The great discoveries which form such an important part of the history of this epoch were in no small measure due to the occupation of the east by the Turks, who, in their rapid rise to power had captured Constantinople in 1453, gained command of the eastern Mediterranean, and thus cut off trade with the Orient by the route that had made Venice and Genoa so rich and famous. The invention of the mariner's compass and more correct ideas of geography were also potent factors.

After the union of the numerous Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula and the conquest of the Moors, the adventurous spirit of the age found an outlet in the discovery and conquest of the new world.

Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella - 1474-1516

In 1469 occurred the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella, the event which, more than any other, tended to unite numerous discordant factions, reconcile opposing interests and give to the various Christian kingdoms of Spain a religious unity. At one time Spain had as many as fourteen petty kingdoms, but by the union of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile and Leon about all of the Christian portion of the peninsula was united, the chief exceptions being Navarre, a petty kingdom on the north, and Portugal, which was then independent.

At the time of the marriage neither of the parties were reigning monarchs, they themselves were rival claimants to a little kingdom, and the possessions falling to them by inheritance were trivial and insignificant compared with those acquired later by conquest or discovery.

Isabella was the daughter of John of Castile, and a lineal descendant of the famous English "John of Gaunt," Duke of Lancaster, from whom the Lancastrian kings of England were descended. On the death of her father, her brother, Henry IV, became king of Castile, and afterward declared her his lawful heir. Numerous candidates for her hand appeared, among whom is said to have been the Duke of Gloucester, afterward Richard III of England. She became queen of Castile and Leon upon the death of her brother Henry in 1474. It was claimed even then by Ferdinand that he should have been king of Castile, on the plea that he was the nearest male heir to Henry IV, and that under the Salic law a female could not inherit. His claim was not urged strongly, as the sovereigns were engaged in suppressing an insurrection, and had as much as they could do to make good their joint claim to the throne.

The question is interesting, and occurs later in Spanish history in the claims of the Carlists.

Having reduced the affairs within their own kingdom to order, the sovereigns turned their attention to their Moorish neighbors in Granada, and after a desultory war of ten years captured Granada and overthrew the Moorish power in Spain forever.

Under the joint sovereigns the country continued to thrive until the death of Isabella in 1504, when some trouble arose concerning the succession to Castile, but Ferdinand was successful, and when he died in 15 16 had acquired possession of all Spain.

The chief events of their reign were the institution of the Inquisition, the Conquest of Granada from the Moors, the Discovery of America, the Expulsion of the Jews, the Expulsion of the Unbaptized Moors, and the adoption of the pope's line dividing the Spanish and Portuguese colonies.

The Portuguese discovered and colonized the western coast of Africa, the islands adjacent, and doubled the Cape of Good Hope. Upon the return of Columbus in 1493 the Spanish and Portuguese claims were likely to conflict. The Pope claimed sovereignty over all heathen lands, and settled the question May, 1493, by drawing an imaginary line north and south one hundred leagues west of the Azores Islands, giving to Spain everything discovered and to be discovered west of that line. This solution was based on the supposition that the earth was flat. It worked well until the circumnavigation of Africa discredited the old theories and enhanced the value of trade with the Spice islands of the East Indies.

Isabella had a powerful mind, and it was largely due to her guiding hand that Spain suddenly took rank among the great kingdoms. Her daughter, Catherine of Aragon, was the first wife of Henry VIII. of England, and mother of Queen Mary. Another daughter, Joanna, married Philip of Austria, son of the emperor of Germany. Her character is marred, however, by two traits -- intolerance and bigotry -- which seem characteristic of the race.

The unbelieving, Jews in Spain were a source of great grief to her. Next to them were the infidel Moors. Although Granada had surrendered under a solemn pledge of civil and religious liberty, she did not hesitate to break it, for to her devout soul heresy was the greatest of all evils. It was for the suppression of these evils that she gave her consent to the institution of a Court of Inquisition.

Inquisition

"Under the influence of Torquemada, the confessor of Queen Isabella, that princess solicited a bull from the Pope for the establishment of the Inquisition. The method had been tried before. A bull was accordingly issued in November, 1478, for the detection and suppression of heresy. Anonymous accusations were received. The accused was not confronted by witnesses. Torture was relied upon for conviction. Llorente, the historian of the Inquisition, computes that Torquemada and his collaborators in the course of eighteen years burned at the stake 10,220 persons and otherwise punished 97,321. [Science and Religion]

Expulsion of the Jews

Spain at that time contained many Jews and Saracens who would not embrace the Christian religion. Accordingly, March 30, 1492, an edict for the expulsion of the Jews was issued, and all were ordered to leave the realm by the end of July of that year.

"They might sell their effects, but could not carry gold or silver away with them. Nobody would purchase what could be got for nothing after July. Whoever helped them was punished. Of the banished persons some made their way into Africa, some into Italy -- the latter carrying with them into Naples ship fever, which destroyed twenty thousand in that city. Some reached Turkey; a few England. Thousands, especially the mothers, the infants, and old people, died by the way." [Intellectual Development of Europe]

This action against the Jews was soon followed by one against the Moors.

Expulsion of the Unbaptized Moors

"An edict was issued February, 1502, ordering all unbaptized Moors in the kingdoms of Castile and Leon to leave the country by the end of April. They might sell their property, but not take away any gold or silver. They were forbidden to emigrate to the Mohammedan dominions. The penalty of disobedience was death. Their condition was worse than the Jews, who had been permitted to go where they pleased. The intolerance of the Spanish doctrine is shown by its assertion that the government would be justified in taking the life of all Moors because of their infidelity. Granada had surrendered under the solemn guaranty of the full enjoyment of civil and religious liberty." [Draper's Conflict of Science and Religion]

By this action Spain had deprived herself of citizens that could have been made of inestimable value to her. By expelling the Jews they lost much needed capital and, more valuable still, the intellect and training that had made that capital available and useful to them. With the expulsion of the Saracens she was deprived of the captains of industry and her manufacturing and agricultural interests have not yet recovered from the blow. Spain at that time was supposed to have a population of more than thirty millions; today she has about half that.

Her very discoveries sapped her vital powers. They cost her the best blood of her young men, lost by fever, shipwreck, and battle; they discouraged industry by painting larger and quicker returns for courage and daring; they brought slave labor and all the evils attendant in its train. She never, like Britain, made her colonies a part of herself, but pitiless in her exaction, drained their resources to the last drop and preserved her bold on them only by force and not by any sense of loyalty to her.

Synopsis of History Contemporary with This Reign

A. D.

1483. Edward IV, first Yorkist king, dies; his son Edward V reigns a few months and is put aside by his uncle, Richard III. Luther and Raphael born; (d. Luther, 1546; Raphael, 1520.)

1484. Zwingll, great Swiss reformer, born. (d. 1531.)

1485. Battle of Bosworth Field. Death of Richard III. Accession of Henry VII, first Tudor of England.

1497. Cabot, in employ of Henry VII, discovers North America. Vasco di Gama, Portuguese navigator, passes around Cape of Good Hope to the East Indies. Melancthon born. (d. 1560.)

1500. Cabral of Portugal discovers Brazil. Charles V, son of Philip of Burgundy and Joanna of Spain, grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella, born.

1503. Gonsalo de Cordova, the great Spanish general, defeats the French at Naples and conquers it for Spain.

1505.John Knox, the Scottish religious reformer, born. (d. 1572.)

1509. Death of Henry VII. Accession of Henry VIII. Calvin born. (d. 1564.) Portugal makes good her claim to nearly all the West Indies.

1513. Battle of Flodden. Defeat of the Scots. Death of James IV of Scotland.

Charles I - 1516-1556. First of the Spanish House of Hapsburg

Charles I of Spain -- Charles V of Germany -- was born at Ghent February 24, 1500, and united in his person the claims of four royal lines.

First. -- Through his father, Philip of Austria.
Second. -- Through his father's mother, daughter of Charles the Bold, which gave him a claim to the Netherlands.
Third. -- Through his grandfather, Emperor Maximilian First, a good claim to the imperial crown of Germany at the next election.
Fourth. -- Through his mother, Joanna, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, he became heir to Spanish possessions.

He succeeded to the Netherlands in 1506, on the death of Ferdinand, his grandfather; to his Austrian possessions in 1519, on the death of his grandfather Maximilian, and the same year was elected to the imperial crown. Spain was only a small part of his empire, and never the choicest part. Before his death the Spanish flag floated over Florida, New Mexico, Mexico, nearly all of South America except Brazil, the Philippine Islands, and all the West Indies. Throughout his reign he was kept busy defending from ambitious rivals the frontier of his extensive dominion.

At last in 1556, broken in health and weighed down by the burden of his responsibilities, he voluntarily abdicated, giving up the Netherlands, Spain and its possessions to his son, Philip II; Germany and his Austrian possessions to his brother Ferdinand. It was agreed between the brothers Charles and Ferdinand that in the event of the male line of either family becoming extinct, the other family should succeed to its territorial possessions. This was one of the claims that later made even more complex the question of "Spanish Succession."

Charles retired to a monastery, where he died September, 1558. He was by long odds the ablest and most powerful monarch of the sixteenth century, and it was in his reign that Spain reached the highest point of her material development. For him Pizarro conquered Peru, Cortez gave him Mexico, Magellan circumnavigated the globe, and the great wealth of the New World poured into his treasury.

Among his contemporaries were Henry VIII of England, Francis I of France, whom he defeated and captured at the battle of Pavia; Frederick Barbarossa of Algiers, whom he defeated and compelled to release thousands of Christian slaves; Luther, Melanchthon, Zwingli and Erasmus, leaders of the Reformation then starting, and Solyman the Magnificent, emperor of Turkey.

Two important events having a bearing on religious matters were the founding of the Order of Jesuits and the Council of Trent.

Order of Jesuits: Loyola

In 1521 the French attempted the invasion of Spain. They captured the fortress of Palpuma, but were quickly driven out, and the incident has no military importance. In another way, however, it has had a marked effect on the history of the world. At the capture of this fortress, Ignatius de Loyola, a gallant Spanish soldier, was severely wounded and taken prisoner.

"His constitution was shattered, and he was doomed to be a cripple for life. The palm of strength, grace and skill in knightly exercises was no longer for him. A new vision then arose in his mind, which those who know how close was the relation between religion and chivalry in Spain will be at no loss to understand. He would still be a soldier; he would still be a knight-errant; but the soldier and knight-errant of the spouse of Christ. His restless spirit led him to the Syrian deserts and to the Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre. His activity and zeal bore down all opposition; and under his rule the Order of Jesuits began to exist and grow rapidly to the full measure of his gigantic powers.

The great outbreak of Protestantism in one part of Christendom had produced an equally violent outbreak of Catholic zeal in another. Two reformations were pushed on at once with equal energy and effect: a reformation of doctrine in the North, a reformation of manners and discipline in the South. In this great Catholic reaction Ignatius de Loyola bore the same part which Luther bore in the great Protestant movement." [MacAuley's Church of Rome]

There had been numerous organizations within the Latin Church -- like the Templars, Hospitalers and Knights, into which military ideas entered largely; others, like the Benedictines, Dominicans and Franciscans, were chiefly given spiritual labors and the education of the young.

The Jesuit differed from all these. The earlier associations sought to withdraw from contact with the world and its concerns, to seek spiritual perfection in a retired life of contemplation and prayer within the cloister. On the contrary, the Jesuit system was to take religious men from retirement, to bring them into active intercourse with the world, waiving all regulations of dress or rule, that their members might be free to mix in any company as agents of the Order. The general wielded almost unlimited power; the vow of obedience was taken to him; the tenure of each member depending upon his will.

Frequently in their history they have been engaged in controversy with the Powers of Rome, and that general has stood toward the pope much as one of the powerful feudal leaders of the Middle Ages might towards a weak sovereign.

"The Order was established by a bull of Paul III, 1540, the rules being that the general, chosen for life, should be obeyed as God; that they should vow poverty, chastity, obedience, and go wherever they were commanded; their obedience was to the pope, not to the Church -- a most politic distinction, for thereby an unmistakable responsibility was secured. They had no regular hours of prayer; their duties were preaching, the direction of consciences, education. By the Jesuits, Rome penetrated into the remotest corners of the earth, established links of communication with her children who remained true to her in the heart of Protestant countries, and, with a far-seeing policy for the future, silently engrossed the education of the young.

"There was no guise under which the Jesuit might not be found -- a barefoot beggar clothed in rags; a learned professor, lecturing gratuitously to scientific audiences; a man of the world, living in profusion and princely extravagance; there have been Jesuits the wearers of crowns. There were no places into which they did not find their way; a visitor to one of the loyal old families of England could never be sure but that there was a Jesuit hidden in the garret or secreted behind the wainscot of the bedroom. They were the advisers of the leading men of the age, sat in the cabinets of kings, and were their confessors.

"With implicit and unquestioning obedience to his superior, like a good soldier, it was the paramount duty of the Jesuit to obey his orders, whatever those orders might be. It was for him to go, at the summons of a moment, with his life in his hand, to the very center of pagan or of reformed and revolted countries, where his presence was death by law, and execute the mission entrusted to him. If he succeeded, it was well; if he should fall, it was also well.

"In South America they obtained a footing in Paraguay and commenced their noble attempt at the civilization of the Indians, bringing them into communities, teaching them social usages, agricultural arts and the benefits arising to themselves and the community from labor. They gave them a military organization, subdivided according to the European system, into the customary arms-infantry, cavalry, artillery; they supplied them with munitions of war."

Men found by bitter experience that within the silken glove there was an iron hand. From their general in Rome, who was absolute commander of their persons and unchallengeable administrator of their prodigious wealth, down to the humblest missionary who was wearing away his life among the Ancies, or on the banks of the Hoang-ho, or in the solitary prairies of Missouri, or under the blazing sun of Abyssinia, whether he was confessing the butterfly ladies of Paris, whispering suggestions into the ear of the King of Spain, consoling the dying peasant in an Irish cabin, argueing with mandarins in the palace of the Emperor of China, extorting the admiration of learned societies by the profundity of his philosophy and the brilliancy of his scientific discoveries, whether he was to be seen in the exchanges and marts of the great capitals, supervising commercial operations on a scale which up to that time had been attempted by none but the Jews; whether he was held in an English jail as a suspected vagabond, or sitting on the throne of France; whether he appeared as a great landed proprietor, the owner of countless leagues in the remote parts of India or South America, or whether he was mixing with crowds in the streets of London and insinuating in Protestant ears the rights of subjects to oppose and even depose their monarchs; or in the villages of Castile and Leon preaching before Catholic peasants the paramount duty of a good Christian implicitly to obey the mandates of his king -- wherever the Jesuit was or whatever he was doing, men universally felt that the thing he had in hand was only auxiliary to some higher, some hidden design. This power became at last so intolerable that the Jesuits were banished from France, Spain, Portugal and other Catholic countries. [Draper's Intellectual Development of Europe]

Council of Trent

Upon the accession of Paul' III in 1534 to the papal throne, energetic measures for church reform were put forth.

In 1545 he issued a bull summoning delegates for the whole Latin Church to meet in council at Trent. Twenty-five sessions in all were held, ranging, with frequent interruptions, from 1545 to 1563, and during which time three popes died. Most of the enactments had reference to church government, or questions of theology not especially interesting to-day.

Among other things it declared that Scripture and tradition are to be received and venerated equally; that the Vulgate should be the sole, authentic and standard Latin version of the Bible, and gave it such authority as to supersede the original text. It appointed a committee to investigate and report on heretical books. The enforcement of its regulations against the Protestants was another source of bitter strife.

Battle of Pavia 1525

The title of Emperor of Germany was elective and not hereditary. On the death of Maximilian numerous candidates appeared, Francis I of France and Charles I of Spain being the leading ones. Henry VIII of England had promised his influence to Francis. Charles was elected and 'the French king believed Henry had played him false. Soon after a meeting was arranged between Henry and Charles, in which the emperor skillfully played upon Henry's dreams of enforcing his vague claims to the throne of France, and an alliance was made in 1522.

The war that followed was wholly to the advantage of Spain, and Henry, convinced that he had been outwitted by his cleverer nephew, opened secret negotiations with Francis and lent him some aid. Previous to this Francis had insulted and reduced to beggary the Duke of Bourbon, Constable of France, who went over to the side of the emperor.

At the battle of Pavia, Bourbon greatly distinguished himself, won a great victory for Charles, and made prisoner his former ungrateful master. This victory, however, convinced Henry that he was again on the wrong side, and he offered to join with Charles in an invasion of France, pledging a large army at his own expense. If the war was successful Henry was to be crowned king of France and to cede to the emperor numerous provinces thereof, and in addition give him the hand of his daughter Mary.

The people of Britain rose in opposition to a tax levied to raise the funds necessary for this invasion. Charles, with little regard for his uncle, made a treaty with Francis which the French king did not hesitate to repudiate once he was safe at home, urging that his assent was given under compulsion. The Spanish army then, under the leadership of Bourbon, attacked Rome and captured the city, 1527, with the loss of their leader. The pope was now a prisoner in the hands of Charles, and never, even from the barbarians, did Rome suffer more than at the hands of her Spanish captors.

Voyage of Magellan

"Ferdinand Magellan had been in the service of the King of Portugal; but an application he had made for an increase of half a ducat a month in his stipend having been refused, he passed into the service of the King of Spain. Magellan persuaded the Spanish government that the Spice Islands could be reached by sailing to the west, the Portuguese having previously reached them by sailing to the east, and, if this were accomplished, Spain would have as good a title to them, under the bull of Alexander VI, as Portugal.

Five ships, carrying 2137 men, were accordingly equipped, and on August 10, 15 19, Magellan sailed from Seville. He struck boldly for the south-west, not crossing the trough of the Atlantic, as Columbus had done, but passing down the length of it, his aim being to find some cleft or passage in the American continent through which he might sail into the Great South Sea. His perseverance and resolution were at last rewarded by the discovery of the strait named by him San Vittoria, in affectionate honor of his ship, but which, with a worthy sentiment, other sailors soon changed to 'the Strait of Magellan.'

"And now the great sailor having burst through the barrier of the American continent, steered for the northwest, attempting to regain the equator. For three months and twenty days he sailed on the Pacific, and never saw inhabited land. He was compelled by famine to strip off the pieces of skin and leather wherewith his rigging was here and there bound, to soak them in the sea and then soften them with warm water, so as to make a wretched food; to cat the sweepings of the ship and other loathesome matter; to drink water that had become putrid by keeping; and yet he resolutely held on his course, though his men were dying daily. As is quaintly observed, 'their gums grew over their teeth, and so they could not eat. He estimated that he sailed over this unfathomable sea not less than 12,000 miles.

"In the whole history of human undertakings there is nothing that exceeds, if indeed there is anything that equals, this voyage of Magellan's, That of Columbus dwindles away in comparison. It is a display of superhuman perseverance--a display of resolution not to be diverted from its purpose by any motive or any suffering, but inflexibly persisting to its end. Well might his despairing sailors come to the conclusion that they had entered on a trackless waste of waters, endless before them, and hopeless in a return. He comforted himself when he considered that in the eclipses of the moon the shadow cast of the earth is round; and as is the shadow, such, in like manner, is the substance. It was a stout heart -- a heart of triple brass -- which would thus, against such authority, extract unyielding faith from a shadow.

"This unparalleled resolution met its reward at last. Magellan reached a group of islands north of the equator--the Ladrones. In a few days more he became aware that his labors had been successful; he met with adventurers from Sumatra.

At an island called Zebu, or Mutan, he was killed, either, as has been variously related, in a mutiny of his men, or -- as they declared -- in a conflict with the savages, or insidiously by poison.

Through treason and revenge it is not unlikely that he fell, for he was a stern man; no one but a very stern man could have accomplished so daring a deed. Hardly was he gone when his crew learned that they were actually in the vicinity of the Moluccas, and that the object of their voyage was accomplished.

On the morning of November 8, 1521. having been at sea two years and three months, as the sun was rising they entered Tidore, the chief port of the Spice Islands. The King of Tidore swore upon the Koran alliance to the King of Spain.

"And now they prepared to bring the news of their success back to Spain. Magellan's lieutenant, Sebastian d'Elcano, directed his course for the Cape of Good Hope, again encountering the most fearful hardships. Out of his slender crew he lost twenty-one men. He doubled the Cape at last; and on September 7, 1522, in the port of St. Lucar, near Seville, under his orders, the good ship San Vittoria came safely to an anchor. She had accomplished the greatest achievement in the history of the human race. She had circumnavigated the earth.

"Magellan thus lost his life in his enterprise, and yet he made an enviable exchange. Doubly immortal, and thrice happy! for he impressed his name indelibly on the earth and sky, on the strait that connects the two great oceans, and on those clouds of starry worlds seen in the southern heavens. He also imposed a designation on the largest portion (Pacific Ocean) of the surface of the globe." [Draper's Intellectual Development of Europe]

A dispute. arose at once between the Spanish and the Portuguese over their new possessions. After a time a congress was called representing the best geographers and scientists of the two nations. No actual agreement was reached, but it was tacitly understood that the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, and the Philippine Islands should belong to Spain, and the greater part of Brazil fell to Portugal. The congress had another and more important influence in diffusing better ideas of the geography of the world.

Abdication of Charles V

"On the 25th day of October, 1555, the estates of the Netherlands were assembled in the great hall of the palace at Brussels. They had been summoned to be witnesses and the guarantees of the abdication which Charles V had long been resolved upon and which he was that day to execute. None knew better than he the influence of great spectacles upon the masses of mankind. Plain even to shabbiness in his own costume and usually attired in black, no one ever understood better how to arrange such exhibitions in a striking and artistic style.

The closing scene of his long and energetic reign he had now arranged with profound study. The termination of his own career and the opening of his beloved Phillip's were to be dramatized in a manner worthy of the august character of the actors and the importance of the great stage where they played their parts.

At the western end a spacious platform or stage with six or seven steps had been constructed, below which was the range of benches for the deputies of the seventeen provinces. Upon the stage itself there were rows of seats covered with tapestry upon the right hand and upon the left. These were for the Knights of the Order and the guests of high distinction. In the rear were other benches for the members of the three great councils. In the center of the stage was a splendid canopy beneath which were placed three gilded arm chairs. All the seats upon the platform were vacant, but the benches below were already filled. Grave magistrates in chain and gown, executive officers in the splendid civic uniforms for which the Netherlands were celebrated already filled every seat within the space allotted.

As the clock struck three the hero of the scene appeared, leaning on the shoulder of William of Orange, and immediately followed by Phillip II accompanied by a glittering throng of warriors, counselors, governors, and Knights of the Fleece. The curtain was about to fall forever upon the mightiest emperor since Charlemagne, and where the opening scene of the long and tremendous tragedy of Philip's reign was to be simultaneously enacted.

It is worth our while to examine minutely the appearance of the two principal characters. Charles V was then fifty-five years and eight months old, but he was already decrepit with premature old age. He was about middle height, had been athletic and well proportioned, broad in the shoulders, deep in the chest, thin in the flank, very muscular; he had been able to match himself with all competitors in the tourney and the ring, and he vanquished the bull with his own hand in the favorite national amusement of Spain. He had been able in the field to do the duty of captain and soldier, to endure fatigue and exposure, and every privation except fasting.

Now corpulent in hands, knees and legs, he supported himself with difficulty upon a crutch with the aid of an attendant's shoulder. In face he had always been extremely ugly, and time had certainly not improved his physiognomy. His hair, once of a light color, was now white with age, close clipped and bristling. His beard was gray, coarse and shaggy. His forehead, spacious and commanding; his eye dark blue, with an expression both majestic and benignant. The lower part of his face was famous for its deformity. The under lip, a Burgundian inheritance, as faithfully transmitted as the duchy and the country, was heavy and hanging; the lower jaw protruding so far beyond the upper that it was impossible for him to bring together the few fragments of teeth which still remained, or to speak a whole sentence in an intelligible voice. So much for the father!

The son, Phillip II, was a small, meager man, much below the middle height, with thin legs and narrow chest, and the shrinking, timid air of a habitual invalid. His body was but a human cage, which, however brief and narrow, held a soul at whose flight the immeasurable expanse of heaven was too contracted. In face, he was the living image of his father Such was the personal appearance of the man who was about to receive into a single hand the destinies of the whole world, whose single will was for the future to shape the fortunes of every individual then present, of many millions more in Europe, America, and to the ends of the earth, and of countless millions yet unborn." [Motley's Rise of the Dutch Republic]

Synopsis of History Contemporary with this Reign

A. D.

1516. Las Casas made Protector of the Indians by Ximenes.

1517. Dispute between Tetzel the Peddler and Luther, concerning the sale of indulgences. Balboa condemned to death by a jealous governor. Cordova discovers Yucatan.

1519. Cortez lands in Mexico. Magellan sails. Maximilian I dies, Charles V elected Emperor of Germany.

1520. Cortez captures City of Mexico. Montezuma dies.

1521. Cortez completes the conquest of Mexico. Luther excommunicated. Turks capture Belgrade.

1522. Turks capture Island of Rhodes from the Knights of St. John.

1524. Chevalier Bayard killed at battle of Rebec.

1525. Battle of Pavia. Francis I of France defeated and captured by Charles.

1526. Treaty of Madrid. Francis I released.

1529. League formed by Protestant princes of Germany. Turks under Suliaman the Magnificent besiege Vienna. Fall of Cardinal Woolsey from power.

1532. Pizarro conquers Peru.

1533. Catherine of Aragon divorced. Henry VIII renounces papal supremacy. Marries Anne Boleyn. Queen Elizabeth born.

1536.Anne Boleyn executed. Henry VIII marries Jane Seymour the next day.

1537. Jane Seymour dies. Edward VI born.

1539. De Soto discovers Florida.

1540. Henry marries and divorces Anne of Cleves. Marries Catherine Howard. Printing press established in Mexico. The Society of Jesuits founded.

1541. Pizarro assassinated.

1542. Catherine Howard executed. De Soto dies and is buried in the Mississippi. Calvin organizes his religious states in Geneva. Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, born. (d. 1587.)

1543. Henry VIII marries Catherine Parr. Copernicus, a Prussian astronomer, publishes his works proving the sun the centre of the solar system.

1547. Henry VIII dies, his son, Edward VI, accedes to the throne. Francis I of France dies. Henry II accedes to the throne. Ivan the Terrible rises to supreme power in Russia and is the first to be called Czar.

1552. Raleigh born. (d. 1618.) Spenser born. (d. 1599)

1553. Edward VI dies. Wills the crown to Lady Jane Grey, great-granddaughter of Henry VII. Mary and Elizabeth had each been declared illegitimate by separate act of Parliament. The country supports Mary. She accedes to the throne.

1554. Mary marries Philip II of France. Lady Jane Grey executed.

1555. Rogers, Latimer and Ridley, English Bishops, burned at the stake.

1556. Cranmer burned. By abdication of Charles V, Philip II becomes King of Spain, and Ferdinand, I Emperor of Germany.

PHILIP II: 1556-1598

Son of Charles V and Isabella of Portugal. In 1554 he married his cousin, Mary, Queen of England, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, and acceded to the throne in 15 56 upon the abdication of his father.

Spain under his father Charles had been but one of the kingdoms of a large empire, and it saw but little of its monarch; under Philip everything was centralized in Spain. He was cold, reserved, ambitious, and intensely bigoted, possessing all the ambition of his father and but part of his ability. The growth of Protestantism was source of great trouble to him, and the long, bitter wars in which it involved him in his endeavors to suppress it exhausted his kingdom and left him but the form, and not the substance, of power to transmit to his son.

The great events of his reign were the wars of the Netherlands for independence, the attempted invasion of England, the conquest of Portugal, the defeat of Turks at Lepanto, wars with France and Italy, and colonization of New World.

His marriage with Mary gave him no heir, and was a bitter disappointment to him. A son would have united all the English possessions to those of Spain and made its ruler the most powerful in the world. After the death of Mary he proposed marriage to Elizabeth, which she, with characteristic shrewdness, appears to have taken under consideration until such time as she was able, with safety, to decline it.

"Philip has been accused of indolence. As far as the body was concerned, such an accusation was well founded. Even when young he had no fondness for the robust and chivalrous sports of the age. He never, like his father, conducted military expeditions in person, but it would be a great mistake to charge him with sluggishness of mind. He was content to toil for hours and long into the night at his solitary labors. No expression of weariness or of impatience was known to escape him.

He received petitioners graciously and listened to all they had to say with patience, for that was his virtue; but his countenance was exceedingly grave, and there was a reserve in his deportment which made the boldest feel ill at ease in his presence. It was natural that men of even the highest rank should be overawed in the presence of a monarch who held the destinies of so many millions in his hands, and who surrounded himself with the veil of mystery which the most cunning politician could not penetrate.

He kept his spies at the principal European courts, who so furnished him with intelligence that he was as well acquainted with what was passing in England and in France as if he had resided on the spot. His mind was filled with suspicions, and be waited until time had proved their truth, treating the object of them with particular favor until the hour of vengeance arrived. His own historian says, 'His dagger followed close upon his smile.'

It was a defect in his administration that his love of power and his distrust of others made him desire to do everything himself. As he was slow in making up his own mind, and seldom acted without first ascertaining the opinions of his counsel, we well understand the consequences of such delay. Even when a decision did come, it often came too late to be of service, for the circumstances which led to it had wholly changed." [Motley's Rise of the Dutch Republic]

Philip II was absolute master of an empire so superior to the other states of the world in extent, in resources, and especially in military and naval forces, as to make the project of enlarging that empire into a universal monarchy seem a perfectly feasible scheme. Since the downfall of the Roman empire no such preponderating power had existed in the world. When Philip II reigned, France had become so miserably weak through her civil wars that he had nothing to dread from her.

In Germany, Italy, and Poland he had zealous friends and divided enemies. Against the Turks he had gained glorious and great successes. He could look around the continent of Europe without discerning a single antagonist of whom he could stand in awe. Beside the Spanish crown Philip succeeded to the kingdom "of Naples and Sicily, the Duchy of Milan, Franche-compte, and the Netherlands; in Africa he possessed Tunis, Oran, the Cape Verde and the Canary Islands; in Asia the Philippine, the Sunda, and part of the Molucca Islands. He was lord of the most splendid portion of the new world; the empires of Peru and Mexico, New Spain and Chili, with their abundant mines of the precious metals; and Hispaniola and Cuba were provinces of the sovereign of Spain. Philip had also the advantage of finding himself at the head of a large standing army in a perfect state of discipline and equipment, in an age when except some few insignificant corps, standing armies were unknown in Christendom. The renown of the Spanish troops was justly high, and the infantry in particular was considered the best in the world." [Creasey's Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World]

The impetuous chivalry of France, the serried phalanx of Switzerland, were each found wanting when brought face to face with the Spanish infantry." [Macaulay's Spain Under Philip II]

Agriculture

This, under the Moors, had reached such a such state of perfection, now rapidly declined, and suffered greatly by reason of short-sighted legislation. "A company of sheep-farmers (Mesta) contrived to obtain the rights of pasture over the whole of Spain under certain limitations. They claimed over any farm a right of way 240 feet wide at certain seasons for their flocks to and from the uplands in winter pasture. Lands once reduced to pasture could never afterward be plowed without the sanction of this powerful body and the payment of a fine fixed by themselves. The sheep consumed the Spaniards and not the Spaniards the sheep. It was computed that 200,000 acres of good, arable land had gone out of cultivation, and as much more was left in a state of nature by the Monks, who were its owners." [Yeates' Growth and Vicissitudes of Commerce]

Trade and Industry

These suffered equally with agriculture. Spain's colonies were founded not to increase trade but to wring the last possible ounce of gold from them, no matter at what expense to native life. Charles was shrewd enough to see the advantage of an extensive commerce, but his successors were blind to an opportunity which, had it been cultivated, would have been worth "more to them than all the treasure she secured."

From 1701 to 1809 her colonies on the mainland yielded her in gold and silver alone 2,515,660,000 piasters," or about as many dollars.

"A short-sighted and slavish policy, however, led to ruin. The natives were systematically crushed. Mulattos and Mestizos sprung of Spanish parentage were excluded from posts of trust. Only those of the Spanish sent out by council could exercise authority, and these were not allowed, while in office, to settle in the country. Creoles of white parentage, but born and brought up in the country, could not administer any department of government. Spain kept all the traffic to herself and jealously excluded foreigners from her ports.

"Seville first, and afterward Cadiz, were the harbors to which the royal monoply of colonial trade was confined." [Yeates' Growth and Vicissitudes of Commerce]

Home manufactures were stagnant. The whirr of 10,000 looms might once have been heard in many of the Moorish cities. Now there were not so many in the whole peninsula. Merino wool was highly valued throughout Europe, but Spain imported the cloth woven from the fleece which she had supplied.

In spite of the enormous treasures from the new field pouring into the coffers of Spain the country was continually running in debt.

Revolt of the Netherlands

Spanish soldiers were quartered in the Netherlands, under the Duke of Alva, and their presence was a constant source of irritation to the people. A rebellion arose in 1566, which was mercilessly crushed. The Inquisition was introduced, and within a few months after Alva's arrival 2,000 people had felt its power. Even the Pope besought Philip to be more lenient. The country was overawed by these stern measures, and when William of Orange came to their help with troops from Germany there were few bold enough to take sides with him.

England in an industrial way was the gainer by these troubles, as large numbers of skilled artisans fled to that country for safety, and established in England the industries for which Holland had long been famous.

Alva soon proceeded to impose taxes upon the Dutch for the support of his soldiers. This was the last straw. The seven northern provinces immediately arose in rebellion, 1572, and chose the Prince of Orange as their captain. They were secretly encouraged by Elizabeth, the King of France, and others, who were glad of an opportunity to annoy Philip.

Under the leadership of the Prince of Orange substantial progress was made. Spain issued a proclamation offering a reward to anyone who would remove such an enemy of the king and church. After several attempts at assassination, one was at last successful, and closed the career of the great leader of the Netherlands, July 10, 1584.

In 1586, Elizabeth actively engaged in their assistance, sent the Duke of Leicester and Sir Philip Sidney with 5,000 soldiers. Leicester besieged Zutphen, and Sir Philip Sidney fell before its walls. Nothing came of the expedition, and in 1587 it was recalled.

In 15S8 the Dutch lent material aid to England by blockading the Duke of Parma, so that he was unable to join the "Spanish Armada."

For eighty years, with but one considerable intcrruption, a desultory war was carried on with Spain, though their independence was recognized by England and France about 1581.

Philip had prepared an armada Of 300 ships of war with which to crush the Netherlands once and forever. A pestilence seized the fleet when ready to sail, and of 15,000 troops on board more than half died in less than a month. The same fleet later as the "Spanish Armada" was no happier.

Antwerp

"The siege of this prosperous and splendid city by the Duke of Parma was the great success of Philip's reign. The slaughter of 3,000 citizens in cold blood and the plunder to which the city was subjected for many days were his reward. He had the glory of destroying a harbor where a forest of masts was once to be seen and of causing grass to grow in the streets of the city, which had contributed to his revenues far more than any other in his wide dominion." [Yeates' "Growth and Vicissitudes of Commerce."]

Lepanto

Turkish power in the east bad assumed gigantic proportions, and their navy controlled the Mediterranean.

In 1571, a large fleet under the command of Don Juan of Spain, natural brother of Philip II, and the most skillful warrior of his time, aided by the Venetian and papal fleets, was sent against them. It fell in with the Turkish fleet off Lepanto on the coast of Greece, and gained one of the most decisive battles of the world. Even Constantinople was threatened, but Philip was jealous of his brother and the victory was not followed up.

The defeat of the Turks before Vienna in 1529 and at Lepanto occurred at the highest tide of Turkish power.

Don Juan afterwards took charge of the Spanish affairs in the Netherlands, and under his care they were rapidly improving, when he died so suddenly as to leave strong suspicions of having been poisoned.

Invasion of England Planned

Philip's ambitious plans for the marriage of Elizabeth having failed, he now determined to secure by force what be had been unable to effect by diplomacy.

"One nation only had been his active, his persevering, and his successful foe. England had encouraged his revolted subjects in Flanders and given them aid in men and money, without which they must have fallen. English ships had plundered his colonies; they had inflicted defeats on his squadrons; they had captured his cities and burned his arsenals on the very coasts of Spain; were she once subdued the Dutch must submit; France could not cope with him, the empire would not oppose him, and universal dominion seemed sure to be the result of the conquest of that malignant island." [Creasey's Decisive Battles of the World]

With the enormous resources at his hand he began to plan the invasion of England. A veteran army under the Duke of Parma was mobilized at Dunkirk, just across the channel, and only forty-five miles from Dover. He gathered the largest fleet that the world had ever seen; well equipped, with a high reputation, and a complement of over thirty thousand men.

"Escorted by an overpowering naval force, Parma and his army were to embark in their flotilla, cross the sea to England, where they were to be landed together with the troops which the Armada brought from the ports of Spain. The Armada set sail from Tagus the 29th of May, 1588, but near Corunna met with a tempest that drove it into the port with severe loss. The Armada sailed again from Corunna on the I 2th of July. On the 2oth of July it was discovered by the English scouting ships drawn up in the form of a crescent, which, from horn to horn, measured some seven miles.

"A match at bowls was being played, in which Drake and other high officers of the fleet were engaged. At this exciting information the captains began to hurry down to the water, and there was a shouting for the ship's boats, but Drake coolly checked his comrades and insisted that the match should be played out." [Creasey's Decisive Battles of the World]

Charles Kingsley, in "Westward Ho!" describes for us the men who were waiting to "singe the beard of the king of Spain."

"See those five talking earnestly in the center of a ring, which longs to overhear, and yet is too respectful to approach close. These soft, long eyes and pointed chin we recognize already; they are Walter Raleigh's. The fair young man in the flame-colored doublet, whose arm is around Raleigh's neck, is Lord Sheffield; opposite them stands, by the side of Sir Richard Grenville, a man as stately even as he -- Lord Sheffield's uncle, the Lord Charles Howard of Effingham, Lord High Admiral of England; next to him is his son-in-law, Sir Robert Southwell, Captain of the Elizabeth Jones; but who is that short, sturdy, plainly dressed man, who stands with legs a little apart and hands behind his back, looking up, with keen gray eyes, into the face of each speaker? His cap is in his hands, so you can see the bold head of crisp brown hair and the wrinkled forehead, as well as the high cheek-bones, the short square face, the broad temples, the thick lips, which are yet as firm as granite. A coarse, plebeian stamp of man; yet the whole figure and attitude are that of boundless determination, selfpossession, energy; and when at last he speaks a few blunt words, all eyes are turned respectfully upon him,for his name is Francis Drake.

"A burly, grizzled elder, in greasy, sea-stained garments, contrasting oddly with the huge gold chain about his neck, waddles up, as if he had been born and had lived ever since in a gale of wind at sea. The upper half of his sharp, dogged visage seems of brick-red leather, the lower of badger's fur; and he claps Drake on the back, and with broad Devon twang shouts, 'Be you a coming to drink your wine, Francis Drake, or be you not? -- Saving your presence, my Lord.'

The Lord High Admiral only laughs, and bids Drake go and drink his wine; for John Hawkins, Admiral of the Port, is the patriarch of Plymouth seamen, if Drake be their hero, and says and does pretty much what be likes in any company on earth; not to mention that today's prospect of an Armageddon fight has shaken him altogether out of his usual crabbed reserve, and made him overflow with loquacious good humor, even to his rival Drake."

The Engagement

"By nine o'clock on the thirty-first of July on the Cornish coasts the fleets had their first meeting. There were one hundred thirty-six sails of the Spaniards, of which ninety were large ships, and sixty-seven of the English. Their Captain-General (Medina Sidonia) sat on the deck of his great galleon, the St. Martin, surrounded by generals of infantry and colonels of cavaliers, who knew as little as he himself of naval matters. The English ships, on the other hank, swift and easily handled, could sail round and round those unwieldy galleons, hulks, and galleys rowed by fettered slave gangs.

The superior seamanship of such experienced captains as Drake, Frobisher and Hawkins obtained the weather gauge at once, and cannonaded the enemy at intervals with considerable effect, easily escaping at will out of range of the Armada, which was incapable of bearing sail in pursuit, although provided with an armament which could sink all its enemies at close quarters. Their whole fleet did its utmost to offer general battle, but in vain. The English, following at the heels of the enemy, refused all such invitations and attacked only the rear guard.

"They (Spanish) had been out-maneuvred, out-sailed, and thoroughly maltreated by their antagonists, and unable to inflict a single blow in return.

"(Second day). Never since England was England had such a sight been seen as now revealed itself in those narrow straits between Dover and Calais. Along that low sandy shore, within the range of the Calais fortifications, one hundred thirty Spanish ships, the greater number of them the largest and most heavily armed in the world, lay face to face and scarcely out of cannon shot, with one hundred fifty English sloops and frigates, the strongest and swiftest that the island could furnish, and commanded by men whose exploits had run-through the world.

Farther along the coast, invisible but known to be performing a most perilous and vital service, was a squadron of Dutch vessels of large size lining both the inner and outer edges of the sandbanks off the Flemish coast. These fleets of Holland blockaded every port, and longed to grapple with the Duke of Parma as soon as his fleets of gunboats should venture forth.

"(Last engagement). The battle lasted six hours and was long, hot and fierce. The English still maintained the tactics which had proved so successful, and resolutely refused the fierce attempts of the Spaniards to lay themselves alongside. The well disciplined English mariners poured broadside after broadside against the towering ships of the Armada, which afforded so easy a mark, while the Spaniards on their part found it impossible, after wasting incredible quantities of powder and shot, to inflict any severe damage on their enemies.

Throughout the action not an English ship was destroyed and not a hundred men were killed. There was scarcely a ship in the Armada that did not suffer severely. Sixteen of their best ships had been sacrificed and from four to five thousand soldiers killed. The Captain-General was a bad sailor but a brave soldier. Crippled as he was he would still have faced the enemy, but the winds and currents were fast driving him on a lee shore and the pilots, one and all, assured him it would be inevitable destruction to remain. But blackness of night seemed suddenly to descend. Damaged, leaking, without pilots, without a captain- commander the great fleet entered that fierce storm and were whirled along the iron crags of Norway and between the savaoe rocks of Faroe and the Hebrides.

Disaster after disaster marked their perilous track; gale after gale swept them hither and thither; the coasts of Norway, Scotland and Ireland were strewn with the wrecks of that famous fleet which claimed the dominion of the sea. Thirty-nine vessels were driven upon the Irish coast, where nearly every soul on board perished, where the few who escaped to the shores were either butchered in cold blood or sent coupled, in halters, from village to village, in order to be shipped to England.

Of one hundred thirty-four vessels which sailed from Corunna in July but fifty-three, great and small, made their escape to Spain, and these were so damaged as to be utterly worthless. The 'Invincible Armada' had not only been vanquished, but annihilated." [Motley's "Rise of Dutch Republic."]

The English Admiral, Drake, says that on their return "They were not ashamed to publish in sundry languages, in print, the great victory which they pretended to have obtained against this realm, and spread the same in a most false sort over all parts of France, Italy, and elsewhere."

Navarre

Henry, king of Navarre, upon the assassination of Henry III of France in 1589, acceded to the French throne as Henry IV. France was torn asunder by civil strife, and Henry the Huguenot did not have the hearty support of the Catholic faction. Philip would not allow a Protestant king to accede to the throne of his chief rival power, and so, aided with money and men, a Catholic league formed in opposition to Henry. The forces met for the decisive contest March 14th, 1590.

The king had fastened a great white plume to his helmet and had adorned his horse's head with another equally conspicuous. He now exclaimed to those about him, 'Comrades, God is for us; these are His enemies and ours; if you lose sight of your standards rally to my white plume; you will find it on the road to victory and to honor.'

The king plunged into the thickest of the fight 'two horses' length ahead of his companions. That moment he forgot he was king of France and general-in-chief, both in one, and fought as if he were a private soldier. The enemies outnumbered the knights of the king's squadron more than as two to one. No wonder that some of the latter flinched and actually turned back, especially when the standard-bearer of the king, receiving a deadly wound in the face, lost control of his horse and went riding aimlessly about the field, still grasping the banner in grim despair. But the greater number emulated the courage of their leader and the white plume kept them in the road to victory and to honor.

But, although fiercely contested, the conflict was not long. The troopers of Mayenne wavered and finally fled. Henry of Navarre emerged from the confusion safe and sound, covered with dust and blood not his own. The battle had been a short one. Between ten and eleven o'clock the first attack was made, and in less than an hour the army of the League was routed." [Baird's Huguenots and Henry of Navarre]

This was the death-blow of the League and the turningpoint in the career of Henry IV. and when he adjured Protestantism in 1593 he received a fairly cordial support of all the discordant elements of his kingdom.

By the Edict of Nantes, which he issued in 1598, provision was made for the re-establishment of Catholic worship wherever it had been banished within thirty years, and religious toleration was granted to the Protestants throughout the French dominions. He was now fairly seated on the throne, and Philip experienced not only the mortification of the defeat but saw with fear the development of a rival power that was to cause his successors immeasurable trouble. Although Philip II transmitted to his son, Philip III, an empire which was apparently intact, it was only so in form and not in substance.

Synopsis of Events Contemporary with this Period

1558. The French recover Calais. Mary dies and Elizabeth accedes to the throne.

1559. Papal Index Expurgatorius names the books that must not be read.

1561. Francis Bacon, author of "Novum Organum" born. (d. 1626).

1562. Religious war breaks out in France; Coligny, Protestant leader. Sir John Hawkins introduces slavery into the West Indies.

1564. Shakespeare born. (d. 16 16.) Galileo born. (d. 1642).

1565. Slaughter of the French Huguenot settlement in Florida by the Spaniards, and the founding of St. Augustin. Famous defense of Malta by Knights of St. John from attacks of the Turks.

1566. The Netherlands revolt against Spanish rule.

1567. Duke Alva arrives in the Netherlands. French religious war. Mary Stuart deposed. Her son, James VI, of Scotland, accedes to the throne.

1568. Inquisition condemns all the inhabitants of the Netherlands to death.

1571. Don John of Austria aided by Spanish, Venetian and papal squadrons, defeats the Turks in the famous naval battle of Lepanto. Kepler, German astronomer, discoverer of "Kepler's Laws," born. (d. 1630.)

1572. Massacre of Protestants in France on St. Bartholomew's Day. Marriage of Henry of Navarre and Margaret of Valois.

1577. Drake circumnavigates the globe.

1580. Philip II of Spain conquers Portugal.

1583. Adoption of the Gregorian Calendar.

1584. Prince of Orange assassinated.

1585. Raleigh attempts to plant colonies in the new world. Richelieu born. (d. 1642.)

1587-Mary Stuart executed. Henry of Navarre meets with some success against the Catholic League.

1588. Defeat of Spanish Armada.

1589. Catherine de Medici dies. Henry III. of France last of the Valois, assassinated. Henry IV. of Navarre, first of the Bourbon kings of France, accedes to the throne.

1590. Henry IV. defeats the League in the battle of Ivry.

1594. Henry IV, having adjured Protestantism and solidified the factions of France, ends the civil war that had lasted forty years, and accedes to the throne.

1596. The Turks defeat the Bohemians and Hungarians with great slaughter on the plain of Cerestes. English and Dutch capture Cadiz. Descartes, French metaphysician, born. (d. 1650.)

1598. Navarre, by Edict of Nantes, grants religious toleration in France. Philip II of Spain dies leaving a ruined navy and an exhausted kingdom.

Next: Chapter 3: Decline of Spanish Power: 1598-1807AD