TOMB OF FRANCISCO RAMIREZ (“EL ARTILLERO”)
FROM “HISTORIA DE LA VILLA Y CORTE DE MADRID” BY AMADOR DE LOS RIOS
The anger and sorrow that swept through Spain at the news of this disaster can be imagined, the more that Don Alonso had found a fitting companion in death in Francisco Ramirez de Madrid, the famous artillery-captain of the Moorish war. As they saw these heroes, lying surrounded by the corpses of unknown Christian knights and soldiers, the very Moors were appalled at the extent of their own victory. What direful vengeance would be exacted for lives so precious? they asked one another; and all felt that only instant submission could save them from extermination.
Ferdinand was never the man to let passion obscure his ultimate object; and, in response to the rebels’ petition for mercy, he agreed to grant an amnesty; but he insisted that they and the rest of their race must choose between baptism and expulsion. In the latter case, he offered to provide ships to convey the exiles to the African coast, on the payment of ten doblas of gold per head,—a sum that, according to Bleda the chronicler, few of them could hope to raise. The majority therefore accepted baptism; and, with the conversion of the “Moriscos,” as these new Christians were called, the Mahometan Faith vanished from the soil of Granada.
One last crowning work was needed to complete the edifice of religious unity; and that was the conversion of the “Mudejares,” descendants of the Moorish villagers and artisans left on Spanish territory by the receding waves of Islam. In February, 1502, their knell was also struck; and a royal proclamation determined the baptism or exile of all males over fourteen years or of females over twelve; so many restrictions as to the wealth and destination of the exiles being imposed that the choice was virtually narrowed to acceptance of the other alternative. Plainly, the sovereigns did not intend to lose any more of their prosperous and hard-working subjects.
The proclamation, evaded and even rescinded in Aragon, held good in Castile; and Isabel, looking round on her dominions, could pride herself on having attained her spiritual ideal. The Catholic Faith, and that alone, was acknowledged in Castile.
CHAPTER X
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
The name of Christopher Columbus stands already on the roll of “Heroes of the Nations.” “Hero of two nations” we should perhaps call him,—by birth a son of Genoa, and by adoption of Castile to whom, in his own words, “he gave a new world.”
Those who would read of his voyages should turn to the pages of Washington Irving, of Thacher, and of Filson Young; for it is chiefly in his immediate connection with Castile and her Queen and not for his actual work as mariner and discoverer that his life falls within the scope of this biography.
Here is the man who has made the name of Spain ring with glory down the centuries. Here, in the background, somewhat dimmed in the sight of posterity through the radiance of a greater genius, is Isabel of Castile, she whose tireless patriotism made it possible for Spain to enter on the newly discovered heritage of wealth and empire. Between pioneer and Queen there is the link not only of mere capacity but of that greatness of vision and unfaltering determination to reach a desired goal, that finds in obstacles an incentive to renewed efforts rather than a check. It is a fitting harmony, not often granted in history, that two such spirits should act in unison. Yet in truth the proposed harmony threatened more than once to end if not in discord at least in silence; and the discoverer was to gain the sanction of his patroness to his schemes only after many vicissitudes and trials of his patience.