While they were preparing to execute this bold resolution, Padilla accomplished an enterprise of the greatest advantage to the cause. After relieving Segovia, he marched suddenly to Tordesillas, [Aug. 29], the place where the unhappy queen Joanna had resided since the death of her husband, and being favored by the inhabitants, was admitted into the town, and became master of her person, for the security of which Adrian had neglected to take proper precautions. Padilla waited immediately upon the queen, and accosting her with that profound respect, which she exacted from the few persons whom she deigned to admit into her presence, acquainted her at large with the miserable condition of her Castilian subjects under the government of her son, who being destitute of experience himself, permitted his foreign ministers to treat them with such rigor as had obliged them to take arms in defence of the liberties of their country. The queen, as if she had been awakened out of a lethargy, expressed great astonishment at what he said, and told him, that as she had never heard, until that moment, of the death of her father, or known the sufferings of her people, no blame could be imputed to her, but that now she would take care to provide a sufficient remedy; and in the mean time, added she, let it be your concern to do what is necessary for the public welfare.

Padilla, too eager in forming a conclusion agreeable to his wishes, mistook this lucid interval of reason for a perfect return of that faculty; and acquainting the Junta with what had happened, advised them to remove to Tordesillas, and to hold their meetings in that place. This was instantly done; but though Joanna received very graciously an address of the Junta, beseeching her to take upon herself the government of the kingdom, and in token of her compliance admitted all the deputies to kiss her hand; though she was present at a tournament held on that occasion, and seemed highly satisfied with both these ceremonies, which were conducted with great magnificence in order to please her, she soon relapsed into her former melancholy and sullenness, and could never be brought, by any arguments or entreaties, to sign any one paper necessary for the dispatch of business.

The Junta, concealing as much as possible this last circumstance, carried on all their deliberations in the name of Joanna; and as the Castilians, who idolized the name of Isabella, retained a wonderful attachment to her daughter, no sooner was it known that she had consented to assume the reins of government, than the people expressed the most universal and immoderate joy; and believing her recovery to be complete, ascribed it to a miraculous interposition of Heaven, in order to rescue their country from the oppression of foreigners. The Junta, conscious of the reputation and power which they had acquired by seeming to act under the royal authority, were no longer satisfied with requiring Adrian to resign the office of regent; they detached Padilla to Valladolid with a considerable body of troops, ordering him to seize such members of the council as were still in that city, to conduct them to Tordesillas, and to bring away the seals of the kingdom, the public archives, and treasury books. Padilla, who was received by the citizens as the deliverer of his country, executed his commission with great exactness; permitting Adrian, however, still to reside in Valladolid, though only as a private person, and without any shadow of power.

The emperor, to whom frequent accounts of these transactions were transmitted while he was still in Flanders, was sensible of his own imprudence and that of his ministers, in having despised too long the murmurs and remonstrances of the Castilians. He beheld, with deep concern, a kingdom, the most valuable of any he possessed, and in which lay the strength and sinews of his power, just ready to disown his authority, and on the point of being plunged in all the miseries of civil war. But though his presence might have averted this calamity, he could not, at that time, visit Spain without endangering the Imperial crown, and allowing the French king full leisure to execute his ambitious schemes.

The only point now to be deliberated upon, was, whether he should attempt to gain the malcontents by indulgence and concessions, or prepare directly to suppress them by force; and he resolved to make trial of the former, while, at the same time, if that should fail of success, he prepared for the latter. For this purpose, he issued circular letters to all the cities of Castile, exhorting them in most gentle terms, and with assurances of full pardon, to lay down their arms; he promised such cities as had continued faithful, not to exact from them the subsidy granted in the late Cortes, and offered the same favor to such as returned to their duty; he engaged that no office should be conferred for the future upon any but native Castilians. On the other hand, he wrote to the nobles, exciting them to appear with vigor in defence of their own rights, and those of the crown, against the exorbitant claims of the commons; he appointed the high admiral Don Fabrique Enriquez, and the high constable of Castile, Don Iñigo de Velasco, two noblemen of great abilities as well as influence, regents of the kingdom in conjunction with Adrian; and he gave them full power and instructions, if the obstinacy of the malcontents should render it necessary, to vindicate the royal authority by force of arms.

These concessions, which, at the time of his leaving Spain, would have fully satisfied the people, came now too late to produce any effect. The Junta, relying on the unanimity with which the nation submitted to their authority, elated with the success which had hitherto accompanied all their undertakings, and seeing no military force collected to defeat or obstruct their designs, aimed at a more thorough reformation of political abuses.

They had been employed for some time in preparing a remonstrance containing a large enumeration, not only of the grievances of which they craved redress, but of such new regulations as they thought necessary for the security of their liberties. This remonstrance, which is divided into many articles relating to all the different members, of which the constitution was composed, as well as the various departments in the administration of government, furnishes us with more authentic evidence concerning the intentions of the Junta, than can be drawn from the testimony of the later Spanish historians, who lived in times when it became fashionable and even necessary to represent the conduct of the malcontents in the worst light, and as flowing from the worst motives. After a long preamble concerning the various calamities under which the nation groaned, and the errors and corruption in government to which these were to be imputed, they take notice of the exemplary patience wherewith the people had endured them, until self-preservation, and the duty which they owed to their country, had obliged them to assemble, in order to provide in a legal manner for their own safety, and that of the constitution. For this purpose, they demanded:

that the king would be pleased to return to his Spanish dominions and reside there, as all their former monarchs had done;

that he would not marry but with consent of the Cortes;

that if he should be obliged at any time to leave the kingdom, it shall not be lawful to appoint any foreigner to be regent;

that the present nomination of cardinal Adrian to that office shall instantly be declared void;

that he would not, at his return, bring along with him any Flemings or other strangers;

that no foreign troops shall, on any pretence whatever, be introduced into the kingdom;

that none but natives shall be capable of holding any office or benefice either in church or state;

that no foreigner shall be naturalized;

that free quarters shall not he granted to soldiers, nor to the members of the king’s household, for any longer time than six days, and that only when the court is in a progress;

that all the taxes shall be reduced to the same state they were in at the death of queen Isabella;

that all alienations of the royal demesnes or revenues since that queen’s death shall be resumed;

that all new offices created since that period shall be abolished;

that the subsidy granted by the late Cortes in Galicia, shall not be exacted;

that in all future Cortes each city shall send one representative of the clergy, one of the gentry, and one of the commons, each to be elected by his own order;

that the crown shall not influence or direct any city with regard to the choice of its representatives;

that no member of the Cortes shall receive an office or pension from the king, either for himself or for any of his family, under pain of death, and confiscation of his goods;

that each city or community shall pay a competent salary to its representative, for his maintenance during his attendance on the Cortes;

that the Cortes shall assemble once in three years at least, whether summoned by the king or not, and shall then inquire into the observation of the articles now agreed upon, and deliberate concerning public affairs;

that the rewards which have been given or promised to any of the members of the Cortes held in Galicia, shall be revoked;

that it shall be declared a capital crime to send gold, silver, or jewels out of the kingdom;

that judges shall have fixed salaries assigned them, and shall not receive any share of the fines and forfeitures of persons condemned by them;

that no grant of the goods of persons accused shall be valid, if given before sentence was pronounced against them;

that all privileges which the nobles have at any time obtained, to the prejudice of the commons, shall be revoked;

that the government of cities or towns shall not be put into the hands of noblemen;

that the possessions of the nobility shall be subject to all public taxes in the same manner as those of the commons;

that an inquiry be made into the conduct of such as have been entrusted with the management of the royal patrimony since the accession of Ferdinand; and if the king do not within thirty days appoint persons properly qualified for that service, it shall he lawful for the Cortes to nominate them;

that indulgences shall not be preached or dispersed in the kingdom until the cause of publishing them be examined and approved of by the Cortes;

that all the money arising from the sale of indulgences shall be faithfully employed in carrying on war against the infidels;

that such prelates as do not reside in their dioceses six months in the year, shall forfeit their revenues during the time they are absent;

that the ecclesiastical judges and their officers shall not exact greater fees than those which are paid in the secular courts;

that the present archbishop of Toledo, being a foreigner, be compelled to resign that dignity, which shall be conferred upon a Castilian;

that the king shall ratify and hold, as good service done to him and to the kingdom, all the proceedings of the Junta, and pardon any irregularities which the cities may have committed from an excess of zeal in a good cause: that he shall promise and swear in the most solemn manner to observe all these articles, and on no occasion attempt either to elude, or to repeal them; and that he shall never solicit the pope or any other prelate to grant him a dispensation or absolution from this oath and promise.

Such were the chief articles presented by the Junta to their sovereign. As the feudal institutions in the several kingdoms of Europe were originally the same, the genius of those governments which arose from them bore a strong resemblance to each other, and the regulations which the Castilians attempted to establish on this occasion, differ little from those which other nations have labored to procure, in their struggles with their monarchs for liberty. The grievances complained of, and the remedies proposed by the English commons in their contests with the princes of the house of Stuart, particularly resemble those upon which the Junta now insisted. But the principles of liberty seem to have been better understood, at this period, by the Castilians, than by any other people in Europe; they had acquired more liberal ideas with respect to their own rights and privileges; they had formed more bold and generous sentiments concerning government; and discovered an extent of political knowledge to which the English themselves did not attain until more than a century afterwards.

It is not improbable, however, that the spirit of reformation among the Castilians, hitherto unrestrained by authority, and emboldened by success, became too impetuous, and prompted the Junta to propose innovations which, by alarming the other members of the constitution, proved fatal to their cause. The nobles, who, instead of obstructing, had favored or connived at their proceedings, while they confined their demands of redress to such grievances as had been occasioned by the king’s want of experience, and by the imprudence and rapaciousness of his foreign ministers, were filled with indignation when the Junta began to touch the privileges of their order, and plainly saw that the measures of the commons tended no less to break the power of the aristocracy, than to limit the prerogatives of the crown. The resentment which they had conceived on account of Adrian's promotion to the regency, abated considerably upon the emperor’s raising the constable and admiral to joint power with him in that office; and as their pride and dignity were less hurt by suffering the prince to possess an extensive prerogative, than by admitting the high pretensions of the people, they determined to give their sovereign the assistance which he had demanded of them, and began to assemble their vassals for that purpose.