[Sidenote: [1474-1504 A.D.]]
It was fortunate for Spain that her sceptre, at this crisis, was swayed
by a sovereign possessed of sufficient wisdom to devise, and energy to
execute the most salutary schemes of reform, and thus to infuse a new
principle of vitality into a government fast sinking into premature
decrepitude.
The whole plan of reform introduced into the government by Ferdinand
and Isabella, or more properly by the latter, to whom the internal
administration of Castile was principally referred, was not fully
unfolded until the completion of her reign. But the most important
modifications were adopted previously to the war of Granada in 1482.
These may be embraced under the following heads: (1) the efficient
administration of justice; (2) the codification of the laws; (3) the
depression of the nobles; (4) the vindication of ecclesiastical rights
belonging to the crown, from the usurpation of the papal see; (5) the
regulation of trade; (6) the pre-eminence of the royal authority.
In the dismal anarchy which prevailed in Henry IV’s reign, the authority
of the monarch and of the royal judges had fallen into such contempt
that the law was entirely without force. The cities afforded no better
protection than the open country. Every man’s hand seemed to be lifted
against his neighbour. Property was plundered; persons were violated; the
most holy sanctuaries profaned; and the numerous fortresses scattered
throughout the country, instead of sheltering the weak, converted into
dens of robbers. Isabella saw no better way of checking this unbounded
license than to direct against it that popular engine, the _Santa
Hermandad_, or Holy Brotherhood, which had more than once shaken the
Castilian monarchs on their throne. By the activity of this new military
police, the country was, in the course of a few years, cleared of its
swarms of banditti, as well as of the robber chieftains, whose strength
had enabled them to defy the law. The ministers of justice found a
sure protection in the independent discharge of their duties; and the
blessings of personal security and social order, so long estranged from
the nation, were again restored to it. At length, in 1498, the objects
for which it was established having been completely obtained, it was
deemed advisable to relieve the nation from the heavy charges which
its maintenance imposed; and the magnificent apparatus of the _Santa
Hermandad_, stripped of all but the terrors of its name, dwindled into an
ordinary police.
[Sidenote: [1474-1476 A.D.]]
Isabella was so intent on the prosecution of her schemes of reform, that
even in the minuter details she frequently superintended the execution of
them herself. For this she was admirably fitted by her personal address,
and presence of mind in danger, and by the influence which a conviction
of her integrity gave her over the minds of the people. A remarkable
exemplification of this occurred, the year but one after her coronation,
at Segovia. The inhabitants, secretly instigated by the bishop of that
place and some of the principal citizens, rose against Cabrera, marquis
of Moya, to whom the government of the city had been entrusted, and who
had made himself generally unpopular by his strict discipline.
The queen, on receiving tidings of the event at Tordesillas, mounted her
horse and proceeded with all possible despatch towards Segovia, attended
by Cardinal Mendoza, the count of Benavente, and a few others of her
court. At some distance from the city she was met by a deputation of the
inhabitants, requesting her to leave behind the count of Benavente and
the marchioness of Moya (the former of whom as the intimate friend, and
the latter as the wife, of the alcalde, were peculiarly obnoxious to
the citizens), or they could not answer for the consequences. Isabella
haughtily replied that she was queen of Castile; that the city was hers,
moreover, by right of inheritance; and that she was not used to receive
conditions from rebellious subjects. Then passing forward with her little
retinue through one of the gates, which remained in the hands of her
friends, she effected her entrance into the citadel.
The populace, in the meanwhile, assembling in greater numbers than
before, continued to show the most hostile dispositions, calling out
“Death to the alcalde! Attack the castle!” She herself descended into
the courtyard, where she ordered the portals to be thrown open for the
admission of the people. She stationed herself at the further extremity
of the area, and as the populace poured in, calmly demanded the cause of
the insurrection. “Tell me,” said she, “what are your grievances, and I
will do all in my power to redress them; for I am sure that what is for
your interest must be also for mine, and for that of the whole city.”
The insurgents, abashed by the unexpected presence of their sovereign,
as well as by her cool and dignified demeanour, replied that all they
desired was the removal of Cabrera from the government of the city. “He
is deposed already,” answered the queen, “and you have my authority to
turn out such of his officers as are still in the castle, which I shall
entrust to one of my own servants, on whom I can rely.” The people,
pacified by these assurances, shouted, “Long live the queen!” and eagerly
hastened to obey her mandates. The mob dispersed, and the queen, after
a candid examination, having ascertained the groundlessness or gross
exaggeration of the charges against Cabrera, and traced the source of the
conspiracy to the jealousy of the bishop of Segovia and his associates,
reinstated the deposed alcalde in the full possession of his dignities,
which his enemies, either convinced of the altered dispositions of the
people, or believing that the favourable moment for resistance had
escaped, made no further attempts to disturb. Thus by a happy presence
of mind, an affair which threatened disastrous consequences was settled
without bloodshed, or compromise of the royal dignity.[50]
[Sidenote: [1476-1479 A.D.]]
In the summer of the following year, 1477, Isabella resolved to pay a
visit to Estremadura and Andalusia, for the purpose of composing the
dissensions and introducing a more efficient police in these unhappy
provinces; which, from their proximity to the stormy frontier of
Portugal, as well as from the feuds between the great houses of Guzman
and Ponce de Leon, were plunged into the most frightful anarchy. Cardinal
Mendoza and her other ministers remonstrated against this imprudent
exposure of her person, where it was so little likely to be respected.
But she replied that it was true there were dangers and inconveniences
to be encountered; but her fate was in God’s hands, and she felt a
confidence that he would guide to a prosperous issue such designs as were
righteous in themselves and resolutely conducted.
Isabella experienced the most loyal and magnificent reception from the
inhabitants of Seville, where she established her headquarters. The
first days of her residence there were consumed in _fêtes_, tourneys,
tilts of reeds, and other exercises of the Castilian chivalry. After
this she devoted her whole time to the great purpose of her visit,
the reformation of abuses. She held her court in the saloon of the
Alcazar, or royal castle, where she revived the ancient practice of the
Castilian sovereigns of presiding in person over the administration of
justice. Every Friday she took her seat in her chair of state, on an
elevated platform covered with cloth of gold, and surrounded by her
council, together with the subordinate functionaries and the insignia
of a court of justice. The members of her privy council and of the high
court of criminal law sat in their official capacity every day in the
week, and the queen herself received such suits as were referred to her
adjudication, saving the parties the usual expense and procrastination of
justice. By the extraordinary despatch of the queen and her ministers,
during the two months that she resided in the city, a vast number of
civil and criminal causes were disposed of, a large amount of plundered
property was restored to its lawful owners, and so many offenders were
brought to condign punishment, that no less than four thousand suspected
persons, it is computed, terrified by the prospect of speedy retribution
for their crimes, escaped into the neighbouring kingdoms of Portugal and
Granada.
The royal audience, or chancery, the supreme and final court of appeal in
civil causes, was entirely remodelled. The place of its sittings, before
indeterminate, and consequently occasioning much trouble and cost to
the litigants, was fixed at Valladolid. Laws were passed to protect the
tribunal from the interference of the crown, and the queen was careful to
fill the bench with magistrates whose wisdom and integrity would afford
the best guarantee for a faithful interpretation of the law. An attorney
was provided at the public expense, under the title of “advocate for the
poor,” whose duty it was to defend the suits of such as were unable to
maintain them at their own cost. The sovereigns testified their respect
for the law by reviving the ancient but obsolete practice of presiding
personally in the tribunals at least once a week. “I well remember,” says
Oviedo,[b] one of their court, “to have seen the queen, together with the
Catholic king her husband, sitting in judgment in the Alcazar of Madrid,
every Friday, dispensing justice to all such, great and small, as came
to demand it. This was indeed the golden age of justice,” continues the
enthusiastic writer, “and since our sainted mistress has been taken from
us, it has been more difficult, and far more costly, to transact business
with a stripling of a secretary, than it was with the queen and all her
ministers.” By the modifications then introduced, the basis was laid of
the judiciary system, such as it has been perpetuated to the present age.
The law acquired an authority which, in the language of a Spanish writer,
“caused a decree, signed by two or three judges, to be more respected
since that time than an army before.”[51]
[Sidenote: [1479-1480 A.D.]]
Whatever reforms might have been introduced into the Castilian
judicatures, they would have been of little avail without a corresponding
improvement in the system of jurisprudence by which their decisions were
to be regulated. This was made up of the Visigothic code as the basis,
the _fueros_ of the Castilian princes, as far back as the eleventh
century, and the _Siete Partidas_, the famous compilation of Alfonso
X, digested chiefly from maxims of the civil law. The deficiencies of
these ancient codes had been gradually supplied by such an accumulation
of statutes and ordinances as rendered the legislation of Castile in
the highest degree complex, and often contradictory. The embarrassment
resulting from this may be imagined.
In 1480, Dr. Alfonso Diaz de Montalvo was charged with the commission of
revising the laws of Castile, and of compiling a code which should be of
general application throughout the kingdom. Although the many innovations
which were introduced in that age of reform required the addition of two
subsidiary codes in the latter years of Isabella, the _Ordenanças_ of
Montalvo continued to be the guide of the tribunals down to the time of
Philip II, and may be said to have suggested the idea, as indeed it was
the basis, of the comprehensive compilation, _Nueva Recopilacion_, which
has since formed the law of the Spanish monarchy.
Under the profuse reigns of Juan II and Henry IV, the nobles had
introduced themselves into every great post of profit or authority. They
had ravished from the crown the estates on which it depended for its
maintenance as well as dignity. They coined money in their own mints,
like sovereign princes; and they covered the country with their fortified
castles, whence they defied the law, and desolated the unhappy land with
interminable feuds. It was obviously necessary for the new sovereigns to
proceed with the greatest caution against this powerful and jealous body,
and, above all, to attempt no measure of importance in which they would
not be supported by the hearty co-operation of the nation.
The first measure which may be said to have clearly developed their
policy was the organisation of the hermandad, which, although ostensibly
directed against offenders of a more humble description, was made to
bear indirectly upon the nobility, whom it kept in awe by the number
and discipline of its forces, and the promptness with which it could
assemble them on the most remote points of the kingdom; while its rights
of jurisdiction tended materially to abridge those of the seigniorial
tribunals. It was accordingly resisted with the greatest pertinacity
by the aristocracy; although, as we have seen, the resolution of the
queen, supported by the constancy of the commons, enabled her to triumph
over all opposition, until the great objects of the institution were
accomplished.
Another measure, which insensibly operated to the depression of the
nobility, was making official preferment depend less exclusively on rank,
and much more on personal merit, than before. The sovereigns, instead
of confining themselves to the grandees, frequently advanced persons
of humble origin, and especially those learned in the law, to the most
responsible stations, consulting them, and paying great deference to
their opinions, on all matters of importance. The nobles, finding that
rank was no longer the sole, or indeed the necessary avenue to promotion,
sought to secure it by attention to more liberal studies, in which they
were greatly encouraged by Isabella, who admitted their children into her
palace, where they were reared under her own eye.
[Illustration: A SPANISH NOBLEWOMAN OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY]
But the boldest assaults on the power of the aristocracy were made in
the famous cortes of Toledo, in 1480, which Carbajal[e] enthusiastically
styles “_cosa divina para reformacion y remedio de las desordenes
pasadas_.” The first object of its attention was the condition of the
exchequer, which Henry IV had so exhausted by his reckless prodigality
that the clear annual revenue amounted to no more than 30,000 ducats,
a sum much inferior to that enjoyed by many private individuals; so
that, stripped of his patrimony, it at last came to be said he was “king
only of the highways.” Such had been the royal necessities that blank
certificates of annuities assigned on the public rents were hawked about
the market, and sold at such a depreciated rate that the price of an
annuity did not exceed the amount of one year’s income. The commons saw
with alarm the weight of the burdens which must devolve on them for the
maintenance of the crown thus impoverished in its resources; and they
resolved to meet the difficulty by advising at once a resumption of the
grants unconstitutionally made during the latter half of Henry IV’s reign
and the commencement of the present. This measure, however violent and
repugnant to good faith it may appear at the present time, seems then to
have admitted of justification, as far as the nation was concerned; since
such alienation of the public revenue was in itself illegal, and contrary
to the coronation oath of the sovereign; and those who accepted his
obligations held them subject to the liability of their revocation, which
had frequently occurred under the preceding reigns.
The plan suggested by Cardinal Mendoza seems to have been partially
adopted. It was decided that all whose pensions had been conferred
without any corresponding services on their part should forfeit them
entirely; that those who had purchased annuities should return their
certificates on a reimbursement of the price paid for them; and that the
remaining creditors, who composed the largest class, should retain such
a proportion only of their pensions as might be judged commensurate with
their services to the state. Admiral Enriquez, for instance, resigned
240,000 maravedis of his annual income; the duke of Alva, 575,000; the
duke of Medina Sidonia, 180,000. The loyal family of the Mendozas were
also great losers, but none forfeited so much as the overgrown favourite
of Henry IV, Beltran de la Cueva, duke of Albuquerque, who had uniformly
supported the royal cause, and whose retrenchment amounted to 1,400,000
maravedis of yearly rent.[52]
By this important reduction, the final adjustment and execution of which
were intrusted to Ferdinand de Talavera, the queen’s confessor, a man
of austere probity, the gross amount of 30,000,000 maravedis, a sum
equal to three-fourths of the whole revenue on Isabella’s accession, was
annually saved to the crown. The retrenchment was conducted with such
strict impartiality that the most confidential servants of the queen,
and the relatives of her husband, were among those who suffered the most
severely. It is worthy of remark that no diminution whatever was made of
the stipends settled on literary and charitable establishments. It may be
also added that Isabella appropriated the first-fruits of this measure,
by distributing the sum of 20,000,000 maravedis among the widows and
orphans of those loyalists who had fallen in the war of the Succession.
This resumption of grants may be considered as the basis of those
economical reforms which, without oppression to the subject, augmented
the public revenue more than twelvefold during this auspicious reign.
Several other acts were passed by the same cortes, which had a more
exclusive bearing on the nobility. They were prohibited from quartering
the royal arms on their escutcheons, from being attended by a mace-bearer
and a bodyguard, from imitating the regal style of address in their
written correspondence, and other insignia of royalty which they had
arrogantly assumed. They were forbidden to erect new fortresses, and they
were expressly restrained from duels.
_Resistance to Papal Encroachment_
In the earlier stages of the Castilian monarchy, the sovereigns appear
to have held a supremacy in spiritual, very similar to that exercised
by them in temporal matters. It was comparatively late that the nation
submitted its neck to the papal yoke, so closely riveted at a subsequent
period; and even the Romish ritual was not admitted into its churches
till long after it had been adopted in the rest of Europe. But when
the code of the Partidas was promulgated in the thirteenth century,
the maxims of the canon law came to be permanently established. The
ecclesiastical encroached on the lay tribunals. Appeals were perpetually
carried up to the Roman court; and the popes, pretending to regulate
the minutest details of church economy, not only disposed of inferior
benefices, but gradually converted the right of confirming elections
to the episcopal and higher ecclesiastical dignities into that of
appointment.
These usurpations of the church had been repeatedly the subject of
grave remonstrance in cortes. The sovereigns, highly dissatisfied,
ordered their subjects, ecclesiastical as well as lay, to quit the papal
dominions; an injunction which the former, fearful of the sequestration
of their temporalities in Castile, obeyed with as much promptness as
the latter. At the same time Ferdinand and Isabella proclaimed their
intention of inviting the princes of Christendom to unite with them
in convoking a general council for the reformation of the manifold
abuses which dishonoured the church. No sound could have grated more
unpleasantly on the pontifical ear than the menace of a general council,
particularly at this period, when ecclesiastical corruptions had reached
a height which could but ill endure its scrutiny. The pope became
convinced that he had ventured too far, and that Henry IV was no longer
monarch of Castile. He accordingly despatched a legate to Spain, fully
empowered to arrange the matter on an amicable basis; but the legate
received orders instantly to quit the kingdom, without attempting so much
as to disclose the nature of his instructions, since they could not but
be derogatory to the dignity of the crown.
Far from resenting this ungracious reception, the legate affected the
deepest humility. Cardinal Mendoza, whose influence in the cabinet had
gained him the title of “third king of Spain,” at length so far mitigated
the resentment of the sovereigns that they consented to open negotiations
with the court of Rome. The result was the publication of a bull by
Sixtus IV, in which his holiness engaged to provide such natives to the
higher dignities of the church in Castile as should be nominated by the
monarchs of that kingdom.
_The Regulation of Trade_
[Sidenote: [1480-1481 A.D.]]
It will be readily conceived that trade, agriculture, and every branch of
industry must have languished under the misrule of preceding reigns. In
addition to pestilences a fatal shock was given to commercial credit by
the adulteration of the coin. Under Henry IV it is computed that there
were no less than 150 mints openly licensed by the crown, in addition to
many others erected by individuals without any legal authority; and the
little trade which remained in Castile was carried on by barter, as in
the primitive stages of society.
The magnitude of the evil was such as to claim the earliest attention
of the cortes under the new monarchs. Acts were passed, fixing the
standard and legal value of the different denominations of coin. A new
coinage was subsequently made. Five royal mints were alone authorised,
afterwards augmented to seven, and severe penalties denounced against
the fabrication of money elsewhere. The reform of the currency gradually
infused new life into commerce, as the return of the circulations, which
have been interrupted for a while, quickens the animal body. This was
furthered by salutary laws for the encouragement of domestic industry.
Internal communication was facilitated by the construction of roads and
bridges. Absurd restrictions on change of residence, as well as the
onerous duties which had been imposed on commercial intercourse between
Castile and Aragon, were repealed. Public credit was re-established by
the punctuality with which the government redeemed the debt contracted
during the Portuguese war; and notwithstanding the repeal of various
arbitrary imposts which enriched the exchequer under Henry IV, such was
the advance of the country, under the wise economy of the present reign,
that the revenue was augmented nearly sixfold between the years 1477 and
1482.
Thus released from the heavy burdens imposed on it, the spring of
enterprise recovered its former elasticity. The productive capital of
the country was made to flow through the various channels of domestic
industry. The hills and the valleys again rejoiced in the labour of
the husbandman; and the cities were embellished with stately edifices,
both public and private, which attracted the gaze and commendation of
foreigners. The writers of that day are unbounded in their plaudits of
Isabella, to whom they principally ascribe this auspicious revolution in
the condition of the country and its inhabitants, which seems almost as
magical as one of those transformations in romance wrought by the hands
of some benevolent fairy.
_The Pre-eminence of the Royal Authority_
This, which, we have seen, appears to have been the natural result of
the policy of Ferdinand and Isabella, was derived quite as much from the
influence of their private characters as from their public measures.
Under such a sovereign, the court, which had been little better than
a brothel under the preceding reign, became the nursery of virtue and
generous ambition.
Isabella watched assiduously over the nurture of the high-born damsels
of her court, whom she received into the royal palace, causing them to
be educated under her own eye, and endowing them with liberal portions
on their marriage. By these and similar acts of affectionate solicitude
she endeared herself to the higher classes of her subjects, while the
patriotic tendency of her public conduct established her in the hearts
of the people. She possessed, in combination with the feminine qualities
which beget love, a masculine energy of character which struck terror
into the guilty. She enforced the execution of her own plans, oftentimes
even at great personal hazard, with a resolution surpassing that of her
husband. Both were singularly temperate, indeed frugal, in their dress,
equipage, and general style of living; seeking to affect others less by
external pomp than by the silent though more potent influence of personal
qualities. On all such occasions as demanded it, however, they displayed
a princely magnificence, which dazzled the multitude, and is blazoned
with great solemnity in the garrulous chronicles of the day.
Thus laudable objects were gradually achieved by a course of measures
equally laudable; and the various orders of the monarchy, brought into
harmonious action with each other, were enabled to turn the forces which
had before been wasted in civil conflict to the glorious career of
discovery and conquest which it was destined to run during the remainder
of the century.
No sooner had Ferdinand and Isabella restored internal tranquillity to
their dominions, and made the strength effective which had been acquired
by their union under one government, than they turned their eyes to those
fair regions of the peninsula over which the Moslem crescent had reigned
triumphant for nearly eight centuries. Fortunately, an act of aggression
on the part of the Moors furnished a pretext for entering on their plan
of conquest at the moment when it was ripe for execution.
Mulei Abul-Hassan, who succeeded his father in 1466, was of a very
different temperament. His fiery character prompted him, when very young,
to violate the truce by an unprovoked inroad into Andalusia. When, in
1476, the Spanish sovereigns required, as the condition of a renewal of
the truce which he solicited, the payment of the annual tribute imposed
on his predecessors, he proudly replied that the mints of Granada coined
no longer gold, but steel. His subsequent conduct did not belie the
spirit of this Spartan answer.
[Sidenote: [1481-1482 A.D.]]
At length, towards the close of the year 1481, the storm which had been
so long gathering burst upon Zahara, a small fortified town on the
frontier of Andalusia, crowning a lofty eminence, washed at its base by
the river Guadalete, which from its position seemed almost inaccessible.
The garrison, trusting to these natural defences, suffered itself to
be surprised, on the night of the 26th of December, by the Moorish
monarch, who, scaling the walls under favour of a furious tempest, which
prevented his approach from being readily heard, put to the sword such of
the guard as offered resistance, and swept away the whole population of
the place, men, women, and children, into slavery in Granada.
It was not long before the desired opportunity for retaliation presented
itself to the Spaniards. One Juan de Ortega, a captain of _escaladores_,
or scalers, so denominated from the peculiar service in which they were
employed in besieging cities, reported that the fortress of Alhama,
situated in the heart of the Moorish territories, was so negligently
guarded that it might be easily carried by an enemy who had skill enough
to approach it. Its strength of position lulled its defenders into a
security like that which had proved so fatal to Zahara. A sentinel,
who was found sleeping on his post, was despatched, and the whole of
the little garrison put to the sword after the short and ineffectual
resistance that could be opposed by men suddenly roused from slumber. The
city in the meantime was alarmed, but it was too late; the citadel was
taken. Nearly a quarter of the population is said to have perished in the
various conflicts of the day, and the remainder, according to the usage
of the time, became the prize of the victors.
The report of this disaster fell like the knell of their own doom on the
ears of the inhabitants of Granada. Isabella had been employed in making
vigorous preparation for carrying on the war, by enforcing the requisite
supplies, and summoning the crown vassals, and the principal nobility of
the north, to hold themselves in readiness to join the royal standard
in Andalusia. After this, she proceeded by rapid stages to Cordova,
notwithstanding the state of pregnancy in which she was then far advanced.
Here the sovereigns received the unwelcome information that the king
of Granada, on the retreat of the Spaniards, had again sat down before
Alhama; having brought with him artillery, from the want of which he had
suffered so much in the preceding siege. It was settled that the king
should march to the relief of the besieged, taking with him the most
ample supplies of forage and provisions, at the head of a force strong
enough to compel the retreat of the Moorish monarch. This was effected
without delay; and Abul-Hassan once more breaking up his camp on the
rumour of Ferdinand’s approach, the latter took possession of the city,
without opposition, on the 14th of May, 1482.
Ferdinand, having strengthened the garrison with new recruits, under the
command of Portocarrero, lord of Palma, and victualled it with three
months’ provisions, prepared for a foray into the vega of Granada. This
he executed in the true spirit of that merciless warfare so repugnant to
the more civilised usage of later times, not only by sweeping away the
green, unripened crops, but by cutting down the trees and eradicating
the vines, and then, without so much as having broken a lance in the
expedition, returned in triumph to Cordova.
Isabella in the meanwhile was engaged in active measures for prosecuting
the war. She issued orders to the various cities of Castile and
Leon, as far as the borders of Biscay and Guipuzcoa, prescribing the
_repartimiento_, or subsidy of provisions, and the quota of troops, to be
furnished by each district respectively, together with an adequate supply
of ammunition and artillery. The whole were to be in readiness before
Loja by the 1st of July, when Ferdinand was to take the field in person
at the head of his chivalry, and besiege that strong post. As advices
were received that the Moors of Granada were making efforts to obtain
the co-operation of their African brethren in support of the Mohammedan
empire in Spain, the queen caused a fleet to be manned under the command
of her best two admirals, with instructions to sweep the Mediterranean
as far as the straits of Gibraltar, and thus effectually cut off all
communication with the Barbary coast.
Ferdinand, crossing the Jenil at Ecija, arrived again on its banks before
Loja on the 1st of July. The army encamped among the hills, whose deep
ravines obstructed communication between its different quarters; while
the level plains below were intersected by numerous canals, equally
unfavourable to the manœuvres of the men at arms. Ali Atar made a sortie
from the town, for the purpose of dislodging his enemies. The latter
poured out from their works to encounter him; but the Moslem general,
scarcely waiting to receive the shock, wheeled his squadrons round, and
began a precipitate retreat. The Spaniards eagerly pursued; but when they
had been drawn to a sufficient distance from the redoubt, a party of
Moorish _ginetes_, or light cavalry, who had crossed the river unobserved
during the night and lain in ambush, after the wily fashion of Arabian
tactics, darted from their place of concealment, and, galloping into the
deserted camp, plundered it of its contents, including the _lombards_, or
small pieces of artillery, with which it was garnished. The Castilians,
too late perceiving their error, halted from the pursuit, and returned
with as much speed as possible to the defence of their camp. Ali Atar,
turning also, hung close on their rear, so that when the Christians
arrived at the summit of the hill they found themselves hemmed in between
the two divisions of the Moorish army.
Ferdinand resolved to fall back as far as Rio Frio, and await there
patiently the arrival of such fresh reinforcements as might put him in
condition to enforce a more rigorous blockade. An alarm spread through
the whole camp. Instead of standing to the defence, each one thought
only of saving himself by as speedy a flight as possible. In vain did
Ferdinand, riding along their broken files, endeavour to reanimate their
spirits and restore order. Ali Atar’s practised eye speedily discerned
the confusion which prevailed through the Christian camp. Without delay,
he rushed forth impetuously at the head of his whole array from the gates
of Loja.
[Illustration: A SPANISH NOBLEMAN OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY]
At this perilous moment nothing but Ferdinand’s coolness could have saved
the army from total destruction; he was repeatedly exposed to imminent
peril, and narrowly escaped with his own life, his horse being shot under
him at the very moment when he had lost his lance in the body of a Moor.
Never did the Spanish chivalry shed its blood more freely.
The Moors, finding it so difficult to make an impression on this iron
band of warriors, began at length to slacken their efforts, and finally
allowed Ferdinand to draw off the remnant of his forces without further
opposition. The king continued his retreat, without halting, as far as
the romantic site of the Peña de los Enamorados, about seven leagues
distant from Loja, and, abandoning all thoughts of offensive operations
for the present, soon after returned to Cordova. Mulei Abul-Hassan
arrived the following day with a powerful reinforcement from Granada,
and swept the country as far as Rio Frio. Had he come but a few hours
sooner, there would have been few Spaniards left to tell the tale of the
rout of Loja.
[Sidenote: [1482-1483 A.D.]]
The loss of the Christians must have been very considerable, including
the greater part of the baggage and the artillery. It occasioned deep
mortification to the queen; but, though a severe, it proved a salutary
lesson. It showed the importance of more extensive preparations for a war
which must of necessity be a war of posts; and it taught the nation to
entertain greater respect for an enemy who, whatever might be his natural
strength, must become formidable when armed with the energy of despair.
Information being soon after received that Louis XI was taking measures
to make himself master of the strong places in Navarre, Isabella
transferred her residence to the frontier town of Logroño, prepared to
resist by arms, if necessary, the occupation of that country by her
insidious and powerful neighbour.
There is probably no period in which the princes of Europe felt so
sensibly their own penury as at the close of the fifteenth century;
when, the demesnes of the crown having been very generally wasted by the
lavishness or imbecility of their proprietors, no substitute had as yet
been found in that searching and well-arranged system of taxation which
prevails at the present day. The Spanish sovereigns, notwithstanding the
economy which they had introduced into the finances, felt the pressure of
these embarrassments peculiarly at the present juncture. The maintenance
of the royal guard and of the vast national police of the hermandad, the
incessant military operations of the late campaign, together with the
equipment of a navy, not merely for war, but for maritime discovery, were
so many copious drains on the exchequer. Under these circumstances, they
obtained from the pope a grant of 100,000 ducats, to be raised out of the
ecclesiastical revenues in Castile and Aragon. A bull of crusade was also
published by his holiness, containing numerous indulgences for such as
should bear arms against the infidel, as well as those who should prefer
to commute their military service for the payment of a sum of money. In
addition to these resources, the government was enabled on its own credit
to negotiate considerable loans.
With these funds the sovereigns entered into extensive arrangements for
the ensuing campaign; causing cannon, after the rude construction of that
age, to be fabricated at Huesca, and a large quantity of stone balls,
then principally used, to be manufactured in the Sierra de Constantina;
while the magazines were carefully provided with ammunition and military
stores.
An event not unworthy of notice is recorded by Pulgar as happening about
this time. A common soldier, named Juan de Corral, contrived, under false
pretences, to obtain from the king of Granada a number of Christian
captives, together with a large sum of money, with which he escaped into
Andalusia. The man was apprehended by the warden of the frontier of Jaen;
and the transaction being reported to the sovereigns, they compelled an
entire restitution of the money, and consented to such a ransom for the
liberated Christians as the king of Granada should demand. This act of
justice, it should be remembered, occurred in an age when the church
itself stood ready to sanction any breach of faith, however glaring,
towards heretics and infidels.
While the court was detained in the north, tidings were received of a
reverse sustained by the Spanish arms, which plunged the nation in sorrow
far deeper than that occasioned by the rout at Loja.[g]
[Sidenote: [1483-1487 A.D.]]
A plundering expedition had been organised against Malaga and it included
the flower of Spanish chivalry. After some conflicts the force turned
back, laden with plunder. In the mountainous passes of the Axarquia it
met such treatment as Pelayo had once meted out to the Moslem invaders.
From every height the Moors poured down volleys of arrows, shot, and
stones. At night great fires were built to reveal their hiding places.
Panic, fatigue, and famine made chaos of resistance and in two days over
eight hundred were killed and sixteen hundred made prisoners. But of
these a large proportion were the choice youth of Spain, and the grief at
court was excessive.
In the meanwhile there had occurred a feud among the Moors that served
the Christians a better turn than many victories. The old king of
Granada, Mulei Abul-Hassan, had for Queen Ayesha; in his harem he had
a Greek concubine and also a Christian woman of Andalusia, Isabella de
Solis, daughter of the governor of Martos. She was called Zoraya by the
Moors and she bore the king a son named Abu Abdallah, more famously
called Boabdil. Mother and son, eager for power, planned intrigues which
were punished with imprisonment. But they escaped and stirred up a
revolution so successfully that the old king was dethroned and driven to
Malaga, where he defeated the Christian foray just described.
So great was the enthusiasm among the Moors that Abu Abdallah saw it
would be necessary to make some military success to counteract the
prestige of his old father. He secured the aid of Ali Atar and with a
force of some ten thousand raided the Christian territory and besieged
Lucena about April 21st, 1483. The count of Cabra coming to relieve
Lucena, Abdallah was caught between two armies. When Ali Atar fell,
the Moors fled; but Abdallah’s horse giving out, he was captured--the
first royal Moorish prisoner in Christian hands. His mother immediately
sought to ransom him, and finally secured his release at the cost of an
annual tribute, and a subservience to Spain. Thus the Christians not only
divided the Moors among themselves, but gained a large faction as ally.[a]
PROGRESS OF THE WAR
Notwithstanding the importance of the results in the war of Granada,
a detail of the successive steps by which they were achieved would be
most tedious and trifling. No siege or single military achievement of
great moment occurred until nearly four years from this period, in 1487;
although in the intervening time a large number of fortresses and petty
towns, together with a very extensive tract of territory, were recovered
from the enemy. Without pursuing the chronological order of events, it
is probable that the end of history will be best attained by presenting
a concise view of the general policy pursued by the sovereigns in the
conduct of the war.
The Moorish wars under preceding monarchs had consisted of little else
than _cavalgadas_, or inroads into the enemy’s territory, which, pouring
like a torrent over the land, swept away whatever was upon the surface,
but left it in its essential resources wholly unimpaired. The bounty of
nature soon repaired the ravages of man, and the ensuing harvest seemed
to shoot up more abundantly from the soil enriched by the blood of the
husbandman. A more vigorous system of spoliation was now introduced.
Instead of one campaign, the army took the field in spring and autumn,
intermitting its efforts only during the intolerable heats of summer, so
that the green crop had no time to ripen, ere it was trodden down under
the iron heel of war.
The apparatus for devastation was also on a much greater scale than
had ever before been witnessed. From the second year of the war,
thirty thousand foragers were reserved for this service, which they
effected by demolishing farm-houses, granaries, and mills (which last
were exceedingly numerous in a land watered by many small streams), by
eradicating the vines and laying waste the olive gardens and plantations
of oranges, almonds, mulberries, and all the rich varieties that grew
luxuriant in this highly favoured region. This merciless devastation
extended for more than two leagues on either side of the line of march.
At the same time, the Mediterranean fleet cut off all supplies from the
Barbary coast, so that the whole kingdom might be said to be in a state
of perpetual blockade. Such and so general was the scarcity occasioned
by this system, that the Moors were glad to exchange their Christian
captives for provisions, until such ransom was interdicted by the
sovereigns as tending to defeat their own measures.
Ferdinand, who appeared at the head of his armies throughout the whole
of this war, pursued a sagacious policy in reference to the beleaguered
cities. He was ever ready to meet the first overtures to surrender in the
most liberal spirit; granting protection of person, and such property as
the besieged could transport with them, and assigning them a residence,
if they preferred it, in his own dominions. Many, in consequence of
this, migrated to Seville and other cities of Andalusia, where they were
settled on estates which had been confiscated by the inquisitors, who
looked forward, no doubt with satisfaction, to the time when they should
be permitted to thrust their sickle into the new crop of heresy whose
seeds were thus sown amid the ashes of the old one. Those who preferred
to remain in the conquered Moorish territory, as Castilian subjects, were
permitted the free enjoyment of personal rights and property, as well
as of their religion; and such was the fidelity with which Ferdinand
redeemed his engagements during the war, by the punishment of the least
infraction of them by his own people, that many, particularly of the
Moorish peasantry, preferred abiding in their early homes to removing to
Granada or other places of the Moslem dominion.
Isabella, solicitous for everything that concerned the welfare of her
people, sometimes visited the camp in person, encouraging the soldiers to
endure the hardships of war, and relieving their necessities by liberal
donations of clothes and money. She caused also a number of large tents,
known as “the queen’s hospitals,” to be always reserved for the sick and
wounded, and furnished them with the requisite attendants and medicines
at her own charge. This is considered the earliest attempt at the
formation of a regular camp hospital on record.
Isabella may be regarded as the soul of this war. She engaged in it with
the most exalted views, less to acquire territory than to re-establish
the empire of the cross over the ancient domain of Christendom. On this
point she concentrated all the energies of her powerful mind, never
suffering herself to be diverted by any subordinate interest from this
one great and glorious object. When the king, in 1484, would have paused
a while from the Granadine war, in order to prosecute his claims to
Roussillon against the French after the death of Louis XI, Isabella
strongly objected to it; but, finding her remonstrance ineffectual, she
left her husband in Aragon, and repaired to Cordova, where she placed
the cardinal of Spain at the head of the army, and prepared to open
the campaign in the usual vigorous manner. Here, however, she was soon
joined by Ferdinand, who, on a cooler revision of the subject, deemed it
prudent to postpone his projected enterprise.
Ever since the victory of Lucena, the sovereigns had made it a capital
point of their policy to foment the dissensions of their enemies. The
young king Abdallah, after his humiliating treaty with Ferdinand, lost
whatever consideration he had previously possessed. Although the sultana
Zoraya, by her personal address and the lavish distribution of the royal
treasures, contrived to maintain a faction for her son, the better
classes of his countrymen despised him as a renegade and a vassal of
the Christian king. As their old monarch had become incompetent, from
increasing age and blindness, to the duties of his station in these
perilous times, they turned their eyes on his brother Abdallah, surnamed
El Zagal, or “the valiant,” who had borne so conspicuous a part in the
rout of the Axarquia. The Castilians depict this chief in the darkest
colours of ambition and cruelty; but the Moslem writers afford no such
intimation, and his advancement to the throne at that crisis seems to be
in some measure justified by his eminent talents as a military leader.
On his way to Granada he encountered and cut to pieces a body of
Calatrava knights from Alhama, and signalised his entrance into his new
capital by bearing along the bloody trophies of heads dangling from his
saddle-bow, after the barbarous fashion long practised in these wars.
It was observed that the old king Abul-Hassan did not long survive his
brother’s accession. The young king Abdallah sought the protection of the
Castilian sovereigns in Seville, who, true to their policy, sent him back
into his own dominions with the means of making headway against his rival.
Notwithstanding these auxiliary circumstances, the progress of the
Christians was comparatively slow. Every cliff seemed to be crowned
with a fortress; and every fortress was defended with the desperation
of men willing to bury themselves under its ruins. The old men, women,
and children, on occasion of a siege, were frequently despatched to
Granada. Such was the resolution, or rather ferocity, of the Moors, that
Malaga closed its gates against the fugitives from Alora, after its
surrender, and even massacred some of them in cold blood. The eagle eye
of El Zagal seemed to take in at a glance the whole extent of his little
territory, and to detect every vulnerable point in his antagonist, whom
he encountered where he least expected it, cutting off his convoys,
surprising his foraging parties, and retaliating by a devastating inroad
on the borders.
No effectual and permanent resistance, however, could be opposed to the
tremendous enginery of the Christians. Tower and town fell before it.
Besides the principal towns of Cartama, Coin, Setenil, Ronda, Marbella,
Illora, termed by the Moors, “the right eye,” Moclin, “the shield” of
Granada, and Loja, after a second and desperate siege in the spring of
1486, Bernáldez[h] enumerates more than seventy subordinate places in the
Val de Cartama, and thirteen others after the fall of Marbella. Thus the
Spaniards advanced their line of conquest more than twenty leagues beyond
the western frontier of Granada. This extensive tract they strongly
fortified, and peopled partly with Christian subjects and partly with
Moorish, the original occupants of the soil, who were secured in the
possession of their ancient lands, under their own law.
Thus the strong posts which might be regarded as the exterior defences
of the city of Granada were successively carried. A few positions alone
remained of sufficient strength to keep the enemy at bay. The most
considerable of these was Malaga. 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.
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. But
having been foiled in a well-concerted attempt to surprise the Christian
quarters by night, he 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.
[Illustration: MALAGA
(From the Alameda)]
Ferdinand conducted the siege all the while with his usual vigour, 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 armour 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 rencounter, 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,[c] which endeared him to the whole army. At length the
inhabitants of Velez consented to capitulate. 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.
THE SIEGE OF MALAGA
[Sidenote: [1487 A.D.]]
The old chronicler Bernáldez[h] warms at the aspect of the fair city of
Malaga, 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 Moors were not unmindful of the importance of Malaga, or the
gallantry with which it was defended. They made several attempts to
relieve it, the failure of which was owing less to the Christians than
to treachery and their own miserable feuds. A body of cavalry, which
El Zagal despatched from Guadix to throw succours 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.
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 taken prisoner without harm to his person.
Being brought before the marquis of Cadiz, he informed that nobleman
that he could make some important disclosures to the sovereigns. He was
accordingly conducted to the royal tent; but, as Ferdinand was taking
his siesta, in the sultry hour of the day, the queen, moved by divine
inspiration, according to the Castilian historian, deferred the audience
till her husband should awake, and commanded the prisoner to be detained
in the adjoining tent. This was occupied by Doña Beatrice 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.
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. He suddenly drew a dagger, 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 Scævola, 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.
The Castilian army, swelled by 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.
The battle raged with fire and sword, above and under ground, along the
ramparts, the ocean, and the land, at the same time. But no virtue or
valour could avail the unfortunate Malagans against the overwhelming
force of their enemies, who, driving them back from every point,
compelled them 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. 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.
A deputation was 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. 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 were willing to resign
to him their fortifications, their city, 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. 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.
[Sidenote: [1487-1489 A.D.]]
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. At length,
the whole population of the city, comprehending every age and sex, was
commanded to repair to the great courtyard of the Alcazaba. The dreadful
doom of slavery was denounced on the assembled multitude.[53] 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.
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 colouring of history can conceal.
The fate of Malaga may be said to have decided that of Granada.[g]
THE CAPTURE OF GRANADA
The western fortresses of the kingdom being in the power of the
Christians, Ferdinand had now two plans before him for attaining his
great object: he could either at once fall on the capital, or begin with
the reduction of the eastern strongholds. He chose the latter; he knew
that, if he triumphed over Abdallah el Zagal, who possessed Guadix, Baza,
Almeria, Vera, etc., he should have little difficulty in dethroning the
fallen Abu Abdallah. Velez el Rubio, Vera, Mujacar, etc., opened their
gates on the first summons. But the Christians failed before Huescar,
Baza, and Tabernas; and had the worst in more than one skirmish.
Ferdinand again hastened to the field at the head of fifty thousand foot
and twelve thousand horse, resolved with this formidable force to deprive
the Moors of all hopes of a successful resistance. Under the pretence
that his arms were to be directed against only the enemy of his ally, he
hoped to divide still further the Moorish power. He succeeded in his
purpose: the people of Granada looked on, not indeed with indifference,
but certainly without much anxiety for themselves, while their ally
marched against the places which still held for El Zagal. Abu Abdallah,
however, was aware of the result: he even purchased a temporary security,
by consenting not only to abandon his uncle, but to receive into Granada
itself a Christian garrison; in other words, to deliver that capital,
after the destruction of El Zagal, into the hands of Ferdinand. In
return, he was to receive ample domain, under the title of vassalage,
from his feudal superior. Though the conditions of the alliance were
secret, El Zagal, convinced that he should now have to encounter the
whole power of the Castilians, prepared for a vigorous defence. His
kinsman, the cid Yahya, with ten thousand men, he sent to Baza, which
he rightly judged would be one of the first places to be invested by
Ferdinand.
[Sidenote: [1489-1491 A.D.]]
Having reduced Xucar, the Christian monarch, as had been foreseen, laid
siege to Baza. This place made a brave resistance during several months:
but in the end, seeing that the provisions were exhausted, and many of
the soldiers cut off in the frequent sorties; that the Christians had
entrenched their camp, and were even encouraged to persevere by the
arrival of queen Isabella--Yahya wrote to El Zagal to say that the place
must inevitably be surrendered unless speedily succoured. The latter,
who was busily occupied in the defence of Guadix, could not spare a
single soldier for the relief of Baza; it was therefore constrained
to capitulate; but conditions highly advantageous to the people were
obtained from the two sovereigns. Yahya, who had several interviews
with these sovereigns in their own camp, received signal proofs of
their favour. He vowed not only never again to take up arms against his
liege superior, but to prevail on his kinsman El Zagal to discontinue a
fruitless resistance, and submit as he had done.
Like a true Mussulman, El Zagal coincided in his kinsman’s doctrine of
predestination; he acknowledged that Allah in his eternal decrees had
resolved the destruction of Granada; and he consented to throw himself
on the generosity of Ferdinand. He too hastened to the Christian camp;
and if personal kindness, or even regal liberality, could have atoned
for the loss of a throne, he might have been satisfied. Like Yahya, he
received ample domains, to be forever possessed by his descendants---the
jurisdiction of Andaraz; the valley of Alhaman, containing two thousand
vassals (between Malaga and Marbella); and half the produce of some
salt mines: the annual return was four millions of maravedis--on his
consenting to receive Christian garrisons into Almeria and Guadix, the
inhabitants of which were guaranteed in all their privileges as subjects.
The following year Abdallah el Zagal, tired, perhaps, of living privately
where he had ruled as a king, sold most of these possessions, and retired
to Africa. Purchena, Tabernas, Almuñecar, Salobrena, and some other towns
of the Alpujarras were eager to follow the example of Baza; so that the
once proud kingdom of the Moors was almost literally confined to the
walls of the capital.
Nothing now remained but to complete the overthrow of the Moorish power
by the conquest of Granada. In virtue of the preceding convention,
Ferdinand summoned Abu Abdallah to receive a Castilian garrison. The poor
shadow of a king in vain appealed to the magnanimity of his ally, whom he
besought to remain satisfied with the rich spoils already acquired. The
bare mention of such a proposal would have cost him his head in the then
excited state of feeling. The disastrous position of Mohammedan affairs,
which they imputed, not without some justice, to his ambition and his
subsequent inactivity, roused their wrath so much, that they rose against
him, and would doubtless have been satisfied with nothing less than
his blood, had he not fled precipitately into the Alhambra. Erelong,
however, the violence of the commotion ceased, as everyone perceived
the necessity of combining to save the capital. Its fate was for a time
suspended by the arrival of numerous volunteers from the neighbouring
towns, especially from the villages of the Alpujarras, which had not yet
acknowledged the Christian sway; and from several other places, which
now openly revolted. Abu Abdallah endeavoured to regain the good will of
his people by vigorously preparing for their defence, and even by making
incursions on the new possessions of the Christians. But neither the
revolt nor his own efforts were of much avail. The inhabitants of Adra
were signally punished for their want of faith; the king was compelled to
seek shelter within his walls, from the summit of which he soon perceived
the advancing cross of his enemies.
[Illustration: A SPANISH MERCHANT, FIFTEENTH CENTURY]
[Sidenote: [1491-1492 A.D.]]
In the spring of 1491 Ferdinand invested this great city with fifty
thousand foot and ten thousand horse. That the siege would be long and
bloody was to be expected from the strength of the fortifications and the
fanaticism of the people. Some time, indeed, elapsed before the place
could be effectually invested; convoys of provisions were frequently
received, in spite of Ferdinand’s vigilance; and in the sorties which
from time to time took place, the advantage was not always on the side
of the assailants. These partial actions so thinned the Christian
host, that the king at length forbade them; and to protect his camp
against the daring irruptions of the Moors, he surrounded it with thick
walls and deep ditches. The enemy now saw that he was resolute in the
reduction of the place, however tardy that reduction might prove. His
own soldiers, whether in the camp or in the newly erected city of Santa
Fé,[54] which he built and fortified both as a security against the
possible despair of the Moors, and for the greater comfort of his army
and court, were abundantly supplied with every necessary. The privations
to which they were now subject, caused the besieged inhabitants first
to murmur, and next to threaten their imbecile ruler with destruction.
In this emergency, Abu Abdallah hastily summoned a council, to hear the
sentiments of his chief subjects on the deplorable posture of affairs.
All agreed that the camp, the city, and policy of Ferdinand were but
too indicative of his unalterable determination, and of the fate which
ultimately, nay soon, awaited them; that the people were worn out by
abstinence and fatigue; and that, as the necessity was imperative, an
attempt should be made to procure favourable terms of capitulation from
the Castilian.
It was on the fourth day of the moon Rabia I [January 2nd, 1492], at the
dawn of day, that Abu Abdallah sent his family and treasures into the
Alpujarras, while he himself, accompanied by fifty horsemen, rode out to
meet Ferdinand, whom he saluted as his liege lord. The keys of the city
were delivered to the latter by Abul-Kassim: the Christians entered, and
their standards were speedily hoisted on the towers of the Alhambra, and
all the fortresses in the place. The fourth day following, Ferdinand and
his royal consort made a solemn entry into the city, which they made the
seat of an archbishopric, and in which they abode several months. As
for the feeble Abu Abdallah, he had not courage to re-enter it. As he
disconsolately took the road to the Alpujarras, and from time to time
cast back his weeping eyes on the magnificent towers behind him, his
mother, the sultana Zoraya, is said to have observed, “Thy womanly tears
for the loss of thy kingdom become one who had not courage to defend it
like a man!”[j] “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 Alpujarras, 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!”
END OF MOSLEM SWAY IN SPAIN
The fall of Granada excited a general sensation throughout Christendom,
where it was received as counterbalancing, in a manner, the loss of
Constantinople nearly half a century before. The war of Granada is often
compared by the Castilian chroniclers to that of Troy in its duration,
and 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 neighbours, 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, the temperature of climate, and 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.
[Illustration: THE SURRENDER OF GRANADA]
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. 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 into 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 civilisation 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.
SPANISH EXPLORERS, AND CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
[Sidenote: [1492 A.D.]]
While Ferdinand and Isabella were at Santa Fé, 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.
The Portuguese were the first to enter on the brilliant path of nautical
discovery, which they pursued under the infante Dom Henry with such
activity that before the middle of the fifteenth century they had
penetrated as far as Cape 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 received the cheering appellation of the Cape of Good Hope.
The Spaniards, in the meanwhile, did not languish in the career of
maritime enterprise. Certain adventurers from the northern provinces of
Biscay and Guipuzcoa, in 1393, had made themselves masters of one of
the smallest of the group of islands 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. From the commencement of their reign, Ferdinand
and Isabella had shown an earnest solicitude for the encouragement
of commerce and nautical science. Under them, and indeed under their
predecessors as far back as Henry III, 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.[g]