Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/121

ARAGON. ciii this. The knights and hidalgos, an intermediate section order between the great nobility and the people, • when detached from the former, naturally lent ad- ditional support to the latter, with whom, indeed, they had considerable affinity. The representa- tives of certain cities, as well as a certain class of citizens, were entitled to a seat in this body ; ^^ so that it approached both in spirit and substance to something like a popular representation. In- deed, this arm of the cortes was so uniformly vigi- lant in resisting any encroachment on the part of the crown, that it has been said to represent, more than any other, the liberties of the nation.*^ In some other particulars the Aragonese commons pos- sessed an advantage over those of Castile. 1. By postponing their money grants to the conclusion of the session, and regulating them in some degree by the previous dispositions of the crown, they availed themselves of an important lever relin- quished by the Castilian cortes. ^° 2. The king- dom of Aragon proper was circumscribed within too narrow limits to allow of such local jealousies and estrangements, growing out of an apparent ^ As for example the ciudadanos 50 Not, however, it must be al- honrados of Saragossa. (Capma- lowed, without a manly struggle ny, Practica y Estilo, p. 14.) A in its defence, and which, in the ciudadano honrado in Catalonia, early part of Charles V.'s reign, in and I presume the same in Aragon, 1525, wrenched a promise from the was a landholder, who lived on his crown, to answer all petitions de- rents without being engaged in iinitively, before the rising of cor- commerce or trade of any kind, tes. The law still remains on the answering to the French proprie- statute-book, (Recop. de las Leyes, taire. See Capmany, Mem. de lib. 6, tit. 7, ley 8,) a sad corn- Barcelona, torn. ii. Apend. no. 30. mentary on the faith of princes. 49 Blancas, Modo de Proceder, fol. 102.