The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Volume I Part 5

By a statute of 1307, the convocation of the states, which had been annual, was declared biennial. The kings, however, paid little regard to this provision, rarely summoning them except for some specific necessity.

[37] The great officers of the crown, whatever might be their personal rank, were jealously excluded from their deliberations. The session was opened by an address from the king in person, a point of which they were very tenacious; after which the different _arms_ withdrew to their separate apartments. [38] The greatest scrupulousness was manifested in maintaining the rights and dignity of the body; and their intercourse with one another, and with the king, was regulated by the most precise forms of parliamentary etiquette. [39] The subjects of deliberation were referred to a committee from each order, who, after conferring together, reported to their several departments. Every question, it may be presumed, underwent a careful examination; as the legislature, we are told, was usually divided into two parties, "the one maintaining the rights of the monarch, the other, those of the nation," corresponding nearly enough with those of our day. It was in the power of any member to defeat the pa.s.sage of a bill, by opposing to it his _veto_ or dissent, formally registered to that effect. He might even interpose his negative on the proceedings of the house, and thus put a stop to the prosecution of all further business during the session. This anomalous privilege, transcending even that claimed in the Polish diet, must have been too invidious in its exercise, and too pernicious in its consequences, to have been often resorted to.

This may be inferred from the fact, that it was not formally repealed until the reign of Philip the Second, in 1592. During the interval of the sessions of the legislature, a deputation of eight was appointed, two from each arm, to preside over public affairs, particularly in regard to the revenue, and the security of justice; with authority to convoke a cortes extraordinary, whenever the exigency might demand it. [40]

The cortes exercised the highest functions whether of a deliberative, legislative, or judicial nature. It had a right to be consulted on all matters of importance, especially on those of peace and war. No law was valid, no tax could be imposed, without its consent; and it carefully provided for the application of the revenue to its destined uses. [41] It determined the succession to the crown; removed obnoxious ministers; reformed the household, and domestic expenditure, of the monarch; and exercised the power, in the most unreserved manner, of withholding supplies, as well as of resisting what it regarded as an encroachment on the liberties of the nation. [42]

The excellent commentators on the const.i.tution of Aragon have bestowed comparatively little attention on the development of its parliamentary history; confining themselves too exclusively to mere forms of procedure.

The defect has been greatly obviated by the copiousness of their general historians. But the statute-book affords the most unequivocal evidence of the fidelity with which the guardians of the realm discharged the high trust reposed in them, in the numerous enactments it exhibits, for the security both of person and property. Almost the first page which meets the eye in this venerable record contains the General Privilege, the Magna Charta, as it has been well denominated, of Aragon. It was granted by Peter the Great to the cortes at Saragossa, in 1283. It embraces a variety of provisions for the fair and open administration of justice; for ascertaining the legitimate powers intrusted to the cortes; for the security of property against exactions of the crown; and for the conservation of their legal immunities to the munic.i.p.al corporations and the different orders of n.o.bility. In short, the distinguis.h.i.+ng excellence of this instrument, like that of Magna Charta, consists in the wise and equitable protection which it affords to all cla.s.ses of the community.

[43] The General Privilege, instead of being wrested, like King John's charter, from a pusillanimous prince, was conceded, reluctantly enough, it is true, in an a.s.sembly of the nation, by one of the ablest monarchs who ever sat on the throne of Aragon, at a time when his arms, crowned with repeated victory, had secured to the state the most important of her foreign acquisitions. The Aragonese, who rightly regarded the General Privilege as the broadest basis of their liberties, repeatedly procured its confirmation by succeeding sovereigns. "By so many and such various precautions," says Blancas, "did our ancestors establish that freedom which their posterity have enjoyed; manifesting a wise solicitude, that all orders of men, even kings themselves, confined within their own sphere, should discharge their legitimate functions without jostling or jarring with one another; for in this harmony consists the temperance of our government. Alas!" he adds, "how much of all this has fallen into desuetude from its antiquity, or been effaced by new customs." [44]

The judicial functions of the cortes have not been sufficiently noticed by writers. They were extensive in their operation, and gave it the name of the General Court. They were princ.i.p.ally directed to protect the subject from the oppressions of the crown and its officers; over all which cases it possessed original and ultimate jurisdiction. The suit was conducted before the Justice, as president of the cortes, in its judicial capacity, who delivered an opinion conformable to the will of the majority. [45] The authority, indeed, of this magistrate in his own court was fully equal to providing adequate relief in all these cases. [46] But for several reasons this parliamentary tribunal was preferred. The process was both more expeditious and less expensive to the suitor. Indeed, "the most obscure inhabitant of the most obscure village in the kingdom, although a foreigner," might demand redress of this body; and, if he was incapable of bearing the burden himself, the state was bound to maintain his suit, and provide him with counsel at its own charge. But the most important consequence, resulting from this legislative investigation, was the remedial laws frequently attendant on it. "And our ancestors," says Blancas, "deemed it great wisdom patiently to endure contumely and oppression for a season, rather than seek redress before an inferior tribunal, since, by postponing their suit till the meeting of cortes, they would not only obtain a remedy for their own grievance, but one of a universal and permanent application." [47]

The Aragonese cortes maintained a steady control over the operations of government, especially after the dissolution of the Union; and the weight of the commons was more decisive in it, than in other similar a.s.semblies of that period. Its singular distribution into four estates was favorable to this. The knights and _hidalgos_, an intermediate order between the great n.o.bility and the people, when detached from the former, naturally lent additional support to the latter, with whom, indeed, they had considerable affinity. The representatives of certain cities, as well as a certain cla.s.s of citizens, were ent.i.tled to a seat in this body; [48]

so that it approached both in spirit and substance to something like a popular representation. Indeed, this arm of the cortes was so uniformly vigilant in resisting any encroachment on the part of the crown, that it has been said to represent, more than any other, the liberties of the nation. [49] In some other particulars the Aragonese commons possessed an advantage over those of Castile. 1. By postponing their money grants to the conclusion of the session, and regulating them in some degree by the previous dispositions of the crown, they availed themselves of an important lever relinquished by the Castilian cortes. [50] 2. The kingdom of Aragon proper was circ.u.mscribed within too narrow limits to allow of such local jealousies and estrangements, growing out of an apparent diversity of interests, as existed in the neighboring monarchy. Their representatives, therefore, were enabled to move with a more hearty concert, and on a more consistent line of policy. 3. Lastly, the acknowledged right to a seat in cortes, possessed by every city which had once been represented there, and this equally whether summoned or not, if we may credit Capmany, [51] must have gone far to preserve the popular branch from the melancholy state of dilapidation to which it was reduced in Castile by the arts of despotic princes. Indeed, the kings of Aragon, notwithstanding occasional excesses, seem never to have attempted any systematic invasion of the const.i.tutional rights of their subjects. They well knew, that the spirit of liberty was too high among them to endure it. When the queen of Alfonso the Fourth urged her husband, by quoting the example of her brother the king of Castile, to punish certain refractory citizens of Valencia, he prudently replied, "My people are free, and not so submissive as the Castilians. They respect me as their prince, and I hold them for good va.s.sals and comrades."[52]

No part of the const.i.tution of Aragon has excited more interest, or more deservedly, than the office of the _Justicia_, or Justice; [53] whose extraordinary functions were far from being limited to judicial matters, although in these his authority was supreme. The origin of this inst.i.tution is affirmed to have been coeval with that of the const.i.tution or frame of government itself. [54] If it were so, his authority may be said, in the language of Blancas, "to have slept in the scabbard" until the dissolution of the Union; when the control of a tumultuous aristocracy was exchanged for the mild and uniform operation of the law, administered by this, its supreme interpreter.

His most important duties may be briefly enumerated. He was authorized to p.r.o.nounce on the validity of all royal letters and ordinances. He possessed, as has been said, concurrent jurisdiction with the cortes over all suits against the crown and its officers. Inferior judges were bound to consult him in all doubtful cases, and to abide by his opinion, as of "equal authority," in the words of an ancient jurist, "with the law itself." [55] An appeal lay to his tribunal from those of the territorial and royal judges. [56] He could even evoke a cause, while pending before them, into his own court, and secure the defendant from molestation on his giving surety for his appearance. By another process, he might remove a person under arrest from the place in which he had been confined by order of an inferior court, to the public prison appropriated to this purpose, there to abide his own examination of the legality of his detention. These two provisions, by which the precipitate and perhaps intemperate proceedings of subordinate judicatures were subjected to the revision of a dignified and dispa.s.sionate tribunal, might seem to afford sufficient security for personal liberty and property. [57] In addition to these official functions, the Justice of Aragon was const.i.tuted a permanent counsellor of the sovereign, and, as such, was required to accompany him where-ever he might reside. He was to advise the king on all const.i.tutional questions of a doubtful complexion; and finally, on a new accession to the throne, it was his province to administer the coronation oath; this he performed with his head covered, and sitting, while the monarch, kneeling before him bare-headed, solemnly promised to maintain the liberties of the kingdom. A ceremony eminently symbolical of that superiority of law over prerogative, which was so constantly a.s.serted in Aragon. [58]

It was the avowed purpose of the inst.i.tution of the Justicia to interpose such an authority between the crown and the people, as might suffice for the entire protection of the latter. This is the express import of one of the laws of Soprarbe, which, whatever he thought of their authenticity, are undeniably of very high antiquity. [59] This part of his duties is particularly insisted on by the most eminent juridical writers of the nation. Whatever estimate, therefore, may be formed of the real extent of his powers, as compared with those of similar functionaries in other states of Europe, there can be no doubt that this ostensible object of their creation, thus openly a.s.serted, must have had a great tendency to enforce their practical operation. Accordingly we find repeated examples, in the history of Aragon, of successful interposition on the part of the Justice for the protection of individuals persecuted by the crown, and in defiance of every attempt at intimidation. [60] The kings of Aragon, chafed by this opposition, procured the resignation or deposition, on more than one occasion, of the obnoxious magistrate. [61] But, as such an exercise of prerogative must have been altogether subversive of an independent discharge of the duties of this office, it was provided by a statute of Alfonso the Fifth, in 1442, that the Justice should continue in office during life, removable only, on sufficient cause, by the king and the cortes united. [62]

Several provisions were enacted, in order to secure the nation more effectually against the abuse of the high trust reposed in this officer.

He was to be taken from the equestrian order, which, as intermediate between the high n.o.bility and the people, was less likely to be influenced by undue partiality to either. He could not be selected from the ricos hombres, since this cla.s.s was exempted from corporal punishment, while the Justice was made responsible to the cortes for the faithful discharge of his duties, under penalty of death. [63] As this supervision of the whole legislature was found unwieldy in practice, it was superseded, after various modifications by a commission of members elected from each one of the four estates, empowered to sit every year in Saragossa, with authority to investigate the charges preferred against the Justice, and to p.r.o.nounce sentence upon him. [64]

The Aragonese writers are prodigal of their encomiums on the pre-eminence and dignity of this functionary, whose office might seem, indeed, but a doubtful expedient for balancing the authority of the sovereign; depending for its success less on any legal powers confided to it, than on the efficient and constant support of public opinion. Fortunately the Justice of Aragon uniformly received such support, and was thus enabled to carry the original design of the inst.i.tution into effect, to check the usurpations of the crown, as well as to control the license of the n.o.bility and the people. A series of learned and independent magistrates, by the weight of their own character, gave additional dignity to the office. The people, familiarized with the benignant operation of the law, referred to peaceful arbitration those great political questions, which, in other countries at this period, must have been settled by a sanguinary revolution. [65] While, in the rest of Europe, the law seemed only the web to ensnare the weak, the Aragonese historians could exult in the reflection, that the fearless administration of justice in their land "protected the weak equally with the strong, the foreigner with the native." Well might their legislature a.s.sert, that the value of their liberties more than counterbalanced "the poverty of the nation, and the sterility of their soil." [66]

The governments of Valencia and Catalonia, which, as has been already remarked, were administered independently of each other after their consolidation into one monarchy, bore a very near resemblance to that of Aragon. [67] No inst.i.tution, however, corresponding in its functions with that of the Justicia, seems to have obtained in either. [68] Valencia, which had derived a large portion of its primitive population, after the conquest, from Aragon, preserved the most intimate relations with the parent kingdom, and was constantly at its side during the tempestuous season of the Union. The Catalans were peculiarly jealous of their exclusive privileges, and their civil inst.i.tutions wore a more democratical aspect than those of any other of the confederated states; circ.u.mstances, which led to important results that fall within the compa.s.s of our narrative. [69]

The city of Barcelona, which originally gave its name to the county of which it was the capital, was distinguished from a very early period by ample munic.i.p.al privileges. [70] After the union with Aragon in the twelfth century, the monarchs of the latter kingdom extended towards it the same liberal legislation; so that, by the thirteenth, Barcelona had reached a degree of commercial prosperity rivalling that of any of the Italian republics. She divided with them the lucrative commerce with Alexandria; and her port, thronged with foreigners from every nation, became a princ.i.p.al emporium in the Mediterranean for the spices, drugs, perfumes, and other rich commodities of the east, whence they were diffused over the interior of Spain and the European continent. [71] Her consuls, and her commercial factories, were established in every considerable port in the Mediterranean and in the north of Europe. [72]

The natural products of her soil, and her various domestic fabrics, supplied her with abundant articles of export. Fine wool was imported by her in considerable quant.i.ties from England in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and returned there manufactured into cloth; an exchange of commodities the reverse of that existing between the two nations at the present day. [73] Barcelona claims the merit of having established the first bank of exchange and deposit in Europe, in 1401; it was devoted to the accommodation of foreigners as well as of her own citizens. She claims the glory, too, of having compiled the most ancient written code, among the moderns, of maritime law now extant, digested from the usages of commercial nations, and which formed the basis of the mercantile jurisprudence of Europe during the Middle Ages. [74]

The wealth which flowed in upon Barcelona, as the result of her activity and enterprise, was evinced by her numerous public works, her docks, a.r.s.enal, warehouses, exchange, hospitals, and other constructions of general utility. Strangers, who visited Spain in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, expatiate on the magnificence of this city, its commodious private edifices, the cleanliness of its streets and public squares (a virtue by no means usual in that day), and on the amenity of its gardens and cultivated environs. [75]

But the peculiar glory of Barcelona was the freedom of her munic.i.p.al inst.i.tutions. Her government consisted of a senate or council of one hundred, and a body of _regidores_ or counsellors, as they were styled, varying at times from four to six in number; the former intrusted with the legislative, the latter with the executive functions of administration. A large proportion of these bodies were selected from the merchants, tradesmen, and mechanics of the city. They were invested, not merely with munic.i.p.al authority, but with many of the rights of sovereignty. They entered into commercial treaties with foreign powers; superintended the defence of the city in time of war; provided for the security of trade; granted letters of reprisal against any nation who might violate it; and raised and appropriated the public moneys for the construction of useful works, or the encouragement of such commercial adventures as were too hazardous or expensive for individual enterprise.

[76]

The counsellors, who presided over the munic.i.p.ality, were complimented with certain honorary privileges, not even accorded to the n.o.bility. They were addressed by the t.i.tle of _magnificos_; were seated, with their heads covered, in the presence of royalty; were preceded by mace-bearers, or lictors, in their progress through the country; and deputies from their body to the court were admitted on the footing, and received the honors, of foreign amba.s.sadors. [77] These, it will be recollected, were plebeians,--merchants and mechanics. Trade never was esteemed a degradation in Catalonia, as it came to be in Castile. [78] The professors of the different arts, as they were called, organized into guilds or companies, const.i.tuted so many independent a.s.sociations, whose members were eligible to the highest munic.i.p.al offices. And such was the importance attached to these offices, that the n.o.bility in many instances, resigning the privileges of their rank, a necessary preliminary, were desirous of being enrolled among the candidates for them. [79] One cannot but observe in the peculiar organization of this little commonwealth, and in the equality a.s.sumed by every cla.s.s of its citizens, a close a.n.a.logy to the const.i.tutions of the Italian republics; which the Catalans, having become familiar with in their intimate commercial intercourse with Italy, may have adopted as the model of their own.

Under the influence of these democratic inst.i.tutions, the burghers of Barcelona, and indeed of Catalonia in general, which enjoyed more or less of a similar freedom, a.s.sumed a haughty independence of character beyond what existed among the same cla.s.s in other parts of Spain; and this, combined with the martial daring fostered by a life of maritime adventure and warfare, made them impatient, not merely of oppression, but of contradiction, on the part of their sovereigns, who have experienced more frequent and more st.u.r.dy resistance from this quarter of their dominions, than from every other. [80] Navagiero, the Venetian amba.s.sador to Spain, early in the sixteenth century, although a republican himself, was so struck with what he deemed the insubordination of the Barcelonians, that he a.s.serts, "The inhabitants have so many privileges, that the king scarcely retains any authority over them; their liberty," he adds, "should rather go by the name of license." [81] One example among many, may be given, of the tenacity with which they adhered to their most inconsiderable immunities.

Ferdinand the First, in 1416, being desirous, in consequence of the exhausted state of the finances on his coming to the throne, to evade the payment of a certain tax or subsidy customarily paid by the kings of Aragon to the city of Barcelona, sent for the president of the council, John Fiveller, to require the consent of that body to this measure. The magistrate, having previously advised with his colleagues, determined to encounter any hazard, says Zurita, rather than compromise the rights of the city. He reminded the king of his coronation oath, expressed his regret that he was willing so soon to deviate from the good usages of his predecessors, and plainly told him, that he and his comrades would never betray the liberties entrusted to them. Ferdinand, indignant at this language, ordered the patriot to withdraw into another apartment, where he remained in much uncertainty as to the consequences of his temerity. But the king was dissuaded from violent measures, if he ever contemplated them, by the representation of his courtiers, who warned him not to reckon too much on the patience of the people, who bore small affection to his person, from _the little familiarity with which he had treated them_ in comparison with their preceding monarchs, and who were already in arms to protect their magistrate. In consequence of these suggestions, Ferdinand deemed it prudent to release the counsellor, and withdrew abruptly from the city on the ensuing day, disgusted at the ill success of his enterprise. [82]

The Aragonese monarchs well understood the value of their Catalan dominions, which sustained a proportion of the public burdens equal in amount to that of both the other states of the kingdom. [83]

Notwithstanding the mortifications, which they occasionally experienced from this quarter, therefore, they uniformly extended towards it the most liberal protection. A register of the various customs paid in the ports of Catalonia, compiled in 1413, under the above-mentioned Ferdinand, exhibits a discriminating legislation, extraordinary in an age when the true principles of financial policy were so little understood. [84] Under James the First, in 1227, a navigation act, limited in its application, was published, and another under Alfonso the Fifth, in 1454, embracing all the dominions of Aragon; thus preceding by some centuries the celebrated ordinance, to which England owes so much of her commercial grandeur. [85]

The brisk concussion given to the minds of the Catalans in the busy career in which they were engaged, seems to have been favorable to the development of poetical talent, in the same manner as it was in Italy.

Catalonia may divide with Provence the glory of being the region where the voice of song was first awakened in modern Europe. Whatever may be the relative claims of the two countries to precedence in this respect, [86]

it is certain that under the family of Barcelona, the Provencal of the south of France reached its highest perfection; and, when the tempest of persecution in the beginning of the thirteenth century fell on the lovely valleys of that unhappy country, its minstrels found a hospitable asylum in the court of the kings of Aragon; many of whom not only protected, but cultivated the _gay science_ with considerable success. [87] Their names have descended to us, as well as those of less ill.u.s.trious troubadours, whom Petrarch and his contemporaries did not disdain to imitate; [88] but their compositions, for the most part, lie still buried in those cemeteries of the intellect so numerous in Spain, and call loudly for the diligence of some Sainte Palaye or Raynouard to disinter them.

[89]

The languis.h.i.+ng condition of the poetic art, at the close of the fourteenth century, induced John the First, who mingled somewhat of the ridiculous even with his most respectable tastes, to depute a solemn emba.s.sy to the king of France, requesting that a commission might be detached from the Floral Academy of Toulouse, into Spain, to erect there a similar inst.i.tution. This was accordingly done, and the Consistory of Barcelona was organized, in 1390. The kings of Aragon endowed it with funds, and with a library valuable for that day, presiding over its meetings in person, and distributing the poetical premiums with their own hands. During the troubles consequent on the death of Martin, this establishment fell into decay, until it was again revived, on the accession of Ferdinand the First, by the celebrated Henry, marquis of Villena, who transplanted it to Tortosa. [90]

The marquis, in his treatise on the _gaya sciencia_, details with becoming gravity the pompous ceremonial observed in his academy on the event of a public celebration. The topics of discussion were "the praises of the Virgin, love, arms, and other good usages." The performances of the candidates, "inscribed on parchment of various colors, richly enamelled with gold and silver, and beautifully illuminated," were publicly recited, and then referred to a committee, who made solemn oath to decide impartially and according to the rules of the art. On the delivery of the verdict, a wreath of gold was deposited on the victorious poem, which was registered in the academic archives; and the fortunate troubadour, greeted with a magnificent prize, was escorted to the royal palace amid a _cortege_ of minstrelsy and chivalry; "thus manifesting to the world,"

says the marquis, "the superiority which G.o.d and nature have a.s.signed to genius over dulness." [91]

The influence of such an inst.i.tution in awakening a poetic spirit is at best very questionable. Whatever effect an academy may have in stimulating the researches of science, the inspirations of genius must come unbidden;

"Adflata est numine quando Jam propiore del."

The Catalans, indeed, seem to have been of this opinion; for they suffered the Consistory of Tortosa to expire with its founder. Somewhat later, in 1430, was established the University of Barcelona, placed under the direction of the munic.i.p.ality, and endowed by the city with ample funds for instruction in the various departments of law, theology, medicine, and the belles-lettres. This inst.i.tution survived until the commencement of the last century. [92]

During the first half of the fifteenth century, long after the genuine race of the troubadours had pa.s.sed away, the Provencal or Limousin verse was carried to its highest excellence by the poets of Valencia. [93] It would be presumptuous for any one, who has not made the _Romance_ dialects his particular study, to attempt a discriminating criticism of these compositions, so much of the merit of which necessarily consists in the almost impalpable beauties of style and expression. The Spaniards, however, applaud, in the verses of Ausias March, the same musical combinations of sound, and the same tone of moral melancholy, which pervade the productions of Petrarch. [94] In prose too, they have (to borrow the words of Andres) their Boccaccio in Martorell; whose fiction of "Tirante el Blanco" is honored by the commendation of the curate in Don Quixote, as "the best book in the world of the kind, since the knights- errant in it eat, drink, sleep, and die quietly in their beds, like other folk, and very unlike most heroes of romance." The productions of these, and some other of their distinguished contemporaries, obtained a general circulation very early by means of the recently invented art of printing, and subsequently pa.s.sed into repeated editions.[95] But their language has long since ceased to be the language of literature. On the union of the two crowns of Castile and Aragon, the dialect of the former became that of the court and of the Muses. The beautiful Provencal, once more rich and melodious than any other idiom in the Peninsula, was abandoned as a _patois_ to the lower orders of the Catalans, who, with the language, may boast that they also have inherited the n.o.ble principles of freedom which distinguished their ancestors.

The influence of free inst.i.tutions in Aragon is perceptible in the familiarity displayed by its writers with public affairs, and in the freedom with which they have discussed the organization, and general economy of its government. The creation of the office of national chronicler, under Charles V., gave wider scope to the development of historic talent. Among the most conspicuous of these historiographers was Jerome Blancas, several of whose productions, as the "Coronaciones de los Reyes," "Modo de Proceder en Cortes," and "Commentarii Rerum Aragonensium," especially the last, have been repeatedly quoted in the preceding section. This work presents a view of the different orders of the state, and particularly of the office of the Justicia, with their peculiar functions and privileges. The author, omitting the usual details of history, has devoted himself to the ill.u.s.tration of the const.i.tutional antiquities of his country, in the execution of which he has shown a sagacity and erudition equally profound. His sentiments breathe a generous love of freedom, which one would scarcely suppose to have existed, and still less to have been promulgated, under Philip II. His style is distinguished by the purity and even elegance of its latinity. The first edition, being that which I have used, appeared in 1588, in folio, at Saragossa, executed with much typographical beauty. The work was afterwards incorporated into Schottus's "Hispania Ill.u.s.trata."--Blancas, after having held his office for ten years, died in his native city of Saragossa, in 1590.

Jerome Martel, from whose little treatise, "Forma de Celebrar Cortes," I have also liberally cited, was appointed public historiographer in 1597.

His continuation of Zurita's Annals, which he left unpublished at his decease, was never admitted to the honors of the press, because, says his biographer, Uztarroz, _verdades lastiman_; a reason as creditable to the author as disgraceful to the government.

A third writer, and the one chiefly relied on for the account of Catalonia, is Don Antonio Capmany. His "Memorias Historicas de Barcelona,"

(5 tom. 4to, Madrid, 1779-1792,) may be thought somewhat too discursive and circ.u.mstantial for his subject; but it is hardly right to quarrel with information so rare, and painfully collected; the sin of exuberance at any rate is much less frequent, and more easily corrected, than that of sterility. His work is a vast repertory of facts relating to the commerce, manufactures, general policy, and public prosperity, not only of Barcelona, but of Catalonia. It is written with an independent and liberal spirit, which may be regarded as affording the best commentary on the genius of the inst.i.tutions which he celebrates.--Capmany closed his useful labors at Madrid, in 1810, at the age of fifty-six.

Notwithstanding the interesting character of the Aragonese const.i.tution, and the amplitude of materials for its history, the subject has been hitherto neglected, as far as I am aware, by continental writers.

Robertson and Hallam, more especially the latter, have given such a view of its prominent features to the English reader, as must, I fear, deprive the sketch which I have attempted, in a great degree, of novelty. To these names must now be added that of the author of the "History of Spain and Portugal," (Cabinet Cyclopaedia,) whose work, published since the preceding pages were written, contains much curious and learned disquisition on the early jurisprudence and munic.i.p.al inst.i.tutions of both Castile and Aragon.

FOOTNOTES

[1] Catalonia was united with Aragon by the marriage of queen Petronilla with Raymond Berengere, count of Barcelona, in 1150. Valencia was conquered from the Moors by James I., in 1238.

[2] Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, tom. iii. pp. 45-47.--The Catalans were much celebrated during the Middle Ages for their skill with the crossbow; for a more perfect instruction in which, the munic.i.p.ality of Barcelona established games and gymnasiums. Ibid., tom. i. p. 113.

[3] Sicily revolted to Peter III., in 1282.--Sardinia was conquered by James II., in 1324, and the Balearic Isles by Peter IV., in 1343-4.

Zurita, a.n.a.les, tom. i. fol. 247; tom. ii. fol. 60.--Hermilly, Histoire du Royaume de Majorque, (Maestricht, 1777,) pp. 227-268.

[4] Hence the t.i.tle of duke of Athens, a.s.sumed by the Spanish sovereigns.

The brilliant fortunes of Roger de Flor are related by count Moncada, (Expedicion de los Catalanes y Aragoneses contra Turcos y Griegos, Madrid, 1805) in a style much commended by Spanish critics for its elegance. See Mondejar, Advertencias, p. 184.

[5] It was confirmed by Alfonso III., in 1328. Zurita, a.n.a.les, tom. ii.

fol. 90.

[6] See the fragments of the _Fuero de Soprarbe_, cited by Blancas, Aragonensium Rerum Commentarii, (Caesaraugustae, 1588.) pp. 25-29.--The well-known oath of the Aragonese to their sovereign on his accession, "Nos que valemos tanto como vos," etc., frequently quoted by historians, rests on the authority of Antonio Perez, the unfortunate minister of Philip II., who, however good a voucher for the usages of his own time, has made a blunder in the very sentence preceding this, by confounding the Privilege of Union with one of the Laws of Soprarbe, which shows him to be insufficient, especially as he is the only, authority for this ancient ceremony. See Antonio Perez, Relaciones, (Paris, 1598,) fol. 92.

[7]

Dodeka gar kata daemon aripretees Basilaees Archoi krainonsi, triskaidekatos d' ego autos.

Odyss. O 390.

In like manner Alfonso III. alludes to "the ancient times in Aragon, when there were as many kings as ricos hombres." See Zurita, a.n.a.les, tom. i.