Despite the favorable beginning of the campaign, the Aragonese army

was daily reduced by desertions, and when, a few weeks afterwards, it

encamped before Valencia, it mustered less than fifteen hundred strong.

Rarely had an enterprise of such importance been undertaken with so

small a force. In addition to its numerical weakness, its efficiency

was impaired by a general feeling of suspicion, engendered by a lack of

confidence and an absence of discipline. Many nobles abandoned their

king, often without notice, taking their retainers with them. Those

who remained could not be relied on, and had, in fact, good reason

for discontent. The daily winter rains increased the difficulty of

military movements and the danger of disease. Few of those who had

served in the former campaign cared for a repetition of the experiences

before Majorca. The presence of a brave and treacherous enemy rendered

increasing vigilance indispensable and magnified the already arduous

labors of a siege whose issue, under existing circumstances, could

hardly be successful. The pay of the soldiers was in arrears, and the

treasure chest, exhausted by unusual demands and plundered by dishonest

custodians, was empty. The camp resounded with complaints. The murmurs

of the courtiers were not suppressed even in the royal presence. When

the King announced his intention to return for the purpose of seeking

reinforcements, the remaining nobles declared that they would accompany

him and renounce an undertaking which promised nothing but disaster.

But relief was at hand from a quarter whence substantial encouragement

had already been repeatedly obtained in wars with the Moorish infidel.

The crusading spirit, generally nourished by incentives wholly foreign

to the principles of religion, which, however, always afforded a

convenient pretext for the most flagrant outrages against humanity, was

by no means dormant in Europe. Another crusade was proclaimed by the

Holy See. The passions of rapacious adventurers were inflamed with the

hope of conquest, while the promise of unlimited pardons, indulgences,

and booty attracted to the standard of the Cross a motley concourse of

criminals, outlaws, and fanatics. France and England furnished almost

all of these recruits, who numbered nearly seventy thousand. With such

an army, which was constantly supplied with provisions by sea, the

ultimate result of the campaign seemed no longer doubtful. To prove

to the enemy, as well as to his own followers, his intention not to

abandon his position until the city should be captured, Jaime made use

of every artifice and expedient at his command. The Christian camp by

degrees assumed the appearance and character of a permanent outpost.

The quarters of the soldiery were constructed of substantial materials.

The Queen, attended by the ladies of the court, arrived and took up

her residence in the royal pavilion. Operations were pressed with

increasing diligence. The Moors, impressed by these ominous evidences

of the unalterable purpose of the besiegers, attempted to negotiate.

All the territory between Teruel, Tortosa, and the Guadalquivir--a

region of boundless fertility and defended by many strong fortresses,

together with a yearly tribute of ten thousand pieces of gold--was

offered as the price of peace. The King, conscious of his advantage,

declined to listen to any terms of accommodation which did not include

the capitulation of the city. The prize almost within his grasp was

too valuable to be made the subject of barter. The traveller who

to-day traverses the province of Valencia is amazed and enchanted with

its productiveness and beauty. Yet what he sees is a comparatively

insignificant portion of that which was once under the highest

cultivation attainable by any system of agriculture. The density of

the population required the greatest economy and labor in the division

and use of both land and water. Hills that are now rocky and barren.

were, under Moorish occupation, covered to the very summits with

verdant terraces. Irrigation, governed by a code of laws which Spanish

conceit and prejudice have never been able to repeal, was carried to

almost absolute perfection. Every product flourished in a climate

not inaptly compared with that of Paradise. The natural resources

and accumulated wealth of such a principality were too alluring to

permit its long continuance in the hands of those whose skill and

patient efforts had founded and perpetuated its prosperity. At the

sight of the voluptuous regions of Southern Spain, the Christian of

the inhospitable North often forgot his country and the deeds of his

heroic ancestors who had wrested with difficulty from the infidel a

foothold in the Pyrenees; in the presence of the lovely houris of

another faith he sometimes renounced his religion and his God. The

Spanish crusades were not characterized by the absurd but sincere

fanaticism which was the chief motive that inspired the expeditions

to Palestine. No kings or courtiers abandoned home, country, friends,

and family to obtain an object of doubtful expediency in the midst

of an arid and scorching desert. No misguided multitude, roused by

ecclesiastical eloquence, undertook the most interminable of journeys,

endured the most horrible of privations for the recovery of the Holy

Sepulchre, which omnipotent wisdom or Moslem valor had left since the

reign of Omar, with a single slight intermission, in the hands of the

infidel. The warriors who assumed the cross in the Peninsula were men

of a widely different stamp from the followers of Peter the Hermit or

the vassals of Philip Augustus and Richard Plantagenet. It is true

that some of them had served in the Holy Land; but these were not fair

representatives of the brave, the chivalrous, the pious crusaders.

Their incentives had been mercenary, or they may have sought security

for unpardonable crimes in the confused obscurity of a multitude of

strangers. The most ignoble designs were concealed by the ample but

well-worn mantle of religion. The wealth of the Moorish cities, the

seductive influence of the climate when contrasted with the inclement

and dreary atmosphere of Central and Northern Europe, the beauty and

grace of the Mohammedan women were well known to every nation from

Byzantium to Britain. It was no secret, either, that the population of

the terrestrial paradise which bordered on the Mediterranean had long

since lost the prestige and the strength which had distinguished the

armies of the khalifate, and was not fitted to contend with fierce

and powerful warriors reared amidst cold and privation, trained to

martial exercises from infancy, and whose occupation and pastime

alike were war. The accomplishment of the Reconquest would have been

long and indefinitely deferred had it depended on the exertions

of the Spaniards alone. Credit for the exploits which subdued and

eventually consolidated under the Castilian sceptre the Hispano-Arab

principalities is in no small degree due to the prowess of adventurers

from every country in Christendom. The frenzied exhortations of monkish

zealots were not required to excite the passions of the foreign

crusader who volunteered in the armies of Jaime and Ferdinand. In his

eyes the propagation of the Faith was merely an excuse for pillage. He

was conspicuously negligent in the performance of his religious duties,

extended experience and observation having thoroughly familiarized him

with the inconsistencies and the failings of the clergy, and inspired

him with a contempt for that order which he was usually at no pains

to conceal. His attachment to the cause of Christ lasted just as

long as it was profitable. Such considerations are not applicable,

however, to the independent Christian population of Spain. With it the

extinction of Moslem domination was a measure of political necessity,

of national existence, of individual freedom. For five hundred years

the struggle had continued. More than once the petty states which had

sprung from the weak and insignificant community established in the

Asturias in the face of Moorish triumph, expanded by ages of undaunted

resolution and superhuman valor, and finally developed into a number

of kingdoms whose mutual antagonisms were the greatest menace to their

stability and power, had been on the point of submitting once more

in humiliating subordination to Moslem authority, evidenced by the

regular and humiliating rendition of homage. Generations of battle

had engendered in the mind of the Spanish Christian a sentiment of

ferocious hatred against the infidel enemy who had usurped the empire

of his ancestors; who had defeated his most valiant sovereigns; to

whose harems had been consigned the most beautiful maidens of his

race, either as a degrading tribute or as the spoils of war; whose

sacrilegious hands had seized the sacred treasures of his altars; who

had deposited with exultant shouts within the mosque of his capital the

bells whose solemn tones had so often called to their devotions the

pilgrims assembled at the holy shrine of Santiago. The grosser passions

of avarice and military ambition were, indeed, rarely absent from the

motives which prompted the conduct of the mediæval Spaniard. Inherited

prejudice, early education, the maxims of his religious guides, all

had a tendency to intensify the detestation entertained by him against

such as refused assent to the doctrines of his creed. The Castilian

despised the knowledge and the intellectual accomplishments which made

the Moor immeasurably his superior, but he often reluctantly confessed

the bravery of his infidel adversary in the field. This antipathy and

intolerance, while openly encouraged by the clergy for professional

reasons, were in reality less marked among the ecclesiastics than

elsewhere. As their order monopolized the meagre learning of the time,

they were better qualified to appreciate the scientific acquirements

which distinguished the polished enemies of their faith. As

representatives of a system largely maintained by organized hypocrisy,

they condemned in public what they often studied with wonder and

delight in the luxurious solitude of the convent and the monastery. The

prelates as well as the nobles did not disdain to imitate the vices of

the Moslem, especially condemned by their religion, their canons, the

precepts of their Founder, and the example of the chaste and abstemious

Fathers of the Church. The writings of the heterodox Mussulmans were

not unfamiliar to the more intelligent and inquisitive members of the

Spanish hierarchy. The theological gloom of the episcopal palace was

dispelled by the joyous presence of lovely infidels, whose caresses

were more attractive to the clerical voluptuary than the monotonous

ceremonies of the mass, and whose suggestive dances, relics of the

licentious diversions of Pagan antiquity, were frequently performed for

the delectation of saintly visitors in the most retired apartments of

the ecclesiastical seraglio.

Incentives other than those inspired by disinterested piety had great

weight with the majority of the Spanish clergy. The Church, through

the diligently fostered fears and the misdirected liberality of its

superstitious adherents, was always the greatest beneficiary of a

successful campaign against the Saracen. The lucrative precedent for

the accumulation of treasure, eventually consumed in the construction

and adornment of the palatial religious houses of the Peninsula,

whose number and magnificence, although sadly diminished, are still

sufficient to excite the envy of Catholic Europe, had already been

established. The annual contributions bestowed by royal munificence

or wrung from individual poverty were but a pittance when compared

with the booty to be secured by the Church militant at the capture

of a single Moslem city. Uncanonical considerations were, moreover,

no insignificant inducements to the martial ecclesiastic to abandon

for a time the cope for the cuirass. The formal and traditional

obligations of his order were but lightly regarded by the Castilian or

the Leonese prelate. His vow of poverty had long been forgotten amidst

the boundless epicureanism of elegant luxury, magnificent furniture,

expensive and gaudy raiment, priceless jewels, the possession of

horses whose purity of breed moved the envy of the greatest nobles, the

parade of trains of slaves whose physical attractions were indisputable

proof of the taste and incontinence of their masters. The Spanish

hierarchy, independent of the Papacy from the early days of Gothic

domination, was far from presenting in its polity the nice distinctions

of official rank and the rigid subordination to superiors exhibited

in the profound and elaborate organization of the papal system. Each

prelate enjoyed a large share of independence in his own diocese, and

recent acknowledgment of the paramount claims of the See of Rome had

not abrogated the ecclesiastical prerogatives confirmed by prescriptive

right based upon the uninterrupted usage of centuries. The vow of

implicit obedience--generally considered an unmeaning formality and

unknown in practice under the Visigoths--was for generations after

the public submission to papal supremacy disregarded as an imperative

obligation of the clergy. Such was the condition of the Spanish

priesthood and such the base and inconsistent motives which prompted

the overthrow of the most perfect examples of material and intellectual

progress which had adorned and instructed Europe since the climax of

Roman civilization.

The great accession of moral strength secured through the

instrumentality of the Papacy enabled the King of Aragon vigorously

to assume the offensive. A great fortified camp, whose works defied

the feeble and desultory efforts of the besieged, now encircled the

city of Valencia. The machines were placed in position, the walls

were mined, and intercourse with the Moors on the side of the land

effectually intercepted. By the sea, however, communication was as yet

comparatively clear, and pressing messages for assistance were sent by

the beleaguered Moslems to their brethren in Andalusia and Africa. To

these appeals no one responded except the Emir of Tunis, whose squadron

was not able to effect a landing in the face of the overwhelming

numbers of the enemy. After the departure of the Africans, the

Catalonian navy formed the blockade of the port; under the increased

exertions of the besiegers the walls began to crumble, and the

inhabitants held themselves in constant readiness to repel a storming

party. It required no power of the imagination to picture the result

of a successful attack by the lawless troops now besieging the city.

The melancholy examples of beautiful and populous towns delivered up to

pillage were fresh in the mind of every Moslem in the Peninsula. Of all

the Christian armies which the Saracens of Spain had yet encountered,

that of Jaime contained the largest proportion of foreign adventurers.

The native soldiery, seldom accessible to pity, were humane when

compared with the fierce and bloodthirsty outlaws who formed the bulk

of the crusaders. These considerations were not lost upon the people

of Valencia, who could not hope to hold in check much longer an enemy

whose numbers, valor, and military resources gave him such decided

advantages over a garrison exhausted by prolonged hostilities, whose

defences were rapidly becoming untenable, whose provisions were almost

exhausted, and which had no prospect of reinforcements or aid from any

quarter. Haunted by the dread of massacre, the Valencians proposed

terms of surrender, which the prudence of Jaime readily induced him

to accord. They were expressly guaranteed against the violence of the

troops, a provision which experience had frequently demonstrated to be

but a precarious security. Such as chose to remain were promised the

undisturbed enjoyment of their possessions, their individual liberty,

and their religious faith. All taxes, excepting those ordinarily

imposed on the people of Aragon, were to be abolished. To those who

preferred to tempt the doubtful fortunes of voluntary exile were

conceded their arms and all the portable property they could carry,

with the assurance that their Journey through the territory occupied by

the Christians might be prosecuted without molestation. The majority of

the Moslems adopted the latter alternative. The uncontrollable temper

of their enemies, infuriated by the loss of anticipated booty and

inflamed with religious hatred, was too great a menace to be lightly

braved in the presence of men who would, under the most insignificant

pretext, indulge to satiety their ferocious instincts.

Fifty thousand persons abandoned their homes and sought temporary

safety beyond the Xucar, which was designated as the new boundary

of Christian conquest; a truce nominally of seven years, but whose

actual duration was entirely dependent on the capricious indulgence

of the victor, was agreed upon, and the royal standard of Aragon was

raised by the Moslems themselves upon the battlements of Valencia. It

required all the authority of the King to repress the fierce passions

of his unruly followers, some of whom did not hesitate to violate

the provisions of the treaty and the laws of military discipline by

attempts to plunder the helpless and the distressed who had been

compelled to yield to the inexorable results of war. The heads of these

mutineers, insensible alike to the claims of public faith and the

suggestions of humanity, were promptly struck off by the King himself,

whose evident intention to maintain inviolate the pledges he had given

produced a salutary effect on the turbulent and insubordinate spirits

of his command.

The houses and the estates abandoned by their former owners, who

preferred exile and penury to the risk of death or oppression,

were apportioned among such of the crusaders as had distinguished

themselves by the amount of their contributions, the importance of

their military service, or the number of the retainers who had followed

them to battle. Considerable difficulty was incurred in adjusting

the conflicting claims of those who, exaggerating the value of their

achievements and the generosity of their donations, demanded an undue

share of the reward. Three hundred and eighty knights and nobles were,

according to the judgment of the King, deemed worthy of investiture

with fiefs derived from the lands of the conquered territory, whose

tenures imposed upon each feudatory the obligation of guarding for

four months in every year a certain portion of the border. The clergy,

as was usually the case, secured by superior dexterity and by the

influence attaching to their sacred office the most valuable of the

lands affected by the public distribution.

Information of the surrender of the Moorish capital spread fast through

the dominions of the victorious monarch. Attracted by the richness of

the new conquest, the subjects of Jaime deserted their barren country

by thousands to fix their residence and improve their fortunes in a

land so favored by the bountiful hand of Nature. The void occasioned

by the departure of fifty thousand Moslems was speedily filled, so far

as the mere enumeration of individuals might supply a deficiency of

population. But intelligence, industry, enterprise, and taste were not

prominent characteristics of the Aragonese and Catalonian peasantry

who replaced the Moorish merchants and artificers of Valencia. These

were qualities which could not be provided by promiscuous immigration.

The new colonists presented a striking and unfavorable contrast to

the remaining inhabitants; the numbers of the latter were eventually

reduced by systematic persecution, and the decadence of Valencia dates

from the day of its subjection to Christian authority.

The internal affairs of his kingdom urgently demanding his attention,

Jaime was forced to leave the scene of his triumph before the political

organization of the new province was complete. During his absence,

his lieutenants persistently abused their delegated authority for

the sake of private emolument. The national obligations incurred by

the conclusion of: a truce had no significance in the eyes of these

professional marauders. The King had scarcely embarked, before a

predatory inroad convinced the Moors of the duplicity of a foe who

violated without compunction engagements which had been ratified

with every circumstance of deliberation and solemnity. The grievous

conditions of partisan warfare were renewed. The existence of a truce

was considered an advantage, as increasing opportunities for surprise.

Every individual who wore a Moorish dress was classed as an enemy

and treated accordingly. Fields were ravaged. Castles were taken and

sacked. The peasantry fled from their homes in terror. The country was

rapidly assuming the melancholy appearance of those regions of the

Peninsula which had been harassed for generations by the alternate

occupancy of hostile armies, when the arrival of the King arrested the

progress of destruction. Such property as could be found and identified

was restored to its owners. The frightened cultivators were invited to

resume their peaceful avocations. The noble, who, with his retainers,

had unceremoniously occupied the fortress of some Moslem prince, was

summarily deposed from his recent and illegally acquired dignity. By

every means in his power the King endeavored to make reparation for

the wrongs committed without his sanction by an undisciplined and

reckless soldiery. This conduct, dictated by sentiments of personal

honor and public equity, was, however, not destined to endure. The

long period designated by the truce was eminently unfavorable to the

designs of both clerical avarice and royal ambition. Episcopal piety

was grieved by the infidel possession of cities whose revenues would

sustain with ease the pecuniary burdens of an extensive bishopric.

The worthy prelate saw with horror and indignation the performance of

Moslem rites in sumptuous mosques protected by the unwonted indulgence

of a Christian prince, and longed for the day when the wealth of these

splendid establishments might be confiscated for the benefit of the

Church of Christ and the treasury of a corrupt and sensual priesthood.

With military success and expanding power the public opinion of the age

tended more and more to the disregard of treaties contracted with an

enemy who was daily becoming less capable of resistance. The constant

and universal excitation of theological odium contributed mainly to the

adoption of this false and pernicious principle of political ethics.

Secular ignorance came in time to sincerely believe the odious doctrine

defended by ingenious casuists and promulgated by ecclesiastical

hypocrisy and hatred from motives of personal interest. For its

acceptance and pursuit to an inevitable conclusion, the degradation of

Spain from the high position it occupied under the first sovereigns

of the Austrian dynasty is to be chiefly attributed. No people can

systematically repudiate its contracts, even with an adversary

incapable of resenting his injuries, without forfeiting the respect

and confidence of the other members of the great community of nations.

The diplomatic perfidy inaugurated by religious malice and royal

subserviency in the Moorish wars of the Peninsula was subsequently

repeated, on a larger scale, in the politics of Europe, and was

responsible for most of the incredible atrocities which accompanied the

conquest of Mexico, Central America, Peru. Already tacitly acknowledged

as a maxim of national policy in a country which subsequently

displayed its willingness to sacrifice the most obvious principles of

public faith and morality for the exaltation of ecclesiastical power

by the foundation of the Jesuit Order, the peremptory abrogation of a

treaty with the votaries of a hostile faith was considered, during the

epoch under consideration, rather a meritorious than a reprehensible

proceeding. Therefore the King of Aragon, after he had rebuked his

officious subordinates for their ill-timed energy and exhibited a

plausible zeal for redress by restoring their possessions to the

injured Moslems, felt no reluctance in committing the same offence

against honor and justice as soon as his own plans were matured. His

martial emulation had been excited by the exploits of Ferdinand of

Castile in the West, and he feared that that monarch might be tempted

to include in his ambitious projects the subjugation of the remaining

Eastern states of Moorish Spain, which he himself already regarded

as his own by the doubtful claims of geographical proximity and

anticipated conquest. With the insatiable avidity of the conqueror, he

preferred to violate his royal word rather than to be insulted by the

presence of a foe who still enjoyed possession of a region equal in

extent and advantages to any recently added to the dominions of Aragon,

and, what was even more important, who could not hope to offer any

serious opposition to his arms. The ever-available pretext of religious

expediency, or even duty, urged by able and pious advocates, was no

doubt efficacious in removing any conscientious scruples he might have

entertained.

The city of Xativa, situated on the frontier of the now diminished

Moorish domain and south of the Xucar, the boundary established

by the treaty, was the first place to experience the effects of

Spanish duplicity and the resistless impetus of Spanish power. Its

manufacturing interests had from time immemorial been among the most

extensive and profitable in the Peninsula. Under the Romans, its linen

products enjoyed a reputation for fineness and durability which spread

to the limits of the empire. During the Moslem occupation, it was the

centre of the paper industry in Spain. The adoption of cotton as a

material for the fabrication of this most useful article of commerce

is said to have been due to the practical genius of the artisans of

Xativa. At a time when the scribes of Christian Europe were reduced

to the necessity of erasing the works of classic authors to obtain

parchment for the preservation of pious homilies and monkish legends,

the mills of Xativa were producing great quantities of paper, much of

which, in texture and finish, will compare not unfavorably with that

obtained by the most improved processes of modern manufacture. The

demand for this product, indispensable among a people of intellectual

tastes like the Hispano-Arabs, was enormous. The factories of the

city supplied the imperial scriptoriums whence issued the voluminous

works that filled the vast libraries of the khalifs. The literary

necessities of a highly educated population, the multiplication of

manuscripts, the requirements of innumerable institutions of learning

had a tendency to constantly promote this industry, of which Xativa

was the principal distributing point in the empire, and of whose

profits it enjoyed a practical monopoly. In consequence of this

lucrative branch of traffic, the citizens in time amassed prodigious

fortunes, and many of them rivalled, in the splendor of their domestic

establishments and their equipages, the magnificent displays of

royalty. But this was far from being the only source of the opulence

of Xativa. The same genial climate, the same wonderfully productive

soil belonged to the district surrounding that city which had made

the principality of Valencia a model of agricultural perfection. In

the thirteenth century it presented to the casual observer the same

charming aspect it had exhibited under the khalifate. Aside from

occasional temporary occupation by freebooters, it had almost entirely

escaped the destructive effects of internal discord and foreign

invasion. Its inhabitants retained to a large extent their possessions,

impaired somewhat by the casualties incident to national misfortune

and by the resultant diminution of the manufacture which had been the

principal source of their prosperity. But the abounding harvests,

the interminable orchards, the vast plantations of cane and cotton

still attested the flourishing and happy condition of an industrious

people. The knowledge of these manifold advantages and the overpowering

incentive of military glory more than counterbalanced, in the mind of

the King of Aragon, the moral obligations he had incurred. Without a

formal declaration of war, without any intimation of broken faith or

meditated hostility, a numerous Christian army, commanded by Jaime in

person, pitched its tents before Xativa. Under ordinary circumstances

that city was not incapable of an obstinate defence. Its fortifications

were strong and in good repair. Its immense castle, which is still

its most conspicuous feature, was second in extent and massiveness

only to the famous citadel of Almeria. The population was numerous,

the facilities for obtaining subsistence excellent. In imitation of

many of the Moslem communities of Spain which royal incompetency and

national indifference had abandoned to their fate, the inhabitants

of Xativa had erected their city into an independent principality,

whose laws and institutions were modelled after those of a republic.

This political anomaly had not yet secured even the confidence of its

originators. The experimental stage of government had not been passed.

The radical deviation from principles always recognized as essential

elements of a constitution which had endured from time immemorial

and on which the entire Moslem polity was based was not regarded with

favor by a large and powerful faction, in which were included many of

the most wealthy and influential citizens. This want of harmony was

fatal to the liberties of Xativa. It was found impossible to secure the

co-operation of parties which mutually distrusted each other, and the

sudden appearance of an enemy increased the uncertainty and danger of

the situation. It was not improbable that the enterprise of Jaime had

been undertaken with a previous knowledge of the political conditions

prevailing in the last great city of Oriental Spain which remained in

the hands of the Moslems. Apprehensive of the result of a siege which

must terminate disastrously, the magistrates of Xativa hastened to

propose a compromise. An agreement was concluded by which the place was

not to be surrendered to any sovereign but the King of Aragon. A number

of castles and a considerable extent of territory which acknowledged

the jurisdiction of the city were given up as the price of a temporary

respite; other unprotected places distracted by revolution and without

hope of relief sought the dangerous protection of a Christian suzerain;

and the greater part of the region south of the Xucar was incorporated

into the Aragonese monarchy, which received this important addition to

its realms with no other exertion than that required by the commission

of a deliberate act of perfidy.

Family troubles and the civil dissensions which distracted the kingdom

of Jaime deferred for three years any further molestation of the

Moslems of Xativa. Profiting by their dearly purchased experience,

they utilized every moment of that interval in preparing for the

approaching conflict. Foreign engineers were employed to direct the

efforts of the native laborers. The castle, already one of the best

fortified in Europe, was still further strengthened. The walls of the

city were increased in height and protected by additional buttresses

and barbicans. An efficient militia was organized, and the citizens,

whose enervating climate made them reluctant to undergo the duties

of military service, were thoroughly instructed in the use of arms.

Magazines sufficient to contain supplies for an extended siege were

erected and filled. These preparations, which indicated the determined

spirit of the Xativans, were productive of important results when

the Aragonese again invested the city. The King, whose force was

wholly inadequate to the reduction of the most formidable fortress

in the Peninsula, was repulsed; but the capture of Alcira and Denia,

after an obstinate resistance, in a measure indemnified him for the

disappointment he was compelled to endure before Xativa.

In the mean time Ferdinand had subjected to the crown of Castile the

remaining Moorish cities of Andalusia, and his occupation of Murcia

seemed to indicate an intention to encroach upon those provinces of

the East which the King of Aragon, in the formation of great plans

of conquest, already regarded as his own. The latter learned with

apprehension of the progress and the increasing reputation of his

enterprising and successful contemporary. Like the aspiring young

Greek general, the trophies of his rival would not suffer him to

sleep. The prospect of additional power and glory to be acquired by a

monarch whose exploits had already eclipsed the distinction in arms

he himself enjoyed and had won the applause of Christendom, was not

flattering to his vanity and ambition. He collected an imposing army,

and bound himself by a solemn oath never to slacken his efforts until

Xativa should be taken. Once more the siege of the Moorish stronghold

was begun. The defence was conducted with signal ability and courage;

but the garrison, well aware that no hope of assistance could be

entertained, was induced to propose terms of accommodation before the

city was reduced to extremity. Such was the impregnable character of

the place that remarkably favorable conditions were obtained by the

besieged. The nature of these conditions may well excite surprise.

The Christians seem to have gained nothing in reality but a nominal

occupation of those quarters of the town which, in case of renewed

hostilities, were not susceptible of effective defence. The great

citadel, which dominated not only Xativa but also the surrounding

country, remained in possession of the Moors. At the expiration of two

years it was to be evacuated, and two other castles were to be given

in exchange for its peaceable transfer to the Aragonese. The Moslems

were guaranteed protection of person and property as well as permitted

the practice of their religion and the operation of their laws. Such

equitable treatment of an infidel foe had been long unknown to the

savage code of the princes who directed the Reconquest. Never since the

Christian power attained to prominence had concessions equally generous

been granted to the vanquished Saracen. It would appear, however,

that this leniency was really only a pretext to gain by treachery

what was unattainable by force. For a time the treaty was respected.

The murmurs of the soldiery, defrauded of their expected prey, were

silenced by ample donatives from the royal treasury. The inhabitants,

deluded by a show of impartiality and moderation, pursued in peace

their ordinary employments. But this condition was only temporary.

The grasping ambition of Jaime was not to be satisfied with the mere

shadow of possession and authority. Considerations of moral obligation

were unceremoniously swept aside by the royal casuist the moment

they conflicted with the imperious demands of political necessity.

Excuses were invented and opportunities found to accuse the Moors

of infraction of the treaty. The enmity of the conquerors was, in

accordance with the baser and more mercenary instincts of humanity,

first directed against the rich. Opulent merchants were condemned,

without accusation or trial, to exile and beggary. Their property,

the chief cause of their persecution, was confiscated by the crown or

divided among the clergy and the nobles, who received with complacent

gratification the rewards of national perfidy and dishonor. Possession

of the citadel was secured by stratagem; the castles for which it was

to have been exchanged were retained by the Christians, and numbers

of Moorish maidens became, in spite of the faith of conventions and

in defiance of the canons of the Church, unwilling ministers of the

pleasures of the orthodox but voluptuous conqueror. The melancholy end

of the governor of Xativa, Yahya-Ibn-Ahmed, will arouse the compassion

of every reader who sympathizes with the misfortunes which ill-directed

resolution and bravery are liable to encounter in every age. He was

a personage of the highest consideration among his countrymen. His

talents and his integrity had elevated him to the first position in

the state. His wealth enabled him to sustain with dignity the civil

and military honors conferred upon him by an appreciative and admiring

people. In the defence of the city he had more than justified the

exalted opinion universally entertained of his capacity. The treaty

he negotiated with an enemy of vastly superior resources and elated

by recent conquests was the most advantageous to the weaker party of

any recorded in the annals of the Peninsula. He scrupulously observed

every condition of that agreement which his adversaries repudiated at

their convenience without shame and without excuse. With the other

wealthy citizens of Xativa he was driven from his home; his estates

were appropriated by the rapacious foreigner; he was forced to subsist

by the charity of strangers in a land where he had formerly displayed

the ensigns and exercised the prerogatives of royalty; and, while his

fate remains in doubt, his death was popularly believed to have been

hastened by poison or starvation.

The subjection of Xativa by the King of Aragon caused a rupture between

the two greatest soldiers of Western Europe which, had it developed

into open hostility, would have seriously imperilled the cause of

Christianity in the Peninsula. It was not without reason that Jaime

had apprehended the dangerous effects of Castilian ambition. The

tendency of conquest must hereafter inevitably be to the eastward.

Andalusia, forever lost to the Moslem, was now an integral part of

the dominions of Ferdinand. It was well known that the aspirations of

that conqueror had not been satisfied by the acquisition of the most

valuable portion of the Saracen empire. His intention to dispute the

doubtful claim of Aragon to the coveted region lying east of Granada

had already been disclosed by his occupation of Murcia. It was not

merely by arms that the astute King of Castile endeavored to extend, at

the expense of his rival, his already formidable power. The political

interests of the two monarchs had recently been nominally united by the

marriage of Alfonso, the heir to the Castilian throne, and Yolande, the

daughter of Jaime. Instigated by his father, that prince endeavored to

induce the Moslem governor to surrender to him the city of Xativa, in

contravention of the treaty negotiated with the King of Aragon. This

scheme was frustrated by the vigilance of Jaime, and the expulsion of

the principal citizens, some of whom were suspected of complicity in

the designs of Ferdinand, was determined upon in consequence of the

discovery.

Foiled in this attempt, Ferdinand then demanded the place as the

dowry of his daughter-in-law. But the King of Aragon, whose pride was

not inferior to that of Ferdinand, was unwilling to relinquish to

the importunity of a rival the substantial fruits of his courage and

energy, and it required all the address and the blandishments of his

queen to reconcile the conflicting pretensions of her husband and her

kinsman. The ancient boundary of Murcia and Valencia was eventually

re-established as the frontier of the two Christian monarchies. The

designs of Jaime were hereafter prosecuted to a successful termination

without hinderance from the intriguing policy of Castile, and in a

few years all the other fortresses held by the Moslems in the East of

the Peninsula were incorporated, either by conquest or negotiation,

into the realms of the kingdom of Aragon. The remaining years of Jaime

were passed amidst the distracting turmoil of family disputes and

feudal encroachments. An ill-advised expedition to the Holy Land, in

which the crusading fleet was dispersed by a tempest and which ended

ignominiously, for a time engaged his attention. On the seventh of

July, 1276, he died at Valencia, the scene of his greatest triumph.

This famous king was one of the most extraordinary personages of

mediæval history. The romance which colored his entire career antedated

his very existence. The son of Pedro II. and Marie, Countess of

Montpellier, whose marriage had never before been consummated and

was immediately afterwards practically annulled, he owed his origin

to an artifice, not infrequently met with in the merry tales of the

Middle Ages, but in this instance exhibiting a singular mixture of the

humorous and the pathetic. Even his name he owed to chance. His mother

lighted twelve candles, to represent the twelve apostles, and that of

St. James having burned longer than the others, her son was christened

for that worthy as his patron saint. While yet a little child, he

was intrusted to Simon de Montfort, crusader, soldier of fortune, and

persecutor of the Albigenses, to be educated. That freebooter, the

most eminent in his infamous calling of any of the military outlaws of

his time and who subsequently defeated and killed the father of his

charge on the field of Muret, caused the boy to be betrothed to his own

daughter before he had attained the age of four years. It afterwards

required all the influence of the Pope, moved by the entreaties of the

Spanish clergy, to rescue the royal infant from the hands of Simon and

place him upon the throne of Aragon.

Held in the arms of the Bishop of Tarragona, he repeated mechanically

and without comprehension the customary oath to maintain and execute

the laws of the realm. From the very beginning his abilities, child as

he was, were exercised with tact and discretion in the treatment of

his uncles, who attempted to govern in his name, and of the nobles,

who obstinately disputed his authority. It was not long before his

genius asserted itself and commanded the respect and obedience of his

unruly vassals. Personal advantages, which have so much influence with

the majority of mankind, bore no small share in effecting this result.

Nature had lavished upon him her most precious gifts. His stature

greatly exceeded that of other men. His features were handsome; his

form exhibited the proportions and the muscles of a Roman gladiator.

His manners were singularly winning; his demeanor conspicuous for its

graces among a people renowned for their courtesy. While fearless in

the presence of danger, such was his compassion that he shrank from the

signature of a death-warrant, and more than once a criminal escaped the

consequences of his misdeeds through the gentleness and humanity of his

king.

No prince in Spanish history occupies a more exalted position for

manly qualities, dauntless valor, and lavish generosity. His reign

of sixty-three years is the longest, if not the most eventful, in the

annals of the Peninsula. It was practically one uninterrupted campaign.

This great king won thirty pitched battles over the Moslems. He was the

exemplar of the prevalent crusading passion of the time. His popularity

with the clergy surpassed that of any of his royal contemporaries. He

founded and endowed at his own expense two thousand churches in the

territory conquered from the Moors. He knew the Scriptures by heart,

and during every grand religious festival he preached from the pulpit

to vast congregations with all the unction and probably with more

than the eloquence of an ecclesiastical orator. His memoirs, written

under the title of a chronicle, disclose a profound knowledge of human

nature, acute observation, and a remarkable degree of literary culture,

considering the advantages he enjoyed and the circumstances under which

his life was passed. Powerful even in death, the provision of his will

excluding females from the succession has always been sacredly observed

as an inviolable part of the constitution of the kingdom of Aragon.

The reverse of the medal is not so attractive. The famous Aragonese

crusader was bigoted, perfidious, licentious, cruel. He introduced the

Inquisition into Spain. Its agents, the Dominicans, were his favorite

counsellors. While treating for the surrender of Elche, in the presence

of his courtiers he slipped a purse of three hundred byzants into

the sleeve of one of the Moorish envoys, who he had ascertained was

willing to betray his countrymen for gold. He violated his royal word

to Doña Teresa de Vidaure, whom he had promised to make his queen,

and was supported in his infamous resolve by the Pope. He habitually

repudiated the most solemn contracts entered into with his Moslem

vassals and adversaries. His libertinism was conspicuous even in an

age of universal social depravity. He lived with two wives at once. He

entertained numerous concubines. He was said to have had a mistress

for every church that he founded. He caused the tongue of the Bishop

of Gerona, his spiritual adviser, to be torn out as a punishment for

having betrayed certain unsavory secrets learned in the sacred privacy

of the confessional. Amidst the frightful spectacles afforded by cities

carried by assault, the pitiless hand of the ferocious soldiery was

rarely stayed by the authority of the champion of the Christian cause,

in whose eyes every infidel was legitimate prey.

The scene of action in the exhibition of the romantic drama of the

Reconquest now shifts to Andalusia. It was in that province, enriched

with every gift of nature, improved by every resource of industry and

art, that Moorish civilization first had its origin; and it was there

that, after centuries of glory, it was destined to a melancholy and

disastrous end.

The monarchy of Castile, the foundation of whose future greatness had

been already laid by the important military successes which preceded

and followed the capture of the ancient metropolis of the khalifate,

was now to be adorned with yet more decisive and brilliant triumphs.

With the death of Mohammed-Ibn-Hud the integrity of the Emirate of

Murcia was destroyed. The alcalde of each city, the governor of each

province, forthwith aspired to independence. The absurd claims and

irreconcilable quarrels of these petty rulers, none of whom were worthy

of the title of prince, but the majority of whom claimed the dignity

of khalif, advanced unconsciously, but none the less expeditiously,

the projects of the Christian enemy. The dismemberment of Murcia had

been the result of the intrigues of Mohammed, King of Granada, the

founder of the famous line of the Alhamares, who was now recognized

by all patriotic Moslems as the representative of their power and

their religion in the Peninsula. The assassination of the daring

Ibn-Hud had been injurious rather than beneficial to the national

cause. None of the score of pretenders who had divided among themselves

the principality of Murcia were willing to do homage to the King of

Granada, whose title to sovereignty was, in fact, no better than

their own; and Mohammed, whose attention was fully occupied by the

movements of the Christians, was not at liberty to enforce compliance

with his demands by the potent agency of the sword. After a series of

indecisive operations, in which the Christians, although they succeeded

in penetrating as far as the Vega of Granada, seem to have been worsted

in almost every encounter, Ferdinand turned his attention to the

more promising field presented by the divided and helpless Emirate

of Murcia. An army under the command of Prince Alfonso had already

reached the borders of that kingdom when hostilities were suspended

by overtures for peace. The reputation of the Castilian monarch,

while stained with many well-founded accusations of violated honor

and broken faith, was so far superior to that of his contemporaries

that the Moslems did not hesitate, even with the full knowledge of the

ecclesiastical influences to which he was blindly subject, to intrust

to him the custody of their persons and the disposal of their fortunes.

Other reasons impelled them to this wise determination. Combined, the

states of Murcia could never have successfully withstood the power of

the Castilian monarchy; disunited, their resistance was absolutely

hopeless. The dreadful fate of Moorish cities which had attempted

to retard the advance of Christian conquest was always present to

the effeminate population of Murcia. Ultimate subjection to either

Ferdinand or Jaime was inevitable. The inhumanity of the Castilian

had heretofore been far less conspicuous in instances of voluntary

submission than that displayed by the cruel and perfidious Aragonese,

whose armies were largely composed of foreigners, and whose ideas of

equity were habitually subordinated to considerations of present gain

or future advantage. With these facts before them, the Moslems of

Murcia did not long hesitate in making a choice of masters. The cities

of the emirate with the exception of Lorca voluntarily submitted to the

ascendency of Castile, and the ceremonies incident to the establishment

of royal supremacy were performed. The feudal obligations which

preceded the institution of suzerainty and vassalage were then publicly

acknowledged, and the credulous Moors welcomed the tyranny of a foreign

prince with acclamations such as they would scarcely have vouchsafed to

a ruler of their own blood and their own religion.

The respite afforded by the prestige of his victories and by

the diversion of the arms of Castile to Murcia was employed by

Mohammed-Ibn-Ahmar in the improvement of his kingdom and the

embellishment of his capital. The encroachments and the conquests

of the Spaniards had driven into exile thousands of Moslems, to

whom the society of their countrymen and the unmolested exercise of

their worship were privileges not to be sacrificed to the uncertain

security of Christian domination. Within the space of a few years,

as a result of constant immigration, the population of Granada had

increased with tremendous rapidity. The most experienced cultivators,

the most finished artisans, the most learned scholars who represented

the declining age of Saracen genius, found a refuge from persecution

and insult in the dominions of a prince not unworthy to be compared

with the most distinguished sovereigns who had ever dignified the

Hispano-Arab throne. Their accumulated experience and industry

had enriched beyond measure the country of their adoption. Nor was

that country in the charms of climate, soil, and scenery unworthy

of the labors of the most energetic and accomplished of colonists.

Its surface, diversified by valley, plain, and mountain, afforded

the combined advantages elsewhere enjoyed only by a succession of

regions in widely distant quarters of the globe. A few hundred feet

of elevation or descent determined the character of the vegetation,

and valuable plants, ordinarily separated by many degrees of latitude,

here grew luxuriantly almost side by side. Streams fed by melting

snows rushed down the mountain slope, diffusing their refreshing

moisture through the teeming harvests of the Vega. This district--as

the plain enclosed by the Sierra Nevada and the Alpujarras became

subsequently designated--was unsurpassed in the fertility of its soil

and the number and superior quality of its agricultural products. So

dense was its population, that its contiguous and endless hamlets and

plantations gave it the appearance of a single interminable village.

Although including an area of not more than seven hundred and fifty

square miles, it supplied with ease under Moslem care and economy

the wants and luxuries of a hundred thousand souls. At its northern

extremity, on the gentle slope of the Sierra, stood the capital, which

had begun to assume the architectural splendor which distinguished the

dynasty of its builders, the crumbling ruins of whose edifices are

still the models of the architect and the admiration of the traveller.

The vast circuit of the Alhambra, with the ancient fortress which,

from a period far anterior to the foundation of the khalifate, had

commanded the city with its innumerable towers, barbicans, outworks,

had already been enclosed. Facing the citadel, on the most elevated

point of an eminence which barbarian sagacity had, even before the date

of Phœnician occupation, chosen as a place of refuge and security, a

magnificent palace, the exemplar of a new and indescribably gorgeous

style of architecture, had arisen. Its arcades and halls and courts

did not as yet exhibit the extent of area, the exquisite taste, the

profusion of ornament which subsequently distinguished the most

elaborate and beautiful edifice of Mohammedan Spain. In that portion,

however, which had issued from the hands of the builders the germ

of its future elegance was plainly discernible. The most skilful

workmen in the Peninsula--still the European centre of architectural

superiority--had been employed in its construction and embellishment

as well as in the design and completion of many less sumptuous and

imposing, but still not less remarkable, structures of the capital. A

constant influx of dextrous and ingenious colonists from the provinces

harassed by Christian cruelty and intolerance had developed, to a

degree which could scarcely have been anticipated by the most sanguine

political economist, the inexhaustible mineral, agricultural, and

commercial resources of the kingdom. As a legitimate consequence of

this extraordinary impulse received by every department of trade and

husbandry, the revenues of the state were prodigiously increased.

With the means and the opportunity of enjoyment came a growing demand

for every article of luxury. Through the ports of Almeria and Malaga

a maritime trade was maintained with distant countries which greatly

enriched the merchants of Granada. The capital was adorned with superb

buildings dedicated to the noble purposes of public instruction and

religious worship. A portion of the intellectual ambition and literary

culture which had exalted the Ommeyade metropolis to such well-merited

pre-eminence seemed to have been inherited by Granada. Her institutions

of learning were superior to all others of contemporaneous Europe.

The works of her historians, travellers, and scholars survive as the

masterpieces of the age in which they were composed. It is to the

genius of Mohammed I. that the origin of her prosperity and influence

must be attributed. The Moslem immigrant, deluded by a false and

momentary security, believed that he had, after many wanderings, at

last discovered a permanent abode. But the sagacious mind of Mohammed

was deceived by no such pleasing anticipations. He recognized the

full significance of Christian encroachment, and the eventual result

of a conflict already prolonged for more than six hundred years, and

whose termination could not long be deferred. In conjunction with his

military talents he brought to bear all the resources of political

craft and far-sighted diplomacy. He purchased the influence of powerful

nobles and ecclesiastics at the court of Castile. He maintained the

closest and most amicable relations with the sultans and sheiks of

Northern Africa, whose inextinguishable hostility to the Almohade

dynasty made them the faithful and enthusiastic allies of a prince

who represented a faction devoted to its extermination. The important

consequences of these wise and able measures subsequently became

apparent in the hour of Christian success and Moslem extremity.

The rise of the monarchy of Granada in opulence and strength was

coincident with, and, indeed, partly resultant from, the decline of

Moorish power in the remaining states of the Peninsula. Sancho II.,

King of Portugal, was gradually adding to his possessions the isolated

and feeble remnants of what had formerly constituted one of the most

important principalities of the khalifate. In the prosecution of

conquest, Jaime had invaded the region south of the Xucar, which had

just before been declared inviolate by the provisions of a deliberately

executed treaty. With the single exception of Jaen, the whole of

Northern Andalusia had been incorporated into the monarchy of Castile.

After the submission of Murcia, Ferdinand, impatient of inaction,

prepared for another campaign. He penetrated into the Vega of Granada,

desolated its plantations, and, returning through the valley of the

Genil, where his destructive march was but too clearly indicated by

the blackened remains of crops and dwellings, encamped before Jaen.

The governor of that city, Ibn-Omar, an officer of indomitable courage

and inexhaustible fertility of resource, showed himself eminently

worthy of the trust reposed in him. The advanced position of Jaen

gave it unusual value in a military point of view. It was the extreme

outpost of the Moslem possessions towards the north. Its loss implied

the certain fall of Seville as well as the subjection of the remaining

territory of Andalusia, and would afford an unobstructed course to an

enemy who desired to invade Granada. The city was only fifty miles

from the capital of that kingdom. These facts made its retention in

Moorish hands a strategical necessity. Its strength and the bravery of

its citizens were such that hitherto every effort to take it had been

futile. Anticipating the object of Ferdinand, the King of Granada had

sent a large convoy with provisions and arms for the garrison, which

was delayed and narrowly escaped capture. Then he attempted at the head

of a numerous but undisciplined army to raise the siege. The Moorish

peasantry, ill-fitted to cope with veterans skilled from boyhood in

the profession of arms, were easily routed, and the situation of the

besieged grew desperate. It was evident that the city was doomed, and

its occupation by the Christians must, in the present defenceless

condition of the Moslems, be the melancholy precursor of a long series

of misfortunes, of religious persecution, poverty, slavery, and

exile. Then it was that Mohammed determined upon a course which his

shrewdness convinced him was the only expedient through whose means the

integrity of his kingdom and the preservation of his people could be

secured. He appeared voluntarily in the camp of the Castilian king and

announced his willingness to render him homage. The penetration of the

astute Moslem had not miscalculated the effect of this extraordinary

resolve upon the mind of his generous rival. The surprise and

gratification of Ferdinand at the proposal inclined his disposition,

ever averse to acts of deliberate cruelty and injustice, to a display

of unusual magnanimity. He accepted with unconcealed pleasure the offer

of Mohammed; the mutual obligations of lord and vassal were assumed,

and the sovereign of Granada agreed to attend, when summoned, the

national assembly of the Cortes, to furnish a stated number of soldiers

in case of war,--even against the votaries of his own religion,--and to

pay each year into the treasury of Castile a tribute of fifty thousand

maravedis of gold. The duty of protection incumbent on the suzerain,

according to the laws of feudalism, was solemnly acknowledged by

Ferdinand, and the surrender of Jaen, as an assurance of good faith,

was the significant preliminary of a temporary but advantageous peace.

The impolitic liberality of their monarch in granting such favorable

concessions to an enemy reduced to despair has been, perhaps not with

injustice, severely criticised by Spanish historians and churchmen.

In this instance, at all events, the royal saint was not guided by

celestial inspiration, and the adoption of a treaty inimical to the

interests of his country prolonged the existence of Islamism in the

Peninsula for a period of two hundred and fifty years.

The success which had attended the movements of the King of Castile

in the recent campaign incited him to further and even more strenuous

efforts. Seville, the greatest city of Moslem Spain, the centre of a

region of prodigious fertility, the seat of a most lucrative maritime

and internal trade, a city whose wealth and manifold attractions

could hardly be exaggerated by either the pride of the Moor or the

cupidity of the Spaniard, was still in the hands of the infidel. At

that time its population, increased by thousands of refugees and

exiles, was larger than at any previous period of its history. The

productiveness of the soil and the patient industry of the cultivator

had repaired the effects of foreign depredation and domestic violence.

Its environs, remote from the seat of war, had not suffered from

repeated and systematic devastation such as had afflicted the suburbs

of Cordova. From the summit of the Giralda, for a distance of fifty

miles on every side, could be seen a continuous mass of verdure dotted

with farm-houses and villas, interspersed with olive plantations,

vineyards, and orange groves, and intersected by the silver threads

of countless canals and rivulets. Occasionally the ruins of a hamlet

or the brushwood which covered the surface of a once flourishing

district proclaimed the former presence of an enemy, but in general

the appearance of the surrounding country did not differ materially

from that which it had worn in the most thriving days of the Moslem

domination. The quays of the city were crowded with shipping from

every port of the Mediterranean. The streets swarmed with people.

The markets, provided alike with the most common articles of daily

consumption and the most expensive luxuries, afforded unmistakable

evidences of general prosperity, and the imposing and splendid edifices

dedicated to public utility, private ostentation, and religious worship

disclosed the extraordinary development of architectural taste and the

substantial results of princely munificence. In its external aspect,

therefore, Seville still exhibited an apparent, if deceptive, image of

imperial greatness. Her power, however, as was perfectly realized by

her citizens, rested upon an insecure and crumbling foundation. Many

of those citizens had once been residents of flourishish communities

which the fortunes of war had delivered to the merciless Christian.

Their mosques had been profaned. Their household gods had been

scattered. Their children were in the harems of the licentious noble

or ecclesiastic. They, more than all others, understood the deplorable

results of conquest, and the persevering, the indomitable, the

resistless spirit which inspired the measures and guided the movements

of the Christian armies. The fears which had for so long agitated the

inhabitants of Seville were now about to be realized. In a political

as well as in a geographical sense the city and its dependencies were

completely isolated. At the south was the Mediterranean; in all other

directions the Castilian power encroached upon the limits of Sevillian

territory; the sole monarch of kindred blood and a common faith was a

vassal of the enemy. Other causes conspired to render the separation

more complete. Berber influence, extinct elsewhere in Spain and fast

vanishing in its original seat across the sea, still maintained a

precarious but decided foothold in the centre of Andalusia. The Emir

of Seville, Abu-Abdallah, was a prince of the Almohade dynasty. The

unpopularity of that abhorred race had by no means declined with its

capacity to effect either substantial benefit or serious injury. In the

breast of the Arab partisan all other animosities were reconciled when

confronted with the universal execration which attached to the names

and the character of Almohade and African. Two centuries and a half had

passed since the distrust and the partiality of Al-Mansur had elevated

to posts of pre-eminent dignity and power individuals of a race that

Arab pride disdained as inferior, and whose influence subsequent

experience had conclusively proved to be inconceivably destructive

to art, learning, and every instinct of civilization. Since that

fatal day the supremacy of Islam in the West had steadily declined.

Results of the inherent evils of a defective political system, and of

the refractory character of a mixed population whose elements were

incapable of thorough and permanent fusion, were commonly attributed

to the sinister influence with which tribal prejudice and hereditary

malevolence invested every act of an aggressive and finally dominant

faction.

The surrender of Jaen and the unexpected submission of the King of

Granada imparted extraordinary power and distinction to the cause of

Ferdinand. His arms were regarded as invincible alike by his Moorish

enemies and by his admiring subjects and allies. The inhabitants of

Seville heard with consternation of the removal of the last bulwark

which guarded the frontier and of the defection of the last Moslem

prince who, despite the persistence of ancient prejudices and the

memory of recent wrongs, it had been fondly hoped might still have

made common cause with the adherents of the same religious belief

against the enemies of Islam. The activity of the conqueror afforded

them but little time for defensive measures. The great vassals of the

kingdom were summoned to the camp at Cordova, the starting-point of

the campaign. Among them was Mohammed, whose fealty to his suzerain

was attested by a retinue of five hundred picked and splendidly

mounted horsemen. Orders were sent to Biscay to equip and despatch a

fleet to blockade the mouth of the Guadalquivir and to intercept all

communication with Africa. The environs of Carmona were wasted with

fire and sword. Alcalá de Guadair was taken and presented to the King

of Granada as a token of esteem and confidence from his feudal lord.

As the main body of the army was about to move, Ferdinand received

intelligence of the death of his mother, Queen Berenguela, who at the

advanced age of seventy-six years was, as the regent of the kingdom

and the counsellor of her son, not unequal to the assumption of the

cares and responsibilities of a great and turbulent empire. In the mind

of the stoical and ambitious sovereign of Castile, the misfortune of

domestic bereavement was unhesitatingly subordinated to the important

interests of country and religion. The campaign was inaugurated

without delay. The ruthless policy of an age which made war with a

barbarity at present happily extinct demanded the absolute destruction

of everything which could afford either shelter or subsistence to a

foe. The Castilians, acting upon this principle, soon transformed the

beautiful plain of Seville into a prospect of appalling desolation.

The houses were burned. The harvests were trampled into the earth.

The vineyards were destroyed. The orchards, the orange-groves, the

almond and pomegranate plantations were cut down and set on fire.

For leagues in every direction the view was obscured by dense clouds

of smoke rising from half-consumed trees and burning villages.

The city itself was enveloped in darkness which at times made the

streets impassable and exceeded the gloom of a starless night. This

exhibition of severity was not lost upon the inhabitants of the more

defenceless towns of Andalusia. Carmona, Loja, Alcolea hastened to

make terms with the invader. Others, among which was the fortress of

Cantillana, held out till the last, and received a terrible lesson for

their obstinacy. All places which offered resistance were stormed,

delivered up to pillage, and every living being within their walls

was massacred without mercy. The capitulation of other cities and the

utter devastation of the country deprived the people of Seville of the

prospect of reinforcements and the means of obtaining supplies. The

produce of the crops, swept away by the Castilian cavalry, had been

their dependence for replenishing the failing magazines of the capital,

and upon the resistance of the outlying fortresses had rested the

hope of securing time to reap the harvests. The only resource of the

Almohade prince was now with his kinsmen beyond the Strait. His appeal

for help was answered by the donation of a fleet of twenty galleys,

which attempted to arrest the progress of the Christian squadron about

to ascend the Guadalquivir. A naval battle was fought; the Moors,

notwithstanding their superior numbers and their long experience in

this kind of encounters, were defeated, and the Castilians, proceeding

up the river without molestation, cast anchor in front of the city.

The arrival of the squadron was the signal for energetic operations.

The army, which had heretofore confined its efforts to the persecution

of a defenceless peasantry, was brought within the restraints of

discipline. The established policy of the Christian sovereigns, who,

in the conduct of important enterprises, endeavored to impress upon

the besieged the hopelessness of protracted resistance, was again

observed. Substantial buildings were erected for the shelter of the

soldiery. The avenues were lined with shops which, divided according

to the various trades, suggested the occupations and the traffic of a

considerable city. The families of the troops took up their residence

within the intrenchments. Severe police regulations were established.

Fortifications, whose materials and general plan were sufficiently

solid and durable for the protection of a populous town rather than

for the defence of a temporary encampment, rose before the eyes of the

disheartened Moslems. A. strict blockade was maintained; the predatory

excursions of the Christians were extended beyond the limits of the

already ravaged territory, and the surviving provincials forced to

take advantage of the impregnable security of mountain strongholds.

The difficulties attending the prosecution of the enterprise in which

he had embarked soon impressed themselves upon the Castilian King.

Seville at that time was one of the best fortified cities in Europe.

It was also one of the most populous, as it contained eighty thousand

families, divided into twenty-four tribes according to the ancient

Arabic system; and, as those families were polygamous, the number of

its inhabitants could hardly have been less than five hundred thousand.

Long exposed to the hazards of revolution and conquest, it had been

strengthened by every dynasty by which it had been governed. A double

line of walls, protected by a moat, encircled it. Its outworks were of

unusual solidity, among these the Tower of Gold, which still exists

in excellent preservation and indicates the massive construction of

these defences, guarded the approach from the river. The present

condition of the fortifications, some of which were contemporaneous

with the Cæsars, suggests the ease with which an enemy provided only

with the comparatively imperfect appliances of mediæval engineering

could have been repelled. Its greatest weakness was to be found in

the multitude of refugees who, driven from the open country, thronged

its habitations, inviting, by the reckless disregard of sanitary

precautions and by an increased consumption of provisions, the

insidious approaches of disease and famine.

The employment of the influence of the Holy See in the wars of

Valencia offered a precedent too valuable to be neglected in the

present emergency. The tremendously effective intervention of the

Papacy was again solicited to arouse the latent enthusiasm of Europe.

From every corner of Spain, from every land subject to the spiritual

jurisdiction of Rome, volunteers marched to join the legions of

Christendom before the gates of Seville. Unlike former crusades,

which had assumed a more or less partisan character and whose summons

had been generally unheeded save by those directly interested in the

result, representatives of all the states enclosed by the Pyrenees,

the Mediterranean, and the ocean hastened to participate in the

perils and to share the glory of a campaign destined to remove from

Southern Andalusia the most serious impediment to Christian supremacy

and the most formidable adversary of Spanish power. The princes of

Castile, Aragon, Portugal, appeared escorted by the chivalry of their

several kingdoms. From the pulpits of a thousand cathedrals and

churches resounded the stirring call to arms. Frantic appeals to the

fanaticism of the masses were made alike by famous prelates in great

ecclesiastical assemblies and by itinerant friars at the wayside cross.

Bishops cast aside the habiliments of the altar for the panoply of war.

The metropolitan of Santiago, followed by a body of Galician peasantry,

came to contribute, by his ghostly counsels and the inspiration of

the patron saint of Spain, to the final overthrow of the accursed

infidel. A motley assemblage of foreigners, of unsavory antecedents and

mercenary character, added to the numbers, if not the efficiency, of

the Christian host.

The siege of Seville, which lasted for seventeen months, proved to be

the most arduous and obstinately contested struggle in the history of

the Reconquest. The city, with a river easily accessible to an enemy

on one side and the others surrounded by a vast and level plain, was

necessarily compelled to rely for its defensive capacity and advantages

mainly upon the art and ingenuity of man. Across the Guadalquivir was

the suburb now known as Triana, whose fortifications, not inferior

in strength to those of the capital itself, were manned by a brave

and determined garrison. A bridge of boats moored with heavy chains

connected the city and the suburb. The communication of these two

points was a source of constant annoyance to the Castilians, and

the investment had hardly been completed when the King of Granada

volunteered to undertake the destruction of the bridge. A fleet of

fire-rafts was prepared, but it drifted ashore before reaching its

destination. The purpose of the besiegers was subsequently accomplished

by means of boats laden with stone, whose weight, aided by the force

of the current, shattered the bridge and drove its swinging fragments

upon opposite banks of the river. The isolation of Triana failed to

compel its surrender, which was one of the principal objects of the

attack. Upon the broken bridge the frequent sallies of the garrison

still carried death and terror into the Christian ranks. No nation of

that period had a more thorough acquaintance with the art of defensive

warfare than the Spanish Moslems. The sudden sally, the skirmish, the

night attack were not more congenial to their nature than was their

ability to detect, and their skill to foil, the well-matured designs

of an enemy. The ramparts of Seville and Triana were equipped with

the most formidable engines known to the military science of the

age. The Saracen catapults projected for immense distances and with

crushing power masses of stone and iron weighing more than a thousand

pounds. Their balistas cast a hundred arrows at once, and the force

of these missiles was so tremendous that they transfixed with ease

a horse completely sheathed in steel. The secret of the composition

of Greek fire the Moors had long before learned from the soldiers of

Constantinople, and this dangerous agent of destruction had in their

hands reached an even higher degree of efficiency than it had elsewhere

attained. Numbers of movable towers, together with their unfortunate

occupants, were consumed by its unquenchable flames before they had

time to approach the walls. Considering the long duration of the

siege, but little damage was inflicted upon the fortifications of

the city. The ordinary resources of engineering skill became useless

in the face of the vigilance and determination of the garrison.

Repeated attempts to carry the place by escalade were repulsed. It

was found impracticable to mine the walls. Owing to the accuracy and

penetration of the projectiles discharged by the enemy, the machines

of the Christians could not be worked within a range that would prove

effective. The usual means at the disposal of an attacking force

having failed, it became necessary to resort to a blockade, which

the great numbers of the besieged must in the end render successful.

Hunger and despair were thus eventually found to be more powerful

weapons than all the military appliances at the command of an extensive

monarchy, than the enthusiastic energy of a great nation, than the

combined efforts of a thoroughly organized hierarchy, than even

the benedictions and indulgences of the Papal throne. All of these

influences had been exerted to effect the subjection of the Moorish

capital, and all had hitherto proved unavailing. The Moslems, inclined

to come to terms before their provisions were entirely consumed and

the patience of their enemies exhausted, attempted to treat upon a

basis of ordinary tribute and vassalage,--a proposition which the King

of Castile peremptorily declined to consider. They then continued

to offer concessions more and more favorable to the dignity of the

Christian monarchy, until a treaty was finally agreed upon. It was

with the greatest reluctance that the piety of the Moslems consented

to the surrender of their great mosque, which, with its minaret, was

the most sacred as well as the most conspicuous monument of the city.

They proposed its demolition as one of the conditions of surrender.

To this Ferdinand replied that if a single brick of the edifice was

disturbed he would not leave a Moor alive in Seville. The title to the

capital and its dependencies was transferred to the Castilian crown.

The inhabitants who preferred to remain the subjects of the conqueror

were assured the enjoyment of their laws and their religion, and were

to be liable only to the imposition of taxes legalized by Moslem

usage; those to whom such propositions were repugnant were permitted

to retain their personal effects, and were promised transportation to

any land possessed by their co-religionists which they might, without

restriction, select. The policy of a court which habitually encouraged

the infraction of treaties was not favorable to the retention of a

population whose skill and industry were the true sources of the wealth

of Andalusia. The surviving members of the Almohade dynasty passed

over to Africa. A large majority of the Moors emigrated to Granada,

where the liberality of their new sovereign and their own energy and

perseverance soon raised them to a higher condition of prosperity

than ever. The conduct of Mohammed I., who was placed in an anomalous

and painful situation by an inexorable decree of destiny, elicited

the unstinted praise of both friend and foe. His efforts contributed

largely to the success of the Christians. His military accomplishments

and personal courage were the admiration of cavaliers versed in every

martial exercise and in every stratagem of war. He enjoyed the esteem

and confidence of his royal suzerain. Yet, while participating in

the triumphs of his new allies, he never renounced the ties of blood

and faith which still bound him to his countrymen. His intercession

procured for them advantageous terms in the day of disaster and

humiliation. His sympathy alleviated the bitterness of defeat. And

when no other alternative was left to the vanquished excepting the

capricious indulgence of a perfidious enemy or voluntary exile,

they found under his sceptre a secure and happy refuge from insult

and oppression. More than a hundred thousand of the most industrious

peasantry in the world were thus added to the population of his

dominions by the politic and generous behavior of the King of Granada.

These colonists received ample grants of lands. Seeds and implements of

husbandry were furnished them by the government, and they were exempted

from all taxation for a term of years. By this great immigration, which

impoverished the territory conquered by the Christians, the states of

Granada received a proportionate increase of profit and affluence.

The occupation of Seville by the Castilians was characterized by the

usual ceremonies incident to the capture of a Mussulman city. The

mosques were purified and consecrated to the Christian worship. In

the division of the spoil and the distribution of the rich states of

the Moslem, the Church exercised without remonstrance the privileges

of priority of selection and exorbitant estimate of service. In the

partition of infidel possessions the pretensions of the altar were

fast becoming paramount to the rights of the crown. The ecclesiastical

jurisdiction, suspended since the era of Visigothic supremacy, was

restored. A metropolitan diocese was established. A multitude of

religious houses were founded by the piety of the King and the zeal

or repentance of his followers; thousands of colonists supplied the

vacancies caused by emigration, and Seville within a few months assumed

the dull and cheerless appearance of a Spanish city. The maritime

district of Andalusia, to the westward, as well as the towns situated

between the capital and the coast, successively acknowledged the claims

of Spanish sovereignty, and the undisputed authority of Castile and

Leon soon prevailed from the mountains of Biscay to the Mediterranean

Sea.

While these events were transpiring, the Kings of Aragon and Portugal

had wrested from the grasp of the Moslems, enfeebled by internal

dissensions and constant defeat, the last fragments of the empire of

the khalifs; and there remained of the extensive territory once ruled

by the mighty potentates of Cordova but a single district, designated

in the enumeration of their states as a province, but now daily

increasing in renown as the tributary but powerful kingdom of Granada.

The character of Ferdinand III., like that of so many of his

successors, was largely formed by the monitions of ecclesiastical

counsellors. He was most emphatically the creature of his age,--an age

of romantic undertakings, of mistaken piety, of religious intolerance.

Like the King of Aragon, his contemporary, the early years of his reign

were disturbed by domestic discord. Like him, also, he triumphed by the

aid of the clergy. Profoundly sagacious, he was ever ready to profit by

the factional quarrels of his infidel enemies. He made large additions

to his power by furnishing Castilian troops to aid the ambition or the

enmity of Saracen partisans in return for the cession of important

castles and fertile territory. As a pretended neutral, alternately

supporting the pretensions and promoting the feuds of rival Moslem

princes, the Crown of Castile was always the gainer. King Ferdinand was

a worthy representative of the proselyting spirit which characterized

his royal line from the very institution of the monarchy. Popular

with the masses, his subjects had declared him worthy of canonization

even in his lifetime. To the ecclesiastical order he was an ideal

sovereign. His donations to the Church were frequent and prodigal. In

the occupation of conquered cities he always permitted the crucifix to

take precedence of the sceptre. When the wretched Albigenses, fleeing

from the tortures of Montfort and the swords of his bravos, attempted

to find an asylum beyond the Pyrenees, the pious King of Castile burned

all who fell into his hands, and even performed the highly meritorious

duty of personally assisting at the sacrifice and of heaping fagots

upon the funeral pyres which consumed those obstinate and abominable

heretics.

The conqueror of Andalusia fixed his final residence in the largest of

the provincial capitals which had bowed before the invincible efforts

of his arms. A few hours before his death, on the thirtieth of May,

1252, in abasing humility he received the last sacrament, kneeling

upon the bare earth, with a rope about his neck, in the guise and the

attitude of a convicted malefactor.

In the great cathedral of Seville, the most incomparable monument of

ecclesiastical architecture in Europe, a magnificent chapel has been

raised to his memory. Before the high altar the venerated monarch lies

enshrined in a casket of massy silver. Mounted effigies, encased in the

armor of the thirteenth century, tower above the kneeling worshippers.

On the walls, carved in stone, are the historic escutcheons of

Castile and Leon. The royal sepulchre bears an inscription in four

languages--Latin, Spanish, Hebrew, and Arabic--the respective idioms

of the clergy, the people, the tributary, and the conquered race.

Around it, on each anniversary of his death, a detachment of Granadan

Moors, with lighted tapers in their hands, once stood motionless and in

silence. To-day, three times in every year, the body of Castile’s most

famous sovereign is exposed to public view adorned with all the pomp of

royalty,--with the crown, the sceptre, the robes; mass is said, and a

regiment of soldiers salute the mouldering remains of one of the most

eminent and successful commanders of his time.