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

by William Hickling Prescott

FOOTNOTES

[1] Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 351, 352, 356.—Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 25, cap. 12.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 3, cap. 95.

[2] Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii. p. 76.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 98.—Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, p. 402.—Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii. pp. 298, 299.—Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1488.

[3] Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. pp. 239, 240.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 100, 101.—During the preceding year, while the court was at Murcia, we find one of the examples of prompt and severe exercise of justice, which sometimes occur in this reign. One of the royal collectors having been resisted and personally maltreated by the alcayde of Salvatierra, a place belonging to the crown, and by the alcalde of a territorial court of the duke of Alva, the queen caused one of the royal judges privately to enter into the place, and take cognizance of the affair. The latter, after a brief investigation, commanded the alcayde to be hung up over his fortress, and the alcalde to be delivered over to the court of chancery at Valladolid, who ordered his right hand to be amputated, and banished him the realm. This summary justice was perhaps necessary in a community, that might be said to be in transition from a state of barbarism to that of civilization, and had a salutary effect in proving to the people that no rank was elevated enough to raise the offender above the law. Pulgar, cap. 99.

[4] Ialigny, Hist. de Charles VIII., pp. 92, 94.—Sismondi, Hist. des Français, tom. xv. p. 77.—Aleson, Annales de Navarra, tom. v. p. 61.— Histoire du Royaume de Navarre, pp. 578, 579.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 102.

In the first of these expeditions, more than a thousand Spaniards were slain or taken at the disastrous battle of St. Aubin, in 1488, being the same in which Lord Rivers, the English noble, who made such a gallant figure at the siege of Loja, lost his life. In the spring of 1489, the levies sent into France amounted to two thousand in number. These efforts abroad, simultaneous with the great operations of the Moorish war, show the resources as well as energy of the sovereigns.

[5] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, ubi supra.

[6] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 91.—Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 354.—Bleda, Corónica, fol. 607.—Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 307.

Such was the scarcity of grain that the prices in 1489, quoted by Bernaldez, are double those of the preceding year.—Both Abarca and Zurita mention the report, that four-fifths of the whole population were swept away by the pestilence of 1488. Zurita finds more difficulty in swallowing this monstrous statement than Father Abarca, whose appetite for the marvellous appears to have been fully equal to that of most of his calling in Spain.

[7] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 2, epist. 70.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 104.

It may not be amiss to specify the names of the most distinguished cavaliers who usually attended the king in these Moorish wars; the heroic ancestors of many a noble house still extant in Spain.

Alonso de Cardenas, master of Saint Jago.
Juan de Zuñiga, master of Alcantara.
Juan Garcia de Padilla, master of Calatrava.
Rodrigo Ponce de Leon, marquis duke of Cadiz.
Enrique de Guzman, duke of Medina Sidonia.
Pedro Manrique, duke of Najera.
Juan Pacheco, duke of Escalona, marquis of Villena.
Juan Pimentel, count of Benavente.
Fadrique de Toledo, son of the duke of Alva.
Diego Fernandez de Cordova, count of Cabra.
Gomez Alvarez de Figueroa, count of Feria.
Alvaro Tellez Giron, count of Ureña.
Juan de Silva, count of Cifuentes.
Fadrique Enriquez, adelantado of Andalusia.
Alonso Fernandez de Cordova, lord of Aguilar.
Gonsalvo de Cordova, brother of the last, known afterwards as the Great
Captain.
Luis Porto-Carrero, lord of Palma.
Gutierre de Cardenas, first commander of Leon.
Pedro Fernandez de Velasco, count of Haro, constable of Castile.
Beltran de la Cueva, duke of Albuquerque.
Diego Fernandez de Cordova, alcayde of the royal pages, afterwards
marquis of Comaras.
Alvaro de Zuñiga, duke of Bejar.
Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza, count of Tendilla, afterwards marquis of
Mondejar.
Luis de Cerda, duke of Medina Celi.
Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza, marquis of Santillana, second duke of Infantado.
Garcilasso de la Vega, lord of Batras.

[8] Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 360.—Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. p. 241.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 2, epist. 70.—Estrada, Poblacion de España, tom. ii. fol. 239.—Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 16.

[9] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 106, 107.—Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. cap. 40.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 71. Pulgar relates these particulars with a perspicuity very different from his entangled narrative of some of the preceding operations in this war. Both he and Martyr were present during the whole siege of Baza.

[10] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 92.—Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii. pp. 299, 300.—Bleda, Corónica, p. 611.—Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. p. 664.

Don Gutierre de Cardenas, who possessed so high a place in the confidence of the sovereigns, occupied a station in the queen's household, as we have seen, at the time of her marriage with Ferdinand. His discretion and general ability enabled him to retain the influence which he had early acquired, as is shown by a popular distich of that time.

"Cardenas, y el Cardenal, y Chacon, y Fray Mortero,
Traen la Corte al retortero."

Fray Mortero was Don Alonso de Burgos, bishop of Palencia, confessor of the sovereigns. Don Juan Chacon was the son of Gonsalvo, who had the care of Don Alfonso and the queen during her minority, when he was induced by the liberal largesses of John II., of Aragon, to promote her marriage with his son Ferdinand. The elder Chacon was treated by the sovereigns with the greatest deference and respect, being usually called by them "father." After his death, they continued to manifest a similar regard towards Don Juan, his eldest son, and heir of his ample honors and estates. Salazar de Mendoza, Dignidades, lib. 4, cap. 1.—Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 2, dial. 1, 2.

[11] Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii. p. 304.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 109.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 2, epist. 73. —Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 92.

[12] Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. cap. 40.—Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 25, cap. 12.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 111.

[13] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 112.—Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii. p. 86.

[14] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 2, epist. 73, 80.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 113, 114, 117.—Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. p. 667.—Bleda, Corónica, p. 64.

The plague, which fell heavily this year on some parts of Andalusia, does not appear to have attacked the camp, which Bleda imputes to the healing influence of the Spanish sovereigns, "whose good faith, religion, and virtue banished the contagion from their army, where it must otherwise have prevailed." Personal comforts and cleanliness of the soldiers, though not quite so miraculous a cause, may be considered perhaps full as efficacious.

[15] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 2, epist. 73.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 116.

[16] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 118.—Archivo de Simancas, in Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. p. 311.

The city of Valencia lent 35,000 florins on the crown and 20,000 on a collar of rubies. They were not wholly redeemed till 1495. Señor Clemencin has given a catalogue of the royal jewels, (see Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilustracion 6,) which appear to have been extremely rich and numerous, for a period anterior to the discovery of those countries, whose mines have since furnished Europe with its bijouterie. Isabella, however, set so little value on them, that she divested herself of most of them in favor of her daughters.

[17] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 92.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 120, 121.—Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii. p. 93.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 3, epist. 80.

[18] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 3, epist. 80.—Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. p. 242.—Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1489.—Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii. p. 305.

[19] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 124.—Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 16.

[20] Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. cap. 40.—Bleda, Corónica, p. 612.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 92.—Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 16.

[21] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 3, epist. 81.—Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii. p. 340.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, loc. cit.—Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, tom. iii. cap. 40.

[22] El Nubiense, Descripcion de España, p. 160, not.—Carbajal, Anales,
MS., año 1488.—Cardonne, Hist. d'Afrique et d'Espagne, tom. iii. p. 304.
—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., lib. 3, epist. 81.—Conde, Dominacion de los
Arabes, tom. iii. pp. 245, 246.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 93.

[23] Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 360.—Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 308.

[24] The city of Seville alone maintained 600 horse and 8000 foot under the count of Cifuentes, for the space of eight months during this siege. See Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, p. 404.