ed up. The grievances in Castile
were partly economic, the _servicio_ (a tax) and the removal of money
from the realm, and partly national as against a strange king and his
foreign officers. Not only the regent, Adrian of Utrecht, but many
important officials were northerners, and when Charles left Spain to be
crowned emperor, [Sidenote: 1520] the national pride could no longer
bear the humiliation of playing a subordinate part. The revolt of the
Castilian Communes began with the gentry and spread from them to the
lower classes. Even the grandees joined forces with the rebels, though
more from fear than from sympathy. The various revolting communes
formed a central council, the Santa Junta, and put forth a program
re-asserting the rights of the Cortes to redress grievances. Meeting
for a time with no resistance, the rebellion disintegrated {428}
through the operation of its own centrifugal forces, disunion and lack
of leadership. So at length when the government, supplied with a small
force of German mercenaries, struck on the field of Villalar, the
rebels suffered a severe defeat. [Sidenote: April, 1521] A few cities
held out longer, Toledo last of all; but one by one they yielded,
partly to force, partly to the wise policy of concession and redress
followed by the government.

In our own time Barcelona and the east coast of Spain has been the
hotbed of revolutionary democracy and radical socialism. Even so, the
rising in Aragon known as the Hermandad (Brotherhood) [Sidenote: The
Hermandad] contemporary with that in Castile, not only began earlier
and lasted longer, but was of a far more radical stamp. Here were no
nobles airing their slights at the hands of a foreign king, but here
the trade-gilds rose in the name of equality against monarch and nobles
alike. Two special causes fanned the fury of the populace to a white
heat. The first was the decline of the Mediterranean trade due to the
rise of the Atlantic commerce; the other was the racial element.
Valencia was largely inhabited by Moors, the most industrious, sober
and thrifty, and consequently the most profitable of Spanish laborers.
The race hatred so deeply rooted in human nature added to the ferocity
of the class conflict. Both sides were ruined by the war which,
beginning in 1519, dragged along for several years until the
proletariat was completely crushed.

[The Cortes]

The armed triumph of the government hardly damaged popular liberties a