CHAPTER X. EXPULSION. Influence of the Duke of Lerma over Philip III. Memorials of Archbishop Ribera Projects in 1602 THE MORISCOS. CHAPTER I. THE MUDEJARES. It has been the fashion to regard the war of the Reconquest, through which Spain was gradually won back from the Moslems, as a war of religion. During its progress at times it suited the purpose of the Christian princes so to represent it, when they solicited the aid of crusaders and proclaimed themselves as champions of the Cross. It was so regarded in Rome, where service against the Spanish Saracens was frequently considered as the equivalent of service in Palestine and the knights of the Temple and of the Hospital were allowed to expend their military ardor on their infidel neighbors. In fact, however, the medieval history of Spain shows that in the long struggle there was little antagonism either of race or religion. At the Moorish conquest the populations willingly submitted to the invaders, who were no harsher masters than the Goths had been, and the conquerors made no attempt to interfere with the religion of their new subjects who maintained their faith and their ecclesiastical organization until the irruption of fresh hordes of fanatic barbarians, known as Almoravides and Almohades, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, caused their gradual disappearance. Similarly as territory was won by the Christians the peaceable population was left undisturbed; prisoners taken in war without conditions were enslaved, but the conquests were mostly the result of formal surrenders in which the inhabitants were guaranteed the possession of their property and the enjoyment of their religion and laws. They came to be known by the name of Mudejares —the corruption of Mudegelin, an opprobrious term bestowed upon them by the Moors, derived from the word Degel which we are told was equivalent to Antichrist.1 Enslaved prisoners could acquire liberty by various acts of public service, but baptism did not enfranchise them unless the owner were a Moor or a Jew. No forcible conversion was allowed, but only persuasion, and the convert had all the rights of the Old Christians save eligibility to holy orders; he was never to be insulted but was to be held in honor.2 The toleration which thus became the national policy was strengthened by the habitual alliances with Moorish neighbors of Christian princes involved in mutual civil 1 Luis del Marmol Carbajal, Rebelion y Castigo de los Moriscos de Granada, p. 158 (Biblioteca de Autores Españoles, Tom. XXI.). Ample evidence of the nullity of the religious factor in the war of the reconquest will be found in Dozy, Recherches sur l'Histoire et la Littérature de l'Espagne (Leipzig, 1881), and in Francisco Fernandez y Gonzales, Estado de los Mudéjares de Castilla (Madrid, 1866). The ballads of the Romancero afford abundant proof of the absence of popular religious acerbity, even down to the capture of Granada. 2 Las Siete Partidas P. I. Tit. v. ley 23; P. IV. Tit. xxi. ley 8; Tit. xxiii. ley 3; P. VII. Tit. xxv. 11. 2, 3. It is evident that the Moorish slaves were often men of trained intelligence, highly trusted by their masters for another law (IV. xxi. 7) provides that the latter are bound by any contracts made by slaves whom they have placed in control of a shop or ship or any description of trade. The Spanish disinclination to labor and the monopoly of industry by Moors and Jews is readily intelligible from medieval conditions. war. There never was the slightest hesitation in invoking the aid of the infidel, whether to foment or suppress a rebellion. When, in 1270, Alfonso X. excited disaffection by releasing Portugal from its vassalage to Leon, his brother, the Infante Philip, took advantage of the situation and organized a conspiracy with a number of the more powerful ricosomes. Their first thought was to solicit assistance from Abu Jusuf, King of Morocco, who willingly promised it; the Castilian prelates lent their influence to the movement; the conspirators established themselves in Granada as their head-quarters and there was prospect of desolating war with the Moors of both Africa and Spain when Queen Violante intervened and the rebellious nobles were bought off with concessions. Twelve years later, when Sancho el Bravo revolted against his father Alfonso with the support of all the nobles except the Master of Calatrava and of all the cities except Seville, Alfonso thus abandoned sent his crown. to Abu Jusuf as security for a loan. The Moor at once furnished him with 60,000 doblas and came himself with large forces; Sancho made alliance with Granada, and the ensuing war, with Christians and Moors on both sides, raged until the death of Alfonso.1 Instances such as this on a large scale could be multiplied, but a trivial occurrence will perhaps better illustrate the Christian spirit of the time. In 1299 certain knights of the military-religious Order of Santiago seized some castles of the Order on the Moorish border, filled them with Saracen troops and threatened to give them over to the enemy unless the 1 Crónica de Don Alfonso X., cap. xix.-lviii., lxxvi.—Barrantes, Illustraciones de la Casa de Niebla, Lib. I. cap. vi., ix. (Memorial Histórico Español, IX. 72-9, 92-8). |