[1333] ‘Ruinosos los muros de sus fortalezas, aun tenía Barcelona abiertas las brechas, que hizo el duque de Vendoma; y desde Rosas hasta Cadiz, no habia Alcazar, ni Castillo, no solo presidiado, pero ni montada su artillería. La misma negligencia se admiraba en los puertos de Vizcaya, y Galicia; no tenian los almazenes sus provisiones, faltaban fundidores de armas, y las que habia, eran de ningun uso. Vacios los arsenales y artilleros, se habia olvidado el arte de construir naves, y no tenia el Rey mas que las destinadas al comercio de Indias, y algunos galeones; seis galeras, consumidas del tiempo, y del ocio, se ancoraban en Cartagena.’ Bacallar, Comentarios de la Guerra de España, vol. i. p. 43. Another eye-witness describes ‘the best fortresses consisting of ruined walls, mounted with here and there a rusty cannon, and the man thought an able engineer who knew how to fire them.’ Ripperda's Memoirs, second edition, London, 1740, p. 227.
[1334] Dunlop's Memoirs, vol. ii. pp. 224, 225. In 1680, Madame de Villars, the wife of the French Ambassador, writes from Madrid, that such was the state of affairs there, that her husband thought it advisable that she should return home. Lettres de Madame de Villars, Amsterdam, 1769, p. 169. A letter written by the Danish ambassador in 1677, describes every house in Madrid as regularly armed from top to bottom; ‘de haut en bas.’ Mignet, Négociations relatives à la Succession, vol. iv. p. 638, Paris, 1842, 4to. The deaths from starvation are said to have been particularly numerous in Andalusia. See Tapia, Civilizacion Española, vol. iii. p. 167. ‘En Andalucia especialmente moria mucha gente de hambre, y el consulado de Sevilla envió una diputacion para representar que aquella ciudad habia quedado reducida á la cuarta parte de la poblacion que habia tenido cincuenta años antes.’ On the state of the people generally, in 1680, compare Lettres de Villars, pp. 145, 152, 161.
[1335] ‘Point de libertés et point de frein.’ Mém. de Louville, vol. i. p. 68.
[1336] In 1681, the French ambassadress writes from Madrid, ‘Je ne vous parle point de la misère de ce royaume. La faim est jusques dans le palais. J'étois hier avec huit ou dix camaristes, et La Moline, qui disoient qu'il y avoit fort long-tems qu'on ne leur donnoit plus ni pain ni viande. Aux écuries du roi et de la reine, de même.’ Lettres de Madame la Marquise de Villars, Amsterdam, 1759, pp. 216, 217. The year after Charles II. died: ‘II n'y avoit pas de fonds pour les choses les plus nécessaires, pour la cuisine, l'écurie, les valets de pied,’ &c. Millot, Mémoires du Duc de Noailles, vol. ii. p. 26, ed. Petitot, Paris, 1828. Among other reckless expedients, the currency was so depreciated, that, in a letter from Martin to Dr. Frazer, dated Madrid, March 6th, 1680, we hear of ‘the fall of money to one fourth part of its former value.’ Miscellany of the Spalding Club, vol. v. p. 187, Aberdeen, 4to. 1852.
[1337] ‘The king has taken away, by a late decree, a third part of all wages and salaries of all officers and ministers without exception, and suspended for the ensuing year, 1694, all pensions for life granted either by himself or his father.’ Letter from the English Ambassador, dated Madrid, November 18th, 1693, in Mahon's Spain under Charles II., London, 1840, p. 40. This is also stated in Millot, Mémoires de Noailles, vol. i. p. 359, Paris, 1828; ‘retranchant le tiers des dépenses de sa maison, et des appointemens de ses officiers tant militaires que civils.’ In the preceding reign, the pension had been stopped, at all events for a time. In 1650, Sir Edward Hyde, writes from Madrid, ‘there is an universal stop of all pensions which have been granted formerly.’ Clarendon State Papers, vol. ii. p. 538, Oxford, 1773. The next step which was taken was a proposal, in 1667, to tax the salaries of the members of the Council of Castile, Arragon, &c.; but this idea was abandoned, until at length, they, like all other public servants, came under the comprehensive edict of 1693. See the letter from the French Ambassador to Louis XIV., dated Madrid, June 2nd, 1667, in Mignet, Négociations, vol. ii. p. 128, Paris, 1835, 4to. The only chance of recovering the history of Spain in the seventeenth century, is by collating these and similar documents with the meagre notices to be found in Spanish writers.
[1338] In 1695, ‘the miserable poverty in this country.’ Travels through Spain, performed by a Gentleman, London, 1702, p. 62. And, in the same year, ‘L'Espagne, manquant de tout d'hommes, et d'argent.’ Mémoires de Noailles, vol. i. p. 402. ‘L'Espagne, presque anéantie.’ p. 424.
[1339] See the letters in Mahon's Spain under Charles II., pp. 138–140. On the 21st of May, ‘We have an addition of above 20,000 beggars, flocked from the country round, to share in that little here is, who were starving at home, and look like ghosts.’ On the 27th of May, ‘The scarcity of bread is growing on apace towards a famine, which increases, by vast multitudes of poor that swarm in upon us from the countries round about. I shifted the best I could till this day, but the difficulty of getting any without authority, has made me recur to the Corregidor, as most of the foreign Ministers had done before; he, very courteously, after inquiring what my family was, gave me an order for twenty loaves every day: but I must send two leagues, to Vallejas, to fetch it, as I have done this night, and my servants with long guns to secure it when they have it, otherwise it would be taken from them, for several people are killed every day in the streets, in scuffles for bread, all being lawful prize that any body can catch.’ … ‘My secretary, Don Francisco, saw yesterday five poor women stifled to death by the crowd before a bakehouse.’
[1340] Even M. Lafuente, who having used scarcely any of the authorities which I have quoted in the last few pages, can have no adequate idea of the utter wretchedness of Spain, confesses that ‘Jamás monarca ni pueblo alguno se vieron en tan lastimosa situacion y en tan mísero trance como se hallaron en este tiempo’ (1699). ‘Carlos II. y la España.’ Lafuente, Historia de España, vol. xvii. p. 426, Madrid, 1856.
[1341] ‘Les Maures d'Afrique assiégeoient Ceuta. Le roi d'Espagne manquait non seulement de troupes, mais de vaisseaux pour transporter le peu de secours qu'il pouvoit y envoyer: Louis XIV lui fit offrir les troupes et les vaisseaux dont il auroit besoin. Il s'agissoit non seulement de conserver Ceuta, mais de plus Oran; par conséquent d'empêcher la prise de deux places dont la conquête facilitoit aux Maures un retour en Espagne.’ Mémoires du Marquis de Torcy, vol. i. p. 46, ed. Paris, 1828. Respecting the attacks made on Ceuta, from 1696 to 1698, see Ortiz, Compendio de la Historia de España, vol. vi. pp. 556, 567, 561.
[1342] A celebrated modern writer has made some remarks upon this, which are too apposite to be omitted. ‘Con el siglo xvii. acabó tambien la dinastía austriaca en España, dejando á esta nacion pobre, despoblada, sin fuerzas marítimas ni terrestres, y por consiguiente á merced de las demas potencias que intentaron repartir entre sí sus colonias y provincias. Así habia desparecido en poco mas de un siglo aquella grandeza y poderío, aquella fuerza y heroismo, aquella cultura é ilustracion con que habia descollado entre todas las naciones.’ Biografia de Ensenada, in Navarrete, Opúsculos, vol. ii. p. 5, Madrid, 1848.