nexation of Naples, doubled the dominions of the Lions and Castles,
and started the proud land on the road to empire. It is true that
eventually Spain exhausted herself by trying to do more than even her
young powers could accomplish, but for a while she retained the
hegemony of Christendom. The same year that saw the discovery of
America [Sidenote: 1492] and the occupation of the Alhambra, was also
marked by the expulsion or forced conversion of the Jews, of whom
165,000 left the kingdom, 50,000 were baptized, and 20,000 perished in
race riots. The statesmanship of Ferdinand showed itself in a more
favorable light in the measures taken to reduce the nobles, feudal
anarchs as they were, to fear of the law. To take their place in the
government of the country he developed a new bureaucracy, which also,
to some extent, usurped the powers of the Cortes of Aragon and of the
Cortes of Castile. [Sidenote: Francis Ximenez de Cisneros, 1436-1517]
In the meantime a notable reform of the church, in morals and in
learning if not in doctrine, was carried through by the great Cardinal
Ximenez.

[Sidenote: Charles V, 1516-1556]

When Charles, the grandson of the Catholic Kings, succeeded Ferdinand
he was already, through his father, the Archduke Philip, the lord of
Burgundy and of the Netherlands, and the heir of Austria. His election
as emperor made him, at the age of nineteen, the {427} greatest prince
of Christendom. To his gigantic task he brought all the redeeming
qualities of dullness, for his mediocrity and moderation served his
peoples and his dynasty better than brilliant gifts and boundless
ambition would have done. "Never," he is reported to have said in
1556, "did I aspire to universal monarchy, although it seemed well
within my power to attain it." Though the long war with France turned
ever, until the very last, in his favor, he never pressed his advantage
to the point of crushing his enemy to earth. But in Germany and Italy,
no less than in Spain and the Netherlands, he finally attained
something more than hegemony and something less than absolute power.

[Sidenote: Revolt of the Communes]

Though Spain benefited by his world power and became the capital state
of his far flung empire, "Charles of Ghent," as he was called, did not
at first find Spaniards docile subjects. Within a very few years of
his accession a great revolt, or rather two great synchronous revolts,
one in Castile and one in Aragon, flar