The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Volume I Part 3

[34] The term "fundamental principle" is fully authorized by the existence of repeated enactments to this effect. Sempere, who admits the "usage,"

objects to the phrase "fundamental law," on the ground that these acts were specific, not general, in their character. Histoire des Cortes, p.

254.

[35] "Los Reyes en nuestros Reynos progenitores establecieron por leyes, y ordenancas fechas en Cortes, que no se echa.s.sen, ni repartiessen ningunos pechos, seruicios, pedidos, ni monedas, ni otros tributes nueuos, especial, ni generalmente en todos nuestros Reynos, sin que primeramente sean llamados a Cortes los procuradores de todas las Ciudades, y villas de nuestros Reynos, y sean otorgados por los dichos procuradores que a las Cortes vinieren." (Recopilacion de las Leyes, (Madrid, 1640,) tom. ii.

fol. 124.) This law, pa.s.sed under Alfonso XI., was confirmed by John II., Henry III., and Charles V.

[36] In 1258, they presented a variety of pet.i.tions to the king, in relation to his own personal expenditure, as well as that of his courtiers; requiring him to diminish the charges of his table, attire, etc., and, bluntly, to "bring his appet.i.te within a more reasonable compa.s.s;" to all which he readily gave his a.s.sent. (Sempere y Guarinos, Historia del Luxo, y de las Leyes Suntuarias de Espana, (Madrid, 1788,) tom. i. pp. 91, 92.) The English reader is reminded of a very different result, which attended a similar interposition of the commons in the time of Richard II., more than a century later.

[37] Marina claims also the right of the cortes to be consulted on questions of war and peace, of which he adduces several precedents.

(Teoria, part. 2, cap. 19, 20.) Their interference in what is so generally held the peculiar province of the executive, was perhaps encouraged by the sovereign, with the politic design of relieving himself of the responsibility of measures whose success must depend eventually on their support. Hallam notices a similar policy of the crown, under Edward III., in his view of the English const.i.tution during the Middle Ages. View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, (London, 1819,) vol. iii.

chap. 8.

[38] The recognition of the t.i.tle of the heir apparent, by a cortes convoked for that purpose, has continued to be observed in Castile down to the present time. Practica y Estilo, p. 229.

[39] For the preceding notice of the cortes, see Marina, Teoria, part. 2, cap. 13, 19, 20, 21, 31, 35, 37, 38.

[40] So at least they are styled by Marina. See his account of these inst.i.tutions; (Teoria, part. 2, cap. 39;) also Salazar de Mendoza, (Monarquia, lib. 3, cap. 15, 16,) and Sempere, (Histoire des Cortes, chap.

12, 13.) One hundred cities a.s.sociated in the Hermandad of 1315. In that of 1295, were thirty-four. The knights and inferior n.o.bility frequently made part of the a.s.sociation. The articles of confederation are given by Risco, in his continuation of Florez. (Espana Sagrada, (Madrid, 1775- 1826,) tom. x.x.xvi. p. 162.) In one of these articles it is declared, that, if any n.o.ble shall deprive a member of the a.s.sociation of his property, and refuse rest.i.tution, his house shall be razed to the ground. (Art. 4.) In another, that if any one, by command of the king, shall attempt to collect an unlawful tax, he shall be put to death on the spot. Art. 9.

[41] See Sempere, Historia del Luxo, tom. i. p. 97.--Masdeu, Hist.

Critica, tom. xiii. nos. 90, 91.--Gold and silver, curiously wrought into plate, were exported in considerable quant.i.ties from Spain, the tenth and eleventh centuries. They were much used in the churches. The tiara of the pope was so richly encrusted with the precious metals, says Masdeu, as to receive the name of _Spanodista_. The familiar use of these metals as ornaments of dress is attested by the ancient poem of the "Cid." See, in particular, the costume of the Campeador; vv. 3099 et seq.

[42] Zuniga, Annales Eclesiasticos y Seculares de Sevilla, (Madrid, 1677,) pp. 74, 75.--Sempere, Historia del Luxo, tom. i. p. 80.

[43] The historian of Seville describes that city, about the middle of the fifteenth century, as possessing a flouris.h.i.+ng commerce and a degree of opulence unexampled since the conquest. It was filled with an active population, employed in the various mechanic arts. Its domestic fabrics, as well as natural products, of oil, wine, wool, etc., supplied a trade with Prance, Flanders, Italy, and England. (Zuniga, Annales de Sevilla, p.

341.--See also Sempere, Historia del Luxo, p. 81, nota 2.) The ports of Biscay, which belonged to the Castilian crown, were the marts of an extensive trade with the north, during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. This province entered into repeated treaties of commerce with France and England; and her factories were established at Bruges, the great emporium of commercial intercourse during this period between the north and south, before those of any other people in Europe, except the Germans. (Diccionario Geografico-Historico de Espana, por la Real Academia de la Historia, (Madrid, 1802,) tom. i. p. 333.)

The inst.i.tution of the _mesta_ is referred, says Laborde, (Itineraire Descriptif de l'Espagne, (Paris, 1827-1830,) tom. iv. p. 47,) to the middle of the fourteenth century, when the great plague, which devastated the country so sorely, left large depopulated tracts open to pasturage.

This popular opinion is erroneous, since it engaged the attention of government, and became the subject of legislation as anciently as 1273, under Alfonso the Wise. (See a.s.so y Manuel, Inst.i.tuciones, Introd. p. 56.) Capmany, however, dates the great improvement in the breed of Spanish sheep from the year 1394, when Catharine of Lancaster brought with her, as a part of her dowry to the heir apparent of Castile, a flock of English merinos, distinguished, at that time, above those of every other country, for the beauty and delicacy of their fleece. (Memorias Historicas sobre la Marina, Comercio, y Artes de Barcelona, (Madrid, 1779-1792,) tom. iii. pp.

336, 337.) This acute writer, after a very careful examination of the subject, differing from those already quoted, considers the raw material for manufacture, and the natural productions of the soil, to have const.i.tuted almost the only articles of export from Spain, until after the fifteenth century. (Ibid., p. 338.) We will remark, in conclusion of this desultory note, that the term _merinos_ is derived, by Conde, from _moedinos_, signifying "wandering;" the name of an Arabian tribe, who s.h.i.+fted their place of residence with the season. (Hist. de los Arabes en Espana, tom. i. p. 488, nota.) The derivation might startle any but a professed etymologist.

[44] See the original acts, cited by Sempere. (Historia del Luxo, pa.s.sim.) The archpriest of Hita indulges his vein freely against the luxury, cupidity, and other fas.h.i.+onable sins of his age. (See Sanchez, Poesias Castellanas, tom. iv.)--The influence of Mammon appears to have been as supreme in the fourteenth century as at any later period.

"Sea un ome nescio, et rudo labrador, Los dineros le fasen fidalgo e sabidor, Quanto mas algo tiene, tanto es mas de valor, El que no ba dineros, non es de si senor."

Vv. 465 et seq.

[45] Marina, Ensayo, nos. 199, 297.--Zuniga, Annales de Sevilla, p. 341.

[46] Marina, Teoria, part. 2, cap. 28.--Mariana, Hist. de Espana, lib. 18, cap. 15.--The admission of citizens into the king's council would have formed a most important epoch for the commons, had they not soon been replaced by jurisconsults, whose studies and sentiments inclined them less to the popular side than to that of prerogative.

[47] Ibid., lib. 18, cap. 17.

[48] _Castilla_. See Salazar de Mendoza, Monarquia, tom. i. p. 108.-- Livy mentions the great number of these towers in Spain in his day.

"Multas et locis altis positas turres Hispania habet." (Lib. 22, cap.

19.)--A castle was emblazoned on the escutcheon of Castile, as far back as the reign of Urraca, in the beginning of the twelfth century, according to Salazar de Mendoza, (Monarquia, tom. i. p. 142,) although Garibay discerns no vestige of these arms on any instrument of a much older date than the beginning of the thirteenth century. Compendio, lib. 12, cap. 32.

[49]

"Hizo guerra a los Moros, Ganando sus fortalezas Y sus villas.

Y en las lides que Vencio Caballeros y Caballos Se perdieron, Y en este ofloio gano Las rentas y los vasallos Que le dieron." Coplas de Manrique, copla 31.

[50] a.s.so and Manuel derive the introduction of fiefs into Castile, from Catalonia. (Inst.i.tuciones, p. 96.) The twenty-sixth t.i.tle, part. 4, of Alfonso X.'s code, (Siete Partidas,) treats exclusively of them. (De los Feudos.) The laws 2, 4, 5, are expressly devoted to a brief exposition of the nature of a fief, the ceremonies of invest.i.ture, and the reciprocal obligations of lord and va.s.sal. Those of the latter consisted in keeping his lord's counsel, maintaining his interest, and aiding him in war. With all this, there are anomalies in this code, and still more in the usages of the country, not easy to explain on the usual principles of the feudal relation; a circ.u.mstance, which has led to much discrepancy of opinion on the subject, in political writers, as well as to some inconsistency.

Sempere, who entertains no doubt of the establishment of feudal inst.i.tutions in Castile, tells us, that "the n.o.bles, after the Conquest, succeeded in obtaining an exemption from military service,"--one of the most conspicuous and essential of all the feudal relations. Histoire des Cortes, pp. 30, 72, 249.

[51] a.s.so y Manuel, Inst.i.tuciones, p. 26.--Sempere, Histoire des Cortes, chap. 4.--The incensed n.o.bles quitted the cortes in disgust, and threatened to vindicate their rights by arms, on one such occasion, 1176.

Mariana, Hist. de Espana, tom. i. p. 644. See also tom. ii. p. 176.

[52] Idem auctores, ubi supra.--Prieto y Sotelo, Historia del Derecho Real de Espana, (Madrid, 1738,) lib. 2, cap. 23; lib. 3, cap. 8.

[53] Siete Partidas, (ed. de la Real Acad., Madrid, 1807,) part. 4, t.i.t.

25, ley 11. On such occasions they sent him a formal defiance by their king at arms. Mariana, Hist. de Espana, tom. i. pp. 768, 912.

[54] Ibid., tom. i. pp. 707, 713.

[55] The forms of this solemnity may be found in Mariana, Hist. de Espana, tom. i. p. 907.

[56] Marina, Ensayo, p. 128.

[57] John I., in 1390, authorized appeals from the seignorial tribunals to those of the crown. Ibid., tom. ii. p. 179.

[58] The nature of these dignities is explained in Salazar de Mendoza, Monarquia, tom. i. pp. 155, 166, 203.

[59] From the scarcity of these baronial residences, some fanciful etymologists have derived the familiar saying of "Chateaux en Espagne."

See Bourgoanne, Travels in Spain, tom. ii. chap. 12.

[60] Mariana, Hist. de Espana, tom. i. p. 910.

[61] Cronica de Don Alvaro de Luna, (ed. de la Acad. Madrid, 1784,) App.

p. 465.

[62] Guzman, Generaciones y Semblanzas, (Madrid, 1775,) cap. 84.--His annual revenue is computed by Perez de Guzman, at 100,000 doblas of gold; a sum equivalent to 856,000 dollars at the present day.

[63] The former of these two sums is equivalent to $438,875, or 91,474 sterling; and the latter to $526,650, or 109,716, nearly. I have been guided by a dissertation of Clemencin, in the sixth volume of the Memorias de la Real Academia de la Historia, (Madrid, 1821, pp. 507-566,) in the reduction of sums in this History. That treatise is very elaborate and ample, and brings under view all the different coins of Ferdinand and Isabella's time, settling their specific value with great accuracy. The calculation is attended with considerable difficulty, owing to the depreciation of the value of the precious metals, and the repeated adulteration of the _real_. In his tables, at the end, he exhibits the commercial value of the different denominations, ascertained by the quant.i.ty of wheat (as sure a standard as any), which they would buy at that day. Taking the average of values, which varied considerably in different years of Ferdinand and Isabella, it appears that the ducat, reduced to our own currency, will be equal to about eight dollars and seventy-seven cents, and the dobla to eight dollars and fifty-six cents.

[64] The ample revenues of the Spanish grandee of the present time, instead of being lavished on a band of military retainers, as of yore, are sometimes dispensed in the more peaceful hospitality of supporting an almost equally formidable host of needy relations and dependants.

According to Bourgoanne (Travels in Spain, vol. 1. chap. 4), no less than 3000 of these gentry were maintained on the estates of the duke of Arcos, who died in 1780.

[65] Mendoza records the circ.u.mstance of the head of the family of Ponce de Leon, (a descendant of the celebrated marquis of Cadiz,) carrying his son, then thirteen years old, with him into battle; "an ancient usage," he says, "in that n.o.ble house." (Guerra de Granada, (Valencia, 1776,) p.

318.) The only son of Alfonso VI. was slain, fighting manfully in the ranks, at the battle of Ucles, in 1109, when only eleven years of age.

Mariana, Hist. de Espana, tom. i. p. 565.

[66] The northern provinces, the theatre of this primitive independence, have always been consecrated by this very circ.u.mstance, in the eyes of a Spaniard. "The proudest lord," says Navagiero, "feels it an honor to trace his pedigree to this quarter." (Viaggio, fol. 44.) The same feeling has continued, and the meanest native of Biscay, or the Asturias, at the present day, claims to be n.o.ble; a pretension, which often contrasts ridiculously enough with the humble character of his occupation, and has furnished many a pleasant anecdote to travellers.

[67] An elaborate dissertation, by the advocate Don Alonso Carillo, on the pre-eminence and privileges of the Castilian grandee, is appended to Salazar de Mendoza's Origen de las Dignidades Seglares de Castilla, (Madrid, 1794.) The most prized of these appears to be that of keeping the head covered in the presence of the sovereign; "prerogativa tan il.u.s.tre,"

says the writer, "que ella sola imprime el princ.i.p.al caracter de la Grandeza. Y considerada _por sus efectos admirables_, ocupa dignamente el primero lugar." (Discurso 3.) The sentimental citizen Bourgoanne, finds it necessary to apologize to his republican brethren, for noticing these "important trifles." Travels in Spain, vol. i. chap. 4.

[68] "Los llamaron fijosdalgo, que muestra a tanto como fijos de bien."

(Siete Partidas, part. 2, t.i.t. 21.) "Por hidalgos se entienden _los hombres escogidos de buenos lugares e con algo_." a.s.so y Manuel, Inst.i.tuciones, pp. 33, 34.