Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/75

lvii CASTILE. Ivii gave their representatives a proportional increase of section importance in the national assembly. The liberties ^~^"^ of the people seemed to take deeper root in the Jjfj'jor' midst of those political convulsions, so frequent in mon?"" Castile, which unsettled the ancient prerogatives of the crown. Every new revolution was followed by new concessions on the part of the sovereign, and the popular authority continued to advance with a steady progress until the accession of Henry the Third, of Trastamara, in 1393, when it may be said to have reached its zenith. A disputed title and a disastrous war compelled the father of this prince, John the First, to treat the commons with a deference unknown to his predecessors. We find four of their number admitted into his privy coun- cil, and six associated in the regency, to which he confided the government of the kingdom during his son's minority.^^ A remarkable fact, which occurred in this reign, showing the important advances made by the commons in political estimation, was the sub- stitution of the sons of burgesses for an equal num- ber of those of the nobility, who were stipulated to be delivered as hostages for the fulfilment of a treaty with Portugal, in 1393.^^ There will be occasion to notice, in the first chapter of this History, some of the circumstances, which, contributing to under- mine the power of the commons, prepared the way for the eventual subversion of the constitution. 46 Marina, Teoria, part. 2, cap. they not soon been replaced by ju- 28. — Mariana, Hist, de Espafia, risconsults, whose studies and sen- lib. 18, cap. 15. — The admission timents inclined them less to the of citizens into the king's council, popular side than to that of pre- would have formed a most impor- rogative. tant epoch for the commons, had ^7 Ibid., lib. 18, cap. 17. VOL. I. h