would have been odious to a martial and generous people, he iffued a proclamation, commanding every city in Caftile to enroll a certain number of its burgeffes, in order that they might be trained to the ufe of arms on Sundays and holidays; he engaged to provide officers to command them at the public expence; and as an encouragement to the private men, promised them an exemption from all taxes and impofitions. The frequent incurfions of the Moors from Africa, and the neceffity of having fome force ready to oppofe them, furnifhed a plaufible pretence for this innovation. The object really in view was to fecure the king a body of troops independent of his barons, and which might ferve to counterbalance their power. The nobles were not ignorant of his intention, and faw how effectually the fcheme he had adopted would accomplish his end; but as a meafure which had the pious appearance of refifting the progrefs of the infidels was extremely popular, and as any oppofition to it arifing from their order alone, would have been imputed wholly to interested motives, they endeavoured to excite the cities themselves to refufe obedience, and to remonstrate against the proclamation, as inconfiftent with their charters and privileges. In confequence of their inftigations, Burgos, Valladolid, and feveral other cities, rofe in open mutiny. Some of the grandees declared themselves their protectors. Violent remonstrances were prefented to the king. His Flemish counsellors were alarmed. Ximenes alone continued firm and undaunted; and partly by terror, partly by intreaty; by force in fome inVOL. XII.

ftances, and by forbearance in others, he prevailed on all the refractory cities to comply. During his adminiftration, he continued to execute his plan with vigour, but foon after his death it was entirely dropt.

at

His fuccefs in this fcheme for reducing the exorbitant power of the nobility, encouraged him to tempt a diminution of their poffeffions, which were no less exorbitant. During the contefts and diforders infeparable from the feudal government, the nobles, ever attentive to their own interest, and taking advantage of the weakness and diftrefs of their monarchs, had feized fome parts of the royal demefnes, obtained grants of others, and gradually wrefted almost the whole out of the hands of the prince, and annexed them to their own eftates, The rights, by which most of the grandees held these lands, were extremely defective; it was from fome fuccefsful ufurpation, which the crown had been too feeble to difpute, that many derived their only titles to poffeffion. An enquiry carried back to the origin of these encroachments, which were almost co-eval with the feudal fyftem, was impracticable; and as it would have stripped every nobleman in Spain of great part of his lands, it must have excited a general revolt. Such a ftep was too bold, even for the enterprizing genius of Ximenes. He confined himself to the reign of Ferdinand; and beginning with the penfions granted during that time, refused to make any farther payment, be-: caufe all right to them expired with his life. He then called to account thofe who had acquired crown lands under the administra

tion of that monarch, and at once refumed whatever he had alienated. The effects of these revocations extended to many perfons of great rank; for though Ferdinand was a prince of little generofity, yet he and Ifabella having been raised to the throne of Caftile by a powerful faction of the nobles, they were obliged to reward the zeal of their adherents with great liberality, and the royal demefnes were their only fund for that purpose. The addition made to the revenue of the crown by these revocations, together with his own frugal œconomy, enabled Ximenes not only to difcharge all the debts which Ferdinand had left, and to remit confiderable fums to Flanders, but to pay the officers of his new militia, and to establish magazines more numerous, and better furnished with artillery, arms, and warlike ftores, than Spain had ever poffeffed in any former age. The prudent and difinterested application of thefe fums was a full apology to the people for the rigour with which they were exacted.

The nobles alarmed at thefe repeated attacks, thought it neceffary to take precautions for the fafety of their order. Many cabals were formed, loud complaints were uttered, and defperate refolutions taken; but before they proceeded to extremities, they appointed fome of their number to examine the powers in confequence of which the Cardinal exercifed acts of fuch high authority. The admiral of Caftile, the duke de Infantado, and the condè de Benevento, grandees of the first rank, were entrusted with this commiffion. Ximenes received them with cold civility, and in answer to their demand pro

duced the teftament of Ferdinand by which he was appointed regent, together with the ratification of that deed by Charles. To both thefe they objected; and he endeavoured to establish their validity. As the converfation grew warm, he led them infenfibly towards a balcony, from which they had a view of a large body of troops under arms, and of a formidable train of artillery. "Behold," fays he, pointing to thefe and raising his voice, "the powers which I have received from his Catholick Majefty. With thefe I govern Caftile; and with thefe I will govern it, till the king your mafter and mine takes poffeffion of his kingdom." A declaration fo bold and haughty filenced them, and aftonished their affociates. To take arms against a man aware of his danger, and prepared for his defence, was what defpair alone would dictate. All thoughts of a general confederacy against the Cardinal's adminiftration were laid afide; and except from fome flight commotions, excited by the private refentment of particular noblemen, the tranquility of Caftile fuffered no interruption.

It was not only from the oppofition of the Spanish nobility that obftacles arofe to the execution of the Cardinal's fchemes; he had a conftant ftruggle to maintain with the Flemish minifters, who, prefuming upon their favour with the young king, aimed at directing the affairs of Spain, as well as thofe of their own country. Jealous of his great abilities, and independent fpirit, they confidered him rather as a rival who might circumfcribe their power, than as a minister, who by his prudence and vigour was adding to the grandeur and autho

rity of their mafter. Every complaint against his adminiftration was liftened to with pleasure by the courtiers in the Low-Countries. Unneceffary obstructions were thrown by their means in the way of all his measures, and though they could not, either with decency or fafety, deprive him of the office of regent, they endeavoured to leffen his authority by dividing it. They foon difcovered that Adrian of Utrecht, already joined with him in office, had neither genius nor fpirit fufficient to give the leaft cheek to his proceedings; and therefore Charles, by their advice, added to the commiffion of regency La Chau, a Flemifh gentleman, and afterwards Amerftorf, a nobleman of Holland; the former distinguished for his addrefs, the latter for his firmnefs. Ximenes, though no ftranger to the malevolent intention of the Flemish courtiers, received them with all the external marks of diftinction due to the office with which they were invested; but when they came to enter upon bufinefs, he abated nothing of that air of fuperiority with which he had treated Adrian, and still retained the fole direction of affairs. The Spaniards, more averfe, perhaps, than any other people to the government of ftrangers, approved of all his efforts to preferve his authority; and even the nobles, influenced by this national paffion, and forgetting their jealoufies and discontents, chofe rather to see the fupreme power in the hands of one of their countrymen, whom they feared, than in thofe of foreigners, whom they hated.

Ximenes, though engaged in fuch great fchemes of domeftic policy, and embarrassed by the artifices and

intrigues of the Flemish minifters, had the burden of two foreign wars to fupport. The one was in Navarre, invaded by its unfortunate monarch, John d'Albret. The death of Ferdinand, the abfence of Charles, and the difcord and difaffection which reigned among the Spanish nobles, feemed to prefent him with a favourable opportunity of recovering his dominions. The Cardinal's vigilance, however, defeated a measure fo well concerted. Forefeeing the danger to which that kingdom might be expofed, one of his firft acts of adminiftration was to order thither a confiderable body of troops. While the king was employed with one part of his army in the fiege of St. Jean Pied en Port, Villalva, an officer of great experience and courage, attacked the other by furprize, and cut it to pieces. The king inftantly retreated with precipitation, and an end was put to the war. But as Navarre was filled at that time with towns and caftles, flightly fortified, and weakly garrisoned, which being unable to refift an enemy, ferved only to furnish him with places of retreat; Ximenes, always bold and decifive in his measures, ordered every one of these to be difmantled, except Pampeluna, the fortifications of which he proposed to render very ftrong. To this uncommon precaution Spain owes the poffeffion of Navarre. French, fince that period, have often entered, and have as often over-run the open country; but while they were expofed to all the inconveniencies attending an invading army, the Spaniards have eafily drawn troops from the neighbouring provinces to oppofe them; and the French, being deftitute of C 2

The

ftrong

ftrong towns to which they could retire, have been obliged to abandon their conqueft with as much rapidity as they gained it.

The war which he carried on in Africa, against the famous advenventurer Horuc Barbaroffa, who, from a private corfair, raised himfelf, by his fingular valour and addrefs, to be king of Algiers and Tunis, was far from being equally fuccefsful. The ill conduct of the Spanish general, and the rafh valour of his troops, prefented Barbaroffa with an eafy victory. Many perished in the battle, more in the retreat, and the remainder returned into Spain covered with infamy. The magnanimity, however, with which the Cardinal bore this difgrace, the only one he experienced during his administration, added new luftre to his character. Great compofure of temper, under a difappointment, was not expected from a man fo remarkable for the eagerness and impatience with which he urged on the execution of all his fchemes.

[Our author, after fhewing how this great minifter was continually thwarted in his defigns, and his conduct mifreprefented, by the king's Flemifh minifters and evil counsellors, gives the following account of the ungrateful return he met with from his royal mafter, and the manner of his death.]

Ximenes, who confidered the prefence of the king as the greateft bleffing to his dominions, was advancing towards the coaft, as fast as the infirm state of his health would permit, in order to receive him. During his regency, and notwithtanding his extreme old age, he abated, in no degree, the rigour or frequency of his mortifications;

and to thefe he added fuch laborious affiduity in bufinefs, as would have worn out the most youthful and vigorous conftitution. Every day he employed feveral hours in devotion; he celebrated mafs in perfon; he even allotted fome space for ftudy. Notwithstanding these occupations, he regularly attended the council; he received and read all papers prefented to him; he dictated letters and instructions; › and took under his inspection all bufinefs, civil, ecclefiaftical, or military. Every moment of his time was filled up with fome ferious employment. The only amufement in which he indulged himself, by way of relaxation after business, was to canvafs, with a few friars and divines, fome intricate article in fcholaftic theology. Wafted by fuch a course of life, the infirmities of age daily grew upon him. On his journey, a violent diforder feized him at Bos Equillos, attended with uncommon fymptoms; which his followers confidered as the effect of poison; but could not agree whether the crime ought to be imputed to the hatred of the Spanish nobles, or to the malice of the Flemifh courtiers. This accident obliging him to ftop fhort, he wrote to Charles, and, with his ufual boldnefs, advised him to difmifs all the strangers in his train, whose numbers and credit gave offence already to the Spaniards, and would ere long alienate the affections of the whole people. At the fame time, he earnestly defired to have an interview with the king, that he might inform him of the state of the nation, and the temper of his fubjects. To prevent this, not only the Flemings, but the Spanish grandees, employed all their ad

dress,

drefs, and induftrioufly kept Charles at a distance from Aranda, the place to which the Cardinal had removed. Through their fuggeftions, every measure that he recommended was rejected; the utmost care was taken to make him feel, and to point out to the whole nation, that his power was on the decline ; even in things purely trivial, fuch a choice was always made, as was deemed moft difagreeable to him. Ximenes did noe bear this treatment with his ufual fortitude of fpirit. Confcious of his own integrity and merit, he expected a more grateful return from a prince, to whom he delivered a kingdom more flourishing than it had been in any former age, and authority more extenfive and better established, than the moft illuftrious of his ancestors had ever poffeffed. He could not, therefore, on many occafions, refrain from giving vent to his indignation and complaints. He lamented the fate of his country, and foretold the calamities it would fuffer from the infolence, the rapacioufnefs, and ignorance of ftrangers. While his mind was agitated by these paffions, he received a letter from the king, in which, after a few cold and formal expreffions of regard, he was allowed to retire to his diocese; that after a life of fuch continued labour, he might end his days in tranquility. This meffage proved fatal to Ximenes. His haughty mind, it is probable, would not furvive difgrace; perhaps his generous heart could not bear the profpect of the misfortunes ready to fall on his country. Whichfoever of these opinions we embrace, certain it is, that he expired a few hours after reading the letter. The variety, the grandeur, and the fuc

cefs of his fchemes, during a regency of only twenty months, leave it doubtful, whether his fagacity in council, his prudence in conduct, or his boldness in execution, deferve the greatest praise. His reputation is ftill high in Spain, not only for wifdom, but for fanétity; and he is the only prime minifter mentioned in history, whom his cotemporaries reverenced as a faint, and to whom the people under his government afcribed the power of working miracles.

Of the famous Corfairs Horuc Barbaroffa, and his brother Hay radin.

BOUT the beginning of the

Α
A fixteenth century a fudden

revolution happened, which, by rendering the states of Barbary for midable to the Europeans, hath made their history worthy of more attention. This revolution was brought about by perfons born in a rank of life which entitled them to act no fuch illuftrious part. Horuc and Hayraden, the fons of a potter in the ifle of Lefbos, prompted by a reftlefs and enterprifing fpirit, forfook their father's trade ; ran to fea, and joined a crew of pirates. They foon diftinguifhed themfelves by their valour and açtivity; and becoming mafters of a fmall brigantine, carried on their infamous trade with fuch conduct and fuccefs, that they affembled a fleet of twelve galleys, befides many veffels of fmaller force. Of this fleet Horuc, the elder brother, called Barbaroffa from the red colour of his beard, was admiral, and Hayradin fecond in command, but with almoft equal authority. They C3

called