Jews caused the ruin of all the commerce that formerly existed in the realms of Castile. All kinds of merchandise were reduced to the lowest figure. A yard of Chillon cloth was worth seventy maravedis, a yard of Lombai and Brussels fifty old maravedis, a yard of Ghent scarlet sixty, a yard of Ypres scarlet a hundred and ten, the cloths of Montpelier, London, and Valencia sold at sixty old maravedis per yard.

Everything else went on in the same way. The kingdom was weak: commerce was annihilated: agriculture was inefficiently carried on: the Jews were very rich, but did not circulate their money among others: the people were miserable: the crown was without resources: Spain was disturbed by insurrections against the person of king Henry: people's minds were in a state of excitement produced by their present misery, while they looked upon this monarch's downfall as the only sure way of remedying all the misfortunes which so that the banks and exchange offices would not give reals for them except at a discount: there were many persons in Spain who made a living by exchanging, and many wholesale dealers who had in their houses silver money, besides reals, quarter reals, tarjas, and other gold coins, which they kept in bags, and doled out by weight and measure if you don't believe it, go and ask for the tradesmen's books at Medina del Campo, Burgos, Toledo, and other places, and you will find that there were many more gold and silver coins in those days than the present." So said Valverde, just as the scarcity of Spanish money began to be felt, and the importation of foreign coins had commenced. Sarabía de la Calle, in his Instruccion de Mercaderes (Medina del Campo, 1544, id. 1547), writes thus: "Though the escudos del sol of France, the big ducats of Genoa, and the ducats of the Roman chamber pass in Spain, the half-pence (parpallolas) of France, the picholes of Genoa, and the quatrins of Rome are of no value whatever."

I

grievously afflicted them. These evils originated in the rash methods employed, against all reason and justice, by monarchs and people for the conversion of the numerous Jews who dwelt in these lands. They were forbidden to practise medicine and surgery, to keep their houses open for traffic with Christians, and, finally, to dispose of their goods and persons in the way that was most conducive to their own interests and to the increase of their substance. The Christians reaped the fruits of this barbarous policy during king Henry the Fourth's unhappy reign over Castile: for to this policy must be ascribed the abandonment of commerce by the Jews who were the only, or, at any rate, the principal persons engaged in it, and who kept it alive: and, as its destruction arose from the cause I have mentioned, the ruin of agriculture followed in its rear, and the kingdom, being destitute of the two principal nerves which keep the body of a state together, was ultimately reduced to the greatest weakness and distress.

SUMMARY OF BOOK THE THIRD.

COMMENCEMENT of the reign of the Catholic Sovereigns.-Character of Ferdinand the Fifth.-Eulogium on Queen Isabella.—First Inquisitors appointed for the punishment of converted Jews that Judaized.-Conspiracy of these persons at Seville.-Punishment inflicted upon many of them.-Pedro Fernandez de Alcaudete, treasurer of the cathedral of Córdova, burnt to death.-Establishment of the Inquisition.-Great assistance rendered by the Jews to the Catholic Sovereigns in their enterprise against Granada.— Decree for the expulsion of the unconverted Jews.-Presents offered by them to King Ferdinand for permission to remain in Spain. The king, influenced by these, is anxious to revoke the decree. Is prevented from doing so by the boldness of Torquemada. The Jews quit Spain, and go to foreign kingdoms.-Some notices of their chequered fortunes in them.-Inquiry into the calamities which the Catholic Sovereigns brought upon Spain by expelling the Jews and persecuting the converts.-Bad policy of these monarchs censured.

BOOK THE THIRD.

AFTER the death of Henry the Fourth, who left the kingdoms of Castile and Leon in so prostrate a con dition and reduced to such extreme distress, his sister Isabella maintained her seat on the throne, in spite of the pretensions of Juana la Beltraneja,' who was, or,

1 Though acknowledged as his daughter by King Henry, she was supposed to be the child of Beltran de la Cueva, whence the name Beltraneja.- Translator.

at least, was said to be, the daughter of the deceased monarch, and who was married to the king of Portugal, who, by means of a powerful army, endeavoured to support in the field his claim to the sovereignty of these lands. Isabella, wife of prince Ferdinand of Aragon (the monarch in whose person the crowns of this latter realm and Castile were first united), was in a great measure enabled to overcome the king of Portugal's opposition to her consort's claims, and, accordingly, continued, with greater security than before, to sway the sceptre of the vast monarchy."

King Ferdinand was, in the opinion of Antonio de Herrera, a man of excellent wisdom, and had he fulfilled his promises, there would have been nothing reprehensible in his conduct. Others accuse him of being unfaithful in every transaction of life to the pledge he had given to his partisans, except when it suited his own convenience to keep it. They likewise charge him with insatiable ambition and unbounded avarice, and of allowing those vices to get the entire dominion over him. Fray Prudencio de Sandoval, bishop of Pamplona, asserts that this king had long since thrown his confessor overboard, as a troublesome merchant, telling the latter that he was more influenced in coming by

2 See Zurita's account of the war between Ferdinand the Fifth and Alonso king of Portugal. Anales de Aragon, latter half of book XIX. and first half of book xx.-Translator.

3 Comentarios de los hechos de los Españoles, Franceses, y Venecianos y otros capitanes famosos en Italia, Madrid, 1624.

4 Anales de Aragon por Bartolomé Leonardo de Argensola, Zaragoza, 1630.

motives of personal interest than regard for his (the king's) conscience. Finally, that well-known politician Niccoló Machiavelli, citizen and secretary of Florence, said, "That Ferdinand the Fifth might be looked upon as a new prince, inasmuch as he, from having been the mere king of a petty state, had, owing to his great reputation and glory, become the king of Christendom. No sooner did he ascend the throne than he turned his arms against the kingdom of Granada—an enterprise which was the foundation of his greatness; for the minds of the Castilian grandees, diverted by constant warfare from attending to political changes, did not observe that the king was daily increasing his authority at their expense, and supporting, with the fortunes of the people and the Church, those armies which were extending his power. Afterwards, with the view of attempting still greater undertakings, he artfully concealed his design under the mask of religion, and, by means of a cruel piety, drove the Moors out of his dominions, a stroke of policy truly deplorable and unexampled." All the translators of Machiavelli's

5 Historia del Emperador Carlos V., primera parte, Valladolid, 1604. [Lib. I. cap. 50.-Translator.]

6 Il Principe di Niccoló Machiavelli cittadino e secretario Fiorentino, Capítolo xxi. "Noi abbiamo nei nostri tempi Ferrando d'Aragona, presenti re di Spagna. Costui si può chiamare quasi principe nuovo, perchè d'un re debole è diventato per fama e per gloria il primo Rei dei Christiani: e si considerete le azioni sue, le troverete tutte grandissime e qualcuna straordinaria: Egli nel principio del suo regno assaltò la Granata, e quella impresa fu il fondamento dello stato suo. In prima ei la fece ozioso e senza sospetto di essere impedito; tenne occupati in quella gli animi de Baroni di