Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/847

 F U G F U G 811 course of tho 12tli and 13tli centuries the number of such documents increased very rapidly ; that of Toledo espe cially, granted to the Mozarabic population in 1101, but greatly enlarged and extended by Alphonso VII. (1118) and succeeding sovereigns, was used as a basis for many other Castilian fueros. Latterly the word fuero came to be used in Castile in a wider sense than before, as meaning a general code of laws ; thus about the time of Saint Ferdinand the old Lex Visigothorutn, then translated for the first time into the vernacular, was called the Fuero Juzgo, a name which was soon retranslated into the barbar ous Latin of the period as Forum Judicum ; l and among the compilations of Alphonso the Learned in like manner were an Espejo de Fueros and also the Fuero de las leyes, better known perhaps as the Fuero Real. The famous code known as the Ordenamiento Real de Alcald, or Fuero Viejo de Cas- ti la, dates from a still later period. As the power of the Spanish crown was gradually concentrated and consolidated, royal pragmaticas began to take the place of constitutional laws ; the local fueros of the various districts slowly yielded before the superior force of imperialism ; and only those of Navarre and the Basque provinces havehad sufficient vitality to enable them to survive to comparatively modern times. While actually owning the lordship of the Castilian crown since about the middle of the 14th century, these provinces, until quite recently, rigidly insisted upon com pliance with their consuetudinary law, and especially with that which provided that tho seiior, before assuming the government, should personally appear before the assembly and swear to maintain the ancient constitutions. Each of the provinces mentioned had distinct sets of fueros, codified at different periods, and varying considerably as to details ; the main features, however, were the same in all. In the province of Biscay, the most democratic of the group, tho management of public affairs was vested in the junta or assembly of popular representatives, chosen by household suffrage. Its functions included the collec tion of taxes, the protection and defence of the terri tory, and the nomination of all the officers of government except the corregidor. The inhabitants of the province were exempt from all imposts except the self-imposed ones of their own locality, and from all duties on imported merchandise. They claimed the privileges of Spanish nobility on merely proving their descent from pure Biscayan blood. They were not obliged to appear before any tribunal beyond the bounds of their own lordship, or to tolerate any royal intendant or comptroller within the province, or to allow any royal monopoly as in the rest of Spain, or have any royal establishment except the post-office, or admit royal troops within tho territory, or furnish re cruits for tho royal army. They were privileged to defend their territory with their own means and their own blood, and, moreover, to visit with summary punishment every attempt to interfere with these their constitutional rights. These rights, after having been recognized by successive Spanish sovereigns from Ferdinand the Catholic to Ferdin and VII., were, at tho death of the latter in 1833, set aside by the Government of Caatanos. The result was a civil war, which terminated in &quot;a renewed acknowledgment of the fueros by Isabel II. (1839). The provisional Government of 1868 also promised to respect them, and similar pledges were given by tho Governments which succeeded. In con sequence, however, of the Carlist rising of 1873-70, the Basque fueros were finally extinguished in 1876. The his- 1 This Latin is later even than that of Ferdinand, whose words are : &quot; Statuo et mando quod Liber Judicum, quo ego misi Cordubam, translatetur in vulgarem et vocetur forum de Corduba. . . . et quod per scecula cuncta sit pro foro et nullus sit ausus istud forum aliter appellare nisi forum de Corduba, et jubeo et mando quod omnis morator et populator. . . veniet ad judicium et ad forum de Corduba. tory of the Foraes of the Portuguese towns, and of the Fors da Beam, is precisely analogous to that of the fueros of Castile. Among the numerous works that more or less expressly deal with this subject, that of Marina (Ensayo II istorico-critico sabre la antigua Legislation y principalcs Cuerjios Lcyalcs de los llcynos de Leon y Castillu) still continues to hold a high place. Reference may also be made to Colmeiro s Curso de Dc.rcc.ho Politico scgun la historia de Leon y de Castilla (Madrid, 1873) ; to Schiifer s Geschic/tie von Spanien, ii. 418-428, iii. 293 scq. ; and to Hallarn s Middle Ages, c. iv. FUGGER, the name of a Swabian family which, by re markable energy in industry and commerce, acquired enor mous wealth, and rose to high rank in tho state. The founder of the family was John Fugger, a respectable master-weaver at Graben, near Augsburg. His eldest son, John, associated trade in linen with weaving in Augsburg, of which he became a citizen by marriage in 1370. Here he rose to an honourable position, being one of the twelve councillors of the guild of weavers, and an assessor of the Fehmgericht, the much dreaded secret tribunal of West phalia. He died in 1409, leaving a fortune of 3000 florins. His eldest son, by a second marriage, Andrew, was known as &quot; the rich Fugger,&quot; and became the founder of a noble line, Fugger vom Keh, which died out in 1583. Jacob Fugger, the second son of John, was the first of the family who possessed a house in Augsburg, where he greatly ex tended tho business he inherited, and was made head of the guild of weavers. After his death in 1 4G9, his three sons, Ulrich, George, and Jacob, who were men of unusual re source and industry, added immensely to tho riches he had left them. Ulrich devoted himself to trade, and his opera tions were so varied that even the works of Albert Diirer reached Italy by his means. Jacob worked the mines of Tyrol, and his profits were vast enough to enable him, without difficulty, to lend the archduke of Austria 150,000 florins, and to build (in Tyrol) the splendid castle of Fug- gerau. The three brothers married ladies of noble families, and were themselves raised to noble rank by the emperor Maximilian, who, being always in need of money, was de lighted to honour subjects whose power of aiding him was so extensive. In return for 70,000 gulden he mortgaged to them the county of Kirchberg and the lordship of Weissen- horn ; and afterwards, in carrying on war with Venice, he received .from them, at the request of Pope Julius II., a subsidy of 170,000 ducats. An evidence of the generous use to which they put their wealth still survives in the Fuggerei at Augsburg, a collection of more than 100 small houses built by the brothers and let by them at low rents to poor tenants. Jacob and the two sons of Ulrich died without heirs, so that tho possessions of the family descended to the sons of George. Of these the eldest, Marcus, became a priest, and died in 1511. His two brothers, Raimund and Antonius, then represented the house, and their names were soon well known far beyond the limits of Germany, for they had commerical relations with nearly every part of the civilized world. They were vehement opponents of tho Reformation, and freely spent money in support of the church. During tho famous diet of Augsburg in 1530, Charles V. enjoyed the splendid hos pitality of Antonius in his house in the Weinmarkt ; and there is a story that the merchant astonished the emperor by lighting a fire of cinnamon with an imperial bond for money due to him. According to another anecdote, Charles remarked at a later time, when the treasury of the king of France was being shown to him, &quot; There is a linen-weaver in Augsburg who could pay all that out of his own purse.&quot; Whether these things are true or not, the emperor was cer tainly impressed by the extraordinary resources of the two citizens. He not only made over to them the mortgaged properties of Kirchberg and Weissenhorn, but created them