CHAPTER II

Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada

by Washington Irving

CHAPTER II, CHRONICLE OF THE CONQUEST OF GRANADA by Washington Irving

OF THE EMBASSY OF DON JUAN DE VERA TO DEMAND ARREARS
OF TRIBUTE FROM THE MOORISH MONARCH.


The flagrant want of faith of Muley Abul Hassan in fulfilling treaty
stipulations passed unresented during the residue of the reign of
Henry the Impotent, and the truce was tacitly continued without the
enforcement of tribute during the first three years of the reign of his
successors, Ferdinand and Isabella of glorious and happy memory,
who were too much engrossed by civil commotions in their own
dominions, and by a war of succession waged with them by the king
of Portugal, to risk an additional conflict with the Moorish sovereign.
When, however, at the expiration of the term of truce, Muley Abul
Hassan sought a renewal of it, the pride and piety of the Castilian
sovereigns were awakened to the flagrant defalcation of the infidel
king, and they felt themselves called upon, by their dignity as
monarchs and their religious obligations as champions of the faith,
to make a formal demand for the payment of arrearages.

In the year of grace 1478, therefore, Don Juan de Vera, a zealous
and devout knight, full of ardor for the faith and loyalty to the
Crown, was sent as ambassador for the purpose. He was armed
at all points, gallantly mounted, and followed by a moderate but
well-appointed retinue: in this way he crossed the Moorish frontier,
and passed slowly through the country, looking round him with the
eyes of a practised warrior and carefully noting its military points
and capabilities. He saw that the Moor was well prepared for
possible hostilities. Every town was strongly fortified. The Vega
was studded with towers of refuge for the peasantry: every pass
of the mountain had its castle of defence, every lofty height its
watch-tower. As the Christian cavaliers passed under the walls of
the fortresses, lances and scimetars flashed from their battlements,
and the Moorish sentinels darted from their dark eyes glances of
hatred and defiance. It was evident that a war with this kingdom
must be a war of posts, full of doughty peril and valiant enterprise,
where every step must be gained by toil and bloodshed, and
maintained with the utmost difficulty. The warrior spirit of the
cavaliers kindled at the thoughts, and they were impatient for
hostilities; "not," says Antonio Agapida, "from any thirst for rapine
and revenge, but from that pure and holy indignation which every
Spanish knight entertained at beholding this beautiful dominion of
his ancestors defiled by the footsteps of infidel usurpers. It was
impossible," he adds, "to contemplate this delicious country, and
not long to see it restored to the dominion of the true faith and
the sway of the Christian monarchs."

Arrived at the gates of Granada, Don Juan de Vera and his companions
saw the same vigilant preparations on the part of the Moorish king.
His walls and towers were of vast strength, in complete repair, and
mounted with lombards and other heavy ordnance. His magazines
were well stored with the munitions of war; he had a mighty host of
foot-soldiers, together with squadrons of cavalry, ready to scour
the country and carry on either defensive or predatory warfare. The
Christian warriors noted these things without dismay; their hearts
rather glowed with emulation at the thoughts of encountering so
worthy a foe. As they slowly pranced through the streets of Granada
they looked round with eagerness on the stately palaces and
sumptuous mosques, on its alcayceria or bazar, crowded with silks
and cloth of silver and gold, with jewels and precious stones, and
other rich merchandise, the luxuries of every clime; and they longed
for the time when all this wealth should be the spoil of the soldiers
of the faith, and when each tramp of their steeds might be
fetlock deep in the blood and carnage of the infidels.

The Moorish inhabitants looked jealously at this small but proud
array of Spanish chivalry, as it paraded, with that stateliness
possessed only by Spanish cavaliers, through the renowned gate of
Elvira. They were struck with the stern and lofty demeanor of Don
Juan de Vera and his sinewy frame, which showed him formed for
hardy deeds of arms, and they supposed he had come in search of
distinction by defying the Moorish knights in open tourney or in the
famous tilt with reeds for which they were so renowned, for it was
still the custom of the knights of either nation to mingle in these
courteous and chivalrous contests during the intervals of war. When
they learnt, however, that he was come to demand the tribute so
abhorrent to the ears of the fiery monarch, they observed that it
well required a warrior of his apparent nerve to execute such an
embassy.

Muley Abul Hassan received the cavalier in state, seated on a
magnificent divan and surrounded by the officers of his court, in
the Hall of Ambassadors, one of the most sumptuous apartments of
the Alhambra. When De Vera had delivered his message, a haughty
and bitter smile curled the lip of the fierce monarch. "Tell your
sovereigns," said he, "that the kings of Granada, who used to pay
tribute in money to the Castilian crown, are dead. Our mint at
present coins nothing but blades of scimetars and heads of lances."*

*Garibay, 1. 40, c. 29; Conde, Hist. Arab., p. 4, c. 34.


The defiance couched in this proud reply was heard with secret
satisfaction by Don Juan de Vera, for he was a bold soldier and a
devout hater of the infidels, and he saw iron war in the words of
the Moorish monarch. Being master, however, of all points of
etiquette, he retained an inflexible demeanor, and retired from the
apartment with stately and ceremonious gravity. His treatment
was suited to his rank and dignity: a magnificent apartment in the
Alhambra was assigned to him, and before his departure a scimetar
was sent to him by the king, the blade of the finest Damascus steel,
the hilt of agate enriched with precious stones, and the guard of
gold. De Vera drew it, and smiled grimly as he noticed the admirable
temper of the blade. "His Majesty has given me a trenchant weapon,"
said he: "I trust a time will come when I may show him that I know how
to use his royal present." The reply was considered a compliment,
of course: the bystanders little knew the bitter hostility that lay
couched beneath.

On his return to Cordova, Don Juan de Vera delivered the reply of
the Moor, but at the same time reported the state of his territories.
These had been strengthened and augmented during the weak
reign of Henry IV. and the recent troubles of Castile. Many cities and
strong places contiguous to Granada, but heretofore conquered by
the Christians, had renewed their allegiance to Muley Abul Hassan,
so that his kingdom now contained fourteen cities, ninety-seven
fortified places, besides numerous unwalled towns and villages
defended by formidable castles, while Granada towered in the centre
as the citadel.

The wary Ferdinand, as he listened to the military report of Don
Juan de Vera, saw that the present was no time for hostilities with
a warrior kingdom so bristled over with means of defence. The
internal discords of Castile still continued, as did the war with
Portugal: under these circumstances he forbore to insist upon the
payment of tribute, and tacitly permitted the truce to continue; but
the defiance contained in the reply of Muley Abul Hassan remained
rankling in his bosom as a future ground of war; and De Vera's
description of Granada as the centre of a system of strongholds and
rock-built castles suggested to him his plan of conquest--by taking
town after town and fortress after fortress, and gradually plucking
away all the supports before he attempted the capital. He expressed
his resolution in a memorable pun or play upon the name of Granada,
which signifies a pomegranate. "I will pick out the seeds of this
pomegranate one by one," said the cool and crafty Ferdinand.

NOTE.--In the first edition of this work the author recounted a
characteristic adventure of the stout Juan de Vera as happening on
the occasion of this embassy; a further consultation of historical
authorities has induced him to transfer it to a second embassy of De
Vera's, which the reader will find related in a subsequent chapter.