Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/105

ARAGON. Ixxxvii is surrounded by his " twelve illustrious peers or section archons," subordinate to himself, " who," says he, '■ — " rule over the people, I myself being the thir- teenth."'^ But, whether true or not, this venerable tradition must be admitted to have been well cal- culated to repress the arrogance of the Aragonese monarchs, and to exalt the minds of their subjects by the image of ancient liberty which it presented/ The great barons of Aragon were few in number. Thencoa " " liombrea. They affected to derive their descent from the twelve peers above mentioned, and were styled ricos hombres de natura, implying by this epithet, that they were not indebted for their creation to the will of the sovereign. No estate could be le- gally conferred by the crown, as an honor (the denomination of fiefs in Aragon), on any but one of these high nobles. This, however, was in time evaded by the monarchs, who advanced certain of their own retainers to a level with the ancient peers of the land ; a measure which proved a fruitful lyu aires, Odyss. 0. 390. In like manner Alfonso III. al- ludes to " the ancient times in Aragon, when there were as many kings as ricos hombres." See Zurita, Anales, torn. i. fol. 316. 8 The authenticity of the " Fue- ro de Soprarbe " has been keenly debated by the Aragonese and Na- varrese writers. Moret, in refuta- tion of Blancas, who espouses it, (See Commentarii, p. 289,) states, that, after a diligent investigation of the archives of that region, he finds no mention of the laws, nor even of the name, of Soprarbe, until the eleventh century ; a start- ling circumstance for the antiquary. (Investigaciones Historicas de las Antiguedades del Reyno de Na- varra, (Pamplona, 1766,) torn. vi. lib. 2, cap. 11.) Indeed, the histo- rians of Aragon admit, that the public documents previous to the fourteenth century suffered so much from various causes as to leave comparatively few materials for au- thentic narrative. (Blancas, Com- mentarii, Pref. — Risco, Espaiia Sagrada, tom. xxx. Prologo.) Blancas transcribed his extract of the laws of Soprarbe principally from Prince Charles of Viana's History, written in the fifteenth century. See Commentarii, p. 25.