The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Volume II Part 7

Isabella afterwards caused a Franciscan monastery to be built in commemoration of this event at Zubia, where, according to Mr. Irving, the house from which she witnessed the action is to be seen at the present day. See Conquest of Granada, chap. 90, note.

[12] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 4, epist. 91.--Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 101.--Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. p. 673.--Bleda, Coronica, p. 619.--Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 18.

[13] Estrada, Poblacion de Espana, tom. ii. pp. 344, 348.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 4, epist. 91.--Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 18.

Hyta, who embellishes his florid prose with occasional extracts from the beautiful ballad poetry of Spain, gives one commemorating the erection of Santa Fe.

"Cercada esta Santa Fe con mucho lienzo encerado al rededor muchas tiendas de seda, oro, y brocado.

"Donde estan Duques, y Condes, Senores de gran estado," etc.

Guerras de Granada, p. 515.

[14] Pedraza, Antiguedad de Granada, fol. 74.--Giovio, De Vita Gonsalvi, apud Vitae Ill.u.s.t. Virorum, pp. 211, 212.--Salazar de Mendoza, Cron. del Gran Cardenal, p. 236.--Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii.

pp. 316, 317.--Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. cap. 42.--L.

Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 178.--Marmol, however, a.s.signs the date in the text to a separate capitulation respecting Abdallah, dating that made in behalf of the city three days later. (Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 19.) This author has given the articles of the treaty with greater fulness and precision than any other Spanish historian.

[15] Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 19.--Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. cap. 42.--Zurita, a.n.a.les, tom. ii. cap. 90.-- Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii. pp. 317, 318.--Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 28. Martyr adds, that the princ.i.p.al Moorish n.o.bility were to remove from the city. (Opus Epist., lib. 4, epist. 92.) Pedraza, who has devoted a volume to the history of Granada, does not seem to think the capitulations worth specifying. Most of the modern Castilians pa.s.s very lightly over them. They furnish too bitter a comment on the conduct of subsequent Spanish monarchs. Marmol and the judicious Zurita agree in every substantial particular with Conde, and this coincidence may be considered as establis.h.i.+ng the actual terms of the treaty.

[16] Oviedo, whose narrative exhibits many discrepancies with those of other contemporaries, a.s.signs this part to the count of Tendilla, the first captain-general of Granada. Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 28. But, as this writer, though an eye-witness, was but thirteen or fourteen years of age at the time of the capture, and wrote some sixty years later from his early recollections, his authority cannot be considered of equal weight with that of persons who, like Martyr, described events as they were pa.s.sing before them.

[17] Pedraza, Antiguedad de Granada, fol. 75.--Salazar de Mendoza, Cron.

del Gran Cardenal, p. 238.--Zurita, a.n.a.les, tom. iv. cap. 90.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 4, epist. 92.--Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii.

fol. 309.--Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 20.

[18] Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, ubi supra.--Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. cap. 43.--Pedraza, Antiguedad de Granada, fol. 76.-- Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 102.--Zurita, a.n.a.les, tom. iv. cap.

90.--Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 28.

[19] Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., ubi supra.--One is reminded of Ta.s.so's description of the somewhat similar feelings exhibited by the crusaders on their entrance into Jerusalem.

"Ecco apparir Gerusalem si vede, Ecco additar Gerusalem si scorge; Ecco da mille voci unitamente Gerusalemme salutar si sente.

"Al gran placer che quella prima vista Dolcemente spir nell' altru petto, Alta contrizion successe, mista Di timoroso e riverente affetto, Osano appena d'innalzar la vista Ver la citta."

Gerusalemme Liberata,--Cant. iii. st. 3, 5.

[20] Mariana, Hist. de Espana tom. ii. p. 597.--Pedraza, Antiguedad de Granada, fol. 76.--Carbajal, a.n.a.les, MS., ano 1492.--Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. cap. 43.--Bleda, Coronica, pp. 621, 622.--Zurita, a.n.a.les, tom. iv. cap. 90.--Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. i. cap. 20.

--L. Marineo, and indeed most of the Spanish authorities, represent the sovereigns as having postponed their entrance into the city until the 5th or 6th of January. A letter transcribed by Pedraza, addressed by the queen to the prior of Guadalupe, one of her council, dated from the city of Granada on the 2d of January, 1492, shows the inaccuracy of this statement. See folio 76.

In Mr. Lockhart's picturesque version of the Moorish ballads, the reader may find an animated description of the triumphant entry of the Christian army into Granada.

"There was crying in Granada when the sun was going down, Some calling on the Trinity, some calling on Mahoun; Here pa.s.sed away the Koran, there in the cross was borne, And here was heard the Christian bell, and there the Moorish horn; _Te Deum laudamus_ was up the Alcala sung, Down from the Alhambra's minarets were all the crescents flung; The arms thereon of Aragon and Castile they display; One king comes in in triumph, one weeping goes away."

[21] Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. cap. 90.--Cardonne, Hist.

d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. ii. pp. 319, 320.--Garibay, Compendio, tom.

iv. lib. 40, cap. 42.--Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 20.

Mr. Irving, in his beautiful Spanish Sketch-book, "The Alhambra," devotes a chapter to mementos of Boabdil, in which he traces minutely the route of the deposed monarch after quitting the gates of his capital. The same author, in the Appendix to his Chronicle of Granada, concludes a notice of Abdallah's fate with the following description of his person. "A portrait of Boabdil el Chico is to be seen in the picture gallery of the Generalife. He is represented with a mild, handsome face, a fair complexion, and yellow hair. His dress is of yellow brocade, relieved with black velvet; and he has a black velvet cap, surmounted with a crown. In the armory of Madrid are two suits of armor said to have belonged to him, one of solid steel, with very little ornament; the morion closed. From the proportions of these suits of armor, he must have been of full stature and vigorous form." Note, p. 398.

[22] Senarega, Commentarii de Rebus Genuensibus, apud Muratori, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, (Mediolani, 1723-51,) tom. xxiv. p. 531.--It formed the subject of a theatrical representation before the court at Naples, in the same year. This drama, or _Farsa_, as it is called by its distinguished author, Sannazaro, is an allegorical medley, in which Faith, Joy, and the false prophet Mahomet play the princ.i.p.al parts. The difficulty of a precise cla.s.sification of this piece, has given rise to warmer discussion among Italian critics, than the subject may be thought to warrant. See Signorelli, Vicende della Coltura nelle due Sicilie, (Napoli, 1810,) tom. iii. pp. 543 et seq.

[23] "Somewhat about this time, came letters from Ferdinando and Isabella, king and queen of Spain; signifying the final conquest of Granada from the Moors; which action, in itself so worthy, King Ferdinando, whose manner was, never to lose any virtue for the showing, had expressed and displayed in his letters, at large, with all the particularities and religious punctos and ceremonies, that were observed in the reception of that city and kingdom; showing amongst other things, that the king would not by any means in person enter the city until he had first aloof seen the Cross set up upon the greater tower of Granada, whereby it became Christian ground.

That likewise, before he would enter, he did homage to G.o.d above, p.r.o.nouncing by an herald from the height of that tower, that he did acknowledge to have recovered that kingdom by the help of G.o.d Almighty, and the glorious Virgin, and the virtuous apostle St. James, and the holy father Innocent VIII., together with the aids and services of his prelates, n.o.bles, and commons. That yet he stirred not from his camp, till he had seen a little army of martyrs, to the number of seven hundred and more Christians, that had lived in bonds and servitude, as slaves to the Moors, pa.s.s before his eyes, singing a psalm for their redemption; and that he had given tribute unto G.o.d, by alms and relief extended to them all, for his admission into the city. These things were in the letters, with many more ceremonies of a kind of holy ostentation.

"The king, ever willing to put himself into the consort or quire of all religious actions, and naturally affecting much the king of Spain, as far as one king can affect another, partly for his virtues, and partly for a counterpoise to France; upon the receipt of these letters, sent all his n.o.bles and prelates that were about the court, together with the mayor and aldermen of London, in great solemnity to the church of Paul; there to hear a declaration from the lord chancellor, now cardinal. When they were a.s.sembled, the cardinal, standing upon the uppermost step, or halfpace, before the quire, and all the n.o.bles, prelates, and governors of the city at the foot of the stairs, made a speech to them; letting them know that they were a.s.sembled in that consecrated place to sing unto G.o.d a new song.

For that, said he, these many years the Christians have not gained new ground or territory upon the infidels, nor enlarged and set farther the bounds of the Christian world. But this is now done by the prowess and devotion of Ferdinando and Isabella, kings of Spain; who have, to their immortal honor, recovered the great and rich kingdom of Granada, and the populous and mighty city of the same name from the Moors, having been in possession thereof by the s.p.a.ce of seven hundred years, and more; for which this a.s.sembly and all Christians are to render laud and thanks to G.o.d, and to celebrate this n.o.ble act of the king of Spain; who in this is not only victorious but apostolical, in the gaining of new provinces to the Christian faith. And the rather for that this victory and conquest is obtained without much effusion of blood. Whereby it is to be hoped, that there shall be gained not only new territory, but infinite souls to the Church of Christ, whom the Almighty, as it seems, would have live to be converted. Herewithal he did relate some of the most memorable particulars of the war and victory. And, after his speech ended, the whole a.s.sembly went solemnly in procession, and Te Deum was sung." Lord Bacon, History of the Reign of King Henry VII., in his Works, (ed. London, 1819,) vol. v.

pp. 85, 86.--See also Hall, Chronicle, p. 453.

[24] The African descendants of the Spanish Moors, unable wholly to relinquish the hope of restoration to the delicious abodes of their ancestors, continued for many generations, and perhaps still continue, to put up a pet.i.tion to that effect in their mosques every Friday. Pedraza, Antiguedad de Granada, fol. 7.

[25] Carbajal, a.n.a.les, MS., ano 1492.

Don Henrique de Guzman, duke of Medina Sidonia, the ancient enemy, and, since the commencement of the Moorish war, the firm friend of the marquis of Cadiz, died the 28th of August, on the same day with the latter.

[26] Zuniga, Annales de Sevilla, p. 411.--Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 104.

The marquis left three illegitimate daughters by a n.o.ble Spanish lady, who all formed high connections. He was succeeded in his t.i.tles and estates, by the permission of Ferdinand and Isabella, by Don Rodrigo Ponce de Leon, the son of his eldest daughter, who had married with one of her kinsmen.

Cadiz was subsequently annexed by the Spanish sovereigns to the crown, from which it had been detached in Henry IV.'s time, and considerable estates were given as an equivalent, together with the t.i.tle of Duke of Arcos, to the family of Ponce de Leon.

CHAPTER XVI.

APPLICATION OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AT THE SPANISH COURT.

1492.

Early Discoveries of the Portuguese.--Of the Spaniards.--Columbus.--His Application at the Castilian Court.--Rejected.--Negotiations Resumed.-- Favorable Disposition of the Queen.--Arrangement with Columbus.--He Sails on his First Voyage.--Indifference to the Enterprise.--Acknowledgments due to Isabella.

While Ferdinand and Isabella were at Santa Fe, the capitulation was signed, that opened the way to an extent of empire, compared with which their recent conquests, and indeed all their present dominions, were insignificant. The extraordinary intellectual activity of the Europeans in the fifteenth century, after the torpor of ages, carried them forward to high advancement in almost every department of science, but especially nautical, whose surprising results have acquired for the age, the glory of being designated as peculiarly that of maritime discovery. This was eminently favored by the political condition of modern Europe. Under the Roman empire, the traffic with the east naturally centred in Rome, the commercial capital of the west. After the dismemberment of the empire, it continued to be conducted princ.i.p.ally through the channel of the Italian ports, whence it was diffused over the remoter regions of Christendom. But these countries, which had now risen from the rank of subordinate provinces to that of separate independent states, viewed with jealousy this monopoly of the Italian cities, by means of which these latter were rapidly advancing beyond them in power and opulence. This was especially the case with Portugal and Castile, [1] which, placed on the remote frontiers of the European continent, were far removed from the great routes of Asiatic intercourse; while this disadvantage was not compensated by such an extent of territory, as secured consideration to some other of the European states, equally unfavorably situated for commercial purposes with themselves. Thus circ.u.mstanced, the two nations of Castile and Portugal were naturally led to turn their eyes on the great ocean which washed their western borders, and to seek in its. .h.i.therto unexplored recesses for new domains, and if possible strike out some undiscovered track towards the opulent regions of the east.

The spirit of maritime enterprise was fomented, and greatly facilitated in its operation, by the invention of the astrolabe, and the important discovery of the polarity of the magnet, whose first application to the purposes of navigation on an extended scale may be referred to the fifteenth century. [2] The Portuguese were the first to enter on the brilliant path of nautical discovery, which they pursued under the infant Don Henry with such activity, that, before the middle of the fifteenth century, they had penetrated as far as Cape de Verd, doubling many a fearful headland, which had shut in the timid navigator of former days; until at length, in 1486, they descried the lofty promontory which terminates Africa on the south, and which, hailed by King John the Second, under whom it was discovered, as the harbinger of the long-sought pa.s.sage to the east, received the cheering appellation of the Cape of Good Hope.

The Spaniards, in the mean while, did not languish in the career of maritime enterprise. Certain adventurers from the northern provinces of Biscay and Guipuscoa, in 1393, had made themselves masters of one of the smallest of the group of islands, supposed to be the Fortunate Isles of the ancients, since known as the Canaries. Other private adventurers from Seville extended their conquests over these islands in the beginning of the following century. These were completed in behalf of the crown under Ferdinand and Isabella, who equipped several fleets for their reduction, which at length terminated in 1495 with that of Teneriffe. [3] From the commencement of their reign, Ferdinand and Isabella had shown an earnest solicitude for the encouragement of commerce and nautical science, as is evinced by a variety of regulations which, however imperfect, from the misconception of the true principles of trade in that day, are sufficiently indicative of the dispositions of the government. [4] Under them, and indeed under their predecessors as far back as Henry the Third, a considerable traffic had been carried on with the western coast of Africa, from which gold dust and slaves were imported into the city of Seville. The annalist of that city notices the repeated interference of Isabella in behalf of these unfortunate beings, by ordinances tending to secure them a more equal protection of the laws, or opening such social indulgences as might mitigate the hards.h.i.+ps of their condition. A misunderstanding gradually arose between the subjects of Castile and Portugal, in relation to their respective rights of discovery and commerce on the African coast, which promised a fruitful source of collision between the two crowns; but which was happily adjusted by an article in the treaty of 1479, that terminated the war of the succession. By this it was settled, that the right of traffic and of discovery on the western coast of Africa should be exclusively reserved to the Portuguese, who in their turn should resign all claims on the Canaries to the crown of Castile. The Spaniards, thus excluded from further progress to the south, seemed to have no other opening left for naval adventure than the hitherto untravelled regions of the great western ocean. Fortunately, at this juncture, an individual appeared among them, in the person of Christopher Columbus, endowed with capacity for stimulating them to this heroic enterprise, and conducting it to a glorious issue. [5]

This extraordinary man was a native of Genoa, of humble parentage, though perhaps honorable descent. [6] He was instructed in his early youth at Pavia, where he acquired a strong relish for the mathematical sciences, in which he subsequently excelled. At the age of fourteen, he engaged in a seafaring life, which he followed with little intermission till 1470; when, probably little more than thirty years of age, [7] he landed in Portugal, the country to which adventurous spirits from all parts of the world then resorted, as the great theatre of maritime enterprise. After his arrival, he continued to make voyages to the then known parts of the world, and, when on sh.o.r.e, occupied himself with the construction and sale of charts and maps; while his geographical researches were considerably aided by the possession of papers belonging to an eminent Portuguese navigator, a deceased relative of his wife. Thus stored with all that nautical science in that day could supply, and fortified by large practical experience, the reflecting mind of Columbus was naturally led to speculate on the existence of some other land beyond the western waters; and he conceived the possibility of reaching the eastern sh.o.r.es of Asia, whose provinces of Zipango and Cathay were emblazoned in such gorgeous colors in the narratives of Mandeville and the Poli, by a more direct and commodious route than that which traversed the eastern continent. [8]

The existence of land beyond the Atlantic, which was not discredited by some of the most enlightened ancients, [9] had become matter of common speculation at the close of the fifteenth century; when maritime adventure was daily disclosing the mysteries of the deep, and bringing to light new regions, that had hitherto existed only in fancy. A proof of this popular belief occurs in a curious pa.s.sage of the "Morgante Maggiore" of the Florentine poet Palci, a man of letters, but not distinguished for scientific attainments beyond his day. [10] The pa.s.sage is remarkable, independently of the cosmographical knowledge it implies, for its allusion to phenomena in physical science, not established till more than a century later. The Devil, alluding to the vulgar superst.i.tion respecting the pillars of Hercules, thus addresses his companion Rinaldo:

"Know that this theory is false; his bark The daring mariner shall urge far o'er The western wave, a smooth and level plain, Albeit the earth is fas.h.i.+oned like a wheel.

Man was in ancient days of grosser mould, And Hercules might blush to learn how far Beyond the limits he had vainly set, The dullest sea-boat soon shall wing her way.

Men shall descry another hemisphere, Since to one common centre all things tend; So earth, by curious mystery divine Well balanced, hangs amid the starry spheres.

At our antipodes are cities, states, And thronged empires, ne'er divined of yore.

But see, the Sun speeds on his western path To glad the nations with expected light." [11]