his new king, Henry VII (1485-1509), found no powerful lords to
oppose his will. One or two impostors were raised against him,[12] France
making anxious efforts to prolong the troubles of her dangerous
neighbor; but the attempts failed through the utter completeness of the
aristocracy's exhaustion.

Thus in England as in France, though by widely differing chances, the
kingly power had triumphed over feudalism. Monarchs began to come into
direct contact, not always pleasant, with the entire mass of their
subjects, the "third estate," the common people.

RISE OF SPANISH POWER

Spain also was to pass through a similar experience. Indeed, one of the
most striking facts of this age of the Renaissance is the swift and
spectacular rise of Spain from a land of feebleness and internal strife
into the most powerful kingdom of Europe. We have seen the Spanish
peninsula in previous ages the seat of endless strife between Saracens
and Christians. Gradually the Moors had been driven back, and the little
independent Christian states had been united by the fortunes of war and
marriage into three--Portugal on the Atlantic coast, Castile occupying
the larger part of the mainland, and Aragon, a maritime kingdom, less
extensive in Spain, but extending its sovereignty over many of the
Mediterranean isles, over Sicily and southern Italy. In 1469 Isabella,
heiress of Castile, and Ferdinand, heir of Aragon, were wedded; and
soon afterward their countries were united under their joint rule. The
combined strength of both was then devoted to a long religious war
against the Moors. Granada, the last and most famous of the Moorish
capitals and strongholds, was finally captured in 1492.[13] The followers
of Mahomet were driven out of Western Europe during the same period that,
under Turkish leadership, they had at last won Constantinople in the
East.

The whole Spanish peninsula with the exception of Portugal was thus
united under Ferdinand and Isabella, greatest of the sovereigns of
Spain. The ages of battle with the Moors had bred a nation of cavaliers,
intensely loyal, passionately religious. They were splendid fighters, but
stern, hard-hearted, merciless men. Isabella, "the Saint," most holy and
pure-souled of women, herself introduced into her country the terrible
Inquisition.[14] Jews and Moors were given little peace in life unless
they turned Christian. Heretics and relapsed converts from the other
faiths were burned to death. The Queen