SPAIN. 



333 



and, in 1492, they were banished for ever, to the 

 number of 800,000, from Spain. The improve- 

 ment of the country was much retarded by the de- 

 fects in the public administration, particularly in 

 regard to the taxes, by powerful vassals, bad kings, 

 and family disputes : so that the third estate was 

 not formed in Castile till 1325, 200 years later than 

 that of Arragon, and with inferior privileges. 

 Meanwhile, the Cortes, consisting of the estates of 

 the kingdom, namely, the clergy, the high nobility, 

 the orders of knights, and eighteen great cities, re- 

 stricted the royal power, without, however, bring- 

 ing about a state of legal order. But, in Arragon 

 (a kingdom since 1035), of which Alphonso I., 

 since the conquest of Saragossa, in 1115, had been 

 in complete possession, the third estate was formed 

 before the middle of the twelfth century, sooner 

 than in any other European country, and a well- 

 settled political order ensued. Disputes between 

 the king and this estate, or of the members of this 

 estate among themselves, were decided by a supreme 

 judge, called justitia. (See Mariana, Teoria de las 

 Cortes, Madrid, 1812.) From these circumstances, 

 and the wisdom of the kings, the country flourished. 

 Arragon comprehended, besides Catalonia and Cer- 

 dagne, already united to it, in 1135 the counties of 

 Roussillon, Montpelier, the Baleares, or Majorca, 

 from 1220 (where, however, from 1276 to 1344, 

 a collateral line reigned), also Valencia, from 

 1238, Sicily from the Sicilian Vespers, in 1282, 

 and Sardinia from 1326. But, by the provi- 

 sions of James II., in 1319, the states of Ar- 

 ragon, Catalonia and Valencia only were indis- 

 solubly united each with its own constitution. 

 At length the marriage of prince Ferdinand of Ar- 

 ragon (see Ferdinand V. the Catholic}, with Isa- 

 bella, heiress of Castile, in 1469, laid the foundation 

 of the union of the crowns of Castile and Arragon. 

 This followed on Ferdinand's accession to the throne 

 in 1479. See Murphy's splendid work upon the 

 Arabian Antiquities of Spain (London, 1816); and 

 the Introduction to the History of the Mohammedan 

 Empire in Spain; and particularly Conde's History 

 of the Dominion of the Moors in Spain (Spanish, 

 Madrid, 1820), with the History of the Visigoths, by 

 Joseph Aschbach (Frankfort on the Maine, 1827) ; 

 and doctor E. A. Schmidt's History of Arragon in 

 the Middle Ages (Leipsic, 1828; the two last in 

 German). 



With this union, with the entire subjugation of 

 the Moors, and the discovery of America, a new 

 period in the history of Spain begins. The young 

 monarchy advanced immediately to the first place 

 among the European governments; but, exhausted 

 by political and spiritual oppression, it quickly 

 declined in consequence, till the Spanish branch of 

 the Hapsburg race became extinct in 1700. Spain 

 now became a power of the second rank, under the 

 kings of the house of Bourbon. These reigned 

 without a cortes, and brought Spain into a close 

 political connexion with France. At length they 

 sunk before the power of Napoleon, and the revolt 

 of Spanish America followed. The state of Spain 

 since the restoration of the Bourbons will be treated 

 in the sequel. 



From 1479 to 1700. Spain had, when Ferdinand 

 and Isabella founded the monarchy, a population of 

 about 14,000 ; 000 ; which, however, was much 

 divided by difference of customs and laws. To 

 unite the discordant parts into one powerful nation, 

 was the great object which occupied for forty-three 

 years Isabella Ferdinand, and cardinal Ximenes. 



By a severe administration of justice, and by the 

 institution of the Hermandad, order was established 

 through the country. The royal power was parti- 

 cularly strengthened and extended by the introduc- 

 tion of the inquisition, and by the union with the 

 crown of the office of grand master of the three 

 great military orders of Castile. Grenada was con- 

 quered in 1491, after a ten years' war. Soon after 

 began the cruel persecution of the Jews and Moors, 

 so injurious to Spain. They were obliged to be 

 baptized, or to leave the country. Till then tolera- 

 tion had prevailed in Spain. Princes und nobles 

 at one time even fought for the Albigenses; and, 

 in the thirteenth century, the kings of Arragon 

 braved the papal excommunication. But by this 

 system of persecution the peace and prosperity of 

 the country were deeply shaken. The discovery 

 of America, in 1492, by Christopher Columbus, 

 under the patronage of Isabella, withdrew much of 

 the activity of the nation from the improvement of 

 the mother country ; and avarice, united with fana- 

 ticism, established in the West Indies an unwise 

 colonial system. In general, the politics of Spain, 

 under Ferdinand the Catholic, were characterized 

 by cunning and desire of foreign aggrandizement, 

 as appears from the acquisition of Naples, the league 

 of Cambray, and the conquest of Navarre, south of 

 the Pyrenees, though the warlike fame of the 

 nation was maintained by one of the greatest com- 

 manders of his time, Gonsalvo Fernandez of Cor- 

 dova, and by the expedition of the great Ximenes 

 into the north of Africa. After Charles I. (as em- 

 peror of Germany, Charles V., son of the Infanta 

 Joanna and Philip of Burgundy), had succeeded his 

 father in the government of the Netherlands, his 

 maternal grandfather (1516) in that of Spain, and 

 his paternal grandfather in that of the Austrian 

 dominions (1519); and after he had repressed, with 

 the help of the nobles, insurrections in Valencia 

 and Majorca, and particularly in Castile (1520), 

 where the third estate demanded a freer constitu- 

 tion; and after he had annihilated the principal part 

 of the liberties of the nation by the separation of 

 the deliberative estates, Spain became the first 

 military and political power in Europe, during the 

 four wars which Charles carried on with Francis I. 

 of France, and by which he obtained Milan. The 

 victory of the Spaniards at Pavia (February 24, 

 1525), which made Francis I. the prisoner of Charles, 

 in Madrid, till the peace of Madrid (January 14, 

 1526), and the expedition of Charles into the north 

 of Africa, extended the fame of the Spanish arms 

 throughout Europe. The wealth which flowed in 

 from Mexico, conquered by Cortez, in 1518, and 

 from Peru and Chile, conquered by Pizarro and 

 Almagro, in 1528, was not sufficient to supply the 

 demands of the royal treasury ; so that the revenues 

 of the crown were exhausted, the taxes increased, 

 and debts contracted. The thirty-five years' union 

 of Germany with Spain promoted the intercourse 

 between the two countries. But the strength of 

 the powerful monarchy was exhausted by the forty- 

 two years' tyranny of Philip II. Oppression and 

 religious intolerance, war, and insurrections, occa- 

 sioned the loss of the Netherlands, and depopulated 

 the rest of the monarchy; and the conquest of 

 Portugal, which remained united with Spain from 

 1581 to 1640, could not prevent its decay. Eng- 

 land and Holland triumphed over the naval force of 

 Spain, and destroyed her commerce; and Philip 

 died in 1598, a bankrupt. Under his weak suc- 

 cessors, Philip III. (died 1621), Philip IV. (died 



