22 DECEMBER 1849, Page 15

HISTORY OF PETER THE CRUEL. * "THE portrait-painter has always nature

to work upon," says Reynolds, "even though it may be of a commonplace kind." The remark may be applied by analogy to the historian, at least to the historian of a period respecting which original records exist. He has men and events, man- ners, institutions, and the characteristics of society. If the country be young and rude, he can mark the germ of its later stages, and paint its actual violence and licence ; if declining, he can trace the causes of its de- cay, and depict its follies and vices. The thing really essential for the historian is the historical mind. He must throw aside the labours of his predecessors as authorities, and go at once to the original records; and he must be prepared to read them with a learned eye. From laws he must be able to deduce the state of opinion and society; the character of the constitution from the method of lawmaking. He must be able to ani- mate the incidents and anecdotes of the time, not only by exhibiting their dramatic points, but by assigning to them their true character : since we must not, on the one hand, bring men to a test of civilization that they cannot bear, nor, on the other, excuse crime on the plea of manners ; which last, perhaps, is the risk we run in this age. From the fabulous stories attached to his name, the intrinsic strength of his character, and more than all perhaps his brief connexion with Edward the Black Prince, the history of Peter the Cruel is better known to English readers than that of almost any other Spanish monarch ex- cept Charles the Fifth and his son Philip. His life, however, has not been very well narrated ; being sometimes treated as a pure romance, sometimes the legends and traditions have been more followed than con- temporary authority ; while the character of the historians has neither been philosophical nor dramatic—they have neither given a striking picture of the man nor a true estimate of his times. By a careful study of original documents, and by bringing to his task a mind that had pre- viously considered the history and character of the middle ages, Prosper Ilidrimfle has succeeded in producing an informing and interesting life of Pedro the Cruel ; with much of freshness in the colouring and composi- tion in all that relates to the man himself. There is more substantial novelty in what relates to the age. The French writer has analyzed the proceedings of the Cortes, and thence shown the old constitution of Castile as practically at work in the fourteenth century. From the same source, joined with the Spanish laws of the period, he exhibits the rights and opinions of the various classes of society ; while historical incidents and private anecdotes display the manners of the times, and how for absolute rights were overridden or disregarded in the daily rubs of a law- less life. The Moors, their positive character, and their influence on that of the Spaniards, is sufficiently introduced ; that of the Jews strikes us as being overlooked. The appeal both by Pedro and his bastard brother Enrique to foreign arms naturally introduces a sketch of the Free Com- panies, which under Du Guesclin and the Black Prince alternately dis- posed of the crown of Castile. The industrial or economical condition of Spain is not so much regarded; perhaps because there was very little in- dustry to exhibit, beyond those necessary employments without which society cannot exist. The story of Pedro is likewise drawn out from the chroniclers at fuller detail probably than the remote nature of the events requires, but not more than is necessary to preserve a proportionate ale as regards the other parts, or to display the strange character of many of the incidents. Upon the whole, however, we think the author's The History of Peter the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon. By Prosper stertmEe. With additional Rotes. In two volumes. Published by Bentley.

genius is better adapted to the inferential than the descriptive. He can better deduce the inferences to be drawn from a law or a practice than he can conjure up from a story a picture of the past.

Prosper Merimee,, with a good many other writers, inclines to take the favourable side of Pedro's reign and character ; partly on account of the laws and customs of the age, partly because he holds that Pedro embodied in his own person a spirit of resistance to the nobles and of support to the people. This, we believe, is a traditional Spanish view ; but we must confess that we find slender traces of the fact. Pedro hated his nobles, first, because his great minister Albunplerque, to whom he was indebted for his crown, had kept him longer in leading-strings than he liked ; and secondly, when a successful revolt, shortly after his dis- missal of the minister, placed the monarch in the power of his nobles, they treated him with an assumption of equality, which galled his princely pride. As for any formed plan of repressing the nobility and raising the commons, we perceive none. He executed or assassinated the nobility when they opposed or offended him, or even on mere suspicion ; and among numerous victims he probably massacred several who were tyrannical or unpopular lords, but it was not their unpopularity that caused their death. They fell for Pedro, not the people; although it must be owned that the King sometimes exhibited a cadi-like kind of justice, especially when he himself was not a party. A defence founded upon the manners of the age must be received with some caution ; for we are apt to argue in a circle from the crime to the manners and from the manners to the crime. Amid the practices of the most barbarous age some sense of right and morality still obtains. Even if we allow that men of action are to be judged by practice rather than opinion, still the age that felt the tyrannies and cruelties of Pedro witnessed the chivalry and moderation of the Black Prince. But in reality Peter the Cmel's own people settled the matter. His conduct at last rendered him so detested that he was compelled to flee his kingdom without striking a stroke, on the appearance of Don Enrique with his mercenaries. When the Black Prince had restored him to his kingdom by the battle of Najera, he was unable to hold it after the Prince withdrew indignant at the cruelties and bad faith of Pedro. Nor in esti- mating the consequences of his conduct must the opinion of his age as to the birth of his opponent be lost sight of; although illegitimacy was less regarded in Spain than elsewhere.

The following extracts will give an idea of the use which the historian has made of the great session of the Cortes in 1331, as well as of their mode of transacting business. The " petition " was equivalent to a bill.

" The petitions of the nobility appear equally [with those of the clergy] dic- tated by an interest wholly personal. Appealing to the generosity of the King, they beseech him to grant them immunities, pensions, or pecuniary assistance in consideration of the great losses which the recent epidemic has occasioned them by carrying off those who cultivated their estates. Labourers have become scarce, and now set an exorbitant price upon their services ; in consequence of which, the domains of those hidalgos who are unable to pay high wages are converted into deserts. Probably this picture ot misery is not exaggerated; for the Government takes their grievances into consideration, and promises to make every effort to re- lieve the distress of the poorer landowners. It assures them of its protection, holds out hopes of pecuniary assistance, and in order to provide for pressing emergencies, fixes by a special ordinance the price of wages, as well as that of articles of general consumption. It is extremely difficult in the present day to form a correct estimate of such a measure, which, whether just or not in its de-

tails, appears to have been called for by an imperious necessity. * • •

"Avery very remarkable law had been passed in the last reign, prohibiting eccle- siastics from receiving by devise gifts of lands; the alleged ground of complaint being, that amongst other grave abuses the practice of devising property had occasioned the impoverishment of many noble families. It seems that this law was very frequently evaded, for its enforcement is again demanded. The ring promises this, and meanwhile authorizes the reclaiming of lands alienated in con-

tempt of the ordinances of his predecessors. • •

'In examining the petitions addressed to the King by the deputies for the towns we at once perceive the important part they then took in the National Assemblies. Their petitions alone treat of questions really momentous and affect- ing the prosperity of the country: they present a compound, natural to the period in which they were drawn up, of noble and generous ideas and narrow prejudiess. Such was the medimval nra, especially in Spam; and if we compare the opinions expressed in the Cortes at Valladolid with those which then prevailed throughout the rest of Europe, the barbarism of some institutions in Castile will cause less surprise than the wisdom of others will excite admiration. No one will be aston- ished to find deputies of the Commons in 1851 requiring that Christian debtors should be empowered to make their Jewish creditors bankrupts; or that Jews should be prohibited from holding lands, and yet allowed the privilege of taking money in usury. But it will occasion some surprise to see that in the same as- sembly the abolitions of freedoms, and the most complete liberty to exercise every trade, should be demanded and obtained ; that stipulation should be made for the personal safety of the deputies, guarantees for individual liberty required, and lastly, that a promise should be extorted from the Crown to revoke those scandal- ous immunities which exempted certain privileged persons from taxation, and thus rendered the burden intolerable to the other citizens.

"About one-half the demands presented by the Commons have for their object the reform of existing abuses in the assessment and collection of taxes. By the number and grave nature of the complaints, the extent of disorder in this depart- meet of the administration may be estimated. Amongst the measures proposed to the Cortes must be cited a new general census, in order to establish the assess- ment of the poll-tax, a measure rendered absolutely necessary by the scourge [the "black plague"] which had just ravaged the Peninsula; and the appointment of a body of overseers whose duty should be to repress the extortions then com- monly practised by the officers of the revenue. "The replies of the Crown are generally curt and precise. A esto respond° que In tango per bien e mantle tine se pude,' (To this I reply, that I hold it to be good, and therefore I command it); such is the formula most generally pronounced. When the King rejects the petitions of Cortea, we must admit that it is generally with good reason, and in order to repel exorbitant and unjust pretensions. In the case of the Jews and Moore, for instance' he reasonably refuses to sanction the

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exceptional laws Cortes would have enact to their disadvantage; and when he evades the requests of the clergy to restore the revenues which the Crown has taken from them, he pleads the necessities of the treasury, and the laws voted freely in the assembled Cortes under the preceding reign. The royal promises to administer justice, to diminish the amount and number of the taxes, to respect the customs and liberties of the kingdom, are moreover numerous and explicit; in a word, such as might be expected from a prince just ascending the throne. The conclusion of this history will show how these magnificent promises were fulfilled."

Among the various stories of war and adventure, the following may be selected as an example of the singular character of the age, as well as of Don Pedro. 'I pass over the enumeration of several unimportant battles, and the siege or surprise of many a small fortress, to repeat a singular anecdote related by a grave author, Alonso Martinez de Talavera, chaplain to Don Juan IL King of Castile, and compiler of a chronicle in high estimation. Don Pedro, he writes, having ar- rived before the castle of Cabezou, which belonged to the Conde de Trastamara, vainly summoned the governor to surrender it. The castellan, faithful to his lord, deigned no reply to the herald and his magnificent promises, and even re- fused the interview which the King requested. The whole garrison of the castle consisted only of ten esquires, banished Castilians; but ten resolute men, es- conned behind lofty and thick walls, in a donjon built upon perpendicular rocks, against which no battering-rams could be brought to bear, would have no great difficulty in defending themselves against an army, and need yield only to famine. The siege might be of long durat■on, for the place was well provisioned. The ten esquires, however, were all young men, and although willing to risk their lives in repelling an assault, were not likely to endure with patience the weariness of a blockade. They wanted amusement, and they insolently told the castellan that they must have women to keep them company in their eagle's nest. Now there were in Cabezon no other women than the governor's wife and daughter. If you will not deliver them up to us,' they said to him, 'we all quit your castle; or what is more, we open the gates to the King of Castile.' The course dictated by the code of chivalric honour in such an emergency was explicit.

'At the siege of Tarifa, Alonso Perez de Guzman, being summoned to sur- render that town, under penalty of beholding his son murdered before his eyes, replied to the Moors by throwing them his own sword wherewith to slay the boy. This action, which obtained for the governor of Tarifa the surname Guzman the Good, was a fazaida, one of those heroic precedents which every valiant knight was bound to imitate. Permittitur homicidumfilii potius quam deditio castelli, such is the axiom of a doctor in chivalry of that period. The castellan of Cabezon, as magnanimous in his way as Guzman the Good, so satisfied his garrison that they gave up all idea of abandoning him. Two esquires, however, less wicked than their companions, were filled with horror at their treason, and escaped from the castle. On being brought before the King, they gave him an account of the mutiny they had witnessed, and its results. Don Pedro was filled with indig- nation, and immediately entreated the governor to allow him to execute justice upon the miscreants. He offered in exchange for these traitors ten gentlemen of his army, who before they entered Cabezon should solemnly swear to defend the castle against all a.vailants, including the King himself, and be ready to die at their posts with the commandant. His proposal having been accepted, the King ordered the traitors to be quartered, and their mangled bodies committed to the flames. The romantic colouring with which a fervid imagination has adorned this anecdote, renders it difficult to separate the truth from fiction, but at least we may read in it the popular impression of Don Pedro's character,—a strange compound of chivalrous sentiments, and a love of rude justice bordering upon ferocity."

The story of Don Pedro is a kind of epic or tragedy, pointing the moral of avenging the sins of the fathers upon the children. Don Alfonso, the father of Don Pedro, was a monarch of great qualities and abilities, who raised his kingdom from a state of anarchy to one of order, and established the Castilian supremacy over the Moors by his victory on the banks of the Rio Salado. Unhappily, he married from policy; and his numerous family by his mistress possessed a considera- tion which out of Spain they would not have enjoyed even in that age. The plainness of manners, which wanted the decorum of modern times, and did not cover dislike or indifference by an appearance of con- sideration, doomed the Queen Donna Maria to neglect, and exalted the mistress Donna Leonor to distinction. On the death of Don Alfonso matters were reversed. The favourite was deserted by all ; her sons vainly tried a military opposition ; and Don Pedro, by the sagacity and energy of his father's minister, Alburquerque, ascended the throne. But the family exasperations and jealousies of years were not so readily salved. The vindictive Queen wrung from the minister an order for the execution of her former rival, and Donna Leonor was privately put to death. The plots and revolts of his bastard brothers disturbed the whole of Don Pedro's reign, and possibly aggravated his suspicious and jealous temper. Fraternal blood was shed, and Pedro himself at last fell by a brother's hand. Defeated in an attempt to raise the siege of Toledo, Don Pedro was driven into the castle of Montiel. Escape was impossible, except with the connivance of some principal leader in his brother's army ; and an effort was made by mighty promises to corrupt Du Guesclin. The Gas- con at once settled not to accept the proposal : the point he laid be- fore his followers was, whether he should make Don Enrique acquainted with it ; and this being answered in the affirmative, the unfortunate Don Pedro was entrapped, though possibly without the privity of the adventurers as to his brother's bloody determination.

"On the night of the 23d of March 1369, ten days after the battle of Montiel, Don Pedro, accompanied by Men Rodriguez, Don Fernando de Castro, and some other knights, secretly left the fortress, and repaired to the quarters of the French adventurers. They had all bound cloth round the shoes of their horses to pre- vent the noise of hoofs being heard, and then, leading them by the bridle, de- scended the eminence on which the castle stood. The King had exchanged his usual dress for a light coat of mail, and had thrown a large cloak over him. The sentinels had received their instructions beforehand, and allowed him to pass the line of circumvallation, a kind of wall constructed with loose stones, which had been hastily erected around Montiel; they then led him to Du Guesclin, who, sur- rounded by his captains, was waiting for him on the other side of the wall. To horse, Messire Bertrand,' said the King, accosting him in a low voice ; ' it is time to set out.' No answer was returned. This silence, and the evident embarrass- ment of the French, seemed an evil augury to Don Pedro. He made an attempt to vault into his saddle, bat a man-at-arms was already holding his horse's bridle. He was surrounded. He was desired to wait in a neighbouring tent. Resistance was impossible; he followed his guides.

"A few minutes of mortal silence ensued. Suddenly, from amidst the circle formed around the King, there appeared a man armed at all points, his vizor up; it was Don Enrique. The circle respectfully make way for him. He stands be- fore his brother face to face. They had not seen each other for fifteen years. Don Enrique gazed searchingly at the cavalleros from Montiel, his eyes wander- ing from one to another. Where then is this bastard,' he said; this Jew, who calls himself King of Castile?' A French esquire points to Don Pedro. There,' he said, 'stands your enemy.' Don Enrique, still uncertain, regarded him fixedly. 'Yes, it is I,' exclaimed Don Pedro; '1, the King of Castile. All the world knows that I am the legitimate son of good King Alfonso. Thou art the bas- tard !' Immediately Don Enrique, rejoiced at having provoked this insult, draws his dagger and strikes him lightly on the face. The brothers were too near each other in the narrow circle formed by the Knights Companions to draw their long swords. They seize each other by the waist, and struggle furiously for some time without any one attempting to separate them. Those around even draw back to give them room. Without loosing hold, they both fall on a camp-bed in a corner of the tent; but Don Pedro, who WAS not only taller but stronger than his brother, held Don Enrique under him. He was seeking fora weapon to pierce him through, when an Aragonese cavallero, the Vizconde de Rocaberti, seizing Don Pedro by the foot, threw him on one side, so that Don Enrique, who was still clinging to his brother, found hirmelf uppermost. He picked up his poniard, and, raising the King's coat of mail, Vunged it again and again into his side. The arms of Don Pedro cease to clasp his enemy, and Don Enrique disengaging him- self, several of his followers despatch the dying man. Amongst the knights who accompanied Don Pedro, two only, a Castilian and an Englishman, endeavoured to defend him. They were cut to pieces. The others surrendered without offering resistance, and were humanely treated by the French captains. Don Enrique had his brother's head cut off and sent to Seville."