Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/343

Schemes for the ADMINISTRATION OF CASTILE. 199 III. Depression of the nobles. In the course of chapter VI the preceding chapters, we have seen the extent of the privileges constitutionally enjoyed by the reducing JT O J J J J . nobility. aristocracy, as well as the enormous height to which they had swollen under the profuse reigns of John the Second, and Henry the Fourth. This was such, at the accession of Ferdinand and Isa- bella, as to disturb the balance of the constitution, and to give serious cause of apprehension both to the monarch and the people. They had introduced themselves into every great post of profit or au- thority. They had ravished from the crown the estates, on which it depended for its maintenance, as well as dignity. They coined money in their own mints, like sovereign princes ; and they cov- ered the country with their fortified castles, whence they defied the law, and desolated the unhappy land with interminable feuds. It was obviously necessary for the new sovereigns to proceed with the greatest caution against this powerful and jeal- ous body, and, above all, to attempt no measure of importance, in which they would not be supported hj the hearty cooperation of the nation. The first measure, which may be said to have clearly developed their policy, was the organization vi. Ilust. 9. — Marina, Ensayo His- curso Preliminar alOrd. de Alcala.) torico-Critico, pp. 390 et seq. — The injustice of the last remark, in- Mendez, Typographia Espaiiola, p. deed, is apparent from the positive 261. — The authors of the three declaration of Bernaldez. "Los last-mentioned works abundantly Reyes mandaron tener en todas las disprove Asso y Manuel's insinua- ciudades, villas e lugares el libro tion, that Mental vo's code v^as the de Montalvo, e for el determinar fruit of his private study, without todas las cosas dejusticia para cor- any commission for it, and that tar los pUitos. Reyes Catolicos, it gradually usurped an authority MS., cap. 42. which it had not in its origin. (Dis-