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ISABELLA

still bear. Isabella displayed her prudence and gen- was the case at the siege of Malaga and at that of tleness — qualities which she possessed in a degree Baza, where the stern usages of war did not hinder seldom equalled — in the agreement she made with the Moorish leader, Cid Hiaya, from displaying his

Ferdinand as to the government of their dominions they were to hold equal authority, a principle ex pressed in the device or motto, " Tanto monta, monla tanto — Isabel como Fernando (As much as the one is worth so much is the other — Isabella as Fernando)

chivalry towards the queen. She was in danger of being assassinated by a Mohammedan fanatic before the walls of Malaga, and of perishing in the confla- gration of the besieging camp at Granada. In conse- quence of this conflagration the city of Santa Fe was

The harmonious imion of the peoples and the built, to put an end to the vain hopes of the people of

crowns being thus realized, it was necessary to reduce Granada, that the Catholic sovereigns would abandon

the power of the nobles, who had acquired a position their enterprise. Granada surrendered 2 January,

almost independent of the crown and rendered good 1492, and the territorial unity of the Spanish mon-

government difficult. Towards this object the Catho- archy was established. To protect its normal unity,

lie sovereigns directed their efforts; among the means an edict was issued three months later (31 March) ex-

which they took should be mentioned chiefly: (1) pelling from Spain the Jews (170,000 to 180,000 souls),

the establishment of the Santa Hermandad (Holy whose cities had admitted the Mussulman invaders in

Brotherhood), a kind of per- manent military force, very completely organized, sup- ported by the municipal councils, and intended for the protection of persons and property against the violence of the nobles; (2) an improved and properly ordered administration of justice, with a wiser organi- zation of the tribunals, the establishment of the Chan- cery at Valladolid, and the promulgation of the royal edicts generally called "Edicts of Montalvo" after the jurisconsult who drew them up; (3) the abolition of the right of coining money, which certain indi- viduals held, and the regu- lation of the currency laws so as to facilitate commerce: (4) the revocation of ex- travagant grants made to certain nobles during the reigns of the late monarchy, the demolition of their castles, which constituted a menace to public peace, and the vesting in the crown of the masterships of military orders. To preserve the purity of the Faith and re

the eighth century, and who constituted a perpetual danger to the independence and security of the nation.

While they were carrj'ing on the war against Granada Christopher Columbus pre- sented himself to the Cath- olic sovereigns, and to Queen Isaliclla fell the honour of appreciating the genius who had not been imderstood at Genoa, at Venice, or in Por- tugal. Protected first of all by the Spanish friars, he was presented to the queen by her confessor. Padre Hernando Talavera, and Cardinal Mendoza (el Car- denal de Espafia); and with the means which the kmg and queen procured for him he fitted out the three famous caravels which placed Amer- ica in communication with the Old World (see ConiM- Eus). Sailing, 3 August, 1492, from the port of Palos, he discovered on 12 Octo- l>er — the day on which the feast of Our Lady of the Pillar is observed in Spain — the first of the Bahama Islands. Not only did Isa- bella the Catholic always

ligious unity, against the intrigues of the Jews, who show herself the protectress of Columbus, but she was

were employing the influence of their wealth and also the protectress of the American aborigines against

their usurious dealings to pervert Christians, the Cath- the ill-usage of the colonists and adventurers. In

olic sovereigns solicited of Pope Sixtus IV the e-stab- 1503, she organized the Secretariate of Indian Affairs,

Hshment of the Inquisition (q. v.). which was the origin of the Supreme Council of the

Their government thus strengthened at home, the Indies. Isabella was no less the patroness of the great

sovereigns proceeded to bring to a completion, by the Cisneros in the reformation of the monasteries of

conquest of Granada, the great work of reconquest Spain, a work which he accomplished under the

which had been virtually at a standstill since the time of Alfonso XI. The taking of Zahara, of which the Moors possessed themselves by surprise, afforded an occasion for the war, which opened happily with the

authority of Alexander VI given by the Brief of March, 1493, and which anticipated the reform after- wards executed throughout the whole Church. The good government of the Catholic sovereigns brought

conquest of Alhama (March, 1482). The Christians the prosperity of Spain to its apogee, and inaugurated

were favoured by the internal troubles of Granada which were due to the party of the Emir Muley Has- san and his son Boabdil, and, after the death of the former, to the supporters of his uncle .\lidallah el Zagal. The sovereigns kept up the war in spite of the serious defeats sustained by them at .\jan)uia and Loja, and possessed themselves successively of CJoin, Ouadix, .Mmeria, Loja, W('\ez, Malaga, and Baza

that country's Golden Age. The manufacture of cloths and silks developed at Segovia, Medina, Gra- nada, Valencia, and Toledo, as also that of glass and of steel weapons, of leather and silverware. Agriculture prospered, while navigation and commerce rose to an unprecedented height in consequence of the great tliscoverics of that epoch.

Queen Isabella by her example led the way in fos-

Isabella took a prominent part in this war; not only tering the love of stu<ly, and in many respects her did she attend to the government of tlie kiugdcim, Court reeiills that of Charlemagne. When she was al- and provide for the support of the army while Fenii- rciidy a grown woman she devoted herself to the study nand did battle at its head, but she repeateilly visiled of Latin, and became ati e.'iger collector of books, of the camp t<} animate the troops by her presence. This which she possessed a great immber. Her Castilian