Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/77



The higher nobility, or ricos hombres, were exempted from general taxation, and the occasional attempt to infringe on this privilege in seasons of great public emergency, was uniformly repelled by this jealous body. They could not be imprisoned for debt; nor be subjected to torture, so repeatedly sanctioned in other cases by the municipal law of Castile. They had the right of deciding their private feuds by an appeal to arms; a right of which they liberally availed themselves. They also claimed the privilege, when aggrieved, of denaturalizing themselves, or in other words, of publicly renouncing their allegiance to their sovereign, and of enlisting under the banners of his enemy. The number of petty states, which swarmed over the Peninsula, afforded ample opportunity for the exercise of this disorganizing prerogative. The Laras are particularly noticed by Mariana, as having a " great relish for rebellion," and the Castros as being much in the habit of going over to the Moors. They assumed the license of arraying