A History of Spain / founded on the Historia de España y de la civilización española of Rafael Altamira

by Charles E. Chapman; Rafael Altamira

Leading elements in the social history of the era.

THE most important events in Spain of a social character during the period of the Catholic Kings were the expulsion of the Jews and the conversion of the Castilian Mudéjares, with the relations of the new Inquisition to both of these elements of Spanish society. Other events of more than ordinary note were the deprivation of the nobility of some of their former prestige, the settlement of the dispute between the serfs and lords of Catalonia, the purification of the Castilian clergy, and the definitive triumph of the Roman principles in private law. Greater than all of these were the problems which were to arise through the Spanish subjection of new races in the colonies overseas.

Prestige of the nobility, despite their reverses.

Though with diminished prestige the nobility continued to be the leading social class in Castile, sharing this honor with the higher officials of the church. Much of the former economic preponderance of the nobles was gone, due to the development of personalty as a form of wealth as distinguished from land, the fruit of the commerce and industry of the Jews, Mudéjares, and middle classes. They suffered still further through Isabella’s revocation of the land grants they had received at times of civil war and internal weakness in former reigns, especially in that of Henry IV. Few nobles or great churchmen, for the decree applied equally to the latter, escaped without loss of at least a portion of their rents, and some forfeited all they had. Naturally, the measure caused not a little discontent, but it was executed without any noteworthy resistance. On the other hand, through the continuance of the institution of primogeniture and through new acquisitions of land in return for services in the war against Granada, the greater nobles still possessed immense wealth. The Duke of Medina Sidonia, for example, offered Philip the Handsome two thousand caballeros and 50,000 ducats ($750,000) if he would disembark in Andalusia. Not only in political authority but also in prestige the nobles were lowered by the measures of the Catholic Kings. Such practices as the use of a royal crown on their shields and the employment of royal insignia or ceremonial in any form were forbidden. On the other hand, the ancient privileges of the nobility, both high and low, were confirmed to them,—such, for example, as exemption from taxation and from the application in certain cases of the penalties of the law. At the same time, the Catholic Kings offered a new kind of dignity, depending for its lustre on the favor of the crown. Nobles were encouraged to appear at court and strive for the purely ornamental honors of palace officialdom. Many came, for those who remained on their estates consigned themselves to obscurity, being without power to improve their fortunes by a revolt as their ancestors had done. In Aragon and Catalonia they still displayed tendencies to engage in private war and banditry, a condition of affairs which endured throughout this period and into the next, though it was by no means so serious a problem as it had been in earlier times.

Grades of nobility.

The grades of nobility remained much as before, but with a change in nomenclature. The old term of ricoshombres for the great nobles disappeared (though not until 1520 officially), and was substituted by that of grandes, or grandees. Among the grandees the title of duke (duque) and marquis (marqués) now became of more frequent usage than the formerly more general count (conde). In the epoch of the Catholic Kings there were fifteen grandees in Castile, but eight of them had been created, with the title of duke, by Isabella. For the nobility of the second grade, the terms hijosdalgo (modern hidalgo) and caballero, used in a generic sense to denote noble lineage, were employed indiscriminately. Nobles without fortune lived, as formerly, under the protection of the grandees, or took service in the military orders or even in the new royal army.

Advance of the rural masses.

The situation of the former servile classes of Castile, aside from the slaves, had been rendered very nearly satisfactory from a juridical point of view in the previous era, but their new liberty was insecure and was not freely accorded in practice. The Catholic Kings energetically cut short the greater part of the abuses, and definitely decided that a man adscripted to the land (a solariego) could sell or carry away his personalty, and go wherever he willed. In Aragon proper the problem was more serious, because of the social backwardness of that region. The first step toward freedom from serfdom was taken at this time, consisting in the frequent uprisings of the serfs. Ferdinand made some attempts to modify the malos usos, or evil customs, of the relation of lord and serf, but found the institutions too deeply rooted in his day for remedy. In Catalonia, Ferdinand inherited the problem of the warfare of the serfs with the nobles and the high churchmen, against the latter of whom, particularly the bishop of Gerona, the wrath of the rural classes was especially directed. At the outset he attempted, as had Alfonso V and Juan II before him, to utilize the quarrel to serve his own political and financial ends, accepting bribes from both sides. Finally, an agreement was reached whereby the king was to serve as arbitrator, without appeal, between the warring elements. The Sentence of Guadalupe, so-called because the evidence was taken and the decision rendered at Guadalupe in Extremadura, in 1486, was the judgment pronounced by Ferdinand. It went to the root of the matter by abolishing the malos usos and declaring the freedom of the rural serfs. Furthermore, the lords were deprived of criminal jurisdiction over their vassals, this right passing to the crown, and the same privileges as that just recorded in the case of the solariegos of Castile was granted to the rural masses of Catalonia. On the other hand, the now freed serfs were obliged to pay a heavy ransom to their lords. The decision satisfied neither party to the issue, but was accepted, and proved in fact the solution of the evil. A rural class of small proprietors soon grew up, while many other persons occupied lands for which they paid rent instead of the former irksome services.

Policy of the Catholic Kings toward the Mudéjares.

If a policy of benevolent assimilation had been followed by the Christians of Spain with regard to the other great elements of the population, the Mudéjar and the Jewish, it is possible that the two latter might have been made use of to the advantage of the peninsula, for they were Spanish in most of their habits, and had intermarried with Christians, even those of high rank. For centuries, however, a different practice, based primarily on religious intolerance, had tended to promote the adoption of an opposite course, and it was in the reign of the Catholic Kings that the first steps were taken to bring the matter to an issue. The measures by which the Mudéjares were compelled to emigrate from Castile or become converted as Moriscos have already been chronicled, and the same procedure was taken with regard to Navarre and the Basque provinces. Ferdinand, who was less zealous in this undertaking than his pious consort, did not go to the same lengths in Aragon. On the petition of the lords, who had many Moslem vassals and feared to lose them, he confirmed the privileges of the Mudéjares, though forbidding the erection of new mosques, and permitted of preaching to bring about their voluntary conversion.