THE HISTORY OF SPAIN FROM  THE INVASION OF THE GOTHS TO THE INVASION OF THE ALMORAVIDS .

451-1085

 

I.

Spain, from her position, seems long to have suffered less than the other provinces by the internal and external disorders that convulsed the empire. In the very beginning of the fifth century, however, when the northern barbarians like a torrent bursting the banks that have confined its waters, swept away all existing forms of southern polity and civilization, Spain did not escape the general fate. The warlike tribes that overwhelmed Gaul, reached the Pyrenees. For a while the Spaniards (much as they had lost, in a long con­tinued state of slavery, of the martial spirit by which their ancestors had been distinguished) defended their mountain barrier; but in the year of our Lord 409 the Roman Emperor Honorius sent art army for their protection, to which the natives were compelled to resign their military functions. These per­fidious or cowardly imperial troops, betrayed or deserted their post, and the Alans, the Vandals, and the Suevi poured into the Peninsula, encountering little further resistance from the inhabitants, who, perhaps, thought a change of masters an event of no moment to them. They found it, however, as is generally the case, a greater evil than they might have apprehended. The northern tribes, instead of contenting themselves with exacting heavy tributes, settled in the country, and took possession of the greater part of the land. The share they usually appropriated to themselves was two-thirds of the soil, with a proportionate number of slaves for cultivation. The first invaders were speedily followed by a host of Visigoths, led by their king Ataulf, who had constrained the imbecile Honorius to give him his sister Placidia in marriage, and pro­fessed to act under the imperial authority. Ataulf established himself in What is now the province of Catalonia, and there founded the Gothic monarchy in Spain, acknowledging a nominal de­pendence upon his Roman brother-in-law.

The ambition of Ataulf appears to have been satisfied with the small king­dom he had conquered. He refused to invade the territories of his neighbours and his turbulent followers, impatient of peace, soon put him to death. Singeric, one of the conspirators, seized the throne of his murdered master, but immediately fell, like him, by assassination. Wallia, a distinguished Goth, was then proclaimed king, and obtained from Honorius the confirmation of his title, upon condition of his reducing the Spanish provinces, held by the Vandals, Alans, and Suevi, to dependence upon the Roman empire. This Wallia promptly effected. The Alans as a separate nation were destroyed; the Vandals quitted Spain for Africa; and the Suevi submitted to the imperial sceptre.

About the year 451 the noble barbarians from the north, who were established in the provinces they had wrested from the Roman empire, were, together with that tottering empire it­self, threatened by an inundation of eastern savages, who are described by historians as alike hateful in mind and body. These were the Huns, under their monarch Attila, who bore the terrific title of the Scourge of God. Aetius, one of the few Romans who, “in those degenerate days,” retained anything of the spirit or prowess of their fore­fathers, and on that very account an object of suspicion and hatred to the feeble, emperor Valentinian, was in this emergency placed at the head of the imperial army. He sought the desolating horde in Gaul, which Attila had already half overrun and destroyed. There Aetius united his forces with those of the frank chieftain Meroveus, (from whom the first race of French kings take the name of Merovingians,) and with those of Theodored or Theodoric, Wallia’s successor. The allied army engaged the Huns in the Catalaunian plain near Châlons, and gained a complete vic­tory. This is the only defeat Attila is said ever to have sustained. It checked his course westward, and Spain took no concern in his subsequent operations. The Gothic monarch fell in the battle.

The annals of these early ages are confused, uncertain, and more interest­ing to the poet than to the historian. For a length of time they offer us no­thing but a succession of conspiracies, rebellions, and murders, originating solely in personal ambition, frequently rendered more revolting by the relationship of the parties, and but seldom relieved by im­portant revolutions, by intervals of good government, or by really great kings. Theodored left three sons, who successively ascended the throne; the eldest, Torismund, being assassinated by the second, Theodoric, who in his turn fell by the hand of the youngest, Euric. The two last, nefariously as they acquired supreme power, used it well. Theodoric subjugated the Suevi, (who occupied part of the western coast,) but allowed their king Resimund, to whom he gave his sister in marriage, to reign as a dependent prince. Euric made himself master of the eastern coast, which had hitherto remained in the hands of the Romans, and of the southern provinces of France. He fixed his royal residence at Bourdeaux. In 477 he concluded a treaty with Odoacer king of the Heruli, who, after the deposal and death of Augustulus, the last Roman emperor, assumed the title of king of Italy, and in that character recognized the absolute independence of the Visigothic monarchy in Spain.

Clovis, the first Christian king of France, was about this time engaged in conquering that country; and had no sooner made himself master of the northern provinces, than he naturally desired to add those held by the Goths in the south to his kingdom. Alaric, the son and successor of Euric, fell in the defence of that portion of his dominions. His illegitimate son, Gesalaic, who usurped the throne, was driven by Clovis across the Pyrenees. But the all-powerful Ostrogoth, Theodoric, king of Italy, and ma­ternal grandfather of Amalric, Alaric’s lawful son and heir, interfered in behalf of his infant grandson. Theodoric placed the boy upon his father’s throne, committed the government, during his minority, to Theudes, a stout warrior and honest man, and concluded a marriage for the young king with Clotilda, the daughter of Clovis: the Frank conqueror, in honour of the wedding, restoring or confirming to his son-in-law the provinces south of the Garonne, be­yond which river the Gothic dominions never afterwards extended. The royal residence was transferred into Spain. This marriage did not prove fortunate. The Goths had been Arians ever since their conversion to Christianity; the Franks had adopted the Catholic faith; and the young queen endeavoured to prevail upon her husband to abandon his own creed for hers. Amalric not only persisted in his heresy, but offended, perhaps, at such an assumption of superiority by a wife, treated his fair monitress with a savage inhumanity, that provoked the vengeance of her brother, king Childebert. A war was the consequence. Amalric fell in battle with the French monarch, a. d. 531, and in him the royal line of the Goths ended.

From this period the Gothic monarchy appears to have been either elective or hereditary, according to circumstances. The first king chosen was Theudes, whose administration as regent had merited the esteem of his countrymen. His reign was harassed with wars, and terminated by his assassination. One private individual then followed another upon the throne, none of whom occupied it long, or died a natural death. In 550 Athanagild, one of the candidates for this perilous exaltation, purchased the assistance of Justinian, emperor of the East, by surrendering to him the sea-coast of what is now Andalusia, Granada, and Murcia, acknowledging himself a dependent or vassal of the empire. Supported by Justinian, Athanagild triumphed over his competitors. He fixed his court at Toledo, thenceforward the capital of the Gothic kingdom, and go­verned well: but Spain was not again emancipated from her dependence upon the empire until the accession of Leovigild. This prince conquered most of the towns held by the Romans of the eastern empire in Spain, and shook off the im­perial yoke. He subdued the rebellious Suevi, and incorporated that vassal state with his own kingdom; which thus, in the year 584, embraced very nearly the whole Peninsula. Leovigild was one of the greatest of the Gothic kings. He effected essential reforms in legislation and finance, was sagacious, brave, and inflexibly just. The faults ascribed to him are cruelty and avarice. His reign was disturbed by religious dissensions in his own family. His first wife was Theodosia, the sister of three men canonized by the Catholic church for their great piety, namely, St. Isidore, St. Fulgentius, and St. Leander; and though we do not hear in this instance of any conjugal attempts at conversion, his sons grew up imbued with the orthodox opinions of their holy uncles. Hermengild, the eldest, married Ingunda, a Catholic princess of Austrasia, one of the kingdoms into which France was then divided, about the time that his father, becoming a widower, espoused Goswinda, the widow of one of his predecessors. Goswinda was a bigoted Arian, and fiercely persecuted Ingunda, who displayed a Christian meekness under her ill usage, that confirmed Hermengild’s preference of her creed to his step-mother’s. This prince has been canonized by the papal see; and the religious zeal of historians, on both sides probably, has discoloured and distorted the account of his subsequent conduct: some writers representing him as an humble and persecuted martyr, others as an ambitious and rebellious fanatic. The only facts that can be stated with confidence, are, that he rebelled against the father he deemed a heretic, was vanquished, and put to death. His widow fled with her infant son to Africa.

Hermengild’s brother, Recared, was like him, a Catholic, but, through deference to his father, concealed his opinions. Upon Leovigild’s death, a.d.586, he publicly renounced the Arian heresy, and induced the majority of the nation to follow his example. A conversion so important has procured him the surname of the Catholic. Recared’s reign was more glorious than peaceful. The king of Austrasia attacked him in revenge for Ingunda’s sufferings, and his own subjects revolted. He triumphed over all. His peace with Austrasia was sealed by his marriage with Ingunda’s sister Clodosinda, and his rebellious subjects submitted. He died, a. d. 601, gene­rally esteemed and regretted. His natural son Liuva succeeded, to the prejudice of his younger lawful offspring, but was presently murdered by his general Witeric; and for twenty years Spain was a prey to confusion and disorder, a series of usurpers snatching the sceptre from each other’s grasp. Of these, one only appears worthy of notice, Sisebert, who added Mauritania, as the north-western part of Africa was then called, to the Gothic realm. He is not less valued, by monkish chroniclers, for the religious fanaticism which impelled him to persecute both heretics and Jews.

In 622 the race of Leovigild was recalled to the throne, in the person of Suintila, a legitimate son of Recared’s. Suintila began his reign prosperously, by the final expulsion of the Greeks from the few places they had hitherto retained upon the south-western coast; but afterwards, falling into dissolute and tyrannical courses, was, in 631, deposed by Sisenard. Again was Spain for forty years distracted by the contests of a rapid succession of kings, raised to the throne by factious cabals, or by open violence. One of these transitory kings, Chintila, expelled the Jews from Spain; under another, Receswinth, intermarriages between the Goths and their subjects of the original Spanish blood, were first allowed. During this period Ardabastus, St. Hermengild’s grandson, came over to Spain, and was highly favoured by king Chindaswinth, who gave him his niece in marriage.

In the year 672 the crown was offered to Wamba, a noble Goth, distin­guished alike by his virtues and his abilities. He long declined the honourable invitation, until, as is reported, a pa­triotic. noble threatened him with instant death, if he should persist in sacrificing the public good to his own love of retirement. Having yielded, he was crowned with ceremonies previously unaccustomed. Wamba reigned usefully and gloriously, but not peaceably. The French provinces were in open rebellion. He quelled the insurrection ; unhesitatingly pardoned the great body of the rebels, tried the ringleaders by legal process, and commuted the sentence of death, pronounced by their judges, for monastic seclusion.

The Mahometan Arabs had recently begun to alarm the coasts of Spain and Mauritania. Wamba fitted out a fleet, and defeated them in the first naval action recorded in the annals of Spain. His internal government was equally admirable, and appeared to open a new era to the country by the establishment of many good laws. Neither Wamba’s brilliant achievements, nor the happiness he had diffused throughout his dominions, seem to have reconciled him to the toils of sovereignty. After a reign of nine years he retired to a monastery, recommending as his successor Erviga, the son of Ardabastus. It has been asserted, that Wamba was compelled, by an artifice of Erviga’s, to take this step; but it is in such perfect har­mony with his former reluctance to accept the crown, that we may be allowed to hope so excellent a monarch’s virtues were not rewarded with either violent or fraudulent dethronement; especially as Erviga made too good a use of the royal power to be suspected of having acquired it unworthily. He reigned happily for eight years, and then followed the example of his predecessor, voluntarily retiring to a monastery, and resigning the crown to Egiza, a nephew of Wamba’s, said to have been designated by him as Erviga’s successor, and married to Erviga’s daughter, Cixilona. Egiza successfully repulsed the attacks of the Arabs, but is best known by his legislative labours. He blended the Roman with the Gothic laws, and made his new code binding alike upon the Goths and the original inhabitants, who thenceforward jointly bore the name of Spaniards. In 700 Egiza left a prosperous kingdom to his son Witiza.

Witiza had been for some years his father’s colleague in the government, and as such had enjoyed a high character for justice, beneficence, and piety, which he continued to deserve during the early part of his separate reign. But whether power turned his head, or those virtues had been only assumed as a disguise to please his father, he subsequently abandoned himself to the very opposite vices. He not only trampled upon the laws of religion, of morality, and of his country himself, but he sanctioned their general violation by his subjects. He committed unexampled cruelties ; and, amongst other acts of wanton barbarity, he, without a shadow of pretext, murdered Favila, and blinded Theodofred, his kinsman, and the sons of Chindaswinth, to whom his own great-grandfather, Ardabastus, had been so much indebted. His profligate and sa­vage tyranny wearied the patience of the people, and they were therefore easily instigated to rebellion by Roderic, the son of the blinded Theodofred. Witiza fell during the civil war that ensued, and Roderic was proclaimed king.

Witiza’s depravity and misgovernment had reduced the country to a state of weakness, which could only have been remedied by a successor endowed with extraordinary talents and energy. These Roderic certainly did not possess; and it is said, he further precipitated the downfall of the Gothic monarchy by an act of licentious violence. The story runs thus: having conceived a criminal passion for one of the noble virgins who attended upon his queen, and being repulsed by her virtue, he resorted to force for the gratification of his wishes. The outraged damsel fled from the court, found her way to Mauritania, of which her father, count Julian, was then governor, prostrated herself at his feet, related the story of her wrongs, and implored revenge. The count, exasperated at the ruin of his child, and at the indignity offered to his house, forgot his duty as a Spaniard and a Christian. The Arabs, having overrun the coast of Africa, from Egypt westwards, were then threatening to invade Mauritania. He threw the fortresses in his charge open to them, and besought their aid against his guilty sovereign. This tale has been disputed by modern authors. Some, adopting a favourable opinion of Roderic, have ascribed the outrage to Witiza, with whose known character it is consonant, and suppose that count Julian had so deeply involved himself with the Arabs during the continuance of that criminal monarch’s life, having perhaps already placed Mauritania and himself in their hands, that he had no longer the power of breaking his engage­ments upon the accession of Roderic, the avenger of the count’s injuries, as well as of his own and the nation’s. Others have gone further, and ridiculed the idea of any such outrage having been committed by either monarch; supporting their doubts upon our uncertainty as to the name of the unfortunate lady, who is called La Cava by Arab, and by some Spanish writers, and Florinda by others. But no author has ventured to deny that count Julian, who had previously repulsed Muza’s attack upon his province, introduced the Arabs into Spain; and it is surely more reasonable to think that he was provoked to an act of such detestable treachery, by some deep offence, than to believe that the first noble and highest dignitary in Spain destroyed his native land, and sacrificed his own exalted station, without any rational motive. And why arbitrarily substitute supposititious motives to that recorded in the tradition of the country, since tradition, although it may colour and embellish facts, is seldom altogether founded on fiction?

II.

Previous to relating the consequences of count Julian’s flagitious alliance, for such, however provoked, it undoubtedly was, a few words will be requisite concerning the Arabs themselves, and the circumstances that had brought them so dangerously near to Spain.

The Arabs, from the earliest of our knowledge of them, have been warlike, pastoral tribes, whose sole wealth consisted in their flocks and herds. They were never subdued by Rome; but their exemption from the yoke of the queen of the world, might perhaps be as much owing to the uninviting character of their sandy deserts, as to their own martial prowess. They were idolaters, and barbarians, as it has always been customary to term nations unacquainted with the refinements of civilization; but they possessed the virtues and the knowledge adapted to their condition. They were hospitable, faithful, when they had plighted their word, and no mean pro­ficients in astronomy and poetry. Amongst this people, in the very begin­ning of the 7th century, arose Moham­med, or, according to the received cor­ruption of his name, Mahomet;—a man to whom only the prejudice of narrow bigotry can deny superior genius. Mahomet took the Holy Scriptures, both the Old and the New Testament, as the foundation of the religious system of which he was the author, and which, from his name, has usually been called Mahometanism. He represented our Saviour as the greatest of prophets prior to himself, and himself as the greatest and last of the whole series, in whose person the work of revelation was finally consummated. He reclaimed his countrymen from idolatry, and if he indulged them in the continuance of some vices, he prohibited others, and enjoined the practice of many virtues. But the most important part of his doctrine to the rest of the world, was, that he made his disciples essentially conquerors, in­culcating the propagation of his Unitarian creed by the sword, as a principal religious duty, and promising eternal happiness to those who should fall in his holy wars. In the first ardour of enthusiasm, the success of the belligerent missionaries he had thus formed was incredible. Western Asia and Persia were subdued within a few years after Mahomet’s death; and the early sovereigns of the Mahometans,—who as­sumed the title of caliph, a word implying civil and religious supremacy,—abandoning their native Arabian deserts, fixed their court at Damascus. Thence they sent their armies into Africa, where Egypt, and part of the northern coast were quickly overrun; the conquerors meeting with no obstacle to their tri­umphant career, till they reached the Spanish province of Mauritania. Muza, the Arab general, had abundantly recruited his numbers amongst the vanquished and converted native tribes, and was meditating a renewed invasion of Mauritania, when he received count Julian’s offer of alliance, and was ad­mitted into his fortress as a friend.

Muza thought it necessary to apply for the caliph Walid’s sanction, ere, according to count Julian’s proposal, he invaded a third quarter of the globe. The caliph, whose views of pious ambition were boundless, approved; and Muza, not trusting his ally’s professions sufficiently, perhaps, to risk his whole army, sent over his lieutenant, Taric, with a body of troops, to make the first attempt upon Spain. Taric, accompanied by count Julian, crossed the Straits, and landed at the rock of Gibraltar: which thence derives its name, now somewhat corrupted, Gebal Taric, meaning in Arabic, the mountain of Taric. From this strong position, Taric rapidly conquered the adjacent districts; whilst Roderic, who seems to have been surprised totally unpre­pared, was assembling an army, with which to battle for his crown, his people, and his faith. He encountered the invaders near Xeres, upon the banks of the Guadalete, a few miles from Cadiz. The conflict was long, obstinate, and sanguinary. It is said to have been de­cided in favour of the invaders, after three days of hard fighting, by the desertion, at a critical moment, of Opas, bishop of Seville, and his nephews, the brother and sons of Witiza, with all their friends and followers. Towards the end of the engagement, king Roderic disappeared. Arab historians assert that Taric slew him with his own hand, and sent his head to Muza. Spanish writers maintain that his body never was discovered, and conjecture that he was drowned in attempting to cross the river. The uncertainty of his fate excited the romance of Spanish imagination; and Roderic's escape, with his subsequent penitence and penance, have furnished subject matter for some delightful ballads. The exact date of the battle of the Guadalete has been disputed, but it was fought between the years 711 and 714.

Muza, jealous of his deputy’s un­expected success, ordered Taric to suspend his operations until he should join him with reinforcements. Taric, unwilling to be thus robbed of his lawful honours, found means to be compelled to disobedience by the unanimous opinion of his officers. He rapidly prosecuted his conquests, enriching himself and his troops with the plunder of the towns, but acting with the utmost lenity towards the agricultural population. Muza speedily arrived, with a larger army, threw Taric into prison for disobedience, and proceeded with the sub­jugation of the Peninsula. The only opposition the conquerors experienced, after the battle of the Guadalete, was in the present kingdom of Murcia, where a noble Goth, named Theodomir, held out with equal skill and valour. When at last compelled to surrender, in the town of Orihuela, he is said to have obtained favourable conditions, by making the women appear in armour upon the walls, to give himself the show of a numerous garrison. His stratagem might seem to have been superfluous, for the Christian inhabitants of the country were everywhere treated according to the terms granted to Theodomir, and to the city of Toledo, which capitulated without resistance.

The Mahometans imposed heavy tri­butes upon their Christian Spanish sub­jects, but left them the undisturbed enjoyment of their property, laws, and religion, under no further restrictions than that every sentence of death should be sanctioned by Mahometan authority; that no new churches should be built; and that all religious ceremonies should be celebrated with closed doors. In less than three years from their first landing, the Arabs had subdued and occu­pied the whole of Spain, with the single exception of a small mountainous dis­trict in the province of Asturias, a part of that north-western region so long the stronghold of the Cantabrians against the Romans: a district which appeared, perhaps, too insignificant to have at­tracted the notice of the conquerors. Of count Julian’s ultimate fate nothing is known : it has been conjectured that he fell a victim to the evils he had brought upon his country.

When the hardy and warlike character of both the Goths and the ori­ginal Spaniards is considered, their easy and almost unresisting subjugation after a single battle, appears at first sight scarcely credible. Its cause must be sought in the existing circumstances and prior history of the country. The Peninsula, owing to its geographical situation, and the civil broils and dis­tractions of the only adjoining country, France, had, since the complete esta­blishment of the Gothic monarchy, been little engaged in foreign war.

Like other earthly goods, the bless­ings of peace are not exempt from alloy; and one of their worst consequences is the very natural effect of unfitting a nation for bearing arms, when called upon so to do in self-defence. That the Goths and Spaniards had thus degenerated, is proved by their having betrayed such a want of energy upon occasion of the piratical incursions of the Danes, or Northmen, who then ravaged all European sea-coasts, as induced the passing a law to render those who should fly from the pirate invaders inadmissible as witnesses in courts of justice. Half the nation is stated, by old chroniclers, to have incurred this penalty. The internal dis­orders that weakened the monarchy had long been productive rather of murder, intrigue, and conspiracy, than of such civil wars as might have counteracted the enervating influence of foreign peace. But in those unenlightened times peace was attended with various other evils ; and of these, despotism was neither the least nor the rarest. War rendered, king, nobles, and people necessary to each other, and enabled the nobles to acquire a power, that constituted them in other Gothic monarchies, a check upon the sovereign’s arbitrary autho­rity. In the history of Spain under the Goths, we meet with no mighty barons, such as those who controlled the kings of France, and England; and what power the nobles did possess they em­ployed not in curbing, but in dethroning their kings, whose tyranny was varied, rather than relieved, by intervals of anarchy, during which rival usurpers struggled for the sceptre. The only real check upon the king, and that a very insufficient one, was found in the priesthood. Eighteen national councils were held in the course of the three centuries of Gothic sovereignty. These councils, which equally regulated civil and religious affairs, were originally composed of the clergy, the nobles, and the commons. The commons were very soon excluded ; and latterly, even of the nobles, only such as were appointed by the king, or held court offices, were permitted to share in the deliberations of these assemblies. Of course, bodies so constituted became, if not utterly insignificant, at least indifferent, to the great mass of the people ; and loyalty to the sovereign, which, as a principle of action, has often proved a substi­tute for patriotism, was incompatible with the constant recurrence of usurpa­tion. A wealthy nation, unused to arms, and without natural leaders or rights to defend, was not likely to struggle hard against formidable conquerors, who held out the promise of kind treat­ment.

The dissensions between Muza and Taric induced the caliph Walid to re­call both:—Taric had previously been restored to liberty, by orders from Damascus. Both obeyed, repairing separately to the foot of the throne. To his eldest son, Abdelaziz, the partner of all his toils and triumphs, Muza, at his departure, committed the command in Spain; where, having married Roderic’s widow, Egilona, Abdelaziz was almost as acceptable to the conquered Christians as to the conquerors. His two younger sons, Muza appointed governors of Africa—which name the Arabs limited to the northern coast from Egypt to Mauritania—and of Al-magrab, as they denominated the latter province. Taric’s conduct was approved by his master. Muza, in return for his services, was fined and imprisoned; and, lest his sons should avenge their father, Walid’s brother and successor, Sulei­man, despatched orders for their death. These orders were everywhere implicitly obeyed. In Spain, the odious office of executioner, or murderer, was committed to Halib, the intimate friend of both Muza and Abdelaziz. With the unquestioning submission to his temporal and spiritual sovereign, enjoined by the Mahometan creed, he merely observed, ‘Is it possible that Muza’s enemies should so quickly have obliterated the memory of his exploits and of his fame!’ and then adding, ‘But God is just, and commands obedience to the caliph’, proceeded to discharge the task imposed upon him. This was a matter of some difficulty, so universally and so deservedly was Abdelaziz beloved. Halib took advantage of his marriage with the Christian queen, to represent him as a bad Mussulman, and thus rob him of the general esteem that formed his security. So debased in the eyes of his fellow-soldiers, Abdelaziz was easily put to death, and his head was sent to Damascus, where, by the caliph’s express orders, it was shown to Muza, with an inquiry whether he knew the features. The wretched father could only impre­cate curses upon the authors of his son’s fate. In Spain, Ayub, a kinsman of Abdelaziz, was chosen emir, or go­vernor, in his stead by the army; the caliph, it should seem, not having provided a successor to his victim. Ayub’s government was exempt from reproach; but his nomination was annulled as soon as it was known at Damascus, on account of his relationship to those whom their ungrateful master had murdered; and Alhaur was appointed to replace him. Alhaur was a harsh and ambitious ruler; he irritated all subject to his authority; and considering Spain as too thoroughly subdued to offer hope of further wealth or fame, he crossed the Pyrenees, and invaded France.

The various circumstances just re­lated proved favourable to the Christian refugees in the Asturian mountains. At the head of these was Pelayo, said by most of the early Spanish writers to have been the son of that Favila, whom Witiza had murdered, and the cousin of Roderic, under whom he had fought upon the banks of the Guadalete. After the defeat, he had retired to that remote and naturally strong province, accom­panied by a few brave and pious friends and followers. This gallant little band, reinforced by the hardy natives, took advantage of the emir's absence with his army, and of the dissatisfaction pre­vailing amongst the domiciliated Arabs, to extend their limits; and in 718 they proclaimed Pelayo king of Gijon, the first town they occupied, and which was securely situated upon a small peninsula jutting out into the sea. Alhaur, who despised the insurrection of a few moun­taineers, prosecuted the French enter­prise, which promised to gratify his ambition, only sending a body of troops, under Alxaman, one of his officers, against the Asturians. Pelayo, by ju­diciously availing himself of the diffi­culties of his country, defeated Alxaman. This victory brought great accessions to Pelayo’s numbers, gave him an authority that enabled him to discipline his troops, and opened to him the gates of several adjacent towns—when the title of king of Gijon seems to have been exchanged for that of king of Oviedo. Alhaur was returning to Spain, to avenge the misfortune of his lieutenant, when, in consequence of the many complaints urged against him, orders arrived from Damascus displacing him, and naming Alsama emir of Spain. Alsama, like his predecessor, preferred attempting the conquest of France to putting down a handful of obscure rebels ; who, thus neglected, increased hourly in strength.

Spain was next included in the go­vernment of Africa, and her emirs placed under the control of the African emir, who appointed and removed them at his discretion. This double depend­ence irritated the fierce tempers of the Arab leaders; whilst the great distance of the seat of supreme government, Da­mascus, gave free scope to individual enmity and ambition; and emirs now contended with and supplanted each other, as Gothic kings had done before them; whilst such as succeeded in esta­blishing their authority, devoted all their energies to the invasion of France.

These trans-pyrenean schemes were checked in the year 732, when Abderrahman, the eleventh or twelfth emir, who had extended his conquests as far as Tours, was defeated and slain by y Charles Martel, the French maire du palais, (mayor of the palace,) in the cele­brated battle of Poitiers; which, by con­firming the high fortunes of the victor, enabled his son Pepin to assume the crown, and thus placed the Carolingian dynasty upon the French throne.

During this period of Arab inattention to Spanish affairs, Pelayo had maintained and enlarged Oviedo, his mountain kingdom; and the broils that continued to divide the Mahometans when confined within the limits of Spain, afforded him similar advantages. He died a.d. 737, and was succeeded by his son, Favila. This prince reigned only two years, when he was accidentally killed by a bear, on a hunting party. Favila’s suc­cessor was his sister’s husband, Alfonso, surnamed the Catholic,—a lineal de­scendant of Recared the Catholic. Al­fonso triumphed repeatedly over the Arabs, from whom he took many towns in Asturias, Galicia, Leon, and Castille. These successes were favoured by the usual dissensions of rival emirs, and by a rebellion of the Barbary tribes in Africa, which compelled the African emir to summon his subordinate Span­ish brethren to his aid.

Mussulman Spain from a.d. 718-759.

Spain had, in the space of less than forty years from her subjugation, been harassed, rather than ruled, by twenty differ­ent emirs, when a revolution at Damascus effected a great change and amelioration in her destiny, A race called the Ommeyades, from Ommeyah, the first of the family who attained the caliphate, had governed the Faithful, as the Mahometans term them­selves, with undisputed and uncontrolled authority, until, degenerating from the virtues and energies of their ancestor, they incurred the contempt of their subjects. In 750, Abul Abbas Azefah, who boasted affinity with the Prophet by his descent from Abbas, Mahomet’s uncle, took ad­vantage of this feeling to depose the Ommeyade caliph, Merwan, and assume his place. A general massacre of the Ommeyade family ensued, at a banquet given by Abdallah, a kinsman of the new caliph’s. In Spain the emir Jusuf, acknowledged Abul Abbas Azefah ; but most of the walis and alcaydes, or go­vernors of provinces and towns, were attached to the Ommeyades, and a civil war was upon the point of breaking out, loyalty being on both sides, perhaps, put forward as a cover to the desire of independence. Some of the principal walis assembled at Cordova, to deli­berate upon the means of preserving peace; when it was proposed to elect a separate and independent Spanish caliph. The suggestion was approved ; but where should a candidate for that high dignity be found, whose claims might command general submission? This difficulty was obviated by informa­tion that Abderrahman, a grandson of Hixem, the tenth Ommeyade caliph, had survived the slaughter of his kindred, and was then living in Africa. This youth had, with his brother Suleiman, been prevented from attending the fatal banquet by a casual absence from Da­mascus; and though assassins were sent after them, who slew Suleiman, Abderrahman effected his escape, and sought refuge with a tribe of Bedoween, or wandering Arabs. Traced thither by the enmity or the fears of the Abbassides, and actually asleep in a tent which his pursuers entered in search of him, he was saved by the address of his friendly hosts. The caliph’s emissaries were by them persuaded that he had accompanied a distant hunting party, whose intended course was carefully pointed out; and they followed the Arab hunters in one direction, whilst the object of their pursuit fled in an­other. Abderrahman now repaired to the tents of another Arab tribe, the Zeneta, to whom he was related on his mother’s side, and who had migrated to the northern, or Barbary coast of Africa. With the Zeneta the royal fugitive had ever since remained, sharing all the toils and hardships of their mode of life. This heir of the Ommeyades was forthwith invited to assume the in­dependent caliphate of Spain ; and with the sanction of the scheiks, or heads of the Zeneta tribe, who assigned him 750 of their noblest youths as his body­guard, he accepted the invitation.

Abderrahman immediately crossed over to Spain, with his band of kindred Arabs; and upon landing, was joined by his principal friends in that country, at the head of 20,000 men. This army he led towards Cordova, which was held against him by the emir Jusuf. He first encountered Jusuf’s son, whom he defeated, and drove back upon the town, and next gained a complete vic­tory over the emir himself, notwithstanding his own great inferiority in numbers to his adversary. Cordova now rose upon and expelled the Abasside faction, and joyfully received the conqueror;—who not only made that city his metropolis, but took his title from its name, calling himself caliph, not of Spain, but of Cordova. Jusuf raised another army, and continued his opposition to Abderrahman; but an­other defeat compelled him to submit. The new monarch was soon afterwards much strengthened by the arrival of many adherents of his family from Asia. His government was, nevertheless, for many years disturbed by the rebellions of Jusuf, his sons, and connexions, and by the efforts of the emirs of Africa and Almagrab, partizans of the Abasside caliphs, to reduce Spain to her former dependent condition. Abderrahman triumphed over all these foes; but they prevented his turning his at­tention as energetically as might have been apprehended from his character, against the Christian state rising up in the north-western corner of his dominions.

Oviedo from 757-788

Fruela, who, in 757, had there suc­ceeded to his father, Alfonso Oviedo, the Catholic, took advantage of these circumstances to add Galicia to his kingdom. But civil discord checked his prosperous career, and so weakened him, that, in 759, he was glad to make peace with the caliph of Cordova, and obtain his recognition of his title as king of Asturias and of Galicia, upon condition of paying him an annual tribute. Fruela afterwards forfeited the affection of his subjects, put his brother, Bimareno, to death upon groundless suspicion, and, in 768, fell by the hand of his cousin, Aurelio, who obtained the crown to the exclusion of Fruela’s infant son, Al­fonso. Aurelio was followed by his brother-in-law, Silo.

Both these princes, insecure perhaps as usurpers, quietly paid the stipulated tribute; and their successor, Mauregato, a natural son of Alfonso the Ca­tholic, by a Mahometan slave, is said to have ascended the throne only through the aid of Abderrahman, purchased by adding to the former annual tribute one hundred virgins, half of noble and half of ignoble birth. The truth of this base and criminal sacrifice of fe­male purity has been disputed, like most of the romance of Spanish annals, by some modern writers. Its chief Span­ish authority is tradition; but that is confirmed by Arab history.

Whilst these events were passing in the kingdom of Oviedo, a second Christian state was rising into existence in the recesses of the Pyrenees. In the year 758, according to the best Spanish au­thorities, the nobles of the mountain country, meeting, to the number of 600, at the cell of a hermit far renowned for his sanctity, resolved to elect a king. Their choice fell upon Garcia Ximenes, a wealthy noble of the original Spanish blood, married to a lady named Iñiga, of descent similar to his own. The new king proceeded to conquer a kingdom—and his first acquisitions were made in the country of Sobrarve. His son Garcia Iñiguez, who succeeded to him, greatly enlarged his dominions, extending them into Navarre on one side, and Aragon on the other.

Cordoba from 759-796

A new enemy disturbed Abderrahman’s latter years: Charlemagne, the grandson Of Cordova, Charles Martel, after conquering Italy and part of Ger­many, turned his arms against his Maho­metan neighbours. The accounts of Charlemagne’s Spanish wars are, in many respects, very differently given by French, Spanish, and Arab historians. It would be idle to encumber these pages with a tedious critical investigation of the relative credibility of conflicting au­thorities; and it may be sufficient to say, that the following narrative has been compiled from the writers of all three nations, after a diligent compa­rison of their respective means of infor­mation, of the points upon which any two of them coincide, and of the con­sistency of their several statements both with general probability, and with cir­cumstances upon which all agree.

The sons of the emir Jusuf appear first to have drawn Charlemagne’s at­tention to Spain. They sought his al­liance against the caliph of Cordova; and it was in compliance with their in­vitation, and aided by the Abbasside fac­tion, that the French king, in 778, subdued the small part of the Gothic pro­vinces in the south of France held by the Arabs, crossed the Pyrenees, and overran their portion of Navarre, Catalonia, and Aragon, as far as the Ebro. These conquests Charlemagne formed into one province, called the Spanish March. Throughout its extent he sub­stituted his own Arab allies in the places of Abderrahman’s officers, and naming a French governor of the province, for whose residence he appointed Barcelona, he returned to France. In repassing the Pyrenees, he was attacked by the united forces of Abderrahman, of Fortun Gar­cias, who had succeeded his father Garcia Iniguez on the throne of So­brarve or Navarre, (for it is doubted from which of its constituent parts the Pyrenean kingdom took its name,) and of the French Gascons. The battle ended in Charlemagne’s discomfiture, and his rear-guard was completely cut to pieces. The action has been cele­brated by poets as the defeat of Roncesvalles, in which fell the Paladin Roland, or Orlando, the great hero of French ro­mance, whose feats, love, and madness, have been celebrated in Italian poetry.

Abderrahman’s general, Abdelmelic, ably followed up his victory, and re­covered most of the Spanish March, reducing the Arab rebels to submission. His services were rewarded by the mar­riage of his son Abdallah to Kathira, the caliph’s granddaughter by his third son Hixem, whom, judging him better adapted in mind and disposition than his elder brothers for the cares of sove­reignty, Abderrahman afterwards se­lected for his successor. Hixem was readily acknowledged as wali alhadi, or heir-apparent, by the assembled waits, in 786; and the following year, Abderrahman died. Troubled as his reign had been from within and from without, it was nevertheless fruitful in benefit to his- subjects. Under him, Mussulman Spain made the first steps towards the eminence in science, litera­ture, and wealth, commercial and agri­cultural, to which she subsequently at­tained. He consolidated the Arab power, established a due administration of jus­tice, gave authority to religion, and pro­moted education. He improved the condition of the Mozarabes, (the Chris­tians living under the Mahometans were so called,) by lowering the tribute imposed upon them; and he built the far-famed mosque of Cordova, which was lighted by 4700 lamps. Soon after Abderrahman’s death, his former ad­versary, Edris ben Abdallah, emir of Almagrab, renounced his allegiance to the Abbasside. caliphs, and founded the kingdom of Fez.

The first years of Hixem’s reign were occupied in contests with his dissatisfied elder brothers, who stirred up continual rebellions. When these were quelled, the new caliph, in the exultation of success, resolved to recover all the French provinces of the Gothic mo­narchy, and to subdue the kingdom of Oviedo. For these purposes he pub­lished the algihed, or proclamation of a holy war, and undertook both enter­prises at the same time. The invasion of France he committed to his son-in-­law Abdallah, who gained some victories beyond the Pyrenees, and brought home a rich booty, but made no permanent conquests. The conduct of the attack upon Oviedo, Hixem gave to his hagib, or prime minister.

Oviedo from 788—800

The approach of so formidable a Mussulman army as now menaced Oviedo seems to have awakened the consci­ence of the reigning king, Bermudo the Deacon, so named from his having been in holy orders, previous to his seizing the crown at Mauregato’s death, a.d. 788. He immediately ab­dicated in favour of the rightful heir, Fruela’s son Alfonso II. The young king defended himself vigorously and re­pulsed the invaders with great slaughter. In the course of his long reign, Alfonso extended his territories far southwards, and very early abolished the ignomi­nious tribute of 100 virgins. From this circumstance is derived, by some historians, his surname of the Chaste; attributed by others to his having made a solemn vow of virginity, and observed it, even in marriage. This vow, and the austere temper in which it probably originated, had considerable influence over Alfonso’s life. He so deeply re­sented his sister Ximena’s private mar­riage with a subject, the Count of Saldanha, that he shut her up in a convent; and putting out her husband’s eyes, sentenced him to perpetual imprison­ment. He indeed carefully educated the offspring of the marriage, a son, who, under the name of Bernardo del Carpio, is the great hero of early Spanish ro­mance. But he so exasperated the gal­lant youth by rejecting his solicitations on behalf of his parents, that many of Bernardo’s most splendid feats were performed in the Mussulman ranks, warring against his harsh uncle.

About the year 800, Alfonso having no children, and Bernardo being per­haps in rebellion, offered Charlemagne the bequest of his kingdom, in consideration of assistance to be given by France against the Moors, as the Spanish Arabs are usually denominated, who had become more formidable upon the war­like Alhakem succeeding to his father Hixem in 706. At the first accession of the young caliph, indeed, his two uncles, whom Hixem had vanquished, pardoned, and provided for, revolted, and whilst their rebellion occupied Al­hakem, Alfonso pursued his conquests. But Alhakem so rapidly subdued the insurgents and repulsed the invaders, that he acquired the surname of Almudafar, or The Victorious. One of his rebellious uncles fell in battle, and Al­hakem wept over him; the survivor, Abdallah, he forgave; and though he demanded his sons as hostages, he treated them with such kindness, that he gave the hand of his sister Alkinsa to Esfah, the eldest.

Alhakem was now ready to fall with his whole power upon the kingdom of Oviedo, when Charlemagne, in pur­suance of the recently-concluded treaty, sent a numerous army into Spain, led by his son Lewis, whom he had named King of Aquitaine, in which kingdom the Spanish March was nominally in­cluded. Alhakem was unable to cope with the forces thus united against him, and Lewis recovered the Spanish March in the east, whilst Alfonso ex­tended his frontiers in the west of the Peninsula. But dissensions arose ere long between the Christian allies, that checked their further progress. The nobles of Oviedo refused to sanction their king’s bequest of his crown to Charlemagne, which must have made the kingdom a mere province of France. Alfonso was compelled by them to re­tract his rash offer, and a quarrel with Charlemagne ensued. In Spanish an­nals the defeat of Roncesvalles is the consequence of this quarrel, and Ber­nardo del Carpio the conqueror of the French. But French and Arab history, as well as general probability, assign to that defeat the date of 7 78, when Ber­nardo del Carpio, who very likely joined the Moors against his uncle and Lewis in 801, was unborn. Bernardo is not the only favourite hero to whom tradi­tion or romance ascribes a share in memorable actions occurring before his birth, or after his death.

Lewis did not extend his conquests, but he remained master of the Spanish March, and constantly at war with the Moors for its defence. He, for the most part, succeeded in maintaining its boundaries against Alhakem, whose latter, like his earlier years, were ha­rassed with insurrections, which he now provoked by his violent and suspicious, though not unkindly temper. He thus drove his brother-in-law Esfah to revolt; but when, at the moment of his victory over the rebels, Alkinsa fell at his feet to implore her husband’s pardon, he immediately forgave, and was reconciled to him. As Alhakem advanced in years his good qualities disappeared, and his vices increased. He abandoned him­self to voluptuousness, indolence, and cruelty; but fortunately for his subjects, his indolence prevailing, he resigned the government in 815, to his son Abderrahman, whom he had caused to be acknow­ledged as wall alhadi.

 

Chapter IV.

Counts of Castile—The Kings of Na­varre extinct—Abderrahman II.— Mohammed I.—Sancho, Count of Na­varre—Garcia Ximenes, King of Navarre—Fanaticism, of the Mozarabes—Conquests of Alfonso III. —Ordoño II changes his title to King of Leon— Wifrid, Governor of the Spanish March for France, makes his county of Barcelona hereditary, as a French Vassal—Fortun Ximenes of Navarre's conquests from the French and Moors—Castile independent of Leon—Fernan Gonzales, Count of Castile—Abderrahman III. —His conquests in Africa—Alhakem II.—Conquests of Almanzor, the Minister of Hixem II.—His defeat and death.

The royal line of Navarre or Sobrarve was at this time extinct, Ximenes Gar­cias, the grandson of Fortun Garcias, having died without children. The nobles availed themselves of the opportunity to establish the famous code entitled Los Fueros de Sobrarve,—the laws of Sobrarve,—which subsequently became the ground-work of the liberties of Aragon. Navarre was soon afterwards recovered by the Moors, and Sobrarve included in the Spanish March.

Alfonso’s kingdom, at this period, comprised Asturias, Galicia, part of Leon, and part of Castile, where some of the original noble proprietors, en­couraged by his power and proximity, excited their countrymen to rise in arms, throw off the Moorish yoke, and transfer their allegiance to the crown of Oviedo. Upon so doing, the successful leaders assumed the title of Counts of Castile. Alfonso’s reign was further distinguished by a supposed discovery of the grave of the Apostle St. James, at Compostella, in Galicia. This grave became the celebrated shrine, to which, under its Spanish name of St. Iago de Compostella, innumerable pilgrimages have been made, from the notions of piety and penance entertained by Catholics Alfonso ruled upwards of fifty years, and at his death left his crown to Ramiro, the son of his conscientious predecessor, Bermudo the Deacon.

Towards the end of Alfonso’s reign some Biscayan nobles succeeded in es­tablishing their independence. In Sobrarve, Aznar, a noble of the original Vascon or Basque race, (to which the Biscayans in Spain and the Gascons in France are supposed to belong,) had assumed the title of Count. He ac­quired considerable power, but did not abjure his vassalage to France, it should seem, since he lost his life in the civil wars of that country. His brother Sancho succeeded to his county a.d. 837, and added to it part of Navarre. Under Sancho all traces of French so­vereignty disappear. These Christian states were constantly engaged in hos­tilities with the Mahometans ; and all of them, however the vicissitudes of war might occasionally threaten them with destruction, gradually extended their territories; whilst the Spanish March, though the largest amongst them, and supported by France, was unable to resist the encroachments of the Moors, from the moment when the kingdom of Aqui­taine was absorbed into the French monarchy by Charlemagne’s crown de­volving to his only surviving son Lewis, and the March in consequence became a mere dependency upon that powerful kingdom.

Cordoba from 815 to 852

Abderrahman II, however, did not prosecute hostilities very vigorously. He, like his predecessors, was troubled with insurrections at home. The first of these was excited by that restless and turbulent old man, his great uncle Abdallah, who, as usual, vanquished, and at his son’s intercession forgiven, was probably only prevented by death from reiterating his offence. Other rebellions followed, promoted by the caliph’s Christian neighbours, which, if less important than Abdallah’s, suf­ficed to impede his warlike operations. Besides, although a brave and able war­rior, Abderrahman was fonder of pa­cific, than of military pursuits. He invited learned men from all parts of the world to his court, employing many of them in the administration of his dominions, and he himself cultivated literature, but without neglecting the duties of his station. He enjoyed a high reputation abroad as well as at home.

The emperor of Constantinople sought his alliance against the oriental caliph, owing probably to his possessing a fleet, which he had built and equipped to guard his shores from the ravages of the Normans. Abderrahman II died in 852, lamented as the father of his people.

Oviedo and  Navarre from 845—862

Ramiro of Oviedo, who repulsed a Norman incursion, and gained a signal victory over the Moors, had, two   years before this period, left his throne to his son Ordoño. The new     king re­built many of the towns destroyed in preceding wars. The towns, it should be observed, suffered severely from the system of warfare adopted by both Ma­hometans and Christians. In order to protect their respective territories by an intervening desert, both parties not only ravaged and depopulated each other’s frontiers, but allowed their own latest conquests to remain in a state of . desolation, carrying off the inhabitants to the interior of their dominions, as settlers or as slaves, according as they professed the religion of the conqueror, or the conquered.

Garcia succeeded his father Sancho, as count of Navarre or Sobrarve, and acquired some accession of territory beyond the Pyrenees, by the voluntary submission of the people, who were wearied out with the civil wars that dis­tracted France under Charlemagne’s successors. Garcia married the daugh­ter of Muza the Mussulman governor of Saragossa, and joined his father-in-law, when, by the caliph’s orders, he invaded Oviedo. This alliance between Christians and Mahometans—an alliance then so unusual as to be deemed unna­tural,—did not prosper. Muza was de­feated, and Count Garcia slain. His soil Garcia Ximenes greatly enlarged his dominions, and acquired the county of Aragon by marrying Urraca, the only daughter and heiress of Count Fortun Ximenes. Garcia Ximenes assumed the title of king of Navarre.

Cordoba 852-912

Upon the Cordovan throne Moham­med I had succeeded to his father Abderrahman. His anger and mortification at the defeat of his troops un­der Muza, induced suspicions of trea­chery in that general. He deprived him of his government, and thus provoked the verification of his suspicions. Muza revolted,—sought assistance from the Christians, and gave the caliph much trouble ere he was finally subdued. A meaner, but yet more harassing rebel, next arose. A mountain peasant named Hafsun, having turned robber and col­lected a strong band of ruffians, prof­fered his aid to all malcontents, and instigated various insurrections. Mo­hammed marched against him, but was duped by his fair professions, and al­lowed his nephew Zeid, with a small troop, to join Hafsun, in order to lead him and his followers against the Chris­tians. Hafsun murdered Zeid and his men in their sleep. The indignant mo­narch ordered his son Almondhir to re­venge his kinsman. Hafsun was de­feated by the prince, but escaped, and renewed his rebellion upon every oppor­tunity. He obtained help from Alfonso III of Oviedo, who in 862, succeeded to his father Ordoño, and from the king of Navarre, who joined him in person. The allies engaged the caliph’s troops in 882, and were defeated ; the king and the robber were both slain. These dis­turbances at home did not prevent Mo­hammed from waging constant war with the Christians. He sent an army over the Pyrenees, which penetrated as far as Narbonne; but a rich booty seems to have been the chief fruit of the ex­pedition. Against the united arms of Oviedo and Navarre, Mohammed failed to effect anything.

It might have been supposed that such incessant wars between the fol­lowers of the cross and of the crescent, and the success of so many Christian provinces in emancipating themselves, would have exasperated the Mahome­tans against their Christian subjects. But this was not the case. Intolerant as the Mussulman religion has in prac­tice been usually found, its professors in Spain were uniformly tolerant, and they even recalled the Jews, who had been banished by the Visigoth kings. The terms originally granted at the conquest to the conquered nation, had been hitherto scrupulously observed ; and if Mohammed I narrowed the in­dulgences enjoyed by the Mozarabes, these last had only themselves to blame. Their endeavours to extort the honours of martyrdom from him and his father, form a curious episode in the history of the human mind. Two Mozarabes had, during the reign of Abderrahman II, been induced, in conversation with some Mahometan acquaintance, to give their opinion of the two rival religions ; and expressed, with such indiscreet zeal, their contempt for the false Prophet, that they were denounced as blasphe­mers, and put to death. This unwonted act of severity seems to have not merely produced the usual effect of persecution in heightening the religious fervour of those against whom it is directed, but to have actually maddened the Cordovan Mozarabes. Monks and nuns, hus­bands and wives, boys and girls, now thronged the Moorish courts of justice, to curse Mahomet publicly, before the Mussulman authorities, and thus achieve their own martyrdom. The cadis, or Mussulman judges, were seriously dis­tressed at the frequent executions they were thus compelled to order ; but the blasphemous outrage was too enormous and too public to be overlooked, and it does not seem to have occurred to them to treat these suicidal fanatics as ma­niacs, which they undoubtedly were. The cadis strove, by exhortation and persuasion, to prevail upon the frantic enthusiasts to forbear such wanton in­sults to their masters; but in vain. The caliph was then applied to ; and his re­monstrances proving equally fruitless, he had recourse to the Christian arch­bishop's authority over his flock. It was not without infinite difficulty that even the revered prelate’s admonitions at length repressed this strange frenzy. The disorders that had occurred during its continuance, determined Mohammed to curtail the Mozarabe privileges.

Mohammed, like his father, was a lover and cultivator of literature. He died in 886, and his son Almondhir, who succeeded, reigned only two years. Almondhir so entirely forfeited his sub­jects’ regard by the disproportionate severity of his punishments, that in an engagement with Caleb, the rebellious son of the rebellious robber Hafsun, his troops deserted him, and he fell, pierced with a thousand wounds. Almondhir left the caliphate to his brother Abdallah, who conciliated the nation by restor­ing the survivors amongst Almondhir’s victims to their liberty and property. His reign was nevertheless harassed with rebellions, which reached even to his own family. His eldest son Mohammed revolted, and, after six years of civil war, was defeated by his younger brother Abderrahman: Mohammed died in prison.

Oviedo, 862—900

Meanwhile Alfonso III was ex­tending his dominion over a considerable part of Portugal, and earning the sur­name of the Great, equally by his conquests, his clemency, his charity, and his fervent devotion. His trium­phant progress was however much in­terrupted by frequent insurrections, and at last his own family, like Abdallah’s, imbibed the taint of disaffection. More unfortunate still than the caliph, Al­fonso saw his wife, Ximena of Na­varre, and his three sons, all revolt against him. The rebels were sup­ported by the counts of Castile, the principal of whom, count Nuño Fer­nandez, was father-in-law to D. Garcia, the eldest of the three princes. Alfonso subdued this, like all former rebellions ; but wearied and disgusted with such conflicts, he, in the year 900, resigned his crown to Garcia, giving Galicia, as a separate principality, to his second son Ordoño. After his abdication, Al­fonso, as a private man, raised and led an army against the Moors; when he added another victory to his former achievements. Alfonso is said to have been a lover of literature; and a chro­nicle of his royal predecessors, bearing his name as the author, is still extant.

What remained of the Spanish March had lately made a step towards independence. The French governors had gradually increased in power and importance; their office, after a while, became hereditary in one family, and Wifrid, who held it about the end of the ninth century, assumed the title of count of Barcelona. His county was indeed small, the Moors having recon­quered almost the whole March, and he continued a French vassal; but his sons and grandsons successively en­larged their state, and soon rendered its dependence little more than nominal.

Navarre, 862-920.

 In Navarre, Fortun Ximenes had suc­ceeded to his father, and considerably augmented his kingdom at the expense of both the French and the Moors. In 905 he abdicated in favour of his bro­ther Sancho, and retired to a monastery. Sancho pursued a similar military career with nearly equal, though not unvarying success. He is renowned for the inven­tion of a sort of skin shoe, still used by the Navarrese, which enabled his army to pass the frozen precipices of the Py­renees at midwinter, and thus surprise the Moors, who had overrun Navarre, whilst he was occupied in France, and were rendered negligent by their con­viction that his return with his forces at that season was impossible.

Oviedo, 900—957

Garcia of Oviedo died without children shortly after his accession; when his brother Ordoño II reunited the whole of his father’s dominions. He transferred the seat of government to Leon, and altered the title of king of Oviedo, into that of king of Leon. His wars with the Moors were not very im­portant, and his reign is chiefly charac­terized by his treachery towards the counts of Castile. Jealous probably of the power that had supported himself and his brothers against their father, he invited the counts to a conference upon affairs of public importance, and when they presented themselves, seized, and put them to death. The indignant Castilians renounced their allegiance to Leon, and formed themselves into a kind of republic, of which little but the shortness of its duration is known. Ordoño died as he was preparing to quell this Castilian revolt; and upon his death his brother, Fruela II usurped the crown, which he wore only a few months.

This last of Alfonso's rebellious sons died of leprosy in 924, and was succeeded by his nephew, Alfonso IV, Ordoño II’s eldest son. The new king, in the first emotion of sorrow upon losing his queen, resigned his crown to his brother, Ramiro II, to the exclusion of his own infant son, Ordoño, and retired to a monastery, where he took the vows. But he either found a monk’s life less consolatory than he had expected, or he recovered from his sorrow; for he presently endea­voured to regain by force the birth right he had abandoned. A civil war en­sued. Ramiro took his brother pri­soner, and put out his eyes. He treated with similar cruelty the sons of Fruela who rebelled against him ; and shut all his victims up together in a monastery. The remaining events of Ramiro’s reign are his wars with the Moors, in which both parties claimed prodigious vic­tories, having probably gained moderate advantages alternately. These wars Ramiro carried on in conjunction with a new count of Castile, the republic having already expired. This was Fernan Gonzalez, a descendant of one of the murdered counts, and another fa­vourite hero of romance. He really attained to such power by his victories over the Moors, that the king of Na­varre gave him his daughter Sancha in marriage ; and the king of Leon selected his daughter Urraca as the wife of his own son and heir, Ordoño. Ramiro II died in 950, and Ordoño III succeeded. His short reign was a scene of almost constant civil war with his brother Sancho, in which the king of Navarre, the caliph of Cordova, and the count of Castile took part; the two latter in favour of the rebel. Ordoño, incensed at his father-in-law’s conduct, divorced Urraca, and married another wife. Count Fernan Gonzalez appa­rently forgave the insult, when he found occasion for the king of Leon’s assistance against the Mahometans.

Cordova, from a.d. 912—963.

These dissensions might well have proved fatal to the Spanish Christian states, for the throne of Cordova was now occupied by one of the greatest caliphs. Abderrahman III, the son of the rebellious Mohammed, had succeeded to his grandfather; and his realm was governed, during his minority, by his uncle Abderrahman, who had quelled his father Mohammed's revolt. This prince, who remained as long as he lived his nephew's principal adviser, acquired by his military achievements the surname of Almudafar, or the Victorious. But circumstances so threatening produced little injury to the Christians. Many years of Ab [1] derrahman’s reign were consumed in subduing the rebellions of the robber Hafsun’s descendants, who had made themselves incredibly formidable, being masters, it is said, of 200 fortified castles, villages, and towns, including the old Gothic capital, Toledo. They were assisted by Leon, Navarre, and Castile, and were not finally subdued before 927. And now Abderrahman’s consolidated power seemed indeed to bode destruction to the small and divided Christian states ; when, for their preservation, his attention was diverted to Africa, where a new field was opened to his ambition ; which mainly occupying his and his successors' arms, afforded their Spanish adversaries time and opportunity to strengthen themselves.

The dynasty of Edris had ruled the kingdom of Fez for 130 years, when Yahie, the eighth king, was attacked and dethroned by his African neighbours. He applied to Abderrahman to support, a sovereign of a family nearly related to his own. Abderrahman so far complied with this request, that he sent an army to Fez, which conquered the kingdom. He thenceforward governed it through his generals, under the title of protector of the Edris family, the princes of which he seems to have detained in a sort of honourable captivity at Cordova. But he did not hold in peace a kingdom thus unjustly acquired. He was engaged in constant wars, for the defence of Fez, with the caliphs of Egypt, and the different African emirs. Abderrahman’s latter years were harassed, like his grand-father’s, by a domestic rebellion. Upon his declaring Alhakem, one of his sons, wali alhadi, another of them, Abdallah, revolted. Abdallah was vanquished, taken, and, notwithstanding the generous Alhakem’s earnest supplications, put to death, by the orders of his father, whose subsequent life was clouded with melancholy.

Most of the Spanish caliphs had been encouragers of learning ; but none so much or so successfully as Abderrahman the IIIrd..The palaces of his hagibs, and his cadis, as well as his own, were filled with philosophers and poets, he founded schools which far surpassed in reputation all others then established in Europe. This was so pre-eminently the case with the School of Medicine, that the Infante, or Prince, Sancho of Leon, sought and found at his court the cure of a malady which had defied the skill of the Christian phy­sicians. Don Sancho’s visit to Cordova was the first instance of personal ami­cable intercourse betwixt the princes of the two rival races and faiths. It afterwards became frequent; and a commerce of friendship and gallantry prevailed amongst Christians and Maho­metans of all ranks, that might seem hardly compatible with the religious zeal which inflamed and mainly occasioned their wars. This unexpected alterna­tion of bigoted hostility and kindly as­sociation, appears to have originated in the chivalrous spirit of courtesy towards enemies, that arose naturally in Spain, between foes who had mutually learned in the field to respect each other. Abderrahman likewise patronized the fine arts. He invited artists from Greece and Asia, and employed them in embel­lishing his towns. He encouraged ma­nufactures, commerce, and agriculture, executing magnificent works for irriga­tion, upon which, in Spain, the fertility of the soil entirely depends. Perhaps, at no period before or since, has Spain known anything like the prosperity and happiness which the Mussulman portion of the Peninsula enjoyed under this and the following reigns. Abderrahman was as just in his government as he was liberal and received from the affectionate admiration of his subjects the title of Emir al Mumenin, Prince of the Faithful, which Spanish ignorance con­verted into the Miramolin, and used as a common title.

Abderrahman died in 961, and Alhakem II proved himself his worthy successor. In his internal administra­tion, in the arts of peace, and in the love of literature, he even surpassed his father. The court, and leading men throughout the nation, emulated, as far as circumstances allowed, the example of the sovereign. Every great town in Mussulman Spain boasted its schools, its scientific and literary academies. The spirit of the age penetrated even into the seclusion of the harem; and the names of several Mahometan ladies, who distinguished themselves as votaries of the Muses, are still preserved. After two years of peace the Moors began to upbraid Alhakem with cowardice. In self-defence he published the Algihed, and in person led his forces against the kingdom of Leon.

Leon, 957-965

Leon was then governed by his fa­ther’s visitor and friend Sancho, who had been enabled by Abderrahman’s as­sistance to seize the throne upon the death of Ordoño III and to retain it, notwithstanding both the claims of Bermudo, the deceased king’s son by his second, somewhat doubtful, marriage, and the civil war excited by the count of Castile, on behalf of ano­ther Ordoño, the son of Alfonso IV who had married the count’s daughter Urraca, repudiated by Ordoño III.

Alhakem gained advantages sufficient to establish his military character; and having perhaps, by the strictness of the dis­cipline he enforced in his army, rather blunted his subjects’ ap­petite for war, he returned in triumph to Cordova, and concluded a peace with Sancho, which he could never afterwards be induced to break. To such of his ministers as subsequently urged him to take advantage of the dissensions that long raged amongst the Christians, he invariably answered, “Ob­serve your engagements, for to God must you account for their violation”.

Of Alhakem II an anecdote, in the style of the Arabian Tales, is re­lated, too illustrative of oriental man­ners, and of the degree to which the despotic power of the caliphs was tem­pered by circumstances, to be omitted. The caliph had been tempted to pos­sess himself by force of a field adjoining the gardens of his favourite palace, which offered a beautiful site for a pa­vilion, but which the owner refused to sell. The despoiled proprietor applied to the ministers of justice. The cadi of Cordova heard his complaint, mounted his mule, and rode into the royal garden, where he found Alhakem enjoying his new acquisition. The cadi dismount­ing, asked permission to fill a sack with the earth. This was granted, and the judge next besought the monarch’s help to place the full sack upon the mule. Alhakem, imagining so strange a re­quest must be calculated to produce some amusing pleasantry, readily com­plied, but could not lift the burthen. The cadi then solemnly said, “Prince of the Faithful, the sack thou canst not lift contains but a small portion of the field thou hast usurped. How wilt thou bear the weight of the whole field upon thy head before the judgment-seat of God?” The argument was conclusive. The caliph thanked his monitor for the lesson, and restored the field, allowing its splendid pavilion to remain standing by way of damages.

The only part of his dominions in which Alhakem failed to maintain peace, was the kingdom of Fez. During his whole reign that kingdom was ha­rassed by internal and external war. His forces were at one time entirely expelled, but in the end regained and kept possession.

Leon, 965—976.

During this period of Moorish for­bearance, the count of Cas­tile obtained from the king of Leon the recognition of his entire independence. Alhakem’s ally Sancho I died, poisoned it was said by an offended noble; and the reign of his son, Ramiro III, was one incessant struggle for the crown between him and his cousin Bermudo, the rightful heir, supposing the second marriage of his father, Ordoño III, to be valid.

Cordova, 976-997.

The death of Alhakem II in 976, changed the scene. His son, Hixem II, a child of eight years old, was generally acknowledged, and the re­gency was committed to his mother, Sobeiha, a very superior woman. Sobeiha had in her service a young man, named Mohammed ben Abdallah ben Abi Amer. He was a peasant, who had attracted her notice by his profi­ciency in the schools of Cordova. She had made him her steward and secre­tary ; had placed in him unbounded confidence, and found him deserving of it. She now appointed him hagib. His pleasing manners, and intrinsic merits, had gained universal esteem, and his exaltation was applauded by high and low. The new minister swore eternal enmity to the Christian states ; and, that he might be at liberty to devote himself to their destruction, concluded a treaty with the Egyptian caliph for the pacification of Africa. By this treaty he sacrificed some faithful adherents; a solitary act of injus­tice, and to which he was prompted by the usual selfish policy of despotic go­vernments. Mohammed’s general con­duct was marked by clemency and generosity. His internal administration was as judicious as it was just; and during his military absences, his place was ably supplied by his patroness, queen Sobeiha, who, from her son’s indolent and voluptuous disposition, retained the power as absolutely after Hixem’s majority, as during his non­age. The hagib’s protection of letters, science, and the arts, was such as his early proficiency promised. But it is as a warrior that he is chiefly remembered. His wars, or rather expeditions, against the Christian states of Spain, are too numerous for detail, amounting to the sum total of fifty-four. His habitual success quickly earned him the sur­name of Almanzor, the Conqueror, by which he is best known in history. He recovered all the recent losses of the Moors; overran great parts of Castile; penetrated to the capitals of Leon, Bar­celona, and Navarre; took the two former, and besieged the last. Sancho II of Navarre succeeded in relieving Pamplona, his metropolis; but highly as this exploit raised his fame, it was a triumph whose repetition could not be hoped; and the Christians seemed about to be driven back into their mountains. A diversion caused by troubles in Africa saved them. A member of the Edris family, supported by the caliph of Egypt, excited an in­surrection in Fez, and the first army Almanzor sent to quell it was defeated. A second, under his own son Abdelmelic, was more prosperous. The rebel was brought prisoner to Cordova, where he was executed; and Fez was now avowedly annexed to the Spanish caliphate, as the province of Almagrab. It continued however for years a theatre of war and insurrection, necessarily requir­ing much of Almanzor’s attention, until, in 997, Abdelmelic succeeded in pacify­ing all these disorders. He was named emir of Almagrab, and governed with equal mildness and vigour.

Leon and Navarre, 976—998

During this interval Almanzor’s at­tacks upon his Spanish ene­mies had been less energetic. Borel, count of Barcelona, aided by his French sovereign, had recovered the chief part of his dominions, and transmitted them, in 993, to his son Raymond. In Navarre, Garcia III, who had succeeded to his father, Sancho II, passed his life in struggling unsuccessfully against Al­manzor; and, in 1000, bequeathed his arduous task to his son Sancho III, surnamed the Great, who was married to Nuña Elvira, granddaughter of Garcia Fernandez, the second sovereign count of Castile. Leon was the state against which Almanzor chiefly directed his efforts; and Bermudo II, though upon Ramiro’s death generally acknowledged, was wholly unable to defend his kingdom against the Mussulman conqueror, even during that conqueror’s state of comparative weakness. When upon the pacification of Almagrab, Almanzor’s attacks regained their original impetu­osity, Bermudo’s death had left his tottering throne to a child of five years old, his son Alfonso V. But the danger was imminent, and threatened all Na­varre, Castile, and Barcelona united their troops with those of Leon. In 1001 they thus assembled so formidable an army, that the Moors, despite their confidence in their leader, and in their late constant success, were struck with dismay. Almanzor’s utmost exertions were unable to avert a total and san­guinary defeat. His proud spirit could not endure such a reverse ; he would not allow his wounds to be dressed, and died a very few days after the battle, in his sixty-fifth year. He had, throughout his holy wars, carefully preserved the dust that gathered upon his clothes in battle, for the purpose of covering his corpse, and it was duly so employed.

 

CHAPTER V.

Rebellions against Hixem II., with whose deposal ends the Caliphate of Cordova—Mahometan Spain divided amongst many petty Kings—Conse­quent enlargement of the Christian States—Murder of Garcia Sanchez, Count of Castile, which falls to his sister, wife of Sancho III. of Navarre —His conquests—Leaves his domi­nions, as separate kingdoms, amongst his sons; Navarre to Garcia, Castile to Ferdinand, Sobrarve to Gonzalo, and Aragon to Ramiro—Wars of the brothers — Gonzalo murdered — So- brarbe united to Aragon—Ferdinand, upon the death of his brother-in-law, Bermudo III., without issue, succeeds to Leon—His conquests—Divides his kingdom amongst his childretz— Their wars—Alfonso VI. reunites and extends his father's dominions —Feats of the Cid—The Mahometan kings seek aid from Africa—The Almorevides, under Jusef pass over, repulse the Christians, and enslave the Moors—Murder of Sancho IV. of Navarre—Navarre falls to Sancho of Aragon—Alfonso VI. gives his Portugueze conquests as a County to his illegitimate daughter Theresa— Civil wars of Urraca of Castile and Leon, with her husband Alfonso of Aragon and Navarre, and with her son—Alfonso's conquests—He dies childless — Aragon and Navarre choose different kings—Ramiro II.“of Aragon marries his daughter to Raymond V. of Barcelona, and retires to a monastery—Barcelona renounces French allegiance—Wars among the Christian princes*.

Cordova, 997—1031

Queen Sobeiha did not long survive her favourite minister, and upon her death-bed recommended Abdelmelic to her son as his hagib. Abdel­melic trod in his father’s steps, but his victories were more dearly purchased; the Chris­tian princes having been taught by their losses the necessity of acting together. He died in 1008, poisoned, as it was be­lieved, by those who envied his power. Hixem immediately bestowed his vacant post upon Almanzor’s second son, Ab­derrahman, a bold profligate youth, to­tally unfit for the office. From this moment the glories of the Spanish Ommeyades faded. Abderrahman prevailed upon the childless Hixem to declare him wali alhadi. This rash and illegal step cost the favourite his life, and the caliph his throne. It provoked Moham­med, a grandson of Abderrahman III and Hixem’s natural heir, to revolt. He raised troops, fought Abderrahman, de­feated, took him prisoner, and put him to death; the conqueror then obtained from the weak caliph his own appoint­ment as hagib, and repaid the gift by deposing the giver.

Mussulman Spain now became a theatre of disorder and civil war. Differ­ent pretenders to the caliphate arose, supported by different parties; some, princes of the Ommeyade race, some, bold adventurers and strangers, without a shadow of right; whilst the walis, not only of the several provinces, but of the more considerable towns, took ad­vantage of the suspension of sovereign authority, resulting from this state of things, to set up for individual inde­pendence. In 1031 a second deposal of Hixem, who had been momentarily re­stored as the puppet of one of the usurp­ing strangers, finally closed the caliph­ate of the Ommeyades, who had for 280 years so brilliantly and happily governed the larger part of Spain. Their extinction left their dominions a prey to a crowd of petty kings, all warring with the nominal government at Cordova, and with each other. Almeria, Denia, and Valencia had separate kings, de­scendants of Almanzor, and named the Alameri, from his family name, Amer. Saragossa, Huesca, Tudela, and Lerida, had kings of the tribe of Beni Hud. Other kings reigned in Seville, Carmo­na, Malaga, Granada, Algeziras, Toledo, and Badajoz; the king of Badajoz being moreover the federal or feudal chief of a confederation of princes, occupying the principal part of the present kingdom of Portugal.

Castile, 1005-1022

The Christian sovereigns profited greatly by the enfeebled condition of their hereditary and natural enemies. Even the weakest amongst them, Ray­mond, count of Barcelona, acquired an accession of territory by selling his as­sistance to some of the conflicting can­didates for Mussulman royalty. The other states gained strength doubly, by conquest from the Moors, and by con­solidation amongst themselves. Count Garcia of Castile had fallen in battle against Abdelmelic, a. d. 1005. His son, Sancho Garcias, amply avenged his death, and considerably en­larged his county during the disorders consequent upon Abdelmelic’s murder. His son, Garcia Sanchez, who, whilst yet a boy, succeeded to him in 1022, was the last count. Upon attaining his majority, he repaired to Leon to solemnize his nuptials with the Infanta Sancha, daugh­ter of Alfonso V, where he was assassi­nated by three of his own nobles, who had been banished by his father for their turbulent disposition.

Navarre, 998-1054

The county of Castile was now the inheritance of his sister,    Nuna Elvira, the wife of  Sancho of Navarre, who immediately took posses­sion of it, seized the murderers of his brother-in-law, and burnt them alive. Sancho augmented his realm as well by conquest as by marriage. He took from the distracted Moors the remainder of the former Christian kingdom of Sobrarve, the county of Ribagorza, and a considerable part of Aragon. He like­wise obliged the Christian lordships of Biscay to own his sovereignty. The consciousness of his own increased power from the blending of previously separate states, and the evident weakness produced amongst his enemies by the division of one realm into various prin­cipalities, might have taught Sancho the Great the importance of such an incorporation of dominions as had just fortunately occurred. Paternal affection prevailed nevertheless over the lessons of political wisdom, and, in 1035, he divided his dominions amongst his four sons. He gave to Garcia, the eldest, his own hereditary kingdom of Navarre, with the addition of Biscay; to Ferdi­nand, queen Nuña Elvira’s inheritance, Castile ; to Gonzalo, Sobrarve and Riba­gorza, and to Ramiro the remainder of his Aragonese conquests. The allot­ments of his three younger sons he severally raised to the dignity of king­doms.

The three new kingdoms were speedily reduced to two. Gonzalo was assassi­nated by his own servants within three years ; when Ramiro, with the free con­sent of the inhabitants, added Sobrarve and Ribagorza to his own kingdom of Aragon. Ramiro was a warlike and ambitious prince, who attacked his neighbours on all sides, his brothers as well as the Mahometans. He rendered the Mussulman kings of Huesca and Tudela tributary to Aragon, but was repulsed in an invasion of Navarre, which, he undertook in conjunction with the Moors. Garcia IV, who seems to have been a wise and moderate sove­reign, pursued his brother into his own dominions, and obtained possession of nearly the whole of them; but upon Ramiro's making advances towards a reconciliation, restored them, retaining only his conquests from his brother’s Moorish allies.

Garcia’s moderation could not save him from another and more fatal fra­ternal war with Ferdinand of Castile; but the conduct and character of both Garcia and Ferdinand are sufficient tes­timony that it was occasioned not by the guilty ambition of either brother, but by the criminal intrigues and misre­presentations of artful men, justly banished by the king of Navarre, and who hoped to avenge their exile and advance their fortunes amidst the disor­ders they excited. After a series of mutual recriminations and offences, the brother kings met in battle in 1054. Garcia was defeated and slain. The victor wept his fate, and instead of seizing upon the vacant kingdom, as­sisted the son of the deceased king, San­cho IV, to ascend his father’s throne.

Castile, 1035—1072.

Ferdinand I of Castile had, indeed, already obtained such an addition to his dominions as might satisfy a reasonable ambition. He had married the Infanta Sancha of Leon, the widowed bride of his maternal uncle, the last count of Castile. Her father, Alfonso V, had been slain by an arrow at the siege of Vizeu, in what is now the kingdom of Portugal, a.d. 1027; and his son and successor Bermudo III, upon very slight provocation, turned his arms against Castile. He fell in this unjust attack upon his sister’s husband, in 1037, and left no children. Ferdinand, in right of his wife, succeeded to the kingdom of Leon, consisting of all the north-wes­tern provinces of Spain, and including some part of the north of Portugal.

Ferdinand reigned 28 years, during which he was engaged in almost Con­stant hostilities with the Mahometans. He extended his dominions in Castile, Estremadura, and Portugal; and, ac­cording to Spanish historians, rendered the Mussulman kings of Saragossa, Toledo, and Seville, his tributaries. This circumstance is not mentioned by Arab authors, and it is more likely they were merely his allies in his wars against such of their countrymen as were their owh enemies,—since these kings were the most powerful of the conflicting Mussul­man sovereigns. The object of a war waged by Ferdinand against Seville, is said to have been the recovery of the bones of two female saints, St. Justa, and St Rufina. Their mortal remains, however, could not be found, and he took those of St. Isidore in their stead. Fer­dinand’s extensive domains and royal vassals procured him the title of emperor; and the title excited the dis­satisfaction of Henry III, emperor of Germany, or, as it was then really con­sidered, of the Holy Roman empire, which had been revived in the person of Charlemagne. In that capacity, Henry claimed a kind of supremacy over the whole of Europe, and now required the rival emperor of Castile and Leon to acknowledge him as his liege lord. This occasion first brings under our no­tice one of the most renowned of Spanish heroes, Rodrigo, or Ruy Diaz de Vivar, better known as the Cid, a Moorish title answering to lord, given him by the conquered Moors.

Ruy Diaz was descended from the old judges or counts of Castile, and was thus related to the royal family. Having been early left an orphan, he was educated by the Infante D. Sancho; whilst yet a boy, he accompanied that prince in all his warlike ex­peditions, and, from the first, highly dis­tinguished himself by his hardihood and prowess. The Cid is said to have Urged Ferdinand to resist all claims of vassalage, and to have entered France at the head of 10,000 men, whom he proposed leading across that kingdom into Germany, to maintain his master’s free sovereignty by force of arms. But the dispute was adjusted by negotiation, and the absolute inde­pendence of the Spanish emperor recog­nized.

Ferdinand’s conquests do not appear to have enriched his treasury in proportion as they extended his terri­tories; inasmuch as his last expedition, undertaken to reduce the revolted king of Toledo, who was endeavouring, it is said, to emancipate himself from vassal­age, must have been abandoned, owing to the total exhaustion of the royal finances, had not queen Sancha assisted her consort by the gift of her plate and jewels. We may judge how small were the armies of these Spanish states, by such a gift’s sufficing to send one into the field. Ferdinand followed his father’s example in dividing his dominions amongst his children. At his death he left Castile to his eldest son Sancho, Leon to Alfonso, Galicia, including the Portuguese provinces, to Garcia, and the cities of Zamora and Toro to his two daughters, the Infantas Urraca arid Elvira.

The consequences of this step were discord and war amongst the brothers arid sisters. Sancho II, deeming himself wronged by the dismemberment of his birth right, seems immediately to have resolved upon despoiling those whom he regarded as usurpers. But before he could execute his purpose, he₍ was obliged to assist his ally or vassal, Ahmed, king of Saragossa, besieged in his capital by Ramiro Of Aragon, uncle to Sancho. The Cid, by his sovereign’s orders, led an army to relieve Sara­gossa; and a battle ensued, in which the king of Aragon was defeated and slain. His son Sancho continued the war against the king of Saragossa, and generally with success. Indeed nothing could have enabled the divided Mussulman princes to stand their ground at all, but the dissensions amongst their ene­mies, which procured them the aid of one Christian king against another.

Ahmed was now deserted by Sancho of Castile, who, judging he had done enough for his Mahometan friend, with­drew from the Aragonese war, to invade Galicia. After some vicissitudes of fortune—for he was at first defeated and taken prisoner—he completely van­quished his brother Garcia, who aban­doned the contest, and fled to his ally Mohammed Almoateded, king of Seville, and conqueror of Cordova. Sancho, next proceeding to attack Alfonso, quickly dispossessed him of his kingdom of Leon, and threw him into a prison; from which, by his sisters’ aid, he escaped, and sought refuge with Ismael ben Dylnun, king of Toledo. The vic­torious Sancho, having thus reunited Leon, Galicia, and the Portuguese pro­vinces to Castile, turned his arms against the petty states of his sisters. Donna Elvira surrendered Toro without resistance ; but Donna Urraca defended Zamora stoutly. In these, as in his for­mer enterprises, Sancho was ably as­sisted by the Cid. During the siege, a citizen of the town, under pretence of deserting to the king, found means to assassinate him.

The siege was immediately raised, and Alfonso was invited to return from Toledo, and assume the crown of his father’s re-united dominions,—Garcia, it should seem, not being restored. Al­fonso obeyed the call in 1072; but ere he was crowned, the Cid, at the head, and in the name of the nobles, required of the new king a solemn and public oath that he had not participated in the treacherous murder of his brother. Al­fonso took the oath, but deeply re­sented the presumption of the subject who had dared to impose it. His wrath was inflamed by all who envied the illustrious warrior’s fame and power. But some years elapsed ere Alfonso judged himself firmly enough established upon his throne to follow the impulse of his hatred against the most distinguished of his subjects; and during those years he employed the hero in war, in judicial duels with the champions of neighbour­ing states, respecting disputed districts, and in embassies. At length, by the aid of the Cid himself, Alfonso saw, as he believed, the time arrived when he could dispense with that warrior’s arm; and he now indulged his long-cherished and dissembled spite. In return for his manifold and splendid services, the Cid was disgraced and banished. He passed many years in an exile, from which he was only recalled when danger pressed, to be banished anew when he could again be spared. His fortunes were followed by a body of friends and vas­sals, with whom, in the first instance, he retired to Saragossa. He was there joyfully welcomed by Ahmed’s son, Al- moctader, and assisted him in his wars against Moors and Christians. He afterwards carried on a war against the Mahometans upon his own account, and proved their scourge alike in Castile, Aragon, Valencia, and Andalusia. His feats have been celebrated in prose and verse, in history and romance; and at this distance of time it is difficult to draw the line between the records of truth and the creations of fiction. What does appear certain is, that in this private war he achieved wonders,—conquered Valencia, established himself there in a kind of principality, and filled Spain with his renown, and her sovereigns of both religions with respect, if not fear.

Navarre, 1054—1076.

Alfonso VI’s first acquisition of new territories bore a some­what doubtful character. Sancho IV was    murdered in 1076, by his own brother and sister, Don Raymond and Donna Ermesinda. The fratri­cides derived no advantage from their crime; they were driven from the country by the indignation of the people, and spent the rest of their lives in dependence upon the cha­rity of Mussulman kings. Sancho’s remaining brothers and sisters fled with his children to Leon, and Sancho of Aragon was proclaimed king. Ere he had fully established his authority, Al­fonso invaded Navarre; not to enforce the rights of his murdered kinsman’s children, but to secure a portion of the booty. He made himself master of Biscay, and some other districts adjoining his own territories; and a treaty assured to each monarch his respective acquisi­tions, without noticing the claims of the rightful heir.

Castile, 1072—1085

Alfonso’s next hostilities were directed against the Moors. The protector of his distress, Ismael of Toledo, sought his aid against Mohammed, the king of Cordova and Seville, with whom he was at war; and Alfonso, with every demonstration of gratitude, complied with the request. The allies were very successful, and divided their conquests. But upon Ismael's death, the king of Leon and Castile seems to have con­sidered the ties of obligation as dissolved, and was easily induced, by the proposal of sharing in the spoils, to unite with his late antagonist, Mohammed of Seville, against the son of his benefactor. Again the allies triumphed, and more com­pletely than before. The king of Seville and Cordova obtained the various small states that Ismael had added to his original kingdom, which was the king of Leon’s lot. After an obstinate siege, Al­fonso took the old Gothic capital, Toledo itself, in 1085, and made it an archiepiscopal see, to which he attached the primacy over the whole Christian church of Spain. He extended his conquests as far as Madrid, assiduously rebuilt and r­peopled the ruined towns in that district, and formed the whole into an additional province, bearing the name of New Castile.

What has been incidentally mentioned of the different Mussulman kings, who now harassed and desolated the land that the Ommeyade caliphs had raised to such prosperity, may suffice to show the character of their proceedings. It would be too tedious to detail the incessant mutual hostilities by which (some falling into subjection to the Christians, and some to the ablest amongst themselves) they were now reduced to a state of weakness, that made them regard with dismay a struggle against the powerful king of Leon and the Castiles. Upon Alfonso’s declaring war against the king of Cordova and-Seville, first his enemy, and latterly his ally, Moham­med summoned his allied and vassal kings to deliberate upon the measures to be pursued. It was resolved to apply for aid to the Almoravides, then all­powerful in Africa.