Volume I Part 6 (1/2)

fol. 316.

[8] The authenticity of the ”Fuero de Soprarbe” has been keenly debated by the Aragonese and Navarrese writers. Moret, in refutation of Blancas, who espouses it, (see Commentarii, p. 289,) states, that after a diligent investigation of the archives of that region, he finds no mention of the laws, nor even of the name, of Soprarbe, until the eleventh century; a startling circ.u.mstance for the antiquary. (Investigaciones Historicas de las Antiguedades del Reyno de Navarra, (Pamplona, 1766,) tom. vi. lib. 2, cap. 11.) Indeed, the historians of Aragon admit, that the public doc.u.ments previous to the fourteenth century suffered so much from various causes as to leave comparatively few materials for authentic narrative.

(Blancas, Commentarii, Pref.--Risco, Espana Sagrada, tom. x.x.x. Prologo.) Blancas transcribed his extract of the laws of Soprarbe princ.i.p.ally from Prince Charles of Viana's History, written in the fifteenth century. See Commentarii, p. 25.

[9] a.s.so y Manuel, Inst.i.tuciones, pp. 39, 40.--Blancas, Commentarii, pp.

333, 334, 340.--Fueros y Observancias del Reyno de Aragon, (Zaragoza, 1667,) tom. i. fol. 130.--The _ricos hombres_, thus created by the monarch, were styled _de mesnada_, signifying ”of the household.” It was lawful for a _rico hombre_ to bequeath his honors to whichsoever of his legitimate children he might prefer, and, in default of issue, to his nearest of kin. He was bound to distribute the bulk of his estates in fiefs among his knights, so that a complete system of sub-infeudation was established. The knights, on restoring their fiefs, might change their suzerains at pleasure.

[10] a.s.so y Manuel, Inst.i.tuciones, p. 41.--Blancas, Commentarii, pp. 307, 322, 331.

[11] Fueros y Observancias, tom. i. fol. 130.--Martel, Forma de Celebrar Cortes en Aragon, (Zaragoza, 1641,) p. 98.--Blancas, Commentarii, pp. 306, 312-317, 323, 360.--a.s.so y Manual, Inst.i.tuciones, pp. 40-43.

[12] Zurita, a.n.a.les, tom. i. fol. 124.

[13] Blancas, Commentarii, p. 334.

[14] See the part.i.tion of Saragossa by Alonso the Warrior. Zurita, a.n.a.les, tom. i. fol. 43.

[15] Mariana, Hist. de Espana, tom. ii. p. 198.--Blancas, Commentarii, p.

218. [16] See a register of these at the beginning of the sixteenth century, apud L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 25.

[17] Zurita, a.n.a.les, tom. ii. fol. 127.--Blancas, Commentarii, p. 324.-- ”Adhaec Ricis hominibus ipsis majorum more inst.i.tutisque concedebatur, ut sese possent, dum ipsi vellent, a nostrorum Regum jure et potestare, quasi nodum aliquem, expedire; neque expedire solum, _sed dimisso prius, quo potirentur, Honore_, bellum ipsis inferre; Reges vero Rici hominis sic expediti uxorem, filios, familiam, res, bona, et fortunas omnes in suam recipere fidem tenebantur. Neque ulla erat eorum utilitatis facienda jactura.”

[18] Fueros y Observancias, tom. i. p. 84.--Zurita, a.n.a.les, tom. i. fol.

350.

[19] Blancas somewhere boasts, that no one of the kings of Aragon has been stigmatized by a cognomen of infamy, as in most of the other royal races of Europe. Peter IV., ”the Ceremonious,” richly deserved one.

[20] Zurita, a.n.a.les, tom. i. fol. 102.

[21] Zurita, a.n.a.les, tom. i. fol. 198.--He recommended this policy to his son-in-law, the king of Castile.

[22] Sempere, Histoire des Cortes, p. 164.

[23] Zurita, a.n.a.les, lib. 4, cap. 96.--Abarca dates this event in the year preceding. Reyes de Aragon, en a.n.a.les Historicos, (Madrid, 1682-1684,) tom. ii. fol. 8.

[24] Blancas, Commentarii, pp. 192, 193.--Zurita, a.n.a.les, tom. i. fol. 266 et alibi.

[25] Zurita, a.n.a.les, tom. ii. fol. 126-130.--Blancas, Commentarii, pp.

195-197.--Hence he was styled ”Peter of the Dagger;” and a statue of him, bearing in one hand this weapon, and in the other the Privilege, stood in the Chamber of Deputation at Saragossa in Philip II.'s time. See Antonio Perez, Relaciones, fol. 95.

[26] See the statute, De Prohibita Unione, etc. Fueros y Observancias, tom. i. fol. 178.--A copy of the original Privileges was detected by Blancas among the ma.n.u.scripts of the archbishop of Saragossa; but he declined publis.h.i.+ng it from deference to the prohibition of his ancestors.

Commentarii, p. 179.

[27] ”Haec itaque domestica Regis victoria, quae miserrimum universae Reipublicae interitum videbatur esse allatura, stabilem n.o.bis const.i.tuit pacem, tranquillitatem, et otium. Inde enim Magistratus Just.i.tiae Aragonum in eam, quam nunc colimus, amplitudinem dignitatis devenit.” Ibid., p.

197.

[28] Martel, Forma de Celebrar Cortes, cap. 8.--”Bracos del reino, porque _abracan_, y tienen en si.”--The cortes consisted only of three arms in Catalonia and Valencia; both the greater and lesser n.o.bility sitting in the same chamber. Perguera, Cortes en Cataluna, and Matheu y Sanz, Const.i.tucion de Valencia, apud Capmany, Practica y Estilo, pp. 65, 183, 184.

[29] Martel, Forma de Celebrar Cortes, cap. 10, 17, 21, 46.--Blancas, Modo de Proceder en Cortes de Aragon, (Zaragoza, 1641,) fol. 17, 18.

[30] Capmany, Practica y Estilo, p. 12.