The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic — Volume 1

by William Hickling Prescott

FOOTNOTES

[1] Estrada, Poblacion de España, tom. ii. pp. 242, 243.—Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 317.—Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii. p. 261.

[2] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 58.—Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii, pp. 249, 250.—Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii. pp. 259, 260.

[3] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 173.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, p. 187.—Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 316, 317.

[4] Rades y Andrada, Las Tres Ordenes, fol. 80, 81.—L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 173.—Lebrija, Rerum Gestarum Decades, ii. lib. 1, cap. 7.—Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. p. 214.—Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1482.

[5] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, pp. 189-191.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 58.—Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. pp. 214-217.— Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii. pp. 260, 261.

[6] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 58.—Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. pp. 214-217.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, ubi supra.— Lebrija, Rerum Gestarum Decades, ii. lib. 1, cap. 7.—The Peña de los Enamorados received its name from a tragical incident in Moorish history. A Christian slave succeeded in inspiring the daughter of his master, a wealthy Mussulman of Granada, with a passion for himself. The two lovers, after some time, fearful of the detection of their intrigue, resolved to mate their escape into the Spanish territory. Before they could effect their purpose, however, they were hotly pursued by the damsel's father at the head of a party of Moorish horsemen, and overtaken near a precipice which rises between Archidona and Antequera. The unfortunate fugitives, who had scrambled to the summit of the rocks, finding all further escape impracticable, after tenderly embracing each other threw themselves headlong from the dizzy heights, preferring this dreadful death to falling into the hands of their vindictive pursuers. The spot consecrated as the scene of this tragic incident has received the name of Rock of the Lovers. The legend is prettily told by Mariana, (Hist. de España, tom. ii. pp. 253, 254,) who concludes with the pithy reflection, that "such constancy would have been truly admirable, had it been shown in defence of the true faith, rather than in the gratification of lawless appetite."

[7] Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. pp. 214-217.—Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii. pp. 262, 263.—Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib, 1, cap. 12.—Bernaldez states that great umbrage was taken at the influence which the king of Granada allowed a person of Christian lineage, named Venegas, to exercise over him. Pulgar hints at the bloody massacre of the Abencerrages, which, without any better authority that I know of, forms the burden of many an ancient ballad, and has lost nothing of its romantic coloring under the hand of Cinés Perez de Hyta.

[8] Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, ubi supra.—Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, ubi supra.

Boabdil was surnamed "el Chico," the Little, by the Spanish writers, to distinguish him from an uncle of the same name; and "el Zogoybi," the Unfortunate, by the Moors, indicating that he was the last of his race destined to wear the diadem of Granada. The Arabs, with great felicity, frequently select names significant of some quality in the objects they represent. Examples of this may be readily found in the southern regions of the Peninsula, where the Moors lingered the longest. The etymology of Gibraltar, Gebal Tarik, Mount of Tarik, is well known. Thus, Algeziras comes from an Arabic word which signifies an island: Alpuxarras comes from a term signifying herbage or pasturage: Arrecife from another, signifying causeway or high road, etc. The Arabic word wad stands for river. This without much violence has been changed into guad, and enters into the names of many of the southern streams; for example, Guadalquivir, great river, Guadiana, narrow or little river, Guadalete, etc. In the same manner the term Medina, Arabicè "city," has been retained as a prefix to the names of many of the Spanish towns, as Medina Celi, Medina del Campo, etc. See Conde's notes to El Nubiense, Description de España, passim.

[9] Salazar de Mendoza, Crón. del Gran Cardenal, p. 181.—Pulgar, Claros Varones, tit. 20.—Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1483.—Aleson, Annales de Navarra, tom. v. p. 11, ed. 1766.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 158.

[10] Fred. Marslaar, De Leg. 2, 11.—M. de Wicquefort derives the word ambassadeur (anciently in English ambassador) from the Spanish word embiar, "to send." See Rights of Embassadors, translated by Digby (London, 1740,) book 1, chap. 1.

[11] Sismondi, Républiques Italiennes, tom. xi. cap. 88.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, pp. 195-198.—Zurita, Anales, tom iv. fol. 218.

[12] Aleson, Annales de Navarra, lib. 34, cap. 1.—Histoire du Royaume de Navarre, p. 558. Leonora's son, Gaston de Foix, prince of Viana, was slain by an accidental wound from a lance, at a tourney at Lisbon, in 1469. By the princess Magdeleine, his wife, sister of Louis XI, he left two children, a son and daughter, each of whom in turn succeeded to the crown of Navarre. Francis Phoebus ascended the throne on the demise of his grandmother Leonora, in 1479. He was distinguished by his personal graces and beauty, and especially by the golden lustre of his hair, from which, according to Aleson, he derived his cognomen of Phoebus. As it was an ancestral name, however, such an etymology may be thought somewhat fanciful.

[13] Ferdinand and Isabella had at this time four children; the infant Don John, four years and a half old, but who did not live to come to the succession, and the infantas Isabella, Joanna, and Maria; the last, born at Cordova during the summer of 1482.

[14] Aleson, Annales de Navarra, lib. 34, cap. 2; lib. 35, cap. 1.—
Histoire du Royaume de Navarre, pp. 578, 579.—La Clède, Hist. de
Portugal, tom. iii. pp. 438-441.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, p. 199.—
Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. p. 551.

[15] Lebrija, Rerum Gestarum Decades, ii. lib. 2, cap. 1.

Besides the armada in the Mediterranean, a fleet under Pedro de Vera was prosecuting a voyage of discovery and conquest to the Canaries at this time.

[16] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, p. 199.—Mariana, tom. ii. p. 551.— Coleccion de Cédulas y Otros Documentos, (Madrid, 1829,) tom. iii. no. 25.

For this important collection, a few copies of which, only, were printed for distribution, at the expense of the Spanish government, I am indebted to the politeness of Don A. Calderon de la Barca.

[17] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 58.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, p. 202.

Juan de Corral imposed on the king of Granada by means of certain credentials, which he had obtained from the Spanish sovereigns without any privity on their part to his fraudulent intentions. The story is told in a very blind manner by Pulgar.

It may not be amiss to mention here a doughty feat performed by another Castilian envoy, of much higher rank, Don Juan de Vera. This knight, while conversing with certain Moorish cavaliers in the Alhambra, was so much scandalized by the freedom with which one of them treated the immaculate conception, that he gave the circumcised dog the lie, and smote him a sharp blow on the head with his sword. Ferdinand, say Bernaldez, who tells the story, was much gratified with the exploit, and recompensed the good knight with many honors.

[18] The adalid was a guide, or scout, whose business it was to make himself acquainted with the enemy's country, and to guide the invaders into it. Much dispute has arisen respecting the authority and functions of this officer. Some writers regard him as an independent leader, or commander; and the Dictionary of the Academy defines the term adalid by these very words. The Siete Partidas, however, explains at length the peculiar duties of this officer, conformably to the account I have given. (Ed. de la Real Acad. (Madrid, 1807,) part. 2, tit. 2, leyes 1-4.) Bernaldez, Pulgar, and the other chroniclers of the Granadine war, repeatedly notice him in this connection. When he is spoken of as a captain, or leader, as he sometimes is in these and other ancient records, his authority, I suspect, is intended to be limited to the persons who aided him in the execution of his peculiar office.—It was common for the great chiefs, who lived on the borders, to maintain in their pay a number of these adalides, to inform them of the fitting time and place for making a foray. The post, as may well be believed, was one of great trust and personal hazard.

[19] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, p. 203.—L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 173.—Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 320.

[20] Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 36.—Lebrija, Rerum Gestarum Decades, ii. lib. 2, cap. 2.

The title of adelantado implies in its etymology one preferred or placed before others. The office is of great antiquity; some have derived it from the reign of St. Ferdinand in the thirteenth century, but Mendoza proves its existence at a far earlier period. The adelantado was possessed of very extensive judicial authority in the province or district in which he presided, and in war was invested with supreme military command. His functions, however, as well as the territories over which he ruled, have varied at different periods. An adelantado seems to have been generally established over a border province, as Andalusia for example. Marina discusses the civil authority of this officer, in his Teoría, tom. ii. cap. 23. See also Salazar de Mendoza, Dignidades, lib. 2, cap. 15.

[21] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 60.—Rades y Andrada, Las Tres
Ordenes, fol. 71.—Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 320.—Zuñiga, Annales de
Sevilla, fol. 395.—Lebrija, Rerum Gestarum Decades, ii. lib. 2, cap. 2.—
Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 36.

[22] Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. p. 217.—Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii. pp. 264-267.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 60.

[23] Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. p. 217.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, p. 204.—Rades y Andrada, Las Tres Ordenes, fol. 71, 72.

[24] Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. pp. 552, 553.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, p. 205.—Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 321.

[25] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, p. 205.—Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. p. 636.

[26] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 60.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, ubi supra.—Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii. pp. 264-267.

[27] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, p. 206.—Rades y Andrada, Las Tres Ordenes, fol. 71, 72.

[28] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, loc. cit.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 60.

[29] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, p. 206. Mr. Irving, in his "Conquest of Granada," states that the scene of the greatest slaughter in this rout is still known to the inhabitants of the Axarquia by the name of La Cuesta de la Matanza, or "The Hill of the Massacre."

[30] Oviedo, who devotes one of his dialogues to this nobleman, says of him, "Fue una de las buenas lanzos de nuestra España en su tiempo; y muy sabio y prudente caballero. Hallose en grandes cargos y negocios de paz y de guerra." Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 36.

[31] Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii, p. 218.—Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 321.—Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1483.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, ubi supra.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 60.— Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii. pp. 266, 267.—The count, according to Oviedo, remained a long while a prisoner in Granada, until he was ransomed by the payment of several thousand doblas of gold. Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial 36.

[32] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 60.—Marmol says that three brothers and two nephews of the marquis, whose names he gives, were all slain. Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 12.

[33] Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, fol. 395.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., ubi supra.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, p. 206.—Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 38.—Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 12.

[34] Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 60. Pulgar has devoted a large space to the unfortunate expedition to the Axarquia. His intimacy with the principal persons of the court enabled him, no doubt, to verify most of the particulars which he records. The Curate of Los Palacios, from the proximity of his residence to the theatre of action, may be supposed also to have had ample means for obtaining the requisite information. Yet their several accounts, although not strictly contradictory, it is not always easy to reconcile with one another. The narratives of complex military operations are not likely to be simplified under the hands of monkish bookmen. I have endeavored to make out a connected tissue from a comparison of the Moslem with the Castilian authorities. But here the meagreness of the Moslem annals compels us to lament the premature death of Conde. It can hardly be expected, indeed, that the Moors should have dwelt with much amplification on this humiliating period. But there can be little doubt, that far more copious memorials of theirs than any now published, exist in the Spanish libraries; and it were much to be wished that some Oriental scholar would supply Conde's deficiency, by exploring these authentic records of what may be deemed, as far as Christian Spain is concerned, the most glorious portion of her history.