Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/326

182 1 82 ADMINISTRATION OF CASTILE. PART cerned the check it was likely to impose on their . authority, that it required all the queen's address and perseverance to effect its general adoption. The constable de Haro, however, a nobleman of great weight from his personal character, and the most extensive landed proprietor in the north, was at length prevailed on to introduce it among his vassals. His example was gradually followed by others of the same rank ; and, when the city of Seville, and the great lords of Andalusia, had con- sented to receive it, it speedily became established throughout the kingdom. Thus a standing body of troops, two thousand in number, thoroughly equip- ped and mounted, was placed at the disposal of the crown, to enforce the law, and suppress domestic insurrection. The supreme junta, which regulated the counsels of the hermandad, constituted more- over a sort of inferior cortes, relieving the exigen- cies of government, as we shall see hereafter, on more than one occasion, by important supplies of men and money. By the activity of this new mili- tary police, the country was, in the course of a few years, cleared of its swarms of banditti, as well as of the robber chieftains, whose strength had ena- bled them to defy the law. The ministers of jus- tice found a sure protection in the independent discharge of their duties ; and the blessings of per- sonal security and social order, so long estranged from the nation, were again restored to it. The important benefits, resulting from the in- stitution of the hermandad, secured its confirma- tion by successive cortes, for the period of twenty-