the state, the conduct of war, and the administration of justice belonged, from that time, to the nobles, and the principal barons who were present at the election, and by whom the land was defended. These and their descendants were called ricoshombres, a class so respected by the kings that they made them appear their equals. With them the monarch was obliged to share the revenues that accrued from the towns gained of the Moors, while, on the other hand, the ricoshombres were bound to do military service by themselves, their knights and vassals, according to their allotted portions in these revenues, which were called honours. It must be confessed (Zurita concludes) that the kings who first reigned in Spain after the invasion of the Moors, were very similar to those that were originally raised to that dignity, and who are described in history as permanent chieftains of armed bands."

The establishment of the Justicer of Aragon is nearly as ancient as the constitutional monarchy of that kingdom. His authority was directed to the preservation of the Fueros, or Constitutional laws. Had the love of liberty, and the jealousy of supreme authority, stopped here, the constitution of Aragon might have rivalled that which has raised England to the proud rank which she holds in the history of free nations. But the Aragonese noblemen were too independent of the crown to endure that degree of subordination, without which a monarchical government, after being distracted with sedition and anarchy, generally ends in uncontrolled despotism.

By the original compact between the king and the ricoshombres, these might depose the reigning prince, and proceed so freely to the election of another, that even a Mahometan would have been eligible, had not the barons felt ashamed of that privilege. They claimed, however, and obtained another more adverse to the preservation of legal freedom. By the right called de la Union, the Aragonese barons were constitutionally entitled to rise in arms against the king, whenever they judged that the crown exceeded its prerogative. This monstrous privilege was granted by Alonso III. in the latter part of the thirteenth century; but the Cortes repealed it, under Peter IV. before the end of the fourteenth. The right of deciding, in case of a disputed succession, was used by the Aragonese peers till a comparatively late period. Ferdinand, Infante of Castille, the first king of that name, in Aragon, was chosen in 1412, among several claimants, by the award of the nine chief barons of the kingdom. The history of that transaction is extremely interesting, and gives a high idea of the wisdom and justice of the leading men of Aragon at that period. Ferdinand was well known for his honourable conduct towards his ward and nephew John II. of Castille, whose crown he might have usurped without the least opposition, or hazard. It was this act of virtuous forbearance that gained him the votes of the electors.

The privileged classes of Aragon and Catalonia having been united at an early period, (A. D. 1137,) it is as difficult as it would be tedious to mark minutely the peculiar differences which belonged to either country. As both, however, derived their modified feudal system from

We can see no reason why this classical English word should not be employed to translate the Spanish Justicia.

France, a great similarity appears in the distribution of power and its attendant honours. The Aragonese had their Ricoshombres de Natura, lineally descended from the first founders of their monarchy, who were, we believe, ten in number. Analogous to them were the Nine Barons of Catalonia; yet, to judge from the circumstances of the election of Ferdinand I. these obtained precedence of all the Aragonese peers, at the union of the two states, upon the marriage of Berenger, Count of Barcelona, with Petronila, the daughter of Ramiro, the monk, when the arms of Catalonia were preferred, by agreement, to those of Aragon. These nine barons, and such noble Catalans as had the title of Count, together with the Aragonese Ricoshombres, formed the original class of peers in the Cortes of Aragon. But their number was augmented, about the middle of the thirteenth century, by a patent of James I. called the Conqueror, who raised his own immediate retainers, the Cavalleros Meznaderos, to the rank and privileges of peers of the kingdom. Lands appear to have been of little value while exposed to the daily incursions of the Moors. We find, accordingly, that the military fees in all the Christian kingdoms of Spain took their denomination from the towns on which the lords levied taxes. We do not, consequently, observe that gradation of tenures which prevailed in other countries. After the conquest of a large town, the principal leaders who assisted at the siege, had districts called Barrios, appointed to each, from the inhabitants of which they received the contributions otherwise due to the crown. In proportion to the amount of these taxes was the number of knights which each nobleman of the first rank was bound to lead into the field. The grants of such revenues being, in Aragon, called Honores, the service of the attendant knights was named Cavallerias de Honor. The same grants were denominated Feudos in Catalonia, and Entierras in Castille.

On the taking of Zaragoza by Alfonso, the champion (A. D. 1118), the Spanish inhabitants were exempted from taxes, and classed with the Infanzones or gentry of the kingdom. It seems a natural inference from this fact that the Christian population of Zaragoza, under the Moorish dominion, was small and of little consequence, and that this measure was intended to draw such inhabitants to that important city as might be able and willing to preserve it from future invasion. The ancient name by which the members of the privileged gentry were known, is Hermunios; a corruption, as Zurita believes, of the Latin word Immunes. The denominations of Hidalgo, in Castille, and Hom de paratge, in Catalonia, are nearly equivalent to that of infunzon, in Aragon. Paratge is synonimous with Peerage, in the sense of equality to the privileged classes. Serfs, in the strict sense of the word, were unknown in Castille, and, we believe, nearly so in Aragon; but the evils of that sort of slavery were long prevalent in Catalonia. The feudal slaves were known by the appellation of homes de Remensa.

The early history of Aragon is, a good deal, mixed with romance and legendary fable. We will neither enter into critical discussions, nor undertake a connected narrative, but merely glance over the inte

Meznada was a military division following the standard of one leader.

+ Though this word might seem to bring the Castillian fiefs nearer to the character of those of England and France, every circumstance in the history of that country shows, that the lords depended not on rent, but taxation.

resting history of that kingdom, selecting whatever is characteristic of the people, or of the original historians themselves. Fables and legendary tales are highly valuable in this light.

The birth of Sancho Abarca, the second king of Aragon, after its first union with the crown of Navarre, which at that period (A.D. 912) was styled the kingdom of Pamplona and Sobrarbe, may be classed with those traditionary legends, which, from a similarity in their marvellous circumstances, might be supposed to have some common origin, if the kindred features were not more naturally accounted for from a general resemblance in the early stages of civilization, among the European nations, not excluding the Greeks and Romans themselves. Abarca is the Romulus of Aragon, not indeed in every incident of the story, which is less improbable than that of the son of Mars, the nursling of a she-wolf, but in the extraordinary manner of his birth and the rural education of his youth.

Garci Iñiguez, Abarca's father, succeeded Iñigo Arista, in the crown of Pamplona. His wife, a countess of Aragon in her own right, being far advanced in pregnancy, perished, with her husband, by the hands of the Moors, who fell suddenly upon a defenceless village where the royal couple had retired with a small retinue. The original historians, though not agreed as to the place of this melancholy scene, are unanimous in asserting, that an infant was artificially brought to light just at the death of the mother. The child, in this interesting and precarious state, was taken in charge by an Aragonese knight, from whom, according to Prince Carlos †, the historian of Navarre, he afterwards derived the name of Abarca. Sancho was reared, probably unconscious of his rank, among the fastnesses of the Pyrenees, during that period when Mahomet, the son of Abdoulrahman, the second of that name of the caliphs of Cordoba, led an army against Navarre, which wasted the whole territory of Pamplona, and took three castles from the Navarrese. ‡

Connected with the history of this invasion is the case of a Navarrese knight called Fortunyo §, whose good fortune is remembered as one of the many instances of generous munificence, among the Spanish Moors, which the national jealousy of the Christian historians

Abarca's birth is thus related by the Archbishop Don Rodrigo. "Cumque quadam die minus caute in quodam viculo, qui Larumbe dicitur, resideret, supervenientes Arabes improvidum occiderunt, et Reginam Urracam, uxorem pregnantem, in utero lancea percusserunt. Sed continuò, adventu suorum, latrunculis Arabum effugatis, Regina morti proxima, tamen viva, per vulnus lanceæ, sicut Domino placuit, infantulum est enixa; et fotus ministerio muliebri, vitæ, miraculo omnium, est servatus, et Sancius Garsiæ fuit vocatus."-De Rebus Hispaniæ, lib. v. c. xxii.

+Carlos, Prince of Viana, and rightful sovereign of Navarre, was kept from that crown and persecuted by his father, John II. of Aragon, in a manner not unlike that of Philip II. towards his unfortunate son of the same name, (See New Monthly Magazine, vol. V. p. 231.) The Prince of Viana died in 1461. He was a man of considerable learning. He translated the Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle, from the Latin of Leonardo Aretino, and wrote a Chronicle of the Kings of Navarre, which is still in manuscript.

Zurita, lib. i. c. vii.

We believe that ny is the only combination of letters which, in the English alphabet, can express the sound of the Spanish n. We have adopted it the more readily, as it represents the Latin ni followed by a vowel, which the Spaniards express by the ñ. Fortuño comes from Fortunius.

has not been strong enough to conceal. Being taken prisoner in one of the castles just mentioned, Fortunyo followed the conqueror to Cordoba, where he lived twenty years. Zurita says, that at the end of that long captivity he received his liberty, and a large fortune, in presents, from Mahomet. Both the length of Fortunyo's residence at Ĉordoba, and the noble manner of his release, however, claim the honour of the transaction for Mahomet's successor, in the power, though not in the title of Ommiade Caliph, his brother Abdoulrahman, the Magnificent. Fortunyo's name has been saved from oblivion chiefly by the extraordinary longevity which crowned the eventful prosperity of his life. He lived one hundred and twenty-six years.

The election, or rather recognition of Sancho Abarca seems to have been made after an interregnum, probably occasioned by the invasion of the Moors of Cordoba. The historical accounts, however, only lead to this inference. Abarca was in his fifteenth year when the nobleman, the guide and protector of his childhood, presented him, in the dress of a peasant, to the meeting of the noblemen, who were convened at Jaca, for the purpose of filling the vacant throne. The proof of his royal birth being evident, the rustic youth received the homage of the peers, and was installed in the throne of his fathers. In the glorious achievements of his reign, there is abundant confirmation that a noble and generous nature never fails to improve by an early acquaintance with the trials and evils of human life.

* The reader, we trust, will thank us for transcribing the beautiful passage where Mr. Southey sketches the history of the third Abdoulrahman. (Introduction to the Chronicle of the Cid, p. xxviii.) "His history is like a tale of Eastern splendour with an Eastern moral at the end. To gratify the vanity of a favourite slave, he built a town and called it after her name, Zehra, which signifies the ornament of the world. There were in its palace one thousand and fourteen columns of African and Spanish marble; nineteen from Italian quarries, and one hundred and forty beautiful enough to be presents from the Greek emperor. The marble walls of the hall of the Caliph were inlaid with gold. Birds and beasts of gold, studded with jewels, spouted water into a marble bason in its centre: the bason was the work of the best Greek sculptors; and above it hung the great pearl which had been sent to Abdoulrahman by the Emperor Leon. The extent of the building may be imagined by that of his seraglio, which contained six thousand and three hundred persons. This was his favourite abode. After the chase, to which twelve hundred horsemen always accompanied him, he used to rest in a pavilion in the gardens. The pillars were of pure white marble; the floor of gold, and steel, and jewellery; and in the midst there was a fountain of quicksilver. Yet Abdoulrahman left a writing which contained this testimony against the vanity of the world. From the moment when I began to reign, I have recorded those days in which I enjoyed real and undisturbed pleasure; they amount to fourteen. Mortal man, consider what this world is, and what dependence is to be placed upon its enjoyments! Nothing seems wanting to my happiness; riches, honours, to say every thing, sovereign power. I am feared and esteemed by my contemporary princes: they envy my good fortune; they are jealous of my glory; they solicit my friendship. Fifty years have I reigned, and in so long a course of time, can count but fourteen days, which have not been poisoned by some vexation."

".... Cum equite, qui eum clam nutriverat, veluti pastoris filius, vilissimis tectus indumentis et peronatus adducitur." Rodericus, ibid. The perones, or rawleather shoes being called Abarcas, in Spanish, some imagine that the young prince derived his appellation from that part of his dress. Others pretend that it was owing to his having enabled his army to cross the Pyrenees after a great fall of snow, by means of such shoes. But these forget that the raw-leather shoes are used by the Spanish peasantry in all the mountainous districts of the North, and that they are probably the first covering for the feet likely to have been invented in all countries.

In Abarca's son, Garci Sanchez, we find a curious instance of that jarring and discordance between the mind and her organs of sensation

that mixed disease of body and soul, which, probably from its frequency in latter times, has forced a name from language, distorting the word nervous into an expression of weakness.* Garci Sanchez, though a man of tried courage, never prepared for battle without visibly trembling from head to foot. He is known in Spanish history by the unchivalrous addition of the Trembler.

Sancho, the Great, succeeded his father Garcia, in 1034. To the crowns of Aragon, Navarre, and Sobrarbe, he united the earldom of Castille, in right of his wife, and made the river Pisuerga the boundary between his territory and the kingdom of Leon. By a first wife, Sancho had a son, called Ramiro. Elvira, the daughter of Sancho, Earl of Castille, whose lords did not assume the title of kings till the next generation, gave him three sons, Garcia, Gonzalo, and Fernando, whose wicked and infamous conduct towards their own mother is one of the well attested instances of the impunity with which the most sacred laws were broken in the dark ages, to which some admirers of the romantic would give the preference, compared with modern refine

ment.

At the instigation of Garcia, the two younger brothers entered into a conspiracy to accuse their mother of faithlessness to the royal bed. If the mention of such a monstrous and unnatural plot stagger the belief of a modern reader, he will feel disposed to look upon the whole as a fable, when he learns the motive assigned by the early Spanish historians. They say that King Sancho, being obliged to leave his favourite horse when he was to set off upon an expedition against the Moors, committed it to the care of his Queen, with an express injunction that no one should ride him in his absence. Urged, however, by the entreaties of her eldest son Garcia, Elvira would have consented to his using the horse, but for the remonstrances of a faithful knight, whose name, though omitted by most of the original writers, is reported to have been Sesé. Incensed by disappointment, and deeply hurt at being thwarted by a subject, Garcia vowed revenge against the Queen and her adviser. An accusation of adultery was the most obvious means of involving both in the same ruin. His brothers, either intimidated by his fierce courage, or swayed by his habitual ascendancy, agreed to back him in the combat by which he was to establish the charge.

Such is the uniform account which is found in the earliest records of the country. As no possible motive can be imagined for a fiction of this nature, we should, before we reject a mass of historical evidence, consider the customs and opinions of the times, as well as the manner in which history was written by the old chroniclers.

There is nothing improbable in the importance given to the king's charger at the Court of Navarre, nor in the fierce dudgeon of a semibarbarian youth of royal birth, at being denied an indulgence on which

* Dr. Johnson, probably in a fit of nervous peevishness, has marked the modern sense of the word as medical cant.

+ ".... Garsias.... regnavit, qui dictus est Tremulosus, eo quod quando rumores periculi audiebat, vel debebat in prælio experiri, a principio totus tremulabat, sed postea constantissimus persistebat.-Rodericus, De Reb. Hisp. lib. v. c. xxvi.

It is very probable that this Ramiro was a bastard. Mariana think so ; though the accurate Zurita says he was legitimate.