The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Volume III Part 41

[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 ama.s.sed 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 circ.u.mstances!

[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 "_G.o.d 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, t.i.t. 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 repet.i.tion of these humane provisions sufficient proof of their inefficacy?

[123] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 2, lib. 2, cap. 3.--Las Casas, Memoire, 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 n.o.bility, 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. (Pragmaticas del Reyno, fol.

93.) It appears, however, from Zuniga, 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_." (Pragmaticas del Reyno, fol. 146-148.) This inst.i.tution 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 doc.u.ment 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. Il.u.s.tracion 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 mecanicas: 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 Catolicos," 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 Pragmaticas, 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 pet.i.tion 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 e buona terra, e piena di buone case, abondante a.s.sai se non che le tante ferie che se vi fanno ogn' anno, e il concorso grande che vi e di tutta Spagna, fanno pur che il tutto si paga piu di quel che si faria.... La feria e abondante certo di molte cose, ma sopra tutto di speciarie a.s.sai, che vengono di Portogallo; ma le maggior faccende che se vi facciano sono cambij." Viaggio, fol. 36.

[133]

"Quien no vio a Sevilla No vio maravilla."

The proverb, according to Zuniga, 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 Borgona,--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. Il.u.s.t. 16.

[135] At least so says Clemencin, a competent judge. "Desde los mismos principios de su establecimiento fue mas comun la imprenta en Espana que lo es al cabo de trescientos anos dentro ya del siglo decimonono." Elogio de Dona Isabel, Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi.

[136] Ante, Introduction, Sect. 2; Part 1., Chapter 19; Part II., Chapter 21.--The "Pragmaticas 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 effuercan las leyes y fazen a los nuestros subditos y naturales sabidores y honrrados y acrecientan virtudes: y porque en el dar y a.s.signar de las catedras salariadas deue auer toda libertad porque sean dadas a personas sabidores y cientes." (Taracona, 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. Itineraire, 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 Alcala, 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 postlimini vindicanti. Quae quum semper et regionis amoenitate fertilitaleque, semper ingeniorum eminentium ubere proventu, semper bellica 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 Senor Clemencin, from the original amount in _maravedis_, which varied very materially in value in different years.

Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Il.u.s.t. 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 t.i.thes. These important statements were transcribed from the books of the _escribania 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 ent.i.tled _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, Coronica, lib. 5, cap. 23, and Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, 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 a.s.sertion, 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 "Const.i.tutional 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 c.o.ke, 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: Acci piu non istea Mai cavalier per te d'essere ardito; Ne quanto il buono val, mai piu si vanti Il rio per te valer, qui giu rimanti."

Orlando Furioso, canto 9, st. 90.

[147] "Quien podra, contar," exclaims the old Curate of Los Palacios, "la grandeza, el concierto de su corte, la cavalleria de los n.o.bles de toda Espana, Duques, Maestres, Marqueses e Ricos homes; los Galanes, las Damas, las Fiestas, los Torneos, la Molt.i.tud de Poetas e trovadores," etc. Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 201.

[148] Oviedo notices the existence of a lady-love, even with cavaliers who had pa.s.sed 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 Espana entre log senores de estado que venidos a la corte, aunque no esten enamorados o que pasen de la mitad de la edad fingir que aman por servir y favorescer a alguna dama, y gastar como quien son en fiestas y otras cosas que se ofrescen de tales pasatiempos y amores, sin que les de 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 n.o.ble Venetian, born in 1483. He became very early distinguished, in his cultivated capital, for his scholars.h.i.+p, 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 circ.u.mstance 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.