Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/468

440 440 FERDINAND AND ISABELLA. II PART After this good work was achieved, the sessions of that body became more rare. There was less occasion for them, indeed, during the existence of the herraandad, which was, of itself, an ample rep- resentation of the Castilian commons, and which, by enforcing obedience to the law at home, and by liberal supplies for foreign war, superseded, in a great degree, the call for more regular meetings of cortes. ^^ The habitual economy, too, not to say frugality, which regulated the public, as well as pri- vate expenditure of the sovereigns, enabled them, after this period, with occasional exceptions, to dispense with other aid than that drawn from the regular revenues of the crown. There is every ground for believing that the po- litical franchises of the people, as then understood, were uniformly respected. The number of cities summoned to cortes, which had so often varied ac- cording to the caprice of princes, never fell short of that prescribed by long usage. On the contrary, an addition was made by the conquest of Granada ; and, in a cortes held soon after the queen's death, we find a most narrow and impolitic remonstrance of the legislature itself, against the alleged un- authorized extension of the privilege of representa- tion."*^ of Madrigal, in 1476, and of Tole- nes, Intro<l. p. 91.) Marina no- do, in 1480, lo which I have often tices this cortes with equal pane- had occasion to refer. " Las mas eyrie. (Teoria, torn. i. p. 75.) notables," say Asso and Manuel, in See also Sempere, Hist, des Cor- reference to the latter, " y famosas tes, p. 197. de estc Reynado, en el qual pode- -^ See Part I. Chapters 10, 11, mos asegirar, que tuvo jniiicipioel ct alibi. mayor aumcnlo, y arrcglo de nurs- 26 At Yalladolid, in 1506. The tra Jurisprudencia." (Institueio- number of cities having right of