The Spanish Bull-Fight = 195 
festivals held to celebrate the birth of his eldest son, afterwards 
Phillip IT. Pr 
In 1612 bull-fighting first assumed a financial aspect. Phillip 
ILI. conceded to one Arcania Manduno the emoluments accruing 
during the term of three lives from the corridas de toros in the 
city of Valencia. Charities and asylums benefited under this 
fund, but the bulk went in payment for professional services in 
the Plaza. 
During the reign of Phillip IV —that king being skilled in 
the use of lance and javelin (rején), and frequently himself taking 
a public part—the fiesta advanced enormously in national estima- 
tion. English readers may recall the sumptuous corrida which 
marked the arrival of Charles I., with the Duke of Buckingham, 
at Madrid. 
Later, during the reigns of the House of Austria, to face a 
bull with bravery and skill and to use a dexterous lance was the 
pride of every Spanish noble. 
Phillip V., however, would have none of the spectacle, and 
then the nobility held aloof from the corridas; but their 
example proved no deterrent. For the hold of the national 
pastime on the Moro-hispanic race was too firm-set to be swept 
aside by alien influence, however strong ; and when thus abandoned 
by the patricians, the hidalgos and grandees of Spain, the sport 
of bull-fighting (hitherto confined exclusively to the aristocracy) 
was taken up by the Spanish people. A further impulse: was 
generated later on under Ferdinand VII., who obtained a reversal 
of the anathema of the Church on condition that some of the 
pecuniary profits of the corvidas should swell the funds of the 
hospitals. 
It was, however, during the first half of the eighteenth century 
that bull-fighting on a popular basis, as understood and practised 
at the present day, took its start. Then there stepped upon the 
enclosed arena the first professional Toréro amidst thrilling 
plaudits from tier above tier of encircling humanity. Never 
before had the bull been taken on by a single man on foot armed 
only with his good sword and scarlet flag—with these to pit his 
strength and skill against the weight and ferocity of a toro bravo— 
alone and unaided to despatch him. Such a man was Francisco 
Romero, erewhiles a shoemaker at Ronda—a.p. 1726—first pro- 
fessional lidiador. On his death at an advanced age, he left 
