tion of Valencia and the utter deficiency of its military establishment. Some months previously, he says, he had taken steps to organize and train the militia companies, which Lerma had ordered when viceroy, and save this the land was apparently defenceless.1 Early in August Don Augustin Mexia, a commander of high repute, was sent to Valencia, under pretext of inspecting the fortifications, with full powers to execute the plans of expulsion. He bore a letter from the king to Ribcra, expatiating on the influence which the latter had had in assuring him that he could do what he chose with the Moriscos. It dwelt on the dangers to which the defenceless land was exposed by their appeals to the Turk and to Muley Cidan and the promises of the latter, and on the little fruit to be expected from further efforts to convert them. For which reasons and chiefly for the service of God, and confiding in the divine favor, he had resolved on the expulsion of this evil race. In this there was not an hour to be lost in suggesting other methods or in weighing difficulties, the chief of which lay in the lords of Moorish vassals, and to remove this he relied greatly on Ribera's efforts. Even at the last moment, however, the councillors were not unanimous. August 29th Juan de Idiaqucz and Manuel Ponce de Leon presented consultas calling in question the wisdom of the action. The former evidently feared the opposition of the whole kingdom, and pointed out the difficulty of rcpopulation; the latter argued that the coast could be amply protected and fortified at the expense of the Moriscos and that they could be held in subjection by ' Danvila, pp. 274-86. 2 ' Ximenez, Vida de Ribera, p. 397. vigorous repressive measures.1 It was too late; the decisive steps had been taken, and there could be no withdrawal. Ribera thus had gained the object for which he had so earnestly been laboring. Yet when Mexia reached Valencia, August 20th, and, after conferring over details with Caracena and Francisco de Miranda, who was in charge of the local militia, Ribera was sent for and read the royal letter, his opinion suddenly changed. He selfishly argued that the Moriscos of Castile and Andalusia should be expelled, when those of the crown of Aragon, finding themselves isolated, would be converted. He urged the loss of the census which they owed, the damage to their lords, and the diminution of the tithes and ecclesiastical revenues. He proposed that all three should join in a letter to the king, urging him to commence with Andalusia, and when the conference ended at 4 P.M. he was still firm. He was told that a courier for Madrid would start at midnight, when he could write what he pleased; but on consideration he concluded that the king did not want advice but obedience, and he sent to the palace his letter in time for the courier, informing the viceroy and Mexia that the royal resolution came from heaven and he would further it with all his power. Still, he could not reconcile himself to the prospect of poverty, and on September 3d he said to Bleda and to the Dominican prior Alcocer, "Padres, we may well in future have to eat bread and herbs and mend our shoes," and he wrote to the king pointing out the difficulties and dangers impending.2 1 Janer, pp. 282-91. 2 Bleda, Cronies, p. 988. Where his own interests were not concerned Ribera gave full play to his impracticable fanaticism. On June The secret had been well kept. The assembly of the bishops, ordered by the pope, had sat until March 9, 1609, and had resolved to undertake anew the task of instruction. No one anticipated the sudden resolution, although suspicion was aroused when Mexia came ostensibly on a duty so much beneath his military rank, and it was strengthened by his frequent secret conferences with Caracena and Ribera. The Moriscos grew anxious and sent one of their number to Francisco de Miranda, with a request for a loan of considerable amount in the customary form of a censo, arguing that he would refuse to take what would prove valueless in case of expulsion, when Miranda, penetrating his object, with prompt selfsacrifice accepted it and gave an order on his wife for the money. In spite of this they commenced to fortify their houses, to cease laboring and bringing provisions to the city, which suffered in consequence; the nobles conveyed their families to the city in preparation for the worst, and Ribera's action in increasing the number of his retainers and laying in stores of victuals increased the excitement. The members of the Estamento Militar, or House of Nobles of the cortes, who were in Valencia, assembled in the Diputacion, or Parliament house, and sent a deputation of inquiry to the viceroy, but got nothing but fair words, which increased their anxieties; a proposition to appoint en 24th of this year he had written to Lerma protesting against the twelve years' truce with Holland, because in the articles he did not see a word providing for the inviolable maintenance of the Catholic faith (Ximenez, p. 400). He would probably have been still more aggrieved had he known that a secret article prohibited persecution for religious belief in both Holland and the provinces retained by Spain (Hubert, Voyage de l'Empereur Joseph II. dans les Pays Bas, p. 205.-Bruxelles, 1900). 1 Fonseca, p. 150. voys to the king led to a violent debate, which was continued in a second meeting, when hot words passed and swords were drawn. A third meeting was held, which resolved on the appeal to the king to represent to him the evils of expulsion, the poverty it would entail on the nobles, the churches, the monasteries, the gentry and citizens, whose wealth was invested in the rents charged upon the Morisco settlements, amounting to eleven millions of ducats, the diminution of the royal revenues for guarding the coasts, the desperation of the Moriscos leading to rebellion, and the enmity of the people to the nobles, inherited from the times of the Germanfa. The envoys performed their duty, but were told by the king that they were too late, for the edict had already been published in Valencia.1 Early in September the fleet had left Majorca and by the 5th it reached Iviza, where it was joined by the home squadrons and the galleons from the Indies. In all there were sixty-two galleys and fourteen galleons, carrying about eight thousand disciplined troops, which, with the land forces, formed an aggregate indicating the magnitude of the undertaking and the dangers anticipated in the execution. By the 17th they arrived at their several destinations at Alicante, Denia and the Alfaques of Tortosa, and commenced landing the men. Possession was taken of the Sierra de Espadan, and the frontiers were guarded to prevent the entrance of Aragonese Moriscos.2 On the 21st royal letters of the 11th, addressed to the Jurados, Diputados, and Estamento Militar were read, 1 Guadalajara, fol. 109.-Fonseca, pp. 148-58. reciting the renewed appeals of the Moriscos to the Turk, to Muley Cidan, to the Protestants and to other enemies of Spain, who all had promised to aid them; pointing out the evident danger of this and the service to God of ending the heresy and apostasy of that evil race, and announcing that he had resolved to expel them all. In this enterprise he summoned every one to aid Mexia; the viceroy would tell them what they would gain from the property of their vassals, and in addition they might be assured that he would in every way seek to repair the damage that would result.1 On the 22d was published the edict of expulsion, which had been sent to the viceroy August 4th. This commenced with the customary recital of the treasonable correspondence of the Moriscos with the enemies of Spain and of the necessity of placating God for their heresies, wherefore, in view of the failure of all efforts to convert them, the king had determined to send them all to Barbary. That, in comparison with the measures of Ferdinand and Isabella and of Charles V., the conditions of the expulsion were less inhuman, reflects the consciousness of weakened power to overcome resistance. These conditions were that, under irremissible pain of death, within three days after the publication of the edict in the several towns and villages, all Moriscos of both sexes, with their children, should depart for embarkation at the ports designated to them by a commissioner. They could take with them of portable property what they could carry on their backs; they would find vessels ready to convey them to Barbary, and would be fed on the voyage, but they must 1 Janer, p. 297. |