Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/458

430 430 FERDINAND AND ISABELLA. PART ferocious habits of a feudal age, in the refinements '. — of an intellectual and moral culture. In the fulness of time, when her divided powers had been concentrated under one head, and the system of internal economy completed, we have seen her descend into the arena with the other na- tions of Europe, and in a very few years achieve the most important acquisitions of territory, both in that quarter and in Africa ; and finally crowning the whole by the discovery and occupation of a bound- less empire beyond the waters. In the progress of the action, we may have been too much occupied with its details, to attend sufficiently to the princi- ples which regulated them. But now that we have reached the close, we may be permitted to cast a parting glance over the field that we have trav- ersed, and briefly survey the principal steps by which the Spanish sovereigns, under Divine Provi- dence, led their nation up to such a height of pros- perity and glory. Policy of the Ferdinand and Isabella, on their accession, saw iTown. at once that the chief source of the distractions of the country lay in the overgrown powers, and fac- tious spirit, of the nobility. Their first efforts, therefore, were directed to abate these as far as pos- sible. A similar movement was going forward, in the other European monarchies ; but in none was it crowned with so speedy and complete success as in Castile, by means of those bold and decisive measures, which have been detailed in an early chapter of this work. ^ The same policy was 1 Ante, Part I., Chapter 6.