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The sixth volume of the Memoirs of the Royal Spanish Academy of History, published in 1821, is devoted altogether to the reign of Isabella, It is distributed into Illustrations, as they are termed, of the various branches of the administrative policy of the queen, of her personal character, and of the condition of science under her government. These essays exhibit much curious research, being derived from unquestionable contemporary documents, printed and manuscript, and from the public archives. They are compiled with much discernment; and, as they throw light on some of the most recondite transactions of this reign, are of inestimable service to the historian. The author of the volume is the late lamented secretary of the Academy, Don Diego Clemencin; one of the few who survived the wreck of scholarship in Spain, and who with the erudition, which has frequently distinguished his countrymen, combined the liberal and enlarged opinions, which would do honor to any country.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Among other examples, Pulgar mentions that of the alcayde of Castro- Nuño, Pedro de Mendana, who, from the strong-holds in his possession, committed such grievous devastations throughout the country, that the cities of Burgos, Avila, Salamanca, Segovia, Valladolid, Medina, and others in that quarter, were fain to pay him a tribute, (black mail,) to protect their territories from his rapacity. His successful example was imitated by many other knightly freebooters of the period. (Reyes Católicos, part. 2, cap. 66.)—See also extracts cited by Saez from manuscript notices by contemporaries of Henry IV. Monedas de Enrique IV., pp. 1, 2.
[2] The quaderno of the laws of the Hermandad has now become very rare. That in my possession was printed at Burgos, in 1527. It has since been incorporated with considerable extension into the Recopilacion of Philip II.
[3] Quaderno de las Leyes Nuevas de la Hermandad, (Burgos, 1527,) leyes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 16, 20, 36, 37.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 2, cap. 51.—L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 160, ed. 1539.—Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 4.—Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 76.—Lebrija, Rerum Gestarum Decades, fol. 36.—By one of the laws, the inhabitants of such seignorial towns as refused to pay the contributions of the Hermandad were excluded from its benefits, as well as from traffic with, and even the power of recovering their debts, from other natives of the kingdom. Ley 33.
[4] Recopilacion de las Leyes, (Madrid, 1640,) lib. 8, tit. 13, ley 44.— Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, p. 379.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 2, cap. 51.—Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 6.—Lebrija, Rerum Gestarum Decad., fol. 37, 38.—Las Pragmáticas del Reyno, (Sevilla, 1520,) fol. 85.—L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 160.
[5] Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 76.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 2, cap. 59.—Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii. p. 477.—Lebrija, Rerum Gestarum Decad., fol. 41, 42.—Gonzalo de Oviedo lavishes many encomiums on Cabrera, for "his generous qualities, his singular prudence in government, and his solicitude for his vassals, whom he inspired with the deepest attachment." (Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 23.) The best panegyric on his character, is the unshaken confidence, which his royal mistress reposed in him, to the day of her death.
[6] Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, p. 381.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 2, cap. 65, 70, 71.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 29.—Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 77.—L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 162; who says, no less than 8,000 guilty fled from Seville and Cordova.
[7] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 29.-Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 283.-Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, p. 382.-Lebrija, Rerum Gestarum Decades, lib. 7.—L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, ubi supra.-Garibay, Compendio, lib. 18, cap. 11.