OF THE EMBASSY OF DON JUAN DE VERA TO DEMAND ARREARS OF TRIBUTE FROM THE
MOORISH MONARCH.
The flagrant want of faith of Muley Abul Hassan in fulfilling treaty
stipulations passed unresented during the residue of the reign of
Henry the Impotent, and the truce was tacitly continued without the
enforcement of tribute during the first three years of the reign of his
successors, Ferdinand and Isabella of glorious and happy memory, who
were too much engrossed by civil commotions in their own dominions, and
by a war of succession waged with them by the king of Portugal, to risk
an additional conflict with the Moorish sovereign. When, however, at the
expiration of the term of truce, Muley Abul Hassan sought a renewal of
it, the pride and piety of the Castilian sovereigns were awakened to
the flagrant defalcation of the infidel king, and they felt themselves
called upon, by their dignity as monarchs and their religious
obligations as champions of the faith, to make a formal demand for the
payment of arrearages.
In the year of grace 1478, therefore, Don Juan de Vera, a zealous and
devout knight, full of ardor for the faith and loyalty to the Crown,
was sent as ambassador for the purpose. He was armed at all points,
gallantly mounted, and followed by a moderate but well-appointed
retinue: in this way he crossed the Moorish frontier, and passed slowly
through the country, looking round him with the eyes of a practised
warrior and carefully noting its military points and capabilities. He
saw that the Moor was well prepared for possible hostilities. Every town
was strongly fortified. The Vega was studded with towers of refuge for
the peasantry: every pass of the mountain had its castle of defence,
every lofty height its watch-tower. As the Christian cavaliers passed
under the walls of the fortresses, lances and scimetars flashed from
their battlements, and the Moorish sentinels darted from their dark
eyes glances of hatred and defiance. It was evident that a war with
this kingdom must be a war of posts, full of doughty peril and valiant
enterprise, where every step must be gained by toil and bloodshed,
and maintained with the utmost difficulty. The warrior spirit of
the cavaliers kindled at the thoughts, and they were impatient for
hostilities; “not,” says Antonio Agapida, “from any thirst for rapine
and revenge, but from that pure and holy indignation which every Spanish
knight entertained at beholding this beautiful dominion of his ancestors
defiled by the footsteps of infidel usurpers. It was impossible,” he
adds, “to contemplate this delicious country, and not long to see it
restored to the dominion of the true faith and the sway of the Christian
monarchs.”
Arrived at the gates of Granada, Don Juan de Vera and his companions
saw the same vigilant preparations on the part of the Moorish king. His
walls and towers were of vast strength, in complete repair, and mounted
with lombards and other heavy ordnance. His magazines were well stored
with the munitions of war; he had a mighty host of foot-soldiers,
together with squadrons of cavalry, ready to scour the country and carry
on either defensive or predatory warfare. The Christian warriors noted
these things without dismay; their hearts rather glowed with emulation
at the thoughts of encountering so worthy a foe. As they slowly pranced
through the streets of Granada they looked round with eagerness on
the stately palaces and sumptuous mosques, on its alcayceria or bazar,
crowded with silks and cloth of silver and gold, with jewels and
precious stones, and other rich merchandise, the luxuries of every
clime; and they longed for the time when all this wealth should be the
spoil of the soldiers of the faith, and when each tramp of their steeds
might be fetlock deep in the blood and carnage of the infidels.
The Moorish inhabitants looked jealously at this small but proud array
of Spanish chivalry, as it paraded, with that stateliness possessed only
by Spanish cavaliers, through the renowned gate of Elvira. They were
struck with the stern and lofty demeanor of Don Juan de Vera and his
sinewy frame, which showed him formed for hardy deeds of arms, and they
supposed he had come in search of distinction by defying the Moorish
knights in open tourney or in the famous tilt with reeds for which they
were so renowned, for it was still the custom of the knights of either
nation to mingle in these courteous and chivalrous contests during the
intervals of war. When they learnt, however, that he was come to demand
the tribute so abhorrent to the ears of the fiery monarch, they observed
that it well required a warrior of his apparent nerve to execute such an
embassy.
Muley Abul Hassan received the cavalier in state, seated on a
magnificent divan and surrounded by the officers of his court, in
the Hall of Ambassadors, one of the most sumptuous apartments of the
Alhambra. When De Vera had delivered his message, a haughty and bitter
smile curled the lip of the fierce monarch. “Tell your sovereigns,” said
he, “that the kings of Granada, who used to pay tribute in money to the
Castilian crown, are dead. Our mint at present coins nothing but blades
of scimetars and heads of lances.” *
* Garibay, 1. 40, c. 29; Conde, Hist. Arab., p. 4, c. 34.
The defiance couched in this proud reply was heard with secret
satisfaction by Don Juan de Vera, for he was a bold soldier and a devout
hater of the infidels, and he saw iron war in the words of the Moorish
monarch. Being master, however, of all points of etiquette, he retained
an inflexible demeanor, and retired from the apartment with stately and
ceremonious gravity. His treatment was suited to his rank and dignity:
a magnificent apartment in the Alhambra was assigned to him, and before
his departure a scimetar was sent to him by the king, the blade of the
finest Damascus steel, the hilt of agate enriched with precious stones,
and the guard of gold. De Vera drew it, and smiled grimly as he noticed
the admirable temper of the blade. “His Majesty has given me a trenchant
weapon,” said he: “I trust a time will come when I may show him that
I know how to use his royal present.” The reply was considered a
compliment, of course: the bystanders little knew the bitter hostility
that lay couched beneath.
On his return to Cordova, Don Juan de Vera delivered the reply of the
Moor, but at the same time reported the state of his territories. These
had been strengthened and augmented during the weak reign of Henry
IV. and the recent troubles of Castile. Many cities and strong places
contiguous to Granada, but heretofore conquered by the Christians, had
renewed their allegiance to Muley Abul Hassan, so that his kingdom
now contained fourteen cities, ninety-seven fortified places, besides
numerous unwalled towns and villages defended by formidable castles,
while Granada towered in the centre as the citadel.
The wary Ferdinand, as he listened to the military report of Don Juan
de Vera, saw that the present was no time for hostilities with a warrior
kingdom so bristled over with means of defence. The internal discords
of Castile still continued, as did the war with Portugal: under these
circumstances he forbore to insist upon the payment of tribute, and
tacitly permitted the truce to continue; but the defiance contained
in the reply of Muley Abul Hassan remained rankling in his bosom as a
future ground of war; and De Vera’s description of Granada as the centre
of a system of strongholds and rock-built castles suggested to him his
plan of conquest--by taking town after town and fortress after fortress,
and gradually plucking away all the supports before he attempted the
capital. He expressed his resolution in a memorable pun or play upon
the name of Granada, which signifies a pomegranate. “I will pick out
the seeds of this pomegranate one by one,” said the cool and crafty
Ferdinand.
NOTE.--In the first edition of this work the author recounted a
characteristic adventure of the stout Juan de Vera as happening on
the occasion of this embassy; a further consultation of historical
authorities has induced him to transfer it to a second embassy of De
Vera’s, which the reader will find related in a subsequent chapter.