HISTORY OF THE REIGN OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA, THE CATHOLIC.

BY WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT.

IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. II.



CONTENTS OF VOLUME II.

PART FIRST. [CONTINUED.]

CHAPTER XII. INTERNAL AFFAIRS OF THE KINGDOM.—INQUISITION IN ARAGON. ISABELLA ENFORCES THE LAWS CHASTISEMENT OF CERTAIN ECCLESIASTICS MARRIAGE OF CATHARINE OF NAVARRE LIBERATION OF CATALAN SERFS INQUISITION IN ARAGON REMONSTRANCES OF CORTES CONSPIRACY FORMED ASSASSINATION OF ARBUES CRUEL PERSECUTIONS INQUISITION THROUGHOUT FERDINAND'S DOMINIONS

CHAPTER XIII. WAR OF GRANADA.—SURRENDER OF VELEZ MALAGA.—SIEGE AND CONQUEST OF MALAGA. POSITION OF VELEZ MALAGA ARMY BEFORE VELEZ DEFEAT OF EL ZAGAL NARROW ESCAPE OF FERDINAND SURRENDER OF VELEZ DESCRIPTION OF MALAGA SHARP RECONTRE MALAGA INVESTED BY SEA AND LAND BRILLIANT SPECTACLE EXTENSIVE PREPARATIONS THE QUEEN VISITS THE CAMP SUMMONS OF THE TOWN DANGER OF THE MARQUIS OF CADIZ CIVIL FEUDS OF THE MOORS ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE THE SOVEREIGNS DISTRESS AND RESOLUTION OF THE BESIEGED ENTHUSIASM OF THE CHRISTIANS DISCIPLINE OF THE ARMY GENERAL SALLY GENEROSITY OF A MOORISH KNIGHT OUTWORKS CARRIED GRIEVOUS FAMINE PROPOSALS FOR SURRENDER HAUGHTY DEMEANOR OF FERDINAND MALAGA SURRENDERS AT DISCRETION PURIFICATION OF THE CITY ENTRANCE OF THE SOVEREIGNS RELEASE OF CHRISTIAN CAPTIVES LAMENT OF THE MALAGANS SENTENCE PASSED ON THEM WARY DEVICE OF FERDINAND CRUEL POLICY OF THE VICTORS MEASURES FOR REPEOPLING MALAGA

CHAPTER XIV. WAR OF GRANADA.—CONQUEST OF BAZA.—SUBMISSION OF EL ZAGAL. THE SOVEREIGNS VISIT ARAGON INROADS INTO GRANADA BORDER WAR EMBASSY FROM MAXIMILIAN PREPARATIONS FOR THE SIEGE OF BAZA THE KING TAKES COMMAND OF THE ARMY POSITION AND STRENGTH OF BAZA ASSAULT ON THE GARDEN DESPONDENCY OF THE SPANISH CHIEFS DISPELLED BY ISABELLA GARDENS CLEARED OF THEIR TIMBER CITY CLOSELY INVESTED MISSION FROM THE SULTAN OF EGYPT HOUSES ERECTED FOB THE ARMY ITS STRICT DISCIPLINE HEAVY TEMPEST ISABELLA'S ENERGY HER PATRIOTIC SACRIFICES RESOLUTION OF THE BESIEGED ISABELLA VISITS THE CAMP SUSPENSION OF ARMS BAZA SURRENDERS CONDITIONS OCCUPATION OF THE CITY TREATY OF SURRENDER WITH EL ZAGAL PAINFUL MARCH OF THE SPANISH ARMY INTERVIEW BETWEEN FERDINAND AND EL ZAGAL OCCUPATION OF EL ZAGAL'S DOMAIN EQUIVALENT ASSIGNED TO HIM DIFFICULTIES OF THIS CAMPAIGN ISABELLA'S POPULARITY AND INFLUENCE NOTICE OF PETER MARTYR

CHAPTER XV. WAR OF GRANADA.-SIEGE AND SURRENDER OF THE CITY OF GRANADA. THE INFANTA ISABELLA PUBLIC FESTIVITIES GRANADA SUMMONED IN VAIN KNIGHTHOOD OF DON JUAN FERDINAND'S POLICY ISABELLA DEPOSES THE JUDGES OF CHANCERY FERDINAND MUSTERS HIS FORCES ENCAMPS IN THE VEGA POSITION OF GRANADA MOSLEM AND CHRISTIAN CHIVALRY THE QUEEN SURVEYS THE CITY SKIRMISH WITH THE ENEMY CONFLAGRATION OF THE CHRISTIAN CAMP ERECTION OF SANTA FE NEGOTIATIONS FOR SURRENDER CAPITULATION OF GRANADA COMMOTIONS IN GRANADA PREPARATIONS FOR OCCUPYING THE CITY THE CROSS RAISED ON THE ALHAMBRA FATE OF ABDALLAH RESULTS OF THE WAR OF GRANADA ITS MORAL INFLUENCE ITS MILITARY INFLUENCE DESTINY OF THE MOORS DEATH AND CHARACTER OF THE MARQUIS OF CADIZ NOTICE OF BERNALDEZ, CURATE OF LOS PALACIOS IRVING'S CHRONICLE OF GRANADA

CHAPTER XVI. APPLICATION OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AT THE SPANISH COURT. MARITIME ENTERPRISE OF THE PORTUGUESE EARLY SPANISH DISCOVERIES EARLY HISTORY OF COLUMBUS BELIEF OF LAND IN THE WEST COLUMBUS APPLIES TO PORTUGAL TO THE COURT OF CASTILE REFERRED TO A COUNCIL HIS APPLICATION REJECTED HE PREPARES TO LEAVE SPAIN INTERPOSITION IN HIS BEHALF COLUMBUS AT SANTA FE NEGOTIATIONS AGAIN BROKEN OFF THE QUEEN'S FAVORABLE DISPOSITION FINAL ARRANGEMENT WITH COLUMBUS HE SAILS ON HIS FIRST VOYAGE INDIFFERENCE TO HIS ENTERPRISE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS DUE TO ISABELLA NOTICE OF NAVARRETE

CHAPTER XVII. EXPULSION OF THE JEWS FROM SPAIN. EXCITEMENT AGAINST THE JEWS FOMENTED BY THE CLERGY VIOLENT CONDUCT OF TORQUEMADA EDICT OF EXPULSION ITS SEVERE OPERATION CONSTANCY OF THE JEWS ROUTES OF THE EMIGRANTS THEIR SUFFERINGS IN AFRICA IN OTHER COUNTRIES WHOLE NUMBER OF EXILES DISASTROUS RESULTS TRUE MOTIVES OF THE EDICT CONTEMPORARY JUDGMENTS MISTAKEN PIETY OF THE QUEEN

CHAPTER XVIII. ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF FERDINAND.—RETURN AND SECOND VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS. THE SOVEREIGNS VISIT ARAGON ATTEMPT ON FERDINAND'S LIFE GENERAL CONSTERNATION LOYALTY OF THE PEOPLE SLOW RECOVERY OF THE KING PUNISHMENT OF THE ASSASSIN RETURN OF COLUMBUS DISCOVERY OF THE WEST INDIES JOYOUS RECEPTION OF COLUMBUS HIS PROGRESS TO BARCELONA INTERVIEW WITH THE SOVEREIGNS SENSATIONS CAUSED BY THE DISCOVERY BOARD FOR INDIAN AFFAIRS REGULATIONS OF TRADE PREPARATIONS FOR A SECOND VOYAGE CONVERSION OF THE NATIVES NEW POWERS GRANTED TO COLUMBUS APPLICATION TO ROME FAMOUS BULLS OF ALEXANDER VI JEALOUSY OF THE COURT OF LISBON WARY DIPLOMACY SECOND VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS MISSION TO PORTUGAL DISGUST OF JOHN II TREATY OF TORDESILLAS

CHAPTER XIX. CASTILIAN LITERATURE.—CULTIVATION OF THE COURT.—CLASSICAL LEARNING.— SCIENCE. FERDINAND'S EDUCATION NEGLECTED INSTRUCTION OF ISABELLA HER COLLECTION OF BOOKS TUITION OF THE INFANTAS OF PRINCE JOHN THE QUEEN'S CARE FOR THE EDUCATION OF HER NOBLES LABORS OF MARTYR OF LUCIO MARINEO SCHOLARSHIP OF THE NOBLES ACCOMPLISHED WOMEN CLASSICAL LEARNING LEBRIJA ARIAS BARBOSA MERITS OF THE SPANISH SCHOLARS UNIVERSITIES SACRED STUDIES OTHER SCIENCES PRINTING INTRODUCED THE QUEEN ENCOURAGES IT ITS RAPID DIFFUSION ACTUAL PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

CHAPTER XX. CASTILIAN LITERATURE.—ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY.—LYRICAL POETRY.— THE DRAMA. THIS REIGN AN EPOCH IN POLITE LETTERS ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY THEIR PERNICIOUS EFFECTS BALLADS OR ROMANCES EARLY CULTIVATION IN SPAIN RESEMBLANCE TO THE ENGLISH MOORISH MINSTRELSY ITS DATE AND ORIGIN ITS HIGH REPUTE NUMEROUS EDITIONS OF THE BALLADS LYRIC POETRY CANCIONERO GENERAL ITS LITERARY VALUE LOW STATE OF LYRIC POETRY COPLAS OF MANRIQUE RISE OF THE SPANISH DRAMA TRAGICOMEDY OF CELESTINA CRITICISM ON IT IT OPENED THE WAY TO DRAMATIC WRITING NUMEROUS EDITIONS OF IT JUAN DE LA ENCINA HIS DRAMATIC ECLOGUES TORRES DE NAHARRO HIS COMEDIES SIMILAR IN SPIRIT WITH THE LATER DRAMAS NOT ACTED IN SPAIN LOW CONDITION OF THE STAGE TRAGIC DRAMA OLIVA'S CLASSIC IMITATIONS NOT POPULAR NATIONAL SPIRIT OF THE LITERATURE OF THIS EPOCH MORATIN'S DRAMATIC CRITICISM

PART SECOND.

THE PERIOD WHEN, THE INTERIOR ORGANIZATION OF THE MONARCHY HAVING BEEN COMPLETED, THE SPANISH NATION ENTERED ON ITS SCHEMES OF DISCOVERY AND CONQUEST; OR THE PERIOD ILLUSTRATING MORE PARTICULARLY THE FOREIGN POLICY OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA.

CHAPTER I. ITALIAN WARS.—GENERAL VIEW OF EUROPE.—INVASION OF ITALY BY CHARLES VIII., OF FRANCE. FOREIGN POLITICS DIRECTED BY FERDINAND EUROPE AT THE CLOSE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY CHARACTER OF THE REIGNING SOVEREIGNS IMPROVED POLITICAL AND MORAL CONDITION MORE INTIMATE RELATIONS BETWEEN STATES FOREIGN RELATIONS CONDUCTED BY THE SOVEREIGN ITALY THE SCHOOL OF POLITICS HER MOST POWERFUL STATES CHARACTER OF ITALIAN POLITICS INTERNAL PROSPERITY INTRIGUES OF SFORZA CHARLES VIII., OF FRANCE HIS PRETENSIONS TO NAPLES NEGOTIATIONS RESPECTING ROUSSILLON CHARLES'S COUNSELLORS IN THE PAY OP FERDINAND TREATY OF BARCELONA ITS IMPORTANCE TO SPAIN ALARM AT THE FRENCH INVASION, IN ITALY IN EUROPE, ESPECIALLY SPAIN PREPARATIONS OF CHARLES AN ENVOY SENT TO THE FRENCH COURT ANNOUNCES FERDINAND'S VIEWS CHARLES'S DISSATISFACTION THE FRENCH CROSS THE ALPS ITALIAN TACTICS THE SWISS INFANTRY FRENCH ARTILLERY SFORZA JEALOUS OF THE FRENCH THE POPE CONFERS THE TITLE OF CATHOLIC NAVAL PREPARATIONS IN SPAIN SECOND MISSION TO CHARLES VIII BOLD CONDUCT OF THE ENVOYS THE KING OF NAPLES FLIES TO SICILY THE FRENCH ENTER NAPLES GENERAL HOSTILITY TO THEM LEAGUE OF VENICE ZURITA'S LIFE AND WRITINGS

CHAPTER II. ITALIAN WARS.—RETREAT OF CHARLES VIII.—CAMPAIGNS OF GONSALVO DE CORDOVA.—FINAL EXPULSION OF THE FRENCH. CONDUCT OF CHARLES PLUNDERS THE WORKS OF ART RETREAT OF THE FRENCH GONSALVO DE CORDOVA HIS EARLY LIFE HIS BRILLIANT QUALITIES RAISED TO THE ITALIAN COMMAND ARRIVES IN ITALY LANDS IN CALABRIA MARCHES ON SEMINARA GONSALVO'S PRUDENCE BATTLE OF SEMINARA DEFEAT OF THE NEAPOLITANS GONSALVO RETREATS TO REGGIO FERDINAND RECOVERS HIS CAPITAL GONSALVO IN CALABRIA HIS SUCCESSES DECLINE OF THE FRENCH BESIEGED IN ATELLA GONSALVO SURPRISES LAINO ARRIVES BEFORE ATELLA RECEIVES THE TITLE OF GREAT CAPTAIN BEATS A DETACHMENT OF SWISS CAPITULATION OF MONTPENSIER MISERABLE STATE OF THE FRENCH DEATH OF FERDINAND OF NAPLES ACCESSION OF FREDERIC II TOTAL EXPULSION OF THE FRENCH REMARKS ON GUICCIARDINI AND GIOVIO SISMONDI

CHAPTER III. ITALIAN WARS.—GONSALVO SUCCORS THE POPE.—TREATY WITH FRANCE.— ORGANIZATION OF THE SPANISH MILITIA. WAR ON THE SIDE OF ROUSSILLON THE POPE ASKS THE AID OF GONSALVO STORMING AND CAPTURE OF OSTIA GONSALVO ENTERS ROME HIS RECEPTION BY THE POPE RETURNS TO SPAIN PEACE WITH FRANCE FERDINAND'S VIEWS RESPECTING NAPLES HIS FAME ACQUIRED BY THE WAR INFLUENCE OF THE WAR ON SPAIN ORGANIZATION OF THE MILITIA

CHAPTER IV. ALLIANCES OF THE ROYAL FAMILY.—DEATH OF PRINCE JOHN AND PRINCESS ISABELLA. ROYAL FAMILY OF CASTILE JOANNA BELTRANEJA MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCESS ISABELLA DEATH OF HER HUSBAND ALLIANCES WITH THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA AND THAT OF ENGLAND JOANNA EMBARKS THE QUEEN'S ANXIETY MARGARET OF AUSTRIA RETURNS IN THE FLEET MARRIAGE OF JOHN AND MARGARET SECOND MARRIAGE OF PRINCESS ISABELLA SUDDEN ILLNESS OF PRINCE JOHN HIS DEATH HIS AMIABLE CHARACTER THE KING AND QUEEN OF PORTUGAL VISIT SPAIN OBJECTIONS TO THEIR RECOGNITION ISABELLA DISPLEASED HER DAUGHTER'S DEATH ITS EFFECTS ON ISABELLA PRINCE MIGUEL'S RECOGNITION

CHAPTER V. DEATH OF CARDINAL MENDOZA.—RISE OF XIMENES.—ECCLESIASTICAL REFORM. DEATH OF MENDOZA HIS EARLY LIFE AND CHARACTER HIS AMOURS THE QUEEN HIS EXECUTOR BIRTH OF XIMENES HE VISITS ROME HIS RETURN AND IMPRISONMENT ESTABLISHED AT SIGUENZA ENTERS THE FRANCISCAN ORDER HIS SEVERE PENANCE HIS ASCETIC LIFE HE IS MADE GUARDIAN OF SALZEDA INTRODUCED TO THE QUEEN MADE HER CONFESSOR ELECTED PROVINCIAL CORRUPTION OF THE MONASTERIES ATTEMPTS AT REFORM SEE OF TOLEDO VACANT OFFERED TO XIMENES HE RELUCTANTLY ACCEPTS CHARACTERISTIC ANECDOTES OF XIMENES HIS AUSTERE LIFE REFORM IN HIS DIOCESE EXAMPLE OF HIS SEVERITY REFORM OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS GREAT EXCITEMENT CAUSED BY IT VISIT OF THE FRANCISCAN GENERAL INSULTS THE QUEEN THE POPE'S INTERFERENCE CONSENTS TO THE REFORM ITS OPERATION AND EFFECTS ALVARO GOMEZ, AND BIOGRAPHERS OF XIMENES

CHAPTER VI. XIMENES IN GRANADA.—PERSECUTION, INSURRECTION, AND CONVERSION OF THE MOORS. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS XIMENES, HIS CONSTANCY OF PURPOSE TRANQUIL STATE OF GRANADA TENDILLA TALAVERA ARCHBISHOP OF GRANADA HIS MILD POLICY THE CLERGY DISSATISFIED WITH IT TEMPERATE SWAY OF THE SOVEREIGNS XIMENES IN GRANADA HIS VIOLENT MEASURES DESTROYS ARABIC BOOKS MISCHIEVOUS EFFECTS REVOLT OF THE ALBAYCIN XIMENES BESIEGED IN HIS PALACE THE INSURGENTS APPEASED BY TALAVERA DISPLEASURE OF THE SOVEREIGNS XIMENES HASTENS TO COURT CONVERSION OP GRANADA APPLAUDED BY THE SPANIARDS

CHAPTER VII. RISING IN THE ALPUXARRAS.—DEATH OF ALONSO DE AGUILAR.—EDICT AGAINST THE MOORS. THE ALPUXARRAS RISING OF THE MOORS HUEJA SACKED FERDINAND MARCHES INTO THE MOUNTAINS CARRIES LANJARON PUNISHMENT OF THE REBELS REVOLT OF THE SIERRA VERMEJA RENDEZVOUS AT RONDA EXPEDITION INTO THE SIERRA THE MOORS RETREAT UP THE MOUNTAINS RETURN ON THE SPANIARDS ALONSO DE AGUILAR HIS GALLANTRY AND DEATH HIS NOBLE CHARACTER BLOODY ROUT OF THE SPANIARDS DISMAY OF THE NATION THE REBELS SUBMIT TO FERDINAND BANISHMENT OR CONVERSION COMMEMORATIVE BALLADS MELANCHOLY REMINISCENCES EDICT AGAINST THE MOORS OF CASTILE CHRISTIANITY AND MAHOMETANISM CAUSES OF INTOLERANCE AGGRAVATED IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY EFFECTS OF THE INQUISITION DEFECTS OF THE TREATY OF GRANADA EVASION OF IT BY THE CHRISTIANS PRIESTLY CASUISTRY LAST NOTICE OF THE MOORS IN THE PRESENT REIGN

CHAPTER VIII. COLUMBUS.—PROSECUTION OF DISCOVERY.—HIS TREATMENT BY THE COURT. PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY MISCONDUCT OF THE COLONISTS COMPLAINTS AGAINST COLUMBUS HIS SECOND RETURN THE QUEEN'S CONFIDENCE IN HIM UNSHAKEN HONORS CONFERRED ON HIM HIS THIRD VOYAGE DISCOVERS TERRA FIRMA MUTINY IN THE COLONY LOUD COMPLAINTS AGAINST COLUMBUS BIGOTED VIEWS IN REGARD TO THE HEATHEN MORE LIBERAL SENTIMENTS OF ISABELLA SHE SENDS BACK THE INDIAN SLAVES AUTHORITY TO BOBADILLA OUTRAGE ON COLUMBUS DEEP REGRET OF THE SOVEREIGNS RECEPTION OF COLUMBUS VINDICATION OF THE SOVEREIGNS COMMISSION TO OVANDO GROUNDLESS IMPUTATIONS ON THE GOVERNMENT THE ADMIRAL'S DESPONDENCY HIS FOURTH AND LAST VOYAGE REMARKABLE FATE OF HIS ENEMIES

CHAPTER IX. SPANISH COLONIAL POLICY. CAREFUL PROVISION FOR THE COLONIES LIBERAL GRANTS LICENSE FOR PRIVATE VOYAGES THEIR SUCCESS INDIAN DEPARTMENT CASA DE CONTRATACION IMPORTANT PAPAL CONCESSIONS SPIRIT OF THE COLONIAL LEGISLATION THE QUEEN'S ZEAL FOB CONVERTING THE NATIVES UNHAPPILY DEFEATED IMMEDIATE PROFITS FROM THE DISCOVERIES ORIGIN OF THE VENEREAL DISEASE MORAL CONSEQUENCES OP THE DISCOVERIES THEIR GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENT HISTORIANS OF THE NEW WORLD PETER MARTYR HERRERA AND MUNOZ



PART FIRST. [CONTINUED.]

CHAPTER XII.

INTERNAL AFFAIRS OF THE KINGDOM.—INQUISITION IN ARAGON.

1483-1487.

Isabella enforces the Laws.—Punishment of Ecclesiastics.—Inquisition in Aragon.—Remonstrances of the Cortes.—Conspiracy.—Assassination of the Inquisitor Arbues.—Cruel Persecutions.—Inquisition throughout Ferdinand's Dominions.

In such intervals of leisure as occurred amid their military operations, Ferdinand and Isabella were diligently occupied with the interior government of the kingdom, and especially with the rigid administration of justice, the most difficult of all duties in an imperfectly civilized state of society. The queen found especial demand for this in the northern provinces, whose rude inhabitants were little used to subordination. She compelled the great nobles to lay aside their arms, and refer their disputes to legal arbitration. She caused a number of the fortresses, which were still garrisoned by the baronial banditti, to be razed to the ground; and she enforced the utmost severity of the law against such inferior criminals as violated the public peace. [1]

Even ecclesiastical immunities, which proved so effectual a protection in most countries at this period, were not permitted to screen the offender. A remarkable instance of this occurred at the city of Truxillo, in 1486. An inhabitant of that place had been committed to prison for some offence by order of the civil magistrate. Certain priests, relations of the offender, alleged that his religious profession exempted him from all but ecclesiastical jurisdiction; and, as the authorities refused to deliver him up, they inflamed the populace to such a degree, by their representations of the insult offered to the church, that they rose in a body, and, forcing the prison, set at liberty not only the malefactor in question, but all those confined there. The queen no sooner heard of this outrage on the royal authority, than she sent a detachment of her guard to Truxillo, which secured the persons of the principal rioters, some of whom were capitally punished, while the ecclesiastics, who had stirred up the sedition, were banished the realm. Isabella, while by her example she inculcated the deepest reverence for the sacred profession, uniformly resisted every attempt from that quarter to encroach on the royal prerogative. The tendency of her administration was decidedly, as there will be occasion more particularly to notice, to abridge the authority which that body had exercised in civil matters under preceding reigns. [2]

Nothing of interest occurred in the foreign relations of the kingdom, during the period embraced by the preceding chapter; except perhaps the marriage of Catharine, the young queen of Navarre, with Jean d'Albret, a French nobleman, whose extensive hereditary domains, in the southwest corner of France, lay adjacent to her kingdom. This connection was extremely distasteful to the Spanish sovereigns, and indeed to many of the Navarrese, who were desirous of the alliance with Castile. This was ultimately defeated by the queen-mother, an artful woman, who, being of the blood royal of France, was naturally disposed to a union with that kingdom. Ferdinand did not neglect to maintain such an understanding with the malcontents of Navarre, as should enable him to counteract any undue advantage which the French monarch might derive from the possession of this key, as it were, to the Castilian territory. [3]

In Aragon, two circumstances took place in the period under review, deserving historical notice. The first relates to an order of the Catalan peasantry, denominated vassals de remenza. These persons were subjected to a feudal bondage, which had its origin in very remote ages, but which had become in no degree mitigated, while the peasantry of every other part of Europe had been gradually rising to the rank of freemen. The grievous nature of the impositions had led to repeated rebellions in preceding reigns. At length, Ferdinand, after many fruitless attempts at a mediation between these unfortunate people and their arrogant masters, prevailed on the latter, rather by force of authority than argument, to relinquish the extraordinary seignorial rights, which they had hitherto enjoyed, in consideration of a stipulated annual payment from their vassals. [4]

The other circumstance worthy of record, but not in like manner creditable to the character of the sovereign, is the introduction of the modern Inquisition into Aragon. The ancient tribunal had existed there, as has been stated in a previous chapter, since the middle of the thirteenth century, but seems to have lost all its venom in the atmosphere of that free country; scarcely assuming a jurisdiction beyond that of an ordinary ecclesiastical court. No sooner, however, was the institution organized on its new basis in Castile, than Ferdinand resolved on its introduction, in a similar form, in his own dominions.

Measures were accordingly taken to that effect in a meeting of a privy council convened by the king at Taracona, during the session of the cortes in that place, in April, 1484; and a royal order was issued, requiring all the constituted authorities throughout the kingdom to support the new tribunal in the exercise of its functions. A Dominican monk, Fray Gaspard Juglar, and Pedro Arbues de Epila, a canon of the metropolitan church, were appointed by the general, Torquemada, inquisitors over the diocese of Saragossa; and, in the month of September following, the chief justiciary and the other great officers of the realm took the prescribed oaths. [5]

The new institution, opposed to the ideas of independence common to all the Aragonese, was particularly offensive to the higher orders, many of whose members, including persons filling the most considerable official stations, were of Jewish descent, and of course precisely the class exposed to the scrutiny of the Inquisition. Without difficulty, therefore, the cortes was persuaded in the following year to send a deputation to the court of Rome, and another to Ferdinand, representing the repugnance of the new tribunal to the liberties of the nation, as well as to their settled opinions and habits, and praying that its operation might be suspended for the present, so far at least as concerned the confiscation of property, which it rightly regarded as the moving power of the whole terrible machinery. [6]

Both the pope and the king, as may be imagined, turned a deaf ear to these remonstrances. In the mean while the Inquisition commenced operations, and autos da fe were celebrated at Saragossa, with all their usual horrors, in the months of May and June, in 1485. The discontented Aragonese, despairing of redress in any regular way, resolved to intimidate their oppressors by some appalling act of violence. They formed a conspiracy for the assassination of Arbues, the most odious of the inquisitors established over the diocese of Saragossa. The conspiracy, set on foot by some of the principal nobility, was entered into by most of the new Christians, or persons of Jewish extraction in the district. A sum of ten thousand reals was subscribed to defray the necessary expenses for the execution of their project. This was not easy, however, since Arbues, conscious of the popular odium that he had incurred, protected his person by wearing under his monastic robes a suit of mail, complete even to the helmet beneath his hood. With similar vigilance, he defended, also, every avenue to his sleeping apartment. [7]

At length, however, the conspirators found an opportunity of surprising him while at his devotions. Arbues was on his knees before the great altar of the cathedral, near midnight, when his enemies, who had entered the church in two separate bodies, suddenly surrounded him, and one of them wounded him in the arm with a dagger, while another dealt him a fatal blow in the back of his neck. The priests, who were preparing to celebrate matins in the choir of the church, hastened to the spot; but not before the assassins had effected their escape. They transported the bleeding body of the inquisitor to his apartment, where he survived only two days, blessing the Lord that he had been permitted to seal so good a cause with his blood. The whole scene will readily remind the English reader of the assassination of Thomas a Becket. [8]

The event did not correspond with the expectations of the conspirators. Sectarian jealousy proved stronger than hatred of the Inquisition. The populace, ignorant of the extent or ultimate object of the conspiracy, were filled with vague apprehensions of an insurrection of the new Christians, who had so often been the objects of outrage; and they could only be appeased by the archbishop of Saragossa, riding through the streets, and proclaiming that no time should be lost in detecting and punishing the assassins.

This promise was abundantly fulfilled; and wide was the ruin occasioned by the indefatigable zeal, with which the bloodhounds of the tribunal followed up the scent. In the course of this persecution, two hundred individuals perished at the stake, and a still greater number in the dungeons of the Inquisition; and there was scarcely a noble family in Aragon but witnessed one or more of its members condemned to humiliating penance in the autos da fe. The immediate perpetrators of the murder were all hanged, after suffering the amputation of their right hands. One, who had appeared as evidence against the rest, under assurance of pardon, had his sentence so far commuted, that his hand was not cut off till after he had been hanged. It was thus that the Holy Office interpreted its promises of grace. [9]

Arbues received all the honors of a martyr. His ashes were interred on the spot where he had been assassinated. [10] A superb mausoleum was erected over them, and, beneath his effigy, a bas-relief was sculptured representing his tragical death, with an inscription containing a suitable denunciation of the race of Israel. And at length, when the lapse of nearly two centuries had supplied the requisite amount of miracles, the Spanish Inquisition had the glory of adding a new saint to the calendar, by the canonization of the martyr under Pope Alexander the Seventh, in 1664. [11]

The failure of the attempt to shake off the tribunal served only, as usual in such cases, to establish it more firmly than before. Efforts at resistance were subsequently, but ineffectually, made in other parts of Aragon, and in Valencia and Catalonia. It was not established in the latter province till 1487, and some years later in Sicily, Sardinia, and the Balearic Isles. Thus Ferdinand had the melancholy satisfaction of riveting the most galling yoke ever devised by fanaticism, round the necks of a people, who till that period had enjoyed probably the greatest degree of constitutional freedom which the world had witnessed.

FOOTNOTES

[1] Lebrija, Rerum Gestarum Decades, iii. lib. 1, cap. 10.—Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, part. 3, cap. 27, 39, 67, et alibi.—L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 175.—Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 348.

[2] Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 66.—A pertinent example of this occurred, December, 1485, at Alcala de Henares, where the court was detained during the queen's illness, who there gave birth to her youngest child, Dona Catalina, afterwards so celebrated in English history as Catharine of Aragon. A collision took place in this city between the royal judges and those of the archbishop of Toledo, to whose diocese it belonged. The later stoutly maintained the pretensions of the church. The queen with equal pertinacity asserted the supremacy of the royal jurisdiction over every other in the kingdom, secular or ecclesiastical. The affair was ultimately referred to the arbitration of certain learned men, named conjointly by the adverse parties. It was not then determined, however, and Pulgar has neglected to acquaint us with the award. Reyes Catolicos, cap. 53.—Carbajal, Anales, MS., ano 1485.

[3] Aleson, Annales de Navarra, tom. v. lib. 35, cap. 2.

[4] Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. cap. 52, 67.—Mariana, Hist. de Espana, lib. 25, cap. 8.

[5] Llorente, Hist. de l'Inquisition, tom. i. chap. 6, art. 2.—Zurita, Anales, lib. 20, cap. 65.

At this cortes, convened at Taracona, Ferdinand and Isabella experienced an instance of the haughty spirit of their Catalan subjects, who refused to attend, alleging it to be a violation of their liberties to be summoned to a place without the limits of their principality. The Valencians also protested, that their attendance should not operate as a precedent to their prejudice. It was usual to convene a central or general cortes at Fraga, or Monzon, or some town, which the Catalans, who were peculiarly jealous of their privileges, claimed to be within their territory. It was still more usual, to hold separate cortes of the three kingdoms simultaneously in such contiguous places in each, as would permit the royal presence in all during their session. See Blancas, Mode de Proceder en Cortes de Aragon, (Zaragoza, 1641,) cap. 4.

[6] By one of the articles in the Privilegium Generale, the Magna Charta of Aragon, it is declared, "Que turment: ni inquisicion; no sian en Aragon como sian contra Fuero el qual dize que alguna pesquisa no hauemos: et contra el privilegio general, el qual vieda que inquisicion so sia feyta." (Fueros y Observancias, fol. 11.) The tenor of this clause (although the term inquisicion must not be confounded with the name of the modern institution) was sufficiently precise, one might have thought, to secure the Aragonese from the fangs of this terrible tribunal.

[7] Llorente, Hist. de l'Inquisition, chap. 6, art. 2, 3.

[8] Llorente, ubi supra.—Paramo, De Origine Inquisitionis, pp. 182, 183. —Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii. pp. 37, 38.

[9] Llorente, Hist. de l'Inquisition, tom. i. chap. 6, art. 5.—Blancas, Aragonensium Rerum Commentarii, (Caesaraugustae, 1588,) p. 266. Among those, who after a tedious imprisonment were condemned to do penance in an auto da fe, was a nephew of King Ferdinand, Don James of Navarre. Mariana, willing to point the tale with a suitable moral, informs us, that, although none of the conspirators were ever brought to trial, they all perished miserably within a year, in different ways, by the judgment of God. (Hist. de Espana, tom. ii. p. 368.) Unfortunately for the effect of this moral, Llorente, who consulted the original processes, must be received as the better authority of the two.

[10] According to Paramo, when the corpse of the inquisitor was brought to the place where he had been assassinated, the blood, which had been coagulated on the pavement, smoked up and boiled with most miraculous fervor! De Origine Inquisitionis, p. 382.

[11] Paramo, De Origine Inquisitionis, p. 183.—Llorente, Hist. de l'Inquisition, chap. 6, art. 4. France and Italy also, according to Llorente, could each boast a saint inquisitor. Their renown, however, has been, eclipsed by the superior splendors of their great master, St. Dominic;

—"Fils inconnus d'un si glorieux pere."



CHAPTER XIII.

WAR OF GRANADA.—SURRENDER OF VELEZ MALAGA.—SIEGE AND CONQUEST OF MALAGA.

1487.

Narrow Escape of Ferdinand before Velez.—Malaga invested by Sea and Land.—Brilliant Spectacle.—The Queen visits the Camp.—Attempt to Assassinate the Sovereigns.—Distress and Resolution of the Besieged.— Enthusiasm of the Christians.—Outworks Carried by them.—Proposals for Surrender.—Haughty Demeanor of Ferdinand.—Malaga Surrenders at Discretion.—Cruel Policy of the Victors.

Before commencing operations against Malaga, it was thought expedient by the Spanish council of war to obtain possession of Velez Malaga, situated about five leagues distant from the former. This strong town stood along the southern extremity of a range of mountains that extend to Granada. Its position afforded an easy communication with that capital, and obvious means of annoyance to an enemy interposed between itself and the adjacent city of Malaga. The reduction of this place, therefore, became the first object of the campaign.

The forces assembled at Cordova, consisting of the levies of the Andalusian cities principally, of the retainers of the great nobility, and of the well-appointed chivalry which thronged from all quarters of the kingdom, amounted on this occasion to twelve thousand horse and forty thousand foot; a number, which sufficiently attests the unslackened ardor of the nation in the prosecution of the war. On the 7th of April, King Ferdinand, putting himself at the head of this formidable host, quitted the fair city of Cordova amid the cheering acclamations of its inhabitants, although these were somewhat damped by the ominous occurrence of an earthquake, which demolished a part of the royal residence, among other edifices, during the preceding night. The route, after traversing the Yeguas and the old town of Antequera, struck into a wild, hilly country, that stretches towards Velez. The rivers were so much swollen by excessive rains, and the passes so rough and difficult, that the army in part of its march advanced only a league a day; and on one occasion, when no suitable place occurred for encampment for the space of five leagues, the men fainted with exhaustion, and the beasts dropped down dead in the harness. At length, on the 17th of April, the Spanish army sat down before Velez Malaga, where in a few days they were joined by the lighter pieces of their battering ordnance; the roads, notwithstanding the immense labor expended on them, being found impracticable for the heavier. [1]

The Moors were aware of the importance of Velez to the security of Malaga. The sensation excited in Granada by the tidings of its danger was so strong, that the old chief, El Zagal, found it necessary to make an effort to relieve the beleaguered city, notwithstanding the critical posture in which his absence would leave his affairs in the capital. Dark clouds of the enemy were seen throughout the day mustering along the heights, which by night were illumined with a hundred fires. Ferdinand's utmost vigilance was required for the protection of his camp against the ambuscades and nocturnal sallies of his wily foe. At length, however, El Zagal, having been foiled in a well-concerted attempt to surprise the Christian quarters by night, was driven across the mountains by the marquis of Cadiz, and compelled to retreat on his capital, completely baffled in his enterprise. There the tidings of his disaster had preceded him. The fickle populace, with whom misfortune passes for misconduct, unmindful of his former successes, now hastened to transfer their allegiance to his rival, Abdallah, and closed the gates against him; and the unfortunate chief withdrew to Guadix, which, with Almeria, Baza, and some less considerable places, still remained faithful. [2]

Ferdinand conducted the siege all the while with his usual vigor, and spared no exposure of his person to peril or fatigue. On one occasion, seeing a party of Christians retreating in disorder before a squadron of the enemy, who had surprised them while fortifying an eminence near the city, the king, who was at dinner in his tent, rushed out with no other defensive armor than his cuirass, and, leaping on his horse, charged briskly into the midst of the enemy, and succeeded in rallying his own men. In the midst of the rencontre, however, when he had discharged his lance, he found himself unable to extricate his sword from the scabbard which hung from the saddle-bow. At this moment he was assaulted by several Moors, and must have been either slain or taken, but for the timely rescue of the marquis of Cadiz, and a brave cavalier, Garcilasso de la Vega, who, galloping up to the spot with their attendants, succeeded after a sharp skirmish in beating off the enemy. Ferdinand's nobles remonstrated with him on this wanton exposure of his person, representing that he could serve them more effectually with his head than his hand. But he answered, that "he could not stop to calculate chances, when his subjects were perilling their lives for his sake;" a reply, says Pulgar, which endeared him to the whole army. [3]

At length, the inhabitants of Velez, seeing the ruin impending from the bombardment of the Christians, whose rigorous blockade both by sea and land excluded all hopes of relief from without, consented to capitulate on the usual conditions of security to persons, property, and religion. The capitulation of this place, April 27th, 1487, was followed by that of more than twenty places of inferior note lying between it and Malaga, so that the approaches to this latter city were now left open to the victorious Spaniards. [4]

This ancient city, which, under the Spanish Arabs in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, formed the capital of an independent principality, was second only to the metropolis itself, in the kingdom of Granada. Its fruitful environs furnished abundant articles of export, while its commodious port on the Mediterranean opened a traffic with the various countries washed by that inland sea, and with the remoter regions of India. Owing to these advantages, the inhabitants acquired unbounded opulence, which showed itself in the embellishments of their city, whose light forms of architecture, mingling after the eastern fashion with odoriferous gardens and fountains of sparkling water, presented an appearance most refreshing to the senses in this sultry climate. [5]

The city was encompassed by fortifications of great strength, and in perfect repair. It was commanded by a citadel, connected by a covered way with a second fortress impregnable from its position, denominated Gebalfaro, which stood along the declivities of the bold sierra of the Axarquia, whose defiles had proved so disastrous to the Christians. The city lay between two spacious suburbs, the one on the land side being also encircled by a formidable wall; and the other declining towards the sea, showing an expanse of olive, orange, and pomegranate gardens, intermingled with the rich vineyards that furnished the celebrated staple for its export.

Malaga was well prepared for a siege by supplies of artillery and ammunition. Its ordinary garrison was reinforced by volunteers from the neighboring towns, and by a corps of African mercenaries, Gomeres, as they were called, men of ferocious temper, but of tried valor and military discipline. The command of this important post had been intrusted by El Zagal to a noble Moor, named Hamet Zeli, whose renown in the present war had been established by his resolute defence of Ronda. [6]

Ferdinand, while lying before Velez, received intelligence that many of the wealthy burghers of Malaga were inclined to capitulate at once, rather than hazard the demolition of their city by an obstinate resistance. He instructed the marquis of Cadiz, therefore, to open a negotiation with Hamet Zeli, authorizing him to make the most liberal offers to the alcayde himself, as well as his garrison, and the principal citizens of the place, on condition of immediate surrender. The sturdy chief, however, rejected the proposal with disdain, replying, that he had been commissioned by his master to defend the place to the last extremity, and that the Christian king could not offer a bribe large enough to make him betray his trust. Ferdinand, finding little prospect of operating on this Spartan temper, broke up his camp before Velez, on the 7th of May, and advanced with his whole army as far as Bezmillana, a place on the seaboard about two leagues distant from Malaga. [7]

The line of march now lay through a valley commanded at the extremity nearest the city by two eminences; the one on the sea-coast, the other facing the fortress of the Gebalfaro, and forming part of the wild sierra which overshadowed Malaga on the north. The enemy occupied both these important positions. A corps of Galicians were sent forward to dislodge them from the eminence towards the sea. But it failed in the assault, and, notwithstanding it was led up a second time by the commander of Leon and the brave Garcilasso de la Vega, [8] was again repulsed by the intrepid foe.

A similar fate attended the assault on the sierra, which was conducted by the troops of the royal household. They were driven back on the vanguard, which had halted in the valley under command of the grand master of St. James, prepared to support the attack on either side. Being reinforced, the Spaniards returned to the charge with the most determined resolution. They were encountered by the enemy with equal spirit. The latter, throwing away their lances, precipitated themselves on the ranks of the assailants, making use only of their daggers, grappling closely man to man, till both rolled promiscuously together down the steep sides of the ravine. No mercy was asked or shown. None thought of sparing or of spoiling, for hatred, says the chronicler, was stronger than avarice. The main body of the army, in the mean while, pent up in the valley, were compelled to witness the mortal conflict, and listen to the exulting cries of the enemy, which, after the Moorish custom, rose high and shrill above the din of battle, without being able to advance a step in support of their companions, who were again forced to give way before their impetuous adversaries, and fall back on the vanguard under the grand master of St. James. Here, however, they speedily rallied; and, being reinforced, advanced to the charge a third time, with such inflexible courage as bore down all opposition, and compelled the enemy, exhausted, or rather overpowered by superior numbers, to abandon his position. At the same time the rising ground on the seaside was carried by the Spaniards under the commander of Leon and Garcilasso de la Vega, who, dividing their forces, charged the Moors so briskly in front and rear, that they were compelled to retreat on the neighboring fortress of Gebalfaro. [9]

As it was evening before these advantages were obtained, the army did not defile into the plains around Malaga before the following morning, when dispositions were made for its encampment. The eminence on the sierra, so bravely contested, was assigned as the post of greatest danger to the marquis duke of Cadiz. It was protected by strong works lined with artillery, and a corps of two thousand five hundred horse and fourteen thousand foot was placed under the immediate command of that nobleman. A line of defence was constructed along the declivity from this redoubt to the seashore. Similar works, consisting of a deep trench and palisades, or, where the soil was too rocky to admit of them, of an embankment or mound of earth, were formed in front of the encampment, which embraced the whole circuit of the city; and the blockade was completed by a fleet of armed vessels, galleys and caravels, which rode in the harbor under the command of the Catalan admiral, Requesens, and effectually cut off all communication by water. [10]

The old chronicler Bernaldez warms at the aspect of the fair city of Malaga, thus encompassed by Christian legions, whose deep lines, stretching far over hill and valley, reached quite round from one arm of the sea to the other. In the midst of this brilliant encampment was seen the royal pavilion, proudly displaying the united banners of Castile and Aragon, and forming so conspicuous a mark for the enemy's artillery, that Ferdinand, after imminent hazard, was at length compelled to shift his quarters. The Christians were not slow in erecting counter-batteries; but the work was obliged to be carried on at night, in order to screen them from the fire of the besieged. [11]

The first operations of the Spaniards were directed against the suburb, on the land side of the city. The attack was intrusted to the count of Cifuentes, the nobleman who had been made prisoner in the affair of the Axarquia, and subsequently ransomed. The Spanish ordnance was served with such effect, that a practicable breach was soon made in the wall. The combatants now poured their murderous volleys on each other through the opening, and at length met on the ruins of the breach. After a desperate struggle the Moors gave way. The Christians rushed into the enclosure, at the same time effecting a lodgment on the rampart; and, although a part of it, undermined by the enemy, gave way with a terrible crash, they still kept possession of the remainder, and at length drove their antagonists, who sullenly retreated step by step, within the fortifications of the city. The lines were then drawn close around the place. Every avenue of communication was strictly guarded, and every preparation was made for reducing the town by regular blockade. [12]

In addition to the cannon brought round by water from Velez, the heavier lombards, which from the difficulty of transportation had been left during the late Siege at Antequera, were now conducted across roads, levelled for the purpose, to the camp. Supplies of marble bullets were also brought from the ancient and depopulated city of Algezira, where they had lain ever since its capture in the preceding century by Alfonso the Eleventh. The camp was filled with operatives, employed in the manufacture of balls and powder, which were stored in subterranean magazines, and in the fabrication of those various kinds of battering enginery, which continued in use long after the introduction of gunpowder. [13]

During the early part of the siege, the camp experienced some temporary inconvenience from the occasional interruption of the supplies transported by water. Rumors of the appearance of the plague in some of the adjacent villages caused additional uneasiness; and deserters, who passed into Malaga, reported these particulars with the usual exaggeration, and encouraged the besieged to persevere, by the assurance that Ferdinand could not much longer keep the field, and that the queen had actually written to advise his breaking up the camp. Under these circumstances, Ferdinand saw at once the importance of the queen's presence in order to dispel the delusion of the enemy, and to give new heart to his soldiers. He accordingly sent a message to Cordova, where she was holding her court, requesting her appearance in the camp.

Isabella had proposed to join her husband before Velez, on receiving tidings of El Zagal's march from Granada, and had actually enforced levies of all persons capable of bearing arms, between twenty and seventy years of age, throughout Andalusia, but subsequently disbanded them, on learning the discomfiture of the Moorish army. Without hesitation, she now set forward, accompanied by the cardinal of Spain and other dignitaries of the church, together with the infanta Isabella, and a courtly train of ladies and cavaliers in attendance on her person. She was received at a short distance from the camp by the marquis of Cadiz and the grand master of St. James, and escorted to her quarters amidst the enthusiastic greetings of the soldiery. Hope now brightened every countenance. A grace seemed to be shed over the rugged features of war; and the young gallants thronged from all quarters to the camp, eager to win the guerdon of valor from the hands of those from whom it is most grateful to receive it. [14]

Ferdinand, who had hitherto brought into action only the lighter pieces of ordnance, from a willingness to spare the noble edifices of the city, now pointed his heaviest guns against its walls. Before opening his fire, however, he again summoned the place, offering the usual liberal terms in case of immediate, compliance, and engaging otherwise, "with the blessing of God, to make them all slaves"! But the heart of the alcayde was hardened like that of Pharaoh, says the Andalusian chronicler, and the people were swelled with vain hopes, so that their ears were closed against the proposal; orders were even issued to punish with death any attempt at a parley. On the contrary, they made answer by a more lively cannonade than before, along the whole line of ramparts and fortresses which overhung the city. Sallies were also made at almost every hour of the day and night on every assailable point of the Christian lines, so that the camp was kept in perpetual alarm. In one of the nocturnal sallies, a body of two thousand men from the castle of Gebalfaro succeeded in surprising the quarters of the marquis of Cadiz, who, with his followers, was exhausted by fatigue and watching, during the two preceding nights. The Christians, bewildered with the sudden tumult which broke their slumber, were thrown into the greatest confusion; and the marquis, who rushed half armed from his tent, found no little difficulty in bringing them to order, and beating off the assailants, after receiving a wound in the arm from an arrow; while he had a still narrower escape from the ball of an arquebus, that penetrated his buckler and hit him below the cuirass, but fortunately so much spent as to do him no injury. [15]

The Moors were not unmindful of the importance of Malaga, or the gallantry with which it was defended. They made several attempts to relieve it, whose failure was less owing to the Christians than to treachery and their own miserable feuds. A body of cavalry, which El Zagal despatched from Guadix to throw succors into the beleaguered city, was encountered and cut to pieces by a superior force of the young king Abdallah, who consummated his baseness by sending an embassy to the Christian camp, charged with a present of Arabian horses sumptuously caparisoned to Ferdinand, and of costly silks and Oriental perfumes to the queen; at the same time complimenting them on their successes, and soliciting the continuance of their friendly dispositions towards himself. Ferdinand and Isabella requited this act of humiliation by securing to Abdallah's subjects the right of cultivating their fields in quiet, and of trafficking with the Spaniards in every commodity, save military stores. At this paltry price did the dastard prince consent to stay his arm, at the only moment when it could be used effectually for his country. [16]

More serious consequences were like to have resulted from an attempt made by another party of Moors from Guadix to penetrate the Christian lines. Part of them succeeded, and threw themselves into the besieged city. The remainder were cut in pieces. There was one, however, who, making no show of resistance, was made prisoner without harm to his person. Being brought before the marquis of Cadiz, he informed that nobleman, that he could make some important disclosures to the sovereigns. He was accordingly conducted to the royal tent; but, as Ferdinand was taking his siesta, in the sultry hour of the day, the queen, moved by divine inspiration, according to the Castilian historian, deferred the audience till her husband should awake, and commanded the prisoner to be detained in the adjoining tent. This was occupied by Dona Beatrix de Bobadilla, marchioness of Moya, Isabella's early friend, who happened to be at that time engaged in discourse with a Portuguese nobleman, Don Alvaro, son of the duke of Braganza. [17]

The Moor did not understand the Castilian language, and, deceived by the rich attire and courtly bearing of these personages, he mistook them for the king and queen. While in the act of refreshing himself with a glass of water, he suddenly drew a dagger from beneath the broad folds of his albornoz, or Moorish mantle, which he had been incautiously suffered to retain, and, darting on the Portuguese prince, gave him a deep wound on the head; and then, turning like lightning on the marchioness, aimed a stroke at her, which fortunately glanced without injury, the point of the weapon being turned by the heavy embroidery of her robes. Before he could repeat his blow, the Moorish Scaevola, with a fate very different from that of his Roman prototype, was pierced with a hundred wounds by the attendants, who rushed to the spot, alarmed by the cries of the marchioness, and his mangled remains were soon after discharged from a catapult into the city; a foolish bravado, which the besieged requited by slaying a Galician gentleman, and sending his corpse astride upon a mule through the gates of the town into the Christian camp. [18]

This daring attempt on the lives of the king and queen spread general consternation throughout the army. Precautions were taken for the future, by ordinances prohibiting the introduction of any unknown person armed, or any Moor whatever, into the royal quarters; and the bodyguard was augmented by the addition of two hundred hidalgos of Castile and Aragon, who, with their retainers, were to keep constant watch over the persons of the sovereigns.

Meanwhile, the city of Malaga, whose natural population was greatly swelled by the influx of its foreign auxiliaries, began to be straitened for supplies, while its distress was aggravated by the spectacle of abundance which reigned throughout the Spanish camp. Still, however, the people, overawed by the soldiery, did not break out into murmurs, nor did they relax in any degree the pertinacity of their resistance. Their drooping spirits were cheered by the predictions of a fanatic, who promised that they should eat the grain which they saw in the Christian camp; a prediction, which came to be verified, like most others that are verified at all, in a very different sense from that intended or understood.

The incessant cannonade kept up by the besieging army, in the mean time, so far exhausted their ammunition, that they were constrained to seek supplies from the most distant parts of the kingdom, and from foreign countries. The arrival of two Flemish transports at this juncture, from the emperor of Germany, whose interest had been roused in the crusade, afforded a seasonable reinforcement of military stores and munitions.

The obstinate defence of Malaga had given the siege such celebrity, that volunteers, eager to share in it, flocked from all parts of the Peninsula to the royal standard. Among others, the duke of Medina Sidonia, who had furnished his quota of troops at the opening of the campaign, now arrived in person with a reinforcement, together with a hundred galleys freighted with supplies, and a loan of twenty thousand doblas of gold to the sovereigns for the expenses of the war. Such was the deep interest in it excited throughout the nation, and the alacrity which every order of men exhibited in supporting its enormous burdens. [19]

The Castilian army, swelled by these daily augmentations, varied in its amount, according to different estimates, from sixty to ninety thousand men. Throughout this immense host, the most perfect discipline was maintained. Gaming was restrained by ordinances interdicting the use of dice and cards, of which the lower orders were passionately fond. Blasphemy was severely punished. Prostitutes, the common pest of a camp, were excluded; and so entire was the subordination, that not a knife was drawn, and scarcely a brawl occurred, says the historian, among the motley multitude. Besides the higher ecclesiastics who attended the court, the camp was well supplied with holy men, priests, friars, and the chaplains of the great nobility, who performed the exercises of religion in their respective quarters with all the pomp and splendor of the Roman Catholic worship; exalting the imaginations of the soldiers into the high devotional feeling, which became those who were fighting the battles of the Cross. [20]

Hitherto, Ferdinand, relying on the blockade, and yielding to the queen's desire to spare the lives of her soldiers, had formed no regular plan of assault upon the town. But, as the season rolled on without the least demonstration of submission on the part of the besieged, he resolved to storm the works, which, if attended by no other consequences, might at least serve to distress the enemy, and hasten the hour of surrender. Large wooden towers on rollers were accordingly constructed, and provided with an apparatus of drawbridges and ladders, which, when brought near to the ramparts, would open a descent into the city. Galleries were also wrought, some for the purpose of penetrating into the place, and others to sap the foundations of the walls. The whole of these operations was placed under the direction of Francisco Ramirez, the celebrated engineer of Madrid.

But the Moors anticipated the completion of these formidable preparations by a brisk, well-concerted attack on all points of the Spanish lines. They countermined the assailants, and, encountering them in the subterraneous passages, drove them back, and demolished the frame-work of the galleries. At the same time, a little squadron of armed vessels, which had been riding in safety under the guns of the city, pushed out and engaged the Spanish fleet. Thus the battle raged with fire and sword, above and under ground, along the ramparts, the ocean, and the land, at the same time. Even Pulgar cannot withhold his tribute of admiration to this unconquerable spirit in an enemy, wasted by all the extremities of famine and fatigue. "Who does not marvel," he says, "at the bold heart of these infidels in battle, their prompt obedience to their chiefs, their dexterity in the wiles of war, their patience under privation, and undaunted perseverance in their purposes?" [21]

A circumstance occurred in a sortie from the city, indicating a trait of character worth recording. A noble Moor, named Abrahen Zenete, fell in with a number of Spanish children who had wandered from their quarters. Without injuring them, he touched them gently with the handle of his lance, saying, "Get ye gone, varlets, to your mothers." On being rebuked by his comrades, who inquired why he had let them escape so easily, he replied, "Because I saw no beard upon their chins." "An example of magnanimity," says the Curate of Los Palacios, "truly wonderful in a heathen, and which might have reflected credit on a Christian hidalgo." [22]

But no virtue nor valor could avail the unfortunate Malagans against the overwhelming force of their enemies, who, driving them back from every point, compelled them, after a desperate struggle of six hours, to shelter themselves within the defences of the town. The Christians followed up their success. A mine was sprung near a tower, connected by a bridge of four arches with the main works of the place. The Moors, scattered and intimidated by the explosion, retreated across the bridge, and the Spaniards, carrying the tower, whose guns completely enfiladed it, obtained possession of this important pass into the beleaguered city. For these and other signal services during the siege, Francisco Ramirez, the master of the ordnance, received the honors of knighthood from the hand of King Ferdinand. [23]

The citizens of Malaga, dismayed at beholding the enemy established in their defences, and fainting under exhaustion from a siege which had already lasted more than three months, now began to murmur at the obstinacy of the garrison, and to demand a capitulation. Their magazines of grain were emptied, and for some weeks they had been compelled to devour the flesh of horses, dogs, cats, and even the boiled hides of these animals, or, in default of other nutriment, vine leaves dressed with oil, and leaves of the palm tree, pounded fine, and baked into a sort of cake. In consequence of this loathsome and unwholesome diet, diseases were engendered. Multitudes were seen dying about the streets. Many deserted to the Spanish camp, eager to barter their liberty for bread; and the city exhibited all the extremes of squalid and disgusting wretchedness, bred by pestilence and famine among an overcrowded population. The sufferings of the citizens softened the stern heart of the alcayde, Hamet Zeli, who at length yielded to their importunities, and, withdrawing his forces into the Gebalfaro, consented that the Malagans should make the best terms they could with their conqueror.

A deputation of the principal inhabitants, with an eminent merchant named Ali Dordux at their head, was then despatched to the Christian quarters, with the offer of the city to capitulate, on the same liberal conditions which had been uniformly granted by the Spaniards. The king refused to admit the embassy into his presence, and haughtily answered through the commander of Leon, "that these terms had been twice offered to the people of Malaga, and rejected; that it was too late for them to stipulate conditions, and nothing now remained but to abide by those which he, as their conqueror, should vouchsafe to them." [24]

Ferdinand's answer spread general consternation throughout Malaga. The inhabitants saw too plainly that nothing was to be hoped from an appeal to sentiments of humanity. After a tumultuous debate, the deputies were despatched a second time to the Christian camp, charged with propositions in which concession was mingled with menace. They represented that the severe response of King Ferdinand to the citizens had rendered them desperate. That, however, they were willing to resign to him their fortifications, their city, in short, their property of every description, on his assurance of their personal security and freedom. If he refused this, they would take their Christian captives, amounting to five or six hundred, from the dungeons in which they lay, and hang them like dogs over the battlements; and then, placing their old men, women, and children in the fortress, they would set fire to the town, and cut a way for themselves through their enemies, or fall in the attempt. "So," they continued, "if you gain a victory, it shall be such a one as shall make the name of Malaga ring throughout the world, and to ages yet unborn!" Ferdinand, unmoved by these menaces, coolly replied, that he saw no occasion to change his former determination; but they might rest assured, if they harmed a single hair of a Christian, he would put every soul in the place, man, woman, and child, to the sword.

The anxious people, who thronged forth to meet the embassy on its return to the city, were overwhelmed with the deepest gloom at its ominous tidings. Their fate was now sealed. Every avenue to hope seemed closed by the stern response of the victor. Yet hope will still linger; and, although there were some frantic enough to urge the execution of their desperate menaces, the greater number of the inhabitants, and among them those most considerable for wealth and influence, preferred the chance of Ferdinand's clemency to certain, irretrievable ruin.

For the last time, therefore, the deputies issued from the gates of the city, charged with an epistle to the sovereigns from their unfortunate countrymen, in which, after deprecating their anger, and lamenting their own blind obstinacy, they reminded their highnesses of the liberal terms which their ancestors had granted to Cordova, Antequera, and other cities, after a defence as pertinacious as their own. They expatiated on the fame which the sovereigns had established by the generous policy of their past conquests, and, appealing to their magnanimity, concluded with submitting themselves, their families, and their fortunes to their disposal. Twenty of the principal citizens were then delivered up as hostages for the peaceable demeanor of the city until its occupation by the Spaniards. "Thus," says the Curate of Los Palacios, "did the Almighty harden the hearts of these heathen, like to those of the Egyptians, in order that they might receive the full wages of the manifold oppressions which they had wrought on his people, from the days of King Roderic to the present time." [25]

On the appointed day, the commander of Leon rode through the gates of Malaga, at the head of his well-appointed chivalry, and took possession of the alcazaba, or lower citadel. The troops were then posted on their respective stations along the fortifications, and the banners of Christian Spain triumphantly unfurled from the towers of the city, where the crescent had been displayed for an uninterrupted period of nearly eight centuries.

The first act was to purify the town from the numerous dead bodies, and other offensive matter, which had accumulated during this long siege, and lay festering in the streets, poisoning the atmosphere. The principal mosque was next consecrated with due solemnity to the service of Santa Maria de la Encarnacion. Crosses and bells, the symbols of Christian worship, were distributed in profusion among the sacred edifices; where, says the Catholic chronicler last quoted, "the celestial music of their chimes, sounding at every hour of the day and night, caused perpetual torment to the ears of the infidel." [26]

On the eighteenth day of August, being somewhat more than three months from the date of opening trenches, Ferdinand and Isabella made their entrance into the conquered city, attended by the court, the clergy, and the whole of their military array. The procession moved in solemn state up the principal streets, now deserted, and hushed in ominous silence, to the new cathedral of St. Mary, where mass was performed; and as the glorious anthem of the Te Deum rose for the first time within its ancient walls, the sovereigns, together with the whole army, prostrated themselves in grateful adoration of the Lord of hosts, who had thus reinstated them in the domains of their ancestors.

The most affecting incident was afforded by the multitude of Christian captives, who were rescued from the Moorish dungeons. They were brought before the sovereigns, with their limbs heavily manacled, their beards descending to their waists, and their sallow visages emaciated by captivity and famine. Every eye was suffused with tears at the spectacle. Many recognized their ancient friends, of whose fate they had long been ignorant. Some, had lingered in captivity ten or fifteen years; and among them were several belonging to the best families in Spain. On entering the presence, they would have testified their gratitude by throwing themselves at the feet of the sovereigns; but the latter, raising them up and mingling their tears with those of the liberated captives, caused their fetters to be removed, and, after administering to their necessities, dismissed them with liberal presents. [27]

The fortress of Gebalfaro surrendered on the day after the occupation of Malaga by the Spaniards. The gallant Zegri chieftain, Hamet Zeli, was loaded with chains; and, being asked why he had persisted so obstinately in his rebellion, boldly answered, "Because I was commissioned to defend the place to the last extremity; and, if I had been properly supported, I would have died sooner than surrender now!"

The doom of the vanquished was now to be pronounced. On entering the city, orders had been issued to the Spanish soldiery, prohibiting them under the severest penalties from molesting either the persons or property of the inhabitants. These latter were directed to remain in their respective mansions with a guard set over them, while the cravings of appetite were supplied by a liberal distribution of food. At length, the whole population of the city, comprehending every age and sex, was commanded to repair to the great courtyard of the alcazaba, which was overlooked on all sides by lofty ramparts garrisoned by the Spanish soldiery. To this place, the scene of many a Moorish triumph, where the spoil of the border foray had been often displayed, and which still might be emblazoned with the trophy of many a Christian banner, the people of Malaga now directed their steps. As the multitude swarmed through the streets, filled with boding apprehensions of their fate, they wrung their hands, and, raising their eyes to heaven, uttered the most piteous lamentations. "Oh, Malaga," they cried, "renowned and beautiful city, how are thy sons about to forsake thee! Could not thy soil, on which they first drew breath, be suffered to cover them in death? Where is now the strength of thy towers, where the beauty of thy edifices? The strength of thy walls, alas, could not avail thy children, for they had sorely displeased their Creator. What shall become of thy old men and thy matrons, or of thy young maidens delicately nurtured within thy halls, when they shall feel the iron yoke of bondage? Can thy barbarous conquerors without remorse thus tear asunder the dearest ties of life?" Such are the melancholy strains, in which the Castilian chronicler has given utterance to the sorrows of the captive city. [28]

The dreadful doom of slavery was denounced on the assembled multitude. One-third was to be transported into Africa in exchange for an equal number of Christian captives detained there; and all, who had relatives or friends in this predicament, were required to furnish a specification of them. Another third was appropriated to reimburse the state for the expenses of the war. The remainder were to be distributed as presents at home and abroad. Thus, one hundred of the flower of the African warriors were sent to the pope, who incorporated them into his guard, and converted them all in the course of the year, says the Curate of Los Palacios, into very good Christians. Fifty of the most beautiful Moorish girls were presented by Isabella to the queen of Naples, thirty to the queen of Portugal, others to the ladies of her court; and the residue of both sexes were apportioned among the nobles, cavaliers, and inferior members of the army, according to their respective rank and services. [29]

As it was apprehended that the Malagans, rendered desperate by the prospect of a hopeless, interminable captivity, might destroy or secrete their jewels, plate, and other precious effects, in which this wealthy city abounded, rather than suffer them to fall into the hands of their enemies, Ferdinand devised a politic expedient for preventing it. He proclaimed that he would receive a certain sum, if paid within nine months, as the ransom of the whole population, and that their personal effects should be admitted in part payment. This sum averaged about thirty doblas a head, including in the estimate all those who might die before the determination of the period assigned. The ransom, thus stipulated, proved more than the unhappy people could raise, either by themselves, or agents employed to solicit contributions among their brethren of Granada and Africa; at the same time, it so far deluded their hopes, that they gave in a full inventory of their effects to the treasury. By this shrewd device, Ferdinand obtained complete possession both of the persons and property of his victims. [30]

Malaga was computed to contain from eleven to fifteen thousand inhabitants, exclusive of several thousand foreign auxiliaries, within its gates at the time of surrender. One cannot, at this day, read the melancholy details of its story, without feelings of horror and indignation. It is impossible to vindicate the dreadful sentence passed on this unfortunate people for a display of heroism, which should have excited admiration in every generous bosom. It was obviously most repugnant to Isabella's natural disposition, and must be admitted to leave a stain on her memory, which no coloring of history can conceal. It may find some palliation, however, in the bigotry of the age, the more excusable in a woman whom education, general example, and natural distrust of herself accustomed to rely, in matters of conscience, on the spiritual guides, whose piety and professional learning seemed to qualify them for the trust. Even in this very transaction, she fell far short of the suggestions of some of her counsellors, who urged her to put every inhabitant without exception to the sword; which, they affirmed, would be a just requital of their obstinate rebellion, and would prove a wholesome warning to others! We are not told who the advisers of this precious measure were; but the whole experience of this reign shows, that we shall scarcely wrong the clergy much by imputing it to them. That their arguments could warp so enlightened a mind, as that of Isabella, from the natural principles of justice and humanity, furnishes a remarkable proof of the ascendency which the priesthood usurped over the most gifted intellects, and of their gross abuse of it, before the Reformation, by breaking the seals set on the sacred volume, opened to mankind the uncorrupted channel of divine truth. [31]

The fate of Malaga may be said to have decided that of Granada. The latter was now shut out from the most important ports along her coast; and she was environed on every point of her territory by her warlike foe, so that she could hardly hope more from subsequent efforts, however strenuous and united, than to postpone the inevitable hour of dissolution. The cruel treatment of Malaga was the prelude to the long series of persecutions, which awaited the wretched Moslems in the land of their ancestors; in that land, over which the "star of Islamism," to borrow their own metaphor, had shone in full brightness for nearly eight centuries, but where it was now fast descending amid clouds and tempests to the horizon.

The first care of the sovereigns was directed towards repeopling the depopulated city with their own subjects. Houses and lands were freely granted to such as would settle there. Numerous towns and villages with a wide circuit of territory were placed under its civil jurisdiction, and it was made the head of a diocese embracing most of the recent conquests in the south and west of Granada. These inducements, combined with the natural advantages of position and climate, soon caused the tide of Christian population to flow into the deserted city; but it was very long before it again reached the degree of commercial consequence to which it had been raised by the Moors. [32]

After these salutary arrangements, the Spanish sovereigns led back their victorious legions in triumph to Cordova, whence dispersing to their various homes, they prepared, by a winter's repose, for new campaigns and more brilliant conquests.

FOOTNOTES

[1] Vedmar, Antiguedad y Grandezas de la Ciudad de Velez, (Granada, 1652,) fol. 148.—Mariana, Hist. de Espana, tom. ii. lib. 27, cap. 10.—Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, part. iii. cap. 70.—Carbajal, Anales, MS., ano 1487.— Bleda, Coronica, lib. 5, cap. 14.

[2] Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii. pp. 292-294.— Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, ubi supra.—Vedmar, Antiguedad de Velez, fol. 151.

[3] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 175.—Vedmar, Antiguedad.—de Velez, fol. 150, 151.—Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 14.

In commemoration of this event, the city incorporated into its escutcheon the figure of a king on horseback, in the act of piercing a Moor with his javelin. Vedmar, Antiguedad de Velez, fol. 12.

[4] Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 52.—Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 14.

[5] Conde doubts whether the name of Malaga is derived from the Greek malake, signifying "agreeable," or the Arabic malka, meaning "royal." Either etymology is sufficiently pertinent. (See El Nubiense, Descripcion de Espana, p. 186, not.) For notices of sovereigns who swayed the sceptre of Malaga, see Casiri, Bibliotheca Escurialensis, tom. ii. pp. 41, 56, 99, et alibi.

[6] Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. p. 237.—Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 74.—El Nubiense, Descripcion de Espana, not., p. 144.

[7] Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 82.—Vedmar, Antiguedad de Velez, fol. 154.—Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 74.

[8] This cavalier, who took a conspicuous part both in the military and civil transactions of this reign, was descended from one of the most ancient and honorable houses in Castile. Hyta, (Guerras Civiles de Granada, tom. i. p. 399,) with more effrontery than usual, has imputed to him a chivalrous rencontre with a Saracen, which is recorded of an ancestor, in the ancient Chronicle of Alonso XI.

"Garcilaso de la Vega desde alli se ha intitulado, porque en la Vega hiciera campo con aquel pagano."

Oviedo, however, with good reason, distrusts the etymology and the story, as he traces both the cognomen and the peculiar device of the family to a much older date than the period assigned in the Chronicle. Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 3, dial. 43.

[9] Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 75.—Salazar de Mendoza, Cron. del Gran Cardenal, lib. 1, cap. 64.

[10] Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 83.—Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 76.—Carbajal, Anales, MS., ano 1487.

[11] Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, ubi supra.—Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., ubi supra.

[12] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 1, epist. 83—Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 76.—Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 83.—Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 36.

[13] Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 76.

[14] Salazar de Mendoza, Cron. del Gran Cardenal, lib. 1, cap. 64.— Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. cap. 70.—Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 83.

[15] Bleda, Coronica, lib. 5, cap. 15.—Conde, Dominacion, tom. iv. pp. 237, 238.—Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 83.—Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 79.

[16] Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, ubi supra.

During the siege, ambassadors arrived from an African potentate, the king of Tremecen, bearing a magnificent present to the Castilian sovereigns, interceding for the Malagans, and at the same time asking protection for his subjects from the Spanish cruisers in the Mediterranean. The sovereigns graciously complied with the latter request, and complimented the African monarch with a plate of gold, on which the royal arms were curiously embossed, says Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 84.

[17] This nobleman, Don Alvaro de Portugal, had fled his native country, and sought an asylum in Castile from the vindictive enmity of John II, who had been put to death by the duke of Braganza, his elder brother. He was kindly received by Isabella, to whom he was nearly related, and subsequently preferred to several important offices of state. His son, the count of Gelves, married a granddaughter of Christopher Columbus. Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.

[18] Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 23.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 1, epist. 63.—Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 84.—Bleda, Coronica de los Moros, lib. 5, cap. 15.—L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 175, 176.

[19] Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 87-89.—Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 84.

[20] Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 87.—Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 71.

[21] Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. pp. 237, 238.—Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 80.—Caro de Torres, Ordenes Militares, fol. 82, 83.

[22] Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 9l.—Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 84. The honest exclamation of the Curate brings to mind the similar encomium of the old Moorish ballad,

"Caballeros Granadinos, Aunque Moros, hijosdalgo."

Hyta, Guerras de Granada, tom. i., p. 257.

[23] There is no older well-authenticated account of the employment of gunpowder in mining in European warfare, so far as I am aware, than this by Ramirez. Tiraboschi, indeed, refers, on the authority of another writer, to a work in the library of the Academy of Siena, composed by one Francesco Giorgio, architect of the duke of Urbino, about 1480, in which that person claims the merit of the invention. (Letteratura Italiana, tom. vi. p. 370.) The whole statement is obviously too loose to warrant any such conclusion. The Italian historians notice the use of gunpowder mines at the siege of the little town of Serezanello in Tuscany, by the Genoese, in 1487, precisely contemporaneous with the siege of Malaga. (Machiavelli, Istorie Fiorentine, lib. 8.—Guicciardini, Istoria d'Italia, (Milano, 1803,) tom. iii. lib. 6.) This singular coincidence, in nations having then but little intercourse, would seem to infer some common origin of greater antiquity. However this may be, the writers of both nations are agreed in ascribing the first successful use of such mines on any extended scale to the celebrated Spanish engineer, Pedro Navarro, when serving under Gonsalvo of Cordova, in his Italian campaigns at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Guicciardini, ubi supra.—Paolo Giovio, de Vita Magni Gonsalvi, (Vitae Illustrium Virorum, Basiliae, 1578,) lib. 2.— Aleson, Annales de Navarra, tom. v. lib. 35, cap. 12.

[24] Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii. p. 296.—L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 175.—Rades y Andrada, Las Tres Ordenes, fol. 54.—Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 92.—Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 85.

[25] Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 93.—Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii. p. 296.

The Arabic historians state that Malaga was betrayed by Ali Dordux, who admitted the Spaniards into the castle, while the citizens were debating on Ferdinand's terms. (See Conde, Domination de los Arabes, tom. iii. cap. 39.) The letter of the inhabitants, quoted at length by Pulgar, would seem to be a refutation of this. And yet there are good grounds for suspecting false play on the part of the ambassador Dordux, since the Castilian writers admit that he was exempted, with forty of his friends, from the doom of slavery and forfeiture of property, passed upon his fellow- citizens.

[26] Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 85.

[27] Carbajal, whose meagre annals have scarcely any merit beyond that of a mere chronological table, postpones the surrender till September. Anales, ano 1487.—Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 14.

[28] Bleda, Coronica, lib. 5, cap. 15.

As a counterpart to the above scene, twelve Christian renegades, found in the city, were transfixed with canes, acanavereados, a barbarous punishment derived from the Moors, which was inflicted by horsemen at full gallop, who discharged pointed reeds at the criminal, until he expired under repeated wounds. A number of relapsed Jews were at the same time condemned to the flames. "These," says Father Abarca, "were the fetes and illuminations most grateful to the Catholic piety of our sovereigns"! Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. rey 30, cap. 3.

[29] Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, ubi supra.—Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., ubi supra.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 62.

[30] Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 87.—L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 176.—Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. p. 238. —Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii. p. 296.—Carbajal, Anales, MS., ano 1487.

Not a word of comment escapes the Castilian historians on this merciless rigor of the conqueror towards the vanquished. It is evident that Ferdinand did no violence to the feelings of his orthodox subjects. Tacendo clamant.

[31] Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 87.—Bleda, Coronica, lib. 5, cap. 15.

About four hundred and fifty Moorish Jews were ransomed by a wealthy Israelite of Castile for 27,000 doblas of gold. A proof that the Jewish stock was one which thrived amidst persecution.

It is scarcely possible that the circumstantial Pulgar should have omitted to notice so important a fact as the scheme of the Moorish ransom, had it occurred. It is still more improbable, that the honest Curate of Los Palacios should have fabricated it. Any one who attempts to reconcile the discrepancies of contemporary historians even, will have Lord Orford's exclamation to his son Horace brought to his mind ten times a day; "Oh! read me not history, for that I know to be false."

[32] Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. 94.—Col. de Ced., tom. vi. no. 321.



CHAPTER XIV.

WAR OF GRANADA.—CONQUEST OF BAZA.—SUBMISSION OF EL ZAGAL.

1487-1489.

The Sovereigns visit Aragon.—The King lays Siege to Baza.—Its Great Strength.—Gardens Cleared of their Timber.—The Queen Raises the Spirits of her Troops.—Her Patriotic Sacrifices.—Suspension of Arms.—Baza Surrenders.—Treaty with Zagal.—Difficulties of the Campaign.—Isabella's Popularity and Influence.

In the autumn of 1487, Ferdinand and Isabella, accompanied by the younger branches of the royal family, visited Aragon, to obtain the recognition from the cortes of Prince John's succession, now in his tenth year, as well as to repress the disorders into which the country had fallen during the long absence of its sovereigns. To this end, the principal cities and communities of Aragon had recently adopted the institution of the hermandad, organized on similar principles to that of Castile. Ferdinand, on his arrival at Saragossa in the month of November, gave his royal sanction to the association, extending the term of its duration to five years, a measure extremely unpalatable to the great feudal nobility, whose power, or rather abuse of power, was considerably abridged by this popular military force. [1]

The sovereigns, after accomplishing the objects of their visit, and obtaining an appropriation from the cortes for the Moorish war, passed into Valencia, where measures of like efficiency were adopted for restoring the authority of the law, which was exposed to such perpetual lapses in this turbulent age, even in the best constituted governments, as required for its protection the utmost vigilance, on the part of those intrusted with the supreme executive power. From Valencia the court proceeded to Murcia, where Ferdinand, in the month of June, 1488, assumed the command of an army amounting to less than twenty thousand men, a small force compared with those usually levied on these occasions; it being thought advisable to suffer the nation to breathe a while, after the exhausting efforts in which it had been unintermittingly engaged for so many years.

Ferdinand, crossing the eastern borders of Granada, at no great distance from Vera, which speedily opened its gates, kept along the southern slant of the coast as far as Almeria; whence, after experiencing some rough treatment from a sortie of the garrison, he marched by a northerly circuit on Baza, for the purpose of reconnoitring its position, as his numbers were altogether inadequate to its siege. A division of the army under the marquis duke of Cadiz suffered itself to be drawn here into an ambuscade by the wily old monarch El Zagal, who lay in Baza with a strong force. After extricating his troops with some difficulty and loss from this perilous predicament, Ferdinand retreated on his own dominions by the way of Huescar, where he disbanded his army, and withdrew to offer up his devotions at the cross of Caravaca. The campaign, though signalized by no brilliant achievement, and indeed clouded with some slight reverses, secured the surrender of a considerable number of fortresses and towns of inferior note. [2]

The Moorish chief, El Zagal, elated by his recent success, made frequent forays into the Christian territories, sweeping off the flocks, herds, and growing crops of the husbandman; while the garrisons of Almeria and Salobrena, and the bold inhabitants of the valley of Purchena, poured a similar devastating warfare over the eastern borders of Granada into Murcia. To meet this pressure, the Spanish sovereigns reinforced the frontier with additional levies under Juan de Benavides and Garcilasso de la Vega; while Christian knights, whose prowess is attested in many a Moorish lay, flocked there from all quarters, as to the theatre of war.

During the following winter, of 1488, Ferdinand and Isabella occupied themselves with the interior government of Castile, and particularly the administration of justice. A commission was specially appointed to supervise the conduct of the corregidors and subordinate magistrates, "so that every one," says Pulgar, "was most careful to discharge his duty faithfully, in order to escape the penalty, which was otherwise sure to overtake him." [3]