ometimes put forward. The harbour has always been of
considerable importance, but it is only in comparatively modern times
that it has made a figure in history. In 1588 it gave shelter to the
Invincible Armada; in 1598 the town was captured and burned by the
British under Drake and Norris. In 1747, and again in 1805, the bay was
the scene of a naval victory of the British over the French; and on the
16th of January 1809 a battle took place in the neighbourhood, which is
celebrated in British military annals (see PENINSULAR WAR). The French
under Marshal Soult attempted to prevent the embarcation of the English
under Sir John Moore, but were successfully repulsed in spite of their
superior numbers. Moore was mortally wounded and died shortly
afterwards. He was hastily buried in the ramparts near the sea; a
monument in the Jardin de San Carlos raised by the British government
commemorates his death. The town joined the revolutionary movement of
1820, but in 1823 it was forced to capitulate by French troops. In 1836
it was captured by the Carlists. Corunna suffered heavily when Spain was
deprived of Cuba and Porto Rico by the Spanish-American War of 1898, for
it had hitherto had a thriving trade with these colonies.

CORVEE, in feudal law, the term used to designate the unpaid labour due
from tenants, whether free or unfree, to their lord; hence any forced
labour, especially that exacted by the state, the word being applied
both to each particular service and to the system generally. Though the
corvee formed a characteristic feature of the feudal system, it was, as
an institution, much older than feudalism, and was already developed in
its main features under the Roman Empire. Thus, under the Roman system,
personal services (_operae_) were due from certain classes of the
population not only to the state but to private proprietors. Apart from
the obligations (_operae officiales_) imposed on freedmen as a condition
of their enfranchisement, which in the country usually took the form of
unpaid work on the landlord's domain, the semi-servile _coloni_ were
bound, besides paying rent in money or kind, to do a certain number of
days' unremunerated labour on that part of the estate reserved by the
landed proprietor. The state also exacted personal labour (_operae
publicae_), in lieu of taxes, from certain classes for such purposes as
the upkeep of roads, bridges and dykes; while the inhabitants of the
various regions were res