CHARLES, having had the satisfaction of seeing hostilities begun between France and England, took leave of Henry, and arrived in Spain on the seventeenth of June. He found that country just beginning to recover order and strength after the miseries of a civil war, to which it had been exposed during his absence; an account of the rise and progress of which, as it was but little connected with the other events which happened in Europe, had been reserved to this place.

No sooner was it known that the Cortes assembled in Galicia had voted the emperor a free gift, without obtaining the redress of any one grievance, than it excited universal indignation. The citizens of Toledo, who considered themselves, on account of the great privileges which they enjoyed, as the guardians of the liberties of the Castilian commons, finding that no regard was paid to the remonstrances of their deputies against that unconstitutional grant, took arms with tumultuary violence, and seizing the gates of the city, which were fortified, attacked the alcazar, or castle, which they soon obliged the governor to surrender. Emboldened by this success, they deprived of all authority every person whom they suspected of any attachment to the court, established a popular form of government, composed of deputies from the several parishes in the city, and levied troops in their own defence. The chief leader of the people in these insurrections was Don John de Padilla, the eldest son of the commendator of Castile, a young nobleman of a generous temper, of undaunted courage, and possessed of the talents as well as of the ambition which, in times of civil discord, raise men to power and eminence.

The resentment of the citizens of Segovia produced effects still more fatal. Tordesillas, one of the representatives in the late Cortes, had voted for the donative, and being a bold and haughty man, ventured upon his return, to call together his fellow-citizens in the great church, that he might give them, according to custom, an account of his conduct in that assembly. But the multitude, unable to bear his insolence, in attempting to justify what they thought inexcusable, burst open the gates of the church, with the utmost fury, and seizing the unhappy Tordesillas, dragged him through the streets, with a thousand curses and insults, towards the place of public execution. In vain did the dean and canons come forth in procession with the holy Sacrament, in order to appease their rage. In vain did the monks of those monasteries by which they passed, conjure them on their knees, to spare his life, or at least to allow him time to confess, and to receive absolution of his sins. Without listening to the dictates either of humanity or religion, they cried out “That the hangman alone could absolve such a traitor to his country”; they then hurried him along with greater violence; and perceiving that he had expired under their hands, they hung him up with his head downwards on the common gibbet. The same spirit seized the inhabitants of Burgos, Zamora, and several other cities; and though their representatives, taking warning from the fate of Tordesillas, had been so wise as to save themselves by a timely flight, they were burnt in effigy, their houses razed to the ground, and their effects consumed with fire; and such was the horror which the people had conceived against them, as betrayers of the public liberty, that not one in those licentious multitudes would touch anything, however valuable, which had belonged to them.

Adrian, at that time regent of Spain, had scarcely, fixed the seat of his government at Valladolid, when he was alarmed with an account of these insurrections. He immediately assembled the privy council [June 5, 1520], to deliberate concerning the proper method of suppressing them. The counselors differed in opinion; some insisting that it was necessary to check this audacious spirit in its infancy by a severe execution of justice; others advising to treat with lenity a people who had some reason to be incensed, and not to drive them beyond all the bounds of duty by an ill-timed rigor. The sentiments of the former being warmly supported by the archbishop of Granada, president of the council, a person of great authority, but choleric and impetuous, were approved by Adrian, whose zeal to support his master’s authority hurried him into a measure, to which, from his natural caution and timidity, he would otherwise have been averse. He commanded Ronquillo, one of the king’s judges, to repair instantly to Segovia, which had set the first example of mutiny, and to proceed against the delinquents according to law; and lest the people should be so outrageous as to resist his authority, a considerable body of troops were appointed to attend him. The Segovians, foreseeing what they might expect from a judge so well known for his austere and unforgiving temper, took arms with one consent, and having mustered twelve thousand men, shut their gates against him. Ronquillo, enraged at this insult, denounced them rebels and outlaws, and his troops seizing all the avenues to the town, hoped that it would soon be obliged to surrender for want of provisions. The inhabitants however, defended themselves with vigor, and having received a considerable reinforcement from Toledo, under the command of Padilla, attacked Ronquillo, and forced him to retire with the loss of his baggage, and military chest.

Upon this, Adrian ordered Antonio de Fonseca, whom the emperor had appointed commander in chief of the forces in Castile, to assemble an army, and to besiege Segovia in form. But the inhabitants of Medina del Campo, where Cardinal Ximenes had established a vast magazine of military stores, would not suffer him to draw from it a train of battering cannon, or to destroy their countrymen with those arms which had been prepared against the enemies of the kingdom. Fonseca, who could not execute his orders without artillery, determined to seize the magazine by force; and the citizens standing on their defence, he assaulted the town with great briskness [Aug. 21]; but his troops were so warmly received, that, despairing of carrying the place, he set fire to some of the houses, in hopes that the citizens would abandon the walls, in order to save their families and effects. Instead of that the expedient to which he had recourse served only to increase their fury, and he was repulsed with great disgrace, while the flames, spreading from street to street, reduced to ashes almost the whole town, one of the most considerable at that time in Spain, and the great mart for the manufactures of Segovia and several other cities. As the warehouses were then filled with goods for the approaching fair, the loss was immense, and was felt universally. This, added to the impression which such a cruel action made on a people long unaccustomed to the horrors of civil war, enraged the Castilians almost to madness. Fonseca became the object of general hatred, and was branded with the name of incendiary, and enemy to his country. Even the citizens of Valladolid, whom the presence of the cardinal had hitherto restrained, declared that they could no longer remain inactive spectators of the sufferings of their countrymen. Taking arms with no less fury than the other cities, they burnt Fonseca’s house to the ground, elected new magistrates, raised soldiers, appointed officers to command them, and guarded their walls with as much diligence as if an enemy had been ready to attack them.

The cardinal, though virtuous and disinterested, and capable of governing the kingdom with honor, in times of tranquility, possessed neither the courage nor the sagacity necessary at such a dangerous juncture. Finding himself unable to check these outrages committed under his own eye, be attempted to appease the people, by protesting that Fonseca had exceeded his orders, and had by his rash conduct offended him, as much as he had injured them. This condescension, the effect of irresolution and timidity, rendered the malcontents bolder and more insolent; and the cardinal having soon afterwards recalled Fonseca, and dismissed his troops, which he could no longer afford to pay, as the treasury, drained by the rapaciousness of the Flemish ministers, had received no supply from the great cities, which were all in arms, the people were left at full liberty to act without control, and scarcely any shadow of power remained in his hands.

Nor were the proceedings of the commons the effects merely of popular and tumultuary rage; they aimed at obtaining redress of their political grievances, and an establishment of public liberty on a secure basis, objects worthy of all the zeal which they discovered in contending for them. The feudal government in Spain was at that time in a state more favorable to liberty than in any other of the great European kingdoms. This was owing chiefly to the number of great cities in that country, a circumstance I have already taken notice of, and which contributes more than any other to mitigate the rigor of the feudal institutions, and to introduce a more liberal and equal form of government. The inhabitants of every city formed a great corporation, with valuable immunities and privileges; they were delivered from a state of subjection and vassalage; they were admitted to a considerable share in the legislature; they had acquired the arts of industry, without which cities cannot subsist; they had accumulated wealth, by engaging in commerce; and being free and independent themselves, were ever ready to act as the guardians of the public freedom and independence. The genius of the internal government established among the inhabitants of cities, which, even in countries where despotic power prevails most, is democratical and republican, rendered the idea of liberty familiar and dear to them. Their representatives in the Cortes were accustomed, with equal spirit, to check the encroachments of the king and the oppression of the nobles. They endeavored to extend the privileges of their own order; they labored to shake off the remaining encumbrances with which the spirit of feudal policy, favorable only to the nobles, had burdened them; and, conscious of being one of the most considerable orders in the state, were ambitious of becoming the most powerful.

The present juncture appeared favorable for pushing any new claim. Their sovereign was absent from his dominions; by the ill conduct of his ministers he had lost the esteem and affection of his subjects; the people, exasperated by many injuries, had taken arms, though without concert, almost by general consent; they were animated with rage capable of carrying them to the most violent extremes; the royal treasury was exhausted; the kingdom destitute of troops; and the government committed to a stranger, of great virtue indeed, but of abilities unequal to such a trust. The first care of Padilla, and the other popular leaders who observed and determined to improve these circumstances, was to establish some form of union or association among the malcontents, that they might act with greater regularity, and pursue one common end; and as the different cities had been prompted to take arms by the same motives, and were accustomed to consider themselves as a distinct body from the rest of the subjects, they did not find this difficult. A general convention was appointed to be held at Avila. Deputies appeared there in name of almost all the cities entitled to have representatives in the Cortes. They all bound themselves, by solemn oath, to live and die in the service of the king, and in defence of the privileges of their order; and assuming the name of the holy Junta, or association, proceeded to deliberate concerning the state of the nation, and the proper method of redressing its grievances. The first that naturally presented itself, was the nomination of a foreigner to be regent; this they declared with one voice to be a violation of the fundamental laws of the kingdom, and resolved to send a deputation of their members to Adrian, requiring him in their name to lay aside all the ensigns of his office, and to abstain for the future from the exercise of a jurisdiction which they had pronounced illegal.