Anne Soulard, Tiffany Vergon, Charles Aldarondo and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team
English writers have done more for the illustration of Spanish history,than for that of any other except their own. To say nothing of the recentgeneral compendium, executed for the "Cabinet Cyclopaedia," a work ofsingular acuteness and information, we have particular narratives of theseveral reigns, in an unbroken series, from the emperor Charles the Fifth(the First of Spain) to Charles the Third, at the close of the lastcentury, by authors whose names are a sufficient guaranty for theexcellence of their productions. It is singular, that, with this attentionto the modern history of the Peninsula, there should be no particularaccount of the period which may be considered as the proper basis of it,—the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella.
In this reign, the several States, into which the country had been brokenup for ages, were brought under a common rule; the kingdom of Naples wasconquered; America discovered and colonized; the ancient empire of theSpanish Arabs subverted; the dread tribunal of the Modern Inquisitionestablished; the Jews, who contributed so sensibly to the wealth andcivilization of the country, were banished; and, in fine, such changeswere introduced into the interior administration of the monarchy, as haveleft a permanent impression on the character and condition of the nation.
The actors in these events were every way suited to their importance.Besides the reigning sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isabella, the lattercertainly one of the most interesting personages in history, we have, inpolitical affairs, that consummate statesman, Cardinal Ximenes, inmilitary, the "Great Captain," Gonsalvo de Cordova, and in maritime, themost successful navigator of any age, Christopher Columbus; whose entirebiographies fall within the limits of this period. Even such portions ofit as have been incidentally touched by English writers, as the Italianwars, for example, have been drawn so exclusively from French and Italiansources, that they may be said to be untrodden ground for the historian ofSpain. [1]
It must be admitted, however, that an account of this reign could not havebeen undertaken at any preceding period, with anything like the advantagesat present afforded; owing to the light which recent researches of Spanishscholars, in the greater freedom of inquiry now enjoyed, have shed on someof its most interesting and least familiar features. The most important ofthe works to which I allude are, the History of the Inquisition, fromofficial documents, by its secretary, Llorente; the analysis of thepolitical institutions of the kingdom, by such writers as Marina, Sempere,and Capmany; the literal version, now made for the first time, of theSpanish-Arab chronicles, by Conde; the collection of original andunpublished documents, illustrating the history of Columbus and the earlyCastilian navigators, by Navarrete; and, lastly, the copious illustrationsof Isabella's reign, by Clemencin, the late lamented secretary of theRoyal Academy of History, forming the sixth volume of its valuableMemoirs.
It was the knowledge of these