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advantage, and prepared for the struggle as for a certain victory.

The unexpected recovery of Don Pedro destroyed all these hopes; but it would not, perhaps, have prevented the two hostile factions from deciding their quarrel by force of arms, had not the sudden death of Don Juan Nuñez and that of his nephew, the Lord of Villena, at once deprived the Lara party of its acknowledged leaders. Both probably fell victims to the epidemic which then ravaged the Peninsula.* At any other time, the premature end of these two men, both in the prime of life, would doubtless have cast odious suspicions upon their adversaries. I do not, however, find in any contemporary author the slightest insinuation against Alburquerque, who was thus in one day delivered from two adversaries, who might have arrested the flight of his ambition. This involuntary respect for a personage exposed to so much jealousy and hatred is an honourable testimony, which ought to be registered as a rare exception to the manners of the fourteenth century, and which it would be manifestly unjust to impugn now.

Alburquerque, thus freed from Don Juan Nuñez, and having the Infante of Aragon and Queen Maria under his control, might henceforth imagine himself sole master of Castile. The young king took no part in the government. He evinced no interest in any other occupation than the chase, and passed whole days on horseback with his falcons and dogs, as indifferent to

* Don Juan Nuñez died at Burgos, whither he had probably gone to raise in his favour Old Castile, which province was much attached to his house.-Ayala, p. 29.

the good as to the evil which his ministers might commit in his name. No one yet understood his character, nor probably did he understand it himself. He had been brought up in seclusion, had betrayed no exclusive passion, no decided taste, except that for violent exercise, which is usual at his age. He was scarcely sixteen.

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ACCORDING to an ancient custom, grown by prescription into a law, the Cortes ought to meet at the commencement of every reign, when the new king, who presided, would learn from the schedule of petitions presented for his examination, the abuses which had crept in under the rule of his predecessor, and the wants of the people he was about to govern. Accordingly, as soon as Don Pedro had recovered, the Cortes were convoked at Valladolid. It was not undesignedly that Alburquerque had decided upon holding the National Council in this city. On his road thither, the king would have to pass through provinces remarkable for their attachment to Don Juan Nuñez de Lara. It was expedient for the minister to show himself in public, accompanied by his sovereign, in order to prove his authority, and to make it respected. Perhaps also he had some private affront to avenge. Besides the neighbourhood of the Asturias, where, as was reported, the Conde de Trastamara had found a great number of partisans, justified the display of a considerable body of troops, who, according to Al

burquerque's orders, were to accompany the king upon the occasion of this his first royal progress.

Leaving Seville at the commencement of the spring of 1351, the king first directed his steps towards Estremadura* for the purpose of receiving homage from his brother, Don Fadrique, who had not yet appeared at court, although he had sent in his allegiance at the same time that Enrique had solicited pardon in person. The interview took place at Llerena, one of the principal commanderies of Santiago, where the knights, apprized of the royal intentions beforehand, had assembled in great numbers from all parts of the kingdom. The Master welcomed his brother with the greatest demonstrations of respect, and offered him that magnificent hospitality which might be expected from the powerful order of which he was chief. At Llerena, the oath of fidelity and homage which had been taken a few months earlier at Seville by the knights of Alcantara, was exacted from the commanders of Santiago. It contained the same clause, which was still new, to wit, that the Master should not be received into the fortresses of the order but by the king's permission.† A monarchical tendency had already began to modify feudal institutions, and the power of the Masters, once unlimited, was gradually reduced to the petty authority

* Probably at this period the Roman roads were still in sufficient preservation to allow easy communication between the great cities of Spain. It may be seen by the "Itinerary" of Antoninus, that one of the principal roads between the northern and southern provinces, branches off from Italica and at Merida joins the road leading to the Pyrenees.

† Ayala, p. 35. Rades, Cron. de Santiago, p. 45.

of a great officer of the court. The knights had lost the right of electing their Masters,* whom it was

*Thus, in 1339, on the death of Don Vasco Rodriguez Cornado, Master of Santiago, the cavalleros of the order chose as his successor Don Vasco Lopez his nephew. But his election proving displeasing to the king, Alfonso XI., who desired the Mastership for his son, Don Fadrique, various irregularities were alleged to have taken place at the election. The new Master, perceiving that a storm was gathering over his head, repaired to Portugal, and in his absence he was deprived of the Mastership and his election annulled, Don Alonso Melendez de Guzman, uncle to the child Don Fadrique being chosen in his stead. Mariana, Lib. xvI. chap. 5.-About two years anterior to this occurrence, Don Ruiz Perez, Master of Alcantara, was deposed by the authority of Nuñez de Prado, Master of Calatrava, to whom, according to their ancient constitution, the knights of Alcantara were subject. A fresh Master, Don Gonzalo Martinez, was elected, and in his turn accused of various high crimes and misdemeanours. The king cited

him to appear at Madrid and answer the charges brought against him; but Gonzalo Martinez, fearing the intrigues of Doña Leonor de Guzman, his professed enemy, went over to the king of Granada. He was subsequently taken prisoner, beheaded and burnt. Rades, "Cronica de Alcantara," chap. 17.— If a corresponding instance relative to the knights of Calatrava were required to prove the increasing subordination of the great military orders to the monarchy, this same reign of Alfonso XI. could supply us with an example. Don Garci Lopez, Master of Calatrava, was summoned by Alfonso to answer for having, during the king's minority, pillaged the country and encouraged disorder in the kingdom. Like Gonzalo Martinez, Garci Lopez fled. Don Juan Nuñez de Prado replaced Lopez, who, however, from his residence at Alcañizes in Aragon, exercised authority over so many of the cavalleros as would acknowledge it, On Lopez's death the schism continued, a successor to the late master being chosen at Alcanizes. Twenty years after the commencement of

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