The Story of Seville
by Walter M. Gallichan · English · Gutenberg #38009 · 450,262 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: The Story of Seville
Author: Walter M. Gallichan
Contributor: C. Gasquoine Hartley
Release date: November 13, 2011 [eBook #38009]
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38009
Credits: Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF SEVILLE ***
Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images available at The Internet Archive)
[Numerous typographical errors, as well as many (but not all) of the
mis-placed or missing accents of Spanish words, have been corrected.
Please see the list of these at the end of this etext.
(note of etext transcriber)]
[Illustration: image of the book's cover]
_The Story of Seville_
"He who Seville has not seen,
Has not seen a marvel great."
"To whom God loves He gives a house in Seville."
_Popular Spanish Sayings._
[Illustration: _Saints Justa y Rufina_
_From the painting by Goya_]
_The Story of Seville
by Walter M. Gallichan_
_With Three Chapters on the Artists
of Seville by C. Gasquoine Hartley
Illustrated by Elizabeth Hartley_
[Illustration: colophon]
_London: J. M. Dent & Co.
Aldine House, 29 and 30 Bedford Street
Covent Garden, W.C._ * * 1903
_All Rights Reserved_
PREFACE
In the story of Seville I have endeavoured to interest the reader in the
associations of the buildings and the thoroughfares of the city.
I do not claim to have written a full history of Seville, though I have
sketched the salient events in its annals in the opening chapters of
this book. The history of Seville is the history of Spain, and if I have
omitted many matters of historical importance from my pages, it is
because I wished to focus attention upon the city itself. I trust that I
have succeeded in awaking here and there an echo of the past, and in
bringing before the imagination the figures of Moorish potentate or
sage, and of Spanish ruler, artist, priest and soldier.
Those who are acquainted with the history of Spain will appreciate the
difficulty that besets the historian in the matter of chronological
accuracy, and even in a narration of many of the main events. The
chronicles of the Roman, Gothic and Moorish epochs are hardly accepted
as reliable. Patriotic bias and religious enthusiasm are elements that
frequently mislead in the making of history, though the Spaniard is not
alone in the commission of error in this respect.
Seville abounds with human interest. The city may at the first glance
slightly disappoint the visitor, but he cannot wander far without a
growing sense of its fascination. Most of the noteworthy buildings are
hidden amidst narrow alleys, for the designers of the city have shown
great economy in utilising space. It is therefore difficult to gain
large general views of Seville, unless one ascends the Giralda, while
the obtrusion of modern dwelling-houses and stores often mars the view
of fine public edifices. But the modernity of Seville seldom strikes one
as wholly out of place and in sharp contrast to the ancient monuments.
The plan is Morisco, and the impression conveyed is partly Moorish and
partly mediæval. In a word, Seville brings us at every step closely in
touch with antiquity.
For the chapters on the Artists of Seville I am indebted to C. Gasquoine
Hartley (Mrs. Walter M. Gallichan), who has devoted much study to the
art of Spain. The drawings by Miss Elizabeth Hartley were prepared while
I was gathering material for the book in Seville, and the illustrations
will be found to refer to the text. I have also to thank my brother, Mr.
F. H. Gallichan, for his plan of the city.
The frontispiece photograph of Goya's picture of SS. Justa and Rufina
was reproduced in the _Art Journal_ as an illustration to an article on
"Goya" by C. Gasquoine Hartley. My thanks are due to Messrs. Virtue &
Company for permission to reproduce the picture in this book.
WALTER M. GALLICHAN.
THE CRIMBLES,
YOULGREAVE, BAKEWELL,
_August 20, 1903_.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
_Romans, Goths and Moors_ 1
CHAPTER II
_The City Regained_ 26
CHAPTER III
_Seville under the Catholic Kings_ 62
CHAPTER IV
_The Remains of the Mosque_ 73
CHAPTER V
_The Cathedral_ 85
CHAPTER VI
_The Alcázar_ 110
CHAPTER VII
_The Literary Associations of the City_ 129
CHAPTER VIII
_The Artists of Seville_ 146
CHAPTER IX
_Velazquez and Murillo_ 165
CHAPTER X
_The Pictures in the Museo_ 176
CHAPTER XI
_The Churches of the City_ 187
CHAPTER XII
_Some Other Buildings_ 201
CHAPTER XIII
_Seville of To-day_ 213
CHAPTER XIV
_The Alma Mater of Bull-fighters_ 242
CHAPTER XV
_Information for the Visitor_ 262
_Index_ 269
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
_SS. Justa and Rufina, from the painting by_
GOYA (_photogravure_) _Frontispiece_
_Roman Amphitheatre at Italica_ 1
_The Guadalquivir_ 3
_Roman Walls_ 8
_The Pillars of Hercules and Julius Cæsar_ 11
_Moorish Fountain in the Court of Oranges_ 23
_Roman Capital_ 25
_Old Walls of the Alcázar_ 41
_Sword of Isabella_ 49
_Plaza San Francisco_ 55
_Fountain in Bath, Alcázar_ 66
_Puerta del Perdón_ 75
_Stone Pulpit in Court of Oranges_ 78
_Cuerpo de Azucenas_ 79
_The Giralda_ 84
_Pinnacle of the Cathedral_ 87
_Puerta Mayor--The Central Door of the
Cathedral_ 89
_Pinnacle of the Cathedral_ 91
_Interior of the Cathedral_ 97
_Patio de las Doncellas_ 111
_In the Garden of the Alcázar_ 125
_Cancela of the Casa Pilatos_ 133
_The Guardian Angel_ (MURILLO) _facing_ 172
_The Conception_ (MURILLO) _facing_ 178
_The Road to Calvary_ (VALDÉS LEAL) _facing_ 180
_Saint Hugo in the Refectory_ (ZURBARAN) _facing_ 182
_The Crucifixion_ (MONTAÑES) _facing_ 186
_Minaret of San Marcus_ 190
_Puerta de Santa Maria_ 195
_Patio del Casa Murillo_ 203
_Amphora_ 212
_Patio del Colegio_, _San Miguel_ 215
_The Golden Tower_ 223
_A Roof Garden_ 238
_Arms of Seville_ 241
_Plan of City_ _facing_ 268
[Illustration: Roman Amphitheatre at Italica]
The Story of Seville
CHAPTER I
_Romans, Goths and Moors_
'The sound, the sight
Of turban, girdle, robe, and scimitar
And tawny skins, awoke contending thoughts
Of anger, shame and anguish in the Goth.'
ROBERT SOUTHEY, _Roderick_.
Seville the sunny, the gem of Andalusia, is a city in the midst of a
vast garden. Within its ancient walls, the vine, the orange tree, the
olive, and the rose flourish in all open spaces, while every _patio_, or
court, has its trellises whereon flowers blossom throughout the year.
Spreading palms overshadow the public squares and walks, and the banks
of the brown Guadalquivir are densely clothed with an Oriental verdure.
The surrounding country of the Province of Sevilla, _La Tierra de Maria
Santisima_, is flat, and in the neighbourhood of the city sparsely
wooded. On the low hills of Italica and San Juan de Aznalfarache, the
Hisn-al-Faradj of the Moors, olive groves cover many thousands of acres.
The plain is a _parterre_ of wide grain fields, and meadows of rife
grass, divided by straight white roads, with their trains of picturesque
mule teams and waggons, and their rows of tall, straight trees. Here and
there the cold grey cactus serves as a fence, but there is no other kind
of hedgerow.
Far away, across the yellow wheatfields, and beyond the vine-clad slopes
of the middle distance, rise the huge shoulders and purple peaks of wild
sierras.
The Guadalquivir, rolling and eddying in a wide bed, takes its tint from
the light soil and sand, and is always turbid, as though in spate. Below
Seville, on the left bank of the river, stretch the great salt marshes,
or Marismas, haunted by the stork, the heron, and innumerable wildfowl.
Here, among the arms of the tidal water, the cotton plant is cultivated.
Winter floods are a source of danger to Seville, especially when a
south-west wind is blowing and the tide ascending the river. Then the
Guadalquivir overflows its banks and deluges the town and the flat land,
drowning live stock and destroying buildings. In 1595 and 1626 occurred
two of the worst floods, or _avenidas_, on record. The flood of 1626
washed away the foundations of about three thousand houses.
[Illustration: The Guadalquivir]
It is probable that the southern kingdom of Andalusia derived its name
from the Vandals, who overran the country after the Roman occupation.
The region was then known as Vandalitia, or Vandalusia. Lower Andalusia
has been said to be the Tarshish of the Bible. The Phoenicians called
the land Tartessus, or Tartessii. Nowadays Andalusia includes the
provinces of Sevilla, Huelva, Cadiz, Córdova, Jaén, Granada and
Almeria, and has a population of over three millions. Seville is the
capital, the seat of an archbishop, and a university town. The traveller
from Northern Europe will feel the spirit of Spain upon him as he
approaches Seville from Cadiz or Córdova through a semi-tropical country
under a burning blue sky. He will note everywhere the influence of the
Arab in the architecture of modern public buildings, churches and
dwelling-houses, in the tortuous, narrow streets, in the features,
language, music and garb of the people, and in many of the customs of
the district. The character of the landscape is strange, the atmosphere
vivid, and the distant objects show sharply against the horizon. For
leagues he will traverse groves of olive, or vineyards, and pass across
wastes purple with the flower of the lavender or scarlet with poppies.
Seville of to-day is white, clean and bright. Gautier noted that the
shadows of the houses in the narrow thoroughfares are blue, in contrast
to the white of the dazzling buildings at noon. During the _siesta_ of
the hot months, the streets are deserted daily for about four hours,
shutters screen the rooms from the blinding sunshine, and awnings are
drawn across the roofs of the _patios_. In the evening the town awakens,
and the _plazas_ and alleys are thronged and gay until two in the
morning. Everyone endeavours to lead an _al fresco_ life, and to
conserve physical energy in this city of eternal sunshine. Unlike Toledo
and Avila, where the houses are sombre and the doors heavy and barred,
as though the towns were inhospitable, Seville opens wide the gates of
its beautiful courts so that the passer-by may peep within.
'Seville is a fine town,' wrote Lord Byron, in a letter, during his stay
in Spain in 1809. We may regret that he had so little to say about the
fascinating capital. George Borrow, who lived for a time in the Plazuela
de la Pila Seca, near the Cathedral, speaks in rapturous phrases of the
view of Seville and the Guadalquivir. 'Cold, cold must the heart be
which can remain insensible to the beauties of this magic scene, to do
justice to which the pencil of Claude himself were barely equal. Often
have I shed tears of rapture whilst I beheld it, and listened to the
thrush and the nightingale piping their melodious songs in the woods,
and inhaled the breeze laden with the perfume of the thousand orange
gardens of Seville.'
The city is rich in antiquities, in historic buildings associated with
illustrious names, in works of art and in sumptuous palaces. A great
company of the spirits of famous kings, warriors, explorers, authors,
painters and priests spring up in the imagination as one stands in the
aisles of the splendid Cathedral, or dreams amid the roses and the
tinkling fountains of the secluded gardens of the Alcázar. Here, to this
prized and fertile territory of southernmost Spain, came Publius
Cornelius Scipio and Cato. Trajan, Hadrian and Theodosius were born at
the municipium of Italica, a few miles from modern Seville. El Begi,
'the most accomplished scholar of Spain,' spent the greater part of his
life in the city.
San Isidoro and San Leandro lived here. Moorish monarchs and Christian
sovereigns ruled from the palace, and in their turn attacked and
defended the fair city. The figures crowd before the mind's
eye--Ferdinand III., who redeemed the town from the Moriscoes, Alfonso
(_El Sabio_) the Learned, Pedro I. the Cruel, and Ferdinand and Isabella
the Catholic. We see the fair, blue-eyed Genoese youth, Christoforo
Colombo, or Columbus, the maker of the modern prosperity of Seville,
who, after achieving fame, was alternately petted and punished by his
sovereigns. We picture the triumphant return of Hernando Pizarro to the
city, with half a million pesos of gold, and a great treasure of silver.
Lope de Rueda, 'the real father of the Spanish theatre,' a gold-worker
of Seville; Fernando de Herrera, the poet; the mighty Cervantes, who
spent three years of his life in the Andalusian capital; Velazquez,
Zurbaran, Roelas, Murillo and minor artists of note were either born in
the city or closely associated with it.
For the present we must take a look back into the dim and remote period
when the Phoenicians came to wrest the soil of Southern Spain from the
race of mingled Celtic and Iberian blood. It is at this uncertain date
that the history of Seville may be said to begin.
* * * * *
We learn from the historians of Phoenicia that the shrewd, practical
and industrious people of that marvellous ancient civilisation were
great colonisers. 'The south of Spain,' writes Professor George
Rawlinson, 'was rich in metallic treasures, and yielded gold, silver,
copper, iron, lead and tin.' In their quest for valuable metal, certain
Phoenician explorers discovered the Peninsula of Iberia, and in the
mineral-yielding region watered by the Guadalquivir they founded the
colony of Tartessii. Doubt exists whether Tartessii was the name given
to the plains of the Guadalquivir or to a town. Strabo, Mela and Pliny
state that the Phoenicians built a town and called it Tartessus. Was
this town the foundation of Seville? No one will attempt to give an
authoritative answer, though it has been stated that the town was not
Cadiz, the Gades of the Phoenicians. Two cities of considerable
importance appear to have been the marts of the Phoenician _Sephela_,
or plain, and it is not wholly improbable that Seville was one of them.
[Illustration: Roman Walls]
In the choice of new territory for the development of mining and
agriculture, the enterprising colonists displayed much intelligence.
They settled upon a soil that will bring forth richly without artificial
stimulation.
The hill ranges produced vines and olive trees, yielding fine wine and
ample oil. Tunny and other fish were plentiful in the sea, and the
rivers afforded large eels.
This is all that can be known of the Phoenician colony in Southern
Spain. We are beginning to tread upon firmer historic ground when
Hamilcar Barca landed at Cadiz in 237 B.C., after a series of victories
in Africa, and subdued Andalusia. Hasdrubal, son-in-law of the
conqueror, was the founder of Cartagena, or New Carthage, the centre of
Carthaginian rule in Spain, and the wealthiest city of the Peninsula.
But during the second Punic War the Romans invaded Iberia, and gained
all the eastern coast from New Carthage to the Pyrenees. Plutarch says
that Publius Cornelius Scipio came to Spain with eleven thousand
soldiers, seized Cartagena, reduced Cadiz, and founded the city of
Italica, near Seville. Hispalis was the Roman name given to the city on
the Guadalquivir until Cæsar changed the name to Julia Romula. The city
then became the capital of Roman Spain, a centre of industry, and a
fortress. A splendid aqueduct, which has partly endured to this day, was
constructed to bring a plentiful supply of water from the hills. The
aqueduct was extended by the Almohades in 1172, and forms one of the
interesting monuments of the Roman and Arab colonisers. Around the city
were reared high walls, with watch towers, and many strong gates. It is
said that the walls of Seville were five miles in length, and it has
been stated that they were once ten miles long. Within the gates were
palaces, temples to the honour of the Sun, Hercules, Bacchus and Venus,
and other fine edifices.
Under Augustus, Spain was part of the Roman Empire. In Seville the rule
of the conquerors was beneficent, and the original inhabitants were
fairly governed, while the city was extended and new crafts introduced.
Under the Romans, Christianity came to the Peninsula, and Seville was
made the seat of a bishop. The remaining portions of the great aqueduct,
the wall, the two high granite columns in the Alameda de Hercules, with
the statues of Julius Cæsar and Hercules upon them, the shafts of the
columns discovered in the Calle Abades, and the beautiful fragments of
capitals and statues in the Museo Arqælógico are the chief vestiges of
Seville in the days of the Romans. At Urbs Italica, 'the camp of the
Italians,' there still exists a grass-grown, mouldered amphitheatre, the
only remnant of a mighty town.
Built on the slopes once dotted with the tents of the aboriginal hamlet
of Sancios, Italica lies about five miles to the west of Seville, amid
olive gardens and wheatfields. The circus is a ruin; but the passages
can be followed below the tiers of seats, and one may peer into the dens
once tenanted by the lions and other fierce beasts. Bees hum amongst the
wild thyme, lizards creep on the worn stones, and a tethered ass grazes
in the arena. The glory of Rome has departed; the plaudits from those
deserted and grassy seats have not been heard for centuries; and blood
has ceased to redden the floor, where fragrant herbs now spring and
butterflies sun themselves on fallen masonry. Here is all that is left
of Italica, the home of Trajan and Hadrian, and the asylum for Scipio's
aged warriors. For a period the decaying town was known as Old Seville,
and tons of its masonry were removed to build Seville the New.
Rome fell, and the Silingi Vandals swarmed into the country, captured
Hispalis, and made it the seat of their empire. This period in the
history of Seville is dark, and beset with difficulty for the annalist.
About the year 520 a great horde of Goths spread over Andalusia. They
seized the Vandal capital, but afterwards established a new capital of
their own at Toledo.
[Illustration: The Pillars of Hercules and Julius Ceásar]
Amalaric was the first of the Gothic monarchs who sat on the throne in
Seville. He reigned probably from about the year 522. Theudis ruled in
Seville (531 to 548), and we read that he was murdered there after an
attempt to expel the Byzantine troops of Justinian from Africa.
Theudisel, or Theudigisel, was general to Theudis, whom he succeeded as
ruler at Seville. Theudisel shared the fate of his predecessor on the
throne. After a reign of eighteen months, he was killed by the
sword-thrusts of a dozen nobles of his retinue, while taking supper in
his palace. This 'monster of licentiousness' was wont to kill all women
who repelled his addresses, and his assassination was a work of
vengeance on the part of outraged fathers and husbands among his
courtiers.
Schlegel says the Goths were ready converts to Christianity, but 'in the
Arian form.' At a later period of their supremacy in Spain there came a
wider adherence to orthodox Catholicism, and the civil power was largely
in the hands of the bishops and clergy. The most influential bishop of
this day was Saint Isidore (San Isidoro) who held office in Seville. His
brothers, Leander and Fulgentius, were also prelates, and his sister,
Florentina, was made a saint. Saint Leander was the elder brother of
Isidore, and through him the youth received his education after the
death of his parents. The pupil was earnest and diligent in his studies,
and as he grew to manhood he zealously assisted his brother, who then
held the See of Seville, in converting the Goths from the heresy of
Arius.
Dissensions between the orthodox and the Arians caused great strife and
family bitterness among the ruling class. During the reign of King
Leovigild rebellions broke out in Castile and León. The leader of the
rebels was Leovigild's own son, Ermenigild, who had married Ingunda,
daughter of Brunichilda and of Sigebert. Ingunda professed the orthodox
faith, while Gosvinda, the second wife of Leovigild, was of the Arian
sect. A rivalry arose between the two dames. According to Gregory of
Tours, Gosvinda determined that Ingunda should be compelled to embrace
the heterodox creed. One day when the two disputants were together,
engaged in hot controversy, the fanatical Gosvinda gripped Ingunda by
the hair of her head, threw her to the ground, trod upon her, and bade
an Arian priest baptize the prostrate woman.
This incident not unnaturally brought about a quarrel between Leovigild
and his son. Ermenigild was then ruling in Seville, while Leovigild
maintained his court at Toledo. The trouble grew when Leander, the uncle
of Ermenigild, persuaded the young man to forsake Arianism. His father
was deeply angered, and vowed that the Gothic crown should never come to
an apostate. The Archbishop of Tours states that the father was the
first to take up arms after the rupture, but other historians suppose
that the turbulent Ermenigild began the hostilities.
This domestic difference led to serious warfare. Ermenigild was besieged
in Seville by his father's forces, after begging aid from Mir, King of
the Suevi, in Galicia. Mir started with an army to assist the rebellious
prince, but on the way he was defeated by Leovigild, and forced to aid
the monarch. For a year Ermenigild resisted the siege of Seville. The
people were on the point of starvation when he resolved upon
capitulation. Nothing remained but flight, and the prince made his
escape from the city and reached Córdova. There he was captured,
divested of his regal garments and authority, and banished to Valencia.
Very soon the strife was renewed. Ermenigild, panting for a reprisal,
solicited aid from the Greeks and rebels of the east coast, and invaded
Estremadura. His father went to meet him with a force of his bravest
men. The attack was made by Leovigild, who drove his son's army from
Merida into Valencia, and took the young man a prisoner.
The King was stern, but he could not act ungenerously towards his foe
and son. He offered Ermenigild pardon and favour on condition that he
would reject his heretical faith. The rebel refused the terms; he would
rather remain in his dungeon than practise hypocrisy. Again the father
besought the son, through an Arian priest, to renounce his false
doctrine, and again Ermenigild was resolute. In a passion, he cursed the
cleric, crying: 'As the minister of the devil, thou canst only guide to
hell! Begone, wretch, to the punishments which are prepared for thee!'
This was more than Leovigild could bear. He immediately sentenced his
son to death. The legend of Ermenigild's last days relates that on the
night of his execution a light from Paradise shone in his cell, and that
angels watched over the grave, singing hymns in his praise. Ermenigild
was sainted, and one of his bones is at Zaragoza.
It was in this time of religious stress and civil discord that Saint
Isidore of Seville began his labours. For about thirty-six years he
ruled as governor of the church in the city. His hand was open towards
the poor, and he preached with fervid eloquence. It is to the industry
of Isidore that Spain owes respect, for his writings are the only basis
for a history of the chief events during the Gothic epoch. He wrote the
_Historia de Regibus Gothorum, Wandalorum et Suevorum_, and one of the
celebrated books of study of mediævalism, _The Etymologies or Origins of
Things_.
San Isidore's philosophy was Platonic and Aristotelian. In theology he
followed the teaching of St. Gregory the Great. He was a puritan in his
attitude towards the play.
'What connection,' he writes, 'can a Christian have with the folly of
the circus games, with the indecency of the theatre, with the cruelty of
the amphitheatre, with the wickedness of the arena, or with the
lasciviousness of the plays? They who enjoy such spectacles deny God,
and, as backsliders in the faith, hunger after that which they renounced
at their baptism, enslaving themselves to the devil with his pomps and
vanities.'
The gift of oratory possessed by Saint Isidore was predicted in his
infancy by the issue of a swarm of bees from his mouth. His body was
laid to rest, in 636, in Seville.
When King Fernando decided to collect all the bones of martyrs and
saints that he could find in the cathedrals and burial grounds, he
raised an army and came to Seville, which was then under the Moors. Ibn
Obeid, the chief of the Moriscoes, favoured Fernando's scheme, and
allowed the King to enter the city to search for the remains of Justus.
These bones could not be found; but while the seekers were at their task
the spirit of Saint Isidore appeared to them, and said that the remains
of Justus could not be discovered, as it was ordained that they should
rest at Seville. Saint Isidore then offered his own remains for removal,
and his embalmed corpse was taken to the Church of John the Baptist, in
León, in 1063.
Until the time of Recared I. the Goths in Spain remained Arians. When
they forsook their early faith, they adopted a ritual which differed
from that of the Catholics. It was not until the reign of Alfonso VI.
that the Roman service was used throughout the land. The civil law of
the Goths was founded on the _Forum Judicum_ of the Romans. This lengthy
code became later the _Fuero Juzgo_, and was eventually adapted to the
community by Alfonso X. in 1258, and known as the _Siete Partidas_, or
Seven Sections. Under the Gothic code slavery was permitted, and great
power was vested in the hands of the nobility.
'The old Roman civilisation,' writes Mr. H. E. Watts, in his _Spain_,
'which the Celtiberians had been so quick to adopt, sat awkwardly on
these newer barbarians. It was a heritage to which they had not
succeeded of nature, and a burden too great for them to support? The
Romans had made one nation of Spain. The Visigoths were not much more
than an encampment.' When the Berbers, new converts to Mohammedanism,
began to cast envious eyes upon lovely Andalusia, the Goths were
demoralised through easy living in a southern clime. Spain had become a
nation of lords and serfs, and the slaves, the mass of the people, had
no heart to fight for the land that had been wrested from them.
When Tarik, lieutenant of Musa, came with a force of seven thousand
Berbers to battle for the Prophet and to conquer Spain, the Gothic King,
Roderic, hastily collected an army of defence and advanced towards
Xeres. Theodomir, Governor of Andalusia, had learned that the invaders
were marching from Algeciras, where they landed on the 30th of April
711. The Berbers had many horsemen, well-equipped and valiant, while
Roderic possessed only a small number of mounted men.
It was not until 19th July that the decisive and memorable battle was
fought. The Gothic King met his foes on the banks of the Guadalete
(_Wad-el-leded_) 'the river of delight.' It is said that the combat
lasted for seven days. The Goths, though enervated, had not wholly lost
their prowess, and they strove desperately with the fierce host of
Tarik. So bravely fought the defenders that the Moors grew disheartened;
but their leader, sword in hand, and calling upon Allah, told his troops
that they had no vessels with which to escape from the country. The
Berbers must win or perish. Spurring his steed, Tarik dashed into the
Gothic ranks, cleaving a way as he rode, and inspiring his followers to
a supreme effort. Roderic also rallied his soldiers to a last stand. His
army numbered more than that of the Berber general, but the men were
ill-trained, and no match for the desperate enemies who had battled in
many campaigns.
Some Spanish historians assert that the sons of Witiza, the King
dethroned by Roderic and sentenced to death, aided by other traitors,
deserted their companies and joined the Berbers. It has also been
recorded that Count Julian, whose daughter was dishonoured by Roderic,
had allied himself with the foe in Africa. These stories have not,
however, been accepted by later chroniclers.
The battle was to the Moors. Roderic was either killed on the field by
Tarik himself, or taken prisoner and released to spend the rest of his
days in a monastery. One account states that Tarik slew his opponent,
and sent the head to Musa, who had it conveyed to the Court at Damascus.
The beaten Goths retreated rapidly before the advancing army. Some
followed Theodomir into Murcia, others went to the Asturian mountains.
The band of the Andalusian Governor was pursued by the enemy and routed;
and Theodomir was compelled to surrender and to confess fealty to the
Khalif. Upon this condition the Governor was allowed to possess Murcia
and parts of Valencia and Granada, his territory being known as Tadmir.
Seville was soon in a state of siege. Envious of the good fortune of his
lieutenant, Musa came to Andalusia with eighteen thousand Arabs of
valour. He was assisted in command by his sons Abdelola and Meruan. His
eldest son, Abdelasis, remained in authority in Africa. The Sevillians
made a valiant defence of their beautiful city; but after several weeks
of siege Musa led his army through the gates. From that hour, until its
capture by Fernando III., the Andalusian capital was in the hands of the
Moors. Carmona and neighbouring towns were also seized by Musa.
After the subjection of Seville, the Arab general started upon a
campaign. It appears that Musa had not left an efficient force within
the city walls, for the inhabitants rose and attempted to expel their
victors. Hearing of the trouble, Musa sent his son Abdelasis into Spain
to quell the revolt in Seville. Abdelasis used suasion first; but the
natives were in arms and ardent to regain the city. They prepared for a
second siege. With much slaughter, the son of Musa put down the
rebellion of the newly-conquered citizens, and proceeded through the
south of Spain, winning battles everywhere. Musa was so gratified by his
son's successes that he appointed him ruler of the annexed territory.
Abdelasis had a reputation for humane conduct towards the vanquished
people. He fell in love with Egilona, widow of the unfortunate Roderic,
and made her first a member of his harem and afterwards his wife. That
he respected her is shown by the fact that her counsel was always sought
in affairs of government.
The Berber King of Seville was to learn that the throne is not the most
peaceful resting-place after war's alarms. Scandal was set abroad that
Abdelasis was scheming to become sole ruler of the Berber dominion, and
this report reached the ears of Suleyman, brother and heir of the
Khalif. There is no doubt that Suleyman resented the favour shown to
Musa and his sons, while he feared that Abdelasis might one day contest
with him for sovereignty. Seized by this fear, the heir to the crown
gave secret orders for the killing of the three sons of the great
commander, Musa.
One day, while Abdelasis was taking part in the devotions within the
Mosque of Seville, hired murderers crept up to him and stabbed him to
death. The two brothers of Abdelasis shared the like fate. The head of
the King was sent to the Khalif at Damascus, who caused it to be shown
to Musa. Then the brave general, gazing in anger upon his sovereign,
cried aloud: 'Cursed be he who has destroyed a better man than himself!'
The distracted Musa fell sick through grief, and soon died.
There is another account of the death of Musa. His jealousy of Tarik,
who conducted the first successful campaign in the Peninsula, led the
general to treat his inferior officer with indignity. The friends of
Tarik at Damascus, in the Court of the Khalif, breathed vengeance upon
Musa, and prevailed upon the monarch to punish his commander-in-chief. A
party of arrest seized Musa in his camp, and brought him before the
Khalif, who commanded that he should be degraded and publicly beaten.
The disgrace broke Musa's heart and caused his death.
Abdelasis was succeeded by Ayub, who acted as Viceroy of the Khalif. The
new ruler preferred Córdova to Seville, and thither he removed with his
retinue. For a long period the city was one of lesser importance; but it
gained greatness and independence under Abul Kâsein Mohammed in 1021. In
the time of Abbad and Al-Motamid II. the population of the town rose to
four hundred thousand, and the grandeur of the place rivalled, if it did
not exceed, that of Córdova. In 1078 proud Córdova was subject to
Seville, and the ancient metropolis of the Moors in Spain was falling
into decay, while 'the pearl of Andalusia' was shining in its chief
splendour.
Abderahman I., Emir of Córdova, in 777, made a bold stroke by
proclaiming himself Khalif and sole ruler of Spain. It is not necessary
to recount the victories of Abderahman. He came in triumph to Seville
and was bade welcome. 'His appearance, his station, his majestic mien,
his open countenance,' writes Dunham, 'won the multitude even more
perhaps than the prospect of the blessings which he was believed to have
in store for them.' Abderahman's rule in Seville laid the foundation of
the city's prosperity. He narrowed the channel of the Guadalquivir, and
made the river navigable; he built residences, and laid out gardens, and
transplanted the palm tree into Spain. We read that the Moorish King was
honourable, bold and generous, and possessed of a fine sense of justice.
He encouraged letters, and was a benefactor of educational institutions.
The King was also a poet, and loved the society of intellectual men.
Although the peaceful arts flourished in Seville at this period, the
city was frequently the scene of battle. Conspiracies, factions and
revolts constantly disturbed Spain, and during the reign of Abderahman
several rival chiefs made assault upon Seville. One of these was Yusuf,
who raised troops, took the fort of Almodovar, and moved towards Lorca.
There he was met by Abdelmelic, general of Abderahman, who overcame the
rebel force, killed the leader, and sent his head, after the Oriental
manner, to the King. The trophy was displayed at Córdova. But the
rebellion was not quelled by Abdelmelic's victory. Yusuf's three sons
gathered an army and made attacks upon Toledo, Sidonia, and Seville.
Another insurrection broke out at Toledo, under one of Yusuf's
relatives, Hixem ben Adri el Fehri.
Upon the advice of Abderahman's first minister, the King proposed an
amnesty, to last for three days. Hixem accepted the terms, and gained
pardon. But he abused the King's clemency at a later date, and came
with a body of troops to the gates of Seville. There was hard fighting,
but the Governor, Abdelmelic, preserved the city and drove away the foe.
Strife was again caused by the Wali of Mequinez, one Abdelgafar, who
came bent upon the capture of Seville. The Wali was encountered by
Cassim, young son of Abdelmelic. Fear seized the youthful officer, and
he fled with his soldiers. He was met by his father, who drew his dagger
and killed the young man, saying: 'Die, coward! thou art not my son, nor
dost thou belong to the noble race of Meruan!' The Governor then pursued
the enemy, but they escaped him, and came near again to Seville.
Abdelmelic hurried to the Guadalquivir, and in a night fight he was
overcome and received a wound. The troops of the Wali poured into the
city. But in spite of his injury the Governor entered Seville, and after
a furious combat expelled the host of Abdelgafar. The Wali was
afterwards caught and killed on the bank of the Xenil. In reward for his
bravery, the King made Abdelmelic Governor of Eastern Spain.
It is stated that, in 843, a fleet of ships, manned by Norman pirates,
sailed up the Guadalquivir. The pirates made a sudden raid upon Seville.
The inhabitants were taken by surprise, the town was robbed, and the
thieves made good their escape to the river.
Seville in the days of Moorish might was one of the fairest cities on
earth. Beautiful palaces were built upon the sites of the Roman halls,
gardens were shady with palms, and odorous with the blossom of orange
trees, and there were hundreds of public baths. The streets were paved
and lighted. In winter the houses were warmed, and in summer cooled by
scented air brought by pipes from beds of flowers.
Poetry, music and the arts were cultivated; the philosopher and the
artist were held in respect. There were halls of learning and great
libraries, which were visited by scholars from all parts of Europe.
[Illustration: Moorish fountain in the Court of Oranges]
The Alcázar, the Mosque, the lordly Giralda Tower and other remains
testify to the ancient splendour of Seville. It was the Moor who applied
the method of science to the cultivation of the plains, who bred the
cattle, introduced the orange tree, and planted the palm in the city.
Granada and Seville were centres of silk-growing. Here were manufactured
the damascened swords and other weapons, and beautiful metal work of
divers kinds, which was in demand all over Spain for centuries. Moorish
civilisation was unsurpassed for its handicrafts and architectural
decorations. Long after the Christian reclamation of Seville, the
_Mudéjar_, or Moor, living under the new rule, was employed by the State
to construct bridges and to build castles, to design houses, and to
decorate them with the wonderful glazed tiles and imperishable colours.
Among the learned Moors of Seville the most eminent was Abu Omar Ahmed
Ben Abdallah, known as El Begi. Abu Omar's father had spared no cost in
providing for his son's education. He employed as tutors the greatest
scholars of the time, and sent the lad to Africa, Syria, Egypt and
Khorassan in order to confer with sage men and doctors of repute. At the
age of eighteen years Abu Omar was wonderfully cultured, and as he grew
to middle age there was no man who could surpass him in knowledge of
arts and sciences. 'Even in his earliest youth, the Cadi of that city,
Aben Faweris,' says Condé, 'very frequently consulted him in affairs of
the highest importance.' El Begi, the Sage, was born in Seville and
lived there during most of his life.
Many philosophers must have mused in this cultured age amid the orange
trees of the court of the magnificent mosque. From the summit of the
Giralda, astronomers surveyed the spangled sky, making observations for
the construction of astronomical tables. Chemists questioned nature in
the laboratories by means of careful experiments, and mathematicians
taught in the schools. There were seventy public libraries in Andalusia;
the library of the State contained six hundred thousand volumes, and the
catalogue included forty-four tomes. Scholars also possessed large
private libraries. There was no censorship, no meddling with the works
of genius. Men of science were encouraged to investigate every problem
of human existence. Abu Abdallah wrote an encyclopædia of the sciences.
The theory of the evolution of species was part of the Arab education.
Moorish thought was destined to influence Spain for ages. The discovery
of the New World was due to the Mohammedan teaching of the sphericity
of the earth, and it was the work of Averroes that set Christopher
Columbus thinking upon his voyage of exploration.
The Moors in Seville were not only a cultured and devout community. They
were commercial and manufacturing, weavers of cotton, silk and wool,
makers of leather and paper, and growers of grain. In their hours of
recreation they played chess, sang and danced. Their dances have
survived to this day in the south of Spain, and may be witnessed in the
_cafés_ of Seville and Malaga.
[Illustration: Roman Capital.]
CHAPTER II
_The City Regained_
'All the intellect of the country which was not employed in the
service of the church was devoted to the profession of arms.'
BUCKLE, _History of Civilisation_.
In 1023 Abu el Kásim Mohammed, then Cadi of Seville, raised a revolt
against the Berber rulers of Andalusia. The rising was successful, and
the town once more became a capital. Under the Abbadid dynasty, and the
rule of Motadid and Motamid, Seville was secure and peaceful. Stirring
days came with the rise of the Almoravides in the eleventh century. In
Morocco, Yussuf, son of Tashfin, had been inspired to wage battle in the
name of a reformed religion. The Almoravides, or Mourabitins, _i.e._,
'those who are consecrated to the service of God,' were a fanatical sect
led by an intrepid warrior. They had made havoc in Northern Africa,
deposing sovereigns and seizing territory. Now they were to make history
in Spain.
Under Alfonso III. the Spaniards of the northern and central parts of
the Peninsula had prospered in their arduous task of stemming the
advance of the Moors northwards. Spain had won back Asturias, Galicia,
and part of Navarre, and in time León and Castile were restored to
Christian rule. But under Almanzor, a most redoubtable commander, León
fell, and the whole population of its capital was slaughtered. The death
of Almanzor, in 1002, brought about vast changes for the Moorish
kingdom in the south of Spain. There was no great leader to control the
fortunes of Islam. The territorial governors were in constant dispute,
and often at war one with the other. It was a golden opportunity for the
soldiers of the Cross.
In 1054 Fernando I., a sagacious ruler of León and Castile, made a
crusade against the Moors of Portugal, and brought the King of Toledo to
his knees. He besieged Valencia and brought his troops into Andalusia.
Under Alfonso VI., Toledo was recovered, amid the rejoicings of the
Christian host, who anticipated a speedy delivery from the Morisco
domination. The coming of Yussuf and his fierce Almoravides dashed the
hopes of Alfonso's army. Finding themselves encompassed with growing
dangers, the Moors of Spain begged the assistance of the powerful
Almoravides. A conference of the Moorish rulers was held at Seville, and
a message sent to Yussuf. The Almoravide King was astute. At first he
displayed but little sympathy for his brethren in Spain. But the offer
of Algeciras induced him to promise aid, and he came with a strong army
of Moors and Berbers. Alfonso was informed that a profession of belief
in the creed of Mahomet would spare him from certain death. The
Christian sovereign replied by allying himself with Sancho of Navarre,
and bringing a force to meet Yussuf. Between Badajoz and Merida the
armies met in a terrible conflict. Alfonso was forced to retreat, and
for the present Yussuf offered no further demonstration of his military
skill.
Next year the King of Morocco returned to Spain with his army, and
exhorted the Moors of Andalusia to unite with him in a war of
extinction. The petty sovereigns showed but little enthusiasm for a
campaign. Probably they distrusted Yussuf's motives. Such suspicion was
not without a basis, for when the Almoravides came for the third time,
the monarch plainly stated that he purposed to annex all the remaining
Mohammedan region. With a hundred thousand men, Yussuf took Seville and
Granada. Alfonso came to the assistance of the Sevillians with a force
of twenty thousand; but the Almoravides seized the city, and held it
until the days of the Almohades in 1147.
Alfonso then sought the alliance of France to assist his nation in
expelling the African invaders. But the power of the Almoravides grew.
Córdova was their seat of government, and Seville was one of their most
important cities. The Moriscoes in Spain were no longer an independent
race, but under the sway of Morocco. Motamid II. doubtless rued the hour
when he sought aid from Yussuf. Fair Seville had passed out of his
hands.
At this time there arose the famous Cid, the revered warrior and type of
Spanish chivalry. Many are the legends and ballads extolling the bravery
of this champion of Christendom. Some of the stories of his deeds are so
improbable that certain historians of Spain have regarded the hero as a
character of fable; but Professor Dozy has investigated the old
chronicles, both Spanish and Moorish, and reached the conclusion that
there _was_ a Cid, a mighty soldier and a devout Catholic, named Rodrigo
Diez de Bivar. There is no doubt that the Cid loved the field of battle
from his youth, and that he was ever ready to fight, sometimes for the
Christians, and sometimes for Moorish chieftains at war with one
another. In the end he became a valorous freebooter, with a following of
the sons of noble families. The Cid came at least on one occasion to
Seville as an emissary of King Alfonso to Motamid, to collect sums due
from the Arab ruler. Motamid was then at strife with Abdallah, King of
Granada, who was assisted by certain Christian _caballeros_, including
Garci Ordoñez, formerly standard-bearer to Fernando. The Cid endeavoured
to restrain the King of Granada from making war upon Motamid's city, but
Abdallah was not to be influenced for peace. He went forth and was met
by the combined armies of the Cid and Motamid of Seville, and defeated
with much loss. Ordoñez and the Christian cavaliers were taken
prisoners. The Cid took his tribute, and certain costly gifts for
Alfonso from Motamid, and departed. Soon after this episode in
Andalusia, Alfonso heard that Rodrigo, the Cid, had retained some of the
presents sent by the King of Seville. This report was set going by Garci
Ordoñez in revenge for his defeat at the hands of the Cid and Motamid,
and the tale was credited by King Alfonso. There was already prejudice
against the Cid in the royal mind, and Alfonso was still further
displeased when his general went to attack Abdallah without permission.
When he heard that, to crown all, the Cid had exhibited dishonesty,
Alfonso was wroth, and banished Rodrigo from the kingdom. But the Cid
gained immense power and homage as an independent sovereign, and when
Alfonso was in sore need of a general to fight for him against the
Almoravides, he approached the gallant Rodrigo with assurances of
friendliness, and solicited his aid. Perhaps the missive of Alfonso went
astray; at anyrate, the Cid did not at once respond to the King's call
for help. This apparent apathy incensed Alfonso. Again he sought to
punish the Cid, confiscating his estates and imprisoning his wife and
children. And again the invincible Rodrigo proclaimed himself a king on
his own account. He died in 1099, and at his death his territory was
taken by Yussuf, the Almoravide. The Cid's bridle, worn by his steed,
Babieca, hangs in the Capilla de la Granada, in the south-east corner of
the Court of the Oranges at Seville.
The Almoravides appear to have been an exceedingly energetic and
turbulent race. They were, indeed, too fond of warfare, for they were
constantly fighting amongst themselves when they were not at war with
the Christians. Under their dominion every ruler of a city who could
raise troops called himself sovereign, and made attack upon the governor
of the nearest wealthy centre. The Almoravide rule was not so just and
prudent as that of the Moors who preceded them, and the people groaned
under its despotism. Conquest by the Almohades came as a redemption from
the tyranny of the Almoravides.
In Northern Africa, the land of prophets and of new sects, Mohammed, son
of Abdalla, proclaimed himself the _Mehdi_, and gained the adherence of
a great horde of devotees. These Unitarians were even more fervent in
piety than the Almoravides. The _Mehdi's_ general, Abdelmumen, soon
became the victor of Moorish Spain. Seville was secured by the invaders
in 1147, and remained under the Almohade rule till 1248. The Almohades
built the great mosque, with its high minaret, part of the structure
being formed of stonework of the Roman period; the Alcázar, a huge
palace, which extended as far as the bank of the Guadalquivir to the
Golden Tower, and many other magnificent edifices. The palace of the
Moorish sovereigns at Seville was erected in the form of a triangle,
with the chief gate at the Torre de la Plata (Silver Tower), which stood
in the Calle de Ataranzas until 1821, when it was taken down.
Trade revived in the city after its capture by the Almohades; the
weavers, the metal-workers, and the builders and the decorators of
houses found constant employment under the new ruler, Abu Yakub Yussuf.
The Christian Spaniards saw a revival of the Mohammedan fortunes, and
lamented the influx of this vigorous infidel host. Earnest prayers were
addressed to the knights of the Cross in all the nations of Europe
beseeching succour for the faithful in Spain. Pope Innocent III.
declared a crusade, and called upon foreign Christian rulers to aid the
Spaniards, with the result that a number of French and English crusaders
travelled to Spain. A memorable battle was fought in the Sierra Morena,
the range dividing Castile from Andalusia, and the Almohade army was
almost destroyed. After this repulse the Moors never made a military
demonstration of any importance in Castile, but remained in Andalusia
and the southern districts. Seville and Córdova each had a different
governor; the Almohade unity was ruptured, and the empire was crumbling.
We have now reached the last days of the Morisco rule in Seville. The
deliverer, Fernando III., the adored Saint Fernando, came to the throne
at an auspicious hour, and upon his accession made ready for war upon
the Mohammedans. In 1235 Córdova was taken by Fernando, and Jaén and
other towns fell into his hands. Assisted by Aben Alhamar, King of
Granada, who had been compelled to yield allegiance to the victorious
Fernando, the Christian monarch marched upon Seville. The inhabitants
prepared for a stubborn defence. A Moorish fleet guarded the mouth of
the Guadalquivir, while the troops of the Almohades awaited attack
within the city. Fernando sent war vessels from the Biscayan coast to
San Lucar to attack the Moorish fleet. The navy was in the command of
Admiral Raymond Boniface (Ramon Bonifaz), and in an engagement the
Moorish ships were driven from their position. Bonifaz lived in Seville
after the capture of the town. On the front of a house in Placentines,
now the shop of a dealer in antiquities, there is this inscription in
Spanish and French: '_Esta casa fué cedida por el Santo Rey D. Fernando
III. à su almirante D. Ramon Bonifaz cuando conquesto à Sevilla
libertando del dominio Sarraceno_.'
The infidels next made a stand on land, but failed to overcome the army
of Fernando. For fifteen months Seville was besieged. Provisions were
brought into the town from the surrounding district of Axarafa, thirty
miles long, on the right bank of the Guadalquivir. This
highly-cultivated region is said to have contained a hundred fertile
farms. Seville was connected with the suburb of Triana (the town of
Trajan) by a bridge of boats and a chain bridge. The boat-bridge was
broken by Fernando during the siege by launching heavy vessels upon it.
But still the defenders held out behind their high, broad walls, driving
back the charges of the Christians against the sturdy gates, and raining
missiles from the towers. At length, when Triana and Alfarache were in
the hold of Fernando's force, and all food supplies cut off, the
defenders were forced to yield. On 23rd November Fernando made a
triumphal entry. The vanquished ruler, Abdul Hassan, who had proved a
most courageous defender, was offered territory and money if he would
continue to live in Seville, or in a city of the kingdom of Castile, as
a dependent officer of the King. The Moor proudly rejected these terms;
he preferred to leave the scene of his defeat, and with thousands of his
people he departed for Africa. It is stated that three or four hundred
thousand Moors had quitted Seville before its capture. If this is true,
only a few Almohades remained in the place. Those who elected to stay
were bade to render the same tribute to Fernando as they had been in the
habit of paying to their princes. Such as desired to return to their
country were offered the means of travelling and protection.
The triumphant King, escorted by his troops, the loyal inhabitants and
the clergy, proceeded to the mosque. Christian bishops purified the
temple, and dedicated it to the service of God and the Virgin, and a
high and imposing Mass was celebrated. Amid festivities and ceremonies,
Fernando took possession of Seville and all its rich treasure. He
occupied the Alcázar, then in its pristine splendour, and divided the
houses and land around the city among his knights.
The Christian King was brave, and his treatment of the conquered shows
that he had a strain of mercy in his nature. He was, however, an
intensely bigoted pietist, for at Palencia he set fire with his own
hands to the faggots to burn heretics. His austerities were excessive,
and fasting is said to have weakened his body. Fernando died from dropsy
at Seville, four years after his conquest of the town. On his deathbed
he called his son Alfonso, bade him farewell, and exhorted him to follow
justice and clemency. Then, amid deep sorrow in the city, the King took
the Mass, and passed away. In 1671 Fernando III. was canonised by Pope
Clement X.
The keys of Seville, which were given up by the Governor at the
surrender of the city, may be seen in the cathedral. One key is of
silver, and bears the inscription: 'May Allah grant that Islam may rule
for ever in this city.' The other key is made of iron-gilt, and is of
_Mudéjar_ workmanship. It is lettered: 'The King of Kings will open; the
King of the Earth will enter.' San Fernando's shrine is on view in the
cathedral on May 30, August 22 and November 23, when honour is paid to
the body of the sainted monarch by the soldiers of the Seville garrison,
who march past with the colours lowered.
In the collection of paintings in the house of Señor Don Joaquin
Fernandez Pereyra, 86, Calle Betis, Triana, there is a picture
attributed to Velazquez, and said to have been painted by him at the age
of twenty-eight, representing the Sultan of Seville handing the keys of
the city to San Fernando.[A] It is said that Velazquez painted himself
as model of the King. If the work is not that of the master, it is by an
artist of parts. The colour is good, and the horse well drawn and
painted.
Fernando III. was succeeded by his son Alfonzo X., _El Sabio_, 'the
Learned.' He occupied the Palace of the Alcázar, and devoted his leisure
to the study of geometry, ancient laws, history and poetry. The King
wrote verse to the Virgin in the Galician dialect, which resembles the
Portuguese tongue, and was, for his age, a versatile and accomplished
scholar. His ambition was great, and though he was called 'the Learned,'
he was prone to serious error in the conduct of the affairs of
government. He attempted to take Gascony, which was then in the
possession of Henry III. of England, and governed by Simon de Montfort.
The King's military enterprises were costly, and as they failed, the
people resented the increase of taxes, and especially the measure of
direct taxation. When Alfonso presented Algarve to the King of Portugal,
with his natural daughter, Beatrice de Guzman, the nobles rebelled under
the King's brother, Felipe, and were aided by the King of Granada.
Alfonso invited the malcontent party to a conference of arbitration at
Burgos. The knights were appeased; but the King was forced to yield his
ground, and to make many concessions. Upon the death of Alfonso's eldest
son, Fernando, a dispute arose concerning the heir to the crown.
Fernando left two sons, born to him by Blanche, sister of Philip IV. of
France. The second son of Alfonso, Sancho, was announced as rightful
successor, but this proclamation was a cause of offence to Philip IV.,
who claimed that the eldest child of his sister was the lawful heir to
the throne of Castile. The King of France demanded that Alfonso should
restore the dowry to Blanche, and allow her and the children to come to
France. Alfonso refused the request. War was then declared by Philip of
France; and further anxiety was caused by the disloyalty of Sancho, who
took the lead of the discontented party, and laid siege to Toledo,
Córdova, and other towns. The King was at his wit's end. He begged aid
from Morocco, from the infidels, while, at the same time, he desired the
Pope to excommunicate Sancho. Eventually the quarrel between King and
Prince was patched up. Alfonso appears to have cherished affection for
his unruly son, for upon hearing, soon after the reconciliation, that
Sancho was seriously ill, the King died of grief.
So closed the troubled career of Alfonso el Sabio. He was a type of the
bookish student, a great reader, but without a knowledge of human
nature, and devoid of aptitude for governing a nation. In his fondness
for book-learning, and his incapacity for ruling, Alfonso may be
compared to James I. of England. It is claimed to the credit of the
learned monarch that he encouraged the arts and education in the royal
city of Seville, and founded the university. He loved the retirement of
his study in the beautiful Alcázar rather than the council seat; but, at
the same time, he had a craving for power and wished to extend his
realm. Alfonso the Learned presented a reliquary to the chapter of the
cathedral, which may be seen among the treasures. His body rests in the
Capilla Real (Royal Chapel), where it was interred in 1284.
There is but little of interest to record in the annals of Seville until
the time of Pedro I. Under Alfonso XI., a great council was held in the
city to discuss plans for defending Andalusia from the Emperor of
Morocco, who had landed in Spain with a powerful army. The King of
Portugal attended the conference and promised his support, and in a
battle fought near Tarifa the invading force was driven back. During the
reign of Alfonso XI., the Earl of Derby and the Earl of Salisbury came
to Spain, to fight for Christianity, and to offer amity to the martial
King.
With the death of Alfonso XI., we come to the days of his son, Pedro I.,
the most renowned of all the Christian sovereigns who made court at the
capital of Andalusia. The reign of Pedro el Cruel abounds with so much
'incident' from the story-teller's point of view, that many tales,
ballads and plays of Spain are concerned with the exploits of this
remarkable King. In some of the narratives he is portrayed as a
veritable monster of cruelty and perfidy; in others he is represented as
a severe, but just, monarch, with sympathy for the lower classes. Pedro
was sixteen when he came to the throne. Fearing an attempt on the part
of Enrique (son of Alfonso XI. by his mistress, Leonora de Guzman) to
seize the crown, Pedro contrived to lure Leonora to Seville, and to
imprison her in the Alcázar. From this dungeon the wretched woman was
sent to other prisons, until she was done to death. There was no limit
to Pedro's ferocity when his malignity was aroused. His deeds suggest an
insane lust for bloodshed, and a delight in the infliction of suffering.
He killed with his own hand, or by the aid of bravoes, all relatives,
rivals and dangerous persons who came within his power. His first wife
was Blanche of Bourbon, niece of King John of France; but he deserted
her in two days, to return to his mistress, the lovely Maria de Padilla.
When Pedro's fancy fell upon the handsome Juana de Castro, he declared
that his union with Blanche was invalid, and induced the Bishops of
Salamanca and Avila to perform a marriage service. Soon after the
wedding Pedro left his bride, and insolently avowed that he had only
experienced a passing passion for her.
One day Abu Said, King of Granada, wrote to Pedro of Seville, begging an
audience of him that he might seek his help in resisting an enemy,
Mahommed-ibn-Yussuff. To this request Pedro acceded. Abu Said, escorted
by three hundred of his court, and a number of menials, journeyed to
Seville, and was received most graciously by the King, who gave orders
that the visitor and his retinue should be well cared for in the
Alcázar. The Red King, Abu Said, possessed a splendid treasure of
jewels. Among the precious stones was the famous ruby which now
decorates the royal crown of England. It is possible that the Moorish
King intended to present certain of his gems to Pedro, for we read that
he brought his treasure with him to Seville. But his host, hearing how
fine a store of jewels lay within his reach, commanded a number of hired
murderers to purloin the treasures by force. The guest and his nobles
were surprised in their apartments; they were stripped of their
valuables and money, while the Red King was deprived of the very clothes
that he wore. Dressed in common raiment, and seated upon a donkey, the
unfortunate Abu was taken, amid the derision of the rabble, to a field
without Seville, and there executed with thirty-six of his courtiers.
Pedro's excuse for his treachery and cruelty was that the King of
Granada had betrayed him in his war with Aragon, a charge that could not
be founded.
Among the beauties of Seville of that date was the Señora Urraca Osorio.
When Pedro saw her, he vowed to bring her within his power. At first he
paid her compliments and endeavoured to win her favour by flattery and
gifts. Urraca was a proud woman. In all likelihood she recoiled from
this brutal flatterer and deceiver of women, and not even his kingly
rank could induce her to pay the least heed to his addresses. No one
dared to foil Pedro; the _señora_ doubtless surmised the revenge that
the King would plan against her. Yet she bravely refused to lend her ear
to his proposal, preferring death to the forfeiture of her self-respect.
Then Pedro threatened a terrible punishment. Urraca still refused.
Faggots were piled in the market square of the town, and the persecuted
lady was led forth and burned to death in public.
The people of Seville seem to have been hypnotised by their cruel
sovereign. For these horrible deeds they even offered pleas of
extenuation, and, according to some Spanish historians, Pedro was one of
the most popular of the kings that lived in the city after its
restoration to the Christians. A certain Bohemian strain in the King's
character no doubt appealed to a mass of his subjects. He was credited
with sympathy for the labouring class and a desire to protect the people
against the tyranny of the nobles. Where his own personal interests were
not concerned, Pedro the Cruel sometimes evinced that sense of equity
that led Felipe II. to describe him as 'the Just.' But in private
matters Pedro displayed no trait of justice and no hint of magnanimity.
Now and then Pedro would muffle himself in his _capa_, don his sword,
and wander from the palace after dark to the low quarters of Seville.
He liked to study the life of the _Mudéjares_, the Jews, and the
artisans, and to rub shoulders with his subjects when they were scarcely
likely to recognise him. One night the King was roaming in the alleys of
the city, keeping an eye upon all who passed by, and probably hoping
that he might find an unlucky watchman off his guard and neglecting his
duty. Suddenly a passing hidalgo pushed against the King. Pedro abused
the stranger; there was an altercation, and swords were whipped out of
their sheaths. In the dim light of the thoroughfare the combatants
clashed blades, and engaged in a duel to the death. Presently the King's
opponent received a thrust in a vital part of the body, and falling to
the pavement, he lay bleeding to death. A few weeks before this night's
encounter Pedro had forbidden street-fighting, on penalty of capital
punishment for the unwary custodians of order in the city.
With a grim smile, the King sheathed his weapon and went home to the
Alcázar, musing upon the consternation of the authorities when the
corpse of the _caballero_ was discovered. Next morning he sent for the
Alcalde, or Mayor of the city. 'Sir,' said Pedro, 'you fully understand
that I hold you accountable for any breach of the peace that occurs in
the streets of Seville?' The Mayor humbly responded that he knew the
fresh regulation which his majesty had been pleased to enforce. At that
moment a page brought word to the King that the dead body of a hidalgo
had been found, early that morning, in the plaza near where the Casa
Pilatos now stands. 'What means this?' demanded Pedro, turning to the
affrighted Alcalde. 'If the murderer of this gentleman is not found in
two days, understand that you will be hanged.' The Mayor's face was
white as he bowed himself from the royal chamber. With a sinking heart
he prepared himself for his fate. There was scarcely any hope of
tracking the assassin in forty-eight hours.
The wretched Mayor sat down in his room to meditate upon the best means
of tracing the criminal. Meanwhile the story of the murder was abroad,
and people were talking of the affair. The gossip reached the ears of an
old woman, who went at once to the Alcalde, telling him that she had
seen a fight from her bedroom window late during the previous night. The
combatants appeared to be gentlemen, but to make sure, she lit a candle
and leaned out of the window. One man had his back towards her, and she
could not see his face. But of the identity of his opponent she was
quite certain: _it was his majesty the King, and no other_. When she
saw, beyond a doubt, that it was the King who plunged his blade into the
hidalgo's breast, she felt terrified, blew out the candle, and withdrew
her head from the window.
'Thank God!' cried the Mayor, seizing the old woman's hand. Then he
hurried to the Alcázar, sought a hearing from the sovereign, and said
that he had found the murderer of the hidalgo. The King smiled. 'Indeed,
your majesty,' said the Alcalde, 'I can let you look him in the face
when he hangs on the gallows.' 'Good!' replied Pedro, still smiling
incredulously.
Hastening to the quarter of the Moorish artisans, the Mayor ordered them
to make a cunning effigy of the King, and to bring it to him without
delay. A few days after, the Alcalde requested his majesty to attend the
hanging of the criminal in the Plaza de San Francisco. Greatly curious,
Pedro came to the place of execution. And there, upon the gibbet, he saw
a dummy of himself dangling from the rope. Struck with the humour and
ingenuity of the Mayor's device, the King said: 'Justice has been done.
I am satisfied.' The street where Pedro fought with the hidalgo is
called the Calle della Cabeza del Rey Don Pedro, and the alley where the
old woman lived is known as the Calle del Candilejo, or 'street of the
candlestick.'
[Illustration: OLD WALLS OF THE ALCÁZAR.]
In visiting the Alcázar we shall have more to recall of the career of
Pedro the Cruel. The palace is haunted with memories of the King and of
Maria de Padilla. Pedro was fond of Seville and preferred the Alcázar to
any other residence. He made many alterations in the palace, built the
rooms around the Patio de la Monteria, and brought material for their
construction from the remains of Moorish edifices in Seville, Córdova,
and other places.
When Pedro caused his unfortunate wife, Blanche, to die in prison, from
the dagger, or by poison, his subjects were at length aroused to
indignation. The insensate ruler was bringing the nation to the verge of
ruin by his misdeeds. France resented the dastardly murder of Blanche of
Bourbon, and the King vowed revenge on Pedro. Enrique, brother of Pedro,
was fighting for the crown, and had been proclaimed Sovereign at Toledo;
while the Sevillians, who had long endured their King's severities and
condoned his cruelties, were up in arms and threatening the royal
palace. Pedro fled from Seville, and came eventually into Aquitaine, to
the court of the English Black Prince at Bordeaux. The chivalrous Black
Prince espoused the cause of Pedro against Enrique, pitying the fugitive
King who had been forced to leave his country. In return for his
support, Pedro offered his English ally a large sum of gold, and the
great ruby stolen from Abu Said in the Alcázar of Seville.
The campaign was decided in favour of the King of Spain, but its
hardships cost the Black Prince his life. Pedro was again acknowledged
King. His downfall was, however, fast approaching. Enrique conquered his
brother, soon after the departure of the English army, and came to see
him at Montiel in La Mancha. It is said that Pedro was treacherously
drawn into a trap. In any case, he fell by the dagger of his brother
Enrique; and so ended violently the life of one who had lived in
violence and bloodshed.
As our story is more concerned with the city of Seville than with the
fortunes of the rulers of Spain, we may resume the narration at the time
of Isabella and Fernando. No incidents of signal importance occurred in
Seville between the death of Pedro I. and the accession of the famous
Catholic Queen. With the reign of Isabella, the city became the theatre
of events that influenced the whole of the nation, and indeed the whole
of Christendom.
It was at this time that the arts and letters of Spain began to revive.
In Seville the year 1477 is the date of the first setting up of a
printing press, by one Theodoricus el Aleman (the German). Konrad
Haebler, in his work on _The Early Printers of Spain and Portugal_, says
that for fifteen years the only printers in the city were German
immigrants. One of the early important books printed in Seville was
Diego de Valera's _Cronica de España_. In 1490 a firm of printers, under
the title of Four German Companions, opened business, and in three years
published nine volumes, while two years later there was a rival press
owned by another German.
It was in 1493 that the city saw the return of the great Columbus from
his first voyage. For a long time the blue-eyed, dreamy Genoese,
Christoforo Colombo, had mused upon the scientific works of the
cultivated Moors, and speculated upon the existence of other lands far
away across the restless ocean. Sceptics laughed at the dreamer; the
clergy frowned at his impudent theories; but a few bold adventurers were
inspired by his enthusiasm.
The story of his setting forth has been often told. Let us welcome the
sunburnt explorer upon his return to Seville on Palm Sunday 1493. The
wondering people are all anxious to catch sight of Cristobal Colon, the
Italian, who claims to have discovered a New World. He passes down the
streets, a tall, brawny man, bronzed, with red hair, which became white
at the age of thirty. To those who question him he replies with dignity
and courtesy, becoming eloquent as he describes the marvels of the vast
country beyond the sea. The whole city is talking of the great news; the
foreign sailor is the hero of the hour. And now those who doubted
Colon's sanity are singing his praises in all the public meeting-places
of Seville. An office for the administration of this new country is
instituted in the city. From the Queen and her Consort to the seller of
water in the streets, everyone utters the name of the explorer with
admiration. The ecclesiastics, who declared that it was impious to
assert that the earth is a globe, are vexed that they have been found
wrong in their arrogant statements. They continue to quote from the
Pentateuch, and the writings of St. Chrysostom, St. Jerome and St.
Augustine to show that pious authority was on their side.
Queen Isabel had encouraged the Genoese sailor in his project, and the
wealthy Pinzon family, of Palos, had assisted him with means, some of
them also accompanying the explorer on his first voyage. Columbus was
made an admiral, and promised further support in his expeditions. In May
1493 he started again, having with him fifteen hundred men and a fleet
of fifty vessels. The crews of these ships were made up of adventurers,
gold-seekers, idlers and a sprinkling of scoundrels selected by the
Government. In the company there were priests, and it was through the
machinations of one of them, Father Boil, that Christopher Columbus
incurred the displeasure of Isabel and Fernando. By every ship that was
bound for Spain from the New World, Boil sent complaints of Columbus.
Unfortunately, Isabel lent her ear to these slanders, and sent Francisco
Bobadilla to dismiss Cristobal Colon, and to take his place. Bobadilla
took possession of Columbus's charts and papers, put him into chains,
and sent him, like a felon, in the hold of a ship to Spain.
It is pitiful to read of the degradation of this honest and brave man,
whose energies built up the prosperity of Spain, and made Seville one
of the busiest cities of Europe. He laid his case before the Queen and
Fernando, and vowed that he had in no sense neglected his duty towards
the country of his adoption. We know that he was 'forgiven,' but the
insult offered to him preyed upon the sensitive mind of the explorer.
Yet he again resolved to visit the land that he had discovered; and in
1503 he left Spain with four worn-out ships. A year later Columbus
returned for the last time. The people of San Lucar, at the mouth of the
Guadalquivir, welcomed back a captain in shattered health, and a crew
wearied by hardship and exposure.
Columbus now longed to settle quietly in Seville, and to end his days
there. He found that his popularity was waning, and that his rents had
not been collected properly during his absence. With the death of Isabel
he lost royal patronage. His last voyage had cost him much; but the
people of Seville believed him to be immensely rich, whereas his income
was now meagre. 'Little have I profited,' writes Columbus, in a letter,
'by twenty years of service, with such toils and perils; since, at
present, I do not own a roof in Spain. If I desire to eat or sleep I
have no resort but an inn; and for the most times have not wherewithal
to pay my bill.'
In his last days we picture Christopher Columbus bending over the
manuscripts, which may be seen in the Biblioteca Columbina, the library
at Seville founded by the natural son of Columbus. One of the
manuscripts treats upon biblical prophecy. It was written to appease the
Inquisitors, who, to the last, suspected the discoverer of heresy.
Writing of this Apologia, Washington Irving says that the title and some
early pages of the book are by Fernando Columbus; 'the main body of the
work is by a strange hand, probably by Friar Gaspar Gorricio, or some
other brother of his convent.' There are signs in the hand-writing that
Columbus was old and in poor health when he wrote the work. The
characters are, however, distinct. There are passages from the Christian
Fathers and the Bible, construed by the author into predictions of the
discovery of the New World.
The gallant voyager was now prematurely aged, though he had led an
abstemious life. Disappointment at the neglect of the world no doubt
preyed upon his spirits in these last days of his career, for it is said
that he possessed 'a too lively sensibility.' Upon the whole, Columbus
was ill-used by Spain, though his memory is revered. It is the old, sad
story of worth and genius. In 1506 Cristobal Colon died in a poor
lodging at Valladolid. He left a son, born to him by his mistress,
Beatrix Enriquez. In his will Columbus left money to Beatrix.
Great honour was paid to the body of the famous explorer. Columbus was
buried in the parish church of Santa Maria de la Antigua. Some years
later the Sevillians desired that the remains should be removed to their
city, and they were then carried to the Carthusian monastery of Las
Cuevas, to the Chapel of St. Ann, or of Santo Christo. The house of Las
Cuevas was a fine one, celebrated for its pictures and treasures, and
surrounded with orange and lemon groves. But the bones of Columbus were
not to remain in Seville. They were taken, in 1536, to Hispaniola, and
laid in the principal chapel of the Cathedral of San Domingo. Finally
the remains were removed to Havanna.
While paying due respect to Christopher Columbus, we must not forget the
great services rendered to the country generally, and to Seville, by
Fernando de Magallanes, or Magellan, who embarked at that port in August
1519 with five vessels. Passing the Canary Islands and Cape Verde, the
Portuguese explorer reached Brazil, and went south to Patagonia, 'the
land of giants,' arriving eventually at the dangerous straits which bear
his name. Magellan never returned to Spain. Only two of his ships
reached the Moluccas, and of the five that started but one came back to
Seville on the homeward journey.
These were the days when Seville was a bustling port of embarkation, and
a great storehouse for treasure from America and the Indies. A fever of
emigration seized the adventurous spirits of Andalusia; and Andrea
Navigiero, a Venetian ambassador, who journeyed through Spain in 1525,
says that the population of Seville was so reduced that 'the city was
left almost to the women.'
The discoveries and conquests of Pizarro, who came to Seville after his
first voyage, added to the enthusiasm for emigration. But Pizarro found
it a hard matter to raise money for the expenses of a second expedition.
He contrived, however, to man three ships, and was about to start, when
the Council of the Indies sought to inquire into the state of the
vessels. Fearing that he might be hindered from his scheme, the explorer
set sail at San Lucar, in great haste, and made for the Canary Islands.
It was in January 1534 that Hernando, brother of Francisco Pizarro, was
directed to return to Seville with a great hoard of treasure. The Custom
House was filled with ingots, vases and ornaments of gold, and the
inhabitants were much interested in the splendid spoil. Hernando Pizarro
came later under a charge of cruelty to the subject race of South
America. In his _Spanish Pioneers_, Mr Lummis tells us that 'Hernando
was for many years imprisoned at Medina del Campo, and that he died at
the age of a hundred. His brother, Francisco, who was born at Truxillo,
in Estremadura, was a swineherd in his boyhood. Fired with the spirit
of romance and adventure, the lad deserted his herd of pigs and ran away
to Seville, where he found scope for his restless energy, and was able
to influence seafaring men to accompany him on a cruise of discovery.
Seville was now at the height of its commercial prosperity. There was a
constant come and go of trading vessels; the silk trade was greatly
developed, and leather was made for the markets of Spain. Isabel took
much interest in the improvement of the commerce of the city. When she
ascended the throne, Seville was notorious for its gangs of thieves and
criminals of all kinds, while the surrounding country was insecure
through the numbers of bandits who waylaid and robbed traders and
farmers on the roads. The Queen determined to stamp out crime by
rigorous measures. She held a court in the _salon_ of the Alcázar, and,
in the Castilian custom, presided over the hearing of criminal charges.
Once a week, Isabel sat in her chair of state, on a daïs covered with
gold cloth. For two months she conducted a crusade against robbery in
the city, recovering a great amount of stolen property, and condemning
many offenders to severe penalties. Her severity struck alarm among the
vagabond and thieving population, and probably terrified a number of the
people who had reason to fear justice. Four thousand subjects left the
town. The respectable burghers grew concerned, dreading that this
depopulation would injure the city and deprive it of workmen. A
deputation of citizens waited upon Isabel and begged her to relax her
austerity. The Queen was therefore prevailed upon to offer an amnesty
for all offenders except those convicted of heresy.
Isabel's fortunes as a ruler were largely determined by her charms. The
Sevillians could not fail to worship the tall, fair young Queen, with
the frank and beautiful countenance and blue eyes. Her very
unconventionality delighted her court and the army; and when she rode at
the head of her troops, in a suit of mail, with a sword by her side,
every _caballero_ was ready to follow the fair commander through blood
and fire. Isabel's sword, a pretty little weapon, is to be seen in the
Real Armeria at Madrid.
The Queen was one of those magnetic personages to whom all things are
permissible. Even in modern times it is considered unseemly for a
Spanish woman to engage in field sports, or any kind of athletic
exercise; but the Spaniards of Isabel's day not only forgave, but
revered, the Queen who sat on the judicial bench, donned masculine
attire, carried weapons, and took a man's part in the government of her
state. Had it not been for the terrible taint of bigotry, which led
Isabel to sanction deeds of persecution and cruelty, her character would
have presented an example approaching the excellence with which
enthusiastic historians have credited it.
[Illustration: Sword of Isabella]
Four years after the accession of Isabel there began the reign of the
Inquisition in Seville. When Alfonso de Hoyeda, Prior of the city, and
Felipe de Barberis, Inquisitor of Sicily, persuaded Fernando that a
crusade against heresy would replenish his exchequer by means of
confiscation, the King was induced to listen to their proposal. At first
Isabel recoiled from this scheme of torture and plunder. But her woman's
mind and heart were not secure against the insidious influence of the
priests, who used their utmost powers of suasion to convince her that
Heaven approved of the destruction of heretics. Finally the Queen gave
way; and the 17th of September 1480 saw the setting up of the tribunal
of the Holy Office in the Dominican Convent of St. Paul at Seville.
M'Crie, in _The History of the Reformation in Spain_, states that 'in
the course of the first year in which it was erected, the Inquisition of
Seville, which then extended over Castile, committed two thousand
persons alive to the flames, burnt as many in effigy, and condemned
seventeen thousand to different penances.' We must note, however, that
according to Prescott these figures refer to several years and not to
the opening years of the institution of the Holy Office in Seville. By
the end of October 1481 it is recorded that three hundred persons had
been burned to death in Seville. In about thirty-six years, four
thousand victims went to the stake in the city, while many times that
number were condemned to slavery, to perpetual imprisonment, to short
terms, and to other punishments.
'The modern Inquisition,' writes M'Crie, 'stretched its iron arms over a
whole nation, upon which it lay like a monstrous incubus, paralysing its
exertions, crushing its energies, and extinguishing every other feeling
but a sense of weakness and terror.' Many of the Sevillians fled from
the city and sought the protection of the Duke of Medina Sidonia, the
Marquis of Cadiz, and the Count of Arcos.
At this period a frightful pestilence swept over Seville, reducing the
population by thirty thousand, and causing great suffering. The clergy
resorted to prayer; charms and relics of the saints were displayed in
the churches; but little or nothing was done in the way of preventing a
spread of the plague by sanitation, or of alleviating the malady by
medical science. It is a saddening picture--the people dying of the
disease, thousands languishing in dungeons, and a multitude filled with
fear lest they should succumb to the epidemic, or fall into the hands of
the Inquisitors. Puigblanch, author of _The Inquisition Unmasked_,
states that the number of the banished and the 'reconciled' in Andalusia
from 1480 to 1520 was a hundred thousand. He asserts that forty-five
thousand persons were done to death in the Archbishopric of Seville
during this period.
Without the city, on the Prado de San Sebastian, is the burning ground.
As we stand there, the imagination conjures a procession accompanying a
victim to the awful torture of the stake. The doomed man is an aged and
devout Morisco, who has saved money by his industry. He has been found
guilty of infidelity, and he has refused to partake of the Christian
sacrament. He is dressed in the sanbenito, a yellow garment, with
pictures of devils kindling a fire and burning faggots, and on his head
is a fantastic conical cap of pasteboard, called the _coroza_. First
comes a troop of soldiers to clear a path for the procession through the
jostling rabble. The soldiers are followed by several priests in
canonical vestments, and the boys of the College of Doctrine, who chant
the liturgy. Then comes the convicted heretic, with a familiar on either
side, and two friars, followed by the judges, ministers of government,
and hidalgoes on horseback. In another procession comes the Inquisitors,
and their standard of red, with the names and insignia of Pope Sixtus
IV. and King Fernando upon it. The members of the Holy Office are
escorted by esquires, and in the rear is a great mob of towns-people.
But enough: imagination is at this point repelled. We turn away from the
scene, and enter the shady gardens that stretch along the Guadalquivir,
to scent the flowers and to listen to the thrush and nightingale.
We cannot, however, close our perceptions to the fact that Seville
played an important part in the Inquisition. In roaming the streets of
the city, it is impossible to forget that this mighty instrument of
fanaticism has left its impress on Spain. We remember that every son of
Seville who dared to exercise his conscience in the matter of religious
belief ran the risk of ending his life upon the Prado de San Sebastian.
The terror of this institution must have blighted the lives of millions
of Spaniards. And we are moved to the reflection that the good which
Isabel performed with one hand was almost destroyed by the evil
inflicted by the other.
The story of Rodrigo de Valer, one of the first to embrace the Lutheran
faith in Seville, is of deep interest. In the fashionable resorts of the
town and at the jousts no youth was more popular than Rodrigo. He had
charming manners, sat a horse gracefully, and could break a lance with
the most skilful knights of the ring. His wealth procured him every
pleasure; he gratified a taste for dress and spent much money upon
horses. Suddenly he was missed from the dance and the tournament. His
friends could not account for this changed mode of life. A passion for
study had taken possession of the young man; and day after day he sat
pouring over the Vulgate, and improving his knowledge of Latin, so that
he might understand the book. In a few months Valer was able to quote
long passages of the Bible from memory. Then he left his study and went
back to his gay companions as an apostle of a new form of faith. He
approached the clergy and the monks, and by argument endeavoured to
convince them of the errors of their creed and ritual, appealing to the
Bible as the criterion of religious truth. The priests were little
inclined to listen to Rodrigo. But when they avoided him, the youth
sought them, engaging them in discussion in the streets and striving to
set forth his new doctrine. At length the indignant clerics of Seville
brought the heretic before the Holy Inquisition. So cogent were his
arguments that some of the members who secretly shared his opinions used
their influence to save him from punishment. Fortunately Valer was of
good family. He was declared to be insane, and spared from an extreme
penalty, but his estates were taken by the tribunal.
Rodrigo's relations now strove to dissuade him from renewing his
endeavours to reform the Church. What could one helpless man achieve
against the whole weight of authority? But Rodrigo was full of zeal. He
began again to denounce the teaching of the clerics, inspired by the
belief that others would soon follow him. For the second time he was
arrested on a charge of heresy and sentenced to imprisonment for life.
In the Church of St. Salvador, where Rodrigo was taken on days of
festival, the fervent youth would rise after the sermon and condemn the
teaching of the pulpit. Only his rank saved him from the flames. He was
eventually imprisoned in a monastery of San Lucar, where he died at the
age of fifty. Valer's sanbenito was displayed for a long time in the
metropolitan church of Seville. It was inscribed: 'Rodrigo de Valer, a
citizen of Lebrixia and Seville, an apostate, and false apostle, who
pretended to be sent of God.'
The teaching of Valer was not without fruit. He was the founder of a
small, but fervent, sect of Lutheran Christians in Seville, whose
doctrines gradually found acceptance among a number of the people. One
of the reformed party was Juan Gil, known as Doctor Egidius, preacher in
Seville Cathedral, who was joined by Vargas and the celebrated
Constantine Ponce de la Fuente. M'Crie says that 'the small society in
Seville grew insensibly, and became the parent stock, from which
branches were taken and planted in the adjacent country.' Persecution
was inevitable. Egidius was denounced and thrown into prison, while
Vargas was murdered, and Ponce de la Fuente banished. After a long
incarceration, Egidius returned to Seville; but he caught a fever, and
died in a few days. De Montes says that the writings of Egidius, which
were never printed, were worthy of praise. The Doctor wrote commentaries
on Genesis and the Psalms, and while in prison he composed an essay on
'Bearing the Cross.'
Protestantism spread in Seville at this time. There was a church under
the care of Doctor Christobal Losada, which met in the house of a lady
of rank, Isabel de Baena, and was attended by the nobles Don Juan Ponce
de León and Domingo de Guzman. In the Dominican Monastery of St. Paul,
in the Nunnery of St. Elizabeth, and especially in the Convent of San
Isidro del Campo, the new doctrines found disciples.
One of the victims of the Inquisition was Torrigiano, the Florentine
sculptor, whose statue of St. Jerome is in the Museo Provincial at
Seville. The monument of Henry VII. in Westminster Abbey is the work of
this artist, who ended his days in the cells of the Inquisitors' prison
in Seville, in 1552. There is no doubt that many of the hapless
prisoners died of diseases contracted in the insanitary dungeons of
Seville and Triana, for Olmedus, one of the sufferers, describes the
dens as vile in 'nastiness and stench.' The ordinary gaols were crowded,
and many persons were immured in the Castle of Triana, and in the
convents of the city.
[Illustration: Plaza San Francisco]
At Triana resided Gonzales-Munebrega, Archbishop of Tarragona, whose
name was coupled with that of Torquemada as a ruthless persecutor. This
officer of the Inquisition might be seen by the trembling populace
walking in the castle gardens, accompanied by a guard of servants.
Munebrega wore rich clothes of purple and silk, and maintained great
pomp. He exhibited extreme cruelty, and scoffed at the sufferings and
cries of the tortured.
Llorente and Bernaldez relate some sickening details of the savage modes
of torment imposed upon the victims of the Inquisition in Seville. It is
not necessary that the tales of horror should be retold here. The first
_auto-da-fé_ celebrated in the city was in 1559, when Don Juan Ponce de
León and several other apostates were committed to the flames in one of
the chief plazas. Ponce de León was described as 'an obstinate Lutheran
heretic.' The heroic Doctor Juan Gonzalez, of Moorish ancestry, was
burnt upon the same day for preaching Protestant doctrines. We see him
leaving the Triana gaol on the morning of execution, 'cheerful and
undaunted,' though he was accompanied by his two sisters, both of whom
were condemned to the stake, and had left behind in the prison his
mother and two brothers. The Doctor sang the 109th Psalm, and attempted
to console his sisters, whereupon a gag was thrust into his mouth.
'When they were brought to the place of execution,' writes M'Crie, 'the
friars urged the females, in repeating the creed, to insert the word
_Roman_ in the clause relating to the Catholic Church. Wishing to
procure liberty to him to bear his dying testimony, they said they
would do as their brother did. The gag being removed, Juan Gonzalez
exhorted them to add nothing to the good confession which they had
already made. Instantly the executioners were ordered to strangle them,
and one of the friars, turning to the crowd, exclaimed that they had
died in the Roman faith.' Doctor Christobal Losada, the pastor of the
Protestant church in Seville, suffered death courageously upon the same
day.
Isabel de Baena, who allowed meetings of the Protestants in her house,
and Maria de Bohorques were among the women of high birth who were
burned in Seville. The story of the last-named lady has been told in a
romance by a Spanish writer, entitled _Cornelia Bororquia_. Maria de
Bohorques came into the grip of the Holy Office before the age of
twenty-one. She was a pupil of Egidius, and a diligent student of the
Scriptures. When seized and tortured by the Inquisition, she refused to
name those of her friends who shared her belief. Doña Maria was then
sent to the stake.
Llorente recounts that two Englishmen were burned at one of the _autos_
of Seville. Nicholas Burton, a merchant of London, who traded with
Spain, arrived with his vessel at San Lucar while the persecution was
raging in Seville. Somewhat imprudently, Burton spoke contemptuously of
the Inquisition, though M'Crie states that the accusation of insolence
was false. Burton was burnt alive, together with William Burke, a seaman
of Southampton, and a Frenchman, named Fabianne. The Holy Office then
seized Burton's cargo; but a part of it belonged to a London tradesman,
who sent one John Frampton to Seville, with a power of attorney, to
recover the goods. Frampton failed to make good his claim after four
months of negotiation, and he returned to England to find greater
powers. When he landed again in Spain, the agent was arrested, put in
chains, and thrown into the dungeon of Triana. The charge against him
was that he had a volume of Cato in his bag. He was questioned as to his
creed, and ordered to repeat the Ave Maria. Subjected to the torture of
the rack, the wretched man was forced to confess anything that his
torturers desired. Frampton was imprisoned for two years, and then
granted his freedom. His 'Narrative' is to be found in Strype's
_Annals_.
The unfortunate Constantine Ponce de la Fuente, who was one of the most
active members of the reformed church in Seville, was seized by the
Inquisition, and confined in an underground cell for two years, when
dysentery put an end to his sufferings. In 1781 the last martyr perished
in the flames at Seville. 'I myself,' writes Blanco White, 'saw the pile
on which the last victim was sacrificed to human infallibility. It was
the unhappy woman whom the Inquisition of Seville committed to the
flames, under the charge of heresy, about forty years ago. She perished
on a spot where thousands had met the same fate.' A traveller in Spain,
named Wiffen, says: 'In the year 1842, whilst travelling in that
country, I found myself in the Alameda Vieja of Seville, in front of the
house formerly occupied by the Inquisition, where several of the
prisoners were confined who were burned at the _auto-da-fé_ of 1560.'
Such is the story of the Inquisition in Seville. I have not willingly
dwelt upon this dark page in the history of the fair city. But it has
been necessary to refer to the chronicles of this reign of terror; for
the institution of the Holy Office in Seville is a matter of historic
importance, and no record of the town could be in any sense complete if
the annals of the Inquisition were overlooked. And in changing to a
happier theme it is necessary that I should point out the repugnance
that masses of the people of Seville exhibited towards the introduction
of this engine of persecution in the city. Llorente, the Spanish
historian of the Inquisition, tells us that when Fernando and Isabel
commanded the Governors of the provinces to supply inquisitors and
assistants to the royal capital, the inhabitants regarded the arrival of
the agents of the Holy Office with extreme dissatisfaction, and that
difficulty was experienced in collecting together 'the number of persons
whose presence was necessary to the legal opening of their assembly.'
Let us view the city of Isabella the Catholic in a brighter aspect. In
the year 1490 an ambassador from Lisbon came to the Alcázar of Seville
to confer with the Queen concerning a proposed marriage between young
Alonso, heir to the Portuguese throne, and Isabel, the Infanta of
Castile, and the dearly-loved namesake of the royal mother. It was with
mingled sentiments of joy and sadness that Isabel consented to the
union. The month of April was chosen for the ceremony of betrothal, and
it was arranged that feasts and tournaments should succeed the official
celebration. Great preparations were made for the festivities. The lists
were constructed on the bank of the Guadalquivir; hangings of costly
material draped the galleries erected for the spectators of the jousts,
and the royal palace was prepared for the reception of noble guests,
knights of prowess, and their dames and daughters. On the first day of
the _fêtes_ a splendid procession passed through the streets to the
lists, where thousands of the nobility were seated, all anxious to
witness a combat in the arena between King Fernando and one of his most
accomplished knights. The charming Infanta delighted everyone as she
came with her seventy ladies-in-waiting, in court dress, and her hundred
gallant pages as bodyguard. It was a scene which the people long
recalled. All the rank and loveliness of Castile and Andalusia were
around the arena when the sports began; the mail and weapons of the
combatants glistened in the dazzling sunlight of the green meadow; and
loud were the plaudits when his majesty broke his first lance in a
furious and exciting tilt with a renowned esquire and champion of the
lists. Throughout the tournament, Fernando acquitted himself as a true
knight of the order of chivalry, displaying much courage and a great
knowledge of the art of the tourney. In the autumn Isabel bade adieu to
her daughter. A great retinue came to the Alcázar, to accompany the
Princess to Portugal, in charge of the Cardinal of Spain and the Grand
Master of St. James.
By the Sevillians, Isabel appears to have been feared as well as
worshipped. The aliens in the city, all except those who chose to
embrace the Catholic faith, had, indeed, good reason to fear their
Queen. Isabel's treatment of the Jews cannot be called humane, but she
enjoined just conduct towards her Indian subjects. The Queen was humble
in her obedience to the Chief Inquisitor, Torquemada, and ever ready to
listen to the counsels of her spiritual guides. Towards heresy she
showed no clemency, and her measures for dealing with bandits and other
criminal offenders were excessively severe. But the romantic personality
of Isabella the Catholic will always appeal to the imagination of the
Andalusians.
CHAPTER III
_Seville under the Catholic Kings_
'In her own interior Spain had an arduous problem to solve--she had
to overcome the old energetic resistance of a whole people--the
tolerably numerous descendants of the former lords and conquerors
of the country who still adhered to the Arabian manners and
language, and even in part professed the doctrines of the
Mohammedan.'--SCHLEGEL, _Philosophy of History_.
Seville in the sixteenth century was at the height of its prosperity. We
have seen how the discoveries of Columbus, Magellan, and the brothers
Pizarro enriched the city, brought vessels to the port with costly
store, and opened a vast foreign trade. In every quarter of the town the
hum of industry was heard. The Morisco artisans, who had become
'reconciled' to the Christian creed, laboured in stone and metal, and
there were silk weavers, leather workers, potters, and gold and silver
smiths. One hundred and thirty thousand persons worked at the looms,
which were numbered at sixteen thousand.
Learning and the arts benefited by the increase of the city's wealth.
The university, founded by Alfonso the Learned, was extended; the
cathedral library was enlarged, and Seville became famous for its poets,
historians, romance writers, and playwrights. Pacheco, painter and poet,
had his circle of gifted artists and men of letters; and the doors of
the Casa Pilatos, the beautiful mansion of the Dukes of Alcalá, were
open to all the lovers of learning and the students of art. Sculptors
and painters were constantly employed upon works of art for the royal
palace, the cathedral, and the churches. The _Mudéjar_ architects and
builders were engaged by rich dons, who had prospered by the discovery
of the New World, to design and erect sumptuous residences in the
Morisco style. Charitable institutions, such as the Hospital de la
Caridad, were founded and liberally endowed, and an asylum for foundling
children was built in the Calle de la Cuna. The highly ornate Casa de
Ayuntamiento, or City Hall, was designed by Diego de Riaño, and Hernan
Ruiz built the upper part of the Giralda.
The Emperor Charles V., one of the wisest rulers of Spain, occasionally
made his residence at the Alcázar during the palmy days of Seville,
though he favoured Segovia and Valladolid. The marriage of the monarch
with Isabella, daughter of Emanuel, King of Portugal, was celebrated in
the Alcázar of Seville with much splendour, and the ceremony was
followed by feasts and diversions. Isabella of Portugal was a gifted
woman, and extremely beautiful, and the union proved very happy. Charles
was at this time highly admired in the city; but at a later date even
the loyal Sevillians showed their displeasure with the Emperor. Certain
of the merchants of the town disregarded the royal command that all the
bullion brought in by the India fleet should be stored in the warehouse
of the Board of Trade, and kept there in case the Government required to
raise funds quickly for war expenses. The owners of the gold naturally
preferred their shipments to the Government bonds promising repayment.
They therefore secretly removed the bullion to their own houses. This
action angered Charles, as the same practice enraged Philip at a later
date, and the Emperor ordered the culprits to be put in chains, sent to
prison, and to be deprived of their possessions. The command was heeded
at once; and the merchants, and the officials who had connived at the
misdemeanour of removing the bullion, were conveyed under a strong guard
to Simancas. One of the offenders was put on the rack and died under
torture. The gold was, however, never recovered by the State.
The gorgeous Salón de Carlos V. was constructed in the royal palace
during the reign of the Emperor, who also laid out the gardens on a new
plan, and built the handsome pavilion in the grounds.
Philip II. had been on the throne for many years before he paid his
first visit to the southern metropolis. The King loved his mountain
palace, the Escorial, where he passed his days in writing records of his
reign, sending dispatches, and shooting with the gun and crossbow.
Prescott says: 'It was a matter of complaint in the Cortes that he thus
withdrew himself from the eyes of his subjects.' Even in his visits to
Madrid, Segovia and Seville, Philip avoided society, and shut himself up
in his closet with a great heap of papers on his table. When he
travelled, the King rode in a close carriage, and tried to avoid the
gaze of his subjects. As he grew older he developed a still stronger
aversion to being seen abroad.
In 1570, at the time of the preparations for the great war with the
Turks, the recluse-King came to Seville. His entry was made the occasion
of a splendid ceremonial and a demonstration of loyalty on the part of
the inhabitants. Philip came from Córdova, and was met on the outskirts
of the city by the officials and soldiery. Taking his oath to respect
the privileges of the city, the Sovereign rode through the crowded
streets in pomp, accompanied by knights and guards. A splendid canopy
was held by the chief justices over the King's head as he proceeded to
the Cathedral to take part in a solemn service. The monarch then took
up quarters in the Alcázar, which he occupied for a fortnight. During
his stay in Seville, Philip appeared at the _fêtes_ which had been
arranged for his entertainment. To show their homage to the King, the
people of the city subscribed a hundred thousand ducats as a donation
towards the cost of Philip's marriage with his fourth wife, Anne of
Austria.
The heavy expenses of the war in the Netherlands and with Turkey led to
a despotic method of obtaining pecuniary supplies. Philip needed money,
and to secure it as quickly as possible, he ordered that the officials
of the Casa de la Contratación at Seville should seize the cargoes of
gold and silver that had just arrived in the port. This action aroused
much indignation in the city, and the people grew incensed when the
command was again given to confiscate the bullion consigned to merchants
of Seville. When a number of treasure ships were on their homeward
journey, the King sent Admiral Alvaro de Bazán to the Azores to
intercept the vessels; and immediately upon the arrival of the fleet at
San Lucar, the whole of the shipment was sent to Santander, and from
that port to Flanders.
Under Philip II. the Church in Seville rose to great power, and
increased in wealth. The Archbishop of the city received an income of
eighty thousand ducats a year, and the minor clergy profited by the
King's patronage of the Church. It is not surprising that many of the
sons of families of rank and position crowded into the profession of
priest, and that the number of persons in holy orders soon swelled
enormously. Arts and handicrafts were not considered gentlemanlike
pursuits; the industry of the city was relegated to Spaniards of low
birth, to the _Mudéjares_, and to aliens. The _caballero_ of Seville
aspired to join the Church Militant, or to enter the army. When Philip
III., the Good, came to the throne there were no less than fourteen
thousand chaplains in the diocese, while a hundred clerics were on the
staff of the Cathedral alone.
[Illustration: FOUNTAIN IN BATH, ALCÁZAR.]
The oppression of the Moriscoes in the city became severer in the days
of Philip II. Doubt was cast upon the genuineness of belief among the
'reconciled' Moors, and they were bidden to cease reading books in the
Arabic language, to abandon their ceremonies, to change their mode of
dress, and to speak in Spanish. The public baths, built by the cleanly
Moriscoes, were destroyed in every city, and the _Mudéjares_ were even
forbidden to bathe in their own houses. These mandates exasperated the
Moriscoes throughout Andalusia. They rebelled and fought desperately;
but after frightful bloodshed and suffering, they were quelled and
broken down, never to regain their ancient sway. The suppression of the
heretics was complete by the time of Philip III. And at this time began
the decline of Seville's prosperity.
When Philip V. reigned, the sixteen thousand looms of the city had been
reduced to less than three hundred, and the population was thinned to 'a
quarter of its former number of inhabitants.' In the fruitful district
around Seville the vineyards and olive gardens were in a state of
neglect, and fields once fertile became wastes. Trade declined rapidly
with the extirpation of heresy. The industrial population was deprived
of its most skilful and industrious members when the last band of
Moriscoes quitted the city. In the seventeenth century Andalusia
suffered fearful poverty. Whole villages were deserted, the land was
going out of cultivation, and the tax-collectors were enjoined to seize
the beds and such wretched furniture as the indigent peasants possessed
in their cheerless houses.
When Philip II. died, loyal Seville honoured the departed King by a
magnificent funeral service in the Cathedral. A monument, forty-four
feet square, and forty-one feet in height, was designed by Oviedo, at a
cost of fifteen thousand ducats. Montañes, the famous sculptor, whose
work is to be seen in several of the Seville churches, produced some of
the statuary to adorn the monument, and the young Pacheco, then unknown,
assisted in the decoration. On November 25, 1598, the mourning multitude
flocked to the dim Cathedral. While the people knelt upon the stones,
and the solemn music floated through the long aisles, there was a
disturbance among a part of the congregation. A man was charged with
deriding the imposing monument, and creating a disorder in the holy
edifice. He was a tax-gatherer and ex-soldier of the city, named Don
Miguel de Servantes Saavedra. Some of the citizens took his side, for
there was a feud between the civil and ecclesiastical authorities of
Seville, and the tax-gatherer had merely shown public spirit. The
brawler, whom we know as Cervantes, was expelled from the Cathedral with
his companions, and order was restored. But he had his revenge. He went
to his room and composed a satirical poem upon the tomb of the King,
which was soon published and read everywhere in the city. Here is one of
the English translations of the poem:--
TO THE MONUMENT OF THE KING AT SEVILLE.
'I vow to God I quake with my surprise!
Could I describe it, I would give a crown--
And who, that gazes on it in the town,
But starts aghast to see its wondrous size;
Each part a million cost, I should devise;
What pity 'tis, ere centuries have flown,
Old Time will mercilessly cast it down!
Thou rival'st Rome, O, Seville, in my eyes!
I bet the soul of him who's dead and blest,
To dwell within this sumptuous monument
Has left the seats of sempiternal rest!
A fellow tall, on deeds of valour bent,
My exclamation heard. "Bravo!" he cried,
"Sir Soldier, what you say is true, I vow!
And he who says the contrary has lied!"
With that, he pulls his hat upon his brow,
Upon his sword hilt he his hand doth lay
And frowns--and--nothing does, but walks away.'
The discovery of the New World, with its opulence of treasure, and the
expulsion of the Moriscoes, did not yield a permanent prosperity to
Seville. Even before the death of Philip II., the few far-sighted and
reflective men doubted whether a great influx of gold and silver, and
the annihilation of freedom of thought, were likely to benefit Spain,
either in the material or spiritual sense. The gold fever seized like a
frenzy upon the avaricious, and the early colonisers turned their backs
upon any country that lacked precious minerals. Nothing save gold and
silver was considered valuable. As a consequence these minerals became
redundant, and in the meantime the cultivation of the land at home and
abroad, and the development of manufactures, were neglected. No one had
the enterprise to prevent the silting up of the tidal waters of the
Guadalquivir, and so Seville lost its importance as a busy port.
While nobles were fighting for gold, and harrying heretics, briars and
weeds were spreading over the fields that the patient Moors had tilled
and made marvellously fertile. The establishment of the _alcavala_ tax
upon farming produce and manufactured articles hastened the decline of
agriculture and of crafts in Andalusia. Finally, under the Bourbons,
Cadiz became the rival of Seville, and the Council of the Two Indies was
removed to the southern port in 1720. In good or ill fortune Seville
remained loyal, winning for itself the title of: _Muy noble, muy leal,
muy heroica é invicta, i.e._, 'Very noble, very loyal, very brave and
invincible.'
Some interesting pictures of Seville at the close of the eighteenth and
beginning of the nineteenth centuries are to be found in the _Letters
from Spain_, by D. Leucadio Doblado, written in 1824. Doblado is the
pseudonym of Blanco White, son of the British Vice-Consul at Seville in
those days. White was born in the city in 1775, brought up as a
Spaniard, and sent to the University. His parents were very austere
Catholics, but reading and study developed a sceptical tendency in young
White's mind, and he subsequently came to England and was well-known in
Unitarian circles.
In his _Life_, Blanco White describes the quaint ceremony of entrance
into the University of Seville. 'Every day of the week preceding the
admission, the candidate was obliged to walk an hour in the principal
quadrangle of the college, attended by one of the servitors, and his own
servant or page--a needy student who, for the sake of board, lodgings
and the cast-off clothes of his master, was glad in that humble capacity
to go through the course of studies necessary for the profession--Divinity,
Law or Medicine--which he intended to follow.' The custom of the
_caravanas_ was a trying ordeal for the student. He was compelled to run
the gauntlet of the gibes of a mob of spectators, as a trial of his
patience. No physical violence was permitted, except when a candidate
lost his temper. An irascible victim was speedily ducked in the basin of
the fountain of the quadrangle. Ladies came to see the sport. When White
passed through this ordeal, he was dressed in fantastic garments, and
led by his tormentors by a rope.
In 1800, Blanco White saw the outbreak of yellow fever that ravaged the
city. The plague began in Triana, and the infection was said to have
been brought from Cadiz by seamen. As in previous instances of
pestilence, there was no enforced isolation of the diseased, and no
relief of the suffering poor. Prayers were offered for succour in the
Cathedral and the churches, and a special service of the Rogativas, used
in the times of severe affliction, was performed on nine days after
sunset. One of the choicest relics of the Cathedral, a piece of the True
Cross, or _Lignum Crucis_, was exhibited as a charm on the Giralda
Tower. Many persons advised that a wooden crucifix, in one of the
chapels of the suburbs, should be also employed. It had been of great
service in the plague of 1649, staying the epidemic after half of the
inhabitants had been destroyed. A day was fixed for the solemn ceremony
of blessing the four winds of heaven with the True Cross from the
Cathedral treasury. The great fane was crowded with supplicants. As the
priest made the sign of the Cross, with the golden casket containing the
_Lignum Crucis_, a frightful clap of thunder made the Cathedral tremble.
In forty-eight hours the deaths increased tenfold. The heat, the
polluted air of the Cathedral, the infection that spread among the
worshippers, and the fatigue of the service caused a great spread of the
fever in the city. Eighteen thousand persons perished from the
pestilence.
During the Peninsular War, Soult's troops did considerable damage to
parts of Seville. The church that contained the bones of Murillo was
pillaged by the soldiers, and the tomb of the great painter was
destroyed. On February 1, 1810, the city surrendered with all its stores
and arsenal, and Joseph marched in. The French force had appeared before
Seville in January 1810. 'In Seville all was anarchy,' writes Sir W. F.
P. Napier, in his _History of the War in the Peninsula_; 'Palafox and
Montijo's partisans were secretly ready to strike, the ancient Junta
openly prepared to resume their former power.' It was a time of revolt
in the city; mobs went through the streets, calling for the deposition
of the Junta, and vowing violence against the members. Seville was
besieged for the last time in 1843, at the time of Espartero's regency.
An account of the siege is given in _Revelations of Spain_, by an
English Resident, who writes: 'I saw full twenty houses in different
parts of the city--this was about the entire number--which Van Halen's
shells had entirely gutted. The balls did limited damage--a mere crack
against the wall, for the most part a few stones dashed out, and there
an end. But the bombs--that was indeed a different matter! Wherever they
fell, unless they struck the streets, and were buried in the ground,
they carried destruction. Lighting on the roof of a house, they
invariably pierced through its four or five floors, and bursting below,
laid the building in ruins.' Probably not more than twenty lives were
lost through the bursting of the shells. Most of the men of the city
were defending the walls, and the women took refuge in the churches. The
Cathedral sheltered a large number of women and children, who slept and
cooked there. The Junta of Seville occupied the Convent of San Paolo
during the siege.
Edward VII. of England, when Prince of Wales, paid a visit to Seville,
and spent several days in the city, in 1876.
We have now briefly surveyed the more interesting events in the history
of the city and noted incidents in the lives of eminent Sevillians from
the time of the Goths until the present century.
CHAPTER IV
_The Remains of the Mosque_
'I have never entered a mosque without a vivid emotion--shall I
even say without a certain regret in not being a
Mussulman?'--ERNEST RENAN, _Islamism and Science_.
In the year 1171, Abu Yakub Yûsuf, the conquering Moor, began the
building of a mighty _mezquita_, or mosque, in the captured city of
Seville. The important work was given into the hands of a famed
architect, one Gever, Hever, or Djâbir, the correct spelling of whose
name has puzzled the historians. Gever is said to have been 'the
inventor of Algebra.' Whether he really designed the Mosque is difficult
to determine. Some Spanish writers have asserted that the first stage of
the Giralda Tower was commenced in the year 1000 of the Christian era
'by the famous Moor, Herver.' From the discovery, at a great depth, of
certain pieces of Roman masonry, it is supposed that an amphitheatre
once occupied the ground now covered by the Cathedral, the Giralda, and
the Court of the Oranges.
There is no doubt that the Mosque of the Almohade ruler was a vast and
noble building, resembling in most of its characters that of Córdova.
The minaret, now called the Giralda, is certainly one of the most
ancient buildings in the city. It is recorded that the Moorish
astronomers used the tower as an observatory. Probably the minaret
served the double purpose of praying-tower and astronomical outlook. In
building the tower the remains of ruined Roman and Gothic structures
were used by the Moors, just as the Christians afterwards employed
portions of the mosques and palaces for building their temples. The
original minaret was about two hundred and thirty feet in height. At
each corner of the minaret stood four huge brass balls, which were
thrown down in the earthquake of 1395.
If we enter the precincts of the old Mosque by the Puerta del Perdón, in
the Calle de Alemanes, we shall see the bronze-covered doors which may
have formed one of the entrances to the building. The bronze has been
spoilt by paint, but one can note the distinctly Moorish character of
these great doors. This gate was reconstructed by Alfonso XI. after the
victory of Salado. In its present state it dates from 1340. Bartolomé
López added the plateresque ornamentations about 1522. The sculptures
over the doorway are statues of St. Peter and St. Paul, an Annunciation
and the Expulsion of the Money Changers from the Temple. Before the
Lonja was built, the merchants of Seville used the court within as an
exchange. Hence the relief of the Expulsion, a fine piece of carving by
the Italian, Miguel, representing Christ chastising the money changers
from the Temple. Miguel of Florence was one of the early Renaissance
sculptors who came to Spain.
Under the archway of the Gate of Pardon is a modern shrine. At almost
all hours of the day sin-stricken supplicants, chiefly women, may be
seen kneeling on the stones before the altar.
[Illustration: Puerta del Perdón]
Through the gateway we enter the quiet retreat of the Patio de los
Naranjas, or the Court of the Oranges, which formed the courtyard of the
ancient Morisco temple. The lofty Cathedral is before us; on the left
towers the imposing Giralda, and to the right hand is the Sagrario,
or parish church. There is a beautiful Moorish fountain in the centre of
the court, with an octagonal basin. Every Morisco _patio_ had its
fountain, orange and lemon trees, and marble seats. In the walls of the
Sacristry of the Sagrario, we shall find further traces of the Moorish
decoration in the form of _azulejos_ which belonged to the original
Mosque.
The _patio_ is smaller than that of the _mezquita_ of Córdova, and with
the exception of the few relics which I have described, there is not
much suggestion of former grandeur.
But imagination calls forth the figure of a Mueddjin upon the minaret,
chanting the _Adyân_, or call to prayer, as the sun tints the sky at its
setting. The worshippers repair to the baths to purify themselves for
devotion by washing their bodies. 'Regularly perform thy prayer at the
declension of the sun,' says the Sura, 'at the first darkness of the
night and the prayer of daybreak; for the prayer of daybreak is borne
witness unto by the angels.' Five times during the day the pious
Mohammedans spread their mats here, and prayed to Allah.
The Crescent has vanished from the Giralda. A figure of Christian faith
stands there in its stead, and from the Cathedral issue the strains of
the choristers and the swelling of the organ. For long centuries this
spot in the heart of Seville has been dedicated to worship. Romans,
Visigoths, Moors and Catholic Christians each in their day of power have
bent the knee to their deities upon the ground which we are now
treading. It is a strange, composite fane! The lower part of the Giralda
is Moorish, the upper part Christian. In the middle of the Court of the
Oranges we have the Moslem fountain; and in the wall is a stone pulpit
from which many eminent Catholic divines have preached against heresy.
The Giralda, incorporated with the Cathedral, dominates all, but it is
the most Moorish feature of the great pile.
[Illustration: Stone Pulpit in Court of Oranges.]
We must now inspect the minaret. Our way is through the Capilla de la
Granada of the Cathedral. Here we may see one more monument of the
Moors, a horseshoe arch, once a part of the Mosque. Within, suspended
from the roof, is a huge elephant's tusk, a bridle, said to have
belonged to the Cid's steed, and a stuffed crocodile, a present from the
Sultan of Egypt, who sent it to Alfonso el Sabio, with a request for the
King's daughter as wife.
The ascent of the Giralda is not laborious. We can walk up the inclined
plane without losing breath; and at each window of the stages there are
lovely peeps of the city and the vast plain of the Guadalquivir. From
these windows there are fine outlooks upon the Cathedral, and the
details of its wonderful buttresses can be well studied as we ascend
stage by stage. The stages, or _cuerpos_, of the tower are all named.
We soon arrive at the Cuerpo de Campanas, where there is a peal of
bells. Santa Maria is a ponderous bell which cost ten thousand ducats.
It was set up in the year 1588 by the order of the Archbishop Don
Gonzalo de Mena. This bell is vulgarly called 'the plump' by reason of
its great bulk and weight. Its note is deep and resonant, and can be
heard all over the city, and far away in the country, when the wind is
favourable.
[Illustration: Cuerpo de Azucenas]
Another _cuerpo_ is that of the Azucenas, or white lilies, so called on
account of its architectural urns, with ironwork flower decorations. El
Cuerpo del Reloj (the Clock Tower) contained the first tower-clock made
in Spain. It was put in its place in the presence of King Enrique III.
The present clock was the work of José Cordero, a monk, and it dates
from 1765. It is said that portions of the old clock were used by
Cordero.
Around the more modern part of the Giralda is an inscription in Latin:
_Turris Fortisima Nomen Domini_. Each word of the motto occupies one of
the faces of the tower. The Cuerpo de Estrellas, or Stage of the Stars,
is so named in allusion to the decorations of its faces. Notice the
_ajimez_ windows as you ascend the tower. The fourth and last _cuerpo_
is the Corambolas, or billiard balls, referring to the globes of stone
in the decoration.
We emerge upon a gallery below the great statue of La Fé, thirteen feet
in height, and made out of bronze by Bartolomé Morel, in 1568. This
figure of a woman is a vane, which moves with every wind in spite of its
size and weight. It is a wonderful piece of workmanship. The head of the
Faith is crowned with a Roman helmet, and in the woman's right hand is
the great standard of Rome in the time of the Emperor Constantine. In
the left hand the figure holds a palm branch, a symbol of conquest. The
true name of the statue is La Fé Triumfante; but in the common speech of
Seville it is spoken of as Victoria, Giraldillo, Santa Juasma, and El
Muñeco.
Don Alfonso Alvarez-Benavides, in his little book on _La Giralda_,
published in Seville, tells us that the statue of the Faith has suffered
several lightning strokes. One of these attacks severely scorched the
upper section of the tower. In the afternoon of April 26, 1884, during a
terrific thunder-storm, a shower of sparks fell upon the Giralda and
caused much damage. Again, on the 18th of June 1885, lightning assailed
the building. The work of restoration began in the year 1885, and was
completed in 1888, under the direction of Fernandez Casanova.
It was in 1568 that Hernan Ruiz erected the highest _cuerpo_ of the
minaret by order of the Cathedral authorities. Ruiz was often employed
by the Church, and his work may be seen in the restored _mezquita_ of
Córdova.
The Giralda is about three hundred feet in height. As the surrounding
country is level, we can command a very wide expanse from the gallery
below the statue of the Faith. Looking over the roofs and dome of the
Cathedral, we see the Plaza de Toros, and the suburb of Triana, on the
opposite bank of the Guadalquivir. Among the low hills beyond the
Cartuja, to the right of Triana, is the ancient Roman amphitheatre of
Italica, while in the extreme distance are blue mountains.
Beyond the Alcázar we note the Parque, the Delicias, the Prado de San
Sebastian, and the red clay hills of Coria on the right bank of the
broad river. Further away are the interminable marshes bordering the
estuary, and beyond is San Lucar. Below us is the Archbishop's Palace
and the gardens of the Alcázar. Seville is spread beneath us like a huge
map. We look down on roof gardens, into _patios_, along the white,
narrow _calles_, into the _plazas_, and across the housetops to the
fertile land beyond the Roman walls.
It is a prospect that inspires the spectator. Fair, sunny, fruitful
Andalusia stretches around for league upon league, under a burning blue
sky. The air is clear; there is scarcely a trace of smoke from the
myriad chimneys of the city. No town could be brighter and cleaner. We
are above the brown hawks that nest in the niches of the Cathedral. They
float on outspread wings over the buttresses. The passengers in the
streets are like specks; the trees in the Court of the Oranges are but
shrubs. It is one of the finest panoramas in Spain. One is reluctant to
descend from this breezy platform, and to turn one's back upon the fine
bird's-eye view of Seville and the surrounding landscape.
It is a misfortune that sun, wind and rain have almost expunged the
frescoes that decorate the niches of the Giralda. They were the work of
Luis de Vargas, who painted the altar-piece in the Chapel of the
Nativity in the Cathedral. Vargas was a pupil of Perino del Vaga in
Italy. One of the paintings on the Giralda represented the Saints of
Seville, St. Justa and St. Rufina, who protect the tower from harm, and
other subjects were scenes in the lives of saints and martyrs. Vargas
also executed the fresco of Christ bearing the Cross, or the _Calle de
Amargura_, on the outside of Patio de los Naranjas. The picture was
restored by Vasco Pereyra, in 1594. We read of Luis de Vargas that he
was extremely devout. He practised austerities and mortifications, and
slept with a coffin by his bedside, to remind him of the insecurity of
this earthly life. The ascetic artist was born in Seville, in 1502, and
died there about the year 1568.
Like the monument of London, and many other high towers, the Giralda has
often been used by suicides. A number of despairing persons have thrown
themselves from its summit.
[Illustration: The Giralda]
CHAPTER V
_The Cathedral_
'How reverend is the face of this tall pile,
Whose ancient pillars rear their marble heads
To bear aloft its arched and ponderous roof,
By its own weight made steadfast and immovable,
Looking tranquillity.'--WILLIAM CONGREVE.
'Let us build such a huge and splendid temple that succeeding
generations of men will say that we were mad.' So said the pious
originators of Seville Cathedral, in the year 1401. After one hundred
years, the temple was still unfinished, and to this day masons are at
work upon the dome.
When San Fernando captured the city of Seville from the Moors, and made
it his capital, the Mosque, which stood on the site of the Cathedral,
was consecrated to the service of the Christian faith. It was used for
Catholic worship until its disrepair became a reproach. Then the Chapter
decided to erect a worthier fane, one which would astonish posterity.
The Cathedral should be huge and magnificent, rivalling in its area all
the other cathedrals of Spain. Toledo Cathedral is 'rich'; Salamanca,
'strong'; León, 'beautiful.' The Cathedral of Seville is called the
'great.'
In point of size the edifice ranks third among the cathedrals of Europe.
It is the largest Gothic cathedral in the world, larger than Cologne and
Milan. The superficial areas of the great cathedrals are as follows:--
St. Peter's 230,000 feet square
Córdova 160,000
Seville 125,000
Milan 110,000
St. Paul's 84,000
In 1511, five years after the practical completion of the building, the
dome gave way. It was re-erected by Juan Gil de Hontañon, an architect
who subsequently designed the new Cathedral of Salamanca (1513). The
original architects are supposed to have been of German nationality.[B]
Earthquake shocks endangered a part of the structure at a later date,
and Casanova, who restored the Giralda Tower, superintended the
renovation, which was begun in 1882. Six years after Casanova's
restoration, the dome again collapsed, and from that time until to-day
the work of repair has proceeded.
Théophile Gautier, writing of this splendid pile, states:
'The most extravagant and most monstrously prodigious Hindoo pagodas are
not to be mentioned in the same century as the Cathedral of Seville. It
is a mountain scooped out, a valley turned topsy-turvy; Notre Dame at
Paris might walk erect in the middle nave, which is of frightful height;
pillars as large round as towers, and which appear so slender that they
make you shudder, rise out of the ground or descend from the vaulted
roof, like stalactites in a giant's grotto.'
In Caveda's description of the Cathedral, we read: 'The general effect
is truly majestic. The open-work parapets which crown the roofs; the
graceful lanterns of the eight winding stairs that ascend in the
corners to the vaults and galleries; the flying buttresses that spring
lightly from aisle to nave, as the jets of a cascade from cliff to
cliff; the slender pinnacles that cap them, the proportions of the arms
of the transept and of the buttresses supporting the side walls; the
large pointed windows that open between them, one above another, just as
the aisles and chapels to which they belong rise over each other; the
pointed portals and entrances--all these combine in an almost miraculous
manner, although these are lacking the wealth of detail, the airy grace,
and the delicate elegance that characterise the cathedrals of León and
Burgos.'
[Illustration: Pinnacle of the Cathedral]
It was during the long and exhausting endeavours of the Castilian Kings
to expel the Moors from Spain, that gold and treasure was paid into the
coffers of the Chapter for the cost of erecting the marvellous
Cathedral of Seville. Bishops, deans and clergy forfeited one half of
their stipends to meet the heavy charges of architects, artists, stained
glass designers, masons, carvers, and innumerable craftsmen and
labourers. An army of artists and mechanics was employed upon the vast
work. During the century of construction, the Catholic kings who resided
in the Alcázar, showed great interest in the undertaking, while the
noble families subscribed liberally towards the cost, and the poor gave
of their slender store of pesetas.
The exterior of the Cathedral is a type of the finest Spanish Gothic
architecture, though the incorporated Giralda Tower is distinctly
Morisco, and much older in style. Within the consecrated precincts, we
may see traces of the _Mudéjar_ handicraftsmen amid early Gothic and
Renaissance architectural details.
The Cathedral consecrated ground contains within its confines the
Moorish Patio de los Naranjas, the high minaret, the Columbus Library,
offices of the Chapter, and the Church of the Sagrario. There are nine
doors to the Cathedral proper, and a gateway with doors, leading to the
Patio de los Naranjas, or Court of the Oranges.
THE EXTERIOR OF THE CATHEDRAL.
From the Calle del Gran Capitan, on the west side of the Cathedral, one
may gain a conception of the extent and the magnificence of the
building. It is best to begin our inspection of the doors from this
side. Here we shall find three entrances, or _puertas_. The chief door
is in the centre. It is elaborately decorated, and is in fine
preservation. Thirty-two figures stand in niches. Over the door is a
beautiful relief of the Assumption by Ricardo Bellver.
[Illustration: Puerta Mayor.
THE CENTRAL DOOR OF THE CATHEDRAL]
Puerta del Bautismo, or San Juan, is embellished with sculptures by
Pedro Millan, which deserve careful inspection. The third doorway is the
Puerta del Nacimiento, or San Miguel. This is also adorned by the
sculpture of Pedro Millan. The upper part of the Cathedral viewed from
this side is not of much beauty. It is modern, dating from 1827.
[Illustration: Pinnacle of the Cathedral]
At the south side of the Cathedral is the Puerta de San Cristóbal, or de
la Lonja, added by Casanova in 1887. As we make the circuit of the
edifice, we shall see the turrets and numerous pinnacles of the roof.
The effect is impressive and bewildering. Centuries of labour are here
represented in noble form and beauty of outline. The flying buttresses
are especially graceful and the great dome is majestic in its
proportions. Cean Bermudez compares the Cathedral with 'a high-pooped
and beflagged ship, rising over the sea with harmonious grouping of
sails, pennons and banners.'
In the east façade are the Puerta de los Campanillas and the Puerta de
los Palos. These doors are magnificently decorated with sculptures by
Lope Marin, executed in the year 1548. There are three entrances on the
north side. That leading from the Court of the Oranges is named the
Puerta del Lagarto, from the stuffed crocodile which hangs from the
ceiling. The Puerta de los Naranjas is in the centre of the court. This
door is kept closed except on days of festival. The third door is the
unfinished one bearing the name of the Puerta del Sagrario.
* * * * *
As we survey this immense monument of the Christian faith, we are led to
muse upon the power of the early Catholic Church in Spain. It was no
half-hearted belief that urged men of all ranks of society to deny
themselves in contributing to the huge outlay that went to the planning,
erection and decoration of this mighty Cathedral.
The dictates of the Chapter ruled the councils of the State and the
conferences of kings and courtiers. When the throne lost power, the
bishop's chair gained in authority. In the reign of Philip III. the
Cathedral of Seville had no less than one hundred clergy on its staff.
Dunham, in his _History of Spain_, states that 'half a dozen could
assuredly have been sufficient for the public offices of devotion.' But
there was no question of restricting the number of ministers and
confessors in these days of perfervid devotion. It was considered
heretical to even speak of stinting the wealth that was freely poured
into the coffers of the hierarchy. To this devotion and liberality we
owe the great treasure-house of art beneath whose broad shadow we stand.
The painters, sculptors and craftsmen were under the patronage of the
Church; they could not have subsisted without such patronage. And in
most cases they gave their services gladly, for their heart was in their
labours, and devotion inspired them. Few desired any other kind of
employment; the highest service was that of holy religion.
A great faith, such as the Romish, inspires its devotees to the building
of resplendent temples. The Christians would not merely imitate the
Moors in the beauty and richness of their churches. They pledged
themselves to excel the magnificence of the _mezquitas_, and to show
mankind that God is honoured most devoutly by those who spare neither
wealth nor industry in the setting up of fanes dedicated to His worship.
We cannot grasp the Spanish character until we realise that its keynote
in the past was profound piety and deep loyalty towards the Church and
the Crown. The cathedrals of Spain are testimony to this devotion to the
Christian creed. They are solemn historic memorials of faith.
Worshippers in the Seville Cathedral are reverential; there is no
apparent insincerity in their responses and genuflexions. In Italy and
France there is a less manifest reverence during divine services. But
the Spanish temperament has remained religious through all the stress of
heretical days and the changing fortunes of its dynasties. It is not
only the women who are devout, for many men are present at the
celebrations in the cathedrals and churches. Very imposing are these
Spanish services in the half-light of the _capillas_:
'Dim burn the lamps like lights on vaporous seas;
Drowsed are the voices of droned litanies;
Blurred as in dreams the face of priest and friar.'
The organ music is often superb, and the choristers are highly trained.
Besides the organ, reed and string instruments are used to accompany the
singing during important festivals. The smoke of incense mounts in the
lofty naves and aisles; the altars glow with candle-lights, and the
sweet, rich voices of the boys hover under the vaulted roofs. Rich and
poor alike sit or stand upon the flagged floors. The preachers are often
very eloquent, and they preach in the purest form of the Castilian
language.
The dim light of the interior of the Cathedral is a hindrance to the
full enjoyment of the very numerous works of art that adorn the chapels.
This gloom is characteristic of the Spanish cathedrals and churches. The
best time in the day to inspect the pictures in Seville Cathedral is
before eight in the morning. It is an early hour; but the light is then
fairly good, and the chapels are usually quiet. I advise the visitor to
spend several hours in the Cathedral, if he desires to study the inner
architecture, carvings, pictures and statues. A mere ramble through the
naves and a peep into one or two of the _capillas_ will not suffice. It
is well to select a portion of the interior for each day's inspection.
Shun the loafers who offer their services as guides. They have no
knowledge of the art treasures, and they possess a faculty of invention.
I trust that my description will assist the stranger in his tour of the
Cathedral. The chief objects of art are indicated, or briefly described,
in the remaining part of this chapter. The account is not to be taken as
exhaustive. A thorough treatise on the architecture of the building
alone would require more space than I have at my command, and it might
prove somewhat tedious to the reader who is not acquainted with the
technical terminology of architecture.
THE INTERIOR OF THE CATHEDRAL.
Enter by the Puerta del Lagarto, in the Patio de los Naranjas. One's
first impression when within the Cathedral is that of its magnitude and
the 'frightful height,' which struck Théophile Gautier. The length,
exclusive of the Capilla Real, is three hundred and eighty feet; the
width is two hundred and fifty feet. The nave is one hundred and
thirty-two feet in height, and over fifty feet in width.
There is great dignity in the lofty columns, and a sense of vastness
possesses us as we gaze upwards. The floor is of fine marble. It was
laid in the years 1787 to 1795.
_The Capilla de los Evangelistas_ is the first chapel near to the
_puerta_. It has a fine altar piece in nine parts, the work of Hernando
de Sturmio, containing a picture of the ancient Giralda. The paintings
are on panel, and the brown tints are characteristic of the early
Sevillian School of Art.
By the Puerta de los Naranjas, the great door on this side of the
Cathedral, there are two altars. One is the Altar de la Asunción, and
the other is dedicated to La Virgen de Belén. The Assumption picture as
executed by Carlo Maratta. The face of the Virgin is clear, but somewhat
dark in tone, and the light is not favourable for viewing the picture.
On the other side of the doorway the light is better. The altar is
adorned by a painting of the Virgin, from the brush of the famous Alonso
Cano. It is a rather conventional presentment of Holy Mother, but the
features are not without beauty. On the whole, the painting is not
equal in merit to most of the works of the last Andalusian master. The
hands and feet of the figure are finished with the care characteristic
of Cano's art.
Alonso Cano has been called the 'Michelangelo of Spain.' He studied in
Seville under Pacheco and Juan de Castillo, and painted pictures for
some of the religious houses. Cano was also a sculptor and architect. He
was forced to leave the city after wounding an antagonist in a duel. In
1651 he was appointed a Canon of Granada, and during his residence in
the old Moorish city, Cano painted works for the churches. The artist
was of an irritable disposition; but he spent the latter part of his
life in religious exercises, and gave freely to the poor. He died in
poverty, in 1667, and received alms from the Church.
Writing of Alonso Cano, in his _Spanish and French Painters_, Mr Gerard
W. Smith says: 'Although he was never in Italy, his fine feeling for
form, and the natural charm and simplicity of his composition, suggest
the study of the antique, while in painting, the richness and variety of
his colouring could hardly be surpassed.'
_The Capilla de San Francisco_ is next to the altar of Alonso Cano. Here
we may try to see a painting of the Glorification of St. Francis by
Herrera el Mozo, and one of the Virgin and San Ildefonso, by Juan Valdés
Leal. Herrera's picture is not of value. He was a much less capable
artist than his father, Francisco Herrera el Viejo (the elder), from
whose roof the mozo ran away to Italy. Upon his return to Seville, the
young man was so conceited and affected in his painting that he failed
to produce any fine work. The Glorification of St. Francis and the
picture by Leal can be scarcely seen in the sombre shadows of the
chapel.
[Illustration: Interior of the cathedral]
_The Capilla de Santiago_ adjoins the last chapel. There are two
paintings here; one by Juan de las Roelas of St. James (Santiago) and
one of St. Lawrence (San Lorenzo) by Valdés Leal. Roelas was painting in
Seville at the time of Herrera the Elder. He is said to have studied art
in Venice. The finest work of this artist is to be seen in the Church of
San Isidoro.[C] In the Capilla de Santiago there is a dilapidated tomb
of Archbishop Gonzalo de Mena, who died in 1401.
_The Capilla de Escalas_ contains two pictures of note by Luca Giordano,
strong in character, drawing, and colour. Over the tomb of Bishop
Baltasar del Rio, who died in 1540, is an altar relief of the Day of
Pentecost by a Genoese artist.
_The Capilla del Bautisterio_ has one of Murillo's finest works,
representing St. Anthony of Padua's Vision of the Child Jesus. Part of
this picture was cut out and stolen in 1874. It was traced to New York,
and restored to the Cathedral a few months later. The picture was
originally painted for the Capuchin Convent in 1656, and afterwards came
into the possession of the Chapter. A Baptism of Christ, also the work
of Murillo, is above this painting. In this chapel is the font of holy
oil, which is consecrated in Holy Week. This _pila_, or monument, was
made by Antonio Florentin in 1545-1546. It is used for the exposition of
the Host, and is exhibited near the Puerta Mayor in Easter Week.
Originally the _pila_ was a tall construction of three storeys on
columns, with a large cross. Between the columns were coloured figures
of saints. Some of the effigies were modelled in clay, and others were
carved from wood. They were beautifully designed. In 1624 the building
was altered and spoiled by the addition of another storey of the
composite order. 'Its effect in the midnight service is superb,' writes
Sir Stirling Maxwell, 'when blazing with church plate and myriads of
waxen tapers it seems a mountain of light, of which the silver crest is
lost in the impenetrable gloom of the vaults above.'
On the west side of the Cathedral, which we have now reached, is the
Altar de la Visitación, with pictures by Marmolejo and Jerónimo
Hernandez. By the principal door is another altar, that of Nuestra
Señora del Consuelo, with a painting by one of Murillo's pupils, Alonso
Miguel de Tobar. Close to the Puerta del Nacimiento we shall find some
fine works by Luis de Vargas, the celebrated fresco artist. There are
three _capillas_ on this side of the building, called the Capilla de los
Jácomes, the Capilla de San Leandro, and the Capilla de San Isidoro.
They may be passed by, as they contain no important works of art.
At the Puerta del Nacimiento we reach the south aisle, and come to
_The Capilla de San Laureano_, with a tomb of Archbishop Alonso de Exea,
who died in 1417.
_The Capilla de Santa Ana_ is the next chapel on the south side. Here
there is an interesting old altar, with several pictures painted in the
early part of the fifteenth century.
_The Capilla de San José_ contains a notable work by Juan Valdés Leal,
the Marriage of the Virgin, and a poor picture by Antolinez.
_The Capilla de San Hermenegildo_ is noteworthy for the image of the
saint by Montañez, and the tomb of Archbishop Juan de Cervantes by
Lorenzo de Bretaña. The marble of the tomb is much worn.
_The Capilla de la Antigua_ is a larger chapel, with fourteenth-century
decorations of the altar. There is also a fine monument to Cardinal
Mendoza, executed in 1509 by the Italian Miguel. The figures are very
quaint. Adjoining this chapel is the Altar de la Gamba, with the
Generacion by Luis de Vargas, a famous picture described in the art
chapters of this book. The immense painting opposite is St. Christopher,
by Mateo Perez de Alesio, painted in 1584.
For painting the San Cristobal Alesio received four thousand ducats. The
saint is quaintly clad in hose, and the figure is gigantic. Sir Stirling
Maxwell draws attention to the fine colouring of the parrot seen in the
distance. Mateo de Alesio, who was an Italian by birth, died in the year
1600.
Passing through the _Capilla de los Dolores_, which is unimportant, we
come to the splendid _Sacristía de los Cálices_, built by Riaño and
Gainza in the years from 1530 to 1537. Diego de Riaño, sculptor and
designer, was often employed by the Cathedral authorities. He delighted
in lavish and fantastic embellishment, and introduced the Italian
methods of ornamentation. Martin Gainza was of the same school. He was
an architect and sculptor of great repute, and he assisted Riaño in much
of his work.
The Crucifix is the work of Montañez. It was removed from the Cartuja
Convent. Murillo's _Angel de la Guarda_, or Guardian Angel, is in this
sacristy. This picture was presented to the Cathedral by the Capuchins
in 1814. It is one of the best of Murillo's works. Borrow much admired
the _Guarda_, and Sir Stirling Maxwell describes the diaphanous drapery
of the child's dress in terms of praise. The angel holds a child by the
hand, and points to heaven. Notice the rich colouring of purple and
yellow in the vesture of the angel.
On the same wall are the _Ecce Homo_, the Virgin, and St. John, the work
of Morales; St. Dorothy by Murillo; a painting of Fernando de Contreras
by Luis de Vargas; Pietà and Death of the Virgin by a German artist, and
a picture by Juan Nuñez of the fifteenth century.
Goya's fine painting of St. Justa and St. Rufina is here. Elsewhere in
this book I have told the legend of these guardian saints of the
Giralda. Goya's conception of them is unconventional, and unlike that of
Murillo, who represents the two maidens with halos around their heads.
We have the figures of two charming potter-girls in Goya's picture, two
creatures of earth, lovely, but not ethereal. The Holy Trinity of 'El
Greco' (the Greek) is one of the interesting examples of this great
Toledan artist's work. Zurbaran is represented in the Sacristía by his
painting of St. John.
_The Sacristía Mayor_ is in the Renaissance style. It was built by the
designers of the Sacristía de los Cálices about the year 1532. Campaña's
admirable Descent from the Cross is here, but the picture has been
indifferently restored. There is also a work of Murillo, SS. Leandro and
Isidoro.
The Cathedral Treasury is in this sacristy. One of the principal objects
of interest is the splendid _custodia_, used for carrying the Host. It
is the work of Juan d'Arphe, a celebrated gold-worker, who was born in
Avila in 1535. In 1564 he constructed the _custodia_ of that city, and
in 1580 began a work of a similar character for Seville Cathedral. Many
designs were submitted for the inspection of the Chapter, but Juan
d'Arphe's was chosen as one unequalled in Spain. The _custodia_ is about
twelve feet high, round in form, with four storeys, each one supported
by twenty-four columns. Some of the columns are Ionic; the rest are
Corinthian and composite in design. Between the columns are a number of
statuettes, and the base and cornices are profusely adorned with
bas-reliefs. In the first storey there was originally seated a figure of
Faith, but it was changed in 1668 for one of the Virgin of the
Conception, when the _custodia_ was restored by Juan Segura. The second
storey is the repository of the Host, and in the third and fourth
storeys are figures of the Church Triumphant and the Holy Trinity.
Crowning the edifice was a small dome and cross, which was replaced in
1668 by a statue of the Faith. The _custodia_ is of beautiful and simple
design.
The _Tablas Alfonsinas_, a reliquary, given to the Church in 1274 by
Alfonso el Sabio, are in the Treasury. Crosses, plate and sacerdotal
vestments are among the treasures. The canonical robes date from the
fourteenth century. The keys of Seville, yielded to Fernando el Santo on
the day of conquest, are also shown here.
_The Capilla del Mariscal_ adjoins the Sacristía Mayor. In this chapel
is the great altar-piece of Pedro Campaña, restored in 1880. The work is
in ten parts, representing scenes in the life of Christ, and containing
portraits of Marshal Pedro Caballero and his family.
_The Sala Capitular_ was the work of Riaño and Gainza. It was begun in
1530 and finished in 1582. The plateresque decorations are very
beautiful. Note the fine ceiling, the marble medallions, and the
pavement. Murillo's Conception is here, and the Four Virtues of Pablo de
Céspedes. There is a picture of San Fernando by Pacheco, the
father-in-law and instructor of Velazquez. The ovals between the windows
were the work of Murillo. This _sala_ is close to the Puerta de los
Campanillas, and beyond this entrance, on the east side of the
Cathedral, is
_The Capilla de la Concepción Grande_, containing a monument to
Cardinal Cienfuego, a modern work. The other small chapel on this side
is that known as
_The Capilla de San Pedro_. Here are nine pictures by Zurbaran, well
worthy of notice, and a tomb of Archbishop Diego Deza, restored in 1893.
_The Capilla Real_ is between the two smaller chapels of the east end.
In design this chapel is Renaissance. The decorations are luxuriant and
there is a high dome. Gainza began to build the chapel in 1541, and his
work was carried on by Hernan Ruiz, who planned the choir of Córdova
Cathedral, and afterwards by Juan de Maeda.
On the chief altar is a figure of the Virgin of the Kings, dating from
the thirteenth century. It was presented to San Fernando by St. Louis of
France. The fair hair is real; the crown that adorned the head was
stolen in 1873. On each side of the doorway are tombs. One is that of
Alfonso el Sabio, and the other is the tomb of his mother.
The shrine of the adored San Fernando is in front of an altar. In the
Panteón are the coffins of Pedro el Cruel, his mistress Maria de
Padilla, the Princes Fadrique, Alonso and Pedro, and others. Over San
Fernando's coffin is the ivory figure of the Virgin of Battles, which
the King carried upon his saddle when he went to the wars. The monarch's
pennant and sword are also displayed.
Murillo's Mater Dolorosa is in the sacristy of this _capilla_. There are
portraits of St. Ignatius and St. Francis Xavier, by Pacheco.
In the later styles of the Capilla Real we may see examples of the
Grotesque, or _Estilo Monstruoso_, with which the buildings of Seville
abound. Diego de Riaño's work in the Ayuntamiento, or City Hall, is full
of instances of this development of fanciful design and bizarre effect.
Gainza, the collaborator of Riaño, is responsible for the articulations
and curious, lavish adornment of the Royal Chapel of the Cathedral. The
sacristy of the _capilla_ was built and decorated by Gainza after plans
by Riaño. We may now inspect the stained-glass windows, in which we
shall find the influence of Italian artists. It must be noted that art
in Spain has been profoundly influenced by Italy. Michelangelo is
reverenced by Spanish artists. Many of the early Spanish painters went
to Italy to study, and brought back with them new ideas and fresh
methods of painting. 'Spanish artists,' writes Professor Carl Justi,
'did their best to Italianize themselves in the studios of Roman and
Florentine masters.'
Cristobal Micer Aleman was the first to introduce the art of staining
glass into Seville. Until 1504 stained glass windows had not been seen
in the city, and Aleman was the designer of the first painted window of
the Cathedral. Sir Stirling Maxwell states that in 1538 the Church paid
Arnao of Flanders, Carlos of Bruges, and other artists the sum of ninety
thousand ducats for staining the windows of Seville Cathedral. The work
was not completed until twenty years later. The chief window pictures
are the Ascension, Jesus and Mary Magdalen, the Awakening of Lazarus,
and the Entry into Jerusalem. The Resurrection is the work of Carlos,
and other pictures are by the two brothers Arnao.
The isolated _Capilla Mayor_ has an altar-piece of wood, and a silver
image of the Virgin by Alfaro. The painted scenes are from the
Scriptures. Crowning the retablo are a crucifix and large statues of the
Virgin and St. John. Dancart, the designer of the retablo, was of the
Flemish school of decorative carvers. The work was begun about 1482 and
finished in 1526.
Between the _Coro_ (choir) and the Chief Chapel an enormous candelabrum
is displayed during Semana Santa, or Holy Week. It is called the
Tenebrario, and it was constructed by Bartolomé Morel, a
sixteenth-century sculptor. The structure is twenty-six feet high, and
it is ornamented with several small images. During the imposing
celebrations of Semana Santa, the candelabrum is lit by thirteen
candles. Twelve of these lights represent the apostles who deserted
their Master; the thirteenth candle stands for the Virgin, and when the
twelve have been extinguished, the thirteenth still burns as a symbol of
Mary's fealty to the Saviour.
_The Coro_ was much injured by the collapse of the dome. Two grand
organs were destroyed at this time. One of the most interesting objects
preserved in the choir is the facistol, or choristers' desk, of
Bartolomé Morel, adorned with highly-finished carvings. The choir stalls
were decorated by Nufro Sanchez, a sculptor of the fifteenth century,
whose work suggests German influence. They are beautiful examples of
carving.
_The Coro_ is entered by either of the two doors of the front or
_Trascoro_. There is a handsome marble façade; a painting of the Virgin
by an unknown hand, and a picture said to be from the brush of Francisco
Pacheco, the artist, author and inquisitor. The white marble frontage is
adorned with bas-reliefs of the Genoese school, exhibiting fine feeling.
Italian influence is manifest in the picture of the Holy Mother, which
is highly decorative in style.
Close to the _Coro_, near the chief entrance on that side of the
Cathedral, is the tomb of Fernando Colón, son of Cristobal Colón
(Columbus). The slab is engraved with pictures of the discoverer's
vessels. An inscription runs: '_Á Castilla y á León mundo nuebo dié
Colon:_' _i.e._, 'To Castile and León Columbus gave the New World.'
The student of architecture and painting will find ample examples of
varied styles of art in this great repository of sculpture, frescoes and
panel pictures. He will be able to trace the development of
architectural design from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century, both
in the exterior and interior of the immense Cathedral. The art of the
_Mudéjar_, the Fleming, the Italian, the German and the Spaniard are
here represented in masonry, decoration, stained glass, and upon canvas.
Wandering designers and craftsmen of the Middle Ages looked upon Spain
as a land of plenty. They came from Flanders, Italy and Genoa, and found
favour with the wealthy Chapter of Seville. The artists employed to
adorn the Cathedral range from Juan Sanchez de Castro, 'the morning star
of Andalusia,' in 1454, to Francisco Goya, the last great painter of
Spain.
Many of the so-called Spanish school of artists were aliens who settled
in the country. Pedro Campaña was, for example, a native of Brussels.
For twenty years he studied in Italy, and his Purification of the Virgin
shows the Italian influence. Sturmio was probably a German named Sturm.
Doménico Theotocópuli, called '_El Greco_,' was a Greek. Mateo Perez de
Alesio was an Italian, who lived in Seville, and died at Rome in 1600.
Luis de Vargas, the painter of the Nativity picture in the Cathedral,
whose fresco work is to be seen elsewhere in the city, was a student of
the Italian method. Vargas was a man of profound piety. He was born in
Seville in 1502. After his death, scourges used for self-inflicted
penance were found in his room, and by his bed was a coffin in which
the ascetic painter used to lie in order to meditate seriously upon
life.
The religious devotion of Luis de Vargas is exhibited in the spirit of
his work. This reverential treatment of sacred subjects is
characteristic of all the Sevillian painters. In their art they
worshipped. Martinez Montañez, or Montañes, the sculptor, was a zealous
Catholic. In his coloured statues we perceive a melancholy reflection of
his sombre mind, a pathos expressing itself in realistic conceptions of
a suffering Christ and a sorrowful St. Francis Xavier. These tinted
statues appeal powerfully to the imagination of the Sevillian populace.
Many of the images were made for the solemn processions of Semana Santa.
Among the artists employed in adorning the Cathedral there was not one
more devoted to the Church than Pacheco. He was censor of art for the
Inquisition, and in his writings we find precise counsels upon the
fitting method of painting sacred pictures. To Pacheco the faith was of
far greater moment than art. He was a close friend of Montañez, whose
statues he sometimes coloured.
_The Sagrario_ adjoins the Cathedral, and may be entered from the Court
of the Oranges. The building serves as a parish church, and occupies the
ground of the old _Sagrario_. It was begun in 1618 by Miguel Zumárraga,
and completed in 1662 by Lorenzo Fernandez. The vaulted roof is
remarkable. Pedro Roldan painted the retablo, which was formerly in the
Francisan Convent. The convent stood in the Plaza de San Fernando, or
Plaza Nueva, as it is sometimes called. Roldan was a contemporary and
follower of Montañez. There is an important image of St. Clement by
Pedro Duque Cornejo. The statue of the Virgin is the work of the devout
Martinez Montañez.
Beneath the church is the vault of the Archbishops of Seville. The
terra-cotta altar is exceedingly decorative. In the sacristy there are
some splendid _azulejos_, which formed part of the old Morisco mosque.
CHAPTER VI
_The Alcázar_
'How Sultan after Sultan with his Pomp
Abode his destined Hour, and went his way.'
RUBÁIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYÁM.
The richest monument of Almohade might in Seville is the beautiful
Alcázar, or 'Castle,' which stands at but a stone's-throw from the
remains of the great mosque. It is a palace of dreams, encompassed by
lovely perfumed gardens. Its courts and salons are redolent of Moorish
days, and haunted by the spirits of turbaned sheiks, philosophers,
minstrels, and dark-eyed beauties of the harem. As we loiter under the
orange trees of quiet gardens, we picture the palace as it was when
peopled by the chiefs and retinues of swarthy skin in the time of
Abdelasis, and contrast what remains of the primitive structure and
Morisco decoration with the successive additions by Christian kings.
The nightingales still sing among the odorous orange bloom, and in the
tangles of roses birds build their nests. Fountains tinkle beneath
gently moving palms; the savour of Orientalism clings to the spot. Here
wise men discussed in the cool of summer nights, when the moon stood
high over the Giralda, and white beams fell through the spreading boughs
of the lemon trees, and shivered upon the tiled pavements.
[Illustration: Patio de las Doncellas]
In this garden the musicians played, and the tawny dancers writhed and
curved their lissome bodies, in dramatic Eastern dances. _Ichabod!_
The moody potentate, bowed down with the cares of high office, no longer
treads the dim corridor, or lingers in the shade of the palm trees, lost
in cogitation. No sound of gaiety reverberates in the deserted courts;
no voice of orator is heard in the Hall of Justice. The green lizards
bask on the deserted benches of the gardens. Rose petals strew the paved
paths. One's footsteps echo in the gorgeous _patios_, whose walls have
witnessed many a scene of pomp, tragedy and pathos. The spell of the
past holds one; and before the imagination troops a long procession of
illustrious sovereigns, courtiers, counsellors and menials.
* * * * *
The historians of the Alcázar suppose that the original structure was
erected in 1181 for Abu Yakub Yûsuf. Between the Puerta del León, in the
Plaza del Triunfo, and the Sala de Justicia there are parts of the wall
which are said to date back to the Roman times. It is generally asserted
that the Moorish palace was reared on the ruins of a Roman prætorium,
and that the original work was undertaken in the eleventh century. In
its pristine form the Alcázar was of triangular design, and the
buildings and gardens occupied a much greater space than they cover at
the present day. The chief _puerta_ was originally at the Torre de la
Plata, formerly standing in the Calle de Ataranzas, but pulled down in
recent years; while another point of the triangle was at the Torre del
Oro, on the bank of the Guadalquivir. Within these precincts there were
vast halls, council rooms, dormitories, baths and gardens. The remaining
portions of the walls and the towers show that the ancient fortress was
very strong; and one can understand the difficulty experienced by
Fernando the Good during his long siege of the citadel.
In the Plaza de Santo Tomas is the Tower of Abdelasis, which was once
part of the palace. It was from this tower that Fernando floated the
Christian standard after the capture of the Alcázar. The chief entrance
in our day is in the Plaza del Triunfo. It is called the Gate of the
Lion (Puerta del León). We pass through, and come into the Patio de las
Banderas (Court of the Banners), so called because a flag was hoisted
here during the residence of the sovereign in the palace. The _patio_ is
surrounded by modern offices, and planted with orange trees. A roofed
passage on the right side of the court leads to the wonderful _Mudéjar_
halls and the salons of the Catholic kings. The passage is the Apeadero,
or 'halting-place.' It was built by Philip V. The façade is in the
Baroque style.
Turning to the right from the Apeadero, we follow a corridor to the
Court of Doña Maria Padilla, the mistress of Pedro the Cruel. The court
is planted with orange and lemon trees and big palms. Arched galleries
of a modern character seem out of place here. But in a moment we come
into the Patio de la Monteria with its beautiful Moorish façade. The
_ajimez_ windows, the cusped arches, and the decorations of this doorway
are fine examples of Almohade art. There is an inscription in early
Gothic characters, over the door, stating that 'the most noble and
powerful Don Pedro, by the grace of God, King of Castile and León,
caused these fortresses and palaces to be built in the era of _de mill
et quatrocientios y dos_' (of Cæsar). The date is 1364 A.D.
We follow a passage to the Patio de las Doncellas (Court of the
Maidens). This large and lofty hall has twenty-four beautiful Morisco
arches, and singularly rich ornamentations. The fifty-two marble columns
are of the Renaissance period, and were substituted between the years
1540 and 1564 for the original pillars. Notice the glazed tiling
decorations of brilliant colouring. These date from the time of Pedro
the Cruel, who added to the ancient palace until little of the original
remained. Notwithstanding, the style is distinctly Moorish, and the
decoration was the work of _Mudéjares_, whose quaint _azulejos_ may be
here studied to advantage.
The Salón de Embajadores adjoins the Court of the Maidens. This was the
Hall of the Ambassadors. It is about thirty-three feet square. The dome
is of the _media naranja_ or 'half orange' shape, the favourite design
of the Moorish architects. On the walls are portraits of the monarchs of
Spain. This is the most sumptuous of the salons of the Alcázar; the
walls veritably dazzle the spectator with their richness of colouring.
Not one inch of space on the arches, walls and doorways is left without
an ornate pattern. The doors of the salon are massive and finely
decorated. In this hall Charles V. was married to Isabella of Portugal.
The Comedor, or dining-room, opens out of the Hall of Ambassadors on the
west side. We find in this room the latest restorations of the palace.
Here, on September 21, 1848, was born the Infanta Doña Maria Isabel de
Orleans y Borbón, Condesa de Paris. The bedroom of Isabella the Catholic
adjoins the Comedor.
Returning to the Hall of the Ambassadors, we enter the room of Philip
II., and pass through it to the small Patio de las Muñecas. Note the
pigmy figures in the ornamentation, which give the name of the Dolls'
Court to this chamber. The upper parts of the gallery are modern, and
were constructed in the years 1855 and 1856, at the time of the last
extensive restoration of the Alcázar.
The Salón of the Princes, approached from the Patio de las Muñecas, is a
spacious hall, in the mixed styles of the _Mudéjar_ and the plateresque.
The Dormitory of the Moorish Kings should be inspected. Then cross the
Patio de las Doncellas to the Salón de Carlos V. This chamber has a
remarkably fine ceiling, and beautiful decorations of _azulejos_, made
by Cristobal de Augusta, an Italian, who worked in Triana in 1577. From
the salon we may enter the room of Maria de Padilla.
The upper apartments of the Alcázar can be viewed by special permission.
I would strongly urge the visitor to obtain this permission. If he
applies to the _conserje_ at the Palace of Pedro, he will be informed
that admission is impossible without an order from the King of Spain.
Such was my experience. I then asked for an order at the offices in the
Patio de las Banderas, but the courteous officials were firm in their
refusal, stating that 'no one but the King can give permission to visit
the upper part of the Alcázar.' Still determined, I ventured to address
His Majesty by letter, and in a few days I received a reply from the
Intendencia General de la Real Casa y Patrimonio at Madrid. The letter
was written by the royal secretary, and is a beautiful example of the
ornate caligraphy in which educated Spaniards delight. I was told that
'the Señor Marqués de Irún, Alcaide of the Reales Alcázares, would grant
me the desired permission.'
At the hotel I inquired where the Marqués de Irún resided. No one knew.
My host searched through a Seville directory. The name of the Marqués de
Irún was not to be found in its pages. Finally, armed with the letter
from the royal palace, I presented myself at the offices in the Patio de
las Banderas, and displayed the missive.
The effect was magical. The officials were even more polite than before.
One of them wrote a note, which he asked me to give to the _conserje_,
and I was bowed out of the office. The _conserje_ in the Patio de la
Monteria scanned the open-sesame. And at last I gained entrance to the
upper apartments of the Royal Alcázar.
The visitor who has secured his permit will be rewarded. There is much
to see in these chambers. Notice, first of all, the fine staircase
constructed at the end of the sixteenth century. The seventeenth-century
tapestries in the salons are magnificent examples of this art. Most of
the subjects are Dutch; some are copies of pictures by David Teniers. In
the first hall, at the head of the principal staircase, there is some
handsome artesonada ceiling decoration of the fifteenth century.
In the Oratory of the Catholic Kings there is the most notable specimen
of ceramic art to be seen in Spain. It is a lovely retablo of
_azulejos_, designed by Franciso Niculoso, an Italian, in 1504. Niculoso
introduced this kind of _azulejo_ painting into Seville. The central
picture represents the Visitation of the Virgin to St. Isabella. A
smaller subject is the Annunciation, and there is a curious genealogical
tree of the Saviour. The decorations are fantastic.
In the Comedor there is a splendid laced ceiling of _Mudéjar_
workmanship, dating from the fifteenth century. The walls are covered
with interesting tapestry pictures.
Step on to the balcony of the Hall of the Ambassadors, and admire the
roofing, the columns, and wealth of Oriental ornamentation. In the rooms
of the Infantas there are _Mudéjar_ ceilings of the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries. The portraits of princes and other royal personages
are not of much artistic importance. There is a picture by Goya, a very
spirited portrait of Doña Maria, wife of Don Carlos IV. Goya was the
last of the great painters of Spain. A number of his works are in a
gallery of the Prado Museum at Madrid, but very few of his paintings are
preserved in Seville. This example in the Alcázar deserves the visitor's
notice.
One of the most interesting apartments on the upper floors of the royal
palace is the bedroom of Pedro el Cruel. The _dormitorio_ is sumptuous
with _Mudéjar_ decorations of the sixteenth century. Near the doorway
are four heads painted upon the wall. They are the heads of four
disloyal justices who incurred the anger of their sovereign, and were
condemned to death. The paintings throw a light upon the character of
Pedro, who, no doubt, surveyed them with satisfaction whenever he
entered the chamber. It is probable that the King feared assassination,
for from this part of the palace there is a staircase descending to the
quarters formerly occupied by the guards and royal bowmen. The story
runs that Pedro had this stairway made in order to communicate with his
faithful servant Juan Diente, a famous marksman with the bow.
In the Dormitory of Queen Isabel there is a copy of Murillo's _Ecce
Homo_, and various portraits of monarchs. The Salón Azul (Blue Room) is
so named on account of the colour of its silk tapestries. The pastel
paintings in this apartment are by A. Muraton, representing Queen Doña
Isabel, the Infanta Doña Isabel, King Alfonso XII., and the Marquesa de
Novaliches. There are also eighteen miniatures painted upon ivory.
The modern bedroom has a Coronation of the Virgin, the work of Vicente
López, a copy of a Murillo, and another of Raphael's Holy Family.
Let us saunter now in the sunny gardens of the Alcázar. We can reach
them through the Apeadero, and by the steps leading from the tank at the
entrance. The reservoir is full of carp, some of them of corpulent
proportions. A few small fish may be seen basking near the surface of
the water, but the bigger and warier carp do not often show themselves.
Roses cluster about the steps, and twine on all the railings. We come to
a tree-grown court, with a gallery running on one side, and an arched
entrance to the Baths of Maria de Padilla. This garden is called El
Jardin del Crucero. The underground bath is cool, and it is a rest to
the eyes to escape for a few minutes from the dazzling sunlight of the
gardens. Here the lovely Maria, faithful mistress of the ferocious
Pedro, was wont to bathe in warm weather.
To show their homage to the monarch's consort, the chivalrous courtiers
came hither when the fair bather had taken her bath, and drank of the
water in which she had washed her white limbs. It is said that these
devoted servitors used sometimes to carry away some of the water in
vessels 'to drink it with enjoyment.'
Pedro el Cruel, of all the Christian sovereigns who lived in the
Alcázar, was the most attached to the palace. He lavished money upon the
building of the apartments which we have just inspected, and employed
the cleverest _Mudéjar_ designers and craftsmen. In the Hall of Justice
he heard charges against criminal offenders; in the gorgeous salons he
received illustrious guests, discoursed with his officers, and played at
draughts with his courtiers. His image arises before the imagination as
we stray under the lemon and orange trees of his quaint and charming
pleasure-grounds. Coming to the throne in his sixteenth year, Don Pedro
decided upon making Seville his capital.
We have read in the historical sections of our account of the city how
he earned the title of 'El Cruel.' But the story of his treachery
towards his half-brothers has not been related.
Don Fadrique, Master of the Order of Santiago, and half-brother of Pedro
el Cruel, having confessed allegiance to the King, came one day to
Seville, after a campaign with rebels in Murcia. The Master of Santiago
went to the Alcázar with the intention of paying a visit to his
half-brother, the King. Pedro was playing at backgammon in his private
apartment of the palace when Don Fadrique came to him.
The monarch received his general with genial courtesies, and bade him
stay in the Alcázar. Leaving Pedro for a while, the Master went to the
rooms of Maria de Padilla. He found her agitated and pale, but the
sadness of her beautiful countenance did not cause him to suspect what
lay upon her mind. Maria knew that Pedro longed to rid himself of all
possible claimants to the throne. His eldest half-brother Enrique was in
France, plotting against the Castilian throne. Pedro still dreaded a
rising under Fadrique. He apparently doubted his professed fealty, and
he had planned his murder. It is said that the Master of Santiago
received hints of the fate that awaited him. But he returned to the
quarters of the King, who was in company with several members of his
court.
Pedro had shut himself in an inner room, which had a wicket to it. From
the wicket he shouted to his soldiers: 'Kill the Master of Santiago!'
The bowmen obeyed. Fadrique drew his sword and made a stand, but he was
soon overpowered, and struck down by blows on the head. The Master's
servants were next seized and slaughtered. One of the train ran to the
room of Maria de Padilla, pursued by his assailants, and threw himself
behind Doña Beatrice, one of Maria's daughters. Pedro was among the
pursuers. He tore the man from the arms of Beatrice, stabbed him, and
gave him into the hands of his assassins. Returning to the room where
Don Fadrique was expiring, Pedro saw that his half-brother was still
breathing. Drawing his dagger, the King gave it to an attendant, and
commanded him to kill the Master outright.
During the siege of Seville by Fernando el Santo, the fortified palace
was the chief point of attack. The massive walls of the Alcázar long
resisted the assault of the besiegers. But the beleaguered Moors were at
length compelled to offer surrender to the knights of the Cross. On the
day of St. Clement the gates were thrown open, and San Fernando rode
into the courtyard. In the King's hand was a sword; on his saddle the
ivory image of the Holy Virgin. By his side rode Don Garcia de Varga and
his brother Don Diego, the Condé Lorenzo, Pelago, and other brave
cavaliers. The Khalif of the Alcázar escaped by the gate near the
Hospital del Sangre. Henceforward, the palace was to be the residence of
the kings of Castile.
In 1379 Juan I. lived in the Alcázar. The King ascended the throne
without opposition. Trouble arose soon with Portugal, and Juan marched
at the head of thirty-four thousand soldiers into the enemy's territory.
The Portuguese had a small force of only ten thousand men, including a
few Englishmen. Near the village of Aljubarrota the armies met. There
was a great battle, in which the Portuguese troops fought valiantly, and
drove back the invaders.
Don Juan was ill and weak during the engagement. He was carried on a
litter by his knights, and in the retreat, the King was put on a mule,
and hurried from the scene of action to the Tagus. Here the monarch
embarked in a small boat for Lisbon, whence he returned to Seville to
mourn his defeat in the seclusion of the Alcázar.
Isabel and Fernando often sought the tranquil paths of this garden. The
Catholic Queen and her Consort lived here in great state, in the palmy
days of Seville, dispensing justice, listening to the counsels of
Torquemada and the officers of the Holy Inquisition, and consulting with
Columbus regarding the expansion of their realm and the development of
trade with the New World. Many were the hours passed by the blue-eyed,
fair-haired Queen in the private chapel.
The pious Philip II. came here, though he preferred his mountain palace
of the Escorial. He ordered the portraits of the Kings of Spain to be
painted in the Hall of the Ambassadors. As we have read, Philip incurred
the resentment of the Sevillian merchants by his confiscation of their
ingots. But the prelates and clergy of the city honoured the sovereign,
who always supported the Church and favoured the priests. In his reign
the Primate of Spain was almost as wealthy as the Pope. The Archbishop
of Seville received an income of eighty thousand ducats a year.
Philip spent his time at the Alcázar in his usual daily labours, writing
like a clerk in his private room until the small hours of the morning.
Every morning he attended Mass. The King lived simply, for he feared the
gout. But in spite of this form of frugality, Philip spent his revenue
freely in maintaining a large household. In his retinue there were
fifteen hundred persons, including forty pages, all of noble family.
In the Queen's train there were twenty-six ladies-in-waiting, and four
physicians were in constant attendance on Her Majesty. We may picture
Philip moodily roaming in the gardens, dressed in black velvet, with a
plumed cap. From his neck was suspended the fine jewel of the Golden
Fleece. He wore sober clothes, and changed his suits once every month
for new ones. His wear, like the cast of his mind, was sombre. A dread
of society possessed the King, and in his later days he became more
taciturn and morose.
'I am absolute King,' was the boast of the despotic Philip. His ambition
was to attain power, to extend his kingdom beyond the seas, and to crush
out heresy. Yet Tennyson's love-dazzled Mary is made to ask, as she
gazes upon the face of the Spanish King, in a miniature painting:
'Is this the face of one who plays the tyrant?
Peruse it; is it not goodly, ay, and gentle?'
These gardens evoke reflections upon the ever-changing fate of Spain. We
gaze at relics of the Moors, and remember the eight hundred years of
that sanguinary history of the expulsion of the infidels. Yet everywhere
there are traces of that mighty civilisation built up by Morisco
knowledge and industry. The _Mudéjar_ has touched the palace and the
gardens with his magic wand. Fernando, Pedro, Philip, Carlos--all the
Catholic sovereigns--preserved the Moorish style of decoration, and
borrowed from the art of the hated race.
Passing under a handsome gateway, represented in one of our
illustrations, we come to a fountain surrounded by a tiled pavement, and
overshadowed by trees. Before us is the Pavilion of Carlos Quinto, with
a fine ceiling and _azulejos_. This summer-house was built by Juan
Hernandez in 1543. Turn to the left, and inspect the archway in the
wall, and the curious mural paintings. We may then retrace our steps to
the pavilion, and pass another tank and a grotto till we reach the maze
and a tangled garden beyond it. This is the Garden of the Labyrinth.
Further, we may not ramble.
In 1626 a theatre stood in the large _patio_ near the Puerta del León,
by which gate we must leave the Alcázar. The playhouse was of oval form,
with three balconies, and one part of the theatre was reserved for
ladies. The travelling actors who visited Seville preferred this theatre
to any other in the city, as is shown by the archives of the palace. In
the year 1691 the theatre was entirely destroyed by a great fire, and
not a stone of the old building remains.
The singular mingling of Christian and Moorish architecture and
adornment in the modern Alcázar is characteristic of Seville. We find
the same mixture of styles in the Casa Pilatos and in other mansions of
the city. Even the railway station at the termination of the Córdova
line affords an example of the perpetuation of Morisco design and
decoration. It is this Moorish influence that lends a strange interest
to Seville. Some writers have declared that these mixed styles of
architecture are anomalous. There is certainly an air of the grotesque
in the combination of _Mudéjar_ windows, cusped arches, columns, and
_azulejos_, and Renaissance and Gothic features. But despite the element
of incongruity, the effect is often pleasing, while the mingling of the
styles is especially interesting from the historical point of view.
In our inspection of the Sevillian monuments we are able to estimate the
enormous sway that the Moors exercised upon the Andalusian mind. That
influence will probably endure for very many centuries to come.
Spaniards may abhor the faith of Allah, and detest the children of
Mahomet; but they have never refused to learn the arts of the Moors, nor
to apply them to the building of sacred and secular edifices. In the
poorest villages of Southern Spain we rarely fail to notice some trace
or another of the Moorish builder.
[Illustration: In the Garden of the Alcázar.]
The Orientalism of the Alcázar remains in spite of the pseudo-Moorish
restorations and the Renaissance additions. It is perhaps an atmosphere,
a suggestion, rather than the reality. Still, the pile is a very
remarkable monument, and every stone of it has its tale to tell of
memorable scenes and great events. One is tempted to linger hour after
hour in the dreamy gardens, watching the gaudy butterflies and the
peering, green lizards, and thinking of the bygone greatness of Seville.
Let us conjure one more illustrious figure to the view before we quit
the palace grounds. Here the Emperor Charles V. roamed with his young
bride, Isabella of Portugal. The portraits of Charles show a well-knit
figure, and a good forehead, with the projecting lower jaw
characteristic of his family. He was fond of music, and was accounted
well cultured. Mr. Edward Armstrong tells us, however, in his _Emperor
Charles V._, that the sovereign was a 'singularly bad linguist.' He knew
only a few words of Spanish after he had ruled Castile and Aragon for
two years. 'French was his natural language, but he neither spoke nor
wrote it with any elegance.' The Emperor's knowledge of theology was
scanty; and though he was a stern defender of the Catholic faith, he
could scarcely read the Vulgate.
Isabella was but twenty-three years of age at the time of her marriage
with Charles. She was, however, no child. Her intelligence was quick.
The Princess was short, spare in body, with a clear white skin. The
wedding was celebrated in Seville, in March 1526. For the honeymoon the
Emperor and his bride visited Córdova and Granada.
Charles liked the seclusion of his palace in Seville. 'Not greedy of
territory, but most greedy of peace and quiet,' was the description of
the monarch by Marcantonio Contarini, in 1536. He was strongly attached
to his wife; he was fond of children, and kept pet animals, 'including a
parrot and two Indian cats.' The Emperor was interested in gardening,
and he introduced the carnation into Spain. At table he was a glutton,
and unable to exercise self-control over his greedy appetite. It was
said that Charles five times drained a flagon, containing nearly a quart
of Rhenish wine, during a single meal. We need not be surprised that he
suffered from severe attacks of gout. Yet he would not forego the
pleasures of the table, and when his physician warned him that beer was
injurious to his constitution, the Emperor refused to give up drinking
it.
In dress Charles was economical. He went to Italy in a shabby suit,
hoping by his example to check the tendency to extravagance displayed by
his courtiers and the nobles of Spain. His servants were sometimes in
tattered clothes.
'A fine taste for art seemed inborn in Charles,' writes Mr. Armstrong.
'Before he ever set foot in Italy he had summoned Italian architects and
sculptors to build the splendid Renaissance palace at Granada, which was
destined to remain unfinished.... Music was a passion from boyhood. The
Emperor's choir was the best in Europe. To his choristers he was most
generous, for when their voices broke he would educate them for three
years, and afterwards, if they recovered voice, he would give them the
preference for places in his chapel.'
CHAPTER VII
_The Literary Associations of the City_
'Among no other people did the spirit and character of the middle
age, in its most beautiful and dignified form, so long continue and
survive in manners, ways of thinking, intellectual culture, and
works of imagination and poetry, as among the
Spaniards.'--SCHLEGEL, _Philosophy of History_.
We have noted that in the Visigoth and Moorish periods Seville was a
centre of literature and the arts. The Christians had their St. Isidore,
a famed historian and theological writer, and the Moriscoes acclaimed
the sagacious El Begi, 'whose knowledge was a marvel.' Many Moorish
scribes laboured in the city before San Fernando regained it for the
Spaniards; but very few of their names have lived through the stress of
turbulent times, when every man was for fighting, and art and letters
languished.
When we reach the fifteenth century, we find that certain enterprising
German printers set up presses in Seville, and that books, such as Diego
de Valera's _Cronica de España_, were printed and published.
The printing press gradually destroyed the wonderful art of the
illuminated missal, in which the monks excelled, and letterpress began
to supersede manuscript. In the Cathedral Library of Seville is the
great Bible of Pedro de Pampeluna, in two volumes. It was transcribed
for Alfonso the Learned, and the work is perhaps unmatched. Rich
illuminations abound in the pages, testifying to the skill and the
patience of the artist.
But this industry, followed with such zeal by the clergy, was soon
lost. With the advent of machinery more books were produced, and they
came into the hands of the people, who in the pre-printing days were
unable to purchase the costly volumes of manuscript.
At this time also secular dramas began to take the place of mystery
plays. The theatre has remained one of the favourite recreations of the
Spanish people, and on the modern stage serious plays, dealing with
social problems, are often produced. Among the playwrights of Spain the
name of Lope de Rueda is held in reverence, for it was he who opened the
way for them. 'The real father of the Spanish theatre' was a native of
Seville, and by trade a goldsmith. From 1560 to 1590, the dramas of Lope
de Rueda were performed in Seville. Cervantes may have been influenced
by this pioneer of dramatic art, for, as a youth, he saw Lope de Rueda
act.
In his zenith, the player's stage consisted of half-a-dozen planks, laid
upon four benches. There was no scenery. Old blankets served as curtain
and 'back sheet.' Between the acts a few singers sang without any
instrumental accompaniment. With such primitive paraphernalia this
Thespian travelled about with his company of mummers, writing his own
dramas, and acting in them. He died about the year 1567.
Contemporary with Lope de Rueda and Cervantes was Domingo de Bercerra,
who was born in the city in 1535. During the campaign with the Turks, he
was seized by Moorish pirates and taken prisoner with Cervantes to
Algiers. De Bercerra is known for his translation of Giovanni della
Casa's _Il Galateo_. Hieronimo Carranza, who wrote _Philosophia y
destreza de las Armas_, and Juan de la Cueva, writer of plays and poems,
lived in Seville at this time.
We now enter upon an era memorable in the literary annals of the city.
This is the period when Seville could boast of her scholars, poets,
dramatists and historians, and lay claim to distinction as possessing
the most cultured circle of writers and artists in the whole of Spain.
Fernando de Herrera, born in 1534, in Seville, holds a high position
among Spanish poets. His _Canción á Lepanto_, a poem in celebration of
the victory of Lepanto, 'deserves,' says Mr. Butler Clarke, 'to be
placed side by side with the first eclogue of Garcilaso as one of the
noblest monuments of the Spanish tongue.'
Rodrigo Caro, the historian, and one of the Sevillian authors, says in
his _Illustrious Men, Natives of Seville_, that Herrera 'understood
Latin perfectly, and wrote several epigrams in that language, which
might rival the most famous ancient authors in thought and expression.
He possessed a moderate knowledge of Greek.' The prose writings of 'the
divine Herrera' are marked with the same beauty as his poetry. He wrote
a great general history of his country, up to the reign of Carlos V.,
and earned from Lope de Vega the title of 'the Learned.'
We learn that Fernando de Herrera was a tall man, with a handsome
countenance, thick curling hair, and a beard. The love of his life
appears to have been 'spiritual'; he was enamoured of Eliodora, Countess
of Gelves. This adoration was of the nature of that manifested by Dante
for Beatrice. The poet calls his divinity 'Love,' 'Sun,' and 'Star,' but
there is an unreality in his odes to the Countess. We read, too, that
Herrera was well read in philosophy, and expert in mathematics.
At this time there were two resorts in Seville for authors, artists, and
men of culture. One was the house of the refined and versatile Pacheco,
Canon of the Cathedral; the other was the Casa Pilatos, the mansion of
the Duques de Alcalá. In the circle of Francisco Pacheco we shall find
all the notable painters and poets of Seville; Céspedes, Cervantes, and
Velazquez, who married Pacheco's daughter, were frequenters of the
Canon's hospitable house. It was Pacheco who collected and published
Herrera's poems, under the patronage of the Condé d'Olivarez, and to him
we owe the preservation of some wonderful fragments of a poem on the art
of painting, composed by Pablo de Céspedes. These selections were quoted
by Pacheco in his treatise on art, and one of the finest passages is
that of counsel to an artist in painting a horse. Except for these
portions, nothing remains of the poem of Céspedes, which was a work of
high merit, written in the purest form of the Castilian language. The
author was a man of conspicuous ability. He painted, wrote, carved
statuary, and designed buildings.
The genial Pacheco is perhaps better known as a writer upon painting,
and a maker of Latin verse, than as an artist with the brush. His great
book on art, _Arte de la Pintura_, was published in 1649. It is
anecdotal, technical and historical, and displays the credulity of the
writer in regard to the miraculous. He had the honour of training
Velazquez, his future son-in-law, and the satisfaction of discovering
the power of his young pupil.
We will now take our way to the Casa Pilatos, which stands in the
_plaza_ of that name. Passing under a gateway, we enter a court. On the
right is a very beautiful ironwork door in the _Mudéjar_ form. An
attendant opens it, and we pass into an inner _patio_, surrounded by
busts, portions of antique sculpture, and two statues of Athena. In the
centre is a fountain. The _casa_ was designed by Moorish artists, early
in the sixteenth century, for Don Pedro Enriquez, and his wife Doña
Catalina de Ribera. A descendant, Don Fadrique, who had travelled in
Palestine, added the so-called Prætorium, and probably named the mansion
after Pontius Pilate. There are unlettered persons in Seville who will
assure you that Pilate lived in the house.
[Illustration: Cancela of the Casa Pilatus.]
The third Duke of Alcalá, Fernando Enriquez de Ribera, established a
great library here, and the Casa Pilatos was the rendezvous of a
polished coterie. The Duke collected pictures, procured Roman relics
from Italica, and had cabinets of coins and medals, and cases containing
manuscripts. He was an amateur painter, a patron of the fine arts, and
the encourager of struggling genius. Pedro de Madrazo, in his _Sevilla y
Cadiz_, states that 'the Casa Pilatos is an august representation of the
architectural genius of the sixteenth century; memorable for the
reunions of Pacheco, Céspedes, the Herreras, Góngora, Jauregui, Baltasar
de Alcázar, Rioja, Juan de Arguizo, and Cervantes.'
Other writers describe the architecture of the palace as pseudo-Moorish.
It is indeed a mixture of Gothic, Moorish, and Renaissance designs,
adorned with _azulejos_, the decorations being _Mudéjar_ for the greater
part. Pacheco, the friend of the Duke de Alcalá, painted the salon.
Mr. M. Digby Wyatt, in his valuable work, _An Architect's Note Book in
Spain_, describes the Casa Pilatos as possessing two special 'points of
architectural value,' _i.e._, 'the entirely Moresque character of the
stucco work at a comparatively late date, and the profuse use of
_azulejos_ or coloured tiles. It is ... in and about the splendid
staircase that this charming tile lining, of the use of which we have
here of late years commenced a very satisfactory revival, asserts its
value as a beautiful mode of introducing clean and permanent
polychromatic decoration.'
In the principal garden there are remains from Italica. The orange,
lemon and jasmine grow profusely in this sunny, sheltered corner of the
city. Here the cultured Duke Fernando Enriquez de Ribera discoursed with
his illustrious guests, when the stars twinkled and the air was sweet
with the odour of the jasmine and rose. No doubt Francisco Pacheco
brought his pupil Velazquez to the symposia. We can picture Cervantes
relating the story of his imprisonment in Algiers, or diverting the
company with anecdotes of the thieves and sharpers of Seville, whose
exploits are recorded in his novel of _Rinconete y Cortadillo_. Góngora,
the poet, whose affectations and 'Gongorisms' offended George Henry
Lewes, probably read his verses to a critical audience in the salon. Wit
vied with wit, scholar discussed with scholar, an
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