Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/90

lxxii Ixxn INTRODUCTION. iNTROD. practice was even countenanced by public opinion ; for the different districts of the country, in their habitual independence of each other, acquired an exclusiveness of feeling, which made it difficult for them ever cordially to coalesce ; and traces of this early repugnance to each other are to be discerned in the mutual jealousies and local peculiarities, which still distinguish the different sections of the Peninsula, after their consolidation into one mon- archy for more than three centuries. The election to the crown, although no longer vested in the hands of the national assembly, as with the Visigoths, was yet subject to its approba- tion. The title of the heir apparent was formally recognised by a cortes convoked for the purpose ; and, on the demise of his parent, the new sovereign a£:ain convened the estates to receive their oath of allegiance, which they cautiously withheld, until he had first sworn to preserve inviolate the liberties of the constitution. Nor was this a merely nominal privilege, as was evinced on more than one mem- orable occasion. ®^ We have seen, in our review of the popular branch of the government, how closely its author- ity pressed even on the executive functions of the administration. The monarch was still further controlled, in this department, by his Royal or Privy Council, consisting of the chief nobility and great officers of state, to which, in later times, a 2,5,6. — A remarkable instance cession of Charles V.
 * / 82 Marina, Teoria, part. 2, cap. of this occurred as late as the ac-