Chapter LXXXVIII: Act 8: Parliament 1. repeated in Act 99. Parliament 7 (14)

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1776 (June).
Sir Henry Clinton's repulse from Charleston.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (JUNE).

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1776-1778.
The war in the North.
The Articles of Confederation.
The alliance with France.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776, to 1778.

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1778.
State Constitution framed and adopted.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776-1779.

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1778-1779.
The war carried into the south.
Savannah taken and Georgia subdued.
Unsuccessful attempt to recover Savannah.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1778-1779 THE WAR CARRIED INTO THE SOUTH;
and 1779 (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER).

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1780.
Siege and surrender of Charleston.
Defeat of Gates at Camden.
British subjugation of the state.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1780 (FEBRUARY-AUGUST).

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1780.
Partisan warfare of Marion and his Men.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1780 (AUGUST-DECEMBER).

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1780-1781.
Greene's campaign.
King's Mountain.
The Cowpens.
Guilford Court House.
Hobkirk's Hill.
Eutaw springs.
The British shut up in Charleston.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1780-1781.

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1781-1783.
The campaign in Virginia.
Siege of Yorktown and surrender of Cornwallis.
Peace with Great Britain.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:A. D. 1781 to 1783.

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1787.
Cession of Western land claims to the United States.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1781-1786.

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1787-1788.
Formation and adoption of the Federal Constitution.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1787; and 1787-1789.

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1828-1833.
The Nullification movement and threatened Secession.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1828-1833.

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1831.
The first railroad.

See STEAM LOCOMOTION ON LAND.

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1860.
The plotting of the Rebellion.
Passage of the Ordinance of Secession.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1860 (NOVEMBER-DECEMBER).

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1860 (December).
Major Anderson at Fort Sumter.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1860 (DECEMBER) MAJOR ANDERSON.

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1861 (April).
Beginning the War of Rebellion.
The bombardment of Fort Sumter.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1861 (MARCH-APRIL).

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1861 (October-December).
Capture of Hilton Head and occupation of the coast
islands by Union forces.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1861 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER:
SOUTH CAROLINA-GEORGIA).

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1862 (May).
The arming of the Freedmen at Hilton Head.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1862 (MAY: SOUTH CAROLINA).

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1863 (April).
The repulse of the Monitor-fleet at Charleston.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1863 (APRIL: SOUTH CAROLINA).

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1863 (July).
Lodgment of Union forces on Morris Island,
and assault on Fort Wagner.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1863 (JULY: SOUTH CAROLINA).

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1863 (August-December).-
Siege of Fort Wagner.
Bombardment of Fort Sumter and Charleston.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1863 (AUGUST-DECEMBER: SOUTH CAROLINA).

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1865 (February).
Evacuation of Charleston by the Confederates.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1865 (FEBRUARY: SOUTH CAROLINA).

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1865 (February-March).-
Sherman's march through the state.
The burning of Columbia.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1865 (FEBRUARY-MARCH: THE CAROLINAS).

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1865 (June).
Provisional Government set up under
President Johnson's Plan of Reconstruction.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1865 (MAY-JULY).

{2971}

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1865-1876.
Reconstruction.

"After the close of the war, two distinct and opposing plans
were applied for the reconstruction, or restoration to the
Union, of the State. The first, known as the Presidential plan
[see UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (MAY-JULY)], was
quickly superseded by the second, known as the Congressional
plan; but it had worked vast mischief by fostering delusive
hopes, the reaction of which was manifest in long enduring
bitterness. Under the latter plan, embodied in the Act of
Congress of March 2, 1867 [see UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D.
1867 (MARCH)], a convention was assembled in Charleston,
January 14, 1868, 'to frame a Constitution and Civil
Government.' The previous registration of voters made in
October, 1867, showed a total of 125,328, of whom 46,346 were
whites, and 78,982 blacks. … On the question of holding a
constitutional convention the vote cast in November, 1867, was
71,087; 130 whites and 68,876 blacks voting for it, and 2,801
whites against it. Of the delegates chosen to the convention
34 were whites and 63 blacks. The new Constitution was adopted
at an election held on the 14th, 15th, and 16th of April,
1868, all State officers to initiate its operation being
elected at the same time. At this election the registration
was 133,597; the vote for the Constitution 70,758; against it,
27,288; total vote. 98,046; not voting, 35,551. Against the
approval by Congress of this Constitution the Democratic State
Central Committee forwarded a protest," which declared: "The
Constitution was the work of Northern adventurers, Southern
renegades, and Ignorant negroes. Not one per cent. of the
white population of the State approves it, and not two per
cent. of the negroes who voted for its adoption understood
what this act of voting implied." "The new State officers took
office July 9, 1868. In the first Legislature, which assembled
on the same day, the Senate consisted of 33 members, of whom 9
were negroes and but 7 were Democrats. The House of
Representatives consisted of 124 members, of whom 48 were
white men, 14 only of these being Democrats. The whole
Legislature thus consisted of 72 white and 85 colored members.
At this date the entire funded debt of South Carolina amounted
to $5,407,306.27. At the close of the four years (two terms)
of Governor R. K. Scott's administration, December, 1872, the
funded debt of the State amounted to $18,515,033.91, including
past-due and unpaid interest for three years."

_W. Allen,
Governor Chamberlain's Administration in South Carolina,
chapter 1._

"Mr. James S. Pike, late Minister of the United States at the
Hague, a Republican and an original abolitionist, who visited
the state in 1873, after five years' supremacy by Scott and
his successor Moses, and their allies, has published a pungent
and instructive account of public affairs during that trying
time, under the title of 'The Prostrate State.' The most
significant of the striking features of this book is that he
undertakes to write a correct history of the state by dividing
the principal frauds, already committed or then in process of
completion, into eight distinct classes, which he enumerates
as follows:

1. Those which relate to the increase of the state debt.
2. The frauds practiced in the purchase of lands for the
freedmen.
3. The railroad frauds.
4. The election frauds.
5. The frauds practiced in the redemption of the notes of the
Bank of South Carolina.
6. The census fraud.
7. The fraud in furnishing the legislative chamber.
8. General and legislative corruption. …

Mr. Pike in his 'Prostrate State,' speaking of the state
finances in 1873, says; 'But, as the treasury of South
Carolina has been so thoroughly gutted by the thieves who have
hitherto had possession of the state government, there is
nothing left to steal. The note of any negro in the state is
worth as much on the market as a South Carolina bond.'" This
reign of corruption was checked in 1874 by the election to the
governorship of Daniel H. Chamberlain, the regular Republican
nominee, who had been Attorney-General during Scott's
administration. "Governor Chamberlain, quite in contrast with
his predecessors, talked reform after his election as well as
before it," and was "able to accomplish some marked and
wholesome reforms in public expenditures." In 1876 the
Democrats succeeded in overpowering the negro vote and
acquired control of the state, electing General Wade Hampton
governor.

_J. J. Hemphill,
Reconstruction in South Carolina
(Why the Solid South? chapter 4)._

Generally, for an account of the measures connected with
"Reconstruction,"

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1865 (MAY-JULY), to 1868-1870.

----------SOUTH CAROLINA: End--------

SOUTH DAKOTA: A. D. 1889.
Admission to the Union.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1889-1890.

SOUTH MOUNTAIN, Battle of.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1862 (SEPTEMBER: MARYLAND)
LEE'S FIRST INVASION.

SOUTH RIVER, The.

The Delaware and the Hudson were called respectively the South
River and the North River by the Dutch, during their
occupation of the territory of New Netherland.

SOUTH SEA:
The name and its application.

See PACIFIC OCEAN.

SOUTH SEA BUBBLE, The.

"The South Sea Company was first formed by Harley [Earl of
Oxford, Lord Treasurer of England] in 1711, his object being
to improve public credit, and to provide for the floating
debts, which at that period amounted to nearly £10,000,000.
The Lord Treasurer, therefore, established a fund for that
sum. He secured the interest by making permanent the duties on
wine, vinegar, tobacco, and several others; he allured the
creditors by promising them the monopoly of trade to the
Spanish coasts in America; and the project was sanctioned both
by Royal Charter and by Act of Parliament. Nor were the
merchants slow in swallowing this gilded bait; and the fancied
Eldorado which shone before them dazzled even their discerning
eyes. … This spirit spread throughout the whole nation, and
many, who scarcely knew whereabouts America lies, felt
nevertheless quite certain of its being strewed with gold and
gems. … The negotiations of Utrecht, however, in this as in
other matters, fell far short of the Ministerial promises and
of the public expectation. Instead of a free trade, or any
approach to a free trade, with the American colonies, the
Court of Madrid granted only, besides the shameful Asiento for
negro slaves, the privilege of settling some factories, and
sending one annual ship. … This shadow of a trade was bestowed
by the British Government on the South Sea Company, but it was
very soon disturbed. Their first annual ship, the Royal
Prince, did not sail till 1717; and next year broke out the
war with Spain. … Still, however, the South Sea Company
continued, from its other resources, a flourishing and wealthy
corporation; its funds were high, its influence considerable,
and it was considered on every occasion the rival and
competitor of the Bank of England."
{2972}
At the close of 1719 the South Sea Company submitted to the
government proposals for buying up the public debt. "The great
object was to buy up and diminish the burthen of the
irredeemable annuities granted in the two last reigns, for the
term mostly of 99 years, and amounting at this time to nearly
£800,000 a year." The Bank of England became at once a
competitor for the same undertaking. "The two bodies now
displayed the utmost eagerness to outbid one another, each
seeming almost ready to ruin itself, so that it could but
disappoint its rival. They both went on enhancing their terms,
until at length the South Sea Company rose to the enormous
offer of seven millions and a half. … The South Sea Bill
finally passed the Commons by a division of 172 against 55. In
the Lords, on the 4th of April [1720], the minority was only
17. … On the passing of the Bill very many of the annuitants
hastened to carry their orders to the South Sea House, before
they even received any offer, or knew what terms would be
allowed them!—ready to yield a fixed and certain income for
even the smallest share in vast but visionary schemes. The
offer which was made to them on the 29th of May (eight years
and a quarter's purchase) was much less favourable than they
had hoped; yet nevertheless, six days afterwards, it is
computed that nearly two-thirds of the whole number of
annuitants had already agreed. In fact, it seems clear that,
during this time, and throughout the summer, the whole nation,
with extremely few exceptions, looked upon the South Sea
Scheme as promising and prosperous. Its funds rapidly rose
from 130 to above 300. … As soon as the South Sea Bill had
received the Royal Assent in April, the Directors proposed a
subscription of one million, which was so eagerly taken that
the sum subscribed exceeded two. A second subscription was
quickly opened, and no less quickly filled. … In August, the
stocks, which had been 130 in the winter, rose to 1,000. Such
general infatuation would have been happy for the Directors,
had they not themselves partaken of it. They opened a third,
and even a fourth subscription, larger than the former; they
passed a resolution, that from Christmas next their yearly
dividend should not be less than fifty per cent.; they assumed
an arrogant and overbearing tone. … But the public delusion
was not continued to the South Sea Scheme; a thousand other
mushroom projects sprung up in that teeming soil. … Change
Alley became a new edition of the Rue Quincampoix.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1717-1720.

The crowds were so great within doors, that tables with clerks
were set in the street. … Some of the Companies hawked about
were for the most extravagant projects; we find amongst the
number,
'Wrecks to be fished for on the Irish Coast;
Insurance of Horses, and other Cattle (two millions);
Insurance of losses by servants;
To make Salt-Water Fresh;
For Building of Hospitals for Bastard Children;
For Building of Ships against Pirates;
For making of Oil from Sun-flower Seeds;
For improving of Malt Liquors;
For recovering of Seamen's Wages;
For extracting of Silver from Lead;
For the transmuting of Quicksilver into a malleable
and fine Metal;
For making of Iron with Pit-coal;
For importing a Number of large Jack Asses from Spain;
For trading in Human Hair;
For flitting of Hogs;
For a Wheel for a Perpetual Motion.'

But the most strange of all, perhaps, was 'For an Undertaking
which shall in due time be revealed.' Each subscriber was to
pay down two guineas, and hereafter to receive a share of one
hundred with a disclosure of the object; and so tempting was
the offer that 1,000 of these subscriptions were paid the same
morning, with which the projector went off in the afternoon. …
When the sums intended to be raised had grown altogether, it
is said, to the enormous amount of £300,000,000, the first
check to the public infatuation was given by the same body
whence it had first sprung. The South Sea Directors … obtained
an order from the Lords Justices, and writs of scire facias,
against several of the new bubble Companies. These fell, but
in falling drew down the whole fabric with them. As soon as
distrust was excited, all men became anxious to convert their
bonds into money. … Early in September, the South Sea stock
began to decline: its fall became more rapid from day to day,
and in less than a month it had sunk below 300. … The decline
progressively continued, and the news of the crash in France
[of the contemporary Mississippi Scheme of John Law-see
FRANCE: A. D. 1717-1720] completed ours. Thousands of families
were reduced to beggary. … The resentment and rage were
universal."

_Lord Mahon (Earl Stanhope),
History of England, 1713-1783,
chapter 11 (volume 2)._

ALSO IN:
_A. Anderson,
History and Chronological Deduction
of the Origin of Commerce,
volume 3, page 43, and after._

_J. Toland,
Secret History of the South Sea Scheme
(Works, volume 1)._

_C. Mackay,
Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions,
chapter 2._

SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY, The.

The organization of the so called Confederate States of
America, formed among the states which attempted in 1861 to
secede from the American Union, is commonly referred to as the
Southern Confederacy. For an account of the Constitution of
the Confederacy, and the establishing of its government.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1861 (FEBRUARY).

SOUTHERN CROSS, Order or the.

A Brazilian order of knighthood instituted in 1826 by the
Emperor, Pedro I.

SPA-FIELDS MEETING AND RIOT, The.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1816-1820.

SPAHIS.

In the Turkish feudal system, organized by Mahomet II. (A. D.
1451-1481), "the general name for the holders of military
fiefs was Spahi, a Cavalier, a title which exactly answers to
those which we find in the feudal countries of Christian
Europe. … The Spahi was the feudal vassal of his Sultan and of
his Sultan alone. … Each Spahi … was not only bound to render
military service himself in person, but, if the value of his
fief exceeded a certain specified amount, he was required to
furnish and maintain an armed horseman for every multiple of
that sum."

_Sir E. S. Creasy,
History of the Ottoman Turks,
chapters 6 and 10._

"The Spahis cannot properly be considered as a class of
nobles. In the villages they had neither estates nor dwellings
of their own; they had no right to jurisdiction or to feudal
service. … No real rights of property were ever bestowed on
them; but, for a specific service a certain revenue was
granted them."

_L. Ranke,
History of Servia,
chapter 3._

See, also, TIMAR.

{2973}

----------SPAIN: Start--------

SPAIN:
Aboriginal Peoples.

"Spain must either have given birth to an aboriginal people,
or was peopled by way of the Pyrenees and by emigrants
crossing the narrow strait at the columns of Hercules. The
Iberian race actually forms the foundation of the populations
of Spain. The Basks, or Basques, now confined to a few
mountain valleys, formerly occupied the greater portion of the
peninsula, as is proved by its geographical nomenclature.
Celtic tribes subsequently crossed the Pyrenees, and
established themselves in various parts of the country, mixing
in many instances with the Iberians, and forming the so·called
Celtiberians. This mixed race is met with principally in the
two Castiles, whilst Galicia and the larger portion of
Portugal appear to be inhabited by pure Celts. The Iberians
had their original seat of civilisation in the south; they
thence moved northward along the coast of the Mediterranean,
penetrating as far as the Alps and the Apennines. These
original elements of the population were joined by colonists
from the great commercial peoples of the Mediterranean. Cadiz
and Malaga were founded by the Phœnicians, Cartagena by the
Carthaginians, Sagonte by immigrants from Zacynthe, Rosas is a
Rhodian colony, and the ruins of Ampurias recall the Emporium
of the Massilians. But it was the Romans who modified the
character of the Iberian and Celtic inhabitants of the
peninsula."

_E. Reclus,
The Earth and its Inhabitants: Europe,
volume 1, page 372._

SPAIN: B. C. 237-202.
The rule of Hamilcar, Hasdrubal and Hannibal in the south.-
Beginning of Roman conquest.

See PUNIC WARS: THE SECOND.

SPAIN: B. C. 218-25.
Roman conquest.

"The nations of Spain were subjugated one after another by the
Romans. The contest began with the second Punic war [B. C.
218], and it ended with the defeat of the Cantabri and Astures
by Augustus, B. C. 25. From B. C. 205 the Romans had a
dominion in Spain. It was divided into two provinces, Hispania
Citerior, or Tarraconensis, and Hispania Ulterior, or Baetica.
At first extraordinary proconsuls were sent to Spain, but
afterwards two praetors were sent, generally with proconsular
authority and twelve fasces. During the Macedonian war the two
parts of Spain were placed under one governor, but in B. C.
167 the old division was restored, and so it remained to the
time of Augustus. The boundary between the two provinces was
originally the Iberus (Ebro). … The country south of the Ebro
was the Carthaginian territory, which came into the possession
of the Romans at the end of this [the second Punic] war. The
centre, the west, and north-west parts of the Spanish
peninsula were still independent. At a later time the boundary
of Hispania Citerior extended further south, and it was fixed
at last between Urci and Murgis, now Guardias Viejas, in 36°
41' North latitude."

_G. Long,
Decline of the Roman Republic,
volume 1, chapter 1._

See, also, CELTIBERIANS;
LUSITANIA; and NUMANTIAN WAR.

SPAIN: B. C. 83-72.
Sertorius.

Quintus Sertorius, who was the ablest and the best of the
leaders of the Popular Party, or Italian Party, or Marian
Party, as it is variously designated, which contended against
Sulla and the senate, in the first Roman civil war, left
Italy and withdrew to Spain, or was sent thither (it is
uncertain which) in 83 or 82 B. C. before the triumph of Sulla
had been decided. His first attempts to make a stand in Spain
against the authority of Sulla failed complete]y, and he had
thoughts it is said of seeking a peaceful retreat in the
Madeira Islands, vaguely known at that period as the Fortunate
Isles, or Isles of the Blest. But after some adventures in
Mauritania, Sertorius accepted an invitation from the
Lusitanians to become their leader in a revolt against the
Romans which they meditated. Putting himself at the head of
the Lusitanians, and drawing with them other Iberian tribes,
Sertorius organized a power in Spain which held the Romans at
bay for nearly ten years and which came near to breaking the
peninsula from their dominion. He was joined, too, by a large
number of the fugitives from Rome of the proscribed party, who
formed a senate in Spain and instituted a government there
which aspired to displace, in time, the senate and the
republic on the Tiber, which Sulla had reduced to a shadow and
a mockery. First Metellus and then Pompey, who were sent
against Sertorius (see ROME: B. C. 78-68), suffered repeated
defeats at his hands. In the end, Sertorius was only overcome
by treachery among his own officers, who conspired against him
and assassinated him, B. C. 72.

_G. Long,
Decline of the Roman Republic,
volume 2, chapters 31-33._

ALSO IN:
_H. G. Liddell,
History of Rome,
book 7, chapter 62._

SPAIN: B. C. 49.
Cæsar's first campaign against the Pompeians.

See ROME: B. C. 49.

SPAIN: B. C. 45.
Cæsar's last campaign against the Pompeians.
His victory at Munda.

See ROME: B. C. 45.

SPAIN: 3d Century.
Early Christianity.

See CHRISTIANITY: A. D. 100-312 (SPAIN).

SPAIN: A. D. 408.
Under the usurper Constantine.

See BRITAIN: A. D. 407.

SPAIN: A. D. 409-414.
Invasion of the Vandals, Sueves, and Alans.

From the end of the year 406 to the autumn of 409, the
barbaric torrent of Alans, Sueves and Vandals which had swept
away the barriers of the Roman empire beyond the Alps, spent
its rage on the unhappy provinces of Gaul. On the 13th of
October, 409, the Pyrenees were passed and the same flood of
tempestuous invasion poured into Spain. "The misfortunes of
Spain may be described in the language of its most eloquent
historian [Mariana], who has concisely expressed the
passionate, and perhaps exaggerated, declamations of
contemporary writers. 'The irruption of these nations was
followed by the most dreadful calamities; as the barbarians
exercised their indiscriminate cruelty on the fortunes of the
Romans and the Spaniards, and ravaged with equal fury the
cities and the open country. The progress of famine reduced
the miserable inhabitants to feed on the flesh of their
fellow-creatures; and even the wild beasts, who multiplied
without control in the desert, were exasperated by the taste
of blood and the impatience of hunger boldly to attack and
devour their human prey. Pestilence soon appeared, the
inseparable companion of famine; a large proportion of the
people was swept away; and the groans of the dying excited
only the envy of their surviving friends. At length the
barbarians, satiated with carnage and rapine, and afflicted by
the contagious evils which they themselves had introduced,
fixed their permanent seats in the depopulated country.
{2974}
The ancient Galicia, whose limits included the kingdom of Old
Castile, was divided between the Suevi and the Vandals; the
Alani were scattered over the provinces of Carthagena and
Lusitania, from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean; and
the fruitful territory of Bætica was allotted to the Silingi,
another branch of the Vandalic nation. … The lands were again
cultivated; and the towns and villages were again occupied by
a captive people. The greatest part of the Spaniards was even
disposed to prefer this new condition of poverty and barbarism
to the severe oppressions of the Roman government; yet there
were many who still asserted their native freedom, and who
refused, more especially in the mountains of Galicia, to
submit to the barbarian yoke.'"

_E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 31._

SPAIN: A. D. 414-418.
First conquests of the Visigoths.

See GOTHS (VISIGOTHS): A. D. 410-419.

SPAIN: A. D. 428.
Conquests of the Vandals.

See VANDALS: A. D. 428.

SPAIN: A. D. 477-712.
The Gothic kingdom.

See GOTHS (VISIGOTHS): A. D. 453-484; and 507-711.

SPAIN: A. D. 573.
The Suevi overcome by the Visigoths.

See SUEVI: A. D. 409-573.

SPAIN: A. D. 616.
First expulsion of the Jews.

See JEWS: 7TH CENTURY.

SPAIN: A. D. 711-713.
Conquest by the Arab-Moors.

The last century of the Gothic kingdom in Spain was, on the
whole, a period of decline. It gained some extension of
boundaries, it is true, by the expulsion of Byzantine
authority from one small southern corner of the Spanish
peninsula, in which it had lingered long; but repeated
usurpations had shaken the throne; the ascendancy of church
and clergy had weakened the Gothic nobility without
strengthening the people; frequent recurrences of political
disorder had interfered with a general prosperity and
demoralized society in many ways. The condition of Spain, in
fact, was such as might plainly invite the flushed armies of
Islam, which now stood on the African side of the narrow
strait of Gibraltar. That another invitation was needed to
bring them in is not probable. The story of the great treason
of Count Illan, or Ilyan, or Julian, and of the betrayed
daughter, Florinda, to whose wrongs he made a sacrifice of his
country, has been woven into the history of the Moorish
conquest of Spain by too many looms of romance and poetry to
be easily torn away,—and it may have some bottom of fact in
its composition; but sober reason requires us to believe that
no possible treason in the case could be more than a chance
incident of the inevitable catastrophe. The final conquest of
North Africa had been completed by the Arab general Musa Ibn
Nosseyr,—except that Ceuta, the one stronghold which the Goths
held on the African side of the straits, withstood them. They
had not only conquered the Berbers or Moors, but had
practically absorbed and affiliated them. Spain, as they
learned, was distracted by a fresh revolution, which had
brought to the throne Roderick —the last Gothic king. The
numerous Jews in the country were embittered by persecution
and looked to the more tolerant Moslems for their deliverance.
Probably their invitation proved more potent than any which
Count Ilyan could address to Musa, or to his master at
Damascus. But Ilyan commanded at Ceuta, and, after defending
the outpost for a time, he gave it up. It seems, too, that
when the movement of Invasion occurred, in the spring of 711,
Count Ilyan was with the invaders. The first expedition to
cross the narrow strait from Ceuta to Gibraltar came under the
command of the valiant one-eyed chieftain, Tarik Ibn Zeyud Ibn
Abdillah. "The landing of Tarik's forces was completed on the
30th of April, 711 (8th Regeb. A. H. 92), and his enthusiastic
followers at once named the promontory upon which he landed,
Dschebel-Tarik [or Gebel-Tarik], the rock of Tarik. The name
has been retained in the modernized form, Gibraltar. It is
also spoken of in the Arabian chronicles as Dschebalu-l-Fata,
the portal or mountain of victory." Tarik entered Spain with
but 7,000 men. He afterwards received reinforcements to the
extent of 5,000 from Musa. It was with this small army of
12,000 men that, after a little more than two months, he
encountered the far greater host which King Roderick had
levied hastily to oppose him. The Gothic king despised the
small numbers of his foe and rashly staked everything upon the
single field. Somewhere not far from Medina Sidonia, —or
nearer to the town of Xeres de la Frontera. —on the banks of
the Guadalete, the decisive battle began on the 19th day of
July, A. D. 711. It lasted obstinately for several days, and
success appeared first on the Gothic side; but treason among
the Christians and discipline among the Moslems turned the
scale. When the battle ended the conquest of Spain was
practically achieved. Its Gothic king had disappeared, whether
slain or fled was never known, and the organization of
resistance disappeared with him. Tarik pursued his success
with audacious vigor, even disobeying the commands of his
superior, Musa. Dividing his small army into detachments, he
pushed them out in all directions to seize the important
cities. Xeres, Moron, Carmona, Cordova, Malaga, and
Gharnatta—Granada—(the latter so extensively peopled with Jews
that it was called "Gharnatta-al-Yahood," or Granada of the
Jews) were speedily taken. Toledo, the Gothic capital,
surrendered and was occupied on Palm Sunday, 712. The same
spring, Musa, burning with envy of his subordinate's
unexpected success, crossed to Spain with an army of 18,00()
and took up the nearly finished task. He took Seville and laid
siege to Merida—the Emerita Augusta of the Romans—a great and
splendid city of unusual strength. Merida resisted with more
valor than other cities had shown, but surrendered in July.
Seville revolted and was punished terribly by the merciless
Moslem sword. Before the end of the second year after Tarik's
first landing at Gibraltar, the Arab, or Arab-Moorish,
invaders had swept the whole southern, central and eastern
parts of the peninsula, clear to the Pyrenees, reducing
Saragossa after a siege and receiving the surrender of
Barcelona, Valencia, and all the important cities. Then, in
the summer of 713, Musa and Tarik went away, under orders from
the Caliph, to settle their jealous dissensions at Damascus,
and to report the facts of the great conquest they made.

_H. Coppée,
History of the Conquest of Spain,
books 2-3 (volume 1)._

{2975}

ALSO IN:
_J. A. Condé,
History of the Arabs in Spain,
chapters 8-17 (volume 1)._

For preceding events;

See GOTHS (VISIGOTHS);
and MAHOMETAN CONQUEST AND EMPIRE.

SPAIN: A. D. 713-910.
The rally of the fugitive Christians.

"The first blow [of the Moslem conquest] had stunned Gothic
Spain; and, before she could recover her consciousness, the
skilful hands of the Moslemah had bound her, hand and foot.
From the first stupor they were not allowed to recover. The
very clemency of the Moslems robbed the Christians of
argument. If their swords were sharp, their conduct after
battle was far better than the inhabitants had any right to
expect, far better than that of the Roman or Gothic conquerors
had been, when they invaded Spain. Their religion, the defence
of which might have been the last rallying-point, was
respected under easy conditions; their lives rendered secure
and comfortable; they were under tribute, but a tribute no
more exacting than Roman taxes or Gothic subsidies. … It was
the Gothic element, and not the Hispano-Romans, that felt the
humiliation most. … The Spanish Goths, at first impelled by
the simple instinct of self-preservation, had fled in all
directions before the fiery march of the Moslemah, after the
first fatal battle in the plains of Sidonia. They had taken
with them in their flight all the movable property they could
carry and the treasures of the churches. Some had passed the
Pyrenees to join their kinsmen in Septimania; and others had
hidden in the mountain valleys of the great chain-barrier;
while a considerable number, variously stated, had collected
in the intricate territory of the Asturias and in Galicia,
where strength of position made amends for the lack of numbers
and organization, and where they could find shelter and time
for consultation as to the best manner of making head against
the enemy. The country is cut up in all directions by
inaccessible, scarped rocks, deep ravines, tangled thickets,
and narrow gorges and defiles." This band of refugees in the
Asturias—the forlorn hope of Christian Spain—are said to have
found a gallant leader in one Pelayo, whose origin and history
are so covered with myth that some historians even question
his reality. But whether by Pelayo or another prince, the
Asturian Spaniards were held together in their mountains and
began a struggle of resistance which ended only, eight
centuries later, in the recovery of the entire peninsula from
the Moors. Their place of retreat was an almost inaccessible
cavern—the Cave of Covadonga—in attacking which the Moslems
suffered a terrible and memorable repulse (A. D. 717). "In
Christian Spain the fame of this single battle will endure as
long as time shall last; and La Cueva de Covadonga, the cradle
of the monarchy, will be one of the proudest spots on the soil
of the Peninsula. … This little rising in the Asturias was the
indication of a new life, new interests, and a healthier
combination. … Pelayo was the usher and the representative of
this new order, and the Christian kingdom of Oviedo was its
first theatre. … The battle of Covadonga, in which it had its
origin, cleared the whole territory of the Asturias of every
Moslem soldier. The fame of its leader, and the glad tidings
that a safe retreat had been secured, attracted the numerous
Christians who were still hiding in the mountain fastnesses,
and infused a new spirit of patriotism throughout the land. …
Pelayo was now king in reality, as well as in name. … With
commendable prudence, he contented himself with securing and
slowly extending his mountain kingdom by descending cautiously
into the plains and valleys. … Adjacent territory, abandoned
by the Moslems, was occupied and annexed; and thus the new
nation was made ready to set forth on its reconquering march."

_H. Coppée,
Conquest of Spain by the Arab-Moors,
book 5, chapters 1-2 (volume 1)._

"The small province thus preserved by Pelayo [whose death is
supposed to have occurred A. D. 737] grew into the germs of a
kingdom called at different times that of Gallicia, Oviedo,
and Leon. A constant border warfare fluctuated both ways, but
on the whole to the advantage of the Christians. Meanwhile to
the east other small states were growing up which developed
into the kingdom of Navarre and the more important realm of
Aragon. Castile and Portugal, the most famous among the
Spanish kingdoms, are the most recent in date. Portugal as yet
was unheard of, and Castile was known only as a line of
castles on the march between the Saracens and the kingdom of
Leon."

_E. A. Freeman,
History and Conquests of the Saracens,
lecture 5. _

"The States of Pelagio [Pelayo] continued, during his reign
and that of his son Favila, to be circumscribed to the
Asturian mountains; but … Alfonso I., the son-in-law of
Pelagio, ascended the throne after Favila, and he soon
penetrated into Galicia up to the Douro, and to Leon and Old
Castile. … Canicas, or Cangas, was the capital of the Asturias
since the time of Pelagio. Fruela (brother of Alfonso I.]
founded Oviedo, to the west, and this State became later on
the head of the monarchy." About a century later, in the reign
of the vigorous king Alfonso III. [A. D. 866-9101, the city of
Leon, the ancient Legio of the Romans, was raised from its
ruins, and Garcia, the eldest son of Alfonso, established his
court there. One of Garcia's brothers held the government of
the Asturias, and another one that of Galicia, "if not as
separate kingdoms, at least with a certain degree of
independence. This equivocal situation of the two princes was,
perchance, the reason why the King of Oviedo changed his title
to that of Leon, and which appears in the reign of Garcia as
the first attempt towards dismembering the Spanish Monarchy.
Previous to this, in the reign of King Alfonso III., Navarre,
always rebellious, had shaken off the Asturian yoke."

_E. McMurdo,
History of Portugal,
introduction, part 3._

SPAIN: A. D. 756-1031.
The Caliphate of Cordova.

See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST AND EMPIRE:
A. D. 756-1031.

SPAIN: A. D. 778.
Charlemagne's conquests.

The invasion of Spain by Charlemagne, in 778, was invited by a
party among the Saracens, disaffected towards the reigning
Caliph, at Cordova, who proposed to place the northern Spanish
frontier under the protection of the Christian monarch and
acknowledge his suzerainty. He passed the Pyrenees with a
great army and advanced with little serious opposition to
Saragossa, apparently occupying the country to the Ebro with
garrisons and adding it to his dominions as the Spanish March.
At Saragossa he encountered resistance and undertook a siege,
the results of which are left uncertain.
{2976}
It would seem that he was called away, by threatening news
from the northern part of his dominions, and left the conquest
incomplete. The return march of the army, through a pass of
the Pyrenees, was made memorable by the perfidious ambuscade
and hopeless battle of Roncesvalles, which became immortalized
in romance and song. It was in the country of the Gascons or
Wascones (Basques) that this tragic event occurred, and the
assailants were not Saracens, as the story of the middle ages
would have it, but the Gascons themselves, who, in league with
their neighbors of Aquitaine, had fought for their
independence so obstinately before, against both Charlemagne
and his father. They suffered the Franks to pass into Spain
without a show of enmity, but laid a trap for the return, in
the narrow gorge called the Roscida Vallis—now Roncesvalles.
The van of the army, led by the king, went through in safety.
The rear-guard, "oppressed with baggage, loitered along the
rocky and narrow pathway, and as it entered the solitary gap
of Ibayeta, from the lofty precipices on either side an
unknown foe rolled suddenly down enormous rocks and trunks of
uprooted trees. Instantly many of the troops were crushed to
death, and the entire passage was blockaded. … The Franks who
escaped the horrible slaughter were at once assailed with
forks and pikes; their heavy armor, which had served them so
well in other fights, only encumbered them amid the bushes and
brambles of the ravine; and yet they fought with obstinate and
ferocious energy. Cheered on by the prowess of Eghihard, the
royal sencschal, of Anselm, Count of the Palace, of Roland,
the warden of the Marches of Brittany, and of many other
renowned chiefs, they did not desist till the last man had
fallen, covered with wounds and blood. … How many perished in
this fatal surprise was never told; but the event smote with
profound effect upon the imagination of Europe; it was kept
alive in a thousand shapes by tales and superstitions; heroic
songs and stories carried the remembrance of it from
generation to generation; Roland and his companions, the
Paladins of Karl, untimely slain, became, in the Middle Ages,
the types of chivalric valor and Christian heroism; and, seven
centuries after their only appearance in history, the genius
of Pulci, Boiardo, and Ariosto still preserved in immortal
verse the traditions of their glory. … Roland is but once
mentioned in authentic history, but the romance and songs,
which make him a nephew of Karl, compensate his memory for
this neglect."

_P. Godwin,
History of France: Ancient Gaul,
chapter 16, with foot-note. _

ALSO IN:
_J. I. Mombert,
History of Charles the Great,
book 2, chapter 5._

_G. P. R. James,
History of Charlemagne,
book 5._

_J. O'Hagan,
Song of Roland._

_T. Bulfinch,
Legends of Charlemagne._

_H. Coppée,
Conquest of Spain by the Arab·Moors,
book 7, chapter 3 (volume 2)._

SPAIN: A. D. 778-885 (?).
Rise of the kingdom of Navarre.

See NAVARRE: ORIGIN OF THE KINGDOM.

SPAIN: A. D. 1026-1230.
The rise of the kingdom of Castile.

"Ancient Cantabria, which the writers of the 8th century
usually termed Bardulia, and which, at this period [the 8th
century] stretched from the Biscayan sea to the Duero, towards
the close of the same century began to be called
Castella—doubtless from the numerous forts erected for the
defence of the country by Alfonso I. [the third king of
Oviedo, or Leon]. As the boundaries were gradually removed
towards the south, by the victories of the Christians, the
same denomination was applied to the new as well as to the
former conquests, and the whole continued subject to the same
governor, who had subordinate governors dependent on him. Of
the first governors or counts, from the period of its conquest
by that prince in 760, to the reign of Ordoño I. (a full
century), not even the names are mentioned in the old
chroniclers; the first we meet with is that of Count Rodrigo,
who is known to have possessed the dignity at least six
years,—viz. from 860 to 866." The last count of Castile,
Garcia Sanchez, who was the eighth of the line from Rodrigo,
perished in his youth by assassination (A. D. 1026), just as
he was at the point of receiving the title of king from the
sovereign of Leon, together with the hand of the latter's
daughter. Castile was then seized by Sancho el Mayor, king of
Navarre, in right of his queen, who was the elder sister of
Garcia. He assumed it to be a kingdom and associated the crown
with his own. On his death, in 1035, he bequeathed this new
kingdom of Castile to one of his sons, Fernando, while leaving
Navarre to another, and Aragon, then a lordship, to a third.
Fernando of Castile, being involved soon afterwards in war
with the young king of Leon, won the kingdom of the latter in
a single battle, where the last of the older royal dynasty of
Spain fell fighting like a valiant knight. The two kingdoms of
Castile and Leon were united under this prosperous king (see,
also, PORTUGAL: EARLY HISTORY) until his death, A. D. 1065,
when Castile passed to Sancho, the eldest of his sons, and
Leon to Alfonso, the second. But Sancho soon ousted Alfonso,
and Alfonso, biding his time, acquired both crowns in 1072,
when Sancho was assassinated. It was this Alfonso who
recovered the ancient capital city, Toledo, from the Moslems,
and it was in his reign that the famous Cid Campeador, Rodrigo
de Bivar, performed his fabulous exploits. The two kingdoms
were kept in union until 1157, when they fell apart again and
continued asunder until 1230. At that time a lasting union of
Castile and Leon took place, under Fernando III., whom the
church of Rome has canonized.

_S. A. Dunham,
History of Spain and Portugal,
book 3, section 2, chapter 1._

{2976a} {2976b}

[IMAGE: SPAIN AT ABOUT THE BEGINNING OF THE NINTH CENTURY EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE. KINGDOM OF ASTURIA. EMIRATE OF CORDOVA.

DURING THIS PERIOD THE BASIN OF THE DOURA RIVER WAS UNDER LITTLE ORGANIZED RULE. THE RIVER FORMS MERELY A NOMINAL BOUNDARY BETWEEN THE KINGDOM OF ASTURIA AND THE EMIRATE OF CORDOVA

SPAIN IN 1035, SHOWING THE DIVISIONS OF THE KINGDOM OF NAVARRE AFTER THE DEATH OF SANCHO THE GREAT (1035) AND OF THE MOHAMEDAN TERRITORIES ON THE EXTINCTION OF THE CORDOVAN CALIPHATE (1031).

DIVISIONS OF SANCHO'S KINGDOM NAVARRE CASTILE ARAGON AND RIBAGORCA FRANCE

THE DATES UNDER A NUMBER OF THE MOHAMMEDAN CITIES INDICATE THE ENCROACHMENTS OF THE CHRISTIAN STATES UP TO ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY.

SPAIN AT ABOUT THE YEAR 1150. NAVARRE. LEON. CASTILE. ARAGON. PORTUGAL. EMPIRE OF THE ALMOHADES.

SPAIN AT THE CLOSE OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. CASTILE AND LEON. ARAGON. PORTUGAL. GRANADA.

THE GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS AS SHOWN ON THIS MAP REMAINED PRACTICALLY UNCHANGED UP TO THE LATTER PART OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.]

SPAIN: A. D. 1031-1086.
Petty and short-lived Moorish kingdoms.

"The decline and dissolution of the Mohammedan monarchy, or
western caliphate, afforded the ambitious local governors
throughout the Peninsula the opportunity for which they had
long sighed—that of openly asserting their independence of
Cordova, and of assuming the title of kings. The wali of
Seville, Mohammed ben Ismail ben Abid, … appears to have been
the first to assume the powers of royalty; … he declared war
against the self-elected king of Carmona, Mohammed ben
Abdalla, on whose cities, Carmona and Ecija, he had cast a
covetous eye. The brother of Yahia, Edris ben Ali, the son of
Hamud, governed Malaga with equal independence. Algeziras had
also its sovereigns. Elvira and Granada obeyed Habus ben
Maksan: Valencia had for its king Abdelasis Abul Hassan,
Almeria had Zohair, and Denia had Mugehid; but these two petty
states were soon absorbed in the rising sphere of Valencia.
Huesca and Saragossa were also subject to rulers, who though
slow to assume the title of kings were not the less
independent, since their sway extended over most of Aragon.
{2977}
The sovereign of Badajos, Abdalla Muslema ben Alaftas, was the
acknowledged head of all the confederated governors of Algarve
and Lusitania; and Toledo was subject to the powerful Ismail
ben Dyluun, who, like the king of Seville, secretly aspired to
the government of all Mohammedan Spain."

_S. A. Dunham,
History of Spain and Portugal,
book 3, section 1, chapter 1 (volume 2)._

"These petty kings were sometimes fighting against each other,
and sometimes joining hands to oppose the down-coming of
Christians, until they were startled by a new incursion from
Africa … which, in consolidating Islam, threatened destruction
to the existing kingdoms by the absorption of everyone of them
in this African vortex. I refer to the coming of the
Almoravides."

_H. Coppée,
Conquest of Spain by the Arab-Moors,
book 8, chapter 2 (volume 2)._

SPAIN: A. D. 1035-1258.
The Rise of the Kingdom of Aragon.

The province of Aragon, with Navarre to the west of it and
Catalonia to the east, was included in the Spanish March of
Charlemagne. Navarre took the lead among these provinces in
acquiring independence, and Aragon became for a time a
lordship dependent on the Navarrese monarchy. "The Navarre of
Sancho the Great [the same who gathered Castile among his
possessions, making it a kingdom, and who reigned from 970 to
1035] stretched some way beyond the Ebro; to the west it took
in the ocean lands of Biscay and Guipuzcoa, with the original
Castile; to the east it took in Aragon, Ripacurcia and
Sobrarbe. … At the death of Sancho the Great [A. D. 1035] his
momentary dominion broke up. … Out of the break-up of the
dominion of Sancho came the separate kingdom of Navarre, and
the new kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, and Sobrarbe. Of these
the two last were presently united, thus beginning the advance
of Aragon. … The power of Aragon grew, partly by conquests
from the Mussulmans, partly by union with the French fiefs to
the east. The first union between the crown of Aragon and the
county of Barcelona [by marriage, 1131] led to the great
growth of the power of Aragon on both sides of the Pyrenees
and even beyond the Rhone. This power was broken by the
overthrow of King Pedro at Muret—[Pedro II. of Aragon, who
allied himself with the Albigenses—see ALBIGENSES: A. D.
1210-1213—and was defeated and slain by Simon de Montfort, at
Muret, near Toulouse. September 12, 1213]. But by the final
arrangement which freed Barcelona, Roussillon, and Cerdagne,
from all homage to France [A. D. 1258], all trace of foreign
superiority passed away from Christian Spain. The independent
kingdom of Aragon stretched on both sides of the Pyrenees, a
faint reminder of the days of the West-Gothic kings."

_E. A. Freeman,
History Geography of Europe,
chapter 12, section 1._

ALSO IN:
_S. A. Dunham,
History of Spain and Portugal,
book 3, section 2, chapter 4._

See, also, PROVENCE: A. D. 1179-1207.

SPAIN: A. D. 1086-1147.
Domination of the Almoravides.

See ALMORAVIDES.

SPAIN: A. D. 1140.
Separation of Portugal from Castile.
Its erection into an independent kingdom.

See PORTUGAL: A. D. 1095-1325.

SPAIN: A. D. 1146-1232.
Invasion and dominion of the Almohades and the
decisive battle of Tolosa.

The invasion of Spain by the Moorish Almohades (see
ALMOHADES), and their struggle for dominion with the
Almoravides, produced, at the outset, great alarm in
Christendom, but was productive in the end of many
opportunities for the advancement of the Christian cause. In
the year 1212 Pope Innocent III. was moved by an appeal from
Alfonso VIII. of Castile to call on all Christian people to
give aid to their brethren in Spain, proclaiming a plenary
indulgence to those who would take up arms in the holy cause.
Thousands joined the crusade thus preached, and flocked to the
Castilian standards at Toledo. The chief of the Almohades
retorted on his side by proclaiming the Algihed or Holy War,
which summoned every Moslem in his dominions to the field.
Thus the utmost frenzy of zeal was animated on both sides, and
the shock of conflict could hardly fail to be decisive, under
the circumstances. Substantially it proved to be so, and the
fate of Mahometanism in Spain is thought to have been sealed
on Las Navas de Tolosa—the Plains of Tolosa—where the two
great hosts came to their encounter in July, 1212. The rout of
the Moors was complete; "the pursuit lasted till nightfall,
and was only impeded by the Moslem corpses."

_H. Coppée,
Conquest of Spain by the Arab-Moors,
book 8, chapter 4 (volume 2)._

SPAIN: 12-15th Centuries.
The old monarchical constitution.
The Castilian and Aragonese Cortes.

See CORTES, THE EARLY SPANISH.

SPAIN: A. D. 12-16th Centuries.
Commercial importance and municipal freedom of Barcelona.

See BARCELONA: 12-16TH CENTURIES.

SPAIN: A. D. 1212-1238.
Progress of the arms of Castile, Leon, and Aragon.
Succession of the count of Champagne to the throne of Navarre.
Permanent union of the crowns of Leon and Castile.
The founding of the Moorish kingdom of Granada.
Castilian conquest of Cordova.