C02 



SPAIN 



vet it took nearly two and a half centuries to 

 destroy the remains of Moorish power. The period 

 between the death of 8t Ferdinand and the acces- 

 sion of Isabella of Castile (1468) was one of trouble 

 and almost constant civil war. The influence of 

 the Moors on Christians was in some ways more 

 marked than In-fore. Alfonso the. Wise (12.VJ M 

 in liia court at Toledo adopted the best of Moorish 

 .-c'ieiice and literature, and the philosophy and art 

 which they had acquired from the Greeks and 

 l'.\ Aintincs. and henceforth Spanish was not in- 

 ferior to Moorish civilisation. A century later the 

 Moorish influence was almost wholly ill in the 

 sevillan court of Pedro the Cruel, the ally of the 

 Black Prince, whose whole career and death by his 

 brother's hand was more like that of an oriental 

 sultan than of a western monarch. The troubles 

 of Castile arose from disputed successions, from 

 long minorities, from the claim of the nobles, even 

 those of the royal family, to transfer their allegi- 

 ance to any sovereign they might choose (behetria). 

 The Infantes de la Cerda and Henry of Trastamare 

 acted alternately as subjects of Castile, Aragon, or 

 France, or entered into alliance with the Moors, as 

 might serve their private interests. The only 

 trustworthy allies of the crown were the burghers 

 and tne clergy, but the rivalry of the cities made 

 their allegiance doubtful. At the death of Henry 

 IV. (1474) the crown of Castile was left with two 

 female claimants, his daughter Juana (the Beltra- 

 naja) and his sister Isabella. The election of the 

 former meant union with Portugal ; by the mar- 

 riage of Isabella with Ferdinand of Aragon her 

 election united Castile and Aragon. Under a 

 series of strong monarchs, whose authority was 

 limited by a powerful aristocracy, Aragon had 

 become a strong Mediterranean power to the 

 Balearic Isles had been nominally added Corsica 

 and Sardinia, more really Sicily and Naples, with 

 claims on Northern Italy ; these claims and posses- 

 sions after the union led to the waste of Spanish 

 blood and treasure for centuries, without any cor- 

 responding advantages. The conquests from the 

 M'lurs in this period were few out important 

 Tarifa (1292), to recover which the African 

 Moors made their final effort of conquest; their 

 defeat on the Salado (1340) entailed the loss of 

 Algeeiras in 1344; and (iibraltar, which they had 

 recovered after 1309, l>ecanie Spanish in 1462. 

 Henceforth tin; Moors existed in the Peninsula on 

 Hiilleranee only, while the Christians were gather- 

 ing their forces for the final blow. 



Sm:ill as were IhaiMOUMM left to the Moors, 

 they were weakened still further by dissensions in 

 tli ruling families. Boulxlil, the last king of 

 Granada, would have made terms with Castile; 

 his uncle, Mulev Haeem of Malaga, and his 

 nephew, Kl bad, opposed a strenuous resistance. 

 Albania was taken I lv_>, Honda 148.1, Malaga 1487, 

 Baza 1488, and the Spanish sovereigns with an 

 army of 100,000 men sat down to the siege of 

 (iranada in 1491. January "2, 14H-J, the city sur- 

 rendered ; October 12, 140. Columbus dfaoowcd 

 America; in 1512, after the death of Isabella, 

 Ferdinand wrested Spanish Navarre from its Gas- 

 con king. 



Henceforth the history of Spain is no longer 

 exclusively Spanish, but also Kuropean. The 

 whole, of the Peninsula except Portugal was united 

 under one rule, but true political unity was very 

 far from having been attained. \ragon and 

 Navarre still preserved their separate c.nte-. privi- 

 leges, and regnal titles; the Basque Provinces 

 continin-d almost a republic under a Spanish 

 suzerain. Ill Castile, however, the royal power 

 had been greatly strengthened : the fatal mistake 

 of the /iri/r>iriiiliirrjt in accepting royal pay under 

 Pedro the Cruel ensured the ultimate subserviency 



of Cortes. The masterships of the great military 

 orders had become the gilt of the crown in 1476, 



, and in 1513 Pope Hadrian VI. annexed them per- 

 manently to it ; tin- Herinandades (q.v.), or ancient 

 associations, lirst of the bishop*, afterwards of 

 civil InHlies, for defence of their rights and for the 



! suppression of disorder, became a powerful govern- 



I mental police; the Inquisition, lirst employed on a 

 large scale against the Albigcn-es by (he Domini- 



1 cans in 1248, had been remodelled (1478) to the 

 profit of the crown. But the increased ]>ower of 

 the monarchy lay chiefly in the condition of the 

 conquered provinces. Tneir incorporation was an 

 immense gain to the country, but it gave the king 

 a basis for despotism, and a standing force where- 

 with he could crush any revolt in the north. The 

 still advancing wave of Mohammedan ]>ower was 

 not finally rolled back until the battle of Lepanto 

 (1571) and the raising of the siege of Vienna (1683). 

 The Moors of Barbary were still able to harass 

 Spain and seriously to check her trade ; but the 

 most fatal legacy of the Moore was the fact that 

 Spain had won her glory as champion of Christianity 

 against Islam in the peninsula, and continuing this 

 role she wasted all Tier resources, and failed, aa 

 champion of Roman Catholicism against Protes- 

 tantism in Europe. 



On the death of Isabella her eldest daughter 

 Juana, who had been married to Philip, son of the 

 Archduke Maximilian, sovereign of the Nether- 

 lands, succeeded, jointly with her husband, to 

 Castile. Ferdinand retired to Aragon. Philip 

 died in 1506, and Ferdinand resumed the govern- 

 ment of Castile as regent for his daughter, who 

 was incapacitated by insanity. Ten years after- 

 wards he died, leaving all his kingdoms to Juana, 

 with her son Charles as regent. Till the arrival of 

 Charles Spain was really governed by Archbishop 

 Ximenez (q.v.), whose work in the interest of 

 the crown was almost as important in Spain aa 

 that of Richelieu later in France ; his intolerance 

 to the conquered Moore brought on revolts, and all 

 the subsequent troubles with the Moriscos were 

 the result of the policy which he initiated. For 

 the history of Charles I. as Charles V. Emperor of 

 Germany, and of his action towards the Protes- 

 tants and his campaigns in Italy and Germany, 

 see CHARLES V. His reign was marked by the 

 triumph of absolutism in Castile. His appoint- 

 ment of Flemings to high offices in Spain, and his 

 exorbitant demands for supplies, led to the rising of 

 the cities of Castile and tot lie war of the. comun- 

 eros. These were vanquished at Villalar in 1521, 

 and Toledo surrcndci e<t soon afterwards. A more 

 popular movement in Valencia was crushed by the 

 nobles of that province. Charles bv timely ap- 

 pointments had separated the cause of the nobility 

 from that of the cities; and on the refusal in 1538 

 of the nobles and clergy to share the burden of 

 taxation these bodies ceased to be summoned to 

 Cortes. The conquest of Tunis in 1535 was a 

 brilliant feat of arms; the attempt on Algiers 

 (1541) utterly failed. The troubles in Cermany 

 prevented ('"liarles from following up these cam 

 paigns, which might have had results of great 

 benefit to Spain. \Vorn out by disease, frustrated 

 in all his plans, having failed in the election of his 

 son Philip as em|>eror, Charles resigned first bis 

 hereditary dominions in 1555, and in 1556 abdi- 

 cated the empire in favour of his brother Ferdinand, 

 and his other crowns in favour of Philip, and 

 retired to the monastery of Yuste, where he died 

 in 1558. 



\\hcn Philip IT. (q.v.) ascended the throne of 

 Spain her dominions were at their greatest. Spain, 

 to which Portugal was added in 1.1x0. Sicily, a 

 great part of Italy, the Low Countries (Holland 

 and Belgium), the whole of North America except 



