Venetian Report on Philip the Handsome - 1506

Philip the Handsome; Young Charles V; Burgundy; England; Spain

Background

The occasion for this embassy was the succession to the crown of Castile by the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Handsome, son of the Emperor Maximilian I, following the death of Queen Isabella on November 26, 1504, whose daughter Joanna, heiress to the kingdom, the said prince had married. Since Philip the Handsome died before this report was delivered, the report focuses mainly on analyzing the government and peoples of the Duchy of Burgundy, as well as England and Spain, to which the ambassador travelled with Philip’s retinue.

This report was read in the Venetian Pregadi (Senate) by Vincenzo Quirini in 1506.

Report

Nothing, Most Serene Prince and my most excellent Lords, is of greater benefit to a well-established republic than to understand in particular the government, power, and disposition of all the great lords and princes of the world, as well as the character of their provinces and of the peoples within them. For this reason, I believe that our wise and good forefathers have established it as a custom in our republic, that all the ambassadors who return to their homeland from different parts of the world give an account to the Senate of that Prince to whose court they have been on legation; and I, being one of these (not through my own merit but by the kindness of this Senate) whose duty it is to perform such an office in this great assembly, have come today to this illustrious council to observe this ancient custom, observed by all other orators to the present day.

At the end of the month of February 1505¹, Most Serene Prince, with the good leave of Your Serenity, I departed from this city, and crossing the harshest part of Germany I arrived in Argentoratum [Strasbourg] at the court of the most serene King of the Romans², where I set forth what Your Serenity had commissioned me; and upon leaving him, I encountered at a small castle the unfortunate King of Castile³, who was coming towards those parts to meet with his father,⁴ to whom, with the best form of words that I could, I made abundantly clear the reason for my coming, and what I had been commissioned to do by this most excellent Senate. Beginning on that same day, I accompanied his Highness, always following his path; nor did I ever, from that time until the very last of my departure, distance myself from his Highness; I have always followed him by sea and by land, as was fitting, for many months. During which time, what I have been able to comprehend that is worthy of memory and of coming to the ears of Your Serenity will be this.

And because death, which has respect neither for nobility of blood nor for any prosperity, has recently taken from me the principal subject of this my Report, I will say only a few things of his qualities, leaving aside the governance of the now-dead king, and his disposition towards all Christian princes, and then I shall continue with those of the his queen consort⁵ and children, and of all the countries subject to them.

The King of Castile, most noble of blood, on his father’s side descended from the emperors of the House of Austria, and on his mother’s side from a second son of King Louis [the IX] of France the Saint, called Philip the Bold, first Duke of Burgundy, father of Duke John, who was the father of Duke Philip and grandfather of Duke Charles, who was succeeded by Madame Mary, wife of the King of the Romans Maximilian, father of King Philip. This King Philip, in addition to the nobility of his blood, was one of the most powerful lords of the Christians. He was twenty-eight years of age, having completed them this past twenty-fifth of June, handsome of body, vigorous and prosperous, skilled at jousting, adroit in riding, diligent and vigilant in war, and strong in enduring every hardship. He was of a naturally good spirit, magnificent, liberal, affable, benign, and so familiar with everyone that he did not maintain royal decorum, a lover and executor to the best of his ability of justice, religious, and of a single faith when he made a promise. Lastly, he was of a most beautiful intellect; he learned every arduous subject well, but was slow in responding, and not very resolute in executing, and always deferred in every action to his council, in which he placed great faith in all things, being naturally inclined to believe what was told to him by those he loved.

To this prince so great and noble, and so virtuous, was given for a wife a jealous woman (although quite beautiful and most noble, and the heir to so many kingdoms)⁶, who with her jealousy so troubled her husband that the poor and unhappy man could not be entirely content with her; for she did not speak with many people, nor did she embrace anyone; she always remained confined in her chamber, and consumed herself with jealousy; she loved solitude, shunned feasts, amusements, and pleasures, and above all, she wanted no company of women, neither Flemish, nor Spanish, neither old, nor young, nor of any other rank. She is, however, a woman of good intellect, and easily grasps what is said to her, and the few words she replies, she speaks with good manner and in good form, maintaining that gravity which befits a queen; which I was able to comprehend when in the name of Your Serenity I paid her reverence and briefly set forth what I had been given as my commission.

To this king and queen have been born four daughters. The first is between ten and eleven years old, called Madame Eleanor; the second, Isabella, between six and seven years old; the third, Mary, about one year old; the fourth, Catherine. The also have two sons. The first is Prince Charles⁷, between six and seven years of age, very handsome and of a good disposition; in all his actions, he shows himself to be very spirited and fierce; he resembles the old Duke Charles of Burgundy. The second is about four years of age; he was born in Spain, and is still there, named Ferdinand or Ferrando.⁸ The residence of Prince Charles is in Brabant at Mechelen, and he is so well guarded by the people that they would all sooner let themselves be cut to pieces than let him leave the country; and now by the death of his father he will remain lord of all Flanders, and will later succeed to the kingdom of Castile upon his mother’s death, and to the King of the Romans in the archduchy of Austria. He will be a great lord, and will reasonably maintain such a court as his father and his other predecessors; who ordinarily maintained a great chamberlain, a great master of the household, a great squire, and a chief sommelier, as they were called by them.

The great chamberlain must keep twenty chamberlains under him, who have every month from the lord forty gold ducats⁹ each; and in addition to these, four chamber servants, who have ten ducats a month each.

The great master of the household keeps five carvers under him, who have fifty ducats a month each.

The great squire keeps under him twenty squires who give the duke drink, and seventy who set the table, and seventy who cut the meat, and seventy others who have care of the lord’s horses when he rides: each of these has twenty ducats a month. The great squire must also keep under him twenty-five young men, some of whom are always obliged to accompany the lord, and they have ten ducats each a month. And in addition to these he must also keep twenty boys all clothed, and to clothe them and pay their expenses he has one hundred ducats a month.

The chief sommelier¹⁰ must keep under his office two sommeliers who attend to guarding the duke’s garments, and they alone handle and manage them, and they have fifty ducats a month each.

Besides these there are also in this duke’s court three called chief quartermasters, and they have the authority to give lodging to all those who follow the court, as they see fit; they have forty ducats a month, and under them they keep ten quartermasters with ten ducats a month each, who help to give lodging to everyone.

There is also with the duke a confessor, a friar of Saint Dominic and a bishop, and a chief chaplain; this chaplain has twenty-four under him: singers, Mass chaplains, and organ players, who have ten ducats a month each.

Also in the pay of the lord duke are six secretaries and two physicians at seventy ducats a month each; six heralds who bear the lord duke’s arms, two mace-bearers who carry silver maces before him, twelve battle trumpeters, eight trombonists and fifers, two lute players, four with violins, one hundred archers for his guard, four accountants who keep the accounts of expenditures (all of whom receive ten ducats a month each), and one hundred halberdiers who always go at the lord duke’s stirrup at eight ducats a month each, and they are all Germans; and when any dispute arises among all the aforementioned, the masters of the household are those who administer justice.

Besides these salaried men, the Duke of Burgundy ordinarily spends on two hundred men-at-arms¹¹ twenty ducats a month each, and on two thousand Germans six ducats a month each; which men are always stationed on the frontiers of Guelders to guard the country. He also spends on other, lower offices for the court, such as porters, cooks, cellar-keepers and the like, about one hundred ducats a month.

All these salaried men, officials, and men-at-arms sum to about three hundred thousand ducats a year, which are ordinarily paid every three months. In addition to this, the said Duke spends on food expenses (between his table and the horses, and providing board and lodging to the household officials, where his gentlemen may go to eat) about forty thousand ducats a year; and on the court of his wife and children (if he has any) about twenty thousand ducats. Besides these ordinary expenses, the Duke is also accustomed to spend in giving pensions to all the lords who exist in the country subject to him, each year about fifty thousand ducats; and on ambassadors and on some other offices, which he pays from his own funds, for lands, castellans, and fortresses, and to keep them supplied with victuals and artillery and other necessary things, from about fifteen to twenty thousand ducats.

All these ordinary expenses each year make the sum of about four hundred and forty thousand ducats, without many other extraordinary ones that occur from day to day. This is what, Most Serene Prince, can be said about the governance and the expense of the court of the Duke of Burgundy.

The dominion of the Duke of Burgundy is all one continuous territory, very large, and has for its borders on one side France, on another that part of Germany which is between Strasbourg, Trier, and Cologne, on the third Frisia, and on the fourth the sea. Within these borders are ten provinces: Flanders, Brabant, Artois, Hainaut, Zeeland, Holland, Namur, Luxembourg, Guelders, and part of Picardy. Some of these provinces are situated on the plain, some in the mountains, some by the sea, all are populous, rich, and full of a great abundance of cities, castles, and towns, among which all are found in total one hundred forty-three walled towns, between small ones which can be counted as large castles, and large ones that lack nothing but a bishop to be called cities. Of these, the medium-sized ones have from three to five thousand hearths, the large ones from six to twenty-five thousand: Bruges has twenty-five thousand hearths, Antwerp from twenty to twenty-five thousand, now richer in merchandise than any other whatsoever; Ghent has twenty thousand, Brussels twelve thousand, ‘s-Hertogenbosch and Mechelen eight thousand, Leuven ten thousand, Arras and Amsterdam in Holland from six to seven thousand; all beautiful and strong in their location, for the most part situated in lowlands that can be easily filled with nearby waters, and also all adorned with monasteries and churches. The streets, squares, and houses are full of people, and rich because all the citizens are merchants, and the common people artisans, of whom the greater part devotes itself to weaving cloths and tapestries, and the rest to the other things necessary for a city.

There are also found in said country, besides the aforementioned towns, one thousand five hundred villages, and some with a small wall around them; and the largest of these are in number about one hundred fifty, with from two hundred to three hundred hearths each; in which cloths are also woven by men as well as by women, because few work the land, there being little soil and many people to work; yet there is always enough wheat, but not of wine, because not enough grapes grow in the country to make sufficient wine.

There are also in these lands and in the countryside many ecclesiastical benefices, which have an income from tithes of seventy-eight thousand ducats a year, and between monks and nuns of Saint Benedict, Saint Bernard, and Saint Augustine, and Carthusian friars, there are monasteries with one hundred sixty-two thousand ducats of income a year; the largest of which has ten thousand ducats, the medium-sized ones from seven to eight thousand, the small ones from one thousand five hundred to two thousand; and the monks of this country are not of as reformed a life as they should be.

In said country, three things are of supreme excellence. Exceedingly fine and beautiful linens in abundance in Holland; most beautiful tapestries with figures in Brabant; the third is music, which can certainly be said to be perfect.

By these inhabitants, four things are continually consumed for their living: namely, beer, salted butter, herring, and peat, which is a certain sort of earth full of little roots, which, being in pieces, is burned as coal is. Which four things are consumed and used by those peoples in such a way that a family would not call itself satisfied if it were not supplied with all these things for the year; and for this they are called the four elements of Flanders, and of all the other aforementioned provinces.

The inhabitants of said countries may be in all about two hundred thousand households, in which number are included many lords of walled lands and villages, who may be about fifty, the greatest of whom is the Count of Nassau, who has an income of fifteen thousand ducats a year: the middling ones have from six to eight thousand, and the lesser ones from two to three thousand. They are all subject to the duke, but not obliged to give him anything of their revenues; rather, the duke gives pensions to all from the revenues of the duchy. It is true that when their lord calls them to war, they go; and, according as each one is able, he brings men-at-arms at his own expense. These lords are accustomed to being not very pompous, both in dress and in being accompanied on the street, but in their own houses they live magnificently and spend more than their income; and it is their custom to spend greatly on eating and drinking, and to keep an open table for any of the duke’s gentlemen who wish to eat; who have no other care than to go to dine or sup with the aforesaid lords, because to do otherwise would be a great shame for them.

The peoples of all these countries are of a good nature, they love their lord, are good Christians, not proud in conversation, nor also in dress. The men all give themselves to commerce, they sometimes visit the taverns, nor do they take so much delight in any other carnal pleasure as in eating and drinking. They are prone to rise up when their lord is absent, and especially against governors, and for this it will be an easy thing for them, upon the recent death of their king and duke, to rise up against the government—if they are not troubled by the French, in which case they would all be united in defending themselves, and would accept favors and governments from anyone, and principally from the King of the Romans, who, to defend that country of his nephews from the French, would reasonably go towards Flanders; but after he had defended them and things were quieted, it would befit him to return to Germany, because those peoples would not want to be governed by Germans.

Truly, despite all this, they can be called good, for one does not find among them lust, nor larceny, nor blasphemy, nor envy, nor hatred, as is found in many other places, nor disbelief in the faith, nor even jealousy, although the women are generally beautiful and exceedingly domestic. The attire of these women is a black cloak over their head in the manner of our pious women, and they never change from this. They are all of a cheerful disposition, and all the time that remains to them, after their chores, they spend in dancing, singing, and music, and do nothing else but give themselves to pleasure. They then manage their houses and all family affairs without the husband’s concern. It is the custom for all of them, when they are married, to put their dowry and the husband’s property together as one, and when the husbands die, half remains with the women, the other half goes to the children, or truly to the relatives, if there are no children; and if the woman dies before the husband, the dowry remains with the children, or with the husband if there are no children, and after his death, it goes to the wife’s relatives. It is the custom of the women of the whole country to place their daughters, until the age of marriage, in certain monasteries called Beguiozzi¹², where there are many small houses and where women live who have not wished to marry, and many who are about to marry: each one lives on her own means, and they all do a great deal of work with cloth, and many of them become rich. They live honestly, both because of the watch they keep on each other, and also because the women and men of this country are frigid, and very distant from lust, and much more so than any other nation I have seen. And let this suffice concerning the customs of those peoples, which are in essential things all of a similar fashion.

The principal towns, which are not subject to others, have a burgomaster for each, and twelve aldermen who administer justice in civil and criminal matters, and all together they are called the Lodge.

These are appointed each year by the Duke, who sends each year to each of his principal towns two commissioners from among his secretaries to appoint these burgomasters and this Lodge, and they can be confirmed from one year to the next, or changed at the pleasure of the said commissioners, who do not have the authority to give similar offices to anyone other than the towns’ own citizens, nor for more than one year.

These burgomasters and aldermen judge summarily in criminal cases, and they quickly execute justice with all rigor and severity; but in civil cases they are lengthy, and the litigating parties suffer before they deliver their sentences.

Besides the aforementioned judges, in every town there is one called the sculteto appointed for life by the duke, who has twelve secretaries under him, and has the office of apprehending wrongdoers, and of executing the sentences passed by the Lodge.

Besides these offices there are many other particular ones according to the needs of the towns and peoples; which towns govern the countrysides subject to them with the same justice with which they themselves are governed, and they then send governors throughout the places of the entire countryside, whose sentences are appealed to the principal towns to which they are subject, and all the expenses in paying those who administer justice in the town and countryside are charged to the income of the town’s community.

There are also, in addition to those who administer justice in the towns throughout the country, four principal councils: one is in Flanders, another in Brabant, the third in Holland, and the fourth in the community of Burgundy.

Each of these councils has a head, under whom there are about twelve councilors, all paid by the country where they the councils are; these are on the council for life, and have the authority to annul or uphold all sentences passed in the towns, which can be appealed to the said councils, and they are extremely slow in judging.

These are, Most Serene Prince, the characteristics of the lands and countries subject to the Duke of Burgundy, and the customs of the peoples, and the government that they maintain among themselves.

The revenues, indeed, that are drawn on account of the towns, and which are spent on public affairs, are so great that it would be difficult to state them. Antwerp alone, which at present does more business than Bruges and other towns, having two free fairs of three months each, draws from duties one hundred and fifty thousand ducats a year. Bruges one hundred thousand, Ghent one hundred thousand, Brussels thirty thousand, Mechelen forty thousand, Holland with all its towns and villages some three hundred thousand, Zeeland with its eleven towns some one hundred thousand, and from the rest of the country one hundred and fifty thousand ducats a year can be drawn. Which revenues sum to about a million in gold, and of these revenues the towns are obliged to give an account to the Duke each year, and also of the public expenses.

This was instituted of old by the lords, with the consent of the peoples and principal men of the lands, so that both could participate in said revenues, from which the Dukes of Burgundy cannot ordinarily take anything; and this has continued since the time when the peoples of Flanders and Brabant ransomed with their money the Duke and the country, which had been taken and subjugated by the French.¹³ For which reason the said peoples remained free and exempt from any imposition that had been established by the lords; and not only did these remain free and exempt, but all the other provinces that under this same condition have come to the House of Burgundy, whose income, for this reason, has remained very small for such a prince, since it does not exceed one hundred thousand ducats a year across all these countries; and, as has been said, all this has been since that ransoming. Which income might perhaps in the beginning, when the countries and their prince were ransomed from the French, have been sufficient for expenses; but then, the lords seeing that this income was quite little for the great daily expenses that occurred, began to ask the peoples, who were very rich, for aid for their living, and then they asked for aid for the wars that occurred, and the peoples became accustomed to giving a certain aid to the lord every six years, which could be about three hundred thousand ducats from all the countries. Afterwards, the lordship having come by succession into the hands of Duke Philip, father of Duke Charles, he began little by little to increase the demand for aid to make war on the French, and he received from the peoples about one hundred and fifty thousand ducats more every six years; in the process of time, in his old age he came to make the demand every four years at the rate of two hundred and fifty thousand ducats each year: and Duke Charles his son, who was greatly loved and revered by all, brought the peoples to pay every four years one million four hundred thousand ducats of aid, which came to be three hundred and fifty thousand ducats per year, which was a great deal. And from that time until now, these demands are so well established that this extraordinary sum of three hundred and fifty thousand ducats a year can now be demanded almost as an ordinary thing, the peoples having already become accustomed to it.

Nor will the said peoples give this money if the duke does not go in person to the principal lands every four years. But if by chance the lord wished to undertake some just war that was to the satisfaction of all the peoples, besides the said money, they would give him great aid, as they did for the war against the Duke of Guelders in days past, for which he received from the peoples one hundred and fifty thousand ducats in addition to the usual aid.

This, most excellent sirs, is all the information that I have been able to obtain, in the ten months that I have been in that country, on all the peoples and lands subject to the Duke of Burgundy, and their revenues. From which lands, the war of Guelders having ended, with the majesty of the late king, and with all his court, I boarded a ship on the tenth of January in the company of forty ships, and with very great fortune, well known to your serenity, I arrived in the kingdom of England. Of which kingdom it seems fitting to me to say something briefly, having found myself in it for a long time, due to the bad weather and contrary winds. Briefly, therefore, I shall thus begin.

England is a very rich and great island and kingdom, which on the north side is joined to the kingdom of Scotland in such a way that on foot, when the waters are low, one can pass from one side to the other: towards the northwest lies the island of Hibernia [Ireland], a day’s journey distant from the coast.

This island of England is divided into three principal parts, namely Anglia, Wales, and Cornwall; and each of these parts has a language so different that the people from one do not understand the others. In which three parts there may be in all about twenty-two cities and fifty walled towns, both small and large, and about one thousand three hundred villages; and in all these places there may be about two hundred and thirty thousand hearths. All of which places are now peacefully subject to the present king of England¹⁴, a man of fifty-four years, of a rather fine presence, wise, prudent, not hated nor even much loved by his people; who has a single heir, the Prince of Wales, named Henry¹⁵, a youth of about sixteen years, by natural disposition an enemy of the French, and married to a daughter of the king of Spain.¹⁶ He was born in the year 1491 on the twenty-eighth day of June.

This king of England draws first, from revenues pertaining to the crown, from duties and other things, one hundred thousand ducats a year. Then, from the duties of all the lands and provinces of the island, four hundred thousand ducats a year. He obtains besides this, from tithes that he imposes every three years on the clergy, and from the temporal goods that go to the crown on the death of bishops, one hundred thousand ducats, and also, for holding in wardship the orphans of the nobles of the country, one hundred and fifty thousand ducats per year. The present king also possesses the revenues of the principal dukes and lords of the kingdom whom he, in his time, has had put to death, for about five hundred and fifty thousand ducats; which revenues all sum to about one million three hundred thousand ducats.

This king does not spend, between court expenses, men-at-arms, and fortresses, more than half a million ducats, and counting every other extraordinary expense, his spending does not reach two-thirds of his revenue; and for this reason all judge that, having reigned for so long, he is the richest king of the Christians, receiving also, besides these ordinary revenues, many extraordinary funds which always accrue to him.

This very rich king has under him in all his kingdom nineteen secular lords, among them dukes, counts, marquesses, and princes; and he formerly had many more, but to secure himself in the kingdom he has now reduced them to such a small number. Those who remain have an income, between them all, of about three hundred and eighty thousand ducats; among whom the greatest are the Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of Northumberland, who each have an annual income of thirty thousand ducats; the lesser ones have an income of nine to twelve thousand, and the middling ones from fifteen to twenty thousand.

Besides these, the aforesaid king has in his realm twenty-two very good bishoprics and two archbishoprics, which are all conferred by him, and which have a combined income of two hundred and ten thousand ducats: the largest are of thirty thousand ducats, the middling of fifteen to twenty-four thousand, and the smallest of two thousand to ten thousand. The king also has in his country, between monks and nuns, fifty-six monasteries of the order of Saint Benedict and of Saint Augustine, which among them all have an income of four hundred thousand ducats a year: the largest from fifteen to twenty-four thousand; the smallest from one thousand to three thousand, and the middling from five to ten thousand. In addition to these, there are on the said island fifty monasteries of the order of Saint Bernard, which yield a total annual income of sixty-seven thousand ducats. Besides these are three monasteries of Carthusians, and two houses of the Knights of Rhodes¹⁷, with a total annual income of seventy-two thousand ducats. There are, besides these churches, five thousand two hundred parishes, and about ten thousand priests in all of England, who among them all may have an income of one hundred and twenty thousand ducats. All these ecclesiastical revenues sum to about eight hundred and sixty thousand ducats.

The rest of the wealth of England lies with the merchants, of whom a great many are found throughout the country.

The inhabitants of the kingdom of Wales are truly of fine stature, strong in arms, and of a haughty nature, given more to war than to any other exercise. In England they are of a gentler condition, richer, and given to commerce. In Cornwall they are wilder, more ferocious, and poorer than all the others on the island; they are easily roused to rise up of their own disposition against their king, and are always desirous of new things; they naturally hate the French, and hold them in very low esteem in war. They are courageous, almost all go on foot with bows and a great many arrows, and these bows they handle better than any other weapon.

From this kingdom of England, Most Serene Prince, his majesty the King of Castile departed on the 22nd of last April with all his company, and with a prosperous wind arrived in four days at the port of Corunna in Galicia, where we stayed for a month; then we went to Castile and made that journey which I informed Your Serenity of by letter, with all the dealings that occurred between the one king and the other¹⁸, for the space of two months.

Therefore, it seems to me appropriate to briefly expound to Your Serenity what I have been able to comprehend of the kingdom of Castile and its inhabitants, and it is this.

The crown of Castile, then, holds a great part of Spain under it; its borders are on one side the Sea of Spain, on the other the Mediterranean Sea and the kingdom of Aragon, on another end Portugal, and on the other Navarre with part of the Pyrenees mountains. Within these boundaries, on the coast of the Sea of Spain are first Gipuzkoa and then Biscay, Asturias and the kingdom of Galicia: on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea are Andalusia, the kingdom of Granada, and that of Murcia. Between these two parts of the ocean and Mediterranean seas are the kingdom of Toledo, Extremadura, and the kingdom of Leon and also the kingdom of Castile, which borders Navarre. All these kingdoms and provinces may have around thirty-two cities, and one hundred and fifty walled towns both small and large, and about fifty castles of all sorts, and around two thousand villages; and although the country is of great size and very long and wide, yet because it is not very inhabited it does not hold, between cities, towns, and villages, more than two hundred and fifty thousand hearths.

All these peoples are by nature prone to every uprising against their lords; they are also ugly of body, both men and women, and all full of jealousy. They are naturally intelligent, but do not apply it to learning or to any study. They live miserably at home due to the great poverty among them, and they practice extreme thrift to save, and all that they save in a year they then throw away in a day to appear greater than they are. The lords are also similar, although they are more courteous than the others; they are lavish in public matters and in things that appear to all, and they do not believe that any other gentility, nor any other nobility, exists in the world outside of their own.

Among these great men there are, in the kingdom of Castile, thirty-two between bishops and archbishops, the greatest of whom is the archbishop of Toledo, who has an income of forty thousand ducats a year; the lesser ones reach from one thousand to four thousand, and the middling ones from five to eighteen thousand, such as the archbishop of St. James¹⁹ and that of Seville, and the bishop of Burgos. The revenues of these thirty-two churches sum to one hundred and eighty thousand ducats a year.

There are, besides these, eight dukes subject to the said crown, two admirals, seven marquises, thirty-six counts, seven adelentadi²⁰ and twenty-three knights, who are noble and have a worthy income without any title. Among these lords the greatest are the constable, who has an income of fifty thousand ducats a year, the Duke of Medina Sidonia forty thousand ducats, the Duke of Medina Celi thirty-five thousand ducats, the old admiral thirty thousand ducats, the Duke of Recos thirty thousand ducats, the Count of Benavente twenty-seven thousand ducats, the Duke of the Infantado twenty-five thousand ducats, the Duke of Alva twenty-five thousand ducats, the Duke of Mian twenty-two thousand ducats, the Marquis of Vigliena twenty thousand ducats, the Duke of Agen seventeen thousand ducats. Of those named, the constable and the Duke of Medina Sidonia have the most money; the Duke of the Infantado the most men, the Duke of Agen more renown in arms and more beloved by the people (and he is truly more generous than all, although he is poor in comparison to many others), and the Marquis of Vigliena more knowledge, and he is the one who governed the now-deceased king and now governs the entire kingdom of Castile.

These great men, both prelates and secular lords, have all together an annual income of eight hundred thousand ducats, and they are not obliged, neither they nor the bishops, to ordinarily give to their king anything from their income. It is true, however, that when they are called by the king for any war whatsoever, they all go in obedience to the king at their own expense, and serve the crown in his needs, each one as honorably as he can, so as not to be esteemed in the kingdom to be lesser than the others. All these great men, both secular and ecclesiastical, can put into the field, at every request of the king, between men-at-arms and jennets²¹, about fifteen thousand horse, and about twenty-five thousand picked infantrymen; and these great men could sustain the war from their own means for about three months, spending on those troops much less than is done in Italy, because the men-at-arms, who are obliged to keep two horses and one pack mule, do not receive more than six ducats a month; the jennets, who are light cavalry, receive four ducats; and the infantrymen between one and a half to two ducats; which payments are then made by these lords so lightly, that most of the time they serve the king more by promises to their men than with payment. Among all those lords, it is the natural custom to be always divided, and at every new succession of a king, they all form new factions and new divisions, nor are they ever united together in the will of their lord. And although between one house and another there are ancient enmities and offenses, nevertheless the friends of one king become enemies under another, and enemies, for their own convenience, become friends among themselves, in such a way that, just as in other things those lords of Castile are of a mind easily given to every change, so they are also quick to make friendships and enmities among themselves; which are great and most cruel while they last, if no intervention is made by the king.

There are also, besides the prelates and lords, in the kingdom of Castile three orders of knights anciently instituted for the wars that the Castilians continually waged against the Moors. The first is Santiago, and its Grand Master has forty thousand ducats a year; it has under it one hundred beneficed knights, who wear a red sword upon their breast, named commanders, who among them all also have forty thousand ducats a year of revenue. This order holds fifty thousand vassals in its domain. The second is Calatrava, and its Grand Master has an income of thirty-five thousand ducats a year, and fifty commanders of the same order hold as much among them all, and they wear a red cross upon their breast; in whose domain and the Master’s there can be some five thousand horse. Alcántara is the third, and its Grand Master holds thirty-six thousand ducats a year of revenue, and its twenty commanders have another thirty thousand together; they wear a green cross on their breast. This order has some five thousand vassals under it.

Besides these orders, there is in Castile the Prior of the Order of Rhodes, who holds an income of fifteen thousand ducats a year, and its fifteen commanders who wear the white cross on their breast hold an equal amount; and the order has ten thousand vassals under it.

In these orders there are other knights who have only the habit, and live on a pension of eighty ducats per person a year, which the master of the order gives them, until he provides them with a benefice. All those who hold the habit are obliged to say a certain number of Our Fathers, and to observe the religious vows, except for those of Saint James who may marry, but not more than once.²²

Those first three orders are all subject to King Don Ferdinand of Aragon by concession of the pontiff²³, and he is grand master of all three, and he dispenses the knighthoods as he sees fit, and gives their habit, and the pension of eighty ducats to whomever he pleases. The aforesaid King Don Ferdinand holds in Castile the revenues of said masterships, and also thirty thousand ducats for his table from the duties on the lands subject to the masterships that belonged to the crown, and he also holds about fifty thousand ducats, which is half of the income now drawn from the Indies, one year compensating for another.

Truly, the rest of the revenues of the crown of Castile all belong to Queen Joanna, wife of the late King Philip, and the ordinary ones, among all the provinces and kingdoms subject to said crown, can be from about five hundred fifty thousand to six hundred fifty thousand ducats per year.

From these revenues are ordinarily spent about one hundred forty thousand ducats upon seven thousand Castilian men-at-arms, who exist for the preservation of the kingdom; and these men-at-arms are obligated to keep a horse and a mule; they are not too well-equipped, nor skilled in arms. One hundred thousand ducats are also spent on continuous pensions to two thousand Castilian gentlemen, at fifty ducats per man per year. These are obligated in time of war to arm themselves as jennets or as men-at-arms, and for as long as the war lasts to serve the crown for the salary that the men-at-arms and jennets who are raised in time of war receive. Besides this, seven thousand ducats are spent on fortress guardians throughout the kingdom, artillery, and munitions. Fifty thousand ducats are also spent on governors, corregidores²⁴, alcaides²⁵, and alguaciles²⁶ who exist in the realm. Fifteen thousand ducats a year are spent on public buildings and alms.

Beyond all this, Prince Charles, upon becoming King of Castile, in order to do things in the Burgundian style, it is believed, will spend every year in pensions to all the grandees of the kingdom, who may be about eight hundred titled nobles, more or less one hundred thousand ducats. The queen, by his father’s counsel, will be content for this to be done, both to follow what her husband had already decided in order to please the lords of Castile, and also to be able to reign more freely if by chance some of those grandees were to openly demand lands or towns from the crown.

These, Most Serene Prince, are the revenues and expenditures of the crown of Castile, which revenues, together with those that Duke Charles holds in his country of Flanders, may be over a million gold ducats, and the ordinary expenditures in Spain and in Flanders about nine hundred fifty thousand ducats, without the gifts that are usually made to courtiers as well as to others, which can be so much that I truly believe that this lord, heir to the King of Castile, will have exhausted his revenues by the end of the year; and if it were not for the extraordinary income drawn from the kingdom of Castile, I believe that at times this lord will be in greater need than is believed. This extraordinary income comes for the most part from the marranos²⁷, who are daily being discovered throughout the kingdom, against whom rigorous proceedings will be taken, and already up to this time several persons have been taken from among the marranos, who have wealth, among them all, of about two hundred thousand ducats; and at present for every subject province there are two or three inquisitors or more, according to the size of the province, who make inquisition against those who descend from Jews and in secret live as Jews, while showing to the world and in public that they are Christians. Of which inquisition your most excellent lordships having had notice at other times, I will not elaborate further, except that the said King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella²⁸ his consort deserve before God and the world, if for nothing else, at least for this, eternal praise; and it was meritorious to destroy this sect, which deserves above all others to be hated and persecuted. This inquisition was more than necessary, because it is judged in Castile and in other provinces of Spain that a third are marranos; a third, I say, of those who are citizens and merchants, because the common people are true Christians, and so is the greater part of the grandees.

Besides this inquisition and justice that is carried out against the marranos, justice is also administered in civil and in criminal matters in this manner: The king of Castile places in every land that is not subject to another, a corregidor, who must be of the Castilian nation, but not from that land nor its surrounding territory; and in Galicia he places a governor, who has the same authority throughout Galicia as a corregidor in his own land, and more so, for he can command fortresses and men-at-arms like the king, which the corregidores cannot do. These corregidores and governors administer justice in civil and criminal matters, and the sentences they give are not definitive, but can be appealed to the chanceries, of which there are three in the entire kingdom of Castile, arranged in the manner of councils; one in Valladolid, another in Granada, the third at the court. These chanceries, or councils, each have a president and seventeen jurists from among the best in the kingdom, salaried by His Majesty, and they also have one or two public advocates, who defend the causes of the poor and of the people. Appeals from all sentences go to these three councils; not indiscriminately, but part of the kingdom goes to the council of Valladolid, part to Granada, and to the one at court for those who so choose, as it is the most noble.

Besides these councils, there are also three alcaides for each council, who are judges and are always at these chanceries: before them go the sentences given by the aforementioned corregidores in criminal, not civil, matters, and they rule upon them. The parties may appeal to the president of the council, to whom also go the appeals of sentences given in civil matters by the corregidores; which president refers the case to one or two jurists of the college, who are to hear it and then report to their colleagues, and from the determination of the council the parties may not appeal, except by depositing one thousand five hundred ducats, to be forfeited if the council’s determination is confirmed; and if someone does deposit said money, he may appeal the sentence given by the council to the president of the chancellery, who is always with the king; and what he determines is without appeal, nor is anyone above those determinations but the king; who by way of grace sometimes interferes in them, but not often, so as not to break the ordinances of the kingdom, and not to give everyone occasion to ask for grace against the determination of his councils.

And this is, Most Serene Prince and Most Excellent Lords, all that concerning the kingdom of Castile about which I have come to narrate to Your Serenity and to your Most Excellent Lordships.

1. Venetians started the year on March 1st, so the report actually says 1504. The date of 1505 is given according to our calendar.

2. Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, diplomatically denoted by the sole title of King of the Romans, for never having been crowned with the imperial crown by the Pope.

3. Philip the Handsome, Lord of the Netherlands from 1482-1506, King of Castile from 1506-1506. He is called unfortunate here because, as we shall see, he died on September 25, 1506 after less than a year on the throne.

4. Maximilian I

5. Joanna of Castile, mother of Charles V. Historically known as “Joanna the Mad”

6. Joanna of Castile was the daughter of Ferdinand II, who was King of Aragon, Valencia, Sardinia, Majorca, Castile, Leon, Sicily, Naples, Navarre, and Count of Barcelona

7. The future Charles V, the first emperor of a truly global empire

8. Who succeeded his brother Charles to the empire, with the title of Ferdinand I.

9. The Venetian gold coin of 3.5 grams, later known as a sequin

10. Meant here in the older sense of a court official in charge of supplies, not a wine professional

11. Meaning heavy calvary. Each man-at-arms would’ve had an entourage of 2-5 people

12. He means the houses of the Beguines, so called from the name of their foundress Saint Begga. A contemporary account states: “The Beguines are nuns not subject to solemn vows either of enclosure or of chastity, because they can marry should the occasion arise; they sometimes go out into the city, though very modestly; they have a rather large cloister, which anyone may enter by day, but not by night. There are no corridors and dormitories, as is the custom for nuns in Italy and elsewhere, but there are rooms with religious modesty and Dutch politeness. The nuns of Italy and France would do well to take from these an example of modesty.” Gregorio Leti, Teatro Belgico, Parte 2. Lib. 8.

13. Probably referring to the imprisonment of Guy, Count of Flanders in 1302, and the Treaty of Athis-sur-Orge of 1305

14. Henry VII, reigned 1485-1509

15. Who in three years would become King Henry VIII

16. Catherine of Aragon, the younger sister of Joanna of Castile

17. Knights Hospitaller

18. Meaning King Ferdinand of Spain

19. Of Compostela in Galicia

20. Adalantado, governor of a province

21. Light cavalry

22. In 1540 this concession was also extended to the knights of Alcántara.

23. Conceded by Pope Innocent VIII, pontiff from 1484-1492

24. Commissioners

25. Criminal judges

26. Bailiffs

27. A Christianized Jew who only pretended to convert in order to avoid prosecution. Jews were expelled from Spain or forced to convert just 14 years earlier, in 1492

28. Who instituted it