Volume I Part 20 (1/2)
[34] Born the preceding year, June 28th, 1478. Carbajal, a.n.a.les, MS., anno eodem.
[35] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 168.--Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 91.--Faria y Sousa, Europa Portuguesa, tom. ii. pp. 420, 421.--Ruy de Pina, Chron. d'el Rey Alfonso V., cap. 206.
[36] Ruy de Pina, Chron. d'el Rey Alfonso V., cap. 20.--Faria y Sousa, Europa Portuguesa, tom. ii. p. 421.--Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 92.--L.
Marineo speaks of the _Senora muy excelente_, as an inmate of the cloister at the period in which he was writing, 1522, (fol. 168.) Notwithstanding her ”irrevocable vows,” however, Joanna several times quitted the monastery, and maintained a royal state under the protection of the Portuguese monarchs, who occasionally threatened to revive her dormant claims to the prejudice of the Castilian sovereigns. She may be said, consequently, to have formed the pivot, on which turned, during her whole life, the diplomatic relations between the courts of Castile and Portugal, and to have been a princ.i.p.al cause of those frequent intermarriages between the royal families of the two countries, by which Ferdinand and Isabella hoped to detach the Portuguese crown from her interests. Joanna affected a royal style and magnificence, and subscribed herself ”I the Queen,” to the last. She died in the palace at Lisbon, in 1530, in the 69th year of her age, having survived most of her ancient friends, suitors, and compet.i.tors.--Joanna's history, subsequent to her taking the veil, has been collected, with his usual precision, by Senor Clemencin, Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Il.u.s.t. 19.
[37] Faria y Sousa, Europa Portuguesa, tom. ii. p. 423.--Ruy de Pina, Chron. d'el Rey Alfonso V., cap. 212.
[38] Carbajal, a.n.a.les, MS., ano 79.--Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap.
42.--Mariana, Hist. de Espana, (ed Valencia,) tom. viii. p. 204, not.-- Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 295.
CHAPTER VI.
INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION OF CASTILE.
1475-1482.
Schemes of Reform.--Holy Brotherhood.--Tumult at Segovia.--The Queen's Presence of Mind.--Severe Execution of Justice.--Royal Progress through Andalusia.--Reorganization of the Tribunals.--Castilian Jurisprudence.-- Plans for Reducing the n.o.bles.--Revocation of Grants.--Military Orders of Castile.--Masters.h.i.+ps annexed to the Crown.--Ecclesiastical Usurpations Resisted.--Restoration of Trade.--Prosperity of the Kingdom.
I have deferred to the present chapter a consideration of the important changes introduced into the interior administration of Castile after the accession of Isabella, in order to present a connected and comprehensive view of them to the reader, without interrupting the progress of the military narrative. The subject may afford an agreeable relief to the dreary details of blood and battle, with which we have been so long occupied, and which were rapidly converting the garden of Europe into a wilderness. Such details indeed seem to have the deepest interest for contemporary writers; but the eye of posterity, unclouded by personal interest or pa.s.sion, turns with satisfaction from them to those cultivated arts, which can make the wilderness to blossom as the rose.
If there be any being on earth, that may be permitted to remind us of the Deity himself, it is the ruler of a mighty empire, who employs the high powers intrusted to him exclusively for the benefit of his people; who, endowed with intellectual gifts corresponding with his station, in an age of comparative barbarism, endeavors to impart to his land the light of civilization which illumines his own bosom, and to create from the elements of discord the beautiful fabric of social order. Such was Isabella; and such the age in which she lived. And fortunate was it for Spain that her sceptre, at this crisis, was swayed by a sovereign possessed of sufficient wisdom to devise, and energy to execute, the most salutary schemes of reform, and thus to infuse a new principle of vitality into a government fast sinking into premature decrepitude.
The whole plan of reform introduced into the government by Ferdinand and Isabella, or more properly by the latter, to whom the internal administration of Castile was princ.i.p.ally referred, was not fully unfolded until the completion of her reign. But the most important modifications were adopted previously to the war of Granada in 1482. These may be embraced under the following heads. I. The efficient administration of justice. II. The codification of the laws. III. The depression of the n.o.bles. IV. The vindication of ecclesiastical rights belonging to the crown from the usurpation of the papal see. V. The regulation of trade.
VI. The pre-eminence of royal authority,
I. The administration of justice. In the dismal anarchy, which prevailed in Henry the Fourth's reign, the authority of the monarch and of the royal judges had fallen into such contempt, that the law was entirely without force. The cities afforded no better protection than the open country.
Every man's hand seemed to be lifted against his neighbor. Property was plundered; persons were violated; the most holy sanctuaries profaned; and the numerous fortresses scattered throughout the country, instead of sheltering the weak, converted into dens of robbers. [1] Isabella saw no better way of checking tins unbounded license, than to direct against it that popular engine, the _Santa Hermandad_, or Holy Brotherhood, which had more than once shaken the Castilian monarchs on their throne.
The project for the reorganization of this inst.i.tution was introduced into the cortes held, the year after Isabella's accession at Madrigal, in 1476.
It was carried into effect by the _junta_ of deputies from the different cities of the kingdom, convened at Duenas in the same year. The new inst.i.tution differed essentially from the ancient _hermandades_, since, instead of being partial in its extent, it was designed to embrace the whole kingdom; and, instead of being directed, as had often been the case, against the crown itself, it was set in motion at the suggestion of the latter, and limited in its operation to the maintenance of public order.
The crimes, reserved for its jurisdiction, were all violence or theft committed on the highways or in the open country, and in cities by such offenders as escaped into the country; house-breaking; rape; and resistance of justice. The specification of these crimes shows their frequency; and the reason for designating the open country, as the particular theatre for the operations of the hermandad, was the facility which criminals possessed there for eluding the pursuit of justice, especially under shelter of the strong-holds or fortresses, with which it was plentifully studded.
An annual contribution of eighteen thousand maravedies was a.s.sessed on every hundred _vecinos_ or householders, for the equipment and maintenance of a horseman, whose duty it was to arrest offenders, and enforce the sentence of the law. On the flight of a criminal, the tocsins of the villages, through which he was supposed to have pa.s.sed, were sounded, and the _quadrilleros_ or officers of the brotherhood, stationed on the different points, took up the pursuit with such promptness as left little chance of escape. A court of two alcaldes was established in every town containing thirty families, for the trial of all crimes within the jurisdiction of the hermandad; and an appeal lay from them in specified cases to a supreme council. A general junta, composed of deputies from the cities throughout the kingdom, was annually convened for the regulation of affairs, and their instructions were transmitted to provincial juntas, who superintended the execution of them. The laws, enacted at different times in these a.s.semblies, were compiled into a code under the sanction of the junta general at Tordelaguna, in 1485. [2] The penalties for theft, which are literally written in blood, are specified in this code with singular precision. The most petty larceny was punished with stripes, the loss of a member, or of life itself; and the law was administered with an unsparing rigor, which nothing but the extreme necessity of the case could justify.
Capital executions were conducted by shooting the criminal with arrows.
The enactment, relating to this, provides, that ”the convict shall receive the sacrament like a Catholic Christian, and after that be executed as speedily as possible, in order that his soul may pa.s.s the more securely.”
[3]
Notwithstanding the popular const.i.tution of the hermandad, and the obvious advantages attending its introduction at this juncture, it experienced so decided an opposition from the n.o.bility, who discerned the check it was likely to impose on their authority, that it required all the queen's address and perseverance to effect its general adoption. The constable de Haro, however, a n.o.bleman of great weight from his personal character, and the most extensive landed proprietor in the north, was at length prevailed on to introduce it among his va.s.sals. His example was gradually followed by others of the same rank; and, when the city of Seville, and the great lords of Andalusia, had consented to receive it, it speedily became established throughout the kingdom. Thus a standing body of troops, two thousand in number, thoroughly equipped and mounted, was placed at the disposal of the crown, to enforce the law, and suppress domestic insurrection. The supreme junta, which regulated the counsels of the hermandad, const.i.tuted moreover a sort of inferior cortes, relieving the exigencies of government, as we shall see hereafter, on more than one occasion, by important supplies of men and money. By the activity of this new military police, the country was, in the course of a few years, cleared of its swarms of banditti, as well as of the robber chieftains, whose strength had enabled them to defy the law. The ministers of justice found a sure protection in the independent discharge of their duties; and the blessings of personal security and social order, so long estranged from the nation, were again restored to it.
The important benefits, resulting from the inst.i.tution of the hermandad, secured its confirmation by successive cortes, for the period of twenty- two years, in spite of the repeated opposition of the aristocracy. At length, in 1498, the objects for which it was established having been completely obtained, it was deemed advisable to relieve the nation from the heavy charges which its maintenance imposed. The great salaried officers were dismissed; a few subordinate functionaries were retained for the administration of justice, over whom the regular courts of criminal law possessed appellate jurisdiction; and the magnificent apparatus of the _Santa Hermandad_, stripped of all but the terrors of its name, dwindled into an ordinary police, such as it has existed, with various modifications of form, down to the present century. [4]
Isabella was so intent on the prosecution of her schemes of reform, that, even in the minuter details, she frequently superintended the execution of them herself. For this she was admirably fitted by her personal address, and presence of mind in danger, and by the influence which a conviction of her integrity gave her over the minds of the people. A remarkable exemplification of this occurred, the year but one after her coronation, at Segovia. The inhabitants, secretly instigated by the bishop of that place, and some of the princ.i.p.al citizens, rose against Cabrera, marquis of Moya, to whom the government of the city had been intrusted, and who had made himself generally unpopular by his strict discipline. They even proceeded so far as to obtain possession of the outworks of the citadel, and to compel the deputy of the _alcayde_, who was himself absent, to take shelter, together with the princess Isabella, then the only daughter of the sovereigns, in the interior defences, where they were rigorously blockaded.
The queen, on receiving tidings of the event at Tordesillas, mounted her horse and proceeded with all possible despatch towards Segovia, attended by Cardinal Mendoza, the count of Benavente, and a few others of her court. At some distance from the city, she was met by a deputation of the inhabitants, requesting her to leave behind the count of Benavente and the marchioness of Moya, (the former of whom as the intimate friend, and the latter as the wife of the alcayde, were peculiarly obnoxious to the citizens,) or they could not answer for the consequences. Isabella haughtily replied, that ”she was queen of Castile; that the city was hers, moreover, by right of inheritance; and that she was not used to receive conditions from rebellious subjects.” Then pressing forward with her little retinue, through one of the gates, which remained in the hands of her friends, she effected her entrance into the citadel.
The populace, in the mean while, a.s.sembling in greater numbers than before, continued to show the most hostile dispositions, calling out, ”Death to the alcayde! Attack the castle!” Isabella's attendants, terrified at the tumult, and at the preparations which the people were making to put their menaces into execution, besought their mistress to cause the gates to be secured more strongly, as the only mode of defence against the infuriated mob. But, instead of listening to their counsel, she bade them remain quietly in the apartment, and descended herself into the courtyard, where she ordered the portals to be thrown open for the admission of the people. She stationed herself at the further extremity of the area, and, as the populace poured in, calmly demanded the cause of the insurrection. ”Tell me,” said she, ”what are your grievances, and I will do all in my power to redress them; for I am sure that what is for your interest, must be also for mine, and for that of the whole city.” The insurgents, abashed by the unexpected presence of their sovereign, as well as by her cool and dignified demeanor, replied, that all they desired was the removal of Cabrera from the government of the city. ”He is deposed already,” answered the queen, ”and you have my authority to turn out such of his officers as are still in the castle, which I shall intrust to one of my own servants, on whom I can rely.” The people, pacified by these a.s.surances, shouted, ”Long live the queen!” and eagerly hastened to obey her mandates.
After thus turning aside the edge of popular fury, Isabella proceeded with her retinue to the royal residence in the city, attended by the fickle mult.i.tude, whom she again addressed on arriving there, admonis.h.i.+ng them to return to their vocations, as this was no time for calm inquiry; and promising, that, if they would send three or four of their number to her on the morrow to report the extent of their grievances, she would examine into the affair, and render justice to all parties. The mob accordingly dispersed, and the queen, after a candid examination, having ascertained the groundlessness or gross exaggeration of the misdemeanors imputed to Cabrera, and traced the source of the conspiracy to the jealousy of the bishop of Segovia and his a.s.sociates, reinstated the deposed alcayde in the full possession of his dignities, which his enemies, either convinced of the altered dispositions of the people, or believing that the favorable moment for resistance had escaped, made no further attempts to disturb.