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SAINT JOHN OF JERUSALEM, KNIGHTS OF
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See also:SAINT See also: The Almo-See also:IlL, 1217- hides were in swifter decline than the See also:Almoravides. 1252. One of them, al-See also:Mamun, even sought Fernando's help to regain his See also:throne in See also:Morocco, and ceded a suburb of the See also:city to his See also:Christian See also:allies. In 123o the See also:death of Alphonso of Leon opened the way to a final See also:union of the crowns. The " Baboso " had, indeed, See also:left his See also:kingdom by will to his daughters by Teresa of Portugal, but Fernando was saved from the See also:necessity of enforcing his rights by his mother. She persuaded Teresa and the infantas to resign their claims in Final Union return for See also:pensions and lordships. Castile and of casing Leon were See also:united, never to be divided again. The and Leon. See also:work of the reconquest was now completed with See also:swift steps. In 1236 See also:Cordova was conquered, and See also:Seville See also:fell in 1248 with the help of a See also:fleet from the Basque See also:coast and of the Moorish king of See also:Granada, who was Fernando's See also:vassal, paying See also:tribute and attending See also:Cortes when summoned. Fernando died in May 1252. It will avoid repetition to See also:note here that the Aragonese See also:share of the reconquest was completed by See also: In 1265 he entered See also:Murcia, which, Reconquest however, he agreed to occupy in the name of Castile. of Spain, Mahommedan Spain was reduced to Granada and
except a See also:line of ports See also:round to See also:Cadiz. The Christian Granada. See also:population had disappeared in Granada and Moslem r;fugees had peopled it closely. Its king was a vassal, and of itself it was no longer a danger.
The See also:close of the See also:period of the great reconquest, five centuries of struggle, left Spain divided between two states of different Spain after character. On the See also:west of the Iberian range and the Recon- south of the Guadarrama was the kingdom called, quest. for See also:short, Castile and Leon. Tn fact its See also:sovereign was also king of Gallicia, Asttirjas, See also:Estremadura, See also:Jaen, Cordova
See also:xxv. 18and Seville. This multiplicity of titles was more than a See also:mere See also:formula of the royal See also:chancery. It was the See also:official recognition of a substantial See also:political fact—namely, that
the kingdom of Castile and Leon had been made up Castile and
Leon.
by the See also:agglutination of See also:separate political entities.
The real bond between them See also:lay in the See also:common crown, the common creed. They were one only as subjects of the same lords and members of the same See also: But their territorial patriotism was See also:local. The peoples were not Spaniards, See also:save as a See also:general See also:term, but Gallicians, Asturians, Castilians, Andalusians. The great See also:foreign question for them was the possibility, and from See also:time to time the imminence, of renewed invasion from See also:Africa. That peril did not cease till the defeat of the last formidable See also:African invader at the See also:battle of the Rio Salado in 1340. It is characteristic of the loose construction of the kingdom that the Cortes of Leon and of Castile continued, after the final union, to meet apart on some occasions until 1301. On the eastern slope of the Iberian hills and the great central table-See also:land was the kingdom called, again for short, Aragon. Its king was also a ruler of many titles—king in Aragon. Aragon, in Valencia, and the Balearic Isles (with one See also:interval of separation), See also:count of See also:Barcelona, and in See also:Provence. Marriage and See also:inheritance had given him territorial rights in the south-See also:east of See also:France. Thus he came in contact with the crusaders of See also:Simon de See also:Montfort and the expansion of the See also:French See also:monarchy. Another marriage, that of Peter, the son and successor of James the Conqueror, with Costanza, the daughter of See also:Manfred of Beneventum, gave him claims on the Neapolitan and Sicilian inheritance of the See also:Hohenstaufen. From the date of the Sicilian See also:Vespers (1283) Aragon is found mixed in the politics of See also:Italy. The commercial activity of Barcelona brought it into collision with See also:Genoa and See also:alliance with See also:Venice. The curious See also:double position of the king of Aragon is fully illustrated by the career of that king Peter who was the See also:father of James the Conqueror. He fought as a crusader at the Navas de Tolosa, he went to See also:Rome to be crowned, and did voluntary See also:homage to the pope. Yet his interests as a See also:prince of See also:southern France compelled him to draw the See also:sword in See also:defence of the Albigenses, and, orthodox as he was in creed, he fell fighting for them at Muret in 1213. If the fortunes of Aragon were to be followed in an outline of See also:Spanish See also:history, it would be necessary to wander as far as See also:Athens and See also:Constantinople. The difference of the relations of these two states towards the See also:comity of nations had corresponding See also:internal distinctions. It has been already noted that eastern Spain was feudal. Therefore the distinction of classes was far sharper in Aragon than in non-feudal Castile and Leon. Predial See also:slavery, which had disappeared in Castile and Leon in the 13th See also:century, existed unmodified in Aragon, and in its worst See also:form, down to the See also:Bourbon See also:dynasty. When we are told of the freedom of Aragon, it is well to remember that it was enjoyed only by the small minority who were personally See also:free and also privileged: by the citizens of the towns which had charters—called in Aragon the Universidades—the nobles, the gentry and the Church. The Catalans attained emancipation from feudal subjection by a See also:succession of See also:savage See also:peasant revolts in the 15th and 16th centuries. In Valencia emancipation was finally brought by a measure which in itself was cruel—the See also:expulsion of the Moriscoes in the 17th century. The landlords were compelled to replace them by free tenants. The prevalence of predial slavery in Aragon and Valencia can be largely explained by the number of Mudejares, that is Mahommedans living under Christian See also:rule, and of Moriscoesconverted Mohammedans.
If now we look at the internal history of Spain from the conclusion of the period of the reconquest, which may be put in the See also:middle of the 13th century, down to the union of the crowns of Christtan-Castile and of Aragon by the marriage of Ferdinand
and See also:Isabel in 1469, it will be found to be occupied r 'in
of
with two great processes. These two processes are
firstly, the christianization of Spain, a very different thing from its reconquest from Moslem masters—and, secondly, not its unification, for that is hardly attained even now, but its progress towards unification.
IJ
At a later period the two kingdoms defined their respective See also:spheres of See also:influence by a treaty. Aragon was left free to Recognition conquer the Balearic Islands and Valencia, while of the lade- Murcia and Ardalusia were to fall to Castile. The pendence of Almohades took the See also: The See also:Jews and the Mahommedans formed a The Jews very large See also:part of his subjects. We have no means of andMahom''estimating their See also:numbers, but there is much See also:probability medans. that together they formed not much less than a See also:half of the population. The Jews, who had suffered cruelly from the brutal fanaticism of the Almohades, had done a great See also:deal to forward the See also:conquest of Andalusia. They were repaid by the confidence of the king, and the period which includes the reign of Fernando and lasts till the end of the 14th century was the See also:golden age of their history in Spain. In 1391 the See also:preaching of a See also:priest of Seville, Fernando Martinez, led to the first general See also:massacre of the Jews, who were envied for their prosperity and hated because they were the king's tax collectors. But the history of the persecution and expulsion of the Jews is the same every-where except in date. The See also:story of the Mudejares and Moriscoes is peculiarly Spanish. In the Christian advance they were from the beginning first subjected and then incorporated. As far See also:north as See also:Astorga there is still a population known as the Maragatos, and See also:familiar to all Spain as carters and muleteers. This marked type of the Leonese of See also:modern times represents a See also:Berber See also:colony cut off among the Christians, and christianized at an See also:early date, who went on using Arab and Berber names long after their See also:conversion. They are only the most conspicuous example of a See also:process which was common to all the See also:Peninsula. As the Christians worked down to the south they found an existing Mahommedan population. To reduce them to pure slavery would, in the See also:case of Castile at least, have been dangerous, and would also have been offensive to the Christians, who were themselves fighting for emancipation. To expel them would have been to have the See also:soil untilled. Therefore the king, the nobles, the Church and the military orders combined to give them See also:protection. For them, as for the Jews, the 13th and 14th centuries were a golden age. By the end of the 14th the persecutions began. Forced conversion prepared the way for expulsion, which came in the reign of See also: By Alphonso they were favoured. He stamped his name on his coins in Arabic letters. It is said with probability that one of the early kings of Aragon, Peter I., could write no other letters than the Arabic. The Mozarabes were treated under the kings of the reconquest as separate bodies with their own See also:judges and See also:law, which they had been allowed to keep by the Moslem rulers. That See also:code was the See also:forum judicial of the Visigoths, the See also:fuero juzgo, as it was called in the " See also:romance " of later times and in Castilian. The Mozarabes brought in the large Arabic element, which is one of the features of the Castilian See also:language. A part of the work of christianizing the Spain of the 13th century, and not the least part, was done by the monks of See also:Cluny introduced by the French wife of Alphonso VI. To them was due the impulse given to the reform of the church, and to See also:education. The See also:foundation of the studium generale of See also:Palencia in 1212 by Alphonso IX. was an outcome of the See also:movement. It fell in the troubles following his death, but Fernando III. revived it by the foundation of the university of See also:Salamanca, which See also:dates from 1245. The church and the university were the great promoters of the effort to secure religious unity which began in the 14th and produced its full effects in the 17th century. How far the character, habits and morality of the Christian Spaniards were affected by See also:Oriental influences is not a question which it is easy to See also:answer. To some extent they no doubt were coloured. Such a social institution as the form of marriage known by the name of barragania shows visible traces of Eastern influence. In so far as it was a mere agreement of a See also:man and woman to live together as husband and wife, it had precedents both See also:Roman and See also:Teutonic. There was also Roman and Teutonic example for recognizing the children of such a union as having rights of inheritance. On the other See also:hand the name is Arabic, and so is the term applied to the children, hijos de ganancia, sons of the See also:strange woman. Moreover the Oriental character of this union, be its origin what it may, is visible from the fact that it was polygamous. The only insuperable barrier to a barragania was the previous marriage " with the blessing," the full religious marriage, of the woman to another man. A married man might be united in barragania to a woman other than his lawful wife, and the children of that connexion, though not fully legitimate, were not bastards. The most See also:signal example among many which could be quoted is that of Peter the Cruel (1350-1367), who, though married to See also:Blanche of Bourbon, was abarraganado to Maria de See also:Padilla. He left his[HISTORY kingdom to the daughters she See also:bore him, and their quasi See also:legitimacy was recognized not only by the Cortes during King Peter's See also:life, but abroad. John of Gaunt, See also:duke of See also:Lancaster, married the See also:elder of the daughters of Maria de Padilla, and claimed the crown of Castile by right of his wife. The See also:clergy, who were debarred front the religious marriage by the discipline of the church, were commonly abarraganado all through the middle ages. The sumptuary See also:laws, which required the barraganas of priests to See also:wear a red border to their dresses, recognized them as a known and tolerated class. The work of political unification was essentially more difficult than the Christianization of Spain. The great common institution of the church, common enthusiasms, prejudices and Ihroblem of envies, were available for the second. The first had the fJnm of to contend with deeply rooted See also:differences of See also:national ,See also:ion of See also:ica- character and of class. The Galician who spoke, and spaia. still speaks, a language of his own, was profoundly separated from the Andalusian. The Basque, who till much later times practically included the Navarrese, was a man of another See also:nationality and another speech from the Castilian. And what is true of Castile and Leon applies equally to Aragon. Aragonese, Catalans and Valencians were National as different as Galicians, See also:Basques, Castilians and Differences. Andalusians. Aragon spoke a dialect of Castilian. Catalpnia and Valencia, together with the Balearic Islands, spoke, and speak, dialects of the southern French, the so-called Limose, though it was not the language of the See also:Limousin. And the causes of See also:division did not end here. The word " See also:commonwealth " had no meaning either east or west of the Iberian range. Every one of the kingdoms grouped round the two sovereigns who shared modern Spain was itself a loose conglomeration of classes. Mention has already been made of the See also:Jew and the Mudejar. These were more or less forcibly absorbed or brutally expelled. But the distinctions between noble and not noble, between See also:town and See also:country, were in the very fibre of all the Spanish peoples. Expulsion was impossible and See also:combination only attainable by mutual agreement, and that was never secured. High See also:mountain barriers and deep See also:river courses had separated the Spaniards locally. They were more subtly and incurably separated by traditional and legal status. Speaking generally, and with the proviso that though names might differ from region to region, the facts did not; it may be said that Spain could be classified as follows: Under the crown of Castile all the territory was either abadengo, realingo, salariego, behetria, or it belonged to some town, big or little, which had its Carta See also:pueblo or town See also:charter, its own fuero systems of (forum) or law. Abadengo was land of the church, Land realingo domain of the crown, salariego land of the See also:Tenure. nobles. Behetria is less easy to translate. The word is the romance form of benefactoria. Behetrias, called " plebeian lordships," were districts and townships of peasants who were See also:bound to have a See also:lord, and to make him payments in See also:money or in See also:kind, but who had a varying freedom of choice in electing their lord. Some were described as " from See also:sea to sea, and seven times a See also:day," that is to say they could take him anywhere in the king's dominions from the By of See also:Biscay to the Straits of See also:Gibraltar, and See also:change him as often as they pleased. Others were de linage, that is to say, bound to take their lord from certain lineages. Their origin must probably be sought in the See also:action of communities of Mozarabes, Christians living under Moslem rule as rayahs, who put themselves under The Towns. Christian chiefs of the early days of the reconquest for the See also:benefice of their protection. They were mainly in old Castile. By the end of the middle ages they had disappeared. The chartered towns, in Spain east and west, were practically republics living under their own Carta pueblo with their own fuero or law. All charters were not granted by the king. Many of them were given by nobles or ecclesiastics, but required the See also:confirmation of the king. And in this country, where all was local law usage and See also:privilege, where uniformity was unknown, all charters were not held by towns. In many cases the See also:serfs in the course of their struggle for freedom extorted charters and fueros. The greater chartered towns had their surrounding comarcas, answering to the " See also:county " of an See also:Italian city, over which they exercised See also:jurisdiction. In time the villages dependent on a chartered city, as they See also:grew to be towns themselves, fought for, and in many cases won, emancipation, which they then sought to have confirmed by the king and proceeded to symbolize by setting up their own gallows in the See also:market-See also:place. The church had won exemption from the See also:payment of taxes by no general law, but by The clergy particular privilege to this or that See also:chapter, bishopric and the or monastery. The nobles claimed, and were allowed, Nobles. . exemption from See also:taxation. Church and nobles alike were for ever extending their See also:borders by See also:purchase, or trying to do so by force. They conferred their exemptions on the land they acquired, thus throwing the See also:burden of taxation on the towns and the non-nobles with increasing See also:weight. But in this land, where nothing was consistent, there was in reality no See also:sharp division except in the smaller and feudal portion—called Aragon for convenience—and save as between Christian and non-Christian, noble and non-noble. The necessities of the reconquest made it obligatory that all the dwellers Class Distinctions. on the frontier should be See also:garrison. Hence they were not only encouraged but required to possess arms. Those of them who The See also:Cabal/e-could provide themselves with a charger, a See also:mail See also:ros de Fuero. See also:shirt, a See also:spear and sword were ranked as milites- and the See also:miles was a See also:caballero. Alphonso VII. especially authorized all men who could See also:arm themselves, See also:mount themselves, and serve " cavalierly " to live as and count themselves " cavaliers." Hence the formation of the class of caballeros de fuero, non-nobles living " nobly " with a right to wear the sword. The privilege survived the epoch of the reconquest, and was often extended to See also:gilds which the king wished to encourage. Hence came the practice which caused so much surprise and amusement to French and See also:German travellers of the 16th and 17th centuries—the wearing of the gentlemanly sword by the artisans of towns. No general law controlled these local usages and fueros. The fuero juzgo (forum judicum) was accepted by the Moz'arabes, and Local Laws. had authority everywhere in cases not provided for by the charters, or where no privilege had been granted by the king. But it was subject to innumerable exceptions, and particular jurisdictions. There was no common tribunal. Nor was any material change introduced after the epoch of the reconquest. Alphonso X., El Sabio or Learned, made a fuero real, which was formed Ly combining the best parts of existing charters. It was accepted by towns and districts not already The Siete chartered, but by them only. The famous siete partidas Partidas (the seven divisions), See also:drawn up about 1260, 1s often spoken of as a code of laws. It was never so treated till it was promulgated at the Cortes of See also:Alcala in 1338, in the reign of his great See also:grandson, Alphonso XI. Even then it was subject to the restriction that it was not to prevail against any fuero, or the fuero real. The Cortes might have been expected to forward the work of unification. But without going into details on a subject which requires particular treatment, it may be noted that the The Cones. Cortes was no more coherent, or fixed in constitution or working, and was no more national, than any other of the institutions of the country. The crown of Castile and Leon had indeed a common Cortes after 1301. Aragon never advanced so far. It, See also:Catalonia and Valencia had each their Cortes, which never united. When King Philip IV. (1621-1665) wished to secure grants of money from these parts of his dominions he had to summon three separate Cortes, which sat in different frontier towns, and he had to negotiate simultaneously with all three. Then the Spaniards, in their carelessness of form and regularity, never fixed any rule as to the constitution of a Cortes. The third See also:estate secured See also:representation in the Cortes of Leon (1188), and then in Castile and the Common Cortes. In the kingdom of Aragon the right was secured about the same time. It was decided that no new tax could be imposed save with the consent of the See also:commons, and that therefore they must be represented. But no rule was ever made as to whom the king was bound to summon, nor even that the presence of the clergy and the nobles was necessary to constitute a true Cortes. It was never claimed by the Cortes that its consent was necessary to the making of laws. The Roman See also:maxim that what the " prince " See also:wills has the force of law was not disputed—nor did the Spaniard doubt that the king acting by himself was " the prince." The check which the justiza, or See also:chief See also:justice, of Aragon imposed on the king was supported by the force of nobles and cities, but it was an exception in Spain. The representatives of the commons were the personeros and procuradores, i.e. attorneys of the cities. There was no See also:knight of the See also:shire in any Spanish Cortes. The great cities in Castile and Leon succeeded finally in reducing the right of representation to a privilege of eighteen among them, with the See also:good will of the king, who found it easier to coerce or bribe the procurators of eighteen towns than the representatives of a See also:hundred and fifty. The legislative work of such bodies was necessarily small. Their See also:practical See also:power might be great when the king was weak and necessitous, but only then. It ought to have been easy for kings whose authority was confessedly so great to have made themselves effectively despotic amid all this division and weakness. Nor would they have failed so to do if the sovereigns of Castile had not been either incapable or short-lived, and if there had not been an extraordinary succession of long minorities; while the kings of Aragon were tempted to neglect their Spanish possessions because they were in pursuit of their claims and ambitions in Italy. Alphonso X. of Castile (1252–1284) was an admirable writer, and a man of AiphonsoX., keen intelligent See also:interest in See also:science and law. As 1252-1284. a ruler he was at once weak, unstable and obstinate. He wasted much time and great sums of money in endeavouring to secure his See also:election as See also:emperor—not in Spain, but in the See also:Holy Roman See also:Empire. He did indeed add the town of Cadiz to his possessions with the help of his vassal, the Moorish king of Granada, but his reign is filled with quarrels between himself and his nobles. The nobles of Castile and Leon were not feudalvassals, but great landowners claiming and exercising rights co jurisdiction on their estates. Their name of ricos hombres, which first appears in written documents of the 12th The Nobles, century, has been credited with a Teutonic origin, Rrcos but it was in all probability nothing but a "romance" Hombres. or Castilian See also:translation of the seniores and senatores, potentiorer and possessores of the Visigoth See also:councils and code. They represented a See also:nobility of See also:wealth and not of See also:blood. In the earlier times their possessions were divided among their sons. It was only at the end of the 13th century and later that they began to form mayorazgos or entails, to preserve their name and See also:family. It was then that segundones, or younger sons, began to be known in the social life of Spain. But whatever their position may have been legally, they were as grasping as any feudal nobility in See also:Europe, and they were singularly destitute of any capacity for combined political action. In Aragon, indeed, the nobles did extort a promise from the king that they should not be put to death or deprived of their estates by his mere decision. In Castile they never went beyond begging or extorting grants of the crown lands, or pensions charged on the royal See also:revenue. Alphonso X. ended his life in a See also:civil See also:war with his son Sancho, who claimed the succession in preference to the children of his elder brother, Fernando de la Cerda, and in virtue of a See also:doctrine of which much was heard in the middle ages elsewhere than in Spain. He maintained that the younger son, being nearer to the father than the grandson, had a right to succeed in preference to the children of an elder brother who had died before the succession was open. Alphonso, after first accepting Sancho's claim, repudiated it, and made a will by which he not only left the crown of Castile to the eldest son of Fernando de la Cerda, but cut vassal kingdoms out of the southern parts of Spain for Sancho's younger See also:brothers. The reign of sanche Iv., Sancho IV., surnamed El See also:Bravo, or the Fierce (1284– 1284-1296. 1296), was one See also:constant struggle with the very nobles who had helped him against his father, with his younger brothers, and with the sons of Fernando de la Cerda. Ferdinand See also:Murder and massacre were his familiar methods. IV., 1296-He was succeeded by his See also:infant son Fernando (Fer- 1313. dinand IV.), whose long minority was an anarchy, tempered by the courage and the tact of his mother, Maria de See also:Molina. Fernando, ungrateful to his mother and incapable as a king, died in 1312, leaving a son of less than a See also:year old, Alphonso XI. (1312–1350). After another minority of confusion, Alphonso, surnamed " of the Rio Salado," from the great See also:Alphonse victory he won over an invading See also:host from Africa, XI•.1312-ruled with See also:energy and real political capacity. He 1350. was indeed ferocious, but such actions as the murder of his great-uncle, See also:Don Juan El Tuerto—the distorted in body and mind—did not seem to his subjects more than the exercise by " the prince " of that right to See also:act for the good of the See also:state legibus solutus which is inherent in See also:sovereignty. But Alphonso did not use his freedom to act legibus solutus except against such hoary and incorrigible intriguers as Don Juan el 'Puerto or the Caballero Diego Gil, whom he beheaded with seventeen of his men after promising them See also:security for their lives. He did some-thing to found the judicial and administrative unity of the country. His death at the age of See also:thirty-eight, during the great See also:plague, and while he was besieging Gibraltar, was a misfortune to Spain. His successor, Peter, surnamed the Cruel (1350-1368) was destined to show the Castilians exactly peter the what the constant use by " the prince " of the cruel', reserved rights of the sovereign authority could be 1350-1368. made to mean, when they were exercised by a passionate man maddened by suspicion of all about him. Administering the civil See also:side of his See also:government through Jewish tax-gatherers and farmers of the taxes, and surrounded by the Mudejar guard, who were the executors of his justice, his path is marked by one long succession of murders. With all his See also:appearance of energy, he shrank from action at the See also:critical moment of his See also:wars out of utter want of See also:trust in all about him. His expulsion by his brother, Henry of Trastamara, the eldest son of Leonora de Guzman, his restoration by the See also:Black Prince (q.v.), his treachery The Kings of Castile. to him, and his final defeat and murder at Montiel, are famous episodes. Henry of Trastamara, the beginner of the " new Henry of kings " (1368–1379), reigned by election. The Trastamara, nobles and the cities to whom he owed his crown 1368-4379. had proportionate power. In his reign and those of his immediate successors the Cortes flourished, although it failed to establish checks on the See also:absolute power of the king. Henry was on the whole a successful ruler. He forced his neighbours of Portugal to make See also:peace, his fleet defeated an See also:English See also:squadron off Rochelle, and he restored internal See also:order. The civic hermandades, or brotherhoods, enforced respect from the nobles. John I. (1379–1390), Henry's son and successor, had to contend with John of Gaunt, son of See also:Edward III. of See also:England, who had married the eldest daughter of Peter the Cruel, and claimed the crown of Castile in her name. John averted the danger by arranging a marriage between his son Henry and See also:Constance, the eldest daughter of John of Gaunt, an alliance which united the two equally illegitimate lines representing Alphonso XI., and so closed the dispute as to the succession. He was less fortunate in his efforts to vindicate the rights of his wife Beatrix to the throne of Portugal. The defeat of the Castilians at the battle of Aljubarrota (1385) compelled the king to renounce his pre-tensions. The minority of his son, Henry III. (1390–1406) was long, and his effective reign short, but in the brief Henry III" 13904406. space allowed him the king, a weakly man surnamed El Doliente (the sufferer) did something to estab- lish order. He recovered all the immense grants of crown lands and rents, impounded by the nobles during his minority. The first years of the minority of his infant son, John II. (1406–
1454), were by a rare exception peaceful. The See also:young
John H.,
1406-4454. king's uncle Ferdinand (called " of See also:Antequera "
because he was besieging that town, which he took from the See also:Moors, when he heard in 1412 that he had been declared See also:heir to the crown of Aragon by the Cortes of Caspe) acted as See also:regent. Ferdinand was able and honest. His succession to the throne of Aragon is an event of See also:capital importance in the history of the Peninsula.
The kings of Aragon from the death of James the Conqueror
in 1276 to the death of See also: (1345–1410). In so far as their influence was See also:felt in the internal affairs of their Spanish kingdoms, they had a double task to perform. The first was to reunite the Balearic Islands and See also:Roussillon, which James the Conqueror had left by will to a younger son, to the crown of Aragon. This was finally achieved, after a hideous story of fratricidal hatred and murder by See also:poison, by Peter IV. Their second task was to reduce their turbulent barons, in Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia alike, to the position of obedient subjects. In this task also it was Peter IV. who achieved success. The barons of Aragon and Valencia had extorted from his weak father the charter known Peter I'/. as the Union, which not only recognized their just and the right not to be punished in life or See also:property, except " Union." by process of law, but explicitly authorized them to elect the justiza or the chief justice, whose decisions were to be See also:independent of royal confirmation, and to take up arms whenever they considered themselves aggrieved. Such an See also:instrument was of course incompatible with the monarchical or any other form of government. The See also:object of the life of Peter IV. was to force the barons to surrender their charter. After years of struggle and preliminary failures, Peter IV. defeated the " Union " utterly at the decisive battle of Epila (1348). He was a typical king of the 15th century, immeasurably false, and unspeakably ferocious, but he .vas not a mere blood-thirsty See also:sultan like his enemy, Peter the Cruel of Castile. When he won he took indeed a brutal vengeance on individuals, andhe extorted the surrender of the charter and destroyed it with his See also:dagger in the presence of the Cortes at See also:Saragossa. He cut his hand in his eagerness, and declared that the blood of a king was well See also:shed in securing the destruction of such an instrument —whence his popular See also:nickname of Peter of the Dagger (dehPunejalet). But his use of the victory was statesmanlike. He fully confirmed the right of the nobles to trial by law and security against arbitrary See also:punishment; he left the franchises of the city untouched, and respected the See also:independence of the justiza. The result of his victory was to give Aragon and his other dominions a measure of internal peace unknown in Castile. The reigns of his sons and successors, John and Martin, were insignificant and tranquil. The death of Martin without children in 1410 left the succession open. The two years of discussion which followed are interesting as a See also:proof that Aragon had The See also:Sun-reached a higher political level than Castile. The cession in Cortes was able to administer in peace, and the Aragon. question of the succession was debated as if it had been in a suit between private persons. The judges finally decided in favour of Ferdinand, on the ground that his mother, Eleanor, was the daughter of Peter IV., and that though a woman could not reign as a " proprietary See also:queen " in Aragon, she could convey the right to her husband or transmit it to her son. On their own principles they ought to have given the crown to John of Castile as the son of Ferdinand's elder brother. But the countries were not ripe for union. Nevertheless the choice of Ferdinand was a step forward towards union. From 1412 to 1479 the separation lasted with a growing approximation of the two states whose interests touched one another so closely. In Castile John II. (1406–1454), a man Castile. of amiable but indolent character and of See also:literary John tastes, was governed by his favourite, Alvaro de 14064464-See also:Luna, and harassed by his nobles. His reign is full of contentions which were not wars for a principle, but were scuffles for the See also:control of the spigot of taxation. At the end of his life he sacrificed his favourite at the instigation of his second wife, an act which, it is said, justly embittered his last days. Of his son, Henry IV. (1454–1474) it is enough to say that he was called " the Impotent, " and that there is every See also:Hen 1454rylt , -1474. See also:reason to believe that he deserved the description in all the senses of the word. His reign was an inferior copy of his father's. As the legitimacy of his alleged daughter Juana was disputed, his See also:sister See also:Isabella claimed the succession, and married her cousin, Ferdinand of Aragon, son of John I., in 1469 in See also:defiance of her brother. In Aragon, Ferdinand I. " of Antequera " (1412–1416) was succeeded by Alphonso V. (1416– Aragon. 1458) the Magnanimous, whose brilliant life belongs
to Italy. In Aragon he was represented by his brother John, who administered as See also:lieutenant-general, and who reigned in his own right (1458–1479) when Alphonso V. died without legitimate heirs, leaving Naples by will to a See also:bastard son. John I., a man of indomitable energy and consider-able capacity, spent most of his life in endeavouring
to enforce his claims to the kingdom of Navarre as the husband and heir of its queen Blanche. His conflict with his son by his first marriage, See also: Hitherto it has been the story of a national development. The process did not cease, but, during the reign of Isabella the See also:Catholic (1474–1504) until the death of her husband Ferdinand in 1516, was carried, John 1., (379-1390. John II., 1458-1479. not to completion, but to the stopping place at which it was destined to See also:rest for two centuries. The voyage of See also:Columbus Spanish in 1492, and the intervention of Ferdinand in the History great conflict of France, the empire and the papacy after 1479. for predominance in Italy, had, simultaneously, the effect of opening to her the See also:world of conquest and See also:adventure in See also:America, and of committing her to incessant wars in the Italian Peninsula. The death of John, the only son of Ferdinand and Isabella, the worst misfortune which ever happened to Spain, opened the succession to all the crowns and coronets worn by the Catholic sovereigns to Charles of See also:Habsburg—the emperor Charles V. From that day Spain became a part—the See also:leader, then the paymaster, then the dupe--of the See also:international monarchical See also:confederation called " the illustrious See also:House of See also:Austria." The Spaniard became the swordsman and executioner of the See also:counter-See also:Reformation, because the power of the House of Austria depended on the See also:imposition of religious unity in Europe. The decision of Charles V., king of Spain and emperor, to leave the See also:Netherlands to his scn Philip II., committed the Spaniards to conflict on the sea with England, and to the insane See also:attempt to secure a safe road for their armies across Europe from the shores of the Mediterranean to the North Sea. Thereby they threatened the very national existence of France. The arrangement was made possible only by the hopeless divisions of See also:Germany, the blind See also:pride of Spain, and the utter political incapacity of both. It forced every patriotic ruler of England to oppose Spain on the sea, and every statesmanlike See also:master of France to ruin her power on the land. Meanwhile the Spaniards were endeavouring to check the advance of the See also:Turks in the Mediterranean, and to exclude all Europe from the See also:waters of the New World. In the intensity of their struggle with the Reformation they subjected education to a censorship which, in order to exclude all See also:risk of See also:heresy, stifled thought and reduced knowledge to the repetition of safe formulas. With their eyes on the ends of the See also:earth, and a See also:ring of enemies from Constantinople to the See also:Antilles, the Spaniards fought, with steadily diminishing material resources, with a character and See also:intellect which shrivelled by swift degrees. When nearly bled to death for the illustrious House of Austria, they were transferred to the House of Bourbon, which in its turn dragged them into conflict with Austria in Italy and England on the sea. At the beginning of the rgth century they had fallen into such a state of weakness that See also:Napoleon could, with some considerable measure of excuse, look upon their country as a See also:species of no-man's-land into which his troops had only to See also: Thus, for instance, they organized a police to clear the country of brigands, and attached a See also:special jurisdiction to it, but they gave it the old name of See also:Hermandad and the very superficial appearance of a voluntary association of the cities and the gentry. It consisted of a force of well-appointed horsemen, in the See also:pro-
' The name was not formally given to them by the pope till later, but it is convenient to use it at once.portion of one to every hundred families. Its merits as a police have perhaps been exaggerated, and in the war with Granada its bands were employed as soldiers. But an end was at least put to the existence of pefias bravas in the dominions of the crown of Castile. And this was the See also:uniform See also:model of their policy. The masterships of the military orders of Calatrava, St Iago and Alcantara were one by one annexed to the Crown. Their commandaries were used to pay, or See also:pension, the servants of the sovereigns. No attack was made on the charters of the towns, but in Castile and Aragon alike royal See also:officers were appointed to adjudicate on disputes within the corporations themselves, or between See also:corporation and corporation. By them the old councils were rapidly reduced to a state of See also:atrophy. The same course was followed with the Cortes. It continued to be summoned by the Catholic sovereigns and their successors of the Habsburg line, but it was needed only to See also: The representatives of the third estate were confined by the indifference of the Castilians to eighteen towns, whose procurators were named by the councils either from among themselves in rotation, or from particular families. Moreover, they received pay from the Crown while the Cortes sat. For the work of legislation the Cortes was not needed, and never had been. It was not even summoned during the whole of the war with Granada. The Catholic sovereigns provided themselves with a revenue by the customary wholesale resumptions of grants Qovernmeat made during the reigns of John II. and Henry IV., of the and by the suppression or reduction of the pensions "catholic they had granted with profusion. The nobles, So"-having been brought to obedience by a frown, were regns." left in See also:possession of their estates, their social See also:rank and the See also:obligation to render military service. They were summoned to the royal See also:council, but only as ornamental members, the real authority and the exclusive right to vote being confined to the leirados, or lawyers, chosen by the Crown from the class of the burghers. Encouragement of See also:industry was not wanting; the state under-took to develop the herds of See also:merino See also:sheep, by issuing prohibitions against inclosures, which proved the ruin of See also:agriculture, and gave premiums for large See also:merchant See also:ships, which ruined the owners of small vessels and reduced the merchant See also:navy of Spain to a handful of galleons. Tasas, fixed prices, were placed on everything. The See also:weaver, the See also:fuller, the armourer, the See also:potter, the shoemaker were told exactly how to do their own work. All this did not See also:bear its full See also:fruit during the reign of the Catholic sovereigns, but by the end of the 16th century it had reduced Spain to a state of See also:Byzantine regulation in which every kind of work had to be done under the See also:eye and subject to the interference of a vast swarm of government officials, all ill paid, and often not paid, all therefore necessitous and corrupt. When the New World was opened, See also:commerce with it was limited to Seville in order that the supervision of the state might be more easily exercised. The great resource of the See also:treasury was the alcabalas or excises—taxes (farmed by contractors) of 5 or 10% on an See also:article every time it was sold—on the ox when sold to the See also:butcher, on the hide when sold to the See also:tanner, on the dressed hide sold to the shoemaker and on his shoes. All this also did not bear its full fruit till later times, but by the 17th century it had made Spain one of the two " most beggarly nations in Europe "—the other being Portugal. The policy of the Catholic sovereigns towards the Church was of essentially the same character as their treatment of the nobles or the cities. They aimed at using it as an instrument of government. One of the first See also:measures adopted by them in Castile, before the union with Aragon, was to stop the nomination of foreigners to Spanish benefices by the pope. But the most characteristic part of their ecclesiastical policy was the See also:establishment of the Spanish See also:Inquisition (q.v.). The spanish By the See also:bull of See also:Sixtus IV. of 1578 they obtained Inquisition. authority to appoint three inquisitors, whom they were empowered to remove or replace, and who were independent of, and See also:superior to, the inquisitorial courts of the bishops. 550 The Spanish Inquisition was a See also:department of the royal government, employed to enforce religious unity and obedience, because they were held to be indispensable in order to obtain national unity and to enforce the authority of the Crown. The Inquisition was at first established (in 1480) in the dominions of Castile only, but it was extended in 1486 to Catalonia and in 1487 to Aragon, in spite of strong protests. The first duties of the Inquisition were to deal with the converted Jews and Mahommedans, respectively known as Marranos and Moriscoes, and with those who still professed their religions. The latter were dealt with by expulsion, which in the case of the Jews was enforced in 1492, and in the case of the subject Mahommedans or Mudejares in 1502. Both were industrious classes, and the loss of their services was disaster to Spain—the first of a long See also:series of similar measures which culminated in the final expulsion of the Moriscoes in 161o. The converted Jews and Mahommedans presented greater difficulties to the Inquisition. Many of the higher ecclesiastics and of the nobility were of Jewish, or partially Jewish, descent. The landlords who found the Moriscoes useful tenants, and the commercial authorities of towns like Barcelona, who knew the value of the converted Jews, endeavoured to moderate the zeal of the inquisitors. But they were supported by the Crown, and there can be no question that the Holy See also:Office was popular with the See also:mass of the nation. It produced a wholesale See also:flight of the converted Jews to France. In social life the religious zeal favoured by the Inquisition led to such things as those public processions of See also:flagellants which went on in Spain till the end of the 18th century. It aimed at preserving orthodoxy and developing sainthood on the medieval model. Of See also:ordinary immorality it took little See also:notice, and the See also:triumph of its cause in the 16th and 17th centuries, while producing such types of ecstatic piety as St See also:Theresa (q.v.), the Sor Mariade Jesus (Maria See also:Agreda), (q.v.) and the See also:Venerable Virgin Luisa de See also:Carvajal (q.v.), was accompanied by an extraordinary development of moral laxity. The Holy Office showed equal zeal in extending its jurisdiction, and by the end of the 17th century had provoked a strong reaction. The most See also:honourable passage in its history is the part it took in forwarding the great, though temporary, reform of the monastic orders, which was a favourite object with Queen Isabella. Between 1481 and 1492 the Catholic sovereigns completed the work of the reconquest by subjugating the one surviving Conquest of Mahommedan state of Granada. Their task was Granada, materially facilitated by dissensions among the 1492. Moors, whose princes intrigued against one another, and were to the last ready to aid the Christians in the See also:hope of obtaining a small fragment of territory for themselves. The surrender of Granada on the and of See also:January 1492 was partly secured by promises of See also:toleration, which were soon violated. A revolt had to be suppressed in 1501. Having secured the unity of their territory in the Peninsula, the Catholic sovereigns were free to begin the work of expansion. In 1492 Columbus (q.v.) sailed on his first voyage to the west. In 1493 See also:Discovery of Ferdinand secured the restoration of Roussillon from America. Charles VIII. of France by the fallacious treaty in which he undertook to remain neutral during the king's expedition to Italy. The voyage of Columbus had unforeseen consequences which led to See also:diplomatic difficulties with Portugal, and the treaty of Tordesillas in 1494, which defined the respective spheres of influence of the two See also:powers in the New World and in See also:Asia. In 1497 Ferdinand, with the support of his wife, Foreign entered on those wars of Italy in which the Spanish Policy of See also:regular soldiers first gained their reputation, and Ferdinand which made Spain for a time the dominant power and Isabella- in the Italian peninsula (see See also:CORDOBA, GONZALO F. DE). They endeavoured to strengthen themselves against France by marriages with the royal family of England (see See also:CATHERINE OF ARAGON) and the Habsburgs. The marriage of Juana, called the Mad, with Philip of Habsburg, son of the emperor See also:Maximilian (q.v.) brought a new dynasty to Spain. On the death of the queen in 1504 her son-in-law claimed the regency, and was supported by the See also:sole Reign of Castilian nobles. His death in 15o6 and the in-Ferdinand. sanity of his widow left the Castilians no choice but to restore Ferdinand as regent. During the next ten years Ferdinand governed with the very able assistance of the See also:archbishop of Toledo, See also:Jimenes de Cisneros (q.v.). He annexed the southern part of Navarre, which was held by the representatives of his half-sister. The archbishop organized and directed the expedition which conquered See also:Oran, See also:Tripoli and other points on the African coast. Here beyond all doubt lay[HISTORY the proper field for the expansion of Spain. She was drawn from it on the death of Ferdinand in 1516. He was :,ucceeded by his grandson Charles of Habsburg, and when Charles was elected to the empire in 1519 Spain was dragged into the wars and politics of central Europe. Only the smaller part of the reign of Charles was spent in Spain. He came to it from See also:Flanders, where he had received his education, unable to speak the language and sur- Charles I. of rounded by Flemish favourites. To him and them Spain, v. as the country was only a source of See also:supply from which Emperor• money was to be obtained in order to bribe the German See also:electors. The disregard which both showed for the interests of Spain and its constitutional rights led to the outbreak of the revolt of the cities—the Comuneros—which plunged Castile into confusion in 1519 and 1520 after the departure Revolt of the of Charles for Flanders. The rising of the comuneros, Comuneros has often been spoken of as a 1519-2°. struggle for freedom. But it has a very dubious right to the name. In many places the movement was simply an excuse for a revival of private wars between wealthy noble families. In others it was a struggle to enforce the claims of particular towns. It hardly extended as a political movement beyond the two Castiles. If its leaders had acted together, in combination with the nobles, the Comuneros could have imposed their own terms, for there was no royal See also:army to oppose them. But they drifted into hostility with the nobles, and were defeated by them at Villalar. The movement then rapidly collapsed. Charles had no part in the suppression of the revolt. Through-out his reign he respected the claim of the Cortes that no new taxation should be raised without its consent, but as he had to deal only with the representatives of eighteen cities, who could generally be bribed, he rarely failed to secure what he demanded. The outbreak of the Comuneros in Castile coincided with the social and agrarian revolt in Valencia known as the Germania or brotherhood, from the name of the directing See also:committee appointed by the insurgents. It was in no sense a movement for political rights, but an attack by Rising of the the sailors, the workmen of the towns, and the Germania in Christian peasants on the landowners and their valencia. Mudejar and Morisco serfs. It was accompanied by murder and massacre and by forced conversions of the Mudejares. After desolating Valencia for some three years it was put down by the help of troops from Castile. The conquest of See also:Mexico by Hernan Cortes (q.v.) and of See also:Peru by Francisco Spain and See also:Pizarro (q.v.) belong to this reign, but were imme- the Eurodiately due to the adventurers in America. These peon Policy conquests and the incessant wars into which Spain ofcharles v. was drawn by the Aragonese claims in Italy, and its connexion with the empire, gave to the nation a great See also:European position and to the Spanish soldiers of the time many opportunities to win renown. The See also:capture of the French king at See also:Pavia and his imprisonment at See also:Madrid gratified the pride of the Spaniards, and did much to reconcile them to the sacrifices which the policy of the emperor imposed on them. Except, however, in the case of the successful attack on See also:Tunis in 1535, and the attempt to take See also:Algiers in 1541, his actions were not inspired by any regard for the interests of his Spanish kingdoms. He treated them simply as See also:instruments to promote the grandeur of his house. His indifference to their good, or his utter inability to see where it lay, was conspicuously shown when, on his See also:abdication in 1556, he left his hereditary Flemish possessions to his son Philip, and not to his brother Ferdinand. The reign of Philip II. (1556–1598) was a prolongation of the reign of his father, both in domestic and in foreign policy. In it the vices of this policy were displayed to the Philip If fullest extent. Philip's marriage with See also:Mary Tudor 15564598. (q.v.) in 1554 having proved barren, and her death in
1558 having placed See also: Aragon, which was poor and tenacious of its rights, would give little; Catalonia and Valencia afforded small help. The Flemish revenue was destroyed by the revolt. The Italian states barely paid their expenses. Resources for the incessant wars of the reign had been sought in the taxation of Castile and the revenue from the mines of America. They were wholly inadequate, and the result of the attempt to dominate all western Europe was to Character of Produce bankruptcy and exhaustion. In his internal Philip's government Philip was fully despotic. He made no Governmenl.pretence of consulting the Cortes on legislation, and though he summoned them to vote new taxes he established the rule that the old were to be considered as granted for ever, and as constituting the fixed revenue of the Crown. The nobles were excluded from all share in the administration, which was in the hands of boards (juntas) of lawyers and men of the middle class. All business was conducted by See also:correspondence, and with a final reference to the king, and the result was naturally endless delay. The first years of the reign of Philip II. were occupied in concluding the last of his father's wars with France, to which Foreign was added a very unwelcome See also:quarrel with the pope, Policy of arising out of his position as duke of See also:Milan. He Philip. was unable to avoid sending an army under See also:Alva against See also:Paul IV., and was glad to avail himself of the services of Venice to patch up a peace. On the Flemish frontier, with the help of an English contingent and by the good generalship of Philibert of See also:Savoy he defeated a French army at St Quentin on the loth of See also:August 1557, and again at See also:Gravelines on the 13th of See also:July 1558. But he did not follow up his successes, and the war was ended by the See also:signing of the peace of Cateau Cambresis on the 2nd of See also:April 1559. The exhaustion of his resources made peace necessary to him, and it was no less desirable to the French government. Philip's marriage with Elizabeth, the daughter of Henry II. and of Catherine de See also:Medici, together with their common fear of the Reformation, bound him for a time to the French royal house. In August 1559 he returned to Spain, which he never left for the rest of his life. The outcry of the Cortes, whether of Castile or of the other states, for See also:relief from taxation was loud. In some cases the king went so far as to See also:levy taxes in what he acknowledged was an illegal manner and excused under the plea of necessity. By 1567 the revolt in the Netherlands was flagrant, and the duke of Alva was sent with a picked army, and at the expense of Spain, to put it down. In the following year the tyranny of the Inquisition, encouraged by the king who desired to purge his kingdom of all taint of heterodoxy, led to the revolt of the Moriscoes, which desolated Granada from 1568 to 1J70, and ruined the See also:province completely. The Moriscoes had looked for help from the Turks, who were engaged in conquering See also:Cyprus from Venice. The danger to Spain and to the Spanish possessions in Italy stimulated the king to join in the Holy See also:League formed by the pope and Venice against the Turks; and Spanish ships and soldiers had a great share in the splendid victory at Lepanto. But the penury of the treasury made it impossible to maintain a permanent See also:naval force to protect the coast against the See also:Barbary pirates (q.v.). Andalusia, Murcia, Valencia, Catalonia and the Balearic Islands were subject to their raids throughout the whole of the 16th and 17th centuries. In 1581 Philip annexed Portugal, as heir to King Henry, the aged successor of Dom See also:Sebastian. Philip endeavoured to placate the Portuguese by the fullest recognition of their constitutional rights, and in particular by favouring the fidalgos or gentry. The duke of See also:Braganza, whose claims were better than Philip's, was bought off by immense grants. Spain seemed now to have reached a commanding height of power. But she was internally exhausted. Her real weakness, and the incompetence of her government, were shown when open war began with England in 1585. While a vast armament was being slowly collected for the invasion of England, Drake swept the West Indies, and in 1587 burnt a number of Spanish ships in their own See also:harbour of Cadiz. The ruinous failure of the great Armada in 1588 demonstrated the incapacity of Spain to maintain her pretensions. In 1591 the support given by the Aragonese to See also:Antonio See also:Perez (q.v.) led to the invasion of their country by a Castilian army. The constitutional rights of Aragon were not entirely suppressed, but they were diminished, and the kingdom was reduced to a greater measure of submission. In his later years Philip added to all his other burdens a costly intervention in France to support the league and resist the succession of Henry IV. to the throne. He was compelled to acknowledge himself beaten in France before his death on the 13th of See also:September 1598. He left the war with England and with the Netherlands as an inheritance to his son. The period of one hundred and two years covered by the reigns of Philip III. (1598—1621), Philip IV. (1621—1665) and Charles II. (1665—1700), was one of decadence, end- phiiipffi, See also:ing in intellectual, moral and material degradation. 15984621. The dynasty continued to make the See also:maintenance of the rights and interests of the House of Austria its See also:main object. Spain had the misfortune to be saved from timely defeat by the weakness of its neighbours. The policy of James I. of England (q.v.), the civil wars of Charles I. (q.v.), the assassination of Henry IV. of France, the troubles of the minority and reign of Louis XIII. (q.v.) and the See also:Fronde (q.v.), preserved her from concerted and persistent foreign attack. After a futile attempt to injure England by giving support to the See also:earl of See also:Tyrone in See also:Ireland (see TYRONE, EARLS OF) peace was made between the powers in 1604. In 1609 a twelve years' truce was made with the Dutch. But the temporary cessation of foreign wars brought no real peace to Spain. In 1610 fears of the help which the Moriscoes might give to a Mahommedan attack from Africa combined with religious bigotry to cause their expulsion. The measure was thoroughly popular with the nation, but it was industrially more injurious than a foreign invasion need have been. The king was idle and See also:pleasure-loving. He resigned the control of his government to the duke of See also:Lerma (q.v), one of the most worthless of all royal favourites. The expenses of the royal See also:household increased fourfold, and most of the increase was absorbed by the favourite and his agents. The nobles, who had been kept at a distance by Philip II., swarmed round the new king, and began to secure pensions in the old See also:style. The pillage was so shameless that public See also:opinion was stirred to revolt. Some of the lesser sinners were forced to restitution, and in 1618 Lerma fell from power, but only because he was supplanted by his son, the duke of Uceda, a man as worthless as himself. In that year was taken the step which was destined to consummate the ruin of Spain. The Thirty Years' War began in Germany, and Spain was called upon to support the House of Austria. The death of Philip III. on the 21st of March 1621 brought no real change. His son, Philip IV., was an abler man, and even gave indications of a wish to qualify himself to See also:discharge his duties as king. But he was young, pleasure-loving, and wanted the strength of will to make his good intentions effective.
Exhaustion of Spain.
For twenty years the administration was really directed by his favourite the count of See also:Olivares (q.v.) and duke of See also:San
Lucar, known as the " See also:Conde Duque," the See also:counts See also:pump 5
1621-16665.
. duke. Olivares was far more able and honest than
Lerma. But he could only keep his place by supplying
his master with the means of dissipation and by conforming to
his dynastic sentiments. The truce concluded in 16o9 with
See also: Therefore she endeavoured to obtain full control of the Valtel- lina, the valley leading from See also:Lombardy to See also:Tirol, and from thence to the German ecclesiastical states, which allowed a free passage to the Spanish troops. War with France ensued. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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