Page 58 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

her 1474 marked the beginning of the new whose principal policy —the assertion of royal the nobles to retain most of their landed income
regime, and Isabella deliberately used the occa- authority —differed little from that of earlier together with other privileges but also
sion of the deceased monarch's obsequies to Trastamara monarchs, the ruling dynasty to increased the crown's revenues.
demonstrate her new authority. Immediately which Isabella herself belonged. What distin- The rulers struck a similar deal with the
after the funeral ceremony she changed out of guishes Ferdinand and Isabella is the determina- church. Not all of Castile's clergymen were as
black mourning clothes into a richly jeweled tion and the skill with which they pursued this wealthy as the archbishop of Toledo, a prelate
dress and proceeded to the cathedral, riding traditional program. whose income far exceeded that of any Castilian
majestically on horseback and attended by noble Both rulers made the dignity of their office a grandee. But together the clergy constituted a
footmen who held her train and elevated a can- prime concern. Ferdinand and Isabella cloaked privileged group whose income, derived princi-
opy above her head. At the forefront of this themselves in an aura of majesty, spending pally from tithes paid by the faithful, was
stately procession one of Isabella's courtiers unprecedented sums on court entertainments, largely exempt from royal taxation. Ferdinand
brandished an unsheathed sword, a symbol of the foundation of new churches and monas- and Isabella, however, skillfully used the cru-
royal authority and a sign that the new queen teries, the construction of a royal pantheon, as sade they launched against the Moorish king-
would no longer tolerate opposition to her rule. 4 well as the patronage of artists, poets, and vari- dom of Granada in 1482 to ask the clergy for
Despite this charged symbolism, critics ous men of letters. The distinguished Castilian additional financial support. After considerable
alleged that the queen had no business display- grammarian Antonio de Nebrija was a member prodding, the church agreed to a special subsidy
ing attributes that rightfully belonged to her of their court, as were various Italian scholars, of a hundred thousand gold florins in 1483 and
husband. Such reservations exemplified the including Peter Martyr d'Anghiera, a Milanese was subsequently persuaded to provide similar
new monarchs' continuing lack of support, and whose palace school helped to establish an grants in later years. Similarly, the monarchs
in fact the couple remained relatively isolated important tradition of humanist learning in used the war in Granada to obtain a papal bull
until February 1476, when Ferdinand defeated Castile. Their entourage lacked the glitter of granting them revenues derived from the sale of
the Portuguese at a battle near Toro. Inter- contemporary Italian Renaissance courts, but indulgences. In theory, the cruzada was a vol-
preting this victory as a sign of divine favor, the Ferdinand and Isabella won praise for cultivat- untary contribution to be employed solely in
monarchs later celebrated it by founding the ing what were generally described as the "arts the struggle against Islam, but it quickly
monastery of San Juan de los Reyes in Toledo, of peace." Moreover, contemporaries generally evolved into a tax the monarchy used for other
an imposing structure whose church they desig- regarded them as rulers who had initiated a purposes. The money Ferdinand and Isabella
nated as their tomb. The victory at Toro also period of unprecedented peace and prosperity, invested in Columbus' 1492 voyage, for exam-
helped Ferdinand and Isabella to persuade Cas- and this particular memory serves to explain ple, came from this particular levy. 6
tile's representative assembly, the Cortes, in why they are commonly credited with the Ferdinand and Isabella's continuing search for
April 1476 to create the Santa Hermandad, an inception of Castile's golden age in both litera- new sources of revenue was complemented by
urban league that provided them with both ture and art. various governmental reforms, particularly in
money and troops. Even more important for the Yet no fifteenth-century ruler, not even the the realm of finance and the administration of
monarchs' prospects was the birth of a male heir pope, could hope to govern by artistic patronage justice. The latter was essential/to their policy
in June 1478. The Infante Juan promised the alone. The assertion of royal authority also of reasserting royal authority because justice
continuity of the double monarchy created by required money —lots of it. In fifteenth- was considered the highest/of the monarchy's
Ferdinand and Isabella's union and reassured century Castile most of the crown's ordinary temporal prerogatives. During the civil war,
Castile's anxious nobility that their kingdom revenues came from a sales tax known as the however, royal justice had deteriorated con-
would not be ruled by Ferdinand, a "foreigner," alcabala. Owing to the kingdom's buoyant siderably, prompting the Cortes to complain
in the event of Isabella's death. One by one, economy, the income Ferdinand and Isabella about the independence and quality of the
previously hostile noblemen pledged their sup- derived from this tax tripled during the course crown's magistrates. In theoryx rulers were
port, enabling Ferdinand to defeat enemies both of their reign, but their spending, most of expected to render important decisions person-
foreign and domestic. In 1479 the Treaty of which was earmarked for war, grew at an even ally, and Ferdinand and Isabella attempted to
Alcagovas ended hostilities with Portugal, and faster rate. The monarchs' search for additional live up to this ideal by holding regiilar weekly
by 1480 Ferdinand and Isabella had begun to revenues began at the Cortes of 1476 when the audiences as they moved their courtv in tradi-
consolidate their regime and to restore royal cities of Castile voted to establish the Santa tional fashion, from town to town. Yet they also
authority. Their new monarchy, as Ferdinand Hermandad and continued at the Cortes of recognized the need for competent judges and
himself later acknowledged, would be "consti- 1480, when the cities voted additional support consequently reorganized the Royal Council,
tuted in the service of God" and dedicated to in exchange for promises of certain govern- formerly an aristocratic preserve, into a body
the "increase of our realms." 5 mental reforms. The king and queen also used composed principally of university-trained
this gathering to recover certain royal rents jurists. Meanwhile, other legal tribunals, not-
alienated by previous rulers along with others ably the Real Chancillena de Valladolid, the
"The Increase of Our Realms" usurped illegally by the nobility during the war monarchy's principal court of appeals, were
Scholars tend to describe Ferdinand and Isabella of succession. Historians have interpreted this reformed and expanded and new ones estab-
as two of the fifteenth century's "new mon- particular episode as if Ferdinand and Isabella lished in order to make royal justice more
archs," rulers who increased their power at the won a great victory over the nobility, but in fact accessible. Efforts were likewise made to
nobility's expense. In addition, they have been the monarchs were anxious to avoid a confron- improve the education of magistrates and to
credited with the creation of new governing tation with the nobles, particularly the sixty or make royal law more comprehensible and easier
institutions that represented the nucleus of the so magnates who controlled much of the Casti- to use. Compared to the administrative pro-
modern bureaucratic state. Actually, Ferdinand lian countryside. Ferdinand and Isabella suc- grams of previous monarchs, these reforms
and Isabella were rulers of a traditional stripe cessfully worked out a compromise that allowed were not particularly innovative and served

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