s, with what treasures would he not have rewarded him? On his
arrival in Spain, in the autumn of 1538, the emperor convoked the cortez
in Toledo, "for the purpose of deliberation on the most grave and urgent
causes, which obliged him to request of his faithful vassals an
inconsiderable contribution, and of receiving the assurance of the
desire with which he was animated, of diminishing their burdens as soon
as circumstances should enable him to do so." All assembled on the
appointed day--the prelates, the grandees, the knights, the deputies of
cities and towns. The opening session took place in the great salon of
the house of Don Juan Hurtado de Mendoza, Count of Melita, in which the
emperor had taken up his abode; and two apartments in the convent of San
Juan de los Reyes, were prepared for the remaining meetings--one for the
ecclesiastical body, presided by the Cardinal de Tavera, archbishop of
Toledo, accompanied by Fray Garcia de Loaysa, cardinal, and confessor of
the emperor, afterwards Archbishop of Seville--the other for the lay
members of the cortez.

Although an adept at dissimulation, what must have been the impatience
of Charles, while under the necessity of listening, day after day, to
reports of speeches pronounced by the independent members of his _junta_
on the subject of his unwelcome proposition, without the consolation of
foreseeing that the supplies would eventually be forthcoming. The
orators did not spare him. The historian, Mariana, gives at full length
the speech of the condestable Don Velasco, Duke of Frias, a grandee
enjoying one of the highest dignities at the court, who commences by
declaring that, "with respect to the Sisa," (tax on provisions, forming
the principal subject of the emperor's demand,) "each of their
lordships, being such persons as they were, would understand better than
himself this business: but what he understood respecting it was, that
nothing could be more contrary to God's service, and that of his
Majesty, and to the good of these kingdoms of Castile, of which they
were natives, and to their honour, than the Sisa;" and, further on,
proposes that a request be made to his Majesty, that he would moderate
his expenditure, which was greater than that of the Catholic kings.

On an address to this effect being presented to the emperor, he replied,
that "he thanked them for their kind intentions; but that his request
was for present aid, and not for advice respecting the future:"