Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/122

civ CIV INTRODUCTION. iNTROD. diversity of interests, as existed in the neighbouring monarchy. Their representatives, therefore, were enabled to move with a more hearty concert, and on a more consistent line of policy. 3. Lastly, the acknowledged right to a seat in cortes, possessed by every city, which had once been represented there, and this equally whether summoned or not, if we may credit Capmany,^^ must have gone far to preserve the popular branch from the melancholy state of dilapidation, to which it was reduced in Castile by the arts of despotic princes. Indeed, the kings of Aragon, notwithstanding occasional excesses, seem never to have attempted any sys- tematic invasion of the constitutional rights of their subjects. They well knew, that the spirit of liber- ty was too high among them to endure it. When the queen of Alfonso the Fourth urged her hus- band, by quoting the example of her brother the king of Castile, to punish certain refractory citizens of Valencia, he prudently replied, " My people are free, and not so submissive as the Castilians. They respect me as their prince, and I hold them for good vassals and comrades." ^^ No part of the constitution of Aragon has excited more interest, or more deservedly, than the office of the Justicia, or Justice ; ^^ whose extraordinary functions were far from being limited to judicial matters, although in these his authority was su- Sl Practica y Estilo, p. 14. made masculine fur the aceommo- 62 " Y nos tcnemos a cllos como dation of this magistrate, wlio was buenos vassallos y compaficros." styled "c/ justicia." Antouio Pe- — Ziirita, Annies, lib. 7, cap. 17. rez, Relacioncs, fol. 91. ^ The noun " justicia '' was 'I'he .Idstice of Aiagoii.