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Full text of "THE HISTORIANS HISTORY OF THE WORLD 2"

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SPAIN AND THE FBENCH KEVOLUTION 333 

[1808 A.D.] 

the common enemy of France and Spain for this rebellion ; he declared that 
he had received a previous warning of it which he had not credited, until 
the rebellion had burst upon him, and he was compelled to chastise the 
offenders ; he assured them that the emperor was anxious to preserve the in- 
tegrity of the Spanish monarchy without separating from it a single village 
or exacting any war tax ; he exhorted the ministers of the church, the magis- 
trates, gentlemen, landholders, and merchants to use their influence to keep 
down sedition. <2 

Meanwhile by Napoleon's orders Charles IV, Maria Louisa, and Godoy 
had been sent to Bayonne where Ferdinand awaited Napoleon's pleasures 



THE KOYAL FAMILY AT BAYONNE 



Immediately after the arrival of the royal parents, with Napoleon's 
approval, Godoy being their principal and well-nigh only councillor, Ferdi- 
nand was summoned, and in the presence of the foreign sovereign Charles 
commanded him to restore the crown on the morning of the following dav 
by means of a pure and simple abdication, threatening him that, in event of 
his refusal, he, his brothers, and all his suite should from that moment be 
treated as exiles. 

Napoleon supported him with energy, and when Ferdinand was about to 
reply, his august father sprang from his seat, and attempted to strike him. 
accusing him of wishing to deprive him of life as well as of his crown. The 
queen, silent up to then, became enraged, outraging her son with insulting 
affronts, being carried away to such a point by her ungovernable anger that, 
according to Napoleon, she herself begged him to bring Ferdinand to the 
scaffold, which demand, if true, coming from a mother, strikes one with 
horror. Her son remained mute, and sent in his abdication, dated May 1st, 
on these conditions : that the king his father should return to Madrid, 
whither Ferdinand should accompany him, to be treated as his most dutiful 
son ; that in presence of an assembly of the cortes Ferdinand should formally 
renounce the crown, explaining his motives for so doing ; that King Charles 
should not take back with him to Spain any persons who had justly incurred 
the nation's hatred. . 

Charles IV, as might be supposed, did not accede to his son s conditions, 
and on the 2nd sent him a written reply, in which, in the midst of various 
severe though just reflections, Napoleon's hand is discerned, and even his 

expressions such as : " Everything must be done for the people, and noth- 

ino* for himself ; I cannot consent to any convocation of an assembly ; & new 
suggestion of your inexperienced followers." Such was Bonaparte's invari- 
able aversion to popular assemblies, although without them he might have 
remained in the obscurity in which fate had placed him. 

On the 5th of May, the report reached Bayonne of what had occurred in 
Madrid on the Dos de Mayo. It was five in the afternoon; all were seated 
save the prince- Charles repeated his former accusations, insulted Ferdi- 
nand with asperity, blamed him for the rising and for the consequent 
deaths; and, calling him a perfidious traitor, again warned him that unless 
lie resigned the crown he should be declared a usurper without delay, and he 
and all his household looked upon as conspirators against the lite ol tueir 
sovereign. On the 6th Ferdinand, being intimidated, made a pure and 
simple abdication in favour of his father in the terms set down by the latter. 
Charles had not waited for his son's abdication to conclude a treaty with 




334 THE HISTOEY OF SPAIN 

[1808 A.D.] 

Napoleon by which he ceded to him the crown without any other restriction 
than that of preserving the integrity of the kingdom and the Catholic 
religion to the exclusion of all others. Small and petty even to the last, 
Don Manuel Godoy only haggled obstinately over an article relating to pen- 
sions. For the rest, the manner in which Charles gave up the crown 
covered with shame the father, who with one blow indirectly deprived all 
his sons of their succession to the throne. Arranged in a foreign land, in 
the eyes of the world this abdication lacked the indispensable circumstance 
of having been executed freely and willingly, above all being in favour of the 
sovereign within whose territory this important article had been inserted in 
the treaty. 

So ended the reign of Charles IV ; and no one better than himself gives us 
an exact and true idea of his life than, when dining with Napoleon in Bayonne, 
he expressed himself as follows : " Every day, winter and summer, I went 
hunting until twelve o'clock ; then I dined, and immediately returned to my 
hunting until twilight. Manuel [Godoy] gave me the news, and I went to 
bed, to begin the same life on the following day, unless some important cere- 
mony prevented me." Such was the manner in which the king had governed 
for the space of twenty years. According to the sketch which he draws of 
himself, he merits the same title [faineant] as that applied to various kings 
of France of the Merovingian dynasty. Nevertheless, Charles possessed 
qualities which might have made him shine as a king, and fulfil all the duties 
of his high calling, but for his idleness and the weakness which caused him 
to blindly give way to the queen's will and irregular caprices. With another 
wife than Maria Louisa, his reign would not have compared unfavourably with 
that of his august predecessor, and although the situation of Europe was 
very different, as a result of the French Revolution, yet, well governed and 
without interior discord, Spain might perhaps have peacefully continued her 
industries and advancement without upheavals and confusion. The abdica- 
tion of Ferdinand in favour of Charles IV, and of the latter in favour of 
Napoleon being formally drawn up, there yet lacked Ferdinand's renounce- 
ment of his rights as prince of Asturias, because although he had restored 
the crown to his father on the 6th of May, he had not by this act renounced 
his rights as immediate heir. It appears according to Don Pedro Cevallos 
that upon Ferdinand refusing to accede to this last concession Napoleon said, 
"There is no medium, prince, between renouncement and death." Others 
deny this threat,, and indeed it would seem strange that such rigorous 
measures should have been resorted to with a person who had so clearly shown 
his weakness. 

The queen of Etruria, in spite of the flattering attention she had bestowed 
on Murat and the French, was no happier in her negotiations than the rest 
of her family. The Treaty of Fontainebleau could not be kept with her 
son because Napoleon had promised the deputies of Portugal to maintain 
the integrity of that kingdom; nor could indemnification be granted her 
in Italy, as to allow any branch of the Bourbons to reign in that country 
was contrary to Napoleon's great views; the queen was compelled to be 
satisfied with this reply, accept the pension allotted her, and submit to the 
same fate as her parents. 

During the stay of the prince of Asturias and the infantes in Bayonne 
various plots were set on foot for their escape. A resident of Cevera de 
Alhama received money from the supreme junta of Madrid for that purpose. 
The duke of ^Mahon had sent the offer of a large sum from San Sebastian for 
the same object. Ferdinand's counsellors received the money in his name 



SPAIN AND THE EEENCH REVOLUTION 335 

[1808 A.D.] 

and by his orders, but the flight never took place, although several plans 
were proposed. They would have required less vigilance on the part of the 
French government and more courage on the part of the Spanish princes to 
bring 1 them to a successful ending. 

The renunciations being formally executed, Napoleon lost no time in 
despatching the members of the royal family of Spain to the interior of 
France. Charles IV and his wife, the queen of Etruria and her children, 
the infante Don Francisco, and the Prince of the Peace, left for Fontaine- 
bleau on the 10th of May, and thence proceeded to Compiegne. On the 
11 th Ferdinand VII, his brother and uncle, the infantes Don Carlos and 
' Don Antonio, left Bayonne ; the palace of Valengay, the property of Prince 
Talleyrand, being assigned as their residence.*- 




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337 

, Y-' : ";' 1 -^' .inib, fi.-ld; ^anifestoes, decrees 

' 7Y;YY rkiVrmi; ' <' n hllll ^uie a gallam, 

-' i-J.irlr presented..~ : patriotism supportina- a 

:.?, .t r<] ^.ir assembly uoriun^ to restore a despotic 

- -i.m- a t..,v, ;ril music,,-, the lower armed iA the 

:'!-;. i h" upstart holders, seeretly ubhorrino- f ree 

: 77 r u ; iuie, trembled at tho ilomoc.ratic activity 

'/.--' h'riii all the bad passions of the multitude 

- - v v .:.;d iv ; r,. u ,. ra (i< as well as save.. The country 

" ; ! '':-;>;<:' i n- U-tiehis oi a revolution; tumults 

i '' j d: .- : :i .t.-d the sensible part of the community ; 

i ';" : ;i:ve , (-\iin<qiished patriotism; neo-lect 

',.''' l! - ! f -'-ii'-r, n.ually living at the first onset, 

: '- 1 ' : i- 'ine; . T, :it i raet rd by tlm license of the 

: '.''-, ih- lun.-it part originally robbers, "who 

: -< - jii.- t-ueiny; and these, guerilla chiefs 

: ;:.>!.;;, e \ l rrniina I e<K had not- the French 

:. ., !"-.-M e.ijupelleil to keep in larg'G masses : 

;.!!:<. t'-'pitiUMsuppliesfroiu England and 

1' t :...,j, .. . upp<i]-ted iln' war, and it was the 

. *' '..'.. : \\"r!!iit";(on resisted the fierceness of 

:-. . :. . :' t in ' ineifteient eabinets that delivered 



:.',:, :.:. \i:i : <:, ri:.\N('K 
I . ,. '. .'..; ! M.L-, .1! \I idrid, and I he t real ment of Ferdi- 

u ... / I 1 .. -.. ., : ; i.;!. .!' ]:ir\n the mine, :illd tilO explosion, 

},.-,. ,.,-,, .--... .- ;, , ,'.!*>: I*.- : : !:iM-rtv, I he Asj.urias, spread in the 

....; .. . - ;;. /..',-;' L.\ MI- enJinc'ils, composed of the most 

. . : f ; . ., . .- ;.. :-. : i-ji!i-d]!i-n*-d persons of tluiir respective 

, . .. . , ; . : .- . ..2 vrv pr'\jjn'f, and most, Isirg'e to^vns. 

\{ , , , ; , . ... ;:;!^;t!i-d; main.' persons fell sacrifices to 

, . i;rd bv th'-ir o\\ii eonduel:, of being 

, ... ' , ..'' .. .; ] ..,..!:. \V h'n' Srulle, as next in importance 

T M . .' . |; . ; .-;. I'M:- ;: .1 !' i !n- un:aibdned cities ol" Spain, 

,' <V .' " " '" - - '-'.-' i .;:'.i-.-!ij.' t :ui.l a dr^n'r of authority over 

",r , . " ' - .. ,;.;.;.. .\e:.jjMV,-!edjr-d her pretensions. In the 

! ,'. . Y- l . II "'" "'V^:^*- -'int.t of Se\ ille, oil the. t)th of June, 

.7!" ; . ' .' -' '\" - Y"-d*"Fr:i n ee. ni-.iei-M were issued for enroll- 

* r " 7 " " '' 7'' .. , ri_, M Y Yiubinrd with judicious instructions 

7 , ' '-"'7 ; . 7.. . .'<!. i,- rtw s.ddieVs in pitehccl battles 

, Y 7 ' ", Y Y ",7 I-'- ;.!-.-; and f^t -.ailinic vessels were sent 

',. ,,, , - , . dr i-n; of France and claim obedi- 

" 7'"" * : 7.";-".-r7.V, ..,,.; in. rti,,.:.iiihonLv of Ferdinand. 



SPAIN 



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THK riCNINSULAIt W/VE 359 

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had enjoined him to repair with all speed. Cuosta, with the army of Castile, 
anil Blake with that of indicia, had united at. Rio See.o, where their com- 
bined forces amounted to tliirty thousand men* Bessie-res attacked them on 
the Mth of July with little more than fifteen thousand. The superior skill 
and discipline of the French very soon prevailed over their courage and 
numbers. They lost live or six thousand men, killed and wounded, ami 
twelve hundred prisoners. 'Flu* two generals threw tin* blame on each 
other, and separated in mutual disgust. This victory cost Bessie ra* iesn 
than four hundred men. Joseph pursued his journey; and on the 20th 
imule his triumphant entry into Madrid, Orders had been given that the 
streets through which the procession was to pass should be. decorated, accord- 
ing to Spanish custom, by hanging 1 tapestry, etc., from tho windowSi and 
that the church bells should be, rung. The inhabitants obeyed; but the 
tapestry they hung out was old, dirty, and ragged, and the. hells tollitt gg 
for u funeral. The, meanest of the populace scorned to pick up the money 
scattered amongst- them as the king passed, leaving it to the. French soldiorn; 
and the theatres, which were opened gratis in honour of the day, were, filled 
only bv Frenchmen. The council of Castile, which had previously nocnuttil 
disposed to submit, refused to take the oath required of them to the new 
sovereign and constitution, alleging that, both must, first receive the satiation 
of the nation through the eortes; and the. Spanish soldiers, who did duty 
jointly with the French, deserted by whole guards at a lime, leaving not a 
single sentinel at his post. The first- tidings received by Joseph at Madrid 
were* in harmony with tin* character of his reception. 

Dupont had advanced prosperously, defeating all who opposed him, at* fat* 
as Cordova, which 1m took by storm, but almost without resistance. However, 
Castanos, an old soldier, attacked Dupont with about double, his numbofft, 
and gained a victory HO complete that at Baylen, whither four days of 
engagement had drawn the, French main body, and upon tho very day 
of Joseph^ entrance into Madrid, Dupont, with nearly twenty thousand 
men, surrendered upon condition of being sent with Inn whole corps to 
France. The. terms of the capitulation were afterwards broken by thu 
vindictive rage of the, peasantry, whom their generals could not control. 
Numbers wen* put to death, and the rest, instead of being sent to France, 
were confined in the hulks in the buy of Cadi/,, where they suffered every 
kind of misery, and the greater part perished.'' In its moral cITectH the 
battle of Baylen was one. of those events which, insignificant in themselves, 
cause great changes in tho affairs of nations. The defeat of Rio Seeo, tho 
preparations of Moneey for a second attack on Valencia,, the miserable plight 
of SaragoHsu, the despondency of tho ablest men of Spain, and the disgust 
lltul terror generally excited by the excesses of the. populace, weighed heiivy 
on the Spanish cause: one victory more, and the moral as well as the. physi- 
cal force! of Spain would have been crushed. Tim victory of Baylen opened 
as it were a new crater for Spanish pride, vanity, and arrogance; tin* glory 
of past ages seemed to bo renewed, every man thought himself a Cid, und, 
in the surrender of Dupont, saw, not the deliverance of Spain, but thil 
immediate conquest of France*. u We arc obliged to our friends the Klljf- 
lish," was a common phrase among them when conversing with the oHieera 
of Sir John Moore's army; tl we thank them for their goodwill, we shall 
escort them through France to Calais, the. journey will be pleasanter tliuu a 
luiit voyage,: they shall not have the trouble of lighting the French, and 
we shall be pleased, to have them spectators of our victories/* This absurd 
confidence might have led to great things, but it was a voice --"-nothing more. ^ 



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THE PENINSULAS WAR 341 

[1808 A.D.] 

supersede him, and, as, it proved, eacli other. The nomination of one of 
these could not be blamed, for Sir John Moore then certainly ranked higher 
in public estimation as a general than Sir Arthur Wellesley ; but Sir Harry 
Burrard and Sir Hew Dalrymple had never been in situations to display 
military capacity. Sir Harry Burrard arrived on the very day that the 
reinforcements joined Sir Arthur; and with all the caution of old age refused 
to sanction the advance of an army deficient in cavalry and artillery horses, 
especially as ten thousand men were daily expected with Sir John Moore. 

On the morning of the 21st, Junot fell upon the British army, with the 
impetuosity characterising his countrymen and Napoleon's warriors. They 
were, however, repulsed in every attack; the defects of the position, and the 
almost total want of cavalry, were immediately remedied by the ability of 
the general, and the loss was far greater on the side of the French, and less 
on that of the British, than at Roliza. The battle was over by noon ; a 
considerable portion of the army had not been engaged, and Sir Arthur 
proposed to follow up his victory, pursue the retreating enemy, cut him off 
from Lisbon, and thus deliver the capital from the French yoke. Again 
Burrard's caution prevailed to forbid the pursuit, and still the army remained 
at Vimeiro. 

Sir Harry Burrard's authority expired almost as soon as he had thus 
unfortunately used it ; and on the 22nd Sir Hew Dalrymple landed to take the 
supreme command. On the evening of the same day, before he could well 
make himself master of the state of affairs, General Kellermann was sent by 
Junot to the British camp to propose an armistice, and the evacuation of 
Portugal by the French troops upon conditions. Such as it was, the so-called 
Convention of Cintra was signed, and Portugal delivered from her conquerors, 
on the 30th of August, within a month of General Wellesley's landing. 

The authority of Queen Maria and the prince-regent was now restored 
throughout Portugal. Sir Hew Dalrymple reinstated the council of regency 
appointed by the prince at his departure, and began his preparations for 
entering Spain. He was, however, recalled to stand a sort of trial for con- 
eluding the Convention of Cintra which provoked wild rage in England; Sir 
Harry Burrard and Sir Arthur Wellesley returned home to give evidence 
upon the subject, and the command devolved upon Sir John Moore. 

About sixty thousand French troops were now left in Spain. But the 
British army with all its reinforcements did not exceed twenty-five thousand 
men Sir John Moore was of a temperament rather desponding than san- 
ffuine although a brave and able officer, he had not the self-reliance charac- 
teristic of a master-mind, and the conduct of the Spaniards abundantly 
iustified bis mistrust of the allies, in co-operation with whom he was re- 
quired to risk an army too valuable to be rashly hazarded, but too small 
singly to engage the French forces now concentrated upon the ^bro. But 
now that Spanish energy had driven the intrusive king and his foreign 
troops almost to the foot of the Pyrenees, Spanish pride deemed all accom- 
plished, and the restraints that had compelled union were no more. Provin- 
cial ambition, local, and even individual interests, jealousy, and intrigue 
tainted the patriotism of the juntas. 

Meanwhile discussions were going on as to the mode of government to be 
adopted. Florida-Blanca, the president of the Murcian junta, and the Coun- 
cil Jf Castile (which, on the evacuation of Madrid, had there assumed the 
reins of government) strongly pointed out the necessity of some central 
executive power, and the evils "resulting from the existing anarchy of inde- 
juntas. The convocation of the cortes, or the choice of a Sicilian 



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T1IK 1HSTOKY nK SPAIN" 



jiriutM* as tvi(*>itU UIMV pruposril % aai.ni;.sl thT r\piili'al,N. At Im^th it 
\\a> ai;iv*<l (hat ra'h junf.i ^houM >m>l I \vo ilrput n*-* Irnin its o\vu hmjy to 
form a ivntral aiul so\ m-i^n junta, <-a<'h M-paratr junta, Ii\vt?\rr, still jjnv- 

rTflinif il- s \\n pl'o\ in**''. Tin- rmiral jU!iia U ,1 . il:--.t ,il Ii-l ;i| Anutjttr/, tU 

tht< *Jttli of Srpii-iahrr. Plumb P.lain-a, on.- MI tin- Maivian *l'putirs, was 
chusra piv.Miirat ( 1\ -ilan-. \\.i-. tin- 'n:\ niln-r ai-ailrr ! aia'h ivputa. 

liW K ami its thv-t iih-a-urr vsa.-> ;i ..'.am pi '!. tin. itii-n oj I'Vnliiiaml VII. 

Kranrr via-* n>u- pnurin;;; "Hi- ltunl:'l thmi ,4ii! .il>htiu.il mm int Sjiuin f 
Nr\\ *luKr n|" I :> ,lrliiiun'iK ti-mjMr,uii\ linMm- t Is'- .<tiiia.mil until thrraijH'rur 
shiiul.it an'iv tiai I'lri'iirf f rulr ti,- \\ar ni j'r!-fn, Ilif Kn-urh ;iriny 
was, liHU't-^rr, ''till \\,i;tia ; N,ii"l''i'u'-, .t::i^.il !M iua!.' ,i ir\\.irl ni^xriafai^ 
w!a*u tin- S|,iniiLi-h, t tij- iriial't-r *!" l.'.'SMno nn-n, !>Ma*-tl in ;i crr;^'i*nt 
uratanl t-hrai. 

Our uf >ir Ailhur \Vi !! -l-^ '.- I'-.i-'-'ir- !: ai'j'j-tvinv: th- < 'n\ mtia f 
(*iutni hal l-m that it nntn-.i,.u'; \ .. t r!.i- Kn/h h anu> at hl..'it\ lu rutrr 
Spain. Hat tlu * al\ anla^r wa - ;? ij.-: 1 r.f.'lr.-ii-l ..; ],,t in th.-i-.nr .l inv'.s, 
tii'iitin^ tin- i-ii-. uai-it in-'r ^ !' lis.u .-.-n -, m: i-:.. h v. a n*t till tl.- i';.M!i!nnj{ 
iifcK'tMi.,'! 1 that Sir .!.!. n \I ... i- ^ ,,.-! ,.;,[. ; . t.. .-nt.-f Spain, an- 1 .iprj-. 
at- with th' arau*-; j '".!.'.. I ar.-'ii^l th-- l ; :.-ij. h. >n la\il Uain! u as, 
at lh* '^iHif f ini\ '.'"Ht t < % i i .ii!ia u ;* h l*n I ii'-u- an* I in-n, ^ i a m t unlT M !'*% 
\vht app'intrl Sa!aiaan--a !: th.-u ninrJi'-n, Nr;tij-r !i..l m,r ai-aii.s if 
franspi't hal l--a ]n\ iinl ; fiai;l Ma.-, unl'u : ni -It- -1 uuh pt-ruuiary n- 
s*itnv*;s \\hi!'t th' tiah'-iaa an-1 Au-.tiiau j^nla-, t li> -u,yh : al uml.mt 1\ Mip* 
ptit-*l hv t!i f prul'u.' 1 nuiJiilii-'-n'-'' "* tlu- Kir.;'; .h r^ur.lr}, r.-t"u.--.'"l th* triHipa 
of Ihnr lu-in-tai-tj , ",rr\ h:al 'l" MU-.-MU;-. hi*I''l, jm,t !' t hr juatar* 
ilpprar to ha\r aii-.aj*}-^'-'! ?'; ia":j'-\ ?.'? i>. Kn/i-tn-l t- ? l;rir <.r,, u ptirposr?,, 
iiliit *'|I"U !o ha\- nia't- n> it .- \\ h, it .-,; ^ { I L- .1: :u > an-1 :"4Mn" f . \l.in 
iTualil not tTi.-,-, th- i'r.'nt j.-i-, till th- Il!h-l" N-'.. iul'rr ; aiil tin- al*:.nrl prr- 
i*i|iilat!<>a !' thr *-jitia! junta, anl ! !{-> ;n-- v j"-n n'-'-l ! /'Hr-]\i!-, u h \\n-r* 
rijlia! in an! h'n? tot '.i.a;tn -^ h,i-i a'j*a'lv )'t'^M.."h! fl,' Sj-ani-h f'r''% into 
1'nltiMMis uilli th- l-'i-'-Ji'-li. Al?T inaiiV > ia l - -.' --1 ; . !jir = h;n.' aijl aiaao-u V riajt, 
llhiko hal IM-I-U il-f.-al-il, 0,-tMiM-r ;t't ; Jf i.;, l.Jrl.M.- t !ul hail jvtP'afnl, 
rulliinl hi-* nil-lit aal h-in^ j.in--'l ?\ .'np- "i 1 ..i lv"iaana'- trop- s aijaiu 
Ilillitt* hiM'l. 

Nap*h-na hint ''I'll -i it -* I s j'..i i ii n t !- *"t K > !" \ \ :!:!' r, ani t h>' taJlu* 4 H k M 
of IIIH ^rimiH ua- aaa-i].it-U a^]-.i:--ii' . < >u ih- l ( Mh, >-u!f, ilul.-- of Hal- 
litiilia, attat L l, *!!' iil au-i u 1 ?. 1 ' ..- i li ...hi. !! t)^-n tann*l 
!l}tfin th- lua- "I trlM ,it -I P. a! .-, 7 J M \ ' , 1 il ! P .lun". Irjr.itiMl at 
Khpinn'-.a Mj| ti* !Hh. anl s ' /t ' , , \, it- 1 ." II . i -n t h' I'th, 

l*lii' i,;;i"ral"r pal ' J t \*'^ :a'. '* , : ! ! <a i *: ti* Hi ?* *, ! r *!-,! i'M\i'<il 
lit lUalv-'.-- :tn ' ,', 1. | if . p, i) i I 1 ,i r . v \ : 4 ', . nii.ui-'.iiir , wla-rr 
liti ft'Uftit'I tlj* i a **! hi > .! in , i. i :^ * 1 , '. II j i , f . 1 s t / "U"li *ti'iap- 
|iinl-tj ia .ill h* rh' ai , i ru^!*" >n-.. in 1 "M 1 . i ..ut'l f i ps, aa*l 
4.*xt?rl*-l laai * ll tirnuMU , i . * ,,' .^ , .^ *i -, {,< ! -u. T!,*- rniprrur 
i\n\\ liuitrd h J..' . i ' i i, * I > * u , rip,-" . v, ! * ! * I'.ali \ vvpt 
tin* plain .HI I. .' t .in<l < a ?.r. t )u t !, '.M -i, 1 i j ( * \*: i 1 . ! t 'a lan - an<! 
Pillafox. at Ttt'l' la, an'l ^'iij ! f 1 , i " it >1 : '. n,. 

Xapoh'.*ii JJM*\ a*!^an'l np'n Ma-i M, ., 1 .- ;',oJ j-iM.-hrtl HIM! 
HtUttkri) ill*- Soaioai-ua. Thr pi . \i i l* !' i 1 ' < n-f il s an Juan; hi* 
IroiipH llrii aftir tiling oa \n!!i , aM-l aJ?-. f < - '1 -n /J t t-i *-\ru-i- thinr 
\ art-it ,iijf lh*n mil-*] tiwat* nuaial j *t tf ? h , ml i.tiii!''i'!iin! 
Thr I'i*hih ri* *t tlj- UP* aJ ui$ a!" s !r-i'|"' I, .ui'i app**an-'i 
Math at. In ihr itt..aiai : il.in -i ti.< ;n .',* ,* ;i- '. *'j litr *-!-uiia! 




w 

a 



'. THE PENINSULAR WAR 

[1808 A.D.] . . .. 

Cdy 

Napoleon appeared before .Madrid on the 2nd of December, and sum- 
moned the city to surrender, with fearful threats in case of resistance On 
the morning of the 5th Morla surrendered Madrid. The emperor took BO* 
session of the palace of the kings of Spain ; and in his proclamations 
threatened the Spaniards that, unless by their conduct they earned Joseph's 
pardon, he would find another kingdom for his brother, and make Spain a 




CUENCA 

French province. Such threats were not adapted to conciliate the haughty 
Spaniards ; and the really beneficial decrees he promulgated, diminishing 
the exorbitant power of the clergy and the number of monks and nuns, by 
exasperating the whole ecclesiastical body, confirmed the nation in its 
enmity to him and his dynasty. Regardless of this enmity, however, 
Napoleon prepared to overrun and subjugate Portugal and the south of 
Spain with his grand army, whilst a division of thirty-five thousand men 
again besieged Saragossa. "The central junta continued its fight to Seville, 
and the troops, which the different generals had rallied in considerable num- 
bers, prepared to defend the Sierra Morena and the Tagus. 



MOORE'S FAMOUS RETREAT 

Moore's situation was unquestionably one of great difficulty^ The 
French are stated to have had two hundred thousand men m bpain ; lie 
could not bring into the field above twenty-five thousand ; Madna had 
fallen ; and of the Spanish armies nothing remained within his reach out 
the few thousands, half clothed and half armed, that La Romana was endeav- 
ouring to organise. Moore had lost all confidence in Spanish professions, and 
was convinced that Frere, who vehemently urged him to attempt something. 



344 



THE HISTOEY OF SPAIN 



[1808 A.D.] 

was deceived by his zeal in the Spanish cause and his ignorance of the 
Spanish character. Nevertheless Moore resolved to make such a diversion 
as should recall Napoleon from the south and from Portugal, and, if possi- 
ble, to destroy Soult, who was within his reach with inferior numbers, before 
he could be reinforced. But he undertook this bold and generous enter- 
prise with a heavy heart, and, as appears from his own letters, as sacrificing 
his own judgment to what he knew were the expectations of the British 
public. Moore began his movement on the llth, effected his junction with 
Baird, and reached Sahagun on the 21st of December. There he halted two 
days for his supplies, meaning to attack Soult on the 24th. But on the 23rd 
he received information that Napoleon, upon hearing of his advance, had 
suspended all his operations in the south and west, and was marching in full 
force against the English. The projected diversion was thus accomplished ; 




LISBON IN 1800 

(From an old Spanish print) 

and he began his retreat towards Galicia, where he proposed embarking, and 
carrying his army southwards to join the Spanish forces collecting in Anda- 
lusia. The retreat was most disastrous. Officers and men disliked it ; the 
bonds of discipline were early relaxed, and the bulk of the army was a mere 
drunken mob, never resuming any semblance of order or propriety except 
when there appeared a prospect of a battle. Then all were again found 
British soldiers. 

Before discussing this famous disaster we may quote the words of H. 
M. Stephens,^ who, after calling Moore " the only English general who has 
gained lasting fame by the conduct of a retreat," and referring to his death 
as showing "how a modern Bayard should die in battle every thought for 
others, none for himself," thus sums up his position in history : 

"It may be possible, in the face of his heroic death, to exaggerate 
Moore's actual military services, but his influence on the British army can- 
not be overrated. The true military spirit of discipline and of valour, both 
in officers and men, had become nearly extinct during the American war. 
Abercromby, who looked back to the traditions of Miiiden, was the first to 



n08-i809A. D .] 



THE 



WAR 



345 



power a stat P . cess of the esperirn,,;, 

p'i -iml !> i ^ a statesman are shown m his despatches written it '<,' 

^vm^T^ that ? iey r ere the pupils of &^^SV ~ 

in V C ^- m /?' he V 1 ^ 1 ^ 1 an ^^ian. The description of Mnore' 
in Napier t is perhaps the finest piece of military history in the EriV 

wSS^ nl ? b f CaUSC ^ aUth r Pnt,U teci^ 5 &t 

usthc sold OT f d ! ^ th f r treat , ; and > if Na P ier felt to ls Wellington 
cib the soldiers of the Tenth legion felt towards Csar,i he felt towards Mn "^ 
the personal love and devotion of a cavalier towards Montrose ^ arUi> * u -^- 
VVe can do no better than quote at some length Kapler's famous arrov,,,r 
l rom lus work which lias been favourably compared with those of Tlracvdicie^ 
Xenophon, and Csesar.a * ' 

Napier's Story of Moore s Retreat 

That Moore succoured Spain in her extremity, and, in her hour of weak- 
ness, intercepted the blow descending to crush her, no man of candour can 
deny. For what troops, what preparations, what courage, what eaiaeity 
was there in the south to have resisted even for an instant the pi-ogres* of a 
man like Napoleon, who, in ten days and in the depth of winter, crossii!^ 
the snowy ridge of the Carpentinos, had traversed two hundred miles of 
hostile country, and transported fifty thousand men from Madrid to Astoria, 
in a shorter time than a Spanish courier would have taken to travel the same 
distance? This stupendous march was rendered fruitless by the quleknes- 
of Moore; but Napoleon, though he failed to destroy the English army, 
resolved, nevertheless, to cast it forth from the peninsula. Being himself 
recalled to France by tidings that the Austrian storm was ready to burst, Le 
fixed upon Soult to continue the pursuit. Including Laborde, Heudeleu and 
Loison's division, nearly sixty thousand men and ninety-one guns were put 
on the track of the English army. 

Soult, nowise inferior to any of his nation, if the emperor be exce}*te L 
followed Moore with vigour. Nineteen thousand British troops posted in 
strong ground might have offered battle to very superior numbers ;^ vet 
where was tlie use of merely fighting an enemy who had three hundred thou- 
sand men in Spain ? Nothing could be gained, but Moore might by a quick 
retreat roach" bis ships unmolested, and carry his army from that narrow cor- 
ner to the southern provinces and renew the war under more favourable 
circumstances. But in the immense wine-vaults of Bembibre hundreds ui 
men remained inebriated, the followers of the army crowded the houses, and 
many of Komana's disbanded men were mixed with this heterogeneous mass 
of marauders, drunkards, muleteers, women, and children. Moore, leaving 
a small guard, with, them, proceeded to CalcabeUos. At Calcabellos ti.e 
reserve took up a position, Baird marched to Herrerias, and Moore went onto 



These are Napier's words in dedicating bis great work to Wellington.] 



346 



THE HISTORY OF SPAIN 



[1809 A.D.] 

Villa Franca ; but in that town also great excesses had been committed by the 
preceding divisions; the magazines were plundered, the bakers driven from 
the ovens, the wine-stores forced, the commissaries prevented making the 
regular distributions; the doors of the houses were broken, and a scandalous 
insubordination then showed a discreditable relaxation of discipline by the 
officers. Moore arrested this disorder, and caused one man taken in the act 
of plundering a magazine to be hanged in the market-place. 

Under the most favourable circumstances, the tail of a retreating force 
exhibits terrible scenes of distress, and on the road near Nogales the follow- 
ers of the army were dying fast from cold and hunger. The soldiers, bare- 
footed, harassed, and weakened by their excesses at Bembibre and Villa 
Franca, were dropping to the rear by hundreds, while broken carts, dead 
animals, and the piteous spectacle of women and children, struggling or fall- 
ing exhausted in the snow, completed a picture of war, which like Janus has 
a double face. 

The British army was not provided to fight above one battle ; there were no 
draught cattle, no means of transporting reserve ammunition, no magazines, no 
hospitals, no second line, no provisions : a defeat would have been ruin, a 
victory useless. A battle is always a serious affair ; two battles in such cir- 
cumstances, though both should be victories, would have been destruction. 
A terrible storm of wind and rain, mixed with sleet, commenced as the army 
broke up from the position at Lugo ; the marks were destroyed, the guides 
lost the true direction, only one of the divisions gained the main road, the 
other two were bewildered, and when daylight broke the rear columns were 
still near to Lugo. The fatigue, the depression of mind occasioned by this 
misfortune, and the want of shoes broke the order of the march, stragglers 
became numerous, and unfortunately Baird, thinking to relieve the men dur- 
ing a halt which took place in the night, desired the leading division to take 
refuge from the weather in some houses a little way off the road. Complete 
disorganisation followed this imprudent act. The commander-in-chief, who 
covered this march with the reserve and cavalry, ordered several bridges to 
be destroyed, but the engineers failed of success in every attempt. 

As the troops approached Corunna, on January 12th, 1809, the general's 
looks were directed towards the harbour, but an expanse of water pain- 
fully convinced him -that to fortune at least he was in no way beholden ; 
contrary winds still detained the fleet at Vigo, and the last consuming exer- 
tion made by the army was rendered fruitless. The men were put into 
quarters, and their leader awaited the progress of events. The reserve was 
posted between the village of El Burgo and the road of Santiago de Compos- 
tella. For twelve days these hardy soldiers had covered the retreat, during 
which time they traversed eighty miles of road in two marches, passed sev- 
eral nights under arms in the snow of the mountains, were seven times en- 
gaged, and now took the outposts having fewer men missing from the ranks, 
including those who had fallen in battle, than any other division in the 
army : an admirable instance of the value of good discipline, and a manifest 
proof of the malignant injustice with which Moore has been accused of 
precipitating his retreat beyond the measure of human strength. 

Now a painful measure was adopted ; the ground in front of Corunna 
is impracticable for cavalry, the horses were generally foundered, it was 
impossible to embark them all in the face of an enemy, and a great number 
were reluctantly ordered to be shot ; worn down and foot-broken, they 
would otherwise have been distributed among the French cavalry, or used 
as draught cattle until death relieved them from procrastinated suffering. 



THE PENINSULAR WAE 



347 



[1809 A.D.] 

But the very fact of their being so foundered was one of the results of 
inexperience ; the cavalry had come out to Corunna without proper equip- 
ments, the horses were ruined, not for want of shoes but want of hammers 
and nails to put them on. Soon the French gathered on the Mero, and 
Moore sought a position of battle. On the evening of the 14th the trans- 
ports from Vigo hove in sight ; the dismounted cavalry, the sick, the best 
horses, and fifty pieces of artillery were embarked, six British and three 
Spanish guns being kept on shore for action. When Laborde's division 
arrived, on the 15th, the French force was not less than twenty thou- 
sand men, and Soult made no idle evolutions of display. Distributing his 
lighter guns along the front of his position, he opened a fire from the heavy 
battery on his left, and instantly descended the mountain with three columns 
covered by clouds of skirmishers. The ground about that village was inter- 
sected by stone walls and hollow roads ; a severe scrambling fight ensued, the 
French were forced back with great loss, but, being reinforced, renewed 
the fight beyond the village. Major Napier, 1 commanding the 50th, was 
wounded and taken prisoner, and Elvina then became the scene of another 
contest. The line of the skirmishers being supported vigorously, checked 
the advance of the enemy's troops in the valley ; at the same time the centre 
and left of the army also became engaged, and a furious action ensued along 
the line, in the valley, and on the hills. Sir John Moore, while earnestly 
watching the result of the fight about the village of Elvina, was struck on 
the left breast by a cannon-shot. 

Notwithstanding this great disaster the troops gained ground, and when 
the night set in, their line was considerably advanced beyond the original 
position of the morning, while the French were falling back in confusion. 
Their disorder facilitated the original plan of embarking during the night. 
Hope, upon whom the command had devolved, resolved therefore to ship 
the army, and so complete were the arrangements that no confusion or diffi- 
culty occurred ; the pickets kindled fires to cover the retreat, and were 
themselves withdrawn at daybreak to embark under the protection of Hill's 
brigade, which was in position under the ramparts of Corunna. 

When the morning of the sixteenth dawned, the French, seeing the Brit- 
ish position abandoned, pushed some battalions to the heights of San Lucia, 
and about midday opened a battery on the shipping in the harbour. This 
caused great confusion amongst the transports, several masters cut their 

1 The author's eldest brother ; he was said to be slain. When the French renewed the 
attack on Elvina, he was somewhat in advance of that village, and alone, for the troops were 
scattered by the nature of the ground. Being hurt in the leg, he endeavoured to retire, but was 
overtaken, and thrown to the ground with five wounds ; a French drummer rescued him, and 
when a soldier with whom he had been struggling made a second attempt to kill him, the drum- 
mer once more interfered. The morning after the battle Marshal Soult sent his own surgeon to 
Major Napier, and, with a kindness and consideration very uncommon, wrote to Napoleon, desir- 
ing that his prisoner might not be sent to France, which from the system of refusing exchanges 
would have ruined his professional prospect ; the drummer also received the cross of the Legion 
of Honour. When the 2nd corps quitted Corunna, Marshal Soult recommended his prisoner 
to the attention of Marshal Ney. The latter, treating him rather with the kindness of a friend 
than the civility of an enemy, lodged him with the French consul, supplied him with money, 
gave him a general invitation to his house, and not only refrained from sending him to France, 
but when by a flag of truce he knew that Major Napier's mother was mourning for him as dead, 
he permitted him, and with him the few soldiers taken in the action, to go at once to England, 
merely exacting a promise that none should serve until exchanged. I would have not touched 
at all upon these private adventures, were it not that gratitude demands a public acknowledg- 
ment of such generosity, and that demand is rendered more imperative by the after misfortunes 
of Marshal Ney. That brave and noble-minded man's fate is but too well known. He who had 
fought five hundred battles for France, not one against her, was shot as a traitor ! Could the 
bitterest enemy of the Bourbons have more strongly marked the difference between their interests 
and those of the nation ? 






348 THE HISTORY OF SPAIN 

[1809 A.D.] 

cables, and four vessels went on shore, but the troops were rescued by the men- 
of-war's boats, the strande J vessels burned, and the fleet got out of harbour. 
Hill then embarked at the citadel, which was maintained by a rearguard 
under Beresford until the 18th, when, the wounded being all on board, the 
troops likewise embarked ; the inhabitants faithfully maintained the town 
meanwhile, and the fleet sailed for England. The loss of the British, never 
officially published, was estimated at eight hundred ; of the French at three 
thousand. The latter is probably an exaggeration, yet it must have been great. 
From the spot where he fell, the general was carried to the town by his 
soldiers ; his blood flowed fast and the torture of the wound was great ; yet 
the unshaken firmness of his mind made those about him, seeing the resolu- 
tion of his countenance, express a hope of his recovery : he looked steadfastly 
at the injury for a moment, and said : "No, I feel that to be impossible." 
Several times he caused his attendants to stop and turn round, that he might 
behold the field of battle ; and when the firing indicated the advance of the 
British, he discovered his satisfaction and permitted the bearers to proceed. 
When life was almost extinct, with an unsubdued spirit, as if anticipating the 
baseness of his posthumous calumniators, he exclaimed : " I hope the people 
of England will be satisfied. I hope my country will do me justice." In a 
few minutes afterwards he died, and his corpse, wrapped in a military cloak, 
was interred by the officers of his staff in the citadel of Corunna. The guns 
of the enemy paid his funeral honours, and Soult with a noble feeling of 
respect for his valour raised a monument to his memory on the field. & 

A Spanish Opinion of the Retreat 

English historians, especially Napier, & are so severe in their aspersions on 
the Spanish that it is only fair to give the words of a Spanish historian and 
contemporary, the count de Toreiio, who says : 

" The residents of Corunna with disinterested zeal not only assisted the 
English, but also kept faith with them, and did not immediately surrender 
the fortress, a noble example rarely given by towns when they see themselves 
abandoned by those from whom they expected protection and aid. So ended 
General Moore's retreat, censured by some among his own compatriots, 
upheld and even praised by others. Leaving the investigation and criticism 
of this campaign to military men, we are of opinion that the chance of being 
compelled to light before his troops embarked, and also his having ended his 
days honourably on the field of battle, have lent lustre to the glory and good 
name of General Moore. For the rest, if a veteran well-disciplined army 
such as the English, provided with abundant supplies, began a retreat before 
combating, in the progress of which retreat there were witnessed such dis- 
orders, such damage, such scandals, who can wonder that there were disorders 
and confusion in the Spanish retreats, executed after fighting, with an army 
of raw recruits, lacking all resources, and in their own country ? We do not 
say this to detract from British glory, but in defence of our own, so reviled 
by certain English writers by those indeed who took part in this disastrous 
campaign." f 

FKENCH SUCCESSES 

In Catalonia an attempt by the Spaniards to recover Barcelona was 
defeated by St. Cyr, who likewise took Rosas. In Galicia La Romana shel- 
tered himself and his little band amidst the mountains, whilst Soult overran 



[1809 A.*.] THE PENI ^STJLAR WAS 

we P ^oVbo^^TF2^l^ TV S n " the E >^ ' 
squadron ii* its port. f U Wed lta 6Xample ' Delivering up 

On the 22ncl of January, 
entrance does not appear to 
national feeling- as tlie " 



349 



1 



jnopaied to stand a second, yet more destructive. For a while the si* 
languished, and dissension existed amongst the besiegin* 45 -as But 
the , 22ud of January, 1809, Laxanes assumed the commalulTam on The' "t 

t K ^T^traf b ? S iegei>S 5T Ced thei1 ' entraMe int the t0 ' anS for thJe- 
ucUvs the atiuggie, street by street and house by house, was maintained 

with all the cu-oumata.B of affecting heroism recorded on the former oeea- 

that had thronged to defend Saragossa were " 



si on. But the 

. . -. - - ^."^v-"-*. jw VJ.\^JL\>AJ.VL lociJLtiimjJbftui WtJJTfcJ llfT 

bane : pestilence was engendered in the crowded cellars, and proved a yet 
more deadly foe thaxi the French. The posts were manned by hospital 
patients, sitting, because they could not stand ; Palafox was In Ills bed 
delirious ; uncl on tine 22nd of February the junta capitulated. Laiines 
violated the caj>itulat;ion in many points, and sent Palafox, whose liberty had 
been stipulated, prisoner to France. The central junta loaded the city and 
all its inhabitants ai^d defenders with praises, honour, and rewards. 1 * 

The re -conquest of Portugal was now the object of the French. Soult 
\vas appointed governor of that kingdom, and ordered to invade it from the 
north, whilst "Victor and Lapisse were to co-operate with him, the former In 
the south, itiicl tlie latter from. Ciudad Rodrigo. 

Soult took Oporto by storm on the 29th of March, fixed his headquarters 
there, and seems to liave meditated becoming king of northern Lusitania, if 
not of Portugal. Rut Oporto was the limit of his conquest. Behind him 
La llomaiii't, wlio hadL rallied Ms constantly increasing army, found Xey full 
employment, and Sil veira was again master of Tras-os-Montes. In the south 
Victor could not invade Alemtejo till he should have defeated Cuesta and 
the EstreniatLnran a/rmy ; and Lapisse could not make himself master* of 
Ciudad Roclrig-o, wlnicli was defended chiefly by Sir Robert Wilson with his 
Lusitanian legion. This legion was the first attempt, in the course of the 
war, to improve ttie Portuguese soldiers, by placing them under British 
officers. The prince of Brazil was induced to send General Beresford a 
commission, as field-marshal and general-in-chief of the Portuguese army. 
Witli this commission, Beresford landed early in March, and immediately 
proceeded to train -fche troops and to place over them as many effective 
English officers as lae thought national jealousy would bear (always, how- 
ever, nominally commanded by a native colonel). 

Bonaparte is calculated to have had at this time about 270,000 men in 

Lnd called Sarai*os>a 

^ v^~~ iio , and it shows thus: 

Thirty-live tliousaiid French, in the midst ol insurrections, and despite of circumstances peculiarly 
favourable to the defence, reduced fifty thousand of the bravest and most energetic men in ^ain. 
The latter smlt'ered nobly, but was tlieir example imitated? Gerona indeed, although less ce^e- 
brated, rivalled, perhaps more than rivalled, the glory of Saragossa ; elsewhere her late spoice. 
not trumpet-toilgued to. arouse, but with a wailing voice that carried dismay to the heart ut ^ 
nation."] 



[iaooA.1..] 



THE 



WAR 



351 



thenceforward unmolested bv invicl*r< 

this iiew 1 foeint^^.P aSS f S rf d ; ,. an ? Sil " Artllur led tlle British army a^ain^t 
An .mm.ehlksioi^* 1 ^ * + 9 Ues * a th ? ^intenanee of the post of Takven, 

: i^S.* %-tier portion on the Guadiana. Venegas was defeated 

ii my oi Aragon and Valencia liad been 
of Spain appeared to be inevitable. 



Meanwhile the central junta exerted themselves to reinforce Cue*ta> 
army, which, had been surprised and half destroyed by the enemy since its 
separation from tlie English ; and they thought of removing the immana*e- 
ahlo general. _A_ paralytic stroke saved them that trouble, bv compellfuo- 
him to resign. The command of the principal army of fifty thousand men 
was given to .A^r-eizaga who was ordered to free Madrid, before the reinforee- 
nio.nts, set at liberty by the end of the Austrian war, could reach Spain. 
Ihe same^ pccxiliarity of the Spanish character, namely, assuming as done 
whatever is promised, or even wished, seems to have convinced the* inexperi- 
enced statesmen, of the central junta that the general they had sent to con- 
quer could^ not l^e beaten, and that a decree, ordering the English army to be 
well supplied, iinxist answer every purpose, though they took no measures for 
procuring the px-o visions or the cattle required. Lord Wellington remained 
in his can toiina exits ; and on the 17th of November, Areizaga was totally 
defeated at Oeu.fia. The French now menaced Portugal : the British general 
was prepai'ecl f 01? its protection. 

The Frcnclx were masters of nearly all Spain north of the Sierra Morena, 
with the exception of G-alicia, Valencia, and Catalonia ; and in this last 
province, Jiltlxoxigh it resisted most stoutly, the French army, under St. Cyi% 
held the field, a,xid Gerona, one of the .most important fortresses not in their 
hands, fell in December, after emulating the glory of Saragossa during 
a seven moixtlis' siege. 1 But their garrisons were distressed, and their 

[iLafucnte & gives the following incidents of the siege of Gerona: "The holy patron of the 
town, St. Narcissu.s, -was named generalissimo, it being to his protection and intercession that 
the devout residents attributed their safety in the attacks and dangers of the wars of past times, 
Of the 900 men wlao garrisoned the fortress of Monjuich 511 soldiers and 18 officers had perished, 
and nearly all the rest were wounded before it was abandoned. It cost the French 3,000 men t j 
conquer the ruins. "Whenever the limited number of the garrison permitted, Alvarez ordered 
.sullies to be made Toy small bodies of men. It is related how, on the occasion of one of these sallies. 
the officer \vlio wsxs to direct it was asked where he would take refuge in case of necessity. * In 
the cemetery, 1 lie replied. 

: When NovenVber had set in the town was ravaged by pestilence, while it su^ereJL 




-XV/iilJii WJL XHU VCillUCX, J.,t/iw wviVAiv-j-w ,*v ~ . -^ 

niost valiant beflKxrL to fail, and yet the dauntless governor Alvarez seized or harshly 

the emissaries despatched by the French general to advise him to surrender. And upon he a. .^ 



THE PENINSULAR WAR 353 

[1809-1810 A.D.] 

irregular Portuguese troops were treated with wanton cruelty, and their 
women exposed to the grossest outrage from the French soldiery, until 
almost every individual in the Spanish guerilla bands, and the Portuguese 
irregulars, had a private injury to revenge ; and even sympathy in their 
resentments can barely palliate the sanguinary temper in which that revenge 
was sought. And to these personal motives of exasperation was added a 
deep sense of religious horror, since the French emperor had seized upon 
the estates of the church, upon Rome itself, and carried Pope Pius VII, 
who refused to sanction his spoliation, a prisoner to France. From the 
influence of so many various feelings, the whole of Spain was now overrun 
by fierce guerillas, and Joseph, in fact, was only master of the places actually 
occupied by French soldiers. 

As soon as the French movements threatened Portugal, Lord Wellington 
could not hope, with 27,000 British, and 30,000 nearly untried Portuguese 
troops, to defend Portugal against 80,000 French veterans, led by an able 
general, and supported by bodies of 30,000 or 40,000 men, acting as a rear- 
guard. 

THE LINES OF TOREES VEDBAS 

The British commander was even then directing the construction of 
those military works, known as the lines of Torres Vedras, by which the 
naturally strong ground covering Lisbon was rendered nearly impregnable ; 
and his main object upon the frontier appears to have been retarding the 
enemy's advance, until those lines should be perfected and the harvest 
gathered in. He intended that the inhabitants should then evacuate the 
intermediate district, with all their provisions and movable property ; and 
that he himself, retreating to his lines, should draw Massena into a desert 
country, where the French marshal could not subsist his troops, and would 
find himself confronted by a strong army, in an impregnable position, whilst 
his rear and communications were harassed by militia and ordenanzas, the 
proper name of the Portuguese armed peasantry. 

Massena, recently created by his imperial master, the prince of Essling, 
dedicated the spring to assembling his army, and making preparations; nor was 
it until he began the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo that the line by which he pro- 
posed to invade Portugal was ascertained. That town was gallantly defended 
by its governor, Herrasti, assisted by the guerilla chief, Sanchez, from the 
4th of June till the 10th of July, 1810. When the place was no longer 
tenable, Sanchez and his band, breaking through the besiegers, escaped, and 
Herrasti capitulated. Lord Wellington's plan required that he should 
hazard no attempt to relieve the besieged, 1 but his menacing position had 
long kept Massena' s usually enterprising temper in check, and continued to 
do so; for upwards of a month was suffered to elapse after the fall of 

[* The Spanish historian, the count de Torefio,/says of this siege: 

"All the residents, without distinction of class, age, or sex, rushed to the assistance of the 
troops. Lorenza, a woman of the people, distinguished herself among the women, being twice 
wounded ; and even two blind men, one led by a faithful dog, employed themselves in useful 
works, ever smiling and jovial, visiting the posts of greatest danger, crying out above the hissing 
of the balls, ' Courage, boys ; long live Ferdinand VII ! Viva Ciudad Rodrigo I ' 

u The Spaniards were angered with the English for not assisting the town. Lord Wellington 
had come thither from the Guadiana disposed, and even as it were in honour bound to compel the 
French to raise the siege. In this case he could not put forward the usual excuse that the Span- 
iards did not defend themselves, or that by their want of concert they caused the failure of the 
well-matured plans of their allies. The marquis de la Romana came from Badajoz to Welling- 
ton's headquarters, and joined his prayers to those of the residents and authorities of Ciudad 

H. W. VOL. X. 2 A 




3T4 THE HISTOEY OF SPAIN 

[1810 A.r>.] 

Ciudad Rodrigo ere the French general proceeded to lay siege to the neigh- 
bouring Portuguese fortress, Almeida. 

The allied army, falling back as he advanced, offered no interruption. 
But an English officer commanded the Portuguese garrison in Almeida, and 
a defence yet longer than Ciudad Rodrigo's was confidently expected. An 
accident caused the explosion of the principal powder magazine on the 26th 
of August, when, through the panic of some and the treachery of others, 
the garrison flung down their arms, and forced the mortified governor to 
capitulate. Massena concentrated his forces about the middle of September 




SALAMANCA 









tumple rt cl 



~~ vxj. Kj^iiici of tilt; JL i jnf 
r, remained obstinate. 
- ans, a wide field is here open to 
._-- i, -*tu respect to the Spanish milito^/T"""*. lstorians llave lar o el Y and wrath- 

not have ended the 
enemy enabled to 
^"ish cause. The 

, qualifying the 



THE PENINSULAR WAE 



355 



[1810 A.D.] 

Massena, learning that there was a mountain road by which he could turn 
the left of his adversary's position, filed off his troops in that direction, 
vainly hoping to reach Coimbra the first/ On the 29th Lord Wellington 
prevented him, by retreating upon that city along the direct road. 

It was not till they actually saw the allied army retreating before the 
invaders that the inhabitants prepared to obey Lord Wellington's proclama- 
tion, and forsake their homes. And now it was too late to attain the end 
for which the order had been given. The provisions were left behind, the 
mills were scarcely damaged ; whilst the helpless and desolate crowds that, 
Hying from the enemy, accompanied the troops, encumbered their march, and 
gave birth to the usual disorders of a retreat. Such disorders were, however, 
repressed by the vigour with which Lord Wellington punished, and the pre- 
cautions he took to prevent them ; whilst Massena' s negligence indulged his 
troops in a license that rendered the disorder of the pursuing far greater 
than even now was that of the retreating army. At Coimbra alone the 
French troops, during the three days they spent there, wasted and destroyed 
stores that might have supplied two months' subsistence. But at Coimbra 
Massena was still ignorant of the existence of the lines of Torres Vedras ; 
and still believing that he was merely chasing the British to their ships, 
he probably saw no need of restraining his troops or of providing against 
famine. 

On the 10th of October the allied army took up its position within those 
extraordinary lines, of which one end rested upon the sea, and the other 
upon the Tagus, extending in length twenty -nine miles, at about thirty-five 
miles average distance from Lisbon. The utmost skill of the engineer had 
been exerted to improve the natural strength of this mountain line, and to 
supply its deficiencies. A second line of fortifications had been prepared 
some ten miles nearer Lisbon, in case the first should be lost, or prove too 
extensive for the numbers occupying it ; and a third to protect a possible 
forced embarkation. But this danger was happily gone by. Reinforce- 
ments arrived from England, additional Portuguese corps were assembled, 
and La Romana, at Lord Wellington's request, brought in two Spanish divi- 
sions. Before the end of the month seventy thousand regular troops were 
within the lines, ready to be moved, along convenient roads, to whatever 
points might be threatened, whilst sixty thousand Portuguese militia manned 
the different forts and redoubts that commanded the approaches. 

Massena halted in disagreeable surprise before the stupendous fortress. 
He was obliged to send foraging detachments to great distances ; these were 
cruelly harassed, and sometimes cut off by the Portuguese militia and orcle- 
nanzas. Towards the middle of November, Massena withdrew from before 
the lines, and took up a strong position at Santarem, upon the Tagus. 
Wellington, to observe him, stationed himself in advance of his lines, upon 
which he could fall back at a moment's warning. 

Throughout the greater part of Spain meanwhile a desultory warfare had 
been carried on, in which the French were generally successful. Victor was 
conducting the siege of Cadiz, an operation that proceeded languidly on both 
sides, from want of numbers on Victor's, and the usual causes on that of the 
Spaniards. 

The assembling of the cortes was looked to as the period and as the means 
of the regeneration of Spain. These hopes were confirmed, and the peculiar 
character of the Spanish resolution was, at the same time, curiously illus- 
trated by the mode in which the elections were carried on, even in the pro- 
vinces most thoroughly occupied by the French. Considerable bodies of 



33(5 TJtlJtiJ HJ.ttJ.UrtX U-D ^x^o.^ 

[1810-1811 A.IX] 

armed peasants, or of guerillas, sometimes temporarily drove the French 
from the town where an election was appointed to take place, sometimes 
merely held them at bay, whilst the suffrages were collected. And thus, 
almost everywhere, deputies were elected who, sooner or later, found their 
way to Cadiz. On the 24th of September, 1810, the cortes were solemnly 
opened. The assembly immediately decreed a new levy of 150,000 men, 
together with provision for the support and equipment of all the Spanish 
armies. But then, as if this decree had sufficed for expelling the enemy, who 
held the whole country in subjection, they dedicated their whole attention to 
framing a constitution, and to establishing sweeping theories, resembling 
those adopted by the French National Assembly, and equally democratic in 
their tenor. The disputes that ensued between the cortes and the regency 
ended in the dissolution of the latter body, for whom was substituted an 
executive council of three. The cortes offended the clergy by attacking 
the Inquisition, and attempting other ecclesiastical reforms for which the 
country was unripe, exasperated the whole church, and sowed the seeds of 
the fatal subsequent reaction that robbed Spain of all the internal benefits 
she ought to have derived from the restoration of her representative legis- 
lature. 

Although they had allowed the colonies to send deputies to the cortes, 
they were not willing to treat the colonists as brethren. The colonies had 
unanimously professed their loyalty to Ferdinand, and their adhesion to the 
national cause. The emissaries employed by Napoleon and Joseph to seduce 
them had been everywhere derided and punished ; and the American reve- 
nues, regularly conveyed to the mother-country by English vessels, ought, if 
fairly applied, to have done much towards supporting the war. 

On the intelligence of the surrender of Seville, the subjugation of Anda- 
lusia, and the flight and dispersion of the central junta, the province of Cara- 
cas assumed that Spain was conquered ; and, declaring that it never would 
submit to Joseph, cast off the authority of the mother-country whilst pro- 
claiming inviolable fidelity to Ferdinand. This example was followed by the 
other provinces of Terra Firma, as the north coast of the South American con- 
tinent was called ; and on the 19th of April, 1810, the Venezuela confederation 
proclaimed its independent existence under Ferdinand VII. They refused to 
acknowledge the Cadiz regency and cortes, -with, whom they carried on a paper 
war; and those bodies, vehemently resenting this daring assertion of inde- 
pendence, divided the forces that should have been dedicated to the expulsion 
of the enemy from Spain, in order to compel colonial submission. 

From the injudicious appointment to the chief command of the worst of all 
the Spanish generals, Lapena, Cadiz must have fallen, if Soult had not been 
ordered by ISapoleon to co-operate with Masseiia against Portugal. Lapena, 
to whom Grraham, as a measure of conciliation, gave up the supreme command, 
stood inactive in a safe and distant post, with eleven thousand Spaniards, 
whilst at Barrosa, Graham, with little more than four thousand English 
and Portuguese, fought and defeated nearly nine thousand French. By 

' 1S * S refusal even to pursue the beaten enem y> the Benefit 

? n ? UCC ^ W T \ L The council and cortes approved of 
r,c V CkimeC the meiit f the victoi T> and <^aham, in 

resigning his command to General Cooke, joined .Lord Wellington 

4d?heF ^M ^ f JanU ^ 18H - Oli had ea^tulSd on 
d IzaM clSi f Tf i if T * Bada J z - La Romana's successor, Men- 
defend^! 7 ^t; but Don Raphael Menacho, the governor of 
defended the place stoutly, and Soult remained before it. In 



THE 



a 
6 "^^ 






tiers nf P^,^l TI * A P ril Ma ss6na was finally driven across me iron- 

ihslSi^Hr^^^^^ 



FAILURES IK SPAIN 

B Lord Wellington, having now again delivered Portugal, asked for such 
reinforcements as might enable him to undertake the deliverance of Spain 
without being, as before, dependent upon the obstinate generals and feeble 
counsels of that country. But to the feasibility of his future schemes, and 
even to the maintenance of Portugal and of Cadiz, the recovery of Almeida 
Omdad Rodrigo, and Badajoz was indispensable. The first of these fortresses 
Wellington immediately blockaded, and directed Marshal Beresford to lav 
siege to the last. J 

Massena, having refreshed, re-equipped, and reorganised his army in 
Spam, inarched to relieve Almeida. His advance produced the battle of 
1 uentes de Onoro, fought on the 5th of May, in which, after an obstinate and 
sanguinary contest, they were repulsed, and again retreated. Brennier, the 
governor of Almeida, then despairing of relief, blew up the fortifications of 
the place, made his way, with little loss, through the British lines, and rejoined 
Massena. Ciudad Rodrigo was next blockaded, but the French easily intro- 
duced convoys, and the blockade was abandoned. Little progress was made 
in the south. Some smaller places Marshal Beresford recovered ; but he had 
scarcely invested Badajoz when the approach of Soult, with a powerful army, 
obliged him to raise the siege. He fought a battle at Albuera on the 16th of 
May. But the victory was purchased by the loss of forty-five hundred 
British, killed and wounded, out of six thousand, and twenty-six hundred 
Germans, Spaniards, and Portuguese. Lord Wellington arrived in Beres- 
f ord's camp soon after the battle, and Badajoz was besieged a second time 
under his own direction. 

On the night of the 5th of June an attempt was made to storm. It failed; 
was repeated two nights later, and again failed, both times with heavy loss. 
Upon this second repulse, as the combined French armies, to the amount of 
seventy thousand men, were approaching, Lord Wellington, who had but 
fifty-six thousand, and was particularly inferior to his adversaries in cavalry, 
raised the siege, and withdrew the troops to a strong position, limiting himself, 

P Napier,/'-, while admitting the harshness of Masse'na's deeds, blames the Portuguese peas- 
antry for many atrocities, and says that at least one of the worst outrages blamed upon Mass&ia's 
men. the pulling to pieces of Joao Fs body was actually done by the British themselves. Many 
of. the charges against the French he declares not only slanderous but impossible.] 



[1811-1812 A.D.] 

for the present, to the defence of Portugal. No other war raged now to dis- 
tract the attention of the French emperor ; but he did not again take the 
command of the peninsular armies, and it is difficult to assign a valid reason 
for his conduct. He contented himself with sending reinforcements to the 
extent of fifty thousand men, naming Marinont, duke of Ragusa, to supersede 
Mass6na, whose conduct of the invasion of Portugal he of course blamed ; 
and placing Catalonia, like Aragon, under Sachet's command, and also 
Valencia when he should have conquered that province. 

Suchet had deserved this confidence : he had done more than any other 
French general both to conquer Spain and to bend her to the yoke. Aragon. 
was tolerably submissive ; Tarragona, the last fortress of Catalonia, fell in 
June. Considering his work clone in Catalonia, although guerilla bands 
still occupied the mountain fastnesses, and the bold and able Sarsfield 
watched every opportunity of directing them upon the French, Suchet 
next invaded Valencia. He defeated several detachments of the Spanish 
army, and on the 16th of October laid siege to Murviedro. Blake gave 
battle on the 25th of October, and was defeated. Upon this disaster, Mur- 
viedro capitulated, and Blake took another strong position to protect the 
capital, Valencia, where Suchet, on the 26th of December, again defeated 
him, driving him into Valencia. There Suchet besieged him, and compelled 
him to capitulate on the 8th of January, 1812. This campaign, the most 
successful the French had made in Spain since the first, Napoleon rewarded 
by creating Suchet duke of Albufera, and granting him the royal domain of 
that name in Valencia, as an inalienable fief of the French empire. 

The dissensions with the colonies likewise diverted both the attention and 
the resources of the Spanish government from the vigorous prosecution of 
the war. In every American province insurrection now raged. In Mexico, 
after a severe struggle, the Spaniards regained the ascendency. In South 
America the insurgents everywhere prevailed, as will be described later in 
the histories of Spanish America. 

The year 1812 opened with an exploit, the brilliant rapidity of which 
seems equally to have confounded the French and enraptured the Spaniards. 
Lord Wellington had long been silently forwarding every preparation for 
the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo. On the 8th of January, 1812, he suddenly 
appeared before the place, invested it, and on the 19th the town was 
stormed, c But throwing off the restraints of discipline, the British troops 
committed frightful excesses ; the town was fired in three or four places, the 
soldiers menaced their officers and shot each other ; many were killed in 
the market-place, intoxication soon increased the tumult, and at last, the fury 
rising to absolute madness, a fire was wilfully lighted in the middle, of the 
great magazine, by which the town, would have been blown, to atoms but for 
the energetic courage of some officers and a few soldiers who still preserved 
their senses. 

To recompense an exploit so boldly undertaken and so gloriously finished, 
Lord Wellington was created duke of Ciudad Rodrigo by the Spaniards, 
earl of Wellington by the English, marquis of Torres Vedras by the Portu- 
guese. & 

By disguising his designs, Lord Wellington hoped to master Badajoz 
like Ciudad Rodrigo, before Soult and Marmont should have time to hear 
of the siege, and unite their forces to raise it. On the 16th of March, 1812, 
Badajoz was invested. The works were hurried on with the diligence 
already practised, and on the 24th an important fort was carried by assault. 
On the 30th information was received that Soult was advancing with his 




THE tMlifSULAR WAR 35 

[1812 A.D.] 

whole disposable force to raise the siege ; that Graham and Hill were retreating 
before him towards Albuera ; that Marmont, taking advantage of the allied 
army's removal, had crossed the frontier, blockaded Ciudad Rodrigo, masked 
Almeclai, and marched southwards, plundering and ravaging the country, as 
far as Castello Branco ; and that the cavalry and militia, left to observe him, 
had fallen back, the latter upon the mountains, the former towards the 
Tagus. In consequence of this threatening intelligence, the siege was 
pressed with increased ardour ; on the 6th of April three sufficient breaches 
were made ; and on the night of that day they were stormecl.c 

The account of this desperate attack is perhaps the most dramatic, and 
is certainly the most famous, portion of Napier's History of the War in the 
Peninsula, which, as we have already stated, is regarded as the most 
eminent military history in the English language. We quote herewith the 
greater part of what is a masterwork of literature describing a master work 
of heroism. 

NAPIER'S ACCOUNT OF THE ASSAULT ON BADAJOZ 

Dry but clouded was the night, the air thick with watery exhalations from 
the rivers, the ramparts and the trenches unusually still ; yet a low mur- 
mur pervaded the latter, and in the former lights were seen to flit here and 
there, while the deep voices of the sentinels at times proclaimed that all was 
w^ll at Badajoz. The French, confiding in Phillipon's direful skill, watched 
from their lofty station the approach of enemies whom they had twice before 
baffled, and now hoped to drive a third time blasted and ruined from the walls. 
The British, standing in deep columns, were as eager to meet that fiery destruc- 
tion as the others were to pour it down, and both were alike terrible for their 
strength, their discipline, and the passions awakened in their resolute hearts. 
Former failures there were to avenge, and on both sides leaders who furnished 
no excuse for weakness in the hour of trial. The possession of Badajoz had 
become a point of personal honour with the soldiers of each nation, but the 
desire for glory with the British was clashed by a hatred of the citizens on 
an old grudge ; and recent toil and hardship with much spilling of blood 
had made many incredibly savage; for these things render the nobleminded 
indeed averse to cruelty but harden the vulgar spirit : numbers also, like 
Caesar's centurion, who could not forget the plunder of Avaricum, were 
heated with the recollection of Ciudad Rodrigo and thirsted for spoil. Thus 
every spirit found a cause of excitement, the wondrous power of discipline 
bound the whole together as with a band of iron, and in the pride of arms 
none doubted their might to bear down every obstacle that man could 
oppose to their fury. 

At 10 o'clock, the castle, the San Roque, the breaches, the Pardaleras, 
the distant bastion of San Vincente, and the bridge-head on the other side of 
the Guadiana were to have been simultaneously assailed, and it was hoped the 
strength of the enemy would shrivel within that fiery girdle. But many 
are the disappointments of war. An unforeseen accident delayed the attack 
of the 5th division, and a lighted carcass thrown from the castle, falling close 
to the 3rd division, discovered their array and compelled them to anticipate 
the signal by half an hour. Then, everything being suddenly disturbed, the 
double columns of the 4th and light divisions also moved silently and swiftly 
against the breaches, and the guard of the trenches rushing forward with a 
shout encompassed the San Roque with fire and broke, in so violently that 
scarcely any resistance was made. But a sudden blaze of light and the 
rattling of musketry indicated the commencement of a more vehement combat 



orf . THE HISTOJK.Y UJb r.a.ij>i 

o60 xiiJJ [1813 A.D.] 

a t the castle There General Kempt -for Picton hurt by a fall ia the 
and expecti 10- no change in the hour, was not present - there Kempt, I 
led the Td diTision. Having passed the Rivillas in single files by a 
, led the dia amb M mu k try , he had re-formed, and running up 
,Jd lf^?5 the caSle, where he fell severely wounded, 
and She * carried back to the trenches met Picton, who was hastening 
to take the command. 




VlMEIRO 

Meanwhile the troops, spreading along the front, had reared their heavy 
ladders, some against the lofty castle, some against the adjoining front on 
the left, and with incredible courage ascended amidst showers of heavy 
stones, logs of wood, and bursting shells rolled off the parapet, while from 
the flanks the enemy plied his musketry with fearful rapidity, and in front 
with pikes and bayonets stabbed the leading assailants or pushed the ladders 
from the walls ; and all this was attended with deafening shouts and the 
crash of breaking ladders, and the shrieks of crushed soldiers answering 
to the sullen stroke of the falling weights. Still swarming round th6 
remaining ladders those undaunted veterans strove who should first climb, 
until all being overturned, the French shouted victory, and the British, 
baffled but untamed, fell back a few paces and took shelter under the rugged 
edge of the hill. There the broken ranks were somewhat re-formed, and 
the heroic Ridge, springing forward, seized a ladder, and calling with stento- 
rian voice on his men to follow, once more raised it against the castle, yet to 
the right of the former attack, where the wall was lower and an embrasure 
offered some facility. A second ladder was soon placed alongside of the 
first by the grenadier officer Canch, and the next instant he and Ridge were 
on the rampart, the shouting troops pressed after them, the garrison, amazed 
and in a manner surprised, were driven righting through the double gate 
into the town, and the castle was won. A reinforcement from the French 
reserve then came up, a sharp action followed, both sides fired through the 



.Att WAR ; mi 

i;ate, and ihe mem) retired; but Uid^y fell, and no man died that uijjUt 
w : 5th more idory yet many died, HIH! there was much tjlorv. 

All tins time th- tumult ut the Breaches, was such as if the verv earth had 
been rent asunder and it.s central tires bursting upwards uncontrolled. The 
two divisie-js had reached the ^kicis just as the tiring at the eastle com- 
wenccd, and the Hash ot a single muskrt discharged from the covered way 
as a signal shotted them that the Frenelt were ready ; yet no stir was heard 
und darkness covered the breaches. Some hay-packs were thrown, some 
ladders placed, and the foilojn hoprs and storming partitas of the li^ht 
di\ isjon, the hundred in all, descended into tin* <liteh without opposition ; 
but thru a bright flame .shouting upwards, displayed all the terrors of the 
scene. The ramparts, crowded with dark Injures and ^lislerin^ arms, were 
utt one M.de, oti the other the red cohimns of the British, deep and 
broad, were coming on like stream. | burning lava ; it- was the toue.h of the 
magician's \\and, for a era -.h f thundrr followed, and with incredible 
\iolmer the ;,f < i tune,; j,U'lie i \\ej-r dashrd to pieces by the explosion of 
hundred > ol .-.hell . and p.ul--i barrel-,. 

For an in .taut the lr,djf di\ra*n '.tood on the brink of the ditch amazed 
at the ternlie .hjht, but ihen with a :,httit that matchetl even the*, sound of 
the r\ploa'n the iu 35 l!e>A d*v\i! the Udders, or disdaining their ai<l leaped 
rrckles-, of the depth tnt the jMilj b low ; and at the same moment, amidst 
a bla/e of mu.heti\ thai da.vled the -*,r-,, the 4th division ca.ni( v running in 
and descended wnh a like iuj-\. '1 her*- were only live huhlers for the two 
column:* winch weie ! e f-.^rther, and u deep cut made in the. bottom of 
the ditch w.r> tilled ttilli w,itT from the inundation; into tliat watery snare 
the head of the 4 1 h di>? .in tell, aisd it is said abovt* a hundred of the. fusi- 
liers the mm >f Aibuer.i, \veir tberr smothered. Those, who followexl 
chr-cked ji'l, but, a- if ."uel* a dr-ia^fes- had bt*eu expected, turned t-o t-he. left 
and thu-; i-ame upn the faceof ihe uuj'utisht*d ravrlin, which beiujj rouifh a,ml 
broken was mi^t.tKru for the breach, und instantly coviu'exl with men; yet 
a wide and deep rhitsm \VUH ^tilt bet \vi-eji them and the ramparts, from 
whence came a deiidh t'^'e w.t^tiitit their ranks. Thus bafiled tlu\y also c.om- 
menced ;t rapid tli.seharife of mitsivi*t*v and disrder ensued. Now a multi- 
tude bounded up the t.nva! breach a-, ii driven by a whirhviu<l, but across the 
top glittered a ran^*' 'f /'Uor*! blades, :*harp-pinted, kc k en-cd^( k d on both 
sideband tirmlv ti\ed. in pouderou-i bea.ms chained to t i,fcther and set. deep in 
the ruins; und'fW ten feet in I'muf the ascent was covered with loose planks 
lituddcil with sharp iron point',, on which feet bcin^ set, the planks moved 
and the unhappy ^oldim. fallim; forwanl on the spikes rolled down upon 
tlie rank/, behind. Then the I'renehwrn, shouting at thc^success oj their 
;4rata',fcin and leaping forward, plied tlieir shot with terrible, rapidity, for 
c\er\'ntan had :,.-\rr.il' liiii'le! s and each musket in addition to its ordinary 
eh.ir!?.' contained a -m.ill c\ Under of woo.l stuck full of wooden slutfs, whir.h 
^eatferc.l like hail wl,.-n thei were di -.cbar^ril. Once, and a^aiu the assail- 
ant,; rndied up the bivache,, but a!w;u: 'the swiinUbhides, inunovahle an<l 
imp:i,;ab!r., -,t.,;,ped th.-ir ,-h;ii-.'e t and the bis ,imr shells and thundering pow- 
d lineiM'-ii^'lv. Hnndrrd-i of men had fallen, hundreds 
,,!jic*T-; c-;dled aloud for new trials, and 
thai in one of these charges the rear 
'.imci b\ a few, ascended the ruins; 
he word blades, willing even to make 
i* ! M . other.-, frustrated the attempt by 
n fjom the shot, it was hard to kno\v 



a 





[1812 A.D.] 

who went down voluntarily, who were stricken ; and many stooped unhurt 
that never rose again. Vain also would it have been to break through the 
sword-blades, for the trench and parapet behind the breach were finished, 
and the assailants, crowded into even a narrower space than the ditch was, 
would still have been separated from their enemies and the slaughter would 
have continued. 

Order was impossible ! Officers of all ranks, followed more or less nu- 
merously by the men, were seen to start out as if struck by sudden madness 
and rush into the breach. Colonel Macleod of the 43rd, a young man whose 
feeble body would have been quite unfit for war if it had not been sustained 
by an unconquerable spirit, when one behind him in falling plunged a bayo- 
net into his back, complained not but continuing his course was shot dead 
within a yard of the sword-blades. Yet there was no want of gallant leaders 
or desperate followers, until two hours passed in these vain efforts had con- 
vinced the troops the breach of the Trinidad was impregnable. Gathering 
in dark groups and leaning on their muskets, they looked up with sullen 
desperation at the Trinidad ; while the enemy, stepping out on the ramparts 
and aiming their shots by the light of the fire-balls which they threw over, 
asked as their victims fell, " Why did they not come into Badajoz ? " 
In this dreadful situation, while the dead were lying in heaps and others 
continually falling, the wounded crawling about to get some shelter from 
the merciless shower above, and withal a sickening stench from the burned 
flesh of the slain, Captain Nicholas was observed making incredible efforts to 
force his way with a few men into the Santa Maria bastion ; but when they 
had gained two-thirds of the ascent a concentrated fire of musketry and 
grape dashed nearly the whole dead to the earth : Nicholas was mortally 
wounded and the intrepid Shaw stood alone. With inexpressible coolness 
he looked at his watch, and saying it was too late to carry the breaches 
rejoined the masses at the other attack. After this no further effort was 
made at any point, and the troops remained passive but unflinching beneath 
the enemy's shot which streamed without intermission. 

About midnight, when two thousand brave men had fallen, Wellington, 
who was on a height close to the quarries, ordered the remainder to retire 
and re-form for a second assault ; he had heard the castle was taken, but, 
thinking the enemy would still resist in the town, was resolved to assail the 
breaches again. This retreat from the ditch was not effected without further 
carnage and confusion. All this time the town was girdled with fire. 
Walker's brigade, having passed on during the feint on the Pardaleras, was 
escalacling the distant bastion of San Vincente. His troops had advanced 
along the banks of the river and reached the French guard-house at the 
barrier-gate undiscovered, the ripple of the waters smothering the sound 
of their footsteps ; but just then the explosion at the breaches took place, 
the moon shone out, the French sentinels discovering the columns fired, 
and the British soldiers springing forward under a sharp musketry began to 
hew down the wooden barrier at the covered way. The Portuguese, panic- 
stricken, threw down the scaling-ladders, the others snatched them up again 
and forcing the barrier jumped into the ditch ; but the guiding engineer 
officer was killed, there was a cunette which embarrassed the column, and the 
ladders proved too short, for the walls were generally above thirty feet high. 
The fire of the enemy was deadly, a small mine was sprung beneath the sol- 
diers' feet, beams of wood and live shells were rolled over on their heads, 
showers of grape from the flank swept the ditch, and man after man dropped 
dead from the ladders. 



THE fENINSULAB WAR 363 

[1812 A.D.] 

Fortunately some of the defenders had been called away to aid in recov- 
ering the castle, the ramparts were not entirely manned ; and the assailants, 
discovering a corner of the bastion where the scarp was only twenty feet 
high, placed three ladders there under an embrasure which had no gun and 
was only stopped with a gabion. Some men got up with difficulty, for the 
ladders were still too short, and the first man who gained the top was pushed 
up by his comrades and 'drew others after him until many had won the sum- 
mit ; and though the French shot heavily against them from both flanks and 
from a house in front, their numbers augmented rapidly and half the 4th 
regiment entered the town itself to dislodge the French from the houses, 
while the others pushed along the rampart towards the breach and by dint 
of hard fighting successively won three bastions. 

In the last of these combats Walker, leaping forward sword in hand 
at the moment when one of the enemy's cannoneers was discharging a gun, 
was covered with so many wounds it was wonderful that he could survive, 
and some of the soldiers immediately after, perceiving a lighted match on the 
ground, cried out : " A mine ! " At that word, such is the power of imagi- 
nation, those troops who had not been stopped by the strong barrier, the deep 
ditch, the high walls and the deadly fire of the enemy, staggered back 
appalled by a chimera of their own raising; and in this disorder a French 
reserve under General Veillande drove on them with a firm and rapid charge, 
pitching some men over the walls, killing others outright, and cleansing the 
ramparts even to the San Vincente. There however Leith had placed Colonel 
Nugent with a battalion of the 88th as a reserve, and when the French came 
up, shouting and slaying all before them, this battalion, two hundred strong, 
arose and with one close volley destroyed them ; then the panic ceased, the 
soldiers rallied, and in compact order once more charged along the walls 
towards the breaches ; but the French, although turned on both flanks and 
abandoned by fortune, did not } r et yield. 

Meanwhile the portion of the 4th regiment which had entered the town 
was strangely situated. For the streets were empty and brilliantly illu- 
minated and no person was seen, yet a low buzz and whispers were heard 
around, lattices were now and then gently opened, and from time to time 
shots were fired from underneath the doors of the houses by the Spaniards, 
while the troops with bugles sounding advanced towards the great square of 
the town. In their progress they captured several mules going with ammu- 
nition to the breaches ; yet the square itself was as empty and silent as the 
streets, and the houses as bright with lamps : a terrible enchantment seemed 
to be in operation they saw only an illumination and heard only low whis- 
pering around them, while the tumult at the breaches was like the crashing 
thunder. Plainly, however, the fight was there raging, and hence, quitting 
the square, they attempted to take the garrison in reverse by attacking the 
ramparts from the town side ; but they were received with a rolling musketry, 
driven back with loss, and resumed their movement through the streets. At 
last the breaches were abandoned by the French, other parties entered, desul- 
tory combats took place, Veillande, and Phillipon who was wounded, seeing 
all ruined, passed the bridge with a few hundred soldiers, and entered San 
Christoval. 

Now commenced that wild and desperate wickedness which tarnished the 
lustre of the soldiers' heroism. All indeed were not alike, hundreds risked 
and many lost their lives in striving to stop the violence ; but madness gen- 
erally prevailed, and as the worst men were leaders here, all the dreadful 
passions of human nature were displayed. Shameless rapacity, brutal intern- 



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[1812AJ>] THE PENINSULAR WAR 365 

S nie k * wn > soine that wil1 * be known; for in such a tumult 
Kf ? n bser ^, and often the observers fell themselves ^Xv 

br J^K^* r hat / iey S T : but n ^ no natio * * sent f o S 
Diavei tioops to battle than those who stormed Badajoz. When the extent 

h s mtmS h * 8 liaV C 7 aS made kn Wn t0 Lord Wellington, the finnne^o 
JIloc- I f ave , w ^ f or a moment, and the pride of conquest yielded to a 
passionate burst of grief for the loss of his gallant soldiers 6 J 



BRITISH PROGKESS 

One result of this triumph was the immediate and final retreat of the 
,v i 1 ;>' 01 , U Estrem adura and Portugal. Marmont raised the blockade of 
Cmdad Rodrigo, and fell back to Salamanca. 

In Spain, the native leaders meanwhile continued their desultory war- 
hire ; Lacy, Sarsfield, Rovira, Mina, and Porlier in the north, the Empecinado 
and banchez in the Castiles, and Ballasteros in the south, gained trifling 
advantages over the enemy in divers engagements ; but for want of concert 
no material result was obtained from their successes, whilst Suchet made 
himself master of the whole kingdom of Valencia, with the single exception 
ot Alicante. In. Tarif a, a town defended only by an old wall, eighteen hun- 
dred English and Spanish troops, commanded by Colonel Skerrett, repulsed 
ten thousand French led by the duke of Belluno in person. 1 

Meanwhile General Hill had driven the French from Almaraz upon the 
Tagus, and thus obtained possession of the only place through which the 
enemy's armies of Portugal and of the south could conveniently keep up their 
communication across the river. The earl of Wellington then advanced 
towards Salamanca on the 13th of June, 1812. He there, despite the efforts 
of Marmont, reduced several very strong forts. Marmont retreated to the 
Douro. A series of masterly manoeuvres ensued, in which, during six days, 
the contending generals displayed all the resources of their art. The advan- 
tage in this pure trial of skill remained with the Briton, who, on the 22nd 
of July, seizing upon a rash movement of Marmont's, instantly attacked him, 
and gained the splendid victory of Salamanca, in which the French lost seven 
thousand prisoners, at least as many killed and wounded, including three 
generals killed and four wounded, amongst whom was Marmont himself, 
eleven pieces of artillery, and two eagles. The loss of the allies amounted 
to fifty-two hundred killed and wounded, the former including one general, 
the latter five. 

Clausel, who upon Marmont's being disabled, succeeded to the command, 
rallied the routed army, and retreated to Burgos. Wellington pursued him 
as far as Valladolid, and then turning southwards, marched upon Madrid. 
Joseph had not above twenty thousand men for the defence of his capital ; 
he abandoned it at the approach of the allies ; but weakened himself by 
leaving a garrison of two thousand men in a fortress adjoining the palace of 
linen Retiro. They capitulated on the approach of the British. Lord 
Wellington entered Madrid on the 12th of August, and was received with 
every demonstration as the deliverer of Spain. The new constitution was 
proclaimed in the capital, and sworn to with eager zeal. And now the 

p Though Skerrett was covered with honours for this victory, Napier & shows that he was 
forced by certain officers to defend the place against his will, and that his mistakes even then 
were only overcome by Captains Smith and Mitchell. He sets the numbers of the garrison at 
twenty-five hundred ; the number of Trench was variously rated between five and ten thousand.] 



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r "'rum;- oli.'.-rr.-, romim-jin^ tin* ri.n\n\s nf thr sirk, am! tin- rim^r, jumi had 
i'n,luri .f thr M.Mirrs (I'm- \\hrrr tlir i.f'lsrrrsarr ran-lrss (In- .-...liluT.s will hr 
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inLalataiits a!,.| l; r thr uhdc liar u f man-h, trrnu- uas r\rr\ulirrr pri-tioiiii--- 
Maut, thr ill tiMMi ilri\ !, ami uiuli-i-rrs dr-M-ririi, ,-.;ouir \\iih, Mnur \ul 
thrir ratth-. Thr runuuir^ariat In^t nt-arly all fhr animals ami rarriajjt-; 
riu|.|..\'l, ihr villar-.r:; uriv ahainl. HUM I, ami thr umliT-niwiui,ssarirs \\t-rr 
lirwililiTnl HI- iKtra.iv.sfd In thr ti-rrilih- di,-,.. r drr thus spivad ahiMf th liin*. 

1 h* ivsf u| tltr ivin-ai h'-injj n nmulc :> trd uas nunlruilh mrt*' Vrj^ularit v, 
hut the r\t-r.-, ,*-.,, ;,tili runnniHrd I'lirui.-JuMl sdarin;^ rvidrurr that f hi* innral 
*'itmhh-t nl' a vvtirra! ranu.t ! 1'airlv jud-^rd h\ t'nllow intf in tin- \\akr uf a 
rrln-atiit;: anuv. d"hnv \\ a .-; an uaiit^nt' jro\ i,si,n:;, n,. Vianl.Nhip.s tu r\a;i- 
jM-ratr tin- mnu ainl \.i thr ant hur of ihi; hi.-.inn fintntril <n thi- first cla\ t s 
Hiarrll iVftlu Madrnl : ., ^j l l ,.,-n inulir., n{" niunli-rrd |H-;:i:;inl.s ; h\ \\huIU Lillril, 
<r !r uhat, u h-lhrr I\ l-iii^lj -.h .r i irnuau:;, \>\ Spaniard;^ nr I'nrt mnir.sr, 
in <ii:i]uti% in r.ltlM-r\, ..r in \\aut.m \illauv u a /ttuh m.\\ n ; inn t hrir liinlirs 
^-n^Hi thr ilitrhr . ;, and a ;h.il!n,\ ,il...rr\t-r ini-dit thr-ncr ha\rdrauu fuul 
Ul 'l tai .* i-.,nrlii-,i,.ir; a^ain.t ( hr Kn-nJt -*-urj al and nation. Thr Span- 
i.if'l-. % 'isil and milit.ir;., r\iur, d haisvd ..f tin- Krifr-h. hailv dil ilu\ 
aUriiij.i ,,r ]*rr|,rlr,iir juurdrr. 'i hr n\ii authMj-itirs, n{ h^.s ;.a\aT;r, \vnv 
mrr in.-,..!rnl ihaii thr uiiiitar\, frratin"- r\. r\ Mjin/Ji prr.-.ii uith an intul- 
Tal!r an-M.ranr,.. Thr v, hnir 1,*.; !' ilir t|.nhlr rrlrrat- rannot h r M -| du\vn 
^f !> . than ninr iliMii-.and, in* indin-; ihr in , m thr :.ir-fr. 

^Vh-!i f h>" r.iniJaJ!"n IrriHUialrif, \\' r ! 1 1 1 ; | nil, r \ ;i:,| uTaf rd h\ thrnUlilnrt 

*t thr arm; and i hr mans rr'-,jn'^ hr Lad <-\ prj-irnrrd lurin:| I hr ram|aj!Mi, 
"' r ' 1 * ^*ni ! hi-i indi-.'jiahMn in a riimiar Irttrr adilrr.\.-,rd to thr :aiju-riur 
"U :'': - In nh-.tanrr it ilrr!ar-d that di rjj.iinr had drtrrinratrtl dnrtnt; 1 hr 
,im|Mi-.'n ;n a "'n-.ifT d".*T r fhan hr itad r\-r uitnr...-,rd nr c-\rr rrail of in 
auv armband Hu, Uifhn! au, di a.lrj^am nnn.nai |.ri\atin or hard;.hi|> 
iv-that -M! in.-l.-mi nt u.-ath.-r; that 1 hr nihrrr , had lo.a all n -inniantl <>\rr 
tln^ir lu.-n, .in.l rsr. .-.-,, ,,'il;.i .,-, ,,!' all Liml:, and ijjr\rlj -ahlr ln:r;rs h u d 

'"rnir-d ; tii.it no armv had *-, -r madr -.hortrr mart hr , in rrtrrat r 
had IMI-^-J; !",*.,!, .... I, M armv had rvrr hrm : lilfjr prrs.'.rd hv a jatrMlinjf 
rnrmv ; and thi, tin.ha|.jr\ .-.tat- ft' .ilt.iir, \\a-, t* hr t rarrd f >" f h<- l^ihif nai 

Iir-'T-rf isfd)it\ h\ lli>- j-i n nji-Jlt a! l)irrr.'' 




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nanrr *jf f lit- d;>. ,,-u. iin , unit t h'- -ohnir,; 
f,i..u ii/, rr.-.itr,l I.,,rd \Vr!lin^f.n r.-un! i. 

\'-'lra ., n-.v, -..ufri-rrd nj..,i, hnu th.r tit!, 
i-ari,,!! ,.i" i.i . man; xli-t^nr-.; and i? miidt 
.n !' l!*- mu .t d.-ri,i-,r (! |" hi., j.rnii, ; aila 



368 THE HISTOEY OF SPAIN 

[1812-1813 A.D.] 

field under favourable circumstances ; and he, whose genius had hitherto 
been severely tried in contending with and surmounting every species of 
obstacle, might hope to pursue that more dazzling career of glory ^ which 
silences the cavils of envy and of ignorance. The resources of the peninsula, 
such as they were, were placed at his disposal. What was of more conse- 
quence, the French emperor, instead of constantly pouring reinforcements 
into Spain in numbers that almost seemed to render Lord Wellington's vic- 
tories barren triumphs, was compelled to withdraw thence many troops. 
Soult, with thirty thousand veterans, was recalled from Spain. 

The complicated arrangements requisite to bring so variously composed 
an army into activity, delayed Lord Wellington's opening the campaign until 
the middle of May ; when he took the field at the head of nearly seventy 
thousand men, English and Portuguese, independently of the Spanish army 
of Galicia under Castailos on his left, and another on his right under Don 
Carlos de Espana. The French had still 160,000 men in Spain; and as 
many of these as were not engaged in the eastern provinces under Suchet, 
or employed in garrison duty, were stationed around Madrid and between 
the capital and the Douro. 

Lord Wellington ordered General Murray to remove his troops by sea to 
Catalonia, in order both to relieve Valencia by drawing Suchet northwards, 
and to be nearer the scene of the principal operations, and sent Sir Thomas 
Graham, with the left wing of the army, to cross the Douro within the limits 
of Portugal, and thus turn a perhaps impregnable position, whilst he him- 
self with the centre, and Sir Rowland Hill with the right, advanced towards 
it in front, driving before them all detachments from the army of Portugal, 
as it was still termed, that were stationed south of the Douro. The 
manoeuvre seems to have confounded the enemy. The army of Portugal 
retreated. Joseph and Jourdan collected the army of the centre, and 
evacuating Madrid, hastened to join the army of Portugal near Burgos. 
Joseph fell back to Vitoria, the principal depot of the French in the northern 
provinces ; there he halted, drew up his army in battle array, and prepared 
to make a last struggle for his crown. It is said that the French occupied 
the very ground on which, in the fourteenth century, the Black Prince had 
defeated Du Guesclin and recovered the Castilian crown for Don Pedro. 

Lord Wellington on the 21st of June, 1813, attacked. The Spaniards 
fought with a courage that proved their former panics and failures to have 
been mainly attributable to want of confidence in their commanders and 
their comrades. The French wings were first assailed and driven back. 
Then, when their formidably posted centre had been weakened to support 
the wings, and was, besides, threatened on the flanks, that too was assailed 
and carried. The French had never before been so utterly routed. The 
whole army dispersed and fled; Joseph narrowly escaped being taken 
prisoner ; artillery, baggage, everything upon which the existence of an army 
depends fell into the hands of the victors, as well as the wives of many of the 
French superior officers, and the marshal's staff of Jourdan. The victory 
was actively followed up ; most of the French garrisons were taken, or sur- 
rendered upon being summoned ; the remaining French detachments, by a 
series of nearly bloodless manoeuvres, were driven across the Pyrenees ; and 
by the 7th of July no part of Joseph's army remained in Spain except the 
garrisons of Pamplona and San Sebastian. 

Suchet's was now the only French army in Spain, and his force remained 
unbroken in the eastern provinces, opposed to Sir John Murray. That 
general was conveyed with his troops by a British fleet from Alicante to the 



THE TKXIXSULAK WAR 



309 



Catalan rM>t, aini landing on the *h*d of June, near Tarragona, immediately 
invest od ihat tmvn. He hud made little progress with tho siege when 
Ma-bet >s ^idvanre Iruin Valencia was annoimml. Murray re-embarke.d his 
trumps \\iih ^''h iiviunitation, although Suehet was some marches distant, 
that he left his artillery ami stores behind. But, the news of the battle of 
Vitoi'ia and its emisequenees determined Suehet to abandon that province 
and eunrentnife his troops in Catalonia. Antgou was freed, and Alina had 
the !*Tatiti-atiin oi tveovoring the heroic Saragowui from her conquerors. 

When Napoleon reeeived thu tidings of the battle of Vitoria and its 
disustnm* results to his brother's hopes, ho sent, baek Soult to resume the 
eomtitatid i'mm uhieh he had taken him; to eolleet reiuforeemonts, r<;-or- 
t^anise tin* fugitive army, raise the, sieges of Pamplona and San Sebastian, 
and, in eoujtwettun \\ith Suehet, drive the British out of Spain. To enable 
him to ettee! t he.^r objects, 1m named him Imperial lieutenant in Spain, 
giving him authority far beyond wind- had ever before been Intrusted to any 
war.shai. Soult tun It the field at the head of nearly one hundred thousand 
men, enle, u i.urin-f to break through the extremity of the British, line, in 
order to jvlie\e Pamplona. The Kreneh marshal's first measures seemed to 
promise him Mieee.-.s, On tin* f>th of July, tSl.S, with about fifty thousand 
men, he ailaeKed two separate posts lield by divisions of (he right- wing 
under Sir lowland Hill. The allies fought- obstinately, but were obliged 
to tjive \\a\. < >n the 'JtJth Lord Wellington arrived on the, seene of action, 
immediately iViitUing to give battle, for tlu* protection of the bloekade of 
Pamplona. The Kivneh were defeated in two successive, engagements on tho 
.'JUfh;iud U-'t, after whieh Soult retreated into Kranet*. On the 1st of August 
the allied trot*j'i resumed their former positions amidst, the Pyrenees. 

The fuo Mrjfrs proeeethd ; but tlu* provisions in Pamplona still held 
nut : the fnrtifieatins of San Sebastian were, admirable, this approaches diHi- 
ftilt, and the garrison dtrfeiuled ils<*lf ptrtinae/iously. Wlutn the town was 
taken ( Amuf:,! 11), the siege, and espeeially tlu^ assault, had e.ost great 
nniubersof ii\-r-i nearly four thousand; and the troops, infuriated by the loss 
of their eowr.ide:4 and their own danger, eould not be restra,incul by tlu) few 
Min iving iUlieer i f the storming part v, or ev<*n taught to diserhninate hetwct^n 
friends and foe -i, Spaniards and Kreneh. Greater outrages are said to havo 
hern eiinunit ted upon I he inhabit ants of San Sebast ian t ban in any other town 
taken by the al!ie- ; and it was longer ere tlu* generals could restore order. 1 

[i \.ij-iri* >:.*.- " s-ui .^rliu.-.tinn* a ihml-nil** firtrnin ami in bud comHtiim when inv<'.si< i (I^ 
r*-, i-!*-. I ,i t*r :,;?;.; ,u:av j" . ,r.s;iiu; ;ui rnnrmttiw t;iM. rinK train, for Nixt.y-thivo days. Tin* 
|J,irr ;ri, tu ri " vt><ii 1\ .i''Jdi'iif -th* ignition *f thr Fr<-urh |Mw<lrr-I:irr<"lH and shfllH, which 
.il-u*- *tj*'i'd f !, . f *.i'i ;iii- t!* io\\n." ()1 tin* a<i atrociiirn t'oininitUid by tlui Briti.sli tr<H)pH f 

^H;lj <HT ',';' "! i '!}, ! :.i : 

" A' ihttsidri'^-.jju, *-.uiiii.: do\\n frnw tht 4 inouutaiuH with unbounded fury inun*'diai*ly 
alirr thf* j4A-- vk.i- r:iM;-d, adil-l tti UK* <*nfu:iiin of tlu*. ih'.hl. Tl\\* storm urcnwd (t) Im a 
hu:ti.il troju !,-;! t -.1 il<- j4iT|'-fr;itiin of villany \vliii-h wouM bavo hhanird tlu 1 . inont, iVrocitniH har- 
b.Vn.i:. i nf ;u,r. t L,' :, . \' H "in.:^ iiitoxiration atul plundrr had l 4 rn tin- principal ohjt-r.t ; at 
B,i.Uj/ I:;-,? :.::. I m;:dT \\>'i*' j-int-d to nipiiu* and ihiuikfiHir.sn ; hut. at San Srba.st.ian, the 
tlij- .f*, flu 1 in < ' ; . *r;.i/- -iii*-ltv w ^- 1 uilb*d to l.bn <'atalo;tH* of *riinr-.s. One atroriiy of which a 
..*.il ii .'u", :,fn u -A ,.:, '.! i- : ;.--f inr..!ai i 1 i. f l c > i*fi tin* iniutl by itM cnonnou:i, incvnlibh', indr.nrribattU) bur- 
U t ;',. '!*;. j-.- . ; .? u . ! \\\r SrHjti to throw oti ili.-iriplinf wan (juickty niadi* utanifci-.t A 
!li,':.h j/.-i!* . .!* L m A: j.'i'.v.-.rd with a vulh-y of .small arnw and rncapcd with dilltculty from 
lam -Ah-i j i; i/. j.. l,.,:,t i- r !! provnM iiiaraha! of thr *>th division; a I'ornir.urMc adjutant who 
^jj-iritv. -.;.! ! * : ..--.:/ . .::.. v, i*-lrdni", i va;i put t.i d-ath in the market piact\ not with suddru 
^. ,.;, f: ,.- fc , .; ;:!:,},:, lu! ilr!dfratrly by a number of Kn?*,li';h Koldieri ; and though 
jji.ii.', .!}..;> r ; '*!''; f ,'--:u i'-iv-i t* Mv;,'r\ r 'order ami many men were well conducted, the; 
i i'v..*- .i:.-l v;-.'; 1 ; *.' :.;::.:** by villain:* ;;jii'i*ad ; iberamp J4luwcr ;;oon crowded into the place, 
.i:*'l'ij t t'",i,'i 'i-';.V ...'.:. .--l '.;:: d' tlr tl.itiifH, lM;!<vuii" 4 the ;trjt.-t of Ihc plunden-r, put un end 



370 THE HISTOBY OF SPAIN" 

[1813 A.D.] 

The surrender of Pamplona set the allied forces at liberty, and .Lord 
Wellington immediately determined to advance into France, leaving Suchet 
and his corps to the care of the Catalans, assisted by the Anglo-Sicilian 
army. In beginning his operations upon the enemy's -territory, one of 
the first cares of the British commander was to repress the ferociously vin- 
dictive temper of his Spanish and. Portuguese troops, who longed to retaliate 
upon the French nation the injuries and outrages they had suffered from the 
French soldiery. At first it was found impossible altogether to control this 
disposition, in which the native officers but too much sympathised with their 
men. But the firmness and severity with which such offences were punished 
soon introduced a better temper. 

On the 10th of November, 1813, Soult's line of defence was attacked, 
and notwithstanding the great pains bestowed upon strengthening it, was 
forced ; fifteen hundred prisoners and fifty guns fell into the victor's hands, 
besides quantities of stores. On the 9th of December hostilities were 
renewed. The allied armies drove the French back into the intrenched 
camp they had prepared close to Bayonne, and Soult, by attacking, after five 
days of almost incessant fighting, in which the loss was necessarily great 
(five thousand of the allies, and far more of the French were killed or 
wounded), retreated into his intrenched camp. The weather was still very 
severe, and Lord Wellington therefore again cantoned his troops, but upon 
a more advanced line, and both armies passed the remainder of the month 
in repose. 

"Whilst Lord Wellington, with those forces, for whom, as for their leader, 
Napoleon had professed such superlative disdain, was thus penetrating into 
France, the situation of the French emperor had undergone many changes. 
It was at Leipsic, October 16th, 1813, that the battle, fatal to his hopes of 
maintaining his sovereignty over Germany, was fought. Every German 
state, including the whole Confederation of the Rhine, had now thrown off 
allegiance to Napoleon. The allied sovereigns advanced to the banks of the 
Rhine. There they halted for the remainder of the year, satisfied with their 
achievements, and willing to give Napoleon, whom they still feared, an 
opportunity for negotiation. Wellington and his army alone, of the hostile 
forces, wintered in France. 



BETUP.N OF THE BOXJBBONS 

Napoleon saw that to recover all he had lost, or even to keep all he yet 
retained, was, for the moment at least, impossible ; and he resolved to relax 
his grasp in that quarter, where renunciation of his now vain pretensions 
need not induce the abandonment of real power. He opened a negotiation 
with the prince to whom, as he believed, he could still dictate the terms of the 
treaty to be concluded namely, the captive of Valengay, Ferdinand VII. 

Since the seizure of the Spanish royal family at Bayonne, they had pretty 
much vanished from public view. The old king and queen, with their 
favourite, Godoy, had been transferred to Rome, where they vegetated con- 
tentedly upon the ample pension assigned them. The queen of Etruria, 
whose feelings appear to have been somewhat livelier than those of her kin- 
dred, had incurred Napoleon's anger by an abortive attempt at escaping to 
England, and was strictly immured in a convent at Rome, with her daugh- 
ter ; her son, the dethroned king, being taken from her, and committed to 
the care of her parents. Ferdinand remained at Valenay. He had written 



THE PENINSULAR WAE 371 

[18 13-1814 A.D.] 

1 A l e "tter of congratulation to Joseph Bonaparte upon his accession to tlie 
P stuish throne. He repeatedly addressed to Napoleon congratulations on 
victories. When a scheme for his liberation was devised by the British 
partly through compassion but chiefly under an idea that the 
of an acknowledged king would put an end to the factions and 
that distracted the Spanish councils, thwarted Lord Wellington's 
, and impeded his progress Ferdinand not only refused to escape, 
*~>p.t; denounced the attempt to Napoleon, and took the opportunity to renew 
Ills often rejected request that he might be adopted into the imperial family, 
l>y receiving the hand of a Bonaparte princess. He was further said to 
^xiiploy his time in embroidering a robe for some image of the Virgin. But 
tlie stories were regarded as calumnious inventions, propagated for the pur- 
pose of lowering Ferdinand's character in general estimation; and the 
imprisoned king remained as before an object of loyal veneration, of esteem, 
xaitl pity. 

Immediately on reaching Paris, after his calamitous retreat from. Leipsic, 
N~a,poleon addressed a letter to Ferdinand, telling him that England was 
3iadeavouring to overthrow the monarchy and nobility of Spain, in order to 
^tn,~blish a republic in that country, and offering him his liberty, together 
vvltli the alliance of France, that he might return to Spain, and put an end 
Lo "fclie disorders now convulsing the kingdom and further menacing it. 
/V.ter a little delay and negotiation Ferdinand yielded. On the llth of 
L>ee ember, 1813, a treaty was signed at Valengay, by which he was recognised 
LH Icing of Spain and the Indies, all old treaties and alliances between France 
txicl Spain were revived and confirmed, and Ferdinand undertook for the 
immediate evacuation of Spain and her dependencies by the English. Even 
:,1 lis treaty, however, Ferdinand referred to the approbation and sanction of 
il te regency and the cortes ; and San Carlos was despatched with a copy oHt 
jo ]\ladrid, whither the seat of government was now transferred from Cadiz. 
On the 8th of January, 1814, the regency through its president, the 
^itrciinal de Bourbon, addressed a respectful answer to the king, in which 
;lie;y- assured him of their joy at the prospect of his majesty's approaching 
Ib oration, but returned the treaty unratified, and transmitted copies of the 
, and of the treaty with England, which prevented its ratification. 
Towards the middle of February, 1814, the weather improved, and Lord 
Wellington drew his troops from their cantonments. By a series of able 
ria-raceuvres, and of engagements ending with the well-contested and brilliant 
victory of Orthez, gained on the 27th of February, he drove ^Soult suc- 
cessively from post to post, through a country of peculiar difficulty, and 
T-diiio- in strong defensive positions, of which the French marshal skil- 
endeavoured to avail himself, but was uniformly foiled by the superior 
'kill of his British competitor. Sir John Hope lay before Bayonne with 
lie left wing. By the help of an English squadron, under Admiral 



i wng. 

Penrose, the close investment of Bayonne laid open the direct road to Bor- 
ie-i-uix and on the 8th of March "Wellington sent Beresford with fifteen 
lioizsand men to make himself master of that town. Beresford was accom- 
Wnied by the duke of Angouleme, as a royalist party with the mayor at their 
Yea,a were well known to be anxiously expecting the prince. Ihe Drench 
r- L r risen evacuated the town as the allied troops approached, and the mhabit- 
7iits assuming the white cockade, and receiving the prince with enthusiastic 
ovalty, proclaimed Louis XVIII. Lord Wellington recalling Beresford, 
^commenced his operations against Soult. On the 18th they began their 
'Movement up the Adour, the French retiring before them. On the 19th, 



THK 



, ' M N 



N / 



\\.-, .; "-> 



THE PENINSULAR WAR *-* 

A.D.] **'" 

enemies, having; trusted to that cliance when they formed the sle^e I Be^re 
tlie British troops they fell ; but how horrible was the struggle, how niaiiv 
uet eats they recovered from, how many brave men they slew ; what ekui^f- 
aucl interpositions of fortune occurred before they could be rolled back upon 
their own frontiers ! And this is the glory of England, that her soldiers 
and liers only were capable of overthrowing them in equal battle. What 
battle except Baylen did the peninsulars win? What fortress did thev take 
by siege ? What place defend ? Sir Arthur Weliesley twice delivered 
1 ortugal. ^ Sir John Moore's inarch to Sahagun saved Andalusia and Lisbon 
from invasion at a critical moment. Sir Arthur's march to Talavera delivered 
Galicia.^ Graham saved Cadiz. Smith saved Tarifa. Wellington recap- 
tured Cixidad and Badajoz, rescued Andalusia from Soult and Valencia from 
Sucliet ; the Anglo-Sicilian army preserved Alicante, and finally recovered 
Tarragona and Barcelona under the influence of the northern operations. 
which, at the same time reduced Pamplona and San Sebastian. England 
indeed ccmld not alone have triumphed in the struggle, but for her share let 
this brief summary speak: 

She spent a sum of more than 100,000,000 sterling on her own opera- 
tions, she subsidised both Spain and Portugal, and with her supplies of 
clotliing, arms, and ammunition maintained the armies of each, even to the 
guerillas. From thirty up to seventy thousand British troops were employed 
by lier ; ami -while her naval squadrons harassed the French with descents 
upon, the coasts, and supplied the Spaniards with arms and stores and money 
lifter every defeat, her land-forces fought and won nineteen pitched battles 
and innumerable combats, made or sustained ten sieges, took four great 
fortresses, twice expelled the French from Portugal, preserved Alicante, 
Cartagena, Tarifa, Cadiz, Lisbon ; they killed, wounded, and took two hun- 
dred thousand enemies. And the bones of forty thousand British soldiers 
lie scattered on the plains and mountains of the peninsula. For Portugal 
ahe re-organised a native army and supplied officers who led it to victory ; 
and to the whole peninsula she gave a general whose like has seldom 
gone forth to conquer. And all this and more was necessary to redeem that 
land from France ! 

NAPIEll'S ESTIMATE OF WELLINGTON 

Wellington met the peculiar difficulties which attend generals con- 
trolled bv politicians. An English commander dare not risk much, wiien 
one disaster will be his ruin at home ; his measures must be subordinate 
to liis primary consideration. Wellington's caution, springing from that 
scmrce, had led friends and foes alike into wrong conclusions as to his system 
of war - the French call it want of enterprise, timidity ; the Lnglisk have 
denominated it the Fabian system. These are mere phrases. His system 
was t he same as that of all g/eat generals. He held his ^my in ho^k^ 
ini it with unmitigated labour always in a fit state to march or to %^;; ^ 
acted indifferently as occasion offered on the offensive or defensive, dispia^ 
in- in bo5i a complete mastery of his art. That he was less vast m k , 
less daring in execution, neither so rapid nor so original a com- 
s Napoleol, must be admitted ; and being later m the Held of gloij 



as 



374 1HE HISTOEY 0V 

[1814 A.D.] 

and Portuguese governments ; their systems of war were however alike 
in principle, their operations being only modified by their different political 
positions. Great bodily exertion, unceasing watchfulness, exact combina- 
tions to protect their flanks and communications without scattering their 
forces these were common to both ; in defence firm, cool, enduring, in 
attack fierce and obstinate ; daring when daring was politic, yet always 
operating by the flanks in preference to the front ; in these things they were 
alike : in following up a victory the English general fell short of the French 
emperor. The battle of Wellington was the stroke of a battering-ram 
down went the wall in ruins ; the battle of Napoleon was the swell and dash 
of a mighty wave before which the barrier yielded and the roaring flood 
poured onwards covering all. 

But there was nothing of timidity or natural want of enterprise to be dis- 
cerned in the English general's campaigns. Neither was he of the Fabian 
school. He recommended that commander's system to the Spaniards, he did 
not follow it himself ; his military polic3 r more resembled that of Scipio Af ri- 
canus. Wellington was never loath to fight when there was any equality of 
numbers. Slight therefore is the resemblance to the Fabian warfare. And 
for the Englishman's hardiness and enterprise, bear witness the passage of the 
Douro at Oporto, the capture of Ciudad Rodrigo, the storming of Badajoz, 
the surprise of the forts at Mirabete, the march to Vitoria, the passage of the 
Bidassoa, the victory of the Nivelle, the passage of the Adour below Bayonne, 
the fight of Orthez, the crowning battle of Toulouse ! To say that he com- 
mitted faults is only to say that he made war ; to deny him the qualities of 
a great commander is to rail against the clear midday sun for want of light. 
Iron hardihood of body, a quick and sure vision, a grasping mind, untiring 
power of thought, and the habit of laborious minute investigation and arrange- 
ment all these qualities lie possessed, and with them that most rare faculty 
of coining to prompt and sure conclusions on sudden emergencies. This is 
the certain mark of a master-spirit in war.& 




CHAPTER XIV 
THE RESTORATION OF THE BOURBONS 

[1814-1902 A.D.] 

ON the 7th of March, 1814, Ferdinand VII definitely received Ids passports 
irom the French. Master of himself once more, he began to think of means of 
returning to the capital and recovering his former power. But, at the same 
time, he resolved to avoid doing anything that would seem to sanction modi- 
fications accomplished by the cortes, regarding such as an attack on his sover- 
eign power. _ To enter Spain without making any promise at all was the 
essential point. The king's counsellors proposed he should send a king's 
messenger to Madrid bearing a letter carefully flattering the hopes of the 
Liberal party without undertaking to fulfil the slightest engagement with 
regard to it. Ferdinand acted on this advice, and charged General Zayas to 
bear to Madrid the news of his immediate return, and to give the regency a 
letter wherein were these ambiguous words : 

"As to the re-establishment of the cortes and all they have been able to do of use for the 
kingdom, during my absence, my approbation Trill be given in so far as it all conforms to my 
royal intentions/' 

The general set out for Madrid with this letter and hastened to arrive 
thither, where his coming produced the liveliest enthusiasm. The cortes 
affected to see in the message a pledge for the political future of their sover- 
eign, and abstained thenceforth from those energetic measures alone able to 
save them. While they thus lulled themselves in fancied security, Ferdinand 
had hastened to gain the Spanish frontier by Toulouse and Perpignan. On the 
2-itli of March he crossed the Fluvia, limit chosen by Marshal Suchet as 
the theatre which was to see the solemn restoration of the royal captive to the 
Spanish troops. The ceremony was carried out amid general enthusiasm, and 
all the people eagerly ran to assist at such a novel spectacle. 

From this moment, Ferdinand, reinstated in his kingly prerogatives, found 
himself under a double influence, one drawing him to the representative sys- 
tem, the other towards that absolute monarchy which best suited his desires 
and tastes. In all the towns he went through, and particularly in Gei-ona 
where he had stayed some days, a people mad with joy, drunk with enthusiasm, 

375 



376 THE HISTORY OF SPAIN 

[ISM A.D.] 

had cast themselves at his feet, liad dragged his carriage, and given most 
striking testimony of obedience and submission. 1 

Sure now of the destiny awaiting him, he decided to abandon the route 
fixed by the decree of the 2nd of February. 

During this triumphal journey (24th of March to the 6th of April), the 
gravest events had taken place in France, and one may conceive that Ferdi- 
nand, before attempting his coup d'Stat^ did not want to get too far away 
from the frontier, at any rate while the issues were doubtful. Certain 
events were very favourable : the entry of the allies into Paris ; the crea- 
tion of a provisionaiy government; Napoleon's abdication, and departure 
for Elba; and lastly the proclamation of Louis XVIII, which should lead to 
the suppression of hostilities and the end of the war. 

The Aragonese were* just as unbridled as the Catalans in expressing 
monarchial fanaticism. So while the authorities remained faithful to the 
regency, the people showed such enthusiasm for the king that he could no 
longer doubt for an instant that he could now venture all. Old courtiers, 
interested in seeing the ancient court restored, constantly urged him to 
retake absolute authority. 

Yet, while the storm was slowly gathering that would sweep them away, 
the cortes, always dominated by a perfectly unjustified feeling of confidence, 
never ceased publishing decrees which served to feed the general enthusi- 
asm in the king's favour. The weak royalist minority which still existed in 
their midst had ceased to make common cause with them. Its leader, Mozo 
de Rosales, had gone to Valencia carrying a representation in which the 
events of the past six years were considered as a passing saturnalia, similar 
to those which the Persians used to celebrate during an interregnum, and 
which put forth that order would only reign in Spain from that day when 
kingly authority should be reinstated in its integrity. Whilst the cortes 
waited with lively impatience to know their fate, they celebrated the fete of 
the 2nd of May with great pomp ; ascribed several civic rewards to soldiers 
who had bravely fought in the war of Independence ; transferred the seat 
of their meetings from the theatre of Los Canos del Peral to the convent of 
Dofia Maria of Aragon ; and decreed a death sentence against anyone demand- 
ing constitutional reform before eight years. Such were the acts of the 
cortes. The cardinal De Bourbon, president of the regency council, accom- 
panied by the minister of state, Don Jose Luyando, was to present himself 
before the monarch, and a commission, presided over by the Bishop of Urgel, 
was to go on in front of him as far as La Mancha plains. 

Ferdinand arrived the 16tli of April on the borders of Turia. There he 
found everything had been prepared by the care of his uncle Don Antonio, 
De Macanaz, and Escoiquiz, to whom were united Villamil and Lardizabal, 
whose reverses at Cadiz had filled them with bitterness and spite against the 
representative system. The highest aristocrats came to Ferdinand offering 
him riches enough to enable him to act without the concourse of the cortes. 
General Elio, betraying his first duty and oblivious of obedience owing to 

P Hume*? vividly describes this royal progress : u Through the stark and ruined country he 
went ; the emaciated and famished inhabitants, hardly one of whom but had some dear one killed 
in the war, filled to overflowing with love and hope of better times under the sway of their new 
king. They had suffered so much for him ; he was young and had suffered too, they said, in his 
exile : surely he would be good to them, make bread cheap, and heal their bleeding wounds. 
Most of the towns on the way had changed the name of their great square from Plaza Mayor to 
4 Plaza, de la Constitucion ' ; and the marble slabs bearing the latter inscription were now torn 
down and splintered, and the thoughtless mob, little knowing or caring what it all meant, shouted 
themselves hoarse with cries of 'Death to liberty and the Constitution!' and 'Long live Fer- 
dinand 1 " c The amazing cry of " Hurrah for chains I " was also heard.] 



fl-II 1. 1* ] 



Till: IIKSTUKATIOX <>K THK i:<UMuu)Ns 



Thr tmi> Lid r.,m- In art inVlli*rlsi\Vmani7rr * Ki^V"' 11 l ill f? 1(1 r6 S in ^. 
\vii,s n..thiuj; but an rutatutiun from his tn^m^L^l* U J! V xi lat tljc r ?g9 nc y 



hl " 1 """ " "I' 1 " ' " K i-f ho,,,a*.. us if n 

n: Imt an rmiunti,,,, f,,,, his <, tt -i HUthorit-v 
h.- r.-.-.-M,.,l ihr ,-..iiu,,;i,l.r*s Intt 
i'--i-.^ "' l-v Uu, f, t,: ;il -h th, 
* to 



. - 

whii-h i!,,. i.,r fashion 

'"' I irus 'H-cd before the 



r*r*li,ilil \ , l Hi' jii.itlr ;i cavalry 
i'Mfj-iN jijvt'rtii' hnn i'uuiii?Hlr(I by 



'i'l, and thru uvrix 
th fmiii all tin 1 ullirr 
Mii him in all IUM- ri 



a ,surtuu 



al \ 

1 1 1 \\ 

thi, : 



i - '\a-t!\ what ha].|M-jiril. 
-n^ .'.;^n-l 'ii f br III* df Mav 
i^ufia fhr t'aninij.-, utaniff.sto 
liiMiiiufiiH v rrirltiatrl. In 
:,tat-l thai nut niilv did In* 

tj>\\-iMr to th*' rnlri'titUf lull 



dui,ir\ of- Mi.lniary, but h-tMlrrlurr 

that run:,} jf tiliuft UliUullnJ, of J| 

\alh* *-i?!irr t*'lav nr fn'\vt a 



bv tiinr. Thrn, \\ilh- 




VII 



with (toneral Klio, Laving given 
aiido to retire, the one on Toledo, 



, hr map-h'-d .straight on Ma< 
<j'h'i-;, tn the eardiiial I*r Hnurhnn and 1 
thr i.th.-r mi C 'artujvna. 

If .^nurd iHipnv-ab!.' that the in-rival of <M-n-ral Wittingham almost under 
th- wall.-. n| Madiirt ;-.hnulii not open tin* drjmt ies' eyts as to Ferdinand's 
iut*-iiU'jr. ; ^if*v 4 rthrlfri, lli^y funk nn inr;iNt!n*s for their personal security. 
Ihi^i'M-rmiMti n\ ibr Valmria <lerivr had brrn cum fid ed to General Eguia, 

Vl ""* 1 '''"' eaj*tain in j r 'ijeral cf New ( 'ast ilr, and known under the name 

a hf*Mit i- ff bi.-i atiarhinent t< old en.st wues and his liabit of wear- 
r in a phi;f at f hi* bai-K of bin brad a.s in Charles Ill's time. Eguia, 
'nun.iudrr in rhirf of IClin's first division of troops, and who only 
th* l,Mi:,f b\ :-,H!U(* <iays, \\;IM .supported bv Wittingbam's cavalry 
idrrhand IUM\ rmeutM <!' thr eniint of Montijo, \vbobadraisedtlie 
Madnl ,[;Miir4 tb*M fayourabl** ti) tbt* representative system. 
* rn-riini^fate-rs h- had nut anv difficulty in (txeeuting the coup 
i wh.'-]; hi* bad biM'ii intnistrd. Thus, \vhihi Ferdinand pursued 



ViiJ;r, * 

t :pi..j- 
//'.*' v 



* *''' : - ; " r $'"'"" -' 'A -i : .;:vr:, f . thi- v rj'i/- it-j<urir;i wh. !i;u! sisjnj'd tho. memorial in which 

'; '' -'.- !''" <>r " 1-U .i'i * n,j>,u-l t ill*- tM i'i i.iiiin .saturnalia of crime which accom- 



i 



378 THE HISTORY OF SPAIN 

[1814 A.D.] 

his triumphal march, from Valencia to Madrid in the midst of a joy and 
enthusiasm officially worked up, midst subversive cries around him for the 
suppression of the constitution and re-establishment of absolutism, while he 
refused to see the cortes' deputation who came before him at La Mancha, all 
vestiges of the preceding system were being carefully destroyed in the city. 
A terrible persecution fell on all the men who had helped in establishing the 
constitutional system. 

In the one night of the 10th of May, 1814, a day so celebrated in the 
annals of the Spanish liberals, Eguia took from their houses and impris- 
oned all regency members, all state councillors, all deputies who were 
known as partisans to the constitution whether in the actual cortes or the 
preceding one. Of this number were the two regents Don Pedro Agar and 
Don Gabriel Ciscar, the ministers Don Juan Alvarez Guerra and Don Man- 
uel Garcia Herreros, the constituents Munoz Torrero, Arguelles, Oliveros, 
Villanueva, the deputies Martinez cle la Rosa, Canga- Arguelles, and Cepero. 
Some had the good luck to escape, among these Toreno and Isturiz. As to 
the others, they were surprised in their homes. So unexpected was such a 
ruse in the then circumstances of the country, that no one had dreamed of 
taking the slightest precautions. The day after their arrestation they were 
constantly exposed to the insults of the multitude who reproduced in Spain 
all the excesses of that blind reaction in the south of France. The Madrid 
populace, after having torn away the corner-stone of the constitution, went 
in tumultuous procession to the quiet street where the prisoners were shut 
up, and there shouting " Death to the liberals ! " they begged with fright- 
ful cries permission to drag the corpses in the mud as they had dragged the 
stone of the constitution. 

This tumult was the work of the count of Montijo and several monks 
who, seeing the star of their ascendency reappear in the horizon an ascen- 
dency lost for six years had, at the same time as the Valencia decree was 
proclaimed in. all the squares, circulated a scandalous leaflet having for the 
object an organised proscription and the raising of the masses against all 
partisans of the liberal system. Thus the 13th of May, 1814, saw Ferdinand's 
triumphal entry into his capital. He had already given his reign the dis- 
tinctive character that marks it out in history : an obstinate return to old 
ideas ; a cruel proscription against all the men devoted to culture and intel- 
ligence and gifted with liberal aspiration ; a stirring up of the masses by a 
recrudescence of religious fanaticism ; an exaltation of monarchical principle 
pushed as far as absolutism, and a near re-establishing of the Inquisition, 
convents, favouritism, and all their fatal consequences. & 

The great mass of the people, who were not enlightened enough to feel 
the want, or appreciate the blessings, of political liberty, had not sufficient 
experience of the benefits which the new institutions were calculated to con- 
fer to have conceived any value for them ; and the troops, who, from their 
intercourse with the English army, might have learned some respect for 
liberty and equal laws, were hostile to the cortes on account of the neglect 
and injustice with, which they had frequently been treated. 

Ferdinand proceeded to acts for which no palliation can be found, namely, 
inflicting punishments upon those who had defended his cause when he him- 
self had abandoned it, but had, in his opinion, forfeited all claim to his 
gratitude, by seeking to limit the power they preserved for him. For- 
tunately, however, Sir Henry Wellesley extorted from the king a solemn 
promise that no blood should be shed for political opinions. No lives there- 
fore were taken. But the cardinal De Bourbon was banished to Rome. The 



!' l 

1 Mltl< 



T K K*T'*KATION OF TUB UomtBONB 



379 



, 



: l ,h 

i f ,- 
" '" 



- ''"'"''"'.I ,!,, him ilvYf,;; mi 11 YVUUm - U)U tlie ^nours and 

:!T!'^^n !!uHln' IUljU fxv 8pU 5V V * th the Ihlited Stat es 

'iid'n fo ttrit t u l 'ri ula Was Jlnslll y settled I 

- i.ii i {>( >\u'i. i he, war with the colonies continued, 

' ' ll ' 1 ' <' " I ' idinand there took part with the cortes he had 
lit i! " M iu ' k ^wledge the equality, the sort of 
'" with the mother-country that the colonies claimed, and 
nv.v< nt hpain by sending his best troops across the Atlantic 
11 ' '' LUl? '" monopoly. T] U5 colonies, exasperated by this 
imufn, now disowned the authority of Ferdinand, and pro- 
" "" '"' " aUsulutr independence. Ferdinand resisted these 
MMUH >rt m,,iv vehement y t haii the former, but it was evident from 
;:HnMii ?r tlu' .spam had inmlly lost her transatlantic empire. Cuba, 
K-N .tud tin- I Inlippiurs wtw her only remaining colonies. 
! :.h.n .-Minuisiuu, \vlueh followed Napoleon's 'return from Elba in 
; >lV ! m ' r i' mt1 ^ 1 '*' 1 * terminate<l by the dreadful and glorious battle 
lrn ' H ; :t nia,,\ M-altuic Hfinapurte.'s fall, produced no other effect in 
11111 HU tLm an lll ' ll '*' % t<} nu, a detail of tliese affairs would be out of 



1 HK UKK1N OK TKIMI.OU 



!-...! 



"Ihr 
HM.Vi tif 

f!l**Jl \ I; 
\\ h V. '! 



u lui!n i 



n.i, and wa 

If hail ivl;ii*ns with 



A f.iiiiMsu ;,M,- t ei\ % that of the K\ terminating Angel, had extended its 
i'MHutry undr the direction of a former regent, the 
M] Jill t!n k apostolias of the peninsula as by a 
nt h 1 he |iriu(!ipal bishops to whom several owed 
thru uilit-e-k ;^ it'o-.tiiiilii-iilions erept^ into all tluj monasteries, and much more 
\i.l,-nf than i! -, Kii-nrli rha|tirit prraclu^I tlutext-ermination of all the liberals, 
military ruiunnN^ion.s set Jo work with a new activity aided by a 
r*'i/ttiiiiiMiiM whose laeottisiu and hypocrisy were only equalled by 
*ur aul \ ilrtifr. 'l*hey had the power of condemning to death all 

|ntili\ of Irse- nuijeste, that, is to say till who declared themselves 
l* the riifht'i of flu* king or in favour of the constitution. With 
of thi , auitn'/ntoH'i phrase, any writer who ]>nt into print any words 

Uir n-.'liH of l^i-nlinand wen* <loubt( k <K anyone who in any manner 
tuti CM ttj.rrated in the revolution of ISiJO-1828; anyone who kept in 
a rop\ oi'thi* enttst ittit ioiua port .rail, of Kicgo, any souvenir whatso- 
ir illu-t riMij -\iles li\ intf in a, foreign country, anyone who by a shout 
jMl*'tj e\rn in drunkenness, show<j<l hatixxl of tyranny any of 
M ! iii!tl -.null v of lese^najtste. A decree bearing the date of 
,Mh, l^l-K \Un'h tlinntgh some expiring s(iiitiinent of modesty was 
tr.l in tin* ijji-ial !;t/ ( i*t te, hut m^vcrtluness was applied with care, 
o! all of ili*' I;I\VN anti deliverexl tin; lives of all citizens over to 
*:ju,i! . A jireimnm was put upon information and a secret police 

I into rver\ htu..'liohl in order to divine the secret of consciences 
.mvi- >p,tin of all the liberal element. Not age, sex, virtue, or 

-, wnv ji'..teiMi.u aifainst these ierribht e.ommissions ; wealth^ alone 
in.- -.f/;. :-,| h-Miu tlral'li. II*' who had some fortune bought liis life with 

'.** ,', l>.il ! of hi , ]ropert V. 

i-.oumi u-.u of Madrid, preside<l over by a fierce brute named 
roiu wlio ;n-ijmiv..i the jncliiucholy honour of giving his name to the 



380 THE HISTORY OF SPAIN 

[1814 A.D.] 

whole epoch, surpassed all its rivals in the number of condemnations and 
severity of sentences. It sent to the scaffold all those in whose homes por- 
traits of Riego were discovered, and to the galleys the women and children 
who committed the crime of not denouncing their husbands or fathers. 
More than one well-born woman thrown into infamous prisons with the most 
odious criminals died of despair in the midst of the unjust abjection to 
which she saw herself reduced. Chaperon, like all the judges who consented 
to make themselves the devoted instruments of social hatred, rejoiced in the 
midst of the terror which his name inspired, and under the general torpor that 
it created. He assisted at executions in full uniform ; they were fete clays for 
him, and on one occasion, anxious to hasten the execution of one of his con- 
demned (it was a national militiaman who had taken part in the defence of 
Madrid, the 7th of July, against the revolted guards), he pulled, himself, the 
legs of the poor victim already hanging from the fatal gibbet, and this exploit 
finished, retired, proud to have exercised the functions of executioner and 
judged 

THE TYRANNIES OF FERDINAND " THE DESIRED " 

The places left in the power of the French were evacuated one by one, ' 
and finally, on the 20th of July, Spain gave its assent to the treaty of peace 
and friendship which the allies had concluded with France on the 30th of the 
preceding May. In the beginning of May the king had found a ministry 
which he modified before the end of the month, but at the head of it each 
time he placed the duke of San Carlos. The system of persecution continued 
and everything which seemed to favour innovations was vigorously opposed. 
Ferdinand regained his power, the cortes had disappeared, the constitution 
of Cadiz existed only in people's memories. The Spain of 1814 became again 
the Spain of 1807 ; as before, she was subject to the joint domination of 
prince and clergy. The legislative bodies which constituted the government 
and the chief judicial magistracy of 1808 were abolished in 1814. 

Among the reforms introduced by Joseph's government and by that of the 
cortes after him, there were some which were unjust, extortionate, contrary 
to the re-established order ; but there were others which should have been 
retained or modified with reservations. The king had no thought of making 
a choice. He considered, not the nature of the acts, but their origin ; the 
good and the bad, salutary reform and disastrous measure, all were included 
in a general proscription. The state, impoverished by a long war, had at 
hand timely assistance in the estates of the religious communities, without 
being obliged to impose heavy burdens on the people ; never had there been 
such a favourable opportunity for limiting and regulating these exaggerated 
possessions which had fallen into mortmain. A measure calling for investi- 
gation and reform which had been authorised by a papal bull under Charles 
IV might now have been carried into effect. But no attention was paid to 
anything of the kind. All their goods of which the cortes had disposed were 
returned to the convents, and at the same time a royal order re-established 
the holy office of the Inquisition on the ground that the government of usur- 
pation and the pretended cortes had regarded the suppression of this tribunal 
as a very efficacious method of furthering their perverse schemes. The Jes- 
uits were recalled, receiving again the goods which had belonged to them 
in the preceding century. 

The administration of the realm was with great pains thrown again 
into the secular confusion out of which so many ministers had laboured to 



OP THE BOUEBOXS 3S1 

covles, there reap^T"^ tLT T P 7 Cti J isi n of territor y deci '^ ^ the 
general, W bo aclde^ to tlieir DlervK f . r f' Vmc f S overue ^ by captai^I 
certain judicial atbribxxtts P InSv H milltar y, an d administrative nuthoritv 
of the orders, of ^ce ,f J COUnclls , ot Castile of the Indi^ 
ministry, wliose tx-aclifcions niTl tl l Wa ^i authonties independent of thj 
the interests of tla e rei^nino- AOWP " f t! * f Dy reform undertaken in 
Around I'eixli^or.a^Tva-^fnrmAri th ^ the P e P le ' began again to operate, 
the Russian minister ^vbir-h tSi i i ^ U ^ cawan ' ffif x controlled bv 

have no object 1^? dr s t^ctiln Sd g ^ i Utlw ^ seemetl t" 

it overttiriTecl all ^ri^^li 4-1^ L^.--.! e ^ e n an , ce - At the same time that 



^nirtl-^ 

before commissioners to be tried with no legal formalSv Th| n rn'feJ 

ot the conclemuecL ^vas considerable : presides, imprisonment in the ch ?ideTs 

SuS^nd^ ^ P eiialtiesin ^' the kin| made no use o^^^ rig t 
ol paid on and tliese acts continued with cold perseverance. Two rears after 
the kiaglxad regained, his full power, the prisons were still full; and Ion- 
proscription hsta still appeared at intervals. 

Such a govenamerLt could not fail to have a dire influence on the interior 
prosperity ot the country ; but it is difficult to imagine the extent of the 
disorder into wlixcla everything had been thrown. It was necessary to resort 
to arbitrary taxes which, caused discontent without affording much relief to 
the treasury and to exorbitant custom duties which completed the destruc- 
tion of ^commerce "by breaking off all relations with foreign countries. The 
old regime, to remain In possession of Spain, would have needed the treasures 
of the New World to hold the country in subjection, and to defray the 
expenses of an a,clmiiaistration useless at its best. But then it would" have 
had to get the better of the insurrections already victorious or soon to be 
so in Venezuela, Chile, Peru, Buenos Ayres, and "Mexico, and to combat all 
the points of that; immense continent at once. In order to quell their revo- 
lution, wliich was termed a revolt, an army needed first to be procured. 
To embark this army a fleet was necessary for the equipment of which both 
time and means "were lacking ; the government was reduced to bargaining 
for ships with. !R.u.ssia,. In order to obtain immediate assistance it had to 
resort to a. system of credit and give some assurance of a good administration 
together with seooariti.es for the public debt. This necessity was so pressing 
that in tlie ministerial council Don Martin Garay, surnamed the Xecker 
of Spain, stnd several others of the same school were placed at the side of nu-u 
like Egxiia, and H/ozano de Torres, those defenders of ancient customs. 

Garay liad to promise services for which he had no resources and at the 



zuela 
were 




over the heads of tlie ministers questions of national policy, and even made and unmade ministers 
in mere caprice. Mlinistevs were appointed or dismissed _ arbitrarily by Ferdinand for the most 



J. .llCit; WV3A.T3 tj VtJi bill*- \JJ AJLJ.J.JJL iobC-JL i3 Ali OllC iSLA. j\_,cuj-o iJ-wj-u. j-vj-j. u^ j. - .^5 ~ .- . o 

duration for each Tlie in ost prominent member of the camarilla was a low buffoon < 
morro," wlio had "been a "water-carrier, another, Ugarte, was a second-hand broker ; Tattisc..eL, 
tlie Husslaix minister, was also a member. c] 




1 1 },r ! . - 



TilK KKSTOKATIOX op Tin: p. 



fHH IVit , .] 

*,lo\vlvani with tlirtirulty hrinjc tjot to-^rthrr for a drfimtnr r\pr<hl ion a^un.st 
thr rrhrllious rohmirs, upon whirh all thr hnpr-, t.f thr Spanish i;o\ rrnmrnt 
\\riv rourrntr.itnL Thr .vohlirrs wrrr frhjhtrar.l h\ tal.v. of old lautikilnl 
warrior* who had rrturnnl from Colombia. Thry^ wrrr niadr to M-r thr pi,, 
Mb)Uf\ of rsrapia-^ thr aiUfoftunr whirh await' 1 *! lhrm ^ without brim^ 
rXposi-il to thr rrproarh or MispirioU of a lark of roiirairr. Thry url'r tohl 

hturtr:, of thr last war, of thr lihrrtv roiujurrnl and thru hNt, of honour 

Thr ronspirators hud inoiv liopr of surrrss hrraU.-u* thry hat I thr^rhirt ot 

ihr r\prdifion himsrlf, O 1 1 >onnrll, t hr rount of Ahishiil, on thru- sidr ; hut 
this "varral turard I rui(<r, drnoiinrrd thr ron.^pirators, ami r\m anvstrtl 
.sowr'of thrw. But hr too was hit rr stisprrt rtl, and was rrralird with all tlir 
M./JJS of <lis'/rarr. Prrsrrtilions n-rommrnrrd. Kvrr\thinjj pointrd to a 
rrVh.uhlin!: of' ri'/ottr whirh in turn pro.lurrd a rrdouhliiur of irritation ami 
nl.su nf hopr. Thr ron.^pirators ajjain too!, up thrir plans whirh had hrru 
intrrruptrd fur an instant, hut this tinir thr\ did not hnk to^ ^rnrraks tor 
hr!p. A lr-s di . tin-nil. -hrd Irailrr t f ;avr thr ini|ulsr to rrvoit in onr of thr 

'l*h,.. i.i'nf .!anuar\ % I^'J", Hafarl drl Kir-;.. a--.srinhlrd a battalion 
.-aranipnl in a villa^r, pr- -mtrd it with thr roast itutin of IspJ as thr law 
,,f thr n.antrv, to wlarh hr m.tdr it .-,wr.ir alhv.iaan-, man-hrd iipon Amis, 
., tu -pri;,,-d and raptaivd (>M>narir. Mirr.-s.sor C.ddrrun with his staif, ami 
,-,atinurd hi-, iaai'h np^n S,m Frrnando whrn- hr was joinrd hy^ ohmrl 
ihiiroiM. liui th- j^atr . of ('atli.- rrni.iinr.l rl..-,rl to t hrni, t hr garrison an*l 
thr Jlr'rf'to,,k on ;t h.Vstilr alUlUtlr Inwanl thr l'rlu-1:,. At thr satar tinir an 

annv tf thirtrra thou.saml uu-n umh-r <!rnrral Krrirr arri\nl with foirrd 
tuaivh**^ to .pirll thr msurrrrt in. ThrrrUpoii UMrini ail\an'rtl towanls thr 
i-rnlrr nf Amhihr.ia prrarhin.^ inMinvrtion und prorlaijuin^ thr ruiistit utiou 
of i^idi/, Htit thr rrnrral iudiffrrrnrr of flit- country was riu.uidi lo thwart 
thr riitrrpris.- of thr in,ui--rnf^ Thnv w as di.sruuratrriurnt ^in tlj rutup 
at ihr islr of Lron and, thr ru\rrninrntal tor*-**:* arrumuhituitf UJ Antlalti.sia, 
it srnnrd that thr rrhrllion wa.-ahout to rxpirr. 

Hut thr rnilssarirs rhanrrii with arousim? thr pr,.\inrrM workf<l urthout 
rrla\ati.n. Thr :!lsi of F.-hruary thry mirrrrd*Ml in proflaiiuiujf thr Min- 
-.tiiuUon in thr i-apital f ti.iliria.* Frrn.l foll..wrl thisr\;unplr thr HUnl. 
'Ihr sanir thin'/ took plarr at Vi-o. Thr ; n,vrrnnrnt trinl to rompronusr 
with thr jv\olutionan<l (l ; lnvd to as.^mhtr thr rortr.s, hut no runlhlrnrr \\as 
pl.irnl in th-,r proinisr;, brrati.r it. was rrinriuhrrr.l that thr drrivr ut May 

4th IsH, hv wliirh thr rnnaitutiou was aholishrd, liail prouiisnl l,, r,.n\cikr 

thrVorl.'S I/Ut had, not hrrll r;irrird into rlTrrt. Thr rrvoluth.narir:til Hit' 

rapital iui-itnl l,y thr f.-rhh-nr-.s of t hr -n^-rnntrnt workrd oprni\ towards 

tJiJ.ir ,hjf-rt. (o'lirro-l Pallr:-,trros, who r.tinr to Madrid to (Irrlaiv to till* 
lanaaivh th;il hr laUM a.vrpt th. rnnM it Ut ion, w as hailril us a dr!i\rivr b> 
t j tl . Lin-.;; thr **th of M.uvh Fcnlinand to..k ihr u.ith l..r tin., art wlurh 
hr lrti":.ird, at thr HiMiursit u hra Kir;/o\s mluinn, jvdiirrd to a lr\v iara was 
f.^vrd to ilr.b.Liid, and ihr- -jarri-on n't Cadi.' war* rnrr^-tiralh opposing thr 

Whra il>' ki:r.' had .w.rn to oh-.rrw th- roa- tit utioa of l^T-!, t hr^ pruplr 
;l ad thr ti-n.jM whi'-li Mill rraiainnl iaithlul '^av up without rr-,r.itanrr, 
Vvn-\oir had b'-ru aft'rrtril hv thr di-.t^fron , r!iVrt- of thr rrj^iiur t.. whirh 

Ihr r'>U!im" had l.rrji Mli^-rlVd IMF s.^rl'.l! \r.irs and all Wr|V -hid tu hr 

.r.'.trnmirnt 'J V i* ! - tr han-l^ of inini-itrr .. w )m , i.hMs w riv wh.i;;. p'-pahir. 



<' 'i i s ' 

1 1 T 

.' " I* 

l'\ 

1 ^ 

]' *.'.i:i: 



h 




II' 



THK KKSToKATloN uF THK 



385 



ii at 



I*, u hat should have been the 



^ork of years. In 
liumediat ! \ -aippiv -, am* the greater par! ot th. 4 religious ^oninvo'ations 
and put'jn their -ood.s up fur sale, dii'iieuliirs of more than one kind were 
ej-e.tted* In <'aial<nui and \"aleneia troops had to tntard the i'ati\s of the 
mon.i-ten.- da_\ and in^bt In prevent pillage and massacre. The kino- had 
he^itat '-d t sane s ; n fiie decree, and, utter the session closed on the 9th of 
No\i'!abt-r, he made an unsiieeessJul trial ot absolute power by nominating 
( Irneral C'ar\a;a! eaptain-^eneral of New ('astilr, without the signature of 
the iinm-ntcr o| war. The fermentation then beeann* terrible and the minis- 
ter augmented if in order to frighten the- kim?. The hitler threatened and 
in-anted on all .sides was forced to return to Madrid from his retreat in the 
Iv-enrial. \Vh-n one da\ liis bodyguard u as IUOUM! to pity by the dan- 
tvr-* be Jan, their quarter \\ as besieged and the corps disorganised. The 
>.i ', -lint-twit'tit * of Madrid impo.sed their meaMuv on the ifovernment. 

\ iier iiav iij.f :A\ allou ed .so nuiny affronts Ferdinand wished to make an 
attempt to .hale dj'f the \ol t e, lie hoped with his new resolution to impose 
on hi* ad\er;aM- , who \srre troubied b\ tin- attitude of the jj^reat 'European 
po',\ r , ...nee I'.n-dand alone bad Irankly reeoinii.sed the constitutional g"OV- 
rmmei;,. iJii i.ih.id ii"t e. tin 'ealet 1 her d i; -.plea.Mi re at t he 1 rininph of the in- 
iurfeet ;nn, I*rn. uiand An.triaheld them..ei\es in a reserve which boded no 
}' 'd, and l-'r.inee h.id fi'ied to bi'i ii 1 * abi nit a change in t lie posit ion of the king 
of S;-.iin. IVrdinand eh-e the openinif of the sreond session of the eortes, 
on M.ii-'di 1 t 1 V .M, to d-li\er his attaek. Alter iinishini^ the customary 
add?-- .-> prepared b\ hi > mini.'.terr* in* read a supplement adde.d by himself 
ei.ntplaimn^ of tb- minister-, \Uo had permitted his person to be subjected 
to .lirh ouf ra^e-*. Tlie ue \ i day he dismisserl them and ehose a new cabinet 
froiii Use moderate parly of the ehamher. K\ents in Piedmont and Naples 
\ t ,i\v e.ui^e for (smtiiet Uiif .sentiment*!. Attempts of tlu* absolutists #ave rise 
(> dislurban-ee-i in \*aleuri;t, ( 'orttnna, Seyille, and Barcelona. The king ill 
order to \\ard off the- anijer of the detua^oinn*s sent a message*, to the cortes 
r\priv>-amr his ifiief over events in Italy anil his sympathy with the Italian 
patriots. The ministry, also dr.sinnjf to forestall public defiance, on April 
17th propone* I tuo- ht\vs, one of \\lueh proiiouneed a sentence of death on all 
\\lio should irv to o\esl!irn the religion of the eonst it tit ion, and a decree of 
b,ini : ihment ;r.MJn.'t an\ person who used any expression tending to such an 
o^.-l bis.A . The ,seeojid law provided that tln:- aeen.sed of conspiracy and 
arrea.-d b\ armed Jois-r, \\haie\er their r.oeial pisit itm, bi placed before a 
tuilila!^ fnhuii.il eh..-n from the eorp.s whirh bad imnle the arrest. Judff- 
iiien! \vas to |,r pis.nMinired within si\ day.s, and t^eeuted within forty-eight 
hntir:* alter In-in-.r -ou!;j-m-d b\ the chief "military authority. There was to 
be no appeal ..r 'r\ejvi--,e of pardon by t be Kini';/ The populace would have 
lil,*-d to apir!\ thi law to all politieal offenders. 

( S-nfu* ;'"!! inerra-.'-d from tlav to day. Republican uprisals took plac.e in 
Mala-a an-1 Ivai .-eloita. In the'einiron; of Manrcsa were armed bands in 
t!..-'n!.'.:,..- "t" -th- laith. 1 * There wa:i ciu:.pira-y at Mun-iu and^ ahsolutist 
a /;:.!.!. >:.. at Malaga. P.and-* were armiiuf tliemselves on the frontier ot 
I :.u;'-e f and ii.i i..nr Lirevt wh.-iv to turn Vi.r money to or^aniso, the sadly 
i,,-rd> d'tr.'op-,. f l'he e..Mr w ,v, m*rei\er br;nnnint: to i^ivc way before the 

W.-; 'i.: .'-I' e*ei:t-. wlieii attaeled it. oil a!l sidivi, Tbe question of tllO 5nde- 

i.r :-!- . -,- ,.?" \m. ;.- i terrisied it, and it did not eare to renounce the preten- 
':,,.'. ...j d..:-ri- >;.ainov.-rm-:i w ho had made n ,e of t he rijrht of insurrection. 
Hu! n. .-..t.at ...:r/i.;-',-ed ti seir -, . Out of -s many \ast possessions Spam 
ie!, u n. i >:;;. .\ t" ,! f- rtiiii-d plae.- i.eenpii'd bv the n-muantsof its armies. 



386 THE HISTOEY OF SPAIN 

[1821-1822 A.D.] 

Riots became more and more frequent at Madrid, but they were put 
down by the courage and sangfroid of Morillo. The cortes separated Febru- 
ary 22nd, 1822, at "a moment when Se\ r ille and Valencia were given up to 
rebellion, the Basque provinces and Navarre were infested with bands armed 
in the name of the altar and of the throne, others in Aragon, Alcaiiiz, 
Calatayud, Alagon, and Caspe proclaimed the authority of the Virgin and 
of religion. 

The new cortes opened the 1st of March, 1822, with Riego as president, 
who very soon fell into discord with the new ministry presided over by 
Martinez de la Rosa. The quarrels between the brandies of power incite!! 
absolutist riots and revolutionary insurrection throughout the country. 
The cortes finally decided to send a message to the king informing him of 
the necessity of putting a stop to the critical situation of the realm. After 
stating its complaints it demanded more resolute men at the head of affairs, 
and also the expulsion of prelates and priests who preached fanaticism and 
rebellion. The king relying on popular manifestation in his favour did not 
reply to the deputation. In Catalonia was a considerable body called Army 
of the Faith under the command of Miralles, Romagosa, and Maraiion, called 
the Trappist, who succeeded in capturing Urgel by assault, d 



CHATEAUBRIAND'S ACCOUNT OF THE OHAOS 

The eminent writer Chateaubriand, who was a representative of France 
at the Congress of Verona, and who was one of the principal advocates of 
the French invasion of Spain, has brilliantly pictured the chaos of affairs, in 
1822, which led him to think French intervention necessary. We may quote 
briefly his description : 

The press, secret societies, clubs, had disorganised everything-. Bar- 
celona, Valencia, Pamplona had risen. One side cried " Vive J)/<w/" the 
other "Vive Riec/o!" Killing was carried on in the name of Him who 
murders not and of him who murders. At Madrid, regiments fought 
against the royal grenadiers ; young men walked about the streets crying 
for absolute monarchy. God and the king! It was all one in Spain ; las 
amlas magestades. In the very house of cortes, deputies were saying that a 
refusal to listen to the popular complaint authorised dagger justice. Riego, 
the president, was powerless. He was always ready to sing the Trdyala. 1 
A couplet of it might at any moment mean a crown ;* but, if it was not good, 
the crown would vanish, and one would remain on the highway with the 
throne changed into a mere stage. 

The serviles, who paraded their name as proudly as though it were a royal 
designation, profited by one hour's respite and reaction against secret societies 
to re-seize power. Royalist risings replaced revolutionary insurrections. The 
Descaraisados, matadors in servile pay, were beaten in their turn. They 
revived the human sacrifices of their 'Carthaginian ancestors. Monarchical 
sections appeared under the old guise. Govostidi, Misas, Merino, fabulous 
heroes of the presbytery, rose in Biscay, Catalonia, and Castile. Insurrec- 
tion spread. Quesada, Juanito, Santo-Ladron, Truxillo, Sehafaudino, and 
Hierro were all alive with it. Finally Baron Eroles showed himself in Cata- 
lonia. Near him was Antonio Maranon. Antonio, called the Trappist, was 
tost a soldier, then fled into cloistered life under the influence of passion, 

iThat is, "Swallow it," meaning the constitution, a popular street son" of Cadiz which 
may be compared with the " Qa ira I of the French Revolution. 



T11H KKSToU.VriOX OK T11K 



'iX7 

oo * 



.-;imi-il .T.NS and swm-d with equal enthusiasm. His militarv dress \vis 
r.ju.-is.-.iu ,:. ,.n whirl, jmn- a erurilix. At his waist. limn-- u sword 
.. Is u.l a n,xin . He u ,,,t ! ,-tllup ulon- earryin- ;i whin. IVaee and 
. rr!j..'i,m nu.1 li,vn- :i -. lit.' and death, wen- united in out- man, who alter- 
-lv 1.1.-S-.-.1 and .vt.Tuunut.-.l. Crusades ami civil massacres, psahns and 
- hsmn, *t t if,,,t M,,t,-r :ut,i 7'm/a li' and 



[tv. 

H. 



j.ii 



triumphs a. martyr or soldier, souls mounting heavenwards to strains of the 
I t-nl ('/viir*r, rebels .shut to military music such was existence in this eor- 
iier of thr rll. 

Ferdinand, on the hunks of the Tagai\ rw yni cri<t tw e jtwdras predosas, 
:,worn to the constitution only to betray it. Sincere friends invited 
to niodih utNtntetiujis, working with the cortcs. Shortsighted friends 
d him to overthrow them; royalist successes secretly flattered the king-; 
h.pr uf an unruntn.llrd ^uuTt'igntv gratified him. ' Want of power to 
d power nude him luve it the more. 

ilrthdav fell on the :JO(h of May. If was celebrated by the 
laneha, reunited at Aranjue/. % In vain the soldiers repeated 
ot the praNants, e\en as the bodyguard at Versailles sang 
1 //<'/< /tV/" If France had not soon interfered, Ferdinand 
ued v.hete Richard led Lotus XVI. The militia inarched 

i thej.r.ipie, ,uid a tuwiiMuau lifted his sword against Don Carlos that 

,-,f ul the 1. imr-i and unr u ho uaited so heavy a crown. At Valencia, a 
t.iebin'-nt ..f artillery \\anled to deliver (icn<*rai I'lliu, shut up in the citadel, 
hr < \i?.il..ni.ut ni-.urj'Tnts, nou urgani.sed, liad taken the mime of the Army 
' ih'- Faith. / ' ' 



:t\ti 



imbt i* 
Mil-a!!.- 

t he ei! i 





Jiie.', a 



nvu, WAR 

*Jl-,t of June, lK*2*j, Uie Army of the Faith learned the isolated 
I the treble j?urrihon in Seo de Urgel. Rcmuuullo, Ronuvgosa, and 
ilh the *l*nijpiht, arrungnl to meet under its walls. Helped by 
s t hry immediattdy surrounded the citadel. An assault, was 
, and the M'rajtpist, set t ing an (example to the soldiers, was the 
tie thr tu\\rr, a crucittx in one hand, in the other a long whip, 

pourr. lie hnued tlie balls dincted against him, and tin? 
T.-.u.ided of hi.* inv nlnerabtlity, followed after. The tower was 
thrr forts were .Nurreiui*red, and next- day the citadel, with sixty 
->.. and ,'ii\l*en huntlrcd guns, was in the hands of the apostolies. 
ue-e-.-* \\ A-* must important, for the French aides had, in promis- 
a.idr a formal eunditiun that- the Army of the Faith should 

ori ion tu the consternation excited among the leaders by the 
>* ilr Fr-.^rl, ,M> uas Fenlinand strongly roused and the eoura.ge 
'.tirn-d. It \\a* nou a (ju<*stion with them all of ({iiickly 
!i!iu. Tin* instrument for this \\~as soon found in the 
in mo.it liveh discontent reigned bt*cause the eortes had 
t' r->r:.fani.sinif it, and who, seeing tliemselves in danger of 
i'i!-t'v-;, had decided to light against the national militia, 
pr!i; It !- - v\'-re partieularlv odious to them. 
',;'n,tra a! Madrid alone numbered .six entire battalions; that is, a 
'*iri'i'-i. (,!! fnv than the iv,\t uf tht* garrison, and there was, more- 
bri'^.id'- 'l e.irbsni-*'. , then in garrison at ( 'astro del Rio, near Cor- 
A V"';ji-.- ::;i--i-. ,ilr-ad^ celrbrated at CatU/< for his royalist (h'votion, 



\~ ! 388 THE HISTORY OF SPAIN 

I . ' [1822 A.D.] 

| Don Luis Fernandez of Cordova, received from the king or had a self- 

II | I I imposed mission to concentrate all this military force and lead it against the 

II I | established system. The projected reforms of the cortes made this easy, 

" * ' i and, on the 25th of June, the carbineers of Castro del Rio raised the stand- 

I ard of revolt in Andalusia. At Aranjuez and Madrid the royal guards 

I began a series of struggles with the people and the militia struggles which 

! every day became more animated. On the 27th the court returned from 

> I , , Aranjuez to the capital, and this was the signal for fresh outbreaks. The 

I f '| i . ' . : royal ceremony of closing the first session of the cortes took place on the 

i 30th. This important act was carefully observed, because Ferdinand did 

! '; not think himself really in a position to act until he had freed himself from 

1 these importunate adversaries. But on returning from the ceremony, when 

|]| | ' , the king had just regained his palace, a lively quarrel burst out. Some 

I : shouted "Long live our absolute king ! " and some "Long live the constitu- 

l ' " tion ! " The guards were simply furious. Stationed at the Plaza de Oriente, 

\ they suddenly returned to the crowd, drove them back, and chased away 

some national militia picketed on the square. Then they organised them- 
selves in military style as though in an enemy's city. Some among their 
officers belonged to the cortes, one of them, Mamerto Landaburu, wanted to 
recall his men to discipline. They insulted him, whereupon he drew his 
sword to punish the offenders himself, but, far from being listened to, he 
became their first victim. Three grenadiers struck him behind and he fell 
bathed in his own blood at the very gates of the palace. 

The Madrid populace had for two years been too accustomed to scenes of 
tumult, to rise at the news of an isolated act. But the national militia took 
arms incontinently, and seized two plazas. 

It was a critical moment for Ferdinand. Supported by a military force 
which would only take orders from himself, he could find a serious concourse 
in the ministry against all his enemies, if he only consented to the drawing 
up of a charter and granting the representative institutions for which he had 
shown so much anxiety before M. de Villele. But the king thought him- 
self now in a position to acquire absolute power. He knew that a regiment 
of militia had joined with the carbineers at Castro del Rio ; and he had seen 
insurgent troops of Andalusia coming to help his guards at the very doors of 
his palace. However, he had to reckon with the militia and the garrison 
of Madrid, and these two elements were preparing to fight with a calmness 
and courage that argued success. These formed under the name of the Holy 
Battalion, and under Don Evaristo San Miguel there was a special corps 
composed of ardent patriots. The most distinguished generals, Ballesteros, 
Alava, and Palarea, showed inclination to make the laws respected. For 
several days the two parties remained face to face. The two battalions 
stationed at the palace were vilely seduced by the king and his courtiers. 
Money was freely scattered among the guards, and they were excited to 
fight by promises of all kinds. 

By the 6th the necessity of taking a definite step was felt. But favour- 
able news arriving of the insurrection of Castro del Rio, the aspect of affairs 
suddenly changed. Orders were given that neither the ministers, the state 
councillors, nor the political leader were to leave the palace, as grave events 
might happen during the night. 

And just so it happened. The four Par do battalions marched on the 
capital in the hope of surprising it and disarming the national militia. 
Arrived at one of the chief gates, they divided into three columns, one mak- 
ing for the artillery park, a second to the Puerta del Sol, and a third to the 



THK UKRTOUATIOX OF THE BOURBONS 389 

fivv v.f ! 

< '.institution square. As fair so willed, the first column met a patrol of 
th* j llnh Battalion, ami this circumstance decided the issue of the stru^le. 
A few stray shi>ts awoke tin* people. In ait instant eveiy patriot was afoot ; 
r;irh rail t his post, an*! tin 4 ^nanls were driven from the artillery park and 
tin- ria/a Mayor. They retired in HufUeiently ,q;ood order on the Puerta del 
SM| column, \\ hieh had fried tu take the Casa de Correos, hut had been stopped 
|v HMMIIS nf a strong barricade put np behind the door. A governmental 
cutnimf h*e exarted that the four rebellious battalions should lay down their 
ana's and ulh>\\vd the other t\vo to go out armed to settle in the villages 
uf Yir.dvaro and Leifaitcs, with the one eondition that they should give up 
the inunlrriT.s of Laiidulmru. 

This capitulation omjht to have ended the. struggle, but did nothing of 
thr soft. The four battalions to he disarmed refused obedience, going out 
of fit" p.d.icr by u L^ate \\hieh h'd ti> the Campo <hd Moro and (leeing in the 
iiuri'itdii tf Aleoreon, after liseharging tluir arms at the militia. After 
nriliatory el'birts \vere made. Thn'e columns, (U)inmauded by 
.-s rujums and Palarea pursued and smote, them hip and thigh, 
p*rat innnber and taking many prisoners. If some stories can ho 
K'rdin.ind rr\vnt-d his infamy in these memorable days by person- 
:ili\ uriMje*' n tlte mntjurrt i-rs. * v After them! Afte.r them!" cried lie to 
Mni-i!lf lit. at hi, l.i!.'n\, .NO orih-ring the extermination of those who had 

j-l\-Ji I h*m-'rl Vr. t* ht'i raU.^r.'* 

Tlir nru admini^t r.tt inn be^an 1\ banishing from the cap it-al all those who 
\\rtr ( u-;|',-!r! of ha\iii;,', I'ounsrllrd this last attempt of thtM^ourt, and by ap- 
j .Mintnr.t n-\v others ; i v >uinpi re*eived therommand in (Jalieia, and. Mi.ua in 
< \ita-nni.i. At Vul'uei.i<ii-ui*rul Klio\va,seondemned for an inia-ginary crime by 
a r,.wi*'il l \s.ir in tib'ilirnee (u tlie erit*s of tilt* populace, and was strangled on 
S'|itrnihi-r llth. lUit wliile tlte cumjucrofs of July 7th were, pursuing their 
triumph, nul war was hfnvadiu^ its ravaj^es, and evi*nts of a new order gave 
it a mi'i-.* I'nliiiral rhanu'trr. At I'r^el a government was established ^vith 
the litlr .mi|.n-m' rr^mr) of Spam during th<- captivity of the, king." 
This \\.ri ivo*',:w,si'il In a niajurity of tlie ollicers in the so~calle.d royal army, 
hv <!rnrr.il l-i^iia, O'D.Mm**!!, tlie pnrral iiHjuisiior, the, bishoj> of Pam- 
and \ t mIU' junta-* nf t hf pr\in<vs. '1'he troops obtained some suc- 
/.md u.-rr aiilrd lu thr I-'renrlj i^ovennneni , Its age,nts were favour- 
v.---i\-d b\ thr ron't'jv.-; at Verona. Nevertheless it was compelled to 
,- [ r-rl, and iii-.tidl it'^lf at !>nyeenhu\xheneiiit.\vasfomul to re treat 
.v and t.-nninatr if-i *-\iMrnee at Toulouse on Det-ember 7th. Mina 
t.in-<in.M| ihr rosali-t bands rrb-ntlessly. 

llir n.-u .-\tr.t M--iMn tf thr i-ortes opened the <th ol Oe.tobor at a 
iiiMjurnt ulirn 'Aar w. i -.rajrimruntln' northern fmniicr. 'Flic famous brigand 
Jtuii*' \!f..n-.M had iMi-,.-d flit- standartt .f the. faith in Murcia; the priest 
M fTlli ,, ) M d al-.u iv rntnvd thr field. <'ivil war ratted in (^istilc, Andalusia, 
and in tin 4 M'M\ in* 1 " ! Tnh-di /* 



;M-I;U\ I:MI*N m- 1 THK 

p... s. lltifl ltl .- llt .iMuu-a In uui-K nut its own salvation. Kurope was 
j , V ., ! j j|' n ; . 4 , |,< tl- I!" 1 - \nianM% \\hi-h disguised a resolution to 
'/ '* ' ' o 1 ' < | n i i l | . l ' t , , Mll i iu iu.dntai-1 despotism under a pretended y.eal 
,-',; ' .,; 1 ,;.; 1I .,. :ill ,i \ tl ^\^h \^<. M (\n>(\>iW**t Verona (Ortobcr, 
i v" , 'l.'l-v,-,- \n-tru Unv,ia, and PnisMa a-reed up(.n armed intervention 



II I 



1! i 



Si ! 



M. 



THK IlKSToJfATiOX OK THK ttoUUl'.OXS 391 

'''' \ * 

j.,-r-i,-.j, iLnU- to tin* hu>in''liki* ways of the commissariat Onward, who 
luir\v Lii\v i< r,i; u.- .speculative spirit in the Basques, and faithfully paid 
j' Ml - a ;; V .,,M! , fcusu'h? him. This hroui^ht into a country ravaged by poverty 
an ini'-xpee;' 'I ;i>td itiN!-ad of ruin and desolation. There was no danger 
I'li'-oajitcivd m '..'aliu'.r tin* l'\ rentes. The. duke-- of Augouleme, conqueror 
\ufsi<>m li-'i-iuuf, eutiitt oiahiUh his headquarters ut Vitoria and patiently 
UiU i |] |r r.tnei'ut rat uni of all hi* columns hefore marching directly on tlie 

Alter ihi- i^>\ erniuent departed, military authority was concentrated at 

Madrid in the hands ol Urneral U*!hnneli, the count of Ahishal. A vigorous 
deh-iier \\a- t-vpi-cU'd iu the Unadatrama defiles, hut the count was not 
',tr,u/iif lot ward in hi-- dealing. lie hud arrived ut the highest honours 
h\ Hal !' nis ir raeh part v .ucec^sivflv. Instead of arming the population 
,j',| ',,. tn\in" ISM- mr-4 "iiupo! iant points, he entered, into secret negotiations 
\\ith Ssr '/i.iil '<*! th- diile >f Ani'joulrme, \vhieh had received most detailed 
U| ^ t ( -riiMir, IH ..-.par*- lio. d f lit-d hv nsin.i; means of corruption, with which 
lt jj !t ( p 4 .,. u -riirrnii.slv pm\ided. (taini'd over to the cause against 
,,.| i ; r ! s [.,.. \ tAt [ pr t {toum-'d in l v - f l Ahishal openly pointed out to his officers 
i'l,V ;'-,.".,, ,'ihu.U of r'-i'-tiji-: the inva'don. The army officers, indignant, 
v / l . _ '.'/i. ,, i,., s> lv in hi-, hoii .. ,tnd intimated that it- was time for him to resign. 
\; t : ,;,.,! P ;i h .'.-i thr ii.ue.^-r if ian, and lied to France. 

\Vi\n-:. r. ihu ah,m.donr-d h\ it-, leader at the last moment, found itself 
1Mlk: 'j./.i:-;, a t'h.- virfniiMir, m.i'rrh of lliednkeof Angouleme. Of the^two 
.i,.,?. 1 V' ','/;. i; id sii.-ei-i'iir.l Ahi-JaK nr of th*Mii, ('asiel dos Ruis, decided 
I',', '<-'. ',!n' uiJ.' V-Miviuadui-.t heading the hulk of his troops. The other, 
'[,.fi '^iih a frehle cnrps 'of fmm twelve, to fifteen hundred to 
4 -/.' u.itu'liJj.m uhieli \vt.ul.l al least assure lilV. and property to the 
^..'Vuf Mtdnd. Thh ta,s! mea^-aire wan full of foresight, for while 
^V'.iuiM-Mi' thrVivnch army was spoken of, Bessieres, the same leader 
* I IIM| | vi\ M -i null- iM-foiv had tlireattuHMl Madrid, had made a hold 
/ n iV p^X'...!*.-*! iu neeispv the eit>, while his followers hoped to give 
..'.' t .. tuiir'r* !>nf Xa\us with the help of the. garrison and national 
.* t'ei-lV !*" I.-'T'-d hi* pa-a/1% fnreed him to retreat, and kept him 
j 1 ' f V' l V'''- v <' : " i'-tti! th.-'arrnal of the first Kiviujh troops this, in 
,'i i!i, ivp-Vtrd ihie.tt, and the rai^e uf all the had subjects greedily 

^MMidrlli 'Th-'"" Aurs aiv always ivady foi' a spectacle, fete, or 
"""' - 1 MM'-.-.^.T M idi'd liad'wttiiin her a, crowd ol partisans 
' ' ! .' 1 " "V'.^ ' ,. ' 3 |.l UiM - uhi. lirh.np'd to the palace or the clergy, 
^i,,, 1 ,',' li'liU.r.il ,,!nunr.f ration had <leprived c,f employment, and the 
;',,.,-,,,,., Th- ,- uarmlv ueleomed him who was conqueror ovei 
t !,' ti r ;; t , u Ulll lhl . Mul, uf Anicouleme, althougli received 

i>l ' - .i 1In ,tiH,,, sMn,",and dance, could liardly mistake the 

s : ; ! ti Ji^.jutrts thmnp'd the streets, the middle 
"'I tn ;i li ;[ l i HhcrtvJiid fheh* humiliation hy their fire- 
} to the ,.v t . t . S sts of a mad populace who 
i :"! ' n'd nil!a.'.v thr houses of all the well-known 
.i 4 ;; ;\}J> tltl >>;j t , overran the town singing the 



. ; i n i 



.. r ii.i/i : 
iv t !. !. 

I",,'' 1 ': '-!' d t\ 4 I !i f * Jf//fMMf il t* '**""* ' " - - - '' ' . , 

' ,1 ,nv'-< :u,t f ...l,.,nnlv pui, I',nhnand s portrait 

' OiP ' * >*' ^ ( , A _ _._. , ,.r 4],,,, <>m)V- 



; i 



* 5 * j , I , i ! 1 1 i r i ' - i i I ' ' I , v . u i i m * > > i ' ' * "' " --'- . 

, 1?: - (1 ,'V '"!,;; j n tjll . i,,,,,. ()f l r ,t.lin- out, of tins unar- 
l " '" '"' ,"". ' ,1 , .,iv,. a .IrtiniU' form to the new 
' ' "- ''' ;;;; ( . i . ( . I ; iatli . rs iu h;iu ,l, iu . proclamation 
',1 Aiv lHii;i), -.inmiuurintf las intention ol 



392 THE HISTORY OF S1?AIN 

[1823 A.D.] 

leaving the Spaniards to govern themselves and inviting the former coun- 
sellors of Castile and the Indies to choose a regency to take the helm of the 
state until Ferdinand had recovered his full liberty. The duke of Angouleme 
made the terrible mistake of sanctioning nominations that were fatal and soon 
to be regretted. Then having seen the regency commence work with the duke 
of Infantado as president, and the new ministry formed wherein Canon Victor 
Saez was minister of foreign affairs and Don J. B. Erro minister of finance, 
he thought he could rest with perfect security and have nothing but his 
military" operations to occupy him until Ferdinand was seized from the 
cortes. 

The unlucky prince did not realise that, in confiding the government of 
Spain to personages picked out by former counsellors, he was practically 
condemning the unhappy country to ten years of a horrible system of per- 
secution and religious fanaticism ; that he was making the French ilag 
responsible for the organisation of the most odious government which the 
human mind could conceive, and soiling the white Hag he wished to hold 
high by making it the symbol of ignorance, fanaticism, and shameful 
arbitration, ft 

Meanwhile the cortes held Ferdinand practically a prisoner in Seville. 
On the approach of the French the king, protesting violently, was haled to 
Cadiz, after the appointment of a regency of three. In his diary Ferdinand 
describes vividly the humiliation of his position, and it is evident that he 
was treasuring up a wealth of grudges to repay with all his liberality in spite. 
Late in June Cadiz was besieged by land and sea. After a heavy bombard- 
ment, during which Ferdinand kept signalling to the duke of Angouleme, 
Cadiz fell on the 28rd of September, 1823, and on October 1st Ferdinand was 
delivered free to the French at Puerto de Santa Maria. 



TUB ttimiRN OF FERDINAND (182;* A.ZK) 

The 1st of October Ferdinand crossed from Cadiz to Santa Maria. He 
was scarcely in possession of his authority before he annulled every act 
which had been passed since March 7th, 1.820, and announced that ho con- 
sidered himself released from all obligations towards his rebellious subjects 
and that he was going to punish their assaults. The extreme party which 
carried him with it no longer restrained its vengeance. The duke of 
Angouleme returned to Madrid and left immediately for Paris. The king 
proceeded to the capital where the absolutist party welcomed him in triumph. 
But there he saw that he must submit to a new yoke, for when certain offi- 
cers of the voluntary royalists were presented to him, remembering the 
national militia he remarked that they were "the same dogs with different 
collars." 

The conquerors gave themselves up to the intoxication of vengeance. 
One of the victims most passionately demanded was Riego, who paid the 
penalty for his deeds on the 7th of November in the 'publics square of 
Madrid. 1 The generals Rallesteros and Morillo went into exile. The 
prisons were full to overflowing. The populace hurled its rage against the 
liberals, who were proscribed under the name of Negros; during the minis- 
try of Victor Saez, the king's confessor, the hangman "scorned to be the most 
active instrument of power. 

P He was dragged through the streets in a basket drawn at the tail of an ass ; lie was then 
hanged and quartered as if he were a felon.] 



r. 



THK UKSTUUATIOX OK THK liuriinoNS 



303 



Ferdinand felt himself too strongly ruled In the absolutisi faction 1 and 
lie feared moreover the projects the latter seemed to be forming* in connec- 
tion with his brother, the infante Don Tarlos, for ulnm they hoped fora 
more complete devotion. His old partisan Bessie-res, now at the mercy of 
tlit* faction, haunt? culled together his troops without the 'government's 
order, paid for it on the scaffold. Ferdinand was forced to retard the 4 evaeu 
ation of Barcelona by the French for fear of the hostility from the partisans 
of pure despotism ; he was obliged to ?o to ('ataloni.i to scatter the assem- 
blies of troops clamourim? too loudly for an absolute kins', uud he returned 
to^ Madrid full of fear and suspicion. His rei;?n after the fall of the Sac/, 
ministry is easy fo characterise. 
No new principle \\as proclaimed, 
im abuse \\ as solemnly repudiated. 
Not one uonl of authority i?ave 
rrason to Mippo-.e that at sometime 
any thought \\onld be <?iven to jv- 
iormim? ancient customs* to modi- 
fun"; the ah.-.olutr rijdit of the, 
throne \\hieh is inseparable from 
t h.it of reli"'io.n. In 1 *;, \\ hen 
the Br;i/.ilian charter \\a.- e,,fab- 
1; h-d in Portugal, a \n*\ eminent al 
pr'el.iin;it ion ..till Comprised all t he 
duties!.! a Spaniard in thefollou 
in:f precept ,: ^ l,o\ r the kirn?, ohc\ 
tin* Lin;?, and di- for hi.s absolute 

In spit i- of these formulas air 
other spirit directed a flairs. The 
council of .slate had to be purifcd 
of its most influential personages. 
Old adherents of the constitution 
and <"\<-n of Kinij* Joseph sur- 
rundefl the throne af times', be- 
c,tu-.e lite Lin;? had no other senti- 
ment lhan that ol per.sonal ..^ilcfy; r .\nisj \utr. 
he did not \\i.-h to i?i\* himself up ^Mjj*-.ir .r i-^i.tumiat vn> 
i'omph-h'U fo the part.\ uhich uas 

a I rcad\ pro % laimin? ant her n.une ! ha.n his* \\ n. lie had ul\va\ s had a horror 
oi I he cuic J it nt in, but he ditl not ignore the fact that the evehunat ion <f 
I /?v rin>ntixifin ! liad been accompanietl 1>\ another cry. Thus he saw- him- 
:ell eomp.'lled to cruJi both parties, to .sacrifice \\ithout pit\ the authors of 
audacious at tempt s, no matter on uhich side the\ mi"hl he. Moreover he 

had '.food e.m-ic f tl'e.it \\itli the iit'U spirit bei'au.-^' he had need of imUieV 

for lii^ alnnni>U'.Ll i'n and army, and to '<vt if he had to revert to foreigners. 
It u a i de.-lai'ed b\ i h>- :';o\ t-nnncnt \\ hich sms-eedi'd him that, from l- s l',> to 
t.h- ''ud of hi; rei'/n th' public debt inerea,ed r*;."jjMiu % (MM) franc;,. 

I 1 -rdin.ind did noj u i th n cjr,t it nte a party* Jo pi-oelaim hi-, principle.., 




% 

II! 



>*:t. 
f ff- 



394 THE HISTORY OF SPAIK 

[182G-1833 A.D.] 

to cause his interests to dominate. He merely chose men reputed to be 
skilful and opposed them in his council to men who were necessary but dan- 
gerous. Spain lent itself to this oblique course because her passions had 
died out : the voluntary royalists who opposed the Negros had been punished. 
The majority of the episcopal body turned a deaf ear to cries for the 
re-establishment of the Inquisition. In 1827 the old hands " of the faith," 
who had arisen in Catalonia against Ferdinand and his ministers, had been 
crushed with no hope of return. The same causes brought about the 
extinction of the liberal effervescence. Mina himself was obliged to escape 
by flight from the persecutions of populations which had once celebrated 
his exploits. 

Ferdinand appeared equally indifferent or undecided in regard to the 
members of his family. On March 29th, 1830, when his young wife Maria 
Christina of Naples was pregnant, he issued a " pragmatic sanction " pro- 
claiming as a law of the state a resolution of King Charles IV, made in 
accord with a demand of the cortes of 1789, abolishing the Salic law insti- 
tuted in 1713 by Philip V, and thus re-established the right of women to 
inherit the throne of Spain ; but he afterwards showed no predilection for 
the young princess Maria Isabella Louisa, who was born in July of the same 
year. 

Again he assembled the most devoted partisans of his brother Don Carlos 
about his throne, and when an attack of the gout brought him to the edge of 

the tomb in September, 1832, he signed 
a decree revoking the new law of suc- 
cession. Then, returned to life again, 
he placed the infante Don Carlos at 
a distance, drove away the ministers 
who had wrung the fatal signature 
from his feeble hand and denounced 
their odious manoeuvres ; and as though 
to protect himself against new obses- 
sions he placed the government in the 
hands of the queen, his wife, until his 
health should be restored. He let her 
publish decrees of amnesty for political 
criminals, take measures to destroy the 
existence of the voluntary royalists, 
reduce the privileges of the council of 
Castile ; then, for fear of seeing her 
advance too rapidly in the way of re- 
forms, he had her announce in a mani- 
festo of December that he did not 
intend to introduce the slightest in- 
novation into the constitutional laws of 
DON CARLOS I the monarchy, nor to change anything 

that was established. On January 4th, 

1833, he announced that, as his health was sufficiently recovered, he had reas- 
sumed the reins of government. The day before, so that they might receive 
full authenticity, the queen placed in the archives the act of the cortes of 
1789 and the revolution of Charles IV in regard to the abolition of the Salic 
law. In spite of his antipathy towards innovators Ferdinand felt that it was 
necessary to constitute a political force around the cradle of his daughter. 
Men for whom the name of Don Carlos was a menace came together to 




THK UKSToltATloN OF Till; P,uirm;nNS HU5 

V". i f, ) 

trad tii.* No" 11 '-: prin.w,. A deeree of April 7th, I*.io, OIIIM-IHM! Hie 

Itr* lit M.uhiil. "Hit' i!ri of June, the jnlli-s % pivlates, and de!r!*',ites nf 
r ritU's !n4 an oath of iille^iamv to th prinerMs of tin* Asittna;., as heir 
* nf the rnnvn of Spain and the Index The ^!tli of September, ls:;:{, 

ivbnattd di*d, [ra; in;.; a h\u v .serptre in flu* hands of his daughter, ^ 



i;M: UK r.ucusM 

Though l-Yrdinund ulnle alive had. hern aeeunmlntintf let.fa! arts in fuvuur 
diivrf decent, he h.nl ;tttiifln*l luurr and niun* iiupurtiiin't* foohtainin^ thr 
.juii-si'i-ut'i- f his hmthiT I)m ( ';irtu.-4 in his smt'ivujii \vill. H** had MU{ ;i 
\,il i*nl* 4 r a .Kiiii*; \\ln-n hr llinu^lii t.f rrm^nisiujLj 1 flu* already prurlaiinnl 
n'fvs-.. I)MII t ';irhtM, n*t ttJ hr hrliiiitlhaad, prnfilrd hv ihis to take up a 
tinitr pM>,if;..ji as rhiint;ui! in the rvrs of thr pnhlir. llr \\ rote his hrothrr 
rftrr \\hirh IK* ha-,! ?'U.'d t> m.ike pultllt', in \vliirh these words won? f 



\--.:: :i-.', ".',!.' 1 = 3 si. .? ! .,::.''. .! 5.- >-.. ar MI- \ mi r . Uii I { r a -, j ,|'n IITV, < *f flu* A .! u ri;t' ? 

'i !;;- ,i?t-l i:.-!i---;i V. r'i tt.'f j--;:i:jr lljj ; . My li'/.ht'i to I hr <T*\\ tl, if I MlVUVr yil, 
' ' - i--.i'-' Ji" .'i,.l;-' j"- -'.'J lf>, -U' 1 ' ' !",;itUij5ifi that I ti*'rI lint ruUllli'J'aN* thrJH. Tlnvit* 

*' v '"->" ..i-.'-u ^-;. < i ul--!i i V:,:;, ; *4 tu;, 1-ijlh, ,nl hr :iliii <'an laK' 1)i-?Ji a\\av 1"S ; 
-.ii:. f : ;.!. i. - :;,.,: '.-Hi rii.-.i t i.-'sjri* j'fih.ij' j r\i'n ni'tn- than ymi. Mnrnarr, I am 
'li-li::.. ':.-' i... f ::' ! .;.!! Sh=..<' Vii.M .!; atf-r Its--, "lint. I fun! tin <r|f ohli^.ni to s-ul 
J fii* : '.- -I !' ..u.if ''ill, ! lu'J' I .*'ii"i a lMUU-.il i-oj\ to \ttil utit! olhiT : iVM*i}',nN, til 
'.'.t 1 ! ;> i ; i v, ill * )junniii?'\i!i' if, 
X'li 1 "-";, .. ! ..u' l.fi;r\ ! nr. hf.ii J . I ,iiti ah\,r. -j \om > ,tlu;iV' xoiii'.-i lu\ini;lVt atii 

i.l-' . 1 t-:r..-;.? ;.: ! {; | .; .r, .- i - 4 i.ni IJjM.-l all''!' I loltilf r I } tit IjlT, 



'i'i.-- iir-!.iraU*n \ia.' S Urn-* \\nidrd : 



.\I-.ii., I. -j,.;.* !* Ji'Hn"'3J, liifiUtf*' **! S|aiff, aiu ihoimi^Jilv 'uIivilM'i'tl of 
"' r.r.Jif.-; J-i ?h" -N|,iJu 4J I hi * '!t' Hi *'l'"" '} ni\ :.JUM\llJg N *$, 01' \ Oil J' HO! . !-,i\ 
f, I -,.i\ th,ll JUV roii?n-t i HIT aini inV tlnMir will Ilof prlinit un to .% \vr;ir (nor 

.4lin n^hf'^ au.l thi- I t|. cliu.', 

'' 



, Aj-iil VlUh, I ' i.i. 



!>>% t'MU.uri, Iiti'itnlc. 



u. il*--l.iiat inn I'Yidiu.md \\rofe t<> hi,- hrnt hrr ;,a v ini( thai, 
!' ^i4.il!ii^' hi'. rtii%ri"Hrr, hr in*\ rrf lu'lr;.,. inu.sl tol'hid 
. ;{ u; j;izr,' t Spain, '* l'ir \*T\ ,:fn >n,, pnlif ir.d reasons and in ronsidrnit ion 
ti,r '.H:itrv v - Li'* 1 ;. !! rnnlil int, h' font iiitietf, make ihr flr<'larati'i^ 
f*rr:,..^i ;..! .- t ha-an^ his i-fin-a! *u the prinriph 4 that foreign ^overinurntN 
,-l.t I-*" : ni'']-fVrr in iatrrir .fair affair;. Tin* salutations used wen- 
'.a/, ., hi", ! an at'tYr! innate teudenie-;-; that f<nu'd a r.urinus ront rast= lo 
. :*,,! ;-.i:-j,..i-i "f ?h- !-ttrr-.. 

l>. .n a;!**, nluiiif fed t the l.mi'.luuent iinjr.tMt, hut had no itlea of 
r, in." I'..; : :r.?al t * .i. >-<*!! .i an nrderraiue to ;? l* It,d\, he hu,sie<l him- 
; .*;*!; ii-a.-Mii. J'T n*<i. d> *iM" ( ' ..sir- t hiir^ of the l-;ind, not tpeuly refii:an;,f that 
r.ii.-n'-.- \\hi--h he had alwav-. atieeted to owe hi/, hn*thet\ hit! inventing a 
'A d "! j'r-:--'-. ; - !'"* ii'ti n-jidrrin^ it. The now pulilished eorresjont!*'nei! 
:/,.. ,; jj:* I^M Ifiothrr, en fhit Mrr;tiin :hi>u :;, < u the infant e\s part, a 

. a- . "' . J i * ". - :u\ !:!: 'If. f o *'\ru,e h; ; : t.t V in Piirt U;; - ;d, and tl't>Ul th** 
:.,--/: i :''U . .-.!.. n * t!:." i in pr-te.\t i i iidvatiertl, and a roir.tant <'Udea\i'ur 
-..MI^V.' <-i- '.'.. l -, !. d.-j arTtt 1 , . Feidinand, af U*nt f th, left off U'iu;.; a 
ii- .| J'/,!/-- . ;; .! .. : -,. and ,pik.- ,i . an aniiMVed kiii);, le ,irin;; hi , !r'th'-r t' 
s, ,', L' !L ; !. .;*^ i;d-ti i" o'orv ur not. Tin* an.A\er ua, p;ud a::d n.- 



396 THE HISTOKY OF SPAIN 

[1833-1834 A.B.] 

dainful. Don Carlos said if lie left Portugal, he would have the air O f 
a fugitive who had committed some crime : that he declined to put himself 
in such a shameful position, and, if really guilty, demanded a trial according 
to the laws of the realm (July, 1833). 

From this date Don Carlos led a party quite in opposition to his sover- 
eign, although keeping up an appearance of not stirring up civil war before 
his brother's death. He began to gather round him in his little court at 
Ramalhao, then at Maf ra and Coimbra, all those who had refused their oath to 
Princess Isabella. Inflammatory pamphlets went thence in every direction 
to spread doubt in men's minds as to the legality of Ferdinand's testamentary 
arrangements. A fe\v active men were already engaged in raising army 
corps. Baron Los Valles was sent into France and England to convince 
those two governments of the justness of the claim put forth by the Spanish 
inf ante.& 

WAR OF THE CHRISTINOS AND CARLISTS (1833-1839 A.D.) 

Scarcely had King Ferdinand VII closed his eyes,when the apostolic party 
in northern Spain, especially in Navarre and the Basque provinces, proclaimed 
Don Carlos, brother of the king, as King Charles V. In order successfully 

to oppose the Carlists, who 
fought for absolutism and 
priesthood, there was nothing 
for the regent, Maria Chris- 
tina, to do but to throwherself 
into the arms of the liberal 
party. Thus the seven years' 
war between Carlists and 
Christines grew out of a fight 
for the throne into a civil war 
and a battle for principles. 
The Carlists had the upper 
hand to start with, owing to 
the ability of their general, 
Zumalacarregui, against 
whom the Christines could 
place no equally matched 
leader . From Portugal, where 
Don Carlos was residing with 
his beloved nephew, Don Mi- 
guel, this general threatened 
the frontiers of Spain. 

Hence Christina turned to 
England and France, and the 
Quadruple Alliance of April 
22nd, 1834, was concluded 
QUEEN MARIA CHRISTINA between these states and Spain 

and Portugal, the object of 

which was to maintain the constitutional throne of Isabella and of Maria da 
Gloria and to drive out the two pretendants, Carlos and Miguel. Still, in 
that same year, these two men, who enjoyed the favour of the eastern powers 
and of the pope to a high degree, were obliged to leave Portugal. Carlos 
went to England in June, on an English ship, but he escaped again in July, 




THE RESTORATION OF THE BOURBONS 397 

[1834-1855 A.D.] 

and, after an adventurous journey through France, appeared suddenlv in 
Navarre to reanimate the courage of his followers by his royal presence. The 
war was carried on with passion and cruelty on both sides. After the death 
of Zumalacarregui, who lost his life on June 14th, 1835, at the siege of Bilbao, 
the Christines, who exceeded in numbers, seemed to have the advantage. But 
they could accomplish little against the restless Cabrera, who had just received 
his first ecclesiastical orders, and had gone over into the camp of the pre- 
tender. He was a most able guerilla leader. The turning-point came first 
when the command of the Christine army was intrusted to Espartero. He 
conquered the Carlists in 1836 in a 
bloody battle at Luchana, hastened to 
the relief of the capital when the Car- 
lists advanced to the vicinity of Madrid 
in 1837, and compelled Carlos to 
retreat. 

To these losses was added discord 
in the camp itself. The pretender, 
wholly lacking in competence and in- 
dependence, was the tool of his cama- 
rilla^ who in the choice of a general 
paid more attention to a knowledge 
of the catechism than of the arts of war 
and displaced the most able leaders to 

pxit up their own creatures in their 

stead. The new general, Guergue, 

was beaten several times by Espartero 

in 1838, which gradually cooled the 

enthusiasm of the northern provinces. t 

He was deposed and the chief command 

given to the crafty Maroto, who, as an 

enemy of the camarilla could have 

maintained himself against their con- 
tinual attacks only by gaining great 

victories. Since he could not win 

these against the superior force of THOMASO ZUMALACARREGUI 




to tKriimw with his army and obtained in 

his pretensions to his eldest son, the count 01 110 > d 






4 - ' : - 

If; > ^ 398 THE HISTORY OF SPAIN 

*,;'-.. ' 

# f time longer in Catalonia under Cabrera. But they also were overpowered by 

1 ; , Espartero, and in July, 1840, with a force of about eight thousand men, were 

,f '< , j obliged to flee to France, where they were kept under supervision. The 

civil war was now at an end, but the strife continued. Espartero, entitled 

*; '*' duke of victory (Vittoria) was the most influential and the most popular 

% \ 4 , personage in Spain, with whom everyone, even the queen-regent, had to 

reckon. 

, ' THE STOBMY REGENCY OF CHRISTINA (1833-1841 A.D.) 

In the meanwhile the latter neither by her private life nor by her politi- 

; cal conduct had been able to win the love and respect of the Spaniards. 

; ' Her liberal attacks did not go very deep and as soon as the immediate neees- 

* ' sity was past they gave place to the most opposite tendencies. At the spread 

*; , of the Carlist rebellion in 1834, she had placed the once persecuted Martinez 

de la Rosa, known as a poet and writer, at the head of the ministry and had 
given the country a constitution [the estatuto real] which satisfied no one. 
The cortes convened again after a long interval and soon became divided 

4 into the two hostile factions of the moderates (moderados) and the progress- 

; r ists (progresistas*). The ministries changed rapidly. The progressists 

I demanded abolition of the monks' orders and confiscation of their property, 

^ which was in part carried out. In single cities it came to bloody excesses ; 

I cloisters were destroyed, monks and nuns murdered, priests and Jesuits 

driven over the border. The continual wavering, the frequent dissolution 

; r f of the, cortes increased the discontent ; the progressists in 1836 feared a 

A reaction and wanted to make concessions. Revolts were organised in the 

larger cities, the constitution of 1812 was placed 011 the programme. The 
government responded by placing Madrid in a state of siege, by disbanding 

f the national guard. Revolt broke out in the summer residence, La Gran j a, 

whither Christina had retreated. Soldiers of the guard forced their way into 
the palace and compelled her to adopt the constitution of 1812. 

k A constitutional assembly discussed a revision of the same, and thus 

5 the new constitution of 1837 came into being, Christina took oath to keep 

| \ it, but hoped by watching over the election to bring the moderados into the 

I cortes and the ministry. When she succeeded in accomplishing this in 1840, 

- , she issued a municipal law in accordance with which the election of municipal 

t ; authorities was placed in the hands of the government. This caused a re- 

t 1 ;< volt in Madrid and other cities, and when Christina commissioned Espartero, 

; ' who had just returned victoriously, to quell the uprisal in Madrid he refused 

to be made the tool of an unpopular policy. And yet he was the only man 
who could check the revolution which was threatening on all sides. Hence 

; Christina was obliged to appoint Espartero as ministerial president on 

September 16th, 1840. He chose all progressist members for his cabinet, 
made a triumphal entry into Madrid on September 29th, and placed his pro- 

1 - gramme before the queen-regent in Valencia on October 5th. In this he 

demanded repeal of the municipal law, dissolution of the cortes, and dismissal 
of the camarilla. 

The regency had little attraction more for Christina under such conditions. 

; , Other influences were also at work. Shortly after the death of her husband, 

: she had taken a handsome life-guardsman, called Murioz, into her favour, had 

made him chamberlain, and had secretly married him. The union was soon 

proclaimed by a large number of children, but not until 1844 was there a 

J public marriage, whereupon Muiioz was made duke of Rianzares and grandee 



THK UKSToKATlON uF TiiK 1UC KlinNs ;uii) 

;!-!l t'i.' I. It.; 

oi I s * pa in. I * \ l hi.--, art .slu* h.ul throun aua\ lnT uoinaiih r'-<pvt ami hud 

Itri'M'H opru i* all ;-ort"i u| % at larks, -10 that .-ihr pn*tVrr'<| in l-a\r 1 Sir rotmt i\ . 
On OftoU'i 1 rj*!i. 'h* iv>.;u;n ... I hrr posit ia ;t-t iv.vyni an-i t r:r, ^llvil !? 1 r.im.v. 



Thr nrvvlv rlrrtrd rortrs, <jn May Sth, Is II, numrd Kspartrro rr^rnt of 
Spain ami ^uardian of thr qurrti Isahrllu awl htr nistrr t!u infunla Luisu 
Krrnandu, Nor did hr provr unworthy of this hhfh position, srrkinif to 
t'.stahlish onltT in all hranrhrs 
of tin* stair administration 
ami ti prt\sri*\r his iv. .prct 
lrjori thr rlrri'.'V ;inl tlui 
popr. SintM' h* Lnr\v how 
rnrnjrt icallv ^ 'hri.-a iua, ;aip- 
pjii'tnl li\ Louis 1'hilippi', 
\\a. \\o}'Lus'f a'.'.'ain.'tt him 
with h*T inllnr-nrr aini hrr 
JHO!',-\, he atta.i'hrl hitnsrli 
ni' j I o KmHam 1, v\ hrrrupnii 

him, ami hi-, ri v a! ,, a*rnsrd 
him !' ;,rHiji!; Spain';, roin- 
nirrria! inlrTr.-il . to Far ; la ml. 
Thr fart that hr ()Uri!ri a 
rrlrlli"n in Iar'rlona in 

I ^ t'J l>V a In tinha I'tlmrlif, 

u a i rharv.ro! a*|;ain. >t hint as 

f \ Taii'i V . X rVV tVYolf.;; lroh 

on! HI t hr ..out h in I * i k > ; 

Culonrl Priisi ha.,trnMl to 

( \itah iiia aii'l pla-'-ol him- 

:-.-lf .:! lh- li.-a.I of thr 

:. thliri , \\ hi i had i H-rij \\ nit 

* i r , IT f h r ! ; h lar ; r\ prndi - 

tnri- ^S UP .<;>'">. I >v < 'hri.-t ilia'.-; 

a-'fiii . I\ -par? *TO': litt'rrr,t rnnn\ , < i'-nrral Nai'V a-/ % huiilc-d in X'alrnria and 

rnfrjrd Madrid v, ilh hi; tronps. Iv.partrro, a^'ain.-t whom iHotlrratln.'i ami 

T, found hiin/.rif ahandom-d and M! sail for 
, HI;L Noj until l^fs \\,f, j| j.afr for him 





.: \ !;I,I,J,A n i-!.: i-"-'. \.i.i 



I:: N. ,,-!:.! r, IM;;, Ihr thiri.-.-irvar "M I.,I!M-'!,J \\a-: <lrrla!r| o f a-r, 
M;.- ! !, -^r fm-r--:ii.. of !-o-, frnim'iit, app. in* ><! Narva*'/, u h hail l>n-n 
r.i.! -.I 1., ji- tl ;.;,.' ..! S'ali-nria, pi--sil'jtt o!' ih % iuiniMrv, uinl t-allt-il la'L 
!.,.-; UP -I !:-;. 'I'".: ';!:"'! t':t- tlHv.-, and v.at'-. t l^nMii-h iHilit''ii*'\ to th' 
/an;*- '" Mi"r; '-'I" .iii-i r'M'.'t ion. Thf ro!i. it u! :MI of !>i7 \sa. I'haniftMl in 
1^1* ;:, fa-.o;,;- t ;' ,L! -obit i -n.. th- friM-il. <ia f i!-- pr*v. \\a-. limilrti, t!f 
?>,,!' ,;, -I 'M,i!.l ,,!. '.'. ', il, ,':pl I s rortr,* ' 4 . ''ii iuoi'' than ill I'rann' rrtlur*'i 
! . a !. .:!;!!. !.; -. i -!;*', In ori.T IM iij ;sr- fr hi . h ^ - a I.' .: ' jr r inllii'-n* 1 '* 



400 THE HISTOEY OF SPAIN 

[1845-1851 A.D.] 

in Spain and to obtain for it a reversion of the Spanish throne, Louis Philippe, 
acting with Christina, brought about a marriage on October 16th, 1846, 
between Isabella and her cousin Francis de A sis, and between the infanta 
Luisa and the duke of Montpensier, the youngest of his sons. (Louis 
Philippe had planned at first to marry Isabella also to one of his sons, the 
duke of Aumale, but he gave this up on account of the decided protest of 
Palmerston's cabinet and chose instead for Isabella in Francis de Asis that 

person who, on account of his 
mental and bodily weakness, 
would stand least in the way of 
his son, Montpensier). This 
marriage which was conducted 
wholly in secret cost Louis 
Philippe the friendship of the 
English cabinet. The pleasure- 
loving Isabella, following in 
the footsteps of her mother, 
soon grew heartily tired of her 
Francis arid enjoyed herself in 
July, 1847, at La Granja, with 
the handsome and agreeable 
progressist General Serrano 
and other officers, while Fran- 
cis found himself condemned 
to a hermit's life at the hunt- 
ing castle of Pardo. The mar- 
riage was a very unfortunate 
one, and Christina, the evil 
genius of Spain, fled one day 
and came back the next, 

Isabella kept more and more 
to the path of her father Ferdi- 
nand, and pursued an adminis- 
trative policy which joined 
military despotism to clerical 

absolutism and in which confessors and soldiers played a role, and even 
guided the rudder of state. While such conduct repelled the liberal elements 
from her side the frivolity of her private life made her lose all claims to 
respect. 1 She even went so far that the legitimacy of all her children was 
doubted. No wonder that from time to time revolts broke out, which, as is 
customary in Spain, were incited and led by officers. The government saved 
itself by executions and deportations. The ministerial president Marshal 
Narvaez, who bore the title duke of Valencia, was always ready for such 
drastic measures. His successor was Gonzalez Bravo [or Brabo] Murillo, 
who soon had the whole army against him.e His cabinet was very signifi- 
cant and important, not only because of the question of economies, but also 
because of Bravo Murillo's project to abolish or diminish the military pre- 
ponderance which was not very beneficial to the country. The germs of 
discord remained, to be united with those displayed in other acts, such as tlie 
ostentatious reception of Narvaez in Paris by the Spanish representative, the 
duke de Sotomayor, who was replaced by the marquis de Valdegamas, and 

f 1 In 1852 a priest named Merino stabbed her, but her life was saved by the whalebone of 
her corsets. The priest was garrotted, his body burned.] 




QUEEN ISABELLA II 



THH KKSTOiLVrtON OF T1IK BOURBONS 401 

[iv.l !-* \ ! 1 

tii.- rid... uU'Us prohibition oi the farce called the cntirrro de la sardina (the 
burial f ;he .^inline) and the pinaiu hall. The burial of the sardine is part 
nf ihi'.auu\aJ ie',ii\ if ie', on Ash Wednesday. The pinata ball is a masked 
bail a! the theatre - the pinata being a lar^e earthenware jar full of sweets; 
the danerrs an- Manifolded, turned round, und have to try and break the 
jar \\ith poles, after \\hich there Is a general scramble for the sweets. 
'These .NporN uere prohibited by the minister of government without con- 
.sultnr/ hi-* colleagues, u hom lie thus compromised, occasioning resignations 
and iuutM\iuiei-M, \\hile the prestige of tlie new cabinet hi the palace suffered 
NMijjrvUiai f't'otn ilit ili-jiuliteii uiul useless measure of one of its members. 
In au nufririuily spirit tmsards tlie ministry, Napoleon showed marked hon- 
our to Nar\ae/aul Sofoinuvor. General ()M)oiuull f who had won distinction 
in th* H Mi't'ofi-M -\\ars *f H'.o and IKH-OUIC duke of Tctuan] showed himself 
.SMinruhat lr,rr ,prrf inl tovutnls the minister of war because he had made 
M*\iTal ntilitarv appoiutiui'Uls nut of the order of seniority, the young officer 
of infant r\ \\i fc htu'^ to put an end t< this injustice../* 

Sp,un "vuis tn tii< i .-.urfaee, a inonarchv akin to that of France, Belgium, 
and Kniand. I>elo\\ the Mirt'iU'e, as soon as the dynastic peril had subsided 

Min^-vJiat roH'*"lid,it'd, the old 
iva-'Uonars- tindi-rrurn-nl .srt. It) 
\\.n-L. A' novel and powrrful in- 
;,fnHin'!it of rt-aetiou iniiitarisiu 
apprarrd on th ,sern<* aiui inado 
Spain Naiilv fauius. It:* intert'er- 

'Urr 111 politics ;Uid it. fVi'ttltfH'ttt* 

mit'ufi'X were l.tf a! indi^-iplme and, 
\shal \ut- far wttrse, t* ihe.seiisr f 
rr-^piM't for parliamentary l*^ality 

in ^Jiutinir^ ^ niu *t be said that 
( 'a-,! iiian uiilitarr.m :-.mur\\ hat 

;i!i>Url fir it:* iltt el't 'I ''lice ill poll 

1ii-.b\ n -an; 1 ; if e\tr,iirdinar\ in- 
llunirr quiti' a ntt'U in th* -aus* 4 
,,i Ub.-iM ami of proip-f.-i ;ts in 

p.il.M-r favoiiritf.i. It ill Millie*' 
to ,,i'v that Marshal K:ipaftrriaftni 
! inn from I H '* t^ 1 ;s -l- t o eru^u 
l h.- tir*t < *arlisl risin-,.., and to 
i-hi-.-K the i-aprii'*"* <f thr rt'^eut 
I ),,i:a < liri-aina, and then, in l*o I 

] H.'.t',. a-.'aill Mleia-ed in to elieek 




M.VUSHAL NAitv; 



h.i.r pr.-,.-r\-.l 
f.!,-;.'/.-i..-. I'.'r 



I .- 'I*," Uhertlism from iH^ti to 1800, which might 

i<M i 'oiieeu Isabella had she not always harboured 



I r 



>."!-r.t: 5 .', t". , <Arr* Hi 1 n* 
Vi.-i.d i-iin ha^e M-r\i''d tl 
^pi;a^i- . .it U-i ii* 'h-T ii : 

< -l ? !,- :u,^' ai 1 ;, fl^aiii]^' >- 
Ii;ar-i.a; V;.r<<a.v ^ " " d' 

H .'. i Ml.. \ '.' ' 



402 



THE HISTORY OF SPAIN 



[1868-1869 A.D.] 

In July, 1868, a great military revolt was to break out. The minister 
caused the most important generals, among them Serrano^ and Dulce, to be 
deported to the Canary Isles, and even banished from Spain the queen's 
brother-in-law, the duke of Montpensier, whose name seemed to serve as a 
watchword for the revolution. Excitement increased in' the land. Isabella 
thought herself compelled to enter into closer relations than hitherto with 

her friend and ally, as she called Napo- 
leon III, and arranged an interview with 
him for the 18th and 19th of Septembei 
in the two frontier posts Biarritz and 
San Sebastian. Napoleon was accredited 
with the plan of recalling his troops from 
Rome and filling their places with Spanist 
soldiers in the event of his beginning hig 
long-threatened war with Germany. Isa- 
bella, who had just been honoured b} 
receiving the Golden Rose of the Faitl: 
and Virtue from the pope, was very mucl 
in favour of such a project. 




GENERAL LEOPOLD O'DONNKLL 



THE BEBELLION OF 18G8 A.B. 

But at the very moment when th 
Franco-Spanish alliance was to have beer 
concluded and their majesties were a1 
their appointed posts, rebellion broke oui 
in Cadiz. It was the 18th of September 
The banished generals Serrano and Prirr 
returned, the rear-admiral Topete joinec 
them with the whole fleet, the few faith 
ful troops were conquered by Serrano 01 
September 28th, near Alcolea. All thi 
larger cities, even Madrid, took sides witl 
the revolution with the cry, "Down with the Bourbons! down with tin 
Jesuits! " on the 29th; and so there was nothing left for Isabella but to leav< 
San Sebastian the next day and to take refuge on French soil. She at one< 
took up her residence at Pau whence she uttered a passionate but unavailing 
protest against her exile. When she realised that all hope of restoration 
for the present, was gone, she went to Paris, where she died in 1904. 

The direction of the state was intrusted to the leaders of the revolution 
Marshal Serrano took the position of president of the ministry, Prin 
became minister of war, Topete of marine. The order of Jesuits and a num 
ber of cloisters were abolished, freedom of faith was proclaimed; in Barce 
lona and Madrid even Protestant services were held. The newly electe< 
cortes, convened on February 18th, 1869, deliberated over a new constitutior 
declared in favour of a constitutional monarchy, and appointed Serrano regeii 1 
until a suitable candidate could be found. The political outlook, howeve: 
was not favourable for Spain. There existed a strong republican part] 
which threatened to oppose with arms the establishment of a new throne 
the island of Cuba, that " pearl of the Antilles," was in full revolt, ready i 
break loose from Spain and found an independent republic ; and Carlisi 
again raised its head.e 



THK it ESTIMATION OK THIS IKJURliGNS 



*MiM> ANARCHY*' OK isiit) A.D. 

Al the cud of tlu* \e;u< IHU'J, the slate of {he nation clearly showed that 
\vhcn jartic.s pursue private rather than public aims the result can be no 
other than \\hitt then existed- ..... - that is, a monarchy without a monarch, a 
j.o\M'rlrx; re^euev, a constitution disregarded and infringed, an ill-directed 
and expiring mym/n/, a dictatorship without a dictator, and an empty 
treasury and a retrograding revolution* 

We tit* nut lay tlir fault of this npon any of the men concerned in 
our revolution, and \v do not think tlnit history does so cither, but we can- 
not cc.iHr to huucnt tlie htek of one of those mim of genius who take the lead 
without imposing themselves. The situation had not improved at the beo-in- 
ninjf nl' the year INTO. to 

Tin* rurtes H;?;UU resumed its labours. With praiseworthy frankness, 
iVinu as president of the council, sai<l that they had reached a pitch of con' 
fti:,i.in in^ \vhilu surrotindcit by thick clouds, they might come near to realis- 
ing the Cubic *i' th^ f wo wolves who met on a dark night and devoured each 
nthrr s> that utliinjf \\ as left but- their tails. 

I utHii iaeilitate.s the \\rk of construction which is gradually perfected 
in e\,<ry detail, but tli,s.sension entails the fate of the builders of the tower of 
K.ihel. A naimi! eun .shuw no sadder or more futile spectacle ; and yet it is 
the luMnry of all. Is mankind condemned ever to turn in this vicious circle 
and never In J.M-I tree fruiu it 7 It, is impossible to think so, for in the midst 
ui' ilu;i continual en!liel uf tn(tiv.sts and bastard ambitions the nineteenth 
centurv has achieved imperishable victories, 

Natinii'i conquer their stivereii^nty and of their own rig'ht make their laws, 
and stnu^le unceasingly t< ovt*nome ancit^nt traditions, uproot absurd vices 
and tyrannical tendencies. Thus even its science pierces the mountains, 
pspluiv.-i flu* depths of tin* M'u, discovers and explains the spots on the sun, 
and ahnurit realises the ufuretinie foolish and chimerical ambition of the 
Titan.-* ; MM polities, tliat seienei^ of inodtrn soe-ieties and of free and civilised 
nation-t, \\ill tiud tiie Mduti<n of the social problem bringing the rights of all 
mi-n, the interests of all nations, and the i^ood of all humanity into combined 
and 'tannpniun. 1 * act inn. A vast idea like a great discovery suffices to bring 
the v, hole \\urld int close relationship. And like the electric current which 
Hashr.', v.nid .mil idea:* fnun pole to pole, a grand political inspiration, social, 
Imw.in, Initri ii,iK moral, ju.st, and worthy, needs but to ho hinted to triumph. 
I'lintim? b:ul but in b^ invented to extend over the whole world; steam 
e.uii" inhi tiiiiuedi:ilc usi\ aiii Franklin needed but a lightning-conductor for 



t?,\cl;utit : 



* /*;'/ wi'f f< 



And the li'/hiuinsj-ciinilurtor alunit prodiuunl thti cable which brings both 
uiM-M. intt/eon.stant eininuiniration, the tlnrud which annihilates distances 
ami Ir.inMiiits ihou-hts and events. INililies is indeed a science^ and it 
n-.thin'.' I-; iiupoii^ible t sei-nrf, shall anything IKJ impossible to politics? 

WMrk M{ ...oei.il rec<uisfruc.tion a<lvantus slowly, all collecting materi- 
Mniributin" tlu-ir ideas to its perfecti^nucnt ; the work will be com- 
plrtrMl - it r, hi: ;i .mention of time, and what appears long in the hie ot the 
in.h'-lihu! i -.e!A ItMi-t in the life of nations. Liberty and civilisation 
l ir i n ,r ii,- l ,.p. l :M',!% ur-.le.l, whnv civilisation is least, liberty iinds most 
bsU'-!'">, and the la^k must 1"' more dillicult and laborious. 



THK KKSTOKATIUN OF THK BOURBONS 



405 



it is prK"iUy no ^reai injustice to the memory of General Prim, to sug- 
i^e:4 that he also was a hero with too easy a conscience. Is one bound to 
lta\e more convict ions, more principles tlnui the ( 1 id? u Do you know," said 
Ca-^elar m when orator of the opposition, "who is General Prim's god? 
It is Chance, Would v<u know his religion? It is Fatalism. And Ms ideal? 
dream of aluuvs keeping power in his own hands. On that everything 
i-oii'.rht to bear and to that everything is sacrificed. Institutions 
er nothing to him; lit* hends them to his convenience. Laws count 



Ti 
is 



fl 



i less to him. They are me? 
swords of his euptain-tj*'nerals, 

I*, ill ie-i arc as nothing, he dissolves 

hampered him, for he forgets them. 
Hie most inconceivable- alliances 
are not repugnant, prosiiled he and 
his are ad\anta;.' k ed thereby /' 

l',ut il i.-. just to aid that (General 
Prim, uhen he eaiue into po \\t-r, 
a.Jui-.hed his enemies as inueh as 
in , friends in the continued \\Udom 
ui' Ins conduct. The most redoubt - 
,d!e { rial of an adventurer is success. 
Hi, ideas must ifrou with his for- 
tune; having gained tlie covetetl 
r.mk, he must break with his past, 
hi't l<alit*- and memories, NO us to 
fraic.fonu himself into a stutesjnaii. 
Unlv tlnrn* uho have ijftinl stuff 
in them leinl thrmselyrs to such 
cli,ui-.';e: s and I Km Juan Prim soon 
proved thai the Araujne/. eonspini- 
t.r pts-e,s.sed the qualities of a poli- 
ti.-i.in, a piiek sense of justice, a 
piiwer of realiMu;r .situations, skillul 
nian.i'.'emeiit of men and interests, 

" ta'et Mif'iictent toujii- hi-:autliority 
iiut thuntr ai'i 



and 



spidtu* webs, to be brushed aside by 








<}F,NF.KAI 



He c-onhl use strategy in councils, cmploy- 



: , ' , lvv , tlu, n.iuisi,,- pcrp^luul -nx.cy 
i.-' thi- r:uliruls,.r <U-nuH-.ra,U(' inonarolaats, 

^;-, ' ..... . ........... ' - ..... 



i; . r;r 



-I;: ,;;: 



::! as, 1 ;:-.:-..- 



TMJBi 



U J? OJL AJLJL1 



[1870 A.D.] 

necessary then perpetually to negotiate with these monarchists by circum- 
stance. A single imprudence might have lost all. 

Monarchists by conviction were themselves divided into a crowd ot 
small parties, each having its candidate for the throne. ^ p 

General Juan Prim needed all his attention and skill to maintain some 
deo-ree of cohesion among so variegated a majority. He had to dominate 
the unruly, satisfy the ambitious by a portfolio, and the vain by a decora- 
tion ; to reassure the timorous, calm the impatient, even like a good sheep- 
cloo- 'vho runs ceaselessly round a flock, heading the foremost, driving in the 
scattered, hastening the laggards. Each party sought to gain the general for 
their candidate, for Don Juan, as someone said at the congress, resembled 
a political zero, which, placed at the right of a figure, increased its value ten- 
fold, and a candidature quoted at nine on the political bourse would be worth 
ninety when it had gained the approving smile of the president. His reign- 
ing principle was to discourage no illusion. " He knows quite well," said 
the opposition, " that he cannot maintain his position much longer in this 
unstable equilibrium, which consists in keeping in with all parties, being 
against all parties, and above them all. The secret of his politics is to keep 
everyone hoping. He gives them no promises, for he is circumspect and 
never commits himself. He never betrays himself by his acts, being very 
reserved, diplomatic, and making no engagements ; but he gives hope by his 
enigmas, his reticences, his air of mystery." 

Don Juan, however, was not always so reserved. When occasion 
demanded, he denounced to the majority the dangers which threatened 
them, adjuring them to seek safety in conciliatory politics, short of which 
only misery and disaster could be expected. If his advice was ill received, 
he complained that they made government impossible, and spoke of retiring. 
This manoeuvre, executed with military precision, never failed of its effect. 
Thanks to his warning, his threat's, and his reticences, that same majority, 
composed of men who never agreed nor loved one another, persisted in 
remaining united, a rare spectacle in Spain, n 



THE HUNT FOB A KING 

Thus there existed a monarchical constitution with no monarch ; and a 
large number of republicans took pains to make a monarchy impossible by 
speeches in the cortes and by revolts in the provinces. No one seemed 
desirous of the crown of a country politically lamed by its party system and 
financially rotten. The ministerial president and minister of war, Count 
Prim, made every effort to find a suitable personage, but for a long time in 
vain. The former regent of Spain, Espartero ; the Coburg prince, Don 
Ferdinand, father of the king of Portugal ; King Luiz of Portugal himself ; 
Prince Thomas of Genoa, nephew of the king of Italy refused in turn. 
The duke of Montpensier, whose wife was sister to the ex-queen Isabella, 
was ready to accept it, but on account of this very relationship he had many 
opponents among the monarchs, who, when it came to selecting a Bourbon, 
preferred Prince Alfonso, Isabella's son, to her brother-in-law. 

Isabella made her plan with this end in view. Acting on the advice of 
her friend the empress Eugenie she signed her resignation on June 25th, 1870, 
and made over all her political rights to her son Alfonso. First, however, 
there was question of another prince. Among those who in 1869 had 
returned a negative answer was Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, 



THE RESTORATION OF THE BOtJEBOXB 407 

[1870-1871 A.D.] 

who, as a^ Catholic, as husband of a Portuguese princess, as a relative of the 
.Napoleonic house, and as belonging to the reigning house of Prussia, seemed 
a very suitable person in the eyes of the government. The latter returned 
to this choice in 1870 and in June sent a deputation to him. This time the 
prince accepted. The deputation returned to Madrid, a ministerial council was 
held, and on. June 2nd it was decided to offer the crown of Spain to Prince 
Leopold of Hohenzollern officially and to proclaim this candidacy publicly. 
The news was brought to all the capitals of Europe on July 3rd, by tele- 
graph. The country stood at a new crisis of affairs. 

Napoleon III of France opposed the giving of the crown of Spain to a 
Prussian prince, and secured his resignation. This success led him to 
further demands, which he pressed so outrageously that Prussia, long ready 
to avenge its old disgraces before French armies, returned answers that led 
Napoleon to declare war. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 was the 
result. Prussia took a new place in the world and in Germany, the French 
armies were surrendered in droves by their king and his general officers, and 
France was rid both of her Napoleon III and of her military reputation. 
And all this as the result of the Spanish advertisement for a king. The 
prince Hohenzollern, who had refused the bauble once, and had had it taken 
away when he reached out to accept it, was dropped from the eligible list. 

AMADEO'S REIGN (1870-1873 A.D.); AND THE EEPUBLIC (1873-1874 A.D.) 

Marshal Prim had persuaded the second son of the king of Italy, Prince 
Amadeo, duke of Aosta, 1 to accept the candidacy. The cortes elected him 
king of Spain on November 16th, 1870, with a vote of 191 to 98. He arrived 
in Madrid on January 2nd, 1871, and took oath to support the constitution a 
few days after Prim had fallen a victim to a murderous assault. The govern- 
ment of the new king, who had made Marshal Serrano first ministerial presi- 
dent, was a continual fight for the ministry between the monarchic factions, 
while the republicans and Carlists organised revolts in the south and north, e 
Serrano was a soldier risen to the highest ranks through the favour 
of Queen Isabella, whom he had not hesitated to betray the moment he 
believed that others would be put over him in the highest ofoces of politics 
and the army. His real ability as a general was more than mediocre. 
Allied with Prim in the insurrectional movement and the pronunciamiento 
of 1808 lie was able to overthrow Ms benefactress' throne; but the day 
iftcr the 29th of September he saw himself transformed by his colleague 
into a puppet king. Prim, who was his superior in a hundred ways, espe- 
S v hi ability and energy, henceforth ruled over him. fcot daring to 
rev oft gainst his comrade, he submitted tranquilly contenting himse 
with the pomp of the regency which he had received in exchange tor his 
submission to the imperious will of the minister ot war. 

nviable position, he neither coveted the thrm e of Spam, m s ^P 1 ^ 1 "" th | from the first. 



1 

408 THE HISTORY 0^ SfAlN 

[1871-1872 A.D.] 

After the assassination of the marshal, Serrano found himself again in 
the highest place and obliged by his position to direct the beginnings of a 
* i ! young king, lacking in great political qualifications and the indispensable 

^ knowledge of Spain's needs and aspirations as well as being very unpopular 

on account of his foreign origin. To succeed in such a task a man of excep- 
tional ability was required and Serrano's talents were but mediocre. Under 
the marshal's feeble hand, passions far from being calmed flared up much 
fiercer than ever and discord penetrated every element of official life. 

Marshal Serrano and his colleagues having given in their resignations, 
Amadeo determined to try the experiment of a radical regime. But Senor 
Zorilla was incapable of rising above the violent and mean passions of the 
party to which he belonged. Amadeo was compelled to dismiss him in less 
than three months. Admiral Malcampo was invested with the power on 
October 6th ; six weeks later he too was compelled to hand in his resignation. 

Amadeo now confided the power to Senor Sagasta, December 20th, 1871. 
The situation, however, became more critical day by day. The king was 
absolutely isolated in the midst of his people. The educated and especially 
the aristocratic classes, justly wounded at seeing a foreign prince seated 
without any right whatever on the throne, held aloof from the court. The 
clergy could scarcely be expected to sympathise with a regime that exhibited 
decided Voltairian tendencies. 

The people had never sanctioned the arbitrary choice and protested 
against the accomplished act sometimes by noisy demonstrations, more often 
by a still more dangerous attitude of cold and irreducible hostility. The 
republicans benefited largely by the situation. Amadeo was daily covered 
with mud and the ministry found it impossible to make the royal dignity 
and person respected. In order to quell so formidable a storm, the genius 
of a Napoleon I, the skill of a Cavour would have been required, and even 
then it is more than doubtful that with the prestige which genius gives and 
the resources which the most perfect art of governing men can provide, 
Amadeo would have settled his dynasty firmly in Spain. In truth the 
greatest fault found was with his foreign origin, and this intrinsic defect 
could not be overcome by personal merit. 

How often, turning his thoughts towards his absent country, towards that 
city of Turin where he was the idol of its citizens, must Amadeo have 
regretted not having resisted more vigorously the demands of his father and 
the Italian ministers, as they prayed him to accept that crown of Spain for 
which he had so little vocation. 

His tastes were simple and his habits modest altogether too modest for 
Spain. He was affable, received everyone, and forced himself to appear as 
amiable with the common people as with the politicians and the few great 
nobles who had not deserted the court. He understood the low condition 
of the treasury and did not take a penny of the civil list which the constitu- 
tion allowed him. He lived upon his own personal income, spending freely, 
and always tried to make use of Spanish articles and purveyors. The queen 
on her part zealously occupied herself with good works. Yet when Amadeo 
" passed through the Madrid streets those who did not salute him were assur- 

edly in greater number than those who through politeness took off their hats 
as he went by. The reception was no better in the provinces whenever the 
king and queen visited them. 

And the situation kept on getting worse and worse. Senor Zorilla's 
downfall deeply incensed that statesman. In place of carrying on an hon- 
est opposition to Senor Sagasta, Zorilla, who had once promised Victor 



*.] 



THE KESTORATION OF THE BOURBOSS 



409 

soon as he was 
:!e>, made 
mine lira 



, 



Emmanuel to be the most faithful of servants," hastened ^ 
no ledger minister to ally himself with the monarcW'Twl 
common cause with the most violent anarch ? to order to 
only tlxe cabinet, but the throne he had helped to Lablish 
position was becoming more and more critical Phced 1 t't ,* 
icans and Alf onsistsf who fought Mm both In and out of 
the Carhsts who, less attached to constitutional forS\nd 
modern nations, openly declared war, raising the stanTarrl nf 1 man ? er 
very eyes of his generals and officials, the finTcoSd not erln "I*" 
co-operation of his partisans, whose differenceTwere now entlif " 
Prime minister Sagasta was retired at the end d ^ two 
and troubled existence. What could all 

monarchy deprived f 



t 
manerso 



second Serrano ministry, of which Senor Sagasta was also 

but ' 



judgnag the situation too criti- 

cal to "be remedied by ordinary 

measures, submitted a decree 

fortlie king's approbation which 

arbitrarily suspended several 

privileges guaranteed by the 

constitution, at the same time 

inviting his majesty to take in 

person the chief command of 

the army against the Carlists. 

Amacleo returned an energetic 

reftisaJ to Marshal Serrano's 

requests. It was asked that 

he take part in civil war, and he 

conlcL not stoop to this exigency. 

Ready to shed his blood for 

Spain, the day on which his 

adopted country should be 

threatened from abroad, it was 

absolutely repugnant to him to 

direct a campaign in which his 

subjects would simply cut one 

another's throats. If he had not 

abdicated before, it was only to let his people and the whole of Europe see 

that lae knew how to face danger, and that he had no intention of shirking 

his duties the moment they became most serious and pressing a noble line 

of conduct, which even those who never approved of AmadecTs taking the 

Spanish throne must highly and unreservedly praise. 

Marshal Serrano was incensed by the king's attitude and sent in his resig- 
nation. The monarch now thought for a moment of throwing aside the 
crown, which weighed more heavily on his brow than the leaden capes on 
the slioulders of the damned in Dante's Inferno. But to avoid the appear- 
ance of fleeing before the Carlists, he decided to postpone the execution of 
his resolve. He resigned himself to trying one last experiment with the 
radicals, by calling the famous Zorilla once more to the head of affairs. June 
13 tli, 1872. 




SAGASTA 




\S i..', 




* y. , " *,'<*,? , f . 

* < ' , ., , ? , 



}U"j'i "iihi*** *ii u^ #1 , ,", llr i * '; ii "' < * i 1-'^' j- .- .. ' 



1 



THE RESTORATION" OF THE BOURBONS 411 

[1872-1873 A.D.] 

Hidalgo who was a byword for treachery in the army with the command of a 
division in Catalonia. The king implored Zorilla to give this plan up. Zorilla 
threatened to resign. Finally Amadeo signed a decree as fatal as it was mad, 
not however without manifesting his anger and disgust. As soon as Hidalgo 
appeared, the artillery officers resigned en masse. The disorganisation of the 
army had become complete and put the finishing touches to the state of 
disorder ; Zorilla prepared new decrees which, under pretext of mastering 
the military recalcitrants, would have provoked a general explosion. But 
this time Amadeo I did not show himself disposed to follow the wishes of the 
radical leader. He would not consent to accomplish Spain's ruin and deter- 
mined to abdicate. In vain did Zorilla and his supporters make an effort to 
deter the king from a resolution which would shatter their ambitious 
calculations. Amadeo would not listen to their praj^ers. He obliged 
the prime minister to communicate the act of abdication to the cortes, 
February 8th, 1873. 

Amadeo left Spain as soon as possible after his abdication, February 
12th. He returned to Italy by way of Lisbon. Every noble heart, even 
among his enemies, gave impartial homage to his chivalric character and 
loyalty ; but the aversion of the people to a foreign monarchy was such 
that the king's departure was one of the saddest ever known. While on 
the way near Badajoz some cowardly assassins fired upon the train which 
was bearing the son of Victor Emmanuel and his family back to the Italy 
they never should have left. 

Time has softened the Spaniards' animosity against the duke of Aosta. 
To-day they recognise his fine qualities, while they admit, and not without 
reason, that even apart from his foreign origin he was not made to rule in 
that country, whose spirit he so little understood and whose pompous and 
aristocratic customs he never would have been able to assimilate. 

The Spaniards have not forgotten the memory of this thoroughly honest 
king, who, wishing to remain true to his agreements, preferred giving up the 
throne to violating them, who firmly refused to become the tool of anarchists 
or to use force against a country which was not his own. They have also 
retained a touching 1 memory of Queen Maria Victoria and of her piety and 
boundless charity. The attitude of the Spanish press on the duke of Aosta's 
death at Turin, January 18th, 1890, proved that his name was no longer 
unpopular across the Pyrenees; and in forgetting the mistake he committed 
in 1871, Spain knows how to give homage to the fine and brilliant qualities 
of her former 



REPUBLICAN SPAIN UNDER CASTELAB (1873 A.D.) 

The congress declared at once in favour of a republic on February llth, 
and on February 12th chose a ministry to take charge of the executive, in 
which Figueras was president and Castelar was foreign minister. The pro- 
gramme of the new rulers was: "a federative republic for Spain, with self- 
government for the single states as in Switzerland and the United States; sup- 
pression of centralisation; abolition of the standing army; absolute separation 
of church and state; proclamation of the rights of the individual on the 
basis of a democratic constitution and under the authority of the law." If 
these political fantasies were to be accepted into the constitution, Spain 
would cease to exist there would be merely cantons, municipal republics, 
and communes, in which Parisian conditions repeated themselves. The 




i <m 



[1873-1874 A. P.] 

cortes was dissolved, and on June 1st a new constitutional curies co.nve.nctL 
This declared for the federative republic on June 8th, and drew up a prelimi- 
nary outline of a constitution in which the above principles were adopted. 
With this, the so-called Intransigentes were not yet satisfied ; they wanted 
a red republic and a social revolution. Since they could not impose their 
demands on the cortes, they left it, went into the southern states, and raised 
the red flag of rebellion. Ministries and presidencies followed each other in 
quick succession. 

On September 7th, Castelar was chosen president of the executive, and at 
the outset found himself confronted with such chaos that he demanded and 

obtained unconditional authority for 
adopting military and political meas- 
ures, including the declaration of a 
state of siege ; he also postponed the 
debate on the constitution and ad- 
journed congress from September 18th 
to January 2nd. Thus the visionary 
federative republican Castelar, under- 
standing, however, the difference be- 
tween theory and practice, had a full 
dictatorship in his hands. He needed 
such power. In the north, the Car- 
lists were making decided advances, 
having with them in the field the pre- 
tender Don Carlos and his brother 
Don Alfonso; in the south, com- 
munes were being formed in single 
cities which renounced allegiance to 
the government ; in the army shame- 
less insubordination ran riot, soldiers 

EMILIO CASTELAR fired on "their officers, general^ went 

over to the rebels. The cities of 

Alcoy, Seville, Cadiz, Valencia had to be taken by force, others surrendered 
at the approach of the generals. 

Opposition lasted longest in the sea fortress of Cartagena, where General 
Contreras stood at the head of a committee of safety, as president of the 
republic of Murcia, had diplomatic dealings with foreign consuls, and bom- 
barded and burned the neighbouring ports Almeria and Alicante. From 
these piratical excursions he came into contact with foreign warships, and 
the energetic German captain Werner, supported by an English captain, 
deprived him of two ships. Cartagena was surrounded from the land side 
and bombarded, but it did not surrender until after a siege of four months, 
on January 12th, 1874, to the governmental general Lopez Dominguez, after 
Contreras had left the harbour the day before, accompanied by the revolu- 
tionary junta, and after several hundred men had broken through the weak 
blockade of governmental ships and escaped to Algiers, e 




THE BASQUES AND CAftLISM 



Carlism would long since have been reduced to hnpotency by the opposi- 
tion it aroused among all classes of Spanish society, if one particular circum- 
stance had not associated with its cause those interests and passions which 



THE RESTORATION OF THE BOURBONS 



provinces in 

are both jealous and 



Honest, loyal 



"AA^^^^ 

constituted a true mountain republic very slSr ? n Ce ? t ? nes ' an <* 

' ^ s tr^f ferfp^ 

** and which in bygone days inspired ^^Si^Co^f 1 ^ " 
Jiese memorable and oft-quoted words : "When we see the l^T' ? 

-in the world regulating their affairs of state by a body of Bef C" 
-xn oak and always conducting themselves wisely what i* Jr P i ^ 

ormngthe refinements of other nations which make themselv^Y^^ 1 " 
-iserable with so much art and mystery ? " ^ i^iuus 

fce all truly republican peoples the Basques regarded their freedo- ^ 
ogative or^a happy accident. They gave no thought to lettin , t t e t 
oour share it and had never sought to make their haSpiness a subject f 

S it?' rt ' T L ] ng -lt ge ~ ^ le Eskuara - ^ich tas nothing in common 
fepain or indeed with any known idiom, was a barrier between then 
tie rest of the peninsula, and reduced them to a state of SoSn 
-their freedom rejoiced. As their language possesses no literature, the 
eneral ideas which circulate in their villages and townships come f-oii 
priests, who teach them what goes on in the world, what is said a *i J 
eel at Madrid. Thus, narrow in mind as they are suspicious and defiart 
sole aim is to preserve their fueros. 

liad been easy to make them understand that the liberal iiionareK- 
3 lied the dark design of depriving them of these, and that it was di<- 
to reduce them to the same system of government as the other Spanish 
uces. And it was not more difficult for the pretender to persuade them 
>nly an absolute monarchy could guarantee the franchises which were 
r to them than life. Did they not know that their liberty was a 
eg-e, and that privileges have less to fear from a king who can do as 
3uses than from a constitutional regime, whether monarchy or republic, 
3 everything is governed by law ? 

:>, with the exception of the village bourgeoisie, won over to liberal ideas, 
mountaineers belong body and soul to the Carlist cause, and thus we 
seen the singular phenomenon of a republican people trying to impose 
otliers a government they would not have had at any price, and work- 
^ set upon the Spanish throne an absolute king who promised to let 
remain a republic as a reward. " We hope that before long," wrote 
L* Castelar on the 12th of September, 1873, "these Basque provinces 
h. furnish subsidies and spies to the Carlist and where the army of 
epublic can nowhere find either protection or assistance, will receive 
^liastisement their errors deserve, since these the happiest and freest 
.nces of Spain are fighting not to obtain a king for themselves or to offer 



.JLJU^V^KJ WJL h_>JsytUJLJUL CUJ.^ AlgAJLUlAXg JJLV^ V V\J \J V UCfcJUJ. . XVJLJLJLg iV/J. UJJL^AJJ.OV/ X V,O VJ 1 *. -vr V/AJLX-.*. 

;:>f their sons and the fruits of their economy, but to impose one upon t lie 
isli nation while continuing to live themselves as a republic. Certainly 
government will respect a legislation which is in harmony with its 



414 THE HISTOEY OF SPAIN 

[1873-1874 A.D.] 

principles and ideas, but I am its spokesman in saying to these people 
that if anything threatens their future and that tree celebrated by Rous- 
seau as the monument of liberty, it will be due to their blind obstinacy 
in supporting at the price of their blood, as the Swiss did formerly, the 
monster of absolutism." 

It was among these sandalled republicans in hides and blue berets, inde- 
fatigable walkers and great players of peloto, that Oarlism recruited its ranks 
as well as in Navarre and a part of Catalonia. The mountain regions in 
general were in the hands of the clergy and the pretender. They furnished 
them brave, sober, robust soldiers, nimble as smugglers, knowing all the 
secret passes and defiles, skilful at making off after a defeat and dispersing 
so as to rally elsewhere, possessing in fact all the necessary qualities for this 
species of tricky and partisan war in which Spain has always excelled. The 
country also lent itself to it. It was rugged and cut up, well fitted for ambus- 
cades and surprises full of difficulties for the invader who could not operate 
in detachments without exposing himself, nor in masses without being uneasy 
without sustenance. 

However, if Caiiism had preserved its troops, it was weakened by the 
loss of some of its most noteworthy chiefs. The spirit of the times is a subtle 
and penetrating gas, and the elite of the party was unable to resist its malign 
influence. One of the heroes of the seven years' war the illustrious general 
Cabrera, whose name alone was worth an army to the pretender had found 
the latter deaf to his advice and was compelled to refuse him his services. 

Among Don Carlos' faithful adherents there were men of heart and intel- 
ligence who grumbled under their breath at his mistakes. As for the pre- 
tender himself, he was no longer master of his actions. The church was the 
mouthpiece of his will and it announced to Spain that if Don Carlos wished 
to mount the throne it was to give the people back their God him of 
former days, whose glance rested with delight on the saribenito of a scourged 
and repentant heretic. They did not take the trouble to conceal from the 
Spaniards the designs they had upon them. When certain persons spoke to 
France, they had recourse to the precautions of the oratory, to the subtleties 
taught by casuistry, to reticences and equivocation, to denials which did not 
deny, and to promises which did not promise anything. If they did the coun- 
try of Voltaire and Mirabeau the honour of lying to her, they inflicted on 
Spain the affront of their outrageous sincerity. They openly declared to her 
that they intended to bring back the Golden Age when the monk reigned and 
sent free-thinkers to peaceful sleep. The struggle which was now steeping 
the Pyrenees and the Cantabrian mountains in blood was a war to the death 
waged upon the bourgeoisie by fanatical priests, of shepherds upon their 
lambs ; it was the white demagogy, which despairing of triumph had not 
scrupled to league itself with the pirates of Cartagena for the extermination 
of liberal ideas. w 

THE DICTATORSHIP OF SERRANO 

Castelar's former party associates, who had forgotten nothing and learned 
nothing, could not forgive him for having brought the federative republicans 
to order with powder and shot; for having appointed conservative generals, 
and entered into negotiations with the papal see in regard to vacant bish- 
oprics. When the cortes re-assembled on January 2nd, 1874, its president, 
Salmeron, brought about a vote of lack of confidence in Castelar's govern- 
ment, whereupon the latter promptly resigned. 



''''IK "KSTOUATION OK TUB BOURBONS 



S,,-ranu , u ; , '^^dictatorship 

u , , ,' ? p * whlch broke out 

i u ; 1 ' ;; ( s i> ;;;^ e . 




rap! ur 
!'J i''--.-. I r'ln in t lir 

"! *.', .!,r ; 

^ : NM-,,-uifr l*.Mh from Lasrrna, hnt ho liiinsclC ou December 9th 
;ii^ ^.-urral L'Uia to n*troat to San Sebastian. Hereupon 
ti-jH-d ti> t In* .si-i'iM 1 with tlw purpose of making a general 
,Mi;, , at tli' lral of four army <'orps, mid forcing it back to 
'?. H- iM'f'dfd tiiiH% howr.ver, to get tlic necessary number 



M.v!:;i uri'Mii, ?h<- captain-guwral of (.ho capital turned the members 

'.-., -I; siM" . <l fh- ji<;uverimu'iit, including th war minister, and dissolved 

: \'.\ ^irpri .rl hsi fellow countrymen by declining' to use his dicta- 

* 'i w r I'm- th* Jir.-it. tiinn in Spain, the, victorious leader of a pro- 

.ili-i H ;Ul p;ufi-i to fonn a government to restore and maintain 

-,;;.:-'!. < ':uiMv;i*i !!, ( 'astillo, the e.hief ag<int of the Alfonsist propa- 

, - 4 '.li.-it I'U'Sit.:, w<-jv playing into his hands. Marshal Serrano, 

.-.! f. i -rut ;i nami'h'HS provisional governmc.nt, which attempted 

.- ' ' :u:t, Ki -.! rn; ihiii:'; tiie republican risings in the south, and then 

-..: . ". , .a ;;*jiirrj ;uni rt-ntral Spain/''] 



4 it; 




I , i 



1 ', 




THK UKSTOKATION UK THE 



417 



\ i' 



u..tjid pT-:>u : * 
i"! 'J ti*' ld 



In th' 

Lid Mp-ijr 



!jf 



jih'ivi* eoncts.siuns in return for his supporting the kin^ ; lie wanted to 

h r h.i.-k the old intolerance and priesthood, and if possible to return to tho 

-'I is -it ion ; flit* e\..quecn Isabella, who had lost all title to respect, iwpa- 

' nf!\ av\,uted her return to Madrid. In every direction, nothing could be 

* n but dangerous reefs which confronted the government. < 

Th.it Cauosas del Castillo should undertake tho leadership of the new 
i\rntm-nt \\a* quite as much a matter of course as that tho first and most 
up.-iMtive duty o! the government sliould be to overthrow the (-artist rebel- 
"it, At tirst.it \\as put down in Catalonia and Aragon where its chief 
M! % Sen !' Frjfrl, fell on August litJth, lS7f>. Thereupon all forces \vere 
uveted towards the north against the Basque territories, the old citadel of 
iiriiNm. The cln.sely besieged Pamplona was relieved on November -4th, 
id, uhrit Uttr-adu advanced with out* hundred thousand men, Kstellaalso fell 

* Krhnun link 1S7*;. o u February USth, tin* kin# himself entered Pam~ 

day Don Carlos retreated over the border to France. 
ted themselves humanely on the. whole, although tea 
re exiled, as many more lost their property, and a linn- 
/v.f of the Basque lands was planned. It. was not until 
, h"V-ver, that Marline/. Campos succeeded in quelling the rebellion in 
i ,iM-r impMrt;int e'onniuieal com'e.ssions, \vhen the rights of a Spanish 
.M'-- v* . : ' : r,tni-(i in the Cubans. [ For fuller details see tho history of 
r. Ji Aiuf-ri'M in a Liter \ olunte. j 

hih* on May l!lth the newly elected eortes, which th(* king 
ebruary L"th, lS7t>, had a<lopted tin* ntuv constitution (pro- 
li i. 'l'hi v i providetl ftr a somite and house of representatives 
;ieral uud direct eh*ction, established freedom of tho press, 
of unions, but abolished trial by jury, civil marriage, and 
ijuf, in order to win over the radicals and the clergy. Home 
t protected H^ain.st the friMnlom of n*lij'ion but- gavt^ up this point, as 
rt I- it.iut'-i were actually so limited and <>ppn*ssed in the. exercise of their 
, ih.it all the lirjii fervour of belief of men like Pastor Fliedner in Mud- 
i n'*detl to endtifi* it all and actually to establish an evangelical church 
Sp.mi';h capital \vhert* n<>vv Luther's hymn of victory, "A firm foun- 
t j-v our (od, s> ri-.sumL' also in Spanish ("('axtillt) ficr rs tutt'tttrtt /^/^/**). 
.- i-publie.iu attempts on the. kind's life on October -oth, 1S7S, and 
id*-r inth, I s 7'.* f \\*re onlv ufter-effei^ts of the Ion*; 1 period of unrest; 
uhule fhr pai'itieat in tf the eountry made unmistakable progress. 
'.T,rnt!u'-nt e\-rcisrd the utmost watchfulness against ('arlist plots and 
H}, -rf.-d a paj'.il prohibition against Spanish bishops. The opposition 
,*..i.'.,iii mannl.icttirers to tlie commercial treaty with France was sum- 
j , Mippre-et-d bv the proclamation of a slate of sief^e ; a npn!liean 
n:i thr p.irt f 'the ^nldiei'S in Haditjo/ itn Atii(ust f>t.h, 1HS/., was encr- 
il' f \ put i"\va and sr\erelv punishecl by the kin(, who, wholly on his 
j-.-',;-*n .i!ilif ^, uitt-mpt'-d in put a stop to the old mischief of having 
p,u-! in |>.lui\i! part v intrigues and boldly c^rdcred the dismissal 
imb'-r "f uiriubini>si ve and trr<*sponsible elements. 'I'he social 
; .M.-.a* j"ij-i f lite tii>in>* n^ro (fh* 4 black hand) seemed very dan- 
tim-. TiM*.** tteiv faVitii'ed by the severe. economital <lecay ol 
:., iiud !f!vu r.ipidlv until, divided into about throe, thousand 
e- -M j-i illed b\ ;i central orifanisation at Xeres, they covered tin* 
\s-\. >ine>- tliev di.-timjuished themselves bv !eeds ol violence 
*!, >*^\ el'iiiSi''Ht at last took decisive measures, overpowered 
i-j.-:-, ;t!id r-i'l-ird '''V'1I of them to be executed. 



i*u r 

-.1 jtiiir- ;!oi 

.!!rd bv M.- 

i:..jji.<n, and 

*Sli ol t*,ieh 



1 



Lit 



Tin; HIM' 



A !.!' " ' 
Sr\ rr.il \r;if . ? i-. --'i * *' 




\\ 



\\ 



\ ( " Ml 



>,!i,,ttu t . i! ,!''* . K *I - 

tiW,l! 1 ..'I'/' ' ' K. ' t' ^ ' ' 

iulrli * l i i '. ' .'.!' ! '. *.! * * * 

TM Titian** in 1 " *> M \ 1 'i \ ,' , , ' 

lirr.-.l u / '.- i 1 - j\ i , . I 

uKi.-h LM! .- f ,u ' ... :. :. * i 



AirJn.i t \... .;-;. : ',,".!!., ! - V 1 .* h M 

rr.l! JU'.:,!h . i; 1 : .-;- ] 5 ;-i .j,-.^ ]., , .;i Af 

AlfMir.t, XIII, i. :;;. !!> v,.,-. , : . 



, Hi; l:t * , r. ! 4 ' i -i *': \ ,;:: \ i ; .- 
.-... :' Al:...-.-... Ml .;:', ... . . 



1*7 A.tt.] 

C ' l 



THE RESTORATION OF THE BOURBONS 



419 






i 



(1 



^ <:Tue en-regent to begin her administration by concessions. He 
** His ancient rival Sagasta, who was called to the Pardo, and by 
3 oalledL after the place, agreed to use his influence to uphold the 
^ f ranl^ly stating his intention to make gradual reforms in 
of restoring the constitutional liberties of 1868. 
r^niz Zorilla was agitating for a revolution and restoration of 
>l V )iu r "Willie tlae Carlists were trying to stir Don Carlos to leave his 
, in Venice and invade Spain. The pope, however, felt that the 
* K . fcl*o cliux*cli would be better subserved by peace, especially- as he 
.Mar'uL Cliristina an ardent and generous Catholic, who encouraged 
suits iio -oiisu-rpassed power over education. But Sagasta's influence 
to couix-fc:ry frorn any entanglements in European alliances, re-established 
y J ur >% "vvliich. .Alfonso XII had abolished, and universal suffrage ^vHcli 
o had Votoed ; enlarged the liberties of speech and press, and modified 
rill' bonojficially. "A few military conspiracies were frustrated, and 
puniKlxeicl. .A. strong aid to Sagasta was Emilio Castelar, who saw 
ulual i^otiiarn of his republican ideals. 

j by 1S9O-, Maria Christina, who was even more dictatorial than her 
Hbaml, o-slced liis resignation and called in Canovas, whose conserva- 
1 hi^I i --fcax^iff policy brought 
tlimirxution of foreign 
aixo-va/s' cliief trouble 
IIIK O'wn party. After 
hibl years, he resigned 
advised tlae calling of 
i, who . soiit an expedition 
iit.y-livo -fcliousand soldiers 
(lanipoB to IVIorocco and 
the sill -tan. to pay anindem- 
XSO O,OOO for attacks on 
sinish OTxtposts at Melilla 
.>cc<). lio -was not so happy 
i o ('ill > txrx question. 
KI had long been rather the 
and prey of the mother- 
f than, a colony, and the 
for nrl ief "by the few friends 
in Inul x-eeeived practically 
nti (>11 . Tlie growth of the 
Mil, of x-evolt, tlie failure ot 
l ( |^ r policies of men like 
iy, (V.trxiLpos, and the equal 
f tlu iriedisevally relentless 
of (Joixex-al "Weyler, who 
of "bntcher," are 
i 1 1 & latex* volume de- 

- America. It must suffice here to say that Canovas 
anarchist, August 9th, 1897, while pressing a bill for m 
in Cuba. He was succeeded by the former war mixixster 



un 




MARIA CHRISTINA 



I ii 



luted 
home 






of the United States had been so deeply stirred 
of te inflicted on their island neighbours m Cuba that 
recalled through pressure brought to bear by American 



4 oA THE HISTOKY OF SPAIN 

[1897-1898 A.D.] 

diplomacy. The conservative cabinet gave way to Sagasta, Marshal Blanco 
replaced "Weyler and tried a gentler policy. But the ruination of Cuba 
could not be checked by any mild and negative treatment. The people of 
the United States had been wrought to a pitch of horror by the tales of the 
starvation of Cuban men, women, and children by the thousand, and when 
the United States cruiser Maine, while visiting the port of Havana, was 
blown up with great loss of life, it needed only the declaration of a com- 
mission of inquiry that she had been sunk by a submarine mine, to bring the 
United States to demand the evacuation of Cuba by Spain. There was no 
implication that the destruction of the Maine had official sanction, but it 
was given as a final proof of the intolerable state of affairs in Cuba. 

The demand was naturally more than Spanish pride would bear and the 
American minister was given his passports. The European powers refused 
to intervene, though the press was almost unanimously for Spain, except in 

England. It was notorious that Spanish 
resources were hopelessly inadequate to 
a protracted war with the infinite riches 
of the United States, but the American 
navy was small and according to Euro- 
pean experts decidedly inferior in dis- 
cipline, morale, and efficiency to the 
Spanish navy. This theory was exploded 
by the swift and utter destruction of two 
Spanish fleets, that of Admiral Montojo 
by Admiral Dewey in Manila Bay, May 
1st, 1898, and that of Admiral Cervcra 
by the fleet under Admiral Sampson iii 
Santiago de Cuba, July 3rd. Land-forces 
in Cuba, the Philippines, and Porto Rico 
won those islands with comparatively little 
struggle, as is described in the second 
volume of our history of the United States. 
Late in July, Spanish pride saw noth- 
ing left but surrender of practically all 
her colonies. A treaty of peace was signed 
at Paris, December 12th, 1898, after a pro- 
tocol had put an end to hostilities for 
some months. The Caroline Islands which 
remained to Spain in the Pacific, and over 




ANTONIO CAXOVAS DEL CASTILLO 



which 



earlier treaty, paying 20,000 



the practical 



THE RESTORATION OF THE BOUBBONS 421 

[1898-1907 A.D.] 

blame of the disaster fell on them as if they had been its origin. Sagasta 
gave way to the conservative Silvela. He feared to support the radical 
measures which Villaverde, the minister of finance, felt necessary for the 
reduction of expense and the increase of revenue, and which provoked violent 
and organised resistance from tax-payers. Villaverde in consequence was 
sacrificed, though he had attacked his problem with sanity and courage. 
The resistance of the National Tax-payers' Union did not cease, however, and 
Silvela was driven to rigorous measures of repression. 

In spite of the severe up-hill struggle that is before Spain, it is every- 
where believed that the loss of her colonies is the greatest blessing that could 
liave befallen her. So great a drain were they upon the industries, the 
morals, and the population of the home-country, and so corrupt had their 
administration become that their removal resembled the amputation of a limb 
given over to gangrene. Already signs of healthier conditions are numerous, 
and the prospect of good results from the new attention paid to the great natural 
resources of the peninsula is very promising. 

In 1902 the regency of Maria Christina came to an end; her son was 
declared of age and crowned as Alfonso XIII. The personality of the young 
king has rendered him very popular, both at home aud abroad. In 1905 he 
paid a visit to England, where he was received with enthusiasm. On May 31st, 
1906, the king's marriage with Princess Ena of Battenberg, henceforth to be 
known as Queen Victoria Eugenie, was celebrated with great pomp and ceremony. 
The festivities were unfortunately marred by an attempt on the lives of the 
royal couple, made by a fanatical anarchist named Morral, a native of Barcelona. 
This man threw a bomb which wrecked the royal carriage, but happily failed 
to injure the king or queen. The would-be assassin was captured a few days 
later. He committed suicide while awaiting trial. This atrocious assault had 
apparently no deep-seated political significance; it merely furnishes another 
instance of the dangers to which men in high positions are everywhere subjected. 
Nevertheless it is perhaps worthy of note that the man who made the fanatical 
attempt on the king's life came from Barcelona, a city that has since been the 
site of ecclesiastical disturbances. Moreover, it is never possible to say precisely 
what association there may be between such acts of fanaticism and a general 
condition of political unrest. That such a condition of unrest prevails in Spain 
is shown by the fact that the ministry was twice changed in the course of the 
year 1906 ; and that yet another cabinet was formed under Signor Maura early 
in 1907. The Liberal party are engaged in a dispute with the Vatican, and, as 
so often in the past, ecclesiastical matters refuse to be separated from Spanish 
politics. 

On May 10th, 1907, a son was born to the royal couple. In its issue of 
May llth The Times comments on the event as follows: "The rejoicings of 
Spain over the birth of an heir to the Spanish throne will be echoed by every 
friendly nation, and by none will the good news be received with more genuine 
pleasure than by the people of this country. They can never forget that the 
mother of the little prince is a princess of our own Koyal House, while King 
Alfonso's popularity as a royal visitor to our shores is second to none. His 
Majesty and k his youthful consort have made themselves secure in the loyalty 
of their people, and the stability of the dynasty and the future of Spain 
itself will be henceforth still more firmly assured." The heir-apparent, who 
bears the hereditary title of Prince of Asturias, was christened Alfonso.^ 



BRIEF REFERENCE-LIST OF AUTHORITIES BY CHAPTERS 

[The letter a is reserved for Editorial Matter.] 

CHAPTER I. LAND AND PEOPLE AND EARLY HISTORY 

& M. M. BUSK, The History of Spain and Portugal C [EINRICH SCHURTZ on " Die Pyre- 
naische Halbinsel," in Helmolt's Weltyeschichte. d MARTIN A. S. HUME, The Spanish People : 
their Origin, Growth, and Influence. e POLYBIUS, General History. f TITUS LIVIUS, History 
of Rome. ff S. A. DUNHAM, History of Spain and Portugal. 7t PLINY, Historia Naturalis. 
*IDATIUS, Chronicon. ^ ULRICK R. BURKE, A History of Spain. k M. CASIRI, Bibliotheca 
arabico-hispana Escurialensis. ' EDWARD GIBBON, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. 
m J. A. CONDE, Historia de la Dominacion de los Ara~bes en Espana. n GREGORY OF 
TOURS, Historia Ecclesiastica Francorum. PROCOPIUS, De Bello Gothorum. P ST. ISIDORUS 
HISPALENSIS, Historia Gothorum, Vandalorwn y et Suevorum. ? JUAN DE MARIANA, Historia 
general de Espana. r JUAN F. DE MASDEU, Historia -critica de Espana. 8 BARONIUS, 
^Annales Ecclesiastici. ' CHARLES DE S. MONTESQUIEU, Esprit des Lois. u AMBROSIO DE 
MORALES, Cronica general de Espana. l> SEBASTIANUS SALMANTICENSIS, Chronicon. 
w ANONYMOUS, Chronicon Albeldense. * ST. JULIAN, Historia Regis Watnbce. y JORDANES, 
De Oriyine Gothorum. z ISIDORUS PACENSIS, Epit. aa JUAN DE FERRERAS, Historia de 
Espana. w AMADOR DE LOS Rlos, Los Judios en Espana. ^H. FL&IEZ Y LAFUENTE, 
Espana Sagrada. dd CARDINAL LORENZ ANA, Collectio Sanctorum Patrum Ecclesice Toledance. 
ee "VVuLSA, Chronica Regum Wisigothorum. -^ANONYMOUS, Continuation ofJoannis Bicla- 
rensis. n CHARLES PA QUIS, Histoire d'Espagne et de Portugal. hh ANONYMOUS, Chronicon 
Moissacense. " MONACHUS SILENSIS, Chronicon. # LUCAS TUDENSIS, Chronicon. 
kb RODERICUS XlMENES TOLETANUS, Chronica Eerum in Rispania Gestarum. 11 JOSEPH ASCH- 
BACH, Geschichte der Westgoten. WFELIX DAHN, DieKonige der Germanen. nn ANONYMOUS, 
Cronica dd Ecy D. Hodriyo. ANONYMOUS, article on "Iberians" in the Encyclopaedia 
JBritannica. 

CHAPTER II, THE TIME OF MOSLEM DOMINATION 

6 M. A. S. HUME, op. cit. c RODERICUS XIMENES TOLETANUS, op. cit. d ISIDORUS 
PACENSIS, op. cit. c ANONYMOUS, Chronicon Albeldense. ^SEBASTIANUS SALMANTICENSIS, 
op. cit. U. II. BURKE, op. cit. h S. A. DUNHAM, op. cit. * J. DE MARIANA, op. cit. 
^"El-Lagi" (in Casiris Fragmenta Historiarwn) . k ALFONSO X, Cronica de Espana. 
1 J. F. DE MASDEU, op. cit. m ORTIZ, Compendia general de la historia de Espana. n SAM- 
PIRUS ASTORICENSIS, Episcopus. GEORG WEBER, Weltgeschichte. P ANONYMOUS, 
Annales Complutenses. ANONYMOUS, Annales Toledanos. r HENRY E. WATTS, Spain. 
5 CHARLES ROMEY, Histoire de rEspagne. ' J. M. MAS-LATRIE, Tresor de chronologic, 
tfhistoire, et de geographic. u PRUDENCIO DE SANDOVAL, Historia de los Reyes de Castilla y 
Leon. v J. DE FERRERAS, op. cit. w P. Risco, Edition of Gesta Roderici Campidocti. 
x ROBERT SOUTHEY, Translation of the Chronicle of the Cid. y VICTOR A. HUBER, Geschichte 
des Cid. z R. DOZY, Recherches sur la litterature et Vhistoire d'Espagne, pendant le Moyen 
Age. aa IBN BASSAM, History of Literature. bb ALEXANDER BAUMGARTNER, "Der Cid 
in der Geschichte," in Stimmen aus Maria-Laach. cc MODESTO LAFUENTE, Historia general 
de Espana. 

CHAPTER III. CASTILE, TO DEATH OF PEDRO THE CRUEL 

6 S. A. DUNHAM, op. cit. c F. S. CASADO, Historia de Espana. d U. R. BURKE, op. cit. 
A ALFONSO X, Odraca, op. cit. f G. WEBER, op. cit. J. DE MARIANA, Historia de Rebus 
Hispanice. 7| LOPEZ DE AYALA, Cronica de los Reyes de Castilla. * JOHN FROISSART, 
Chronicles of England, France, and Spain. 3D. JUAN C. GARCIA, Pedro I, Enrique 17, 
Juan /, Enrique III. k MARQUIS DE MONDEJAR, Vida de Alfonso X. 1 ALFONSO NUNES 
DE CASTRO, Cordnica Gdthica, Castillana y Austriaca. m PROSPER MERIMEE, Histoire de 
Don Pedre I. n M. A. S. HUME, op. cit. 

422 



BRIEF DEFERENCE-LIST OE AUTHORITIES BY CHAPTERS 423 

CHAPTER IV. ARAGON, TO THE UNION WITH CASTILE 

p. cit eg. A. DUNHAM, op. cit. ^M. A. S. HUME, op. cit. e GERONIMO 

*a corona de Aragon. / J. DE FERRERAS, op. cit. 

CHAPTER V. TRASTAMARA, TO ISABELLA 

,r^ jvitrnwsy op ' cit '- c G - WEBER, op. ciL d J. FROISSART, op. cit. * D. A. DE 

ji-JMOb, ^^"'^tj&enerctfde Portugal. 'ANONYMOUS, Chronicon Conimbricense. ff S. A. DDN- 
AM, op. en. u. K. BURKE, op. cit. M. A. S. HUME, op. cit.i PEREZ DE GUZMAN, 

ronica tiei *eren.i#simo Principe Don Juan //.* ANONYMOUS, Crimea del Condestable 
^ettatheCattoti am ~ 1 ^^^ H. PRESCOTT, History of the Reign of Ferdinand and 

CHAPTER VI. FERDINAND AND ISABELLA 
OVIEDO Y VALDE*S, Las Quincuagenas. c HERNANDO DEL PULGAR, 




EIRRERAS, op. cit -- 'JUAN A. LLORENTE, Historia critica de la Inquisition de Espana. 
- m J- ^^ ARIA^A, o. czV. n HEINRICH GRAETZ si * 



czV. n HEINRICH GRAETZ, Geschichte der Juden. J. A.CONDE*, 
cit.-* I>ARTOLOMK BE LAS CABAS, Historia general de las Indias. r Lucio MARINEO, 



, . , 

osas Memorables -- * GUSTAV BERGENROTH, Xetfers, Despatches and State Papers (supple- 
entary volumes^ -- * M. A. S. HUME, op. cit. 



Y1I. THE REGENCIES OF FERDINAND 

b W. H- PRESCOTT, op. cit. c WILLIAM ROBERTSON, History of the Reign of Charles V. 
d S. A. DuNiiAivr, op. cit. e M. A. S. HUME, op. cit.SL. G. DE CARBAJAL, Anales del 
zy Don JF'ernando el Catolico. v G. ZURITA, op. cit. h J. DE MARIANA, op. tit. *' PJRU- 
tiisrcio I>K SAWOOVAI,, Historia del Emperador Carlos V. J DIEGO DE CLEMENCIN, in Mem. 
la Real Accademie de Historia, VI. * U. R. BURKE, op. cit. l P. MARTYR, op. cit. 
C. MAB.INEO, op. cit. n PAOLO GIOVIO, Historia sui temporis. ANTONIO VARILLAS, Poli- 
tie de Ferdinand. P NICCOLO M^VCCHIAVELLI, Lettere diverse and II Principe. <* A. GOMEZ, 
2 JRebus Gestis Francisci Ximenii. r LAS CASAS, op. cit. 8 G. DE OVIEDO Y VALD^S, op. 
. * M. A. S- HUME, Spain: its Greatness and Decay. u G. BERGENROTH, op. cit. 
^ODRiGtJKZ Vir.LA, Vida de Juana la loca. w L. P. GACHARD, in Bulletin de V Academic 
jyale de la Belgiqiie. ^VICENTE DE LA FUENTE, Juana la loca vindicada de la nota de 
. v CHARJLKS BE MOUY, an article "Jeanne la Folle" in the Revue des deux Mondes. 
BAUI>IER, Vie de Ximenes. aa HERMANN BAUMGARTEN, Geschichte Karls V. 



CHAPTER VIII. THE EMPEROR CHARLES V 

6 P. MARTYR, op. cit. c W. ROBERTSON, op. cit. d S. A. DUNHAM, op. cit. e ROSSEEUW 
'. HILAIRK, Tlistoire d'Espayne. ^'P. DE SANDOVAL, op. cit. Josit; DE SIGUENZA, 
'storia de la Or den de San Geronimo. h WILLIAM STIRLING-MAXWELL, The Cloister-Life 
Charles V. - * BAKHUYZEN VAN DEN BRINK, Analyse d'un manuscrit contemporain sur la 
recite de Charles Quint. ^FRAN9Ois A. M. MIGNET, Antonio Perez et Philippe II. 
fcjM^DKK PICIIOT, Chronique d e Charles Quint. l Louis P. GACHARD, Retraite et mort de 
ia.rJ.es Quint. m JOHN L. MOTLEY, The Rise of the Dutch Republic. n M. DE MARLIANI, 
'.stoire politique de I'Espagne moderne. STRADA, De Bello Belgico ab Excessu Carli V. 

CHAPTER IX. PHILIP II 

5 MTCHKT.K SURTANO, " Relazione " (in L. P. GacharcTs Relations des Ambassadeurs 
\n.itiens sur Charles V et Philippe II. c CABRERA DE CORDOBA, Filipe Segundo. d L. P. 
^.CHARD, Rapport a le ministre de Vlnterieur prefixed to the Correspondence de Philippe II. 
G !BAI>OVARO, Ms. (see Suiano, supra}. -^J. L. MOTLEY, op. cit. ff MANDELL CREIGH- 
isr, article on "Philip II" in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. h ROBERT WATSON, The 
'story of the JKeign of Philip II. * S. A. DUNHAM, op. cit. * M. A. S. HUME, The Span- 
JPeople* _ fc Ml A. S. HUME, Spain: its Greatness and Decay. l WILLIAM OF ORANGE, 
>oloqie*~ BKRMUI> EZ DE CASTRO, Antonio Perez. n M. M. BUSK, op. cit. W. H. 
-.ESCOTX, History of the Reign of Philip IL P J. DE MARIANA, op. cit. 



424 BRIEF REFERENCE-LIST OF AUTHORITIES BY CHAPTERS 

CHAPTER X. LAST OF THE SPANISH HABSBURGS 

6 M. LAFUENTE, op. cit. c S. A. DUNHAM, op. cit.~ d M. CATHERINE D'AULNOY, Me- 
moires de la cour d'Espagne. e VINCENT VOITURE, Voyage d'Espagne. ^G. T. KAYNAL, 
Histoire des Indes. o JOHANN C. FR. VON SCHILLER, Geschichte des dreissig jdhrigen Krie- 
get. h WILLIAM COXE, Memoirs of the Kings of Spain. { ZANETORNATO, Relazione del 
Governo della corte de Spagna. ^M. A. S. HUME, Spain: its Greatness and Decay. * JOHN 
DUNLOP, Memoirs of Spain during the Reign of Philip IV and Charles II. l HENRI MAR- 
TIN, Histoire de France. 

CHAPTER XL REVIVAL UNDER THE FIRST BOURBONS 

b SAN FELIPE (or ST. PHILIPPE), Commentarios. c W. COXE, op. clt. d M. A. S. HUME, 
The Spanish People. e MARECHAL DE BEZWICK, Mernoires. ^LoRD MAHON, War of Suc- 
cession in Spain. JEAN B. R. DE TESSE", Memo-ires. A M. A. S. Hume, Spain: its Great- 
ness and Decay. l GIULIO ALBERONI, Storla. i LORD MAHON, History of England. *M. 
LAFUENTE, op. cit. 1 S. A. DUNHAM, op. cit. m WILLIAM CONNOR SYDNEY, England and 
the English in the Eighteenth Century. n M. M. BUSK, op. cit. 

CHAPTER XII. SPAIN AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

*M, M. BUSK, op. cit. G EossEEU\v ST. HILAIRE, op. cit. d M. LAFUENTE, op. cit. 
e MANUEL DE GODOY, Me'moires. -^H. E.EYNALD, Histoire d'Espagne depuis la mort de 
Charles III. ? PEDRO CEVALLOS, Exposition de faits et des trames, etc. 7i CONDE JOSE 
M. DE TORENO, Historia del levantamiento, guerra y revolucion de Espanao. * WILLIAM 
F. P. NAPIER, History of the War in the Peninsula and in the South of France. 

CHAPTER XIII. THE PENINSULAR WAR 

b W. F. P. KAPIER, op. cit. c M. M. BUSK, op. cit. d H. M. STEPHENS, article on " Sir 
Jo3in Moore "in the Encyclopedia Britannica. C M. LAFUENTE, op. cit. f CONDE J. M. 
DE TORENO, op. cit. ^M. A. S. HUME, Modern Spain. 

CHAPTER XIV. THE BOURBON RESTORATION 

*GUSTAVE HUBBARD, Histoire contemporaine de VEspagne. C M. A. S. HUME, Modem 
Spain. d DocHEz, continuation of Charles Paquis' Histoire de I'Espagne. WILHBLM 
MULLER, Politische Geschichte der neuesten Zeit. /FRAN9OIS R. DE CHATEAUBRIAND, 
Congres de Verone. ffH. M. STEPHENS, op. cit. h j. DE BURGOS, Anales del Reinado de 
Dona Isabel. MARQUIS DE MIRAFLORES, Continuacion de los Memorias del Reinado de 
Isabel //.^ANTONIO DE PIRALA, Historia contempordnea. k A. E. HOUGHTON, article 
on " Spain," in the New Volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. l A. DE PIRALA, El Rey 
en Madrid y en provincias. EMILIO CASTELAR, speech of November 3rd, 1870. n VIC- 
TOR CHERBULIEZ, L'Espagne Politique. JOSEPH DE GRABINSKI, Amedee de Savoie, due 
d'Aoste, roi d'JEspagne. P OTTO KAEMMEL, GescTiichte der neuesten Zeit (in Spamer's Welt- 
geschichte. a M. M. BUSK, History of Spain and Portugal. 



BOOK II 

THE HISTOKY OF PORTUGAL FROM THE EARLIEST 

TIMES TO THE PRESENT 



CHAPTER I 
EARLY HISTORY TO JOAO I 

[TO 1383 A.D.] 
LAND AND PEOPLE 

THE reasons for which Portugal is neglected are precisely those which 
in some eyes make her truly lovable. For a half-century art has done almost 
nothing for the natural river highways ; and the Douro, the Guacliana, and 
the Tagus flow through this kingdom like the wandering rivulets of great 
English parks. The large towns of the interior, Coimbra, Santa-rein, Evora, 
and Miranda, look like pretty kiosks rising about flowering thickets ; peace- 
ful retreats, solitudes animated with a life that jogs quietly along and does 
not go with leaps and bounds as in France, where a satisfied humanity stands 
still, instead of rushing into the unknown risks of the future. 

The cities of the coast, Lisbon, Oporto, appear more like dwelling-places 
conveniently placed the better to enjoy the sunlight and the ocean breezes 
than wide-awake communities guarding their mercantile interests in the 
commercial exchange of the products of the Old World with the riches 
of the New. 

If the Portuguese had been as skilful speculators as they were intrepid 
sailors and distinguished warriors, Henry the Navigator, who set the exam- 
ple of maritime conquest, Bias, Vasco da Gama, Cabral, Albuquerque, valiant 
captains identified with all the glories of the Aviz dynasty, would have imi- 
tated the speculative prudence of the Dutch, their rivals. And if, when the 
illustrious house of Braganza opened the era of national liberties, the people 
had had in their heads less of poetic imagination and more power of reason ; 
if, courageous and adventurous as they were, they had shown themselves 
more positive, the French, at first, and then the English, would never have 
invaded their treasury, exploited their soil, and paralysed their industries. 
Truly a childlike nation, satisfied with little, pursuing the ideal, economical 
without avarice, pure in morals, sober, generous, hospitable, the Portuguese . 
have bred heroes in place of diplomats, poets in place of capitalists : they 
knew how bravely to defend their country against the Romans, the Arabs, 
and the Spaniards, and still more recently against the army of Napoleon. 

425 



i 



426 THE HISTORY OF PORTUGAL 

[TO 1147 A.D.] 

They have kept themselves a free nation, independent and original, possess- 
ing a language, a literature, distinct manners and customs, and governed 
politically by one of the most liberal constitutions of Europe. 

To make Portugal complete, Brazil and the colonies were necessary to 
this country whose language is spoken on the European continent by only 
five millions of men ; and again the narrow domain which so restricts the 
use of this tongue creates an obstacle to the popularity of the works to 
which language gives birth, just as its poverty impedes the development of 
the fine arts. Jealousy and indifference, the double affliction of southern 
nations, have curbed the artistic and literary aspirations of the Portuguese. 
What man of genius would resolve on a career of self-denial only to be ca- 
lumniated and persecuted as was Prince Henry, to achieve a miserable end 
like Admiral Pacheo, or like Camoens ; or to languish forgotten, like the 
painter Glarna, reduced to making tavern signs ; like the sculptor Machado 
de Castro and the founder Costa, creators of an equestrian statue of Jose I, 
worthy of ranking with the greatest art works of the eighteenth century ? 
Encouragement and recompense are the safeguards of emulation, and emu- 
lation, utilising the moral resources of a people, permits them the use of its 
advantages to rise to the level of other nations. 

Except for a few coins, the Phoenicians, the Phoc^eans, and the Cartha- 
ginians have left almost no trace in Portugal of their occupation or their 
passing ; but the touch of Rome clings better than in Spain. Caesar's Pax 
Julia sleeps thirty feet beneath the city of Beja and needs only the simple 
power, of will to be awakened, with its population of statues, its inscriptions, 
and its frescoes ; Liberalitas Julia, the Ebora of Ptolemy, planted like Beja 
upon high ground in the province of Alemtejo, has a double character, that 
of a Grecian town with its temple of Diana and that of a Roman city with 
its great aqueduct, immense works, wrought under the hand of Quintus Ser- 
torius, who made himself master eighty. years before the Christian era. The 
aristocracy of Pax Julia and Liberalitas Julia was accustomed to spend its 
summers in the little municipality of Alcacer, where there was a famous 
bath under the protection of a local divinity, the nymph Salacia. Braganza, 
the Juliobriga ; Lisbon, the Felicitas Julia of the Augustan era, had equally 
received their political baptism from the conqueror of Gaul ; while ancient 
Lusitania, become a Julian or Caesarian country, easily adapted the popular 
customs and organisations of the Roman government to its Carthaginian 
institutions. 

Vespasian and Trajan made an important town of Chaves ; Viseu is the 
Vesontium of the consul D. Brutus ; Lamego, the Urbs Lamacoenorum of 
Trajan. Setubal occupies a terrace opposite the ancient Roman colony 
of Cetobriga. At Braga, Ponte de Lima, Salvaterra, we find traces of amphi- 
theatres, aqueducts, baths, and temples ; so that well-directed excavations 
would evoke the manes of that sovereign people which, governing the uni- 
verse, kept watchful station on the coast of Hispania to keep an eye on 
Numidia. 

From the seventh century to the capture of Lisbon in 1147 Moorish 
architecture had its compromising effect on the elegant majesty of the great 
lines and arches of the Saracens' predecessors ; the baths of Cintra, the wall 
and seventy-seven towers of Lisbon, the fortifications and palaces of Evora, 
and many mosques since transformed into churches, signified, towards the 
close of the twelfth century, the degree of Islam's foothold on Portuguese 
soil an unsteady tenure, without consistence, without depth, bearing wit- 
ness to the rapidity of conquest as well as to the fear of ephemeral posses- 



EAELY HISTOEY TO JOAO I 427 

[TO 1170 A.D.] 

sion. Little by little, in place of the mosques, arose churches, veritable 
apostolic citadels, headquarters for the war against the infidel. Formless 
and rude at first, they developed as the Christian armies won back the land ; 
but when the native peoples effected their definite triumph they were obliged 
to call in foreign artists, more skilful than themselves in the interpretation 
of the architectural vernacular. 

The Portuguese knew how to fight bravely and to sing their triumphs, 
but they did not know how to build ; and for this reason the monastery of 
Alcobaga, founded in fulfilment of a vow by Alfonso I, king of Portugal, in 
1170, is an Anglo-Saxon church, built by workmen from England. A new 
architectural epoch dates from the fifteenth century, and its character has been 
best perpetuated in the abbey of Batalha. Of its kind, this is one of the 
most beautiful edifices in existence ; and assuredly it is the most majestic 
and the most pure in form that Portugal possesses. It was built in the reign 
of Joao I (1385-1433) who brought from England a celebrated sculptor 
named Stephenson. Many German, English, and Norman artists summoned 
by the monarch came to aid him. Joao himself and his queen Philippa, 
granddaughter of Edward III of England, supervised the work. And that 
-nothing might be lacking to the poetic magnificence and graceful details of the 
building, another queen, the pious Leonora, and two monarchs Joao II, 
the poet king, and after him, Emmanuel followed the continuance of the 
work with intelligent interest. Nothing in the whole peninsula rivals in 
magnificence the fagacle of the monastery, nor in boldness of design its 
chapter hall.& 

THE ORIGIN OF POBTUGAL 

It has been stated that geographically the kingdom of Portugal is an 
integral part of the Iberian peninsula ; the only reason why it has retained 
its independence, while the other mediaeval states of that peninsula have 
merged into the kingdom of Spain, is to be found in its history. When 
Philip II of Spain annexed Portugal it was a century too late for it to 
coalesce with Spain. It had then produced Vasco da Gama and Alfonso de 
Albuquerque, and its language had been developed from a Eomance dialect 
into a literary language by Camoens and Sa de Miranda. Conscious of its 
national history, it broke away again from Spain in 1640, and under the 
close alliance of England maintained its separate and national existence 
during the eighteenth century. A union with Spain might have been pos- 
sible, however, during the first half of the present century had not a genera- 
tion of historians and poets arisen who, by recalling the great days of the 
Portuguese monarchy, have made it impossible for Portugal ever again to 
lose the consciousness of her national existence. 

The history of Portugal really begins with the gift of the fief of the 
Terra Portucalensis or the county of Porto Gale to Count Henry of Bur- 
gundy in 1094 ; for any attempt to identify the kingdom of Portugal and 
the Portuguese people with Lusitania and the Lusitanians is utterly without 
foundation. With the rest of the Iberian peninsula, Portugal was colonised 
by the Phoenicians and conquered by the Carthaginians ; and the Roman 
province of Lusitania, whether according to the division of Iberia into three 
provinces under Augustus or into five under Hadrian, in no way coincided 
with the historical limits of the kingdom of Portugal. In common with the 
rest of the peninsula, it was overrun by the Vandals, Alans, and Visigoths, 
and eventually conquered by the Arabs in the eighth century. It was not 



428 THE HISTOET OE POBTUGAL 

,[712-1109 A.D.] 

until the fifteenth century that an attempt was made by Garcia de Menezes 
to identify Lusitania with Portugal. Under the influence of the Renais- 
sance, Bernardo de Brito insisted on the identity, and claimed Viriathus as 
a Portuguese hero. Other writers of the same epoch delighted in calling 
Portugal by the classical name of " Lusitania," and Camoens, by the very 
title of his great epic, Os Lusiadas, has immortalised the appellation. 

For two centuries Portugal remained subject to the Omayyad caliphs, 
and under their wise rule the old Roman colonice and municipia, such as 
Lisbon, Lamego, Viseu, and Oporto, maintained their Roman self-government 
and increased in wealth and importance. Towards the close of the tenth 
century, as the Omayyad caliphate grew weaker, the Christian princes of 
Visigothic descent who dwelt in the mountains of the Asturias began to 
grow more audacious in their attacks on the declining power, and in 997 
Bermudo II, king of Galicia, won back the first portion of modern Portugal 
from the Mohammedans by seizing Oporto and occupying the province now 
known as Entre-Minho-e-Douro. In the beginning of the eleventh century 
the Omayyad caliphate finally broke up, and independent emirs established 
themselves in every large city, against whom the Christian princes waged 
incessant and successful war.c 

In 1027 Alfonso V of Leon fell before Viseu, the siege of which was in con- 
sequence abandoned ; but in 1057, both it and Lamego were recovered by his 
son-in-law, Ferdinand I ; and the following year Coimbra shared the same 
fate. In 1093, Santarem, Lisbon, and Cintra were reduced by Alfonso VI, 
the famous conqueror of Toledo, whose arms were generally so successful 
against the misbelievers. 1 As these conquests were continually exposed to 
the irruptions of the Almoravids, in 1095 that monarch conferred the gov- 
ernment of Portugal from the Minho to the Tagus, and the right of con- 
quering as far as the Guadiana, on Henry of Besan^on or Burgundy, who in 
1072 had married his illegitimate daughter Theresa, and to whose arms he 
had been so much indebted for many of his recent successes. 2 

The nature of the authority conferred on the new count has been a 
matter of much controversy between the Castilian and Portuguese writers. 
While the latter maintain that the concession of Alfonso was full and 
entire, a surrender of all feudal claims over the country, which the count 
was to govern in full sovereignty, the former no less zealously contend 
that the government was to be held as a fief, hereditary indeed, but no less 
dependent on the crown of Leon. In the absence of documentary evidence, 
probability only can guide us. It is unreasonable to suppose either that the 
king was willing, or, if willing, that his nobles would allow him to dismem- 
ber at once and forever so fair a territory from his crown, and that too in 
favour of a stranger and an illegitimate daughter for illegitimate she was, 
notwithstanding the allegations to the contrary by some Portuguese writers, 
who seldom regard truth if unpalatable to their national vanity. That 
Portugal was conferred as a dependent fief is also confirmed by the disputes 
between its early sovereigns and those of Leon the former striving to 
maintain their avowed independence, the latter to reduce them to their 
reputed original vassalage. Alfonso died in 1109. 

1 According to the Chronicon Lusitanum,d the Chronicon Comphitense^ and other authori- 
ties, Lisbon and Cintra were taken by Alfonso. They must, however, have been soon recovered 
by the Moors. 

2 That Henry, whose extraction has given rise to much disputation, was of the family of the 
first duke of Burgundy, and of the royal blood of France, is indisputable from a MS. discovered 
in the monastery of Fleury, according to La Clede./ 



-1*39 A.D.] 



EAELY HISTOEY TO JOAO I 



429 



administration of Henry was vigorous, and his military conduct 
. His triumphs over the Mohammedans were frequent, whether 
in concert with his father-in-law, Alfonso, or by his own unaided 
Nor were his efforts to crush rebellion, whether of his local Christian 
or of his Mohammedan vassals, less successful. One of his last 
to assist his natural sovereign, Urraca, daughter of Alfonso, against 
and the king of Aragon. He died in 1112, leaving many ecclesi- 
structures enriched by his liberality. Braga, Oporto, Coimbra, 
, and Viseu were the places most indebted to his piety. Unfortu- 
for his memory, many of the great deeds recorded of him by his 
istl people rest on authority too disputable to be received. Probably 
^ of them have been confounded with those of his more famous son. 
Exiling the minority of Alfonso [or Affonso], the son of Henry, who, at 
father's death, was only in his second year, the administration of 
tcixigdom was assumed by the widowed Theresa. The character of this 
-ess is represented as little superior to that of her sister Urraca : the 
s violence, the same unbridled passions, and the same unnatural jealousy 
r son appear, though in a degree undoubtedly less criminal, to have 
ngfuished her conduct. Yet on that sister and her nephew, the suc- 
>i* of Urraca, she sometimes made war, in the hope of profiting by the 
iiasions of the period; on every occasion she was repulsed, and was 
scL to sue for peace. Her intimacy with Doni Ferdinand Peres, 
LXX she is supposed to have secretly married, and through whom all 
u.x*s were to be solicited, roused the jealousy of the courtiers. By their 
ua,sion Alfonso, whom she had rigorously endeavoured to exclude ^from 
participation in public affairs, undertook to wrest the sovereignty 
her hands. He had little difficulty in collecting troops ; for no sooner 
a erect the standard of resistance, than the discontented nobles flocked 
d it. His preparations reached the ears of his mother, who wrathfully 
id to defend her authority. The two armies met near the fortress of 
naraes, where the princess was utterly routed, and forced to seek refuge 
ie castle of Leganoso. There she was speedily invested, and compelled 
jinrender the reins of government into the hands of her son, while her 
or husband fled into Galicia. She survived her fall about two 



3. 1 

n ]h.e new count was destined to prove a more formidable enemy to the 
ammedans than even his able father. During the first years of his 
Lnistration, he was at variance with his cousin, Alfonso Vll or V ill, 
se Galician territories he invaded, and with whose enemy, the king ot 
.=trre, he entered into alliance.^ 

Vlien Alfonso Henriques was no longer checked by the enmity ot hib 
sfclan neighbours, he prosecuted his enterprises against the Moors with 

vlo-our that he soon extended his sway nearly to the Tagus ; and, by 
-ex-i ? or of his progress, obliged Ali to send from Africa a powerful army, 
TDT>ort the walis, next threatened against him. A battle ensued esteemed 
i ost memorable in Portuguese annals, but which has been so disfigured 
Stlonal vanity or ignorance that the facts relating to it are not easily 
finable. The numbers of the Mohammedans are rated at three him- 

thousand, and even at six hundred thousand men ; and this host is said 
been commanded by five kings. Since the establishment of the 



r of Urraca. 




1 I *< 



430 THE HISTOEY OF PORTUGAL 

[1139-1147 A.D.] 

Almoravid domination, there were no Moorish kings left in Spain ; but the 
name was erroneously given to the walis who led the troops of their respec- 
tive provinces. What does seem certain respecting the battle in question is 
that the Mussulman forces were incomparably superior to the Portuguese ; 
that, dreading an invasion, which, even if ultimately foiled, must still bring 
inevitable ruin upon his territories, the count boldly crossed the Tagus, and 
advanced to the plain of Ourique [or Orik], where he entrenched himself 
strongly, and awaited the attack ; that the Moors repeatedly assaulted his 
fortifications and were as often repulsed, until at last, from weariness and 
mortification, they fell into some disorder; and that Alfonso ^ Henriques, 
seizing the critical moment, burst out upon them from behind his lines, and 
completed their discomfiture. Upon the field of victory the army were said 
to have hailed their count king of Portugal; and this glorious day, the 25th 
of July, 1139, is considered the epoch of the foundation of the monarchy. 

I The five walis of Badajoz, Beja, Elvas, Evora, and Lisbon were found 

t amongst the dead, and honoured with the royal title. The conqueror 

?* assumed, as the arms of Portugal, their five shields, arranged in what he called 

| a cross, though the figure they present more resembles that of a cinque upon 

dice; and accordingly the Portuguese arms are termed As Quinas, the Cinques. 
Alfonso's military election was said to have been subsequently confirmed 
by the cortes of Lamego, with a solemnity well deserving attention, as per- 
haps the only instance on record of a formal compact between prince and 
people, at the original establishment of a monarchy.* But it is now denied 
that such a cortes ever sat, the story being of much later date. The true 
kingship of Alfonso Henriques dates from 1143 when, at the intervention of 
a papal legate, Alfonso VII recognised him as king and vassal of the pope, a 
Having established his own independence of foreign authority, the new 
king proceeded to the emancipation of his clergy from their subjection to 
the archbishop of Toledo, whose primacy extended over the whole penin- 
sula. This was the subject of long negotiations with the papal see ; but 
Alfonso Henriques at length obtained from Pope Alexander III a bull dis- 
solving the connection with Toledo, and constituting the archbishop of Braga 
primate of Portugal. 

Alfonso Henriques' last conquest from the Moors was the city of Lisbon, 
which he took by the help of a fleet of French, English, and German cru- 
saders, who put into the Tagus in their way to the Holy Land. He easily 
persuaded these champions of Christianity that it would be no violation of 
their vow to suspend their voyage for a while, in order to fight the Moham- 
medans in Portugal ; and some of them, chiefly English, he is said to have 
induced permanently to settle in his new acquisitions.* 

In 1147, we find the Portuguese intent on regaining Santarem. As the 
fortifications were strong, and the defenders numerous, he caused a small but 
resolute band to scale the walls by night : scarcely had twenty-five reached 
the summit of the wall, when the Moorish inhabitants took the alarm, and 
flew to arms. In vain one of the gates was opened by the Christians, and the 
rest of the assailants rushed in. The struggle which ensued, amidst the dark- 
ness of night, the clash of weapons, the groans of dying warriors, the shrieks of 
women and infants who were indiscriminately butchered, constituted a scene 
which none but a demon would have delighted to witness, which none but a 
demon would have commanded. 1 In an hour this important fortress, one of 

1 " Mas o rei mandando fazer as mortes indisiintas, sem differ enca de sexo, e idade ; o horror 
dos gemidos, o tropel da gente, o clamor das mulheres, a meninos, o escuro da noite causan hum 
espanto tao geral." 



TO JOAO I 431 

bulwarks of Christian Lusitania, was in possession of the victor 
mi *' a ? ci tlle embarrassni e n t of the Mohammedan princes of Spain botli 

tilit 1 - 00 ^ ..i ^ 6 nsm . g P wer of the Almoll ads in Africa, and of the hos- 
wnuob 01 tue kings ot Leon and Castile, emboldened him to attenmt thp 
recovery of Lisbon. That city was invested; but the valour of the dSenders 
and the strength of the walls would doubtless have compelled him to rai'e 
tlie siege, liad not a succour arrived which no man could have expected This 
was a neet ot crusaders, chiefly of English, under the command of William 
^ongsword^ who was hastening to the Holy Land. The Portuguese kino- 
Had little difficulty in persuading them that the cross had no greater ene^- 
iiucs than, tlie Mohammedans of Spain, and that the recovery of Lisbon 
would be no less acceptable to heaven than that of the Syrian towns the 
liope ot plunder did the rest ; the crusaders disembarked, and joined in 
tlie assaults which were daily made on the place. After a gallant defence of 
live months, the besieged showing no disposition to surrender, the Christians 
appointed October 25th for a general assault on the city. It was carried by 
storm ; a prodigious number of the Moors were put to the sword ; the crusa- 
ders were too much enriched to dream of continuing their voyage ; so that, 
with the exception of a few who received lands in Portugal, the rest re- 
turned to tlieir own country. 

But tlie Mohammedans had still possession of one-half of Portugal, 
aiid^of several strong fortresses. Having reduced Cintra, Alfonso passed 
the Tugus, and seized on several fortified places in Estremadura, and even 
in Alemtejo. It was not, however, until 1158 that he seriously attempted 
the reduction, of Alcacer-do-Sal, which fell, after a vigorous resistance of two 
months. In. 1165 Cezimbra and Palmella were invested : the former place 
was speedily taken ; while, before the latter, he had to encounter a strong 
force sent to relieve it by the Moorish governor of Badajoz. 1 The mis- 
believers were defeated, and many places made to surrender. 

The martial character of the Portuguese king, as well as the almost unin- 
terrupted sxiccess of his arms, inclined him to perpetual war whether with 
Moors or Christians appears to have given him little concern. In 1167 he 
seized oil Limia, a territory of Galicia, which he claimed on the ground of 
its having- formed part of his mother's dowry. The following year he 
advanced against Badajoz, the Moorish governor of which was a vassal of the 
king of Leon. Ferdinand II hastened to its relief ; but before his arrival 
the Portuguese standard floated on the towers. The forces of Ferdinand 
were greatly superior in number, and the Portuguese king prepared to issue 
from tlie gates whether, as the national writers assert, to contend for his 
new conquest on the open field, or, as the Castilians say, to escape from the 
incensed monarch of Leon, is uncertain. What is indubitable is that, as he 
was passing through the gate with precipitation, his thigh came into contact 
with the Avail or bars, and was shattered. He was taken prisoner by the 
Leonese, and conducted to their king, who treated him with courtesy, and 
consented to his liberation on the condition of his surrendering the places 
which he had usurped in Galicia. From this accident, however, he never 
recovered so as to be able to mount a horse ; but it had a much worse effect 
than, his own. personal decrepitude : it encouraged the restless Mohammedans 
to resume their incursions into his territories. 

1 On this occasion Alfonso, with no more than sixty horsemen, is said to have encountered five 
hundred horsemen of the Almoravids, and forty thousand foot ; and, what is more, to have 
defeated them ! (See Chronicon Lusitanum.*) These prodigious relations were admitted with- 
out scruple by the earlier historians of Portugal. 



\I 



ril>li 

1 l!_ 

4 

! 



A.D.I 



EARLY HISTORY TO JOAO I 



433 



disturbance, eitlier in the country itself or -from without, especially 

t towards the young king 
ist an opportunity of add- 
which he already possessed. These and similar 



urance, ier n te counry tse or -rom without, especially 
II had already shown in his conduct towards the young king 



P sown ouc owars e young ng 

i >r J^stile that his generosity could not always resist an opportunity of add- 
wg another crown to that which he already possessed. These and similar 
wusicierations probably moved Alfonso I to associate his son with him in 
the government, not by any formal act of which we have record, but by giv- 
MK him a free hand in the government of the state, especially in matters of 
warfare. 

Following the phases of this long reign, and judging impartially the 
actions of the man placed by providence at the head of the nation, to guide 
it in the first years of its existence, it is 
recognised that the idea of fixing the Por- 
tuguese independence outweighed all other 
considerations in his mind, sometimes per- 
haps to the prejudice of some which should 
have been respected- It is this idea which 
in reality links together many acts of Alfonso 
Hoiiriques which, taken separately, would 
give men a right to accuse him of little 
faith and immoderate ambition. Besides 
the revolt against Dona Theresa which is 
to be attributed rather to the nobles than to 
an inexperienced youth, the breaking of the 

t nice with the emperor in 1137, the cruelties 

practised upon the Saracens, and finally his 
conduct towards the king of Leon, his son- 

in-law, whose noble and generous character 

cannot fail to cast a reflection upon that of 

Alfonso I, are actions which, taken sepa- 

rately, are worthy of condemnation, at least 

until records reveal some circumstances still 

unknown to us, which may absolve them. 

Hut, if we consider them in connection with 

thu Idea to which the king of Portugal had 

devoted himself, and which, was so to speak incarnate in him, who will not 

find excuses for such actions, especially if we consider the barbarous epoch, 

th<* difficult situation of the country, and the real weakness of a society 

separated from another which struggled to bring it to reunion? The great 

need to which Alfonso I was bound to attend was to give homogeneity and 

Internal and external strength to the nation which was being formed. *or 

is purpose he was forced at the same time to seek the favour of the church 

1 * iSt P element of strength in those days ; to favour the nobles, the chief 

rve of the army, and finally to impart the utmost degree of vigour to the 

nundeipal spirit without which, in our opinion, popular spirit and keen love 

c,f country never have existed and never will exist, 

Besides this labour of internal organisation, he had to extend the limits 

of the territory which he inherited, too narrow for the establishment of an 
ch-pendent state. The fear of his name among the Mussulmans and 
i -uHnrit ind the darin** of his troops were means to accomplish it. fcatu- 

( ' rl two ^succeslive generations learned in his school the hard busi- 

ow ^ to those to come i 10ioI " 

' S 




AN EARLY PORTUGUESE RD?G 



w o ose i - 

of st?eneth and patriotic love which the nation guarded religiously for 
^nSiS^^o^ver, before Alfonso I could trust the independence 



H. W. VOL. X. 2 



434 THE HISTOEY OF PORTUGAL 

[1185-1211 A.D.] 

of the country to the chances of war, it was necessary to shield it while a 
frail plant, by political dexterity. In some cases this gave rise to actions 
which considered summarily would be condemned by severe morality. But 
view the picture in the proper light, and the stains which before cast a shadow 
upon the noble and haughty figure of the first Portuguese king will almost 
disappear, and the sympathy which the Portuguese nation has in all ages 
shown for the memory of the son of Count Henry will again appear esti- 
mable, for it has its roots in a sentiment rarely found among nations grati- 
tude to those to whom they are most indebted. This national affection went 
so far as to attribute to Alfonso Henriques the halo of the saints, and urge 
that Rome should bestow upon the fierce conqueror that crown which belongs 
to the martyr's resignation. But if a creed of peace and humility forbade 
Rome to grant that crown, another religion likewise venerable, the religion 
of patriotism, teaches us that when we pass the pale, worm-eaten portal of 
the church of Santa Cruz we are about to pay homage to the ashes of that 
man but for whom the Portuguese nation, and perhaps even the name of 
Portugal, would not be in existence to-day. 



BEIGKS OF SANCHO I AND ALFONSO II 

The historical value of the twenty-six years' reign of the son of Alfonso I 
is perhaps no less than that of his own long term of government; but the 
character of the two epochs differ as much as did the gifts and characters of 
the two princes who presided over the political life of each. Less able as 
a captain than his father, and without that superior invention and daring 
which incited the founder of the monarchy to great enterprises, Sancho I 
was far from winning equal renown as a conqueror, but wasted the best 
years of his manhood in wars for the most part useless and obscure. 

Upon this point the two epochs admit of no comparison. Before the 
sword of Alfonso, Saracen and Christian drew back dismayed, citadels and 
castles opened their gates ; the limits of the country were extended, and the 
foundations of the existence of Portugal, cemented by torrents of blood, were 
permanently laid in the west of Spain. After a conquest Sancho always 
lost again, and for years carried on a sterile strife with Leon ; and if he 
recovered a part of the north and west of Alemtejo it was because the Almo- 
hads, whose power was already on the decline; had not sufficient forces to 
maintain the almost useless dominion of those inhospitable deserts, and so 
abandoned them, while the Christians, especially the military orders, gradu- 
ally reclaimed them and built castles and preceptories. 

But if we turn our eyes from the frontiers and look upon the interior of 
the country, the name of the second monarch appears no less glorious than 
that of the first, and we see his reign as a complement of the preceding 
reign. Fertilised by the ashes of the martyrs of the Gospel and the Koran, 
turned and furrowed by the steel of combatants and the whirl of battles, the 
land of Portugal received from the hands of Sancho the seeds of greatness 
and royal strength in the councils which were everywhere established; in 
the farms and villages which were founded in the districts least subject to 
invasion and incursions ; and in the frontier castles which were crowned 
with bastions and provided with military stores. In those days the courage 
which faces death was but a trivial virtue. Without the grand idea which 
dominated all his conquests, without the political skill and extraordinary 
military talent with which he made up for the lack of strength and resources 



EABLY HISTORY TO JOAO I 43 ~ 

"** XJL AI),J 



1 OU ? e ' a , ^ e to courage and 

rank no higher than a fortunate knight. 

point llis son was not fortune's favourite. However he 
wh'? y,l*lK>v**g to earn the title of the Povoadorfor dty! 
of r-vS ' ^ m ? eed deserved - History, so subject to the vulgar error 
I l u ; 1^ the ba f laurel crown above the fruitful olive branch, has treated 
to 'Uv,i ^? e x rs bancl ^'s .reign with scorn because therein he endeavoured 
di ., A 1 r l r 6 Clties for desert s, cultivated fields for waste lands, and life for 

ilu* oAn J 6 pu ^ ed this eild with ener ^' and llis hi g hest P 1>ai ^ lies in 

- collection of documents which prove his activity and which are perhaps 
** i> small portion of those once existing. This monarch sincerely followed 

"' system which the internal state of the nation demanded, and enabled 

* successors to be, if not more valiant, at least more fortunate soldiers. 

o uch is the justice clue to Sancho as king. As a man his moral character 
^ ***** not relatively bad, it was vulgar ; that is, he had the defects common to 

pi * noes and barons of the times; he was ignorant and credulous for science, 

i<X5o:rcling to the opinion of the age, was only fit for the mean-spirited 
ira,Koj.ble, and violent, because moderation is not learned upon the battle- 
u<Ul, \vhere his father educated him. Besides this he seems to have been 
* m six ned to gallantry and the pleasures of the chase. Certain facts of his 
J * * < * also cast upon him the suspicion of cupidity, and of having gathered 
liir^o sums into his treasury by means grievous to his nation. Sancho him- 
'! i 5xsserts_tliat the defenders of the state often lacked necessaries, and yet 
JH* lett in his will nearly a million maravedis, almost all in gold coin, that is, 
more than three million cmzados of the actual currency truly an incredible 
stun, if we consider the rarity of precious metals at that time. Such riches 
pi'ussnppose frequent rapine or a too violent system of taxation. Indeed it is 
proved by a law of Alfonso II that the king as well as his barons obtained 
t li<3 greatest necessaries of life at an incomparably inferior price, a monstrous 
imposition which may give us some idea of the other exactions of the 
t t*i.u*,Hmy. 

liut the point in which the reign of Sancho has perhaps the highest signifi- 
cance lies in the beginning of that varied and complex fact which for three 
contnjLries constituted the principal feature of our Middle Ages. We speak 
of -Llie alliance of the king and councils against the privileged classes, the 
clotty and the nobility. The first phases of the struggle are not only 
tin.? beginning but the epitome, or rather the symbol of the whole. The bur- 
i^.swes of Oporto, attacking their bishop and lord with the officers of the 
T( > -\\rii, confiscating his property, expelling him covered with ignominy, and 
hrsLving the anger of the powerful family of Martinho Rodrigues, are a type 
of "Llie resistance and ill will exhibited by the municipality and the king 
towards the two high classes of the state, until the monarchy gained a final 
uii<l decisive victory. Sancho, abandoning the citizens of Oporto, transfer- 
rii **".> so to speak, his inert strength of a dying man to the opposite camp, 
aiicl even associating himself with the clergy to assist in subduing the bur- 
i.r< ^ses, gave a deplorable example to his successors and stirred up the popular 
s'jvlz-it to future strife. In spite of this, history cannot condemn him, for 
everything seems to indicate that the last months of his life were one pro- 
triLoted agony; and if even in our own times, when religious feeling has 
thrown dim and weak, souls calling themselves strongly tempered waver at the 
:V| >px-oach of death, and bow not only to the terrors of religion but often even 
to t-he superstitious beliefs of infancy which then importunately revive 
how can we fail to excuse an ignorant and credulous man, born in an 



436 THE HISTOEY OF POBTUGAL 

[1211-1245 A.D.] 

inexorable age, for sacrificing both political convenience and loyalty to the 
voice of a frequently legitimate remorse?.? 

Alfonso II " the Fat" had no sooner ascended the throne than he showed 
a disposition to evade the execution of his father's will. Not only did he 
refuse to allow his brothers the money which had been bequeathed them, 
but he insisted on the restitution of the fortresses which belonged to his two 
sisters, the saints Theresa and Sancha ; and on their refusal to surrender 
them, he seized them by force. The infantas complained to the pope and the 
king of Leon : the former ordered his legate to see justice done to them ; 
the latter, who still bore an affection towards his divorced wife Theresa, 
interfered more effectually by way of arms. The Leonese entered Portugal 
by way of Badajoz, reduced several fortresses, and spread devastations 
around them. In the sequel, Alfonso of Portugal, at the command of the 
pope and doubtless through fear of the Leonese, consented to treat with his 
sisters. 

The transactions of Alfonso with the Mohammedans Avere not so remark- 
able as those of his predecessors a circumstance that must be attributed 
not to his want of military spirit but to his excessive corpulency, which ren- 
dered, the fatigues of the field intolerable. Though he sent a handful of 
troops to aid in the triumphs of Las Navas de Tolosa, he did not take the 
field in person against the enemies of his faith, until 1217 when the arrival 
in his ports of another crusading armament, which promised to co-operate in 
his designs, roused him to the reduction of Alcacer-do-Sal, a place that still 
remained in the power of the misbelievers. It held out till the end of 
September. The Mohammedans who had remained in Alemtejo, and were 
pressing the siege of several fortresses, were compelled to retire. 

During the last three years of his reign, Alfonso had new disputes with 
the church. He appears to have borne little respect for the ecclesiastical 
immunities, some of which were, indeed, inconsistent with the interests of 
the community. Alfonso insisted on churchmen heading their own vassals 
in the wars he undertook, and such as refused were compelled to go. For 
such violence there was no excuse; but in subjecting the ecclesiastical 
possessions to the same contributions as were levied on the property of the 
laymen, and churchmen themselves to the secular tribunals, he attempted a 
salutary innovation on the established system of the clerical exemptions. 
The archbishop of Braga, like the English Becket of the preceding century, 
remonstrated with the king; and when remonstrances were ineffectual, 
hurled at the head of his abettors the thunders of the church. In return he 
was deprived of his revenues, and compelled to consult his present safety by 
flight. He complained to the pope: Honorius III ordered three Castilian 
bishops to insist on ample reparation, to excommunicate the king, and 
impose an interdict on the nation. The afflicted people now endeavoured to 
effect a reconciliation between the king and the archbishop: the former 
promised to make satisfaction, and in future to respect the privileges of the 
church ; he was accordingly absolved, and the interdict removed, bat before 
he could fulfil his share of the compact he was surprised by death (1223). 

Sancho II, having reluctantly promised to respect the immunities of the 
church, prepared to extend the boundary of his dominions at the expense of 
the Mohammedans. He recovered the important town of Elvas, which had 
been regained by the Moors : next Jarurnenha and Serpa yielded to his 
arms. He now. carried the war into Algarve. He appears to have left 
the enemy no fortified places in Alemtejo ; the frontier fortresses of that 
province, thus rescued from the infidels, he intrusted to the defence of the 



. HISTORY T JOAO I 437 

tie in several P art ial engagements. The 

S -if ?1 f Continued for some years to change masters, according as 
ci ot the hostile powers prevailed. & 

fm-tm, h f 1S do ^ iestic 1 Administration, Dom Sancho was doomed to be far less 
lion nf ?' < " infancy he appears to have been of a weak constitu- 
Lion and of a still weaker mind ; but if he was weak, we have no proof that 
i ds 7\ ci . ou s, though great disasters afflicted his kingdom, and the histo- 
i-m o*ms country have stigmatised his memory. His hostility to the 

!m^T 6 ^ of * the clergy a PP ears to have been the first and chief cause of his 
unpopularity, h 

SANCHO II CALLED CAPELLO, "THE HOODED" 

The account of the state of the kingdom which, served as a foundation 
lor the acts which afterwards emanated from the Roman curia affirmed that 
toe king in spite of Ms former promises showed on the one hand pertinacity 
in the perpetration of violence, and on the other the most inexcusable 
tolerance towards criminals, and neither amended himself nor restrained his 
subjects ; that robbers, highwaymen, incendiaries, sacrilegists, and murderers 
swarmed everywhere, robbing and killing clergy and laity without distinc- 
tion, and living secure of impunity. That through this contagious example 
oi: the impotence of the laws, barons and knights, nobles and plebeians made 
general practice of those acts which the church by the most severe com- 
miuations had endeavoured to restrain. That certain patrons of parishes 
ctnd^ monasteries, and others falsely giving themselves out as such, accom- 
panied by illegitimate children, wasted the property of the said parishes and 
monasteries without pity, reducing them to such misery that the very 
ministers of worship could not maintain themselves ; so that in some there 
was even no one to perform the indispensable services, and in others the 
cloisters, refectories, and other offices were converted into stables and 
brothels for the lowest of men, and it might almost be said that divine wor- 
ship had ceased there and the property of these holy places was given over 
to dilapidation and plunder. That at the same time Sancho allowed the 
castles, towns, and revenues of the crown to be destroyed and squandered, 
and suffered the increase of assassinations without any distinction whatever 
of the class, age, or sex of the victims ; as well as robbery, incest, the rape of 
nuns and secular women, grievous oppression of labourers, priests, and 
merchants, with the purpose of extorting money from them; violation of 
temples and cemeteries, incendiarism, and breaches of truce. That Sancho 
was aware of all this and yet tolerated it, and through neglect of punish- 
ment facilitated the perpetration of further crimes ; that finally, by abandon- 
ing the defence of the frontiers, he, the king of Portugal, allowed the 
Saracens to occupy the lands and lordships of the Christians. "We," added 
the prelates, "have used our utmost endeavours to move the prince to 
devote himself with due ardour to the repression of such evils; but he 
closes his ears to our admonitions, which have so far been entirely vain." 

If the reader will reflect upon this last invective of the clergy against 
Hanclio, he will recognise with what good reason we attribute to the long 
wars of this reign an immense influence upon the strife with the clergy, and 
see in these repeated enterprises against the infidel an idea, or maybe a politi- 
cal instinct, of the monarchy which drew strength from them for the eternal 
duel with the priesthood. As far as documents throw light upon the last 
conquests in Algarve, the accusation that Sancho in a cowardly manner 



i 



I r 438 THE HISTORY OF PORTUGAL 

( . [1237-1245 A.r>.] 

\, , abandoned the defence of the frontier and allowed the Mussulman arms to 

.[ encroach upon the territory of the kingdom was a calumny. 

J; But the heads of the clergy did not hesitate to adopt such means, for it 

\ , was necessary to destroy the reputation of a conqueror of the enemies of the 

1 1 cross which the king of Portugal must still have enjoyed in the Roman curia, 

'' i where the solemn testimonies of praise lavished upon him more than once by 

Gregory IX could not be yet forgotten. It was necessary to snatch the 
crown from the soldier's helm and place it on a dishonoured brow, that they 
might afterwards roll it in the dust before the priestly sandal. But up to 
a certain point Sancho offered a pretext for such calumny by the fatal repose 
of the preceding years, and perhaps some obscure event, the loss of some 
unimportant tower or grange of Ayamonte in the east or Tavira in the west, 
a loss exaggerated by ecclesiastical malice, gave the absurd assertion some 
appearance of truth. 

The description of the state of Portugal, drawn up by the Roman curia, 
although exaggerated, was based on facts proved by various documents and 
memoirs of that time, and above all by the inquisitions of the following 
reign. But these very inquisitions prove that the members of the secular 
clergy and monastic orders were not innocent of the public evils, especially 
as regards robbery and the diminution of the patrimony of the crown. They 
complained of the contempt in. which canonical censure was held, but the 
fault was theirs. The spiritual sword was blunted by excessive use ; excom- 
munication, interdict, denial of burial in consecrated ground accompanied all 
the pretensions of the ministers of the altar, even those which the rudest of 
men could plainly perceive to be dictated by shameful cupidity. It is not 
surprising, therefore, that the nobles as well as the burgesses and peasants 
laughed at the chastisement which the clergy themselves taught them to 
despise. It was this contrast which throughout all Europe wounded the 
most enlightened men and gradually undermined the foundations and politi- 
cal influence of the church. The representation of the prelates was there- 
fore doubly dislo} r al, attributing to the king alone the evils of which they 
were no less guilty, and describing the crimes and excesses of the laity 
towards the clergy, but forgetting to mention the abuse of divine things and 
the cupidity and lawlessness of the clergy. 

The truth is, however, that this new phase of the interminable conflict 
between the clergy and the civil power did not arise from the cause assigned, 
but from the conjunction of circumstances which gave the bishops the means 
of gaining a decisive victory over the crown. The idea of deposing a king 
through the initiative of the church was old, and was considered so feasible 
that in grave cases the popes did not hesitate to allude to it clearly in their 
comminations and threats. In Portugal especially, as a kingdom in a man- 
ner dependent upon the papal throne, such a course must have seemed even 
easier, as the king was without moral or material means of defence J 

SANCHO DEPOSED, ALFONSO III SUCCEEDS (1245 A.D.) 

Censures were passed on the monarch for his persecution of the dean of 
Lisbon. His subsequent repentance disarmed the pontiff ; and, notwithstand- 
ing the complaints of the people that the laws were silent, and brute force only 
triumphed, he would doubtless have ended his reign in peace, had he not 
resumed or permitted the spoliation of the church. At length, both clergy 
and people united their murmurs ; they perceived that the king was too feeble 



hnt 



lldeSrSSon 1 6 If? "VJ C r teSS ' he T!^ atth ' ?t Po' 
i<maeci at .Lisbon. At first the king intended to oppose the inf 

Beomg how generally the deputies owned him,_how P aU d^ 
?i Sfr % P 6late8 m ? P*??aats, J ined his Brother,- he retreated 

"is tr b Sri I ^ C USin ' Ferdinand HI- As that sainti m< 
TVdb too busy in the Andalusian wars to assist the fugitive kino* in "person he 
recommended the interests of his guest to his son Alfonso. *The C^tilhn 
in ante showed no want of zeal in behalf of his relative. He collected a con* 
siderable army, and invaded Portugal. Arriving before Leiria without much 
opposition, he was preparing to storm that fortress, when he was visited bv a 
deputation from the archbishop of Braga, which conjured him, as a true son 
ot the church, not to incur excommunication by opposing the execution of the 
pontifical bulls. The Castilian infante listened, and obeyed : he led back his 
army ; and the deposed monarch, now bereft of all hope, retired to Toledo 
where, early in 1248, lie ended his days. So long as the latter lived, some 
ol the tortmed places in Portugal refused to acknowledge the recent ; but 
on his death without issue there is no evidence that he was ever married 
his brother was peaceably acknowledged as his successor. 

Alfonso III, on arriving at a height which, a few years before, his ambition 
could scarcely have reached, was not without apprehensions that the Cas- 
tilian king or infante might trouble him in his usurpation, and assembled 
the three estates of his realm to deliberate on the means of defence. For- 
tunately for his ambition, both father and son were absorbed by their Anda- 
lusian conquests. To secure, if possible, the good will of the former, he 
sent a considerable aid to the Christian camp, which was readily received 
by the hero. In the meantime he himself resolved to profit by the reverses 
of the misbelievers, and finish the conquest of Algarve. At "the head of a 
sufficient force, he accordingly penetrated into that province, and speedily 
recovered the places which the Mohammedans had again surprised. In a 
subsequent expedition, his ardour or avarice led him to encroach on the 
possessions of Alfonso el Sabio, Ferdinand's successor. The Castilian army 
inarched against the Portuguese, who were compelled to retreat. The Cas- 
tilian king did not stop here. On the pretext that Algarve, as chiefly con- 
quered by his subjects, the knights of Santiago, belonged to him, he invaded 
that province, and quickly reduced its chief fortresses. The Portuguese 
was glad to sue for an accommodation ; and it was at length agreed that he 
should marry Dona Beatrice de Guzman, a natural daughter of the Castilian, 
and with her receive the sovereignty of Algarve. As the province had 
been conquered by the subjects of both crowns, equity would have indi- 
cated its division by the two monarchs ; but as such a division would prob- 
ably have led to future wars, the present arrangement might be a politic 
one. The Castilian appears to have reserved to himself the sovereignty of 
Algarve, his feudatory being required both to pay tribute and to furnish a 



440 THE HISTOEY OF PORTUGAL 

[1253-1279 A.D.] 

certain number of forces whenever lie should be at war. The cession, with 
whatever conditions it was accompanied, was disagreeable to the Castilians, 
who thought that their monarch had sacrificed the interests of the state in 
favour of his daughter. The marriage was solemnised in the following year 
(in 1254), and a few years afterwards Portugal was declared forever free 
from homage to the Castilian kings. 

From the facility with which this matrimonial connection was formed, it 
would be inferred that the Portuguese was become a widower. But the countess 
Matilda still lived, and was anxious to return to her lord. Her only defects 
were her barrenness and her age two which, though no canonist would rec- 
ognise, were sufficient in the mind of so unscrupulous a prince as Alfonso. 
She sailed for Portugal. He refused to see her ; and when at length she forced 
her way into his presence, he heard, unmoved, her entreaties, her expostula- 
tions, and threats. The queen (for such history must call her) retired to 
Boulogne, and laid her complaints before the pope and her liege superior, 
St. Louis. After a patient examination of the case, Alexander IV expe- 
dited a bull, by which he declared Matilda the lawful wife of Alfonso, and 
annulled the recent marriage with Dona Beatrice. The king persevered in 
his lust, as he had already done in his usurpation, even when excommuni- 
cated by the pope ; and he and his household were interdicted from the 
offices of the church. A second time is she said to have visited Portugal, 
but with as little success. She had married him when poor when almost 
an exile from his native court and had thereby raised him to power and 
riches: and her unshaken attachment unshaken even by his sickening 
ingratitude proves that though the empire of the passions had ceased, she 
possessed an uncommon share of woman's best feeling. Her last act, by 
which she bequeathed a considerable sum to this faithless deserter, was char- 
acteristic enough of her ruling misfortune. On her death, in 1262, his 
prelates obtained from the pope a bull to render legitimate the present 
marriage.^ 

POLITICAL IMPOBTANCE OF ALFONSO'S BEIGK 

Alfonso determined to bridle the power of the bishops, in spite of his oath 
at Paris. Perceiving that this could only be done with the help of the mass 
of the people, he summoned a cortes at Leiria in 1254, to which representa- 
tives of the cities were elected and sat with the nobles and higher clergy. 
With the help of the cortes one of great importance in the constitutional 
history of Portugal he dared the interdict laid upon the kingdom for hav- 
ing married again (the daughter of Alfonso el Sabio) whilst his first wife 
(Matilda, countess of Boulogne) was alive. Finally, however, on the peti- 
tion of the archbishops and bishops of Portugal, Pope Urban IV legalised the 
disputed marriage in 1262 and legitimated his eldest son, Dom Diniz, while 
in 1263, Alfonso X made over to him the full sovereignty of Algarve. On 
the other hand, the people made use of their power, and in a full cortes at 
Coimbra in 1261 the representatives of the cities boldly denounced Alfonso's 
tampering with the coinage, and compelled recognition of the fact that taxes 
were not levied by the inherent right of the king but the free consent of the 
people. After a prosperous and successful reign Nemesis came upon Alfonso 
in the rebellion of his eldest son Diniz 1 in 1277, which continued until 
1279, in which year the king died. 

Q According to some authorities Diaiz did not rebel at all, but was an exemplary son, and 
was present at his father's death-bed.] 



[rjm325AD] EAELY HISTORY TO JOAO I 4 4i 

d ^"T ^ v territorial extension in the peninsula was now 
? en i Clvil *sation was to dawn. Territorially and consti- 
rt V^^ MW ff teb ^^d kingdom; it remained for it to 
nr- d f A ^F 011 ^ homogeneous before the great heroic period 
loration and Asiatic conquest should begin. 



DOM DIKIZ 

No better man for such work than the new king, Dom Diniz, could have 
been louncl ; he was himself a poet arid loved letters ; he was a great admin- 
istrator and loved justice; above all he saw the need of agriculture and the 
a i 7 P eace to take the place of incessant wars, and nobly earned the title 
of thsftg Labrador, or Diniz the Labourer. From all these points of view 
his reign is of vast importance in the history of Portugal, though, like all 
reigns of peaceful progress, it is not signalised by many striking events. It 
began with a civil war between Diniz and his brother Alfonso, who disputed 
his legitimacy, which ended in a compromise ; and in 1281 Diniz married 
Isabella, daughter of Pedro III of Aragon, who for her pure and unselfish life 
was canonised in the sixteenth century. His reign is marked by only one 
war with Sanoho IV and his successor, Ferdinand IV, of Castile and Leon, 
which was terminated in 1297 by a treaty of alliance, according to the terms 
of which Ferdinand IV married Constanza, daughter of Diniz, while Alfonso, 
the heir to the throne of Portugal, married Beatrice of Castile, sister of Fer- 
dinand. At the end of this reign war broke out between the king and the 
heir-apparent, and a pitched battle was only prevented in 1323 by St. Isabella 
riding between the armies and making a peace between her husband and her 
son, which lasted until the death of the great peace-monarch, the He Labrador, 
iu 1825.C 

Treachery and abuse of power were so frequent that, notwithstanding 
various diplomatic disloyalties, Diniz was considered one of the most loyal 
and just princes and lords of the two kingdoms. For this reason the two 
great kingdoms of Aragon and Castile appointed him arbitrator in the most 
serious disputes, and submitted to his judgment. Although the genius of 
war did not weave martial crowns for him, as conqueror in battles for 
during his time no great honours fell to the Portuguese arms yet he was 
ever at the head of the national armies in all the campaigns; knowing that 
his most powerful allies had been destroyed and others had betrayed him, he 
had the skilful audacity to penetrate forty leagues into the interior of Castile, 
and availing himself of the opportunity afforded by his opponents' weakness, 
lie increased the Portuguese dominion by two castles and eleven^ important 
towns, as though he were the most successful of warriors. The civil dissen- 
sions which disturbed his reign both arose from the same causes and circum- 
stances, mediaeval feudalism, assisted by Castilian elements. Taking for 
leaders first the brother and then the son of Diniz, the rebels combatted 
royal power in the kingdom, which, supported by the people, daily increased 
feudal privileges and forces. . . 

The husband of Isabella was as rapid and successful in his measures 
against his brother as he was undecided and weak in repressing his son. 
In the first instance his courage was heightened by the just ambition ot 
saf e-o-uarding his throne ; whereas, in the second instance, it was weakened 
by paternal affection and respect of legitimacy in the succession ot the 
crown. 



442 THE HISTORY OE PORTUGAL 

[127&-1325 A.D.] 

However, the principal glory of Diniz was not won with, his sword. Of 
his epoch a perfect king, penetrated by his country's needs, he notably 
increased the territory of Alfonso Henriques, but above all he raised to an 
amazing height the -edifice of internal organisation, the foundations of which 
had been laid by Sancho I. His disloyalties with respect to the neighbour- 
ing kingdoms, his rare moments of repressive cruelty, the errors into which 
he may have fallen as a politician, the many faults into which he was in 
truth led by an ardent and sensual character Diniz redeemed them all 
by the general and profound reform he effected with regard to Portuguese 
society, 

He raised the population of the country, as none of his predecessors had 
done, by the means we have spoken of ; he brought agriculture to a pitch of 
prosperity which we now marvel at ; he created the internal industry and 
commerce, promoted municipal organisation, favouring labour, encouraging 
markets, and raising the spirit of the people ; he safeguarded navigation 
by establishing vast societies of mutual aid between merchants, and definitely 
established a navy, with which lie defended the coasts and the Portuguese 
merchant ships against pirates, and equipped his subjects for the discoveries 
of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, which brought universal and eternal 
fame upon Portugal. He built nearly fifty fortresses, reorganised the popu- 
lar militia, and nationalising the military orders with praiseworthy abnega- 
tion, he widely prepared the defence of the country, and bequeathed to Dom 
Joao I the possibility of opposing a formidable invasion by Castile and estab- 
lishing once for all, with immortal glory, the independence of the country. 

He was a zealous administrator, wise and economic, so that with the 
national resources he left the public treasury wealthy. Of a tolerant spirit, 
prudent and just in the application of the laws, no prince of his own times 
surpassed him in these qualities, then most rare. With gentle measures, 
affectionately and frequently protecting individual rights, he was one of the 
most determined opponents of the excessive privileges of the nobility and 
the church. Having received civil power, bound beneath the yoke of the 
Portuguese clergy, in their turn fettered to the Roman tiara, Diniz not only 
raised this power, but even succeeded in giving life to the national episcopacy. 
The establishment of the councils begun by previous governments largely 
progressed, and the cortes, continuing to summon the deputies of the people, 
was a new and powerful aid towards the destruction of mediaeval, ecclesias- 
tical, and military feudalism in Portugal. With the laws respecting mort- 
main decreed and executed with civic firmness and superior wisdom, the 
clergy were deprived of territorial power and the sovereign right of admin- 
istering justice ; civil actions were brought before secular tribunes, which 
by a usurpation of jurisdiction had up to that time been brought before 
ecclesiastical tribunals. 

The nobles were prohibited from raising new seigniorial castles, and many 
of the old were levelled ; they were deprived of their traditional rights of 
deciding mutual disputes with the sword, of making knights, of exempting 
themselves from the royal tax, turning into fiefs and boroughs the lands they 
had seized without just cause, and even those with which they had established 
merely personal relations, and finally by giving judgment in causes in which 
the nobles claimed for themselves exclusive knowledge, the feudal nobility 
was totally destroyed, as was the temporal power of the church. Up to then 
the beneficial influence of the times sufficed to totally undermine the old 
oligarchic institutions of the Middle Ages, .which were an overwhelming 
oppression of the people, and absorbed the forces of the state. 




EARLY HISTORY TO JOAO I 443 

[1300-1340 A.D.] 

Finally Diniz, who was the greatest poet of the first four centuries of 
Portugal, founded to his honour the Estudaria de Santo Eloy in Lisbon, and 
also the university, causing general enthusiasm ; and by spreading the love 
of letters and study in the country, laid the foundations of secular and pub- 
lic instruction and opened to the Portuguese people the gates of science, and 
consequently those of civilisation and liberty. 

After the work of Alfonso Henriques, that of Diniz is the most import* 
ant which Portuguese history records to us : the first was the founder of the 
military nation ; the second, that of the cultured people. The union of 
those two works gave to Portugal centuries later the possibility of realising, 
in the long evolution of mankind, her glorious mission of enlarging the 
known world. & 

Alfonso IV, surnamed the Brave, had scarcely grasped the reins of sove- 
reignty, when he exhibited, in a manner little becoming royalty, his vindictive 
feelings towards his illegitimate brother, Alfonso Henriques, _who, to escape 
his wrath, had just fled into Castile. Having collected some troops, and been 
joined by a prince of Castile, he entered Portugal, laid waste the frontiers, 
and put to the sword every living being that fell in his way. The king now 
took the field in person, and laid waste the neighbouring territories of Castile. 
These harassing though indecisive hostilities might have continued for years, 
had not St. Isabella left her retreat in the convent of St. Glair, which she had 
founded, and prevailed on her son to permit the return of the exile. 

Another defect of the new king gave great offence to the people his 
neglect of public business, and his addiction to the chase. The first twelve 
years of Alfonso's reign were distracted by hostilities with his namesake 
of Castile, the husband of his daughter. Though these hostilities were 
chiefly owing to the perversity of the infante Don Juan Manuel, it cannot be 
denied that the Portuguese king had abundant reason for dissatisfaction with 
his son-in-law. The usage experienced by the Castilian queen at the hands 
of her husband ; her mortification at seeing a mistress, Leonora de Guzman, 
not only preferred to herself, but the sole depository of the royal favour ; 
the studied insults to which she was daily exposed both from her husband 
and his minion, at length exhausted her patience, and drew forth some com- 
plaints to her father. The influence, too, which Don Juan Manuel obtained 
in the Portuguese court through the marriage of his repudiated daughter 
Constanza with Pedro, son and heir of the Portuguese king, was uniformly 
exerted to embroil the two crowns. Alfonso of Portugal at length sent a 
herald at arms to defy his son-in-law, on the ground both of the unjust treat- 
ment of the queen, whom her husband was suspected of seeking to repudiate, 
and of the continued detention of Constanza. His next step was to enter 
Castile and ravage the country as far as the vicinity of 'Seville. 

The war was now as destructive as it was indecisive and even inglorious : 
it was one of mutual ravage, of shameless rapine, and unblushing cruelty. 
Instead of meeting each other on a fair field, they seemed intent on nothing 
but laying waste each other's territory, and collecting as much booty as they 
could carry away : sometimes, however, the contest was decided on the deep, 
but with little success to either party. At length, through the efforts of the 
pope, the two princes agreed to a truce, and to the opening of negotiations 
for peace. But one of the conditions was the removal of Leonora de Guzman 
a condition which Alfonso of Castile, who was entirely governed by that 
lady, was in no disposition to execute, but the preparations of the Mohamme- 
dans, which he knew were chiefly directed against himself, and the loud 
complaints of his own subjects, forced him to promise at least that it should 



444 THE HISTOEY OF PORTUGAL 

[1340-1355 A.D.] 

be conceded. To the departure of Constanza, the restitution of some insig- 
nificant fortresses which had been reduced, and even to the return of his 
queen, the Castilian felt no repugnance *, but though he consented for Leo- 
nora to leave the court, he recalled her immediately after the conclusion 
of peace. To his queen, however, he no longer exhibited a marked neglect : 
on the contrary, he treated her with all the outward respect due to her char- 
acter and station ; and the good understanding was confirmed by her ad- 
mirable moderation. 

In the wars which the Castilian had to sustain against the Mohammedans, 
the Portuguese so nobly did he forget his wrongs when the interests 
of Christendom were at stake was no inefficient ally. He was present 
at the great battle on the banks of the Salado, in which the barbaric power 
was so signally humbled. This aid he continued readily to supply, until the 
death of Alfonso of Castile, by the plague, before Gibraltar, in 1350. 



THE ROMANCE OF INES DE CASTKO 

The tragedies represented in Castile by Pedro the Cruel, successor 
of Alfonso XI, were fully equalled by one in Portugal. Soon after his mar- 
riage with Constanza, Pedro, the infante of Portugal, had become passionately 
smitten with one of her attendants, Dona Ines de Castro, a lady of surpassing 
beauty, and frail as beautiful. That he made love to her, and that his crim- 
inal suit was favourably received, is indubitable, both from the deep grief 
which preyed on the spirits of Constanza, and from the anxiety of the king, 
lest this new favourite should be the cause of the same disturbance in Por- 
tugal, as Leonora de Guzman had occasioned in Castile. To prevent the 
possibility of a marriage between the two lovers, Alfonso caused liies to hold 
over the baptismal font a child of Pedro's in other words, to contract 
a near spiritual affinity. But the man whom the sacred bond of wedlock 
could not restrain was not likely to be deterred from his purpose by an 
imaginary bar. After Constanza's death in childbed, 1345, he privately 
married the seductive favourite. How soon after the death of the first wife 
this second union was contracted, whether immediately, or after Ines had 
borne him three children, has been matter of much dispute. It appears that 
the marriage was celebrated on the 1st day of January, 1354, when Ines must 
have borne him four children, of which three survived. It also appears that 
a papal dispensation was obtained for it, and that it took place at Braganza, 
in presence of a Portuguese prelate and his own chamberlain. However 
secret this step, it was suspected by some courtiers, who, partly through 
envy at the rising favour of the Castros, and partly through dread of the 
consequences which might ensue, endeavoured to prevail on the king to 
interfere in behalf of young Ferdinand, the son of Pedro and Constanza, and 
the lawful heir to the monarchy. From the boundless influence possessed 
over the mind of Pedro by Dona Ines, it was feared that the true heir would 
be set aside from the succession in favour of her offspring. In the end, they 
wrung from him a reluctant consent to her death. The king, hearing that 
his son had departed on a hunting excursion for a few days, hastily left 
Monte-mor, and proceeded to the convent of St. Glair, at Coimbra, where 
Ines then was. On learning his approach, she at once apprehended his object. 
Her only resource was an appeal to his pity. Taking her three children by 
the hand, she issued from the convent to meet him, prostrated herself at his 
feet, and in the most pathetic terms begged for mercy. Her beauty, her 



KAULY HISTORY TO JOAO I 445 

.-i u*.; \ I* ] 

;'i|th. her deep ^motion, and the sight of her offspring his own grand- 

lsu IV|i " Ml Hltfn 'ted him that, after a struggle between policy and nature, 

:. Kitt.-r fnnmphrd, and he retired. No sooner, however, wa.s he in private 
.ith Ins n.nndiints, than they tu-nsiuvd his compassion, though natural 
;i uvll, .is ninmus in its etuiseijuenees to his family and kingdom, and 
nmj'.r tun riiirsrnt hastened to (h e eonvent. The unfortunate, guilty lues 
beiiraih then; daggtrs. The fate of this huly has called forth the deepest 
mi -it rann it n**veli.sts and poets, and has given rise to some vigorous 



MI 



K 



ru ivturntMi from thr eliase, and found his wife so barbarously 

i-rirf was surpassrtl, if possible, by his thirst for revenge. He 
lf uith tin* kindred of I Acs; and though he could not fall 
fli' wunlrivr.-s \vbi \\ere jiruttvtt'd by the king, he laid waste the provinces 
Kiiin- D.nim ,^M}j|| m ,und Tras-is-Monlcs, where their possessions chiefly 
Ai!un.,M uas in r<insitnialion at the unexpected fury of his son. 
i-ud hr pn|MM'd, ;ts the priee of reeoneiliafion, that tlie obnoxious 
-hnM tr banished, and his son atlmittrd to the chief share, of the 
f r.itiMtu l*rdn> artM*pted it, laid down his arms, ami proceeded to 
h-t' h* \\a-i lUM-rivtMl \\ith an aflVction truly paternal, and where 
!''d, l!;Mii.. H h uith a fi\r<| resolution of breaking the engagement, never 
the a.ssas.sius <f !)ona Ines. 

Initj;; survive this foreed reeoneiliafion with his son. His 
urd at the beginning of U>f>7, is said to have been hastened 
tragiful deed of \vlneh ht v had been the occasion. That 
repentaiM'e is eertaiu ; but his e.haraeter was nnamiahle. 
hrdirut si*n, an unjust brother, and a harsh faiher. The 
\v.is but Jit retribution for lus own conduct to the royal 
tuu ufien de^t'herated into blind vengeance. During his 
H J*irtu^a! \\;ts atllieti'd with the plague, \vliieh K])read through- 
but \\hieh raged with more vioh*ncc in that kingdom 
rl-e. Whole towns are sa'nl to have been left desolate, and 
h;ive ubamloned their iloeks to the eare of the monks./ 4 

Alfiu*-i 1 V not isolated, nor in the light of our pres- 
an siieial euuditit>ns as a st>n or as a father (even in this 
iu brinjf fnr\vard the virtuous and ( v xempla,ry spouse), but 
-.ider and ;t-; Lin* 1 ;, in the inomtMif wduui ht^ assunn^d and exer- 
jau.st enufess, in faee of tlu^ numerous doeuments 
\tr*rnal poliev and his enormous legislation, that he is one 
Mtres,* aud that his government was one of the most 
brilliant, and tin.* most able of the intelligent and 
eh presided over tlu* national formation of Porfu- 
uf this lviuf there is a certain harmonious stamp of 
him a derided and elmraeterisfie originality in the. 
s, and, \ve may say, of the traditional, moral license, 
!>iu l>ini/, the lather of King Alfonso IV, in spite 
,f hi.s wile, was the easy pre,y of adulterous loves, 
i.imr th-au ilugrantly and heedlessly published then^ by 
'hi- ijifts, eallimr Vti hiniself his bastard children and lavish- 
^..: t ihr:u, and e in feeing even by public documents the rewards 




hitu t?,.- 



. 

the Hnmeu uf I nes de (-astro, we know that he was 
;-^ f.U.il passion but that the nation's hi.story owes <> 
natur >!' thr second dynasty. In this instance Dom 



446 THE HISTOBY OF PORTUGAL 

[1357-1361 A.D.] 

Alfonso presents a totally distinct character from that of his son ; an exem- 
plary husband, he made every effort to raise by royal authority the moral 
tone in the relation between the sexes, and to check the dissolute customs 
of the times. He made severe laws against those who availed themselves of 
such usages and customs up to that time in vogue, which seduced by 
endearments, or other means, various virgins and widows leading honest 
lives to make use of them for their evil purposes ; ^he denounced " any man 
or woman guilty of panderage, and keeping in their houses for this purpose 
virgins, married women, religious, or widows." At the exact moment that 
he was publishing some of his most severe laws upon this matter his sou 
gave cause of scandal by his real or apparent cohabitation with Dona Ines de 
Castro. Finally he left the kingdom to his successor in perfect internal and 
external peace, and it would be cruel injustice to deny that under his gov- 
ernment the work of the political consolidation of Portuguese society made 
important progress. & 

PEDRO THE SEVERE 

Pedro I was scarcely established 011 the throne before he gave way to his 
uncontrollable desire for vengeance on the murderers of Doiia Ines. Know- 
ing that they had sought protection in Castile, and how eager his namesake 
of that country \vas for the surrender of several Castilians, who, in like man- 
ner, had obtained an asylum in Portugal, he paid court to that monarch, with 
whom he entered into a close alliance, and to whom he despatched ten of his 
galleys to serve in the war against Aragon. Having declared the fugitive 
nobles, who were three in number, Pedro Coelho, Alvaro Gonsalves, and 
Diogo Lopes Pacheco, traitors to their country, and confiscated all their pos- 
sessions, he either proposed or received the proposal there is some doubt 
from which of the two monarchs it originally came, or whether it may not be 
equally attributed to both for the arrest of their personal enemies. On a 
given day the obnoxious Castilians were arrested in Portugal, the Portuguese 
in Castile, and were surrendered to their respective executioners. Of the 
three Portuguese, however, Pacheco escaped. 

The escape of even one victim was gall to the Portuguese king ; but he 
resolved to satiate his rage on the two who were placed in his reach. Both 
were thrown into a deep dungeon, put to the torture, with the view of elicit- 
ing whether others were implicated in the same crime. They withstood the 
acute torments they were made to endure with a firmness truly admirable 
a circumstance that increased beyond measure the rage of Pedro, who was 
present at the hellish scene. With Coelho in particular, whom not a word, 
not a groan, had escaped, he was so exasperated that he seized a whip and 
struck him on the face. This indignity affected the high-spirited knight far 
more than his present sufferings. Regarding the king with eyes full of fury, 
he loaded him not merely with the keenest reproaches, but with a torrent of 
abuse. The latter foamed at the mouth, and ordered his victims to be trans- 
ferred from the dungeon to a scaffold erected in front of his palace. There 
he appeared at the window, expressing a savage delight at the new torments 
they sustained. At length the living hearts of both were plucked from their 
bodies ; hearts and bodies were next consigned to the flames ; and when con- 
sumed, the ashes were scattered by the winds. 

The next proceeding of Pedro was to honour alike the remains and memory 
of the unfortunate Lies. He convoked the states of his kingdom at Cas- 
tanedo, and, in their presence, made oath on the holy Gospels that, in the 



EAELY HISTOET TO JOAO I 



447 



[1361-1367 A.D.] 

year 1354, he liad married that lady. The witnesses of the fact, the bishop of 
Guarda and his own chamberlain, were likewise publicly sworn, and the bull 
of dispensation produced which Pope Innocent VI had granted for the 
celebration of the ceremony. No doubt was entertained by the assembled 
nobles and clergy that Ines had been the lawful wife of their prince ; and 
she was unanimously declared entitled to the honours usually paid to the 
Portuguese queens. That the legitimacy of her offspring might never be 
disputed, copies of the papal dispensation and of the oaths taken on this 
occasion, were multiplied and dispersed throughout the kingdom. The 
validity of the marriage being thus established, Pedro now proceeded to 
show due honour to her remains. He ordered two magnificent tombs, both 
of white marble, to be constructed, one for himself, the other for that lady, and 
placed them in the monastery of Alcobaga. He then proceeded to the church 
of St. Glair at Coimbra, caused her corpse to be brought from the sepul- 
chre, to be arrayed in royal ornaments, to be placed on a throne with a 
crown on the head and a sceptre in the hand, and there to receive the homage 
of his assembled courtiers. From that church it was conveyed on a magnifi- 
cent car, accompanied by nobles and high-born daines, all clad in mourning, 
to the monastery of Alcobaga. 1 

As the subsequent transactions of the Portuguese king with his name- 
sake of Castile have been already related [in the history of Spain, Chapter 
III], nothing now remains but briefly to notice his internal administration. 
It is allowed to have been as rigorous as it was whimsical. With the view 
of correcting the extravagance which had long seized on the higher orders of 
his people, he made a law that whoever bought or sold on credit should be 
punished if the first offence, by stripes; if the second, by death. In his 
own household he set the example of paying for everything in money the 
instant it was purchased. If he was thus severe against thoughtless impru- 
dence, he could not be expected to be more lenient towards guilt. Of the 
vices which he visited with unpitying vengeance, fornication and adultery 
were the most obnoxious to him. That the lover of Ines cle Castro should 
thus hold in abhorrence those which, he had so long practised might create sur- 
prise, were it not proved by general experience, not only that we are most 
forward to condemn in others imperfections to which ourselves are prone, 
but that kings are too often eager to plead exemption from obligations bind- 
ing on the rest of mankind. Hearing that the bishop of Oporto lived in 
a state of concubinage, the royal moralist laid on him unmercifully with 
a whip. As he was one day proceeding along a street, he heard a woman 
call another by an opprobrious name. He speedily inquired into the affair ; 
and, finding that the latter had been violated previous to her marriage by her 
husband, he consigned the offender to the executioner. Suspecting that the 
wife of a certain merchant was unfaithful to her conjugal duty, he caused 
her to be watched until he detected her in the actual crime ; both lady and 
paramour were immediately committed to the flames. An old woman pros- 
tituted her daughter to a Portuguese admiral ; the woman was burned, the 
admiral sentenced to lose his head a sentence, however, which he escaped 
by flight. Other offences against the laws were punished, sometimes in pro- 
portion to their magnitude, but generally to his caprice. An inferior officer 
of the law one day complained that a gentleman on whom he had served a 

[ 1 Like all other romantic events, tins story has attracted the critics, their chief objection to it 
being the fact that the contemporary historian Lopes, !> who describes the death of IfSes with much 
detail, has nothing to say of the exhumation and coronation. But such negative argument must 
be cautiously used and historians have not yet annulled the story of Ines.] 



448 THE HISTOEY OF PORTUGAL 

[13G7-13S2 A.D.] 

process had struck him and plucked him by the beard ; Pedro turned to the 
presiding judge, and said, "I have been struck, and my beard has been 
plucked, by one of my subjects ! " The judge, who understood the appeal, 
caused the culprit to be arrested and beheaded. Perceiving that causes 
were frequent, tedious, and expensive, and shrewdly divining the reason, he 
purged his courts of all advocates and proctors, of all who had a manifest 
interest in litigation, and reduced all processes to a simple statement of the 
case by the parties concerned, and of the sentence by the judges, reserving, 
however, to himself the privilege of deciding appeals. If we add that Pedro 
was liberal of rewards, and fond of music and dancing, the character of the 
royal barbarian will be completed. 

Ferdinand I, son of Pedro and the princess Constanza, was ill fitted to 
succeed monarchs so vigorous as his immediate predecessors. Fickle, irreso- 
lute, inconstant, without discernment, directed by no rule of conduct, obedi- 
ent only to momentary impulse, addicted to idleness, or to recreations still 
more censurable, the very benevolence of his nature was a calamity. 

After the death of the Castilian Pedro the Cruel, Ferdinand, considering 
himself the true heir to the crown, assumed the regal title and arms of Cas- 
tile. His ambition was lamentably inadequate to an enterprise so important 
as that of encountering and attempting to dethrone the bastard usurper 
Henry of Trastamara. From the recesses of his palace, he appeared to wit- 
ness the invasion of his kingdom and the defeat of his armies with indiffer- 
ence. When, in 1373, Lisbon itself was invested by the Castilian king, the 
defence of the place was abandoned to the valour of the inhabitants, and to 
their deep-rooted hatred of the Spanish sway. The same year, indeed, peace 
was made through the mediation of the pope ; but it was often broken by 
Ferdinand during the reign both of Henry of Trastamara and Juan I, the 
son and successor of that prince. The marriage of Beatrice, daughter of 
Ferdinand, with Juan, in 1382, and the treaty for uniting the two crowns, 
have been related in the history of Spain [Chapter V], and to that history 
the reader is referred for an account of the obscure and indecisive, however 
destructive, wars between the two kingdoms. 

During these transactions proposals were frequently made for restoring 
permanent harmony by matrimonial alliances. At first Ferdinand cast his 
eyes on the infanta Leonora of Aragon, whom he engaged to marry; but, 
with his usual fickleness, he escaped from the obligation. He next promised 
to raise a daughter of Henry of Trastamara, also named Leonora, to the 
Portuguese throne. When the time approached for the celebration of this 
marriage, Ferdinand fell passionately in love with one of his own subjects 
a Leonora like the rest. 1 To beauty of the finest order, Leonora added a 
sprightliness which charmed and a wit which captivated him; biit these 
were far inferior to her ambition, and unsupported by one single principle 
of honour or virtue. She was already the wife of Dom JoSo Lourengo da 
Cunha, lord of Pombeiro. "Of that we are well aware," said Ferdinand; 
"but they are related by blood, and they married without a dispensation: 
the engagement may easily be annulled." Proceedings for the cassation of the 
marriage were instituted in the ecclesiastical courts; and as the husband 
offered no opposition to them, doubtless because he had no wish to con- 
tend with a plaintiff whose cause was backed by legions of soldiers, it was 
declared null Not considering himself safe in Portugal, Dotn Lourengo fled 

1 "This name proved terrible to the king," says Lemos.7 This name, indeed, in all the 
three cases, is a most singular coincidence : it did not prove terrible, however it might be perni- 
cious to the interests of the kingdom. 



EAELY HISTOEY TO JOAO I 449 

[1372-1376 A.D.] 

into Castile, evidently little afflicted at the loss of an unprincipled woman. 1 
There is reason to believe that it was Ferdinand's original intention 
to make her his mistress; but she had too much policy to become the tool of 
one whom she had resolved to rule; and she assumed the appearance of so 
much modesty, that to gain his object he was forced to marry her. 

But this marriage was strictly private a precaution adopted as well to 
stifle the murmurs of his subjects as to prevent the indignant remonstrances 
of Henry. It was, however, suspected, and the very suspicion produced 
great dissatisfaction throughout the kingdom nowhere so great as in the 
capital. A mob, formidable from its numbers, assembled in the streets, and 
headed by a tailor, proceeded to the palace to reproach the king for his 
imprudence. Ferdinand said that he had neither married nor intended to 
marry Leonora. This declaration satisfied the mob; who, however, insisted 
that he should take an oath the following day to the same effect in the 
church of Sao Domingos a promise which he readily made. At the time 
appointed, they proceeded to the church, but found to their mortification 
that, during the night, the king and Leonora had fled to Santarem, In the 
height of their fury they apostrophised both in no measured terms. Their 
insulting conduct so incensed the queen that she procured a royal order for 
the arrest and execution of the tailor and his chief associates. The fear 
which this act of severity struck into the people emboldened the king to 
publish his marriage. The nobles and prelates now hastened to court, to 
recognise their new queen. All readily kissed her hand with the exception, 
of Dom Diniz, son of Pedro and Ines de Castro, who accompanied his refusal 
in open court with expressions of contempt. Ferdinand drew his poniard, 
and would doubtless have laid his obnoxious brother at his feet, but for the 
interference of two nobles who arrested his arm. Even Joao, the grand- 
master of Aviz, a natural son of the late king, who is about to perform so 
memorable a part in the national history, bowed before the triumphant 
Leonora. To render her power more secure, she began to act with great 
policy, disarmed hostility, and secured to herself an undisturbed possession 
of her new dignity. 

The insult to the royal family of Castile involved in this imprudent 
marriage was one of the causes which led to the hostilities that followed 
hostilities in which the country was laid waste, from Badajoz to Lisbon, and 
that capital invested. On the conclusion of peace, in 1373, which was 
cemented by the marriage of a natural daughter of Ferdinand with a natural 
son of Henry, tranquillity visited the kingdom for some years; but the Portu- 
guese court, through the ambition and wickedness of the queen, was often 
distracted and disgraced. As Ferdinand had only a daughter the princess 
Beatrice by Leonora, and as no hopes of future issue appear to have been 
entertained, the infante Joao, brother of the king, (not the bastard of that 
name who was the grand-master of Aviz, but the eldest surviving son of Pedro 
and Ines de Castro), was regarded as the presumptive heir to the crown. 
To set him aside from the succession was now the object of the queen. 
Fortunately for her purpose, the imprudence of the prince presented her 
with the means. Struck with the personal charms of Donna Maria, sister 
of the queen, he privately married her. The step was not hidden from 
Leonora; who, so far from betraying her knowledge of it, and to lull her 
intended victim into profound security, proposed to the infante the hand of 
her own child, and with it the throne of Portugal, As she expected, her 

1 To disarm ridicule "by braving it, and to prove how little the affair had affected him, the 
exiled husband attached to each side of his cap a golden horn. 
IL TV. VOL. x. 2 a 



450 THE HISTOEY OF PORTUGAL 

[1376-1381 A.D.] 

offer was declined; but she was resolved to move heaven and earth rather 
than see her sister and brother-in-law in the possession of supreme power. 1 he 
former she appears to have hated: her destruction was certainly planned 
with demoniacal coolness. Sending one day for the infante, she assumed the 
appearance of intense affliction; assured him that she knew of his marriage 
with her sister; but that regard for him and his honour, as well as for the 
honour of the royal family, would not permit her to conceal that sister's 
depravity. "You are betrayed, prince! " was the substance of her address. 
" Maria loves another, to whom she grants her favours! " 

Unfortunately, Joao, who was unacquainted with her real character, and 
who could not suppose her capable of deliberately destroying a sister, im- 
plicitly believed her ; and in the madness of his rage, hastened to Ooimbra, 
where the princess then abode. She met him with her usual smiles, and, on 
being repulsed, falteringly demanded the cause. "Because," replied the 
infuriated husband, " you have divulged our marriage and sacrificed my 
honour." " Bid your attendants retire," pleaded the poor woman, " and I 
will satisfy you." "I come not to hear your excuses," Joao retiirned 
furiously, " but to punish your guilt," and at the same time his dagger found 
a way to her heart. She fell into the arms of her weeping attendants, while 
he mounted his horse and fled. The cause of all this wickedness affected 
inconsolable grief, threw herself at the royal feet, and cried for vengeance 
on the murderer. But whether she found the king averse to justice, 
or whether she feared the indignation of the infante, who, sooner or later, 
would become acquainted with the innocence of Maria, she suddenly changed 
her proceedings, and obtained permission for him to return to court. But 
there everyone shunned him no one more eagerly than Leonora ; so 
that, seeing his hopes of Beatrice at an end, he retired into the province 
of Entre-Douro-e-Minho, where he was soon acquainted with the bloody 
perfidy of the queen. Having reason to distrust his safety, he fled into 
Castile, his heart torn by remorse for the fate of one whom he had pas- 
sionately loved, and whose bleeding image was incessantly before him. 

Though on the accession of Juan I of Castile Ferdinand readily renewed 
the peace between the two crowns, and consented to marry his daughter 
Beatrice to the heir of the Castilian, his characteristic fickleness was such 
that he soon resolved to resume hostilities. To engage the duke of Lancas- 
ter in his cause, he sent a trusty messenger to England, Dom Joao Ferdi- 
nand Andeiro, who concluded a league with the Plantagenet. To conceal 
this negotiation from the world, especially from the Castilian, he pretended 
great anger with Andeiro, whom he arrested, and confined to the fortress of 
Estremos. During his agreeable captivity in this place, he was frequently 
visited by the disguised king, who was sometimes accompanied by the queen, 
and was made to unfold the conditions he had contracted, and solicited for 
his advice. As his^ person was unexceptionable, his address elegant, and his 
manners prepossessing, he soon won so far on the credulous Leonora that she 
became the willing partner of his lust, and still more of his ambition. In 
the hostilities which followed the arrival of the earl of Cambridge, he was 
released, and, by her influence, was invested with the lordship of Ourem. 

Ferdinand at length saw that the affections of his queen were estranged 
from him, and transferred to Andeiro. Yet such was his deplorable weak- 
ness I he met both with constrained smiles, and deputed both to be present 
at the marriage of his daughter Beatrice with Juan of Castile. On this 
occasion the favourite appeared with a splendour which might have become 
a sovereign prince, but which filled the beholders with indignation or envy. 



EAELY HISTOKY TO JOAO I 451 

[1381-1383 A.D.] 

The perpetual sight of a faithless wife and her insolent paramour was at 
length too much even for the feeble Ferdinand. In the agony of his feel- 
ings he one day opened his heart to the grand-master of Aviz, who he knew 
hated Andeiro, and with whom he planned that minion's assassination. But 
his own death, the result alike of constitutional weakness of frame and men- 
tal suffering, saved him from the guilt of murder. The reign of this sover- 
eign was one of the most deplorable that ever afflicted Portugal. The wars 
with Castile, wars lightly undertaken and ingloriously conducted, and 
the consequent invasions of his territory by his more powerful neighbours* 
impoverished his peopled 





CHAPTER II 
THE PERIOD OF GLORY AND DISCOVERY 

[1383-1521 A.D.] 

BY the death of Ferdinand, his daughter Beatrice, queen of Castile, was 
the true heir to the throne of Portugal. But the kingdom, far from expect- 
ing a foreign yoke, had, on the marriage of the infanta, expressly stipulated 
that, in case of Ferdinand's death, the government should be vested in a 
regent, until she had a son capable of assuming the sovereignty ; that son, 
too, to be educated not in Castile but in Portugal. When that event hap- 
pened, she had no child a circumstance that induced her husband to claim 
the crown in her right, and that filled the Portuguese with vexation. They 
were satisfied neither with their intended sovereign, Juan, nor with the 
regent^ Leonora, the queen-mother, whom the will of the late king appointed 
to that dignity. And when, in conformity with the demands of the Castil- 
ian, Beatrice was proclaimed in Lisbon, the people either exhibited a mourn- 
ful silence, or cried out that they would have no other king than their infante 
Joao, son of Pedro and Ines de Castro, and the unfortunate husband of Maria, 
sister of Leonora, whose tragical fate has been recorded. But Joao and his 
brother Diniz now languished in the dungeons of Castile, 1 whither they had 
been consigned by the king, who knew that, if suffered to enter Portugal, 
they would speedily thwart his views of dominion. Until these princes 
could be restored to their country, and until Beatrice should have an heir, 
the Portuguese resolved to deprive the queen-mother of the regency, in 
favour of Dom JOLO, the grand-master of Aviz, who alone seemed able to 
defend their national independence. 

1 A bastard daughter of Ferdinand and her husband were about the same time placed in 
confinement. 

452 



453 



THE PERIOD OF GLORY AND DISCOVEEY 

[1383-1384 A.D.] 

Dom Joao, as before observed, was an illegitimate son of King Pedro, by 
a lady ot Galicia, and born in 1357. At seven years of age he had been 
invested with the high dignity of grand-master, and his education intrusted 
A n6 i abl6St commanders of tn e order. No man could be better 

adapted for the conjuncture in which circumstances placed him. Cool, yet 
prompt; prudent, yet in the highest degree courageous; unrestrained by 
conscience, and ready to act either with cunning or violence, according as 
either appeared necessary to his purpose, he would indeed have been a for- 
midable opponent to any sovereign, much more to one so weak as the Castil- 
lan. Seeing the favourable disposition of the people, and confiding in his 
own mental resources, he commenced a policy which, if at first cautious, was 
sure to prove efficacious. Though Leonora pretended great sorrow for her 
husband's death, and endeavoured, by affected mildness, as well as by an 
administration truly liberal, to win the popular favour, her object was pene- 
trated and despised. But a stronger sentiment was felt for Andeiro, who 
directed her at his pleasure, and whose death was now decreed by the grand- 
master. To remove the latter under some honourable pretext from court, 
lie was charged by Leonora with the government of Alemtejo. He accepted 
the trust ; but, accompanied by twenty-five resolute followers, returned to 
Lisbon, December 6th, 1383, and hastened to the royal apartments, where 
he knew he should find Andeiro. The guilty pair were as usual together* 
Joao struck the count with a dagger; a knight of his suite by a second blow 
deprived the victim of life. 

The tragical deed was hailed with characteristic acclamations by the 
populace, who, profiting by the example, massacred everyone suspected to 
be hostile to the pretensions of their new idol, among them the bishop of 
Lisbon. 1 Their mangled corpses remained long without sepulture, a prey to 
dogs and beings more savage than dogs. Leonora now fled from the city 
to Alemquer. On the way, she turned her eyes for a moment back on the 
towers of that capital, and, in the bitterness of her heart prayed that she 
might live to see it wrapped in flames. After her departure, Joao complained 
that he was unequal to oppose his powerful enemies ; and pretended that he 
would retire into England, to pass his remaining days in tranquillity. This 
hypocritical policy alarmed the mob, who dreaded being abandoned to jus- 
tice, and tumult uously flocked around him, insisting that he should assume 
the regency until Beatrice should become the mother of a son destined to 
rule over them. With much apparent reluctance, he accepted the proffered 
dignity, in the resolution of securing one much higher. 

' The first measures of the new regent were characteristic of the man. He 
published an edict in which entire pardon was promised to all criminals, 
whatever their offences, who should assist him in opposing the queen and the 
Spaniards. -At this unexpected call, great numbers amounting, we are 
told, to thousands hastened from their prisons or their haunts to swell his 
army. Many of the great towns were persuaded to follow the example of, 
Lisbon. The impunity with which his followers perpetrated every possible 
crime was too alluring not to increase the number. Murder, plunder, rape, 
and sacrilege were the constant attendants of this lawless party. The abbess 
of the convent of Castres was dragged from her cloister, poniarded before 
the high altar, and her body was subjected to brutalities of which not even 
the mention would be tolerated by the reader. In the end it was dragged 
to a public square, and there left. This is but one instance, among numbers 

* The fate of this prelate has excited little pity among the orthodox Portuguese, such as 
Lemos,* because lie favoured the anti-pope. 



454 THE HISTORY OF PORTUGAL 

[1384r-1411 A.D.] 

which have been preserved and among thousands of which the memory has 
perished, of the monstrous crimes of this interregnum; yet no attempt was 
made to punish them by the regent, who felt that the license thus allowed 
was his only tenure on the attachment of his adherents. , . . 

The kino* of Castile invaded the kingdom, received the submission of 
several places, and penetrated to Santarem, to concert with his mother-in- 
law, Leonora, the means of annihilating the resources of Joao. But that 
ambitious woman, who perceived that with the arrival of the king her 
authority had ceased, soon regarded his cause with indifference, ultimately 
with dislike. Her intrigues were planned more frequently to thwart than 
to aid his measures ; so that, aware of her faithless character, he at length 
caused her to be arrested and to 'be confined in the convent of lordesillas, 
near Valladolid. . 

As allusion has already been made [in the history of bpain, Laiapter V J 
to the chief events of the present war, little more remains to be said of them. 
Though Lisbon was invested both by sea and land, and in a few months 
reduced to the greatest distress, it was defended with equal ability and valour 
by the grand-master and his captains. To end the distractions of his country, 
the states, early in 1385, were convoked at Coimbra. There the creatures of 
the regent proposed his proclamation as king, as the only measure capable 
of restoring internal tranquillity, and of enabling the nation to withstand the 
arms of Castile. They even endeavoured to show that he was the nearest 
heir to the .crown. The issue of liies de Castro they set aside, as sprung 
from an adulterous connection ; and the same objection they urged against 
Beatrice, whose mother they considered as the lawful wife, not of the late 
king, but of the lord de Pornbeiro. On the 6th clay of April, 1385, Joao 
was unanimously proclaimed king. 

Joao I, having attained the great object of his ambition, vigorously pre- 
pared for the war with his rival of Castile. The decisive victory gained by 
Joao at Aljubarrota ; the alternations of success and failure that succeeded ; 
the arrival of the duke of Lancaster to obtain the Castilian crown in right 
of his wife Constanza, daughter of Pedro the Cruel : the alliance between 
the two princes, JoSo marrying Philippa, a daughter of the duke ; the subse- 
quent reconciliation between the latter and the king of Castile, cemented 
by the marriage of the princess Catherine, daughter of the Plantagenet, with 
Henry, son of Juan, and other transactions of these troubled times, have 
already been noticed in the history of Spain. Peace was made and broken 
more than once ; the success lay with the Portuguese king a success, 
however, attributable as much to the internal troubles of Castile after the 
death of Juan I as to the valour of Joao. When a more durable peace was 
concluded in 1403, the Portuguese had recovered their fortunes, and were in 
possession of Badajoz. 

The next few years were passed in tranquillity by the king in improving 
the administration of the realm. His salutary severity was above all directed 
against murderers and robbers by profession, and also against such as took 
justice into their own hands. By these means he became a popular monarch 
with all but some of his nobles, whose discontent he had powerfully excited 
during the late wars. To his valiant constable, Dom Nunho Alvares Pereiro, 
called the " holy constable," he was more indebted than to any other cause, 
both for his crown and for the successful issue of the Castilian war ; and he 
had thought no rewards too great for such services. But if he showered 
the revenues of whole towns and vast estates on that able and faithful man, 
he rewarded with a pitiful spirit the attachment of others. 



THE PEBIOD OF GLOEY AND DISCOVERY 45S 

[1411-M15 A.B.] 

THE TAKING OF CEUTA (1415 A.D.) 

By his queen. Philippa, 'daughter of the duke of Lancaster, Joao had 
several children, of whom five were sons. As these princes grew in years, 
they displayed great martial ardour, and promised to become the bulwarks of 
the country and throne. He had resolved to confer on them the honour 
of knighthood, an d to celebrate the occasion by a magnificent tournament. 
But they despised the peaceful lists, and besought his permission to win their 
spurs in a nobler manner, by an expedition against the Moors. The fortress 
of Ceuta \ on the African side of the straits of Gibraltar, seemed to them the 
most inviting of conquests. Though eager to gratify a propensity which he 
loved, the king was at first startled by the magnitude of the proposed enter- 
prise. The fortifications of Ceuta were strong, and defended by the 
bravest portion of the Mohammedan population : to reduce them a con- 
siderable armament must be prepared, and at an expense which he was loath 
to incur. In the end, however, he yielded to their urgent entreaties ; the 
expedition was resolved, two confidential officers were sent to reconnoitre 
the place, and the royal council gave a reluctant consent to the project. 
But, as secrecy alone could insure its success, as a premature disclosure of 
the design would have enabled the pirates to increase the number of their 
defenders and the strength of their works, the whole peninsula was in sus- 
pense, and not without alarm at the preparations of the king. Having 
tranquillised the Castilians, the Aragonese, and the Moors of Granada, as to 
his intentions, and fearful of rousing the suspicions of the Africans, he 
intimated that his armament was to be led against the count of Holland. 
Not even the death of his queen, who was carried off by the plague, 2 nor 
his advanced years, could suspend his preparations. At length, havmg^ol- 
lected a considerable number of vessels from most parts, and been joined, 
by adventurers from most nations of Europe, accompanied by his sons and 
his chief nobles, Joao embarked, proceeded towards the straits, and, the 
middle of August, 1415, arrived before Ceuta. The Moorish governor, 
Salat ben Salat, a man advanced in years but of undaunted courage, pre- 
pared for a vigorous defence.* ^fo^nnrarvTiiqi-orian 
So soon as the Moors of the town," writes the contempoiaiy Dorian 
Arurara d saw the fleet nearing their walls, they placed lighted torches in 
all the Windows and apertures to show the Christians that they were much 
more mmierous than they thought, and thus on account of its pea [ size and 

mses and property, and many of them to quit this life, made tins brave 

o^t anchor should be enabled to make preparations for the following daj, 
'nd wHh ihe lanterns in front of the flag ships and the torches the men 
carried in their hands, the fleet was well illuminated. 

ri in the Moorish form SeUa-a, corruption of Septen, from the seven hills on which the town 

and fortress are built-l T, r i nc ess is held in high respect in Portugal : " Tantas enim 

2 The memory of this English PC<MS is na ,,- factlm mdebatur, quod ipsa comprobasset" 

opinion* ccpnd populum ^^^TJ^f^ tMs queen, who had all the martial spint of 
i**?,*^^*^^* a charge to .wield the weapon m defence 

y and especially against the misbeheveis. 



- THE HISTOBY OF PORTUGAL 

[1415 1.D.] 

A spectacle as dazzling as it was sinister, by the light of which the 
waters of the strait must have presented a terrible and fantastic appearance, 
iddened by the reflection of the torches as though a sea of blood, covered 
2Jh dancinVli-hts, separated the Moorish city from the floating Christian 
Imp M&n on the following day, the 20th of August the Portuguese 
S'ready for the combat, and the king, Joao I, in a galiot went about 
Mum* the ships giving the last instructions, recommending to all that Dom 
TTpnrv should be the first to land. 

But as the Moors had sailed out of the town to attack the Portuguese 
upon the landing, some of the knights became so impatient that two at least, 
upon uie i & JogQ Fogaca and Ruy Gongalves, jumped 

011 shore a few moments before the prince, 
who, however, took the lead in the battle. 
The movement of the Moors in coming 
down to the shore was a vain attempt of the 
younger men ; the truth was that, following 
the example of Salat ben Salat, they were 
greatly discouraged, and panic increased 
among them upon seeing two athletes of 
Barbary, two giants of the desert, over- 
come, one by Ruy Gongalves, and the 
other by Vasco Martius de Albergaria. 
The infante Dom Henry fancied he caught 
.sight of his brother Dom Duarte, whom 
Dom Joao had forbidden to take part in the 
combat, in the thickest of the fight, and 
presently discovered that he had not been 
mistaken. The presence of the two brothers 
if possible raised the courage of the Portu- 
guese still more. 

Dom Henry wished to await the land- 
ing of the rest of the army, as he had been 
recommended to do, but Dom Duarte was 
of opinion that they might enter the town 
with the Moors, or at least seize the gate 
of Almina to open a passage for their men. 
The gate was indeed taken by surprise. 
Having passed the gate, the two infantes 
took up their position on a hill dominating 
the streets of the city. 

Meanwhile Vasco Fernandes de Athaide 
had succeeded in beating down another 
gate, thus opening a new passage to the Portuguese soldiers, who were now 
divided into three bands. To have greater freedom, the heir to the crown 
threw off his armour, leaving merely a coat of mail ; his movements being 
thus made freer he was able to advance rapidly, so that when Dom Henry 
resolved to follow his example he could no longer find him. Dom Duarte 
had reached the highest point of the Moorish town, called Cesto, and Dom 
Henry, wishing to join him, entered the street leading to it, driving the 
Moors before him. 

The general landing of the army had not yet taken place, as Dom JoSo I 
had not finished his review of the "fleet. When he sent his son Dom Pedro 
to tell Dom Duarte to land, the answer came that he was already within 



* 




A PORTUGUESE WOMAN OF THE FIF- 
TEENTH CENTURY 



THE PEKIOD OF 'GLORY AND DISCOVERY 457 

. D.] 

"town. The king then gave orders for all to land, and the Portuguese 
* divided into four bodies, marched upon the town. 
*he affliction of the women who fled, pressing their little children to 
" breasts, and the despair with which many men concealed their property, 
ed carrying it with them, raised the courage of the Moorish warriors, 
spurred them to make one supreme effort by which they succeeded in 
ng many Portuguese before them. Dom Henry would not check the 
fugitives in their flight, for fear of harming those who followed, who 
consequently be thrown back on the Moors, but when the latter 
hed, followed by a few knights, he barred the way. At the same 
tie, ashamed of their fear and encouraged by the infante's presence, the 
>x~~buguese returned to the charge, and the enemy fled in confusion. Mean- 
xlle the Moors received reinforcements and renewed the fight, but were 
ixlxi repulsed by the Portuguese, encouraged by the infante. 

The Moors falling back, the infante, followed only by seventeen of his 
sin, pursued them ; a desperate fight ensued, principally because the Moors 
sompted to carry off a Portuguese knight, whom the infante wished to 
soever. The Moors finally gave way, but the infante Dom Henry found 
.11. self shut in by the ruinous walls of the town, with only five knights at 
* side. Heroically maintaining his difficult position, he waited in vain for 
.ii.f orcements ; he was believed to be dead, until he was at last found by a 
n."fcuguese knight. 

'".Che infante wished to remain in his dangerous position until reinforce- 
51 its reached him, but the entreaties addressed to him in the name of 
; father and Dom Duarte induced him to retreat ; he proceeded to join his 
ilxer at a mosque. Meanwhile the sun had set, and seeing a flight of 
xi'i'ows resting upon the towers of the fort, the Portuguese inferred that the 
^ ox*s had abandoned it. Salat ben Salat had fled with the garrison. They 
3Z'eupon raised the flag of St. Vincent, patron of Lisbon, 011 the top of the 
rfciress. The conquest was won ; the loss on the side of the Moors was 
avy, but the Portuguese loss was trifling ; we will not however quote any 
iiti~l>er as great doubts exist on the subject. 

On the following day the Moors appeared once more before the fortress ; 
>xxx Duarte and the constable sallied out to encounter them ; these vain 
;t,oks were repeated, but the king strictly forbade his heir to take part in 
3se skirmishes. 

On the first Sunday the king decided to hear mass with his sons in the 
Lixcipal mosque of the town, already purified. Two bells pealed joyously 
>m the highest tower. "How is this?" asked the major. The reply is 
t -cuiinteresting : the town of Lagos had been a few years previously 
isrteked by the Moors, who sacked the place and carried away these bells, 
:l concealed them, but now discovered, they summoned the Christians to 
/-I roe service. . 

The service was celebrated with great solemnity ; Dom Joao knighted his 
is, Dom Duarte, Dom Pedro, and Dom Henry. On their side Joao I's 
is* Imighted various valiant noblemen of their retinue. The aim of the 
p edition was realised, and the African lion began to give way before the 
\ver of Portugal./ 

The government of the place was at first offered to a valiant knight, 
=Lxtiii Alfonso de Mello ; and when he declined the dangerous honour, it 
, s solicited and obtained by one of greater prowess still, Dom Pedro cle 
* Inezes, founder of the illustrious house of Villa Real. Having left a small 
fc select garrison in Ceuta, and provided for the defence of the place 



K'* 

i i I 

'n..' 



-iu 



L 

t f 



\\ 



i* 

I j 



,n * 2 



THIS HISTORY QIT PORTUGAL 

% . , , [M15-U19 A.D.] 

Mia Ui assaults of the Moors, Joao re-embarked, and with the 
t .n armament returned to Lisbon. 

;i" *<i the governor, Dom Pedro, and of the horsemen he com- 
' *''MM;int, and enthusiastic theme of praise by the national 
uuml.iT ot skirmishes which he was compelled to sustain dur- 
\ - i'- - immediately following the reduction of Ceuta is said, no 
1 >> * t< have exceeded the number of days. It is certain 
uTnuu'ut the place was frequently assailed by the whole 

n Moors, aided by the fleet of their brethren of Granada. 
i^*u by sorties obtained considerable booty, especially in 
1 his warfare was as horrid as it was picturesque. When 

and Almagaveres arrived at the village which they 
stroy, and the inhabitants of which were sure to be 
'^'iirrally divided into two or three bands, forced the 
* \vlnrli they set on fire, and either massacred such as 
, or forced them back into the flames. The sudden con- 
I - of the* women and children, rendered still more dis- 
f nit.^hU and the bloody figures of the assailants, gazing 
n f h* scene before them, bore a character too demoniacal 
'it'ii all was finished, when the flames were expiring, and 
id |ifrt-*'<l the sky, the orthodox warriors returned to the 
t.'d and our Lady for their success." 1 

<* f at n.u -I ties, the Moors now gathered in formidable num- 
ui the neighbourhood, but from wherever the fame of 

* net .rated ; but they -were always repulsed by the valiant 
*4* its art* represented as not much inferior to those of the 
i \ .ill-aria. The very exaggerations, however, prove that 

i! .* most, valiant knight of a valiant nation. But during 
M ?! sit*;?*! was laid to the place ; a circumstance sufficiently 
i i r|*Mt'u;iI strngg-les for empire among the Mohammedan 
n \i'rii';u lu 1419 the fortress was first invested, and by 
' i-iiou;rlj to inspire the assailants with the hope of success. 
,} k*h *-nsiU!<l, the Christians, notwithstanding the loss of 
i*u ., \vrns as usual, victorious; and "a pleasant thing it 
*ti* uu'h'iv* vw to see our men, like the waters which flowed 
..mki*-l with inlidel blood." After some days the ^ siege 
tin* loss of some thousands on the part of the Africans. 
?h- n,vernor time to congratulate himself on this event, 
. 4 iji'\vs which filled him with apprehension that a 
.tnuv, and a fleet from Granada, were preparing to move 

in soliciting 1 succour from King Joao, who as readily 
v;is t'ho place invested this time by sea and land ; and, 
tr of the besieged was almost superhuman. Fearing, 
j tUt it nattily surrender, if not more effectually succoured, 
/u of his sons the infantes Henry and Joao to sail 
V -tnmmiemt. As they approached the place, they per- 
,lmnneclans had landed, and furiously assailed Dom 

, i* irHi"u<'Sf shows some pity for the poor infidel wretches -.he first 
, 1 , u nr ursc , * enmity ; and still more the " abominable Moham- 

'" V K v!!!?\s fioni thS true faith, and by subjecting his followers both to 
,:i,,y h uUj ^fic mi ^ erlaBting torments by the devils. When a Clms- 
nnn f uotli f "["" he ;k as the prospect of eternal bliss; but for the 

for 'them bSt brimstone and fire, with Dathan and Abiram? 



MI 

HI 



il. 
\I 



. 
r " 



THE PERIOD OF GLOKY AHD DISCOVERY 459 

[1419-1430 A.D.J 

Pedro, who, with his handful of brave companions, wa^ making terrific car- 
nage among them. This formidable host was totally routed ; while the infan- 
tes took or dispersed the Moorish vessels, commanded by a prince of the 
royal house of Granada. This splendid success drew the eyes of all Europe 
towards this extremity of Africa. That a Christian noble, with so few 
companions in arms, should not only retain possession of a distant fortress 
against the frequent attacks of great armies, but should triumph over 
those armies in the open field, would appear incredible, had not equal won- 
ders been exhibited by the knights of some religious orders. The exploits 
which have been already recorded were frequently equalled in the sequel by 
this renowned baron. In the subsequent wars, he was greatly aided by his 
son, a youth of the same dauntless courage as himself, who made frequent 
incursions into the Moorish territory, and never failed to return with abun- 
dance of spoil. 

During these years, the king was constantly employed in the duties of 
administration. As he advanced in years, his sense of justice appears to 
have greatly improved ; at least we hear no more of the violent acts which 
disgraced his early days, and which will forever tarnish his memory. 

He re-established his finances by an economy pervading his government 
and household. He spent little in pomp and splendour ; lived frugally, and 
associated upon an easy footing with the friends of his youth. He was 
wont to say that conversation was the cheapest of pleasures ; and he intro- 
duced literary pursuits amongst his courtiers. When he had replenished his 
exhausted treasury, Joao made abundant compensation to those whom the 
inevitable expenses of war had obliged him to offend by revoking the 
ample donations, with which, upon first receiving the crown, he had recom- 
pensed the services that had helped to place it upon his brow. But after 
satisfying these just claims, Joao neither lavished his money upon friends 
and favourites, nor hoarded it in his coffers. 



PBINCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR 

A certain employment of Joao's wealth ultimately produced far more 
glory and power, as well as opulence, to his kingdom, than his Mauretanian 
conquests. His third son, Henry, was the first projector of those remote 
maritime enterprises and geographical discoveries that opened new channels 
to the commerce of Europe, poured the riches of the Indies into Portugal, 
exalted the reputation and consequently the energies of her sons, brought 
immense realms in Asia and America under her sceptre, and temporarily 
elevated her to a rank amongst the nations of Europe altogether dispropor- 
tionate to her natural extent and population. 

Prince Henry was grand-master of the order of knights of Christ, insti- 
tuted by King Diniz, upon the abolition of the Templars, to do battle con- 
stantly with the Mohammedans. The grand-master had accompanied his 
father to the siege of Ceuta, and there highly distinguished himself even 
beyond his brothers ; which circumstance, combining with his strong sense 
of the duties of his sacred office, inspired him with an irrepressible desire to 
conquer and convert. But expeditions of the kind he meditated against 
Mohammedan misbelievers, whether in Spain or Mauretania, could only be 
undertaken by the authority and under the control of the king, and the in- 
fante in consequence turned his thoughts towards the more distant heathen. 
His studious disposition and especial taste for geography, astronomy, and 



460 THE HISTOBY OF PORTUGAL 

[1402-1418 A.D.] 

mathematics also contributed, in all probability, not a little to give his 
schemes of conquest and conversion that direction. These sciences Dom 
Henry assiduously cultivated at Sagres, a seaport town he had himself 
founded near Cape St. Vincent in Algarve, where he drew around^ him 
learned men, travellers, and mariners. When he had speculatively satisfied 
himself of the possibility of sailing round Africa, of which, at that time, little 
beyond the northern coast was known, and of thus reaching the East Indies, 
he built and collected vessels in the harbour of Sagres, and sent them 
forth upon voyages of discovery. The despatch of the first two was de- 
termined so suddenly one morning, that 
it was believed the prince had been 
favoured with an especial revelation 
upon the subject during the preceding 
night, a mark of divine favour of which 
his great devotion, and the virginal 
purity of his morals, were judged to 
render him worthy, Dom Henry fitted 
out these first expeditions at his own 
expense ; but the king soon entered into 
his son's views, and took the principal 
charge upon himself. Navigation was 
then still almost in its infancy. The 
name of Cape Nun had been given to 
the southernmost African promontory 
yet known, and terrified the imagina- 
tion of the ignorant almost as much by 
its very sound as by the thousand 
superstitious terrors connected with all 
beyond it, particularly with the torrid 
zone, then supposed to be actually 
uninhabitable from heat. For many 
years Dom Henry's mariners advanced 
only a few leagues past the dreaded 
cape, and Portugal resounded with 
murmurs against the waste of men and 
money occasioned by the infante's mania 
for discovery. But Dom Henry per- 
severed, and his father countenanced him. Gradually his captains grew more 
enterprising, emboldened in some measure by the assistance his astronomical 
science afforded them. The first, and; during King Joao's life, only great 
fruit of these labours was the rediscovery and settlement of the island of 
Madeira, about the year 1418. But far from appeasing the popular clamour, 
this only increased it ; the colonising of the island being regarded as a fright- 
ful drain upon the population. Nearly about the same time the Canaries 
were accidentally discovered by an English ship, driven from her course. 
In. 1402 a private adventurer, a Frenchman, named De Bethencourt, with a 
mixed French and Spanish crew, conquered the savage natives, and took 
possession of some of these islands, which his heirs afterwards sold to Prince 
Henry, h 

Of Prince Henry it has been said that, to his " enlightened foresight and 
perseverance the human race is indebted for the maritime discovery, within 
one century, of more than half the globe." His funds were drawn from the 
large revenues of the order of Christ, and the Moors had told him much 




HENRY THE NAVIGATOR 
(From an old print) 



THE PEEIOD OF GLOEY AKD DISCOVERY 461 

[1418-1437 A.D.] 

of the riches of interior Africa and the Guinea coast. He was the victim of 
unusual opposition and ridicule, as was Columbus, but, like him, was imper- 
vious to both. His personality is strongly to credit for the success of his 
couriers, for, as his biographer Majors has said : " Had that failure and that 
ridicule produced on Prince Henry the effect which they ordinarily produce 
on other men, it is impossible to say what delays would have occurred before 
these mighty events would have been realised ; for it must be borne in mind 
that the ardour, not only of his own sailors, but of surrounding nations, owed 
its impulse to this pertinacity of purpose in him. " It is to be charged against 
Prince Henry that he began the slave-trade, which meant so much of shame 
to the world. It is pleasant to recall that it was he who, forsaking the usual 
path of exploration, the land, began to seek the wealth of Araby and India 
by the water-ways and, beginning that fever of adventurous curiosity that 
opened new worlds south and west, with him began the age of disco very. 

By Joao I the era of Caesar was abolished in Portugal, and the Christian 
mode of computation adopted. He died in 1433. 



THE REIGN OF DUABTE OR EDWAED (1433-1438 A.D.) 



The reign of Duarte [or Edward 1 ], though short, was doomed to be 
I more disastrous than that of any preceding monarch. The first great 

; calamity was the plague which raged during the whole of his reign, and 

which lamentably thinned the population. But a greater was an expedition 
against Tangier, the preparations for which oppressed his people, and the 
result. of which filled the kingdom with murmurs. 

I The restless ambition of the king's brother, Ferdinand, hurried him into 

f this disastrous enterprise. This infante had been too young to share in the 

glorious conquests of Ceuta: and had not, like Pedro or Henry, obtained 
\ celebrity either by travelling or science. But he burned for distinction as 

I much as either and proposed an African expedition. The king seems, how- 

\ ever, to have entertained very honourable scruples as to the justice of the 

warfare in which he was about to engage. He proposed the subject to his 
theologians and the pope. The chief of the Christian world, with more 
? reason than has dictated some papal decisions, replied that there were only 

two cases in which war against misbelievers could be lawfully undertaken : 
(1) when they were in possession of territories which had belonged to Chris- 

\ tians, and which the latter sought to recover ; (2) when by piracy or war, 

I or any other means, they injured or insulted the true believers. In other 

; cases, proceeded his holiness, hostilities are unjust : the elements, earth, air, 

j fire, and water, were created for all ; and to deprive any creature without 

1 just cause of those necessary things, was a violation of natural right. There 

was, however, one point which the pontiff omitted to notice : the obligations 
contracted by every Catholic sovereign, and still more solemnly by every 
military order, to advance the glory of God in other words to convert or 
to destroy the heathen. This consideration removed the scruples of Duarte, 
and the expedition was resolved. 

The inexperience which governed the preparations, and the accidental 
hindrances which impeded their completion, were regarded as melancholy 
omens, by the people. The armament sailed on August 22nd, 1437, and 
on the 26th arrived before Ceuta, a place which the heroic governor and his 

p Duarte or Edward was named after Edward III of England.] 



462 THE HISTOEY OF POKTUGAL 

[1437 A.D.] 

no less heroic son had continued to defend with the same success. The two 
infantes Henry and Ferdinand, who commanded the present expedition, 
perceived that instead of fourteen thousand men, the number ordered by the 
king, they had no more than six thousand. They were advised to solicit and 
wait for a considerable reinforcement, but with their usual impatience they 
resolved to proceed to Tangier Henry by land, and Ferdinand by sea, so as 
to co-operate with each other. The former reached Tangier without acci- 
dent on the 23rd day of September, and found that his brother had arrived 
before him. The Portuguese immediately encamped before the place, which 
was defended by Salat ben Salat, former governor of Ceuta, with seven thou- 
sand Moors. But as if every measure of this ill-concerted expedition were 
doomed to be at once imbecile and unsuccessful, after sustaining a heavy loss 
the besiegers, finding that their scaling-ladders were too short, were com- 
pelled to retreat with shame from the foot of the ramparts. Before others 
could be procured from Ceuta, the Moors of Fez and Morocco, amounting, we 
are gravely told, in numbers to ten thousand horse, and eighty thousand inf an- 
try, advanced to raise the siege. 1 Instead, however, of being alarmed at this 
prodigious force, Henry with four thousand of his valiant troops hastened to 
give them battle ; but so great was the dread which this heroic little band 
had struck into that immense host, that none of the misbelievers daring to 
wait for the onset, all escaped with precipitation over the neighbouring hills ! 
But as their numbers soon increased by new accessions to 130,000 men, 2 they 
returned, and this time fought with courage. After a struggle of some hours 
this vast force yielded to the impetuousity of the infante Ferdinand and fled, 
leaving some thousands dead on the field ! These wondrous fables are not 
enough. Indignant at their repeated losses of their brethren, the kings of 
northwestern Africa combined the whole of the respective forces, and inarched 
towards the place. The surprise of Henry was great on seeing the neighbour- 
ing hills moving with life ; the number of enemies on this occasion, we are 
veraciously assured, being sixty thousand cavalry, and seven hundred thou- 
sand foot! 3 On contemplating, however, the dense and widely extended 
ranks of the Moslems, even he acknowledged that to withstand such a host 
would be temerity. 

He accordingly gave directions for his little army to fall back and to 
regain the ships. Before this could be effected, the Africans, like tigers of 
their own deserts, sprang upon them, eager to drink their blood. But what 
could even a Portuguese do against myriads? His guards were killed by his 
side, and he was compelled to retreat, fighting, however, at every step, until 
he reached the entrenchments, where the contest became more bloody and 
desperate than it had yet been. Some of the defenders now fled, for the 
chroniclers reluctantly allow that even a Portuguese may flee, but the sea- 
men on board the vessels landed, forced the fugitives to return, and the con- 
flict was sustained during some hours with miraculous valour! Towards 
night it was suspended ; and the infante agreed with his remaining captains 
that at midnight the Christians should silently leave their entrenchments, 
pass to the beach, and be received on board. 

As the invaders were now without provisions and water, this expedient 
was the only hope of safety which remained to them. But even of this they 

1 In Portuguese computation of the number of their enemies, the reader will do well to drop 
one cipher; hence he will have one thousand horse and eight thousand foot ; as many no doubt 
as were present. 

2 Read thirteen thousand. 

3 The rule before recommended of subtracting a cipher will not do in this case. The aggre- 
gate of horse and infantry must be divided by about fifty to come near the truth. 



THE PERIOD OF GLOEY AKD DISCOVERY 



463 



sod priveci b J "the treachery of Martin Vieyra, Henry's chaplain, 
Vr t0 the rais bel ie ' vers 9 and acquainted them with the project. 
- e ^ >0rtu g uese are seized with indignant wonder at this 
T? lrLS " tance of apostasy and treason ; and however great their 
Powers of the visible head of the church, or even of the 
they doubt whether either or both could, even in the event 
fi e ' procilre for suctl a ^retch the commutation of everlasting to 
lire. -In consequence of this information, the Moors stationed a 
>ie guard along the passages to the sea and on the beach. The fol- 
uo riung they advanced to the trenches; the battle was renewed, and, 
, sustained for eight hours with unshaken firmness, though with 
-ied numbers. On this occasion no one exhibited more valour 
of Ceuta ; who, as he strode from rank to rank to distribute 
ices with one hand, with the other hewed down the misbelievers in a 
l r? called forth the enthusiastic admiration of the faithful. Now 
>it,ed the consecrated host, and with tears of devotion besought his 
iclreii in Ch.rist to defend the holy Body; while, at the same time, he 
>ractical illustration of Ms meaning, by aiming another deadly blow 
rash son of perdition. 2 

tie end the enemy, unable to force the entrenchments, set them on 

oil. the approach of night retired. The hours which should have 

'eix to rest were occupied, in extinguishing the conflagration, a labour 

latiguing tlian the conflict of the day. To allay the hunger of his 

a, the infante ordered the horses to be killed ; but as there was 

i\ and as everyone raged with a burning thirst, the boon was scarcely 

>le^ until heaven sent a copious shower of rain. But however sea- 

tliis relief, it could only he momentary. Famine, or death by the 

ox* what was still worse, perpetual captivity, stared the unhappy 

.us in the face, when they received a proposal which they could not 

l>ected. They were promised both life and liberty, as the condition 

surrendering the artillery, arms, and baggage, and restoring the for- 

Oeuta. To men in their desperate condition this proposal was 

ritl not to be joyfully accepted. For their performance of the cove- 

3 infante Ferdinand offered himself as hostage; and was accompanied 

otlier kniglits. The Moors delivered into the hands of Henry a son 

foeii Salat. The Portuguese, reduced to three thousand, prepared to 

,rk. But -with, characteristic duplicity, the barbarians attempted 

ii lit the departure of tlie Christians, who were constrained to fight 

ly to the shdps. 

le this once proud armament was slowly returning to Lisbon, Henry, 
L to appear at court, proceeded to Ceuta, where fatigue of body and 
of mind threw him. into a serious illness. No sooner did Prince 
ho "was then in Algarve, hear of the illness of one brother and the 
y^ of anotlier, than he repaired to Ceuta. The two infantes there 
tliixt, as the royal consent to the restoration of the fortress could not 
I>ly be expected, Joao should propose the exchange of their brother 
son of the African. The proposal was scornfully rejected by the 
\vlio threatened, if the place were not immediately restored, to take 
ge on -the person of tlie infante. Jo&o now returned to Portugal 
the king- with the melancholy position of affairs. The states 



ti tlie mild !Lernos& can curse this man: " Hum malvado monstro horror de sacerdocio, 

'(t fiiimanidade, Judas de sen jSenhor, o inferne clerigo Martim Vieira" 

IH no exaggerated description ; it is taken from a contemporary chronicler. 



464 THE HISTORY OF PORTUGAL 

[1437-1438 A.D.] 

were convoked and the subject proposed. Some deputies voted for the restora- 
tion of the fortress and the delivery of the infante ; but others considered 
that the recovery of the prince would be too dearly purchased by the sur- 
render of a place which had cost so much, and which might serve as a point 
of departure for future conquests. It was accordingly resolved that the 
prince should remain in captivity until the efficacy of money should be 
proved vain. His sufferings are represented, probably with truth, as at once 
cruel and humiliating. No sooner was he delivered into the hands of Salat 

ben Salat, than he began to ex- 
perience the most savage barbar- 
ity. He was, at first, paraded to 
a dungeon at Tangier, exposed 
to the insults of assembled thou- 
sands, of whom some spit in his 
face, others covered him with filth; 
and, on reaching his temporary 
abode, his food consisted of the 
vilest aliments, and his bed was 
the hard ground. From Tangier 
he was transferred to Arsilla ; but 
two hours before his departure he 
was placed on a platform, and 
again subjected to the insults of 
the populace. All this he bore 
with unshaken constancy. No 
ransom would be received by Salat, 
whose only object was the recovery 
of his lost seat of government. 
But when the king of Castile, 
Juan II, began to remonstrate 
against the detention of the in- 
fante, and even to threaten hos- 
tilities unless a ransom were 
received for him, the Moor, unwilling to incur the responsibility of his 
charge, delivered it into the hands of his superior, the king of Fez. By 
that tyrant Ferdinand was consigned to a subterraneous dungeon, excluded 
alike from air and light. After some months, however, he was drawn from 
his prison doubtless, because his persecutors knew that a longer confine- 
ment would soon place Mm beyond their reach and made to work, like the 
vilest slave, in the royal stables and gardens. In this situation he heard 
of Dom Duarte's death. 

The victim was now subjected to new indignities. Not only was he 
deprived of all food, except a crust of bread once in twenty-four, hours, but 
he was ironed, put to harder labour, and allowed no apparel beyond a rag, 
for the modesty of nature. The relation of his sufferings at length moved 
the pity of his brother Pedro, regent of the kingdom, who, in the name of the 
royal Alfonso, despatched commissioners to Ceuta, to receive the infante and 
to remit the keys of that fortress into the hands of the king of Fez. But 
they soQn found that the barbarian had further views ; that he insisted on 
the restoration of the place prior to the delivery of his captive ; that his 
object was to gain possession of their persons, and be thereby enabled to 
dictate whatever terms he pleased. The negotiations were abruptly ended, 
and the ill-fated prince transferred to his dungeon, where he languished 




A PORTUGUESE NOBLEMAN OF THE FIFTEENTH 
CENTURY 



THE PERIOD OF GLORY AND DISCOVERY 465 

[1438-1439 A.D.] 

until 1443, when death put a period to his sufferings. The constancy with 
which he bore them, his resignation to the divine will, his sweetness of dis- 
position are said to have endeared him to his jailers ; and his decease to 
have called forth the tardy compassion of the royal Moor, who exclaimed 
that so good a man deserved to know the true faith. His memory accord- 
ingly is, as it ought to be, revered in Portugal; but that superstitious nation, 
not satisfied with the rational sentiment, represents him as a martyr and 
saint as one fully entitled to the honours of semi-deification. Miracles 1 
are recorded of him with unblushing effrontery. 

The unfortunate issue of the African war, and the complaints of his cap- 
tive brother, most sensibly affected the heart of Duarte, over whom, had his 
life been spared, fraternal affection would, doubtless, have triumphed. That 
he meditated another expedition, and that he commenced preparations on a 
formidable scale, is honourable to his heart : but his subjects were thinned by 
the plague ; commerce was suspended ; the fields remained uncultivated; 
the public revenues were exhausted, and the people unwilling to make 
further sacrifices. In 1438 he was seized by the plague at Thomar, whither 
he had retired to escape its fury, and in a few days he breathed his last. 
This prince was worthy of a better fate. He had qualities of a high order, 
he was enlightened, just, and patriotic ; and if virtue or talent would have 
controlled the course of human events, his kingdom would have been happy. 



THE BEGENCY OF PEDRO 

Alfonso V, the eldest son of Duarte, being only six years of age on his 
father's death, the regency devolved, in conformity with the last will of her 
husband, on the queen-mother, Leonora, a princess of excellent disposition, 
but not exempted from the fickleness of her sex, and ill qualified to rule a 
fierce people. To such a people, the sway even of a native woman could 
scarcely have been agreeable ; as a foreigner (a princess of Aragon), she 
was peculiarly obnoxious. Seeing this general discontent, some of the 
nobles, with three uncles of the king, resolved to profit by it. Of the three 
infantes, the hostility of Joao was the most bitter ; of Henry the most disin- 
terested ; and of Pedro [duke of Coimbra] the most politic, the most 
ambitious, and consequently the most to be dreaded. 

She offered to Dom Pedro to affiance his daughter Isabella with the young 
king an offer which he readily accepted, but which in no manner inter- 
rupted his career of ambition. He procured, not only the sanction of the 
deputies to the proposed marriage, but his recognition as joint regent. At 
this crisis, Henry proposed in the states assembled at Lisbon that the executive 
should be divided that the education of the king and the care of the finances 
should rest with the queen, that the administration of justice should be 
intrusted to the count of Barcelos, and that Pedro should be nominated 
protector of the kingdom. At first, Leonora opposed this extraordinary 
expedient to satisfy the ambition of the princes ; but, finding that the popu- 
lace were arming in great multitudes to espouse the cause of their favourite, 
she was terrified into submission. 

To bring the great question to issue, the mob, the only authority then sub- 
sisting, assembled in the church of St. Dominic, and swore that, until Alfonso 
reached his majority, the government should rest in Dom Pedro ; that if 

1 These miracles are alluded to by Ruy de Pina,* by Vasconcellos/ and are more boldly 
detailed by Lenios. 6 [He is called " the constant prince."] 

g. W. VOL. X. 2 tl 



466 THE HISTOBY OF PORTUGAL 

[1439-1446 A.D.] 

Pedro died lie should be succeeded in the office by his brother Henry, and 
the latter by the infante Joo, and that thenceforward no woman should be 
allowed to rule the Portuguese. Under the pretext that the education of 
the youno- kin, if left to her, must necessarily be effeminate, and unfit him 
for his station^e was removed by a sudden decree of the same cortes, from 
her care, and placed under that of the regent. 

The wisdom of Dom Pedro's administration daily reconciled to it some 
of his former enemies: he restored tranquillity, encouraged the national 
industry, was indefatigable in his labours, and impartial in his judgments. 
Grateful for the benefits he procured them, the people of Lisbon would have 
erected a statue in his honour, had he not rigorously forbidden them. He 
was too well acquainted with both history and human nature not to know 
that popular favour is fleeting as the wind. He observed that, if such a 
statue were erected, it would be one day disfigured by the very hands which 
had made it. We are assured, indeed, by a contemporary chronicler, Eny 
de Pina,* that he had some anticipation of the melancholy fate which awaited 
him. Yielding to the representations of her pretended friends, Leonora 
openly erected the standard of rebellion, and a civil war commenced : its 
horrors were increased by a body of Castilians, who, at the instance of Leo- 
nora, penetrated into the kingdom, and committed many ravages. " In 1445, 
she formally requested permission to return, to end her days with her chil- 
dren ; and her wish would doubtless have been gratified, had not death 
surprised her at Toledo. 1 

In 1446, King Alfonso reached his fourteenth year the period of his 
majority. His first acts were regarded by the people as favourable omens of 
his future administration, and, above all, of his disposition to cultivate a good 
understanding with the regent. When, in the cortes convoked for the 
occasion at Lisbon, Pedro resigned the delegated authority into his hands, 
he desired the latter to retain it till he was better able to bear the load ; 
and he soon afterwards married Isabella, to whom he had been affianced 
in his tenth year. But these buds of hope were soon blighted. The regent 
was powerful ; he therefore had enemies and enemies the more bitter, that 
there was now a master who could destroy him with ease. Of these none 
were more vindictive or base "than his natural brother, the count de Bar- 
celos, on whom he had just conferred the lordship of .Braganza, with the 
title of duke. No sooner did the duke of Braganza perceive the secure place 
which he held in the king's affections, than he began to inveigh against the 
character and actions of Pedro. These discourses, and the mention of his 
mother's wrongs, which were artfully distorted, made a deep impression on 
the king, who at length regarded his father-in-law with abhorrence. The 
regent perceived the change, and he requested permission to retire to Coimbra, 
of which he was duke. His request was granted ; and so also was another 
an act, under the royal signature and seal, approving the whole of his 
administration. 

No sooner had he departed than a hundred reptiles darted their stings. 
Among the new charges brought against him was one of poisoning the late 
.king and queen. In vain did the sage Henry hasten from his aerial resi- 
dence above Cape St. Vincent, to vindicate the character of his brother; in 
vain did Dom Alfonso de Alamado, a nobleman of unsullied honour, join in 
the chivalrous act for chivalrous it was, when the lives of both were 

* By the Portuguese historians, the death of Leonora is suspected to have been violent, and 
the guilt is thrown on the constable of Castile, the famous Alvaro de Luna But what interest 
could he have m her destruction ? And when did he commit a useless crime ? 



THE PERIOD OF GLORY AXI) DISCOVERY JP- 

[1446-1455 A.B.] *' 

threatened as their reward, if they did not immediately retire from t^> 
court ;^ in vain did the latter challenge all who dared to dispute D,-m 
Pedro's virtues to a mortal combat ; in vain did the royal Isabella pknid kt-r 
father's innocence. Alfonso published an edict debarring all his subjects 
from communication with the prince, and ordering him to remain on his 
estates. His arms were next demanded: these he refused to surrender! 
The duke of Braganza now assembled his troops, and inarched towards Coiin- 
bra ; he was met at Penella by Dom Pedro, before whose handful of friends 
he fled with, ignominy. Again did his daughter affectionately labour to 
avert his fate. In an agony of tears she cast herself at her husband's feet, 
and besought his pardon. Alfonso was affected : he raised his queen, whom 
lie tenderly loved, and promised that if her father would acknowledge his 
crime, it should be forgiven. More jealous of his honour than fond of life, 
the high-spirited prince would acknowledge no crime, simply because lie had 
none to acknowledge. The incensed monarch tore the reply into pieces, 
and said, " Your father wishes his destruction; he shall have his wish!"' 

The duke left Coimbra with one thousand horse and five thousand foot, 
all resolved to perish rather than permit a beloved leader to be oppressed; 
and on their banners were engraven, " Fidelity ! Justice ! Vengeance ! " The 
king hastened to meet him with about thirty thousand veteran troops ; they 
approached each other on the banks of the Alfarrobeira (May 21st, 1449), 
above which was an eminence where Pedro entrenched himself. The prince, 
who desperately sought the most dangerous post, and who evidently resolved 
to sacrifice his life, fell through a wound in the throat. The carnage which 
followed was terrific : the troops of the fallen infante, intent on revenging 
his death and resolved on their own, would neither give nor receive quarter : 
almost all fell on the field. The vengeance of Alfonso passed beyond the 
grave : lie ordered the corpse of Pedro to remain on the ground, to be forever 
deprived of the last rites of humanity ; but in a few days some compassionate 
peasants, whose souls might have put to shame the boasted chivalry of 
nobles, privately removed it, and interred it in the church of Alverea. The 
descendants of all his adherents to the fourth generation were declared 
infamous incapable of holding any public charge. The mob of Lisbon 
testified characteristic joy at his catastrophe a remarkable conhrmation ot 
his prudence in forbidding them to erect the projected statue of him. 

The death of this prince the greatest whom Portugal had lately seen 
caused a deep sensation throughout Europe, and from Rome to Britain drew 
forth nothing but execrations against his murderers Througl 1 the mdig 
mint remonstrances of the pope and of his brother-in-law, the duke of tui- 
cnuidy ; through the increasing influence of his daughter whose virtue* ueie 
by her husband, and whose efforts to honour his memory were at 



enemies, 



i The address of this count to the king and council . 

iiutanoe of magnanimity and courage He '&&*** o S fEng"and's proud order-then at 
did as a Portuguese noble; to his ho ^ u n 1 pa ^^ bl 7^ te ; r itT and to his intimacy with Dom 



lie 
concluded'alected Alfonso. 



468 THE HISTOEY OF PORTUGAL 

[1455-1475 A.D.] 

the detestable princes of Braganza is the unshaken opinion of her own 
times and of posterity. 

The disastrous captivity of the infante Ferdinand had sunk deep into the 
heart of Alfonso, as into that of most princes of his family ; and the desire 
of revenge had been suspended, not abandoned. The reduction of Con- 
stantinople by the Turks in 1453 had filled Christian Europe with consterna- 
tion, and had led to the formation of a general league, the object of which 
was to drive back the misbelievers into their Asiatic wilds. Alfonso's 
original intention was to reduce the fortress of Tangier, the siege of which 
had proved so unfortunate to the princes Henry and Ferdinand ; but the 
advice of a Portuguese noble determined him to invest Alcacer-Seguier [or 
es-Seghir]. In September, 1457, the armament, consisting of above two 
hundred vessels, and carrying twenty thousand men, sailed from the three 
ports, effected a junction at sea, and steered towards the Moorish coast. 

The success which had attended the attack on Alcacer-Seguier animated 
Alfonso to renew the attempt on Tangier. Accordingly, in 1464, he sailed 
with another armament. The assault was repulsed with deplorable loss ; the 
flower of the Portuguese chivalry either perished 011 the spot, or were com- 
pelled to surrender. The king himself had considerable difficulty in effecting 
his escape. For some years the result of this inglorious expedition seems to 
have inspired him with too much dread to renew the attempt ; but, in 1471, 
he embarked thirty thousand men on board 308 transports, and proceeded to 
invest Arsilla, a fortress on the Atlantic. The king himself, and his son the 
infante Joao, were among the foremost in the assault. The Portuguese 
massacred all as well those who resisted as those who threw down their 
arms in token of submission with diabolical fury. In. this work of 
destruction Joao was behind none of his countrymen. Terrified by the fate 
of Arsilla, the inhabitants of Tangier abandoned the city with all their 
movable substance. It was immediately occupied by the Christians, and it 
was formed into an episcopal see. From these successes, the Portuguese 
courtiers surnamed their king Africanus an epithet which, with any 
other people, would have been considered a bitter satire. Throughout his 
operations in Africa he had shown great incapacity, and had met with 
unparalleled reverses ; nor were the successes recently obtained in any way 
attributable to his valour or abilities, but to those of his generals and his 
son. The latter, who had attained his sixteenth year, was knighted on this 
occasions 

ALFONSO V AND LA BELTBAKEJA 

We have now reached a shameful page in the history of Portugal. A 
vision passed through the brain of Alfonso V of uniting beneath his^sceptre 
the kingdoms of Portugal and Castile. He thought to realise his dream by 
marrying his niece Dona Juana, daughter of his sister Dona Juana and of 
King Henry IV of Castile, who would succeed to that throne upon the death 
ot her father. But Alfonso V was too faint-hearted and too unskilful a poli- 
tician tor so great an ambition, which had already turned the weak head of 
his predecessor Ferdinand I. 

On the death of Henry IV of Castile his daughter Dona Juana inherited 
the throne, she having been recognised and sworn queen of Castile even 
during her father's life. Nevertheless Ferdinand, king of Ara^on, who was 
married to Isabella of Castile, disputed her claim. It was then that AM onso 
V sought to unite upon his own head the crown of Portugal and Castile by 



460 
" proxy 



PEBIOD OF GLORY AND DISCOVERY 

[1 h.V-HrJ AD.J 

marrying ULS niece, the queen Doiia Juana. The marriage took place by proxy 
at. J aloueia, i u M:a,y, 1475. The pope, Paul II, was prevailed upon to grant 
the dispensation o f consanguinity, but it was immediately revoked by his 
successor, Sixtixs I"V. 

I Io\v different was the character of Alfonso V from that of some of his 
predeeessors I How weak was his policy ! The grandson of Joao I never 
isvou completed Ixis marriage, in spite of his 
sunlnUou t,o be king of Portugal and Castile, 
I )ona. Juana having- been recognised and sworn 
queen of Castile e^eii during her father's life. 
What a difference between Alfonso V and his 
pmleeessor Alfonso III, who mocked at Rome 
and the pontiff, married one wife, with another 
living, raised cme> queen and deposed another, 
in spite of the ex: communications of the Vati- 
can, ereatmg a stiroiig faction in Portugal and 
<^vttini himself [proclaimed king; politically 
;i, vailing himself of every element in and out of 
the country to accomplish his ends, and only 
repenting on. liis death-bed, when he had won 
everything. It inight be said that the cold 

British blood of Ixis grandmother Philippa of 

Laneasler \va,s still dominant in Alfonso V 
\vlio, atu'.onling" to certain chronicles, observed 
coniph^tc c.hastlty after the death of his wife, 

QIUH*II Isabella. 

In the. meantime intrigues were ac- 

t i v( in Spain ; one argument, on -which 

threat, stress \vas laid against the 

claims of Alfonso V, was that 

Juana, was the cl^ilcl of adultery, 

for the, fsuitioii of Ferdinand and 

Isabt*lla of Arag-oxi never wearied 

O f repeating that slie was not the 

daughter of lleox-y IV of Cas- 

Ille'lintof lieltraix de la Cueiica A PORTUGUESE WOMAN OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY 

^Si'h I SkT^S ^t d S p h ort B of the dissolute morals of Juana the sister of 
h k n i Poit^al, and mother of his bride. In the end the two factions 
,u ( Pi lows -Ae fortune of war went against the Portuguese, who were 
,' ' "^ a . tho battle of Toro in 1476, in spite of the prodigies of valour 
\ fi r u in tliis "battle by the infante Dom Joao, heir to the throne 
1 i iri battle, Alfonso V attempted to gain his end by policy, for 

whir H ' r 1 nit the necessary dexterity. He bethought himself of attompt- 
%v i.u.h IH. 11,1(1 no XJ ft of France, to take his part and give him the 

"' lo 'T /.c^ti^a of his troops to place the crowns of Portugal and Castile 
un ,, >' '^ France remained unmoved, although the king 

r 




470 THE HISTOEY OF PORTUGAL 

[1479-1483 A.D.] 

his wife, who was forced to become a nun and exchange the crown for the 
veil. She entered the convent of St. Clair in Santarem in 1479, after- 
wards passing to the convent of St. Clair of Coimbra, where she was pro- 
fessed on the 17th of November, 1480. In the meanwhile the negotiations 
were so prolonged that the prince Dom Joao lost patience, and with his 
impulsive disposition took upon himself to send the Castilian ambassadors 
two documents, one declaring for peace and the other for war, bidding them 
choose without further parley. Upon this final resolution, the Castilians 
concluded the negotiations. Greater energy on the part of Alfonso V might " 
perhaps, even at the end of the dispute, have obtained less shameful and 
degrading conditions of peace. Alfonso V, crushed and reduced to the last 
extremity of consternation, was resolved to convoke the cortes and abdicate 
in favour of his son, when he fell sick of the plague at Cintra, and died in 
the very room of the palace in which he was born, on the 28th of August, 
1481.* 

With the .exception of the accidental success in Africa, his reign was 
almost uniformly disastrous a misfortune more owing to the deplorable 
weakness of his character than to any other cause. He founded the order of 
the Tower and Sword, under the invocation of Santiago, and was a great 
patron of literature ; he was the first of the Portuguese kings to collect 
a library, and to order the national history to be treated by competent 
writers. His reign is, however, somewhat redeemed by the discoveries of 
the infante Henry, who, from his residence at Tagus, continued to fix his 
eyes intently on the maritime regions of western Africa. Through this 
enlightened prince, the Azores, with the Madeiras, the Canaries, Cape Verde, 
and other islands west of that great continent were discovered or col- 
onised. The discovery of the Cape Verde, the last which illustrated the 
life of Henry, was owing to the enterprise of a Genoese, Antonio Nolle, 
who had derived a confused knowledge of their existence from the ancient 
geographers, and who, from some dissatisfaction with his own country, 
offered his services to the prince. Having coasted from Morocco to Cape 
Verde, he deviated westwards and soon fell in with the islands, which he 
called after the cape of that name.e 



BEIGK OF JOAO II "THE PERFECT " 

Dom Joao II was now proclaimed king. His accession to the throne was 
the signal for a despotic war against the aristocracy and the territorial influ- 
ence of magnates. Joao began by convoking the cortes at Evora in 1481. 
A law was then published introducing a new oath to be taken by all the 
chief alcaides and holders of grants. The restrictions placed upon, the crimi- 
nal jurisdiction of the nobility, the examination of grants, and the diminu- 
tion of the political influence of the nobles, produced great discontent among 
the aristocracy, which gave rise to intrigues, plots, and conspiracies, which 
Joao II, following the example of Louis XI of France, repressed with all 
severity, not sparing blood nor executions even of his own kindred. Under 
these circumstances Joao II seized the opportunity of satisfying his vengeance 
and giving vent to the hatred which he had nourished for many years against 
the duke of Braganza, Dom Ferdinand, his second cousin, who was married 
to his wife's sister. He had him publicly beheaded at Evora on the 22nd of 
June, 1488 ; he is now judged to have been innocent of the crime of high 
treason imputed to him. 



THE PEKIOD OF GLOHY AHD DISCOVERY 

[1484: A.D.J 

In the following year, Joao II with his own hands plunged a dagger into 
the breast of the duke of Viseu, his cousin and brother-in-law, in the palace 
of Setubal, for having conspired against him. After his death the duke was 
judged and condemned (a ludicrous determination of the despotic monarch) 
and his accomplices executed. The bishop of Evora, who was accused of 
being concerned in the conspiracy, was ordered to be thrown into a well ; 
and more than eighty nobles and fidalgoes paid with their lives for the 
opposition which they made or were accused of making to the king's policy. 
It was the second time that the assassin's dagger had been publicly used in 
Portugal in the royal palace, by a prince upon whose brow the crown of the 
kingdom was to rest. Both the royal assassins were excellent kings, who 
governed the country diligently with courage and wisdom, raised it and 
gave it prosperity. In the case of the blow struck by Joao II, it is to be 
noted that it was dealt to a subject whom the king might easily have com- 
mitted to a proper trial, with the certainty of finding judges who would con- 
demn those guilty of high treason. To lessen the awful impression which these 
extraordinary assassinations make upon the mind and the stain which they 
leave upon the memory of these monarchs, it is necessary to consider the 
political circumstances and the ideas and customs of those times. Things 
inadmissible to our present civilisation were not so to the fourteenth and 
fifteenth centuries above all when the deed was that of an absolute king 
who had to render an account to God alone. 

There is no doubt that the wealth and therefore the influence successively 
acquired by the nobility had reached such a pitch that they absorbed the 
best revenues of the land, vexing the people by the insolence, cupidity, and 
abuses which oppressed the vassals of the great lords and proprietors, though 
Portugal happily never suffered the terrors of feudalism. This excessive 
power of the nobles dated from the time of Joao I, who was forced to create 
a new aristocracy to enable him to combat the king of Castile, most^of the 
old nobility having joined the Castilian banners, and to liberally divide the 
property of the crown with those who were faithful to his cause. The king 
afterwards endeavoured to obviate the inconvenience of these excessive 
grants by the " mental law " (lei mental^ which, without revoking the grants 
already made to the possessions thereof and their lawful descendants, put 
o T eat restrictions upon the alienation of such property. The mental law, 
published only in the reign of Dom Duarte, did not have the desired result ; 
the infante Dom Pedro, during his troubled regency, was forced to make 
concessions which decreased the patrimony of the crown. 

But the reiffn of Alfonso V was above all disastrous upon this point, as 
we have said ; it was the best time for the nobles and ^ lders ^J^^ 8 ; 
To remunerate the nobles who fought at his side, J -^ 
the throne of Castile considered nothing too :~~^ 



e ron 

salaries, pensions, allowances, marriage dowries, education of the ' 
nobles, gratifications for ordinary and extraordinary services, real 01 pre 
tended ; everything was conceded with liberality and profusion by the mon- 
arch who was called the African, but might more properly have been called 



Portugal 



PJoao II said with justice that bis father had left him "only the royal high roads of 
ugal." STEPHENS.'] 



472 THE HISTORY OF PORTUGAL 

king, who was called "the perfect prince," rendered a memorable service to 
the country by the tremendous blow which he struck at the aristocracy and 
territorial power, restoring freedom of action to the crown, and liberating 
the public exchequer from the heavy charges and expenses placed upon 
it by the nobility. It is not surprising that in this struggle between the 
crown and the nobility the middle classes and the people should be found 
on the side of the king, since he made the offences, sufferings, oppression, 
complaints, and petitions represented by the deputies of the councils in the 
cortes of 1481 his chief pretext and principal weapon in declaring mortal 
war against the aristocracy and allying himself with the people. 

Thus there was a firm alliance between the king and the people, although 
Joao II convoked the cortes only three times during his reign, and the crown 
and councils were generally on the best of terms. On the 12th of July, 
1491, the prince Dom Alfonso went hunting in Almeirim, and as he was gal- 
loping at nightfall the horse took fright at some object which lay across the 
path, and fell, dragging the prince with him. He was picked up speechless 
and unconscious, and carried to a fisherman's hut where he died a few hours 
later in the arms of his father, mother, and wife. 

This untimely death was a great affliction to the king and queen of Por- 
tugal, especially to Joao II, who thereby lost his hope of an heir to his 
throne ; for by the death of Prince Alfonso the right of succession fell upon 
Dom Emmanuel, duke of Beja, the brother of Queen Leonora and of the duke 
of Viseu whom he had stabbed at Setubal. The thought that the crown of 
Portugal would pass to his wife's family oppressed and tormented Joao II. 
The probability that his brother-in-law Dom Emmanuel (Manoel), the duke 
of Beja, whom he hated, would be king of Portugal, put his cousin the king 
beside himself. In this affliction JoSo II thought of having his natural son 
Jorge [or George] acknowledged as his successor. Jorge was master of the 
orders of Santiago and Aviz, and duke of Coimbra. But Dom Joao did not 
carry out his intention ; he remembered the precedent of JoSo I, but the 
clear judgment of his wife, Donna Leonora, pointed out to him that the cir- 
cumstances were very different; on the one hand there was no fear of foreign 
invasion as in the days of the master of Aviz, while on the other hand the 
king had left wounds still unhealed from his war against the aristocracy. 
Upon the death of Josio II, 1495, Dom Jorge had not sufficient partisans to 
secure to him the crown which his father so earnestly longed to bequeath 



Character of Joao II 

Joao was a great prince comprehensive in his views, vigorous in the 
execution of his designs, as he was cautious and politic in their formation ; 
zealous for justice, and for the happiness of his people. That zeal, however, 
sometimes degenerated into vengeance, and was sometimes disarmed by capri- 
cious clemency. But his character will be better conceived from a few 
striking traits or sayings (and many such are recorded of him") than from 
any description. 

He placed little value on the recommendations of his nobles; and a 
iavour solicited through their medium was almost sure to be denied. But 
ne was fond of honouring and rewarding merit, especially when, as is gener- 
ally the case that merit was dumb.* To a faithful and valiant knight he one 
day observed : 1 ou have hands to serve me ; have yon no tongue to request 

took^in grants re^tl 



THE PERIOD OF GLORY A^D DISCOVERY 473 

[1481-1495 A.D.] 

a recompense?" Being at dinner, lie was once served among others by Dom 
Pedro de Melo, a knight of great prowess, who was better fitted for handling 
the sword than a dish in the palace of princes, and let fall a large vessel 
of water, which sprinkled some of the courtiers, and made others laugh. 
"Why do you laugh?" inquired the king; "Dom Pedro has dropped a 
vessel of water, but he never dropped his lance ! " He had borrowed money 
of a rich merchant at Tavira, to whom, at the expiration of the stipulated 
period, he returned it with legal interest. The merchant a wonderful 
instance of disinterestedness in such a capacity refused to receive more 
than the principal ; Joao sent double interest, with the order to continue 
doubling it as often as the merchant should persist in the refusal. In one of 
his public edicts, with the view of recruiting his cavalry, he ordered all his 
subjects to be in readiness to furnish excellent war-horses. The churchmen 
pleaded their immunities, and some of them went so far as to say that they 
were not his subjects but those of the pope. To punish them in the way 
they deserved, Joao loudly asserted that he had never regarded them as sub- 
jects; and by another ordinance he forbade all smiths and farriers to shoe 
their mules and horses a measure which soon compelled them to submit. 
The monopolists in corn had created an artificial famine by purchasing and 
piling in their warehouses all the grain in the kingdom, which they refused 
to sell under an exorbitant price. By a royal ordinance the people were for- 
bidden to purchase from these dealers, and the Castilians were permitted to 
import in whatever quantities they pleased ; the kingdom soon teemed with 
abundance, and the monopolists were ruined. He was a great enemy to 
detraction. One praised a recent feat of arms of a Portuguese governor 
in Africa : another attempted to detract from it by saying that the success 
was merely owing to chance. "That may be," observed the king: "but 
how is it that such chance never happens to anyone else ? " Nor was he less 
jealous of his dignity with foreign princes than with his own subjects. A 
Portuguese vessel had been captured by some French pirates : he ordered all 
the French vessels in his ports to be seized. The owners complained to their 
king, Charles VIII, who immediately punished the pirates, and caused 
their prize to be restored. It was found, however, that a parrot had not been 
restored with the rest, and he insisted that every vessel should be retained 
until the bird were produced. In short, the success of his administration 
was unrivalled; he introduced industry and comfort among his people; 
added largely to the national resources; and was in many respects the 
greatest monarch that ever swayed the sceptre of Portugal. 

In the reign of this prince, the Portuguese spirit of maritime enterprise 
was carried to a high pitch a spirit which, except in one instance, 1 he was 
always anxious to foster. His first care was to found a fort on the coast of 
Guinea, which had been discovered during the preceding reign, for the pur- 
pose of maintaining a permanent commercial intercourse with the natives. 
The barbarian king, who had entered into an alliance with the strangers, 
consented to the erection of the fortress. From this moment Portugal, or 
rather her monarchs, derived a great revenue in ivory and gold from this 
unknown coast; so great, indeed, that he feared lest. the vessels of other 
European nations should be attracted to it. To damp their avidity, he took 
care that the voyage should be represented not merely as difficult, but as in 
the highest degree dangerous ; and as impossible to be undertaken in regular 
ships ; in any other than the flat-bottomed round smacks at that time 

1 That of Christopher Columbus, whose proposals he himself was 1 ready enough to receive, 
but was overruled by his council. 




471 THE HISTORY OF PORTUGAL 

[1481-1495 A.D.] 

peculiar to Portugal. The secret, however, was near coming to the knowledge 
of the vigilant monarch of Castile, who suspected the truth, and who longed 
to obtaiiTa settlement on the same coast. In the hope of a princely reward, 
a Portuguese captain and two pilots proceeded to Castile. They were pursued 
& into the neighbouring territory by the agents 

of Joao ; and, as they refused to obey the sum- 
mons of recall, two were killed on the spot, and 
the third brought back to Evora, where he was 
quartered. The severity of this punishment 
sank deep into the minds of the other pilots, 
and retained them in the service of their own 
sovereign. And when Joao heard that vessels 
were constructing in the English ports, unknown 
to Edward IV, and at the cost of the duke de 
Medina Sidonia, for an expedition to Ethiopia, 
so the Portuguese termed all central Africa 
from the Nile to the western coast, he sent 
an embassy to the English monarch, whom he 
reminded of the ancient alliance between the 
two crowns, and whom he easily induced to 
prohibit the preparations. In a short time, 
the fortress of Sao Jorge da Mina (Elmina) be- 
came a considerable city, and afterwards infa- 
mous from the traffic in slaves. 

But this was only the beginning of Portu- 
guese enterprise. The king had been taught 
to suspect that by coasting the African conti- 
nent a passage to tiie H&st Indies might be discovered ; and he not only 
equipped two small squadrons expressly for this object, but despatched two 
of his subjects (Pedro de Covilhao and Alfonso de Payva) into India and 
Abyssinia, to discover the route to and between these vast regions, and what 
advantages Portuguese commerce might derive from the knowledge thus 
acquired. 

PROGRESS IK DISCOVERY 

The discoveries of Covilhao encouraged Joao to attempt the passage to 
India. One of the squadrons that under Joao Alfonso de Aveiro dis- 
covered the kingdom of Benin. The other, under Cam, was more fortunate. 
Crossing the equinox, he arrived at the mouth of the Congo. He coasted 
two hundred leagues further to the south ; but finding no cape, he returned 
to Congo, and was honourably received by the barbarian king, whom he dis- 
posed to Christianity, and impressed with a favourable idea of European 
civilisation. His departure affected the half convert, who besought him to 
return with missionaries, and who at the same time permitted several natives 
to accompany him, for the purpose of being thoroughly instructed in the 
new faith. By the Portuguese king and court they were received with 
great joy, and at their express desire were soon regenerated in the waters of 
baptism, he, his queen, and many of the nobles standing sponsors at the font. 
After a residence of two years in Europe, they returned to Congo, accom- 
panied by several monks, some mechanics and agricultural labourers, and an 
embassy, headed by Ruy de Sousa. Hundreds repaired to the missionaries 
for instruction ; the idols were broken or removed ; a church was built, and 



A PORTUGUESE CAPTAIN OF THE 
FIFTEENTH CENTURY 



PERIOD OF GLORY AND DISCOVERY 475 

[1487-H97 A.D.] 

mass celebrated with imposing pomp. But to renounce worldly pleasures, 
and to mortify the strongest passions, to forego the privilege of many wives, 
and the gratification of revenge were too much for these licentious bar- 
barians. By degrees the new faith changed, and was finally extinguished. 

Though no paramount advantage was derived from the alliance with 
Congo, the discoveries of Cam led to a solid one that of the Cape of Good 
Hope. This memorable discovery was made in 1487, by Bartholomeu Bias, 
an officer of equal enterprise and experience. The high winds and still 
higher seas which assailed this vast promontory induced the captain to call 
it the Cape of Storms ; but Joao, who had more extended views, called it 
O Cabo da Boa Esperanga, or the Cape of Good Hope. On this occasion Bias 
ventured little beyond the promontory ; nor was it passed by any vessel 
until the following reign, when the famous Vasco da Gama doubled it on 
his voyage to Indian 

Martins Account of Vasco and Qabral 

To Covilhao belongs the honour of marking the itinerary of the voyage 
to India, asserting that the East might be reached by the south of Africa. 
J n the letters which he sent from Cairo, he said that ships navigating along 
the coast of Guinea would ultimately reach the extreme south of the African 
continent ; and from thence steering east in the direction of the island 
of Lua, by Sofala, would find themselves on the way to India. From this 
and other information received, was composed the plan of the daring expe- 
dition of 1497, the destined course of which was first Kalikodu or Calecut 
(Calicut), as it was called then, and from thence to where Covilhao was. 
Vasco da Gama was chosen by Dom Emmanuel (Djm Joao II had then been 
dead three years) to command the expedition. He was a daring but prudent 
man, uniting the qualities of a soldier and sailor, a thing common at that 
time and even later. The same thing applies to Alfonso de Albuquerque, 
Dom Joao de Castro, and many others. Such a combination had a decided 
advantage ; the separation of these qualities did not come to embarrass their 
plans ; there was unity in the command, for the captain was likewise pilot. 

The greatest judgment and prudence directed the preparations for the 
expedition. The information sent by Covilhao was weighed and considered 
and compared with that previously obtained. Charts and maps were exam- 
ined, and Bartholomeu Dias himself related what had befallen him, the 
obstacles which he had encountered, and the difficulties which must be over- 
come. With his vast experience he directed the building of the ships, doing 
away with exaggerated dimensions, and insisting on the strength ot the ribs. 
The discovered the cape was to accompany the expedition as iar as Sao 
Jorcre da Mina, and remain there to carry on the gold trade. Ihere ^eit 
fou? small ships, that they might be able to enter all the ports, explore everj 
crcd ^tl; shoals, and cmise along the coast Their construction was 
stroii <r and perfect, such as had never been seen beiore. 



476 THE HISTORY OF PORTUGAL 

[1497 A.D.] 

stocks, and remained conversing with the masters, listening to the observa- 
tions of Bartholomeu and Pedro Dias, and Vasco da Gama, who showed him 
the new astrolabe of Behaim, a rough triangle of wood but very effectual. 

The three ships bore the names of the three archangels : S. Grabriel the capi. 
tanea of 120 tons ; S. Miguel (formerly JSerrio^), and S. Raphael of 100 tons. 
The name of the fourth, of 200 tons, is unknown. At the end of June they 
were all finished and ready, and rode at anchor before the church of Restello, 
where the captains watched all the night of the 7th of July. The next day, 
after mass, accompanied by the king and all the people of the city, singing, 
with tapers in their hands, they all went in procession to the shore and there 
embarked. Oamoens says that at that moment : 

But now an aged sire of reverend mien, 

Upon the foreshore thronged Tby the crowds, 

With lore "by long experience only grown, 

Thus from his time-taught breast he made his moan : 

" curst the mortal who the first was found, 

Teaching the tree to wear the flowing sheet." 

The Ijusiads, Burton's translation, 

Indeed many in their hearts strongly condemned the persistency of the 
monarchs in sacrificing men and money to this chimera of navigation. The 
cold and tardy prudence born of past experience did not believe success 
possible after so many vain attempts. The result was to prove the contrary; 
but the words of the poet prophesied the fatal consequences of an empire 
which all, both daring and prudent, were ready to acclaim upon the return 
of Vasco da Gama. Camoens, watching the decline of the sun, could relate 
the hunger endured at sea, the tempests, shipwrecks, and wanderings in the 
burning lands of the terrible Adamastor, and the trail of white skeletons left 
across the sands of both Af ricas a rosary of mournful tragedies. He could 
relate how waves of tyranny and crime from that Indian sea stretched out 
to Europe to overwhelm Portugal with their slime. 

They were three months reaching St. Helena Bay (Nov. 7th). They 
landed to take the sun with their astrolabe, the rolling of the ship preventing 
them from doing so on board ; here they had several skirmishes with the 
natives, and set out again at last upon the 16th of November. On the 
19th they came in^. sight of Cape Tormentoso, or of Good Hope, both names 
being fully justified on this occasion. For three days they were beaten 
about by tempests. The wind and waves were such that the upper parts of 
the ships were under water, and it could scarcely be seen if they advanced 
upon the waves or were wrapped around by them. Upon the stern castles 
the ships had painted pictures of the saints whose name they bore, and 
when the raging sea flung the pictures on to the tilt the crews grew pale 
with horror. It was a bad omen, for it seemed as if they were deserted 
by the divine favour. Fierce and angry seas washed over the poops, dashing 
the boats against the sides of the ships and damaging the helms. They 
furled the sails, cut down the tilt, and began to throw the cargo overboard. 
At last the weather cleared. 

Having doubled the cape, they entered the bay of St. Braz, where the 
calms detained them until the 7th of the following month. Navigating for a 
week along the southern coast of Africa, on the 15th they reached the 
Chaos Islands, the farthest point reached by Bartholomeu Dias. Then they 
began to follow the instructions of Covilhao, the pilot absent in the lands 
of the mythical Prester John, of whom they were in search. They wished 



SA.B.] E PERIOD OF GLORY ASTD DISCOVERT 477 



r t ' but the currents > ^ich were a great dan^- 

towards the vast and unknown southern sea The T|C 

115 V t? C da Gama > Uke au ^xorable destiny prudent int: 
Of, overcame the currents and revolts. 

,i?M Jf ey Sot out O f the "sea of darkness" (mar tenebroso\ and then 
old the terrific cape be looked upon as overcome. The tempests ?n 1 
Tents grew still. By day there 4as calm with the sky of pu?ei bin 
- it, several times the light of S. Pedro Gon alves, the'St. Ihno of Lfal 
-one above the tops of the masts. All promised fair weather. Thev 

lovnr mc l i t0 S6e the ? mrks f the miracle > and brought back with 
levotion the droppings of green wax left by the saint, 
January 10th, 1498, they touched land at Inhambane, and had some 
urse with the Kaffirs; on the 22nd they had reached Quilimane 
ane), where "noblemen" came on board to visit them, with turbans 
Keel silk upon their heads. 

ia was reached for the first time. They saw men of divers nations, 
aces of that distant civilisation so eagerly sought for. Thev had 
id from the African sea, and from the heavy shadow of the dark con- 
Yet these " noblemen " whom they gazed upon almost with love, 
ing them as brothers, were to be their cruelest enemies. Tliev 
1 Mozambique on the 2nd of March. Around the fleet at anchor came 
tive vessels, without decks or sails. The Moors came to trade with 
The sultan in person wished to compliment Va-sco da Garna, who 
$d him on board. The sultan proved perfidious, and the fleet, without 
.ots, cruised along the coast to Mombasa (on the 8th of April), where 
alone saved it from the plot which the Moors had prepared against 
3y had already recognised dangerous competitors in these men who 
>me over the sea to these regions, which likcl until then been the 
uted possession of Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia. Saved by a miracle, 
cla Gama went on to Melinde (15th), where the sultan received 
[ill ; but not trusting these " noblemen " of Zanzibar, he availed him- 
a Moor who had remained on board at Mozambique, and who chanced 
>w the way to Calicut. They put to sea, and in twenty-seven days 
of April to the 19th of May), they were in India. The voyage had 
ten months and eleven days. 

was now that their wonder reached its limit. Everything they had 
s yet gave not a distant idea of what they now saw upon their land- 
Tlie natural pomp and splendour of the East filled them with surprise 
ipidity. In their religious ignorance they saw everywhere the Chris- 
> Prester John. The natives adored the Virgin Mary, and the Por- 
>e also prostrated themselves before our Lady, in the person of Gauii, 
lite goddess, Sakti of Siva, the destroyer. This confusion, increased 
u fact of not understanding each other's speech, occasioned scenes 
lously comical. Some who were doubtful, remarked that if the idols 
devils their prayer was intended for God alone, quieting their con- 
es by this mental reservation. To increase their amazement, there 
to them a Moor who spoke in Portuguese, " Good luck ! good luck ! 
rubies, many emeralds ! " 

om Lisbon to India was but a short distance, for the feelings have no 
re. They were all Christians, they also had kings. The world was 
e and man the same everywhere. The ingenuous way in which the 
jst things were accomplished is the greatest proof of the heroic strength 
se men of the Renaissance. 



478 THE HISTORY OF PORTUGAL 

[1498-1500 A.D.] 

At that time India and by that name we designate all the coasts and 
islands included between the meridians of Suez and Tidore, and between 
20 south latitude and 30 north latitude, the scene of the Portuguese cam- 
paigns in India, we say, foreign races held a kind of dominion resembling 
in all things that which afterwards belonged to the Portuguese a commer- 
cial-maritime monopoly, and consequently, factories, colonies, and states. 
The races they were about to dispossess of this dominion were the Arabs, 
the Ethiopians, Persians, Turks, and Afghans, who, coming down from the 
Red and the Arabian seas, and confounded in the religious wave of Islam, 
had subjugated the peninsula from the Indus to the Ganges, and eastern 
Africa from Adal to Monomotapa. Extending themselves to the extreme 
east, they reached as far as Cambodia and Tidore in the Moluccas, across 
Arakan and Pegu, from the peninsula of Malacca (Malay peninsula), and 
from Burma and Shan (Siam) into the continent, through Sumatra and 
Borneo and the middle of the Suiida archipelago. The Portuguese called 
all the natives Moors, a generic term already in use in Europe to denote the 
followers of Islam, and therefore now adopted when, having come from afar 
and traversed so many seas, they again found themselves face to face with the 
Turk, the opponent of the Christian throughout the world. 

" The devil take you ! What brought you here ! " was the compliment 
addressed to the Portuguese by a Moor in Calicut; and in Mozambique and 
Mombasa the Moors (we will henceforward xise this word as a generic 
term, as aforesaid) persuaded or forced Samundri Rajah (Zamorin) king or 
count (India was under a pseudo-feudal rule) of Calicut, to exterminate the 
Portuguese. Calicut was the commercial empire of the coast of Malabar, 
and the dominions of the rajah formed the so-called kingdom of Kanara. 

It was an easy matter no doubt to persuade the ruler that Vasco da Gama 
was a pirate and his king a myth ; certainly the Moors of Calicut defined, 
in advance and unawares, the Portuguese dominion, which differed from 
common piracy only in that it was rapine organised by a political state. 
Convinced or constrained, the rajah ordered the navigators to be pursued, 
but they embarked and defended themselves, August 30th. After remaining 
some months in the island of Anjediva, upon the coast, Vasco da Gama 
resolved to return and set sail for Portugal on the 10th of July, 1498. A year 
later on the same date he reached Lisbon. Great was the enthusiasm. Dom 
Emmanuel also had his Indies, and Portugal her Columbus. But what tid- 
ings of Prester John? And what of Covilhao ? None. The navigator had 
succeeded in overcoming the cape and discovering India, but he had not suc- 
ceeded in solving the enigma which at that time had baffled their search for 
three centuries. This was of small account in history. The essential point 
was the solving of a greater enigma that of the "dark ocean." Little was 
now wanting ; in twenty years there would not remain an unknown corner 
of land in the whole circumference of the globe, nor a span unexplored in 
the vast expanse of seas. " Under the wild waves to learn the secrets of the 
earth, and the mysteries and illusions of the sea," the Portuguese with heroic 
curiosity took in their hands the future of Europe and of the world. In the 
year after the discovery of India, Pedro Alvares Cabral, who was sent thither 
with an imposing fleet, could not resist the temptation of curiosity. Steer- 
ing east in the Atlantic a question constantly tormented him what lay to 
the west ? In that direction Columbus had discovered the Indies in the 
northern hemisphere ; were there not perhaps Indies in the southern hemi- 
sphere also ? He steered west to explore what were a few months more or 
less in the long journey to the east? Thus he discovered Brazil ; the western 



THH I'KIUOD OF GLORY AND DISCOVERY 



479 



lull! a, iy from the extreme north to tin; extreme south, extending through. 
i!i' iNo hemispheres. Not till then could it be said that America was com- 
jlrt-l V discovered ( lf*t)0 ). 

1 Ut itrws of the discovery of new lands made little impression, in Lisbon ; 
th' t'iTYfnt desire uf the court was the discovery of the Prester, the enchanted 
!*jrHtf-r John, in order to make a i*ood alliance with him and bring to Por- 
tn^.il u Hale at least of those good things which Vasco da Gama had seen 
\\illi hi.s mvn eyes, tin* report of which inflamed the whole nation with 
rsi|'ilti v. C'abral \vas sent for this purpose, not to discover lands; the names 
in lit* i r repertory were now barely sunieicnt to designate the islands, capes, 
|'"rl's hays, coasts, and continents. Their desires were set on other things; 
*f h*T Impes seethed within them : u (iood luck ! good luck ! Many rubies, 
iii.iij y rtueralds ! " 

If \\ as resolved to send a fleet to India, for now that the way was known 
tln-ii* was not hint;- to fear and no reason to diminish the number or tonnage 
l the .ships. Pedro Ah arcs Cabral was ap[)ointed admiral of the fleet, 
u inch 'i insisted of thirteen ships and carried twelve hundred men. The 
ll.vl ntised anchor in the Ta^us on the JHJi of March, 1500. The shouts of 
tii- ..r.liu's as they worked at the capstan in unison, a sound as sad and mourn- 
ful ,i * t h< sea ; tlic low murmur of the cables in the hawses ; the whistle of 
ilif m>iM-rs as they directed the manoeuvres ; the many-coloured Hags flying 
in U;i' 1 )$<'/( ; (he sails half~furh k d upon the masts, made a vivid picture of 
th* ii.itiun \\hirh in the year ir>()0 was also setting out, shriven and welL-dis- 
p*.i-d, upfiti this ltnj?..c vo\a;;'o of a, little more than a century, full of disease 
;iul r.!.ij\\rrck, at the cud of which waited a tomb vast as the sea and silent 
a , ih- tu-ran in flu* funereal calm of the tropics. 

('.il-iral's vt\a;*;\ besides lM*ginning tln^ Portuguese dominion in India, had. 
r-.-.iSl', t\\> ih'siVaiih* results: it swt'pt a. way the two legends of Prester John 
au.i M!' flif kfc s.%i of darkness." lie discovered P>ra//il, and returned to tell 
i,mni,tnurl that- ilu. suppostul cnuperor of the East was a miserable black 
h<Mth*'ii Kims iutrcnchc(l in tin*, inaccessible mountains of Abyssinia. In 
j, in-, int. of a 'myth, drawn by a,u abyss, Portugal discovered the continents 
aii'l i.huidsuf the Atlanlic, and reached India,. For the sake of an illusion 
thr', achieved the reality which struck the world with wonder. The world is 
,i ii<ir.L'.?'Hiul men arc but shadows borne upon the cunning winds of destiny. 
With ihr lands discovered and the, seas ploughed from east to west, it still 
j*'iiMiiiri lo unite these two halves of tin? known world, and sail round them, 
I,, mil r sure that t he V lay whole and complete -in the hands of men. This 
u,i, tin- clTeet uf the xuvaifi* of Magellan ( i\ I agalhaes) twenty years after. 
as iliirk no iuon% (he great c.oiiquesl was complete. But a new 
uw revealed itself to devour what was discovered, to assimilate 
Thr whole of INirtu^al embarked for India in Oabral's fleet. 



TIIK CONQUKST OK INDIA. 

tl,,- l:;ih uf S-i.lrml>.T of the year mOO, Oabral reached Calicut. He 
,.,,t UL,. Y.tsro ila <; : ua, as a" disroverw, but as the emissary ot the 
i',,,tu<ntr-r iiiuiiarrli, the l-aiv,r of his letters and proposal* ot alliance 
' ,- tiaii'nl' <',ilirui. As sui-li lie was received in a solemn audience. 

.iVti-'iu-r .Umiii" tlu-ir richest dotlies and their best and brightest 
'iL.ii.'lit "(.'. nnkr an iinpivssiun upon the Kastern jiotontute by their 
' hut' tl,,' n-pn-ralalivrs uf Hun.pe, poor and strong, Avero to be 




480 THE HISTORY OF PORTUGAL 

[1500-1502 A.D.] 

outdone by the magnificence of opulent India. The polish of their arms was 
dimmed by the blaze of precious stones " whose rays were blinding." 

The rajah was borne in a palanquin, or litter, upon the shoulders of his 
nobles, reclining upon silken cushions among coverlets worked in gold thread, 
falling in folds and edged with borders encrusted with precious stones. The 
litter advanced slowly, under a silken canopy fringed with gold, and within 
this double tabernacle appeared the black rajah, covered with precious stones. 
It was blinding to look upon him. On each side of the canopy were pages 
stirring the air with fans of peacock feathers, and beside the palanquin came 
those who bore the insignia of royalty the sword and dagger, the foil of 
o*old, the symbolical lily-flower, the ewer of water, and finally the cup into 
which the king spat the betel, the chewing of which makes the teeth pink, 
and gives "a most sweet breath." 

Throughout the whole length of the procession and bringing up the rear 
were bands of musicians rending the air with their drums, tom-toms of gold 
and silver suspended by cords from poles of bamboo, and enormous trumpets, 
some straight and some curved, raised in the air, which gave the musicians 
the appearance of elephants with golden trunks, their flags encrusted with 
rubies and emeralds. 

The reception was conducted with solemnity on either side, although they 
could not understand each other well ; the scribes displayed in vain their 
long palm leaves covered with writing ; the Portuguese by signs indicated 
their wish to establish factories there. The scribes gradually came to under- 
stand, and distrusted ; and the Portuguese also distrusted the smiles of the 
rajah. In spite of this, however, their request was granted, and Cabral 
founded the first Portuguese factory in India at Calicut. Afterwards the 
Moors came and exclaimed against the intruders who were despoiling them, and, 
favoured by^tlie natives, fell upon the factory, murdering all the Portuguese 
therein iifty in all. Then followed the terrible vengeance of the admiral. 
He took ten ships of the Arab merchants, and put the crews, five hundred 
men, to the sword ; bombarded the city, and set it on fire. 

The burning of Calicut on the 16th of December, 1500, was the gloomy 
dawn of modern oriental history. In the middle of January (1501) Cabral 
loaded his ships with pepper and cinnamon and returned to the kingdom. 
Of the thirteen ships with which he set out a year before, barely three 
returned with him. The terrible enemy though conquered was not sub- 
dued, and this first expedition to India, the first act of a tragedy of more 
than a century, sketched out the course of its action ; assassination, fire, 
massacre, shipwreck ; the sword and pepper ; the soldier's arms in one 
kind, the merchant's scales in the other a modern Carthage; and in the 
oacivgTound the open maw of the sea, ready to devour men, ships, and treas- 
ure^; a perennial fount of vice pouring forth torrents of wickedness. 
^ To inflict a terrible chastisement upon the rajah and to consolidate the 
lactory of Cochin by fortifying it, was the object of the second fleet which set 
out irom Lisbon in February, 1502, under the command of Vasco da Gama, 
the implacable captain. The story of the voyage is full of horror; and the 
revenge pt the captain a proof of the sanguinary, impassive, and cruel cold- 
ness which does indeed exist in the almost African temperament of the 
I ortuguese. Obliterated in peace and subjection it ever bursts out afresh 
in dominion, victory, and warfare. If such sentiments, alive in the soul of 
liama, inspired his actions, his campaign followed no plan, nor could his 
rude spirit entertain the wide views of the statesman. If he had any plan 
m view, it was to amaze India by the cruelty of his deeds, and dominate it 



GLOPvY AND DISCOVERY 



481 



THE PERIOD OF 

[1502-1503 A.D.] 

by the terror of his slaughters. Navigating the Indian seas, Gama met a 
ship of Arabian merchants going to or coming from Mecca. Besides the 
crew the ship carried 240 men, passengers with their wives and children. 
This was on the 1st of October, 1502 ; " which I shall remember all my 
life," wrote the pilot, still horror-stricken at the remembrance of the cow- 
ardly way in which the ship was set on fire with all whom it contained, so 
that every soul perished in the flames or in the sea. Well pleased with him- 
self, the captain steered for Calicut. He intimated to the rajah that he 
must expel all the Moors, who numbered five thousand families, the richest 
in the city; saying that any servant of the king Dorn Emmanuel was worth 
more than the Zamorin, and that his 
master had power to make every palm 
tree a king ! As was to be expected, 
the rajah refused. Then the captain, 
who upon anchoring had captured a con- 
siderable number of merchants in the 
port, ordered their hands and ears to be 
cut off, and crowded them into a boat in 
which they drifted ashore with the tide, 
bearing Gama's answer to the refusal of 
the wretched prince. 

Then he began the bombardment, 
November 2nd. The city was in flames 
for the second time, and the lamentations 
of the people answered the cynical and 
ferocious laughter of the sailors sheltered 
behind the sides of the ships near the 

funs which vomited fire. This was a 
>olish, cruel, and cowardly deed; for 
the short lances and arrows of the natives 
could not measure themselves against 
the grenades fired from afar on board the 
ships. Gama left part of his fleet in 
India under the command of Vincente 
Sodre, as eminent and celebrated a man 
as the admiral, whose uncle he was. 

The Portuguese dominion thus as- 
sumed from the very first the twofold 
character which it never lost in spite of 
all subsequent attempts at law and order. 
On the sea was anarchy and theft ; on 
shore, a succession of blood-thirsty dep- 
redations. Vasco da Gama showed how to rule by fire and sword ; Sodre 
showed how to reap a harvest at sea by boarding the ships of Mecca. Piracy 
and pillage were the two foundations of the Portuguese dominion, its nerves 
were cannon, and its soul was pepper. When Gama returned from his 
second voyage a third fleet left Lisbon (April, 1503) with Alfonso de Albu- 
querque and Duarte Pacheco on board. They went to Cochin to assist the 
rajah in his war against the rajah of Calicut, and built the first fortress in 
India. Albuquerque returned to the kingdom ; Pacheco remained at Cochin 
with the troops and ships prepared for the attack. The hero for he fought 
like a wild beast in his den of Kambalaan, nobly, disinterestedly, and fiercely 
said at once that now all lay with the artillery. This will explain the 

H. W. VOL. X. 2 I 




A PORTUGUESE CAPTAIN OF THE SIXTEENTH 
CENTURY 



I 

f'\ 



482 THE HISTORY OF PORTUGAL 

[1505-1509 A.r>.] 

possibility of the resistance of Pacheco's seventy men, feebly assisted by the 
natives, against the fifty thousand attributed to the army of Samundri, rajah 
of Calicut. But the artillery alone would not have sufficed to repulse the 
solid body of the enemy's columns, if the courage and wonderful rapidity of 
the marches, the ubiquity, so to speak, of the first soldier-hero of the East, 
had not supported the powerful means of defence. The fleet of Lopo Soares- 
Albergaria brought back Pacheco to the kingdom in 1505. Being a simple 
and upright man he returned rich in wounds and poor in money and dia- 
monds; he had remained in the captaincy of SSo Jorge da Mina, from 
whence he was brought in irons because of the accusations brought against 
him, to languish in prison for a long time and to die at last in poverty and 
oblivion. " The fate of this hero," says Goes,? 1 " was of a nature to warn 
mankind to beware of the inconstancy of kings and princes and their small 
remembrance of those to whom they are bound." And yet Dom Emmanuel 
owed the consolidation of his still incipient empire in the East to this 
man. 

Dom Francisco de Almeida was the man chosen to be governor of India, 
now constituted a viceroyalty. He is the first of the successive figures pre- 
sented by the Portuguese empire of the East ; and the first of the three most 
notable viceroys. The government of India formed three great men 
Castro, who may be called a saint ; Albuquerque, to whom the name of hero 
is better adapted ; and Almeida, a wise administrator and intelligent factor. 
The viceroy, his plans matured by observation on the spot, and the first naval 
war with which he was received by the unrepentant rajah of Calicut, 
mentally completed his system of government. " Let all our strength be at 
sea," he said ; " let us refrain from appropriating the land. The old tra- 
dition of conquest, the empire of such distant lands, is not desirable. Let 
us destroy those new races (the Arabs, Afghans, Ethiopians, and Turks) 
and reinstate the ancient races and natives of this coast ; then we will go 

- f further. Let us secure with our fleets the safety of the sea and protect the 

1 1 , natives in whose name we may practically reign over India. There would 

certainly be no harm in our having a few fortresses along the coast, but 
simply to protect the factories from surprise, for their chief safety will lie in 
the friendship of the native rajahs placed upon their thrones by us, and main- 
tained and defended by our fleets. What has been done so far is but anarchy, 
scarcely an outline of government, a system of murder, piracy, and disorder 
which it is necessary to remedy." The difficulties seemed to him more 
formidable in that " the past warfare was with beasts, but now we are to fight 
Venetians and the Turks of the sultan." The former impunity disappeared 
as soon as the Venetians and Egyptians launched a powerful fleet upon the 
Red Sea, with artillery. 

Dom Francisco de Almeida advanced up the coast, leaving behind him a 
trail of ashes and blood which everywhere marked the passage of the Portu- 
guese. The Egyptian admiral still feared the viceroy, and as soon, 
as the fleet had anchored and grappled with his ships, he meant to cut 
the cables and drift ashore, dragging the Portuguese with him, where the 
Indian launches and fustas might fall upon them furiously. But the viceroy 
perceived the snare and ordered the anchors to be prepared in the stern, and 
the enemy's ships went ashore alone. It was the 3rd of February (1509), the 
feast of St. Braz, at noon. The confusion of races gathered in that fight 
was inextricable ; the banners of the cross and crescent flying from the masts 
covered the most extravagant sentiments and varying beliefs. The truth is 
that they fought not for faith or fatherland, but furiously disputed the 



THE PERIOD OF GfLOBT AND DISCOVERY 483 

[1500 A.D.] 

spoils of India ; and covetousness can make brothers of men of every faith 
and children of every race. There were French and Germans as bombardiers 
on board the Portuguese ships ; there were Indian Brahmans and even 
Moors. On the other side in the confusion of ships there might be found 
from the Nubian to the Arab ; from the Ethiopian to the Affran ; there were 
Mussulmans of every caste ; Persians and Rum l of Egypt mercenaries from 
all parts to whom this generic name was given. Besides the heathen multi- 
tude was the Venetian renegade or Catholic but above all the merchant, who 
had come with artillery to the Indian Sea by order of his republic to defend 
the interests of his associates in the commerce of the East. Around the 
confused bands on board the fleet of the Rum gathered the dark mass of 
Indians in their junks, from Diu in Guzerat and from Calicut in Kanara. 

Once more the waters of the Indian Sea were stained with crimson. 
Countless numbers perished. The wounded floated, crying for mercy and 
receiving bullets. At last, after the scenes and episodes proper to such trage- 
dies, the victory fell to the viceroy who destroyed Rum and Indians. This 
naval victory had a higher importance even than the victories of Duarte 
Pacheco in Cochin, for the Indians, observing and considering, recognised 
that the Portuguese forces were invincible not only to themselves but also 
to the Rum of Egypt and the artillery of Venice. The viceroy remembered 
that he had lost his son, and " he went and sat under the awning, a hand- 
kerchief in his hand which could not stem his falling tears." All thronged 
to console him, and recovering his spirits he arose, drying his tears and call- 
ing them his sons, and said that this grief had pierced and must ever remain 
in his heart, but bade them rejoice at the gallant vengeance which God in his 
mercy had bestowed upon them I But to complete his vengeance for the 
death of his son, he ordered prisoners to be tied to the mouths of the guns, 
and the heads and scattered members of these unfortunate wretches were 
thrown into the city of Kanara like shot. The death of his son disturbed 
his sound judgment and transformed his former opinions of a statesman to 
blood-thirsty furies, attested by the devastation of the coast of Guzerat. He 
yielded also to the intrigues and slanders of the captains who had come from 
Ormus, recently conquered by Albuquerque and ruled with the terrible wild- 
ness of his titanic enterprises. They scoffed at the viceroy who had just 
finished his term of office, and at Albuquerque, already appointed from Lis- 
bon to succeed him ; and treacherous accounts of the excesses of the wise 
Almeida had already reached the court. The dungeon of Duarte Pacheeo 
awaited him in payment of his labours. However, on his journey to the 
kingdom he landed on the coast of Kaffraria, and was killed by the natives 
with assegais and javelins. 

His plan of government, though wise, was chimerical, for India itself was 
insanity. Only a man of genius like Albuquerque could make the doomed 
enterprise great. Only a saint like Castro could save the Portuguese valour 
from the stain of positive ignominy. Dominion, as Almeida conceived it, 
was not to despoil ; it was armed protection extended to a commerce, free 
on one side, and the monopoly of the state or appanage of the crown on the 
other. The captains and governors should be simultaneously commercial 
agents of his majesty, the high trader in pepper. This required a stolidity 
of which the Dutch alone were capable and that at the cost of salaries which 
outweighed temptation. Besides this, the Portuguese flung themselves 

P The Rum was a term applied by the Arabs to all subjects of the Roman Empire and con- 
tinued to be the designation of the inhabitants of western Christendom after they had ceased 
to yield obedience to the " king of Hum," the Byzantine emperor.] 



484 THE HISTOEY OF PORTUGAL 

[1495-1515 A.D.] 

famished upon tliis eastern banquet, as did the races of the north, centuries 
before, upon the banquet of Gaul, Italy, and Spain. No one could have 
wrenched from their fangs the palpitating flesh which they so anxiously 
devoured ; the fatal consequences which Dom Francisco cle Almeida wisely 
foretold were inevitable. Albuquerque in Ornms, Goa, and Malacca, estab- 
lished on land the limits of the empire, which in his predecessor's judgment 
should have floated vaguely on the waves. 

King Emmanuel forgave everything, crimes, robbery, incendiarism, and 
piracy, so^long as they sent him what he most longed for, curiosities, novel- 
tics and. riches, to fill his palaces in Lisbon and dazzle the pope in Rome with 
his magnificent embassy. " Send pepper, and lie down to sleep," said Tristan 
da Cmiha later on, writing from the court in Lisbon to his son Nuno, gov- 
ernor of India. The sack of the East such a name best fits the Portuguese 
dominion was already ordained in Lisbon. 

Albuquerque, like Almeida, for all his splendid services, was rewarded 
with envy and ingratitude. His abilities, his bravery, his successful admin- 
istration made the courtiers fear or pretend that he aimed at an independent 
sovereignty in those regions ; and by their representations they prevailed on 
the king to recall him. Dom Lopo Scares was despatched from Lisbon 
to supersede him. But before his successor arrived, he felt that his health 
was worn out in the service of his country ; he made his last will, and died 
at sea, within sight of Goa. However violent some of his acts, his loss was 
bewailed by both Indians and Portuguese. He certainly administered justice 
with impartiality ; laid no intolerable burdens on the people ; restrained the 
licentiousness of his officers; and introduced unexampled prosperity through- 
out the wide range of the Portuguese establishments. If to this we add that 
the qualities of his mind were of a high order, that he was liberal, affable, 
and modest, we shall scarcely be surprised that, by his enthusiastic country- 
men, lie was styled the Great. It is probable that no other man would have 
established the domination of Portugal on so secure a basis : it is certain that 
no other, in so short a period, could have invested the structure with so much 
splendour* His remains were magnificently interred at Goa, and his son 
was laden with honours by the now repentant Emmanuel the only rewards 
of Ids great deeds (1515). 

Under the successors of Albuquerque, the administration of India was 
notorious for its corruption, imbecility, and violence, and in the same degree 
as wisdom and justice were discarded, so did the military spirit decay. e 



EMMANUEL THE FORTUNATE 

When Dom Emmanuel I had been proclaimed king in the town of Alcacer 
on the 27th of October, 1495, he had reached the age of twenty-six. He had 
found everything prepared for a quiet and prosperous reign; his predecessor, 
JoSo II, had smoothed the way for him by overthrowing the power of the 
nobility. The conciliation of the fidalgos and great lords was easily effected. 

Two matters seriously occupied the new king during the first years of his 
reign his marriage, and the discovery of India. In the hope that he or 
his descendants would one day unite the crowns of Spain and Portugal, Dom 
Emmanuel desired to marry the widow of his nephew. The Catholic sover- 
eigns, having first approved the king of Portugal's request, appointed 
as their agent Ximenes, who was afterwards cardinal. The marriage of 
the king, Dom Emmanuel, and Doiia Isabella of Castile being agreed upon, 



THE PEEIOD OF GLORY AND DISCOVERY 485 

[U96-1500A.D.] 

a treaty was made at Burgos, on the 30th of November, 1496, in which large 
dowries in money were promised on both sides. 

In 1497, the king sent his delegate to Castile to continue the negotiations, 
and a new article was introduced into the treaty, to which the Catholic sover- 
eigns attached extraordinary importance, going so far as to make it a ques- 
tion of annulling the treaty of Burgos and breaking off the marriage. This 
article was that Dom Emmanuel should expel from his kingdom and domin- 
ions all the Jews or Moors who refused baptism, and all those who had been 
found guilty of heresy or apostasy, the clause to be fulfilled before Septem- 
ber, 1497. Such was the origin of the greatest political mistake and blackest 
injustice perpetrated by the " fortunate " king, Dom Emmanuel, which left 
an indelible stain upon his happy reign ; for the ambition of eventually 
uniting the crowns of Portugal and Castile cannot be considered a sufficient 
excuse. Dom Emmanuel fulfilled this treaty, expelling from his king- 
dom all the Jews and free Moors who refused baptism, including all 
those unfortunates who, banished from Spain in 1492 by the Catholic sover- 
eigns Ferdinand and Isabella, had fled to Portugal thinking to find in that 
country a refuge from the intolerance and tyranny of Castile. In October, 
1497, the marriage of King Emmanuel of Portugal with the princess Isabella, 
daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Castile, and widow of Prince Alfonso, 
son of Joao II, took place in the town of Valencia de Alcantara. 

It seemed at first that Dom Emmanuel's lucky star would not abandon 
him in his relations with Castile. Indeed the kings of Portugal and Castile 
were still at Valencia de Alcantara when they received the news of the 
unfortunate death of the prince Don Juan, heir to the crown of Castile. 
By this event Dona Isabella, queen of Portugal, wife of Dom Emmanuel, 
became heir presumptive to the kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, and Leon. 
This fact, which plunged the kingdoms of Spain in consternation, filled Doni 
Emmanuel with joy and promised to satisfy his ambitions more promptly 
than could have been expected. 

But his wife was advanced in pregnancy. In spite of her state, she 
resolved to continue her journey and go to Saragossa to be sworn heir to the 
throne of Aragon. Here she was seized with the pains of child-birth, and on 
the 24th of August, 1498, brought forth the infante Dom Miguel, in that city, 
his birth costing his mother her life. And Miguel died two years later. 

Thus the dream of Dom Emmanuel vanished like smoke. The famous 
expulsion of the Jews and New Christians, an iniquitous measure, unwise 
and unpolitic, price of the marriage with Dona Isabella, was not a happy 
augury. Once more the attempt at an Iberian union under the sceptre of a 
Portuguese king by matrimonial means had failed. 

Dom Emmanuel did not completely lose hope in his relations with Castile 1 
by the death of his wife and son. The Catholic sovereigns also seemed 
determined on an alliance with Portugal. Without loss of time, in the same 
year, 1500, Dom Emmanuel sent Ruy de Saude, of his council, as ambassador 
to the sovereigns of Castile with full powers to request the hand of the 
infanta Dona Maria, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, and conse- 
quently sister-in-law of the king of Portugal. The heirs to the crown of 
Castile were Dona Juana, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, and her hus- 
band, son of the emperor Maximilian and the empress Mary of Burgundy. 
The princess of Castile had already a son at that time, Charles, who was born 
at Ghent in Belgium on the 24th of February, 1500, and was afterwards 

f 1 The Portuguese have a saying : " De Castella nem lorn vento nem bom casamento^ (From 
Castile neither good wind nor good wedding).] 



486 THE HISTORY OF POBTUG-AL 

[1501-1520 A.D.] 

Charles I of Spain and V of Germany. Queen Isabella died on the 25th of 
November, 1504, and King Ferdinand 011 the 23rd of January, 1516. The 
throne of Castile was lost to Dom Emmanuel. The crown of Spain was 
about to pass to the house of Austria. The wedding to Maria nevertheless 
took place at Alcacer-do-Sal on the 30th of October, 1500. 

In the same year, 1500, Gaspar Cortereal went to North. America and 
discovered the land of Labrador, which was then called Cortereal, getting 
beyond 50 north latitude. He returned to Portugal, and repeated his 
voyage in 1501, but was never heard of again. His brother, Miguel, went 
in search of him, but he also disappeared. Other lands and islands were dis- 
covered in the time of Queen Maria. In 1501, JoSo da Nova, 1 on his voyage 
to India, discovered the Ascension Island in the Atlantic, and the island 
which bears his name on the coast of Africa. On his return journey in 1502 
he discovered the island of St. Helena in the Atlantic. The Florentine 
Amerigo Vespucci made voyages to America by order of Dorn Emmanuel in 
1501 and 1503, discovering Rio de la Plata and Patagonia. This navigator 
had the glory of giving his name to the group of lands discovered by Colum- 
bus, Cabral, etc. In 1506 were successively discovered : by Tristan da 
Cunlm, the islands of that name in the Atlantic ; by Ruy Pereira Coutinho 
and Fernao Scares, the western and eastern coasts of the island of Madagas- 
car ; in 1507, the Maldive Islands by Dom Lourengo de Almeida ; in 1509, 
by Diogo Lopes de Sequeira, Malacca (Malay Peninsula) and Sumatra ; in 
1512, by Francisco Serrao, the Molucca Islands in the Chinese seas ; in 1513, 
by Pedro Mascarenhas, the island to which he gave his name and which is at 
present called Reunion, in the Indian Ocean ; in 1516, Duarte Coelho dis- 
covered Cocliiu-China ; in 1517, Fernao Peres de Andrade went to China. & 



THE GREAT VOYAGE OF MAGELLAN 

The celebrated line of demarcation between the right of discovery and 
conquest was not so clearly understood as to avoid disputes between Dom 
Emmanuel and his brother sovereign of Castile. His splendid empire in the 
East had long attracted the jealousy of Ferdinand, who had frequently 
attempted, but as frequently been deterred by his remonstrances, to share in 
the rich commercial advantages thus offered to the sister kingdom. After the 
death of that prince, a disaffected Portuguese who had served Emmanuel 
with distinction both in Ethiopia and India, and who was disgusted with the 
refusal of his sovereign to reward his services with becoming liberality, fled 
into Castile, and told the new king, Charles V of Austria, that the Molucca 
Islands, in virtue of that line, rightfully belonged to Spain. This man was 
Ferdinand Magellan (FernSo de MagalhSes), whose name is immortalised in 
the annals of maritime discovery. He proposed a shorter route to the 
Moluccas than the passage by the Cape of Good Hope the route by Brazil : 
he well knew that the American continent must terminate somewhere, and 
his notion of the earth's rotundity was sufficiently just to convince him that 
a western voyage would bring him to the same point as the one discovered 
by Dias and Yasco da Gama. In August, 1519, he embarked at Seville, 
with five vessels, over the crews of which he was invested with the -power of 
life and death. On reaching the Brazilian coast, he cautiously proceeded 
southwards, and in September, 1520, arriving at a cape which he called after 

[* A Spaniard by birth, who entered the Portuguese service. His original name was Juan 
de Nova.] 



PEEI D OF 



DISCOVERY 



487 

\vliieh bear 

or its 



f iS 
* 



Series of 



discoveries, and of 

of th * Portuguese in Asia, a fatal hSent 
The de P lo ^le catastrophe wMchSS 
mourmn ^ ?P ra ^ from religious intolerance, of which D*m 
SUC \ a * atal aple on the occasion of his first mar- 
T M a y> th * 19th of April, 1506, in the church of St. Doml 

Lisbon, where a vast concourse of people were assembled, the ravs of 
the sun striking upon the splendour of a crucifix produced such a brilliant 
cttect that certain visionaries, religious, or fanatics, took it for a miracle. 
1 lie cry ot a miracle already flew from mouth to mouth, when a bvstande- 
more intelligent but with little prudence for his speech, suggested "that this 
cttect was due to the reflection of the sun and could only be called a 
natural phenomenon. This sufficed to cause him to be looked upon as a dis- 
guised Jew ; a tumult arose, and such was the frenzy of the populace that a 
horrible massacre upon the so-called New Christians followed. 

The massacre lasted for three days. More than a thousand persons perished. 
Dom Emmanuel was at Aviz at the time. As soon as he heard of what had 
occurred in the capital, he sent Dom Diogo Lobo, baron de Ahito, and 
the prior of Crato with full powers to punish the guilty. 

He ordered that besides the special punishment "of the guilty all the 
inhabitants should forfeit a fifth of all their property, movable and* immov- 
able, to the crown, and that from the date of the sentence there should be 
no more courts of aldermen, freemen of guilds, nor judges of hospitals ; he 
further subjected the municipality to the jurisdiction of the harbingers, the 
amount of these impositions to be levied by officers of the crown. This 
species of interdict lasted for two years. 

This splendid period of the reign of Dom Emmanuel, which includes the 
years 1500 to 1517, the eighteen years during which the fortunate monarch 
was married to Doiia Maria of Castile, the most brilliant in Portuguese his- 
tory for the military glory and wealth and commerce enjoyed by Portugal, 
arid in which science, letters, and art were so flourishing was not equally 
happy as regards public health, the safety of the lives and property of the 
inhabitants of these kingdoms, and internal administration. 

The plague, which had frequently visited Portugal since the fifteenth 
century, attacked and ravaged the capital many times, as well as other towns 
of this kingdom;, then royalty and those able to follow their example might 
be seen flying from the infected places. Real preventive measures were 
never adopted until the reign of JoSo III. Novenas, feast-days, processions 
of the relics of St. Roque, which Dom Emmanuel sent for from Venice, such 
were the chief means adopted by the king and people to combat the epidemic, 
not, however, forgetting the safest course of flight. * 

Dom Emmanuel died December 12th, 1521, after one of the most glorious 
reions on record. Of his public administration enough has been said ; and 
of *his private character what little we know is chiefly in Ms favour. He 
.i::A^/i -.'Tiofi'rt^ n'-Hn iTYiTmrtialitv : and had regulated hours wne 



administered justice with impartiality ; and had regulated 1 
received his subjects without distinction ; nay, such was his 



len he 

anxiety to do 



M . 



488 



THE HISTORY OF POETUGAL 



[1495-1521 A.B.] 

them justice, that if at the expiration of the appointed period complaints 
remained unredressed, he would sacrifice the hours sacred to enjoyment or 
repose. The persecution of the unfortunate Jews is a deep stain on his 
memory ; but in every respect he was a great monarch, and his fame filled 
the world as much as his enlightened policy enriched his kingdom. He 
despatched embassies to all the potentates of his time to the king of Eng- 
land, and the ruler of Abyssinia ; to the royal chief of Congo, and the 
sultan of Egypt ; to the sultan of Persia, and the emperor of China. Some 
of them that, for instance, in which he displayed- before the astonished 
pope and cardinals a. Persian panther and an Indian elephant, with their 
native attendants were distinguished by magnificence suitable to the lord 
of so many regions. 



!' 





CHAPTER III 
THE FALL, THE CAPTIVITY, AND THE REVOLUTION 

[1521-1640 A.D.] 

UPON the death of Dom Emmanuel in December, 1521, he was succeeded 
by Dom Joao, his eldest son, who had not yet completed his twentieth year. 
The chroniclers who wrote under the influence of the immediate successors 
of this prince, having the fear of censure before their eyes, represented him 
as endowed with high intelligence and qualities worthy of a king. 

During his father's life many considered him an idiot. Dom Emmanuel 
himself feared the influence which unworthy men exerted over Joa*o during 
his early youth. It is certain that through inattention or incapacity he could 
never master the rudiments of science, nor even those of the Latin tongue. 
Throughout his reign monkish questions always appeared among the gravest 
business of the state, and his first action, when he had scarcely emerged from 
infancy, was to build a Dominican convent. This may be regarded as the 
worthy presage of an inquisition king. Whether from want of natural intel- 
ligence, ignorance, or errors of education, Joao III was a fanatic. The intol- 
erance of his reign, though furthered by different incentives, was chiefly diie 
to his character and inclinations. 

The secretary of Dorn Emmanuel, Antonio Carneiro, who deserved his 
confidence for many years and continued to serve the new king, when fatigue 
forced him to withdraw from a charge which he still held nominally for 
many years, left as his successor his second son Pedro de Algaova, This 
man, whom we find years later managing the most various affairs at the 
same time, and whose activity appears almost incredible, by the side of a 
prince whose lack of culture his very panegyrists cannot hide, must have 

489 






490 THE HISTOEY OF POBTUGAL 

[1521-1540 A.D.] 

been practically king in resolving the most difficult questions, as was the 
marquis of Pombal at a later epoch. Pedro de Alga^ova made no parade 
of his influence, 'hiding in the shadow of the throne, and leaving the fre- 
quently sterile brilliance of importance and favouritism to a vain nobility. 
But every dark stain that rests upon the reign of Joao III may be attributed 
to him, except the establishment of the horrible tribunal of the faith. In 
this particular, although the actual deed was his, the impulse came from the 
monarch. The resistance of the New Christians was long and persistent. 
A steadfast will made up of a million hatreds struggled against this resist- 
ance for more than twenty years and overcame it. In the end the rack, whip, 
and stake reigned supreme in the region of religious belief, prevailing over 
the evangelical doctrine of tolerance and liberty. 

The failure of the attempt to establish the Inquisition in Portugal in 
1515, from whatever cause arising, and the predominance obtained by the 
policy of tolerance, must have increased the spite of the irreconcilable ene- 
mies of the Jews. The hatred of JoSo III for the Jews was profound and 
well known. This sufficed to excite in the minds of the people the ancient 
spirit of persecution and assassination. Ignorance and monkish tendencies, 
unassisted by envy or the memory of former wrongs, made the king naturally 
a fanatic, though fanaticism did not prevent him from abandoning himself to 
debauchery with women. 

His marriage was treated of and Dona Catherine, sister of Charles V 
who then reigned in Castile, was chosen for his bride. The marriage took 
place, and an attempt was made to tighten the bond between the two coun- 
tries by negotiating the marriage of Charles V with the infanta Donna Isa- 
bella, sister of the king of Portugal. The final conditions were adjusted 
and it was agreed that the dowry of the Portuguese infanta should be 
90,000 doubloons, or more than 800,000 cruzados. Resources were wanting 
and it was necessary to obtain them. Perhaps this circumstance and several 
others caused the convocation of the cortes in 1525. Since the fifteenth cen- 
tury the Portuguese parliaments had lost their true value ; they were more 
a matter of pomp and formality than of substance. The essential point, 
which was to raise money, was effected, for the cortes voted the impositions 
of new taxes to the amount of 150,000 cruzados to be raised in two years. 
This was the most urgent business. The representations of the councils 
were generally answered in fair words, which were only partially carried out 
long after the cortes of 1535, when the same representations were for the 
most part renewed. It was in this assembly that the general ill will towards 
the New Christians was at last able to manifest itself in a solemnly significant 
manner, but within strictly legal limits, & In 1536 the Inquisition was finally 
established. Its methods and its effects will be sufficiently shown in the 
appendix to this volume. It destroyed life, liberty, humanity, commerce, 
literature, and art in Portugal as elsewhere. When the Jesuits were 
admitted in 1540 and given charge of education, the church and the state 
were one, and the result was as usual a shameful combination of atrocity and 
paralysis.^ 

THE PORTUGUESE IN AFRICA, INDIA, AND BRAZIL 

The long reign of JoSo exhibits interminable contests in India and Africa. 
Their details would be perused with little interest by an English reader. 
They can be noticed in so far only as they affect the general state of the 
monarchy. During these transactions in the East, Morocco continued to be 




FALL, THE CAPTIVITY, AND THE REVOLUTION 



Lnary theatre of the worst human passions. On the one hand the 
e were eager to extend their possessions ; on the other, the sherifs^ 
11 their successful ambition, were not less -so to free the country 
oublesome an enemy. From the accession of the new dynasty, the 
the Portuguese began to decline. Indicative of the ambitious 
r hich they had formed, the sherifs assumed the title of emperors of 
tie elder, Hamed, remaining at Morocco ; the younger, Muhammed, 
the more western provinces. 

j king of Fez this assumption was not less odious than it was to 
iguese themselves. That on one occasion the sherif, with four 
horse, was signally defeated by a Portuguese noble with one 
md forty, is gravely asserted; victories equally improbable, we 
squally impossible, occur at every step in the Portuguese relations 
g 1 the wars of their countrymen with the misbelievers. But what, 
Id, could not be effected by valour was done by fortune. Con- 
he war which he had to support in India, and his want of troops, 
. the extraordinary resolution of dismantling four of his African 
, Arzilla, Saphin, Asemmur, Alcacer-Seguier, and of abandoning 
to the enemy. This resolution was carried into effect ; but that 
>wing as much to the arms of the sherif as to the motives will be 
by every reader except a Portuguese. c 

riental empire of Portugal, however, continued to increase by the 
;h the able statesmen and warriors, whom Joao sent out as viceroys 
nors, waged, upon the most frivolous pretexts, against the different 
:ing princes. They took advantage of the dissensions of the princes 
luccas, to obtain the complete sovereignty of those valuable islands. 
ders provoked by the tyranny and consequent assassination of the 
: Canibay enabled them to wrest from those rnonarchs the important 
,nd city of Diu ; and similar convulsions in the Deccan gave them 
.ties of considerably extending the Portuguese dominions in that 
ountry. It is to be observed, however, that the sovereigns, thus 
despoiled, were themselves equally lawless conquerors. They were 
of the Mohammedan hordes, who had overrun India, overthrown the 
Luces, and oppressed the Hindus. The enslaved natives probably 
le for the expulsion of one foreign master by another, if they had 
> to rejoice at exchanging the wantonly cruel tyranny of oriental 
for the more orderly extortion and oppression of a civilised 

ncrease of the power of the Portuguese now alarmed all the Moham- 
)tentates, and they applied to Constantinople for assistance to expel 
stian intruders. Again the request was enforced by a Christian 
'enice, whose jealousy of the Portuguese rivals of her own commer- 
:ness extinguished all nobler feeling, all religious sympathy. Sulei- 
LS doubly urged, equipped a powerful armament in the Red Sea, 
roceeding to the Indian Ocean, joined the Cambayan forces in 
Diu. The defence, first by Antonio de Silveira, and afterwards 
cle Mascarenhas, of this place, or rather of the fortress, for the town 
of the island were quickly abandoned as untenable, ranks amongst 
celebrated feats of the Portuguese in India. They repulsed inces- 
/ults, the women labouring day and night at the fortifications, and 
g into the posts of greatest danger, to carry everj r needful assistance 
)mbatants, who, from their scanty numbers, could hardly ever quit 
s. During both sieges, the place was reduced to the utmost ex- 



492 THE HISTORY OF PORTUGAL 

[1531-15G2 A.D.] 

tremity ; and upon both occasions was relieved by the seasonable appearance 
of the viceroy with a powerful fleet. m _ 

Of the viceroys and governors who effected these acquisitions scarcely 
one was duly recompensed. Many died in poverty, and Nuno da Cunha, who 
gained Diu for King Joao, was only saved by death from being dragged m 
chains to the foot of his ungrateful master's throne. During Joao's reign, 
the celebrated apostle of India, St. Francis Xavier, visited that country 
to attempt the conversion of the idolatrous natives: and the Portuguese 
obtained an establishment in China, and a free trade with Japan. 

Brazil first acquired importance under Joao III. In 1531 he began 
the colonisation of that immense empire, then little more than a long line 
of seacoast. This he divided into several captaincies, which he granted, 
with large powers of jurisdiction, civil and criminal, to such persons as, upon 
those conditions, were willing to settle there, and to people and cultivate 
their respective grants. The French made various attempts to form rival 
settlements in Brazil, especially about Rio de Janeiro. They never obtained 
more than temporary possession of any part of the country /* 

" The greatest credit that can be given to Joao III.," says Stephen/ " is that 
he kept his country out of all European complications." That he was able to 
accomplish this task was due chiefly to his close association with Charles V. 
The alliance was furthered by several royal marriages : King Joao himself wedded 
the Infanta Catherine, the sister of Charles V. ; his only son, Doni Joao, married 
the daughter of Charles V., the Infanta Juana ; whilst his only daughter, Donna 
Maria, was the first wife of Charles' son Philip. The two monarch s were therefore 
bound together by the closest family ties.* 

Joao died in 1557. By his queen, Catherine, he had several male chil- 
dren, of whom none emerged from their infancy except Joao. Nor did that 
infante survive the father. In 1553 he received the hand of Juana, daugh- 
ter of the emperor ; but he died in the third month of his marriage, leaving 
the princess pregnant of a son, afterwards the unfortunate Doin Sebastian. 
Of Joao's brothers one only, the cardinal Henry, whom he had vainly endeav- 
oured to place in the chair of St. Peter, survived him. As his sister Isabella 
was the mother of the Spanish monarch, the connection between the royal 
families of the two kingdoms was, as we shall soon see, fatal to the inde- 
pendence of Portugal. As Sebastian, on the death of his grandfather, was 
only three years of age, the regency, in conformity with the will of the late 
king, was vested in the widowed queen, Catherine of Austria. In a few 
years, however, being disgusted with the intrigues of Cardinal Henry, who 
aspired to the direction of affairs, she resigned it in his favour.^ 

Before going on with the chronicle, it will be well to read -a Portuguese 
historian's picture of the decline of this period. 



ACCOUNT OF THE DECADENCE OF POBTUGAL 

We are about to enter upon the saddest and most unfortunate period 
in the history of Portugal. The brilliant epic which the bright sword 
of Alfonso Henriques began with the battle of Ourique, stops at the exact 
epoch at which an immortal bard appears. The Lusiadas, that Homeric 
apotheosis of a great, heroic people, arises almost at the hour of their fatal 
fall. But a few years and the epic is transformed into an elegy, the apothe- 
osis into a funeral panegyric. But a few years and Camoens drags from 
his Olympic strophes these four lines : 



THE FALL, THE CAPTIVITY, AND THE REVOLUTION 493 

[1521-1557 A.D.] 

" Fazei, senlior, que nunca os admiration 
Allemaes, Gallos, Italos e Inglezes 
Possam dirzer, que sao para mandados 
Mais que para mandar, aos Portugueses" 

in vain, when the descendants of the old heroes were cowardly and infa- 
mously about to sell their humiliated country, poor and agonised, to the 
sinister son of Charles V, the emperor of legends. 

These years of servitude and captivity spread like an immense oil stain 
over the brilliant history of Portugal, and the sun which sank in clouds 
of blood at Kassr-el-Kebir plunged the country into an obscure and long 
night until it rose radiantly once more on the field of Montijo. It falls 
to our lot to relate the history of this painful period of darkness and tears, 
barely illuminated in the beginning by the last rays of light thrown out 
by the conquests of the old East. The warlike genius which gave to Portu- 
gal the most glorious pages in modern epopee, the spirit of adventure, chival- 
rous and combatant, which carried its name to every corner of the world, 
and gave it a place of honour in the vanguard of the nations of Europe, was 
the same that apparently lowered the national colours before the victorious 
crescent on the sands of Africa, was the same that strangled national inde- 
pendence with the bonds of captivity, and delivered it inert and defenceless 
into the hands of the devil of the south, the lugubrious Philip II. 

Portugal, having reached the apogee of her glory, became giddy and fell 
into the abyss of slavery. In the supreme hour of her agony, the red hat of 
a cardinal appeared at the bedside of the dying kingdom. Portugal's grave- 
digger, the cardinal Dom Henry, was a sinister figure. But who killed her, 
who struck her the fatal blow ? It was not the perverse imbecilities of the 
cowardly Jesuit ; it was not the dangerous errors of the youthful knight- 
king. The assassin of Portugal was that fanatic and imbecile monarch who 
opened his foolish arms to the Society of Jesus, who planted deep in the 
kingdom that deadly tree known as absolutism, under whose protecting 
shadow was planted, thrived, and flowered that colossal infamy the Inqui- 
sition. And who has to answer before the same tribunal of history for the 
lost liberty, the outraged honour, the valour spurned, the ruined wealth 
of that nation which gave to the world the most magnificent spectacle of 
modern times, a diminutive country throwing over the two hemispheres 
her power, her influence, her name ? It is not the ambitious and imbecile 
old man chronicled under the hated name of cardinal-king ; not the heroic 
child, the beardless youth who, enamoured of glory, died in pursuit of it, 
like a daring paladin on the sands of Kassr-el-Kebir ; not the cold inert corpse 
to whom, with pungent irony, tradition has given the nickname of Piedoso, 
and who is known in history as Joao III. In history's terrible logic Philip II 
was fatal heir to Joao III. It was the unhappy reign of this inept monarch 
which prepared the way to Portugal's ruin. 

His internal policy completely transformed the government into a fierce 
unchecked absolutism ; his external policy of pure neutrality, at a time of 
grave disputes between all the European nations, alienated from him the 
sympathies of all the states of Europe ; and later, when Philip II wiped from 
the map this diminutive nationality which, hidden in a corner of the west, 
had spread its fame and name throughout the world, Europe paid back 
to Portugal the debt of haughty indifference she had incurred under the 
pious king. When the Spaniards made their threatening invasion into Por- 
tugal, instead of finding an energetic and valiant nation defending its life 
and its liberty, they found a weak and inert people, humbled beneath the 



494 THE HISTORY OF PORTUGAL 

[1521-1557 A.D.] 

yoke of fierce absolutism, fanaticism enveloping the souls of all, demoralisa- 
tion rampant in the army, luxury enervating the higher social classes, hunger 
and misery devastating the people ; a nation of lions transformed into a flock 
of sheep by immorality, by despotism, by misery a flock of sheep guided by 
an imbecile and disastrous shepherd, the unlucky cardinal, Dom Henry. 

Dora Henry and Dom Sebastian could barely reap the deadly truits ot the 
venomous seeds sown by JoSo III. It would seem that in such critical mo- 
ments providence chooses incapable, weak, and blundering kings, who instead 
of delaying for a time the inevitable fall, seem rather unhappily to hasten it. 

And thus at the close of the sad reign of JoEo III, on seeing the crown 
placed on the head of an infant of three years, obstinately disputed by two 
great ambitions, that of the queen Catherine the grandmother, and that of 
Cardinal Henry the uncle, on seeing the indifference of Europe, on seeing 
Spam's vast power in Portuguese policy, one does not need to be a prophet 
to foretell in the near future the sad development which fanaticism, tyranny, 
and the stupidity of the unworthy son of the great Dom Emmanuel had 
prepared for the splendid epic commenced at the battle of Ourique ; to fore- 
tell the tremendous downfall of the colossus known as Portugal. Before 
entering the most lamentable reign of Dorn Sebastian, let us cast a glance 
over the state of Portugal during the last years of Dom Joao's life, and con- 
sider what manner of kingdom and people the desired king received in 
heritage, upon taking his first childish steps in a world to which he was to 
leave so sad a tradition. 

The reign of Dom Joao III is an original mixture of splendours and 
threats, of wealth and misery. It presents brilliant lights and implacable 
shadows, but unhappily the lights were the last reflections of Portuguese 
glory soon to be extinguished, the shadows the unfortunate heralds of the 
immense night into which Portugal was to be plunged. Portugal at this 
epoch had reached the apogee of her prosperity. The Portuguese flag flut- 
tered over the most remote countries of the wealthy East. Her commerce 
sucked fabulous wealth from the abundant breasts of old Asia. India resigned 
herself to the conquest ; Brazil was beginning to be peopled ; China and 
Japan discovered, Oceania subjected, Abyssinia explored, were rich harvests 
of glory and gold, of heroic deeds and vast fortunes for Portugal. But 
this gold scarcely circulated in the country ; instead of benefiting the latter, 
it went to enrich England, to give power to Italy and Flanders, stupidly to 
fill the ever insatiable coffers of the Vatican. This glory instead of acting 
as a stimulus was suffocated by the tyrannies of absolutism, was crushed by 
the stupid fanaticism of the Jesuits, who paraded, triumphant and strong, 
under the sinister protection of the Inquisition. The period of Dom JoSo 
III marks out distinctly and perfectly in history the transition from the 
pinnacles of triumphant power to the dark abysses of slavery, from a 
glorious life to a humiliating death. 

The conquests and prosperity in the East were the outcome of the 
former impulses ; what the country owed to the pious king was . the demor- 
alisation of the army and people, the glorification of tyrants, the 
relaxation of judicial authority crushed by the Inquisition, the gilded 
poverty of the people, the enervation of the aristocracy, the loss of com- 
merce by the flight of foreigners residing in Lisbon harassed at every step 
by the infamous cruelties of the Inquisition, and the stupid despotism of 
individual power. All the glory of his reign is due to his predecessors ; 
the shame, opprobrium, immorality, and misery are due to him, and unhap- 
pily were left as an inheritance to his successors and to the country./ 






THE FALL, THE CAPTIVITY, AND THE BEVOLUTION 495 

[1557-1574 A.D.] 

THE EEGEIS T CIES AND THE BEIGJST OF SEBASTIAN (1557-1578 A.D.) 

Joao III, dying, had committed the government of his kingdom, and 
the care of his grandson, then only three years old, to his widow, Queen 
Catherine. She governed ably ; and by her active exertions sent such effec- 
tive succours to Mazagan, which was almost the only remaining Portuguese 
fortress in northern Africa, and then reduced to estremity by a Moorish 
army of eighty thousand men, that the Mohammedans were compelled to 
raise the siege. But the Portuguese detested queen-dowagers, especially 
when Spanish ; and Queen Catherine in 1562 found it expedient to resign 
the regency to her brother-in-law, Cardinal Henry, for whom Joao had 
unsuccessfully endeavoured to obtain the papal tiara. The cardinal was a 
good man, but unfitted, by the habits of his past life, for government. 
Under his feeble administration, the authority of Portugal over her distant 
colonies was weakened, and the inferior governors struggled against the 
control of the viceroys; whilst, by committing the education of the infant 
king wholly to Jesuits, he prepared the way for the heavier calamities that 
followed. 

Sebastian is represented as naturally endowed with many great and good 
qualities, especially an eager desire for knowledge. But the Jesuits seem to 
have studied only to guard their royal pupil from a tendency to vice. But 
scarcely any vice, however injurious to his own individual character and 
happiness, could have brought such wide -spreading misery, such utter 
destruction upon his kingdom, as did the extravagance into which Sebas- 
tian was hurried by mistaken virtues. 1 He grew up with the idea that 
hatred of the infidels was Christianity, and courage the first virtue of a king. 
He proved the ruin of Portugal. 

He was very desirous of going out to India, to remedy, by his personal 
intervention, the disorders which had greatly increased during his minority, 
and to relieve Goa and Chaul, besieged, in consequence of the weakness those 
disorders had produced, by the whole force of the Mohammedans, in that 
part of the world. His ministers remonstrated. Sebastian listened to their 
representations, and resigned his purpose. It might have been happier for 
Portugal had he been suffered to execute it. Be that as it may, effective 
measures were taken. The enemy was repulsed from Chaul and Goa, and 
the Indian empire of Portugal was tranquillised. 

In the year 1571, Philip II invited his nephew to take a part in the great 
armament against the Turks under Don John of Austria, which Sebastian 
declined doing, upon the plea of his dominions being desolated by the plague. 
Sebastian's first visit to Africa more resembles some of the expeditions of 
the knights errant of romance, than anything in real sober history. He 
is said to have left Lisbon on a hunting excursion, in the course of which he 
crossed the sea, to pursue his sport in another quarter of the globe. Upon 
landing in Africa, he sent home for a small body of troops, and when they 
joined him, gave over hunting for the still more exciting amusement of 
making hostile inroads upon the neighbouring Moors. In these, he of 
course could do no more than take some booty and prisoners ; and when he 
had roused the Mohammedans to assemble their forces, he was compelled, by 
the consciousness of inferior strength, to re-embark for Portugal. From 
this moment he thought of nothing but recovering the African possessions 

f 1 " The young king was ratlier German than Portuguese in appearance, with his Hue eyes 
and fair hair and face disfigured by the Habsburg lip, and in his nature there was much of the 
Teuton dreaminess and love of the marvellous." STEPHENS. ] 



, 

I if? if 



496 THE HISTORY OF PORTUGAL 

[1574-1578 A.D.] 

which his orandfather had lost or abandoned, and his court became a scene of 
contest and cabal his grandmother, and Cardinal Henry, and all his sagest 
counsellors remonstrating vehemently against what they justly deemed the 
visionary projects of extravagant ambition ; whilst flattering courtiers, heed- 
less young men, and fanatical ecclesiastics eagerly encouraged his views. 

In the midst of these contests, a revolution in Africa seemed to offer an 
opportunity too favourable to be neglected. In the empire of Morocco, upon 
the death of the emperor Abdallah, his son Mulei Ahmed usurped the 
government. He ruled tyrannically, and his uncle Mulei Moloch [or Maula 
Abd-el-Melik], the .legitimate sovereign, easily formed a strong party against 
him, with -which, after a severe struggle, he succeeded in overthrowing the 
usurper and establishing himself in his place. Mulei Ahmed sought 
foreign assistance. Philip II declined interfering, when Mulei Ahmed 
addressed himself to Sebastian, adding to his offer of tribute that of the 
restitution of Arzilla. Philip is said to have laboured to deter his nephew 
from embarking in an enterprise altogether beyond his means. Most histori- 
ans, with the exception of the Spanish, accused Philip of having employed 
underhand methods of instigating the young king to persevere in the deter- 
mination he affected to dissuade. Especially he is charged with inducing the 
pope to applaud and encourage Sebastian in his purpose. 1 Certain it is that 
the king of Portugal's resolution to accept Mulei Ahmed's offers was not 
to be shaken. The old queen died of the anxiety occasioned by her grand- 
son's rashness and obstinacy; Cardinal Henry marked his disapprobation by 
refusmo- to act as regent during the king's absence : and Sebastian appointed 
in his stead the archbishop of Lisbon and two noblemen, one of whom was 
Joao cle Mascarenhas, an ex-viceroy of India, and as distinguished a warrior 
as any of those who had conquered and secured the Portuguese empire in 
the East. 

THE DEBACLE AT KASSR-EL-KEBIR (1578 A.D.) 

The army with which, in June, 1578, Sebastian sailed for Africa, to over- 
throw the powerful sovereign of Morocco, consisted of less than sixteen 
thousand men. But he was accompanied by almost all the young nobility of 
Portugal, and he relied upon the assurances of Mulei Ahmed that great 
numbers of his former subjects would immediately declare in his favour. A 
few volunteer adventurers, from different countries, joined the standard, of 
the chivalrous young king [including Sir Thomas Stukeley, an English 
Catholic] . 

Mulei Moloch assembled an army of one hundred thousand men, and at 
their head, although so reduced by illness that he was obliged to be car- 
ried in a litter, he advanced to meet the invader. Some of these troops 
having been formerly partisans of his nephew, Mulei Moloch, distrustful of 
their attachment, issued a proclamation, that whosoever pleased was at liberty 
to pass over to his competitor. This magnanimity secured his triumph over 
any who might have previously hesitated between their old and new sover- 
eigns, and very few indeed of the dispossessed usurper's former adherents 
took advantage of the liberty offered them. 

I 1 La Clede g will allow no virtue to Philip, who, he pretends, suddenly approved the enter- 
prise, in the diabolical view of hastening the destruction of his nephew, and profiting by the 
catastrophe. " Philippe avait fait, de son cote ses reflexions : autant qtfil s'etoit ffalord oppose 
a Ventreprise que le roi de Portugal meditoit, autant il montra de desir que Von Vexecitt&t. 
kebastien etoit jeune temeraire, sans enfans : il pourrbit perir et alors le Portugal pouvait etre 
mini a la Castille.^l *- - 



THE FALL, THE CAPTIVITY, AND THE REVOLUTION 497 

[1578 A.D.] 

^ Sebastian's camp was now distracted by contending opinions. Mnlei Ah- 
med, who was disappointed in his expectation of deserters from his uncle's 
army, and now relied upon the impending fatal issue of that uncle's malady 
lor making him master, \vithout a blow, of empire and army, and perhaps of 
his Christian allies, urged Sebastian to fortify himself in a strong position on 
the seacoast ; but Sebastian, rejecting all rational counsel, led his small army 
forward, into tlie open country, to encounter the overwhelming superiority 
of numbers there awaiting him. 

On the 4th of August, 1578, the armies met near Kassr-el-Kebir (Alcazar- 
Quivir). Mulei Molocli was conscious that his death could not be long 
deferred, and fearful that, upon its occurrence, 
his nephew nag-lit gain some advantage over his 
brother and lawful successor, Ahmed ben 
Muhammed, lie sought an opportunity of 
engaging the invaders, and by their defeat 
insuring the peaceful succession of Ahmed ben 
Muhammed. He caused himself to be carried 
through the ranks in his litter, that he might 
personally exhort his troops. 

Sebastian likewise displayed a degree of 
military skill not to have been anticipated from 
the rashness of liis previous movements ; and, 
at first, victory seemed to incline towards him. 
One division of tlie Moorish army was routed, 
when Mulei Moloch, forgetting his malady in 
indignation, insisted upon being placed on 
horseback ; ancl in person rallying the fugi- 
tives, attempted, to lead them back to the 
attack. The effort was too much for his 
strength; he fainted, and was replaced in 
liis litter, where lie only recovered sufficiently 
to charge his attendants to conceal his death, 
lest it should discourage his troops, and expired, 
with his linger on his' lips, to enforce these last 
commands. Tliey were obeyed. His attend- 
ants affected to open and reclose the curtains 
of the litter, as if making reports, and receiv- 
ing orders ; and tlie troops, encouraged by his 
last exertion, and believing themselves still 
under his eye, f cmght with irresistible valour. 
The Portuguese, notwithstanding their daunt- 
less intrepidity and discipline, notwithstanding the invincible heroism of their 
kiiio 1 who, flying from place to place, was seen wherever the danger was most 
imminent,' were completely defeated. More than nine thousand of the army 
fell and the rest were made prisoners, with the exception of about fifty, who 
esc-'iDcd bv fliffkt. The young nobility, fighting desperately, were almost all 
slain * many a noble family was there extinct, and all were plunged in mourn- 
iiur ' Mulei Ahmed was drowned in endeavouring to fly; and Ahmed ben 
Muhammed obtained uncontested possession of his inheritance. 

Some portion of obscurity hangs over the fate of the adventurous Sebas- 
'lf But little real doubt can exist of his having fallen upon the 
of Kassr-el-Kebir. He had several horses killed tinder him, and 
was seen fighting', long after the general rout, with only three companions, 
. 2K 




PORTUGUESE COSTUME OF THE SIX- 
TEENTH CENTURY 



n. w. 




498 THE HISTOBY OF PORTUGAL ^ 

{_!-) / o A.-D- J 

against a host of enemies. The sole survivor of this devoted little band, 
E ^de ^scarenhas, stated that, after the fate of two of then- compan 
the king was disarmed and taken prisoner; when, his captors ; ^ 
about their prize, one of the Moors terminated the dispute by cutting 
tiaTdown and he was forthwith despatched. Ahmed ben 
hearing this, sent one of Sebastian's servants to the spot in 
pointed out and brought away a corpse, which was recognised as the king a i by 
the other attendants Spon the royal person. The emperor of Morocco aftei- 
wards delivered it up to his ally the king of Spain, together with some noble 
prisoners, including two sons of the duke of Braganza. Philip generously 
sent home the released captives, as well as the remains of bebastian, wliicu 
were interred in the royal sepulchre of Belem.d , 

The 4th of August will ever be the most memorable of days in trie 
annals of Portugal. Never was victory more signal than that of Kassr-el- 
Kebir. Of the Portuguese force which had left Lisbon, fifty individuals 
only returned; the rest were dead or in captivity, and with them the 
chivalry of the kingdom. Eighty of the nobles, through the good offices ot 
Philip, Vere subsequently ransomed for 400,000 cruzados. The uncertainty 
which hung over Sebastian's disappearance was converted into a doubt of the 
catastrophe ; and this doubt was still further improved into a report that he 
was still alive. Several nobles, and among them the prior of Crato, always 
affected to believe that he had survived the dreadful slaughter of that day. 
As the public mind was taught to expect the possibility at least of his 
re-appearance, impostors, in such an age alid at such a crisis of affairs, would 
scarcely fail to personate him with what success will soon be related.^ 

On the character of this prince, after the preceding relation, it is 
needless to dwell. Without judgment or power of reflection ; the tool of 
interested flatterers ; unacquainted alike with war, with human natur