by Hugh Thomas
Chapter 12
1. Cardinal Mendoza died in Alcalá in Jan. 1495.
2. R. O. Jones, The Golden Age, Prose and Poetry, London 1971, 7.
3. Las Casas [2:50], 3, 277: “era mucho más experimentado el señor obispo en hacer armadas que en decir misas de pontifical.…”
4. Las Casas [2:50], 2, 90.
5. “abrigó continuamente mortal odio al almirante y sus empresas y estuvo a la cabeza de quienes le malquistaron con el rey.”
6. Antonio de Guevara, in Epistolares Familiares, BAE, Madrid 1850, 36. Francescillo de Zúñiga, the fool of Charles V, said of him that he was “herrero de Tordelones and vasija llena de polvora.”
7. See Reyes y Mecenas [9:20], 234ff.
8. Las Casas [2:50], 1, 416–17; Oviedo [2:43], 1, 64–68.
9. Cuneo, in Morales Padrón [6:20], 160: “creo por el aire más frío el cual no estaban acostumbrados.”
10. Cuneo, ibid.
11. See Deive [6:36], 58, for this theory.
12. Rouse [8:13], 14.
13. Ramos [10:8], 130.
14. Las Casas [2:50], 1, 378.
15. See Pérez de Tudela, who develops this idea in Las Armadas [9:39], 259. For Pérez de Tudela, Columbus was a typical Italian mercantilist, deriving his thoughts from the Mediterranean and translated to the Caribbean. For Columbus, the “empresa de las Indias” had for its goal the establishment of an exploitation of Oriental riches, by means of a monarchical monopoly with which he would be associated. All ideas of colonization would be inferior to this. But there would be necessarily a factoria-fortaleza that would be served by a hueste asalariada. In contrast, there was the Castilian tradition, whose civil servants were thinking in terms of the settlement of new lands, according to ideas worked out during the reconquista in Spain itself, characterized by a repartimiento so that the conquerors could share the risks and benefits.
16. Fernando Colón [4:40], 535.
17. Pérez de Tudela found an anonymous report saying this; cit. Luis Arranz, Repartimientos y Encomiendas en la Isla Española, Madrid 1991, 34.
18. Pérez de Tudela [9:39], 101.
19. Letter of the Reyes Católicos, April 12, 1495, to Fonseca in Archivo General de Indias (AGI), Patronato, leg. 9, r. 1. Navarrete [4:38], 1, 401.
20. “cerca de lo que nos escribisteis de los indios que vienen en las carabelas, paréscenos que se podrán vender mejor en esa Andalucía que en otra parte, debeislo facer vender como mejor os paresciere.…” Navarrete [4:38], 1, 402. See also Consuelo Varela [4:14], 128, and Pérez de Tudela [9:39], 107, fn 80.
21. Navarrete [4:38], 1, 404.
22. Deive [6:36], 69.
23. Morales Padrón [6:19], 151: “hay en todas las islas tanto de caníbales como de indios.” Quite an admission!
24. Navarrete [4:38], 1, 399–401.
25. Pérez de Tudela [9:39], 103.
26. Navarrete [4:38], 1, 397. Pérez de Tudela [9:39], 107.
27. For commentary, see Haring [9:39], 5.
28. BRAH, 19, 199, qu. Pérez de Tudela [9:39], 93.
29. Navarrete [4:38], 1, 394.
30. Gil [3:37], 1, 387.
31. Antonio-Miguel Bernal, La financiación de la carrera de Indias, 1492–1824, Seville 1992, 152.
32. Colección de documentos relativos al descubrimiento, conquista y organización de las antiguas posesiones españolas en América y Oceanía, 25 vols., 1880–1932 (hereafter CDIU), 1, 241. Not 1512 but 1495, qu. Pérez de Tudela [9:39], 95.
33. Navarrete [4:38], 1, 406.
34. Pérez de Tudela [9:39], 110.
35. “By command of the inquisidors during the whole of this year el aguacil Pedro de Mata and the fiscal Francisco de Simancas paid large sums not only to Bishop Fonseca (896,880 ms.) but also to the main stewards of the bishop such as the Genovese Bernardo and Luco Piñelo (1 million ms. and 1,293,9040 ms.); as to the converso Jimeno de Briviesca (606,000 ms.), this last sum being given in Sanlúcar so that García de Campo, criado de Bernardo Piñelo, would take it to Puerto de Santa María”; Gil [3:37], 1, 387.
36. The pilots included Juan de Moguer, Bartolomé Roldán, Ruy Pérez de la Mora, and Francisco del Castillo (Pérez de Tudela [9:39], 114).
37. There were also the usual cargoes: wheat, barley, wine, olive oil, vinegar, and also three hundred rabbits, in large baskets filled with lettuce. On the way, in Gomera, in the Canary Islands, they also bought a hundred sheep and goats.
38. Fernández-Armesto [4:2], 114.
39. Colón [4:16], 316–30: “algunos frailes devotos y fuera de codicia de cosas del mundo.”
40. Carvajal became a cardinal on Sept. 20, 1493, remaining, though, Bishop of Cartagena in Spain, a see that he later exchanged for Sigüenza.
41. Cancionero, qu. Jones [12:2], 29: “porque según dice el maestro Antonio de Lebrija, aquel que desterró de nuestra España los barbarismos que en la lengua latina se habían criado, una de las causas que le movieron a hacer arte de romance fue que creía nuestra lengua estar agora más empinada y polida que jamás estuvo, de donde más se podía temer el decendimiento que la subida; y así yo por esta misma razón creyendo nunca haber estado tan puesta en la cumbre nuestra poesía y manera de trobar, parecióme ser cosa muy provechosa poner en el arte y encerrarla debaxo de ciertas leyes y reglas, porque ninguna antigüedad de tiempos le pueda traer olvido.…”
42. Las Casas [2:50], 1, 431; AGI, Contratación, leg. 3249, r., qu. Pérez de Tudela [9:39], 116.
43. Colón [4:16], 368.
Chapter 13
1. Martyr [1:2], 1, 330.
2. Morison thought that Columbus dressed as a monk because of a desire for anonymity. Sale [6:16] suggests some kind of penitence was being expressed. But surely there was a connection with the monastery of La Rábida, where he had been so encouraged. Gil [3:37], 3, 94, implies that Bernáldez may have been a converso: like every other intelligent person in Spain at the time, it would seem!
3. The masters were García Álvarez de Moguer, San Juan de Ajanguis, and Fernando de Palomares for the Breton boat, the owner being Juan Fernández de Alcoba. The pilots were Niño, Juan de Humbría, and Pero Sanz de la Puebla.
4. Antonio Rumeu de Armas, Alonso de Lugo en la Corte de los Reyes Católicos, Madrid 1952. The prince established himself in Almazán after the departure of the court in July 1496. The palace was a house belonging to Pedro Mendoza, the lord of the town. For this little court, see Cardaillac [3:49], 136ff., and Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo, Libro de la Cámara Real del Príncipe Don Juan, Madrid 1870, passim.
5. Navarrete [4:38], 1, 408.
6. Las Casas [2:50], 1, 435: “Hizoles un buen presente de oro por fundir … muchas guaycas o car’tulas … con sus ojos y orejas de oro y muchos papagayos.”
7. Bernáldez [3:2], 2, 78: “Traía un collar de oro el dicho D. Diego, hermano del dicho Caonaboa, que le facia el almirante poner cuando entraba por las ciudades ó lugares, hecho de eslabones de cadena, que pesaba seicientos castellanos, el cual vi y tuve en mis manos.…”
8. Martyr [1:2], 1, 316.
9. Fernández-Armesto [4:17], 25. The work of Marco Polo was translated into Spanish only in 1502, by Rodrigo Fernández de Santaella, founder of the University of Seville.
10. Harrisse [4:37], 3. Henry VII had granted Cabot’s petition to cross the Atlantic on March 5, 1496. Cabot crossed in a small vessel of fifty tons, with eighteen men, leaving Bristol in the summer, reaching the “New Found Land,” where he found much cod. The Spanish ambassadors to the court of England, Pedro de Ayala and Ruy González de Puebla, told Henry VII that those territories belonged to Spain: “he did not like it,” they reported to Spain.
11. The bull Si convenit was the document that gave the monarchs this title. The Pope did not forget to mention in his citation Fernando and Isabel’s expulsion of the Jews.
12. Martyr [1:2], 1, 332; see Cardaillac [3:49], 170ff.
13. Margaret had been formally married on Nov. 5, 1496, when the Infante Juan was represented at Saint Pierre, Malines,
by Francisco de Rojas, ambassador to Flanders and a cousin of the King. For the death of Juan, see Cardaillac [3:49], 206.
14. Cisneros laid the first stone of the University of Alcalá (to be built by Pedro de Gumiel) in March 1498. The Catholic Kings were still in the town. It would be ten years before the university would begin work. “Complutense” is the Latin word for Alcalá.
15
.… papas y emperadores
y prelados
Así los trata la muerte
Como a los pobres pastores
De ganados.
Or:
Nuestras vidas son los ríos
Que van a dar en la mar, Que es el morir:
Allí van los señoríos.
(“Coplas a la muerte de su padre,” xiv.) These are among the most famous lines in Spanish poetry.
16. Margaret would eventually return to Flanders, in order to marry the Duke of Savoy and then act as the Regent of the Low Countries after his death. What a tragedy that so clever a princess should die without children! Her many portraits, as a child by Jean Hey, by Bernard van Orley, and, above all, in stained glass as well as in marble in the church at Brou, in Bourg-en-Bresse, to honor herself as well as her Savoyard husband, show her charm to later generations.
17. Las Casas [2:50], 2, 531: “daría dos o tres tumbos en el infierno.” Cuéllar, who perhaps owed his job to Juan Velázquez de Cuéllar, his cousin who was contador mayor of the prince, was said by Oviedo to have been a “persona de bien e ataviado e zeloso e avisado en lo tocava a la limpieza e lealtad de su oficio” (Oviedo [13:4], 86).
18. Las Casas [2:50], 1, 439, says that there were three hundred.
19. Las Casas [2:50], 1, 445.
20. Oviedo [2:43], 1, 49: “cuando tornaban a España algunos de los que venían en esta demanda del oro, si allá volvían, era con la misma color del; pero no con aquel lustre.…”
21. Navarrete [4:38], 1, 408–9.
22. Navarrete [4:38], 1, 410.
23. Navarrete [4:38], 1, 423.
24. Las Casas [2:50], 1, 480: “pidió tantas condiciones y preeminencias, si había de tener aquel cargo, se enojaron los reyes y lo aborrescieron.”
25. “Paresceme se deva dar licencia a todos los que quisieren yr” (Morales Padrón [6:19], 5).
26. Bernáldez [3:2], 334: “se dió licencia a otros muchos capitanes … e fueron e descubrieron diversas islas.”
27. Navarrete [4:38], 1, 430: “facultad a vos, don Cristóbal Colón, nuestro almirante del mar Oceano, e nuestro visorrey e gobernador en la dicha isla para en todos los terminos della podades dar e repartir, e dades e repartades a las tales personas e a cada uno de los que agora viven e moran en la dicha isla e a los que de aqui adelante fueren a vivir e morar en ella.…”
28. The comment of Juan Pérez de Tudela.
29. Navarrete [4:38], 1, 409.
30. Rumeu [2:2], 235–36.
31. “pasó a las dichas islas y tierras firmes de India.”
32. “se movió con muchas prisa a enbiar una armada suya estas islas y tierras firmes … [with the help of] pilotos y marineros y gentes que venían con el dicho almirante.”
33. Published by Antonio Rumeu de Armas, Un escrito desconocido de Cristóbal Colón, Madrid 1972, and see also Colón [4:16], 333ff. It was Rumeu who thought that there might be a connection with Tordesillas.
34. Liss [2:42], 295.
35. Henceforward there would be
(a) a blanca, of vellon (a mixture of copper and silver), to be worth ½ maravedí;
(b) a real, of silver, worth 34 maravedís;
(c) a ducat (or excelente) of gold, worth 375 maravedís. This was a copy of the Venetian ducat.
A separate currency obtained in Valencia and Catalonia; they, too, had an excelente and also a principal.
See Hamilton [3:8], 51. For the money in Valencia, see the same, 104ff.
36. Fernando Colón [4:40], 186.
37. Colón [4:16], 430.
38. See his marginal note on Pierre d’Ailly, quoted in Colón [4:16], 90.
39. Pierre d’Ailly [4:34], 43.
40. Colón [4:16], 351.
41. Colón [4:16], 353ff.
42. “ciudad noble y poderosa por el mar.”
43. “me hicieron su almirante en la mar con todas las preheminecias que tiene el almirante don Enrique en el almirantazgo de Castilla …”
44. Colón [4:16], 353ff. Also Navarrete [4:38], 1, 436.
45. Fernando Colón [4:40], 363–64. “Tu padre que te ama más que a sí.”
46. Ibid.
47. Ibid., 365.
48. The costs were originally to be 6 million maravedís, of which 4 million were to be employed in provisions and 2 million in wages.
49. See M. González Jiménez, “Genoveses en Sevilla (siglos XIII–XV),” in Presencia Italiana en Andalucia, siglos XIV–XVII, Seville 1985.
50. Navarrete [4:38], 1, 498.
51. Ibid.
52. Las Casas [2:50], 1, 497, says that he was “hombre muy capaz y prudente y de autoridad.”
53. Martyr [6:34], 55. Martyr said that another purpose was that he also wanted to avoid “certain French pirates.”
54. Fernández-Armesto [4:49], 14.
55. Colón [4:16], 408.
56. Fernando Colón [4:40], 371.
57. CDI, 39, 413: “e allí en nombre del Rey e de la Reina nuestros Señores, tomamos la posesión de la dicha provincia, la que tomó el dicho Pedro de Terreros.…”
58. Navarrete [4:38], 2, 344.
59. Navarrete [4:38], 2, 344.
60. Colón [4:16], 373.
61. Ibid., 380–81.
62. For this section I relied on Paul Kirchhoff’s chapter in The Handbook of the Middle American Indians, ed. Robert Wauchope, 16 vols., 1964–76, 4, 481–93.
63. Colón [4:16], 383. Margarita is, of course, Spanish for “pearl.”
64. A point well made by Bernal [12:31], 101.
65. Colón [4:16], 403, from Las Casas [2:50], 2, 33.
66. Martyr [6:34], 50.
67. Bartolomeo may have used the name of Domingo after his and the Admiral’s father, Domenico Colombo of Genoa, but more likely because the city was founded on the day of Santo Domingo, Aug. 8.
68. Pérez de Tudela [9:39], 163.
69. Oviedo [2:43], 1, 72.
70. Las Casas [2:50], 1, 449.
71. Pérez de Tudela [9:39], 161. Pedro de Valdivieso, a Burgalés, Adrián de Muxica, a Basque, and Diego de Escobar, a Sevillano, all participated.
72. Martyr [6:34], 54.
73. Fernando Colón [4:40], 246, 195.
74. Ursula Lamb, Frey Nicolás de Ovando, Madrid 1956, 126, wrote that “it is superfluous to say that the encomenderos so invested with land were rebels and, for the same reason, were not the type of persons whom the Crown would have considered worthy of being concerned with the well-being of the Indians.”
75. Pérez de Tudela [9:39], 157.
76. Las Casas [2:50], 2, 70.
77. Las Casas [2:50], 2, 173: “¿Qué poder tiene el Almirante para dar a nadie mis vasallos?”
78. Letter to the monarchs sent in the ship, Fernando Colón [4:40], 407.
79. Colón [4:16], 407–8.
80. “mugeres atan hermosas que es maravilla.”
81. Colón [4:16], 409.
82. Colón [4:16], 408.
83. Cesáreo Fernández Duro, Nebulosidades de Cristóbal Colón, Madrid 1900, 182.
84. Text in Las Casas [2:50], 1, 1151.
85. Colón [4:16], 412: “cada uno pudiese venir a mi y dezir lo que les plazía.”
86. Robert S. Chamberlain, Castilian Backgrounds of the Repartimiento-Encomienda, Washington, DC, 1939. Richard Konetzke pointed out that it is a mistake to “suppose the Christianization of the infidels was a moving factor in the antecedent history of the discovery of America—an interpretation that springs from confusing the Reconquista … with a crusade” (Konetzke, The Americas, 14, 1958, 182).
87. See C. H. Haring, The Spanish Emp
ire in America, New York 1947, 43, and Fernández-Armesto [4:17], 139.
88. Navarrete [4:38], 1, 44.
Chapter 14
1. As heads of the bedchamber to Kings Enrique III and Juan II; or, as alcaides of fortresses.
2. A poem written by Alvar Gómez de Ciudad Real, then attached to the household of Cardinal Mendoza, “On the Marvellous Description of the New World,” was much circulated among Beatriz’s descendants—to recall that, though one Bobadilla may have dispossessed the Admiral (Francisco, in 1500), another had helped him win his opportunity.
3. Navarrete [4:38], 443. Las Casas [2:50], 2, 176. The instruction was signed by both the Catholic Kings and by Miguel Pérez de Almazán, the secretary who no doubt drafted the document, and by Gómez Juárez, another letrado who was now the chancellor of Castile.
4. Navarrete [4:38], 1, 444, 445.
5. Navarrete [4:38], 1, 446.
6. Martyr [6:34], 67.
7. Las Casas [2:50], 1, 465.
8. Las Casas [2:50], 2, 173.
9. Colón [4:16], 409.
10. Qu. Fernández-Armesto [4:2], 25.
11. Bernáldez [3:2], 2, 80.
12. Fray Juan de Trassiera, his own steward; Fray Francisco Ruiz and Fray Juan Robles; and two Fleming lay brothers, Fray Juan de Leudelle (or de la Duela), known as “El Bermejo,” and Fray Juan de Tisín, who had been with Columbus on his second voyage in 1493, in company with the mysterious Boil. See Tibesaar, The Franciscan Promise, 378. The Franciscan Observants were keen to go to the New World and had received encouragement from their vicar-general, Olivier Maillard, to go.
13. There is a portrait of Ruiz in the Museo de Valencia de San Juan, Madrid.
14. Martyr [1:2], 1, 200.
15. Zurita [9:2], qu. Liss [2:42], 318. Zurita was for a time gentleman of the chamber to Charles V; afterwards he was secretary of the Inquisition and author of Anales de la Corona de Aragón.
