Ferdinand V., king of Arragon, besieged Boabdil, the last king of the
Moors of Grenada, in his capital, with an army of fifty thousand men.
Grenada, surrounded by a double wall, fortified by one thousand and
thirty towers, had two citadels, one of which served as a palace for
the king. An army of thirty thousand Moors was within the walls; it had
an immense and warlike population, and magnificent stores of munitions
and provisions seemed to render it impregnable. Ferdinand did not
attack Grenada according to the usual system of sieges; he employed
neither lines, nor trenches, nor artillery: he surrounded his own camp
with walls and works. His sole aim was to starve the enemy, and make
himself master of all the passages; he rooted up the trees, he burnt
the houses, and in a moment changed a delightful territory into a dry
and arid desert. The garrison endeavoured to make sorties, but it was
overwhelmed by numbers, and always proved unfortunate. The Saracens
flattered themselves that the rigours of winter would oblige the
Christians to depart; but their hopes were disappointed. Ferdinand’s
camp became a fortified city, furnished with solid fire-proof houses.
The Moors saw with grief that nothing could discourage the Castilians.
The rigours of famine began to be felt, and cold augmented both public
and private misery. In this extremity it was determined to treat with
Ferdinand, and they consented to surrender, if not relieved within
sixty days. Scarcely had the Moorish king signed the treaty than he
repented of it; the thoughts of descending from his throne plunged him
into the deepest grief, and yet he did not dare to retract, so great
were the evils that surrounded him. His army could not endure the
idea of submitting to the Christians, and the inhabitants incessantly
implored the assistance of God and of Mahomet. Suddenly an Alfaique
excited the people to revolt; at his voice twenty thousand men took
arms. Boabdil required all his eloquence to restore order; he pointed
out to them, with tears in his eyes, that if they preferred life to a
certain death, they were bound by the stern necessity of observing the
capitulation. The sedition was appeased, but the public despair was so
great, that the king of the Moors, dreading to see it renewed, hastened
to surrender all his forts, and to repair to the camp of the conqueror.
Thus, after a duration of seven hundred and sixty-two years, terminated
the domination of the Moors in Spain.