rapid. In 1236 Ferdinand of Castile and Leon took the celebrated city of Cordova, the residence of the first Moorish kings; at the same time that James I. king of Arragon dispossessed them of the island of Majorca, and drove them out of Valentia. Two years after, Ferdinand made himself master of Murcia, and took the city of Seville; and in 1303 Ferdinand IV. reduced Gibraltar.

In the time of Edward III. we find England, for the first time, interfering in the affairs of Spain on the following occasion. In 1284 the kingdom of Navarre had been united to that of France by the marriage of Joanna queen of Navarre with Philip the Fair of France. In 1328, however, the kingdoms were again separated, though the sovereigns of Navarre were still related to those of France. In 1350 Charles, surnamed the Wicked, ascended the throne of Navarre, and married the daughter of John king of France. Notwithstanding this alliance, and that he himself was related to the royal family of France, he secretly entered into a negociation with England against the French monarch, and even drew into his schemes the dauphin Charles, afterwards surnamed the Wise. The young prince, however, was soon after made fully sensible of the danger and folly of the connexions into which he had entered; and, by way of atonement, promised to sacrifice his associates. Accordingly he invited the king of Navarre, and some of the principal nobility of the same party, to a feast at Rouen, where he betrayed them to his father. The most obnoxious were executed, and the king of Navarre was thrown into prison. In this extremity, the party of the king of Navarre had recourse to England. The prince of Wales, surnamed the Black Prince, invaded France, defeated king John at Poictiers, and took him prisoner (See FRANCE), which unfortunate event produced the most violent disturbances in that kingdom. The dauphin, now about nineteen years of age, assumed the royal power during his father's captivity: but possessed neither experience nor authority sufficient to remedy the prevailing evils. To obtain supplies, he assembled the states of the kingdom: but that assembly, instead of supporting his administration, laid hold of the opportunity to demand limitations of the prince's power, the punishment of past malversations, and the liberty of the king of Navarre. Marcel, provost of the merchants at Paris, and first magistrate of that city, put himself at the head of the unruly populace, and pushed them to commit the most criminal outrages against the royal authority. They detained the dauphin in a kind of captivity, murdered in his presence Robert de Clermont and John de Conflans, mareschals of France; threatened all the other ministers with the like fate; and when Charles, who had been obliged to temporize and dissemble, made his escape from their hands, they levied war against him, and openly rebelled. The other cities of the kingdom, in imitation of the capital, shook off the dauphin's authority, took the government into their own hands, and spread the contagion into every province. Amidst these disorders the king of Navarre

made his escape frorn prison, and presented a dangerous leader to the furious male contents. He revived his pretensions to the crown of France; but in all his operations he acted more like a leader of banditti than one who aspired to be the head of a regular government, and who was engaged by his station to endeavour the re-establishment of order in the community. All the French, therefore, who wished to restore peace to their country, turned their eyes towards the dauphin; who, though not remarkable for his military talents, daily gained by his prudence and vigilance the ascendant over his enemies. Marcel, the seditious provost of Paris, was slain in attempting to deliver that city to the king of Navarre. The capital immediately returned to its duty: the most considerable bodies of the mutinous peasants were dispersed or put to the sword; some bands of military robbers underwent the same fate; and France began once more to assume the appearance of civil government. John died in England, and was succeeded in the throne of France by his sor Charles V., a prince educated in the school of adversity, and well qualified, by his prudence and experience, to repair the losses which the kingdom had sustained from the errors of his predecessors. Contrary to the practice of all the great princes of those times, who held nothing in estimation but military courage, he seems to have laid it down as a maxim never to appear at the head of his armies; and he was the first European monarch that showed the advantage of policy and foresight over a rash and precipitate valor. Before Charles could think of counterbalancing so great a power as England, it was necessary for him to remedy the many disorders to which his own kingdom was exposed. He accordingly turned his arms against the king of Navarre, the great disturber of France during that age: and he defeated that prince, and reduced him to terms, by the valor and conduct of Bertrand du Guesclin, one of the most accomplished captains of those times, whom Charles had the discernment to choose as the instrument of his victories. He also settled the affairs of Brittany by acknowledging the title of Mountfort, and receiving homage for his dominions. On the conclusion of the peace of Bretigni, the many military adventurers who had followed the fortunes of Edward, being dispersed into the several provinces, and possessed of strong holds, refused to lay down their arms, or relinquish a course of life to which they were now accustomed, and by which alone they could earn a subsistence. They associated themselves with the banditti, who were already inured to the habits of rapine and violence; and, under the name of companies and companions, became a terror to all the peaceable inhabitants. Some English and Gascon gentlemen of character were not ashamed to take the command of these ruffians, whose number amounted to nearly 40,000, and who bore the appearance of regular armies rather than bands of robbers. not able by power to redress so enormous a grievance, he was led by necessity, as well as by the turn of his character, to correct it by policy; to discover some method of discharging into

As Charles was

foreign countries this dangerous and intestine evil; and an occasion now offered. Alphonso XI. king of Castile, who took the city of Algezira from the Moors, after a famous siege of two years, during which artillery are said first to have been used by the besieged, had been succeeded by his son Peter I. surnamed the Cruel; a prince equally perfidious, debauched, and bloody. He began his reign with the murder of his father's mistress Leonora de Gusman: his nobles fell every day the victims of his severity: he put to death his cousin and one of his natural brothers, from groundless jealousy; and he caused his queen Blanche de Bourbon, of the blood of France, to be thrown into prison, and afterwards poisoned, that he might enjoy Mary de Padella, with whom he was violently enamoured. Henry count of Trastamara, the king's natural brother, alarmed at the fate of his family, and dreading his own, took arms against the tyrant; but, having failed in the attempt, he fled to France, where he found the minds of men much inflamed against Peter, on account of the murder of the French princess. He asked permission of Charles to enlist the companies in his service, and to lead them into Castile against his brother. The French king, charmed with the project, employed du Guesclin in negociating with the leaders of these banditti. The treaty was soon concluded; and du Guesclin, having completed his levies, led the army first to Avignon, where the pope then resided, and demanded, sword in hand, absolution for his ruffian soldiers, who had been excommunicated, and the sum of 200,000 livres for their subsistence. The first was readily promised him; but, some difficulty being made with regard to the second, du Guesclin replied, 'My fellows may make a shift to do without your absolution, but the money is absolutely necessary.' His holiness then extorted from the inhabitants of the city and its neighbourhood the sum of 100,000 livres, and offered it to du Guesclin. 'It is not my purpose,' cried that generous warrior, to oppress the innocent people. The pope and his cardinals can spare me double the sum from their own pockets. I therefore insist that this money be restored to the owners: and, if I hear they are defrauded of it, I will myself return from the other side of the Pyrenees, and oblige you to make them restitution.' The pope found the necessity of submitting, and paid from his own treasury the sum demanded. A body of experienced and hardy soldiers, conducted by so able a general, easily prevailed over the king of Castile, whose subjects were ready to join the enemy against their oppressor. Peter fled from his dominions, took shelter in Guienne, and craved the protection of the prince of Wales, whom his father had invested with the sovereignty of the ceded provinces, under the title of the principality of Aquitaine. The prince promised his assistance to the dethroned monarch; and, having obtained his father's consent, he levied an army, and set out on his enterprise. The first loss which Henry of Trastamara suffered from the interposition of the prince of Wales, was the recalling of the companies from his service; and so much reverence did they pay to

the name of Edward, that great numbers of them immediately withdrew from Spain, and enlisted under his standard. Henry, however, beloved by his new subjects, and supported by the king of Arragon, was able to meet the enemy with an army of 100,000 men, three times the number of those commanded by the Black Prince: yet du Guesclin, and all his experienced officers, advised him to delay a decisive action; so high was their opinion of the valor and conduct of the English hero. But Henry, trusting to his numbers, ventured to give Edward battle on the banks of the Ebro, between Najara and Navarette; where the French and Spaniards were defeated, with the loss of above 20,000 men, and du Guesclin and other officers of distinction taken prisoners. All Castile submitted to the victor; Peter was restored to the throne, and Edward returned to Guienne with his usual glory; having not only overcome the greatest general of his age, but restrained a blood-thirsty tyrant from executing vengeance on his prisoners. This gallant warrior had soon reason to repent of his connexions with a man like Peter, lost to all sense of virtue and honor. The ungrateful monster refused the stipulated pay to the English forces. Edward abondoned him: he treated his subjects with the utmost barbarity; their animosity was roused against him; and du Guesclin, having obtained his ransom, returned to Castile with the count of Trastamara, and some forces levied anew in France. They were joined by the Spanish malecontents; and, having no longer the Black Prince to encounter, they gained a complete victory over Peter in the neighbourhood of Toledo. The tyrant now took refuge in a castle, where he was soon after besieged by the victors, and taken prisoner in endeavouring to make his escape. He was conducted to his brother Henry; against whom he is said to have rushed in a transport of rage, disarmed as he was. Henry slew him with his own hand, in resentment of his cruelties; and, though a bastard, was himself placed on the throne of Castile, which he transmitted to his posterity.

From the death of Peter to that of Ferdinand V. and Isabella.-After the death of Peter the Cruel, 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 aggrandisement of the Spanish monarchy. This prince, surnamed the Impotent, was continually surrounded with women he began his unhappy reign in 1454, totally enervated by his pleasures; and every thing in his court conspired to set the Castilians an example of the most abject flattery and abandoned licentiousness. The queen, a daughter of Portugal, lived as openly with her paramours and her gallants as the king did with his minions and his mistresses. Pleasure was the only object, and effeminacy the only recommendation to favor: the affairs of the state went every day into disorder; till the nobility, with the archbishop of Toledo at their head, combining 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 manner unprecedented in history. All the malecontent 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 with 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 the presence of a numerous assembly. At the close of the first article of the charge, the archbishop of Toledo advanced and tore the crown from the head of the image; at the close of the second, the count of Placentia snatched the sword of justice from its side; at the close of the third, the count of 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 then 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 Henry could not extricate himself out of these troubles, nor remain quiet upon his throne, till he had signed one of the most humiliating treaties ever extorted from a sovereign. He acknowledged his sister Isabella the only lawful heiress of his kingdom, in prejudice to the rights of his reputed daughter Joan, whom the malecontents affirmed to be the offspring of an adulterous commerce between the queen and Don la Cueva. The grand object of the malecontent party now was the marriage of the princess Isabella, upon which, it was evident, the security of the crown and the happiness of the people must in a great measure depend. The athance was sought by several princes: the king of Portugal offered her his hand; the king of France demanded her for his brother, and the king of Arragon for his son Ferdinand. The malecontents very wisely preferred the Arragonian prince, and Isabella made the same choice; articles were drawn up: and they were privately married by the archbishop of Toledo. Henry was enraged at this alliance, which he foresaw would utterly ruin his authority, by furnishing his rebellious subjects with the support of a powerful neighbouring prince. He disinherited his sister and established the rights of his daughter. A furious civil war ensued. The names of Joan and Isabella resounded from every quarter, and were every where the summons to arms. But peace was at length brought about. Henry was reconciled to his sister and Ferdinand; though it does not appear that he ever recognised Isabella's right to the succession; for he affirmed, to his last moments, that he believed Joan to be his own daughter. The queen swore to the same effect; and Henry left a testamentary deed, transmitting the crown to this princess, who was proclaimed queen of Castile at Placentia. But

VOL. XX.

the superior fortune and arms of Ferdinand and Isabella prevailed: the king of Portugal was obliged to abandon his niece and intended bride, after many ineffectual struggles and several years of war. Joan retired into a convent; and the death of Ferdinand's father, which happened about this time, added the kingdoms of Arragon and Sicily to those of Leon and Castile.

Ferdinand and Isabella conducted themselves with great prudence, and were, as sovereigns, highly worthy of imitation; but they do not seem to have merited all the praises bestowed upon them by the Spanish historians. They are said to have lived rather like two princes in close alliance than as man and wife; they neither loved nor hated each other; were seldom in each other's company; had each a separate council, and were frequently jealous of one another in the administration. But they were inseparably united in their common interests; acting upon the same principles, 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 sovereigns suppressed by their wise policy, at the same time that they extended the royal prerogative. About the middle of the thirteenth century the cities in the kingdom of Arragon, and after their example those in Castile, had formed themselves into an association named the Holy Brotherhood. They exacted a certain contribution from each of the associated towns; levied a considerable body of troops, to protect travellers and pursue criminals; and 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 brotherhood, was carried before their judges; who, without paying any regard to the exclusive jurisdiction which the lord of the place might claim (generally the author or abettor of the injustice), tried and condemned the criminals. The nobles often murmured against this 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, countenanced 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. But, at the same time that their Catholic majesties (for such was the title they now bore) were giving vigor to their civil government, and securing their subjects from violence and oppression, 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; which decided upon the honor, fortune, and even the life, of the unhappy wretch 2 X

who happens to fall under the suspicion of heresy, or a contempt of any thing prescribed by the church, without his being confronted with his accusers, or permitted either defence or appeal: 6000 persons were burnt by order of this sanguinary tribunal within four years after the appointment of Torquemada, the first inquisitor-general; and upwards of 100,000 felt its fury. The same furious and blinded zeal which led to the depopulation of Spain led also to its aggrandisement. 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 hereditary dominions, by expelling the enemies of Christianity, and extending its doctrines. Every thing conspired to favor their project: the Moorish kingdom was a prey to civil wars; when Ferdinand, having obtained the bull of Sixtus IV., authorising 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. Guadix 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 engaged 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 communication 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 Alpujarros; 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, Moors, or Saracens, 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 modern from ancient manners. 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.

Mr. Jacob, a writer of whose illustrations of Spanish history, in his Letters from Spain, we have before availed ourselves, gives an able summary of the rise, progress, and permanent efforts of the Moorish dominion in that country. He gives that luminous and interesting account, in particular, of the kingdom of Granada, and its subjugation by Ferdinand, which will justify a considerable extract.

The family of Almanzor still continued to reign in Granada, in the year 1051, when Joseph Ben Taschphen, king of Morocco, invaded Granada with an irresistible army. The timid successor of Almanzor, though strengthened by auxiliaries from the Christian king of Castile, feared to meet him in battle; and, when his enemy advanced towards the city, he went forth to receive him, and, surrendering his power, followed, with his nobles, in the train of the African invader, who was thus quietly seated on the throne, which he afterwards filled with dignity and splendor. The death of Joseph occasioned a civil war in Granada, which was succeeded by a truce, in which the different pretenders to the sovereignty agreed to divide the kingdom, which, however, became again united in 1146, by the establishment of a prince of the family of the Almohades in the sole possession of the supreme power. This family continued on the throne till 1232, when Mahomet I., one of the greatest of the Moorish princes, laid the foundation of a new dynasty, the talents and virtues of which raised the kingdom to its highest degree of prosperity. Mahomet, though he always kept up a powerful army, was no less attentive to the arts of peace. He regulated the revenues, adminis tered justice, cultivated science, endowed hospitals, and began the Alhambra, a fortress which was ever afterwards considered the glory of Mahometan Spain.

The first part of his reign was undisturbed by war; but, Ferdinand of Castile having succeeded in taking Cordova, he feared for the safety of his dominions, and endeavoured to strengthen himself by an alliance with Benudiel king of Murcia, who, having declined his offered friendship, was under the necessity of ceding his dominions to the Christian king, to avoid their being conquered by this Mahometan prince. Ferdinand,. having thus obtained possession of Murcia, turned his arms against the kingdom of Granada. Mahomet fought the battle of Martos with the commander of Calatrava; but, though victorious, was threatened with such overwhelming forces, that he yielded to Ferdinand, paid tribute for his dominions, and assisted with his troops at the capture of Seville, in the character of a vassal to the Christian chief. death of Ferdinand produced civil wars, in Castile, among the subjects of his son Alphonso, and Mahomet availed himself of the opportunity to throw off the yoke he had unwillingly borne, and, forming alliances with other Moorish chieftains, defeated the army of Alphonso at Alcala la Real. With the assistance of 10,000 horse from Morocco, he invested the cities of Guadix and Malaga, which were under the protection of the kingdom of Castile; and, after a long siege, took the latter by storm, in 1273, when his reign and his life were terminated by the fatigues of war.

The

'Mahomet II. succeeded his father, and has left a higher character than any of the monarchs of his race. The commencement of his reign was disturbed by domestic factions, which, by his firmness and wisdom, he either subdued or conciliated. He was the patron of arts and of commerce, and the protector of science. His court was the resort of astronomers, physicians,

philosophers, orators, and poets; and his own compositions in verse are celebrated by the Arabs for their wit and epigrammatic humor. He renewed the alliance with the king of Castile; but, Alphonso having passed to Italy, he took advantage of his absence, and formed a treaty with the king of Morocco, who sent him an army of 17,000 men, by the aid of which he defeated the Christian forces, enlarged his dominions by the capture of Jaen, and finally concluded a treaty of peace, in which the Christians renounced their claim of vassalage, agreed to defray the expenses of the war, and surrendered to the Moors Tarifa and Algeziras. His son, of the same name, succeeded to the throne in 1302, and resembled him in his love of literature, and his patronage of the fine arts; but, being engaged in a war with the king of Arragon, discontents were fomented in the capital; and, when he returned, an insurrection broke out, which transferred the crown to Almasser his brother, who, though only twenty-five years of age, was celebrated for his progress in mathematics, his knowledge of astronomy, and his skill in making astronomical tables and instruments with the greatest accuracy as he was, however, unfit for the turbulent period in which he lived, he yielded to the seditious disposition of his subjects, who were aided by Ismael prince of Malaga, and in 1314 withdrew from the throne to a life of literary retirement, while the more warlike Ismael succeeded to that dignity which the mild virtues of Almasser rendered him unfit to maintain.

'Were I to name the various kings who in succession ruled the kingdom of Granada, I should I fear exhaust your patience; and I have only been induced to mention these few because their reigns were marked by a love of science which gave a character to their territory materially different from that which it had before possessed.

Granada, sometimes at variance, sometimes in alliance with Castile and with Arragon, sometimes receiving succors from, and sometimes sending invading armies to Barbary, was itself torn by those intestine commotions which are frequently the cause and are always the forerunners of the dissolution of states. The last war of Granada was begun in 1482 by Albohasen, who, instigated by the discontents in Castile, which the accession of Ferdinand and Isabella had created, marched an army of 40,000 men to attack their dominions. Ferdinand proposed a truce for three years, which was accepted. During this period, having quieted his rebellious subjects, he directed his forces against Albohasen. He commenced his operations by capturing Alhama, which gave a decisive blow to the Moorish power, since, by the fall of this place, the Christians became masters of an impregnable fortress in the heart of the enemy's dominions, and were thence enabled to excite murmurs and dissensions among the different parties in the capital. Amid various scenes of internal division, Albohasen, who had provoked the hostility of Castile, forfeited the respect of his subjects, by a blind attachment to a Christian captive, for whose sake he divorced his

wife, and caused her sons to be executed. He was, in consequence, deposed, and Abo Abdeli, his eldest son, who alone escaped from the slaughter, was raised by the people to the throne of his father.

Ferdinand in the mean time advanced towards the city, and Abo Abdeli, in a battle near Lucina, was defeated, and made prisoner. During his captivity he entered into a treaty with his conqueror, which restored him to his liberty, but his people, being animated with fury at the disgraceful terms to which he had acceded, drove him from the throne, and Albohasen was again elevated to the sovereignty for a few months, when his brother, Muly el Zagai, was enabled, by the fickle populace, to dethrone him, and assume the sceptre. The policy of Ferdinand induced him to support the interests of the exiled Abo Abdeli, and to foment those divisions between the rival monarchs which favored and opened his way to the final reduction of Granada. A short alliance was, indeed, formed between the Moorish kings, by the preaching of a celebrated fakeer of the house of Abencerraxe, to whose warning the people listened as to the voice of inspiration: he proclaimed, in the name of God and his prophet, the approaching ruin of the Mahometan faith, unless the two competitors should unite in its support. His eloquence produced a transient effect, but the jealousy of the rivals soon revived. About this time Ferdinand captured Velez, and besieged Malaga; which last city, after a desperate defence, submitted, in 1487, to his arms, while Muley, who was advancing to its relief, was defeated by Abo Abdeli. Indeed, such was the mutual animosity of these near relatives, that Muley agreed to a treaty with Ferdinand, by which he ceded his strong towns of Guadix and Almeria, and retired to privacy, in the mountains of Alpuxarras, solely with the view that the whole force of the Christians might be directed against his rival.

'Abo Abdeli, reduced to the city and the plain of Granada, was at the mercy of the Castilian conqueror; but the extent and strength of the place promised a long and obstinate resistance, and Ferdinand, with an army of 70,000 men, was unable to invest it. Resolved, however, to conquer this last refuge of the Mahometans, he occupied the surrounding country with his troops, built the city of Santa-fee within two leagues of it, and drew thither the commerce and supplies, which had previously centered in Granada. At this period, while its inhabitants were sunk in indolence, one of those men, whose natural and impassioned eloquence has sometimes aroused a people to deeds of heroism, raised his voice, in the midst of the city, and awakened the inhabitants from their lethargy: 20,000 enthusiasts, ranged under his banners, were prepared to sally forth, with the fury of desperation, to attack the besiegers, when Abo Abdeli, more afraid of his subjects than of the enemy, resolved immediately to capitulate, and made terms with the Christians, by which it was agreed that the Moors should be allowed the free exercise of their religion and laws; should be permitted, if they thought proper, to