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Math Connects Kindergarten Activity Flip Chart 1st
Edition Macmillan/Mcgraw-Hill Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Macmillan/McGraw-Hill
ISBN(s): 9780021063130, 0021063133
Edition: 1
File Details: PDF, 16.04 MB
Year: 2007
Language: english
 Table of Contents
Sort and Classify Measurement
Poem: All Sorts of Animals . . . . . . 1 Poem: Time for Tea . . . . . . . . . . 24
Problem Solving . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Problem Solving . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Song: Sort the Veggies . . . . . . . . 3 Song: The Long and Short of It . . . . 26
Multi-Use: Venn diagram . . . . . . . 4 Game: Measure It . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Numbers to 5 Numbers Beyond 20

Poem: Hidden Numbers in the Night . 5 Poem: 10! 20! 30! . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Problem Solving . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Problem Solving . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Song: Here is the Beehive . . . . . . . 7 Story Setting (theatre) . . . . . . . . . 30
Multi-Use: Numbers . . . . . . . . . . 8 Game: Rain, Rain, Go Away! . . . . . 31

Patterns Time
Poem: What Could Come Next? . . . 9 Poem: The Very Best Time of Day . . 32
Problem Solving . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Problem Solving . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Song: Stars and Stripes . . . . . . . . 11 Song: Tick Tock, Tick Tock . . . . . . 34
Multi-Use: Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 12 Game: Bug Match Up . . . . . . . . . 35
Multi-Use: Weekly Calendar . . . . . . 36
Numbers to 10
Poem: Elephant and Friends . . . . . 13 Geometry
Problem Solving . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Poem: At the Fair . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Story Setting (tree house) . . . . . . . 15 Problem Solving . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Game: Hungry Puppies . . . . . . . . 16 Game: Find the Shape . . . . . . . . . 39

Graphing Addition
Poem: Can We Graph It? . . . . . . . 17 Poem: 1 + 1 Adds Up 2 Fun . . . . . 40
Problem Solving . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Problem Solving . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Game: Sand and Surf Seek . . . . . . 19 Story Setting (water park) . . . . . . . 42
Game: Addition Train . . . . . . . . . 43
Numbers to 20
Poem: The Number Track . . . . . . . 20 Subtraction
Problem Solving . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Poem: Subtraction In Action . . . . . 44
Song: Things We Like to Do! . . . . . 22 Problem Solving . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Game: Building Up . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Song: Ten in the Bed . . . . . . . . . 46
Game: Bus Ride . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Story Setting (camp site) . . . . . . . 48

Copyright © 2009
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.

Macmillan/McGraw-Hill Printed in the United States of America

8787 Orion Place ISBN 978-0-02-106313-0
Columbus, OH 43240-4027 MHID 0-02-106313-3

The publishers have made every effort to contact holders of copyright material. If you
have not received our correspondence, please contact us for inclusion in future editions.
 Things can be sorted in all kinds of ways.
Can you help this zoo keeper who has been
sorting for days?

Sort the animals with stripes and the

animals with spots.
Sort the ones with black polka dots.

Sort the short and sort the tall.

Sort those that walk and those that crawl.

Sort the ones with four legs and the ones

with two.
What other animal sorts can you do?

Directions: Discuss the various animals and animal characteristics on the page.
Read the poem. Have the students identify the group of animal(s) being 1
described in the poem. Have students think of additional animals that could
also be included in the group described.
Directions: Have students use the Act It Out strategy to solve the problem of
how the books can be sorted. Have students identify what is the same about
about sports (soccer ball), the United States (map), space (rocket), or food
(apple). Have students use color tiles to represent the books and to sort them 2
some of the books. Guide them in noticing the color of the books and the onto the same color shelf when sorting by color and the same icon shelf when
picture on the binding of the books. These are icons that tell if each book is sorting by book topic.
 Sort the veggies, sort them now.
Sort each one you see.
Sort by color, shape, and size.
Sort them all with me.
Red or green, large or small,
long or round, let’s sort them all.
Sort the veggies that you see
Sort them all with me.
Sort by color, here we go!
Sort the veggies now!

Directions: Use this page with the song “Sort the Veggies” found on track 2 of the
Math Songs CD. Have students draw a picture of their favorite vegetable on
Additional Verses: Sort by size, sort them now.
Spoken: Veggies that are small!
Final Verse: Sort the veggies, sort them all!
3
construction paper. Have students sort the drawings in groups to see which Person 1: Black eyed pea!
vegetable is the class’ favorite. Repeat this idea for favorite fruits or drinks. Person 2: Lima bean! Person 3: Radish!
Directions: The Venn diagram can be used when sorting or comparing
attributes of objects. 4
 One is an amount that is easy to spot.
It doesn’t show many because it isn’t a lot.

Two is one more; it shows another.

Like a friend and a friend
or a sister and a brother.

Three comes next. It is one more than two.

“Hoot, hoot, hoot!” will give you a clue.

Four follows closely. It is one more than three.

Can you find this number of animals hanging
from a tree?

Five gets a turn. It is one more than four.

I can count it on one hand
or on the forest ground floor.

Directions: Read the poem one stanza at a time. Have students repeat the
number they hear in each stanza and point to which object(s) are being 5
described. Have students count the object(s). Discuss the groupings of fireflies.
Count each grouping and tell the number.
Directions: Tell how many ducks can go in each boat, swing on the swingset,
ride the sea-saw, and row with a paddle. Use cubes to show that number. 6
 Here is the beehive.
Where are the bees?
Hidden away
where nobody sees.
Soon they’ll come creeping
out of the hive:
one, two, three, four, five.
There’s just one Queen
and she wears a crown.
2 small bees follow,
3 buzz around,
4 flowers open as
5 bees arrive.
Soon they’ll bring their honey
back to the hive.
I see the beehive.
I count the bees
playing in flowers, flying through trees.
Soon they’ll return to hide in their hive:
one, two, three, four, five.

Directions: Use this page with the song “Here is the Beehive” found on track 4
of the Math Songs CD. After the song is sung, have students act out the song. 7
Have students find objects in the room to represent each bee in the song.
Have them count each object and write the number that shows how many.
Directions: Use this numbers multiuse page to show “one more” with bird
footprints, to count clouds, sail boats, leaves and lines on a tree(s), and to
Chapter 7 to show height in trees and to model these heights using cubes.
8
count sand molds. Refer back to this page with Chapter 3 to see patterns in
clouds, boat sails and life lines on tree trunks. Refer back to this page with
 Children on the playground
seeing patterns everywhere!
Look at what they’re doing,
here and there!

Heel, toe, heel, toe, heel, toe,

dancing to the beat.
What could come next?
Look at their feet.

Critters on the playground

showing patterns everywhere!
Look at their bodies,
here and there!

Colors, sizes, and shapes,

are the patterns that they show.
What could come next?
Do you know?

Directions: Read the poem. Discuss the patterns referred to in each stanza of
the poem. Have students act out and extend the movement pattern in the
shapes, colors and lines on the caterpillar, and patterns on the children’s
clothing. 9
second stanza or make up one of their own. Have students look at the art on
the page and identify patterns shown such as butterfly sizes, hat colors,
Directions: Act out each pattern to find out which movement could come next.
To extend this activity, have students show the pattern another way, such as 10
using pattern blocks.
Stars and stripes,
stars and stripes,
are patterns in our flag!

Those groups of
stars and stripes all stand
for freedom in our land!

I saw an American flag

With bars from top to bottom
From left to right in red and white
American flags have got ‘em

Then way up in the top corner

I saw a big blue square
With bright white stars beside the bars
there were patterns everywhere!

repeat chorus

Many patterns of stars and bars

upon that flag that flew
The red and white went left to right
with white stars on the blue

repeat chorus

Directions: Use this page with the song “Stars and Stripes” found on track 1 of
the Math Songs CD. Discuss the color pattern on the flag. Have students
Have students make a flag showing that pattern.
11
identify another way to show the pattern using two different colors. Have
students name three colors that could be used in stripes on a flag.
 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
Sun. Mon. Tues. Wed. Thurs. Fri. Sat.

Directions: Use this calendar to show patterns within a week or month.

Refer back to this calendar when teaching days, weeks, months, and general 12
calendar use.
 1 elephant tries to nap,
While 2 grasshoppers start to clap,
While 3 caterpillars sip lemonade,
While 4 worms dance in the shade,
While 5 beetles rock n’ roll,
While 6 ants dig a hole,
While 7 bees buzz a tune,
While 8 butterflies play bassoon,
While 9 crickets lie in the sun,
While 10 ladybugs have some fun.
All the bugs just want to play,
Will poor elephant nap today?

Directions: Read the poem. Have students identify each group of animals
being described in the poem. Have students count and say the number in 13
each group. Compare groupings.
Directions: Have students guess and check to tell if there are: more hot air
balloons or kites, more birds or clouds, more kites with red or kites with 14
orange, and more kites with purple or kites with orange. Use the picture to
create more questions about the objects shown.
Directions: Use this story mat when working with numbers. Allow students to
draw objects or use manipulatives to show a number of objects in the setting. 15
Refer back to this story setting when using larger numbers or for creating
addition and subtraction stories.
Materials: 3 game piece markers, 12 index cards with numbers 0 to
10 written on each (one number per card) and a card with “Go ahead
Directions: Organize 3 teams. Take turns drawing a card. If a number is
drawn, the team draws that many circles (paw prints) on the sidewalk square. 16
2 spaces.” Move up the sidewalk with each turn. The first team to reach their bone wins.
 Let’s check out some things in
the classroom.
Go ahead and take a look.
A graph shows lots of data There are centers, blocks,
with pictures and real objects, too. shapes, and toys,
We can use it when showing a survey. or even our favorite book.
Can I graph some data with you? The graph will show our data,
whatever we choose to do.
Or maybe we’ll take a survey.
I want to make a graph with you.

Directions: Read the poem. Have students use the page to tell what data could
be used in a graph. Have students decide on the data and create a group 17
graph using that data.
 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Directions: Have students Draw a Picture to determine how many more pieces
of confetti need to be drawn. Have students count how many of each color
match the graph.
18
are shown in the graph. Then have students count how many pieces of
confetti of each color are shown in the picture, and then draw more confetti to
 shovel

star fish

sea shell

turtle

dolphin

Materials: 20 counters
Directions: Divide students into two teams. Take turns finding one of the
graph have been crossed off, teams use one-to-one correspondence to
determine who has more counters. The team that found the most objects is 19
objects from the graph. When an object is found the player circles it in the the winner.
picture, crosses it off in the graph, and takes a counter. When all objects in the
 The number track, track, track
All covered in black, black, black
With maple trees, trees, trees
Out in the back, back, back.

It held the runners, runners, runners

On racing day, day, day
When zero to twenty, twenty, twenty
Came out to play, play, play.

They got in line, line, line

Everything was fine, fine, fine
The race was on, on, on
Where was number nine, nine, nine?

Directions: Read the poem to the tune of “Miss Mary Mack” using this
clapping pattern:
4. Clap hands with partner three times.
Have students identify numbers 0 – 20. Have students make number badges 20
1. Clap own hands together. to reenact the race. Have students order themselves by number based on their
2. Cross arms in front of chest. number badge.
3. Clap own hands together.
Directions: Direct students to count the number of toys on each shelf in the
group. Have students find the pattern to determine how many toys should be 21
in the empty row of each group.
 These are things we like to do!
So we make a list of things to do!
’Cause these are things we like….to do!

One, two, it’s time to wake.

Three, four, we’ll cook and bake.
Five, six, we’ll ride our bike.
Seven, eight, we’ll take a hike.
Nine, ten, we’ll fly our kite.

repeat chorus

Eleven, twelve, we’ll read and write.

Thirteen, fourteen, we’ll feed our fish.
Fifteen, sixteen, we’ll make a wish.
Seventeen, eighteen, we’ll brush our hair.
Nineteen, twenty, we’ll hug our bear.

repeat chorus

Directions: Use this page with the song “Things We Like to Do” found on track
3 on the Math Songs CD. After each counting line, have students echo the
they hear it sung. Have students pair off by the number pairs in the song.
Have them draw a picture of an activity they like to do for their number pair. 22
words. Have students make number cards of numbers from 1 to 20. Distribute Sing the song using the students’ numbers and activities.
the cards. Play the song again. Have students hold up their number card as
 Finish

1 2 3

Go ahead
2 spaces

lunch
3 break

Go
back
2 2 3 2
spaces

morning
break
3 2

Start

Materials: red, green and purple connecting cubes, 4 game piece markers,
number cube 0 – 5
Directions: Organize 4 teams. Teams take turns rolling the cube. Teams collect
the amount and color of cubes shown and/or follow directions on the board. 23
When one team finishes, all teams count cubes. The team with most cubes
wins.
 Find the shiny tea cups. There are two.
One is for me and one is for you.
See the red and yellow. See the blue.
Which is the larger of the two?

Would you like some tea now from the store?

Would you like some crackers? There are four.
I will serve the tea now. Watch me pour.
Which holds less and which
holds more?

Directions: Sing the poem to the tune of “I’m a Little Teapot.” Have students
answer the questions posed in the poem. Have students identify other
(holds more, holds less), and time on the clock.
24
measurement concepts on the page such as lengths of spoons (long, longer,
longest), height of flowers (tall, short), capacity of canisters and colanders
Directions: Guide students to choose a strategy to solve the problem of
determining how tall the buildings are.
Find a pattern: Use cubes to measure the gate and the next three buildings
on either side of it. Use these measurements to see a pattern and to tell how 25
Suggestion: Guess and Check: Have students use cubes to measure the gate. tall the tallest building is.
Have students guess how tall the next building is using the gate as a reference.
I’ve got a little dog,
he’s just 8 inches high,
but he’s as long as 2 hot dogs.
I call him my hot dog guy.

When my hot dog guy and I

play beneath a tree,
the tree is tall, the dog is short
and in between is me!

And that’s the long and short of it.

There’s different lengths for all.
Yeah, that’s the long and short of it.
Lengths are either big or small.

I climbed a great high hill

to see the sea appear,
but Mom said it’s a long way off—
you can’t see there from here.

Directions: Use this page with the song “The Long and Short of It” found on
track 6 of the Math Songs CD. Have students form small groups and make
short and tall. Have the students discuss the snake’s length when it is lying
down compared to when it is held up. 26
paper chain snakes of varying lengths. Have groups compare lengths
discussing short and long. Have students hold snakes upright and compare
Materials: connecting cubes, 2 different-colored write on/wipe off markers
Directions: Divide students into two teams. The first team chooses a tool and
train to measure the tool. If their guess is correct, students draw an X across
the object using their color. If their guess is incorrect, it is the other team’s 27
guesses how many cubes long the tool is. The team then creates a cube train turn. Alternate teams until all tools have been measured correctly. The team
using the number of cubes they guessed. One student from the team uses the that correctly guessed the most tool lengths is the winner.
 I have ten fingers. Count them with me.
If you show me yours too, how many will there be?
Let’s not stop there. Please let me see,
ten more fingers to make thirty!

Now, use the farm to play a number game.

Count all the objects that look the same.
Say each number to tell how much.
Don’t forget to count and touch.

Directions: Read the first line of the poem. Hold up ten fingers as students
count your fingers. Ask another student to show 10 fingers as the second line
21 pumpkins, 27 pears, 24 birds, 26 flowers, and 30 corn cobs.
28
is read. Count all fingers. Ask another child to show 10 fingers. Count all
fingers. Continue reading the poem. Discuss the picture. Have students find
Directions: Guide students to choose a strategy to solve the problem of how
many objects are hidden.
Follow the same procedure for 24 bike spokes, 28 stones and 25 apples.
Draw a Picture: Using the information above, have students draw circles to 29
Suggestions: Act it Out: Tell the students that there are 23 stars in the sky. show the number of objects that are hidden.
Have students use counters to act out the number of stars that are hidden.
Directions: Use this story mat when working with numbers. Allow students to
draw objects or use manipulatives to show a number of objects in the setting. 30
Refer back to this story setting when using larger numbers or for creating
addition and subtraction stories.
Directions: Divide students into two teams. Assign each team a color on the
color counters. The first team rolls the number cube and covers that many
Materials: 50 two-color counters
31
raindrops with their color counters. Alternate teams until all raindrops have
been covered. The team that covers the most raindrops is the winner.
 It’s 8:00 and time to rise.
I lift my head and rub my eyes.
By 9:00 I’m out the door
to meet my best friend, Eleanor.
From 10:00 to 11:00 we climb and run.
Eleanor is so much fun.
It’s 12:00, that means it’s noon.
We’ll be eating lunch real soon.
It’s 1:00, its 2:00, and then it’s 3.
Eleanor’s having a party and she invited me.
It will last until 4 or even 5 o’clock.
Then I have my dog to walk.
It’s 6:00, it’s 7:00 and then it’s 8.
I get ready for bed; it’s getting late.
Daddy reads to me and then I say,
This is the very best time of day!

Directions: Read the poem. Have students identify the pictures that show each
time of day. As the poem is read again, have students show the times on a 32
moveable clock. Have students tell what is the same or different in their day
as in the poem.
Directions: Guide students to choose a strategy to decide the date of the next Act It Out: Have students use blue color tiles to place on library days and
computer and music class.
Suggestions: Find a Pattern: Have students look at each calendar to identify
green tiles on music days. Determine what tile would be placed on the next
Monday. Repeat strategy for computer and gym class.
33
the pattern for music and library class. Determine what could come next and Note: Have a student draw their own pattern of classes and have other
draw that icon on the calendar. Repeat for computer and gym class. students predict what will happen on a given date.
 Tick tock, tick tock
hear the chiming of the clock.
Tick tock, tick tock
every hour we hear it talk.

When it strikes 1 – we’ll start the fun.

When it strikes 2 – play a kazoo.
When it strikes 3 – dance with me.
When it strikes 4 – tap the floor.
When it strikes 5 – buzz into a hive.
When it strikes 6 – stir and mix.

1 (chime), 2 (chime), 3 (chime)

4 (chime), 5 (chime), 6 (chime)

When it strikes 7 – yell, “My name’s Kevin!”

When it strikes 8 – stand and wait.
When it strikes 9 – hold up a sign.
When it strikes 10 – let’s dance again.
When it strikes 11 – let’s start wavin’.
When it strikes 12 – clap for yourselves.

7 (chime), 8 (chime), 9 (chime)

10 (chime), 11 (chime), 12 (chime)

Directions: Use this page with the song “Tick Tock, Tick Tock!” found on track
5 of the Math Songs CD. Repeat the chorus after each set of chimes. Have
Suggestion: Place number cards one to 12 in a circle on the floor to represent
the numbers on the clock. Have students move from number to number as 34
students act out the actions in the song as each time is sung. Use an that time is sung.
instrument such as a triangle to copy the chimes in the song.
 Bug Match Up

Materials: 18 index cards

Directions: Cover each scene with an index card. Divide students into two
matches wins. As an extension to this activity, students could match the time
shown on the digital clock to the same time shown on the analog clock in the 35
teams. Teams take turns flipping over two cards at a time trying to match two corner of each picture.
morning, two afternoon, or two evening events. The team with the most
Directions: Use this weekly calendar to list class schedules, weekly events,
coming attractions in math, etc. 36
 Triangle, oval, and a square,
you can find shapes at the fair.

See the balloons? What a sight!

Look, a Ferris wheel with lights!

Check the funhouse and the sky.

See the bird that’s passing by?

Rectangle, circle, and a square

you can find shapes at the fair.

Directions: Sing the poem to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”. Have
students use the page to identify drawings of circles, triangles, squares, and 37
rectangles as well as objects that are shaped like a circle, triangle, square
and/or rectangle.
Directions: Have students, one at a time, name an object and the shape or
figure that makes up one of its sides.
Suggestions: Students can Draw A Picture by tracing one of the sides, Act It
Out by using pattern blocks, or Guess and Check to determine the shape that 38
makes up the faces of the object.
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brocades! Not so those, whose wives and daughters had been the
prey of dissolute mercenaries! Not so those, who had been
dispossessed of their lands, or whose shops had been raided and
sacked!
It was the cry of such as these that made Isabel hold public
audience every Friday, that the injured might bring her their
complaints. Raised high on a dais in the large hall of the Alcazar,
with the prelates and knights below her on the one side, and the
Doctors of her Council on the other, she listened, weighed evidence,
and gave judgment, referring the more doubtful cases for enquiry by
special “Alcaldes,” with the injunction that there should be no delay.
As a result hundreds of criminals were executed, and lands and
goods were restored to their rightful owners; while in some instances
so strong was the fear aroused that voluntary restitution was made,
in the hope of avoiding a trial.
It is characteristic of Isabel that the ever-increasing revelation of
crime failed to shake her purpose. It was her will, as “the fountain of
justice,” to see justice prevail; and through all the long hours of
accusation and defence, through case after case, she and her fellow-
judges listened with a grave impartiality that won for her tribunal a
respect bordering on the horror accorded to the superhuman. If
there was to be nothing but strict justice, who in Seville should be
saved?
At length the Bishop of the city and its leading citizens ventured to
remonstrate. The number of murders and robberies committed had
been so great, they declared, that scarcely a family could call itself
guiltless; and they petitioned that an amnesty might be granted, lest
the people in despair were driven to fresh crime.
A ruler of more obstinate fibre would have contended with pitiless
logic that justice being equivalent to right could never prove
excessive. Isabel had too much inherent common-sense to make this
mistake; and, realizing that the advice was good, she consented to
the publication of a general pardon for the city and its environs, that
should cover all crimes and offences with one exception, the
unpardonable sin of heresy.
Seville at large heaved a sigh of relief; but the Duke of Medina-
Sidonia, at this stage of the proceedings, was not so pleased. He had
been steadily poisoning Isabel’s mind against his rival since her
advent to the city, accusing him of giving secret support to some
fortresses in the neighbourhood that still upheld the claims of “La
Beltraneja.” Nothing but force, he protested, would succeed against
such a traitor; but in the midst of his denunciations the Marquis of
Cadiz appeared in Seville, accompanied only by a few attendants.
Riding to the Alcazar, he petitioned for a private audience with the
Queen, and there pleaded his cause with a brevity and directness that
appealed to his listener more than the most subtle arguments. Plain
speaking was almost a virtue to Isabel’s mind.
Declaring that individuals were responsible for their own conduct
alone, he repudiated any connection with Villena save the tie of
marriage with his sister. His sword had been drawn in self-defence
when the Duke attacked him in his house and drove him from the
city; but he had neither the time nor inclination to help the
Portuguese. In token of his loyalty he offered to hand over Xerez and
the other fortresses in his power to whatever officials Isabel chose to
send in her name.
Such a complete surrender bears witness to the impression already
created in Castile by the new sovereigns. It was the certainty that he
would obtain justice that had brought the Marquis of Cadiz so
trustingly to Seville. It was fear of what disobedience might cost him
that made the Duke of Medina-Sidonia submit to his enemy’s return
to favour. The Queen on her part accepted their compliance as if she
thought it the only possible course they could have adopted; but she
knew their rivalry still smouldered, and, having gained control of
their fortresses, took steps to prevent further trouble. Neither Duke
nor Marquis, she declared, should put foot in Seville henceforth
without her leave; though she and Ferdinand gave their promise that
they would enquire into the quarrel when leisure permitted, and
would see what could be done to effect a settlement, that both might
return to the city in safety. Circumstances, however, were to make
this interposition unnecessary, as will be seen in a later chapter.
The justice shown in Galicia and Seville was typical of the
measures adopted elsewhere; measures so widespread that the old
machinery of government proved totally inadequate for their
execution. Reconstruction went perforce hand in hand with reform;
and, just as in the Cortes of Madrigal and Dueñas the Santa
Hermandad had been placed on a new and more practical basis, so in
the Cortes of Toledo of 1480 the whole executive and judicial system
was subjected to a close revision.
Amongst the changes effected, none was to prove of more lasting
influence than the decided bias there given towards the employment
of the lawyer class in all important matters of state. Sprung mainly
from the bourgeoisie, or from the ranks of the lesser nobility, the
lawyers had for a long time rendered to Castilian sovereigns their
services of penmanship and technical knowledge; but the
preponderating power in the royal counsels had remained the higher
aristocracy with its claims of blood and wealth.
Ferdinand and Isabel did not set themselves openly to humble the
latter class, as Henry IV. had attempted in his new creations; but the
fact that the government was daily growing more specialized made it
necessary that trained and expert officials should take the place of
amateurs, however high their personal qualifications. Thus, in the
Cortes of Toledo, the composition of the Royal Council, before
mainly aristocratic, was officially settled as one bishop, three
“caballeros,” or knights, and eight or nine lawyers. This does not
mean that the greater nobles suddenly received an intimation that
their presence was no longer required. They were welcomed as
before with profound respect, but the feeling that it rested with
themselves whether they attended or no would soon encourage the
less strenuous to withdraw. A further impetus to their exclusion
would be given by the division of the government into the specialized
departments described by Hernando de Pulgar in his account of the
Cortes of Toledo.
Hitherto the Royal Council, “Nuestro Consejo” as the sovereigns
were fond of alluding to it, had been the chief medium of their will.
At times a consultative committee, its functions were also
administrative and judicial; and, in the latter aspect, it had tended to
absorb much of the work belonging to the other Courts of Law, such
as the “Royal Audiences” or “Chancery” for civil cases, and the
supreme criminal court of the “Alcaldes de Corte.”
In response to the deputies’ petitions, the encroachments of the
Royal Council in this respect were forbidden; while a scheme was
discussed by which the Court of Chancery, which had followed the
sovereigns from place to place to the great inconvenience of litigants,
was in 1485 permanently established in Valladolid for the benefit of
Northern Castile. Another similar court was also placed in Ciudad
Real to supply the needs of the country south of the Tagus, being
removed however at the end of the Moorish war to the more
important town of Granada.
At first sight it would seem from these measures as if the judicial
functions of the Royal Council had been destroyed, whereas on the
contrary they were to develop an authority, that not only threatened
but dominated the “Audiences” of Valladolid and the South. Of the
five departments of government defined by the Cortes of Toledo, it
was in the Council of Justice that the true nucleus of the Royal
Council, their common ancestor, remained. Here sat the King and
Queen in person, the recognized source of all Castilian law; here, in
their absence, ruled a President, whose authority was reckoned in the
kingdom as second only to that of Sovereignty itself; here was a body
of highly trained lawyers, whose official acts demanded the
unqualified obedience of every subject, and whose decisions on legal
matters were final. It is little wonder if the Council of Justice became
the dominating element of the Castilian Government.
The Council of State, the second of the new departments for public
affairs, was also presided over by the King and Queen, but it dealt
mainly with foreign negotiations, hearing embassies and transacting
business with the Court of Rome. In addition there was the Supreme
Court of the Santa Hermandad, a Council of Finance, and a Council
for settling purely Aragonese matters.
A link between these central councils and the local government of
the country was found in “pesquisidores,” or inspectors, sent out
from headquarters to enquire how the law was being administered
and obeyed. Were the repressive measures against the Jews sternly
enforced? Were the “corregidores,” now in 1480 imposed by royal
authority on all cities and towns, doing their duty both by the Crown
and also by the municipalities in which they were placed? Had any
governor of a fortress or other official oppressed the people in his
neighbourhood, or for his own ends shown favouritism to certain
families? These were some of the questions to which the inspector
must require an answer, and where those answers were
unsatisfactory it rested with him to see justice performed.
Such was the revised machinery of government, revealing already
that decisively bureaucratic stamp that was to be so marked a feature
of its later development. Obvious also was its fatal dependence on
the Crown, the motive power alone capable of supplying the councils
with initiative, nor could any counterpoise to sovereignty be hoped
for in the type of official now prominent. The exaltation of the Crown
was the first article of belief for lawyers steeped in Justinian’s code
with its theories of imperial absolutism. Yet it must be remembered
that, although this system contained within itself the germs of
tyranny, in the early days of Ferdinand and Isabel’s rule centralized
power stood for the triumph of right over wrong, of order over
anarchy. By no other means could these ends have been so effectively
and speedily won. “Justice, which seems to have abandoned other
lands,” wrote Peter Martyr in 1492, “pervades these kingdoms.”
It had been bought by the sovereigns at the price of unflagging
industry and watchfulness, now employed in a struggle against
foreign enemies or subject rebels, now against the prejudices of class
or community, now against the corruption of trusted officials.
Sometimes the chief enemy to be faced was bewilderment,—the
difficulty of administering a law that was not one but many. The
judge must have a clear head who could steer his way through the
mazes of the old “Fuero Juzgo” of the Gothic kings, or the later
compilations of Castilian sovereigns, such as the “Fuero Real,” the
“Siete Partidas,” or the “Ordenamiento de Alcalá.” Even these did not
cover the field of legislation, further complicated by local charters
and royal edicts, involving a thousand variations and discrepancies.
After the matter had been discussed in the Cortes of Toledo, a
noted jurist, Alfonso Diaz de Montalvo, undertook by the Queen’s
command the task of clearing away the rubbish and compiling what
remained into a comprehensive code. Within four years the work
stood completed in eight bulky volumes, and the “Ordenanzas
Reales” took their place on the legal bookshelves; but though
undoubtedly of great authority the new compilation failed to fulfil
the general expectations. A study of its pages revealed not only
mistakes and repetitions, but also many serious omissions; while a
further publication by the same author a few years later scarcely
proved more satisfactory. So conscious was Isabel of these defects
that in her will she entreated her daughter, Joanna, “to select a
learned and conscientious bishop and other persons wise and
experienced in the law,” that they might undertake this formidable
task anew.
Legal, judicial, and administrative abuses had thus received their
share of amendment; but it is scarcely too much to say that all the
reforms in these directions would have proved useless, but for the
steps taken to check financial disaster. That commerce and industry
should have sunk to a low ebb was the inevitable corollary of a
foreign and civil war, but still more evil in its influence had been the
steady depreciation of the coinage. Not only had the five royal mints
turned out bad metal to supply Henry IV. with the money which he
squandered so lavishly, but his very monopoly of coining rights had
been squandered too, or disputed by rebellious subjects. By the end
of his reign the five mints had grown into one hundred and fifty, and
the reals and blancas produced by private furnaces had descended to
a mere fraction of their former value.
The decay of industry and the worthless coinage combined to
inflate prices extravagantly, with the result that men of moderate
means were ruined, and the distrust increased till no one would
accept the current issues either in payment of debts or in return for
goods.

Such was the state of perdition into which the kingdom had fallen [says a
contemporary writer], that those who travelled by the highways could not satisfy
their hunger either for good money or for bad; nor was there any price at which
those who laboured in the fields were willing to sell.

A primitive system of barter had sprung up when, in the first year

of their reign, Ferdinand and Isabel once more established the
monopoly of the royal mints, and fixed a legal standard to which the
coinage must approximate. These reforms were absolutely necessary
to restore public confidence, but they involved a drain on the
treasury which it was impossible to satisfy by ordinary means. We
have seen already that in 1475 the sovereigns had recourse to a loan
raised on the ecclesiastical plate, but it was an expedient that would
not bear repetition, even if the Queen had not regarded the
repayment of the original sum as her most sacred duty. Some other
way must be found that would not threaten the property of the
Church, if it was to find approval in her eyes.
 The deputies assembled at Toledo shook their heads gloomily over
the suggestion of increased taxation. They represented the pecheros,
or taxed classes, and knew that the little that could be raised by this
method would slip in and out of the treasury as through a sieve.
Taxation might prove a momentary makeshift, but in the exhausted
state of the country it could offer no permanent solution of the
problem.
On examination, the chief cause of the poverty was shown to be the
wholesale alienation of royal estates in the previous reign. Henry IV.
had silenced the remonstrances of his treasurer by announcing that
prodigality was a king’s duty. “Give to some,” he commanded, “that
they may serve me; to others lest they should rob me; for by the grace
of God I am King and have treasures and rents enough to supply all
men.”
It was a boast that did not hold good, for towards the end of his
reign the wretched monarch had been driven to meet expenses by
selling annuities levied on his estates; and the Court, taking
advantage of his necessities as it had of his generosity, beat down the
price till the sums they paid often represented no more than a single
year’s income. Such transactions were not far removed from robbery;
and the Cortes of Toledo soon came to the conclusion that the only
hope of lasting financial reform lay in a resumption of the alienated
lands and rents.
This decision was warmly approved by the Cardinal of Spain, the
leading nobles of the Court, and Doctors of the Royal Council; but
Ferdinand and Isabel were reluctant to take so large a step without
further consultation.

And because this business was difficult and of great importance [says Hernando
de Pulgar] the King and Queen wrote letters to all the dukes, prelates, and barons
of their kingdom, who were absent from their Court, telling them of their great
necessities and asking their opinion, pressing them either to come themselves or to
send word what they thought should be done; and all were of opinion that the
alienated estates should be restored.

It was a resolution that reflected credit on a class of men who had

too often shown themselves selfish and disloyal. Many, however, like
the Count of Haro who threw open his lands to the Santa
Hermandad, were weary of anarchy and knew they must pay for its
suppression. Others were fired by the energy and courage of their
rulers, or else hoped to propitiate royal favour. Loyalty, so long
dormant, was in the air.
By general consent it was agreed that the Cardinal of Spain should
hold an enquiry into the tenure of estates and rents acquired during
the last reign. Those that had not been granted as a reward for signal
services were to be restored without compensation; while those that
had been sold at a price far below their real value were to be bought
back at the same sum. The delicate work of apportioning these
deductions was entrusted to Isabel’s confessor, Fra Fernando de
Talavera, a man respected throughout Spain for his integrity and
saintly life.
His settlement cost some of the nobles the half or even the whole
of their acquisitions, others some smaller fraction; but by Isabel’s
command there was no revocation of gifts made to churches,
hospitals, or the poor. The treasury became the richer by the
substantial addition of thirty millions of maravedis, of which Henry
IV.’s old favourite, Beltran de La Cueva, Duke of Alburquerque,
contributed over a million. The rest of the leading nobles suffered
heavily though in a less degree, nor was the Cardinal’s own family,
the Mendozas, spared. “Some were ill-content,” says the chronicler,
“but all submitted, remembering how these gifts had been obtained
at the expense of the royal patrimony.”
In spite of their losses the nobles still remained the predominant
class in wealth, as the tales of their private resources during the
Moorish war bear witness. Ferdinand and Isabel themselves did not
hesitate to bestow large gifts on loyal servants such as the Marquis of
Moya, nor to confirm the aristocratic privilege of freedom from
taxation; but the fact that they were able to curb unlawful gains
shows the new spirit that had entered into Castilian life. Significant
also is the social legislation of the day that forbade even dukes to
quarter the royal crown on their scutcheons, or to make use of
expressions such as es mi merced! “It is my will!”
The sovereign had ceased to be primus inter pares and had
become a being set apart by right of peculiar dignity and power.
Such a change would have been impossible, had the Military
Orders retained their old independence. They have been described as
“states within a state”; for the Masters with their rich
“commanderies” that they could bestow at pleasure, their fortresses
and revenues, and their private armies of knights had influence and
wealth nothing less than royal. The elective character of their office
led almost invariably to civil war; and we have seen that, in the case
of the Mastership of Santiago, when the old Marquis of Villena died,
no less than seven candidates appeared in the field, ready to contest
the honour.
One of these, the aged Count of Paredes, had obtained
confirmation of his title many years before from Pope Eugenius IV.,
but had always been cheated out of its enjoyment by the greed of
royal favourites. In 1476 he died, and the Chief Commander of Leon,
Don Alonso de Cardenas, having mustered as large an armed force as
possible hastened at once to the Convent of Uccles, where the
election was to be held, to press his claims on the chapter. He had
been one of Isabel’s most loyal adherents and took her sanction for
granted; but unfortunately for his hopes she proved to have very
different views.
Directly she heard of his designs, she wrote to the Pope begging
that the administration of the Order might be given into her
husband’s hands. Then, having dispatched the messenger, she
mounted her horse and set off at once from Valladolid, where she
was staying. It was a three days’ journey to Ocaña, and when she
reached that town it was already nightfall, and the rain was
descending in torrents, but she refused to wait. Continuing her road
to Uccles, she appeared before the astonished commanders and told
them of the request she had sent to the Pope, begging them to
suspend the election until she had received an answer. Don Alonso
de Cardenas was not unnaturally sulky at this frustration of his
ambitions; but on Isabel’s promise that she would faithfully consider
his claims, he at length agreed to withdraw them temporarily, and
the King in due course received the administration of the Order.
Alonso de Cardenas now redoubled his efforts to prove his loyalty;
and Ferdinand and Isabel at last consented to give him his long-
coveted honour; but they took care to make a favour of what he had
sought as a right. Each year he paid three millions of maravedis into
the royal treasury to be used for the defence of the frontier against
the Moors, and on his death his office lapsed finally to the Crown.
 During the course of the reign, Ferdinand also assumed the
administration of the other two Orders of Calatrava and Alcantara,
and thus found himself possessed not only of vastly increased
revenues, but of a widely extended patronage.
The absorption of the Military Orders marked the decisive victory
in the sovereigns’ war against aristocratic pretensions; but the
campaign had other battles no less serious, though they did not
involve such important financial considerations. If it had been a
difficult matter to impress the idea of justice on the country at large,
it was equally arduous to persuade the leading families of Castile that
they also stood below the law and were expected to obey it.
They might surrender estates wrongly acquired, and even sink
their ambitions before the claims of royalty, but to admit of
arbitration in their private feuds, instead of dealing with them by the
old-fashioned method of duel or assassination, was a tax on their
self-control too great for Castilian pride.
On one occasion, when Queen Isabel was in Valladolid, high words
broke out between Don Fadrique Enriquez, son of Ferdinand’s uncle
the Admiral of Castile and a certain Ramir Nuñez de Guzman, Lord
of Toral. In spite of the fact that his enemy had received a safe-
conduct from the Queen, Don Fadrique attacked him in a public
square, striking him several times. Isabel’s indignation was
unbounded, and she at once rode to Simancas, whose fortress
belonged to the Admiral, demanding either its instant surrender or
that of his son. The Admiral, faced by this plain issue, dared not
disobey; and, since he was ignorant of his son’s hiding-place he gave
up the keys of his stronghold. Isabel then returned to Valladolid, but
her anger was unappeased; and when questioned as to its cause she
replied: “I am suffering from the blows that Don Fadrique hath
struck at my safe-conduct.”
Not till the offender appeared himself at Court to sue for pardon
would she relax her coldness to his family; and even then she refused
to see him, but ordered that he should be led a prisoner through the
streets and thence to a fortress at Arévalo. Here he remained in close
confinement, until at his relations’ intercession he was instead exiled
to Sicily, there to remain at the Queen’s pleasure.
His enemy, Ramir Nuñez de Guzman, refusing to take warning
from his rival’s fate, attempted to assassinate the Admiral in revenge
for the attack made on himself, as soon as he had recovered from his
wounds; with the result that he was brought before the royal judges
and deprived of all his goods and revenues.
Such stern but impartial justice was of the type to inspire awe, but
severity alone might have defeated its own ends. The chivalry of
Castile had been fostered from its cradle in scenes of war and
carnage. It could not cool its hot blood suddenly to accept the
discipline of what it regarded as inglorious peace. Some outlet must
be found for the wild strain that looked to the rapier and the dagger
rather than to books or arguments. That outlet the sovereigns
provided, when they took up the challenge of the Moorish Sultan,
and began again the old crusade, that was the heritage of eight
hundred years.
“Master, God give you good fortune against the Moors, the
enemies of Our Holy Catholic Faith.” With these words Ferdinand
and Isabel had handed to the new Master of Santiago his standards,
when they gave him the insignia of his Order at the Cortes of Toledo
in 1480. Little over twelve months was to find those standards in the
battlefield, and the nobility of Spain risking its life, not in private
brawl nor a vain struggle with the law, but against the enemies of its
Queen and Faith.
 CHAPTER VI
THE MOORISH WAR
1481–1483

“A people that for generations had lived to fight.” This summary of

the Castilian race explains the fervour of enthusiasm with which the
project of renewed war against Granada was greeted. Other nations,
similarly exhausted by misgovernment and internal strife, might
have welcomed a period of peace, which would enable them to
pursue industry and commerce undisturbed; but neither Isabel nor
her subjects regarded the matter in this light.
To them, the establishment of justice and order and the
restoration of the royal finances were but a prelude to the great
crusade, that every Castilian king inherited from his ancestors. It was
a duty no true son of the Church would dare to neglect; and even the
sluggish Henry IV. had made a pretence of raising the Christian
banners. No less than three incursions into Moorish territory had
been organized at the beginning of his reign; though by royal orders
the army confined its attention to a work of pillage and robbery
amongst the villages scattered over the fruitful “Vega.”
“The King was pitiful and not cruel,” says Enriquez del Castillo in
excuse. “He said that life has no price nor equivalent ... and thus it
did not please him that his men should take part in skirmishes or
open battles.”
Such a policy awoke anger and derision in Castilian hearts, the
more so that large quantities of money had been raised by means of a
bull of indulgence, especially granted by the Pope for the purposes of
a holy crusade. According to one of the chronicles, the sum realized
was over a hundred million maravedis, of which very little went to its
professed object. Henry quickly wearied of the display and pageantry
that had alone reconciled him to camp life; and he had neither the
fanaticism nor love of glory that could have held him to his task
when this outward glamour faded.
Moreover he soon began to suspect that his worst enemies were
amongst his own followers; and the picked Moorish guard that he
adopted for his protection became the scandal of all the faithful. “He
eats, drinks, and clothes himself after Moorish fashion,” wrote a
Bohemian who visited his Court; and we have already noticed that
the conspirators of Burgos began their complaints by censuring the
open infidelity of those nearest to the royal person. Orthodoxy
proved a convenient weapon for rebellious nobles; but it did not
prevent the chivalry of Murcia and Andalusia from accepting the
hospitality of the Sultan of Granada, when they wished to settle their
private quarrels undisturbed.
The kingdom of the Moors which had once embraced the whole
peninsula, save the mountains in the north-west, had shrunk to
somewhat less than two hundred leagues; but this area comprised all
that was best in soil and atmosphere. In its fertile valleys was ample
pasturage for flocks of sheep; in the depths of its mountains, no lack
of the ore and metals that its furnaces converted with unrivalled skill
into ornaments and weapons. Its plains, protected from the northern
winds by snow-capped mountain peaks, and preserved from the ill
effects of the sun by a careful system of irrigation, were covered with
maize and other grains, producing between them a perpetual
harvest. Its villages nestled amidst vineyards and olive-groves;
oranges, citrons, and figs grew in its orchards; here and there were
plantations of mulberry trees. The silk woven in the looms of
Granada could stand comparison with the coveted fabrics of Bagdad
and the Orient, and with Moorish tissues, velvets, and brocades,
found ready purchasers in Venetian markets, through the medium of
thriving ports on the Mediterranean, such as Velez-Malaga and
Almeria.
By these same ports, the rulers of Granada could receive assistance
from their Mahometan allies on the African coast, whether in the
shape of provisions or of men, though of the latter they possessed
sufficient for any ordinary campaign. Not only did the healthy
climate and abundance of food tend to a natural increase of the
population, but for centuries there had been a steady influx of
Mahometan refugees from the provinces reconquered by the
Spaniards.
It has been estimated that towards the end of the fifteenth century,
the population of Granada was between three or four millions, and
was capable of sending into the field a force of 8000 horse and
25,000 foot. The Moors, whether supple Arab or hardy Berber, were
as fine soldiers as they were skilful artisans and traders. Trained to
shoot from early boyhood, their archers had no match with the cross-
bow; while their lightly armed cavalry could manœuvre on the wide
plains, or make their way by narrow mountain paths, to the utter
discomfiture of the crusader in his heavy mail.
These were facts the Christian army was to learn to its cost during
ten years of unceasing war. They were not unknown beforehand to
the more seasoned warriors; but the peaceful character of the old
Sultan Ismail, and his readiness to pay the yearly tribute to Castile of
20,000 doblas of gold rather than take advantage of Henry IV.’s
weakness, had aroused the latent scorn felt for the Infidel by a hot-
headed younger generation.
In 1476, Aben Ismail died; and his successor, Muley Abul Hacen, a
chieftain already famous in his own land for various daring raids into
Christian territory, ceased to send the required tribute to Castile.
When the ambassadors of Ferdinand and Isabel came before him to
remonstrate, he replied haughtily:
“Go, tell your sovereigns that the kings of Granada, who were wont
to pay tribute, are dead. In my kingdom there is no coin minted save
scimitars and iron-tipped lances.”
 SPANISH HALBERDIER, FIFTEENTH
CENTURY

FROM “SPANISH ARMS AND

ARMOUR”

REPRODUCED BY COURTESY OF THE

AUTHOR, MR. A. F. CALVERT

The sovereigns, who were in Seville at the time delivering justice,

received his message with indignation. “I will tear the seeds from this
pomegranate one by one,” exclaimed Ferdinand, punning on the
meaning of the word “granada.” But he and Isabel were still busy
with the Portuguese war and the task of restoring order in Andalusia.
They therefore dissembled their real feelings, and consented to a
temporary treaty, in which there was no mention of the disputed
tribute; but they did not cease from this time to redouble their
preparations for the inevitable crusade. In the end it was Muley
Hacen who was to set the spark to the mine.
Just over the Andalusian border, not many leagues distant from
the Moorish stronghold of Ronda, stood the fortress of Zahara, which
had been stormed in old days by the King’s grandfather and
namesake “Don Fernando de Antequera.” Raised on a height,
surmounted by a fortress, and approached only by slippery mountain
paths, its Christian defenders believed it almost impregnable, and
had allowed themselves to grow careless in their outpost duty. One
night in the year 1481, when the truce between Castile and Granada
still held good, a band of Moors led by Muley Hacen himself drew
near under cover of the darkness. The wind and rain were blowing in
a hurricane across the mountain peaks, but the Moors, heedless of its
violence, placed their ladders against the rocks above them, and
scaled the ill-protected walls. Then they poured into the town. The
sound of their trumpets, as scimitar in hand they cleared the narrow
streets, was the first warning of their presence; and the inhabitants
of Zahara awoke to find themselves faced by death or slavery.

It seemed to the affrighted inhabitants [says Washington Irving in his vivid

Conquest of Granada] as if the fiends of the air had come upon the wings of the
wind, and possessed themselves of tower and turret. The war-cry resounded on
every side, shout answering shout, above, below, on the battlements of the castle,
in the streets of the town; the foe was in all parts, wrapped in obscurity but acting
in concert by the aid of preconcerted signals. Starting from sleep, the soldiers were
intercepted, and cut down, as they rushed from their quarters, or, if they escaped,
they knew not where to assemble or where to strike. Wherever lights appeared, the
flashing scimitar was at its deadly work, and all who attempted resistance fell
beneath its edge. In a little while the struggle was at an end.... When the day
dawned it was piteous to behold this once prosperous community, which had lain
down to rest in peaceful security, now crowded together without distinction of age,
or rank, or sex, and almost without raiment during the severity of a winter storm.

The next day the unhappy prisoners, first fruits of the Moorish
triumphs, were led back in chains to the capital; but the sight of their
misery aroused not so much rejoicing amongst the people as pity and
dismay. Courtiers might crowd to the palace of the Alhambra to
congratulate their warrior sovereign, but the general feeling of
foreboding found vent in the cries of an old dervish, as he wandered
through the streets wringing his hands:

Woe to Granada! Its fall is at hand. Desolation shall dwell in its palaces, its
strong men shall fall beneath the sword, its children and its maidens shall be led
into captivity. Zahara is but a type of Granada.

In Medina del Campo, where the news of the disaster reached

Ferdinand and Isabel, there was burning indignation, and demands
on all sides for instant revenge. The gallant Don Rodrigo Ponce de
Leon, Marquis of Cadiz, took upon himself the task of retaliation.
Having learned from the “Asistente” of Seville, Don Diego de Merlo,
that the town of Alhama, only eight leagues from the Moorish capital
and a regular granary and storehouse for the neighbourhood, was ill-
defended and quite unprepared for any attack, he collected a
considerable force both of horse and foot, and set off at their head to
effect its capture. Pushing forward by night, and hiding at daybreak
in whatever cover was afforded by ravines and woods, on March 1,
1482, he arrived at his destination, unperceived. He then selected
some picked men; and these under the command of Diego de Merlo,
placed their ladders against the steepest part of the citadel, from
which attack would be least expected, and scaling the walls slew the
sentries whom they found on guard. Soon they had opened the gates
to admit the Marquis and their companions, and all within Alhama
was in confusion.
The Moors, waked from their sleep, fought desperately to preserve
the town itself from the fate of the citadel, throwing up barriers in
the streets, and maintaining a heavy cross-bow fire upon their
assailants, whenever they tried to emerge from the shelter of the
gates. It seemed for a time as if the Christian forces could make no
headway; and some of the captains counselled that the citadel and all
the houses within reach should be fired and the order for retreat
should be sounded.
To this the Marquis replied with a stern negative. They had not
made such a splendid capture merely to reduce it to ashes; and he
promised his soldiers that once the city was taken he would allow
them to put it to the sack and keep what booty fell to their swords.
Encouraged by this prospect his troops made a breach in the wall of
the citadel on the side towards Alhama, and swarming through this
opening and the main gateway in great numbers, they succeeded in
beating back their enemies and destroying the barriers.

SPANISH CROSSBOWMAN,
FIFTEENTH CENTURY

FROM “SPANISH ARMS AND

ARMOUR”

REPRODUCED BY COURTESY OF THE

AUTHOR, MR. A. F. CALVERT

Ay de mi Alhama! “Woe is me Alhama!” was the cry in Granada,

when wounded fugitives brought news of the fate that had overtaken
their town. Muley Abul Hacen said little, but, putting himself at the
head of some 3000 horse and 50,000 infantry, advanced on Alhama
to exact vengeance on the Christians who had so daringly crossed his
frontier. As he approached the walls, his troops uttered groans of
mingled fury and horror, for the ground lay strewn with the dead
bodies of their countrymen, thrown out by those within the walls to
the mercy of vultures and pariah dogs.
The Marquis had made what preparations for defence he could,
but he had begun to realize that his situation was rather desperate.
Not only was he separated from his country by a wide stretch of
hostile territory, from which he could expect no provisions, but the
food stored within the town had been much of it squandered or
destroyed during the sack. Large quantities of grain had been
deliberately burned by the Castilian soldiery who, hearing it
rumoured that they were about to retreat, determined to leave
nothing intact for their enemies. In the weeks that followed, when
the forces of Muley Hacen ranged themselves round the walls, and
his engineers turned aside the stream that supplied Alhama with
water, the Christians, fighting by day and night, half-starved and
tortured with thirst, were to pay dearly for their recklessness.
Messengers had been dispatched at once to Andalusia and Medina
del Campo, bearing news of the victory but demanding instant
succour, lest glory should be dimmed in even more signal defeat.
Leaving Isabel to send out letters and enroll captains and troops
throughout Castile, Ferdinand hastened south to Cordova; but it was
only to find that he came too late, and that help was already well on
its way to the beleaguered city. This prompt action was due to no less
a person than the Duke of Medina-Sidonia who, having received a
piteous letter from the Marquesa de Cadiz in which she described her
husband’s plight, generously put his old enmity aside and went to his
rival’s assistance.
Bernaldez the chronicler, more often called the Curate of Los
Palacios, who was an eye-witness of much of the Moorish war and
knew Andalusia well, once described the Duke and Marquis as “the
two columns on which the province rested.” Their combined retinues
provided an army that Muley Hacen, with his hastily collected
troops, dared not face; and the Duke arrived before the gates of
Alhama, as the last of the Moorish banners dipped below the far
horizon. It was a meeting worthy of a chronicler’s pen, when with
hands clasped the gallant young Marquis and his former enemy
pledged eternal friendship amid the applause and shouting of their
troops. Alhama was saved.
Its maintenance was a different matter, for hardly had the Duke
and the Marquis of Cadiz, leaving Diego de Merlo and a strong
garrison behind them, departed for Cordova, than Muley Abul Hacen
made a new and more strenuous attack on his old fortress. From
every side the Moors swarmed up by ladders or projecting masonry
and hurled themselves upon the ramparts. The Christians thrust
them back only to face a fresh avalanche; and when at length, after a
prolonged struggle, some seventy warriors who had made their
entrance unnoticed were hemmed in and cut down, the garrison
although victorious was both exhausted and dismayed. Fresh help
must come from Cordova or they were lost.
The advisability of burning and deserting Alhama, as a too costly
capture, was warmly advocated in the royal councils; but Isabel who
had arrived at Cordova would not hear of it. Every war, she declared,
must have its heavy expenses; and, since she and the King were
determined on the conquest of Granada at all costs, the surrender of
the first city they had gained could appear nothing but cowardice.

Then the King [we are told] and the Cardinal of Spain and all his host came to
the city of Alhama, and they built up the fortifications and supplied it with all
things necessary for its defence.

It was not the last time that Isabel was to spur the lagging energies
of the Christian army to fresh enthusiasm and endeavours.
In the meantime Muley Abul Hacen was called on to cope with
serious trouble at home, as well as a campaign against foreign
invaders. For this the mixed character of the Moorish population
could partly account. The haughty Arab, with his sense of racial and
mental superiority, had not after centuries amalgamated well either
with his Berber ally of African origin, or with the Spanish muladies,
that suspected sect whose ancestors had changed their religion with
their masters in the old days of Moorish conquest, thus cutting off
their descendants from their natural kith and kin.
Belief in “one God and Mahomet as His Prophet,” alone held
together these heterogeneous peoples, whose mutual suspicion
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