Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/364

340 340 ITALIAN WARS. I'AUT of military science, seemed destined to decide the — — '- — fate of battles in Europe thenceforward. The Calabrian campaigns, which were suited in some degree to the display of their own tactics, fortunately gave the Spaniards opportunity for studying at leisure those of their adversaries. The lesson was not lost. Before the end of the war important innovations were made in the discipline arid arms of the Spanish soldier. The Swiss pike, or lance, which, as has been already noticed, Gon- salvo de Cordova had mingled with the short sword of his own legions, now became the regular weap- on of one third of the infantry. The division of the various corps in the cavalry and infantry ser- vices was arranged on more scientific principles, and the whole, in short, completely reorganized. ^* Organization Bcforc thc cud of thc War, preparations were of the mili- _ .... '■*• made for embodying a national militia, which should take the place of the ancient hermandad. Laws were passed regulating the equipment of every individual according to his property. A man's arms were declared not liable for debt, even to the crown ; and smiths and other artificers were restricted, under severe penalties, from working them up into other articles. '^ In 1496, a census 11 Mem. de la Acad, de Hist., biles [gladii] et cum mucronibus." torn. vi. Ilust. 6. — Zurita, Hist. (Hist., lib. 22, cap. 47.) Sandoval V del Rey Hernando, lib. 3, cap. 6. notices the short sword, " cortas The ancient Spaniards, who espadas," as the peculiar weap- were as noted as the modern, for on of the Spanish soldier in the the temper and finish of their twelfth century. Historia de los blades, used short swords, in the Reyes de Castilla y de Leon, (Ma- management of which they were drid, 1792,) torn. ii. p. 240. very adroit. " Hispano," says Livy, 12 Pj-ajrmalicas del Reyno, fol. " punctim magis, quamcajsim, ad- 83, 127, 129. sucto peterc iiottem, brevitate ha- The former of these ordinances,