Volume I Part 7 (2/2)

(Practica y Estilo, pp. 161-208.) An anecdote of Ximenes Cerdan, recorded by Blancas, (Commentarii, p. 214,) may lead one to infer, that the places in Valencia, which received the laws of Aragon, acknowledged the jurisdiction of its Justicia.

[69] Capmany, Practica y Estilo, pp. 62-214.--Capmany has collected copious materials, from a variety of authors, for the parliamentary history of Catalonia and Valencia, forming a striking contrast to the scantiness of information he was able to glean respecting Castile. The indifference of the Spanish writers, till very recently, to the const.i.tutional antiquities of the latter kingdom, so much more important than the other states of the Peninsula, is altogether inexplicable.

[70] Corbera, Cataluna Ill.u.s.trada, (Napoles, 1678,) lib. 1, c. 17.--Petrus de Marca cites a charter of Raymond Berenger, count of Barcelona, to the city, as ancient as 1025, confirming its former privileges. See Marca Hispanica, sive Limes Hispanicus, (Parisiis, 1688,) Apend. no. 198.

[71] Navarrete, Discurso Historico, apud Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom.

v. pp. 81, 82, 112, 113.--Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, tom. i. part. 1, cap. 1, pp. 4, 8, 10, 11.

[72] Mem. de Barcelona, part. 1, cap. 2, 3.--Capmany has given a register of the consuls and of the numerous stations, at which they were established throughout Africa and Europe, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, (tom. ii. Apend. no. 23.) These officers during the Middle Ages discharged much more important duties than at the present day, if we except those few residing with the Barbary powers. They settled the disputes arising between their countrymen, in the ports where they were established; they protected the trade of their own nation with these ports; and were employed in adjusting commercial relations, treaties, etc.

In short, they filled in some sort the post of a modern amba.s.sador, or resident minister, at a period when this functionary was only employed on extraordinary occasions.

[73] Macpherson, Annals of Commerce, (London, 1825,) vol. i. p. 655.--The woollen manufacture const.i.tuted the princ.i.p.al staple of Barcelona.

(Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, tom. i. p. 241.) The English sovereigns encouraged the Catalan traders by considerable immunities to frequent their ports during the fourteenth century. Macpherson, ubi supra, pp. 502, 551, 588.

[74] Heeren, Essai sur l'Influence des Croisades, traduit par Villers, (Paris, 1808,) p. 376.--Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, tom. i. p. 213, also pp. 170-180.--Capmany fixes the date of the publication of the _Consulado del Mar_ at the middle of the thirteenth century, under James I. He discusses and refutes the claims of the Pisans to precedence in this codification. See his Preliminary Discourse to the Costumbres Maritimas de Barcelona.

[75] Navagiero, Viaggio, fol. 3.--L. Marineo styles it ”the most beautiful city he had ever seen, or, to speak more correctly, in the whole world.”

(Cosas Memorables, fol. 18.) Alfonso V., in one of his ordinances, in 1438, calls it ”urbs venerabilis in egregiis templis, tuta ut in optimis, pulchra in caeteris aedificiis,” etc. Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, tom. ii.

Apend. no. 13.

[76] Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, Apend. no. 24.--The senate or great council, though styled the ”one hundred,” seems to have fluctuated at different times between that number and double its amount.

[77] Corbera, Cataluna Ill.u.s.trada, p. 84.--Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, tom. ii. Apend. no. 29.

[78] Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, tom. i. part. 3, p. 40, tom. iii. part.

2, pp. 317, 318.

[79] Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, tom. i. part. 2, p. 187.--tom. ii. Apend.

30.--Capmany says _princ.i.p.al n.o.bleza_; yet it may be presumed that much the larger proportion of these n.o.ble candidates for office was drawn from the inferior cla.s.s of the privileged orders, the knights and hidalgos. The great barons of Catalonia, fortified with extensive immunities and wealth, lived on their estates in the country, probably little relis.h.i.+ng the levelling spirit of the burghers of Barcelona.

[80] Barcelona revolted and was twice besieged by the royal arms under John II., once under Philip IV., twice under Charles II., and twice under Philip V. This last siege, 1713-14, in which it held out against the combined forces of France and Spain under Marshal Berwick, is one of the most memorable events in the eighteenth century. An interesting account of the siege may be found in c.o.xe's Memoirs of the Kings of Spain of the House of Bourbon, (London, 1815,) vol. ii. chap. 21.--The late monarch, Ferdinand VII., also had occasion to feel, that the independent spirit of the Catalans did not become extinct with their ancient const.i.tution.

[81] Viaggio, fol. 3.

[82] Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 183.--Zurita, a.n.a.les, tom.

iii. lib. 12, cap. 59.--The king turned his back on the magistrates, who came to pay their respects to him, on learning his intention of quitting the city. He seems, however, to have had the magnanimity to forgive, perhaps to admire, the independent conduct of Fiveller; for at his death, which occurred very soon after, we find this citizen mentioned as one of his executors. See Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, tom. ii. Apend. 29.

[83] The taxes were a.s.sessed in the ratio of one-sixth on Valencia, two- sixths on Aragon, and three-sixths on Catalonia. See Martel, Forma de Celebrar Cortes, cap. 71.

[84] See the items specified by Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, tom. i. pp.

231, 232.

[85] Idem, tom. i. pp. 221, 234.--Capmany states, that the statute of Alfonso V. prohibited ”all foreign s.h.i.+ps from taking cargoes in the ports of his dominions.” (See also Colec. Dipl., tom. ii. no. 187.) The object of this law, like that of the British Navigation Act, was the encouragement of the national marine. It deviated far, however, from the sagacious policy of the latter, which imposed no restriction on the exportation of domestic produce to foreign countries, except, indeed, its own colonies.

[86] Andres, Dell' Origine, de' Progressi, e dello Stato Attuale d' Ogni Letteratura, (Venezia, 1783,) part. 1, cap. 11.--Lampillas, Saggio Storico-Apologetico della Letteratura Spagnuola, (Genova, 1778,) part. 1, dis. 6, sec. 7.--Andres conjectures, and Lampillas decides, in favor of Catalonia. _Arcades ambo_; and the latter critic, the worst possible authority on all questions of national preference.

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