CHAPTER IV.
THE PROFESSOR’S TALK ABOUT SPAIN.
As usual, the professor had a large map postedwhere all could see it. It was a map of Spainand Portugal in this instance, in which the physical aswell as the political features of the peninsula were exhibited.The instructor pointed at the map, and commencedhis lecture.
“The ancient name of Spain was _Iberia_; the Latin,_Hispania_. The Spaniards call their country _España_.Notice the mark over the _n_ in this word, which gives itthe value of _ny_, the same as the French _gn_. You willfind it in many Spanish words.
“With Portugal, Spain forms a peninsula whosegreatest length, from east to west, is six hundred andtwenty miles; and, from north to south, five hundredand forty miles. It is separated from the rest ofEurope by the Pyrenees Mountains: they extend quiteacross the isthmus, which is two hundred and fortymiles wide. It contains two hundred and fourteenthousand square miles, of which one hundred andseventy–eight thousand belong to Spain, and thirty–sixthousand to Portugal. Spain is not quite four times aslarge as the State of New York; and Portugal is alittle larger than the State of Maine.
“Spain has nearly fourteen hundred miles of seacoast,four–sevenths of which is on the Mediterranean.Spain is a mountainous country. About one–half of itsarea is on the great central plateau, from two to threethousand feet above the level of the sea. The mountainranges, you observe, extend mostly east and west,which gives the rivers, of course, the same generaldirection. The Cantabrian and the Pyrenees are thesame range, the former extending along the northerncoast to the Atlantic. Between this range and theSierra Guadarrama are the valleys of the Duero andthe Ebro. This range reaches nearly from the mouthof the Tagus to the mouth of the Ebro, and takesseveral names in different parts of the peninsula.The mountains of Toledo are about in the centre ofSpain. South of these are the Sierra Morena, with thebasin of the Guadiana on the north and that of theGuadalquiver on the south. Near the southern coastis the Sierra Nevada, which contains the Cerro deMulahacen, 11,678 feet, the highest peak in the peninsula._Sierra_ means a saw, which a chain of mountainsmay resemble; though some say it comes from theArabic word _Sehrah_, meaning wild land.
“There are two hundred and thirty rivers in Spain;but only six of them need be mentioned. The Minhois in the north–west, and separates Spain and Portugalfor about forty miles. It is one hundred and thirtymiles long, and navigable for thirty. The Duero,called the Douro in Portugal, has a course of four hundredmiles, about two–thirds of which is in Spain. Itis navigable through Portugal, and a little way intoSpain, though only for boats. The Tagus is the longestriver of the peninsula, five hundred and forty miles.It is navigable only to Abrantes in Portugal, abouteighty miles; though Philip II. built several boats atToledo, loaded them with grain, and sent them downto Lisbon. The Guadiana is in the south–west, threehundred and eighty miles long, and navigable onlythirty–five. Near its source this river, like the Rhoneand some others, indulges in the odd freak of disappearing,and flowing through an underground channelfor twenty miles. The river loses itself gradually in anexpanse of marshes, and re–appears in the form ofseveral small lakes, which are called ‘los ojos de laGuadiana,’—the eyes of the Guadiana.
“The Guadalquiver is two hundred and eighty mileslong, and, like all the rivers I have mentioned, flowsinto the Atlantic. It is navigable to Cordova, andlarge vessels go up to Seville. The Ebro is the onlylarge river that flows into the Mediterranean. It isthree hundred and forty miles long, and is navigablefor boats about half this distance. Great efforts havebeen made to improve the navigation of some of theserivers, especially the largest of them. There are nolakes of any consequence in Spain, the largest being amere lagoon on the seashore near Valencia.
“Spain has a population of sixteen millions, whichplaces it as the tenth in rank among the nations ofEurope. In territorial extent it is the seventh. It issaid that Spain, as a Roman province, had a populationof forty millions.
“Spain, including the Balearic and Canary Islands,contains forty–nine provinces, each of which has itslocal government, and its representation in the nationallegislature, or _Cortes_. But you should know somethingof the old divisions, since these are often mentioned inthe history of the country. There are fourteen of them,each of which was formerly a kingdom, principality, orprovince. Castile was the largest, including Old andNew Castile, and was in the north–central part of thepeninsula. This was the realm of Isabella; and, by hermarriage with Ferdinand, it was united with Aragon,lying next east of it. East of Aragon, forming thenorth–east corner of Spain, is Catalonia, of whichBarcelona is the chief city. North of Castile, on ornear the Bay of Biscay, are the three Basque provinces.Bordering the Pyrenees, nearest to France, is the littlekingdom of Navarre, with Aragon on the east. Formingthe north–western corner of the peninsula is thekingdom of Galicia. East of it, on the Bay of Biscay,is the principality of the Asturias. South of this, andbetween Castile and Portugal, is the kingdom of Leon,which was attached to Castile in the eleventh century.Estremadura is between Portugal and New Castile.La Mancha, the country of Don Quixote, is south ofNew Castile. Valencia and Murcia are on the east,bordering on the Mediterranean. Andalusia is on bothsides of the Guadalquiver, including the three modernprovinces of Seville, Cordova, and Jaen. Granada isin the south, on the Mediterranean. You will hear thedifferent parts of Spain spoken of under these namesmore than any other.
“The principal vegetable productions of Spain arethose of the vine and olive. The export of wine is tenmillion dollars; and of olive–oil, four millions. Raisins,flour, cork, wool, and brandy are other importantexports, to say nothing of the fruits of the South, suchas grapes and oranges. Silver, quicksilver, lead, andiron are the most valuable minerals. Silk is producedin Valencia, Murcia, and Granada.
“The climate of Spain, as you would suppose fromits mountainous character, is very various. The north,which is in the latitude of New England, is verydifferent from this region of our own country. On thetable–lands of the centre, it is hot in summer and coldin winter. In the south, the weather is hot in summer,but very mild in winter. Even here in Barcelona, themercury seldom goes down to the freezing point. Theaverage winter temperature of Malaga is about fifty–fivedegrees Fahrenheit.
“Three thousand miles of railroad have been built,and two thousand miles more have been projected.One can go to all the principal cities in Spain now byrail from Madrid; and those on the seacoast are connectedby several lines of steamers.
“The army consists of one hundred and fifty thousandmen, and may be increased in time of war by callingout the reserves; for every man over twenty isliable to do military duty. The navy consists of onehundred and ten vessels, seventy–three of which arescrew steamers, twenty–four paddle steamers, and thirteensailing vessels. Seven of the screws are iron–cladfrigates. They are manned by thirteen thousand sailorsand marines; and this navy is therefore quite formidable.
“The government is a constitutional monarchy. Theking executes the laws through his ministers, but is notheld responsible for any thing. If things do not workwell, the ministers are to bear the blame, and hisMajesty may dismiss them at pleasure. The laws aremade by the _Cortes_, which consists of two bodies, theSenate and the Congress. Any Spaniard who is of age,and not deprived of his civil rights, may be a memberof the _Congreso_, or lower house. Four senators areelected for each province. They must be forty yearsold, be in possession of their civil rights, and must haveheld some high office under the government in the armyor navy, in the church, or in certain educational institutions.
“The present king is Amedeo I., second son of VittorioEmanuele, king of Italy. He was elected king ofSpain Nov. 16, 1870.[1]
“All but sixty thousand of the population of Spainare Roman Catholics; and of this faith is the nationalchurch, though all other forms of worship are tolerated.In 1835 and in 1836 the _Cortes_ suppressed all conventualinstitutions, and confiscated their property for thebenefit of the nation. In 1833 there were in Spain onehundred and seventy–fiv
e thousand ecclesiastics of alldescriptions, including monks and nuns. In 1862 thisnumber had been reduced to about forty thousand,which exhibits the effect of the legislation of the _Cortes_.The archbishop of Toledo is the head of the Church,primate of Spain.
“Though there are ten universities in Spain some ofthem very ancient and very celebrated, the populationof Spain have been in a state of extreme ignorance tillquite a recent period. At the beginning of the presentcentury, it was rare to find a peasant or an ordinaryworkman who could read. Efforts have been put forthsince 1812 to promote popular education; but with nogreat success, till within the last forty years. In 1868there were a million and a quarter of pupils in the publicand private schools; and not more than one in tenof the population are unable to read. But the sumexpended for public education in Spain is less perannum than the city of Boston devotes to this object.
“Money values in Spain are generally reckoned in_reales_, a _real_ being five cents of our money. This isthe unit of the system. The _Isabelino_, or Isabel as itis generally called, is a gold coin worth one hundred_reales_, or five dollars. A _peso_, or _duro_, is the same asour dollar: it is a silver coin. The _escudo_ is half adollar. The _peseta_ is twenty cents; the half _peseta_ isten. The _real_ is the smallest silver coin. Of the coppercoins, the _medio real_ means half a real. You willsee a small copper coin stamped ‘1 _centimo de escudo_,’which means one hundredth of an _escudo_, or half dollar.It is the tenth of a _real_, or half a cent. Thenthere is the _doble decima_, worth one cent; and the_medio decima_, worth a quarter of a cent. But probablyyou will not hear any of these copper coins mentioned.Instead of them the small money will be counted in_cuartos_, eight and a half of them making a real. AnAmerican cent, an English halfpenny, a French sou,or any other copper coin of any nation, and about thesame size, will go for a _cuarto_. A _maravedis_ is animaginary value, four of which were equal to a _cuarto_.It is used in poetry and plays; and, though there is nosuch coin, any piece of base metal, even a button, willpass for a _maravedis_. There is a vast quantity of badmoney in circulation in Spain, especially of the goldcoins; and the traveller should be on the lookout for it.There are also a great many counterfeit _escudos_, or half–dollars.Travellers should have nothing to do withpaper money, as it is not good away from the localitywhere it is issued.
“Having said all that occurs to me on these generaltopics, I shall now ask your attention to the history ofSpain, which is very interesting to the student, thoughI am obliged to make it quite brief. I hope you haveread the historical writings of our own Prescott, whichare more attractive than the novels of the day. If youhave not read these works, do so before you are a yearolder; and here in Spain is the time for you to begin.
“Recent events have called an unusual amount ofattention to the Spanish peninsula; and this unhappycountry has long been in so uneasy a state that a revolutionsurprises very few. Spain has had its full share,both of the smiles and the frowns of fortune. It wasas widely known in early ages for its wealth, as it hasbeen in modern times for its beggars.
“Nearly three thousand years ago, the Phœniciansbegan to plant colonies in the South of Spain. Theyfound the country abounding with silver. So plenty,indeed, was the silver ore, that, according to oneaccount, they not only loaded their fleet with it, butthey returned home with their anchors and the commonestimplements made of the same precious metal.
“This is doubtless an exaggeration; but we havereason to believe that silver was more abundant inSpain than in any other quarter of the ancient world.Few silver–mines were known in Asia in those days:yet an immense quantity of silver was in circulationthere during the flourishing period of the Persian empire.Herodotus tells us that in the reign of Darius,son of Hystaspes, all the nations under the yoke of thePersians, except the Indians and the Ethiopians, paidtheir tribute in silver. A large portion of this wasobtained from the Phœnicians, and was distributedthrough Asia by the traders who came to Tyre. TheCarthaginians also drew uncounted treasures in silverfrom Spain. When Carthagina was taken from themby Scipio, the portion of the precious metals that wentinto the Roman treasury was eighteen thousand threehundred pounds in weight of silver, two hundred andseventy–six golden cups each weighing a pound, andsilver vessels without number. Near this city is asilver–mine which is said to have employed forty thousandworkmen, and which paid the Romans nearly twomillion dollars annually. Another mine in the Pyreneesfurnished to the Carthaginians in Hannibal’s timethree hundred pounds every day. The quantities ofgold and silver brought into the public treasury by theRoman consuls who subjugated the different parts ofthe Spanish peninsula were enormous. Still thecountry was not exhausted; for it was almost as highlyfavored in soil and climate as in its mineral treasures.‘Next to Italy, if I except the fabulous regions of India,I would rank Spain,’ wrote Pliny in the first century ofour era. At that time the country contained four hundredand nine cities; and there was not within theRoman empire a province where the people were moreindustrious or more prosperous. How strongly thisaccount contrasts with the history of modern Spain!When the Spanish monarchs were aspiring to rule theworld, in the sixteenth century, the streets of theircities were overrun with beggars. Only a century ago,the number of people in Spain who were without shirts,because they were too poor to buy such a luxury, wasestimated at three millions, or one–third of the populationof the kingdom. Within a hundred years, however,in spite of numerous drawbacks, the wealth ofthe country has vastly increased, and the populationhas nearly doubled.
“The Spaniards are the descendants of variousraces, tribes, and nations. At the dawn of history, wefind the country in possession of the Iberians andCelts. Of the Iberians we know but little. Fromthem Spain received its ancient name, Iberia; and theIberus River, now the Ebro, took the name by which,with slight changes, it is still known. The languageof the Iberians is supposed to survive in that of theBasque provinces of Biscaya, Guipuzcoa, and Alava,which I located a few moments since.
“The Celts, who a little more than two thousandyears ago had not lost possession of Northern Italyand the countries now known as England, Scotland,and Ireland, drove the Iberians from the South ofFrance and from the north–western part of Spain, invery early times. In the centre of the latter countrythese people united, and were afterwards known asCelt–Iberians.
“About a thousand years before Christ, the Phœniciansbegan to build towns on the southern coast ofSpain; and, a century or two later, colonies were establishedon the eastern coast by the Rhodians and byother Greeks. Cadiz, Malaga, and Cordova were Phœniciantowns; and Rhodos and Saguntum—now Rosasand Murviedro—were among those founded by theGreeks.
“Carthage was founded by the Tyrians; but theCarthaginians did not allow relationship to stand inthe way of gain or conquest. Nearly six hundredyears before our era, they found an opportunity tosupplant the Phœnicians in Spain; and in the courseof two centuries and a half they had brought undertheir sway a large portion of the country. At lengththe Greek colonies on the coast of Catalonia andValencia, and several independent nations of theinterior, seeing no other way to avoid submitting toCarthage, called upon the Romans for help. Romesent commissioners to Carthage in the year B.C.227, who obtained a promise that the Carthaginianswould not push their conquests beyond the Ebro, andthat they would not disturb the Saguntines and otherGreek colonies. But, in spite of this agreement,Saguntum was besieged eight years later, by a Carthaginianarmy under Hannibal. The siege anddestruction of this city caused the second Punic war,lasting from B.C. 218 to 201, during which Carthagelost her last foot–hold in Spain.
“But the Romans did not obtain quiet possession ofthe country their great enemy had lost. Nearly all theterritory had to be won again from the natives; and insome parts of the peninsula the contest was doubtfulfor years. As if this were not enough, many of thebattles of the civil wars, during the decline of the Romanrepublic, were fought on the soil of Spain, which,for two centuries after the fall of Saguntum, hardlyknew the blessing of peace for a single year. To saynothing of lesser c
elebrities, we find the names of Hasdrubal,Hanno, Mago, and Hannibal, among the Carthaginians;of Viriathus, the Lusitanian; and, of theRomans, the Scipios, Sertorius, Metellus, Pompey theGreat, and Julius Cæsar,—in the military annals ofSpain during this period.
“Shortly after the Roman republic became an empire,under Augustus,—B.C. 30 to A.D. 14,—warwas suspended throughout the Roman empire; and theSpaniards enjoyed a large share of tranquillity fromthat time till the barbarians poured across the Pyrenees,at the beginning of the fifth century. As a province ofthe empire, Spain held a high rank. The stupendousBridge of Alcantara, the well–preserved Theatre ofMurviedro, and the celebrated Aqueducts of Segoviaand Tarragona, still attest the magnificence of thatperiod. Nor was the peninsula wanting in illustriousmen during these times. The most learned and practicalwriter on agriculture among the ancients,—Columella,—thepoets Martial and Lucan, the philosopherSeneca, the historian Florus, the geographer PomponiusMela, and the rhetorician Quintilian, wereSpaniards. Three of the Roman emperors—Trajan,one of the greatest princes that ever swayed a sceptre;Hadrian, the enlightened protector of arts and literature;and Marcus Aurelius, whose name was long heldin grateful remembrance by his subjects—were alsonatives of the Spanish peninsula.
“After the death of Constantine, A.D. 337, theprosperity of Spain began to decline. The taxesbecame heavier, and were increased till they were morethan the people could bear. In a short time townswere deserted, fields ran to waste, and fruit–trees wereuprooted, so as to reduce the value of property in orderto avoid taxation. At the close of the century nothingwas to be seen but desolation, poverty, and misery.But there was still a lower deep: the barbarians crossedthe Pyrenees, and the country was turned into a desert.
“The great irruption of the northern nations into theRoman empire began in 375. A century later, thewestern empire fell. The most important division ofthe barbarians, who occupy so large a place in the historyof the fourth and fifth centuries, were the Germans.The Vandals and Suevi, two of the nations that enteredSpain in 409, were Germans. It is not certain that thethird nation coming to Spain, the Alani, were of thesame race. The ravages of these barbarians were terrible.Towns were burned, the country laid waste, andthe inhabitants were massacred without distinction ofage or sex. Famine and pestilence made fearful havoc,and the wild beasts left their hiding–places to makewar on the wretched people. Even the corpses weredevoured by the starving population.
“At length the conquerors themselves saw that convertinga land in which they intended to live into adesert was not the wisest policy. They divided by lot,among themselves, those parts of the peninsula whichthey occupied. The southern part fell to the Vandals,whence it received the name of Vandalicia, which haseasily become Andalusia. Lusitania, which was verynearly the modern Portugal, went to the Alani; and theSuevi had the north–western part of the peninsula,which is now Galicia. The Romans still held the restof the country.
“But this division was soon destroyed by the Visigoths,or West Goths, another Germanic tribe. Allthese Germans were only a little less savage than ourNorth American Indians. They neglected agriculture,and no man tilled the same field more than one year.War was really their only occupation. One of themboasted to Julius Cæsar that his soldiers had been fourteenyears without entering a house; another declaredthat the only country he knew as his home was the territoryoccupied by his troops; and we are told by Tacitusthat war was the only work they liked.
“The Visigoths, under their King Alaric, had ravagedGreece and Italy, and had taken Rome, beforethey established themselves in Southern Gaul, in 411.They commenced the conquest of Spain almost immediatelyafter the foundation of their new kingdom; butthey were the nominal rather than the real masters ofthe kingdom for more than half a century.
“Euric (466 to 484) was the founder of the Gothickingdom of Spain; and Amalaric (522 to 531) was thefirst sovereign to hold his court in the country. Beforelong, Spain became the most flourishing of the governmentsestablished by the Germans on the ruins of thewestern empire. The conquerors, as they were the fewwhile the civilized Roman inhabitants were the many,adopted the manners, the religion, the laws, and thelanguage, of the subject people. They mingled a littleGothic with the Latin; and from this mixture arose, inthe course of time, the noble and beautiful Castilian, orSpanish language.
“By degrees the Visigoths became less warlike, andfinally ceased to be a nation of soldiers. Their kingswere elective, and seem to have possessed more powerthan those of other German tribes. Still they werecontrolled to a great extent by the clergy. The councilsof Toledo figured largely in the history of thatperiod; and in these the bishops were a power. ‘Letno one in his pride seize upon the throne,’ says oneof the Visigothic laws; ‘let no pretender excite civilwar among the people; let no one conspire the deathof the prince. But, when the king is dead in peace,let the principal men of the whole kingdom, togetherwith the bishops—who have received power to bindand to loose, and whose blessing and unction confirmprinces in their authority—appoint his successorby common consent, and with the approval of God.’But the kings were not always allowed to die in peace.From Euric to Roderick, the greater number of themwere assassinated or deposed. Roderick, the last of theGothic kings of Spain, drove his predecessor from thethrone. The relations of the dethroned monarch invitedthe Arabs, or Moors, of Africa to their aid; andthe famous battle fought on the plains of the modern_Xeres de la Frontera_, near Cadiz, a battle that lastedthree days, put an end to the life of Roderick, and tothe Gothic kingdom of Spain, in the year 711.
“In the days of the patriarch Jacob, the people ofArabia were far enough advanced in civilization tomaintain an active overland trade with Egypt. TheMidianite merchantmen to whom Joseph was sold fortwenty pieces of silver—about a dozen dollars—werefrom Arabia. Yet, for more than two thousand yearsfrom that time, the Arabs continued to be so dividedinto hostile clans, that they were almost unknown tohistory. The religion of Mohammed first united them;and the history of the Arabs really begins with theHegira, or flight of the Prophet from Mecca, in theyear 622. For ten years Mohammed had proclaimedhis new creed in Mecca; his followers had been few,and had suffered incessant persecution; and now hewas promised, by men from Medina, that, if he wouldflee to their city, his faith should be adopted and maintained.He made his escape from Mecca, though notwithout great risk, and reached Medina in safety,accompanied by a single friend. In Mecca he hadpreached patience and resignation under the wrongsinflicted by man. At Medina, where he had followers,his doctrine was, that one drop of blood shed in thecause of God—meaning the new faith, of course—wasto be of more avail in working out the salvation ofhis hearers than two months of fasting and prayer. Atfirst he made war on the caravan trade of his nativecity; and Mecca sent out an army to meet him.Mohammed had but three hundred and twenty–fourmen, while the Meccans were a thousand. But theprophet assured his followers that three thousand angelswere fighting on his side; and with these unseen allieshe utterly routed his enemy. After this first victory,conquest followed conquest in rapid succession. Inless than a century from the Hegira, Arabia was but asmall province of the empire which had been foundedby Mohammed’s successors; an empire that extendedfrom India to the Atlantic, and included Syria, Phœnicia,Mesopotamia, Persia, Bactriana, Egypt, Libya,Numidia, Spain, and many important islands of theMediterranean.
“After King Roderick’s defeat and death at Xeres,the Moors almost immediately took possession of thewhole country, except Biscaya, Navarre, a part of Aragon,and the mountains of the Asturias. Here a fewresolute Goths made a stand, under Pelayo, and establisheda kingdom; a stronghold which enabled theChristians step by step to recover their lost territory,till after eight centuries the last foot of Spanish soilwas retaken from the Moslems.
“During a part of the Moors’ dominion in Spain thecountry was very prosperous. For more than fortyyears after the conquest, however, it was ruled by viceroysdependent upon the caliphs who reigned in Damascus.This was a time of discord and civil war; and,towards the
close of this period, many a city and villagewas laid in ruins never again to rise.
“The eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries were themost prosperous in the history of Mohammedan Spain;and the last was its golden age. The Moors, thoughwarlike, were also industrious, and agriculture flourishedduring this period as it has never flourished since.Roads and bridges were built, and canals for fertilizingthe land were made in all parts of the country. Learningwas encouraged by the kings of Cordova; and, atthe end of the eleventh century, Moorish Spain couldboast of seventy large libraries; while her poets, historians,philosophers, and mathematicians were secondto none of that age. Cordova, the capital, was equal tomany cities like the Cordova of to–day. At one timethere were in that city six hundred mosques, and nearlyfour thousand chapels, or mosques of smaller dimensions;four hundred and thirty minarets, or towersfrom which the people were called to prayers, such asyou saw in Constantinople; nine hundred baths; morethan eighty thousand shops; sixty thousand palacesand mansions; and two hundred and thirteen thousandcommon dwelling–houses. The city extended eightleagues along the Guadalquiver. If these statisticsare correct, the city must have contained not less thana million inhabitants. We can form some idea of itssplendors when we are told that a palace built near thecity, by Abderrahman III., had its roof supported bymore than four thousand pillars of variegated marble;that the floors and walls were of the same costly material;that the chief apartments were adorned withexquisite fountains and baths; and that the whole wassurrounded by most magnificent grounds.
“In 1031 the kingdom, or caliphate, of Cordovacame to an end; and several petty kingdoms took itsplace. But all of them soon became dependent uponthe Moorish monarch of Northern Africa. The Christiankings of Spain were prompt in taking advantageof this division among the infidels, as the Moors werecalled; and the power of the Moslems began to decline.The Christians gained rapidly on the Moors; and in1238, when the kingdom of Granada was founded, theMoors held only a part of Southern Spain. Granadawas the last realm of the Moors in Spain; and its populationwas largely composed of the Moslems who fledthere from the kingdoms which had been overthrownby the victorious arms of the Christian monarchs.
The little kingdom of Granada, though it had anarea of only nine thousand square miles, containedthirty–two large cities and ninety–seven smaller ones,and a population of three million souls. The city ofGranada had seventy thousand houses. This kingdomheld out against the Christians till the beginning of theyear 1492. This was the year in which America wasdiscovered; and Columbus followed Ferdinand andIsabella, in their campaign against the Moors, to thiscity.
“With the fall of Granada, came the close of theMoorish rule in the peninsula. A few years later manyof the Moors were expelled from the country. Inmany parts of Spain the traveller still sees numeroustraces of their dominion. He finds these traces in theOriental style of the older buildings; in the _alcazars_,or palaces, they built; in the mosques now convertedinto Christian churches; and in the canals which stillfertilize the soil from which the Moslems were drivenmore than three centuries ago.
“The old Gothic monarchy founded by Pelayo survivedin the kingdom of the Asturias. As the Christiansbegan to recover their lost territory from theMoors, these conquests, instead of being joined to theAsturian kingdom, were erected into independentstates; but, by the middle of the fifteenth century, thenumber of them had been reduced to five,—Navarre,Aragon, Castile, Granada, and Portugal. We shall saysomething of Portugal at another time, for it has ahistory of its own. In 1479 Ferdinand of Aragon andIsabella of Castile united these two monarchies intoone. The kingdom of the Asturias had been mergedinto that of Leon, which was united to Castile in 1067.Granada was added in 1492, and Navarre twenty yearslater.
“At the death of Ferdinand in 1516, Charles I.became king of Spain. He was the son of ‘CrazyJane,’ daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella. He waselected emperor of Germany three years after hisaccession to the throne, as Charles V. His reign andthat of his son and successor covered the most splendidperiod in the history of modern Spain, ending with thedeath of Philip in 1588. Their dominions were themost extensive among the monarchs of Europe; theirarmies were the best of that age; and their treasurieswere supplied by the exhaustless mines of the newworld which Columbus had given to Spain. But, afterthe death of Philip II., the monarchy rapidly declined;so rapidly indeed that a century later, when Charles II.died, in 1700, it was without money, without credit, andwithout troops.
“I must again call your attention to the magnificentworks of our own Prescott. I hope you will all readthem, for I have not time to mention a score of topicswhich are treated in these volumes, such as the Inquisition,the Spanish Rule in Naples, the Conquest ofGranada, the Great Captain, the Cardinal Ximines,and the Spanish Rule in the Netherlands. I commendto you also the works of Motley and Washington Irving;of the latter, especially ‘The Life of Columbus,’ ‘TheAlhambra,’ and ‘The Conquest of Granada.’”
“Charles II., as he had no children, and there was noheir to the throne, signed an instrument, before hisdeath, declaring Philip, Duke of Anjou, grandson ofthe grand monarch Louis XIV., his successor. Thisking was Philip V., the first of the Spanish branch ofthe Bourbon family, to which Isabella II., the latequeen of Spain, belonged. England, Holland, andGermany objected to this arrangement, because itplaced both France and Spain under the rule of thesame family; and for twelve years resisted the claim ofPhilip to the throne. This was ‘the war of the Spanishsuccession,’ in which Prince Eugene and the Duke ofMarlborough won several great victories. But Philipretained the throne, though he lost the Spanish possessionsin Italy and the Netherlands, and was obliged tocede Gibraltar and Minorca to England. Under PhilipV. and his successors, the prosperity of Spain revived;and the kingdom flourished till the French Revolution.
“Philip was followed by his son Ferdinand VI. in1748; but he was mentally unfit to take an active partin the government, and was succeeded by his stepbrotherCharles III. in 1759. He was a wise prince,and greatly promoted the prosperity of his country.Charles IV., who came to the throne in 1788, began hisreign by following the wise policy of his father; but hesoon placed himself under the influence of Godoy, hisprime minister, who led him into several fruitless warsand expensive alliances, which reduced the country toa miserable condition. In 1808 an insurrection compelledhim to abdicate in favor of his son, who ascendedthe throne as Ferdinand VII. A few days later theex–king wrote a letter to Napoleon, declaring that hehad abdicated under compulsion; and he revoked theact. Napoleon offered to arbitrate between the fatherand son, and he met them at Bayonne for this purpose.He induced both of them to resign their claims tothe throne, and then made his brother Joseph king ofSpain. The new king started for his dominion; butthe Spaniards were not satisfied with this little arrangement,and insurrections broke out all over the country.England decided to take a hand in the game, madepeace with Spain, acknowledged Ferdinand VII. asking of Spain, and formed an alliance with the government.Thus began the peninsular war, in which theDuke of Wellington prepared the way for the destructionof Napoleon’s power. As you travel, you will visitthe battle–fields of this great conflict, and your guide–bookwill contain full accounts of the struggle in variousplaces.
“In 1812, while Ferdinand was a prisoner in France,and the war was still raging, the _Cortes_, driven fromMadrid to Seville, and then to Cadiz, drew up a writtenconstitution, the first of the kind known in the peninsula.The regency acting for the absent monarch,recognized by England and Russia, took an oath tosupport it. In 1814 Ferdinand was released, andcame back to Spain. He declared the constitutionnull and void, and the _Cortes_ that adopted it illegal.He ruled the nation in an arbitrary manner, and evenattempted to restore the inquisition, which had beenabolished, and to annul the reforms which had been foryears in progress. But in 1820 the patience of thepeople was exhausted, and a revolution was undertaken.The king was deserted by his troops; and the royalpalace was surrounded by a multitude of the people,who demanded his acceptance of the constitution of18
12. The humbled monarch appeared at a balcony,holding a copy of the instrument in his hand, as anindication that he was ready to accept it, and take theoath to support it. In a few months the _Cortes_ met; andthe king formally swore to obey the constitution, andaccept the new order of things. But this did not suitFrance, Austria, Russia, and Prussia: they had nostomach for liberal constitutions; and these powerssent a French army into Spain, which soon overpoweredthe resistance offered; and Ferdinand was again in conditionto rule as absolutely as ever. It was during thisperiod that the Spanish–American colonies, which hadbegun to revolt in 1808, secured their independence.
“Even those who favored the king’s views were notwholly satisfied with the king, and believed he was notenergetic enough for the situation. Many of the peoplewished to dethrone Ferdinand, and elevate hisbrother Carlos, or Charles, to his place. Several insurrectionsbroke out, but they were failures. Ofcourse this state of things did not create the best offeeling between Ferdinand and Carlos. The Bourbonfamily were governed by the Salic law, which excludesfemales from the throne. In 1830, the year in whichIsabella the late queen, who was the daughter of FerdinandVII., was born, Maria Christina induced herhusband, the king, to abolish the Salic law. Two yearslater, when the king was very sick, the Church partycompelled him to revoke the act; but he got better;and, as the _Cortes_ had sanctioned the annulling of theSalic law, he destroyed the documents which had beenextorted from him on his sick–bed. His queen hadbeen made regent during his illness. When Ferdinanddied, his daughter was proclaimed queen, in accordancewith the programme, as Isabella II. Don Carlos hadprotested against his exclusion from the throne, andnow he took up arms to enforce his right. In theBasque provinces he was proclaimed king, as CharlesV. His arms were successful at first; but, though thewar lasted seven years, it was a failure in the end.
“While the Carlist war was still raging, in 1836, arevolution in favor of a constitution broke out; andthe next year that of 1812, with important amendments,was adopted by the _Cortes_, and ratified by thequeen regent, for Isabella was a child of only sixyears. In 1841, Maria Christina having resigned, Esparterowas appointed regent, by the _Cortes_, for therest of the queen’s minority. He was a progressiveman, and his administration very largely promotedthe prosperity of the country. The government hadabolished convents, and confiscated the revenues ofthe Church; and this awakened the hostility of theclergy, who, for a time, prevented the sale of the propertythus acquired. This question finally produced arupture between Espartero and the clergy, resulting ina general insurrection. The regent fled to England,and the _Cortes_ declared the queen to be of age whenshe was only thirteen years old. Espartero was recalleda few years later, and has since held many high offices.The pope eventually permitted the Church property tobe sold; but the contest between the progressive andthe conservative parties was continued for a long period.Narvaez, Serrano, General Prim, Castelar, and Esparteroare the most prominent statesmen; and doubtlessthe last–named is the most able.
“The frequent insurrections gave the governmentsome excuse for ruling with little regard to the fundamentallaw of the land; and this led to another revolutionin 1854, in favor of a little more constitution.The evil was corrected for the time; and the instrumentadopted, or rather restored, is sometimes called theconstitution of 1854. But the queen was a Bourbon,and seemed to be always in favor of tyrannical measuresand of the party that advocated them; and the countryhas continued to be in a disorganized state largely onthis account. She has been noted for the frequentchanges of her ministers. A few years ago GeneralPrim raised the standard of revolt; but the time fora change had not yet come, and the general was gladto escape into Portugal.
“The revolution of 1868 commenced with the fleetoff Cadiz; but, the cry, ‘Down with the Bourbons!’soon reached the army and the people, and the revolutionwas accomplished almost without opposition. Thequeen fled to France. A provisional government wasorganized, and an election of members of the _Cortes_was ordered to decide on the form of the new government.The _Cortes_ met, and in May, 1869, decreed thatthe new government should be a monarchy. About thesame time the crown was offered to King Louis ofPortugal, who, however, declined it. Last June, QueenIsabella abdicated in favor of her son Alfonso, princeof the Asturias, who will be Alfonso XII. if he everbecomes king of Spain. Later in the year PrinceLeopold, of Hohenzollern Sigmaringen, was invited tothe throne. He was a relative of the king of Prussia;and, when he accepted the crown, it was a real grievanceto France. Leopold was withdrawn from the candidacy;but this matter was made the pretext for theFranco–Prussian war now raging on the soil of France.
“But we read history in the newspapers for thelatest details; and only last month the _Cortes_ electedAmedeo, second son of the king of Italy, king of Spain.He has accepted the crown, and departed for his kingdom.We can wish him a prosperous reign; but ina country like Spain he will find that a crown is not awreath of roses. I will not detain you longer, younggentlemen.”
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The professor bowed, and descended from his rostrum.Most of the students had given good attention to hisdiscourse; for they desired to understand the historyof the country they were about to visit.
Since Professor Mapps finished his lecture in the portof Barcelona, King Amedeo, after two long years of fruitlessstruggling with the enemies of Spain’s peace andprosperity, renounced the crown for himself, his children,and successors. Nearly a year later Alfonso XII.was proclaimed king of Spain, and now occupies thethrone. While the country was looking for a king, thethird Carlist war was begun,—the last two led bythe son of the original Don Carlos,—but it was afailure.