SPAIN. 
• 405 
after besieged by the victors, and taken prisoner in endeavour¬ 
ing to make his escape. He was conducted to his brother 
Henry; against whom he is said to have rushed in a trans- 
port of rage, disarmed as he was. Henry slew him with his 
own hand, in resentment of his cruelties; and, though a 
bastard, was placed on the throne of Castile, which be 
transmitted to his posterity. 
After the death of Pedro, nothing remarkable happened in 
Spain for almost a whole century; but the debaucheries of 
Henry IV. of Castile roused the resentment of his nobles, 
and produced a most singular insurrection, which led to the 
aggrandizement of the Spanish monarchy. 
This prince, surnamed the Impotent though continually 
surrounded with women, began his unhappy reign in 
1450. He was totally enervated by his pleasures; and every 
thing in his court conspired to set the Castilians an example 
of the most abject flattery and most abandoned licentious, 
ness. The queen, a daughter of Portugal, lived as openly 
with her parasites and her gallants as the king did with his 
minions and his mistresses. Pleasure was. the only object, 
and effeminacy the only recommendation to favour; the 
affairs of the state went every day into disorder ; till the 
nobility, with the archbishop of Toledo at their head, com¬ 
bining against the weak and flagitious administration of 
Henry, arrogated to themselves, as one of the privileges of 
their order, the right of trying and passing sentence on 
their sovereign, which they executed in a curious manner. 
The malcontent nobility were summoned to meet at 
Avila: a spacious theatre was erected in a plain without the 
walls of the town: an image, representing the king, was 
seated on a throne, clad in royal robes, with a crown on 
its head, a sceptre in its hand, and the sword of justice by 
its side. The accusation against Henry was read, and the 
sentence of deposition pronounced, in presence of a nu¬ 
merous assembly. At the close of the first article of the 
charge, the archbishop of Toledo advanced, and tore the 
crown from fhe head of the image; at the close of the 
second, the Conde de Placentia snatched the sword of 
justice from its side; at the close of the third, the Conde de 
Benavente wrested the sceptre from its hand; and at the 
close of the last, Don Diego Lopez de Stuniga tumbled it 
headlong from the throne. At the same instant, Don 
Alphonso, Henry’s brother, a boy of about twelve years of 
age, was proclaimed King of Castile and Leon in his stead. 
This extraordinary proceeding was followed by a civil 
war, which did not cease till some time after the death of 
the young prince, on whom the nobles had bestowed the 
kingdom. The archbishop and his party then continued to 
carry on war in the name of Isabella, the king’s sister, to 
whom they gave the title of Infanta; and the king of 
Arragon married her. 
Henry disinherited his sister, and established the rights 
of his daughter. A furious civil war desolated the kingdom. 
The names of Joan and Isabella resounded from every 
quarter, and were everywhere the summons to arms. But 
peace was at length brought about. Henry was reconciled 
to his sister and Ferdinand; Joan retired into a convent; 
and the death of Ferdinand's father added the kingdoms of 
Arragon and Sicily to those of Leon and Castile. 
Ferdinand and Isabella were persons of great prudence. 
They did not live like man and wife, having all things in 
common under the direction of the husband; but like two 
princes in close alliance; they neither loved nor hated each 
other; were seldom in company together; had each a sepa¬ 
rate council; and were frequently jealous of one another 
in the administration. But they were inseparably united in 
their common interests; always acting upon the same prin¬ 
ciples, and forwarding the same ends. Their first object 
was the regulation of their government, which the civil wars 
had thrown into the greatest disorder. Rapine, outrage, and 
murder, were become so common, as not only to interrupt 
commerce, but in a great measure to suspend all intercourse 
between one place and another. These evils the joint sove¬ 
reigns suppressed by their wise policy, at the same time 
that they extended the royal prerogative. 
Von. XXIII. No. 1579. 
About the middle of the 13th century, the cities in the 
1 kingdom of Arragon, and after their example those in Castile, 
had formed themselves into an association, distinguished by 
the name of the Holy Brotherhood. They exacted a certain 
contribution from each of the associated towns; they levied 
a considerable body of troops, in order to protect travellers 
and pursue criminals; and they appointed judges, who 
opened courts in various parts of the kingdom. Whoever 
was guilty of murder, robbery, or any act that violated the 
public peace, and was seized by the troops of the Brother¬ 
hood, was carried before their judges; who, without paying 
any regard to the exclusive jurisdiction which the lord of the 
place might claim, who was generally the author or abettor 
of the injustice, tried, and condemned the criminals. The 
nobles often murmured against the salutary institution; 
they complained of it as an encroachment on one of their 
most valuable privileges, and endeavoured to get it abolished. 
But Ferdinand and Isabella, sensible of the beneficial effects 
of the Brotherhood, not only in regard to the police of their 
kingdom, but in its tendency to abridge, and by degrees 
annihilate, the territorial jurisdiction of the nobility, coun¬ 
tenanced the institution upon every occasion, and supported 
it with the whole force of royal authority; by which means 
the prompt and .impartial administration of justice was 
restored, and with it tranquillity and order returned. 
But at the same time, an intemperate zeal led them to 
establish an ecclesiastical tribunal, equally contrary to the 
natural rights of humanity and the mild spirit of the gospel. 
This was the court of inquisition; wherein six thousand per¬ 
sons were burnt, within four years after the appointment of 
Torquemada, the first Inquisitor-general. 
The kingdom of Granada now alone remained of all the 
Mahometan possessions in Spain. Princes equally zealous 
and ambitious were naturally disposed to turn their eyes to 
that fertile territory, and to think of increasing their here¬ 
ditary dominions, by expelling the enemies of Christianity, 
and extending its doctrines. Every thing conspired to fa¬ 
vour their project: the Moorish kingdom was a prey to civil 
wars; when Ferdinand, having obtained the bull of Sixtus 
IV. authorizing a crusade, put himself at the head of his 
troops, and entered Granada. He continued the war with 
rapid success ; Isabella attended him in several expeditions; 
and they were both in great danger at the siege of Malaga ; 
an important city, which was defended with great courage, 
and taken in 1487. Baza was reduced in 1489, after the 
loss of 20,000 men. Gaudix and Almeria were delivered 
up to them by the Moorish king Alzagel, who had first 
dethroned his brother Alboacen, and afterwards been chased 
from his capital by his nephew Abdali. That prince en¬ 
gaged in the service of Ferdinand and Isabella; who, after 
reducing every other place of eminence, undertook the siege 
of Granada. Abdali made a gallant defence; but all com¬ 
munication with the country being cut off, and all hopes of 
relief at an end, he capitulated, after a siege of eight 
months, on condition that he should enjoy the revenue of 
certain places in the fertile mountains of Alpuxarras ; that 
the inhabitants should retain the undisturbed possession of 
their houses, goods, and inheritances; the use of their laws, 
and the free exercise of their religion. Thus ended the 
empire of the Arabs in Spain, after it had continued about 
800 years. They introduced the arts and sciences into 
Europe at a time when it was lost in darkness; they possessed 
many of the luxuries of life, when they were not even known 
among the neighbouring nations; and they seem to have 
given birth to that romantic gallantry which so eminently 
prevailed in the ages of chivalry, and which, blending 
itself with the veneration of the northern nations for the 
softer sex, still particularly distinguishes ancient from mo¬ 
dern maimers. But the Moors, notwithstanding these 
advantages, and the eulogies bestowed upon them by some 
writers, appear always to have been destitute of the essential 
qualities of a polished people, humanity, generosity, and 
mutual sympathy. 
The overthrow of the last Moorish kingdom was soon 
followed by the expulsion of the Saracens from Spain. This 
5 L expulsion 
