— Volume 2 / Prescott, William Hickling, 1796-1859

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Title: The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella The Catholic, V2

Author: William H. Prescott

Release Date: November, 2004 [EBook #6967]
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[This file was first posted on February 18, 2003]

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FERDINAND AND ISABELLA, VOL. 2 ***




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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 MUNOZ




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 Taracona, 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 a 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
Catolicos, part. 3, cap. 27, 39, 67, et alibi.--L. Marineo, Cosas
Memorables, fol. 175.--Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 348.

[2] Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 66.--A pertinent example of this
occurred, December, 1485, at Alcala de Henares, where the court was
detained during the queen's illness, who there gave birth to her youngest
child, Dona 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
Catolicos, cap. 53.--Carbajal, Anales, MS., ano 1485.

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

[4] Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. cap. 52, 67.--Mariana, Hist. de Espana, 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 Taracona, 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 Espana, 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 pere."




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 Dona 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 Espana, tom. ii. lib. 27, cap. 10.--Pulgar,
Reyes Catolicos, part. iii. cap. 70.--Carbajal, Anales, MS., ano 1487.--
Bleda, Coronica, lib. 5, cap. 14.

[2] Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii. pp. 292-294.--
Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, 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 Catolicos, MS., cap. 52.--Marmol, Rebelion de
Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 14.

[5] Conde doubts whether the name of Malaga is derived from the Greek
_malake_, signifying "agreeable," or the Arabic _malka_, meaning "royal."
Either etymology is sufficiently pertinent. (See El Nubiense, Descripcion
de Espana, 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
Catolicos, cap. 74.--El Nubiense, Descripcion de Espana, not., p. 144.

[7] Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 82.--Vedmar, Antiguedad de
Velez, fol. 154.--Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, 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 Catolicos, cap. 75.--Salazar de Mendoza, Cron. del Gran
Cardenal, lib. 1, cap. 64.

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

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

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

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

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

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

[16] Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, 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 Catolicos, 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 Catolicos, MS., cap.
84.--Bleda, Coronica de los Moros, lib. 5, cap. 15.--L. Marineo, Cosas
Memorables, fol. 175, 176.

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

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

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

[22] Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 9l.--Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, 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 Vita
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 Catolicos, cap. 92.--Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos,
MS., cap. 85.

[25] Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, 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 Catolicos, 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, ano 1487.--Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 14.

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

As a counterpart to the above scene, twelve Christian renegades, found in
the city, were transfixed with canes, _acanavereados_, 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 _fetes_
and illuminations most grateful to the Catholic piety of our sovereigns"!
Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. rey 30, cap. 3.

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

[30] Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, 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., ano 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 Catolicos, MS., cap. 87.--Bleda, Coronica, 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 Catolicos, cap. 94.--Col. de Ced., 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, Alcala 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., prologo.)
Alvaro Gomez, another contemporary who survived Martyr, in the Life of
Ximenes, which he was selected to write by the University of Alcala,
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 Alcala 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
Espana, tom. ii. lib. 25, cap. 12.--Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, part. 3,
cap. 95.

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

[3] Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. pp. 239, 240.--Pulgar,
Reyes Catolicos, 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
Francais, tom. xv. p. 77.--Aleson, Annales de Navarra, tom. v. p. 61.--
Histoire du Royaume de Navarre, pp. 578, 579.--Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos,
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 Catolicos, ubi supra.

[6] Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 91.--Zurita, Anales, tom. iv.
fol. 354.--Bleda, Coronica, 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
Catolicos, 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 Zuniga, 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 Urena.
  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 Zuniga, duke of Bejar.
  Inigo Lopez de Mendoza, count of Tendilla, afterwards marquis of
    Mondejar.
  Luis de Cerda, duke of Medina Celi.
  Inigo 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 Espana, tom. ii. fol. 239.--Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos,
lib. 1, cap. 16.

[9] Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, 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 Catolicos, MS., cap. 92.--Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique
et d'Espagne, tom. iii. pp. 299, 300.--Bleda, Coronica, 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 Catolicos, cap. 109.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 2, epist. 73.
--Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 92.

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

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

[14] Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 2,
epist. 73, 80.--Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 113, 114, 117.--Garibay,
Compendio, tom. ii. p. 667.--Bleda, Coronica, 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
Catolicos, cap. 116.

[16] Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, 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. Senor 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 Catolicos, MS., cap. 92.--Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos,
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., ano 1489.--Cardonne,
Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii. p. 305.

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

[20] Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. cap. 40.--Bleda, Coronica,
p. 612.--Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, 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 Catolicos, loc.
cit.--Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. cap. 40.

[22] El Nubiense, Descripcion de Espana, p. 160, not.--Carbajal, Anales,
MS., ano 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 Catolicos, 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 Zuniga, 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
_fetes_ 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, Urena, 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 Alcala 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 Alcala 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., ano 1490.--Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS.,
cap. 95.--Zuniga, Annales de Sevilla, pp. 404, 405.--Pulgar, Reyes
Catolicos, part. 3, cap. 127.--La Clede, 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 Catholicas, p. 845.--Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 129.--Oviedo,
Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 2, dial. 3.

[3] Conde, Domination de los Arabes, tom. iii. cap. 41.--Bernaldez, Reyes
Catolicos, 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 Catolicos, p. 275.--Garibay,
Compendio, tom. iv. p. 418.

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

[5] Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 131, 132.--Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos,
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., ano 1491.

[7] According to Zuniga, 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 Cedulas, tom. iii. no. 3.

[8] Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. cap. 42.--Bernaldez, Reyes
Catolicos, 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 Catolicos, MS., cap. 101.

[11] Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 101.--Conde, Dominacion de los
Arabes, tom. iii. cap. 42.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 4, epist. 90.
--Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, 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
Catolicos, MS., cap. 101.--Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. p. 673.--Bleda,
Coronica, p. 619.--Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 18.

[13] Estrada, Poblacion de Espana, 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,
  Senores 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, Cron. 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, Cron.
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 Catolicos, 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 spiro nell' altrui petto,
  Alta contrizion successe, mista
  Di timoroso e riverente affetto,
  Osano appena d'innalzar la vista
  Ver la citta."

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

[20] Mariana, Hist. de Espana tom. ii. p. 597.--Pedraza, Antiguedad de
Granada, fol. 76.--Carbajal, Anales, MS., ano 1492.--Conde, Dominacion de
los Arabes, tom. iii. cap. 43.--Bleda, Coronica, 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., ano 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] Zuniga, Annales de Sevilla, p. 411.--Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, 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, Senor 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 Senor 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 Historicas 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 Espanoles, (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 Revolutions 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, Monarquia, tom. i. pp. 347-
349.--Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, pp. 136, 203.--Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos,
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 Ordenancas Reales and the various
public archives, in Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 11.

[5] Zuniga, 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 Catolicos, MS., cap. 131.--Munoz, 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 Munoz 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 Munoz.
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
Catolicos, 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 Geographie 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' e 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.--Munoz,
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, Geographie du Nouveau Continent, tom. ii. pp. 118, 125.

[13] Herrera, Indias Occidentals, tom. i. dec. 1, lib. 1, cap. 7.--Munoz,
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, Cron. 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.--Zuniga,
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,
Cron. del Gran Cardenal, p. 215.--Munoz, 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.--Munoz, 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 Munoz 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.--Munoz, 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] Munoz, 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.--Munoz, 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.
--Zuniga, Annales de Sevilla, p. 412.--Mariana, Hist. de Espana, 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.--Munoz, 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.
(Geographie 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;
  Ne biasnio popolar, frale catena,
  Spirto d'onore, il suo cammin reffrena.
  Cosi lunga stagion per modi indegni
  Europa disprezzo 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 hora sunt
in Hispania _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 Cron. 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., ano 1492.--Recep. de las Leyes, lib. 8, tit. 2,
ley 2.--Pragmaticas 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 _a la lettre_. See Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 112.

[7] Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, ubi supra.

[8] Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, 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 Catolicos, 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 Catolicos, ubi supra.--La Clede, Hist. de
Portugal, tom. iv. p. 95.--Mariana, Hist. de Espana, tom. ii. p. 602.

[11] Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii. p. 133.--Bernaldez, Reyes
Catolicos, 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 Espana, 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
Espanola, 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 Catolicos, MS., cap. 110.--Llorente, Hist. de
l'Inquisition, tom. i. chap. 7, sect. 7.--Mariana, Hist. de Espana, 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 Catolicos, MS.,
cap. 116.--Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. pp. 678, 679.--Abarca, Reyes de
Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 315.--Carbajal, Anales, MS., ano 1492.--Oviedo,
Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 4, dial. 9.

[3] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 125.--Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos,
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
Catolicos, 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.--Munoz, 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 Joao II., cap. 66, apud Colleccao 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 Clede, 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] Munoz, 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."
Monarquia, pp. 351, 352.

[11] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 133, 134, 140.--Bernaldez, Reyes
Catolicos, MS., cap. 118.--Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii. pp. 141,
142.--Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, ubi supra.--Zuniga, 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.--Munoz,
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 incognita 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
summa doctrina 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 ea redeunt provincia. Implicent animos pecuniarum
cumulis augendis miseri avari, libidinibus obscoeni; noetras nos mentes,
postquam Deo pleni aliquandiu fuerimus, contemplando, hujuscemodi rerum
notitia demulceamus." Opus Epist., epist. 124, 152.

[13] Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, 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.--
Zuniga, 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.--
Munoz, 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.--Munoz, Hist. del
Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 4, sec. 21.

[17] See the original instructions, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages,
Col. Diplom., no. 45.--Munoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 4, sec. 22.--
Zuniga, 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.--Munoz, 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 Clede, Hist. de Portugal, tom. iv. pp. 53-58.

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

[25] Zuniga, Annales de Sevilla, p. 413.--Fernando Colon, Hist. del
Almirante, cap. 44.--Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, 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 Clede, Hist. de Portugal, tom. iv. pp. 53-58.--Munoz, 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 Espana, tom. ii. pp. 606, 607.--La
Clede, 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 _a l'amiable_ by the Spanish
government's relinquishing its pretensions, in consideration of 350,000
ducats, paid by the court of Lisbon. See La Clede, Hist. De Portugal, tom.
iv. pp. 309, 401, 402, 480.--Mariana, Hist. de Espana, tom. ii. pp. 607,
875.--Salazar de Mendoza, Monarquia, 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 Alcala. 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 Dona 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 Dona Beatriz de Galindo, called from her peculiar
attainments _la Latina_. Another lady, Dona Lucia de Medrano, publicly
lectured on the Latin classics in the university of Salamanca. And
another, Dona Francisca de Lebrija, daughter of the historian of that
name, filled the chair of rhetoric with applause at Alcala. 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 Alcala, 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
Alcala; 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 Alcala; [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
_pragmatica_, 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, Alcala 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 Donas, 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 Christiana
Femina," remarks, "Aetas noster quatuor illas Isabellae reginae filias,
quas paullo ante memoravi, eruditas vidit. Non sine laudibus et
admiratione refertur mihi passim in hae terra Joannam, Philippi conjugem,
Caroli hujus matrem, extempore latinis orationibus, quae de more apud
novos principes oppidatim habentur, latine respondisse. Idem de regina
sua, Joannae sorore, Britanni praedicant; idem omnes de duabus aliis, quae
in Lusitania fato concessere." (De Christiana Femina, 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 Donas, (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
acompanado de tantos e tan doctisimos varones, que no menos dejareis
perdurable memoria de haber alargado e estendido los limites e terminos 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 a la guerra," says Oviedo, speaking of some young nobles
of his time, "_por su Espanola 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 domus adolescentes
utriusque sexus 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 Alcala 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 duenos passando de unos senores 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, Boethius,
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 Espanola, 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 Alcala, 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.

Senor 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 Espanola, 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, Origenes, (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 litteraria, Antonium Nebrissensem, qui primus ex Italia
in Hispaniam Musas adduxit, quibuscum barbariem ex sua patria 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 Alcala, the latter of whom was esteemed
one of the most accomplished scholars of the age; Nunez de Guzman, of the
ancient house of that name, professor for many years at Salamanca and
Alcala, 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 quam a complectendo linguae ac
bonas literas. Cujus praecipuum oramentum est egregius ille senex,
planeque 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 Riol, who particularly
notices the solicitude of Ferdinand and Isabella for preserving the public
documents.

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

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

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

[38] Ordenancas 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 Espanola, 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, (Goettingen,
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 Espanola, p. 56.

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

[42] Mendez, Typographia Espanola, pp. 52, 53.--Pragmaticas 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 etabli dans Madrid un systeme de liberte sur la
vente des productions, qui s'etend meme a celles de la presse; et que,
pourvu que je ne parle en mes ecrits ni de l'autorite, ni de culte, ni de
la politique, ni de la morale, ni des gens en place, ni des corps en
credit, ni de l'Opera, ni des autres spectacles, ni de personne qui tienne
a 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 Ordonez 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 cosi 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 Urena,
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 _introito_, 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, "Origenes del Teatro Espanol," 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,
(Goettingen, 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-
Apologetico de la Literatura Espanola, (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 Poesia y Poetas Espanoles, 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 Espanola, 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 comienca el primero libro del esforcado 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
Garciordones 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 coracones 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, ano 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 Pintiquiniestra, 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 desvergoncadas, como por tener
el estilo desbaracado, que no ay buen estomago que lo pueda leer." Apud
Mayans y Siscar, Origenes, 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 Alcala
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 Mueller. 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.
(Poesia 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 "poesia 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 Poetica Espanola, 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 lanca
  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 Espanol, 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, Prologo.) 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, Poesias Escogidas, de Nuestros
Cancioneros y Romanceros Antiguos, (Madrid, 1796,) tom. xvi., Prologo.--
Quintana, Poesias 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 Espanola, 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 Saemmtliche 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 Senora, 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 Espanola, 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 Espanola,
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 Espanola, 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 Espanol, 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 Espanola, 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, Poesia 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 Espana, 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. Prologo.

[31] Coplas de Don Jorge Manrique, ed. Madrid, 1779.--Dialogo de las
Lenguas, apud Mayans y Siscar, Origenes, 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. prologo de
Nasarre.--Velazquez, Poesia 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,
prol.), Jovellanos (Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. v. Memor. 6), Pellicer
(Origen 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 Origenes del Teatro Espanol, 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, (Alcala, 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.--Dialogo de las Lenguas, apud Mayans y Siscar, Origenes, 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 "Dialogo 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 Espanola, 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,
Origen 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 anadidas." (Mendez, Typographia Espanola, 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 Espana,
  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 Espana acabavan
  todos los Moriscos, que eran
  De aquel Reyno de Granada,
  y entonces se dava en ella
  principio 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. prologo.--Andres,
Letteratura, tom. v. p. 179.--Velazquez, Poesia Castellana, p. 88.

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

[45] Bartolome 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. prol.

[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 dano 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 desesperaria.
  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, prol., and Signorelli, Storia Critica de' Teatri, tom.
vi. pp. 171-179.--See also Moratin, Origenes, Obras, tom. i. pp. 149, 150.

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

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

[51] Pellicer, Origen 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 _litterateur_ 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." Dialogo de las Lenguas,
apud Mayans y Siscar, Origenes, 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
Brantome, 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 Rene, 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
Catolicos_. [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 _fetes_, 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.

Geronimo 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 Alcala. He there made extraordinary proficiency, under the
immediate instruction of the learned Nunez 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 Catholico, (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 mor