History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic, vol 1

History of the Reign of
Ferdinand and Isabella V1 (The
Catholic) [with accents]

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Title: History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella V1
Author: William H. Prescott

Release Date: November, 2004 [EBook #6920] [This file was first
posted on February 11, 2003]
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, HISTORY
OF THE REIGN OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA V1 ***

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HISTORY OF THE REIGN OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA,
THE CATHOLIC.
BY WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT.
IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I.

TO THE HONORABLE WILLIAM PRESCOTT, LL.D., THE GUIDE
OF MY YOUTH, MY BEST FRIEND IN RIPER YEARS, THESE
VOLUMES, WITH THE WARMEST FEELINGS OF FILIAL
AFFECTION, ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED.

PREFACE
TO THE FIRST EDITION.
English writers have done more for the illustration of Spanish history,
than for that of any other except their own. To say nothing of the recent
general compendium, executed for the "Cabinet Cyclopaedia," a work
of singular acuteness and information, we have particular narratives of
the several reigns, in an unbroken series, from the emperor Charles the
Fifth (the First of Spain) to Charles the Third, at the close of the last
century, by authors whose names are a sufficient guaranty for the
excellence of their productions. It is singular, that, with this attention to

the modern history of the Peninsula, there should be no particular
account of the period which may be considered as the proper basis of
it,-- the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella.
In this reign, the several States, into which the country had been broken
up for ages, were brought under a common rule; the kingdom of Naples
was conquered; America discovered and colonized; the ancient empire
of the Spanish Arabs subverted; the dread tribunal of the Modern
Inquisition established; the Jews, who contributed so sensibly to the
wealth and civilization of the country, were banished; and, in fine, such
changes were introduced into the interior administration of the
monarchy, as have left a permanent impression on the character and
condition of the nation.
The actors in these events were every way suited to their importance.
Besides the reigning sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isabella, the latter
certainly one of the most interesting personages in history, we have, in
political affairs, that consummate statesman, Cardinal Ximenes, in
military, the "Great Captain," Gonsalvo de Cordova, and in maritime,
the most successful navigator of any age, Christopher Columbus;
whose entire biographies fall within the limits of this period. Even such
portions of it as have been incidentally touched by English writers, as
the Italian wars, for example, have been drawn so exclusively from
French and Italian sources, that they may be said to be untrodden
ground for the historian of Spain. [1]
It must be admitted, however, that an account of this reign could not
have been undertaken at any preceding period, with anything like the
advantages at present afforded; owing to the light which recent
researches of Spanish scholars, in the greater freedom of inquiry now
enjoyed, have shed on some of its most interesting and least familiar
features. The most important of the works to which I allude are, the
History of the Inquisition, from official documents, by its secretary,
Llorente; the analysis of the political institutions of the kingdom, by
such writers as Marina, Sempere, and Capmany; the literal version,
now made for the first time, of the Spanish-Arab chronicles, by Conde;
the collection of original and unpublished documents, illustrating the
history of Columbus and the early Castilian navigators, by Navarrete;
and, lastly, the copious illustrations of Isabella's reign, by Clemencin,
the late lamented secretary of the Royal Academy of History, forming

the sixth volume of its valuable Memoirs.
It was the knowledge of these facilities for doing justice to this subject,