Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/471

I REVIEW OF THEIR ADMINISTRATION. 44o 111 the government, and the generally beneficial chapter scope of these lavi^s, that, although of such unpre- — cedented frequency, they should have escaped par- liamentary animadversion.^^ But, however patriotic the intentions of the Catholic sovereigns, and how- ever safe, or even salutary, the power intrusted to such hands, it was a fatal precedent, and under the Austrian dynasty became the most eifectual lever for overturning the liberties of the nation. The preceding; remarks on the policy observed Arbitrary i- '-> i. J measures of towards the commons in this reign must be further f^'"'^'"""- understood as applying with far less qualification to the queen, than to her husband. The latter, owing perhaps to the lessons which he had derived from his own subjects of Aragon, "'who never abated one jot of their constitutional rights," says Martyr, " at the command of a king,"^^ and whose meet- ings generally brought fewer supplies to the royal coifers, than grievances to redress, seems to have (Medina del Campo, 1555,) fol. prematicas de que estos vuestros 49.) Nearly all, if not all, the acts reynos se tienen por agraviados, of the Catholic sovereigns intro- manden que aquellas se revean y diiced into the famous code of the provean y remedien los agravios "Ordenanijas Reales," were passed que las tales prematicas tienen." in the cortes of Madrigal, in 1476, (Marina, Teoria, torn. ii. p. 218.) or Toledo, in 1480. Whether this is to be understood 31 It should be stated, however, of the ordinances of the reigning that the cortes of Valladolid, in sovereigns, or their predecessors, 1506, two years after the queen's may be doubted. It is certain, that death, enjoined Piiilip and Joanna the nation, however it may have to make no laws without the con- acquiesced in the exercise of this sent of cortes ; remonstrating, at power by the late queen, would not the same time, against the exist- have been content to resign it to ence of many royal jaro^md/iCffs, as such incompetent liands, as those an evil to be redressed. " Y por of Philip and his crazy wife, esto se establecio lei que no hicie- 32 " Liberi patriis legibus, nil sen ni renovasen leyes sino en imperio Regis gubernantur." Opus cortes. ***** Y porque fuera de Epist., epist. 438. "sta orden se han hecho muchas