Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/353

 CHAKLES I.] SPAIN 329 the admiral and constable of Castile as joint-regents with Adrian. An army was raised, and on the field of Yillalar the forces of the communes were utterly defeated (April 23, 1522). Padilla, who had shown more enthusiasm than ability, was executed, and one city after another was reduced to submission. A portion of the victorious army was sent to the assistance of the nobles in Valencia, where the gemiandada was at last crushed. The return of Charles to Spain in June 1522 completed the triumph of the monarchy. In 1523 he convened the Castilian cortes, and compelled them to grant supplies before presenting their petitions for redress, thus establishing a precedent which was conclusive for the future. Charles's reign belongs to the history of Europe rather than to that of Spain, and has been sufficiently treated else- where (see CHARLES V.). His enormous inheritance was increased by the successes of Cortes in Mexico and of Pizarro in Peru, by his own annexation of the Milanese, and by his conquests in northern Africa. In the government of this vast empire Spain played an important but on the whole a subordinate part. Its soldiers and its subsidies were Charles's most effective weapons, and to render them more readily available it was necessary to depress still further the liberties of the country. The independence of the towns had been crushed at Villalar, but only by the intervention of the nobles ; and these had now to pay the penalty of their selfish loyalty. In 1538, after Charles had for a time concluded his struggle with France by the truce of Nice, he proposed to raise supplies in Castile by an excise upon commodities. The nobles objected on the ground of their exemption from taxation, and the emperor had to give way. But he took his revenge by excluding them altogether from the cortes, which henceforth consisted only of thirty-six deputies from eighteen towns, a body that was powerless to oppose the wishes of the crown. The vast enterprises in which Charles was involved ex- hausted his energies, and the failure of his policy in Ger- many reduced him to despair. In 1555-56 he resigned all his dignities, and ended his life in 1558 in retirement at Yuste. From this time the house of Hapsburg is divided into the two branches of Spain and Austria. Charles's brother Ferdinand became king of the Komans and obtained the German territories of the family, to which he II. had added the crowns of Bohemia and Hungary. Philip IL, Charles's only legitimate son, succeeded to the Spanish and Burgundian inheritance, with the addition of Milan. Philip II., like his father, played a great part in European history (see PHILIP II. ), but with this important differ- ence that Castile was definitely the central point of his monarchy, and that his policy was absolutely directed by Spanish interests. In character and education he was a Spaniard of the Spaniards, and after 1559 he never quitted Spain. He gave the country a capital, which it had never yet possessed, by fixing his residence at Madrid. Castile, under the direct supervision of the king, was sub- jected to the most crushing despotism. Aragori, Catalonia, and Valencia were governed as mere provinces, in the same manner as Milan, Naples, and Sicily. The con- tinuance of the old divisions of the country, while it lessened its strength, was an immense advantage to the royal power. It was easy for the king to employ the forces of one province to crush the liberties of the others. And Philip possessed a formidable weapon in the Inquisi- tion, which he did not scruple to use for secular purposes. Political independence was crushed with the same relent- less severity as religious dissent. Hitherto Aragon had preserved its mediaeval privileges almost intact. The king was not entitled to the allegiance of the province until he had solemnly sworn to observe its " fueros." For the decisions of the cortes unanimity was required, so that each deputy had a practical right of veto. The authority of the justiciar rivalled that of the crown. It was natural that Philip should seize the first opportunity of attacking institutions which could thwart his will. In 1590 Antonio Perez (see PEEEZ), a minister who had incurred the king's displeasure, fled to Aragon and appealed to its fueros for protection. Philip had him brought before the Inquisition, and when the people rose in defence of their liberties they were crushed by troops from Castile. The justiciar was put to death, and his successors became nominees of the crown. The cortes were assembled in 1591 at Tarragona, and compelled to abolish the most obnoxious fueros. Their control over the judicial administration was abrogated, and the necessity of unanimity was only retained in certain specified cases, notably the granting of supplies. To avoid any danger from the few privileges that were left, a citadel was built in Saragossa for the reception of a royal garrison. The creation of a regular standing army com- pleted the edifice of absolutism, while the militia which had been established by Ximenes was retained and extended for the suppression of local disorders. Philip's internal administration was everywhere success- ful in obtaining the objects which he set before himself. A rising of the Moors in the Alpuj arras was crushed by the military ability of his famous half-brother, Don John of Austria. In 1580 a claim to the crown of Portugal, which Philip derived from his mother, was successfully asserted. Thus the unity of the Peninsula was at last completed, while the colonial territories of Spain were immensely extended. Unfortunately, no attempt was made to conciliate the Portuguese to their new ruler. The kingdom was treated as a conquered province ; all who had resisted the Spanish invasion were punished as traitors ; the native nobles were excluded from all share in the government, which was entrusted solely to Spaniards ; the commerce of the country was ruined by provisions which conferred a practical monopoly upon Spain. The result of this short-sighted policy was that the Portuguese stifled their discontent, and eagerly awaited the first opening for the recovery of their independence. Outside Spain Philip's policy proved a complete failure. His religious intolerance excited the revolt of the Nether- lands, which ended in the loss of the seven northern provinces. His grand schemes against England were utterly ruined by the destruction of the Spanish Armada. And, finally, his endeavour to establish a preponderant Spanish influence over France was foiled by the accession and triumph of Henry IV. The treaty of Vervins, by which he acknowledged his humiliating defeat, was almost the last act of Philip II. 's reign, which ended with his death on September 13, 1598. Philip II. left to his son and successor, Philip III., an empire which was nominally undiminished, as the inde- pendence of the United Provinces had never been recog- nized, and the war for their reduction was still going on. But the unwieldy mass was suffering from internal exhaustion. The resources of Spain and the New World had been squandered in the prosecution of schemes of ambition which had ended in failure. The attention of the people had been distracted from peaceful industry to the unprofitable occupation of war. The soldiery of Spain, once reckoned invincible, had lost their prestige in the marshes of Holland. The enormous taxes, from which nobles and clergy were exempted, fell with ruinous severity upon the productive classes. Castile had suffered most, because it was most completely subject. The provinces which retained their liberties longest were more prosperous, even though they had no share in the riches that were poured into Castile from the western colonies. But they, XXII. 42