Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/461

433 REVIEW OF THEIR ADMINISTRATION. 433 But, whatever the aristocracy may have gained in chapter refinement of character, it resigned much of its pre- ^^^^' scriptive power, when it condescended to enter the arena on terms of equal competition with its infe- riors for the prizes of talent and scholarship. Ferdinand pursued a similar course in his own dominions of Aragon, where he uniformly supported the commons, or may more properly be said to have been supported by them, in the attempt to circum- scribe the authority of the great feudatories. Al- though he accomplished this, to a considerable ex- tent, their power was too firmly intrenched behind positive institutions to be affected like th it of the Castilian aristocracy, whose rights had been swelled beyond their legitimate limits by every species of usurpation.^ With all the privileges retrieved from this order. Their great . . . . power. it still possessed a disproportionate weight in the political balance. The great lords still claimed some of the most considerable posts, both civil and military.^" Their revenues were immense, and que se adquiere robando capas dido mucho, en que el ceptro real agenas, e matando e vertiendo cobrasse lo suyo, por su industria. sangre de Cristiaoos ? " (Quin- ***** Esto los otros estados del cuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. reyno lo atribuyeron a gran virtud : 3, dial. 9.) The sentiment would y lo estimauan par beneficio in- have been too enlightened for a mortal." (Zurita, Anales, torn. vi. Spanish cavalier of the fifteenth lib. 10, cap. 93.) The other es- century. tates, in fact, saw their interests 9 In the cortes of Calatayud, in too clearly, not to concur with the 1515, the Aragonese nobles with- crown in this assertion of its an- held the supplies, with the design cient prerogative. Blancas, Modo of compelling the crown to relin- de Proceder, fol. 100. quish certain rights of jurisdiction, ^0 Such, for example, were those which it assumed over their vas- of great chancellor, of admiral, and sals. "Lesparecio," said the arch- of constable of Castile. The first bishop of Saragossa, in a speech of these ancient ofiices was perma- on the occasion" " que auian per- nently united by Isabella with that VOL. III. 55