Or this long period, in which the chriftian princes gained such glorious fucceffes, and fingular victories over the infidels, there are fome short and obfcure accounts in the little chronicles of Don ALONZO III. King of LEON, furnamed the great, and of ALVEDA, of SAMPIRO, and of Don PELAYO.

COUNTS and KINGS of CASTILE.

AT the fame time with these ASTURIAN Princes, arofe many

Α

nobles, who figned their deeds and inftruments, with the titles of Counts or Princes, and, among others, thofe of CASTILE, which state arrived at fovereignty in the time of the great Count FERNAN GONZALEZ, by his heroic valour, glorious triumphs, and extended power. The most distinguished Prince of this house was Don SANCHO GARCIA, whofe violent death was the cause, why this house united itself to the crown of ARRAGON and NAVARRE, by the marriage of the Princess Donna SANCHA his fifter, with the King Don SANCHO MAYOR, whofe fecond fon Don FERNANDO raised CASTILE into a kingdom. CASTILE afterwards became an hereditary crown in his lineage, in preference to all the other kingdoms, altho' inferior in origin to ARRAGON and NAVARRE.

THE feries and chronology of the feveral counts is much contested between the Spanish writers, ARREDONDO, AREVALO,SANDOVAL, and others: a difpute not worth our entering into, fince it is certain, that from the bravery, fuccefs, and power with which Don FERNANDO extended his dominion, so as to be stiled first king of CASTILE, his kingdom became fo famous, that all the Moorish princes acknowledged him for their fovereign. His fon was Don ALONZO VI. his grand-daughter was the Queen Donna URRACA, with whom ended the barony of NAVARRE: the crown of CASTILE falling back again into the house of the Counts of BURGUNDY (who came from the Kings of ITALY) by her marriage with the Count Don RAYMUND, her firft hufband; from which match came their fon the great Emperor Don ALONZO VII.

b 2

THIS

THIS prince left his eftates divided between his two fons: To Don SANCHO, the eldest, whofe great virtues and untimely death gained him the name of the regretted, he left the kingdoms of CASTILE, and part of LEON: And to Don FERDINAND, the fecond, the rest of LEON, GALLICIA, and ASTURIAS. He took upon himself the title of King of SPAIN, pretending that the primogeniture of the GOTHS, which was re-established in PELAYO, had centered in himself.

DON SANCHO dying, he was fucceeded by Don ALONZO the noble, one of the greatest princes of his time. It was he who gained the famous battle of the plains of TOLOSA over the MOORS, destroying 200,000 of them at one time +. He dying without iffue-male, the two kingdoms of CASTILE and TOLEDO went to Donna BERENGUELA, his eldest daughter.

ALTHOUGH the royal barony of BURGUNDY ended in the Queen Donna BERENGUELA, it returned and united with the kingdom of LEON, GALLICIA, and ASTURIAS by the marriage of King Don ALONZO, her uncle (who fucceeded in thofe kingdoms to King Don FERNANDO, brother to King Don ALONZO the noble, her grandfather) from which match came the King SN. FERNANDO, from whom defcended, without interruption, the Kings of CASTILE and ARRAGON, until united in FERDINAND and ISABELLA, they relapsed into the august house of AUSTRIA, by the marriage of the Queen Donna JUANA, their eldest daughter, to the ArchDuke Don PHILIP I. from which great union fprung the Emperor CHARLES V.

FROM this period downward, the Spanish hiftory is very connectedly written, and well known; I fhall now therefore only give a fummary view of it from the death of CHARLES II. to the present time.

+ Begging the Spanish hiftorian's pardon, this number must be exaggerated: 50,000 flain is full enough for any hero.

A

A CONCISE VIEW OF

THE HISTORY OF SPAIN,

A

From the Death of CHARLES II.

To the Present Time.

S CHARLES the fecond of SPAIN had no iffue, ENGLAND, FRANCE, and HOLLAND, formed, in 1699, the famous treaty of partition, for dividing the dominions of the crown of SPAIN, upon his death. Each party had, or, at least, pretended to have, the common view, in this treaty, of preventing such a vaft acceffion of power from paffing, either into the House of AuSTRIA, or that of BOURBON, already formidable enough of themselves. This step very fenfibly affected the court of SPAIN: CHARLES the fecond was fo much offended thereat, that, on his death-bed, he figned a will, by which he bequeathed all his dominions to PHILIP Duke of ANJOU, grandfon of LEWIS XIV. Though that Prince had before entered into the partition treaty, yet, finding the fucceffion thus left to his family, he paid no regard to any former engagements or renunciations, but on the 18th of February, declared his grandfon, PHILIP, King of SPAIN, who arrived at Madrid on the 14th of April, 1701. This proceeding immediately alarmed the maritime powers and the Emperor; the former were apprehenfive of Spanish AMERICA's falling into the hands of the FRENCH, and the latter, befides the injury he imagined done to his own family, dreaded the too great influence of the power of the House of BOURBON. A war enfued; and CHARLES Arch-duke of AUSTRIA was foon after fet up, in oppofition to PHILIP V. His claim was vigorously fupported by the maritime powers, and at firft favoured by maof the grandees of SPAIN. In the third year of this war, the King of PORTUGAL and the Duke of SAvoy joined like

ny

3

wife

wife in the alliance against PHILIP; who, in the following campaigns, was driven from his capital, by the fuccefs of the allied forces, and almost obliged to abandon SPAIN. In the end, however, his party prevailed, and, at the peace of UTRECHT in 1713, he was acknowledged as King of SPAIN by all the confederates leagued against him, except the Emperor. The allies then contented themselves with fuch limitations and restrictions, as might keep the two monarchies of FRANCE and SPAIN disunited. A treaty of partition may, indeed, be said to have taken place at the laft; for PHILIP, by the articles of the peace, was only left in poffeffion of SPAIN, its American colonies, and fettlements in the EAST-INDIES; but the Spanish dominions in ITALY, and the islands of SICILY and SARDINIA were difmembered from the monarchy, which had also loft the island of MINORCA and the fortress of GIBRALTAR, both of which places were ceded to GREAT-BRITAIN. The Duke of SAVOY was put in poffeffion of the ifland of SICILY, with the title of King; and the Arch-duke CHARLES, who, two years before, had been elected Emperor of GERMANY, held MILAN, NAPLES, and SARDINIA, and still kept up his claim to the whole Spanish monarchy.

THOUGH PHILIP, by the peace concluded at UTRECHT, was left, by the allies, poffeffor of the greatest and most important part of the Spanish dominions, yet some obftinate enemies ftill remained to be reduced, before he could be faid to have fixed the Spanish crown fecurely upon his head. The inhabitants of CATALONIA refused to acknowledge him, and, finding themselves abandoned by their allies, folicited the affiftance of the Grand Signior, in hopes of establishing themselves into an independent republic. Their blind obftinacy, however, ferved only to heighten the miseries and calamities to which they had been greatly expofed during the whole courfe of the war. After a most bloody and stubborn defence, they were entirely reduced by the King's troops, when they were deprived of their antient privileges, and their country was annexed to the crown of CASTILE, as a conquered province.

THE

THE reduction of CATALONIA restored tranquillity to SPAIN, which had been haraffed for twelve years by a moft cruel and bloody war. PHILIP, by that conqueft, finding himself quietly feated upon the throne, began to turn his thoughts to the reunion of the Italian dominions, which he had feen wrefted from him with the utmost regret. With a view to this re-union, his first wife being dead, he married ELIZABETH FARNESE, heiress of PARMA, PLACENTIA, and TUSCANY; which alliance afterwards proved a fource of new diffenfions and wars among the Princes of Europe; and, to this day, ftill leaves an opening for bloody

contefts.

THE match was firft propofed, and afterwards negotiated, by the famous Abbé ALBERONI, who, from being a fimple curate in the PARMESAN, rofe, by a surprising series of fortunate incidents, more than by any extraordinary talents, to be prime minifter in SPAIN. ALBERONI Was the fon of a common gardener. In the beginning of the war he had, by his forwardness and address, infinuated himself into the favour of VENDOME, the French General in ITALY, who brought him with him to FRANCE, and afterwards to MADRID, where, after the Duke's death, he continued as agent for the affairs of PARMA, and laid hold of the opportunity of aggrandifing himself, by propofing a match that fuited with the views of the Spanish court. The new Queen, being a ftranger in SPAIN, was advised in every thing by ALBERONI, who, being protected and countenanced by her, boldly intermeddled in affairs of state, and foon acquired a great degree of favour with the King. A few days after the celebration of the King's marriage with the Princefs of PARMA, his grandfather, LEWIS XIV. died, and left his dominions to an infant fucceffor. Though PHILIP had, before the conclufion of the treaty of UTRECHT, folemnly renounced, for himself, and his heirs, all right to the fucceffion of the crown of FRANCE, yet he was now strongly urged by ALBERONI, to infift upon the regency of that kingdom, during the minority, as first Prince of the blood of FRANCE, and next in fucceffion to the present monarch. This wild and imprudent counsel, if it had been followed, would undoubtedly have involved SPAIN in a new war, which

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