The accession of his son Mohammed V. in the midst of peace seemed to promise a long and happy reign. The Castilians were too busily employed in fighting each other to concern themselves about their Moslem neighbors. Their King, Pedro el Cruel, who considered a large proportion of his subjects in the light of personal enemies, had already, by his sanguinary measures, earned the ferocious appellation by which he is known to posterity.
The new Emir possessed all the noble attributes which characterized the most distinguished of his predecessors,—affability, generosity, courage, solicitude for the happiness of his subjects, devotion to letters. But his gentle disposition lacked the sternness and resolution indispensable to a sovereign whose empire included so many discordant national and political elements. Of simpler tastes than his father, he at once banished from the precincts of the court that herd of cringing parasites who live by flattery and corruption,—consumers of the public revenues, ministers of pride and sensuality. In their place he substituted a number of dignified and capable officials of approved integrity and wide experience. This step, while it increased the popular respect, created a number of treacherous and formidable enemies, the effects of whose secret animosity were soon disclosed. The generosity of Mohammed had assigned to his step-mother and her sons as a residence the palace of the Alcazar, not far from the Alhambra, and, while of less extent, almost rivalling it in beauty and splendor. This woman, whose ambition was boundless, had permitted the thirst of avarice to predominate over the natural sentiments of grief, and had taken advantage of the confusion resulting from the assassination of her husband to secretly abstract a large quantity of gold and jewels from the public treasury. By means of this, with the design of raising her eldest son Ismail to the throne, she corrupted princes of the blood and representatives of powerful families, some of whom had been driven from the court by the political reformation instituted by the Emir. When the plot was ripe, a hundred picked men scaled the walls of the Alhambra at night. The sentinels, unsuspicious of danger, were killed at their posts. Distracted by the suddenness of the attack, and deceived by the cries of the assailants and the movements of their torches which magnified their numbers, the garrison fled. Oblivious of the object of the enterprise, and tempted by the riches about them, the insurgents at once gave themselves up to plunder. Through the devotion of a favorite slave, Mohammed was provided with female clothing, and escaped through one of the secret subterranean passages that connected the Alhambra with the other royal abodes of the city. Swift horses soon carried the fugitives to Guadix, whose loyalty was unshaken; Ismail was proclaimed Emir, under the direction of his brother-in-law, Abu-Said; and another revolution, with its train of evils—discontent, proscription, confiscation, and wide-spread calamity—was inaugurated to embitter the factions and undermine the power of the fair and happy kingdom of Granada. The efforts of Mohammed to recover his crown proving fruitless, he undertook a journey to Africa to enlist, if possible, the sympathy and support of Abu-Selim, the Sultan of Fez. Received with every courtesy, a large army was placed at his disposal and transported to Andalusia; but the death of Abu-Selim, and the accession of another prince, either neutral or unfriendly to the aspirations of the dethroned sovereign, caused the recall of the troops before they had begun operations. Thwarted thus by his allies, Mohammed now had recourse to the King of Castile. His appeal was heard, and a Christian army was assembled to effect his restoration. In the mean time, the idle and voluptuous character of Ismail, combined with the arbitrary assumption of authority by Abu-Said, had aroused the hatred and contempt of his subjects. Those feelings were not diminished by the bloody usurpation of Abu-Said, who caused the reigning prince and his brothers to be murdered, and then took formal possession of the throne which he had already occupied, so far as the actual government of the kingdom was concerned. The Christian forces entered Granada; the smaller towns at once signified their submission; there remained nothing to be taken but the capital and its Vega; when Mohammed, affected by the sight of the sufferings incident to the progress of an invading army, abandoned his project, and requested the retirement of his allies. Rather than inflict upon his people the misery which must inevitably result from a siege of the capital by an army alien to his people in nationality and religion, unrestrained by discipline, and careless of the dictates of humanity or the usages of war, he was prepared to renounce his royal inheritance.
Despite the discomfiture of his rival, the universal odium entertained towards Abu-Said on account of his tyranny, as well as for his crimes, rendered the stability of his power so uncertain that he determined to temporarily abandon his kingdom. As a preliminary step, he restored, without ransom and loaded with valuable gifts, a number of Castilian cavaliers, including the brother-in-law of the King, all of whom had been taken in a marauding expedition; and, in return for this unusual generosity, requested their mediation to induce Pedro el Cruel to espouse his cause. The daily increase of Mohammed’s influence, the desertion of important cities, among them the stronghold of Malaga, the treachery of his partisans, who, in increasing numbers, constantly resorted to the hostile camp, determined Abu-Said to confide no longer in the doubtful loyalty of his courtiers, tempted by every consideration of personal interest and political advantage to betray him. Attended by a considerable retinue of those who still remained faithful to his decaying fortunes, he left his kingdom and threw himself upon the royal honor and hospitality of Pedro el Cruel at Seville. A more unfortunate and ill-timed resolution had never been entertained by a despairing monarch. With an eye to future contingencies, he had collected and taken with him all the wealth which the treasury of Granada, depleted by continuous peculation, mismanagement, and theft, contained. This, however inconsiderable when compared with the riches of former times, was more than sufficient to arouse the cupidity of a perfidious king, often almost reduced to penury by extravagance, and absolutely unscrupulous as to the means of supplying his necessities. The Moors, in the presence of a hostile court, displayed with ostentatious profusion all the rare and tempting objects of luxury so coveted by the poverty-stricken Castilians,—horses of the finest Arabian blood; sumptuous housings shining with gold and silver embroidery; lances, javelins, and scimetars, elaborately inlaid, and set with jewels; coffers filled with precious stones of extraordinary size and beauty—rubies, emeralds, sapphires, pearls, and hyacinths; quantities of rich stuffs of silk and cloth of gold. The apparel of the most plainly attired noble who attended the exiled Moslem prince far surpassed in elegance and value the garments of the Castilian sovereign. The effects of the folly which permitted such a display by persons assuming the character of suppliants soon became apparent. The King received his guests with much ceremony and apparent cordiality. Abu-Said was lodged in the Alcazar, as became his royal rank, and his attendants were distributed through the Jewish Quarter, a locality near the palace and easily accessible to the soldiery, which traversed by a labyrinth of narrow and crooked lanes enclosed by lofty walls was a veritable prison from which there was no escape. The resolution of Don Pedro had already been taken. The sight of this great wealth within his grasp was too much for his equanimity. It was true that the Moors were in his capital under the royal safe-conduct, as well as with his personal assurance of protection. It was notorious that the laws of hospitality were respected by even the lowest races of men, and were by no people more highly regarded than by the Arab ancestors of his guests. In a formal audience, surrounded by all the evidences of civil pomp and military array, he had solemnly pledged his word to carefully examine the respective claims of the contestants for the throne of Granada, both of whom acknowledged themselves his vassals, and to decide impartially between them. These considerations, however, weighed but little with the treacherous monarch. The fact that he was the suzerain of Abu-Said afforded him a ready pretext for prompt and decisive action. Under feudal law he could dispose of the property and life of an unfaithful vassal. The Moslems, invited to a banquet, were seized by the guard. All were searched, and the jewels and money concealed on their persons confiscated. Thrown into prison, they remained for two days in suspense; on the third, they were conducted to a plain outside the city and fastened to stakes. In mockery of his rank, Abu-Said was clothed in a scarlet robe, and, mounted upon an ass, led the melancholy procession to the place of execution. Thirty-seven of his retinue, including several personages of the highest distinction, shared his fate. These deluded victims of their own credulity were used as marks for the lances of the nobles of Don Pedro’s court; and the King himself gave the signal by a thrust which pierced the body of his most distinguished guest. The heads of the murdered Moslems were sent to Mohammed as a testimonial of the friendship of his suzerain, and as an indication that the power of the faction which had dethroned and exiled him was broken.
Whatever might be the moral aspect of this transaction, it was certainly advantageous to the King of Castile both in a financial and political point of view. Enormous wealth was obtained by the spoliation resulting from an unparalleled act of perfidy. There was not a Moor who had not in his effects or on his person treasures of great value. The pages, as least liable to suspicion, were the custodians of the most precious jewels. From one was taken a necklace of a hundred pearls as large as filberts; from another, who wore a leathern girdle, seven hundred and twenty-three rubies; the search of a third revealed three of the same stones of the size of pigeon-eggs and of extraordinary brilliancy; almost a peck of beautiful pearls was found upon a fourth. The gems of inferior lustre, or less highly prized, sapphires, hyacinths, and turquoises, with embossed and damascened arms and armor and gold in coin and bullion, were scarcely less valuable, and far exceeded the booty ordinarily yielded by a marauding expedition. In addition to the pecuniary profit derived from this outrage of the rites of hospitality, the power of Don Pedro was materially strengthened by it. The removal of a dangerous enemy, and the destruction of a party whose influence had been sufficient to subvert the royal succession, must necessarily insure the gratitude and support of Mohammed, who was indebted to it for his restoration to power. The Castilians, entirely controlled by the principles of the time, viewed with indifference a breach of faith which, however reprehensible when committed against a Christian, was almost meritorious when it involved the sacrifice and plunder of an infidel. Mohammed received with mingled joy and abhorrence the information of the death of his rival, and, amidst the real or pretended rejoicings of the people, again ascended the throne. Magnificent presents—horses and trappings, jewels and gold— were sent to Don Pedro as tokens of gratitude, and a perpetual treaty of alliance was soon after ratified between the courts of Castile and Granada.
In the domestic and foreign disturbances which oppressed the Castilian monarchy during the troubled reign of Don Pedro, the Andalusian Moslems remained the steadfast adherents of the Christian king. They served in the war with Aragon. They rendered substantial and timely aid in the implacable contest which, in spite of their efforts, finally established the political supremacy of the bastard line of Trastamara. During the siege of Cordova, animated by the sight of their famous temple, the holy mosque of the Ommeyade khalifs, they scaled the walls in the face of a desperate resistance and took the Alcazar under the very shadow of the ancient Moslem shrine. The city was almost within their grasp and must have fallen had their efforts been seconded by their Christian allies with half the resolution they themselves displayed. In the battles of Najera and Montiel, so vital to the fortunes of Don Pedro, the one confirming for a brief period his waning power, the other involving the forfeit of his life and crown, the Moorish soldiers of Granada, intrusted with the safety of the royal person, displayed a fidelity and a heroism far surpassing that of the Castilian chivalry, oppressed by tyranny, corrupted by intrigue, and continually wavering in their political inclinations through the tempting inducements of the rival camps.
From the battle of Montiel, which closed the career of Don Pedro I., to the death of Mohammed in 1391, the kingdom of Granada enjoyed, with but few trifling exceptions, the blessings of peace. The Emir, a few months after the accession of Henry II., stormed the city of Algeziras, and, unable to retain it, razed its fortifications, and filled up the harbor. The defences were subsequently restored, but so effectually was the port obstructed that its commodiousness was destroyed, and, in consequence, the commercial and strategic importance of the place was greatly diminished. An occasional border foray, undertaken by irresponsible marauders in times of internal commotion when the restraints of royal authority were barely tolerated or scarcely acknowledged, was the only interruption of a cessation of hostilities maintained, on the one hand, by policy and choice, and, on the other, by necessity, which lasted twenty-two years. The prudence of Yusuf II., the son and successor of Mohammed V., at once suggested and obtained a renewal of the treaty which had long united the two kingdoms, and whose existence had been so propitious to the security, the wealth, and the happiness of Granada.
In 1394, Don Martin Yañez de Barbudo, Grand Master of Alcantara, Portuguese by birth, fanatic by nature, and adventurer from inclination, sent to the Emir of Granada an absurd defiance, whose grandiloquent terms recall the extravagances of the romances of chivalry. Raising the banner of the crusade, which bore the green cross of his order, at the head of eighteen hundred followers he advanced to the conquest of a populous kingdom, which astrological calculation and the suspicious predictions of a hermit had assured him he would easily achieve. The remonstrances of provincial governors, and the peremptory commands of the King, who saw with indignation this unprovoked attack upon a friendly power, were insufficient to divert him from his purpose, which he declared was sanctioned by the Almighty and confirmed by many portentous visions and miracles. The Moors permitted this band of fanatics to approach within a few miles of their capital. It was then surrounded by an army of a hundred thousand men and annihilated. Not a single Christian escaped. The knowledge that the expedition had been undertaken contrary to the orders of the King of Castile prevented a rupture between the two kingdoms. About this time, Yusuf died suddenly, an event attributed, through the Oriental love of the marvellous, to a poisoned mantle sent him by the Sultan of Fez. He was succeeded by his second son, Mohammed VI., whose intriguing and ambitious spirit had long since prompted him to subvert the hereditary right of his elder brother Yusuf in order to obtain the crown. Yusuf was confined, with his harem, in the castle of Salobreña, where, although furnished with every luxury suitable to his rank, he was subjected to strict restraint and constant espionage. Solicitous concerning the validity of his title, and apprehensive of the manner in which his usurpation might be regarded by the Castilian king, Mohammed formed a romantic design, eminently characteristic of the manners of the East, and whose danger and novelty, added to the attractiveness of an enterprise remarkable for its boldness, were almost a guaranty of success. In the character of his own ambassador, with a retinue of twenty splendidly mounted and appointed cavaliers, he traversed, unrecognized alike by his subjects and his Christian neighbors, the provinces of his own and the states of the Castilian kingdom as far as Toledo. A renewal of the treaty of alliance was readily obtained from Henry III.; and the Emir returned to Granada secure, for the time, from a renewal of hostilities from an adversary whose supremacy every reflecting statesman in the Peninsula felt could not be much longer delayed.
In 1406, serious trouble having arisen on the frontier, in consequence of mutual depredations, King Henry summoned the Cortes with the avowed object of using all the available resources of the monarchy for the final subjugation of the Moslems of Granada. His sudden death, and the occurrence of another long minority with its inevitable series of plots and disasters, prevented the realization of this project; and the existence of the Moorish kingdom, which fortune seemed to have made the especial object of her favor, was protracted for nearly eighty-five years longer. The demise of the king, however, only deferred for a short time the prosecution of hostilities. The restless spirit of the Spanish chivalry, nourished by war and sedition, was never content with the formal and tedious ceremonial of the court. The perils of the battle-field; the surprise of an isolated fortress; the foray, with its excitements and its spoil; the flocks and herds of the rich pastures; the treasures of splendid villas; the beauty and fascinations of the inmates of princely harems,—these were at once the school of the Christian cavaliers, the objects of their highest aspirations, the incentives of their warlike and vainglorious ambition. The enthusiasm aroused by the crusading enterprise of Henry III., while somewhat cooled, was far from being dissipated by his death. A large sum was voted by the Cortes. The cities of Leon and Castile resounded with preparations for the conflict. A fleet of twenty-three galleys, equipped by the Emirs of Tunis and Tlemcen and sent to aid the Spanish Moslems, was defeated and destroyed in the Strait of Gibraltar by an inferior force under the Admiral of Castile. Mohammed, well aware of the plans of his enemies, endeavored to anticipate them by invading the province of Jaen with a numerous army, and began the siege of that city. Information of the approach of a Christian force caused him to make an inglorious retreat without a battle. On the way he stormed Bedmar, where, out of a numerous population, less than one hundred prisoners survived to experience the bitterness of slavery. In return, the Christians took the strong outpost of Zahara, and ravaged without mercy the fertile environs of Ronda.
In 1408, Mohammed, at the head of twenty thousand soldiers, besieged Alcaudete. The spirit of Arab tactics, intolerable of delay and unreliable in the face of strong walls and obstinate resistance, faltered before the determined courage of the garrison. Both Christians and Moslems had suffered greatly during this war, which had hitherto yielded no perceptible advantage to either; a suspension of hostilities for eight months was readily agreed to; and the Castilians, to whom a temporary respite was even more advantageous than to their adversaries, having previously exhausted their available resources by the enrolment of troops, now with forty million maravedis in the treasury, impatiently expected the expiration of the truce.
In the mean time, Mohammed VI., stricken with a fatal disease, was admonished by his physicians that he had but a short time to live. Recognizing that the life of his brother, still detained in the castle of Salobreña, might prove a serious obstacle to the prospects of his own son whom he had destined to succeed him, he sent a peremptory order to the alcalde of Salobreña to send him the head of Yusuf by the messenger. The alcalde received the latter while playing chess with the imprisoned prince, whose affable manners, engaging address, and unmerited misfortunes had won the esteem of all his guards and attendants. The manifest agitation of his companion revealed to Yusuf, ever in expectation of such a catastrophe, the serious nature of the despatch. Acquainted with its import, the prince begged for a few hours’ delay to bid farewell to his family; but the command was urgent, and the messenger, a standard-bearer of the Emir, accustomed to implicit and instant compliance, demanded its immediate execution. It was finally agreed that a respite should be granted until the conclusion of the game. Short as the time was, it had not elapsed when two nobles of the court arrived, and, with every mark of respect and homage, saluted Yusuf as Emir of Granada.