ANITA GEORGE'S QUEENS OF SPAIN. * This volume is devoted to
Isabella the Catholic ; and, from being occupied with the life of a single person, and that a queen of much renown, it has more unity and interest than its predecessor. The new view of the subject taken by the writer is also a feature isthe book. The sex and the many excellent qualities of Isabella, but more than all perhaps her kindly patronage of Columbus, have thrown a lustre round her name, that has blinded the eyes of posterity to her faults, and to the evils those faults have inflicted upon Spain. In the opinion of Anita George, Isabella has escaped at the expense of her husband Ferdinand, who has been charged with her faults as well as his own : the Queen was not a person to yield to any one where her power and rights were in ques- tion: Hence, in all -matters concerning home policy, Isabella is at least entitled to an equal share of the discredit; in the esta- blishment of the Inquisition, and the persecution of the Jews and Moors, she stands alone. Ferdinand the Catholic was always disposed to put his religion behind his interest, and was urged by his wife into measures of which he disapproved ; sometimes, indeed, she ordered or permitted persecutions of which he was altogether igno- rant. Besides the wickedness of these things, their impolicy was equally conspicuous. The oppression of the Moors, the expulsion of both Moors and Jews, destroyed the mechanical and commer- cial industry of Spain ; the overthrow of the feudal power and privileges of the nobility, and the establishment of despotism in the crown, checked the growth of civil freedom, as the introduction of the Inquisition induced religious bigotry, and withered mental independence and intellectual cultivation.
Neither is Anita George disposed to allow weight to the excuses urged in favour of Isabella upon such facts as undeniably tell against her. The Spaniards of the age, she says, were not so bigoted. The Kings of Aragon, supported by their subjects, had set the Popes at defiance ; the Cortes of Aragon and of Valencia re- sisted the introduction of the Inquisition; some of the clergy, with Fray Francisco de Talavera Archbishop of Granada at their head, were opposed to all persecution ; even the Pope remonstrated against some wholesale slaughter; and when persecution had pro- voked an insurrection, Ferdinand himself was wroth. Nor does the biographer even allow the Queen's conscience as a valid plea. When religion or churchmen stood in the way of the power or interests of Isabella, they were blown aside.
There is in these conclusions of Anita George something of the woman and of the Spaniard, anxious to excuse in any way the his- torical degradation and present weakness of Spain. If the Spaniards were really enterprising and industrious, there seems no reason why they might not have engaged in commerce, agriculture, and the useful arts, although the Jews and Moors were expelled : the Jews were ousted from England long before they were driven from Spain, yet we managed to get on in the absence of the house of Israel. The destruction of the enormous power of the nobility was absolutely necessary, not only to the establishment of order, but almost to the existence of society itself. It could only be brought about by throwing the power of the common people into the scale of the crown ; and so far as Ferdinand and Isabella were concerned, it seems to have been a wise and po- • Memoirs of the Queens of Spain, from the Period of the Conquest of the Goths to the Accession of her present Majesty Isabella II. By Anita George. Edited, with an Introduction and Notes, by Elias Julia Purdue, Author of " Memoirs of Fron- ds the First," ire. Vol. II. Published by Bentley.
litic measure. The real despotism of the crown was established by Charles the Fifth, and he might not have been able to effect it had he been only King of Spain.
For the religious tyranny, cruelty, and want of faith of Isabella in violating stipulations, the author is sparing in the quotation of authorities, and she often rather asserts than narrates in the ac- count of facts that would prove the case. A strict analysis might also show that temporal power was the object aimed at, and reli- gion a disguise for ambition. We think, however, that the case of relentless and cruel persecution is established against Isabella
the Catholic ; and that it was aggravated by the power which the Eomish priesthood exercised over her mind in things indifferent or which jumped with her inclination. In the graces of person and manner, and in suavity of temper towards her own party or those whom she wished to gain, Isabella of Castile far excelled her granddaughter Mary of England. In tenacity of purpose, in ob- duracy (or obstinacy), and in indifference to the misery arising from their orders, it is possible they were more alike than the world has supposed. :And Isabella might have had a similar cognomen had not the Spaniards continued as bloody as her age and as bigot- ed as herself.
The peculiar view of the character of Isabella taken by the wri- ter, and the prominence which her purpose gives to events and circumstances that support her opinion, is the chief source of in- terest in the volume. Defects in diction and in the structure of the sentences can readily be excused in a foreigner and a lady writing in a strange tongue. But this excuse does not apply to the nature of the matter or its arrangement. There is a good deal which is trifling or formal in the matter, as well as omissions, which the editor Miss Pardee supplies. Nor is the narrative al- ways continuous. The Queen's dealings with Columbus are barely noticed, on the plea that it has been fully done already : which is true in one sense, but the brightest feature in the Queen's cha- racter is left out of her life nevertheless. A more complete and critical, and in short a better biography of Isabella the Catholic, might be written. Anita George, however, has the merit of taking a new if a stern view of her subject, and of treating it sufficiently; and when the matter itself is really interesting, its interest does not suffer in her hands. This is her account of the surrender of the Moorish city of Malaga.
"The Spanish troops having been stationed in the fortresses on the ram- parts, and on every spot commanding an avenue of escape, the whole popu- lation of Malaga, amounting to fifteen thousand souls, the auxiliary troops, numbering, notwithstanding the mortality that had decimated them, several thousands, and the inhabitants of Mijas and Osma, were collected in the spa- cious court-yard of the lower citadel, and directly under its batteries, to be portioned out as slaves. One hundred Gomeres were reserved as a present for the Pope of the loveliest maidens, fifty were sent to the Queen of Na- ples, and thirty to the Queen of Portugal; many more were also distributed by Isabel among her ladies, and others she sent to het Mends., "After this selection had been mad; the remainder were divided into three lots : one was reserved to be exchanged for with Christians as were slaves among the Moors of Africa ; and for this purpose, proclamation was i
made, that all who had relatives in slavery in Africa should send in their names, that they might be thus ransomed ; another lot was to be sold to defray a part of the expense of the war ; and the third was distributed among the Lords of the Council, the nobles, and officers, who had taken part in the ex- pedition, according to their rank and services ; the 'Dukes receiving each one hundred slaves, the Counts fifty, the Knights a lesser number. "The Jews, who amounted to four hundred and fifty, endeavoured to ran- som themselves, and with this object brought to the King the wealth they had concealed. Ferdinand, allowing them to entertain the hope of freedom, continued to exact more, until he found they had given their all; when he coolly informed them, that their riches formed a part of his booty, and could not thereforepurchase their redemption ! But from the doom of slavery which fell on their Moorish fellow-citizens the Israelites were saved by their Cas- tilian brethren, who raised in their synagogues the sum of twenty-seven thou- sand ducats, exacted by the King for their ransom. Lest, however, this trait, opening the eyes of the Moors to what they, were to expect from the tender mercies of the victors, might lead them to destroy or keep secreted their treasures, it was proclaimed that a ransom would be admitted for the entire population, at the rate of thirty-six ducats for each person, if the whole amount was paid within eight months, during which time all should remain as hostages for its payment ; the jewels, plate, and other valuable effects in their possession, were also to be given in as part payment, until the balance was raised ; while those who died within the eight months were hot to be deducted from the sum total.
" Hard as were these term; they held out so bright a hope that the de- luded Moors hastened to surrender the wealth they had secreted. Notwith- standing their efforts, however, and the liberal contributions sent to them from Africa, the enormous sum exacted of them was not completed within the prescribed term, and the miserable people found that they had been the dupes of this truly diabolical expedient, and sacrificed their wealth only to rivet their chains. This device is in accordance with the infamous system of cruelty and deception pursued by Ferdinand and Isabel towards their Moor- ish subjects, whenever they deemed it safe and expedient. We find it re- lated, that it was suggested in the Council that the entire population of Ma- laga should be put to death to punish their heroic resistance, but that Isabel was too tender-hearted to allow of such a measure. Whatever might be her motive, it is certain that it was infinitely more profitable to reduce the Moors to bondage, while the butchery of such a number would have been attended i by no little labour and danger in a city scarcely freed from the pestilential miasmata engendered by the late mortality. " That it rested with Isabel to have rendered the fate of the wretched Malagans more endurable, no one will doubt ; and though the records of her time represent her as prostrating her person at the feet of her confessor, they also show that nothing could bend her will when she chose to carry out any resolution. That she was a party in the nefarious schemes devised to cheat the Jews and Moore out of liberty, wealth, and all but the mere breath of life—leaving them that because it was of use to her—there is not a shadow of doubt, for her most extravagant panegyrists tell us that nothing was done without her participation ; and thus she cannot be screened from the odium of deeds more worthy of an Marie than a Christian princess.
" The relapsed converts found in the city were given up to the Inquisi- tion, and perished at the stake. Twelve renegades also found there were acanaverados,—that is, they were used as marks in the game of camas ; pierced with reeds until they expired. " Thus was the entire population of a town renowned for beauty, wealth, splendour, and refinement, reduced to slavery, without regard for rank, sex, age, or education. The lamentations of the wretched exiles as they were driven from their homes are exquisitely given by the Christian chroniclers themselves; but words could only poorly express the anguish that sought a vent in thea."
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