The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic — Volume 2

by William Hickling Prescott

FOOTNOTES

[1] Vedmar, Antiguedad y Grandezas de la Ciudad de Velez, (Granada, 1652,) fol. 148.—Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 27, cap. 10.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. iii. cap. 70.—Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1487.— Bleda, Corónica, lib. 5, cap. 14.

[2] Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii. pp. 292-294.— Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, ubi supra.—Vedmar, Antiguedad de Velez, fol. 151.

[3] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 175.—Vedmar, Antiguedad.—de Velez, fol. 150, 151.—Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 14.

In commemoration of this event, the city incorporated into its escutcheon the figure of a king on horseback, in the act of piercing a Moor with his javelin. Vedmar, Antiguedad de Velez, fol. 12.

[4] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 52.—Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 14.

[5] Conde doubts whether the name of Malaga is derived from the Greek malakè, signifying "agreeable," or the Arabic malka, meaning "royal." Either etymology is sufficiently pertinent. (See El Nubiense, Descripcion de España, p. 186, not.) For notices of sovereigns who swayed the sceptre of Malaga, see Casiri, Bibliotheca Escurialensis, tom. ii. pp. 41, 56, 99, et alibi.

[6] Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. p. 237.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 74.—El Nubiense, Descripcion de España, not., p. 144.

[7] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 82.—Vedmar, Antiguedad de Velez, fol. 154.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 74.

[8] This cavalier, who took a conspicuous part both in the military and civil transactions of this reign, was descended from one of the most ancient and honorable houses in Castile. Hyta, (Guerras Civiles de Granada, tom. i. p. 399,) with more effrontery than usual, has imputed to him a chivalrous rencontre with a Saracen, which is recorded of an ancestor, in the ancient Chronicle of Alonso XI.

"Garcilaso de la Vega desde alli se ha intitulado, porque en la Vega hiciera campo con aquel pagano."

Oviedo, however, with good reason, distrusts the etymology and the story, as he traces both the cognomen and the peculiar device of the family to a much older date than the period assigned in the Chronicle. Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 3, dial. 43.

[9] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 75.—Salazar de Mendoza, Crón. del Gran Cardenal, lib. 1, cap. 64.

[10] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 83.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 76.—Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1487.

[11] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, ubi supra.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., ubi supra.

[12] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 1, epist. 83—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 76.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, cap. 83.—Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 36.

[13] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 76.

[14] Salazar de Mendoza, Crón. del Gran Cardenal, lib. 1, cap. 64.— Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. cap. 70.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 83.

[15] Bleda, Corónica, lib. 5, cap. 15.—Conde, Dominacion, tom. iv. pp. 237, 238.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 83.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 79.

[16] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, ubi supra.

During the siege, ambassadors arrived from an African potentate, the king of Tremecen, bearing a magnificent present to the Castilian sovereigns, interceding for the Malagans, and at the same time asking protection for his subjects from the Spanish cruisers in the Mediterranean. The sovereigns graciously complied with the latter request, and complimented the African monarch with a plate of gold, on which the royal arms were curiously embossed, says Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, cap. 84.

[17] This nobleman, Don Alvaro de Portugal, had fled his native country, and sought an asylum in Castile from the vindictive enmity of John II, who had been put to death by the duke of Braganza, his elder brother. He was kindly received by Isabella, to whom he was nearly related, and subsequently preferred to several important offices of state. His son, the count of Gelves, married a granddaughter of Christopher Columbus. Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.

[18] Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 23.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 1, epist. 63.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 84.—Bleda, Corónica de los Moros, lib. 5, cap. 15.—L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 175, 176.

[19] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 87-89.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 84.

[20] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 87.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 71.

[21] Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. pp. 237, 238.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 80.—Caro de Torres, Ordenes Militares, fol. 82, 83.

[22] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 9l.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 84. The honest exclamation of the Curate brings to mind the similar encomium of the old Moorish ballad,

"Caballeros Granadinos, Aunque Moros, hijosdalgo."

Hyta, Guerras de Granada, tom. i., p. 257.

[23] There is no older well-authenticated account of the employment of gunpowder in mining in European warfare, so far as I am aware, than this by Ramirez. Tiraboschi, indeed, refers, on the authority of another writer, to a work in the library of the Academy of Siena, composed by one Francesco Giorgio, architect of the duke of Urbino, about 1480, in which that person claims the merit of the invention. (Letteratura Italiana, tom. vi. p. 370.) The whole statement is obviously too loose to warrant any such conclusion. The Italian historians notice the use of gunpowder mines at the siege of the little town of Serezanello in Tuscany, by the Genoese, in 1487, precisely contemporaneous with the siege of Malaga. (Machiavelli, Istorie Fiorentine, lib. 8.—Guicciardini, Istoria d'Italia, (Milano, 1803,) tom. iii. lib. 6.) This singular coincidence, in nations having then but little intercourse, would seem to infer some common origin of greater antiquity. However this may be, the writers of both nations are agreed in ascribing the first successful use of such mines on any extended scale to the celebrated Spanish engineer, Pedro Navarro, when serving under Gonsalvo of Cordova, in his Italian campaigns at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Guicciardini, ubi supra.—Paolo Giovio, de Vitâ Magni Gonsalvi, (Vitae Illustrium Virorum, Basiliae, 1578,) lib. 2.— Aleson, Annales de Navarra, tom. v. lib. 35, cap. 12.

[24] Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii. p. 296.—L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 175.—Rades y Andrada, Las Tres Ordenes, fol. 54.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 92.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 85.

[25] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 93.—Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii. p. 296.

The Arabic historians state that Malaga was betrayed by Ali Dordux, who admitted the Spaniards into the castle, while the citizens were debating on Ferdinand's terms. (See Conde, Domination de los Arabes, tom. iii. cap. 39.) The letter of the inhabitants, quoted at length by Pulgar, would seem to be a refutation of this. And yet there are good grounds for suspecting false play on the part of the ambassador Dordux, since the Castilian writers admit that he was exempted, with forty of his friends, from the doom of slavery and forfeiture of property, passed upon his fellow- citizens.

[26] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 85.

[27] Carbajal, whose meagre annals have scarcely any merit beyond that of a mere chronological table, postpones the surrender till September. Anales, año 1487.—Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 14.

[28] Bleda, Corónica, lib. 5, cap. 15.

As a counterpart to the above scene, twelve Christian renegades, found in the city, were transfixed with canes, acañavereados, a barbarous punishment derived from the Moors, which was inflicted by horsemen at full gallop, who discharged pointed reeds at the criminal, until he expired under repeated wounds. A number of relapsed Jews were at the same time condemned to the flames. "These," says Father Abarca, "were the fêtes and illuminations most grateful to the Catholic piety of our sovereigns"! Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. rey 30, cap. 3.

[29] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, ubi supra.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., ubi supra.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 62.

[30] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 87.—L. Marineo, Cosas
Memorables, fol. 176.—Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. p. 238.
—Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii. p. 296.—Carbajal,
Anales, MS., año 1487.

Not a word of comment escapes the Castilian historians on this merciless rigor of the conqueror towards the vanquished. It is evident that Ferdinand did no violence to the feelings of his orthodox subjects. Tacendo clamant.

[31] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 87.—Bleda, Corónica, lib. 5, cap. 15.

About four hundred and fifty Moorish Jews were ransomed by a wealthy Israelite of Castile for 27,000 doblas of gold. A proof that the Jewish stock was one which thrived amidst persecution.

It is scarcely possible that the circumstantial Pulgar should have omitted to notice so important a fact as the scheme of the Moorish ransom, had it occurred. It is still more improbable, that the honest Curate of Los Palacios should have fabricated it. Any one who attempts to reconcile the discrepancies of contemporary historians even, will have Lord Orford's exclamation to his son Horace brought to his mind ten times a day; "Oh! read me not history, for that I know to be false."

[32] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 94.—Col. de Céd., tom. vi. no. 321.