Andrés Bernáldez, known as “the Curate of Los Palacios,” lived in the last half of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century, and was Cura of the town of Los Palacios from 1488-1513, and afterwards chaplain to Archbishop Diego de Deza. He was present at many of the scenes he describes and acquainted with many of the great men of his day, including Columbus. He shows considerable knowledge of foreign affairs, and gives many details not reported by his contemporaries.
Bersani, Storia del Cardenale Alberoni, Piacenza, 1872.—Berwick, duke of, Mémoires, Paris, 1778.—Biblioteca de autores españoles, Madrid, 1846, etc.—Blaquière, E., Historical Review of the Spanish Revolution, London, 1822.—Bleda, J., Crónica de los moros de España, Valencia, 1618, 2 vols.
Jaime Bleda (1550-1622) was the cura of a town which contained many Moriscos to whom he was vehemently opposed. It was he who, in conjunction with the archbishop of Valencia, persuaded Philip III to issue the decree of 1609, ordering the Moriscos to leave Spanish territory.
Bofarull, A. de, Historia crítica de Cataluña, Barcelona, 1876-1879, 9 vols.—Bollaert, W., Wars of Succession of Portugal and Spain from 1826 to 1840, London, 1870, 2 vols.—Borrego, A., Anales del reinado de Isabel II; Historia de las cortes de España durante el siglo XIX, Madrid, 1885.
Andrés Borrego, born in 1801, was minister of finance in Spain in 1840. He was one of those who supported the idea of a union between Spain and Portugal. Besides the books here mentioned, he wrote works on political economy.
Briz Martínez, J., Historia de los reyes de Sobrarbe, Aragon y Navarra.—Burgos, F. J. de, Anales del reinado de Doña Isabel II, 1850-1852, 6 vols.
Francisco Javier de Burgos, born 1778, died 1849, was a Spanish politician distinguished as a writer in the two opposite fields of poetry and economics. Being expelled from his seat in the upper house on a charge afterwards disproved, he devoted himself to the composition of a history of the reign under which he had held office.
Burke, U. R., History of Spain till the death of Ferdinand the Catholic, London, 1895, 2 vols.—Buron, R., Compendio de la historia crítica de la inquisición de España, Paris, 1823, 2 vols.—Busk, M. M., The History of Spain and Portugal, London, 1833.
Cabrera de Córdoba, L., Relaciones de las cosas suredidas en la corte de España desde 1599 hasta 1614, 1857; Felipe Segundo, Madrid, 1619, 1876-1878, 4 vols.—Calderon de la Barca, F. E. J., The Attaché in Madrid, or, Sketches of the Court of Isabella II (trans. from the German), New York, 1856.—Calvo Marcos, M., Regimen parlementario de España en el Siglo 19, Madrid, 1883.—Camden, T., History of the War in Spain and Portugal, 1814.—Campana, C., Vida de Don Filippo (II) 1605.—Campos, J. de, Le Siege de Bilbao par l’armée carliste en 1874, Paris, 1876.—Cánovas del Castillo, A., Historia de la decadencia de España desde el advenimiento al trono de Don Felipe III hasta la muerte de Carlos II; Discurso. La dominación de los españoles en Italia, 1860; Estudios del reinado de Felipe IV, 1880-1890, 2 vols.; Historia General de España, Escrita por individuos de la Real Academia de la historia bajo la dirección de, Madrid, 1890. Completion retarded by the death of Cánovas.
The statesman, Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, was born in Malaga in 1828 and was the son of a professor in the naval college of San Telmo. He was not eighteen when he attempted to start a periodical called la Jóven Malaga, but it failed and he had to accept a small post on the Madrid Aranjuez railway. But he soon turned again to journalism and published his first and chief historical work. Cánovas is credited with a considerable share in a periodical called El Murciélago, of which only a few numbers appeared, but in which the most violent attacks were directed against various prominent persons not excluding royalty. Cánovas was credited with a considerable share in this as well as with the authorship of the manifesto of Manzanares (1854). He now entered the cortes and filled various offices of state in succession. He held aloof from the revolution of 1868 and during the reign of King Amadeo, though he made a brilliant speech in defence of the exiled sovereigns; but after Amadeo’s retirement he was chiefly instrumental in bringing about the return of Alfonso XII, during most of whose reign he was premier. He again held office from 1890-1893, and in 1895, when he devoted his attention to the severe repression of the Cuban insurrection. In the midst of the struggle he was murdered by an anarchist (August, 1897).