A pragmatic was passed, in 1491, at the petition of the inhabitants of the

northern provinces, requiring English and other foreign traders to take

their returns in the fruits or merchandise of the country, and not in gold

or silver. This law seems to have been designed less to benefit the

manufacturer, than to preserve the precious metals in the country. [66] It

was the same in purport with other laws prohibiting the exportation of

these metals, whether in coin or bullion. They were not new in Spain, nor

indeed peculiar to her. [67] They proceeded on the principle that gold and

silver, independently of their value as a commercial medium, constituted,

in a peculiar sense, the wealth of a country. This error, common, as I

have said, to other European nations, was eminently fatal to Spain, since

the produce of its native mines before the discovery of America, [68] and

of those in that quarter afterwards, formed its great staple. As such,

these metals should have enjoyed every facility for transportation to

other countries, where their higher value would afford a corresponding

profit to the exporter.

The sumptuary laws of Ferdinand and Isabella are open, for the most part,

to the same objections with those just noticed. Such laws, prompted in a

great degree, no doubt, by the declamations of the clergy against the pomp

and vanities of the world, were familiar, in early times, to most European

states. There was ample scope for them in Spain, where the example of

their Moslem neighbors had done much to infect all classes with a fondness

for sumptuous apparel, and a showy magnificence of living. Ferdinand and

Isabella fell nothing short of the most zealous of their predecessors, in

their efforts to restrain this improvident luxury. They did, however, what

few princes on the like occasions have done--enforced the precept by their

own example. Some idea of their habitual economy, or rather frugality, may

be formed from a remonstrance presented by the commons to Charles the

Fifth, soon after his accession, which represents his daily household

expenses as amounting to one hundred and fifty thousand maravedies; while

those of the Catholic sovereigns were rarely fifteen thousand, or one-

tenth of that sum. [69]

They passed several salutary laws for restraining the ambitious

expenditure at weddings and funerals, as usual, most affected by those who

could least afford it. [70] In 1494, they issued a pragmatic, prohibiting

the importation or manufacture of brocades, or of gold or silver

embroidery, and also plating with these metals. The avowed object was to

check the growth of luxury and the waste of the precious metals. [71]

These provisions had the usual fate of laws of this kind. They gave an

artificial and still higher value to the prohibited article. Some evaded

them. Others indemnified themselves for the privation, by some other, and

scarcely less expensive variety of luxury. Such, for example, were the

costly silks, which came into more general use after the conquest of

Granada. But here the government, on remonstrance of the cortes, again

interposed its prohibition, restricting the privilege of wearing them to

certain specified classes. [72] Nothing, obviously, could be more

impolitic than these various provisions directed against manufactures,

which, under proper encouragement, or indeed without any, from the

peculiar advantages afforded by the country, might have formed an

important branch of industry, whether for the supply of foreign markets,

or for home consumption.

Notwithstanding these ordinances, we find one, in 1500, at the petition of

the silk-growers in Granada, against the introduction of silk thread from

the kingdom of Naples; [73] thus encouraging the production of the raw

material, while they interdicted the uses to which it could be applied.

Such are the inconsistencies into which a government is betrayed by an

over-zealous and impertinent spirit of legislation!

The chief exports of the country in this reign were the fruits and natural

products of the soil, the minerals, of which a great variety was deposited

in its bosom, and the simpler manufactures, as sugar, dressed skins, oil,

wine, steel, etc. [74] The breed of Spanish horses, celebrated in ancient

times, had been greatly improved by the cross with the Arabian. It had,

however, of late years fallen into neglect; until the government, by a

number of judicious laws, succeeded in restoring it to such repute, that

this noble animal became an extensive article of foreign trade. [75] But

the chief staple of the country was wool; which, since the introduction of

English sheep at the close of the fourteenth century, had reached a degree

of fineness and beauty that enabled it, under the present reign, to

compete with any other in Europe. [76]

To what extent the finer manufactures were carried, or made an article of

export, is uncertain. The vagueness of. statistical information in these

early times has given rise to much crude speculation and to extravagant

estimates of their resources, which have been met by a corresponding

skepticism in later and more scrutinizing critics. Capmany, the most acute

of these, has advanced the opinion, that these coarser cloths only were

manufactured in Castile, and those exclusively for home consumption. [77]

The royal ordinances, however, imply, in the character and minuteness of

their regulations, a very considerable proficiency in many of the mechanic

arts. [78] Similar testimony is borne by intelligent foreigners, visiting

or residing in the country at the beginning of the sixteenth century; who

notice the fine cloths and manufacture of arms in Segovia, [79] the silks

and velvets of Granada and Valencia, [80] the woollen and silk fabrics of

Toledo, which gave employment to ten thousand artisans, [81] and curiously

wrought plate of Valladolid, [82] and the fine cutlery and glass

manufactures of Barcelona, rivalling those of Venice. [83]

The recurrence of seasons of scarcity, and the fluctuation of prices,

might suggest a reasonable distrust of the excellence of the husbandry

under this reign. [84] The turbulent condition of the country may account

for this pretty fairly during the early part of it. Indeed, a neglect of

agriculture, to the extent implied by these circumstances, is wholly

irreconcilable with the general tenor of Ferdinand and Isabella's

legislation, which evidently relies on this as the main spring of national

prosperity. It is equally repugnant, moreover, to the reports of

foreigners, who could best compare the state of the country with that of

others at the same period. They extol the fruitfulness of a soil, which

yielded the products of the most opposite climes; the hills clothed with

vineyards and plantations of fruit trees, much more abundant, it would

seem, in the northern regions, than at the present day; the valleys and

delicious vegas, glowing with the ripe exuberance of southern vegetation;

extensive districts, now smitten with the curse of barrenness, where the

traveller scarce discerns the vestige of a road or of a human habitation,

but which then teemed with all that was requisite to the sustenance of the

populous cities in their neighborhood. [85]

The inhabitant of modern Spain or Italy, who wanders amid the ruins of

their stately cities, their grass-grown streets, their palaces and temples

crumbling into dust, their massive bridges choking up the streams they

once proudly traversed, the very streams themselves, which bore navies on

their bosoms, shrunk into too shallow a channel for the meanest craft to

navigate,--the modern Spaniard who surveys these vestiges of a giant race,

the tokens of his nation's present degeneracy, must turn for relief to the

prouder and earlier period of her history, when only such great works

could have been achieved; and it is no wonder that he should be led, in

his enthusiasm, to invest it with a romantic and exaggerated coloring.

[86] Such a period in Spain cannot be looked for in the last, still less

in the seventeenth century, for the nation had then reached the lowest ebb

of its fortunes; [87] nor in the close of the sixteenth, for the

desponding language of cortes shows that the work of decay and

depopulation had then already begun. [88] It can only be found in the

first half of that century, in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, and

that of their successor, Charles the Fifth; in which last, the state,

under the strong impulse it had received, was carried onward in the career

of prosperity, in spite of the ignorance and mismanagement of those who

guided it.

There is no country which has been guilty of such wild experiments, or has

showed, on the whole, such profound ignorance of the true principles of

economical science, as Spain under the sceptre of the family of Austria.

And, as it is not always easy to discriminate between their acts and those

of Ferdinand and Isabella, under whom the germs of much of the subsequent

legislation may be said to have been planted, this circumstance has

brought undeserved discredit on the government of the latter. Undeserved,

because laws, mischievous in their eventual operation, were not always so

at the time for which they were originally devised; not to add, that what

was intrinsically bad, has been aggravated ten fold under the blind

legislation of their successors. [89] It is also true, that many of the

most exceptionable laws sanctioned by their names, are to be charged on

their predecessors, who had ingrafted their principles into the system

long before; [90] and many others are to be vindicated by the general

practice of other nations, which authorized retaliation on the score of

self-defence. [91]

Nothing is easier than to parade abstract theorems,--true in the

abstract,--in political economy; nothing harder than to reduce them to

practice. That an individual will understand his own interests better than

the government can, or, what is the same thing, that trade, if let alone,

will find its way into the channels on the whole most advantageous to the

community, few will deny. But what is true of all together is not true of

any one singly; and no one nation can safely act on these principles, if

others do not. In point of fact, no nation has acted on them since the

formation of the present political communities of Europe.

All that a new state, or a new government in an old one, can now propose

to itself is, not to sacrifice its interests to a speculative abstraction,

but to accommodate its institutions to the great political system, of

which it is a member. On these principles, and on the higher obligation of

providing the means of national independence in its most extended sense,

much that was bad in the economical policy of Spain, at the period under

review, may be vindicated.

It would be unfair to direct our view to the restrictive measures of

Ferdinand and Isabella, without noticing also the liberal tenor of their

legislation in regard to a great variety of objects. Such, for example,

are the laws encouraging foreigners to settle in the country; [92] those

for facilitating communication by internal improvements, roads, bridges,

canals, on a scale of unprecedented magnitude; [93] for a similar

attention to the wants of navigation, by constructing moles, quays,

lighthouses along the coast, and deepening and extending the harbors, "to

accommodate," as the acts set forth, "the great increase of trade;" for

embellishing and adding in various ways to the accommodations of the

cities; [94] for relieving the subject from onerous tolls and oppressive

monopolies; [95] for establishing a uniform currency and standard of

weights and measures throughout the kingdom, [96] objects of unwearied

solicitude through this whole reign; for maintaining a police, which, from

the most disorderly and dangerous, raised Spain, in the language of

Martyr, to be the safest country in Christendom [97] for such equal

justice, as secured to every man the fruits of his own industry, inducing

him to embark his capital in useful enterprises; and, finally, for

enforcing fidelity to contracts, [98] of which the sovereigns gave such a

glorious example in their own administration, as effectually restored that

public credit, which is the true basis of public prosperity.

While these important reforms were going on in the interior of the

monarchy, it experienced a greater change in its external condition by the

immense augmentation of its territory. The most important of its foreign

acquisitions were those nearest home, Granada and Navarre; at least, they

were the ones most capable, from their position, of being brought under

control, and thoroughly and permanently identified with the Spanish

monarchy. Granada, as we have seen, was placed under the sceptre of

Castile, governed by the same laws, and represented in its cortes, being,

in the strictest sense, part and parcel of the kingdom. Navarre was also

united to the same crown. But its constitution, which bore considerable

analogy to that of Aragon, remained substantially the same as before. The

government, indeed, was administered by a viceroy; but Ferdinand made as

few changes as possible, permitting it to retain its own legislature, its

ancient courts of law, and its laws themselves. So the forms, if not the

spirit of independence, continued to survive its union with the victorious

state. [99]

The other possessions of Spain were scattered over the various quarters of

Europe, Africa, and America. Naples was the conquest of Aragon; or, at

least, made on behalf of that crown. The queen appears to have taken no

part in the conduct of that war, whether distrusting its equity, or its

expediency, in the belief that a distant possession in the heart of Europe

would probably cost more to maintain than it was worth. In fact, Spain is

the only nation, in modern times, which has been able to keep its hold on

such possessions for any very considerable period; a circumstance implying

more wisdom in her policy than is commonly conceded to her. The fate of

the acquisitions alluded to forms no exception to the remark; and Naples,

like Sicily, continued permanently ingrafted on the kingdom of Aragon.

A fundamental change in the institutions of Naples became requisite to

accommodate them to its new relations. Its great offices of state and its

legal tribunals were reorganized. Its jurisprudence, which, under the

Angevin race, and even the first Aragonese, had been adapted to French

usages, was now modelled on the Spanish. The various innovations were

conducted by the Catholic king with his usual prudence; and the reform in

the legislation is commended by a learned and impartial Italian civilian,

as breathing a spirit of moderation and wisdom. [100] He conceded many

privileges to the people, and to the capital especially, whose venerable

university he resuscitated from the decayed state into which it had

fallen, making liberal appropriations from the treasury for its endowment.

The support of a mercenary army, and the burdens incident to the war,

pressed heavily on the people during the first years of his reign. But the

Neapolitans, who, as already noticed, had been transferred too often from

one victor to another to be keenly sensible to the loss of political

independence, were gradually reconciled to his administration, and

testified their sense of its beneficent character by celebrating the

anniversary of his death, for more than two centuries, with public

solemnities, as a day of mourning throughout the kingdom. [101]

But far the most important of the distant acquisitions of Spain were those

secured to her by the genius of Columbus and the enlightened patronage of

Isabella. Imagination had ample range in the boundless perspective of

these unknown regions; but the results actually realized from the

discoveries, during the queen's life, were comparatively insignificant. In

a mere financial view, they had been a considerable charge on the crown.

This was, indeed, partly owing to the humanity of Isabella, who

interfered, as we have seen, to prevent the compulsory exaction of Indian

labor. This was subsequently, and immediately after her death indeed,

carried to such an extent, that nearly half a million of ounces of gold

were yearly drawn from the mines of Hispaniola alone. [102] The pearl

fisheries, [103] and the culture of the sugar-cane, introduced from the

Canaries, [104] yielded large returns under the same inhuman system.

Ferdinand, who enjoyed, by the queen's testament, half the amount of the

Indian revenues, was now fully awakened to their importance. It would be

unjust, however, to suppose his views limited to immediate pecuniary

profits; for the measures he pursued were, in many respects, well

contrived to promote the nobler ends of discovery and colonization. He

invited the persons most eminent for nautical science and enterprise, as

Pinzon, Solis, Vespucci, to his court, where they constituted a sort of

board of navigation, constructing charts, and tracing out new routes for

projected voyages. [105] The conduct of this department was intrusted to

the last-mentioned navigator, who had the glory, the greatest which

accident and caprice ever granted to man, of giving his name to the new

hemisphere.

Fleets were now fitted out on a more extended scale, which might vie,

indeed, with the splendid equipments of the Portuguese, whose brilliant

successes in the east excited the envy of their Castilian rivals. The king

occasionally took a share in the voyage, independently of the interest

which of right belonged to the crown. [106.]

The government, however, realized less from these expensive enterprises

than individuals, many of whom, enriched by their official stations, or by

accidentally falling in with some hoard of treasure among the savages,

returned home to excite the envy and cupidity of their countrymen. [107]

But the spirit of adventure was too high among the Castilians to require

such incentive, especially when excluded from its usual field in Africa

and Europe. A striking proof of the facility, with which the romantic

cavaliers of that day could be directed to this new career of danger on

the ocean, was given at the time of the last-meditated expedition into

Italy under the Great Captain. A squadron of fifteen vessels, bound for

the New World, was then riding in the Guadalquivir. Its complement was

limited to one thousand two hundred men; but, on Ferdinand's

countermanding Gonsalvo's enterprise, more than three thousand volunteers,

many of them of noble family, equipped with unusual magnificence for the

Italian service, hastened to Seville, and pressed to be admitted into the

Indian armada. [108] Seville itself was in a manner depopulated by the

general fever of emigration, so that it actually seemed, says a

contemporary, to be tenanted only by women. [109]

In this universal excitement, the progress of discovery was pushed forward

with a success, inferior, indeed, to what might have been effected in the

present state of nautical skill and science, but extraordinary for the

times. The winding depths of the Gulf of Mexico were penetrated, as well

as the borders of the rich but rugged isthmus, which connects the American

continents. In 1512, Florida was discovered by a romantic old knight,

Ponce de Leon, who, instead of the magical fountain of health, found his

grave there. [110] Solis, another navigator, who had charge of an

expedition, projected by Ferdinand, [111] to reach the South Sea by the

circumnavigation of the continent, ran down the coast as far as the great

Rio de la Plata, where he also was cut off by the savages. In 1513, Vasco

Nunez de Balboa penetrated, with a handful of men, across the narrow part

of the Isthmus of Darien, and from the summit of the Cordilleras, the

first of Europeans, was greeted with the long-promised vision of the

southern ocean. [112] The intelligence of this event excited a sensation

in Spain, inferior only to that caused by the discovery of America. The

great object which had so long occupied the imagination of the nautical

men of Europe, and formed the purpose of Columbus's last voyage, the

discovery of a communication with these far western waters, was

accomplished. The famous spice islands, from which the Portuguese had

drawn such countless sums of wealth, were scattered over this sea; and the

Castilians, after a journey of a few leagues, might launch their barks on

its quiet bosom, and reach, and perhaps claim, the coveted possessions of

their rivals, as falling west of the papal line of demarkation. Such were

the dreams, and such the actual progress of discovery, at the close of

Ferdinand's reign.

Our admiration of the dauntless heroism displayed by the early Spanish

navigators, in their extraordinary career, is much qualified by a

consideration of the cruelties with which it was tarnished; too great to

be either palliated or passed over in silence by the historian. As long as

Isabella lived, the Indians found an efficient friend and protector; but

"her death," says the venerable Las Casas, "was the signal for their

destruction." [113] Immediately on that event, the system of

_repartimientos_, originally authorized, as we have seen, by Columbus, who

seems to have had no doubt, from the first, of the crown's absolute right

of property over the natives, [114] was carried to its full extent in the

colonies. [115] Every Spaniard, however humble, had his proportion of

slaves; and men, many of them not only incapable of estimating the awful

responsibility of the situation, but without the least touch of humanity

in their natures, were individually intrusted with the unlimited disposal

of the lives and destinies of their fellow-creatures. They abused this

trust in the grossest manner; tasking the unfortunate Indian far beyond

his strength, inflicting the most refined punishments on the indolent, and

hunting down those who resisted or escaped, like so many beasts of chase,

with ferocious bloodhounds. Every step of the white man's progress in the

New World, may be said to have been on the corpse of a native. Faith is

staggered by the recital of the number of victims immolated in these fair

regions within a very few years after the discovery; and the heart sickens

at the loathsome details of barbarities, recorded by one, who, if his

sympathies have led him sometimes to over-color, can never be suspected of

wilfully misstating facts, of which he was an eye-witness. [116] A selfish

indifference to the rights of the original occupants of the soil, is a sin

which lies at the door of most of the primitive European settlers, whether

papist or puritan, of the New World. But it is light, in comparison with

the fearful amount of crimes to be charged on the early Spanish colonists;

crimes that have, perhaps, in this world, brought down the retribution of

Heaven, which has seen fit to turn this fountain of inexhaustible wealth

and prosperity to the nation into the waters of bitterness.

It may seem strange, that no relief was afforded by the government to

these oppressed subjects. But Ferdinand, if we may credit Las Casas, was

never permitted to know the extent of the injuries done to them. [117] He

was surrounded by men in the management of the Indian department, whose

interest it was to keep him in ignorance. [118] The remonstrances of some

zealous missionaries led him, [119] in 1501, to refer the subject of the

repartimientos to a council of jurists and theologians. This body yielded

to the representations of the advocates of the system, that it was

indispensable for maintaining the colonies, since the European was

altogether unequal to labor in this tropical climate; and that it,

moreover, afforded the only chance for the conversion of the Indian, who,

unless compelled, could never be brought in contact with the white man.

[120]

On these grounds, Ferdinand openly assumed for himself and his ministers

the responsibility of maintaining this vicious institution; and

subsequently issued an ordinance to that effect, accompanied, however, by

a variety of humane and equitable regulations for restraining its abuse.

[121] The license was embraced in its full extent; the regulations were

openly disregarded. [122] Several years after, in 1515, Las Casas, moved

by the spectacle of human suffering, returned to Spain, and pleaded the

cause of the injured native, in tones which made the dying monarch tremble

on his throne. It was too late, however, for the king to execute the

remedial measures he contemplated. [123] The efficient interference of

Ximenes, who sent a commission for the purpose to Hispaniola, was attended

with no permanent results. And the indefatigable "protector of the

Indians" was left to sue for redress at the court of Charles, and to

furnish a splendid, if not a solitary example there, of a bosom penetrated

with the true spirit of Christian philanthropy. [124]

I have elsewhere examined the policy pursued by the Catholic sovereigns in

the government of their colonies. The supply of precious metals yielded by

them eventually proved far greater than had ever entered into the

conception of the most sanguine of the early discoverers. Their prolific

soil and genial climate, moreover, afforded an infinite variety of

vegetable products, which might have furnished an unlimited commerce with

the mother country. Under a judicious protection, their population and

productions, steadily increasing, would have enlarged to an incalculable

extent the general resources of the empire. Such, indeed, might have been

the result of a wise system of legislation.

But the true principles of colonial policy were sadly misunderstood in the

sixteenth century. The discovery of a world was estimated, like that of a

rich mine, by the value of its returns in gold and silver. Much of

Isabella's legislation, it is true, is of that comprehensive character,

which shows that she looked to higher and far nobler objects. But with

much that is good, there was mingled, as in most of her institutions, one

germ of evil, of little moment at the time, indeed, but which, under the

vicious culture of her successors, shot up to a height that overshadowed

and blighted all the rest. This was the spirit of restriction and

monopoly, aggravated by the subsequent laws of Ferdinand, and carried to

an extent under the Austrian dynasty, that paralyzed colonial trade.

Under their most ingeniously perverse system of laws, the interests of

both the parent country and the colonies were sacrificed. The latter,

condemned to look for supplies to an incompetent source, were miserably

dwarfed in their growth; while the former contrived to convert the

nutriment which she extorted from the colonies into a fatal poison. The

streams of wealth which flowed in from the silver quarries of Zacatecas

and Potosí, were jealously locked up within the limits of the Peninsula.

The great problem, proposed by the Spanish legislation of the sixteenth

century, was the reduction of prices in the kingdom to the same level as

in other European nations. Every law that was passed, however, tended, by

its restrictive character, to augment the evil. The golden tide, which,

permitted a free vent, would have fertilized the region through which it

poured, now buried the land under a deluge which blighted every green and

living thing. Agriculture, commerce, manufactures, every branch of

national industry and improvement, languished and fell to decay; and the

nation, like the Phrygian monarch, who turned all that he touched to gold,

cursed by the very consummation of its wishes, was poor in the midst of

its treasures.

From this sad picture, let us turn to that presented by the period of our

History, when, the clouds and darkness having passed away, a new morn

seemed to break upon the nation. Under the firm but temperate sway of

Ferdinand and Isabella, the great changes we have noticed were effected

without convulsion in the state. On the contrary, the elements of the

social system, which before jarred so discordantly, were brought into

harmonious action. The restless spirit of the nobles was turned from civil

faction to the honorable career of public service, whether in arms or

letters. The people at large, assured of the security of private rights,

were occupied with the different branches of productive labor. Trade, as

is abundantly shown by the legislation of the period, had not yet fallen

into the discredit which attached to it in later times. [125] The precious

metals, instead of flowing in so abundantly as to palsy the arm of

industry, served only to stimulate it. [126]

The foreign intercourse of the country was every day more widely extended.

Her agents and consuls were to be found in all the principal ports of the

Mediterranean and the Baltic. [127] The Spanish mariner, instead of

creeping along the beaten track of inland navigation, now struck boldly

across the great western ocean. The new discoveries had converted the land

trade with India into a sea trade; and the nations of the Peninsula, who

had hitherto lain remote from the great highways of commerce, now became

the factors and carriers of Europe.

The flourishing condition of the nation was seen in the wealth and

population of its cities, the revenues of which, augmented in all to a

surprising extent, had increased, in some, forty and even fifty fold

beyond what they were at the commencement of the reign; [128] the ancient

and lordly Toledo; Burgos, with its bustling, industrious traders; [129]

Valladolid, sending forth its thirty thousand warriors from its gates,

where the whole population now scarcely reaches two-thirds of that number;

[130] Cordova, in the south, and the magnificent Granada, naturalizing in

Europe the arts and luxuries of the east; Saragossa, "the abundant," as

she was called from her fruitful territory; Valencia, "the beautiful;"

Barcelona, rivalling in independence and maritime enterprise the proudest

of the Italian republics; [131] Medina del Campo, whose fairs were already

the great mart for the commercial exchanges of the Peninsula; [132] and

Seville, [133] the golden gate of the Indies, whose quays began to be

thronged with merchants from the most distant countries of Europe.

The resources of the inhabitants were displayed in the palaces and public

edifices, fountains, aqueducts, gardens, and other works of utility and

ornament. This lavish expenditure was directed by an improved taste.

Architecture was studied on purer principles than before, and, with the

sister arts of design, showed the influence of the new connection with

Italy in the first gleams of that excellence, which shed such lustre over

the Spanish school at the close of the century. [134] A still more decided

impulse was given to letters. More printing presses were probably at work

in Spain in the infancy of the art, than at the present day. [135] Ancient

seminaries were remodelled; new ones were created. Barcelona, Salamanca,

and Alcalá, whose cloistered solitudes are now the grave, rather than the

nursery of science, then swarmed with thousands of disciples, who, under

the generous patronage of the government, found letters the surest path to

preferment. [136] Even the lighter branches of literature felt the

revolutionary spirit of the times, and, after yielding the last fruits of

the ancient system, displayed new and more beautiful varieties, under the

influence of Italian culture. [137]

With this moral development of the nation, the public revenues, the sure

index, when unforced, of public prosperity, went on augmenting with

astonishing rapidity. In 1474, the year of Isabella's accession, the

ordinary rents of the Castilian crown amounted to 885,000 reals; [138] in

1477, to 2,390,078; in 1482, after the resumption of the royal grants, to

12,711,591; and finally in 1504, when the acquisition of Granada [139] and

the domestic tranquillity of the kingdom had encouraged the free expansion

of all its resources, to 26,283,334; or thirty times the amount received

at her accession. [140] All this, it will be remembered, was derived from

the customary established taxes, without the imposition of a single new

one. Indeed, the improvements in the mode of collection tended materially

to lighten the burdens on the people.

The accounts of the population at this early period are, for the most

part, vague and unsatisfactory. Spain, in particular, has been the subject

of the most absurd, though, as it seems, not incredible estimates,

sufficiently evincing the paucity of authentic data. [141] Fortunately,

however, we labor under no such embarrassment as regards Castile in

Isabella's reign. By an official report to the crown on the organization

of the militia, in 1492, it appears that the population of the kingdom

amounted to 1,500,000 _vecinos_ or householders; or, allowing four

and a half to a family (a moderate estimate), to 6,750,000 souls. [142]

This census, it will be observed, was limited to the provinces immediately

composing the crown of Castile, to the exclusion of Granada, Navarre, and

the Aragonese dominions. [143] It was taken, moreover, before the nation

had time to recruit from the long and exhausting struggle of the Moorish

war, and twenty-five years before the close of the reign, when the

population, under circumstances peculiarly favorable, must have swelled to

a much larger amount. Thus circumscribed, however, it was probably

considerably in advance of that of England at the same period. [144] How

have the destinies of the two countries since been reversed?

The territorial limits of the monarchy, in the mean time, went on

expanding beyond example;--Castile and Leon, brought under the same

sceptre with Aragon and its foreign dependencies, Sicily and Sardinia;

with the kingdoms of Granada, Navarre, and Naples; with the Canaries,

Oran, and the other settlements in Africa; and with the islands and vast

continents of America. To these broad domains, the comprehensive schemes

of the sovereigns would have added Portugal; and their arrangements for

this, although defeated for the present, opened the way to its eventual

completion under Philip the Second. [145]

The petty states, which had before swarmed over the Peninsula,

neutralizing each other's operations, and preventing any effective

movement abroad, were now amalgamated into one whole. Sectional jealousies

and antipathies, indeed, were too sturdily rooted to be wholly

extinguished; but they gradually subsided, under the influence of a common

government, and community of interests. A more enlarged sentiment was

infused into the people, who, in their foreign relations, at least,

assumed the attitude of one great nation. The names of Castilian and

Aragonese were merged in the comprehensive one of Spaniard; and Spain,

with an empire which stretched over three-quarters of the globe, and which

almost realized the proud boast that the sun never set within her borders,

now rose, not to the first class only, but to the first place, in the

scale of European powers.

The extraordinary circumstances of the country tended naturally to nourish

the lofty, romantic qualities, and the somewhat exaggerated tone of

sentiment, which always pervaded the national character. The age of

chivalry had not faded away in Spain, as in most other lands. [146] It was

fostered, in time of peace, by the tourneys, jousts, and other warlike

pageants, which graced the court of Isabella. [147] It gleamed out, as we

have seen, in the Italian campaigns under Gonsalvo de Cordova, and shone

forth in all its splendors in the war of Granada. "This was a right gentle

war," says Navagiero, in a passage too pertinent to be omitted, "in which,

as firearms were comparatively little used, each knight had the

opportunity of showing his personal prowess; and rare was it, that a day

passed without some feat of arms and valorous exploit. The nobility and

chivalry of the land all thronged there to gather renown. Queen Isabel,

who attended with her whole court, breathed courage into every heart.

There was scarce a cavalier, who was not enamoured of some one or other of

her ladies, the witness of his achievements, and who, as she presented him

his weapons, or some token of her favor, admonished him to bear himself

like a true knight, and show the strength of his passion by his valiant

deeds. [148] What knight so craven then," exclaims the chivalrous

Venetian, "that he would not have been more than a match for the stoutest

adversary; or who would not sooner have lost his life a thousand times,

than return dishonored to the lady of his love. In truth," he concludes,

"this conquest may be said to have been achieved by love, rather than by

arms." [149]

The Spaniard was a knight-errant, in its literal sense, [150] roving over

seas on which no bark had ever ventured, among islands and continents

where no civilized man had ever trodden, and which fancy peopled with all

the marvels and drear enchantments of romance; courting danger in every

form, combating everywhere, and everywhere victorious. The very odds

presented by the defenceless natives among whom he was cast, "a thousand

of whom," to quote the words of Columbus, "were not equal to three

Spaniards," was in itself typical of his profession; [151] and the

brilliant destinies to which the meanest adventurer was often called, now

carving out with his good sword some "El Dorado" more splendid than fancy

had dreamed of, and now overturning some old barbaric dynasty, were full

as extraordinary as the wildest chimeras which Ariosto ever sang, or

Cervantes satirized.

His countrymen who remained at home, feeding greedily on the reports of

his adventures, lived almost equally in an atmosphere of romance. A spirit

of chivalrous enthusiasm penetrated the very depths of the nation,

swelling the humblest individual with lofty aspirations, and a proud

consciousness of the dignity of his nature. "The princely disposition of

the Spaniards," says a foreigner of the time, "delighteth me much, as well

as the gentle nurture and noble conversation, not merely of those of high

degree, but of the citizen, peasant, and common laborer." [152] What

wonder that such sentiments should be found incompatible with sober,

methodical habits of business, or that the nation indulging them should be

seduced from the humble paths of domestic industry to a brilliant and

bolder career of adventure. Such consequences became too apparent in the

following reign. [153]

In noticing the circumstances that conspired to form the national

character, it would be unpardonable to omit the establishment of the

Inquisition, which contributed so largely to counterbalance the benefits

resulting from Isabella's government; an institution which has done more

than any other to stay the proud march of human reason; which, by imposing

uniformity of creed, has proved the fruitful parent of hypocrisy and

superstition; which has soured the sweet charities of human life, [154]

and, settling like a foul mist on the goodly promise of the land, closed

up the fair buds of science and civilization ere they were fully opened.

Alas, that such a blight should have fallen on so gallant and generous a

people! That it should have been brought on it too by one of such

unblemished patriotism and purity of motive, as Isabella! How must her

virtuous spirit, if it be permitted the departed good to look down on the

scene of their earthly labors, mourn over the misery and moral

degradation, entailed on her country by this one act! So true is it, that

the measures of this great queen have had a permanent influence, whether

for good or evil, on the destinies of her country.

The immediate injury inflicted on the nation by the spirit of bigotry in

the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, although greatly exaggerated, [155]

was doubtless serious enough. Under the otherwise beneficent operation of

their government, however, the healthful and expansive energies of the

state were sufficient to heal up these and deeper wounds, and still carry

it onward in the career of prosperity. With this impulse, indeed, the

nation continued to advance higher and higher, in spite of the system of

almost unmingled evil pursued in the following reigns. The glories of this

later period, of the age of Charles the Fifth, as it is called, must find

their true source in the measures of his illustrious predecessors. It was

in their court that Boscan, Garcilasso, Mendoza, and the other master-

spirits were trained, who moulded Castilian literature into the new and

more classical forms of later times. [156] It was under Gonsalvo de

Cordova, that Leyva, Pescara, and those great captains with their

invincible legions were formed, who enabled Charles the Fifth to dictate

laws to Europe for half a century. And it was Columbus, who not only led

the way, but animated the Spanish navigator with the spirit of discovery.

Scarcely was Ferdinand's reign brought to a close, before Magellan

completed, what that monarch had projected, the circumnavigation of the

southern continent; the victorious banners of Cortes had already

penetrated into the golden realms of Montezuma; and Pizarro, a very few

years later, following up the lead of Balboa, embarked on the enterprise

which ended in the downfall of the splendid dynasty of the Incas.

Thus it is, that the seed sown under a good system continues to yield

fruit in a bad one. The season of the most brilliant results, however, is

not always that of the greatest national prosperity. The splendors of

foreign conquest in the boasted reign of Charles the Fifth were dearly

purchased by the decline of industry at home, and the loss of liberty. The

patriot will see little to cheer him in this "golden age" of the national

history, whose outward show of glory will seem to his penetrating eye only

the hectic brilliancy of decay. He will turn to an earlier period, when

the nation, emerging from the sloth and license of a barbarous age, seemed

to renew its ancient energies, and to prepare like a giant to run its

course; and glancing over the long interval since elapsed, during the

first half of which the nation wasted itself on schemes of mad ambition,

and in the latter has sunk into a state of paralytic torpor, he will fix

his eye on the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, as the most glorious epoch

in the annals of his country.

FOOTNOTES

[1] Ante, Part I., Chapter 6.

[2] Among the minor means for diminishing the consequence of the nobility,

may be mentioned the regulation respecting the "privilegios rodados";

instruments formerly requiring to be countersigned by the great lords and

prelates, but which, from the time of Ferdinand and Isabella, were

submitted for signature only, to officers especially appointed for the

purpose. Salazar de Mendoza, Dignidades, lib. 2, cap. 12.

[3] Ante, Introd. Sect. 1.

[4]A pertinent example of this policy of the sovereigns occurred in the

cortes of Madrigal, 1476; where, notwithstanding the important subjects of

legislation, none but the third estate were present. (Pulgar Reyes

Católicos, p. 94.) An equally apposite illustration is afforded by the

care to summon the great vassals to the cortes of Toledo, in 1480, when

matters nearly touching them, as the revocation of their honors and

estates, were under discussion, but not till then. Ibid., p. 165.

[5] The same principle made them equally vigilant in maintaining the

purity of those in office. Oviedo mentions, that in 1497 they removed a

number of jurists, on the charge of bribery and other malversation, from

their seats in the royal council. Quincuagenas, MS., dial. de Grizio.

[6] See a letter of the council to Charles V., commending the course

adopted by his grandparents in their promotions to office, apud Carbajal,

Anales, MS., año 1517, cap. 4.

[7] Yet strange instances of promotion are not wanting in Spanish history;

witness the adventurer Ripperda, in Philip V.'s time, and the Prince of

the Peace, in our own; men, who, owing their success less to their own

powers, than the imbecility of others, could lay no claim to the bold and

independent sway exercised by Ximenes.

[8] Ante, Part I., Chapter 19.--"No os parece á vos," says Oviedo, in one

of his Dialogues, "que es mejor ganado eso, que les dá su principe por sus

servicios, é lo que llevan justamente de sus oficios, que lo que se

adquiere robando capas agenas, é matando é vertiendo sangre de

Cristianos?" (Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 3, dial. 9.) The sentiment

would have been too enlightened for a Spanish cavalier of the fifteenth

century.

[9] In the cortes of Calatayud, in 1515, the Aragonese nobles withheld the

supplies, with the design of compelling the crown to relinquish certain

rights of jurisdiction, which it assumed over their vassals. "Les

parecio," said the archbishop of Saragossa, in a speech on the occasion,

"que auian perdido mucho, en que el ceptro real cobrasse lo suyo, por su

industria. ***** Esto los otros estados del reyno lo atribuyeron a gran

virtud: y lo estimauan por beneficio inmortal." (Zurita, Anales, tom. vi.

lib. 10, cap. 93.) The other estates, in fact, saw their interests too

clearly, not to concur with the crown in this assertion of its ancient

prerogative. Blancas, Modo de Proceder, fol. 100.

[10] Such, for example, were those of great chancellor, of admiral, and of

constable of Castile. The first of these ancient offices was permanently

united by Isabella with that of archbishop of Toledo. The office of

admiral became hereditary, after Henry III., in the noble family of

Enriquez, and that of constable in the house of Velasco. Although of great

authority and importance in their origin, and, indeed, in the time of the

Catholic sovereigns, these posts gradually, after becoming hereditary,

declined into mere titular dignities. Salazar de Mendoza, Dignidades, lib.

2, cap. 8, 10; lib. 3, cap. 21.--L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 24.

[11] The duke of Infantado, head of the ancient house of Mendoza, whose

estates lay in Castile, and, indeed, in most of the provinces of the

kingdom, is described by Navagiero as living in great magnificence. He

maintained a body guard of 200 foot, besides men-at-arms; and could muster

more than 30,000 vassals. (Viaggio, fol. 6, 33.) Oviedo makes the same

statement. (Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 8.) Lucio Marineo,

among other things in his curious _farrago_, has given an estimate of

the rents, "poco mas 6 menos," of the great nobility of Castile and

Aragon, whose whole amount he computes at one-third of those of the whole

kingdom. I will select a few of the names familiar to us in the present

narrative.

Enriquez, admiral of Castile, 50,000 ducats income, equal to $440,000.

Velasco, constable of Castile, 60,000 ducats income, estates in Old

Castile.

Toledo, duke of Alva, 50,000 ducats income, estates in Castile and

Navarre.

Mendoza, duke of Infantado, 50,000 ducats income, estates in Castile and

other provinces.

Guzman, duke of Medina Sidonia, 55,000 ducats income, estates in

Andalusia.

Cerda, duke of Medina Celi, 30,000 ducats income, estates in Castile and

Andalusia.

Ponce de Leon, duke of Arcos, 25,000 ducats income, estates in Andalusia.

Pacheco, duke of Escalona (marquis of Villena), 60,000 ducats income,

estates in Castile.

Cordova, duke of Sessa, 60,000 ducats income, estates in Naples and

Andalusia.

Aguilar, marquis of Priego, 40,000 ducats income, estates in Andalusia and

Estremadura.

Mendoza, count of Tendilla, 15,000 ducats income, estates in Castile.

Pimentel, count of Benavente, 60,000 ducats income, estates in Castile.

Giron, count of Ureña, 20,000 ducats income, estates in Andalusia.

Silva, count of Cifuentes, 10,000 ducats income, estates in Andalusia.

(Cosas Memorables, fol. 24, 25.) The estimate is confirmed, with some

slight discrepancies, by Navagiero, Viaggio, fol. 18, 33, et alibi. See

also Salazar de Mendoza, Dignidades, discurso 2.

[12] "En casa de aquellos Principes estaban las hijas de los principales

señores 6 cavalleros por damas de la Reyna 6 de las Infantas sus hijas, y

en la corte andaban todos los mayorazgos y hijos de grandes 4 los mas

heredados de sus reynos." Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 4,

dial 44.

[13] "Como quier que oia el parecer de _personal religiosas_ é de los

otros letrados que cerca della eran, pero la mayor parte seguia las cosas

por su arbitrio." Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part 1, cap. 4.

[14] Lucio Marineo has collected many particulars respecting the great

wealth of the Spanish clergy in his time. There were four metropolitan

sees in Castile.

Toledo, income 80,000 ducats.

St. James, " 24,000 "

Seville, " 20,000 "

Granada, " 10,000 "

There were twenty-nine bishoprics, whose aggregate revenues, very

unequally apportioned, amounted to 251,000 ducats. The church livings in

Aragon were much fewer and leaner than in Castile. (Cosas Memorables, fol.

23.) The Venetian Navagiero, speaks of the metropolitan church of Toledo,

as "the wealthiest in Christendom;" its canons lived in stately palaces,

and its revenues, with those of the archbishopric, equalled those of the

whole city of Toledo. (Viaggio, fol. 9.) He notices also the great

opulence of the churches of Seville, Guadalupe, etc., fol. 11, 13.

[15] See Pragmáticas del Reyno, fol. 11, 140, 141, 171, et loc. al.--From

one of these ordinances, it appears the clergy were not backward in

remonstrating against what they deemed an infringement of their rights.

(Fol. 172.) The queen, however, while she guarded against their

usurpations, interfered more than once, with her usual sense of justice,

on their application, to shield them from the encroachments of the civil

tribunals. Riol, Informe, apud Semanario Erudito, tom. iii. pp. 98, 99.

[16] See Part I., Chapter 6, of this History.

[17] See examples of this in Riol, Informe, apud Semanario Erudito, tom.

iii. pp. 95-102.--Pragmáticas del Reyno, fol. 14.

[18] Riol, Informe, apud Semanario Erudite, tom. iii. p. 94.--L. Marineo,

Cosas Memorables, fol. 182.

[19] Oviedo bears emphatic testimony to this. "En nuestros tiempos há

habido en España de nuestra Nacion grandes varones Letrados, excelentes

Perlados y Religiosos y personas que por suos habilidades y sciencias hán

subido á las mas altas dignidades de Capelos é de Arzobispados y todo lo

que mas se puede alcanzar, en la Iglesia de Dios." Quincuagenas, MS.,

dial. de Talavera.--Col. de Cédulas, tom. i. p. 400.

[20] "Lo qne debe admirar es, que en el tiempo mismo que se contendia con

tanto ardor, obtuvieron los Reyes de la Santa Sede mas gracias y

privilegios que ninguno de sus sucesores; prueba de su felicidad y de su

prudentísima conducta." Riol, Informe, apud Semanario Erudito, tom. in. p.

95.

[21] "Porque la igualidad de la justicia que los bienauenturados Principes

hazian era tal, que todos los hombres de qualquier condicion que fuessen:

aora nobles, y caualleros: aora plebeyos, y labradores, y riejos, o

pobres, flacos, o fuertes, señores, o sieruos en lo que a la justicia

tocaua todos fuessen iguales." Cosas Memorables, fol. 180.

[22] These beneficial changes were made with the advice, and through the

agency of Ximenes. (Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 24.--Quintanilla,

Archetypo, p. 181.) The _alcavala_, a tax of one-tenth on all transfers of

property, produced more than any other branch of the revenue. As it was

originally designed, more than a century before, to furnish funds for the

Moorish war, Isabella, as we have seen in her testament, entertained great

scruples as to the right to continue it, without the confirmation of the

people, after that was terminated. Ximenes recommended its abolition,

without any qualification, to Charles V., but in vain. (Idem auct., ubi

supra.) Whatever be thought of its legality, there can be no doubt it was

one of the most successful means ever devised by a government for

shackling the industry and enterprise of its subjects.

[23] A pragmatic was issued, September 18th, 1495, prescribing the weapons

and the seasons for a regular training of the militia. The preamble

declares, that it was made at the instance of the representatives of the

cities and the nobles, who complained, that, in consequence of the

tranquillity, which the kingdom, through the divine mercy had for some

years enjoyed, the people were very generally unprovided with arms,

offensive or defensive, having sold or suffered them to fall into decay,

insomuch that, in their present condition, they would be found wholly

unprepared to meet either domestic disturbance, or foreign invasion.

(Pragmáticas del Reyno, fol. 83.) What a tribute does this afford, in this

age of violence, to the mild, paternal character of the administration?

[24] The most important were those of Madrigal, in 1476, and of Toledo, in

1480, to which I have often had occasion to refer. "Las mas notables," say

Asso and Mannel, in reference to the latter, "y famosas de este Reynado,

en el qual podemos asegurar, que tuvo principio el mayor aumento, y

arreglo de nuestra Jurisprudencia." (Instituciones, Introd., p. 91.)

Marina notices this cortes with equal panegyric. (Teoría, tom. i. p. 75.)

See also Sempere, Hist. des Cortés, p. 197.

[25] See Part I. Chapters 10, 11, et alibi.

[26] At Valladolid, in 1506. The number of cities having right of

representation, "que acostumbran continuamente embiar procuradores á

cortes," according to Pulgar, was seventeen. (Reyes Católicos, cap. 95.)

This was before Granada was added. Martyr, writing some years after that

event, enumerates only sixteen, as enjoying the privilege. (Opus Epist.,

epist. 460.) Pulgar's estimate, however, is corroborated by the petition

of the cortes of Valladolid, which, with more than usual effrontery, would

limit the representation to eighteen cities, as prescribed "por algunas

leyes é inmemorial uso." Marina, Teoría, tom. i. p. 161.

[27] Many of these _pragmáticas_ purport, in their preambles, to be

made at the demand of cortes; many more at the petition of corporations or

individuals; and many from the good pleasure of the sovereigns, bound to

"remedy all grievances, and provide for the exigencies of the state."

These ordinances very frequently are stated to have been made with the

advice of the royal council. They were proclaimed in the public squares of

the city, in which they were executed, and afterwards in those of the

principal towns in the kingdom. The doctors Asso and Manuel divide

_pragmáticas_ into two classes; those made at the instance of cortes,

and those emanating from the "sovereign, as _supreme legislator_ of

the kingdom, moved by his anxiety for the common weal." "Muchos de este

género," they add, "contiene el libro raro intitulado _Pragmáticas del

Reyno_, que se imprimió la primera vez en Alcalá en 1528." (Instituciones,

Introd., p. 110.) This is an error;--see note 43, infra.

[28] "Por la presente premáticasencion," said John II., in one of his

ordinances, "lo cual todo é cada cosa dello é parte dello quiero é mando é

ordeno que se guarde é compla daqui adelante para siempre jámas en todas

las cibdades é villas é logares non embargante cualesquier leyes é fueros

é derechos é ordenamientos, constituciones é posesiones é premáticas-

senciones, é usos é costumbres, ca en cuanto á est oatañe yo los abrogo é

derogo." (Marina, Teoría, tom. ii. p. 216.) This was the very essence of

despotism, and John found it expedient to retract these expressions, on

the subsequent remonstrance of cortes.

[29] Indeed, it is worthy of remark, as evincing the progress of

civilization under this reign, that most of the criminal legislation is to

be referred to its commencement, while the laws of the subsequent period

chiefly concern the new relations which grow out of an increased domestic

industry. It is in the "Ordenanças Reales," and "Leyes de la Hermandad,"

both published by 1485, that we must look for the measures against

violence and rapine.

[30] Thus, for example, the important criminal laws of the Hermandad, and

the civil code called the "Laws of Toro," were made under the express

sanction of the commons. (Leyes de la Hermandad, fol. l.--Quaderno de las

Leyes y Nuevas Decisiones hechas y ordenadas en la Ciudad de Toro, (Medina

del Campo, 1555,) fol. 49.) Nearly all, if not all, the acts of the

Catholic sovereigns introduced into the famous code of the "Ordenanças

Reales," were passed in the cortes of Madrigal, in 1476, or Toledo, in

1480.

[31] It should be stated, however, that the cortes of Valladolid, in 1506,

two years after the queen's death, enjoined Philip and Joanna to make no

laws without the consent of cortes; remonstrating, at the same time,

against the existence of many royal _pragmáticas_, as an evil to be

redressed. "Y por esto se estableció lei que no hiciesen ni renovasen

leyes sino en cortes. ***** Y porque fuera de esta órden se han hecho

muchas premáticas de que estos vuestros reynos se tienen por agraviados,

manden que aquellas se revean y provean y remedien los agravios que las

tales premáticas tienen." (Marina, Teoría, tom. ii. p. 218.) Whether this

is to be understood of the ordinances of the reigning sovereigns, or their

predecessors, may be doubted. It is certain, that the nation, however it

may have acquiesced in the exercise of this power by the late queen, would

not have been content to resign it to such incompetent hands, as those of

Philip and his crazy wife.

[32] "Liberi patriis legibus, nil imperio Regis gubernantur." Opus Epist.,

epist. 438.

[33] Capmany, however, understates the number, when he limits it to four

sessions only during this whole reign. Práctica y Estilo, p. 62.

[34] See Part II., Chapter 12, note 7, of this History.--"Si quis

aliquid," says Martyr, speaking of a cortes general held at Monzon, by

Queen Germaine, "sibi contra jus illatum putat, aut a regiâ coronâ

quaequam deberi existimat, nunquam dissolvuntur conventus, donec

conquerenti satisfiat, neque Regibus parere in exigendis pecuniis, solent

aliter. Regina quotidie scribit, se vexari eorum petitionibus, nec

exsolvere se quire, quod se maxime optare ostendit. Rex imminentis

necessitatis bellicae vim proponit, ut in aliud tempus querelas differant,

per literas, per nuntios, per ministros, conventum praesidentesque

hortatur monetque, et summissis fere verbis rogare videtur." 1512. (Opus

Epist., epist. 493.) Blancas notices Ferdinand's astuteness, who, instead

of money granted by the Aragonese with difficulty and reservations,

usually applied for troops at once, which were furnished and paid by the

state. (Modo de Proceder, fol. 100, 101.) Zurita tells us, that both the

king and queen were averse to meetings of cortes in Castile oftener than

absolutely necessary, and both took care, on such occasions, to have their

own agents near the deputies, to influence their proceedings. "Todas las

vezes que en lo passado el Rey, y la Reyna doña Isabel llamauan à cortes

en Castilla, temian de las llamar: y despues de llamodos, y ayuntados los

procuradores, ponian tales personas de su parte, que continuamente se

juntassen con ellos; por escusar lo que podria resultar de aquellos

ayuntamientos: y tambien por darles à entender, que no tenian tanto poder,

quanto ellos se imaginauan." (Anales, tom. vi. fol. 96.) This course is as

repugnant to Isabella's character as it is in keeping with her husband's.

Under their joint administration, it is not always easy to discriminate

the part which belongs to each. Their respective characters, and political

conduct in affairs where they were separately concerned, furnish us a

pretty safe clue to our judgment in others.

[35] As, for example, both when he resigned, and resumed the regency. See

Part II., Chapters 17, 20.

[36] In the first cortes after Isabella's death, at Toro, in 1505,

Ferdinand introduced the practice, which has since obtained, of

administering an oath of secrecy to the deputies, as to the proceedings of

the session; a serious wound to popular representation. (Marina, Teoría,

tom. i. p. 273.) Capmany (Práctica y Estilo, p. 232.) errs in describing

this as "un arteficio Maquiavélico inventado por _la política Alemana_."

The German Machiavelism has quite sins enough in this way to answer for.

[37] The introductory law to the "Leyes de Toro" holds this strange

language; "Y porque al rey pertenesce y ha poder de hazer fueros y leyes,

y de las interpretar y emendar donde vieren que cumple," etc. (Leyes de

Toro, fol. 2.) What could John II., or any despot of the Austrian line,

claim more?

[38] See the address of the cortes, in Marina, Teoría, tom. p. 282.

[39] Among the writers repeatedly cited by me, it is enough to point out

the citizen Marina, who has derived more illustrations of his liberal

theory of the constitution from the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella than

from any other; and who loses no opportunity of panegyric on their

"paternal government," and of contrasting it with the tyrannical policy of

later times.

[40] Marina enumerates no less than nine separate codes of civil and

municipal law in Castile, by which the legal decisions were to be

regulated, in Ferdinand and Isabella's time. Ensayo Historico-Critico,

sobre la Antigua Legislacion de Castilla, (Madrid, 1808,) pp. 383-386.--

Asso y Manuel, Instituciones, Introd.

[41] See Part I., Chapter 6, of this History.

[42] "A collection," says senor Clemencin, "of the last importance, and

indispensable to a right understanding of the spirit of Isabella's

government, but, nevertheless, little known to Castilian writers, not

excepting the most learned of them." (Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi.

Ilust. 9.) No edition of the _Pragmáticas_ has appeared since the

publication of Philip II.'s "Nueva Recopilacion," in 1567, in which a

large portion of them are embodied. The remainder having no further

authority, the work has gradually fallen into oblivion. But, whatever be

the cause, the fact is not very creditable to professional science in

Spain.

[43] The earliest edition was at Alcalá de Henares, printed by Lanzalao

Polono, in 1503. It was revised and prepared for the press by Johan

Ramirez, secretary of the royal council, from whom the work is often

called "Pragmáticas de Ramirez." It passed through several editions by

1550. Clemencin (ubi supra) enumerates five, but his list is incomplete,

as the one in my possession, probably the second, has escaped his notice.

It is a fine old folio, in black letter, containing in addition some

ordinances of Joanna, and the "Laws of Toro," in 192 folios. On the last

is this notice by the printer. "Fue ympressa la presente obra en la muy

noble y muy leal cibdad de Senilla, por Juan Varela ympressor de libros.

Acabose a dos dias del mes de otubre de mill y quinientos y veynte años."

The first leaf after the table of contents exhibits the motives of its

publication. "E porqué como algunas de ellas (pragmáticas sanciones é

cartas) ha mucho tiempo que se dieron, é otras se hicieron en diversos

tiempos, estan derramadas por muchas partes, no se saben por todos, é aun

muchas de las dichas justicias no tienen comlida noticia de todas ellas,

paresciendo ser necesario é provechoso; mandamos fi los del nuestro

consejo que las hiciesen juntar é corregir é impremir," etc.

[44] "Leyes de Toro," say Asso and Manuel, "veneradas tanto desde

entonces, que se les dió el primer lugar de valimiento sobre todas las del

Reyno." Instituciones, Introd. p. 95.

[45] See the sensible memorial of Jovellanos, "Informe al Real y Supremo

Consejo en el Expediente de Ley Agraria." Madrid, 1795.

There have been several editions of this code, since the first of 1505.

(Marina, Ensayo, No. 450.) I have copies of two editions, in black letter,

neither of them known to Marina; one, above noticed, printed at Seville,

in 1520; and the other at Medina del Campo, in 1555, probably the latest.

The laws were subsequently incorporated in the "Nueva Recopilacion."

[46] "Esta ley," says Jovellanos, "que los jurisconsultos llaman a boca

llena injusta y barbara, lo es mucho mas por la extension quelos

pragmaticas le dieron en sus comentarios." (Informe, p. 76, nota.) The

edition of Medina del Campo, in 1555, is swelled by the commentaries of

Miguel de Cifuentes, till the text, in the language of bibliographers,

looks like "cymba in oceano."

[47] Ante, Part I., Chapter 6.

[48] Leyes del Quaderno Nuevo de las Rentas de las Alcavalas y Franquezas,

hecho en la Vega de Granada, (Salamanca, 1550); a little code of 37

folios, containing 147 laws for the regulation of the crown rents. It was

made in the Vega of Granada, December 10th, 1491. The greater part of

these laws, like so many others of this reign, have been admitted into the

"Nueva Recopilacion."

[49] the head of these, undoubtedly, must be placed Dr. Alfonso Diaz de

Montalvo, noticed more than once in the course of this History. He

illustrated three successive reigns by his labors, which he continued to

the close of a long life, and after he had become blind. The Catholic

sovereigns highly appreciated his services, and settled a pension on him

of 30,000 maravedies. Besides his celebrated compilation of the

"Ordenancas Reales," he wrote commentaries on the ancient code of the

"Fuero Real," and on the "Siete Partidas," printed for the first time

under his own eye, in 1491. (Mendez, Typographia Espanola, p. 183.) Marina

(Ensayo, p. 405) has bestowed a beautiful eulogium on this venerable

lawyer, who first gave to light the principal Spanish codes, and

introduced a spirit of criticism into the national jurisprudence.

[50] This gigantic work was committed, wholly or in part, to Dr. Lorenzo

Galindez de Carbajal. He labored many years on it, but the results of his

labors, as elsewhere noticed, have never been communicated to the public.

See Asso y Manuel, Instituciones, pp. 50, 99.--Marina, Ensayo, pp. 392,

406, and Clemencin, whose Ilust. 9 exhibits a most clear and satisfactory

view of the legal compilations under this reign.

[51] Lord Bacon's comment on Henry VII.'s laws, might apply with equal

force to these of Ferdinand and Isabella. "Certainly his times for good

commonwealth's laws did excel. ***** For his laws, whoso marks them well,

are deep, and not vulgar; not made upon the spur of a particular occasion

for the present, but out of providence of the future, to make the estate

of his people still more and more happy; after the manner of the

legislators in ancient and heroical times." Hist. of Henry VII., Works,

(ed. 1819,) vol. v. p. 60.

[52] Ante, Part I., Chapter 6.

[53] Pragmáticas del Reyno, fol. 24, 30, 39.--Recop. de las Leyes, (ed.

1640,) tom. i. lib. 2, tit. 5, leyes 1, 2, 3, 11, 12, 20; tit. 7, ley 1.--

Ordenanças Reales, lib. 2. tit. 4. The southern chancery, first opened at

Ciudad Real, in 1494, was subsequently transferred by the sovereigns to

Granada.

[54] Ante, Part I., Chapter 7, note 39.

[55] Ante, Part I., Chapter 6, note 34.

[56] Riol, Informe, apud Seminario Erudito, tom. iii. p. 149.--It

consisted of a vice chancellor, as president, and six ministers, two from

each of the three provinces of the crown. It was consulted by the king on

all appointments and matters of government. The Italian department was

committed to a separate tribunal, called the council of Italy, in 1556.

Capmany (Mem. de Barcelona, tom. iv. Apend. 17) has explained at length

the functions and authority of this institution.

[57] See the nature and broad extent of these powers, in Recop. de Leyes

de las Indias, tom. i. lib. 2, tit. 2, leyes 1, 2.--Also Solorzano,

Politica Indiana, tom. ii. lib. 5, cap. 15; who goes no further back than

the remodelling of this tribunal under Charles V.--Riol, Informe, apud

Semanario Erudito, tom. iii. pp. 159, 160.

The third volume of the Semanario Erudito, pp. 73-233, contains a report,

drawn up, by command of Philip V., in 1726, by Don Santiago Augustin Riol,

on the organization and state of the various tribunals, civil and

ecclesiastical, under Ferdinand and Isabella; together with an account of

the papers contained in their archives. It is an able memorial, replete

with curious information. It is singular that this interesting and

authentic document should have been so little consulted, considering the

popular character of the collection in which it is preserved. I do not

recollect ever to have met with a reference to it in any author. It was by

mere accident, in the absence of a general index, that I stumbled on it in

the _mare magnum_ in which it is engulfed.

[58] "Pusieron los Reyes Católicos," says the penetrating Mendoza, "el

govierno de la justicia, i cosas públicas en manos de Letrados, gente

media entre los grandes i pequeños, sin ofensa de los linos ni de los

otros. Cuya profesion eran letras legales, comedimiento, secreto, verdad,

vida liana, i sin corrupcion de costumbres." Guerre de Granada, p. 15.

[59] Granada, September 3d, Pragmáticas del Reyno, fol. 135.--A pragmatic

of similar import was issued by Henry III. Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages,

tom, i., Introd. p. 46.

[60] Granada, August 11th, 1501. Pragmáticas del Reyno, fol. 137.

[61] Alfaro, November 10th, 1495. Ibid., fol. 136.

[62] See a number of these, collected by Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages,

Introd. pp. 43, 44.

[63] Cited by Robertson, History of America, vol. iii. p. 305.

[64] The fleet fitted out against the Turks, in 1482, consisted of seventy

sail, and that under Gonsalvo, in 1500, of sixty, large and small. (Ante,

Part I., Chapter 6: Part II., Chapter 10.) See other expeditions,

enumerated by Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i. p. 50.

[65] Cura de los Palacios, MS., cap. 153; who, indeed, estimates the

complement of this fleet at 25,000 men; a round number, which must

certainly include persons of every description. The Invincible Armada

consisted, according to Dunham, of about 130 vessels, large and small,

20,000 soldiers, and 8,000 seamen. (History of Spain and Portugal, vol. v.

p. 59.) The estimate falls below that of most writers.

[66] En el real de la vega de Granada, December 20th. (Pragmáticas del

Reyno, fol. 133.) "Y les apercibays," enjoins the ordinance, "que los

marauedis porque los vendieren los ban de sacar de nuestros reynos en

mercadurias: y ni en oro ni en plata ni en moneda amonedada de manera que

no pueden pretender ygnorancia: y den fianças lianas y abonadas de lo

fazer y cumplir assi: y si fallaredes que sacan o lieuan oro o plata o

moneda contra el tenor y forma de las dichas leyes y desta nuestra carta

mandamos vos que gelo torneys: y sea perdido como las dichas leyes mandan,

y demas cayan y incurran en las penas en las leyes de nuestros reynos

contenidas contra los que sacan oro o plata o moneda fuera dellos sin

nuestra licencia y mandado: las quales executad en ellosy en sus

fiadores."

[67] Pragmáticas del Reyno, fol. 92, 134.--These laws were as old as the

fourteenth century in Castile, and had been renewed by every succeeding

monarch, from the time of John I. (Ordenanças Reales, lib. 6, tit. 9,

leyes 17-22.) Similar ones were passed under the contemporary princes,

Henry VII. and Henry VIII. of England, James IV. of Scotland, etc.

[68]--"Balucis malleator Hispanae," says Martial, noticing the noise made

by the gold-beaters, hammering out the Spanish ore, as one of the chief

annoyances which drove him from the capital, (lib. 12, ep. 57.) See also

the precise statement of Pliny, cited Part I., Chapter 8, of this History.

[69] "Porque haciéndose ansí al modo é costumbre de los dichos senores

Reyes pasados, cesarán los inmensos gastos y sin provecho que la mesa é

casa de S. M. se hacen; pues el daño desto notoriamente paresce porque se

halla en el plato real y en los platos que se hacen á los privados é

criados de su casa gastarse cada mio dia ciento y cincuenta mil maravedís;

y los Católicos Reyes D. Hernando é Dona Isabel, seyendo tan excelentes y

tan poderosos, en su plato y en el plato del principe D. Joan que haya

glória, é de las señoras infantas con gran número y multitud de damas no

se gastar cada un dia, seyetido mui abastados como de tales Reyes, mas de

doce á quince mil maravedís." Peticion de la Junta de Tordesillas, October

20, 1520, apud Sandoval, Hist. del Emp. Carlos V., tom. i. p. 230.

[70] In 1493; repeated in 1501. Recop. de las Leyes, tom. ii. fol. 3.--In

1502. Pragmáticas del Reyno, fol. 139.

[71] At Segovia, September 2d; also in 1496 and 1498. Pragmáticas del

Reyno, fol. 123, 125, 126.

[72] At Granada, in 1499.--This on petition of cortes, in the year

preceding. Sempere, in his sensible "Historia del Luxo," has exhibited the

series of the manifold sumptuary laws in Castile. It is a history of the

impotent struggle of authority, against the indulgence of the innocent

propensities implanted in our nature, and naturally increasing with

increasing wealth and civilization.

[73] En la nombrada y gran ciudad de Granada, Agosto 20. Pragmáticas del

Reyno, fol. 135.

[74] Pragmáticas del Reyno, passim.--Diccionario Geográfico-Hist. de

España, tom. i. p. 333--Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, tom. iii. part 3, cap.

2.--Mines of lead, copper, and silver were wrought extensively in

Guipuzcoa and Biscay.--Col. de Céd., tom. i. no. 25.

[75] Pragmáticas del Reyno, fol. 127, 128.--Ante, Part II., Chapter 3,

note 12.--The cortes of Toledo, in 1525, complained, "que habia tantos

caballos Españoles en Francia como en Castilla." (Mem. de la Acad. de

Hist., tom. vi. p. 285.) The trade, however, was contraband; the laws

against the exportation of horses being as ancient as the time of Alfonso

XI. (See also Ordenanças Reales, fol. 85, 86.)

Laws can never permanently avail against national prejudices. Those in

favor of mules have been so strong in the Peninsula, and such the

consequent decay of the fine breed of horses, that the Spaniards have been

compelled to supply themselves with the latter from abroad. Bourgoanne

reckons that 20,000 were annually imported into the country from France,

at the close of the last century. Travels in Spain, tom. i. chap. 4.

[76] Hist. del Luxo, tom. i. p. 170.--"Tiene muchas ouejas," says Marineo,

"cuya lana estan singular, que no solamente se aprouechan della en España,

mas tambien se lleua en abundancia a otras partes." (Cosas Memorables,

fol. 3.) He notices especially the fine wool of Molina, in whose territory

400,000 sheep pastured, fol. 19.

[77] Mem. de Barcelona, tom. iii. pp. 338, 339.--"Or if ever exported," he

adds, "it was at some period long posterior to the discovery of America."

[78] Pragmáticas del Reyno, passim.--Many of them were designed to check

impositions, too often practised in the manufacture and sale of goods, and

to keep them up to a fair standard.

[79] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 11.

[80] Ibid., fol. 19.--Navagiero, Viaggio, fol. 26.--The Venetian minister,

however, pronounces them inferior to the silks of his own country.

[81] "Proueyda," says Marineo, "de todos officios, y artes mecánicas que

en ella se exercitan mucho: y principalmente en lanor, y exercicio de

lanas, y sedas. Por las quales dos cosas biuen en esta ciudad mas de diez

mil personas. Es de mas desto la ciudad muy rica, por los grandes tratos

de mercadurias." Cosas Memorables, fol. 12.

[82] Ibid., fol. 15.--Navagiero, a more parsimonious eulogist, remarks,

nevertheless, "Sono in Valladolid assai artefici di ogni sorte, e se vi

lavora benessimo de tutte le arti, e sopra tutto d'Argenti, e vi son tanti

argenteri quanti non sono in due altre terre." Viaggio, fol. 35.

[83] Geron. Paulo, a writer at the close of the fifteenth century, cited

by Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, tom. i. part. 3, p. 23.

[84] The twentieth Ilustracion of Señor Clemencin's invaluable compilation

contains a table of prices of grain, in different parts of the kingdom,

under Ferdinand and Isabella. Take, for example, those of Andalusia. In

1488, a. year of great abundance, the _fanega_ of wheat sold in Andalusia

for 50 maravedies; in 1489 it rose to 100; in 1505, a season of great

scarcity, to 375, and even 600; in 1508, it was at 306; and in 1509, it

had fallen to 85 maravedies. Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. pp. 551,

552.

[85] Compare, for example, the accounts of the environs of Toledo and

Madrid, the two most considerable cities in Castile, by ancient and modern

travellers. One of the most intelligent and recent of the latter, in his

journey between these two capitals, remarks, "There is sometimes a visible

track, and sometimes none; most commonly we passed over wide sands. The

country between Madrid and Toledo, I need scarcely say, is ill peopled and

ill cultivated; for it is all a part of the same arid plain, that

stretches on every side around the capital; and which is bounded on this

side by the Tagus. The whole of the way to Toledo, I passed through only

four inconsiderable villages; and saw two others at a distance. A great

part of the land is uncultivated, covered with furze and aromatic plants;

but here and there some corn land is to be seen." (Inglis, Spain in 1830,

vol. i. p. 366.) What a contrast does all this present to the language of

the Italians, Navagiero and Marineo, in whose time the country around

Toledo "surpassed all other districts of Spain, in the excellence and

fruitfulness of the soil;" which, "skilfully irrigated by the waters of

the Tagus, and minutely cultivated, furnished every variety of fruit and

vegetable produce to the neighboring city." While, instead of the sunburnt

plains around Madrid, it is described as situated "in the bosom of a fair

country, with an ample territory, yielding rich harvests of corn and wine,

and all the other aliments of life." Cosas Memorables, fol. 12, 13.--

Viaggio, fol. 7, 8.

[86] Capmany has well exposed some of these extravagances. (Mem. de

Barcelona, tom. in. part. 3, cap. 2.) The boldest of them, however, may

find a warrant in the declarations of the legislature itself. "En los

lugares de obrages de lanas," asserts the cortes of 1594, "donde se solian

labrar veinte y treinta mil arrobas, no se labran hoi seis, y donde habia

señores de ganado de grandísima cantidad, han disminuido en la misma y

mayor proporcion, acaeciendo lo mismo en todas las otras cosas del

comercio universal y particular. Lo cual hace que no haya ciudad de las

principales destos réinos ni lugar ninguno, de donde no falte notable

vecindad, como se echa bien de ver en la muchedumbre de casas que estan

cerradas y despobladas, y en la baja que han dado los arrendamientos de

las pocas que se arriendan y habitan." Apud Mem. de la Acad. de Hist, tom.

vi. p. 304.

[87] A point which most writers would probably agree in fixing at 1700,

the year of Charles II.'s death, the last and most imbecile of the

Austrian dynasty. The population of the kingdom at this time, had dwindled

to 6,000,000. See Laborde, (Itinéraire, tom. vi. pp. 125, 143, ed. 1830),

who seems to have better foundation for this census than for most of those

in his table.

[88] See the unequivocal language of cortes, under Philip II. (supra.)

With every allowance, it infers an alarming decline in the prosperity of

the nation.

[89] One has only to read, for an evidence of this, the lib. 6, tit. 18,

of the "Nueva Recopilacion," on "cosas prohibidas;" the laws on gilding

and plating, lib. 5, tit. 24; on apparel and luxury, lib. 7, tit. 12; on

woollen manufactures, lib. 7, tit. 14-17, et legas al. Perhaps no stronger

proof of the degeneracy of the subsequent legislation can be given, than

by contrasting it with that of Ferdinand and Isabella in two important

laws. 1. The sovereigns, in 1492, required foreign traders to take their

returns in the products and manufactures of the country. By a law of

Charles V., 1552, the exportation of numerous domestic manufactures was

prohibited, and the foreign trader, in exchange for domestic wool, was

required to import into the country a certain amount of linen and woollen

fabrics. 2. By an ordinance, in 1500, Ferdinand and Isabella prohibited

the importation of silk thread from Naples, to encourage its production at

home. This appears from the tenor of subsequent laws to have perfectly

succeeded. In 1552, however, a law was passed, interdicting the export of

manufactured silk, and admitting the importation of the raw material. By

this sagacious provision, both the culture of silk, and the manufacture

were speedily crushed in Castile.

[90] See examples of these, in the reigns of Henry III., and John II,

(Recop. de las Leyes, tom. ii. fol. 180, 181.) Such also were the numerous

tariffs fixing the prices of grain, the vexatious class of sumptuary laws,

those for the regulation of the various crafts, and, above, all, on the

exportation of the precious metals.

[91] The English Statute Book alone will furnish abundant proof of this,

in the exclusive regulations of trade and navigation existing at the close

of the fifteenth century. Mr. Sharon Turner has enumerated many, under

Henry VIII., of similar import with, and, indeed, more partial in their

operation than, those of Ferdinand and Isabella. History of England, vol.

iv. pp. 170 et seq.

[92] Ordenanças Reales, lib. 6, tit. 4, ley 6.

[93] Archivo de Simancas; in which most of these ordinances appear to be

registered. Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 11.

[94] "Ennoblescense los cibdades é villas en tener casas grandes é bien

fechas en que fragan sus ayuntamientos é concejos," etc. (Ordenanças

Reales, lib. 7, tit. 1, ley 1.) Señor Clemencin has specified the nature

and great variety of these improvements, as collected from the archives of

the different cities of the kingdom. Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi.

Ilustracion ll.--Col. de Cédulas, tom. iv. no. 9.

[95] Pragmáticas del Reyno, fol. 63. 91, 93.--Recop. de las Leyes, lib. 5,

tit. 11, ley 12.--Among the acts for restricting monopolies may be

mentioned one, which prohibited the nobility and great landholders from

preventing their tenants' opening inns and houses of entertainment without

their especial license. (Pragmáticas del Reyno, 1492, fol. 96.) The same

abuse, however, is noticed by Mad. d'Aulnoy, in her "Voyage d'Espagne," as

still existing, to the great prejudice of travellers, in the seventeenth

century. Dunlop, Memoirs of Philip IV. and Charles II., vol. ii. chap. 11.

[96] Pragmáticas del Reyno, fol. 93-112.--Recop. de las Leyes, lib. 5,

tit. 21, 22.

[97] "Ut nulla unquam per se tuta regio, tutiorem se fuisse jactare

possit." Opus Epist., epist. 31.

[98] For various laws tending to secure this, and prevent frauds in trade,

see Ordenanças Reales, lib. 3, tit. 8, ley 5.--Pragmáticas del Reyno, fol.

45, 66, 67, et alibi.--Col. de Cédulas, tom. i. no. 63.

[99] The fullest, though a sufficiently meagre, account of the Navarrese

constitution, is to be found in Capmany's collection, "Práctica y Estilo,"

(pp. 250-258,) and in the "Diccionario Geográfico Hist, de España," (tom.

ii. pp. 140-143.) The historical and economical details in the latter are

more copious.

[100] "Queste furono," says Giannone, "le prime leggi che ci diedero gli

Spagnuoli: leggi tutte provvide e savie, nello stabilir delle quali furono

veramente gli Spagnuoli più d' ogni altra nazione avveduti, e più esatti

imitatori de' Romani." Istoria di Napoli, lib. 30, cap. 5.

[101] Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, lib. 29, cap. 4; lib. 30, cap. 1, 2,

5.--Signorelli, Coltura nelle Sicilie, tom. iv. p. 84.--Every one knows

the persecutions, the exile, and long imprisonment, which Giannone

suffered for the freedom with which he treated the clergy, in his

philosophical history. The generous conduct of Charles of Bourbon to his

heirs is not so well known. Soon after his accession to the throne of

Naples, that prince settled a liberal pension on the son of the historian,

declaring, that "it did not comport with the honor and dignity of the

government, to permit an individual to languish in indigence, whose parent

had been the greatest man, the most useful to the state, and the most

unjustly persecuted, that the age had produced." Noble sentiments, giving

additional grace to the act which they accompanied. See the decree, cited

by Corniani, Secoli della Letteratura Italiana, (Brescia, 1804-1813,) tom.

ix. art. 15.

[102] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 6, cap. 18.--According to

Martyr, the two mints of Hispaniola yielded 300,000 lbs. of gold annually.

De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. 10.

[103] The pearl fisheries of Cuhagua were worth 75,000 ducats a year.

Herrera, Indian Occidentales, dec 1, lib 7, cap. 9.

[104] Oviedo, Historia Natural de las Indias, lib. 4, cap. 8.--Gomez, De

Rebus Gestis, fol. 165.

[105] Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. iii. documentos 1-13.--Herrera,

Indias Occidentales, dec. 1. lib. 7, cap. 1.

[106] Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. iii. pp. 48, 134.

[107] Bernardin de Santa Clara, treasurer of Hispaniola, amassed, during a

few years' residence there, 96,000 ounces of gold. This same _nouveau

riche_ used to serve gold dust, says Herrera, instead of salt, at his

entertainments. (Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 7, cap. 3.) Many

believed, according to the same author, that gold was so abundant, as to

be dragged up in nets from the beds of the rivers! Lib. 10, cap. 14.

[108] Ante, Part II., Chapter 24.--Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1,

lib. 10, cap. 6, 7.

[109] "Per esser Sevilla nel loco che è, vi vanno tanti di loro alle

Indie, che la città resta mal popolata, e quasi in man di donne."

(Navagiero, Viaggio, fol. 15.) Horace said, fifteen centuries before,

"_Impiger extremes curris mercator ad Indos,

Per mare pauperiem fugieus, per saxa, per ignes._"

_Epist. i. 1._

[110] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 9, cap. 10.--Almost all

the Spanish expeditions in the New World, whether on the northern or

southern continent, have a tinge of romance, beyond what is found in those

of other European nations. One of the most striking and least familiar of

them is that of Ferdinand de Soto, the ill-fated discoverer of the

Mississippi, whose bones bleach beneath its waters. His adventures are

told with uncommon spirit by Mr. Bancroft, vol. i. chap. 2, of his History

of the United States.

[111] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 2, lib. 1, cap. 7.

[112] The life of this daring cavalier forms one in the elegant series of

national biographies by Quintana, "Vidas de Espanoles Celebres," (tom. ii.

pp. 1-82), and is familiar to the English reader in Irving's "Companions

of Columbus." The third volume of Navarrete's laborious compilation is

devoted to the illustration of the minor Spanish voyagers, who followed up

the bold track of discovery, between Columbus and Cortes. Coleccion de

Viages.

[113] Las Casas, Mémoires, Oeuvres, ed. de Llorente, tom. i. p. 189.

[114] "Y crean (Vuestras Altezas) questa isla y todas las otras son asi

suyas corao Castilla, que aqui no falta salvo asiento y mandarles hacer lo

que quisieren." Primera Carta de Colon, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de

Viages, tom. i. p. 93.

[115] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 8, cap. 9.--Las Casas,

Oeuvres, ed. de Llorente, tom. i. pp. 228, 229.

[116] See the various Memorials of Las Casas, some of them expressly

prepared for the council of the Indies. He affirms, that more than

12,000,000 lives were wantonly destroyed in the New World, within thirty-

eight years after the discovery, and this in addition to those

exterminated in the conquest of the country. (Oeuvres, ed. de Llorente,

tom. i. p. 187.) Herrera admits that Hispaniola was reduced, in less than

twenty-five years, from 1,000,000 to 14,000 souls. (Indias Occidentales,

dec. 1. lib. 10, cap. 12.) The numerical estimates of a large savage

population, must, of course, be in a great degree hypothetical. That it

was large, however, in these fair regions, may readily be inferred from

the facilities of subsistence, and the temperate habits of the natives.

The minimum sum in the calculation, when the number had dwindled to a few

thousand, might be more easily ascertained.

[117] Oeuvres, ed. de Llorente, tom. i. p. 228.

[118] One resident at the court, says the bishop of Chiapa, was proprietor

of 800, and another of 1100 Indians. (Oeuvres, ed. de Llorente, tom. i. p.

238.) We learn their names from Herrera. The first was Bishop Fonseca, the

latter the comendador Conchillos, both prominent men in the Indian

department. (Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 9, cap. 14.) The last-named

person was the same individual sent by Ferdinand to his daughter in

Flanders, and imprisoned there by the archduke Philip. After that prince's

death, he experienced signal favors from the Catholic king, and amassed

great wealth as secretary of the Indian board. Oviedo has devoted one of

his dialogues to him. Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 3, dial. 9.

[119]The Dominican and other missionaries, to their credit be it told,

labored with unwearied zeal and courage for the conversion of the natives,

and the vindication of their natural rights. Yet these were the men, who

lighted the fires of the Inquisition in their own land. To such opposite

results may the same principle lead, under different circumstances!

[120] Las Casas concludes an elaborate memorial, prepared for the

government, in 1542, on the best means of arresting the destruction of the

aborigines, with two propositions. 1. That the Spaniards would still

continue to settle in America, though slavery were abolished, from the

superior advantages for acquiring riches it offered over the Old World. 2.

That if they would not, this would not justify slavery, since "_God

forbids us to do evil that good may come of it_." Rare maxim, from a

Spanish churchman of the sixteenth century! The whole argument, which

comprehends the sum of what has been since said more diffusely in defence

of abolition, is singularly acute and cogent. In its abstract principles

it is unanswerable, while it exposes and denounces the misconduct of his

countrymen, with a freedom which shows the good bishop knew no other fear

than that of his Maker.

[121] Recop. de Leyes de las Indias, August 14th, 1509, lib. 6, tit. 8,

ley l.--Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 9, cap. 14.

[122] The text expresses nearly enough the subsequent condition of things

in Spanish America. "No government," says Heeren, "has done so much for

the aborigines as the Spanish." (Modern History, Bancroft's trans., vol.

i. p. 77.) Whoever peruses its colonial codes, may find much ground for

the eulogium. But are not the very number and repetition of these humane

provisions sufficient proof of their inefficacy?

[123] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 2, lib. 2, cap. 3.--Las Casas,

Mémoire, apud Oeuvres, ed. de Llorente, tom. i. p. 239.

[124] In the remarkable discussion between the doctor Sepulveda and Las

Casas, before a commission named by Charles V., in 1550, the former

vindicated the persecution of the aborigines by the conduct of the

Israelites towards their idolatrous neighbors. But the Spanish Fenelon

replied, that "the behavior of the Jews was no precedent for Christians;

that the law of Moses was a law of rigor; but that of Jesus Christ, one of

grace, mercy, peace, good-will, and charity." (Oeuvres, ed. de Llorente,

tom. i. p. 374.) The Spaniard first persecuted the Jews, and then quoted

them as an authority for persecuting all other infidels.

[125] It is only necessary to notice the contemptuous language of Philip

II.'s laws, which designate the most useful mechanic arts, as those of

blacksmiths, shoemakers, leather-dressers, and the like, as "_oficios

viles y baxos_."

A whimsical distinction prevails in Castile, in reference to the more

humble occupations. A man of gentle blood may be a coachman, lacquey,

scullion, or any other menial, without disparaging his nobility, which is

said to _sleep_ in the mean while. But he fixes on it an indelible

stain, if he exercises any mechanical vocation. "Hence," says Capmany, "I

have often seen a village in this province, in which the vagabonds,

smugglers, and hangmen even, were natives, while the farrier, shoemaker,

etc., was a foreigner." (Mem. de Barcelona, tom. i. part. 3, p. 40; tom.

iii. part. 2, pp. 317, 318.) See also some sensible remarks on the

subject, by Blanco White, the ingenious author of Doblado's Letters from

Spain, p. 44.

[126] "The interval between the acquisition of money, and the rise of

prices," Hume observes," is the only time when increasing gold and silver

are favorable to industry." (Essays, part 2, essay 3.) An ordinance of

June 13th, 1497, complains of the scarcity of the precious metals, and

their insufficiency to the demands of trade. (Pragmáticas del Reyno, fol.

93.) It appears, however, from Zuñiga, that the importation of gold from

the New World began to have a sensible effect on the prices of

commodities, from that very year. Annales de Sevilla, p. 415.

[127] Mr. Turner has made several extracts from the Harleian MSS., showing

that the trade of Castile with England was very considerable in Isabella's

time. (History of England, vol. iv. p. 90.) A pragmatic of July 21st,

1494, for the erection of a consulate at Burgos, notices the commercial

establishments in England, France, Italy, and the Low Countries. This

tribunal, with other extensive privileges, was empowered to hear and

determine suits between merchants; "which," says the plain spoken

ordinance, "in the hands of lawyers are never brought to a close; porque

se presentauan escritos y libelos de letrados de manera que por mal pleyto

que fuesse le sostenian los letrados de manera que _los hazian

immortales_." (Pragmáticas del Reyno, fol. 146-148.) This institution

rose soon to be of the greatest importance in Castile.

[128] The sixth volume of the Memoirs of the Academy of History contains a

schedule of the respective revenues afforded by the cities of Castile, in

the years 1477, 1482, and 1504; embracing, of course, the commencement and

close of Isabella's reign. The original document exists in the archives of

Simancas. We may notice the large amount and great increase of taxes in

Toledo, particularly, and in Seville; the former thriving from its

manufactories, and the latter from the Indian trade. Seville, in 1504,

furnished near a tenth of the whole revenue. Ilustracion 5.

[129] "No ay en ella," says Marineo of the latter city, "gente ociosa, ni

baldia, sino que todos trabajan, ansi mugeres como hombres, y los chicos

como los grandes, buscando la vida con sus manos, y con sudores de sus

carnes. Unos exercitan las artes mecánicas: y otros las liberales. Los que

tratan las mercaderias, y hazen rica la ciudad, son muy fieles, y

liberales." (Cosas Memorables, fol. 16.) It will not be easy to meet, in

prose or verse, with a finer colored picture of departed glory, than Mr.

Slidell has given of the former city, the venerable Gothic capital, in his

"Year in Spain," chap. 12.

[130] Sandoval, Hist. del Emp. Carlos V., tom. i. p. 60.

[131] It was a common saying in Navagiero's time, "Barcelona la ricca,

Saragossa la barta, Valentia la hermosa." (Viaggio, fol. 5.) The grandeur

and commercial splendor of the first-named city, which forms the subject

of Capmany's elaborate work, have been sufficiently displayed in Part I.,

Chapter 2, of this History.

[132] "_Algunos suponen_," says Capmany, "que estas ferias eran ya

famosas en tiempo de los Reyes Católicos," etc. (Mem. de Barcelona, tom.

iii. p. 356.) A very cursory glance at the laws of this time, will show

the reasonableness of the supposition. See the Pragmáticas, fol. 146, and

the ordinances from the archives of Simancas, apud Mem. de Acad., tom. vi.

pp. 249, 252, providing for the erection of buildings and other

accommodations for the "great resort of traders." In 1520, four years

after Ferdinand's death, the city, in a petition to the regent,

represented the losses sustained by its merchants in the recent fire, as

more than the revenues of the crown would probably be able to meet for

several years. (Ibid., p. 264.) Navagiero, who visited Medina some six

years later, when it was rebuilt, bears unequivocal testimony to its

commercial importance. "Medina è buona terra, e piena di buone case,

abondante assai se non che le tante ferie che se vi fanno ogn' anno, e il

concorso grande che vi è di tutta Spagna, fanno pur che il tutto si paga

più di quel che si faria.... La feria è abondante certo di molte cose, ma

sopra tutto di speciarie assai, che vengono di Portogallo; ma le maggior

faccende che se vi facciano sono cambij." Viaggio, fol. 36.

[133]

"Quien no vió á Sevilla No vió maravilla."

The proverb, according to Zuñiga, is as old as the time of Alonso XI.

Annales de Sevilla, p. 183.

[134] The most eminent sculptors were, for the most part, foreigners;--as

Miguel Florentin, Pedro Torregiano, Felipe de Borgoña,--chiefly from

Italy, where the art was advancing rapidly to perfection in the school of

Michael Angelo. The most successful architectural achievement was the

cathedral of Granada, by Diego de Siloe. Pedraza, Antiguedad de Granada,

fol. 82.--Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 16.

[135] At least so says Clemencin, a competent judge. "Desde los mismos

principios de su establecimiento fue mas comun la imprenta en España que

lo es al cabo de trescientos años dentro ya del siglo décimonono." Elogio

de Doña Isabel, Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi.

[136] Ante, Introduction, Sect. 2; Part 1., Chapter 19; Part II., Chapter

21.--The "Pragmáticas del Reyno" comprises various ordinances, defining

the privileges of Salamanca and Valladolid, the manner of conferring

degrees, and of election to the chairs of the universities, so as to

obviate any undue influence or corruption. (Fol. 14-21.) "Porque," says

the liberal language of the last law, "los estudios generales donde las

ciencias se leen y aprenden effuerçan las leyes y fazen a los nuestros

subditos y naturales sabidores y honrrados y acrecientan virtudes: y

porque en el dar y assignar de las cátedras salariadas deue auer toda

libertad porque sean dadas á personas sabidores y cientes." (Taraçona,

October 5th, 1495.) If one would see the totally different principles on

which such elections have been conducted in modern times, let him read

Doblado's Letters from Spain, pp. 103-107. The university of Barcelona was

suppressed in the beginning of the last century. Laborde has taken a brief

survey of the present dilapidated condition of the others, at least as it

was in 1830, since which it can scarcely have mended. Itinéraire, tom. vi.

p. 144, et seq.

[137] See the concluding note to this chapter.

Erasmus, in a lively and elegant epistle to his friend, Francis Vergara,

Greek professor at Alcalá, in 1527, lavishes unbounded panegyric on the

science and literature of Spain, whose palmy state he attributes to

Isabella's patronage, and the co-operation of some of her enlightened

subjects. "----Hispaniae vestrae, tanto successu, priscam eruditionis

gloriam sibi postliminiò vindicanti. Quae quum semper et regionis

amoenitate fertilitaléque, semper ingeniorum eminentium ubere proventu,

semper bellicâ laude floruerit, quid desiderari poterat ad summam

felicitatem, nisi ut studiorum et religionis adjungeret ornamenta, quibus

aspirante Deo sic paucis annis effloruit ut caeteris regionibus quamlibet

hoc decorum genere praecellentibus vel invidiae queat esse vel exemplo....

Vos istam felicitatem secundum Deum debetis laudatissimae Reginarum

Elisabetae, Francisco Cardinali quondam, Alonso Fonsecae nunc

Archiepiscopo Toletano, et si qui sunt horum similes, quorum autoritas

tuetur, benignitas alit fovetque bonas artes." Epistolae, p. 978.

[138] The sums in the text express the _real de vellon_; to which

they have been reduced by Señor Clemencin, from the original amount in

_maravedis_, which varied very materially in value in different years.

Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 5.

[139] The kingdom of Granada appears to have contributed rather less than

one-eighth of the whole tax.

[140] In addition to the last-mentioned sum, the extraordinary service

voted by cortes, for the dowry of the infantas, and other matters, in

1504, amounted to 16,113,014 reals de vellon; making a sum total for that

year, of 42,396,348 reals. The bulk of the crown revenues was derived from

the _alcavalas_, and the _tercias_, or two-ninths of the ecclesiastical

tithes. These important statements were transcribed from the books of the

_escribanía mayor de rentas_, in the archives of Simancas. Ibid., ubi

supra.

[141] The pretended amount of population has been generally in the ratio

of the distance of the period taken, and, of course, of the difficulty of

refutation. A few random remarks of ancient writers have proved the basis

for the wildest hypotheses, raising the estimates to the total of what the

soil, under the highest possible cultivation, would be capable of

supporting. Even for so recent a period as Isabella's time, the estimate

commonly received does not fall below eighteen or twenty millions. The

official returns, cited in the text, of the most populous portion, of the

kingdom, fully expose the extravagance of preceding estimates.

[142] These interesting particulars are obtained from a memorial, prepared

by order of Ferdinand and Isabella, by their _contador_, Alonso de

Quintanilla, on the mode of enrolling and arming the militia, in 1492; as

a preliminary step to which, he procured a census of the actual population

of the kingdom. It is preserved in a volume entitled _Relaciones tocantes

a la junta de la Hernandad_, in that rich national repository, the

archives of Simancas. See a copious extract apud Mem. de la Acad. de

Hist., tom. vi. Apend. 12.

[143] I am acquainted with no sufficient and authentic data for computing

the population, at this time, of the crown of Aragon, always greatly below

that of the sister kingdom. I find as little to be relied on,

notwithstanding the numerous estimates, in one form or another, vouchsafed

by historians and travelers, of the population of Granada. Marineo

enumerates fourteen cities and ninety-seven towns (omitting, as he says,

many places of less note,) at the time of the conquest; a statement

obviously too vague for statistical purposes. (Cosas Memorables, fol.

179.) The capital, swelled by the influx from the country, contained,

according to him, 200,000 souls at the same period. (Fol. 177.) In 1506,

at the time of the forced conversions, we find the numbers in the city

dwindled to fifty, or at most, seventy thousand. (Comp. Bleda, Corónica,

lib. 5, cap. 23, and Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 159.) Loose as

these estimates necessarily are, we have no better to guide us in

calculating the total amount of the population of the Moorish kingdom, or

of the losses sustained by the copious emigrations, during the first

fifteen years after the conquest; although there has been no lack of

confident assertion, as to both, in later writers. The desideratum, in

regard to Granada, will now probably not be supplied; the public offices

in the kingdom of Aragon, if searched with the same industry as those in

Castile, would doubtless afford the means for correcting the crude

estimates, so current respecting that country.

[144] Hallam, in his "Constitutional History of England," estimates the

population of the realm, in 1485, at 3,000,000, (vol. i. p. 10.) The

discrepancies, however, of the best historians on this subject, prove the

difficulty of arriving at even a probable result. Hume, on the authority

of Sir Edward Coke, puts the population of England (including people of

all sorts) a century later, in 1588, at only 900,000. The historian cites

Lodovico Guicciardini, however, for another estimate, as high as

2,000,000, for the same reign of Queen Elizabeth. History of England, vol.

vi. Append. 3.

[145] Philip II. claimed the Portuguese crown in right of his mother and

his wife, both descended from Maria, third daughter of Ferdinand and

Isabella, who, as the reader may remember, married King Emanuel.

[146] Old Caxton mourns over the little honor paid to the usages of

chivalry in his time; and it is sufficient evidence of its decay in

England, that Richard III. thought it necessary to issue an ordinance

requiring those possessed of the requisite £40 a year, to receive

knighthood. (Turner, History of England, vol. iii. pp. 391, 392.) The use

of artillery was fatal to chivalry; a consequence well understood, even at

the early period of our History. At least, so we may infer from the verses

of Ariosto, where Orlando throws Cimosco's gun into the sea.

"Lo tolse e disse: Acciò più non istea

Mai cavalier per te d'essere ardito;

Nè quanto il buono val, mai più si vanti

Il rio per te valer, qui giu rimanti."

Orlando Furioso, canto 9, st. 90.

[147] "Quien podrá, contar," exclaims the old Curate of Los Palacios, "la

grandeza, el concierto de su corte, la cavallería de los Nobles de toda

España, Duques, Maestres, Marqueses é Ricos homes; los Galanes, las Damas,

las Fiestas, los Torneos, la Moltitud de Poetas é trovadores," etc. Reyes

Católicos, MS., cap. 201.

[148] Oviedo notices the existence of a lady-love, even with cavaliers who

had passed their prime, as a thing of quite as imperative necessity in his

day, as it was afterwards regarded by the gallant knight of La Mancha.

"Costumbre es en España entre log señores de estado que venidos á la

corte, aunque nó estén enamorados ó que pasen de la mitad de la edad

fingir que aman por servir y favorescer á alguna dama, y gastar como quien

son en fiestas y otras cosas que se ofrescen de tales pasatiempos y

amores, sin que les dé pena Cupido." Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1,

dial. 28.

[149] Viaggio, fol. 27.

Andrea Navagiero, whose itinerary has been of such frequent reference in

these pages, was a noble Venetian, born in 1483. He became very early

distinguished, in his cultivated capital, for his scholarship, poetical

talents, and eloquence, of which he has left specimens, especially in

Latin verse, in the highest repute to this day with his countrymen. He was

not, however, exclusively devoted to letters, but was employed in several

foreign missions by the republic. It was on his visit to Spain, as

minister to Charles V., soon after that monarch's accession, that he wrote

his Travels; and he filled the same office at the court of Francis I.,

when he died, at the premature age of forty-six, in 1529. (Tiraboschi,

Letteratura Italiana, tom. vii. part. 3, p. 228, ed. 1785.) His death was

universally lamented by the good and the learned of his time, and is

commemorated by his friend, Cardinal Bembo, in two sonnets, breathing all

the sensibility of that tender and elegant poet. (Rime, Son. 109, 110.)

Navagiero becomes connected with Castilian literature by the circumstance

of Boscan's referring to his suggestion the innovation he so successfully

made in the forms of the national verse. Obras, fol. 20, ed. 1543.

[150] Fernando de Pulgar, after enumerating various cavaliers of his

acquaintance, who had journeyed to distant climes in quest of adventures

and honorable feats of arms, continues, "E oí decir de otros Castellanos

que con ánimo de Caballeros fueron por los Reynos estrafios á facer armas

con qualquier Caballero que quisiere facerlas con ellos, é por ellas

ganaron honra para sí, é fama de valientes y esforzados Caballeros para

los Fijosdalgos de Castilla." Claros Varones, tit. 17.

[151] "Son todos," says the Admiral, "de ningun ingenio en las armas, y

muy cobardes, que mil no aguadarian tres!" (Primer Viage de Colon.) What

could the bard of chivalry say more?

"Ma quel ch'al timor non diede albergo,

Estima la vil turba e l'arme tante

Quel che dentro alla mandra all' aer cupo,

Il numer dell' agnelle estimi il lupo."

Orlando Furioso, canto 12.

[152] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 30.

[153] "I Spagnoli," says the Venetian minister, "non solo in questo paese

di Granata, ma in tutto 'l resto della Spagna medesimamente, non sono

molto industriosi, ne piantano, ne lavorano volontieri la terra; ma se

danno ad altro, e più volontieri vanno alia guerra, o alle Indie ad

acquistarsi facultà, che per tal vie." (Viaggio, fol. 25.) Testimonies to

the same purport thicken, as the stream of history descends. See several

collected by Capmany (Mem. de Barcelona, tom. iii. pp. 358, et seq.), who

certainly cannot be charged with ministering to the vanity of his

countrymen.

[154] One may trace its immediate influence in the writings of a man like

the Curate of Los Palacios, naturally, as it would seem, of an amiable,

humane disposition; but who complacently remarks, "They (Ferdinand and

Isabella) lighted up the fires for the heretics, in which, with good

reason, they have burnt, and shall continue to burn, so long as a soul of

them remains"! (Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 7.) It becomes more perceptible

in the literature of later times, and, what is singular, most of all in

the lighter departments of poetry and fiction, which seem naturally

devoted to purposes of pleasure. No one can estimate the full influence of

the Inquisition in perverting moral sense, and infusing the deadly venom

of misanthropy into the heart, who has not perused the works of the great

Castilian poets, of Lope de Vega, Ercilla, above all Calderon, whose lips

seem to have been touched with fire from the very altars of this accursed

tribunal.

[155] The late secretary of the Inquisition has made an elaborate

computation of the number of its victims. According to him, 13,000 were

publicly burned by the several tribunals of Castile and Aragon, and

191,413 suffered other punishments, between 1481, the date of the

commencement of the modern institution, and 1518. (Hist. de l'Inquisition,

tom. iv. chap. 46.) Llorente appears to have come to these appalling

results by a very plausible process of calculation, and without any design

to exaggerate. Nevertheless, his data are exceedingly imperfect, and he

has himself, on a revision, considerably reduced, in his fourth volume,

the original estimates in the first. I find good grounds for reducing them

still further. 1. He quotes Mariana, for the fact, that 2000 suffered

martyrdom at Seville, in 1481, and makes this the basis of his

calculations for the other tribunals of the kingdom. Marineo, a

contemporary, on the other hand, states, that "in the course of a few

years they burned nearly 2000 heretics;" thus not only diffusing this

amount over a greater period of time, but embracing all the tribunals then

existing in the country. (Cosas Memorables, fol. 164.) 2. Bernaldez

states, that five-sixths of the Jews resided in the kingdom of Castile.

(Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 110.) Llorente, however, has assigned an equal

amount of victims to each of the five tribunals of Aragon, with those of

the sister kingdom, excepting only Seville.

One might reasonably distrust Llorente's tables, from the facility with

which he receives the most improbable estimates in other matters, as, for

example, the number of banished Jews, which he puts at 800,000. (Hist. de

l'Inquisition, tom. i. p. 261.) I have shown, from contemporary sources,

that this number did not probably exceed 160,000, or, at most, 170,000.

(Part I., Chapter 17.) Indeed, the cautious Zurita, borrowing, probably,

from the same authorities, cites the latter number. (Anales, tom. v. fol.

9.) Mariana, who owes so much of his narrative to the Aragonese historian,

converting, as it would appear, these 170,000 individuals into families,

states the whole in round numbers, at 800,000 souls. (Hist. de España,

tom. ii. lib. 26, cap. 1.) Llorente, not content with this, swells the

amount still further, by that of the Moorish exiles, and by emigrants to

the New World, (on what authority?) to 2,000,000; and, going on with the

process, computes that this loss may fairly infer one of 8,000,000

inhabitants to Spain, at the present day! (Ibid., ubi supra.) Thus the

mischief imputed to the Catholic sovereigns goes on increasing in a sort

of arithmetical progression, with the duration of the monarchy.

Nothing is so striking to the imagination as numerical estimates; they

speak a volume in themselves, saving a world of periphrasis and argument;

nothing is so difficult to form with exactness, or even probability, when

they relate to an early period; and nothing more carelessly received, and

confidently circulated. The enormous statements of the Jewish exiles, and

the baseless ones of the Moorish, are not peculiar to Llorente, but have

been repeated, without the slightest qualification or distrust, by most

modern historians and travellers.

[156] In the two closing Chapters of Part I. of this History, I have

noticed the progress of letters in this reign; the last which displayed

the antique coloring and truly national characteristics of Castilian

poetry. There were many circumstances, which operated, at this period, to

work an important revolution, and subject the poetry of the Peninsula to a

foreign influence. The Italian Muse, after her long silence, since the age

of the _tricentisti_, had again revived, and poured forth such ravishing

strains, as made themselves heard and felt in every corner of Europe.

Spain, in particular, was open to their influence. Her language had an

intimate affinity with the Italian. The improved taste and culture of the

period led to a diligent study of foreign models. Many Spaniards, as we

have seen, went abroad to perfect themselves in the schools of Italy;

while Italian teachers filled some of the principal chairs in the Spanish

universities. Lastly, the acquisition of Naples, the land of Sannazaro and

of a host of kindred spirits, opened an obvious communication with the

literature of that country. With the nation thus prepared, it was not

difficult for a genius like that of Boscan, supported by the tender and

polished Garcilasso, and by Mendoza, whose stern spirit found relief in

images of pastoral tranquillity and ease, to recommend the more finished

forms of Italian versification to their countrymen. These poets were all

born in Isabella's reign. The first of them, the principal means of

effecting this literary revolution, singularly enough, was a Catalan,

whose compositions in the Castilian proved the ascendency which this

dialect had already obtained. The second, Garcilasso de la Vega, was son

of the distinguished statesman and diplomatist of that name, so often

noticed in our History; and Mendoza was a younger son of the amiable count

of Tendilla, the governor of Granada, whom he resembled in nothing but his

genius. Both the elder Garcilasso and Tendilla had represented their

sovereigns at the papal court, where they doubtless became tinctured with

that relish for the Italian, which produced such results in the education

of their children.

The new revolution penetrated far below the superficial forms of

versification; and the Castilian poet relinquished, with his _redondillas_

and artless _asonantes_, the homely, but heartful themes of the olden

time; or, if he dwelt on them, it was with an air of studied elegance and

precision, very remote from the Doric simplicity and freshness of the

romantic minstrelsy. If he aspired to some bolder theme, it was rarely

suggested by the stirring and patriotic recollections of his nation's

history. Thus, nature and the rude graces of a primitive age gave way to

superior refinement and lettered elegance; many popular blemishes were

softened down, a purer and nobler standard was attained, but the national

characteristics were effaced; beauty was everywhere, but it was the beauty

of art, not of nature. The change itself was perfectly natural. It

corresponded with the external circumstances of the nation, and its

transition from an insulated position to a component part of the great

European commonwealth, which subjected it to other influences and

principles of taste, and obliterated, to a certain extent, the peculiar

features of the national physiognomy.

How far the poetic literature of Castile was benefited by the change, has

been matter of long and hot debate between the critics of the country, in

which I shall not involve the reader. The revolution, however, was the

growth of circumstances, and was immediately effected by individuals,

belonging to the age of Ferdinand and Isabella. As such, I had originally

proposed to devote a separate chapter to its illustration. But I have been

deterred from it by the unexpected length, to which the work has already

extended, as well as by the consideration, on a nearer view, that these

results, though prepared under a preceding reign, properly fall under the

_domestic_ history of Charles V.; a history which still remains to be

written. But who will attempt a _pendant_ to the delineations of

Robertson?