The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Volume III Part 38

Scarcely was Ferdinand's reign brought to a close, before Magellan completed, what that monarch had projected, the circ.u.mnavigation 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 diminis.h.i.+ng the consequence of the n.o.bility, 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 Catolicos, p. 94.) An equally apposite ill.u.s.tration is afforded by the care to summon the great va.s.sals 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, a.n.a.les, MS., ano 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 a vos," says Oviedo, in one of his Dialogues, "que es mejor ganado eso, que les da su principe por sus servicios, e lo que llevan justamente de sus oficios, que lo que se adquiere robando capas agenas, e matando e 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 n.o.bles withheld the supplies, with the design of compelling the crown to relinquish certain rights of jurisdiction, which it a.s.sumed over their va.s.sals. "Les parecio," said the archbishop of Saragossa, in a speech on the occasion, "que auian perdido mucho, en que el ceptro real cobra.s.se lo suyo, por su industria. ***** Esto los otros estados del reyno lo atribuyeron a gran virtud: y lo estimauan por beneficio inmortal." (Zurita, a.n.a.les, tom. vi.

lib. 10, cap. 93.) The other estates, in fact, saw their interests too clearly, not to concur with the crown in this a.s.sertion 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 n.o.ble 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 t.i.tular 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 va.s.sals. (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 n.o.bility 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 Urena, 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 princ.i.p.ales senores 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_ e de los otros letrados que cerca della eran, pero la mayor parte seguia las cosas por su arbitrio." Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, 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 Pragmaticas 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 s.h.i.+eld 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.--Pragmaticas 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 ha habido en Espana de nuestra Nacion grandes varones Letrados, excelentes Perlados y Religiosos y personas que por suos habilidades y sciencias han subido a las mas altas dignidades de Capelos e de Arzobispados y todo lo que mas se puede alcanzar, en la Iglesia de Dios." Quincuagenas, MS., dial. de Talavera.--Col. de Cedulas, 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 prudentisima 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 n.o.bles, y caualleros: aora plebeyos, y labradores, y riejos, o pobres, flacos, o fuertes, senores, 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 n.o.bles, 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.

(Pragmaticas 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 a.s.so 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." (Inst.i.tuciones, Introd., p. 91.) Marina notices this cortes with equal panegyric. (Teoria, tom. i. p. 75.) See also Sempere, Hist. des Cortes, 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 a cortes," according to Pulgar, was seventeen. (Reyes Catolicos, 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 pet.i.tion of the cortes of Valladolid, which, with more than usual effrontery, would limit the representation to eighteen cities, as prescribed "por algunas leyes e inmemorial uso." Marina, Teoria, tom. i. p. 161.

[27] Many of these _pragmaticas_ purport, in their preambles, to be made at the demand of cortes; many more at the pet.i.tion 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 princ.i.p.al towns in the kingdom. The doctors a.s.so and Manuel divide _pragmaticas_ into two cla.s.ses; 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 genero," they add, "contiene el libro raro int.i.tulado _Pragmaticas del Reyno_, que se imprimio la primera vez en Alcala en 1528." (Inst.i.tuciones, Introd., p. 110.) This is an error;--see note 43, infra.

[28] "Por la presente prematicasencion," said John II., in one of his ordinances, "lo cual todo e cada cosa dello e parte dello quiero e mando e ordeno que se guarde e compla daqui adelante para siempre jamas en todas las cibdades e villas e logares non embargante cualesquier leyes e fueros e derechos e ordenamientos, const.i.tuciones e posesiones e prematicas- senciones, e usos e costumbres, ca en cuanto a est oatane yo los abrogo e derogo." (Marina, Teoria, 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 "Ordenancas 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 "Ordenancas Reales," were pa.s.sed in the cortes of Madrigal, in 1476, or Toledo, in 1480.