542 SPAIN. 



while the rest of Europe was buried in ignorance and barbarity. But 

 the Moorish princes by degrees became weak and effeminate, and 

 their chief ministers proud and insolent. A series of civil wars en- 

 sued, which at last overturned the throne of Cordova, and the race of 

 Abdoulrahman. Several petty principalities were formed on the ru- 

 ins of this empire, and many cities of Spain had each an independent 

 sovereign. Every Adventurer was then entitled to the conquests ne 

 made from tne Moors, till Spain at last was divided into weive or 

 thirteen kingdoms; and about the year 10y5, Henry of Burgundy, 

 was declared by the king of Leon, count of Portugal ; but his sc n, 

 Alfonso, threw off his dependence on Leon, and declared nimseif king. 

 A series of brave princes gave the Moors repeated overthrows in Spain, 

 till about the year 1492, when all the kingdoms in Spain, Portugal ex- 

 cepted, were united by the marriage of Ferdinand, king of Arragon, and 

 Isabella, the heiress and afterwards queen of Castile, who took Gra- 

 nada, and expelled out of Spain the Moors and Jews who would not 

 be converts to the Christian faith, to the number of 170,01)0 families. 



The expulsion of the Moors and Jews in a manner depopulated 

 Spain of artists, labourers, and manufacturers ; and the discovery of 

 America not only added to that calamity, but rendered the remaining 

 Spaniards most deplorably indolent. To complete their misfortunes, 

 Ferdinand and Isabella introduced the popish inquisition, with all its 

 horrors, into their dominions, as a safeguard against the return of the 

 Moors and Jews. 



Charles V, of the house of Austria, and emperor of Germany, suc- 

 ceeded to the throne of Spain, in right of his mother, who was the 

 daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, in the year 1516. The exten- 

 sive possessions of the house of Austria in Europe, Africa, and, above 

 all, America, from whence it drew immense treasures, began to 

 alarm the jealousy of neighbouring princes, but could not satisfy tne 

 ambition of Charles ; and we find hirn constantly engaged in foreign 

 wars, or with his own protestant subjects, whom he in vain attempted 

 to bring back to the catholic church. He also reduced the power of 

 the nobles in Spain, abridged the privileges of the commons, and 

 greatly extended the regal prerogative. At last, after a long and 

 turbulent reign, he came to a resolution that filled all Europe with 

 astonishment, withdrawing himself entirely from any concern in the 

 affairs of this world, in order that he might spend the remainder of 

 his days in retirement and solitude.* 



* Charles, of all his vast possessions, reserved nothing for himself but an annual 

 pension of 100,000 crowns ; and chose, for the place of his retreat, a vale in Spain, 

 of no great extent, watered by a small brook, and surrounded by rising grounds, 

 covered with lofty trees. He gave strict orders that the style of the building 

 which he erected there should be such as suited his present situation, rather than 

 his former dignity. It consisted only of six rooms ; four of them in the form of 

 friar's cells, with naked walls ; and the other two, each twenty feet square, were 

 hung with brown cloth, and furnished in the most simple manner. Here be buried 

 jrt solitude and silence his grandeur, his ambition, together with all those vast pro- 

 jects which, during half a century, had alarmed and agitated Europe, filling every - 

 kingdom in it, by turns, with the terror of his arms, and the dread of being sub- 

 jected to his power. Here he employed himself in studying the principles and in 

 'forming curious works of mechanism, of which he had always been remarkably 

 fond. He was particularly curious with regard to the construction of clocks and 

 watches : and having found, after repeated trials, that he could not bring any two 

 of them to go exactly alike, he reflected, it is said, with a mixture of surprise and 

 regret, on his own folly, in having bestowed so much time and labour on the more 



