Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/107

ARAGON. IxxxiX determined by the amount of their respective ser- vices. We find a stipulation to this efifect from James the First to his nobles, previous to his in- vasion of Majorca. ^^ On a similar principle they claimed nearly the whole of Valencia. ^^ On occu- pying a city, it was usual to divide it into barrios, or districts, each of which was granted by way of fief to some one of the ricos hombres, from which he was to derive his revenue. What proportion of the conquered territory was reserved for the royal de- mesne does not appear." We find one of these nobles, Bernard de Cabrera, in the latter part of the fourteenth century, manning a fleet of king's ships on his own credit ; another, of the ancient family of Luna, in the fifteenth century, so wealthy that he could travel through an almost unbroken line of his estates all the way from Castile to France. ^^ With all this, their incomes in general, in this comparatively poor country, were very infe- rior to those of the great Castilian lords. ^® The laws conceded certain powers to the aris- tocracy of a most dangerous character. They were entitled, like the nobles of the sister kingdom, to defy, and publicly renounce their allegiance to their sovereign, with the whimsical privilege, in addition, of commending their families and estates to his pro- SECTION II. 12 Zurita, Anales, torn. i. fol. torn. ii. p. 198. — Blancas, Commen- 124. tarii, p. 218. 1-* Blancas, Commentarii, p. 334. 16 gee a register of these at the 14 See the partition of Saragossa beginning of the sixteenth century, by Alonso the Warrior. Zurita, apud L. Marineo, Cosas Memora- Anales, torn. i. fol. 43. bles, fol. 25. 15 Mariana, Hist, de Espalia, VOL. 1. I