo of Cordova, who
reached Sicily in the month of May. As the latter of these commanders was
destined to act a most conspicuous part in the Italian wars, it may not be
amiss to give some account of his early life.

Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordova, or Aguilar, as he is sometimes styled from
the territorial title assumed by his branch of the family, was born at
Montilla, in 1453. His father died early, leaving two sons, Alonso de
Aguilar, whose name occurs in some of the most brilliant passages of the
war of Granada, and Gonsalvo, three years younger than his brother. During
the troubled reigns of John the Second and Henry the Fourth, the city of
Cordova was divided by the feuds of the rival families of Cabra and
Aguilar; and it is reported that the citizens of the latter faction, after
the loss of their natural leader, Gonsalvo's father, used to testify their
loyalty to his house by bearing the infant children along with them in
their rencontres; thus Gonsalvo may be said to have been literally nursed
amid the din of battle. [7]

On the breaking out of the civil wars, the two brothers attached
themselves to the fortunes of Alfonso and Isabella. At their court, the
young Gonsalvo soon attracted attention by the uncommon beauty of his
person, his polished manners, and proficiency in all knightly exercises.
He indulged in a profuse magnificence in his apparel, equipage, and
general style of living; a circumstance, which, accompanied with his
brilliant qualities, gave him the title at the court of _el príncipe de
los cavalleros_, the prince of cavaliers. This carelessness of expense,
indeed, called forth more than once the affectionate remonstrance of his
brother Alonso, who, as the elder son, had inherited the _mayorazgo_,
or family estate, and who provided liberally for Gonsalvo's support. He
served during the Portuguese war under Alonso de Cardenas, grand master of
St. James, and was honored with the public commendations of his general
for his signal display of valor at the battle of Albuera; where, it is
remarked, the young hero incurred an unnecessary degree of personal hazard
by the ostentatious splendor of his armor. Of this commander, and of the
count of Tendilla, Gonsalvo always spoke with the greatest deference,
acknowledging that he had learned the rudiments of war from them. [8]

The long war of Granada, however, was the great school in which his
military discipline was perfected. He did not, it is true, occupy so
eminent a position in these campaigns as some other chiefs of riper years
and more enlarged experience; but on various occasions he displayed
uncommon proofs both of address and valor. He particularly distinguished
himself at the capture of Tajara, Illora, and Monte Frio. At the last
place, he headed the scaling party, and was the first to mount the walls
in the face of the enemy. He wellnigh closed his career in a midnight
skirmish before Granada, which occurred a short time before the end of the
war. In the heat of the struggle his horse was slain; and Gonsalvo, unable
to extricate himself from the morass in which he was entangled, would have
perished, but for the faithful servant of the family, who mounted him on
his own horse, briefly commending to his master the care of his wife and
children. Gonsalvo escaped, but his brave follower paid for his loyalty
with his life. At the conclusion of the war, he was selected, together
with Ferdinand's secretary Zafra, in consequence of his plausible address,
and his familiarity with the Arabic, to conduct the negotiation with the
Moorish government. He was secretly introduced for this purpose by night
into Granada, and finally succeeded in arranging the terms of capitulation
with the unfortunate Abdallah, as has been already stated. In
consideration of his various services, the Spanish sovereigns granted him
a pension, and a large landed estate in the conquered territory. [9]

After the war, Gonsalvo remained with the court, and his high reputation
and brilliant exterior made him one of the most distinguished ornaments of
the royal circle. His manners displayed all the romantic gallantry
characteristic of the age, of which the following, among other instances,
is recorded. The queen accompanied her daughter Joanna on board the fleet
which was to bear her to Flanders, the country of her destined husband.
After bidding adieu to the infanta, Isabella returned in her boat to the
shore; but the waters were so swollen, that it was found difficult to make
good a footing for her on the beach. As the sailors were preparing to drag
the bark higher up the strand, Gonsalvo, who was present, and dressed, as
the Castilian historians are careful to inform us, in a rich suit of
brocade and crimson velvet, unwilling that the person of his royal
mistress should be profaned by the touch of such rude hands, waded into
the water, and bore the queen in his arms to the shore, amid the shouts
and plaudits of the spectators. The incident may form a counterpart to the
well-known anecdote of Sir Walter Raleigh. [10]

Isabella's long and intimate acquaintance with Gonsalvo enabled her to
form a correct estimate of his great talents. When the Italian expedition
was resolved on, she instantly fixed her eyes on him as the most suitable
person to conduct it. She knew that he possessed the qualities essential
to success in a new and difficult enterprise,--courage, constancy,
singular prudence, dexterity in negotiation, and inexhaustible fertility
of resource. She accordingly recommended him, without hesitation, to her
husband, as the commander of the Italian army. He approved her choice,
although it seems to have caused no little surprise at the court, which,
notwithstanding the favor in which Gonsalvo was held by the sovereigns,
was not prepared to see him advanced over the heads of veterans, of so
much riper years and higher military renown than himself. The event proved
the sagacity of Isabella. [11]

The part of the squadron destined to convey the new general to Sicily was
made ready for sea in the spring of 1495. After a tempestuous voyage, he
reached Messina on the 24th of May. He found that Ferdinand, of Naples,
had already begun operations in Calabria, where he had occupied Reggio
with the assistance of the admiral Requesens, who reached Sicily with a
part of the armament a short time previous to Gonsalvo's arrival. The
whole effective force of the Spaniards did not exceed six hundred lances
and fifteen hundred foot, besides those employed in the fleet, amounting
to about three thousand and five hundred more. The finances of Spain had
been too freely drained in the late Moorish war to authorize any
extraordinary expenditure; and Ferdinand designed to assist his kinsman
rather with his name, than with any great accession of numbers.
Preparations, however, were going forward for raising additional levies,
especially among the hardy peasantry of the Asturias and Galicia, on which
the war of Granada had fallen less heavily than on the south. [12.]

On the 26th of May, Gonsalvo de Cordova crossed over to Reggio in
Calabria, where a plan of operation was concerted between him and the
Neapolitan monarch. Before opening the campaign, several strong places in
the province, which owed allegiance to the Aragonese family, were placed
in the hands of the Spanish general, as security for the reimbursement of
expenses incurred by his government in the war. As Gonsalvo placed little
reliance on his Calabrian or Sicilian recruits, he was obliged to detach a
considerable part of his Spanish forces to garrison these places. [13]

The presence of their monarch revived the dormant loyalty of his Calabrian
subjects. They thronged to his standard, till at length he found himself
at the head of six thousand men, chiefly composed of the raw militia of
the country. He marched at once with Gonsalvo on St. Agatha, which opened
its gates without resistance. He then directed his course towards
Seminara, a place of some strength about eight leagues from Reggio. On his
way he cut in pieces a detachment of French on its march to reinforce the
garrison there. Seminara imitated the example of St. Agatha, and,
receiving the Neapolitan army without opposition, unfurled the standard of
Aragon on its walls. While this was going forward, Antonio Grimani, the
Venetian admiral, scoured the eastern coasts of the kingdom with a fleet
of four and twenty galleys, and, attacking the strong town of Monopoli, in
the possession of the French, put the greater part of the garrison to the
sword.

D'Aubigny, who lay at this time with an inconsiderable body of French
troops in the south of Calabria, saw the necessity of some vigorous
movement to check the further progress of the enemy. He determined to
concentrate his forces, scattered through the province, and march against
Ferdinand, in the hope of bringing him to a decisive action. For this
purpose, in addition to the garrisons dispersed among the principal towns,
he summoned to his aid the forces, consisting principally of Swiss
infantry, stationed in the Basilicate under Précy, a, brave young
cavalier, esteemed one of the best officers in the French service. After
the arrival of this reinforcement, aided by the levies of the Angevin
barons, D'Aubigny, whose effective strength now greatly surpassed that of
his adversary, directed his march towards Seminara. [14]

Ferdinand, who had received no intimation of his adversary's junction with
Précy, and who considered him much inferior to himself in numbers, no
sooner heard of his approach, than he determined to march out at once
before he could reach Seminara, and give him battle. Gonsalvo was of a
different opinion. His own troops had too little experience in war with
the French and Swiss veterans to make him willing to risk all on the
chances of a single battle. The Spanish heavy-armed cavalry, indeed, were
a match for any in Europe, and were even said to surpass every other in
the beauty and excellence of their appointments, at a period, when arms
were finished to luxury. [15] He had but a handful of these, however; by
far the greatest part of his cavalry consisting of _ginetes_, or
light-armed troops, of inestimable service in the wild guerilla warfare to
which they had been accustomed in Granada, but obviously incapable of
coping with the iron _gendarmerie_ of France. He felt some distrust,
too, in bringing his little corps of infantry without further preparation,
armed, as they were, only with short swords and bucklers, and much
reduced, as has been already stated, in number, to encounter the
formidable phalanx of Swiss pikes. As for the Calabrian levies, he did not
place the least reliance on them. At all events, he thought it prudent,
before coming to action, to obtain more accurate information than they now
possessed, of the actual strength of the enemy. [16]

In all this, however, he was overruled by the impatience of Ferdinand and
his followers. The principal Spanish cavaliers, indeed, as well as the
Italian, among whom, may be found names which afterwards rose to high
distinction in these wars, urged Gonsalvo to lay aside his scruples;
representing the impolicy of showing any distrust of their own strength at
this crisis, and of balking the ardor of their soldiers, now hot for
action. The Spanish chief, though far from being convinced, yielded to
these earnest remonstrances, and King Ferdinand led out his little army
without further delay against the enemy.

After traversing a chain of hills, stretching in an easterly direction
from Seminara, at the distance of about three miles he arrived before a
small stream, on the plains beyond which he discerned the French army in
rapid advance against him. He resolved to wait its approach; and, taking
position on the slope of the hills towards the river, he drew up his horse
on the right wing, and his infantry on the left. [17]

The French generals, D'Aubigny and Précy, putting themselves at the head
of their cavalry on the left, consisting of about four hundred heavy-
armed, and twice as many light horse, dashed into the water without
hesitation. Their right was occupied by the bristling phalanx of Swiss
spearmen in close array; behind these were the militia of the country. The
Spanish _ginetes_ succeeded in throwing the French gendarmerie into
some disorder, before it could form after crossing the stream; but, no
sooner was this accomplished, than the Spaniards, incapable of
withstanding the charge of their enemy, suddenly wheeled about and
precipitately retreated with the intention of again returning on their
assailants, after the fashion of the Moorish tactics. The Calabrian
militia, not comprehending this manoeuvre, interpreted it into a defeat.
They thought the battle lost, and, seized with a panic, broke their ranks,
and fled to a man, before the Swiss infantry had time so much as to lower
its lances against them.

King Ferdinand in vain attempted to rally the dastardly fugitives. The
French cavalry was soon upon them, making frightful slaughter in their
ranks. The young monarch, whose splendid arms and towering plumes made him
a conspicuous mark in the field, was exposed to imminent peril. He had
broken his lance in the body of one of the foremost of the French
cavaliers, when his horse fell under him, and as his feet were entangled
in the stirrups, he would inevitably have perished in the _mêlée_, but for
the prompt assistance of a young nobleman named Juan de Altavilla, who
mounted his master on his own horse, and calmly awaited the approach
of the enemy, by whom he was immediately slain. Instances of this
affecting loyalty and self-devotion not unfrequently occur in these wars,
throwing a melancholy grace over the darker and more ferocious features of
the time. [18]

Gonsalvo was seen in the thickest of the fight, long after the king's
escape, charging the enemy briskly at the head of his handful of
Spaniards, not in the hope of retrieving the day, but of covering the
flight of the panic-struck Neapolitans. At length he was borne along by
the rushing tide, and succeeded in bringing off the greater part of his
cavalry safe to Seminara. Had the French followed up the blow, the greater
part of the royal army, with probably King Ferdinand and Gonsalvo at its
head, would have fallen into their hands, and thus not only the fate of
the campaign, but of Naples itself, would have been permanently decided by
this battle. Fortunately, the French did not understand so well how to use
a victory, as to gain it. They made no attempt to pursue. This is imputed
to the illness of their general, D'Aubigny, occasioned by the extreme
unhealthiness of the climate. He was too feeble to sit long on his horse,
and was removed into a litter as soon as the action was decided. Whatever
was the cause, the victors by this inaction suffered the golden fruits of
victory to escape them. Ferdinand made his escape on the same day on board
a vessel which conveyed him back to Sicily; and Gonsalvo, on the following
morning before break of day, effected his retreat across the mountains to
Reggio, at the head of four hundred Spanish lances. Thus terminated the
first battle of importance in which Gonsalvo of Cordova held a
distinguished command; the only one which he lost during his long and
fortunate career. Its loss, however, attached no discredit to him, since
it was entered into in manifest opposition to his judgment. On the
contrary, his conduct throughout this affair tended greatly to establish
his reputation by showing him to be no less prudent in council, than bold
in action. [19]

King Ferdinand, far from being disheartened by this defeat, gained new
confidence from his experience of the favorable dispositions existing
towards him in Calabria. Relying on a similar feeling of loyalty in his
capital, he determined to hazard a bold stroke for its recovery; and that,
too, instantly, before his late discomfiture should have time to operate
on the spirits of his partisans. He accordingly embarked at Messina, with
a handful of troops only, on board the fleet of the Spanish admiral,
Requesens. It amounted in all to eighty vessels, most of them of
inconsiderable size. With this armament, which, notwithstanding its
formidable show, carried little effective force for land operations, the
adventurous young monarch appeared off the harbor of Naples before the end
of June.

Charles's viceroy, the duke of Montpensier, at that time garrisoned Naples
with six thousand French troops. On the appearance of the Spanish navy, he
marched out to prevent Ferdinand's landing, leaving a few only of his
soldiers to keep the city in awe. But he had scarcely quitted it before
the inhabitants, who had waited with impatience an opportunity for
throwing off the yoke, sounded the tocsin, and, rising to arms through
every part of the city, and massacring the feeble remains of the garrison,
shut the gates against him; while Ferdinand, who had succeeded in drawing
off the French commander in another direction, no sooner presented himself
before the walls, than he was received with transports of joy by the
enthusiastic people. [20]

The French, however, though excluded from the city, by making a circuit
effected an entrance into the fortresses which commanded it. From these
posts, Montpensier sorely annoyed the town, making frequent attacks on it,
day and night, at the head of his gendarmerie, until they were at length
checked in every direction by barricades which the citizens hastily
constructed with wagons, casks of stones, bags of sand, and whatever came
most readily to hand. At the same time, the windows, balconies, and house-
tops were crowded with combatants, who poured down such a deadly shower of
missiles on the heads of the French as finally compelled them to take
shelter in their defences. Montpensier was now closely besieged, till at
length, reduced by famine, he was compelled to capitulate. Before the term
prescribed for his surrender had arrived, however, he effected his escape
at night, by water, to Salerno, at the head of twenty-five hundred men.
The remaining garrison, with the fortresses, submitted to the victorious
Ferdinand, the beginning of the following year. And thus, by one of those
sudden turns which belong to the game of war, the exiled prince, whose
fortunes a few weeks before appeared perfectly desperate, was again
established in the palace of his ancestors. [21]

Montpensier did not long remain in his new quarters. He saw the necessity
of immediate action, to counteract the alarming progress of the enemy. He
quitted Salerno before the end of winter, strengthening his army by such
reinforcements as he could collect from every quarter of the country. With
this body, he directed his course towards Apulia, with the intention of
bringing Ferdinand, who had already established his headquarters there, to
a decisive engagement. Ferdinand's force, however, was so far inferior to
that of his antagonist, as to compel him to act on the defensive, until he
had been reinforced by a considerable body of troops from Venice. The two
armies were then so equally matched, that neither cared to hazard all on
the fate of a battle; and the campaign wasted away in languid operations,
which led to no important result.

In the mean time, Gonsalvo de Cordova was slowly fighting his way up
through southern Calabria. The character of the country, rough and
mountainous, like the Alpuxarras, and thickly sprinkled with fortified
places, enabled him to bring into play the tactics which he had learned in
the war of Granada. He made little use of heavy-armed troops, relying on
his _ginetes_, and still more on his foot; taking care, however, to
avoid any direct encounter with the dreaded Swiss battalions. He made
amends for paucity of numbers and want of real strength, by rapidity of
movement and the wily tactics of Moorish warfare; darting on the enemy
where least expected, surprising his strong-holds at dead of night,
entangling him in ambuscades, and desolating the country with those
terrible forays, whose effects he had so often witnessed on the fair vegas
of Granada. He adopted the policy practised by his master Ferdinand the
Catholic in the Moorish war, lenient to the submissive foe, but wreaking
terrible vengeance on such as resisted. [22]

The French were sorely disconcerted by these irregular operations, so
unlike anything to which they were accustomed in European warfare. They
were further disheartened by the continued illness of D'Aubigny, and by
the growing disaffection of the Calabrians, who in the southern provinces
contiguous to Sicily were particularly well inclined to Spain.

Gonsalvo, availing himself of these friendly dispositions, pushed forward
his successes, carrying one strong-hold after another, until by the end of
the year he had overrun the whole of Lower Calabria. His progress would
have been still more rapid but for the serious embarrassments which he
experienced from want of supplies. He had received some reinforcements
from Sicily, but very few from Spain; while the boasted Galician levies,
instead of fifteen hundred, had dwindled to scarcely three hundred men;
who arrived in the most miserable plight, destitute of clothing and
munitions of every kind. He was compelled to weaken still further his
inadequate force by garrisoning the conquered places, most of which,
however, he was obliged to leave without any defence at all. In addition
to this, he was so destitute of the necessary funds for the payment of his
troops, that he was detained nearly two months at Nicastro, until
February, 1496, when he received a remittance from Spain. After this, he
resumed operations with such vigor, that by the end of the following
spring he had reduced all Upper Calabria, with the exception of a small
corner of the province, in which D'Aubigny still maintained himself. At
this crisis, he was summoned from the scene of his conquests to the
support of the king of Naples, who lay encamped before Atella, a town
intrenched among the Apennines, on the western borders of the Basilicate.
[23] The campaign of the preceding winter had terminated without any
decisive results, the two armies of Montpensier and King Ferdinand having
continued in sight of each other, without ever coming to action. These
protracted operations were fatal to the French. Their few supplies were
intercepted by the peasantry of the country; their Swiss and German
mercenaries mutinied and deserted for want of pay; and the Neapolitans in
their service went off in great numbers, disgusted with the insolent and
overbearing manners of their new allies. Charles the Eighth, in the mean
while, was wasting his hours and health in the usual round of profligate
pleasures. From the moment of recrossing the Alps he seemed to have shut
out Italy from his thoughts. He was equally insensible to the
supplications of the few Italians at his court, and the remonstrances of
his French nobles, many of whom, although opposed to the first expedition,
would willingly have undertaken a second to support their brave comrades,
whom the heedless young monarch now abandoned to their fate. [24]

At length Montpensier, finding no prospect of relief from home, and
straitened by the want of provisions, determined to draw off from the
neighborhood of Benevento, where the two armies lay encamped, and retreat
to the fruitful province of Apulia, whose principal places were still
garrisoned by the French. He broke up his camp secretly at dead of night,
and gained a day's march on his enemy, before the latter began his
pursuit. This Ferdinand pushed with such vigor, however, that he overtook
the retreating army at the town of Atella, and completely intercepted its
further progress. This town, which, as already noticed, is situated on,
the western skirts of the Basilicate, lies in a broad valley encompassed
by a lofty amphitheatre of hills, through which flows a little river,
tributary to the Ofanto, watering the town, and turning several mills
which supplied it with flour. At a few miles' distance was the strong
place of Ripa Candida, garrisoned by the French, through which Montpensier
hoped to maintain his communications with the fertile regions of the
interior.

Ferdinand, desirous if possible to bring the war to a close, by the
capture of the whole French army, prepared for a vigorous blockade. He
disposed his forces so as to intercept supplies by commanding the avenues
to the town in every direction. He soon found, however, that his army,
though considerably stronger than his rival's, was incompetent to this
without further aid. He accordingly resolved to summon to his support
Gonsalvo de Cordova, the fame of whose exploits now resounded through
every part of the kingdom. [25]

The Spanish general received Ferdinand's summons while encamped with his
army at Castrovillari, in the north of Upper Calabria. If he complied with
it, he saw himself in danger of losing all the fruits of his long campaign
of victories; for his active enemy would not fail to profit by his absence
to repair his losses. If he refused obedience, however, it might defeat
the most favorable opportunity which had yet presented itself for bringing
the war to a close. He resolved, therefore, at once to quit the field of
his triumphs, and march to King Ferdinand's relief. But, before his
departure, he prepared to strike such a blow as should, if possible,
incapacitate his enemy for any effectual movement during his absence.

He received intelligence that a considerable number of Angevin lords,
mostly of the powerful house of San Severino, with their vassals and a
reinforcement of French troops, were assembled at the little town of
Laino, on the northwestern borders of Upper Calabria; where they lay
awaiting a junction with D'Aubigny. Gonsalvo determined to surprise this
place, and capture the rich spoils which it contained, before his
departure. His road lay through a wild and mountainous country. The passes
were occupied by the Calabrian peasantry in the interest of the Angevin
party. The Spanish general, however, found no difficulty in forcing a way
through this undisciplined rabble, a large body of whom he surrounded and
cut to pieces, as they lay in ambush for him in the valley of Murano.
Laino, whose base is washed by the waters of the Lao, was defended by a
strong castle built on the opposite side of the river, and connected by a
bridge with the town. All approach to the place by the high road was
commanded by this fortress. Gonsalvo obviated this difficulty, however, by
a circuitous route across the mountains. He marched all night, and,
fording the waters of the Lao about two miles above the town, entered it
with his little army before break of day, having previously detached a
small corps to take possession of the bridge. The inhabitants, startled
from their slumbers by the unexpected appearance of the enemy in their
streets, hastily seized their arms and made for the castle on the other
side of the river. The pass, however, was occupied by the Spaniards; and
the Neapolitans and French, hemmed in on every side, began a desperate
resistance, which terminated with the death of their chief, Americo San
Severino, and the capture of such of his followers as did not fall in the
mêlée. A rich booty fell into the hands of the victors. The most glorious
prize, however, was the Angevin barons, twenty in number, whom Gonsalvo,
after the action, sent prisoners to Naples. This decisive blow, whose
tidings spread like wildfire throughout the country, settled the fate of
Calabria. It struck terror into the hearts of the French, and crippled
them so far as to leave Gonsalvo little cause for anxiety during his
proposed absence. [26]

The Spanish general lost no time in pressing forward on his march towards
Atella. Before quitting Calabria he had received a reinforcement of five
hundred soldiers from Spain, and his whole Spanish forces, according to
Giovio, amounted to one hundred men-at-arms, five hundred light cavalry,
and two thousand foot, picked men, and well schooled in the hardy service
of the late campaign. [27] Although a great part of his march lay through
a hostile country, he encountered little opposition; for the terror of his
name, says the writer last quoted, had everywhere gone before him. He
arrived before Atella at the beginning of July. The king of Naples was no
sooner advised of his approach, than he marched out of camp, attended by
the Venetian general, the marquis of Mantua, and the papal legate, Caesar
Borgia, to receive him. All were eager to do honor to the man who had
achieved such brilliant exploits; who, in less than a year, had made
himself master of the larger part of the kingdom of Naples, and that, with
the most limited resources, in defiance of the bravest and best
disciplined soldiery in Europe. It was then, according to the Spanish
writers, that he was by general consent greeted with the title of the
Great Captain; by which he is much more familiarly known in Spanish, and,
it may be added, in most histories of the period, than by his own name.
[28]

Gonsalvo found the French sorely distressed by the blockade, which was so
strictly maintained as to allow few supplies from abroad to pass into the
town. His quick eye discovered at once, however, that in order to render
it perfectly effectual, it would be necessary to destroy the mills in the
vicinity, which supplied Atella with flour. He undertook this, on the day
of his arrival, at the head of his own corps. Montpensier, aware of the
importance of these mills, had stationed a strong guard for their defence,
consisting of a body of Gascon archers, and the Swiss pikemen. Although
the Spaniards had never been brought into direct collision with any large
masses of this formidable infantry, yet occasional rencontres with small
detachments, and increased familiarity with its tactics, had stripped it
of much of its terrors. Gonsalvo had even so far profited by the example
of the Swiss, as to strengthen his infantry by mingling the long pikes,
with the short swords and bucklers of the Spaniards. [29]

He made two divisions of his cavalry, posting his handful of heavy-armed,
with some of the light horse, so as to check any sally from the town,
while he destined the remainder to support the infantry in the attack upon
the enemy. Having made these arrangements, the Spanish chieftain led on
his men confidently to the charge. The Gascon archery, however, seized
with a panic, scarcely awaited his approach, but fled shamefully, before
they had time to discharge a second volley of arrows, leaving the battle
to the Swiss. These latter, exhausted by the sufferings of the siege, and
dispirited by long reverses, and by the presence of a new and victorious
foe, did not behave with their wonted intrepidity, but, after a feeble
resistance, abandoned their position, and retreated towards the city.
Gonsalvo, having gained his object, did not care to pursue the fugitives,
but instantly set about demolishing the mills, every vestige of which, in
a few hours, was swept from the ground. Three days after, he supported the
Neapolitan troops in an assault on Ripa Candida, and carried that
important post, by means of which Atella maintained a communication with
the interior. [30]

Thus cut off from all their resources, and no longer cheered by hopes of
succor from their own country, the French, after suffering the severest
privations, and being reduced to the most loathsome aliment for
subsistence, made overtures for a capitulation. The terms were soon
arranged with the king of Naples, who had no desire but to rid his country
of the invaders. It was agreed, that, if the French commander did not
receive assistance in thirty days, he should evacuate Atella, and cause
every place holding under him in the kingdom of Naples, with all its
artillery, to be surrendered to King Ferdinand; and that, on these
conditions, his soldiers should be furnished with vessels to transport
them back to France; that the foreign mercenaries should be permitted to
return to their own homes; and that a general amnesty should be extended
to such Neapolitans as returned to their allegiance in fifteen days. [31]

Such were the articles of capitulation, signed on the 21st of July, 1496,
which Comines, who received the tidings at the court of France, does not
hesitate to denounce as "a most disgraceful treaty, without parallel, save
in that made by the Roman consuls at the Caudine Forks, which was too
dishonorable to be sanctioned by their countrymen." The reproach is
certainly unmerited; and comes with ill grace from a court, which was
wasting in riotous indulgence the very resources indispensable to the
brave and loyal subjects, who were endeavoring to maintain its honor in a
foreign land. [32]

Unfortunately, Montpensier was unable to enforce the full performance of
his own treaty; as many of the French refused to deliver up the places
intrusted to them, under the pretence that their authority was derived,
not from the viceroy, but from the king himself. During the discussion of
this point, the French troops were removed to Baia and Pozzuolo, and the
adjacent places on the coast. The unhealthiness of the situation, together
with that of the autumnal season, and an intemperate indulgence in fruits
and wine, soon brought on an epidemic among the soldiers, which swept them
off in great numbers. The gallant Montpensier was one of the first
victims. He refused the earnest solicitations of his brother-in-law, the
marquis of Mantua, to quit his unfortunate companions, and retire to a
place of safety in the interior. The shore was literally strewed with the
bodies of the dying and the dead. Of the whole number of Frenchmen,
amounting to not less than five thousand, who marched out of Atella, not
more than five hundred ever reached their native country. The Swiss and
other mercenaries were scarcely more fortunate. "They made their way back
as they could through Italy," says a writer of the period, "in the most
deplorable state of destitution and suffering, the gaze of all, and a sad
example of the caprice of fortune." [33] Such was the miserable fate of
that brilliant and formidable array, which scarcely two years before had
poured down on the fair fields of Italy in all the insolence of expected
conquest. Well would it be, if the name of every conqueror, whose
successes, though built on human misery, are so dazzling to the
imagination, could be made to point a moral for the instruction of his
species, as effectually as that of Charles the Eighth.

The young king of Naples did not live long to enjoy his triumphs. On his
return from Atella, he contracted an inauspicious marriage with his aunt,
a lady nearly of his own age, to whom he had been long attached. A
careless and somewhat intemperate indulgence in pleasure, succeeding the
hardy life which he had been lately leading, brought on a flux which
carried him off in the twenty-eighth year of his age, and second of his
reign. He was the fifth monarch, who, in the brief compass of three years,
had sat on the disastrous throne of Naples.

Ferdinand possessed many qualities suited to the turbulent times in which
he lived. He was vigorous and prompt in action, and naturally of a high
and generous spirit. Still, however, he exhibited glimpses, even in his
last hours, of an obliquity, not to say ferocity of temper, which
characterized many of his line, and which led to ominous conjectures as to
what would have been his future policy. [34]

He was succeeded on the throne by his uncle Frederic, a prince of gentle
disposition, endeared to the Neapolitans by repeated acts of benevolence,
and by a magnanimous regard for justice, of which the remarkable
fluctuations of his fortune had elicited more than one example. His
amiable virtues, however, required a kindlier soil and season for their
expansion; and, as the event proved, made him no match for the subtile and
unscrupulous politicians of the age.

His first act was a general amnesty to the disaffected Neapolitans, who
felt such confidence in his good faith, that they returned, with scarcely
an exception, to their allegiance. His next measure was to request the aid
of Gonsalvo de Cordova in suppressing the hostile movements made by the
French during his absence from Calabria. At the name of the Great Captain,
the Italians flocked from all quarters, to serve without pay under a
banner which was sure to lead them to victory. Tower and town, as he
advanced, went down before him; and the French general, D'Aubigny, soon
saw himself reduced to the necessity of making the best terms he could
with his conqueror, and evacuating the province altogether. The submission
of Calabria was speedily followed by that of the few remaining cities in
other quarters, still garrisoned by the French; comprehending the last
rood of territory possessed by Charles the Eighth in the kingdom of
Naples. [35]

       *       *       *       *       *

Our narrative now leads us on the beaten track of Italian history. I have
endeavored to make the reader acquainted with the peculiar character and
pretensions of the principal Spanish authorities, on whom I have relied in
the progress of the work. This would be superfluous in regard to the
Italian, who enjoy the rank of classics, not only in their own country,
but throughout Europe, and have furnished the earliest models among the
moderns of historic composition. Fortunately, two of the most eminent of
them, Guicciardini and Paolo Giovio, lived at the period of our narrative,
and have embraced the whole extent of it in their histories. These two
writers, besides the attractions of elegant scholarship, and talent,
occupied a position which enabled them to take a clear view of all the
principal political movements of their age; circumstances, which have made
their accounts of infinite value in respect to foreign transactions, as
well as domestic. Guicciardini was a conspicuous actor in the scenes he
describes; and a long residence at the court of Ferdinand the Catholic
opened to him the most authentic sources of information in regard to
Spain. Giovio, from his intimate relations with the principal persons of
his time, had also access to the best sources of knowledge, while in the
notice of foreign transactions he was but little exposed to those venal
influences, which led him too often to employ the golden or iron pen of
history as interest dictated. Unfortunately, a lamentable hiatus occurs in
his greatest work, "Historiae sui Temporis," embracing the whole period
intervening between the end of Charles VIII.'s expedition and the
accession of Leo X., in 1513. At the time of the memorable sack of Rome by
the duke of Bourbon, in 1527, Giovio deposited his manuscript, with a
quantity of plate, in an iron chest, which he hid in an obscure corner of
the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva. The treasure, however, did not
escape the searching eyes of two Spanish soldiers, who broke open the
chest, and one of them seized on the plate, regarding the papers as of no
value. The other, not being quite such a fool, says Giovio, preserved such
of the manuscripts as were on vellum, and ornamented with rich bindings,
but threw away what was written on paper.

The part thus thrown away contained six books, relating to the period
above mentioned, which were never afterwards recovered. The soldier
brought the remainder to their author, who bought them at the price of a
vacant benefice, which he persuaded the pope to confer on the freebooter,
in his native land of Cordova. It is not often that simony has found so
good an apology. The deficiency, although never repaired by Giovio, was in
some degree supplied by his biographies of eminent men, and, among others,
by that of Gonsalvo de Cordova, in which he has collected with great
industry all the events of any interest in the life of this great
commander. The narrative is in general corroborated by the Spanish
authorities, and contains some additional particulars, especially
respecting his early life, which Giovio's personal intimacy with the
principal characters of the period might easily have furnished.

This portion of our story is, moreover, illustrated by the labors of M.
Sismondi, in his "Républiques Italiennes," which may undoubtedly claim to
be ranked among the most remarkable historical achievements of our time;
whether we consider the dexterous management of the narrative, or the
admirable spirit of philosophy by which it is illumined. It must be
admitted, that he has perfectly succeeded in unravelling the intricate web
of Italian politics; and, notwithstanding the complicated, and, indeed,
motley character of his subject, the historian has left a uniform and
harmonious impression on the mind of the reader. This he has accomplished,
by keeping constantly in view the principle which regulated all the
various movements of the complex machinery; so that his narrative becomes,
what he terms it in his English abridgment, a history of Italian liberty.
By keeping this principle steadily before him, he has been able to solve
much that hitherto was dark and problematical in his subject; and if he
has occasionally sacrificed something to theory, he has, on the whole,
pursued the investigation in a truly philosophical manner, and arrived at
results the most honorable and cheering to humanity.  Fortunately, his own
mind was deeply penetrated with reverence for the free institutions which
he has analyzed. If it is too much to say that the historian of republics
should be himself a republican, it is at least true that his soul should
be penetrated to its very depths with the spirit which animates them. No
one, who is not smitten with the love of freedom, can furnish the key to
much that is enigmatical in her character, and reconcile his readers to
the harsh and repulsive features that she sometimes wears, by revealing
the beauty and grandeur of the soul within.

That portion of our narrative which is incorporated with Italian story is
too small to occupy much space on Sismondi's plan. He has discussed it,
moreover, in a manner not very favorable to the Spaniards, whom he seems
to have regarded with somewhat of the aversion with which an Italian of
the sixteenth century viewed the ultramontane barbarians of Europe.
Perhaps the reader may find some advantage in contemplating another side
of the picture, and studying the less familiar details presented by the
Spanish authorities.


FOOTNOTES

[1] Comines, Mémoires, liv. 7, chap. 17.--Summonte, Hist. di Napoli, tom.
iii. lib. 6, cap. 2.--Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, lib. 29, cap. 2.

[2] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 140-143.

[3] Summonte, Hist. di Napoli, tom. iii. lib. 6, cap. 2.

According to Giannone, (Istoria di Napoli, lib. 29, cap. 2,) he did obtain
the investiture from the pope; but this statement is contradicted by
several, and confirmed by none, of the authorities I have consulted.

[4] Brantôme, Hommes Illustres, Oeuvres, tom. ii. pp. 3-5.--Comines,
Mémoires, liv. 8, chap. 2.

The particulars of the coronation are recorded with punctilious precision
by André de la Vigne, secretary of Queen Anne. (Hist. de Charles VIII., p.
201.) Daru has confounded this farce with Charles's original entry into
Naples in February. Hist. de Venise, tom. iii. liv. 20, p. 247.

[5] Villeneuve, Mémoires, apud Petitot, Collection de Mémoires, tom. xiv.
pp. 262, 263.--Flassan, Diplomatie Française, tom. i. pp. 267-269.--
Comines, Mémoires, liv. 8, chap. 10-12, 18.

[6] Comines, Mémoires, liv. 8, chap. 1.--Brantôme, Hommes Illustres, tom.
ii. p. 59.

[7] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib. 2, cap. 7.--Giovio, Vita Magni
Gonsalvi, lib. 1, pp. 204, 205.

[8] Pulgar, Sumario de las Hazañas del Gran Capitan, (Madrid, 1834,) p.
145.--Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, lib. 1, pp. 205 et seq.

[9] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 90.--Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi,
lib. 1, pp. 211, 212.--Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. cap.
42.--Quintana, Españoles Célebres, tom. i. pp. 207-216.--Pulgar, Sumario,
p. 193.

Florian has given circulation to a popular error by his romance of
"Gonsalve de Cordone," where the young warrior is made to play a part he
is by no means entitled to, as hero of the Granadine war. Graver writers,
who cannot lawfully plead the privilege of romancing, have committed the
same error. See, among others, Varillas, Politique de Ferdinand, p. 3.

[10] Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, p. 214.--Chrónica del Gran Capitan
Gonzalo Hernandez de Cordova y Aguilar, (Alcalá de Henares, 1584,) cap.
23.

Another example of his gallantry occurred during the Granadine war, when
the fire of Santa Fe had consumed the royal tent, with the greater part of
the queen's apparel and other valuable effects. Gonsalvo, on learning the
disaster, at his castle of Illora, supplied the queen so abundantly from
the magnificent wardrobe of his wife Doña Maria Manrique, as led Isabella
pleasantly to remark, that, "the fire had done more execution in his
quarters, than in her own." Pulgar, Sumario, p. 187.

[11] Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, p. 214.--Chrónica del Gran Capitan, cap.
23.

[12] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib. 2, cap. 7, 24.--Quintana,
Españoles Célebres, tom. i. p. 222.--Chrónica del Gran Capitan, ubi supra.

Giovio, in his biography of Gonsalvo, estimates these forces at 5000 foot
and 600 horse, which last in his History he raises to 700. I have followed
Zurita, as presenting the more probable statement, and as generally more
accurate in all that relates to his own nation. It is a hopeless task to
attempt to reconcile the manifold inaccuracies, contradictions, and
discrepancies, which perplex the narratives of the writers on both sides,
in everything relating to numerical estimates. The difficulty is greatly
increased by the extremely vague application of the term _lance_, as
we meet with it, including six, four, three, or even a less number of
followers, as the case might be.

[13] Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 26, cap. 10.--Zurita, Hist.
del Rey Hernando, lib. 2, cap. 7.

The occupation of these places by Gonsalvo excited the pope's jealousy, as
to the designs of the Spanish sovereigns. In consequence of his
remonstrances, the Castilian envoy, Garcilasso de la Vega, was instructed
to direct Gonsalvo, that, "in case any inferior places had been since put
into his hands, he should restore them; if they were of importance,
however, he was first to confer with his own government." King Ferdinand,
as Abarca assures his readers, "was unwilling to give cause of complaint
to any one, _unless he were greatly a gainer by it_." Reyes de Aragon, rey
30, cap. 8.--Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, tom. v. lib. 2, cap. 8.

[14] Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, pp. 215-217.--Idem, Hist. sui Temporis,
pp. 83-85.--Bembo, Istoria Viniziana, lib. 3, pp. 160, 185.--Zurita, Hist.
del Rey Hernando, lib. 2, cap. 8.--Guicciardini, Istoria, lib. 2, pp. 88,
92.--Chrónica del Gran Capitan, cap. 25.

[15] Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, lib. 1.--Du Bos, Ligue de Cambray,
introd., p. 58.

[16] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib. 2, cap. 7.--Giovio, Vita Magni
Gonsalvi, ubi supra.

[17] Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, lib. 1, pp. 216, 217.--Chrónica del Gran
Capitan, cap. 24.--Quintana, Españoles Célebres, tom. i. pp. 223-227.

[18] Giovio, Hist. sui Temporis, lib. 3, pp. 83-85.--Chrónica del Gran
Capitan, cap. 24.--Summonte, Hist. di Napoli, tom. iii. lib. 6, cap. 2.--
Guicciardini, Istoria, lib. 2, p. 112.--Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib.
19, p. 690.

[19] Guicciardini, Istoria, lib. 1, p. 112.--Giovio, Hist. sui Temporis,
lib. 3, p. 85.--Lanuza, Historias, tom. i. lib. 1, cap. 7.

[20] Summonte, Hist. di Napoli, tom. vi. p. 519.--Guicciardini, Istoria,
lib. 2, pp. 113, 114.--Giovio, Hist. sui Temporis, lib. 3, pp. 87, 88.--
Villeneuve, Mémoires, apud Petitot, Collection des Mémoires, tom. xiv. pp.
264, 265.

[21] Giovio, Hist. sui Temporis, lib. 3, pp. 88-90, 114-119.--
Guicciardini, Istoria, lib, 2, pp. 114-117.--Summonte, Hist. di Napoli,
tom. vi. pp. 520, 521.

[22] Bembo, Istoria Viniziana, lib. 3, pp. 173, 174.--Chrónica del Gran
Capitan, cap. 26.--Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, lib. 1, p. 218.--
Villeneuve, Mémoires, p. 313.--Sismondi, Républiques Italiennes, tom. xii.
p. 386.

[23] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib. 2, cap. 11, 20.--Guicciardini,
Istoria, lib. 2, p. 140.--Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, lib. 1, pp. 219,
220.--Chrónica del Gran Capitan, cap. 25, 26.

[24] Guicciardini, Istoria, lib. 3, pp. 140, 157, 158.--Comines, Mémoires,
liv. 8, chap. 23, 24.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 183.

Du Bos discriminates between the character of the German levies or
landsknechts and the Swiss, in the following terms. "Les lansquenets
étoient même de beaucoup mieux faits, _généralement_ parlant, et de
bien meilleure mine sous les armes, que les fantassins Suisses; mais ils
étoient incapables de discipline. Au contraire des Suisses, ils étoient
sans obéissance pour leur chefs, et sans amitié pours leurs camarades."
(Ligue de Cambray, tom. i. dissert. prélim., p. 66.) Comines confirms the
distinction with a high tribute to the loyalty of the Swiss, which has
continued their honorable characteristic to the present day. Mémoires,
liv. 8, chap. 21.

[25] Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, lib. 1, pp. 218, 219.--Chrónica del Gran
Capitan, cap. 28.--Quintana, Españoles Célebres, tom. i. p. 226.--Bembo,
Istoria Viniziana, lib. 3, p. 184.--Guicciardini, Istoria, lib. 3, p. 158.

[26] Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, pp. 219, 220.--Chrónica del Gran
Capitan, cap. 27.--Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, tom. i. lib. 2, cap.
26.--Quintana, Españoles Célebres, tom. i. pp. 227, 228.--Guicciardini,
Istoria, lib. 3, pp. 158, 159.--Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib.
26, cap. 12.

[27] Giovio, Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib. 4, p. 132.

[28] Quintana, Españoles Célebres, tom. i. p. 228.--Giovio, Vita Magni
Gonsalvi, lib. 1, p. 220.

The Aragonese historians are much ruffled by the irreverent manner in
which Guicciardini notices the origin of the cognomen of the Great
Captain; which even his subsequent panegyric cannot atone for. "Era
capitano Gonsalvo Ernandes, di casa d'Aghilar, di patria Cordovese, uomo
di molto valore, ed esercitato lungamente nelle guerre di Granata, il
quale nel principio della venuta sua in Italia, cognominato _dalla
jattanza Spagnuola_ il Gran Capitano, per significare con questo titolo
la suprema podestà sopra loro, meritò per le preclare vittorie che ebbe
dipoi, che per consentimento universale gli fosse confermato e perpetuate
questo sopranome, per significazione di virtù grande, e di grande
eccellenza nella disciplina militare." (Istoria, tom. i. p. 112.)
According to Zurita, the title was not conferred till the Spanish
general's appearance before Atella, and the first example of its formal
recognition was in the instrument of capitulation at that place. (Hist.
del Rey Hernando, lib. 2, cap. 27.) This seems to derive support from the
fact that Gonsalvo's biographer and contemporary, Giovio, begins to
distinguish him by that epithet from this period. Abarca assigns a higher
antiquity to it, quoting the words of the royal grant of the duchy of
Sessa, made to Gonsalvo, as authority. (Reyes de Aragon, rey 39, cap. 9.)
In a former edition, I intimated my doubt of the historian's accuracy. A
subsequent inspection of the instrument itself, in a work since come into
my possession, shows this distrust to have been well founded; for it is
there simply said, that the title was conferred in Italy. Pulgar, Sumario,
p. 188.

[29] This was improving on the somewhat similar expedient ascribed by
Polybius to King Pyrrhus, who mingled alternate cohorts, armed with short
weapons after the Roman fashion, with those of his Macedonian spearmen.
Lib. 17 sec. 24.

[30] Giovio, Hist. sui Temporis, lib. 4, p. 133.--Idem, Vita Magni
Gonsalvi, pp. 220, 221.--Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib. 2, cap. 27.
--Chrónica del Gran Capitan, cap. 28.--Quintana, Españoles Célebres, tom.
i. p. 229.--Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, rey 30, cap. 9.

[31] Villeneuve, Mémoires, p. 318.--Comines, Mémoires, liv. 8, chap. 21.--
Giovio, Hist. sui Temporis, lib. 4, p. 136.

[32] Comines, Mémoires, liv. 8, chap. 21.

[33] Giovio, Hist. sui Temporis, p. 137.--Comines, Mémoires, liv. 8, chap.
21.--Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, lib. 1, p. 221.--Guicciardini, Istoria,
lib. 3, p. 160.--Villeneuve, Mémoires, apud Petitot, tom. xiv. p. 318.

[34] Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, lib. 29, cap. 2.--Summonte, Hist. di
Napoli, lib. 6, cap. 2.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 188.

While stretched on his death-bed, Ferdinand, according to Bembo, caused
the head of his prisoner, the Bishop of Teano, to be brought to him, and
laid at the foot of his couch, that he might be assured with his own eyes
of the execution of the sentence. Istoria Viniziana, lib. 3, p. 189.

[35] Giovio, Hist. sui Temporis, lib, 4, p. 139.--Zurita, Hist. del Rey
Hernando, lib. 2, cap. 30, 33.--Guicciardini, Istoria, lib. 3, p. 160.--
Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, tom. iii. lib. 29, cap. 3.




CHAPTER III.

ITALIAN WARS.--GONSALVO SUCCORS THE POPE.--TREATY WITH FRANCE.--
ORGANIZATION OF THE SPANISH MILITIA.

1496-1498.

Gonsalvo Succors the Pope.--Storms Ostia.--Reception in Rome.--Peace with
France.--Ferdinand's Reputation advanced by his Conduct in the War.--
Organization of the Militia.


It had been arranged by the treaty of Venice, that while the allies were
carrying on the war in Naples, the emperor elect and the king of Spain
should make a diversion in their favor, by invading the French frontiers.
Ferdinand had performed his part of the engagement. Ever since the
beginning of the war, he had maintained a large force along the borders
from Fontarabia to Perpignan. In 1496, the regular army kept in pay
amounted to ten thousand horse and fifteen thousand foot; which, together
with the Sicilian armament, necessarily involved an expenditure
exceedingly heavy under the financial pressure occasioned by the Moorish
war. The command of the levies in Roussillon was given to Don Enrique
Enriquez de Guzman, who, far from acting on the defensive, carried his men
repeatedly over the border, sweeping off fifteen or twenty thousand head
of cattle in a single foray, and ravaging the country as far as Carcassona
and Narbonne. [1] had concentrated a considerable force in the south,
retaliated by similar inroads, in one of which they succeeded in
surprising the fortified town of Salsas. The works, however, were in so
dilapidated a state, that the place was scarcely tenable, and it was
abandoned on the approach of the Spanish army. A truce soon followed,
which put an end to further operations in that quarter. [2]

The submission of Calabria seemed to leave no further occupation for the
arms of the Great Captain in Italy. Before quitting that country, however,
he engaged in an adventure, which, as narrated by his biographers, forms a
brilliant episode to his regular campaigns. Ostia, the seaport of Rome,
was, among the places in the papal territory, forcibly occupied by Charles
the Eighth, and on his retreat had been left to a French garrison under
the command of a Biscayan adventurer named Menaldo Guerri. The place was
so situated as entirely to command the mouth of the Tiber, enabling the
piratical horde who garrisoned it almost wholly to destroy the commerce of
Rome, and even to reduce the city to great distress for want of
provisions. The imbecile government, incapable of defending itself,
implored Gonsalvo's aid in dislodging this nest of formidable freebooters.
The Spanish general, who was now at leisure, complied with the pontiff's
solicitations, and soon after presented himself before Ostia with his
little corps of troops, amounting in all to three hundred horse and
fifteen hundred foot. [3]

Guerri, trusting to the strength of his defences, refused to surrender.
Gonsalvo, after coolly preparing his batteries, opened a heavy cannonade
on the place, which at the end of five days effected a practicable breach
in the walls. In the mean time, Garcilasso de la Vega, the Castilian
ambassador at the papal court, who could not bear to remain inactive so
near the field where laurels were to be won, arrived to Gonsalvo's
support, with a handful of his own countrymen resident in Rome. This
gallant little band, scaling the walls on the opposite side to that
assailed by Gonsalvo, effected an entrance into the town, while the
garrison was occupied with maintaining the breach against the main body of
the Spaniards. Thus surprised, and hemmed in on both sides, Guerri and his
associates made no further resistance, but surrendered themselves
prisoners of war; and Gonsalvo, with more clemency than was usually shown
on such occasions, stopped the carnage, and reserved his captives to grace
his entry into the capital. [4]

This was made a few days after, with all the pomp of a Roman triumph. The
Spanish general entered by the gate of Ostia, at the head of his martial
squadrons in battle array, with colors flying and music playing, while the
rear was brought up by the captive chief and his confederates, so long the
terror, now the derision, of the populace. The balconies and windows were
crowded with spectators, and the streets, lined with multitudes, who
shouted forth the name of Gonsalvo de Cordova, the "deliverer of Rome!"
The procession took its way through the principal streets of the city
towards the Vatican, where Alexander the Sixth awaited its approach,
seated under a canopy of state in the chief saloon of the palace,
surrounded by his great ecclesiastics and nobility. On Gonsalvo's
entrance, the cardinals rose to receive him. The Spanish general knelt
down to receive the benediction of the pope; but the latter, raising him
up, kissed him on the forehead, and complimented him with the golden rose,
which the Holy See was accustomed to dispense as the reward of its most
devoted champions.

In the conversation which ensued, Gonsalvo obtained the pardon of Guerri
and his associates, and an exemption from taxes for the oppressed
inhabitants of Ostia. In a subsequent part of the discourse, the pope
taking occasion most inopportunely to accuse the Spanish sovereigns of
unfavorable dispositions towards himself, Gonsalvo replied with much
warmth, enumerating the various good offices rendered by them to the
church; and, roundly taxing the pope with ingratitude, somewhat bluntly
advised him to reform his life and conversation, which brought scandal on
all Christendom. His Holiness testified no indignation at this unsavory
rebuke of the Great Captain, though, as the historians with some
simplicity inform us, he was greatly surprised to find the latter so
fluent in discourse, and so well instructed in matters foreign to his
profession. [5]

Gonsalvo experienced the most honorable reception from King Frederic on
his return to Naples. During his continuance there, he was lodged and
sumptuously entertained in one of the royal fortresses; and the grateful
monarch requited his services with the title of Duke of St. Angelo, and an
estate in Abruzzo, containing three thousand vassals. He had before
pressed these honors on the victor, who declined accepting them till he
had obtained the consent of his own sovereigns. Soon after, Gonsalvo,
quitting Naples, revisited Sicily, where he adjusted certain differences
which had arisen betwixt the viceroy and the inhabitants respecting the
revenues of the island. Then embarking with his whole force, he reached
the shores of Spain in the month of August, 1498. His return to his native
land was greeted with a general enthusiasm far more grateful to his
patriotic heart, than any homage or honors conferred by foreign princes.
Isabella welcomed him with pride and satisfaction, as having fully
vindicated her preference of him to his more experienced rivals for the
difficult post of Italy; and Ferdinand did not hesitate to declare, that
the Calabrian campaigns reflected more lustre on his crown, than the
conquest of Granada. [6]

The total expulsion of the French from Naples brought hostilities between
that nation and Spain to a close. The latter had gained her point, and the
former had little heart to resume so disastrous an enterprise. Before this
event, indeed, overtures had been made by the French court for a separate
treaty with Spain. The latter, however, was unwilling to enter into any
compact, without the participation of her allies. After the total
abandonment of the French enterprise, there seemed to exist no further
pretext for prolonging the war. The Spanish government, moreover, had
little cause for satisfaction with its confederates. The emperor had not
co-operated in the descent on the enemy's frontier, according to
agreement; nor had the allies ever reimbursed Spain for the heavy charges
incurred in fulfilling her part of the engagements. The Venetians were
taken up with securing to themselves as much of the Neapolitan territory
as they could, by way of indemnification for their own expenses. [7] The
duke of Milan had already made a separate treaty with King Charles. In
short, every member of the league, after the first alarm subsided, had
shown itself ready to sacrifice the common weal to its own private ends.
With these causes of disgust, the Spanish government consented to a truce
with France, to begin for itself on the 5th of March, and, for the allies,
if they chose to be included in it, seven weeks later, and to continue
till the end of October, 1497. This truce was subsequently prolonged, and,
after the death of Charles the Eighth, terminated in a definitive treaty
of peace, signed at Marcoussi, August 5th, 1498. [8]

In the discussions to which these arrangements gave rise, the project is
said to have been broached for the conquest and division of the kingdom of
Naples by the combined powers of France and Spain, which was carried into
effect some years later. According to Comines, the proposition originated
with the Spanish court, although it saw fit, in a subsequent period of the
negotiations, to disavow the fact. [9] The Spanish writers, on the other
hand, impute the first suggestion of it to the French, who, they say, went
so far as to specify the details of the partition subsequently adopted,
according to which the two Calabrias were assigned to Spain. However this
may be, there is little doubt that Ferdinand had long since entertained
the idea of asserting his claim, at some time or other, to the crown of
Naples. He, as well as his father, and indeed the whole nation, had beheld
with dissatisfaction the transfer of what they deemed their rightful
inheritance, purchased by the blood and treasure of Aragon, to an
illegitimate branch of the family. The accession of Frederic, in
particular, who came to the throne with the support of the Angevin party,
the old enemies of Aragon, had given great umbrage to the Spanish monarch.

The Castilian envoy, Garcilasso de la Vega, agreeably to the instructions
of his court, urged Alexander the Sixth to withhold the investiture of the
kingdom from Frederic, but unavailingly, as the pope's interests were too
closely connected, by marriage, with those of the royal family of Naples.
Under these circumstances, it was somewhat doubtful what course Gonsalvo
should be directed to pursue in the present exigency. That prudent
commander, however, found the new monarch too strong in the affections of
his people to be disturbed at present. All that now remained for
Ferdinand, therefore, was to rest contented with the possession of the
strong posts pledged for the reimbursement of his expenses in the war, and
to make such use of the correspondence which the late campaigns had opened
to him in Calabria, that, when the time arrived for action, he might act
with effect. [10]

Ferdinand's conduct through the whole of the Italian war had greatly
enhanced his reputation throughout Europe for sagacity and prudence. It
afforded a most advantageous comparison with that of his rival, Charles
the Eighth, whose very first act had been the surrender of so important a
territory as Roussillon. The construction of the treaty relating to this,
indeed, laid the Spanish monarch open to the imputation of artifice. But
this, at least, did no violence to the political maxims of the age and
only made him regarded as the more shrewd and subtile diplomatist; while,
on the other hand, he appeared before the world in the imposing attitude
of the defender of the church, and of the rights of his injured kinsman.
His influence had been clearly discernible in every operation of moment,
whether civil or military. He had been most active, through his
ambassadors at Genoa, Venice, and Rome, in stirring up the great Italian
confederacy, which eventually broke the power of King Charles; and his
representations had tended, as much as any other cause, to alarm the
jealousy of Sforza, to fix the vacillating politics of Alexander, and to
quicken the cautious and dilatory movements of Venice. He had shown equal
vigor in action; and contributed mainly to the success of the war by his
operations on the side of Roussillon, and still more in Calabria. On the
latter, indeed, he had not lavished any extraordinary expenditure; a
circumstance partly attributable to the state of his finances, severely
taxed, as already noticed, by the Granadine war, as well as by the
operations in Roussillon, but in part, also, to his habitual frugality,
which, with a very different spirit from that of his illustrious consort,
always stinted the measure of his supplies to the bare exigency of the
occasion. Fortunately, the genius of the Great Captain was so fruitful in
resources, as to supply every deficiency; enabling him to accomplish such
brilliant results, as effectually concealed any poverty of preparation on
the part of his master.

The Italian wars were of signal importance to the Spanish nation. Until
that time, they had been cooped up within the narrow limits of the
Peninsula, uninstructed and taking little interest in the concerns of the
rest of Europe. A new world was now opened to them. They were taught to
measure their own strength by collision with other powers on a common
scene of action; and, success inspiring them with greater confidence,
seemed to beckon them on towards the field, where they were destined to
achieve still more splendid triumphs.

This war afforded them also a most useful lesson of tactics. The war of
Granada had insensibly trained up a hardy militia, patient and capable of
every privation and fatigue, and brought under strict subordination. This
was a great advance beyond the independent and disorderly habits of the
feudal service. A most valuable corps of light troops had been formed,
schooled in all the wild, irregular movements of guerilla warfare. But the
nation was still defective in that steady, well-disciplined infantry,
which, in the improved condition of military science, seemed destined to
decide the fate of battles in Europe thenceforward.

The Calabrian campaigns, which were suited in some degree to the display
of their own tactics, fortunately gave the Spaniards opportunity for
studying at leisure those of their adversaries. The lesson was not lost.
Before the end of the war important innovations were made in the
discipline and arms of the Spanish soldier. The Swiss pike, or lance,
which, as has been already noticed, Gonsalvo de Cordova had mingled with
the short sword of his own legions, now became the regular weapon of one-
third of the infantry. The division of the various corps in the cavalry
and infantry services was arranged on more scientific principles, and the
whole, in short, completely reorganized. [11]

Before the end of the war, preparations were made for embodying a national
militia, which should take the place of the ancient hermandad. Laws were
passed regulating the equipment of every individual according to his
property. A man's arms were declared not liable for debt, even to the
crown; and smiths and other artificers were restricted, under severe
penalties, from working them up into other articles. [12] In 1496, a
census was taken of all persons capable of bearing arms; and by an
ordinance, dated at Valladolid, February 22d, in the same year, it was
provided that one out of every twelve inhabitants, between twenty and
forty-five years of age, should be enlisted in the service of the state,
whether for foreign war, or the suppression of disorders at home. The
remaining eleven were liable to be called on in case of urgent necessity.
These recruits were to be paid during actual service, and excused from
taxes; the only legal exempts were the clergy, hidalgos, and paupers. A
general review and inspection of arms were to take place every year, in
the months of March and September, when prizes were to be awarded to those
best accoutred, and most expert in the use of their weapons. Such were the
judicious regulations by which every citizen, without being withdrawn from
his regular occupation, was gradually trained up for the national defence;
and which, without the oppressive incumbrance of a numerous standing army,
placed the whole effective force of the country, prompt and fit for
action, at the disposal of the government, whenever the public good should
call for it. [13]


FOOTNOTES

[1] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib. 2, cap. 12-14; 16, 24.

Giovio says, in allusion to King Ferdinand's show of preparation on the
frontier, "Ferdinandus, maximè cautus et pecuniae tenax, speciem ingentis
coacti exercitus ad deterrendos hostes praebere, quam bellum gerere
mallet, quum id sine ingenti pecunià administrari non posse intelligeret."
Hist. sui Temporis, p. 140.

[2] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib. 2, cap. 35, 36.--Abarca, Reyes de
Aragon, rey 30, cap. 9.--Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 5.--
Comines, Mémoires, liv. 8, chap. 23.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist.
169.

[3] Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, lib. 1, p. 221.--Chrónica del Gran
Capitan, cap. 30.--Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib. 3, cap. 1.--
Villeneuve, Mémoires, p. 317.

[4] Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, p. 222.--Quintana, Españoles Célebres,
tom. i. p. 234.

[5] Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, p. 222.--Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando,
lib. 3, cap. 1.--Guicciardini, Istoria, lib. 3, p. 175.--Chrónica del Gran
Capitan, cap. 30.

[6] Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, p. 223.--Chrónica del Gran Capitan, cap.
31, 32.--Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib. 3, cap. 38.

[7] Comines says, with some _naïveté_, in reference to the places in
Naples which the Venetians had got into their possession, "Je croy que
leur intention n'est point de les rendre; car ils ne l'ont point de
coustume quand elles leur sont bienséantes comme sont cellescy, qui sont
du costé de leur goufre de Venise." Mémoires, p. 194.

[8] Guicciardini, Istoria, lib. 3, p. 178.--Zurita, Hist. del Rey
Hernando, lib. 2, cap. 44; lib. 3, cap. 13, 19, 21, 26.--Comines,
Mémoires, liv. 8, chap. 23.

[9] Comines gives some curious details respecting the French embassy,
which he considers to have been completely outwitted by the superior
management of the Spanish government; who intended nothing further at this
time by the proposal of a division, than to amuse the French court until
the fate of Naples should be decided. Mémoires, liv. 8, chap. 23.

[10] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib. 2, cap. 26, 33.--Mariana, Hist.
de España, lib. 26, cap. 16.--Salazar de Mendoza, Monarquía, tom. i. lib.
3, cap. 10.

[11] Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 6.--Zurita, Hist. del Rey
Hernando, lib. 3, cap. 6.

The ancient Spaniards, who were as noted as the modern for the temper and
finish of their blades, used short swords, in the management of which they
were very adroit. "Hispano," says Livy, "punctim magis, quam caesim,
adsueto petere hostem, brevitate habiles [gladii] et cum macronibus."
(Hist., lib. 22, cap. 47.) Sandoval notices the short sword, "cortas
espadas," as the peculiar weapon of the Spanish soldier in the twelfth
century. Historia de los Reyes de Castilla y de Leon, (Madrid, 1792,) tom.
ii. p. 240.

[12] Pragmáticas del Reyno, fol. 83, 127, 129.

The former of these ordinances, dated Taraçona, Sept. 18th, 1495, is
extremely precise in specifying the appointments required for each
individual.

Among other improvements, introduced somewhat earlier, may be mentioned
that of organizing and thoroughly training a small corps of heavy-armed
cavalry, amounting to twenty-five hundred. The number of men-at-arms had
been greatly reduced in the kingdom of late years, in consequence of the
exclusive demand for the _ginetes_ in the Moorish war. Oviedo,
Quincuagenas, MS.

Ordinances were also passed for encouraging the breed of horses, which had
suffered greatly from the preference very generally given by the Spaniards
to mules. This had been carried to such a length, that, while it was
nearly impossible, according to Bernaldez, to mount ten or twelve thousand
cavalry on horses, ten times that number could be provided with mules.
(Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 184.) "E porque si a esto se diesse lugar,"
says one of the _pragmáticas_, adverting to this evil, "muy prestamente se
perderia en nuestros reynos la nobleza de la cauellería que en ellos suele
auer, e se oluidaria el exercicio militar de que en los tiempos passados
nuestra nacion de España ha alcançado gran fama e loor;" it was ordered
that no person in the kingdom should be allowed to keep a mule, unless he
owned a horse also; and that none but ecclesiastics and women should be
allowed the use of mules in the saddle. These edicts were enforced with
the utmost rigor, the king himself setting the example of conformity to
them. By these seasonable precautions, the breed of Spanish horses, so
long noted throughout Europe, was restored to its ancient credit, and the
mule consigned to the humble and appropriate offices of drudgery, or
raised only for exportation. For these and similar provisions, see
Pragmáticas del Reyno, fol. 127-132.

Matéo Aleman's whimsical _picaresco_ novel, Guzman d'Alfarache, contains a
comic adventure, showing the excessive rigor with which the edict against
mules was enforced, as late as the close of Philip II.'s reign. The
passage is extracted in Roscoe's elegant version of the Spanish Novelists,
Vol. I. p. 132.

[13] See a copy of the ordinance taken from the Archives of Simancas; apud
Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. apend. 13.

When Francis I, who was destined to feel the effects of this careful
military discipline, beheld, during his detention in Spain in the
beginning of the following century, striplings with scarce down upon the
chin, all armed with swords at their sides, he is said to have cried out,
"O bienaventurada España, que pare y eria los hombres armados!" (L.
Marineo, Cosas Memorables, lib. 5.) An exclamation not unworthy of a
Napoleon,--or an Attila.




CHAPTER IV.

ALLIANCES OF THE ROYAL FAMILY.--DEATH OF PRINCE JOHN AND PRINCESS
ISABELLA.

Royal Family of Castile.--Matrimonial Alliances with Portugal.--With
Austria.--Marriage of John and Margaret.--Death of Prince John.--The
Queen's Resignation.--Independence of the Cortes of Aragon.--Death of the
Princess Isabella.--Recognition of her Infant Son Miguel.


The credit and authority which the Castilian sovereigns established by the
success of their arms, were greatly raised by the matrimonial connections
which they formed for their children. This was too important a spring of
their policy to be passed over in silence. Their family consisted of one
son and four daughters, whom they carefully educated in a manner befitting
their high rank; and who repaid their solicitude by exemplary filial
obedience, and the early manifestation of virtues rare even in a private
station. [1] They seem to have inherited many of the qualities which
distinguished their illustrious mother; great decorum and dignity of
manners, combined with ardent sensibilities, and unaffected piety, which,
at least in the eldest and favorite daughter, Isabella, was, unhappily,
strongly tinctured with bigotry. They could not, indeed, pretend to their
mother's comprehensive mind, and talent for business, although there seems
to have been no deficiency in these respects; or, if any, it was most
effectually supplied by their excellent education. [2]

The marriage of the princess Isabella with Alonso, the heir of the
Portuguese crown, in 1490, has been already noticed. This had been eagerly
desired by her parents, not only for the possible contingency, which it
afforded, of bringing the various monarchies of the Peninsula under one
head, (a design of which they never wholly lost sight,) but from the wish
to conciliate a formidable neighbor, who possessed various means of
annoyance, which he had shown no reluctance to exert. The reigning
monarch, John the Second, a bold and crafty prince, had never forgotten
his ancient quarrel with the Spanish sovereigns in support of their rival
Joanna Beltraneja, or Joanna the Nun, as she was generally called in the
Castilian court after she had taken the veil. John, in open contempt of
the treaty of Alcantara, and indeed of all monastic rule, had not only
removed his relative from the convent of Santa Clara, but had permitted
her to assume a royal state, and subscribe herself "I the Queen." This
empty insult he accompanied with more serious efforts to form such a
foreign alliance for the liberated princess as should secure her the
support of some arm more powerful than his own, and enable her to renew
the struggle for her inheritance with better chance of success. [3] These
flagrant proceedings had provoked the admonitions of the Roman see, and
had formed the topic, as may be believed, of repeated, though ineffectual
remonstrance from the court of Castile. [4]

It seemed probable that the union of the princess of the Asturias with the
heir of Portugal, as originally provided by the treaty of Alcantara, would
so far identify the interests of the respective parties as to remove all
further cause of disquietude. The new bride was received in Portugal in a
spirit which gave cordial assurance of these friendly relations for the
future; and the court of Lisbon celebrated the auspicious nuptials with
the gorgeous magnificence, for which, at this period of its successful
enterprise, it was distinguished above every other court in Christendom.
[5]

Alonso's death, a few months after this event, however, blighted the fair
hopes which had begun to open of a more friendly feeling between the two
countries. His unfortunate widow, unable to endure the scenes of her
short-lived happiness, soon withdrew into her own country to seek such
consolation as she could find in the bosom of her family. There,
abandoning herself to the melancholy regrets to which her serious and
pensive temper naturally disposed her, she devoted her hours to works of
piety and benevolence, resolved to enter no more into engagements, which
had thrown so dark a cloud over the morning of her life. [6]

On King John's death, in 1495, the crown of Portugal devolved on Emanuel,
that enlightened monarch, who had the glory in the very commencement of
his reign of solving the grand problem, which had so long perplexed the
world, of the existence of an undiscovered passage to the east. This
prince had conceived a passion for the young and beautiful Isabella during
her brief residence in Lisbon; and, soon after his accession to the
throne, he despatched an embassy to the Spanish court inviting her to
share it with him. But the princess, wedded to the memory of her early
love, declined the proposals, notwithstanding they were strongly seconded
by the wishes of her parents, who, however, were unwilling to constrain
their daughter's inclinations on so delicate a point, trusting perhaps to
the effects of time, and the perseverance of her royal suitor. [7]

In the mean while, the Catholic sovereigns were occupied with negotiations
for the settlement of the other members of their family. The ambitious
schemes of Charles the Eighth established a community of interests among
the great European states, such as had never before existed, or, at least,
been understood; and the intimate relations thus introduced naturally led
to intermarriages between the principal powers, who, until this period,
seem to have been severed almost as far asunder as if oceans had rolled
between them. The Spanish monarchs, in particular, had rarely gone beyond
the limits of the Peninsula for their family alliances. The new
confederacy into which Spain had entered, now opened the way to more
remote connections, which were destined to exercise a permanent influence
on the future politics of Europe. It was while Charles the Eighth was
wasting his time at Naples, that the marriages were arranged between the
royal houses of Spain and Austria, by which the weight of these great
powers was thrown into the same scale, and the balance of Europe unsettled
for the greater part of the following century. [8]

The treaty provided, that Prince John, the heir of the Spanish monarchies,
then in his eighteenth year, should be united with the princess Margaret,
daughter of the emperor Maximilian; and that the archduke Philip, his son
and heir, and sovereign of the Low Countries in his mother's right, should
marry Joanna, second daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella. No dowry was to
be required with either princess. [9]

In the course of the following year, arrangements were also concluded for
the marriage of the youngest daughter of the Castilian sovereigns with a
prince of the royal house of England, the first example of the kind for
more than a century. [10] Ferdinand had cultivated the good-will of Henry
the Seventh, in the hope of drawing him into the confederacy against the
French monarch; and in this had not wholly failed, although the wary king
seems to have come into it rather as a silent partner, if we may so say,
than with the intention of affording any open or very active co-operation.
[11] The relations of amity between the two courts were still further
strengthened by the treaty of marriage above alluded to, finally adjusted
October 1st, 1496, and ratified the following year, between Arthur, prince
of Wales, and the infanta Doña Catalina, conspicuous in English history,
equally for her misfortunes and her virtues, as Catharine of Aragon. [12]
The French viewed with no little jealousy the progress of these various
negotiations, which they zealously endeavored to thwart by all the
artifices of diplomacy. But King Ferdinand had sufficient address to
secure in his interests persons of the highest credit at the courts of
Henry and Maximilian, who promptly acquainted him with the intrigues of
the French government, and effectually aided in counteracting them. [13]

The English connection was necessarily deferred for some years, on account
of the youth of the parties, neither of whom exceeded eleven years of age.
No such impediment occurred in regard to the German alliances, and
measures were taken at once for providing a suitable conveyance for the
infanta Joanna into Flanders, which should bring back the princess
Margaret on its return. By the end of summer, in 1496, a fleet consisting
of one hundred and thirty vessels, large and small, strongly manned and
thoroughly equipped with all the means of defence against the French
cruisers, was got ready for sea in the ports of Guipuscoa and Biscay. [14]
The whole was placed under the direction of Don Fadrique Enriquez, admiral
of Castile, who carried with him a splendid show of chivalry, chiefly
drawn from the northern provinces of the kingdom. A more gallant and
beautiful armada never before quitted the shores of Spain. The infanta
Joanna, attended by a numerous suite, arrived on board the fleet towards
the end of August, at the port of Laredo, on the eastern borders of the
Asturias, where she took a last farewell of the queen her mother, who had
postponed the hour of separation as long as possible, by accompanying her
daughter to the place of embarkation.

The weather soon after her departure became extremely rough and
tempestuous; and it was so long before any tidings of the squadron reached
the queen, that her affectionate heart was filled with the most
distressing apprehensions. She sent for the oldest and most experienced
navigators in these boisterous northern seas, consulting them, says
Martyr, day and night on the probable causes of delay, the prevalent
courses of the winds at that season, and the various difficulties and
dangers of the voyage; bitterly regretting that the troubles with France
prevented any other means of communication, than the treacherous element
to which she had trusted her daughter. [15] Her spirits were still further
depressed at this juncture by the death of her own mother, the dowager
Isabella, who, under the mental infirmity with which she had been visited
for many years, had always experienced the most devoted attention from her
daughter, who ministered to her necessities with her own hands, and
watched over her declining years with the most tender solicitude.[16]

At length, the long-desired intelligence came of the arrival of the
Castilian fleet at its place of destination. It had been so grievously
shattered, however, by tempests, as to require being refitted in the ports
of England. Several of the vessels were lost, and many of Joanna's
attendants perished from the inclemency of the weather, and the numerous
hardships to which they were exposed. The infanta, however, happily
reached Flanders in safety, and, not long after, her nuptials with the
archduke Philip were celebrated in the city of Lisle with all suitable
pomp and solemnity.

The fleet was detained until the ensuing winter, to transport the destined
bride of the young prince of the Asturias to Spain. This lady, who had
been affianced in her cradle to Charles the Eighth of France, had received
her education in the court of Paris. On her intended husband's marriage
with the heiress of Brittany, she had been returned to her native land
under circumstances of indignity never to be forgiven by the house of
Austria. She was now in the seventeenth year of her age, and had already
given ample promise of those uncommon powers of mind which distinguished
her in riper years, and of which she has left abundant evidence in various
written compositions. [17]

On her passage to Spain, in midwinter, the fleet encountered such
tremendous gales, that part of it was ship-wrecked, and Margaret's vessel
had wellnigh foundered. She retained, however, sufficient composure amidst
the perils of her situation, to indite her own epitaph, in the form of a
pleasant distich, which Pontenelle has made the subject of one of his
amusing dialogues, where he affects to consider the fortitude displayed by
her at this awful moment as surpassing that of the philosophic Adrian in
his dying hour, or the vaunted heroism of Cato of Utica. [18]

Fortunately, however, Margaret's epitaph was not needed; she arrived in
safety at the port of Santander in the Asturias, early in March, 1497.

The young prince of the Asturias, accompanied by the king his father,
hastened towards the north to receive his royal mistress, whom they met
and escorted to Burgos, where she was received with the highest marks of
satisfaction by the queen and the whole court. Preparations were instantly
made for solemnizing the nuptials of the royal pair, after the expiration
of Lent, in a style of magnificence such as had never before been
witnessed under the present reign. The marriage ceremony took place on the
3d of April, and was performed by the archbishop of Toledo in the presence
of the grandees and principal nobility of Castile, the foreign
ambassadors, and the delegates from Aragon. Among these latter were the
magistrates of the principal cities, clothed in their municipal insignia
and crimson robes of office, who seem to have had quite as important parts
assigned them by their democratic communities, in this and all similar
pageants, as any of the nobility or gentry. The nuptials were followed by
a brilliant succession of fetes, tourneys, tilts of reeds, and other
warlike spectacles, in which the matchless chivalry of Spain poured into
the lists to display their magnificence and prowess in the presence of
their future queen. [19] The chronicles of the day remark on the striking
contrast, exhibited at these entertainments, between the gay and familiar
manners of Margaret and her Flemish nobles, and the pomp and stately
ceremonial of the Castilian court, to which, indeed, the Austrian
princess, nurtured as she had been in a Parisian atmosphere, could never
be wholly reconciled. [20]

The marriage of the heir apparent could not have been celebrated at a more
auspicious period. It was in the midst of negotiations for a general
peace, when the nation might reasonably hope to taste the sweets of
repose, after so many uninterrupted years of war. Every bosom swelled with
exultation in contemplating the glorious destinies of their country under
the beneficent sway of a prince, the first heir of the hitherto divided
monarchies of Spain. Alas! at the moment when Ferdinand and Isabella,
blessed in the affections of their people, and surrounded by all the
trophies of a glorious reign, seemed to have reached the very zenith of
human felicity, they were doomed to receive one of those mournful lessons,
which admonish us that all earthly prosperity is but a dream. [21]

Not long after Prince John's marriage, the sovereigns had the satisfaction
to witness that of their daughter Isabella, who, notwithstanding her
repugnance to a second union, had yielded at length to the urgent
entreaties of her parents to receive the addresses of her Portuguese
lover. She required as the price of this, however, that Emanuel should
first banish the Jews from his dominions, where they had bribed a resting-
place since their expulsion from Spain; a circumstance to which the
superstitious princess imputed the misfortunes which had fallen of late on
the royal house of Portugal. Emanuel, whose own liberal mind revolted at
this unjust and impolitic measure, was weak enough to allow his passion to
get the better of his principles, and passed sentence of exile on every
Israelite in his kingdom; furnishing, perhaps, the only example, in which
love has been made one of the thousand motives for persecuting this
unhappy race. [22]

The marriage, ushered in under such ill-omened auspices, was celebrated at
the frontier town of Valencia de Alcantara, in the presence of the
Catholic sovereigns, without pomp or parade of any kind. While they were
detained there, an express arrived from Salamanca, bringing tidings of the
dangerous illness of their son, the prince of the Asturias. He had been
seized with a fever in the midst of the public rejoicings to which his
arrival with his youthful bride in that city had given rise. The symptoms
speedily assumed an alarming character. The prince's constitution,
naturally delicate, though strengthened by a life of habitual temperance,
sunk under the violence of the attack; and when his father, who posted
with all possible expedition to Salamanca, arrived there, no hopes were
entertained of his recovery. [23]

Ferdinand, however, endeavored to cheer his son with hopes which he did
not feel himself; but the young prince told him that it was too late to be
deceived; that he was prepared to part with a world, which in its best
estate was filled with vanity and vexation; and that all he now desired
was, that his parents might feel the same sincere resignation to the
divine will, which he experienced himself. Ferdinand gathered new
fortitude from the example of his heroic son, whose presages were
unhappily too soon verified. He expired on the 4th of October, 1497, in
the twentieth year of his age, in the same spirit of Christian philosophy
which he had displayed during his whole illness. [24]

Ferdinand, apprehensive of the effect which the abrupt intelligence of
this calamity might have on the queen, caused letters to be sent at brief
intervals, containing accounts of the gradual decline of the prince's
health, so as to prepare her for the inevitable stroke. Isabella, however,
who through all her long career of prosperous fortune may be said to have
kept her heart in constant training for the dark hour of adversity,
received the fatal tidings in a spirit of meek and humble acquiescence,
testifying her resignation in the beautiful language of Scripture, "The
Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be his name!" [25]

"Thus," says Martyr, who had the melancholy satisfaction of rendering the
last sad offices to his royal pupil, "was laid low the hope of all Spain."
"Never was there a death," says another chronicler, "which occasioned such
deep and general lamentation throughout the land." All the unavailing
honors which affection could devise were paid to his memory. His funeral
obsequies were celebrated with melancholy splendor, and his remains
deposited in the noble Dominican monastery of St. Thomas at Avila, which
had been erected by his parents. The court put on a new and deeper
mourning than that hitherto used, as if to testify their unwonted grief.
[26] All offices, public and private, were closed for forty days; and
sable-colored banners were suspended from the walls and portals of the
cities. Such extraordinary tokens of public sorrow bear strong testimony
to the interest felt in the young prince, independently of his exalted
station; similar, and perhaps more unequivocal evidence of his worth, is
afforded by abundance of contemporary notices, not merely in works
designed for the public, but in private correspondence. The learned
Martyr, in particular, whose situation, as Prince John's preceptor,
afforded him the best opportunities of observation, is unbounded in
commendations of his royal pupil, whose extraordinary promise of
intellectual and moral excellence had furnished him with the happiest,
alas! delusive auguries, for the future destiny of his country. [27]

By the death of John without heirs, the succession devolved on his eldest
sister, the queen of Portugal. [28] Intelligence, however, was received
soon after that event, that the archduke Philip, with the restless
ambition which distinguished him in later life, had assumed for himself
and his wife Joanna the title of "princes of Castile." Ferdinand and
Isabella, disgusted with this proceeding, sent to request the attendance
of the king and queen of Portugal in Castile, in order to secure a
recognition of their rights by the national legislature. The royal pair,
accordingly, in obedience to the summons, quitted their capital of Lisbon,
early in the spring of 1498. In their progress through the country, they
were magnificently entertained at the castles of the great Castilian
lords, and towards the close of April reached the ancient city of Toledo,
where the cortes had been convened to receive them. [29]

After the usual oaths of recognition had been tendered, without
opposition, by the different branches to the Portuguese princes, the court
adjourned to Saragossa, where the legislature of Aragon was assembled for
a similar purpose.

Some apprehensions were entertained, however, of the unfavorable
disposition of that body, since the succession of females was not
countenanced by the ancient usage of the country; and the Aragonese, as
Martyr remarks in one of his Epistles, "were well known to be a
pertinacious race, who would leave no stone unturned, in the maintenance
of their constitutional rights." [30]

These apprehensions were fully realized; for, no sooner was the object of
the present meeting laid before cortes in a speech from the throne, with
which parliamentary business in Aragon was always opened, than decided
opposition was manifested to a proceeding, which it was declared had no
precedent in their history. The succession of the crown, it was contended,
had been limited by repeated testaments of their princes to male heirs,
and practice and public sentiment had so far coincided with this, that the
attempted violation of the rule by Peter the Fourth, in favor of his own
daughters, had plunged the nation in a civil war. It was further urged
that by the will of the very last monarch, John the Second, it was
provided that the crown should descend to the male issue of his son
Ferdinand, and in default of such to the male issue of Ferdinand's
daughters, to the entire exclusion of the females. At all events, it was
better to postpone the consideration of this matter until the result of
the queen of Portugal's pregnancy, then far advanced, should be
ascertained; since, should it prove to be a son, all doubts of
constitutional validity would be removed.

In answer to these objections, it was stated, that no express law existed
in Aragon excluding females from the succession; that an example had
already occurred, as far back indeed as the twelfth century, of a queen
who held the crown in her own right; that the acknowledged power of
females to transmit the right of succession necessarily inferred that
right existing in themselves; that the present monarch had doubtless as
competent authority as his predecessors to regulate the law of
inheritance, and that his act, supported by the supreme authority of
cortes, might set aside any former disposition of the crown; that this
interference was called for by the present opportunity of maintaining the
permanent union of Castile and Aragon; without which they must otherwise
return to their ancient divided state, and comparative insignificance.
[31]

These arguments, however cogent, were far from being conclusive with the
opposite party; and the debate was protracted to such length, that
Isabella, impatient of an opposition to what the practice in her own
dominions had taught her to regard as the inalienable right of her
daughter, inconsiderately exclaimed, "It would be better to reduce the
country by arms at once, than endure this insolence of the cortes." To
which Antonio de Fonseca, the same cavalier who spoke his mind so
fearlessly to King Charles the Eighth, on his march to Naples, had the
independence to reply, "That the Aragonese had only acted as good and
loyal subjects, who, as they were accustomed to mind their oaths,
considered well before they took them; and that they must certainly stand
excused if they moved with caution in an affair, which they found so
difficult to justify by precedent in their history." [32] This blunt
expostulation of the honest courtier, equally creditable to the sovereign
who could endure, and the subject who could make it, was received in the
frank spirit in which it was given, and probably opened Isabella's eyes to
her own precipitancy, as we find no further allusion to coercive measures.

Before anything was determined, the discussion was suddenly brought to a
close by an unforeseen and most melancholy event,--the death of the queen
of Portugal, the unfortunate subject of it. That princess had possessed a
feeble constitution from her birth, with a strong tendency to pulmonary
complaints. She had early felt a presentiment that she should not survive
the birth of her child; this feeling strengthened as she approached the
period of her delivery; and in less than one hour after that event, which
took place on the 23d of August, 1498, she expired in the arms of her
afflicted parents. [33]

This blow was almost too much for the unhappy mother, whose spirits had
not yet had time to rally, since the death of her only son. She, indeed,
exhibited the outward marks of composure, testifying the entire
resignation of one who had learned to rest her hopes of happiness on a
better world. She schooled herself so far, as to continue to take an
interest in all her public duties, and to watch over the common weal with
the same maternal solicitude as before; but her health gradually sunk
under this accumulated load of sorrow, which threw a deep shade of
melancholy over the evening of her life.

The infant, whose birth had cost so dear, proved a male, and received the
name of Miguel, in honor of the saint on whose day he first saw the light.
In order to dissipate, in some degree, the general gloom occasioned by the
late catastrophe, it was thought best to exhibit the young prince before
the eyes of his future subjects; and he was accordingly borne in the arms
of his nurse, in a magnificent litter, through the streets of the city,
escorted by the principal nobility. Measures were then taken for obtaining
the sanction of his legitimate claims to the crown. Whatever doubts had
been entertained of the validity of the mother's title, there could be
none whatever of the child's; since those who denied the right of females
to inherit for themselves, admitted their power of conveying such a right
to male issue. As a preliminary step to the public recognition of the
prince, it was necessary to name a guardian, who should be empowered to
make the requisite engagements, and to act in his behalf. The Justice of
Aragon, in his official capacity, after due examination, appointed the
grandparents, Ferdinand and Isabella, to the office of guardians during
his minority, which would expire by law at the age of fourteen. [34]

On Saturday, the 22d of September, when the queen had sufficiently
recovered from a severe illness brought on by her late sufferings, the
four _arms_ of the cortes of Aragon assembled in the house of deputation
at Saragossa; and Ferdinand and Isabella made oath as guardians of the
heir apparent, before the Justice, not to exercise any jurisdiction
whatever in the name of the young prince during his minority; engaging,
moreover, as far as in their power, that, on his coming of age, he should
swear to respect the laws and liberties of the realm, before entering on
any of the rights of sovereignty himself. The four estates then took the
oath of fealty to Prince Miguel, as lawful heir and successor to the crown
of Aragon; with the protestation, that it should not be construed into a
precedent for exacting such an oath hereafter during the minority of the
heir apparent. With such watchful attention to constitutional forms of
procedure, did the people of Aragon endeavor to secure their liberties;
forms, which continued to be observed in later times, long after those
liberties had been swept away. [35]

In the month of January, of the ensuing year, the young prince's
succession was duly confirmed by the cortes of Castile, and, in the
following March, by that of Portugal. Thus, for once, the crowns of the
three monarchies of Castile, Aragon, and Portugal were suspended over one
head. The Portuguese, retaining the bitterness of ancient rivalry, looked
with distrust at the prospect of a union, fearing, with some reason, that
the importance of the lesser state would be wholly merged in that of the
greater. But the untimely death of the destined heir of these honors,
which took place before he had completed his second year, removed the
causes of jealousy, and defeated the only chance, which had ever occurred,
of bringing under the same rule three independent nations, which, from
their common origin, their geographical position, and, above all, their
resemblance in manners, sentiments, and language, would seem to have
originally been intended to form but one. [36]


FOOTNOTES

[1] The princess Doña Isabel, the eldest daughter, was born at Dueñas,
October 1st, 1470. Their second child and only son, Juan, prince of the
Asturias, was not born until eight years later, June 30th, 1478, at
Seville. Doña Juana, whom the queen used playfully to call her "mother-in-
law," _suegra_, from her resemblance to King Ferdinand's mother, was
born at Toledo, November 6th, 1479. Doña Maria was born at Cordova, in
1482, and Doña Catalina, the fifth and last child, at Alcalá de Henares,
December 5th, 1485. The daughters all lived to reign; but their brilliant
destinies were clouded with domestic afflictions, from which royalty could
afford no refuge. Carbajal, Anales, MS., loc. mult.

[2] The only exception to these remarks, was that afforded by the infanta
Joanna, whose unfortunate eccentricities, developed in later life, must be
imputed, indeed, to bodily infirmity.

[3] Nine different matches were proposed for Joanna in the course of her
life; but they all vanished into air, and the "excellent lady," as she was
usually called by the Portuguese, died as she had lived, in single
blessedness, at the ripe age of sixty-eight. In the Mem. de la Acad. de
Hist., tom. vi., the 19th Ilustracion is devoted to this topic, in regard
to which Father Florez shows sufficient ignorance, or inaccuracy. Reynas
Cathólicas, tom. ii. p. 780.

[4] Instructions relating to this matter, written with the queen's own
hand, still exist in the archives of Simancas. Mem. de la Acad. de Hist.,
ubi supra.

[5] La Clède, Histoire de Portugal, tom. iv. p. 100.

The Portuguese historian, Faria y Sousa, expends half a dozen folio pages
on these royal revelries, which cost six months' preparation, and taxed
the wits of the most finished artists and artificers in France, England,
Flanders, Castile, and Portugal. (Europa Portuguesa, tom. ii. pp. 452 et
seq.) We see, throughout, the same luxury of spectacle, the same elegant
games of chivalry, as the tilt of reeds, the rings, and the like, which
the Castilians adopted from the Spanish Arabs.

[6] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, tom. v. fol. 38.--Abarca, Reyes de
Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 312.

[7] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, tom. v. fol. 78, 82.--La Clède, Hist.
de Portugal, tom. iv. p. 95.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 146.

Martyr, in a letter written at the close of 1496, thus speaks of the
princess Isabella's faithful attachment to her husband's memory; "Mira
fuit hujus foeminae in abjiciendis secundis nuptiis constantia. Tanta est
ejus modestia, tanta vidualis castitas, ut neo mensa post mariti mortem
comederit, nec lauti quicquam degustaverit. Jejuniis sese vigiliisque ita
maceravit, ut sicco stipite siccior sit effecta. Suffulta rubore
perturbatur, quandocunque de jugali thalamo sermo intexitur. Parentum
tamen aliquando precibus, veluti olfacimus, inflectetur. Viget fama,
futuram vestri regis Emmanuelis uxorem." Epist. 171.

[8] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, tom. v. fol. 63.

[9] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, tom. v. lib. 2, cap. 5.--Ferreras,
Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii. p. 160.

[10] I believe there is no instance of such a union, save that of John of
Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, with Doña Constanza, daughter of Peter the
Cruel, in 1371, from whom Queen Isabella was lineally descended on the
father's side. The title of _Prince of the Asturias_, appropriated to
the heir apparent of Castile, was first created for the infant Don Henry,
afterwards Henry III., on occasion of his marriage with John of Gaunt's
daughter, in 1388. It was professedly in imitation of the English title of
Prince of Wales; and the Asturias were selected as that portion of the
ancient Gothic monarchy, which had never bowed beneath the Saracen yoke.
Florez, Reynas Cathólicas, tom. ii. pp. 708-715.--Mendoza, Dignidades,
lib. 3, cap. 23.

[11] Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib. 2, cap. 25.--Rymer, Foedera,
(London, 1727,) vol. xii. pp. 638-642.

Ferdinand used his good offices to mediate a peace between Henry VII. and
the king of Scots; and it is a proof of the respect entertained for him by
both these monarchs, that they agreed to refer their disputes to his
arbitration. (Rymer, Foedera, vol. xii. p. 671.) "And so," says the old
chronicler Hall, of the English prince, "beying confederate and alied by
treatie and league with al his neighbors, he gratefied with his moost
heartie thanks kyng Ferdinand and the quene his wife, to which woman none
other was comparable in her tyme, for that they were the mediators,
organes, and instrumentes by the which the truce was concluded betwene the
Scottish kynge and him, and rewarded his ambassadoure moost liberally and
bountefully." Chronicle, p. 483.

[12] See the marriage treaty in Rymer. (Foedera, vol. xii. pp. 658-666.)
The marriage had been arranged between the Spanish and English courts as
far back as March, 1489, when the elder of the parties had not yet reached
the fifth year of her age. This was confirmed by another, more full and
definite, in the following year, 1490. By this treaty, it was stipulated,
that Catharine's portion should be 200,000 gold crowns, one-half to be
paid down at the date of her marriage, and the remainder in two equal
payments in the course of the two years ensuing. The prince of Wales was
to settle on her one-third of the revenues of the principality of Wales,
the dukedom of Cornwall, and earldom of Chester. Rymer, Foedera, vol. xii.
pp. 411-417.

[13] "Procuro," says Zurita, "que se effectuassen los matrimonios de sus
hijos, no solo con promesas, pero con dadivas que se hizieron a los
privados de aquellos principes, que en ello entendian." Hist. del Rey
Hernando, lib. 2, cap. 3.

[14] Historians differ, as usual, as to the strength of this armament.
Martyr makes it 110 vessels, and 10,000 soldiers, (Opus Epist., epist.
168;) while Bernaldez carries the number to 130 sail, and 25,000 soldiers,
(Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 153.) Ferreras adopts the latter estimate,
(tom. viii. p. 173.) Martyr may have intended only the galleys and regular
troops, while Bernaldez, more loosely, included vessels and seamen of
every description. See also the royal ordinances, ap. Coleccion de
Cédulas, (tom. i. nos. 79, 80, 82,) whose language implies a very large
number, without specifying it.

[15] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 172.--Carbajal, Anales, MS., año
1496.--Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 26, cap. 12.

[16] Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1496.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist.
172.

[17] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 174.--Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii.
lib. 19, cap. 6.--Gaillard, Rivalité, tom. iii. pp. 416, 423.--Sandoval,
Historia del Emperador Carlos V., (Amberes, 1681,) tom. i. p. 2.

These, comprehending her verses, public addresses, and discourse on her
own life, have been collected into a single volume, under the title of "La
Couronne Margaritique," Lyons, 1549, by the French writer Jean la Maire de
Belges, her faithful follower, but whose greatest glory it is, to have
been the instructor of Clement Marot.

[18] Fontenelle, Oeuvres, tom. i. dial. 4.

  "Ci gist Margot, la gentil' damoiselle
  Qu'a deux maris, et encore est pucelle."

It must be allowed that Margaret's quiet nonchalance was much more suited
to Fontenelle's habitual taste, than the imposing scene of Cato's death.
Indeed, the French satirist was so averse to scenes of all kinds, that he
has contrived to find a ridiculous side in this last act of the patriot
Roman.

[19] That these were not mere holiday sports, was proved by the melancholy
death of Alonso de Cardenas, son of the comendador of Leon, who lost his
life in a tourney. Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 2, dial. 1.

[20] Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1497.--Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii.
lib. 26, cap. 16.--Lanuza, Historias, lib. 1, cap. 8.--Abarca, Reyes de
Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 330.

"Y aunque," says the last author, "a la princessa se le dexaron todos sus
criados, estilos, y entretenimientos, se la advirtio, que en las
ceremonias no havia de tratar a las personas Reales, y Grandes con la
familiaridad y llaneza de las casas de Austria, Borgoñia, y Francia, sino
con la gravedad, y mesurada autoridad de los Reyes y naciones de España!"

The sixth volume of the Spanish Academy of History contains an inventory,
taken from the archives of Simancas, of the rich plate and jewels,
presented to the princess Margaret on the day of her marriage. They are
said to be "of such value and perfect workmanship, that the like was never
before seen." (Ilust. 11, pp. 338-342.) Isabella had turned these baubles
to good account in the war of Granada. She was too simple in her taste to
attach much value to luxury of apparel.

[21] It is precisely this period, or rather the whole period from 1493 to
1497, which Oviedo selects as that of the greatest splendor and festivity
at the court of the Catholic sovereigns. "El año de 1493, y uno ó dos
despues, y aun hasta el de 1497 años fué cuando la corte de los Reyes
Católicos Don Fernando é Doña Isabel de gloriosa memoria, mas alegres
tiempos é mas regozijados, vino en su corte, é mas encumbrada andubo la
gala é las fiestas é servicios de galanes é damas." Quincuagenas, MS.,
bat. 1, quinc. 4, dial. 44.

[22] Faria y Sousa, Europa Portuguesa, tom. ii. pp. 498, 499.--La Clède,
Hist. de Portugal, tom. iv. p. 95.--Zurita, tom. v, lib. 3, cap. 6.--
Lanuza, Historias, ubi supra.

[23] Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1497.--Florez, Reynas Cathólicas, tom. ii.
pp. 846, 848.--Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, tom. v. fol. 127, 128.--La
Clède, Hist. de Portugal, tom. iv. p. 101.

The physicians recommended a temporary separation of John from his young
bride; a remedy, however, which the queen opposed from conscientious
scruples somewhat singular. "Hortantur medici Reginam, hortatur et Rex, ut
a principis latere Margaritam aliquando semoveat, interpellet. Inducias
precantur. Protestantur periculum ex frequenti copulâ ephebo imminere;
qualiter eum suxerit, quamve subtristis incedat, consideret iterum atque
iterum monent; medullas laedi, stomachum hebetari se sentire Reginae
renunciant. Intercidat, dum licet, obstetque principiis, instant. Nil
proficiunt. Respondet Regina, homines non oportere, quos Deus jugali
vinculo junxerit, separare." Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 176.

[24] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 182.--L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables,
fol. 182.--Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1497.--Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.,
dial. de Deza.

Peter Martyr, in more of a classic than a Christian vein, refers Prince
John's composure in his latter hours to his familiarity with the divine
Aristotle. "Aetatem quae ferebat superabat; nec mirum tamen. Perlegerat
namque divini Aristotelis pleraque volumina," etc. Ubi supra.

[25] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 183.

Martyr draws an affecting picture of the anguish of the bereaved parents,
which betrayed itself in looks more eloquent than words. "Reges tantam
dissimulare aerumnam nituntur; ast nos prostratum in internis ipsorum
animum cernimus; oculos alter in faciem alterius crebro conjiciunt, in
propatulo sedentes. Unde quid lateat proditur. Nimirum tamen, desinerent
humanâ carne vestiti esse homines, essentque adamante duriores, nisi quid
amiserint sentirent."

[26] Blancas, Coronaciones de los Serenissimos Reyes de Aragon, (Zaragoza,
1641,) lib. 3, cap. 18.--Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 6.--
Sackcloth was substituted for the white serge, which till this time had
been used as the mourning dress.

[27] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 182.--Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii.
lib. 19, cap. 6.--L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 182.--Blancas,
Coronaciones, p. 248.

It must be allowed to furnish no mean proof of the excellence of Prince
John's heart, that it was not corrupted by the liberal doses of flattery
with which his worthy tutor was in the habit of regaling him, from time to
time. Take the beginning of one of Martyr's letters to his pupil, in the
following modest strain. "Mirande in pueritiâ senex, salve. Quotquot tecum
versantur homines, sive genere polleant, sive ad obsequium fortunae
humiliores destinati ministri, te laudant, extollunt, admirantur." Opus
Epist., epist. 98.

[28] Hopes were entertained of a male heir at the time of John's death, as
his widow was left pregnant; but these were frustrated by her being
delivered of a still-born infant at the end of a few months. Margaret did
not continue long in Spain. She experienced the most affectionate
treatment from the king and queen, who made her an extremely liberal
provision. (Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, tom. v. lib. 3, cap. 4.) But
her Flemish followers could not reconcile themselves to the reserve and
burdensome ceremonial of the Castilian court, so different from the free
and jocund life to which they had been accustomed at home; and they
prevailed on their mistress to return to her native land in the course of
the year 1499. She was subsequently married to the duke of Savoy, who died
without issue in less than three years, and Margaret passed the remainder
of her life in widowhood, being appointed by her father, the emperor, to
the government of the Netherlands, which she administered with ability.
She died in 1530.

[29] Marina has transcribed from the archives of Toledo the writ of
summons to that city on this occasion. Teoría, tom. ii. p. 16.--Zurita,
Hist. del Rey Hernando, tom. v. lib. 3, cap. 18.--Bernaldez, Reyes
Católicos, MS., cap. 154.--La Clède, Hist. de Portugal, tom. iv. p. 101.--
Carbajal, Anales. MS., año 1498.--Faria y Sousa, Europa Portuguesa, tom.
ii. pp. 500, 501.

The last writer expatiates with great satisfaction on the stately
etiquette observed at the reception of the Portuguese monarchs and their
suite by the Spanish sovereigns. "Queen Isabella," he says, "appeared
leaning on the arm of her old favorite Gutierre de Cardenas, comendador of
Leon, and of a Portuguese noble, Don Juan de Sousa. The latter took care
to acquaint her with the rank and condition of each of his countrymen, as
they were presented, in order that she might the better adjust the measure
of condescension and courtesy due to each; a perilous obligation," he
continues, "with all nations, but with the Portuguese most perilous!"

[30] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 194.--Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom.
ii. fol. 334.--Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 27, cap. 3.

[31] Blancas, Commentarii, p. 273.--Idem, Coronaciones, lib. 1, cap. 18.--
Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 27, cap. 3.--Zurita, Hist. del Rey
Hernando, tom. v. fol. 55, 56.

It is remarkable that the Aragonese should so readily have acquiesced in
the right of females to convey a title to the crown which they could not
enjoy themselves. This was precisely the principle on which Edward III.
set up his claim to the throne of France, a principle too repugnant to the
commonest rules of inheritance to obtain any countenance. The exclusion of
females in Aragon could not pretend to be founded on any express law, as
in France, but the practice, with the exception of a single example three
centuries old, was quite as uniform.

[32] Blancas, Coronaciones, lib. 3, cap. 18.--Zurita, Hist. del Rey
Hernando, tom. v. lib. 3, cap. 30.

It is a proof of the high esteem in which Isabella held this independent
statesman, that we find his name mentioned in her testament among half a
dozen others, whom she particularly recommended to her successors for
their meritorious and loyal services. See the document in Dormer,
Discursos Varios, p. 354.

[33] Carbajal, Anales, MS., años 1470, 1498.--Florez, Reynas Cathólicas,
tom. ii. pp. 846, 847.--Faria y Sousa, Europa Portuguesa, tom. ii. p. 504.

[34] Blancas, Commentarii, pp. 510, 511.--Idem, Coronaciones, lib. 3, cap.
19.--Gerónimo Martel, Forma de Celebrar Cortes en Aragon, (Zaragoza,
1641,) cap. 44.--Alvaro Gomez, De Rebus Gestis a Francisco Ximenio
Cisnerio, (Compluti, 1569,) fol. 28.--Lanuza, Historias, lib. 1, cap. 9.

[35] Blancas, Coronaciones, ubi supra.--Idem, Commentarii, pp. 510, 511.

The reverence of the Aragonese for their institutions is shown in their
observance of the most insignificant ceremonies. A remarkable instance of
this occurred in the year 1481, at Saragossa, when, the queen having been
constituted _lieutenant general_ of the kingdom, and duly qualified
to hold a cortes in the absence of the king her husband, who, by the
ancient laws of the land, was required to preside over it in person, it
was deemed necessary to obtain a formal act of the legislature, for
opening the door for her admission. See Blancas, Modo de Proceder en
Cortes de Aragon, (Zaragoza, 1641,) fol. 82, 83.

[36] Faria y Sousa, Europa Portuguesa, tom. ii. pp. 504, 507.--Bernaldez,
Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 154.--Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1499.--Zurita,
Hist. del Rey Hernando, tom. v. lib. 3, cap. 33--Sandoval, Hist. del Emp.
Carlos V., tom. i. p. 4.




CHAPTER V.

DEATH OF CARDINAL MENDOZA.--RISE OF XIMENES.--ECCLESIASTICAL REFORM.

Death of Mendoza.--His Early Life and Character.--The Queen his Executor.
--Origin of Ximenes.--He Enters the Franciscan Order.--His Ascetic Life.--
Confessor to the Queen.--Made Archbishop of Toledo.--Austerity of his
Life.--Reform of the Monastic Orders.--Insults Offered to the Queen.--She
Consents to the Reform.


In the beginning of 1495, the sovereigns lost their old and faithful
minister, the grand cardinal of Spain, Don Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza. He
was the fourth son of the celebrated marquis of Santillana, and was placed
by his talents at the head of a family, every member of which must be
allowed to have exhibited a rare union of public and private virtue. The
cardinal reached the age of sixty-six, when his days were terminated after
a long and painful illness, on the 11th of January, at his palace of
Guadalaxara. [1]

In the unhappy feuds between Henry the Fourth and his younger brother
Alfonso, the cardinal had remained faithful to the former. But on the
death of that monarch, he threw his whole weight, with that of his
powerful family, into the scale of Isabella, whether influenced by a
conviction of her superior claims, or her capacity for government. This
was a most important acquisition to the royal cause; and Mendoza's
consummate talents for business, recommended by the most agreeable
address, secured him the confidence of both Ferdinand and Isabella, who
had long been disgusted with the rash and arrogant bearing of their old
minister, Carillo.

On the death of that turbulent prelate, Mendoza succeeded to the
archiepiscopal see of Toledo. His new situation naturally led to still
more intimate relations with the sovereigns, who uniformly deferred to his
experience, consulting him on all important matters, not merely of a
public, but of a private nature. In short, he gained such ascendency in
the cabinet, during a long ministry of more than twenty years, that he was
pleasantly called by the courtiers the "third king of Spain." [2]

The minister did not abuse the confidence so generously reposed in him. He
called the attention of his royal mistress to objects most deserving it.
His views were naturally grand and lofty; and, if he sometimes yielded to
the fanatical impulse of the age, he never failed to support her heartily
in every generous enterprise for the advancement of her people. When
raised to the rank of primate of Spain, he indulged his natural
inclination for pomp and magnificence. He filled his palace with pages,
selected from the noblest families in the kingdom, whom he carefully
educated. He maintained a numerous body of armed retainers, which, far
from being a mere empty pageant, formed a most effective corps for public
service on all requisite occasions. He dispensed the immense revenues of
his bishopric with the same munificent hand which has so frequently
distinguished the Spanish prelacy, encouraging learned men, and endowing
public institutions. The most remarkable of these were the college of
Santa Cruz at Valladolid, and the hospital of the same name for foundlings
at Toledo, the erection of which, completed at his sole charge, consumed
more than ten years each. [3]

The cardinal, in his younger days, was occasionally seduced by those
amorous propensities, in which the Spanish clergy freely indulged,
contaminated, perhaps, by the example of their Mahometan neighbors. He
left several children by his amours with two ladies of rank, from whom
some of the best houses in the kingdom are descended. [4] A characteristic
anecdote is recorded of him in relation to this matter. An ecclesiastic,
who one day delivered a discourse in his presence, took occasion to advert
to the laxity of the age, in general terms, indeed, but bearing too
pertinent an application to the cardinal to be mistaken. The attendants of
the latter boiled with indignation at the preacher's freedom, whom they
determined to chastise for his presumption. They prudently, however,
postponed this until they should see what effect the discourse had on
their master. The cardinal, far from betraying any resentment, took no
other notice of the preacher than to send him a dish of choice game, which
had been served up at his own table, where he was entertaining a party of
friends that day, accompanying it at the same time, by way of sauce, with
a substantial donative of gold doblas; an act of Christian charity not at
all to the taste of his own servants. It wrought its effects on the worthy
divine, who at once saw the error of his ways, and, the next time he
mounted the pulpit, took care to frame his discourse in such a manner as
to counteract the former unfavorable impressions, to the entire
satisfaction, if not edification, of his audience. "Now-a-days," says the
honest biographer who reports the incident, himself a lineal descendant of
the cardinal, "the preacher would not have escaped so easily. And with
good reason; for the holy Gospel should be discreetly preached, 'cum grano
salis,' that is to say, with the decorum and deference due to majesty and
men of high estate." [5]

When Cardinal Mendoza's illness assumed an alarming aspect, the court
removed to the neighborhood of Guadalaxara, where he was confined. The
king and queen, especially the latter, with the affectionate concern which
she manifested for more than one of her faithful subjects, used to visit
him in person, testifying her sympathy for his sufferings, and benefiting
by the lights of the sagacious mind, which had so long helped to guide
her. She still further showed her regard for her old minister by
condescending to accept the office of his executor, which she punctually
discharged, superintending the disposition of his effects according to his
testament, [6] and particularly the erection of the stately hospital of
Santa Cruz, before mentioned, not a stone of which was laid before his
death. [7]

In one of her interviews with the dying minister, the queen requested his
advice respecting the nomination of his successor. The cardinal, in reply,
earnestly cautioned her against raising any one of the principal nobility
to this dignity, almost too exalted for any subject, and which, when
combined with powerful family connections, would enable a man of factious
disposition to defy the royal authority itself, as they had once bitter
experience in the case of Archbishop Carillo. On being pressed to name the
individual whom he thought best qualified, in every point of view, for the
office, he is said to have recommended Fray Francisco Ximenez de Cisneros,
a friar of the Franciscan order, and confessor of the queen. As this
extraordinary personage exercised a more important control over the
destinies of his country than any other subject, during the remainder of
the present reign, it will be necessary to put the reader in possession of
his history. [8]

Ximenez de Cisneros, or Ximenes, as he is usually called, was born at the
little town of Tordelaguna, in the year 1436, [9] of an ancient but
decayed family. [10] He was early destined by his parents for the church,
and, after studying grammar at Alcalá, was removed at fourteen to the
university of Salamanca. Here he went through the regular course of
instruction then pursued, devoting himself assiduously to the civil and
canon law, and at the end of six years received the degree of bachelor in
each of them, a circumstance at that time of rare occurrence. [11]

Three years after quitting the university, the young bachelor removed by
the advice of his parents to Rome, as affording a better field for
ecclesiastical preferment than he could find at home. Here he seems to
have attracted some notice by the diligence with which he devoted himself
to his professional studies and employments. But still he was far from
reaping the golden fruits presaged by his kindred; and at the expiration
of six years he was suddenly recalled to his native country by the death
of his father, who left his affairs in so embarrassed a condition, as to
require his immediate presence. [12]

Before his return, Ximenes obtained a papal bull, or _expectative_,
preferring him to the first benefice of a specified value, which should
become vacant in the see of Toledo. Several years elapsed before such a
vacancy offered itself by the death of the archpriest of Uzeda; and
Ximenes took possession of that living by virtue of the apostolic grant.

This assumption of the papal court to dispose of the church livings at its
own pleasure, had been long regarded by the Spaniards as a flagrant
imposition; and Carillo, the archbishop of Toledo, in whose diocese the
vacancy occurred, was not likely tamely to submit to it. He had, moreover,
promised this very place to one of his own followers. He determined,
accordingly, to compel Ximenes to surrender his pretensions in favor of
the latter, and, finding argument ineffectual, resorted to force,
confining him in the fortress of Uzeda, whence he was subsequently removed
to the strong tower of Santorcaz, then used as a prison for contumacious
ecclesiastics. But Carillo understood little of the temper of Ximenes,
which was too inflexible to be broken by persecution. The archbishop in
time became convinced of this, and was persuaded to release him, but not
till after an imprisonment of more than six years. [13]

Ximenes, thus restored to freedom, and placed in undisturbed possession of
his benefice, was desirous of withdrawing from the jurisdiction of his
vindictive superior; and not long after effected an exchange for the
chaplainship of Siguenza. In this new situation he devoted himself with
renewed ardor to his theological studies, occupying himself diligently,
moreover, with Hebrew and Chaldee, his knowledge of which proved of no
little use in the concoction of his famous Polyglot.

Mendoza was at that time bishop of Siguenza. It was impossible that a man
of his penetration should come in contact with a character like that of
Ximenes, without discerning its extraordinary qualities. It was not long
before he appointed him his vicar, with the administration of his diocese;
in which situation he displayed such capacity for business, that the count
of Cifuentes, on falling into the hands of the Moors, after the
unfortunate affair of the Axarquia, confided to him the sole management of
his vast estates during his captivity. [14]

But these secular concerns grew more and more distasteful to Ximenes,
whose naturally austere and contemplative disposition had been deepened,
probably, by the melancholy incidents of his life, into stern religious
enthusiasm. He determined, therefore, to break at once from the shackles
which bound him to the world, and seek an asylum in some religious
establishment, where he might devote himself unreservedly to the service
of Heaven. He selected for this purpose the Observantines of the
Franciscan order, the most rigid of the monastic societies. He resigned
his various employments and benefices, with annual rents to the amount of
two thousand ducats, and, in defiance of the arguments and entreaties of
his friends, entered on his novitiate in the convent of San Juan de los
Reyes, at Toledo; a superb pile then erecting by the Spanish sovereigns,
in pursuance of a vow made during the war of Granada. [15]

He distinguished his novitiate by practising every ingenious variety of
mortification with which superstition has contrived to swell the
inevitable catalogue of human sufferings. He slept on the ground, or on
the hard floor, with a billet of wood for his pillow. He wore hair-cloth
next his skin; and exercised himself with fasts, vigils, and stripes, to a
degree scarcely surpassed by the fanatical founder of his order. At the
end of the year, he regularly professed, adopting then for the first time
the name of Francisco, in compliment to his patron saint, instead of that
of Gonzalo, by which he had been baptized.

No sooner had this taken place, than his reputation for sanctity, which
his late course of life had diffused far and wide, attracted multitudes of
all ages and conditions to his confessional; and he soon found himself
absorbed in the same vortex of worldly passions and interests, from which
he had been so anxious to escape. At his solicitation, therefore, he was
permitted to transfer his abode to the convent of our Lady of Castañar, so
called from a deep forest of chestnuts, in which it was embosomed. In the
midst of these dark mountain solitudes, he built with his own hands a
little hermitage or cabin, of dimensions barely sufficient to admit his
entrance. Here he passed his days and nights in prayer, and in meditations
on the sacred volume, sustaining life, like the ancient anchorites, on the
green herbs and running waters. In this state of self-mortification, with
a frame wasted by abstinence, and a mind exalted by spiritual
contemplation, it is no wonder that he should have indulged in ecstasies
and visions, until he fancied himself raised into communication with
celestial intelligences. It is more wonderful that his understanding was
not permanently impaired by these distempered fancies. This period of his
life, however, seems to have been always regarded by him with peculiar
satisfaction; for long after, as his biographer assures us, when reposing
in lordly palaces, and surrounded by all the appliances of luxury, he
looked back with fond regret on the hours which glided so peacefully in
the hermitage of Castañar. [16]

Fortunately, his superiors, choosing to change his place of residence
according to custom, transferred him at the end of three years to the
convent of Salzeda. Here he practised, indeed, similar austerities, but it
was not long before his high reputation raised him to the post of guardian
of the convent. This situation necessarily imposed on him the management
of the institution; and thus the powers of his mind, so long wasted in
unprofitable reverie, were again called into exercise for the benefit of
others. An event which occurred some years later, in 1492, opened to him a
still wider sphere of action.

By the elevation of Talavera to the metropolitan see of Granada, the
office of queen's confessor became vacant. Cardinal Mendoza, who was
consulted on the choice of a successor, well knew the importance of
selecting a man of the highest integrity and talent; since the queen's
tenderness of conscience led her to take counsel of her confessor, not
merely in regard to her own spiritual concerns, but all the great measures
of her administration. He at once fixed his eye on Ximenes, of whom he had
never lost sight, indeed, since his first acquaintance with him at
Siguenza. He was far from approving his adoption of the monastic life, and
had been heard to say, that "parts so extraordinary would not long be
buried in the shades of a convent." He is said, also, to have predicted
that Ximenes would one day succeed him in the chair of Toledo. A
prediction, which its author contributed more than any other to verify.
[17]

He recommended Ximenes in such emphatic terms to the queen, as raised a
strong desire in her to see and converse with him herself. An invitation
was accordingly sent him from the cardinal to repair to the court at
Valladolid, without intimating the real purpose of it. Ximenes obeyed the
summons, and, after a short interview with his early patron, was
conducted, as if without any previous arrangement, to the queen's
apartment. On finding himself so unexpectedly in the royal presence, he
betrayed none of the agitation or embarrassment to have been expected from
the secluded inmate of a cloister, but exhibited a natural dignity of
manners, with such discretion and fervent piety, in his replies to
Isabella's various interrogatories, as confirmed the favorable
prepossessions she had derived from the cardinal.

Not many days after, Ximenes was invited to take charge of the queen's
conscience. Far from appearing elated by this mark of royal favor, and the
prospects of advancement which it opened, he seemed to view it with
disquietude, as likely to interrupt the peaceful tenor of his religious
duties; and he accepted it only with the understanding, that he should be
allowed to conform in every respect to the obligations of his order, and
to remain in his own monastery when his official functions did not require
attendance at court. [18]

Martyr, in more than one of his letters dated at this time, notices the
impression made on the courtiers by the remarkable appearance of the new
confessor, in whose wasted frame, and pallid, care-worn countenance, they
seemed to behold one of the primitive anchorites from the deserts of Syria
or Egypt. [19] The austerities and the blameless purity of Ximenes's life
had given him a reputation for sanctity throughout Spain; [20] and Martyr
indulges the regret, that a virtue, which had stood so many trials, should
be exposed to the worst of all, in the seductive blandishments of a court.
But Ximenes's heart had been steeled by too stern a discipline to be moved
by the fascinations of pleasure, however it might be by those of ambition.

Two years after this event, he was elected provincial of his order in
Castile, which placed him at the head of its numerous religious
establishments. In his frequent journeys for their inspection he travelled
on foot, supporting himself by begging alms, conformably to the rules of
his order. On his return he made a very unfavorable report to the queen of
the condition of the various institutions, most of which he represented to
have grievously relaxed in discipline and virtue. Contemporary accounts
corroborate this unfavorable picture, and accuse the religious communities
of both sexes throughout Spain, at this period, of wasting their hours,
not merely in unprofitable sloth, but in luxury and licentiousness. The
Franciscans, in particular, had so far swerved from the obligations of
their institute, which interdicted the possession of property of any
description, that they owned large estates in town and country, living in
stately edifices, and in a style of prodigal expense not surpassed by any
of the monastic orders. Those who indulged in this latitude were called
_conventuals_, while the comparatively small number who put the strictest
construction on the rule of their founder were denominated
_observantines_, or brethren of the observance. Ximenes, it will be
remembered, was one of the latter. [21]

The Spanish sovereigns had long witnessed with deep regret the scandalous
abuses which had crept into these ancient institutions, and had employed
commissioners for investigating and reforming them, but ineffectually.
Isabella now gladly availed herself of the assistance of her confessor in
bringing them into a better state of discipline. In the course of the same
year, 1494, she obtained a bull with full authority for this purpose from
Alexander the Sixth, the execution of which she intrusted to Ximenes. The
work of reform required all the energies of his powerful mind, backed by
the royal authority. For, in addition to the obvious difficulty of
persuading men to resign the good things of this world for a life of
penance and mortification, there were other impediments, arising from the
circumstance that the conventuals had been countenanced in their lax
interpretation of the rules of their order by many of their own superiors,
and even the popes themselves. They were besides sustained in their
opposition by many of the great lords, who were apprehensive that the rich
chapels and masses, which they or their ancestors had founded in the
various monasteries, would be neglected by the observantines, whose
scrupulous adherence to the vow of poverty excluded them from what, in
church as well as state, is too often found the most cogent incentive to
the performance of duty. [22]

From these various causes, the work of reform went on slowly; but the
untiring exertions of Ximenes gradually effected its adoption in many
establishments; and, where fair means could not prevail, he sometimes
resorted to force. The monks of one of the convents in Toledo, being
ejected from their dwelling, in consequence of their pertinacious
resistance, marched out in solemn procession, with the crucifix before
them, chanting, at the same time, the psalm _De exitu Israel_, in
token of their persecution. Isabella resorted to milder methods. She
visited many of the nunneries in person, taking her needle or distaff with
her, and endeavoring by her conversation and example to withdraw their
inmates from the low and frivolous pleasures to which they were addicted.
[23]

While the reformation was thus silently going forward, the vacancy in the
archbishopric of Toledo already noticed occurred by the death of the grand
cardinal. Isabella deeply felt the responsibility of providing a suitable
person to this dignity, the most considerable not merely in Spain, but
probably in Christendom, after the papacy; and which, moreover, raised its
possessor to eminent political rank, as high chancellor of Castile. [24]
The right of nomination to benefices was vested in the queen by the
original settlement of the crown. She had uniformly discharged this trust
with the most conscientious impartiality, conferring the honors of the
church on none but persons of approved piety and learning. [25] In the
present instance, she was strongly solicited by Ferdinand, in favor of his
natural son Alfonso, archbishop of Saragossa. But this prelate, although
not devoid of talent, had neither the age nor experience, and still less
the exemplary morals, demanded for this important station; and the queen
mildly, but unhesitatingly, resisted all entreaty and expostulation of her
husband on his behalf. [26]

The post had always been filled by men of high family. The queen, loath to
depart from this usage, notwithstanding the dying admonition of Mendoza,
turned her eyes on various candidates before she determined in favor of
her own confessor, whose character presented so rare a combination of
talent and virtue, as amply compensated any deficiency of birth.

As soon as the papal bull reached Castile, confirming the royal
nomination, Isabella summoned Ximenes to her presence, and, delivering to
him the parcel, requested him to open it before her. The confessor, who
had no suspicion of their real purport, took the letters and devoutly
pressed them to his lips; when his eye falling on the superscription, "To
our venerable brother Francisco Ximenez de Cisneros, archbishop elect of
Toledo," he changed color, and involuntarily dropped the packet from his
hands, exclaiming, "There is some mistake in this; it cannot be intended
for me;" and abruptly quitted the apartment.

The queen, far from taking umbrage at this unceremonious proceeding,
waited a while, until the first emotions of surprise should have subsided.
Finding that he did not return, however, she despatched two of the
grandees, who she thought would have the most influence with him, to seek
him out and persuade him to accept the office. The nobles instantly
repaired to his convent in Madrid, in which city the queen then kept her
court. They found, however, that he had already left the place. Having
ascertained his route, they mounted their horses, and, following as fast
as possible, succeeded in overtaking him at three leagues' distance from
the city, as he was travelling on foot at a rapid rate, though in the
noontide heat, on his way to the Franciscan monastery at Ocana.

After a brief expostulation with Ximenes on his abrupt departure, they
prevailed on him to retrace his steps to Madrid; but, upon his arrival
there, neither the arguments nor entreaties of his friends, backed as they
were by the avowed wishes of his sovereign, could overcome his scruples,
or induce him to accept an office, of which he professed himself unworthy.
"He had hoped," he said, "to pass the remainder of his days in the quiet
practice of his monastic duties; and it was too late now to call him into
public life, and impose a charge of such heavy responsibility on him, for
which he had neither capacity nor inclination." In this resolution he
pertinaciously persisted for more than six months, until a second bull was
obtained from the pope, commanding him no longer to decline an appointment
which the church had seen fit to sanction. This left no further room for
opposition, and Ximenes acquiesced, though with evident reluctance, in his
advancement to the first dignity in the kingdom. [27]

There seems to be no good ground for charging Ximenes with hypocrisy in
this singular display of humility. The _nolo episcopal_, indeed, has
passed into a proverb; but his refusal was too long and sturdily
maintained to be reconciled with affectation or insincerity. He was,
moreover, at this time, in the sixtieth year of his age, when ambition,
though not extinguished, is usually chilled in the human heart. His habits
had been long accommodated to the ascetic duties of the cloister, and his
thoughts turned from the business of this world to that beyond the grave.
However gratifying the distinguished honor conferred on him might be to
his personal feelings, he might naturally hesitate to exchange the calm,
sequestered way of life, to which he had voluntarily devoted himself, for
the turmoil and vexations of the world.

But, although Ximenes showed no craving for power, it must be confessed he
was by no means diffident in the use of it. One of the very first acts of
his administration is too characteristic to be omitted. The government of
Cazorla, the most considerable place in the gift of the archbishop of
Toledo, had been intrusted by the grand cardinal to his younger brother
Don Pedro Hurtado de Mendoza. The friends of this nobleman applied to
Ximenes to confirm the appointment, reminding him at the same time of his
own obligations to the cardinal, and enforcing their petition by the
recommendation which they had obtained from the queen. This was not the
way to approach Ximenes, who was jealous of any improper influence over
his own judgment, and, above all, of the too easy abuse of the royal
favor. He was determined, in the outset, effectually to discourage all
such applications; and he declared, that "the sovereigns might send him
back to the cloister again, but that no personal considerations should
ever operate with him in distributing the honors of the church." The
applicants, nettled at this response, returned to the queen, complaining
in the bitterest terms of the arrogance and ingratitude of the new
primate. Isabella, however, evinced no symptoms of disapprobation, not
altogether displeased, perhaps, with the honest independence of her
minister; at any rate, she took no further notice of the affair. [28]

Some time after, the archbishop encountered Mendoza in one of the avenues
of the palace, and, as the latter was turning off to avoid the meeting, he
saluted him with the title of adelantado of Cazorla. Mendoza stared with
astonishment at the prelate, who repeated the salutation, assuring him,
"that, now he was at full liberty to consult his own judgment, without the
suspicion of any sinister influence, he was happy to restore him to a
station, for which he had shown himself well qualified." It is scarcely
necessary to say, that Ximenes was not importuned after this with
solicitations for office. Indeed, all personal application he affected to
regard as of itself sufficient ground for a denial, since it indicated
"the want either of merit or of humility in the applicant." [29]

After his elevation to the primacy, he retained the same simple and
austere manners as before, dispensing his large revenues in public and
private charities, but regulating his domestic expenditure with the
severest economy, [30] until he was admonished by the Holy See to adopt a
state more consonant with the dignity of his office, if he would not
disparage it in popular estimation. In obedience to this, he so far
changed his habits, as to display the usual magnificence of his
predecessors, in all that met the public eye,--his general style of
living, equipage, and the number and pomp of his retainers; but he relaxed
nothing of his own personal mortifications. He maintained the same
abstemious diet, amidst all the luxuries of his table. Under his robes of
silk or costly furs he wore the coarse frock of St. Francis, which he used
to mend with his own hands. He used no linen about his person or bed; and
he slept on a miserable pallet like that used by the monks of his
fraternity, and so contrived as to be concealed from observation under the
luxurious couch in which he affected to repose. [31]

As soon as Ximenes entered on the duties of his office, he bent all the
energies of his mind to the consummation of the schemes of reform which
his royal mistress, as well as himself, had so much at heart. His
attention was particularly directed to the clergy of his diocese, who had
widely departed from the rule of St. Augustine, by which they were bound.
His attempts at reform, however, excited such a lively dissatisfaction in
this reverend body, that they determined to send one of their own number
to Rome, to prefer their complaints against the archbishop at the papal
court. [32]

The person selected for this delicate mission was a shrewd and intelligent
canon by the name of Albornoz. It could not be conducted so privately as
to escape the knowledge of Ximenes. He was no sooner acquainted with it,
than he despatched an officer to the coast, with orders to arrest the
emissary. In case he had already embarked, the officer was authorized to
fit out a fast sailing vessel, so as to reach Italy, if possible, before
him. He was at the same time fortified with despatches from the sovereigns
to the Spanish minister, Garcilasso de la Vega, to be delivered
immediately on his arrival.

The affair turned out as had been foreseen. On arriving at the port, the
officer found the bird had flown. He followed, however, without delay, and
had the good fortune to reach Ostia several days before him. He forwarded
his instructions at once to the Spanish minister, who in pursuance of them
caused Albornoz to be arrested the moment he set foot on shore, and sent
him back as a prisoner of state to Spain; where a close confinement for
two and twenty mouths admonished the worthy canon of the inexpediency of
thwarting the plans of Ximenes. [33]

His attempts at innovation among the regular clergy of his own order were
encountered with more serious opposition. The reform fell most heavily on
the Franciscans, who were interdicted by their rules from holding
property, whether as a community, or as individuals; while the members of
other fraternities found some compensation for the surrender of their
private fortunes, in the consequent augmentation of those of their
fraternity. There was no one of the religious orders, therefore, in which
the archbishop experienced such a dogged resistance to his plans, as in
his own. More than a thousand friars, according to some accounts, quitted
the country and passed over to Barbary, preferring rather to live with the
infidel, than conform to the strict letter of their founder's rules. [34]

One account represents the migration as being to Italy and other Christian
countries, where the conventual order was protected; which would seem the
most probable, though not the best authenticated, statement of the two.

The difficulties of the reform were perhaps augmented by the mode in which
it was conducted. Isabella, indeed, used all gentleness and persuasion;
[35] but Ximenes carried measures with a high and inexorable hand. He was
naturally of an austere and arbitrary temper, and the severe training
which he had undergone made him less charitable for the lapses of others;
especially of those, who, like himself, had voluntarily incurred the
obligations of monastic rule. He was conscious of the rectitude of his
intentions; and, as he identified his own interests with those of the
church, he regarded all opposition to himself as an offence against
religion, warranting the most peremptory exertion of power.

The clamor raised against his proceedings became at length so alarming,
that the general of the Franciscans, who resided at Rome, determined to
anticipate the regular period of his visit to Castile for inspecting the
affairs of the order. As he was himself a conventual, his prejudices were
of course all enlisted against the measures of reform; and he came over
fully resolved to compel Ximenes to abandon it altogether, or to
undermine, if possible, his credit and influence at court. But this
functionary had neither the talent nor temper requisite for so arduous an
undertaking.

He had not been long in Castile before he was convinced that all his own
power, as head of the order, would be incompetent to protect it against
the bold innovations of his provincial, while supported by royal
authority. He demanded, therefore, an audience of the queen, in which he
declared his sentiments with very little reserve. He expressed his
astonishment that she should have selected an individual for the highest
dignity in the church, who was destitute of nearly every qualification,
even that of birth; whose sanctity was a mere cloak to cover his ambition;
whose morose and melancholy temper made him an enemy not only of the
elegances, but the common courtesies of life; and whose rude manners were
not compensated by any tincture of liberal learning. He deplored the
magnitude of the evil, which his intemperate measures had brought on the
church, but which it was, perhaps, not yet too late to rectify; and he
concluded by admonishing her, that, if she valued her own fame, or the
interests of her soul, she would compel this man of yesterday to abdicate
the office, for which he had proved himself so incompetent, and return to
his original obscurity!

The queen, who listened to this violent harangue with an indignation, that
prompted her more than once to order the speaker from her presence, put a
restraint on her feelings, and patiently waited to the end. When he had
finished, she calmly asked him, "If he was in his senses, and knew whom he
was thus addressing?" "Yes," replied the enraged friar, "I am in my
senses, and know very well whom I am speaking to;--the queen of Castile, a
mere handful of dust, like myself!" With these words, he rushed out of the
apartment, shutting the door after him with furious violence. [36]

Such impotent bursts of passion could, of course, have no power to turn
the queen from her purpose. The general, however, on his return to Italy,
had sufficient address to obtain authority from His Holiness to send a
commission of conventuals to Castile, who should be associated with
Ximenes in the management of the reform. These individuals soon found
themselves mere ciphers; and, highly offended at the little account which
the archbishop made of their authority, they preferred such complaints of
his proceedings to the pontifical court, that Alexander the Sixth was
induced, with the advice of the college of cardinals, to issue a brief,
November 9th, 1496, peremptorily inhibiting the sovereigns from proceeding
further in the affair, until it had been regularly submitted for
examination to the head of the church. [37]

Isabella, on receiving this unwelcome mandate, instantly sent it to
Ximenes. The spirit of the latter, however, rose in proportion to the
obstacles it had to encounter. He sought only to rally the queen's
courage, beseeching her not to faint in the good work, now that it was so
far advanced, and assuring her that it was already attended with such
beneficent fruits, as could not fail to secure the protection of Heaven.
Isabella, every act of whose administration may be said to have had
reference, more or less remote, to the interests of religion, was as
little likely as himself to falter in a matter which proposed these
interests as its direct and only object. She assured her minister that she
would support him in all that was practicable; and she lost no time in
presenting the affair, through her agents, in such a light to the court of
Rome, as might work a more favorable disposition in it. In this she
succeeded, though not till after multiplied delays and embarrassments; and
such ample powers were conceded to Ximenes, in conjunction with the
apostolic nuncio, as enabled him to consummate his grand scheme of reform,
in defiance of all the efforts of his enemies. [38]

The reformation thus introduced extended to the religious institutions of
very order equally with his own. It was most searching in its operation,
reaching eventually to the moral conduct of the subjects of it, no less
than the mere points of monastic discipline. As regards the latter; it may
be thought of doubtful benefit to have enforced the rigid interpretation
of a rule, founded on the melancholy principle, that the amount of
happiness in the next world is to be regulated by that of self-inflicted
suffering in this. But it should be remembered, that, however
objectionable such a rule may be in itself, yet, where it is voluntarily
assumed as an imperative moral obligation, it cannot be disregarded
without throwing down the barrier to unbounded license; and that the
reassertion of it, under these circumstances, must be a necessary
preliminary to any effectual reform of morals.

The beneficial changes wrought in this latter particular, which Isabella
had far more at heart than any exterior forms of discipline, are the theme
of unqualified panegyric with her contemporaries. [39] The Spanish clergy,
as I have before had occasion to remark, were early noted for their
dissolute way of life, which, to a certain extent, seemed to be
countenanced by the law itself. [40] This laxity of morals was carried to
a most lamentable extent under the last reign, when all orders of
ecclesiastics, whether regular or secular, infected probably by the
corrupt example of the court, are represented (we may hope it is an
exaggeration) as wallowing in all the excesses of sloth and sensuality. So
deplorable a pollution of the very sanctuaries of religion could not fail
to occasion sincere regret to a pure and virtuous mind like Isabella's.
The stain had sunk too deep, however, to be readily purged away. Her
personal example, indeed, and the scrupulous integrity with which she
reserved all ecclesiastical preferment for persons of unblemished piety,
contributed greatly to bring about an amelioration in the morals of the
secular clergy. But the secluded inmates of the cloister were less open to
these influences; and the work of reform could only be accomplished there,
by bringing them back to a reverence for their own institutions, and by
the slow operation of public opinion.

Notwithstanding the queen's most earnest wishes, it may be doubted whether
this would have ever been achieved without the co-operation of a man like
Ximenes, whose character combined in itself all the essential elements of
a reformer. Happily, Isabella was permitted to see before her death, if
not the completion, at least the commencement, of a decided amendment in
the morals of the religious orders; an amendment, which, so far from being
transitory in its character calls forth the most emphatic eulogium from a
Castilian writer far in the following century; who, while he laments their
ancient laxity, boldly challenges comparison for the religious communities
of his own country, with those of any other, in temperance, chastity, and
exemplary purity of life and conversation. [41]

       *       *       *       *       *

The authority on whom the life of Cardinal Ximenes mainly rests, is Alvaro
Gomez de Castro. He was born in the village of St. Eulalia, near Toledo,
in 1515, and received his education at Alcalá, where he obtained great
repute for his critical acquaintance with the ancient classics. He was
afterwards made professor of the humanities in the university; a situation
which he filled with credit, but subsequently exchanged for the rhetorical
chair in a school recently founded at Toledo. While thus occupied, he was
chosen by the university of Alcalá to pay the most distinguished honor,
which could be rendered to the memory of its illustrious founder, by a
faithful record of his extraordinary life. The most authentic sources of
information were thrown open to him. He obtained an intimate acquaintance
with the private life of the cardinal, from three of his principal
domestics, who furnished abundance of reminiscences from personal
observation, while the archives of the university supplied a mass of
documents relating to the public services of its patron. From these and
similar materials, Gomez prepared his biography, after many years of
patient labor. The work fully answered public expectation; and its merits
are such as to lead the learned Nic. Antonio to express a doubt, whether
anything more excellent or perfect in its way could be achieved; "quo
opere in eo genere an praestantius quidquam aut perfectius, esse possit,
non immerito saepe dubitavi." (Bibliotheca Nova, tom. i. p. 59.) The
encomium may be thought somewhat excessive; but it cannot be denied, that
the narrative is written in an easy and natural manner, with fidelity and
accuracy, with commendable liberality of opinion, though with a judgment
sometimes warped into an undue estimate of the qualities of his hero. It
is distinguished, moreover, by such beauty and correctness of Latinity, as
have made it a text-book in many of the schools and colleges of the
Peninsula. The first edition, being that used in the present work, was
published at Alcalá, in 1569. It has since been reprinted twice in
Germany, and perhaps elsewhere. Gomez was busily occupied with other
literary lucubrations during the remainder of his life, and published
several works in Latin prose and verse, both of which he wrote with ease
and elegance. He died of a catarrh, in 1580, in the sixty-sixth year of
his age, leaving behind him a reputation for disinterestedness and virtue,
which is sufficiently commemorated in two lines of his epitaph;

  "Nemini unquam sciens nocui,
  Prodesse quam pluribus curavi."

The work of Gomez has furnished the basis for all those biographies of
Ximenes which have since appeared in Spain. The most important of these,
probably, is Quintanilla's; which, with little merit of selection or
arrangement, presents a copious mass of details, drawn from every quarter
whence his patient industry could glean them. Its author was a Franciscan,
and employed in procuring the beatification of Cardinal Ximenes by the
court of Rome; a circumstance which probably disposed him to easier faith
in the _marvellous_ of his story, than most of his readers will be ready
to give. The work was published at Palermo in 1653.

In addition to these authorities I have availed myself of a curious old
manuscript, presented to me by Mr. O. Rich, entitled "Suma de la Vida del
R. S. Cardenal Don Fr. Francisco Ximenez de Cisneros." It was written
within half a century after the cardinal's death, by "un criado de la casa
de Coruña." The original, in "very ancient letter," was extant in the
archives of that noble house in Quintanilla's time, and is often cited by
him. (Archetypo, apend., p. 77.) Its author evidently had access to those
contemporary notices, some of which furnished the basis of Castro's
narrative, from which, indeed, it exhibits no material discrepancy.

The extraordinary character of Ximenes has naturally attracted the
attention of foreign writers, and especially the French, who have produced
repeated biographies of him. The most eminent of these is by Fléchier, the
eloquent bishop of Nismes. It is written with the simple elegance and
perspicuity, which characterize his other compositions; and in the general
tone of its sentiments, on all matters both of church and state, is quite
as orthodox as the most bigoted admirer of the cardinal could desire.
Another life, by Marsollier, has obtained a very undeserved repute. The
author, not content with the extraordinary qualities really appertaining
to his hero, makes him out a sort of universal genius, quite ridiculous,
rivalling Molière's Dr. Pancrace himself. One may form some idea of the
historian's accuracy from the fact, that he refers the commencement and
conduct of the war of Granada chiefly to the counsels of Ximenes, who, as
we have seen, was not even introduced at court till after the close of the
war. Marsollier reckoned largely on the ignorance and _gullibility_
of his readers. The event proved he was not mistaken.


FOOTNOTES

[1] Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1495.--Salazar de Mendoza, Crón. del Gran
Cardenal, lib. 2, cap. 45, 46.--Zurita, Anales, tom. v. fol. 61.--Pulgar,
Claros Varones, tit. 4.

His disorder was an abscess on the kidneys, which confined him to the
house nearly a year before his death. When this event happened, a white
cross of extraordinary magnitude and splendor, shaped precisely like that
on his arms, was seen in the heavens directly over his house, by a crowd
of spectators, for more than two hours; a full account of which was duly
transmitted to Rome by the Spanish court, and has obtained easy credit
with the principal Spanish historians.

[2] Alvaro Gomez says of him, "Nam praeter clarissimum tum natalium, tum
fortunae, tum dignitatis splendorem, quae in ilio ornamenta summa erant,
incredibilem animi sublimitatem cum pari morum facilitate, elegantiâque
conjunxerat; ut merito locum in republicâ summo proximum ad supremum usque
diem tenuerit." (De Rebus Gestis, fol. 9.) Martyr, noticing the cardinal's
death, bestows the following brief but comprehensive panegyric on him.
"Periit Gonsalus Mendotiae, domûs splendor et lucida fax; periit quem
universa colebat Hispania, quem exteri etiam principes venerabantur, quem
ordo cardineus collegam sibi esse gloriabatur." Opus Epist., epist. 158.

[3] Salazar de Mendoza, Crón. del Gran Cardenal, pp. 263-273, 381-410.

[4] "Gran varon, y muy experimentado y prudente en negocios," says Oviedo
of the cardinal, "_pero a vueltas de las negociaciones desta vida_,
tuvo trés hijos varones," etc. Then follows a full notice of this
graceless progeny. Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 8.

[5] Salazar de Mendoza, Crón. del Gran Cardenal, lib. 2, cap. 66.

The doctor Pedro Salazar de Mendoza's biography of his illustrious
relative is a very fair specimen of the Spanish style of book-making in
ancient times. One event seems to suggest another with about as much
cohesion as the rhymes of "The House that Jack built." There is scarcely a
place or personage of note, that the grand cardinal was brought in contact
with in the course of his life, whose history is not made the theme of
profuse dissertation. Nearly fifty chapters are taken up, for example,
with the distinguished men, who graduated at the college of Santa Cruz.

[6] "Non hoc," says Tacitus with truth, "praecipuum amicorum munus est,
prosequi defunctum ignavo questu; sed quae voluerit meminisse, quae
mandaverit exsequi." Annales, lib. 2, sect. 71.

[7] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 143.--Carbajal, Anales, MS., año
1494.--Salazar de Mendoza, Crón. del Gran Cardenal, lib. 2, cap. 45.

A foundling hospital does not seem to have come amiss in Spain, where,
according to Salazar, the wretched parents frequently destroyed their
offspring by casting them into wells and pits, or exposing them in desert
places to die of famine. "_The more compassionate_," he observes, "laid
them at the doors of churches, where they were too often worried to
death by dogs and other animals." The grand cardinal's nephew, who founded
a similar institution, is said to have furnished an asylum in the course
of his life to no less than 13,000 of these little victims! Ibid., cap.
61.

[8] Salazar de Mendoza, Crón, del Gran Cardenal, lib. 2, cap. 46.--Gomez,
De Rebus Gestis, fol. 8.

The dying cardinal is said to have recommended, among other things, that
the queen should repair any wrong done to Joanna Beltraneja, by marrying
her with the young prince of the Asturias; which suggestion was so little
to Isabella's taste that she broke off the conversation, saying, "the good
man wandered and talked nonsense."

[9] It is singular, that Fiddlier should have blundered some twenty years
in the date of Ximenes's birth, which he makes 1457. (Hist. de Ximenés,
liv. 1, p. 3.) It is not singular, that Marsollier should. Histoire du
Ministère du Cardinal Ximenez, (Toulouse, 1694,) liv. 1, p. 3.

[10] The honorable extraction of Ximenes is intimated in Juan Vergara's
verses at the end of the Complutensian Polyglot:

  "Nomine Cisnerius clarâ de stirpe parentum,
  Et meritis factus clarior ipse suis."

Fray Pedro de Quintanilla y Mendoza makes a goodly genealogical tree for
his hero, of which King Pelayo, King Pepin, Charlemagne, and other royal
worthies are the respectable roots. (Proemia Dedicatoria, pp. 5-35.)
According to Gonzalo de Oviedo, his father was a poor hidalgo, who, having
spent his little substance on the education of his children, was obliged
to take up the profession of an advocate. Quincuagenas, MS.

[11] Quintanilla, Archetypo, p. 6.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, Ximen., fol.
2.--Idem, Miscellanear., MS., ex Bibliothecâ, Regiâ Matritensi, tom. ii.
fol. 189.

[12] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 2.--Idem, Miscellanear., MS., ubi
supra.--Eugenio de Robles, Compendio de la Vida y Hazañas del Cardenal Don
Fray Francisco Ximenez de Cisneros, (Toledo, 1604,) cap. 11.

[13] Quintanilla, Archetype, pp. 8, 10.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 2.--
Fléchier, Hist. de Ximenés, pp. 8-10.--Suma de la Vida del R. S. Cardenal
Don Fr. Francisco Ximenez de Cisneros, sacada de los Memoriales de Juan de
Vallejo, Paje de CEamara, è de algunas Personas que en su Tiempo lo
vieron: para la Ilustrisima Señora Doña Catalina de la Zerda, Condesa de
Coruña, a quien Dios guarde, y de su Gracia, por un Criado de su Casa, MS.

[14] Suma de la Vida de Cisneros, MS.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 3.--
Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 11.--Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., dial, de
Ximeni.

[15] Quintanilla, Archetypo, p. ll.--Gomez, Miscellanear., MS., ubi
supra.--Idem, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 4.

This edifice, says Salazar de Mendoza, in respect to its sacristy, choir,
cloisters, library, etc., was the most sumptuous and noted of its time. It
was originally destined by the Catholic sovereigns for their place of
sepulture; an honor afterwards reserved for Granada, on its recovery from
the infidels. The great chapel was garnished with the fetters taken from
the dungeons of Malaga, in which the Moors confined their Christian
captives. Monarquía, tom. i. p. 410.

[16] Fléchier, Hist. de Ximenés, p. 14.--Quintanilla, Archetype, pp. 13,
14.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 4.--Suma de la Vida de Cisneros, MS.--
Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.

[17] Salazar de Mendoza, Crón. del Gran Cardenal, lib. 2, cap. 63.--Gomez,
De Rebus Gestis, fol. 4.--Suma de la Vida de Cisneros, MS.--Robles, Vida
de Ximenez, cap. 12.

[18] Fléchier, Hist. de Ximenés, pp. 18, 19.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist.,
epist. 108.--Robles, Vida de Ximenez, ubi supra.--Oviedo, Quincuagenas,
MS.

[19] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 108.

"Praeterea," says Martyr, in a letter to Don Fernando Alvarez, one of the
royal secretaries, "nonne tu sanotissimum quendam virum à, solitudine
abstrusisque silvis, macie ob abstinentiam confectum, relicti Granatensis
loco fuisse suffactum, scriptitasti? In istius facie obdnctâ, nonne
Hilarionis te imaginem aut primi Pauli vultum conspexisse fateris?" Opus
Epist., epist. 105.

[20] "Todos hablaban," says Oviedo, "de la sanctimonia é vida de este
religioso." The same writer says, that he saw him at Medina del Campo, in
1494, in a solemn procession, on the day of Corpus Christi, his body much
emaciated, and walking barefooted in his coarse friar's dress. In the same
procession was the magnificent cardinal of Spain, little dreaming how soon
his proud honors were to descend on the head of his more humble companion.
Quincuagenas, MS.

[21] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 201.--Suma de la Vida de
Cisneros, MS.--Mosheim, Ecclesiastical History, vol. iii. cent. 14, p. 2.
--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 163.--L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables,
fol. 165.--Oviedo, Epilogo Real, Imperial y Pontifical, MS., apud Mem. de
la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 8.--Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando,
lib. 3, cap. 15.

[22] Fléchier, Hist. de Ximenés, pp. 25, 26.--Quintanilla, Archetypo, pp.
21, 22.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 6, 7.--Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap.
12.

[23] Fléchier, Hist. de Ximenes, p. 25.--Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 1,
cap. ll.--Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 8--Robles, Vida de
Ximenez, ubi supra.

[24] Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 2, dial. 1.--Ferdinand and
Isabella annexed the dignity of high chancellor in perpetuity to that of
archbishop of Toledo. It seems, however, at least in later times, to have
been a mere honorary title. (Mendoza, Dignidades, lib. 2, cap. 8.) The
revenues of the archbishopric at the beginning of the sixteenth century
amounted to 80,000 ducats, (Navagiero, Viaggio, fol. 9.--L. Marineo, Cosas
Memorables, fol. 23,) equivalent to about 702,200 dollars at the present
day. See Introd., Sect. I. Note 63, of this History.

[25] "De mas desto," says Lucio Marineo, "tenia por costumbre que quando
avia de dar alguna dignidad, o obispado, mas mirava en virtud, honestidad,
y sciencia de las personas, que las riquezas, y generosidad, aun que
fuessen sus deudos. Lo qual fue causa que muchos de los que hablavan poco,
y tenian los cabellos mas cortos que las cejas; comenparon a traer los
ojos baxos mirando la tierra, y andar con mas gravedad, y hazer mejor
vida, zimulando por venture algunos mas la virtud, que exercitando la."
(Cosas Memorables, fol. 182.) "L'hypocrisie est l'hommage que le vice rend
à la vertu." The maxim is now somewhat stale, like most others of its
profound author.

[26] Quintanilla, Archetype, lib. 1, cap. 16.--Salazar de Mendoza, Crón.
del Gran Cardenal, lib. 2, cap. 65. This prelate was at this time only
twenty-four years of age. He had been raised to the see of Saragossa when
only six. This strange abuse of preferring infants to the highest
dignities of the church seems to have prevailed in Castile as well as
Aragon; for the tombs of five archdeacons might be seen in the church of
Madre de Dios at Toledo, in Salazar's time, whose united ages amounted
only to thirty years. See Crón. del Gran Cardenal, ubi supra.

[27] Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 4.--Mariana, Hist. de
España, tom. ii. lib. 26, cap. 7.--Suma de la Vida de Cisneros, MS.--
Quintanilla, Archetype, lib. 1, cap. 16.--Gomez, De rebus Gestis, fol.
11.--Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1495.--Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 13.--
Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.

[28] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 11.

[29] Ibid., ubi supra.--Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 13, 14.

[30] "He kept five or six friars of his order," says Gonzalo de Oviedo,
"in his palace with him, and as many asses in his stables; but the latter
all grew sleek and fat, for the archbishop would not ride himself, nor
allow his brethren to ride either." Quincuagenas, MS.

[31] Suma de la Vida de Cisneros, MS.--Quintanilla, Archetype, lib. 2,
cap. 8, 9.--Gomez, de Rebus Gestis, fol. 12.--Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.--
Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 13.

[32] Gomez de Rebus Gestis, fol. 16. The Venetian minister Navagiero,
noticing the condition of the canons of Toledo, some few years later,
celebrates them, as "lording it above all others in their own city, being
especial favorites with the ladies, dwelling in stately mansions, passing,
in short, the most agreeable lives in the world, without any one to
trouble them." Viaggio, fol. 9.

[33] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 17.

[34] Quintanilla, Archetype, pp. 22, 23.--Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom.
vi. p. 201.--Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib. 3, cap. 15.

[35] "Trataba las monjas," say Riol, "con un agrado y amor tan cariñoso,
que las robaba los corazones, y hecha dueña de ellas, las persuadia non
suavidad y eficacia á que votasen clausura. Y es cosa admirable, que raro
fue el conventu donde entró esta celebre heroina, donde no lograse en el
propio dia el efecto de su santo deseo." Informe, apud Semanario Erudito,
tom. iii. p. 110.

[36] Fléchier, Hist. de Ximenes, pp. 56, 58.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol.
14.--Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib. 3, cap. 15.--Robles, Vida de
Ximenez, cap. 13.

[37] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 23.--Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 1,
cap. 11.

[38] Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 1, cap. 13-14.--Riol discusses the
various monastic reforms effected by Ximenes, in his Memorial to Philip
V., apud Semanario Erudito, tom. iii. pp. 102-110.

[39] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 165.--Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos,
MS., cap. 201.--et al.

[40] The practice of concubinage by the clergy was fully recognized, and
the ancient _fueros_ of Castile permitted their issue to inherit the
estates of such parents as died intestate. (See Marina, Ensayo Histórico-
Crítico sobre la Antigua Legislacion de Castilla, (Madrid, 1808,) p. 154.)
The effrontery of these legalized strumpets, _barraganas_, as they
were called, was at length so intolerable as to call for repeated laws,
regulating their apparel, and prescribing a badge for distinguishing them
from honest women. (Sempere, Hist. del Luxo, tom. i. pp. 165-169.) Spain
is probably the only country in Christendom, where concubinage was ever
sanctioned by law; a circumstance doubtless imputable, in some measure, to
the influence of the Mahometans.

[41] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 23.




CHAPTER VI.

XIMENES IN GRANADA--PERSECUTION, INSURRECTION, AND CONVERSION OF THE
MOORS.

1499-1500.

Tranquil State of Granada.--Mild Policy of Talavera.--Clergy Dissatisfied
with it.--Violent Measures of Ximenes.--His Fanaticism.--Its Mischievous
Effects.--Insurrection in Granada.--Tranquillity Restored.--Baptism of the
Inhabitants.


Moral energy, or constancy of purpose, seems to be less properly an
independent power of the mind than a mode of action, by which its various
powers operate with effect. But, however this may be, it enters more
largely, perhaps, than mere talent, as commonly understood, into the
formation of what is called character, and is often confounded by the
vulgar with talent of the highest order. In the ordinary concerns of life,
indeed, it is more serviceable than brilliant parts; while, in the more
important, these latter are of little weight without it, evaporating only
in brief and barren flashes, which may dazzle the eye by their splendor,
but pass away and are forgotten.

The importance of moral energy is felt not only, where it would be
expected, in the concerns of active life, but in those more exclusively of
an intellectual character, in deliberative assemblies, for example, where
talent, as usually understood, might be supposed to assert an absolute
supremacy, but where it is invariably made to bend to the controlling
influence of this principle. No man destitute of it can be the leader of a
party; while there are few leaders, probably, who do not number in their
ranks minds from which they would be compelled to shrink in a contest for
purely intellectual pre-eminence.

This energy of purpose presents itself in a yet more imposing form when
stimulated by some intense passion, as ambition, or the nobler principle
of patriotism or religion; when the soul, spurning vulgar considerations
of interest, is ready to do and to dare all for conscience' sake; when,
insensible alike to all that this world can give or take away, it loosens
itself from the gross ties which bind it to earth, and, however humble its
powers in every other point of view, attains a grandeur and elevation,
which genius alone, however gifted, can never reach.

But it is when associated with exalted genius, and under the action of the
potent principles above mentioned, that this moral energy conveys an image
of power, which approaches, nearer than anything else on earth, to that of
a divine intelligence. It is, indeed, such agents that Providence selects
for the accomplishment of those great revolutions, by which the world is
shaken to its foundations, new and more beautiful systems created, and the
human mind carried forward at a single stride, in the career of
improvement, further than it had advanced for centuries. It must, indeed,
be confessed, that this powerful agency is sometimes for evil, as well as
for good. It is this same impulse, which spurs guilty Ambition along his
bloody track, and which arms the hand of the patriot sternly to resist
him; which glows with holy fervor in the bosom of the martyr, and which
lights up the fires of persecution, by which he is to win his crown of
glory. The direction of the impulse, differing in the same individual
under different circumstances, can alone determine whether he shall be the
scourge or the benefactor of his species.

These reflections have been suggested by the character of the
extraordinary person brought forward in the preceding chapter, Ximenes de
Cisneros, and the new and less advantageous aspect, in which he must now
appear to the reader. Inflexible constancy of purpose formed, perhaps, the
most prominent trait of his remarkable character. What direction it might
have received under other circumstances it is impossible to say. It would
be no great stretch of fancy to imagine, that the unyielding spirit, which
in its early days could voluntarily endure years of imprisonment, rather
than submit to an act of ecclesiastical oppression, might under similar
influences have been aroused, like Luther's, to shake down the ancient
pillars of Catholicism, instead of lending all its strength to uphold
them. The latter position, however, would seem better assimilated to the
constitution of his mind, whose sombre enthusiasm naturally prepared him
for the vague and mysterious in the Romish faith, as his inflexible temper
did for its bold and arrogant dogmas. At any rate, it was to this cause he
devoted the whole strength of his talents and commanding energies.

We have seen, in the preceding chapter, with what promptness he entered on
the reform of religious discipline, as soon as he came into office, and
with what pertinacity he pursued it, in contempt of all personal interest
and popularity. We are now to see him with similar zeal devoting himself
to the extirpation of heresy; with contempt not merely of personal
consequences, but also of the most obvious principles of good faith and
national honor.

Nearly eight years had elapsed since the conquest of Granada, and the
subjugated kingdom continued to repose in peaceful security under the
shadow of the treaty, which guaranteed the unmolested enjoyment of its
ancient laws and religion. This unbroken continuance of public
tranquillity, especially difficult to be maintained among the jarring
elements of the capital, whose motley population of Moors, renegades, and
Christians suggested perpetual points of collision, must be chiefly
referred to the discreet and temperate conduct of the two individuals whom
Isabella had charged with the civil and ecclesiastical government. These
were Mendoza, count of Tendilla, and Talavera, archbishop of Granada.

The former, the brightest ornament of his illustrious house, has been
before made known to the reader by his various important services, both
military and diplomatic. Immediately after the conquest of Granada he was
made alcayde and captain general of the kingdom, a post for which he was
every way qualified by his prudence, firmness, enlightened views, and long
experience. [1]

The latter personage, of more humble extraction, [2] was Fray Fernando de
Talavera, a Hieronymite monk, who, having been twenty years prior of the
monastery of Santa Maria del Prado, near Valladolid, was made confessor of
Queen Isabella, and afterwards of the king. This situation necessarily
gave him considerable influence in all public measures. If the keeping of
the royal conscience could be safely intrusted to any one, it might
certainly be to this estimable prelate, equally distinguished for his
learning, amiable manners, and unblemished piety; and, if his character
was somewhat tainted with bigotry, it was in so mild a form, so far
tempered by the natural benevolence of his disposition, as to make a
favorable contrast to the dominant spirit of the time. [3]

After the conquest, he exchanged the bishopric of Avila for the
archiepiscopal see of Granada. Notwithstanding the wishes of the
sovereigns, he refused to accept any increase of emolument in this new and
more exalted station. His revenues, indeed, which amounted to two millions
of maravedies annually, were somewhat less than he before enjoyed. [4] The
greater part of this sum he liberally expended on public improvements and
works of charity; objects, which, to their credit be it spoken, have
rarely failed to engage a large share of the attention and resources of
the higher Spanish clergy. [5]

The subject which pressed most seriously on the mind of the good
archbishop, was the conversion of the Moors, whose spiritual blindness he
regarded with feelings of tenderness and charity, very different from
those entertained by most of his reverend brethren. He proposed to
accomplish this by the most rational method possible. Though late in life,
he set about learning Arabic, that he might communicate with the Moors in
their own language, and commanded his clergy to do the same. [6] He caused
an Arabic vocabulary, grammar, and catechism to be compiled; and a version
in the same tongue to be made of the liturgy, comprehending the selections
from the Gospels; and proposed to extend this at some future time to the
whole body of the Scriptures. [7] Thus unsealing the sacred oracles which
had been hitherto shut out from their sight, he opened to them the only
true sources of Christian knowledge; and, by endeavoring to effect their
conversion through the medium of their understandings, instead of seducing
their imaginations with a vain show of ostentatious ceremonies, proposed
the only method by which conversion could be sincere and permanent.

These wise and benevolent measures of the good prelate, recommended, as
they were, by the most exemplary purity of life, acquired him great
authority among the Moors, who, estimating the value of the doctrine by
its fruits, were well inclined to listen to it, and numbers were daily
added to the church. [8]

The progress of proselytism, however, was necessarily slow and painful
among a people reared from the cradle, not merely in antipathy to, but
abhorrence of, Christianity; who were severed from the Christian community
by strong dissimilarity of language, habits, and institutions; and now
indissolubly knit together by a common sense of national misfortune. Many
of the more zealous clergy and religious persons, conceiving, indeed, this
barrier altogether insurmountable, were desirous of seeing it swept away
at once by the strong arm of power. They represented to the sovereigns,
that it seemed like insensibility to the goodness of Providence, which had
delivered the infidels into their hands, to allow them any longer to usurp
the fair inheritance of the Christians, and that the whole of the stiff-
necked race of Mahomet might justly be required to submit without
exception to instant baptism, or to sell their estates and remove to
Africa. This, they maintained, could be scarcely regarded as an
infringement of the treaty, since the Moors would be so great gainers on
the score of their eternal salvation; to say nothing of the
indispensableness of such a measure to the permanent tranquillity and
security of the kingdom. [9]

But these considerations, "just and holy as they were," to borrow the
words of a devout Spaniard, [10] failed to convince the sovereigns, who
resolved to abide by their royal word, and to trust to the conciliatory
measures now in progress, and a longer and more intimate intercourse with
the Christians, as the only legitimate means for accomplishing their
object. Accordingly, we find the various public ordinances, as low down as
1499, recognizing this principle, by the respect which they show for the
most trivial usages of the Moors, [11] and by their sanctioning no other
stimulant to conversion than the amelioration of their condition. [12]
Among those in favor of more active measures was Ximenes, archbishop of
Toledo. Having followed the court to Granada in the autumn of 1499, he
took the occasion to communicate his views to Talavera, the archbishop,
requesting leave at the same time to participate with him in his labor of
love; to which the latter, willing to strengthen himself by so efficient
an ally, modestly assented. Ferdinand and Isabella soon after removed to
Seville; but, before their departure, enjoined on the prelates to observe
the temperate policy hitherto pursued, and to beware of giving any
occasion for discontent to the Moors. [13]

No sooner had the sovereigns left the city, than Ximenes invited some of
the leading _alfaquies_, or Mussulman doctors, to a conference, in
which he expounded, with all the eloquence at his command, the true
foundations of the Christian faith, and the errors of their own; and, that
his teaching might be the more palatable, enforced it by liberal presents,
consisting mostly of rich and costly articles of dress, of which the Moors
were at all times exceedingly fond. This policy he pursued for some time,
till the effect became visible. Whether the preaching or presents of the
archbishop had most weight, does not appear. [14] It is probable, however,
that the Moorish doctors found conversion a much more pleasant and
profitable business than they had anticipated; for they one after another
declared their conviction of their errors, and their willingness to
receive baptism. The example of these learned persons was soon followed by
great numbers of their illiterate disciples, insomuch that no less than
four thousand are said to have presented themselves in one day for
baptism; and Ximenes, unable to administer the rite to each individually,
was obliged to adopt the expedient familiar to the Christian missionaries,
of christening them _en masse_ by aspersion; scattering the consecrated
drops from a mop, or hyssop, as it was called, which he twirled over the
heads of the multitude. [15]

So far all went on prosperously; and the eloquence and largesses of the
archbishop, which latter he lavished so freely as to encumber his revenues
for several years to come, brought crowds of proselytes to the Christian
fold. [16] There were  some, indeed, among the Mahometans, who regarded
these proceedings as repugnant, if not to the letter, at least to the
spirit of the original treaty of capitulation; which seemed intended to
provide, not only against the employment of force, but of any undue
incentive to conversion. [17] Several of the more sturdy, including some
of the principal citizens, exerted their efforts to stay the tide of
defection, which threatened soon to swallow up the whole population of the
city. But Ximenes, whose zeal had mounted up to fever heat in the
excitement of success, was not to be cooled by any opposition, however
formidable; and if he had hitherto respected the letter of the treaty, he
now showed himself to be prepared to trample on letter and spirit
indifferently, when they crossed his designs.

Among those most active in the opposition was a noble Moor named Zegri,
well skilled in the learning of his countrymen, with whom he had great
consideration. Ximenes having exhausted all his usual artillery of
arguments and presents on this obdurate infidel, had him taken into
custody by one of his officers named Leon, "a lion," says a punning
historian, "by nature as well as by name," [18] and commanded the latter
to take such measures with his prisoner, as would clear the film from his
eyes. This faithful functionary executed his orders so effectually, that,
after a few days of fasting, fetters, and imprisonment, he was able to
present his charge to his employer, penitent to all outward appearance,
and with an humble mien strongly contreating with his former proud and
lofty bearing. After the most respectful obeisance to the archbishop,
Zegri informed him, that "on the preceding night he had had a revelation
from Allah, who had condescended to show him the error of his ways, and
commanded him to receive instant baptism;" at the same time, pointing to
his jailer, he "jocularly" remarked, "Your reverence has only to turn this
lion of yours loose among the people, and my word for it, there will not
be a Mussulman left many days within the walls of Granada." [19] "Thus,"
exclaims the devout Ferreras, "did Providence avail itself of the darkness
of the dungeon to pour on the benighted minds of the infidel the light of
the true faith!" [20]

The work of proselytism now went on apace; for terror was added to the
other stimulants. The zealous propagandist, in the mean while, flushed
with success, resolved not only to exterminate infidelity, but the very
characters in which its teachings were recorded. He accordingly caused all
the Arabic manuscripts which he could procure to be heaped together in a
common pile in one of the great squares of the city. The largest part were
copies of the Koran, or works in some way or other connected with
theology; with many others, however, on various scientific subjects. They
were beautifully executed, for the most part, as to their chirography, and
sumptuously bound and decorated; for, in all relating to the mechanical
finishing, the Spanish Arabs excelled every people in Europe. But neither
splendor of outward garniture, nor intrinsic merit of composition, could
atone for the taint of heresy in the eye of the stern inquisitor; he
reserved for his university of Alcalá three hundred works, indeed,
relating to medical science, in which the Moors were as pre-eminent in
that day as the Europeans were deficient; but all the rest, amounting to
many thousands, [21] he consigned to indiscriminate conflagration. [22]

This melancholy _auto da fe_, it will be recollected, was celebrated,
not by an unlettered barbarian, but by a cultivated prelate, who was at
that very time actively employing his large revenues in the publication of
the most stupendous literary work of the age, and in the endowment of the
most learned university in Spain. [23] It took place, not in the darkness
of the Middle Ages, but in the dawn of the sixteenth century, and in the
midst of an enlightened nation, deeply indebted for its own progress to
these very stores of Arabian wisdom. It forms a counterpart to the imputed
sacrilege of Omar, [24] eight centuries before, and shows that bigotry is
the same in every faith and every age.

The mischief occasioned by this act, far from being limited to the
immediate loss, continued to be felt still more severely in its
consequences. Such as could, secreted the manuscripts in their possession
till an opportunity occurred for conveying them out of the country; and
many thousands in this way were privately shipped over to Barbary. [25]
Thus Arabian literature became rare in the libraries of the very country
to which it was indigenous; the Arabic scholarship, once so flourishing in
Spain, and that too in far less polished ages, gradually fell into decay
from want of aliment to sustain it. Such were the melancholy results of
this literary persecution; more mischievous, in one view, than even that
directed against life; for the loss of an individual will scarcely be felt
beyond his own generation, while the annihilation of a valuable work, or,
in other words, of mind itself embodied in a permanent form, is a loss to
all future time.

The high hand with which Ximenes now carried measures, excited serious
alarm in many of the more discreet and temperate Castilians in the city.
They besought him to use greater forbearance, remonstrating against his
obvious violations of the treaty, as well as against the expediency of
forced conversions, which could not, in the nature of things, be lasting.
But the pertinacious prelate only replied, that, "A tamer policy might,
indeed, suit temporal matters, but not those in which the interests of the
soul were at stake; that the unbeliever, if he could not be drawn, should
be driven, into the way of salvation; and that it was no time to stay the
hand, when the ruins of Mahometanism were tottering to their foundations."
He accordingly went on with unflinching resolution. [26]

But the patience of the Moors themselves, which had held out so
marvellously under this system of oppression, began now to be exhausted.
Many signs of this might be discerned by much less acute optics than those
of the archbishop; but his were blinded by the arrogance of success. At
length, in this inflammable state of public feeling, an incident occurred
which led to a general explosion.

Three of Ximenes's servants were sent on some business to the Albayein, a
quarter inhabited exclusively by Moors, and encompassed by walls which
separated it from the rest of the city. [27] These men had made themselves
peculiarly odious to the people by their activity in their master's
service. A dispute, having arisen between them and some inhabitants of the
quarter, came at last to blows, when two of the servants were massacred on
the spot, and their comrade escaped with difficulty from the infuriated
mob. [28] The affair operated as the signal for insurrection. The
inhabitants of the district ran to arms, got possession of the gates,
barricaded the streets, and in a few hours the whole Albayein was in
rebellion. [29]

In the course of the following night, a large number of the enraged
populace made their way into the city to the quarters of Ximenes, with the
purpose of taking summary vengeance on his head for all his persecutions.
Fortunately, his palace was strong, and defended by numerous resolute and
well-armed attendants. The latter, at the approach of the rioters,
implored their master to make his escape, if possible, to the fortress of
the Alhambra, where the count of Tendilla was established. But the
intrepid prelate, who held life too cheap to be a coward, exclaimed, "God
forbid I should think of my own safety, when so many of the faithful are
perilling theirs! No, I will stand to my post and wait there, if Heaven
wills it, the crown of martyrdom." [30] It must be confessed he well
deserved it.

The building, however, proved too strong for the utmost efforts of the
mob; and, at length, after some hours of awful suspense and agitation to
the beleaguered inmates, the count of Tendilla arrived in person at the
head of his guards, and succeeded in dispersing the insurgents, and
driving them back to their own quarters. But no exertions could restore
order to the tumultuous populace, or induce them to listen to terms; and
they even stoned the messenger charged with pacific proposals from the
count of Tendilla. They organized themselves under leaders, provided arms,
and took every possible means for maintaining their defence. It seemed as
if, smitten with the recollections of ancient liberty, they were resolved
to recover it again at all hazards. [31]  At length, after this disorderly
state of things had lasted for several days, Talavera, the archbishop of
Granada, resolved to try the effect of his personal influence, hitherto so
great with the Moors, by visiting himself the disaffected quarter. This
noble purpose he put in execution, in spite of the most earnest
remonstrances of his friends. He was attended only by his chaplain,
bearing the crucifix before him, and a few of his domestics, on foot and
unarmed like himself. At the site of their venerable pastor, with his
countenance beaming with the same serene and benign expression with which
they were familiar when listening to his exhortations from the pulpit, the
passions of the multitude were stilled. Every one seemed willing to
abandon himself to the tender recollections of the past; and the simple
people crowded around the good man, kneeling down and kissing the hem of
his robe, as if to implore his benediction. The count of Tendilla no
sooner learned the issue, than he followed into the Albayein, attended by
a handful of soldiers. When he had reached the place where the mob was
gathered, he threw his bonnet into the midst of them, in token of his
pacific intentions. The action was received with acclamations, and the
people, whose feelings had now taken another direction, recalled by his
presence to the recollection of his uniformly mild and equitable rule,
treated him with similar respect to that shown the archbishop of Granada.
[32]

These two individuals took advantage of this favorable change of feeling
to expostulate with the Moors on the folly and desperation of their
conduct, which must involve them in a struggle with such overwhelming odds
as that of the whole Spanish monarchy. They implored them to lay down
their arms and return to their duty, in which event they pledged
themselves, as far as in their power, to allow no further repetition of
the grievances complained of, and to intercede for their pardon with the
sovereigns. The count testified his sincerity, by leaving his wife and two
children as hostages in the heart of the Albayein; an act which must be
admitted to imply unbounded confidence in the integrity of the Moors. [33]
These various measures, backed, moreover, by the counsels and authority of
some of the chief alfaquis, had the effect to restore tranquillity among
the people, who, laying aside their hostile preparations, returned once
more to their regular employments. [34]

The rumor of the insurrection, in the mean while, with the usual
exaggeration, reached Seville, where the court was then residing. In one
respect rumor did justice, by imputing the whole blame of the affair to
the intemperate zeal of Ximenes. That personage, with his usual
promptness, had sent early notice of the affair to the queen by a negro
slave uncommonly fleet of foot. But the fellow had become intoxicated by
the way, and the court were several days without any more authentic
tidings than general report. The king, who always regarded Ximenes's
elevation to the primacy, to the prejudice, as the reader may remember, of
his own son, with dissatisfaction, could not now restrain his indignation,
but was heard to exclaim tauntingly to the queen, "So we are like to pay
dear for your archbishop, whose rashness has lost us in a few hours what
we have been years in acquiring." [35]

The queen, confounded at the tidings, and unable to comprehend the silence
of Ximenes, instantly wrote to him in the severest terms, demanding an
explanation of the whole proceeding. The archbishop saw his error in
committing affairs of moment to such hands as those of his sable
messenger; and the lesson stood him in good stead, according to his
moralizing biographer, for the remainder of his life. [36] He hastened to
repair his fault by proceeding to Seville in person, and presenting
himself before the sovereigns. He detailed to them the history of all the
past transactions; recapitulated his manifold services, the arguments and
exhortations he had used, the large sums he had expended, and his various
expedients, in short, for effecting conversion, before resorting to
severity. He boldly assumed the responsibility of the whole proceeding,
acknowledging that he had purposely avoided communicating his plans to the
sovereigns for fear of opposition. If he had erred, he said, it could be
imputed to no other motive, at worst, than too great zeal for the
interests of religion; but he concluded with assuring them, that the
present position of affairs was the best possible for their purposes,
since the late conduct of the Moors involved them in the guilt, and
consequently all the penalties of treason, and that it would be an act of
clemency to offer pardon on the alternatives of conversion or exile! [37]

The archbishop's discourse, if we are to credit his enthusiastic
biographer, not only dispelled the clouds of royal indignation, but drew
forth the most emphatic expressions of approbation. [38] How far Ferdinand
and Isabella were moved to this by his final recommendation, or what, in
clerical language, may be called the "improvement of his discourse," does
not appear. They did not at any rate adopt it in its literal extent. In
due time, however, commissioners were sent to Granada, fully authorized to
inquire into the late disturbances and punish their guilty authors. In the
course of the investigation, many, including some of the principal
citizens, were imprisoned on suspicion. The greater part made their peace
by embracing Christianity. Many others sold their estates and migrated to
Barbary; and the remainder of the population, whether from fear of
punishment, or contagion of example, abjured their ancient superstition
and consented to receive baptism. The whole number of converts was
estimated at about fifty thousand, whose future relapses promised an
almost inexhaustible supply for the fiery labors of the Inquisition. From
this period the name of Moors, which had gradually superseded the
primitive one of Spanish Arabs, gave way to the title of Moriscoes, by
which this unfortunate people continued to be known through the remainder
of their protracted existence in the Peninsula. [39]

The circumstances, under which this important revolution in religion was
effected in the whole population of this great city, will excite only
feelings of disgust at the present day, mingled, indeed, with compassion
for the unhappy beings, who so heedlessly incurred the heavy liabilities
attached to their new faith. Every Spaniard, doubtless, anticipated the
political advantages likely to result from a measure, which divested the
Moors of the peculiar immunities secured by the treaty of capitulation,
and subjected them at once to the law of the land. It is equally certain,
however, that they attached great value in a spiritual view to the mere
show of conversion, placing implicit confidence in the purifying influence
of the waters of baptism, to whomever and under whatever circumstances
administered. Even the philosophic Martyr, as little tinctured with
bigotry as any of the time, testifies his joy at the conversion, on the
ground, that, although it might not penetrate beneath the crust of
infidelity, which had formed over the mind of the older and of course
inveterate Mussulman, yet it would have full effect on his posterity,
subjected from the cradle to the searching operation of Christian
discipline. [40]

With regard to Ximenes, the real author of the work, whatever doubts were
entertained of his discretion, in the outset, they were completely
dispelled by the results. All concurred in admiring the invincible energy
of the man, who, in the face of such mighty obstacles, had so speedily
effected this momentous revolution in the faith of a people, bred from
childhood in the deadliest hostility to Christianity; [41] and the good
archbishop Talavera was heard in the fulness of his heart to exclaim, that
"Ximenes had achieved greater triumphs than even Ferdinand and Isabella;
since they had conquered only the soil, while he had gained the souls of
Granada!" [42]


FOOTNOTES

[1] "Hombre," says his son, the historian, of him, "de prudencia en
negocios graves, de animo firme, asegurado con luenga experiencia de
rencuentros i battallas ganadas." (Guerra de Granada, lib. 1, p. 9.)
Oviedo dwells with sufficient amplification on the personal history and
merits of this distinguished individual, in his garrulous reminiscences.
Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 28.

[2] Oviedo, at least, can find no better pedigree for him, than that of
Adam. "Quanto á su linage él fué del linage de todos los humanos ó de
aquel barro y subcesion de Adan." (Quincuagenas, MS. dial. de Talavera.)
It is a very hard case, when a Castilian cannot make out a better
genealogy for his hero.

[3] Pedraza, Antiguedad de Granada, lib. 3, cap. 10.--Marmol, Rebelion de
Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 21. Talavera's correspondence with the queen,
published in various works, but most correctly, probably, in the sixth
volume of the Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., (Ilust. 13,) is not calculated to
raise his reputation. His letters are little else than homilies on the
love of company, dancing, and the like heinous offences. The whole savors
more of the sharp twang of Puritanism than that of the Roman Catholic
school. But bigotry is neutral ground, on which the most opposite sects
may meet.

[4] Pedraza, Antiguedad de Granada, lib. 3, cap. 10.--Marmol, lib. 1, cap.
21.

Equivalent to 56,000 dollars of the present day; a sum which Pedraza makes
do quite as hard duty, according to its magnitude, as the 500 pounds of
Pope's Man of Ross.

[5] Pedraza, ubi supra.--Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., dial. de Talavera.

The worthy archbishop's benefactions on some occasions were of rather an
extraordinary character. "Pidiendole limosna," says Pedraza, "Una muger
que no tenia camisa, se entró en una casa, y se desnudó la suya y se la
dio; diziendo con san Pedro, No tengo oro ni plata que darte, doyte lo que
tengo." Antiguedad de  Granada, lib. 3, cap. 10.

[6] Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 21.--Pedraza, Antiguedad de
Granada, ubi supra.

[7] Fléchier, Hist. de Ximenes, p. 17.--Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 2,
cap. 2.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 32.--Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.

These tracts were published at Granada, in 1505, in the European
character, being the first books ever printed in the Arabic language,
according to Dr. M'Crie, (Reformation in Spain, p. 70,) who cites
Schnurrer, Bibl. Arabica, pp. 16-18.

[8] Bleda, Corónica, lib. 5, cap. 23.--Pedraza, Antiguedad de Granada,
lib. 3, cap. 10.--Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 21.--Gomez,
De Rebus Gestis, fol. 29.--"Hacia lo que predicaba, é predicó lo que
hizo," says Oviedo of the archbishop, briefly, "é así fué mucho provechoso
é util en aquella ciudad para la conversion de los Moros." Quincuagenas,
MS.

[9] Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 23.

[10] Ibid., ubi supra.

[11] In the _pragmática_ dated Granada, October 30th, 1499, prohibiting
silk apparel of any description, an exception was made in favor of the
Moors, whose robes were usually of that material, among the wealthier
classes. Pragmáticas del Reyno, fol. 120.

[12] Another law, October 31st, 1499, provided against the disinheritance
of Moorish children who had embraced Christianity, and secured, moreover,
to the female converts a portion of the property which had fallen to the
state on the conquest of Granada. (Pragmáticas del Reyno, fol. 5.)--
Llorente has reported this pragmatic with some inaccuracy. Hist. de
l'Inquisition, tom. i. p. 334.

[13] Bleda, Corónica, lib. 5, cap. 23.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 29.--
Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 2, p. 54.--Suma de la Vida de Cisneros, MS.
Ferdinand and Isabella, according to Ferreras, took counsel of sundry
learned theologians and jurists, whether they could lawfully compel the
Mahometans to become Christians, notwithstanding the treaty, which
guaranteed to them the exercise of their religion. After repeated
conferences of this erudite body, "il fut decidé," says the historian,
"qu'on solliciteroit la conversion des Mahometans de la Ville et du
Royaume de Grenade, en ordonnant à ceux qui ne voudroient pas embrasser la
religion Chrétienne, de vendre leurs biens et de sortir du royaume."
(Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii. p. 194.) Such was the idea of solicitation
entertained by these reverend casuists! The story, however, wants a better
voucher than Ferreras.

[14] The  honest Robles appears to be of the latter opinion. "Alfin," says
he, with _naïveté_, "con halagos, dadivas, y caricias, los truxo a
conocimiento del verdadero Dios." Vida de Ximenez, p. 100.

[15] Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 14.--Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib.
1, cap. 24.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 29.--Suma de la Vida de
Cisneros, MS.

[16] Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 14.--Quintanilla, Archetypo, fol. 55.--
The sound of bells, so unusual to Mahometan ears, pealing day and night
from the newly consecrated mosques, gained Ximenes the appellation of
_alfaqui campanero_ from the Granadines. Suma de la Vida de Cisneros,
MS.

[17] Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 25.

Take for example the following provisions in the treaty. "Que si algun
Moro tuviere alguna renegada por muger, no será apremiada á ser Christiana
contra su voluntad, sino que será interrogada, en presencia de Christianos
y de Moros, y se siguirá su voluntad; y lo mesmo se entenderá con los
niños y niñas nacidos de Christiana y Moro. Que ningun Moro ni Mora serán
apremiados á ser Christianos contra su voluntad; y que si alguna doncella,
ó casada, ó viuda, por razon de algunos amores se quisiere tornar
Christiana, tampoco será recebida, hasta ser interrogada." The whole
treaty is given in _extenso_ by Marmol, and by no other author that I
have seen.

[18] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, lib. 1, fol. 29.

[19] Robles, Rebelion de Moriscos, cap. 14.--Suma de la Vida de Cisneros,
MS.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 30.--Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib.
1, cap. 25.

Zegri assumed the baptismal name of the Great Captain, Gonzalo Hernandez,
whose prowess he had experienced in a personal rencontre in the vega of
Granada. Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, ubi supra.--Suma de la Vida de
Cisneros, MS.

[20] Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii. p. 195.

[21] According to Robles, (Rebelion de Moriscos, p. 104,) and the Suma de
la Vida de Cisneros, 1,005,000; to Conde, (El Nubiense, Descripcion
d'España, p. 4, note,) 80,000; to Gomez and others, 5000. There are
scarcely any data for arriving at probability in this monstrous
discrepancy. The famous library of the Ommeyades at Cordova was said to
contain 600,000 volumes. It had long since been dissipated; and no similar
collection had been attempted in Granada, where learning was never in that
palmy state which it reached under the Cordovan dynasty. Still, however,
learned men were to be found there, and the Moorish metropolis would
naturally be the depository of such literary treasures as had escaped the
general shipwreck of time and accident. On the whole, the estimate of
Gomez would appear much too small, and that of Robles as
disproportionately exaggerated. Conde, better instructed in Arabic lore
than any of his predecessors, may be found, perhaps, here, as elsewhere,
the best authority.

[22] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, lib. 2, fol. 30.--Marmol, Rebelion de
Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 25.--Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 14.--Suma de la
Vida de Cisneros, MS.--Quintanilla, Archetypo, p. 58.

[23] Yet the archbishop might find some countenance for his fanaticism in
the most polite capital of Europe. The faculty of Theology in Paris, some
few years later, declared "que c'en était fait de la religion, si on
permettait l'etude du Grec et de l'Hebreu!" Villers, Essai sur l'Esprit et
l'Influence de la Réformation de Luther, (Paris, 1820,) p. 64, note.

[24] Gibbon's argument, if it does not shake the foundations of the whole
story of the Alexandrian conflagration, may at least raise a natural
skepticism as to the pretended amount and value of the works destroyed.

[25] The learned Granadine, Leo Africanus, who emigrated to Fez after the
fall of the capital, notices a single collection of 3000 manuscripts
belonging to an individual, which he saw in Algiers, whither they had been
secretly brought by the Moriscoes from Spain.--Conde, Dominacion de los
Arabes, prólogo.--Casiri, Bibliotheca Escurialensis, tom. i. p. 172.

[26] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 30.--Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, rey 30,
cap. 10.

[27] Casiri, Bibliotheca Escurialensis, tom. ii. p. 281.--Pedraza,
Antiguedad de Granada, lib. 3, cap. 10.

[28] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 31. There are some discrepancies, not
important, however, between the narrative of Gomez and the other
authorities. Gomez, considering his uncommon opportunities of information,
is worth them all.

[29] Suma de la Vida de Cisneros, MS.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, lib. 2,
fol. 31.--Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 26.

[30] Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 14.--Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii.
lib. 27, cap. 5.--Quintanilla, Archetype, p. 56.--Peter Martyr, Opus
Epist., epist. 212.

[31] Mariana, Hist. de España, ubi supra.--Bleda, Corónica, lib. 5, cap.
23.--Mendoza, Guerra de Granada, p. 11.

[32] Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 25.--Peter Martyr, Opus
Epist., epist. 212.--Quintanilla, Archetype, p. 56.--Bleda, Corónica, ubi
supra.

[33] Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, loc cit.--Mendoza, Guerra de Granada,
lib. 1, p. 11. That such confidence was justified, may be inferred from a
common saying of Archbishop Talavera, "That Moorish works and Spanish
faith were all that were wanting to make a good Christian." A bitter
sarcasm this on his own countrymen! Pedraza, Antiguedad de Granada, lib.
3, cap. 10.

[34] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 212.--Bleda, Corónica, loc. cit.--
Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, ubi supra.

[35] Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 27, cap. 5.--Robles, Vida de
Ximenez, 14.--Suma de la Vida de Cisneros, MS.

[36] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 32.--Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 14.

[37] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, ubi supra.

[38] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 33.--Suma de la Vida de Cisneros, MS.

[39] Bleda, Corónica, lib. 5, cap. 23.--Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii.
lib. 27, cap. 5.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 215.--Marmol, Rebelion
de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 27.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, lib. 2, fol. 32.--
Lanuza, Historias, tom. i. lib. 1, cap. 11.--Carbajal, Anales, MS., año
1500.--Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 159.--The last author carries
the number of converts in Granada and its _environs_ to 70,000.

[40] "Tu vero inquies," he says, in a letter to the cardinal of Santa
Cruz, "hisdem in snum Mahometem vivent animis, atque id jure merito
suspicandum est. Durum namque majorum institute relinquere; attamen ego
existimo, consultum optime fuisse ipsorum admittere postulata: paulatim
namque nova superveniente disciplina, juvenun saltem et infantum atque eo
tutius nepotum, inanibus illis superstitionibus abrasis, novis imbuentur
ritibus. De senescentibus, qui callosis animis induruerunt, haud ego
quidem id futurum inficior." Opus Epist., epist. 215.--Also, Carta de
Gonzalo, MS.

[41] "Magnae deinceps," says Gomez, "apud omnes veneration! Ximenius esse
cospit.--Porro plus mentis acie videre quam solent homines credebatur,
qufid re ancipiti, neque plane confirmata, barbara civitate adhoc suum
Mahumetum spirante, tanza animi contentione, ut Christi doctrinam
amplecterentur, laboraverat et effecerat." (De Rebus Gestis, fol. 33.) The
panegyric of the Spaniard is endorsed by Fléchier, (Histoire de Ximenes,
p. 119,) who, in the age of Louis XIV., displays all the bigotry of that
of Ferdinand and Isabella.

[42] Talavera, as I have already noticed, had caused the offices,
catechisms, and other religious exercises to be translated into Arabic for
the use of the converts; proposing to extend the translation at some
future time to the great body of the Scriptures. That time had now
arrived, but Ximenes vehemently remonstrated against the measure. "It
would be throwing pearls before swine," said he, "to open the Scriptures
to persons in their low state of ignorance, who could not fail, as St.
Paul says, to wrest them to their own destruction. The word of God should
be wrapped in discreet mystery from the vulgar, who feel little reverence
for what is plain and obvious. It was for this reason, that our Saviour
himself clothed his doctrines in parables, when he addressed the people.
The Scriptures should be confined to the three ancient languages, which
God with mystic import permitted to be inscribed over the head of his
crucified Son; and the vernacular should be reserved for such devotional
and moral treatises, as holy men indite, in order to quicken the soul, and
turn it from the pursuit of worldly vanities to heavenly contemplation."
De Rebus Gestis, fol. 32, 33.

The narrowest opinion, as usual, prevailed, and Talavera abandoned his
wise and benevolent purpose. The sagacious arguments of the primate lead
his biographer, Gomez, to conclude, that he had a prophetic knowledge of
the coming heresy of Luther, which owed so much of its success to the
vernacular versions of the Scriptures; in which probable opinion he is
faithfully echoed, as usual, by the good bishop of Nismes. Fléchier, Hist.
de Ximenés, pp. 117-119.




CHAPTER VII.

RISING IN THE ALPUXARRAS.--DEATH OF ALONSO DE AGUILAR.--EDICT AGAINST THE
MOORS.

1500-1502.

Rising in the Alpuxarras.--Expedition to the Sierra Vermeja.--Alonso de
Aguilar.--His Noble Character, and Death.--Bloody Rout of the Spaniards.--
Final Submission to Ferdinand.--Cruel Policy of the Victors.--
Commemorative Ballads.--Edict against the Moors,--Causes of Intolerance.--
Last Notice of the Moors under the Present Reign.


While affairs went forward so triumphantly in the capital of Granada, they
excited general discontent in other parts of that kingdom, especially the
wild regions of the Alpuxarras. This range of maritime Alps, which
stretches to the distance of seventeen leagues in a southeasterly
direction from the Moorish capital, sending out its sierras like so many
broad arms towards the Mediterranean, was thickly sprinkled with Moorish
villages, cresting the bald summits of the mountains, or checkering the
green slopes and valleys which lay between them. Its simple inhabitants,
locked up within the lonely recesses of their hills, and accustomed to a
life of penury and toil, had escaped the corruptions as well as
refinements of civilization. In ancient times they had afforded a hardy
militia for the princes of Granada; and they now exhibited an unshaken
attachment to their ancient institutions and religion, which had been
somewhat effaced in the great cities by more intimate intercourse with the
Europeans. [1]

These warlike mountaineers beheld with gathering resentment the faithless
conduct pursued towards their countrymen, which, they had good reason to
fear, would soon be extended to themselves; and their fiery passions were
inflamed to an ungovernable height by the public apostasy of Granada. They
at length resolved to anticipate any similar attempt on themselves by a
general insurrection. They accordingly seized on the fortresses and strong
passes throughout the country, and began as usual with forays into the
lands of the Christians.

These bold acts excited much alarm in the capital, and the count of
Tendilla took vigorous measures for quenching the rebellion in its birth.
Gonsalvo de Cordova, his early pupil, but who might now well be his master
in the art of war, was at that time residing in Granada; and Tendilla
availed himself of his assistance to enforce a hasty muster of levies, and
march at once against the enemy.

His first movement was against Huejar, a fortified town situated in one of
the eastern ranges of the Alpuxarras, whose inhabitants had taken the lead
in the insurrection. The enterprise was attended with more difficulty than
was expected. "God's enemies," to borrow the charitable epithet of the
Castilian chroniclers, had ploughed up the lands in the neighborhood; and,
as the light cavalry of the Spaniards was working its way through the deep
furrows, the Moors opened the canals which intersected the fields, and in
a moment the horses were floundering up to their girths in the mire and
water. Thus embarrassed in their progress, the Spaniards presented a fatal
mark to the Moorish missiles, which rained on them with pitiless fury; and
it was not without great efforts and considerable loss, that they gained a
firm landing on the opposite side. Undismayed, however, they then charged
the enemy with such vivacity, as compelled him to give way and take refuge
within the defences of the town.

No impediment could now check the ardor of the assailants. They threw
themselves from their horses, and, bringing forward the scaling-ladders,
planted them against the walls. Gonsalvo was the first to gain the summit;
and, as a powerful Moor endeavored to thrust him from the topmost round of
the ladder, he grasped the battlements firmly with his left hand and dealt
the infidel such a blow with the sword in his right, as brought him
headlong to the ground. He then leapt into the place, and was speedily
followed by his troops. The enemy made a brief and ineffectual resistance.
The greater part were put to the sword; the remainder, including the women
and children, were made slaves, and the town was delivered up to pillage.
[2]

The severity of this military execution had not the effect of intimidating
the insurgents; and the revolt wore so serious an aspect, that King
Ferdinand found it necessary to take the field in person, which he did at
the head of as complete and beautiful a body of Castilian chivalry as ever
graced the campaigns of Granada. [3] Quitting Alhendin, the place of
rendezvous, in the latter end of February, 1500, he directed his march on
Lanjaron, one of the towns most active in the revolt, and perched high
among the inaccessible fastnesses of the sierra, southeast of Granada.

The inhabitants, trusting to the natural strength of a situation, which
had once baffled the arms of the bold Moorish chief El Zagal, took no
precautions to secure the passes. Ferdinand, relying on this, avoided the
more direct avenue to the place; and, bringing his men by a circuitous
route over dangerous ravines and dark and dizzy precipices, where the foot
of the hunter had seldom ventured, succeeded at length, after incredible
toil and hazard, in reaching an elevated point, which entirely commanded
the Moorish fortress.

Great was the dismay of the insurgents at the apparition of the Christian
banners, streaming in triumph in the upper air, from the very pinnacles of
the sierra. They stoutly persisted, however, in the refusal to surrender.
But their works were too feeble to stand the assault of men, who had
vanquished the more formidable obstacles of nature; and, after a short
struggle, the place was carried by storm, and its wretched inmates
experienced the same dreadful fate with those of Huejar. [4]

At nearly the same time, the count of Lerin took several other fortified
places in the Alpuxarras, in one of which he blew up a mosque filled with
women and children. Hostilities were carried on with all the ferocity of a
civil, or rather servile war; and the Spaniards, repudiating all the
feelings of courtesy and generosity, which they had once shown to the same
men, when dealing with them as honorable enemies, now regarded them only
as rebellious vassals, or indeed slaves, whom the public safety required
to be not merely chastised, but exterminated.

These severities, added to the conviction of their own impotence, at
length broke the spirit of the Moors, who were reduced to the most humble
concessions; and the Catholic king, "unwilling out of his great clemency,"
says Abarca, "to stain his sword with the blood of all these wild beasts
of the Alpuxarras," consented to terms, which may be deemed reasonable, at
least in comparison with his previous policy. These were, the surrender of
their arms and fortresses and the payment of the round sum of fifty
thousand ducats. [5]

As soon as tranquillity was re-established, measures were taken for
securing it permanently, by introducing Christianity among the natives,
without which they never could remain well affected to their present
government. Holy men were therefore sent as missionaries, to admonish
them, calmly and without violence, of their errors, and to instruct them
in the great truths of revelation. [6] Various immunities were also
proposed, as an additional incentive to conversion, including an entire
exemption to the party from the payment of his share of the heavy mulct
lately imposed. [7] The wisdom of these temperate measures became every
day more visible in the conversion, not merely of the simple mountaineers,
but of nearly all the population of the great cities of Baza, Guadix, and
Almeria, who consented before the end of the year to abjure their ancient
religion, and receive baptism. [8]

This defection, however, caused great scandal among the more sturdy of
their countrymen, and a new insurrection broke out on the eastern confines
of the Alpuxarras, which was suppressed with similar circumstances of
stern severity,. and a similar exaction of a heavy sum of money;--money,
whose doubtful efficacy may be discerned, sometimes in staying, but more
frequently in stimulating, the arm of persecution. [9]

But while the murmurs of rebellion died away in the east, they were heard
in thunders from the distant hills on the western borders of Granada. This
district, comprehending the sierras Vermeja and Villa Luenga, in the
neighborhood of Ronda, was peopled by a warlike race, among whom was the
African tribe of Gandules, whose blood boiled with the same tropical
fervor as that which glowed in the veins of their ancestors. They had
early shown symptoms of discontent at the late proceedings in the capital.
The duchess of Arcos, widow of the great marquis duke of Cadiz, whose
estates lay in that quarter, [10] used her personal exertions to appease
them; and the government made the most earnest assurances of its intention
to respect whatever had been guaranteed by the treaty of capitulation.
[11] But they had learned to place little trust in princes; and the
rapidly extending apostasy of their countrymen exasperated them to such a
degree, that they at length broke out in the most atrocious acts of
violence; murdering the Christian missionaries, and kidnapping, if report
be true, many Spaniards of both sexes, whom they sold as slaves in Africa.
They were accused, with far more probability, of entering into a secret
correspondence with their brethren on the opposite shore, in order to
secure their support in the meditated revolt. [12]

The government displayed its usual promptness and energy on this occasion.
Orders were issued to the principal chiefs and cities of Andalusia, to
muster their forces with all possible despatch, and concentrate them on
Ronda.

The summons was obeyed with such alacrity, that, in the course of a very
few weeks, the streets of that busy city were thronged with a shining
array of warriors drawn from all the principal towns of Andalusia. Seville
sent three hundred horse and two thousand foot. The principal leaders of
the expedition were the count of Cifuentes, who, as assistant of Seville,
commanded the troops of that city; the count of Ureña, and Alonso de
Aguilar, elder brother of the Great Captain, and distinguished like him
for the highest qualities of mind and person.

It was determined by the chiefs to strike at once into the heart of the
Sierra Vermeja, or Red Sierra, as it was called from the color of its
rocks, rising to the east of Ronda, and the principal theatre of
insurrection. On the 18th of March, 1501, the little army encamped before
Monarda, on the skirts of a mountain, where the Moors were understood to
have assembled in considerable force. They had not been long in these
quarters before parties of the enemy were seen hovering along the slopes
of the mountain, from which the Christian camp was divided by a narrow
river,--the Rio Verde, probably, which has gained such mournful celebrity
in Spanish song. [13] Aguilar's troops, who occupied the van, were so much
roused by the sight of the enemy, that a small party, seizing a banner,
rushed across the stream without orders, in pursuit of them.

The odds, however, were so great, that they would have been severely
handled, had not Aguilar, while he bitterly condemned their temerity,
advanced promptly to their support with the remainder of his corps. The
count of Ureña followed with the central division, leaving the count of
Cifuentes with the troops of Seville to protect the camp. [14]

The Moors fell back as the Christians advanced, and, retreating nimbly
from point to point, led them up the rugged steeps far into the recesses
of the mountains. At length they reached an open level, encompassed on all
sides by a natural rampart of rocks, where they had deposited their
valuable effects, together with their wives and children. The latter, at
sight of the invaders, uttered dismal cries, and fled into the remoter
depths of the sierra.

The Christians were too much attracted by the rich spoil before them to
think of following, and dispersed in every direction in quest of plunder,
with all the heedlessness and insubordination of raw, inexperienced
levies. It was in vain, that Alonso de Aguilar reminded them, that their
wily enemy was still unconquered; or that he endeavored to force them into
the ranks again, and restore order. No one heeded his call, or thought of
anything beyond the present moment, and of securing as much booty to
himself as he could carry.

The Moors, in the mean while, finding themselves no longer pursued, were
aware of the occupation of the Christians, whom they not improbably had
purposely decoyed into the snare. They resolved to return to the scene of
action, and surprise their incautious enemy. Stealthily advancing,
therefore, under the shadows of night, now falling thick around, they
poured through the rocky defiles of the inclosure upon the astonished
Spaniards. An unlucky explosion, at this crisis, of a cask of powder, into
which a spark had accidentally fallen, threw a broad glare over the scene,
and revealed for a moment the situation of the hostile parties;--the
Spaniards in the utmost disorder, many of them without arms, and
staggering under the weight of their fatal booty; while their enemies were
seen gliding like so many demons of darkness through every crevice and
avenue of the inclosure, in the act of springing on their devoted victims.
This appalling spectacle, vanishing almost as soon as seen, and followed
by the hideous yells and war-cries of the assailants, struck a panic into
the hearts of the soldiers, who fled, scarcely offering any resistance.
The darkness of the night was as favorable to the Moors, familiar with all
the intricacies of the ground, as it was fatal to the Christians, who,
bewildered in the mazes of the sierra, and losing their footing at every
step, fell under the swords of their pursuers, or went down the dark gulfs
and precipices which yawned all around. [15]

Amidst this dreadful confusion, the count of Ureña succeeded in gaining a
lower level of the sierra, where he halted and endeavored to rally his
panic-struck followers. His noble comrade, Alonso de Aguilar, still
maintained his position on the heights above, refusing all entreaties of
his followers to attempt a retreat. "When," said he proudly, "was the
banner of Aguilar ever known to fly from the field?" His eldest son, the
heir of his house and honors, Don Pedro de Cordova, a youth of great
promise, fought at his side. He had received a severe wound on the head
from a stone, and a javelin had pierced quite through his leg. With one
knee resting on the ground, however, he still made a brave defence with
his sword. The sight was too much for the father, and he implored him to
suffer himself to be removed from the field. "Let not the hopes of our
house be crushed at a single blow," said he; "go, my son, live as becomes
a Christian knight,--live, and cherish your desolate mother." All his
entreaties were fruitless, however; and the gallant boy refused to leave
his father's side, till he was forcibly borne away by the attendants, who
fortunately succeeded in bringing him in safety to the station occupied by
the count of Ureña. [16]

Meantime the brave little band of cavaliers, who remained true to Aguilar,
had fallen one after another; and the chief, left almost alone, retreated
to a huge rock which rose in the middle of the plain, and, placing his
back against it, still made fight, though weakened by loss of blood, like
a lion at bay, against his enemies. [17] In this situation he was pressed
so hard by a Moor of uncommon size and strength, that he was compelled to
turn and close with him in single combat. The strife was long and
desperate, till Don Alonso, whose corselet had become unlaced in the
previous struggle, having--received a severe wound in the breast, followed
by another on the head, grappled closely with his adversary, and they came
rolling on the ground together. The Moor remained uppermost; but the
spirit of the Spanish cavalier had not sunk with his strength, and he
proudly exclaimed, as if to intimidate his enemy, "I am Don Alonso de
Aguilar;" to which the other rejoined, "And I am the Feri de Ben Estepar,"
a well-known name of terror to the Christians. The sound of this detested
name roused all the vengeance of the dying hero; and, grasping his foe in
mortal agony, he rallied his strength for a final blow; but it was too
late,-his hand failed, and he was soon despatched by the dagger of his
more vigorous rival. [18]

Thus fell Alonso Hernandez de Cordova, or Alonso de Aguilar, as he is
commonly called from the land where his family estates lay. [19] "He was
of the greatest authority among the grandees of his time," says Father
Abarca, "for his lineage, personal character, large domains, and the high
posts which he filled, both in peace and war. More than forty years of his
life he served against the infidel, under the banner of his house in
boyhood, and as leader of that same banner in later life, or as viceroy of
Andalusia and commander of the royal armies. He was the fifth lord of his
warlike and pious house who had fallen fighting for their country and
religion against the accursed sect of Mahomet. And there is good reason to
believe," continues the same orthodox authority, "that his soul has
received the glorious reward of the Christian soldier; since he was armed
on that very morning with the blessed sacraments of confession and
communion." [20]

The victorious Moors, all this time, were driving the unresisting
Spaniards, like so many terrified deer, down the dark steeps of the
sierra. The count of Ureña, who had seen his son stretched by his side,
and received a severe wound himself, made the most desperate efforts to
rally the fugitives, but was at length swept away by the torrent. Trusting
himself to a faithful adalid, who knew the passes, he succeeded with much
difficulty in reaching the foot of the mountain, with such a small remnant
of his followers as could keep in his track. [21] Fortunately, he there
found the count of Cifuentes, who had crossed the river with the
rearguard, and encamped on a rising ground in the neighborhood. Under
favor of this strong position, the latter commander and his brave
Sevillians, all fresh for action, were enabled to cover the shattered
remains of the Spaniards, and beat off the assaults of their enemies till
the break of morn, when they vanished like so many foul birds of night
into the recesses of the mountains.

The rising day, which dispersed their foes, now revealed to the Christians
the dreadful extent of their own losses. Few were to be seen of all that
proud array, which had marched up the heights so confidently under the
banners of their ill-fated chiefs the preceding evening. The bloody roll
of slaughter, besides the common file, was graced with the names of the
best and bravest of the Christian knighthood, Among the number was
Francisco Ramirez de Madrid, the distinguished engineer, who had
contributed so essentially to the success of the Granadine war. [22]

The sad tidings of the defeat soon spread throughout the country,
occasioning a sensation such as had not been felt since the tragic affair
of the Axarquia. Men could scarcely credit that so much mischief could be
inflicted by an outcast race, who, whatever terror they once inspired, had
long since been regarded with indifference or contempt. Every Spaniard
seemed to consider himself in some way or other involved in the disgrace;
and the most spirited exertions were made on all sides to retrieve it. By
the beginning of April, King Ferdinand found himself at Ronda, at the head
of a strong body of troops, which he determined to lead in person,
notwithstanding the remonstrances of his courtiers, into the heart of the
Sierra, and take bloody vengeance on the rebels.

These latter, however, far from being encouraged, were appalled by the
extent of their own success; and, as the note of warlike preparation
reached them in their fastnesses, they felt their temerity in thus
bringing the whole weight of the Castilian monarchy on their heads. They
accordingly abandoned all thoughts of further resistance, and lost no time
in sending deputies to the king's camp, to deprecate his anger, and sue in
the most submissive terms for pardon.

Ferdinand, though far from vindictive, was less open to pity than the
queen; and in the present instance he indulged in a full measure of the
indignation, with which sovereigns, naturally identifying themselves with
the state, are wont to regard rebellion, by viewing it in the aggravated
light of a personal offence. After some hesitation, however, his prudence
got the better of his passions, as he reflected that he was in a situation
to dictate the terms of victory, without paying the usual price for it.
His past experience seems to have convinced him of the hopelessness of
infusing sentiments of loyalty in a Mussulman towards a Christian prince;
for, while he granted a general amnesty to those concerned in the
insurrection, it was only on the alternative of baptism or exile, engaging
at the same time to provide conveyance for such as chose to leave the
country, on the payment of ten doblas of gold a head. [23.]

These engagements were punctually fulfilled. The Moorish emigrants were
transported in public galleys from Estepona to the Barbary coast. The
number, however, was probably small; by far the greater part being
obliged, however reluctantly, from want of funds, to remain and be
baptized. "They would never have stayed," says Bleda, "if they could have
mustered the ten doblas of gold; a circumstance," continues that
charitable writer, "which shows with what levity they received baptism,
and for what paltry considerations they could be guilty of such
sacrilegious hypocrisy!" [24]

But, although every spark of insurrection was thus effectually
extinguished, it was long, very long, before the Spanish nation could
recover from the blow, or forget the sad story of its disaster in the Red
Sierra. It became the theme, not only of chronicle, but of song; the note
of sorrow was prolonged in many a plaintive _romance_, and the names
of Aguilar and his unfortunate companions were embalmed in that beautiful
minstrelsy, scarcely less imperishable, and far more touching, than the
stately and elaborate records of history. [25] The popular feeling was
displayed after another fashion in regard to the count of Ureña and his
followers, who were accused of deserting their posts in the hour of peril;
and more than one ballad of the time reproachfully demanded an account
from him of the brave companions in arms whom he had left in the Sierra.
[26]

The imputation on this gallant nobleman appears wholly undeserved; for
certainly he was not called on to throw away his own life and those of his
brave followers, in a cause perfectly desperate, for a chimerical point of
honor. And, so far from forfeiting the favor of his sovereigns by his
conduct on this occasion, he was maintained by them in the same high
stations, which he before held, and which he continued to fill with
dignity to a good old age. [27]

It was about seventy years after this event, in 1570, that the duke of
Arcos, descended from the great marquis of Cadiz, and from this same count
of Ureña, led an expedition into the Sierra Vermeja, in order to suppress
a similar insurrection of the Moriscoes. Among the party were many of the
descendants and kinsmen of those who had fought under Aguilar. It was the
first time since that these rude passes had been trodden by Christian
feet; but the traditions of early childhood had made every inch of ground
familiar to the soldiers. Some way up the eminence, they recognized the
point at which the count of Ureña had made his stand; and further still,
the fatal plain, belted round with its dark rampart of rocks, where the
strife had been hottest. Scattered fragments of arms and harness still lay
rusting on the ground, which was covered with the bones of the warriors,
that had lain for more than half a century unburied and bleaching in the
sun. [28] Here was the spot on which the brave son of Aguilar had fought
so sturdily by his father's side; and there the huge rock, at whose foot
the chieftain had fallen, throwing its dark shadow over the remains of the
noble dead, who lay sleeping around. The strongly marked features of the
ground called up all the circumstances, which the soldiers had gathered
from tradition; their hearts beat high, as they recapitulated them one to
another; and the tears, says the eloquent historian who tells the story,
fell fast down their iron cheeks, as they gazed on the sad relics, and
offered up a soldier's prayer for the heroic souls which once animated
them. [29]

Tranquillity was now restored throughout the wide borders of Granada. The
banner of the Cross floated triumphantly over the whole extent of its wild
sierras, its broad valleys, and populous cities. Every Moor, in exterior
at least, had become a Christian. Every mosque had been converted into a
Christian church. Still the country was not entirely purified from the
stain of Islamism, since many professing their ancient faith were
scattered over different parts of the kingdom of Castile, where they had
been long resident before the surrender of their capital. The late events
seemed to have no other effect than to harden them in error; and the
Spanish government saw with alarm the pernicious influence of their
example and persuasion, in shaking the infirm faith of the new converts.

To obviate this, an ordinance was published, in the summer of 1501,
prohibiting all intercourse between these Moors and the orthodox kingdom
of Granada. [30] At length, however, convinced that there was no other way
to save the precious seed from being choked by the thorns of infidelity
than to eradicate them altogether, the sovereigns came to the
extraordinary resolution of offering them the alternative of baptism or
exile. They issued a pragmática to that effect from Seville, February
12th, 1502. After a preamble, duly setting forth the obligations of
gratitude on the Castilians to drive God's enemies from the land, which he
in his good time had delivered into their hands, and the numerous
backslidings occasioned among the new converts by their intercourse with
their unbaptized brethren, the act goes on to state, in much the same
terms with the famous ordinance against the Jews, that all the unbaptized
Moors in the kingdoms of Castile and Leon, above fourteen years of age if
males, and twelve if females, must leave the country by the end of April
following; that they might sell their property in the mean time, and take
the proceeds in anything save gold and silver and merchandise regularly
prohibited; and, finally, that they might emigrate to any foreign country,
except the dominions of the Grand Turk, and such parts of Africa as Spain
was then at war with. Obedience to these severe provisions was enforced by
the penalties of death and confiscation of property. [31]

This stern edict, so closely modelled on that against the Jews, must have
been even more grievous in its application. [32] For the Jews may be said
to have been denizens almost equally of every country; while the Moors,
excluded from a retreat among their countrymen on the African shore, were
sent into the lands of enemies or strangers. The former, moreover, were
far better qualified by their natural shrewdness and commercial habits for
disposing of their property advantageously, than the simple, inexperienced
Moors, skilled in little else than husbandry or rude mechanic arts. We
have nowhere met with any estimate of the number who migrated on this
occasion. The Castilian writers pass over the whole affair in a very few
words; not, indeed, as is too evident, from any feelings of
disapprobation, but from its insignificance in a political view. Their
silence implies a very inconsiderable amount of emigrants; a circumstance
not to-be wondered at, as there were very few, probably, who would not
sooner imitate their Granadine brethren, in assuming the mask of
Christianity, than encounter exile under all the aggravated miseries with
which it was accompanied. [33]

Castile might now boast, the first time for eight centuries, that every
outward stain, at least, of infidelity, was purified from her bosom. But
how had this been accomplished? By the most detestable expedients which
sophistry could devise, and oppression execute; and that, too, under an
enlightened government, proposing to be guided solely by a conscientious
regard for duty. To comprehend this more fully, it will be necessary to
take a brief view of public sentiment in matters of religion at that time.

It is a singular paradox, that Christianity, whose doctrines inculcate
unbounded charity, should have been made so often an engine of
persecution; while Mahometanism, whose principles are those of avowed
intolerance, should have exhibited, at least till later times, a truly
philosophical spirit of toleration. [34] Even the first victorious
disciples of the prophet, glowing with all the fiery zeal of proselytism,
were content with the exaction of tribute from the vanquished; at least,
more vindictive feelings were reserved only for idolaters, who did not,
like the Jews and Christians, acknowledge with themselves the unity of
God. With these latter denominations they had obvious sympathy, since it
was their creed which formed the basis of their own. [35] In Spain, where
the fiery temperament of the Arab was gradually softened under the
influence of a temperate climate and higher mental culture, the toleration
of the Jews and Christians, as we have already had occasion to notice, was
so remarkable, that, within a few years after the conquest, we find them
not only protected in the enjoyment of civil and religious freedom, but
mingling on terms almost of equality with their conquerors.

It is not necessary to inquire here, how far the different policy of the
Christians was owing to the peculiar constitution of their hierarchy,
which, composed of a spiritual militia drawn from every country in Europe,
was cut off by its position from all human sympathies, and attached to no
interests but its own; which availed itself of the superior science and
reputed sanctity, that were supposed to have given it the key to the dread
mysteries of a future life, not to enlighten but to enslave the minds of a
credulous world; and which, making its own tenets the only standard of
faith, its own rites and ceremonial the only evidence of virtue,
obliterated the great laws of morality, written by the divine hand on
every heart, and gradually built up a system of exclusiveness and
intolerance most repugnant to the mild and charitable religion of Jesus
Christ.

Before the close of the fifteenth century, several circumstances operated
to sharpen the edge of intolerance, especially against the Arabs. The
Turks, whose political consideration of late years had made them the
peculiar representatives and champions of Mahometanism, had shown a
ferocity and cruelty in their treatment of the Christians, which brought
general odium on all the professors of their faith, and on the Moors, of
course, though most undeservedly, in common with the rest. The bold,
heterodox doctrines, also, which had occasionally broken forth in
different parts of Europe in the fifteenth century, like so many faint
streaks of light ushering in the glorious morn of the Reformation, had
roused the alarm of the champions of the church, and kindled on more than
one occasion the fires of persecution; and, before the close of the
period, the Inquisition was introduced into Spain.

From that disastrous hour, religion wore a new aspect in this unhappy
country. The spirit of intolerance, no longer hooded in the darkness of
the cloister, now stalked abroad in all his terrors. Zeal was exalted into
fanaticism, and a rational spirit of proselytism, into one of fiendish
persecution. It was not enough now, as formerly, to conform passively to
the doctrines of the church, but it was enjoined to make war on all who
refused them. The natural feelings of compunction in the discharge of this
sad duty was a crime; and the tear of sympathy, wrung out by the sight of
mortal agonies, was an offence to be expiated by humiliating penance. The
most frightful maxims were deliberately engrafted into the code of morals.
Any one, it was said, might conscientiously kill an apostate wherever he
could meet him. There was some doubt whether a man might slay his own
father, if a heretic or infidel, but none whatever as to his right, in
that event, to take away the life of his son or of his brother. [36] These
maxims were not a dead letter, but of most active operation, as the sad
records of the dread tribunal too well prove. The character of the nation
underwent a melancholy change. The milk of charity, nay of human feeling,
was soured in every bosom. The liberality of the old Spanish cavalier gave
way to the fiery fanaticism of the monk. The taste for blood, once
gratified, begat a cannibal appetite in the people, who, cheered on by the
frantic clergy, seemed to vie with one another in the eagerness with which
they ran down the miserable game of the Inquisition.

It was at this very time, when the infernal monster, gorged but not sated
with human sacrifice, was crying aloud for fresh victims, that Granada
surrendered to the Spaniards, under the solemn guaranty of the full
enjoyment of civil and religious liberty. The treaty of capitulation
granted too much, or too little,--too little for an independent state, too
much for one whose existence was now merged in that of a greater; for it
secured to the Moors privileges in some respects superior to those of the
Castilians, and to the prejudice of the latter. Such, for example, was the
permission to trade with the Barbary coast, and with the various places in
Castile and Andalusia, without paying the duties imposed on the Spaniards
themselves; [37] and that article, again, by which runaway Moorish slaves
from other parts of the kingdom were made free and incapable of being
reclaimed by their masters, if they could reach Granada. [38] The former
of these provisions struck at the commercial profits of the Spaniards, the
latter directly at their property.

It is not too much to say, that such a treaty, depending for its
observance on the good faith and forbearance of the stronger party, would
not hold together a year in any country of Christendom, even at the
present day, before some flaw or pretext would be devised to evade it. How
much greater was the probability of this in the present case, where the
weaker party was viewed with all the accumulated odium of long hereditary
hostility and religious rancor!

The work of conversion, on which the Christians, no doubt, much relied,
was attended with greater difficulties than had been anticipated by the
conquerors. It was now found, that, while the Moors retained their present
faith, they would be much better affected towards their countrymen in
Africa, than to the nation with which they were incorporated. In short,
Spain still had enemies in her bosom; and reports were rife in every
quarter, of their secret intelligence with the Barbary states, and of
Christians kidnapped to be sold as slaves to Algerine corsairs. Such
tales, greedily circulated and swallowed, soon begat general alarm; and
men are not apt to be over-scrupulous as to measures which they deem
essential to their personal safety.

The zealous attempt to bring about conversion by preaching and
expostulation was fair and commendable. The intervention of bribes and
promises, if it violated the spirit, did not, at least, the letter of the
treaty. The application of force to a few of the most refractory, who by
their blind obstinacy were excluding a whole nation from the benefits of
redemption, was to be defended on other grounds; and these were not
wanting to cunning theologians, who considered that the sanctity of the
end justified extraordinary means, and that, where the eternal interests
of the soul were at stake, the force of promises and the faith of treaties
were equally nugatory. [39]

But the _chef-d'oeuvre_ of monkish casuistry was the argument imputed
to Ximenes for depriving the Moors of the benefits of the treaty, as a
legitimate consequence of the rebellion, into which they had been driven
by his own malpractices. This proposition, however, far from outraging the
feelings of the nation, well drilled by this time in the metaphysics of
the cloister, fell short of them, if we are to judge from recommendations
of a still more questionable import, urged, though ineffectually, on the
sovereigns at this very time, from the highest quarter. [40]

Such are the frightful results to which the fairest mind may be led, when
it introduces the refinements of logic into the discussions of duty; when,
proposing to achieve some great good, whether in politics or religion, it
conceives that the importance of the object authorizes a departure from
the plain principles of morality, which regulate the ordinary affairs of
life; and when, blending these higher interests with those of a personal
nature, it becomes incapable of discriminating between them, and is led
insensibly to act from selfish motives, while it fondly imagines itself
obeying only the conscientious dictates of duty. [41]

With these events may be said to terminate the history of the Moors, or
the Moriscoes, as henceforth called, under the present reign. Eight
centuries had elapsed since their first occupation of the country; during
which period they had exhibited all the various phases of civilization,
from its dawn to its decline. Ten years had sufficed to overturn the
splendid remains of this powerful empire; and ten more, for its nominal
conversion to Christianity. A long century of persecution, of unmitigated
and unmerited suffering, was to follow, before the whole was to be
consummated by the expulsion of this unhappy race from the Peninsula.
Their story, in this latter period, furnishes one of the most memorable
examples in history, of the impotence of persecution, even in support of a
good cause against a bad one. It is a lesson that cannot be too deeply
pondered through every succeeding age. The fires of the Inquisition are,
indeed, extinguished, probably to be lighted no more. But where is the
land which can boast that the spirit of intolerance, which forms the very
breath of persecution, is altogether extinct in its bosom?


FOOTNOTES

[1] Alpuxarras,--an Arabic word, signifying "land of warriors," according
to Salazar de Mendoza. (Monarquía, tom. ii. p. 138.)

According to the more accurate and learned Conde, it is derived from an
Arabic term for "pasturage." (El Nubiense, Descripcion de España, p. 187.)

  "La Alpuxarra, aquessa sierra
  que al Sol la cervis lavanta
  y que poblada de Villas,
  es Mar de peñas, y plantas,
  adonde sus poblaciones
  ondas navegan de plata."

Calderon, (Comedias, (Madrid, 1760,) tom. i. p. 353,) whose gorgeous muse
sheds a blaze of glory over the rudest scenes.

[2] Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, tom. i. lib. 1, cap. 28.--Quintana,
Españoles Célebres, tom. i. p. 239.--Bleda, Corónica, lib. 5, cap. 23.--
Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 159.--Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom.
ii. fol. 338.--Mendoza, Guerra de Granada, p. 12.

[3] If we are to believe Martyr, the royal force amounted to 80,000 foot
and 15,000 horse; so large an army, so promptly brought into the field,
would suggest high ideas of the resources of the nation; too high indeed
to gain credit, even from Martyr, without confirmation.

[4] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 215.--Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom.
ii. fol. 338.--Zurita, Anales, tom. v. lib. 3, cap. 45.--Carbajal, Anales,
MS., año 1500.

[5] Footnote: Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 28.--Abarca,
Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 338.--Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap.
159.--Bleda, Corónica, lib. 5, cap. 24.

[6] Bleda, Corónica, lib. 5, cap. 24.--Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS.,
cap. 165.

[7] Privilegios á los Moros de Valdelecrin y las Alpuxarras que se
convirtieren, á 30 de Julio de 1500. Archive de Simancas, apud Mem. de la
Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. apend. 14.

[8] Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1500.--Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib.
19, cap. 10.

[9] Footnote: Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1501.--Zurita, Anales, tom. v.
lib. 4, cap. 27, 31.

[10] The great marquis of Cadiz was third count of Arcos, from which his
descendants took their title on the resumption of Cadiz by the crown after
his death. Mendoza, Dignidades, lib. 3, cap. 8, 17.

[11] See two letters dated Seville, January and February, 1500, addressed
by Ferdinand and Isabella to the inhabitants of the Serrania de Ronda,
preserved in the archives of Simancas, apud Mem. de la Acad. de Hist.,
tom. vi. Ilust. 15.

[12] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 165.--Bleda, Corónica, lib.
5, cap. 25.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 221.

The complaints of the Spanish and African Moors to the Sultan of Egypt, or
of Babylon, as he was then usually styled, had drawn from that prince
sharp remonstrances to the Catholic sovereigns against their persecutions
of the Moslems, accompanied by menaces of strict retaliation on the
Christians in his dominions. In order to avert such calamitous
consequences, Peter Martyr was sent as ambassador to Egypt. He left
Granada in August, 1501, proceeded to Venice, and embarked there for
Alexandria, which place he reached in December. Though cautioned on his
arrival, that his mission, in the present exasperated state of feeling at
the court, might cost him his head, the dauntless envoy sailed up the Nile
under a Mameluke guard to Grand Cairo. Far from experiencing any outrage,
however, he was courteously received by the Sultan; although the
ambassador declined compromising the dignity of the court he represented,
by paying the usual humiliating mark of obeisance, in prostrating himself
on the ground in the royal presence; an independent bearing highly
satisfactory to the Castilian historians. (See Garibay, Compendio, tom.
ii. lib. 19, cap. 12.) He had three audiences, in which he succeeded so
completely in effacing the unfavorable impressions of the Moslem prince,
that the latter not only dismissed him with liberal presents, but granted,
at his request, several important privileges to the Christian residents,
and the pilgrims to the Holy Land, which lay within his dominions.
Martyr's account of this interesting visit, which gave him ample
opportunity for studying the manners of a nation, and seeing the
stupendous monuments of ancient art, then little familiar to Europeans,
was published in Latin, under the title of "De Legatione Babylonica," in
three books, appended to his more celebrated "Decades de Rebus Oceanicis
et Novo Orbe." Mazzuchelli, (Sorittori d'ltalia, race Anghiera,) notices
an edition which he had seen published separately, without date or name of
the printer.

[13]
  "Rio Verde, Rio Verde,
  Tinto va en sangre viva;"--

Percy, in his well-known version of one of these agreeable
_romances_, adopts the tame epithet of "gentle river," from the
awkwardness, he says, of the literal translation of "verdant river." He
was not aware, it appears, that the Spanish was a proper name. (See
Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, (London, 1812,) vol. i. p. 357.) The
more faithful version of "green river," however, would have nothing very
unpoetical in it; though our gifted countryman, Bryant seems to intimate,
by his omission, somewhat of a similar difficulty, in his agreeable
stanzas on the beautiful stream of that name in New England.

[14] Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, año 1501.--Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom.
ii. p. 340.--Bleda, Corónica, lib. 5, cap. 26.--Bernaldez, Reyes
Católicos, MS., cap. 165.

"Fue muy gentil capitan," says Oviedo, speaking of this latter nobleman,
"y valiente lanza; y rauchas vezes dio testimonio grande de su animoso
esfuerzo." Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 36.

[15] Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 340.--Zurita, Anales, tom. v.
lib. 4, cap. 33.--Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 10.--
Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 165.--Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos,
lib. 1, cap. 28.

[16] Mendoza, Guerra de Granada, p. 13.--Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. 2,
fol. 340.--Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 28.--Oviedo,
Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 36.

The boy, who lived to man's estate, was afterwards created marquis of
Priego by the Catholic sovereigns. Salazar de Mendoza, Dignidades, lib. 2,
cap. 13.

[17] It is the simile of the fine old ballad:

  "Solo queda Don Alonso
  Su campaña es acabada
  Pelea como un Leon
  Pero poco aprovechaba."

[18] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., ubi supra.--Abarca, Reyes de Aragon,
tom. ii. ubi supra.--Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 10.--
Mendoza, Guerra de Granada, p. 13.--Sandoval, Hist. Del Emp. Carlos V.,
tom. i. p. 5.

According to Hyta's prose, Aguilar had first despatched more than thirty
Moors with his own hand. (Guerras de Granada, part. i. p. 568.) The
ballad, with more discretion, does not vouch for any particular number.

  "Don Alonso en este tiempo
  Muy gran batalla hacia,
  El cavallo le havian muerto,
  Por muralla le tenia.
  Y arrimado a un gran peñon
  Con valor se defendia:

  Muchos Moros tiene muertos,
  Pero poco le valia.
  Porque sobre el cargan muchos,
  Y le dan grandes heridas,
  Tantas que cayó allí muerto
  Entre la gente enemiga."

The warrior's death is summed up with an artless brevity, that would be
affectation in more studied composition.

  "Muerto queda Don Alonso,
  Y eterna fama ganada."

[19] Paolo Giovio finds an etymology for the name in the eagle (aguila),
assumed as the device of the warlike ancestors of Don Alonso. St.
Ferdinand of Castile, in consideration of the services of this illustrious
house at the taking of Cordova, in 1236, allowed it to bear as a cognomen
the name of that city. This branch, however, still continued to be
distinguished by their territorial epithet of Aguilar, although Don
Alonso's brother, the Great Captain, as we have seen, was more generally
known by that of Cordova. Vita Magni Gonsalvi, fol. 204.

[20] Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. fol 340, 341.

The hero's body, left on the field of battle, was treated with decent
respect by the Moors, who restored it to King Ferdinand; and the
sovereigns caused it to be interred with all suitable pomp in the church
of St. Hypolito at Cordova. Many years afterwards the marchioness of
Priego, his descendant, had the tomb opened; and, on examining the
mouldering remains, the iron head of a lance, received in his last mortal
struggle, was found buried in the bones. Bleda, Corónica, lib. 5, cap. 26.

[21]
  "Tambien el Conde de Urena,
  Mal herido en demasia,
  Se sale de la batalla
  Llevado por una guia.
    "Que sabia bien la senda
  Que de la Sierra salia:
  Muchos Moros dexaba muertos
  Por su grande valentia.
    "Tambien algunos se escapan,
  Que al buen Conde le seguian."

Oviedo, speaking of this retreat of the good count and his followers,
says, "Volvieron las riendas a sus caballos, y se retiraron a mas que
galope por la multitud de los Infieles." Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc.
1, dial. 36.

[22] Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, año 1501.--Carbajal, Anales, MS., año
1501.--Bleda, Corónica, lib. 5, cap. 26.--Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat.
1, quinc. 1, dial. 36.

For a more particular notice of Ramirez, see Part I. Chapter 13, of this
History.

[23] Bleda, Corónica, lib. 5, cap. 26, 27.--Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap.
16.--Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 165.--Mariana, Hist. de España,
lib. 27, cap. 5.--Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 28.

[24] Corónica, lib. 5, cap. 27.

The Curate of Los Palacios disposes of the Moors rather  summarily; "The
Christians stripped them, gave them a free  passage, and sent them to the
devil!" Reyes Católicos, cap. 165.

[25] According to one of the _romances_, cited by Hyta, the expedition of
Aguilar  was a  piece of romantic Quixotism, occasioned by King
Ferdinand's  challenging the bravest of his knights to plant his banner on
the summits of the Alpuxarras.

  "Qual de vosotros, amigos,
  Ira a la Sierra mañana,
  A poner mi Real pendon
  Encima de la Alpuxarra?"

All shrunk from the perilous emprise, till Alonso de Aguilar stepped
forward and boldly assumed it for himself.

  "A todos tiembla la barba,
  Sino fuera don Alonso,
  Que de Aguilar se llamaba.
  Levantose en pie ante el Rey
  De esta manera le habla.

  "Aquesa empresa, Señor,
  Para mi estaba guardada,
  Que mi senora la reyna
  Ya me la tiene mandada.

  "Alegrose mucho el Rey
  Por la oferta que le daba,
  Au no era amanecido
  Don Alonso ya cavalga."

These popular ditties, it cannot be denied, are slippery authorities for
any important fact, unless supported by more direct historic testimony.
When composed, however, by contemporaries, or those who lived near the
time, they may very naturally record many true details, too insignificant
in their consequences to attract the notice of history. The ballad
translated with so much elaborate simplicity by Percy, is chiefly taken
up, as the English reader may remember, with the exploits of a Sevillian
hero named Saavedra. No such personage is noticed, as far as I am aware,
by the Spanish chroniclers. The name of Saavedra, however, appears to have
been a familiar one in Seville, and occurs two or three times in the
muster-roll of nobles and cavaliers of that city, who joined King
Ferdinand's army in the preceding year, 1500. Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla,
eodem anno.

[26] Mendoza notices these splenetic effusions (Guerra de Granada, p. 13);
and Bleda (Corónica, p. 636) cites the following couplet from one of them.

  "Decid, conde de Ureña,
  Don Alonso donde queda."

[27] The Venetian ambassador, Navagiero, saw the count of Ureña at Ossuna,
in 1526. He was enjoying a green old age, or, as the minister expresses
it, "molto vecchio e gentil corteggiano però." "Diseases," said the
veteran good-humoredly, "sometimes visit me, but seldom tarry long; for my
body is like a crazy old inn, where travellers find such poor fare, that
they merely touch and go." Viaggio, fol. 17.

[28] Guerra de Granada, p. 301.--Compare the similar painting of Tacitus,
in the scene where Germanicus pays the last sad offices to the remains of
Varus and his legions. "Dein semiruto vallo, humili fossa, accisae jam
reliquiae consedisse intelligebantur: medio campi albentia ossa, ut
fugerant, ut restiterant, disjecta vel aggerata; adjacebant fragmina
telorum, equorumque artus, simul truncis arborum antefixa ora."(Annales,
lib. 1, sect. 61.) Mendoza falls nothing short of this celebrated
description of the Roman historian;

  "Pan etiam Arcadiâ dicat se judice victum."

[29] Mendoza, Guerra de Granada, pp. 300-302.

The Moorish insurrection of 1570 was attended with at least one good
result, in calling forth this historic masterpiece, the work of the
accomplished Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, accomplished alike as a statesman,
warrior, and historian. His "Guerra de Granada," confined as it is to a
barren fragment of Moorish history, displays such liberal sentiments,
(too liberal, indeed, to permit its publication till long after its
author's death,) profound reflection, and classic elegance of style, as
well entitled him to the appellation of the Spanish Sallust.

[30] Pragmáticas del Reyno, fol. 6.

[31] Pragmáticas del Reyno, fol. 7.

[32] Bleda anxiously claims the credit of the act of expulsion for Fray
Thomas de Torquemada, of inquisitorial memory. (Corónica, p. 640.) That
eminent personage had, indeed, been dead some years; but this edict was so
obviously suggested by that against the Jews, that it may be considered as
the result of his principles, if not directly taught by him. Thus it is,
"the evil that men do lives after them."

[33] The Castilian writers, especially the dramatic, have not been
insensible to the poetical situations afforded by the distresses of the
banished Moriscoes. Their sympathy for the exiles, however, is whimsically
enough contrasted by an orthodox anxiety to justify the conduct of their
own government. The reader may recollect a pertinent example in the story
of Sancho's Moorish friend, Ricote. Don Quixote, part. 2, cap. 54.

[34] The _spirit of toleration_ professed by the Moors, indeed, was
made a principal argument against them in the archbishop of Valencia's
memorial to Philip III. The Mahometans would seem the better Christians of
the two. See Geddes, Miscellaneous Tracts, (London, 1702-6,) vol. i. p.
94.

[35] Heeren seems willing to countenance the learned Pluquet in regarding
Islamism, in its ancient form, as one of the modifications of
Christianity; placing the principal difference between that and
Socinianism, for example, in the mere rites of circumcision and baptism.
(Essai sur l'Influence des Croisades, traduit par Villers, (Paris, 1808,)
p. 175, not.) "The Mussulmans," says Sir William Jones, "are a sort of
heterodox Christians, if Locke reasons justly, because they firmly believe
the immaculate conception, divine character, and miracles of the Messiah;
heterodox in denying vehemently his character of Son, and his equality, as
God, with the Father, of whose unity and attributes they entertain and
express the most awful ideas." See his Dissertation on the Gods of Greece,
Italy, and India; Works, (London, 1799,) vol. i. p. 279.

[36] See the bishop of Orihuela's treatise, "De Bello Sacro," etc., cited
by the industrious Clemencin. (Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust.
15.) The Moors and Jews, of course, stood no chance in this code; the
reverend father expresses an opinion, with which Bleda heartily coincides,
that the government would be perfectly justified in taking away the life
of every Moor in the kingdom, for their shameless infidelity. Ubi supra;--
and Bleda, Corónica, p. 995.

[37] The articles of the treaty are detailed at length by Marmol, Rebelion
de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 19.

[38] Idem, ubi supra.

[39] See the arguments of Ximenes, or of his enthusiastic biographer
Fléchier, for it is not always easy to discriminate between them. Hist. de
Ximenés, pp. 108, 109.

[40] The duke of Medina Sidonia proposed to Ferdinand and Isabella to be
avenged on the Moors, in some way not explained, after their
disembarkation in Africa, on the ground that, the term of the royal safe-
conduct having elapsed, they might lawfully be treated as enemies. To this
proposal, which would have done honor to a college of Jesuits in the
sixteenth century, the sovereigns made a reply too creditable not to be
transcribed. "El Rei é la Réina. Fernando de Zafra, nuestro secretário.
Vimos vuestra letra, en que nos fecistes saber lo que el duque de
Medinasidónia tenia pensado que se podia facer contra los Moros de
Villaluenga después de desembarcados allende. Decide que le agradecemos y
tenemos en servício el buen deseo que tiene de nos servir: _pero porqué
nuestra, palabra y seguro real así se debe guardar á los infieles como á
los Oristianos_, y faciéndose lo que él dice pareceria cautela y engaño
armado sobre nuestro seguro para no le guardar, que en ninguna, manera se
haga eso, ni otra cosa de que pueda parecer que se quebranta nuestro
seguro. De Granada véinte y nueve de mayo de quiniéntos y un años.--Yo el
Rei.--Yo la Réina--Por mandado del Rei é del Réina, Miguel Perez Almazan."
Would that the suggestions of Isabella's own heart, instead of the clergy,
had always been the guide of her conduct in these matters! Mem. de la
Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 15, from the original in the archives of
the family of Medina Sidonia.

[41] A memorial of the archbishop of Valencia to Philip III. affords an
example of this moral obliquity, that may make one laugh, or weep,
according to the temper of his philosophy. In this precious document he
says, "Your Majesty may, without any scruple of conscience, make slaves of
all the Moriscoes, and may put them into your own galleys or mines, or
sell them to strangers. And as to their children, they may be all sold at
good rates here in Spain; which will be so far from being a punishment,
that it will be a mercy to them; since by that means they will all become
Christians; which they would never have been, had they continued with
their parents. By the holy execution of which piece of justice, _a great
sum of money will flow into your Majesty's treasury_." (Geddes,
Miscellaneous Tracts, vol. i. p. 71.) "Il n'est point d'hostilité
excellente comme la Chrestienne," says old Montaigne; "nostre zele faict
merveilles, quand il va secondant nostre pente vers la haine, la cruanté,
l'ambition, l'avarice, la detraction, la rebellion. Nostre religion est
faicte pour extirper les vices; elle les couvre, les nourrit, les incite."
Essais, liv. 2, chap. 12.




CHAPTER VIII.

COLUMBUS.--PROSECUTION OF DISCOVERY.--HIS TREATMENT BY THE COURT.

1494-1503.

Progress of Discovery.--Reaction of Public Feeling.--The Queen's
Confidence in Columbus.--He Discovers Terra Firma.--Isabella Sends Back
the Indian Slaves.--Complaints against Columbus.--Superseded in the
Government.--Vindication of the Sovereigns.--His Fourth and Last Voyage.


The reader will turn with satisfaction from the melancholy and mortifying
details of superstition, to the generous efforts, which the Spanish
government was making to enlarge the limits of science and dominion in the
west. "Amidst the storms and troubles of Italy, Spain was every day
stretching her wings over a wider sweep of empire, and extending the glory
of her name to the far Antipodes." Such is the swell of exultation with
which the enthusiastic Italian, Martyr, notices the brilliant progress of
discovery under his illustrious countryman Columbus. [1] The Spanish
sovereigns had never lost sight of the new domain, so unexpectedly opened
to them, as it were, from the depths of the ocean. The first accounts
transmitted by the great navigator and his companions, on his second
voyage, while their imaginations were warm with the beauty and novelty of
the scenes which met their eyes in the New World, served to keep alive the
tone of excitement, which their unexpected successes had kindled in the
nation. [2] The various specimens sent home in the return ships, of the
products of these unknown regions, confirmed the agreeable belief that
they formed part of the great Asiatic continent, which had so long excited
the cupidity of Europeans. The Spanish court, sharing in the general
enthusiasm, endeavored to promote the spirit of discovery and
colonization, by forwarding the requisite supplies, and complying promptly
with the most minute suggestions of Columbus. But, in less than two years
from the commencement of his second voyage, the face of things experienced
a melancholy change. Accounts were received at home of the most alarming
discontent and disaffection in the colony; while the actual returns from
these vaunted regions were so scanty, as to bear no proportion to the
expenses of the expedition.

This unfortunate result was in a great measure imputable to the misconduct
of the colonists themselves. Most of them were adventurers, who had
embarked with no other expectation than that of getting together a fortune
as speedily as possible in the golden Indies. They were without
subordination, patience, industry, or any of the regular habits demanded
for success in such an enterprise. As soon as they had launched from their
native shore, they seemed to feel themselves released from the constraints
of all law. They harbored jealousy and distrust of the admiral as a
foreigner. The cavaliers and hidalgos, of whom there were too many in the
expedition, contemned him as an upstart, whom it was derogatory to obey.
From the first moment of their landing in Hispaniola, they indulged the
most wanton license in regard to the unoffending natives, who, in the
simplicity of their hearts, had received the white men as messengers from
Heaven. Their outrages, however, soon provoked a general resistance, which
led to such a war of extermination, that, in less than four years after
the Spaniards had set foot on the island, one-third of its population,
amounting, probably, to several hundred thousands, were sacrificed! Such
were the melancholy auspices, under which the intercourse was opened
between the civilized white man and the simple natives of the western
world. [3]

These excesses, and a total neglect of agriculture,--for none would
condescend to turn up the earth for any other object than the gold they
could find in it,--at length occasioned an alarming scarcity of
provisions; while the poor Indians neglected their usual husbandry, being
willing to starve themselves, so that they could starve out their
oppressors. [4] In order to avoid the famine which menaced his little
colony, Columbus was obliged to resort to coercive measures, shortening
the allowance of food, and compelling all to work, without distinction of
rank. These unpalatable regulations soon bred general discontent. The
high-mettled hidalgos, especially, complained loudly of the indignity of
such mechanical drudgery, while Father Boil and his brethren were equally
outraged by the diminution of their regular rations. [5]

The Spanish sovereigns were now daily assailed with complaints of the mal-
administration of Columbus, and of his impolitic and unjust severities to
both Spaniards and natives. They lent, however, an unwilling ear to these
vague accusations; they fully appreciated the difficulties of his
situation; and, although they sent out an agent to inquire into the nature
of the troubles which threatened the existence of the colony, they were
careful to select an individual who they thought would be most grateful to
the admiral; and when the latter in the following year, 1496, returned to
Spain, they received him with the most ample acknowledgments of regard.
"Come to us," they said, in a kind letter of congratulation, addressed to
him soon after his arrival, "when you can do it without inconvenience to
yourself, for you have endured too many vexations already." [6]

The admiral brought with him, as before, such samples of the productions
of the western hemisphere, as would strike the public eye, and keep alive
the feeling of curiosity. On his journey through Andalusia, he passed some
days under the hospitable roof of the good curate, Bernaldez, who dwells
with much satisfaction on the remarkable appearance of the Indian chiefs,
following in the admiral's train, gorgeously decorated with golden collars
and coronets and various barbaric ornaments. Among these he particularly
notices certain "belts and masks of cotton and of wood, with figures of
the Devil embroidered and carved thereon, sometimes in his own proper
likeness, and at others in that _of a cat or an owl_. There is much
reason," he infers, "to believe that he appears to the islanders in this
guise, and that they are all idolaters, having Satan for their lord!" [7]

But neither the attractions of the spectacle, nor the glowing
representations of Columbus, who fancied he had discovered in the mines of
Hispaniola the golden quarries of Ophir, from which King Solomon had
enriched the temple of Jerusalem, could rekindle the dormant enthusiasm of
the nation. The novelty of the thing had passed. They heard a different
tale, moreover, from the other voyagers, whose wan and sallow visages
provoked the bitter jest, that they had returned with more gold in their
faces than in their pockets. In short, the skepticism of the public seemed
now quite in proportion to its former overweening confidence; and the
returns were so meagre, says Bernaldez, "that it was very generally
believed there was little or no gold in the island." [8]

Isabella was far from participating in this unreasonable distrust. She had
espoused the theory of Columbus, when others looked coldly or
contemptuously on it. [9] She firmly relied on his repeated assurances,
that the track of discovery would lead to other and more important
regions. She formed a higher estimate, moreover, of the value of the new
acquisitions than any founded on the actual proceeds in gold and silver;
keeping ever in view, as her letters and instructions abundantly show, the
glorious purpose of introducing the blessings of Christian civilization
among the heathen. [10] She entertained a deep sense of the merits of
Columbus, to whose serious and elevated character her own bore much
resemblance; although the enthusiasm, which distinguished each, was
naturally tempered in hers with somewhat more of benignity and discretion.

But although the queen was willing to give the most effectual support to
his great enterprise, the situation of the country was such as made delay
in its immediate prosecution unavoidable. Large expense was necessarily
incurred for the actual maintenance of the colony; [11] the exchequer was
liberally drained, moreover, by the Italian war, as well as by the profuse
magnificence with which the nuptials of the royal family were now
celebrating. It was, indeed, in the midst of the courtly revelries
attending the marriage of Prince John, that the admiral presented himself
before the sovereigns at Burgos, after his second voyage. Such was the low
condition of the treasury from these causes, that Isabella was obliged to
defray the cost of an outfit to the colony, at this time, from funds
originally destined for the marriage of her daughter Isabella with the
king of Portugal. [12]

This unwelcome delay, however, was softened to Columbus by the
distinguished marks which he daily received of the royal favor; and
various ordinances were passed, confirming and enlarging his great powers
and privileges in the most ample manner, to a greater extent, indeed, than
his modesty, or his prudence, would allow him to accept. [13] The language
in which these princely gratuities were conferred, rendered them doubly
grateful to his noble heart, containing, as they did, the most emphatic
acknowledgments of his "many good, loyal, distinguished, and continual
services," and thus testifying the unabated confidence of his sovereigns
in his integrity and prudence. [14]

Among the impediments to the immediate completion of the arrangements for
the admiral's departure on his third voyage, may be also noticed the
hostility of Bishop Fonseca, who, at this period, had the control of the
Indian department; a man of an irritable, and, as it would seem, most
unforgiving temper, who, from some causes of disgust which he had
conceived with Columbus previous to his second voyage, lost no opportunity
of annoying and thwarting him, for which his official station
unfortunately afforded him too many facilities. [15]

From these various circumstances the admiral's fleet was not ready before
the beginning of 1498. Even then further embarrassment occurred in manning
it, as few were found willing to embark in a service which had fallen into
such general discredit. This led to the ruinous expedient of substituting
convicts, whose regular punishments were commuted into transportation, for
a limited period, to the Indies. No measure could possibly have been
devised more effectual for the ruin of the infant settlement. The seeds of
corruption, which had been so long festering in the Old World, soon shot
up into a plentiful harvest in the New, and Columbus, who suggested the
measure, was the first to reap the fruits of it.

At length, all being in readiness, the admiral embarked on board his
little squadron, consisting of six vessels, whose complement of men,
notwithstanding every exertion, was still deficient, and took his
departure from the port of St. Lucar, May 30th, 1498. He steered in a more
southerly direction than on his preceding voyages, and on the first of
August succeeded in reaching _terra firma_; thus entitling himself to
the glory of being the first to set foot on the great southern continent,
to which he had before opened the way. [16]

It is not necessary to pursue the track of the illustrious voyager, whose
career, forming the most brilliant episode to the history of the present
reign, has been so recently traced by a hand which few will care to
follow. It will suffice briefly to notice his personal relations with the
Spanish government, and the principles on which the colonial
administration was conducted.

On his arrival at Hispaniola, Columbus found the affairs of the colony in
the most deplorable confusion. An insurrection had been raised by the arts
of a few factious individuals against his brother Bartholomew, to whom he
had intrusted the government during his absence. In this desperate
rebellion all the interests of the community were neglected. The mines,
which were just beginning to yield a golden harvest, remained unwrought.
The unfortunate natives were subjected to the most inhuman oppression.
There was no law but that of the strongest. Columbus, on his arrival, in
vain endeavored to restore order. The very crews he brought with him, who
had been unfortunately reprieved from the gibbet in their own country,
served to swell the mass of mutiny. The admiral exhausted art,
negotiation, entreaty, force, and succeeded at length in patching up a
specious reconciliation by such concessions as essentially impaired his
own authority. Among these was the grant of large tracts of land to the
rebels, with permission to the proprietor to employ an allotted number of
the natives in its cultivation. This was the origin of the celebrated
system of repartimientos, which subsequently led to the foulest abuses
that ever disgraced humanity. [17]

Nearly a year elapsed after the admiral's return to Hispaniola, before he
succeeded in allaying these intestine feuds. In the mean while, rumors
were every day reaching Spain of the distractions of the colony,
accompanied with most injurious imputations on the conduct of Columbus and
his brother, who were loudly accused of oppressing both Spaniards and
Indians, and of sacrificing the public interests, in the most unscrupulous
manner, to their own. These complaints were rung in the very ears of the
sovereigns by numbers of the disaffected colonists, who had returned to
Spain, and who surrounded the king, as he rode out on horseback, clamoring
loudly for the discharge of the arrears, of which they said the admiral
had defrauded them. [18]

There were not wanting, even, persons of high consideration at the court,
to give credence and circulation to these calumnies. The recent discovery
of the pearl fisheries of Paria, as well as of more prolific veins of the
precious metals in Hispaniola, and the prospect of an indefinite extent of
unexplored country, opened by the late voyage of Columbus, made the
viceroyalty of the New World a tempting bait for the avarice and ambition
of the most potent grandee. They artfully endeavored, therefore, to
undermine the admiral's credit with the sovereigns, by raising in their
minds suspicions of his integrity, founded not merely on vague reports,
but on letters received from the colony, charging him with disloyalty,
with appropriating to his own use the revenues of the island, and with the
design of erecting an independent government for himself. [19]

Whatever weight these absurd charges may have had with Ferdinand, they had
no power to shake the queen's confidence in Columbus, or lead her to
suspect his loyalty for a moment. But the long-continued distractions of
the colony made her feel a natural distrust of his capacity to govern it,
whether from the jealousy entertained of him as a foreigner, or from some
inherent deficiency in his own character. These doubts were mingled, it is
true, with sterner feelings towards the admiral, on the arrival, at this
juncture, of several of the rebels with the Indian slaves assigned to them
by his orders. [20]

It was the received opinion among good Catholics of that period, that
heathen and barbarous nations were placed by the circumstance of their
infidelity without the pale both of spiritual and civil rights. Their
souls were doomed to eternal perdition. Their bodies were the property of
the Christian nation who should occupy their soil. [21] Such, in brief,
were the profession and the practice of the most enlightened Europeans of
the fifteenth century; and such the deplorable maxims which regulated the
intercourse of the Spanish and Portuguese navigators with the uncivilized
natives of the western world. [22] Columbus, agreeably to these views,
had, very soon after the occupation of Hispaniola, recommended a regular
exchange of slaves for the commodities required for the support of the
colony; representing, moreover, that in this way their conversion would be
more surely effected,--an object, it must be admitted, which he seems to
have ever had most earnestly at heart. Isabella, however, entertained
views on this matter far more liberal than those of her age. She had been
deeply interested by the accounts she had received from the admiral
himself of the gentle, unoffending character of the islanders; and she
revolted at the idea of consigning them to the horrors of slavery, without
even an effort for their conversion. She hesitated, therefore, to sanction
his proposal; and when a number of Indian captives were advertised to be
sold in the markets of Andalusia, she commanded the sale to be suspended,
till the opinion of a counsel of theologians and doctors, learned in such
matters, could be obtained, as to its conscientious lawfulness. She
yielded still further to the benevolent impulses of her nature, causing
holy men to be instructed as far as possible in the Indian languages, and
sent out as missionaries for the conversion of the natives. [23] Some of
them, as Father Boil and his brethren, seem, indeed, to have been more
concerned for the welfare of their own bodies, than for the souls of their
benighted flock. But others, imbued with a better spirit, wrought in the
good work with disinterested zeal, and, if we may credit their accounts,
with some efficacy. [24]

In the same beneficent spirit, the royal letters and ordinances urged over
and over again the paramount obligation of the religious instruction of
the natives, and of observing the utmost gentleness and humanity in all
dealings with them. When, therefore, the queen learned the arrival of two
vessels from the Indies, with three hundred slaves on board, which the
admiral had granted to the mutineers, she could not repress her
indignation, but impatiently asked, "By what authority does Columbus
venture thus to dispose of my subjects?" She instantly caused proclamation
to be made in the southern provinces, that all who had Indian slaves in
their possession, granted by the admiral, should forthwith provide for
their return to their own country; while the few, still held by the crown,
were to be restored to freedom in like manner. [25]

After a long and visible reluctance, the queen acquiesced in sending out a
commissioner to investigate the affairs of the colony. The person
appointed to this delicate trust was Don Francisco de Bobadilla, a poor
knight of Calatrava. He was invested with supreme powers of civil and
criminal jurisdiction. He was to bring to trial and pass sentence on all
such as had conspired against the authority of Columbus. He was authorized
to take possession of the fortresses, vessels, public stores, and property
of every description, to dispose of all offices, and to command whatever
persons he might deem expedient for the tranquillity of the island,
without distinction of rank, to return to Spain, and present themselves
before the sovereigns. Such, in brief, was the sum of the extraordinary
powers intrusted to Bobadilla. [26]

It is impossible now to determine what motives could have led to the
selection of so incompetent an agent, for an office of such high
responsibility. He seems to have been a weak and arrogant man, swelled up
with immeasurable insolence by the brief authority thus undeservedly
bestowed on him. From the very first, he regarded Columbus in the light of
a convicted criminal, on whom it was his business to execute the sentence
of the law. Accordingly, on his arrival at the island, after an
ostentatious parade of his credentials, he commanded the admiral to appear
before him, and, without affecting the forms of a legal inquiry, at once
caused him to be manacled, and thrown into prison. Columbus submitted
without the least show of resistance, displaying in this sad reverse that
magnanimity of soul, which would have touched the heart of a generous
adversary. Bobadilla, however, discovered no such sensibility; and, after
raking together all the foul or frivolous calumnies, which hatred or the
hope of favor could extort, he caused the whole loathsome mass of
accusation to be sent back to Spain with the admiral, whom he commanded to
be kept strictly in irons during the passage; "afraid," says Ferdinand
Columbus bitterly, "lest he might by any chance swim back again to the
island." [27]

This excess of malice served, as usual, however, to defeat itself. So
enormous an outrage shocked the minds of those most prejudiced against
Columbus. All seemed to feel it as a national dishonor, that such
indignities should be heaped on the man, who, whatever might be his
indiscretions, had done so much for Spain, and for the whole civilized
world; a man, who, in the honest language of an old writer, "had he lived
in the days of ancient Greece or Rome, would have had statues raised, and
temples and divine honors dedicated to him, as to a divinity!" [28]

None partook of the general indignation more strongly than Ferdinand and
Isabella, who, in addition to their personal feelings of disgust at so
gross an act, readily comprehended the whole weight of obloquy, which its
perpetration must necessarily attach to them. They sent to Cadiz without
an instant's delay, and commanded the admiral to be released from his
ignominious fetters. They wrote to him in the most benignant terms,
expressing their sincere regret for the unworthy usage which he had
experienced, and requesting him to appear before them as speedily as
possible, at Granada, where the court was then staying. At the same time,
they furnished him a thousand ducats for his expenses, and a handsome
retinue to escort him on his journey.

Columbus, revived by these assurances of the kind dispositions of his
sovereigns, proceeded without delay to Granada, which he reached on the
17th of December. Immediately on his arrival he obtained an audience. The
queen could not repress her tears at the sight of the man, whose
illustrious services had met with such ungenerous requital, as it were, at
her own hands. She endeavored to cheer his wounded spirit with the most
earnest assurances of her sympathy and sorrow for his misfortunes.
Columbus, from the first moment of his disgrace, had relied on the good
faith and kindness of Isabella; for, as an ancient Castilian writer
remarks, "she had ever favored him beyond the king her husband, protecting
his interests, and showing him especial kindness and good-will." When he
beheld the emotion of his royal mistress, and listened to her consolatory
language, it was too much for his loyal and generous heart; and, throwing
himself on his knees, he gave vent to his feelings, and sobbed aloud. The
sovereigns endeavored to soothe and tranquillize his mind, and, after
testifying their deep sense of his injuries, promised him, that impartial
justice should be done his enemies, and that he should be reinstated in
his emoluments and honors. [29]

Much censure has attached to the Spanish government for its share in this
unfortunate transaction; both in the appointment of so unsuitable an agent
as Bobadilla, and the delegation of such broad and indefinite powers. With
regard to the first, it is now too late, as has already been remarked, to
ascertain on what grounds such a selection could have been made. There is
no evidence of his being indebted for his promotion to intrigue or any
undue influence. Indeed, according to the testimony of one of his
contemporaries, he was reputed "an extremely honest and religious man,"
and the good bishop Las Casas expressly declares that "no imputation of
dishonesty or avarice had ever rested on his character." [30] It was an
error of judgment; a grave one, indeed, and must pass for as much as it is
worth.

But in regard to the second charge, of delegating unwarrantable powers, it
should be remembered, that the grievances of the colony were represented
as of a most pressing nature, demanding a prompt and peremptory remedy;
that a more limited and partial authority, dependent for its exercise on
instructions from the government at home, might be attended with ruinous
delays; that this authority must necessarily be paramount to that of
Columbus, who was a party implicated, and that, although unlimited
jurisdiction was given over all offences committed against him, yet
neither he nor his friends were to be molested in any other way than by
temporary suspension from office, and a return to their own country, where
the merits of their case might be submitted to the sovereigns themselves.

This view of the matter, indeed, is perfectly conformable to that of
Ferdinand Columbus, whose solicitude, so apparent in every page, for his
father's reputation, must have effectually counterbalanced any repugnance
he may have felt at impugning the conduct of his sovereigns. "The only
ground of complaint," he remarks, in summing up his narrative of the
transaction, "which I can bring against their Catholic Highnesses is, the
unfitness of the agent whom they employed, equally malicious and ignorant.
Had they sent out a suitable person, the admiral would have been highly
gratified; since he had more than once requested the appointment of some
one with full powers of jurisdiction in an affair, where he felt some
natural delicacy in moving, in consequence of his own brother having been
originally involved in it." And, as to the vast magnitude of the powers
intrusted to Bobadilla, he adds," It can scarcely be wondered at,
considering the manifold complaints against the admiral made to their
Highnesses." [31]

Although the king and queen determined without hesitation on the complete
restoration of the admiral's honors, they thought it better to defer his
reappointment to the government of the colony, until the present
disturbances should be settled, and he might return there with personal
safety and advantage. In the mean time, they resolved to send out a
competent individual, and to support him with such a force as should
overawe faction, and enable him to place the tranquillity of the island on
a permanent basis.

The person selected was Don Nicolas de Ovando, comendador of Lares, of the
military order of Alcantara. He was a man of acknowledged prudence and
sagacity, temperate in his habits, and plausible and politic in his
address. It is sufficient evidence of his standing at court, that he had
been one of the ten youths selected to be educated in the palace as
companions for the prince of the Asturias. He was furnished with a fleet
of two and thirty sail, carrying twenty-five hundred persons, many of them
of the best families in the kingdom, with every variety of article for the
nourishment and permanent prosperity of the colony; and the general
equipment was in a style of expense and magnificence, such as had never
before been lavished on any armada destined for the western waters. [32]

The new governor was instructed immediately on his arrival to send
Bobadilla home for trial. Under his lax administration, abuses of every
kind had multiplied to an alarming extent, and the poor natives, in
particular, were rapidly wasting away under the new and most inhuman
arrangement of the _repartimientos_, which he established. Isabella
now declared the Indians free; and emphatically enjoined on the
authorities of Hispaniola to respect them as true and faithful vassals of
the crown. Ovando was especially to ascertain the amount of losses
sustained by Columbus and his brothers, to provide for their full
indemnification, and to secure the unmolested enjoyment in future of all
their lawful rights and pecuniary perquisites. [33]

Fortified with the most ample instructions in regard to these and other
details of his administration, the governor embarked on board his
magnificent flotilla, and crossed the bar of St. Lucar, February 15th,
1502. A furious tempest dispersed the fleet, before it had been out a
week, and a report reached Spain that it had entirely perished. The
sovereigns, overwhelmed with sorrow at this fresh disaster, which
consigned so many of their best and bravest to a watery grave, shut
themselves up in their palace for several days. Fortunately, the report
proved ill-founded. The fleet rode out the storm in safety, one vessel
only having perished, and the remainder reached in due time its place of
destination. [34]

The Spanish government has been roundly taxed with injustice and
ingratitude for its delay in restoring Columbus to the full possession of
his colonial authority; and that too by writers generally distinguished
for candor and impartiality. No such animadversion, however, as far as I
am aware, is countenanced by contemporary historians; and it appears to be
wholly undeserved. Independent of the obvious inexpediency of returning
him immediately to the theatre of disaffection, before the embers of
ancient animosity had had time to cool, there were several features in his
character, which make it doubtful whether he were the most competent
person, in any event, for an emergency demanding at once the greatest
coolness, consummate address, and acknowledged personal authority. His
sublime enthusiasm, which carried him victorious over every obstacle,
involved him also in numerous embarrassments, which men of more phlegmatic
temperament would have escaped. It led him to count too readily on a
similar spirit in others,--and to be disappointed. It gave an exaggerated
coloring to his views and descriptions, that inevitably led to a reaction
in the minds of such as embarked their all on the splendid dreams of a
fairy land, which they were never to realize. [35] Hence a fruitful source
of discontent and disaffection in his followers. It led him, in his
eagerness for the achievement of his great enterprises, to be less
scrupulous and politic as to the means, than a less ardent spirit would
have been. His pertinacious adherence to the scheme of Indian slavery, and
hhis impolitic regulation compelling the labor of the hidalgos, are
pertinent examples of this. [36] He was, moreover, a foreigner, without
rank, fortune, or powerful friends; and his high and sudden elevation
naturally raised him up a thousand enemies among a proud, punctilious, and
intensely national people. Under these multiplied embarrassments,
resulting from peculiarities of character and situation, the sovereigns
might well be excused for not intrusting Columbus, at this delicate
crisis, with disentangling the meshes of intrigue and faction, in which
the affairs of the colony were so unhappily involved.

I trust these remarks will not be construed into an insensibility to the
merits and exalted services of Columbus. "A world," to borrow the words,
though not the application, of the Greek historian, "is his monument." His
virtues shine With too bright a lustre to be dimmed by a few natural
blemishes; but it becomes necessary to notice these, to vindicate the
Spanish government from the imputation of perfidy and ingratitude, where
it has been most freely urged, and apparently with the least foundation.

It is more difficult to excuse the paltry equipment with which the admiral
was suffered to undertake his fourth and last voyage. The object proposed
by this expedition was the discovery of a passage to the great Indian
Ocean, which, he inferred sagaciously enough from his premises, though, as
it turned out, to the great inconvenience of the commercial world, most
erroneously, must open somewhere between Cuba and the coast of Paria. Four
caravels, only, were furnished for the expedition, the largest of which
did not exceed seventy tons' burden; a force forming a striking contrast
to the magnificent armada lately intrusted to Ovando, and altogether too
insignificant to be vindicated on the ground of the different objects
proposed by the two expeditions. [37]

Columbus, oppressed with growing infirmities, and a consciousness,
perhaps, of the decline of popular favor, manifested unusual despondency
previously to his embarkation. He talked even of resigning the task of
further discovery to his brother Bartholomew. "I have established," said
he, "all that I proposed,--the existence of land in the west. I have
opened the gate, and others may enter at their pleasure; as indeed they
do, arrogating to themselves the title of discoverers, to which they can
have little claim, following as they do in my track." He little thought
the ingratitude of mankind would sanction the claims of these adventurers
so far as to confer the name of one of them on that world, which his
genius had revealed. [38]

The great inclination, however, which the admiral had to serve the
Catholic sovereigns, and especially the most serene queen, says Ferdinand
Columbus, induced him to lay aside his scruples, and encounter the perils
and fatigues of another voyage. A few weeks before his departure, he
received a gracious letter from Ferdinand and Isabella, the last ever
addressed to him by his royal mistress, assuring him of their purpose to
maintain inviolate all their engagements with him, and to perpetuate the
inheritance of his honors in his family. [39] Comforted and cheered by
assurances, the veteran navigator, quitting the port of Cadiz, on the 9th
of March, 1502, once more spread his sails for those golden regions, which
he had approached so near, but was destined never to reach.

It will not be necessary to pursue his course further than to notice a
single occurrence of most extraordinary nature. The admiral had received
instructions not to touch at Hispaniola on his outward voyage. The leaky
condition of one of his ships, however, and the signs of an approaching
storm, induced him to seek a temporary refuge there; at the same time, he
counselled Ovando to delay for a few days the departure of the fleet, then
riding in the harbor, which was destined to carry Bobadilla and the rebels
with their ill-gotten treasures back to Spain. The churlish governor,
however, not only refused Columbus admittance, but gave orders for the
instant departure of the vessels. The apprehensions of the experienced
mariner were fully justified by the event. Scarcely had the Spanish fleet
quitted its moorings, before one of those tremendous hurricanes came on,
which so often desolate these tropical regions, sweeping down everything
before it, and fell with such violence on the little navy, that out of
eighteen ships, of which it was composed, not more than three or four
escaped. The rest all foundered, including those which contained
Bobadilla, and the late enemies of Columbus. Two hundred thousand
_castellanos_ of gold, half of which belonged to the government, went
to the bottom with them. The only one of the fleet which made its way back
to Spain was a crazy, weather-beaten bark, which contained the admiral's
property, amounting to four thousand ounces of gold. To complete these
curious coincidences, Columbus with his little squadron rode out the storm
in safety under the lee of the island, where he had prudently taken
shelter, on being so rudely repulsed from the port. This even-handed
retribution of justice, so uncommon in human affairs, led many to discern
the immediate interposition of Providence. Others, in a less Christian
temper, referred it all to the necromancy of the admiral. [40]


FOOTNOTES

[1] "Inter has Italiae procellas magis indies ac magis alas protendit
Hispania, imperium auget, gloriam nomenque suum ad Antipodes porriget."
Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 146.

[2] See, among others, a letter of Dr. Chanca, who accompanied Columbus on
his second voyage. It is addressed to the authorities of Seville. After
noticing the evidences of gold in Hispaniola, he says; "Ansi que de cierto
los Reyes nuestros Señores desde agora se pueden tener por los mas
prosperos e mas ricos Principes del mundo, porque tal cosa hasta agora no
se ha visto ni leido de ningnno en el mundo, porque verdaderamente a otro
camino que los navios vuelvan puedan llevar tanta cantidad de oro que se
pueden maravillar cualesquiera que lo supieren." In another part of the
letter, the Doctor is equally sanguine in regard to the fruitfulness of
the soil and climate. Letra de Dr. Chanca, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de
Viages, tom. i. pp. 198-224.

[3] Fernando Colon, Hist. de Almirante, cap. 60, 62.--Muñoz, Hist. del
Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 5, sec. 25.--Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib.
2, cap. 9.--Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 9.

[4] The Indians had some grounds for relying on the efficacy of
starvation, if, as Las Casas gravely asserts, "one Spaniard consumed in a
single day as much as would suffice three families!" Llorente, Oeuvres de
Don Barthélemi de las Casas, precedées de sa Vie, (Paris, 1822,) tom. i.
p. 11.

[5] Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. 4.--Goinara, Hist. de las
Indias, cap. 20, tom. ii.--Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 2,
cap. 12.

[6] Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., no. 101.--
Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 64.--Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-
Mundo, lib. 5, sec. 31.

[7] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 131.--Herrera expresses the same
charitable opinion. "Muy claramente se conocio que el demonio estava,
apoderado de aquella gente, y la traia ciega y engañada, hablandoles, y
mostrandoles en diversas figuras." Indias Occidentales, lib. 3, cap. 4.

[8] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 131.--Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-
Mundo, lib. 6, sec. 1.

[9] Columbus, in his letter to Prince John's nurse, dated 1500, makes the
following ample acknowledgment of the queen's early protection of him. "En
todos hobo incredulidad, y a la Reina mi Señora dio Nuestro Señor el
espiritu de inteligencia y esfuerzo grande, y la hizo de todo heredera
como a cara y muy amada hija." "Su Alteza lo aprobaba al contrario, y lo
sostuvo fasta que pudo." Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i. p. 266.

[10] See the letters to Columbus, dated May 14th, 1493, August, 1494, apud
Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii. pp. 66, 154, et mult. al.

[11] The salaries alone, annually disbursed by the crown to persons
resident in the colony, amounted to six million maravedies. Muñoz, Hist.
del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 5, sec. 33.

[12] Idem, lib. 6, sec. 2.--Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 64.
--Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 3, cap. 1.

[13] Such, for example, was the grant of an immense tract of land in
Hispaniola, with the title of count or duke, as the admiral might prefer.
Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 6, sec. 17.

[14] The instrument establishing the _mayorazgo_, or perpetual entail
of Columbus's estates, contains an injunction, that "his heirs shall never
use any other signature than that of 'the Admiral, _el Almirante_,
whatever other titles and honors may belong to them." That title indicated
his peculiar achievements, and it was an honest pride which led him by
this simple expedient to perpetuate the remembrance of them in his
posterity. See the original document, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages,
tom. ii. pp. 221-235.

[15] Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 6, sec. 20.--Fernando Colon, Hist.
del Almirante, cap. 64.--Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, año 1496.

[16] Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. e.--Navarrete,
Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., nos. 116, 120.--Tercer Viage de
Colon, apud Navarrete, tom. i. p. 245.--Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1,
cap. 10, ll.--Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 3, cap. 10, ll.--
Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 6, sec. 19.

[17] Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, cap. 20.--Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist.,
lib. 1, cap. 10, ll.--Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 7.--
Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 73-82.--Peter Martyr, De Rebus
Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. 5.--Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 3,
cap. 16.--Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 6, sec. 40-42.

[18] Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 7.--Peter Martyr, De Rebus
Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. 7.--Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, cap. 23.--
Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., cap. 11.

Ferdinand Columbus mentions that he and his brother, who were then pages
to the queen, could not stir out into the courtyard of the Alhambra,
without being followed by fifty of these vagabonds, who insulted them in
the grossest manner, "as the sons of the adventurer, who had led so many
brave Spanish hidalgos to seek their graves in the land of vanity and
delusion which he had found out." Hist. del Almirante, cap. 85.

[19] Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 12.--National feeling
operated, no doubt, as well as avarice to sharpen the tooth of slander
against the admiral. "Aegre multi patiuntur," says Columbus's countryman,
with honest warmth, "peregrinum hominem, et quidem e nostrâ Italia ortum,
tantum honoris ac gloriae consequutum, ut non tantum Hispanicae gentis,
sed et cujusvis alterius homines superaverit." Benzoni, lib. 1, cap. 5.

[20] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 4, cap. 7, 10, and more especially
lib. 6, cap. 13.--Las Casas, Oeuvres, ed. de Llorente, tom. i. p. 306.

[21] "La qualité de Catholique Romain," says the philosophic Villers,
"avait tout-à-fait remplacé celle d'homme, et même de Chrétien. Qui
n'était pas Catholique Romain, n'était pas homme, était moins qu'homme; et
eût-il été un souverain, c'était une bonne action que de lui ôter la vie."
(Essai sur la Réformation, p. 56. ed. 1820.) Las Casas rests the title of
the Spanish crown to its American possessions on the original papal grant,
made on condition of converting the natives to Christianity. The pope, as
vicar of Jesns Christ, possesses plenary authority over all men for the
safety of their souls. He might, therefore, in furtherance of this, confer
on the Spanish sovereigns _imperial supremacy_ over all lands discovered
by them,--not, however, to the prejudice of authorities already existing
there, and over such nations only as voluntarily embraced Christianity.
Such is the sum of his thirty propositions, submitted to the council of
the Indies for the inspection of Charles V. (Oeuvres, ed. De Llorente,
tom. i. pp. 286-311.) One may see in these arbitrary and whimsical
limitations, the good bishop's desire to reconcile what reason told him
were the natural rights of man, with what faith prescribed as the
legitimate prerogative of the pope. Few Roman Catholics at the present day
will be found sturdy enough to maintain this lofty prerogative, however
carefully limited. Still fewer in the sixteenth century would have
challenged it. Indeed, it is but just to Las Casas, to admit, that the
general scope of his arguments, here and elsewhere, is very far in advance
of his age.

[22] A Spanish casuist founds the right of his nation to enslave the
Indians, among other things, on their smoking tobacco, and not trimming
their beards _à l'Espagnole_. At least, this is Montesquieu's
interpretation of it. (Esprit des Loix, lib. 15, chap. 3.) The doctors of
the Inquisition could hardly have found a better reason.

[23] 23 Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 5, sec. 34.--Navarrete,
Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., no. 92.--Herrera, Indias
Occidentales, lib. 3, cap. 4.

[24] "Among other things that the holy fathers carried out," says Robles,
"was a little organ and several bells, which greatly delighted the simple
people, so that from one to two thousand persons were baptized every day."
(Vida de Ximenez, p. 120.)

Ferdinand Columbus remarks with some _naïveté_, that "the Indians were so
obedient from their fear of the admiral, and at the same time so desirous
to oblige him, that they voluntarily became Christians!" Hist. del
Almirante, cap. 84.

[25] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 4, cap. 7.--Navarrete, Coleccion
de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., no. 134.

Las Casas observes, that "so great was the queen's indignation at the
admiral's misconduct in this particular, that nothing but the
consideration of his great public services saved him from immediate
disgrace." Oeuvres, ed. de Llorente, tom. i. p. 306.

[26] Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., nos. 127-130.
The original commission to Bobadilla was dated March 21st, and May 21st,
1499; the execution of it, however, was delayed until July, 1500, in the
hope, doubtless, of obtaining such tidings from Hispaniola as should
obviate the necessity of a measure so prejudicial to the admiral.

[27] Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 86.--Garibay, Compendio,
tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 7.--Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib.
7.--Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, cap. 23.--Herrera, Indias Occidentales,
lib. 4, cap. 10.--Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 12.

[28] Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 12.--Herrera, Indias
Occidentales, lib. 6, cap. 15.

Ferdinand Columbus tells us, that his father kept the fetters in which he
was brought home, hanging up in an apartment of his house, as a perpetual
memorial of national ingratitude, and, when he died, ordered them to be
buried in the same grave with himself. Hist. del Almirante, cap. 86.

[29] Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 7.--Peter Martyr, De Rebus
Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. 7.--Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 86,
87.--Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. I, lib. 4, cap. 8-10.--Benzoni,
Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 12.

[30] Oviedo, Hist. Gen. de las Ind., p. 1, lib. 3, cap. 6.--Las Casas,
lib. 2, cap. 6, apud Navarrete, tom. i., introd., p. 99.

[31] Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 86.

[32] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 4, cap. 11.--Fernando
Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 87.--Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1,
cap. 12.--Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. p. 385.

[33] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 4, cap. 11-13.--Navarrete,
Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., nos. 138,144.--Fernando Colon,
Hist. del Almirante, cap. 87.

[34] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 5, cap. 1.

[35] The high devotional feeling of Columbus led him to trace out
allusions in Scripture to the various circumstances and scenes of his
adventurous life. Thus he believed his great discovery announced in the
Apocalypse, and in Isaiah; he identified, as I have before stated, the
mines of Hispaniola with those which furnished Solomon with materials for
his temple; he fancied that he had determined the actual locality of the
garden of Eden in the newly discovered region of Paria. But his greatest
extravagance was his project of a crusade for the recovery of the Holy
Sepulchre. This he cherished from the first hour of his discovery,
pressing it in the most urgent manner on the sovereigns, and making actual
provision for it in his testament. This was a flight, however, beyond the
spirit even of this romantic age, and probably received as little serious
attention from the queen, as from her more cool and calculating husband.
Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. 6.--Tercer, Viage de Colon,
apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i. p. 259.--tom. ii., Doc.
Dipl., no. 140.--Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 6, cap. 15.

[36] Another example was the injudicious punishment of delinquents by
diminishing their regular allowance of food, a measure so obnoxious as to
call for the interference of the sovereigns, who prohibited it altogether.
(Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., 97.) Herrera, who
must be admitted to have been in no degree insensible to the merits of
Columbus, closes his account of the various accusations urged against him
and his brothers, with the remark, that, "with every allowance for
calumny, they must be confessed not to have governed the Castilians with
the moderation that they ought to have done." Indias Occidentales, lib. 4,
cap. 9.

[37] Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 14.--Fernando Colon, Hist.
del Almirante, cap. 88.--Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 5, cap. 1.--
Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., cap. 14.

[38] It would be going out of our way to investigate the pretensions of
Amerigo Vespucci to the honor of first discovering the South American
continent. The reader will find them displayed with perspicuity and candor
by Mr. Irving, in his "Life of Columbus." (Appendix, No. 9.) Few will be
disposed to contest the author's conclusion respecting their fallacy,
though all may not have the same charity as he, in tracing its possible
origin to an editorial blunder, instead of wilful fabrication on the part
of Vespucci; in which light, indeed, it seems to have been regarded by the
two most ancient and honest historians of the event, Las Casas and
Herrera.

Mr. Irving's conclusions, however, have since been confirmed, in the
fullest manner, by M. de Humboldt, in the fifth volume of his "Géographie
du Nouveau Continent," published in 1839, a year after the preceding
portion of this note was first printed; in which he has assembled a mass
of testimony, suggesting the most favorable impressions of Vespucci's
innocence of the various charges brought against him.

Since the appearance of Mr. Irving's work, Señor Navarrete has published
the third volume of his "Coleccion de Viages y Descubrimientos," etc.,
containing, among other things, the original letters recording Vespucci's
American voyages, illustrated by all the authorities and facts, that could
come within the scope of his indefatigable researches. The whole weight of
evidence leads irresistibly to the conviction, that Columbus is entitled
to the glory of being the original discoverer of the southern continent,
as well as islands, of the western hemisphere. (Coleccion de Viages, tom.
iii. pp. 183-334.)

In addition to the preceding writers, the American reader will find the
claims of Vespucci discussed, with much ingenuity and careful examination
of authorities, by Mr. Cushing, in his "Reminiscences of Spain," vol. ii.
pp. 210 et seq.

[39] Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 87.--Herrera notices this
letter, written, he says, "con tanta humanidad, que parecia extraordinaria
de lo que usavan con otros, y no sin razon, pues jamas nadie les hizo tal
servicio," Indias Occidentales, lib. 5, cap. 1.

Among other instances of the queen's personal regard for Columbus, may be
noticed her receiving his two sons, Diego and Fernando, as her own pages,
on the death of Prince John, in whose service they had formerly been.
(Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., 125.)

By an ordinance of 1593, we find Diego Colon made _contino_ of the
royal household, with an annual salary of 50,000 maravedies. Ibid., Doc.
Dipl., no. 150.

[40] Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. 10.--Garibay,
Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 14.--Fernando Colon, Hist. del
Almirante, cap. 88.--Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., cap. 12.--Herrera, Indias
Occidentals, lib. 5, cap. 2.




CHAPTER IX.

SPANISH COLONIAL POLICY.

Careful Provision for the Colonies.--License for Private Voyages.--
Important Papal Concessions.--The Queen's Zeal for Conversion.--Immediate
Profits from the Discoveries.--Their Moral Consequences.--Their
Geographical Extent.


A consideration of the colonial policy pursued during Isabella's lifetime
has been hitherto deferred to avoid breaking the narrative of Columbus's
personal adventures. I shall now endeavor to present the reader with a
brief outline of it, as far as can be collected from imperfect and scanty
materials; for, however incomplete in itself, it becomes important as
containing the germ of the gigantic system developed in later ages.

Ferdinand and Isabella manifested from the first an eager and enlightened
curiosity in reference to their new acquisitions, constantly interrogating
the admiral minutely as to their soil and climate, their various vegetable
and mineral products, and especially the character of the uncivilized
races who inhabited them. They paid the greatest deference to his
suggestions, as before remarked, and liberally supplied the infant
settlement with whatever could contribute to its nourishment and permanent
prosperity. [1] Through their provident attention, in a very few years
after its discovery, the island of Hispaniola was in possession of the
most important domestic animals, as well as fruits and vegetables of the
Old World, some of which have since continued to furnish the staple of a
far more lucrative commerce than was ever anticipated from its gold mines.
[2]

Emigration to the new countries was encouraged by the liberal tenor of the
royal ordinances passed from time to time. The settlers in Hispaniola were
to have their passage free; to be excused from taxes; to have the absolute
property of such plantations on the island as they should engage to
cultivate for four years; and they were furnished with a gratuitous supply
of grain and stock for their farms. All exports and imports were exempted
from duty; a striking contrast to the narrow policy of later ages. Five
hundred persons, including scientific men and artisans of every
description, were sent out and maintained at the expense of government. To
provide for the greater security and quiet of the island, Ovando was
authorized to gather the residents into towns, which were endowed with the
privileges appertaining to similar corporations in the mother country; and
a number of married men, with their families, were encouraged to establish
themselves in them, with the view of giving greater solidity and
permanence to the settlement. [3]

With these wise provisions were mingled others savoring too strongly of
the illiberal spirit of the age. Such were those prohibiting Jews, Moors,
or indeed any but Castilians, for whom the discovery was considered
exclusively to have been made, from inhabiting, or even visiting, the New
World. The government kept a most jealous eye upon what it regarded as its
own peculiar perquisites, reserving to itself the exclusive possession of
all minerals, dyewoods, and precious stones, that should be discovered;
and although private persons were allowed to search for gold, they were
subjected to the exorbitant tax of two-thirds, subsequently reduced to
one-fifth, of all they should obtain, for the crown. [4]

The measure which contributed more effectually than any other, at this
period, to the progress of discovery and colonization, was the license
granted, under certain regulations, in 1495, for voyages undertaken by
private individuals. No use was made of this permission until some years
later, in 1499. The spirit of enterprise had flagged, and the nation had
experienced something like disappointment on contrasting the meagre
results of their own discoveries with the dazzling successes of the
Portuguese, who had struck at once into the very heart of the jewelled
east. The report of the admiral's third voyage, however, and the beautiful
specimens of pearls which he sent home from the coast of Paria, revived
the cupidity of the nation. Private adventurers now proposed to avail
themselves of the license already granted, and to follow up the track of
discovery on their own account. The government, drained by its late heavy
expenditures, and jealous of the spirit of maritime adventure beginning to
show itself in the other nations of Europe, [5] willingly acquiesced in a
measure, which, while it opened a wide field of enterprise for its
subjects, secured to itself all the substantial benefits of discovery,
without any of the burdens.

The ships fitted out under the general license were required to reserve
one-tenth of their tonnage for the crown, as well as two-thirds of all the
gold, and ten per cent. of all other commodities which they should
procure. The government promoted these expeditions by a bounty on all
vessels of six hundred tons and upwards, engaged in them. [6]

With this encouragement the more wealthy merchants of Seville, Cadiz, and
Palos, the old theatre of nautical enterprise, freighted and sent out
little squadrons of three or four vessels each, which they intrusted to
the experienced mariners, who had accompanied Columbus in his first
voyage, or since followed in his footsteps. They held in general the same
course pursued by the admiral on his last expedition, exploring the coasts
of the great southern continent. Some of the adventurers returned with
such rich freights of gold, pearls, and other precious commodities, as
well compensated the fatigues and perils of the voyage. But the greater
number were obliged to content themselves with the more enduring but
barren honors of discovery. [7]

The active spirit of enterprise now awakened, and the more enlarged
commercial relations with the new colonies, required a more perfect
organization of the department for Indian affairs, the earliest vestiges
of which have been already noticed in a preceding chapter. [8] By an
ordinance dated at Alcalá, January 20th, 1503, it was provided that a
board should be established, consisting of three functionaries, with the
titles of treasurer, factor, and comptroller. Their permanent residence
was assigned in the old alcazar of Seville, where they were to meet every
day for the despatch of business. The board was expected to make itself
thoroughly acquainted with whatever concerned the colonies, and to afford
the government all information, that could be obtained, affecting their
interests and commercial prosperity. It was empowered to grant licenses
under the regular conditions, to provide for the equipment of fleets, to
determine their destination, and furnish them instructions on sailing. All
merchandise for exportation was to be deposited in the alcazar, where the
return cargoes were to be received, and contracts made for their sale.
Similar authority was given to it over the trade with the Barbary coast
and the Canary Islands. Its supervision was to extend in like manner over
all vessels which might take their departure from the port of Cadiz, as
well as from Seville. With these powers were combined others of a purely
judicial character, authorizing them to take cognizance of questions
arising out of particular voyages, and of the colonial trade in general.
In this latter capacity they were to be assisted by the advice of two
jurists, maintained by a regular salary from the government. [9]

Such were the extensive powers intrusted to the famous _Casa de
Contratacion_, or House of Trade, on this its first definite
organization; and, although its authority was subsequently somewhat
circumscribed by the appellate jurisdiction of the Council of the Indies,
it has always continued the great organ by which the commercial
transactions with the colonies have been conducted and controlled.

The Spanish government, while thus securing to itself the more easy and
exclusive management of the colonial trade, by confining it within one
narrow channel, discovered the most admirable foresight in providing for
its absolute supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs, where alone it could be
contested. By a bull of Alexander the Sixth, dated November 16th, 1501,
the sovereigns were empowered to receive all the tithes in the colonial
dominions. [10] Another bull, of Pope Julius the Second, July 28th, 1508,
granted them the right of collating to all benefices, of whatever
description, in the colonies, subject only to the approbation of the Holy
See. By these two concessions, the Spanish crown was placed at once at the
head of the church in its transatlantic dominions, with the absolute
disposal of all its dignities and emoluments. [11]

It has excited the admiration of more than one historian, that Ferdinand
and Isabella, with their reverence for the Catholic church, should have
had the courage to assume an attitude of such entire independence of its
spiritual chief. [12] But whoever has studied their reign, will regard
this measure as perfectly conformable to their habitual policy, which
never suffered a zeal for religion, or a blind deference to the church, to
compromise in any degree the independence of the crown. It is much more
astonishing, that pontiffs could be found content to divest themselves of
such important prerogatives. It was deviating widely from the subtle and
tenacious spirit of their predecessors; and, as the consequences came to
be more fully disclosed, furnished ample subject of regret to those who
succeeded them.

Such is a brief summary of the principal regulations adopted by Ferdinand
and Isabella for the administration of the colonies. Many of their
peculiarities, including most of their defects, are to be referred to the
peculiar circumstances under which the discovery of the New World was
effected. Unlike the settlements on the comparatively sterile shores of
North America, which were permitted to devise laws accommodated to their
necessities, and to gather strength in the habitual exercise of political
functions, the Spanish colonies were from the very first checked and
controlled by the over-legislation of the parent country. The original
project of discovery had been entered into with indefinite expectations of
gain. The verification of Columbus's theory of the existence of land in
the west gave popular credit to his conjecture, that that land was the
far-famed Indies. The specimens of gold and other precious commodities
found there, served to maintain the delusion. The Spanish government
regarded the expedition as its own private adventure, to whose benefits it
had exclusive pretensions. Hence those jealous regulations for securing to
itself a monopoly of the most obvious sources of profit, the dyewoods and
precious metals.

These impolitic provisions were relieved by others better suited to the
permanent interests of the colony. Such was the bounty offered in various
ways on the occupation and culture of land; the erection of
municipalities; the right of inter-colonial traffic, and of exporting and
importing merchandise of every description free of duty. [13] These and
similar laws show that the government, far from regarding the colonies
merely as a foreign acquisition to be sacrificed to the interests of the
mother country, as at a later period, was disposed to legislate for them
on more generous principles, as an integral portion of the monarchy.

Some of the measures, even, of a less liberal tenor, may be excused, as
sufficiently accommodated to existing circumstances. No regulation, for
example, was found eventually more mischievous in its operation than that
which confined the colonial trade to the single port of Seville, instead
of permitting it to find a free vent in the thousand avenues naturally
opened in every part of the kingdom; to say nothing of the grievous
monopolies and exactions, for which this concentration of a mighty traffic
on so small a point was found, in later times, to afford unbounded
facility. But the colonial trade was too limited in its extent, under
Ferdinand and Isabella, to involve such consequences. It was chiefly
confined to a few wealthy seaports of Andalusia, from the vicinity of
which the first adventurers had sallied forth on their career of
discovery. It was no inconvenience to them to have a common port of entry,
so central and accessible as Seville, which, moreover, by this arrangement
became a great mart for European trade, thus affording a convenient market
to the country for effecting its commercial exchanges with every quarter
of Christendom. [14] It was only when laws, adapted to the incipient
stages of commerce, were perpetuated to a period when that commerce had
swelled to such gigantic dimensions as to embrace every quarter of the
empire, that their gross impolicy became manifest.

It would not be giving a fair view of the great objects proposed by the
Spanish sovereigns in their schemes of discovery, to omit one which was
paramount to all the rest, with the queen at least,--the propagation of
Christianity among the heathen. The conversion and civilization of this
simple people form, as has been already said, the burden of most of her
official communications from the earliest period. [15] She neglected no
means for the furtherance of this good work, through the agency of
missionaries exclusively devoted to it, who were to establish their
residence among the natives, and win them to the true faith by their
instructions, and the edifying example of their own lives. It was with the
design of ameliorating the condition of the natives, that she sanctioned
the introduction into the colonies of negro slaves born in Spain. This she
did on the representation that the physical constitution of the African
was much better fitted than that of the Indian to endure severe toil under
a tropical climate. To this false principle of economizing human
suffering, we are indebted for that foul stain on the New World, which has
grown deeper and darker with the lapse of years. [16]

Isabella, however, was destined to have her benevolent designs, in regard
to the natives, defeated by her own subjects. The popular doctrine of the
absolute rights of the Christian over the heathen seemed to warrant the
exaction of labor from these unhappy beings to any degree, which avarice
on the one hand could demand, or human endurance concede on the other. The
device of the _repartimientos_ systematized and completed the whole
scheme of oppression. The queen, it is true, abolished them under Ovando's
administration, and declared the Indians "as free as her own subjects."
[17] But his representation, that the Indians, when no longer compelled to
work, withdrew from all intercourse with the Christians, thus annihilating
at once all hopes of their conversion, subsequently induced her to consent
that they should be required to labor moderately and for a reasonable
compensation. [18] This was construed with their usual latitude by the
Spaniards. They soon revived the old system of distribution on so terrific
a scale, that a letter of Columbus, written shortly after Isabella's
death, represents more than six-sevenths of the whole population of
Hispaniola to have melted away under it! [19] The queen was too far
removed to enforce the execution of her own beneficent measures; nor is it
probable, that she ever imagined the extent of their violation, for there
was no intrepid philanthropist, in that day, like Las Casas, to proclaim
to the world the wrongs and sorrows of the Indian. [20] A conviction,
however, of the unworthy treatment of the natives seems to have pressed
heavily on her heart; for in a codicil to her testament, dated a few days
only before her death, she invokes the kind offices of her successor in
their behalf in such strong and affectionate language, as plainly
indicates how intently her thoughts were occupied with their condition
down to the last hour of her existence. [21]

The moral grandeur of the maritime discoveries under this reign must not
so far dazzle us, as to lead to a very high estimate of their immediate
results in an economical view. Most of those articles which have since
formed the great staples of South American commerce, as cocoa, indigo,
cochineal, tobacco, etc., were either not known in Isabella's time, or not
cultivated for exportation. Small quantities of cotton had been brought to
Spain, but it was doubted whether the profit would compensate the expense
of raising it. The sugar-cane had been transplanted into Hispaniola, and
thrived luxuriantly in its genial soil. But it required time to grow it to
any considerable amount as an article of commerce; and this was still
further delayed by the distractions as well as avarice of the colony,
which grasped at nothing less substantial than gold itself. The only
vegetable product extensively used in trade was the brazil-wood, whose
beautiful dye and application to various ornamental purposes made it, from
the first, one of the most important monopolies of the crown.

The accounts are too vague to afford any probable estimate of the precious
metals obtained from the new territories previous to Ovando's mission.
Before the discovery of the mines of Hayna it was certainly very
inconsiderable. The size of some of the specimens of ore found there would
suggest magnificent ideas of their opulence. One piece of gold is reported
by the contemporary historians to have weighed three thousand two hundred
castellanos, and to have been so large, that the Spaniards served up a
roasted pig on it, boasting that no potentate in Europe could dine off so
costly a dish. [22] The admiral's own statement, that the miners obtained
from six gold castellanos to one hundred or even two hundred and fifty in
a day, allows a latitude too great to lead to any definite conclusion.
[23] More tangible evidence of the riches of the island is afforded by the
fact that two hundred thousand castellanos of gold went down in the ships
with Bobadilla. But this, it must be remembered, was the fruit of gigantic
efforts, continued, under a system of unexampled oppression, for more than
two years. To this testimony might be added that of the well-informed
historian of Seville, who infers from several royal ordinances that the
influx of the precious metals had been such, before the close of the
fifteenth century, as to affect the value of the currency, and the regular
prices of commodities. [24] These large estimates, however, are scarcely
reconcilable with the popular discontent at the meagreness of the returns
obtained from the New World, or with the assertion of Bernaldez, of the
same date with Zuñiga's reference, that, "so little gold had been brought
home as to raise a general belief that there was scarcely any in the
island." [25] This is still further confirmed by the frequent
representations of contemporary writers, that the expenses of the colonies
considerably exceeded the profits; and may account for the very limited
scale on which the Spanish government, at no time blind to its own
interests, pursued its schemes of discovery, as compared with its
Portuguese neighbors, who followed up theirs with a magnificent apparatus
of fleets and armies, that could have been supported only by the teeming
treasures of the Indies. [26]

While the colonial, commerce failed to produce immediately the splendid
returns which were expected, it was generally believed to have introduced
a physical evil into Europe, which, in the language of an eminent writer,
"more than counterbalanced all the benefits that resulted from the
discovery of the New World." I allude to the loathsome disease, which
Heaven has sent as the severest scourge of licentious intercourse between
the sexes; and which broke out with all the virulence of an epidemic in
almost every quarter of Europe, in a very short time after the discovery
of America. The coincidence of these two events led to the popular belief
of their connection with each other, though it derived little support from
any other circumstance. The expedition of Charles the Eighth, against
Naples, which brought the Spaniards, soon after, in immediate contact with
the various nations of Christendom, suggested a plausible medium for the
rapid communication of the disorder; and this theory of its origin and
transmission, gaining credit with time, which made it more difficult to be
refuted, has passed with little examination from the mouth of one
historian to another to the present day.

The extremely brief interval which elapsed, between the return of Columbus
and the simultaneous appearance of the disorder at the most distant points
of Europe, long since suggested a reasonable distrust of the correctness
of the hypothesis; and an American, naturally desirous of relieving his
own country from so melancholy a reproach, may feel satisfaction that the
more searching and judicious criticism of our own day has at length
established beyond a doubt that the disease, far from originating in the
New World, was never known there till introduced by Europeans. [27]

Whatever be the amount of physical good or evil, immediately resulting to
Spain from her new discoveries, their moral consequences were inestimable.
The ancient limits of human thought and action were overleaped; the veil
which had covered the secrets of the deep for so many centuries was
removed; another hemisphere was thrown open; and a boundless expansion
promised to science, from the infinite varieties in which nature was
exhibited in these unexplored regions. The success of the Spaniards
kindled a generous emulation in their Portuguese rivals, who soon after
accomplished their long-sought passage into the Indian seas, and thus
completed the great circle of maritime discovery. [28] It would seem as if
Providence had postponed this grand event, until the possession of
America, with its stores of precious metals, might supply such materials
for a commerce with the east, as should bind together the most distant
quarters of the globe. The impression made on the enlightened minds of
that day is evinced by the tone of gratitude and exultation, in which they
indulge, at being permitted to witness the consummation of these glorious
events, which their fathers had so long, but in vain, desired to see. [29]

The discoveries of Columbus occurred most opportunely for the Spanish
nation, at the moment when it was released from the tumultuous struggle in
which it had been engaged for so many years with the Moslems. The severe
schooling of these wars had prepared it for entering on a bolder theatre
of action, whose stirring and romantic perils raised still higher the
chivalrous spirit of the people. The operation of this spirit was shown in
the alacrity with which private adventurers embarked in expeditions to the
New World, under cover of the general license, during the last two years
of this century. Their efforts, combined with those of Columbus, extended
the range of discovery from its original limits, twenty-four degrees of
north latitude, to probably more than fifteen south, comprehending some of
the most important territories in the western hemisphere. Before the end
of 1500, the principal groups of the West Indian islands had been visited,
and the whole extent of the southern continent coasted, from the Bay of
Honduras to Cape St. Augustine. One adventurous mariner, indeed, named
Lepe, penetrated several degrees south of this, to a point not reached by
any other voyager for ten or twelve years after. A great part of the
kingdom of Brazil was embraced in this extent, and two successive
Castilian navigators landed and took formal possession of it for the crown
of Castile, previous to its reputed discovery by the Portuguese Cabral;
[30] although the claims to it were subsequently relinquished by the
Spanish Government, conformably to the famous line of demarkation
established by the treaty of Tordesillas. [31]

While the colonial empire of Spain was thus every day enlarging, the man
to whom it was all due was never permitted to know the extent or the value
of it. He died in the conviction in which he lived, that the land he had
reached was the long-sought Indies. But it was a country far richer than
the Indies; and, had he on quitting Cuba struck into a westerly, instead
of southerly direction, it would have carried him into the very depths of
the golden regions, whose existence he had so long and vainly predicted.
As it was, he "only opened the gates," to use his own language, for others
more fortunate than himself; and before he quitted Hispaniola for the last
time, the young adventurer arrived there, who was destined, by the
conquest of Mexico, to realize all the magnificent visions, which had been
derided as only visions, in the lifetime of Columbus.

       *       *       *       *       *

The discovery of the New World was fortunately reserved for a period when
the human race was sufficiently enlightened to form some conception of its
importance. Public attention was promptly and eagerly directed to this
momentous event, so that few facts worthy of note, during the whole
progress of discovery from its earliest epoch, escaped contemporary
record. Many of these notices have, indeed, perished through neglect, in
the various repositories in which they were scattered. The researches of
Navarrete have rescued many, and will, it is to be hoped, many more, from
their progress to oblivion. The first two volumes of his compilation,
containing the journals and letters of Columbus, the correspondence of the
sovereigns with him, and a vast quantity of public and private documents,
form, as I have elsewhere remarked, the most authentic basis for a history
of that great man. Next to these in importance is the "History of the
Admiral," by his son Ferdinand, whose own experience and opportunities,
combined with uncommon literary attainments, eminently qualified him for
recording his father's extraordinary life. It must be allowed, that he has
done this with a candor and good faith seldom warped by any overweening,
though natural, partiality for his subject. His work met with a whimsical
fate. The original was early lost, but happily not before it had been
translated into the Italian, from which a Spanish version was afterwards
made; and from this latter, thus reproduced in the same tongue in which it
originally appeared, are derived the various translations of it into the
other languages of Europe. The Spanish version, which is incorporated into
Barcia's collection, is executed in a slovenly manner, and is replete with
chronological inaccuracies; a circumstance not very wonderful, considering
the curious transmigration it has undergone.

Another contemporary author of great value is Peter Martyr, who took so
deep an interest in the nautical enterprise of his day, as to make it,
independently of the abundant notices scattered through his
correspondence, the subject of a separate work. His history, "De Rebus
Oceanicis et Novo Orbe," has all the value which extensive learning, a
reflecting, philosophical mind, and intimate familiarity with the
principal actors in the scenes he describes, can give. Indeed, that no
source of information might be wanting to him, the sovereigns authorized
him to be present at the Council of the Indies, whenever any communication
was made to that body, respecting the progress of discovery. The principal
defects of his work arise from the precipitate manner in which the greater
part of it was put together, and the consequently imperfect and
occasionally contradictory statements which appear in it. But the honest
intentions of the author, who seems to have been fully sensible of his own
imperfections, and his liberal spirit, are so apparent, as to disarm
criticism in respect to comparatively venial errors.

But the writer who has furnished the greatest supply of materials for the
modern historian is Antonio de Herrera. He did not flourish, indeed, until
near a century after the discovery of America; but the post which he
occupied of historiographer of the Indies gave him free access to the most
authentic and reserved sources of information. He has availed himself of
these with great freedom; transferring whole chapters from the unpublished
narratives of his predecessors, especially of the good bishop Las Casas,
whose great work, "Crónica de las Indias Occidentales," contained too much
that was offensive to national feeling to be allowed the honors of the
press. The Apostle of the Indians, however, lives in the pages of Herrera,
who, while he has omitted the tumid and overheated declamation of the
original, is allowed by the Castilian critics to have retained whatever is
of most value, and exhibited it in a dress far superior to that of his
predecessor. It must not be omitted, however, that he is also accused of
occasional inadvertence in stating as fact, what Las Casas only adduced as
tradition or conjecture. His "Historia General de las Indias
Occidentales," bringing down the narrative to 1554, was published in four
volumes, at Madrid, in 1601. Herrera left several other histories of the
different states of Europe, and closed his learned labors in 1625, at the
age of sixty.

No Spanish historian had since arisen to contest the palm with Herrera on
his own ground, until, at the close of the last century, Don Juan Bautista
Muñoz was commissioned by the government to prepare a history of the New
World. The talents and liberal acquisitions of this scholar, the free
admission opened to him in every place of public and private deposit, and
the immense mass of materials collected by his indefatigable researches,
authorized the most favorable auguries of his success. These were
justified by the character of the first volume, which brought the
narrative of early discovery to the period of Bobadilla's mission, written
in a perspicuous and agreeable style, with such a discriminating selection
of incident and skilful arrangement, as convey the most distinct
impression to the mind of the reader. Unfortunately, the untimely death of
the author crushed his labors in the bud. Their fruits were not wholly
lost, however. Señor Navarrete, availing himself of them, in connection
with those derived from his own extensive investigations, is pursuing in
part the plan of Muñoz, by the publication of original documents; and Mr.
Irving has completed this design in regard to the early history of Spanish
discovery, by the use which he has made of these materials in constructing
out of them the noblest monument to the memory of Columbus.


FOOTNOTES

[1] See, in particular, a letter to Columbus, dated August, 1494; (apud
Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., no. 79;) also an
elaborate memorial presented by the admiral in the same year, setting
forth the various necessities of the colony, every item of which is
particularly answered by the sovereigns, in a manner showing how
attentively they considered his suggestions.--Ibid., tom. i. pp. 226-241.

[2] Abundant evidence of this is furnished by the long enumeration of
articles subjected to tithes, contained in an ordinance dated October 5th,
1501, showing with what indiscriminate severity this heavy burden was
imposed from the first on the most important products of human industry.
Recopilacion de Leyes de los Reynos de las Indias, (Madrid, 1774,) tom. i.
lib. 1, tit. 16, ley 2.

[3] Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., no. 86, April
10th, 1495.--Nos. 103, 105-108, April 23d, 1497.--No. 110, May 6th, 1497.
--No. 121, July 22d, 1497.--Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 4,
cap. 12.

[4] Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., nos. 86, 121.--
Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 3, cap. 2.--Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-
Mundo, lib. 5, sec. 34.

The exclusion of foreigners, at least all but "Catholic Christians," is
particularly recommended by Columbus in his first communication to the
crown. Primer Viage de Colon.

[5] Among the foreign adventurers were the two Cabots, who sailed in the
service of the English monarch, Henry VII., in 1497, and ran down the
whole coast of North America, from Newfoundland to within a few degrees of
Florida, thus encroaching, as it were, on the very field of discovery
preoccupied by the Spaniards.

[6] Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 5, sect. 32.--Navarrete, Coleccion
de Viages, Doc. Dipl., no. 86.

[7] Columbus seems to have taken exceptions at the license for private
voyages, as an infringement of his own prerogatives. It is difficult,
however, to understand in what way. There is nothing in his original
capitulations with the government having reference to the matter, (see
Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, Doc. Dipl., no. 5,) while, in the letters
patent made out previously to his second voyage, the right of granting
licenses is expressly reserved to the crown, and to the superintendent,
Fonseca, equally with the admiral. (Doc. Dipl., no. 35.) The only legal
claim which he could make in all such expeditions as were not conducted
under him, was to one-eighth of the tonnage, and this was regularly
provided for in the general license. (Doc. Dipl., no. 86.) The sovereigns,
indeed, in consequence of his remonstrances, published an ordinance, June
2d, 1497, in which, after expressing their unabated respect for all the
rights and privileges of the admiral, they declared, that whatever shall
be found in their previous license repugnant to these shall be null and
void. (Doc. Dipl., 113.) The hypothetical form in which this is stated
shows that the sovereigns, with an honest desire of keeping their
engagements with Columbus, had not a very clear perception in what manner
they had been violated.

Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, Dec. 1, lib. 9.--Herrera, Indias
Occidentales, lib. 4, cap. 11.--Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., cap. 13.

[8] Part I. Chap. 18, of this History.

[9] Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., no. 148.--
Solorzano y Pereyra, Política Indiana, (Madrid, 1776,) lib. 6, cap. 17.--
Linage de Veitia, Norte de la Contratacion de las Indias Occidentales,
(Sevilla, 1672,) lib. 1, cap. 1.--Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, año 1503.--
Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 5, cap. 12.--Navagiero, Viaggio, fol.
15.

[10] See the original bull, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii.
apend. 14, and a Spanish version of it, in Solorzano, Política Indiana,
lib. 4, cap. 1, sec. 7.

[11] Solorzano, Política Indiana, tom. ii. lib. 4, cap. 2, sec. 9--Riol,
Informe, apud Semanario Erudite, tom. iii. pp. 160, 161.

[12] Among others see Raynal, History of the East and West Indies,
translated by Justamond, (London, 1788,) vol. iv. p. 277.--Robertson,
History of America, (London, 1796,) vol. iii. p. 283.

[13] Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 5, sec. 32, 33.--Herrera, Indias
Occidentales, lib. 4, cap. 11, 12.--Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom.
ii., Doc. Dipl., no. 86.

[14] The historian of Seville mentions that it was the resort especially
of the merchants of Flanders, with whom a more intimate intercourse had
been opened by the intermarriages of the royal family with the house of
Burgundy. See Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, p. 415.

[15] Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., no. 45, et loc.
al.--Las Casas, amidst his unsparing condemnation of the guilty, does
ample justice to the pure and generous, though, alas! unavailing efforts
of the queen. See Oeuvres, ed. de Llorente, tom. i. pp. 21, 307, 395, et
alibi.

[16] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 4, cap. 12.--A good account of the
introduction of negro slavery into the New World, comprehending the
material facts, and some little known, may be found in the fifth chapter
of Bancroft's "History of the United States;" a work in which the author
has shown singular address in creating a unity of interest out of a
subject which, in its early stages, would seem to want every other unity.
It is the deficiency of this, probably, which has prevented Mr. Grahame's
valuable History from attaining the popularity, to which its solid merits
justly entitle it. Should the remaining volumes of Mr. Bancroft's work be
conducted with the same spirit, scholarship, and impartiality as the
volume before us, it cannot fail to take a permanent rank in American
literature.

[17] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 4, cap. 11.

[18] Dec. 20th, 1503.--Ibid., lib. 5, cap. 11.--See the instructions to
Ovando in Navarrete, (Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., no. 153.)
"Pay them regular wages," says the ordinance, "for their labor," "como
personas libres como lo son, y no como siervos." Las Casas, who analyzes
these instructions, which Llorente, by the by, has misdated, exposes the
atrocious manner in which they were violated, in every particular, by
Ovando and his successors. Oeuvres, ed. de Llorente, tom. i. p. 309, et
seq.

[19] Ibid., ubi supra.--Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. 2, cap. 36, MS., apud
Irving, vol. iii. p. 412.--The venerable bishop confirms this frightful
picture of desolation, in its full extent, in his various memorials
prepared for the Council of the Indies. Oeuvres, ed. de Llorente, tom. i.
passim.

[20] Las Casas made his first voyage to the Indies, it is true, in 1498,
or at latest 1502; but there is no trace of his taking an active part in
denouncing the oppressions of the Spaniards earlier than 1510, when he
combined his efforts with those of the Dominican missionaries lately
arrived in St. Domingo, in the same good work. It was not until some years
later, 1515, that he returned to Spain and pleaded the cause of the
injured natives before the throne. Llorente, Oeuvres de Las Casas, tom. i.
pp. 1-23.--Nic. Antonio, Bibliotheca Nova, tom. i. pp. 191, 192.

[21] See the will, apud Dormer, Discursos Varios, p. 381.

[22] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 5, cap. 1.--Fernando Colon, Hist.
del Almirante, cap. 84.--Oviedo, Relacion Sumaria de la Historia Natural
de las Indias, cap. 84, apud Barcia, Historiadores Primitivos, tom. i.

[23] Tercer Viage de Colon, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i.
p. 274.

[24] Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, p. 415. The alteration was in the gold
currency; which continued to rise in value till 1497, when it gradually
sunk, in consequence of the importation from the mines of Hispaniola.
Clemencin has given its relative value as compared with silver, for
several different years; and the year he assigns for the commencement of
its depreciation, is precisely the same with that indicated by Zuñiga.
(Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 20.) The value of silver was
not materially affected till the discovery of the great mines of Potosí
and Zacatecas.

[25] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 131.

[26] The estimates in the text, it will be noticed, apply only to the
period antecedent to Ovando's administration, in 1502. The operations
under him were conducted on a far more extensive and efficient plan. The
system of _repartimientos_ being revived, the whole physical force of
the island, aided by the best mechanical apparatus, was employed in
extorting from the soil all its hidden stores of wealth. The success was
such that in 1506, within two years after Isabella's death, the four
foundries established in the island yielded an annual amount, according to
Herrera, of 450,000 ounces of gold. It must be remarked, however, that
one-fifth only of the gross sum obtained from the mines was at that time
paid to the crown. It is a proof how far these returns exceeded the
expectations at the time of Ovando's appointment, that the person then
sent out, as marker of the gold, was to receive, as a reasonable
compensation, one per cent, of all the gold assayed. The perquisite,
however, was found to be so excessive, that the functionary was recalled,
and a new arrangement made with his successor. (See Herrera, Indias
Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 6, cap. 18.) When Navagiero visited Seville, in
1520, the royal fifth of the gold, which passed through the mints,
amounted to about 100,000 ducats annually. Viaggio, fol. 15.

[27] The curious reader is particularly referred to a late work, entitled
_Lettere sutta Storia de' Mali Venerei, di Domenico Thiene, Venezia_,
1823; for the knowledge and loan of which I am indebted to my friend, Dr.
Walter Channing. In this work, the author has assembled all the early
notices of the disease of any authority, and discussed their import with
great integrity and judgment. The following positions may be considered as
established by his researches. 1. That neither Columbus nor his son, in
their copious narratives and correspondence, allude in any way to the
existence of such a disease in the New World. I must add, that an
examination of the original documents, published by Navarrete since the
date of Dr. Thiene's work, fully confirms this statement. 2. That among
the frequent notices of the disease, during the twenty-five years
immediately following the discovery of America, there is not a single
intimation of its having been brought from that country; but, on the
contrary, a uniform derivation of it from some other source, generally
France. 3. That the disorder was known and circumstantially described
previous to the expedition of Charles VIII., and of course could not have
been introduced by the Spaniards in that way, as vulgarly supposed. 4.
That various contemporary authors trace its existence in a variety of
countries, as far back as 1493, and the beginning of 1494, showing a
rapidity and extent of diffusion perfectly irreconcilable with its
importation by Columbus in 1493. 5. Lastly, that it was not till after the
close of Ferdinand and Isabella's reigns, that the first work appeared
affecting to trace the origin of the disease to America; and this,
published 1517, was the production not of a Spaniard, but a foreigner.

A letter of Peter Martyr to the learned Portuguese Arias Barbosa,
professor of Greek at Salamanca, noticing the symptoms of the disease in
the most unequivocal manner, will settle at once this much vexed question,
if we can rely on the genuineness of the date, the 5th of April, 1488,
about five years before the return of Columbus. Dr. Thiene, however,
rejects the date as apocryphal, on the ground, 1. That the name of "morbus
Gallicus," given to the disease by Martyr, was not in use till after the
French invasion, in 1494. 2. That the superscription of Greek professor at
Salamanca was premature, as no such professorship existed there till 1508.

As to the first of these objections, it may be remarked, that there is but
one author prior to the French invasion, who notices the disease at all.
He derives it from Gaul, though not giving it the technical appellation of
_morbus Gallicus_; and Martyr, it may be observed, far from confining
himself to this, alludes to one or two other names, showing that its title
was then quite undetermined. In regard to the second objection, Dr. Thiene
does not cite his authority for limiting the introduction of Greek at
Salamanca to 1508. He may have found a plausible one in the account of
that university compiled by one of its officers, Pedro Chacon, in 1569,
inserted in the eighteenth volume of the Semanario Erudito, (Madrid,
1789.) The accuracy of the writer's chronology, however, may well be
doubted from a gross anachronism on the same page with the date referred
to, where he speaks of Queen Joanna as inheriting the crown in 1512.
(Hist. de la Universidad de Salamanca, p. 55.) Waiving this, however, the
fact of Barbosa being Greek professor at Salamanca in 1488 is directly
intimated by his pupil the celebrated Andrew Resendi. "Arias Lusitanus,"
says he, "quadraginta, et eo plus annos Salmanticae tum Latinas litteras,
tum Graecas, magnâ cum laude professus est." (Responsio ad Quevedum, apud
Barbosa, Bibliotheca Lusitana, tom. i. p. 77.) Now, as Barbosa, by general
consent, passed several years in his native country, Portugal, before his
death in 1530, this assertion of Resendi necessarily places him at
Salamanca in the situation of Greek instructor some time before the date
of Martyr's letter. It may be added, indeed, that Nic. Antonio, than whom
a more competent critic could not be found, so far from suspecting the
date of the letter, cites it as settling the period when Barbosa filled
the Greek chair at Salamanca, (See Bibliotheca Nova, tom. i. p. 170.)

Martyr's epistle, if we admit the genuineness of the date, must dispose at
once of the whole question of the American origin of the venereal disease.
But as this question is determined quite as conclusively, though not so
summarily, by the accumulated evidence from other sources, the reader will
probably think the matter not worth so much discussion.

[28] This event occurred in 1497, Vasco de Gama doubling the Cape of Good
Hope, November 20th, in that year, and reaching Calicut in the following
May, 1498. La Clède, Hist. de Portugal, tom. iii. pp. 104-109.

[29] See, among others, Peter Martyr, Opus Epist, epist. 181.

[30] Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. iii. pp. 18-26.--Cabral's
pretensions to the discovery of Brazil appear not to have been doubted
until recently. They are sanctioned both by Robertson and Raynal.

[31] The Portuguese court formed, probably, no very accurate idea of the
geographical position of Brazil. King Emanuel, in a letter to the Spanish
sovereigns acquainting them with Cabral's voyage, speaks of the newly
discovered region as not only convenient, but _necessary_, for the
navigation to India. (See the letter, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages,
tom. iii. no. 13.) The oldest maps of this country, whether from ignorance
or design, bring it twenty-two degrees east of its proper longitude, so
that the whole of the vast tract now comprehended under the name of
Brazil, would fall on the Portuguese side of the partition line agreed on
by the two governments, which, it will be remembered, was removed to 370
leagues west of the Cape de Verd Islands. The Spanish court made some show
at first of resisting the pretensions of the Portuguese, by preparations
for establishing a colony on the northern extremity of the Brazilian
territory. (Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. iii. p. 39.) It is not
easy to understand how it came finally to admit these pretensions. Any
correct admeasurement with the Castilian league would only have included
the fringe, as it were, of the northeastern promontory of Brazil. The
Portuguese league, allowing seventeen to a degree, may have been adopted,
which would embrace nearly the whole territory which passed under the name
of Brazil, in the best ancient maps, extending from Para on the north, to
the great river of San Pedro on the south. (See Malte Brun, Universal
Geography, (Boston, 1824-9,) book 91.) Mariana seems willing to help the
Portuguese, by running the partition line one hundred leagues farther west
than they claimed themselves. Hist. de España, tom. ii. p. 607.

END OF VOL. II.