The cavalleros or knights.
The inferior orders of nobility, the hidalgos,
(whose dignity, like that of the ricos hombres,
would seem, as their name imports, to have been
originally founded on wealth,)[1] and the cavalleros,
or knights, enjoyed many of the immunities of the
higher class, especially that of exemption from tax-
ation.[2] Knighthood appears to have been regarded
with especial favor by the law of Castile. Its
ample privileges and its duties are defined with a
precision, and in a spirit of romance, that might
have served for the court of King Arthur.[3] Spain
was indeed the land of chivalry. The respect for
the sex, which had descended from the Visigoths,[4]
- ↑ " Los llamaron fijosdalgo, que muestra a tanto como fijos de bien." (Siete Partidas, part. 2, tit. 21.) "Por hidalgos se entienden los hombres escogidos de Inicnos lugares iconalgo." Asso y Manuel, Instituciones, pp. 33, 34.
- ↑ Recop. de las Leyes, lib. 6, tit. 1, leyes 2, 9 ; tit. 2, leyes 3, 4, 10; tit. 14, leyes 14, 19.—They were obliged to contribute to the repair of fortifications and public works, although, as the statute expresses it, "tengan privilegios para que sean essentos de todos pechos."
- ↑ The knight was to array himself in light and cheerful vestments, and, in the cities and public places, his person was to be enveloped in a long and flowing mantle, in order to impose greater reverence on the people. His good steed was to be distinguished by the beauty and richness of his caparisons. He was to live abstemiously, indulging himself in none of the effeminate delights of couch or banquet. During his repast, his mind was to be refreshed with the recital, from history, of deeds of ancient heroism; and in the fight he was commanded to invoke the name of his mistress, that it might infuse new ardor into his soul, and preserve him from the commission of unknighlly actions. See Siete Partidas, part. 2, tit. 21, which is taken up with defining the obligations of chivalry.
- ↑ See Fuero Juzgo, lib. 3, which is devoted almost exclusively to the sex. Montesquieu discerns in the jealous surveillance, which the Visigoths maintained over the honor
ed to Salazar de Mendoza's Origen de las Dignidades Seglares de Castilla, (Madrid, 1794.) The most prized of these, appears to be that of keeping the head covered in the presence of the sovereign; " prerogativa tan ilustre," says the writer, "que ella solaimprime el principal caracter de la Grandeza. Y considerada por siis cfectos admirables, ocupa dignamente el primero lugar." (Discnrso 3.) The sentimental citizen Bourgoanne, finds it necessary to apologize to his republican brethren, for noticing these "important trifles." Travels in Spain, vol. i. chap. 4.
