Isabella I, Queen of Spain DS 19003.Doc

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FERDINAND OF ARAGON (1452-1516) & ISABELLA OF CASTILE . (1451-1504). Catholic King and Queen of Castile, Aragon, Sicily and Naples, and patrons of Christopher Columbus. Manuscript DS. (“ I, the King ” and “I, the Queen ”). 1p. Tall 4to. Burgos, April 8, 1497. In Spanish with translation.

+ The King and The Queen

Doctor Alonso Rodríguez de Villaescusa, our chief magistrate of the noble town of Valladolid.

You know well that last year we commissioned you to collect our revenue from that aforementioned town and from Tordesillas and Olmedo and Çerrato and other places, from the enrolled villages as well as others from which we are owed by the mayors of their respective districts, and we also commissioned the other chief magistrates of our kingdoms to collect our revenues from their districts, from their jurisdictions and their communities, because these enrolled villages have been well-treated and they were freed from the affronts and extortions that their landlords and tax collectors and property administrators used to subject them to in the collection of our revenue according to what is found in our letters and decrees, and on account of that we sent them to you, and know that through these aforementioned letters we have agreed to commission those aforesaid chief magistrates the collection of the aforesaid revenues for this present year of ninety-seven, and that you, the aforesaid Doctor Alonso Rodrigues, our chief magistrate, will take charge of the collection of our revenues of the above-mentioned town of Valladolid and of the neighborhood of Çerrato and other places, about which we are sending you our letters of introduction.

And since this is a matter that should be taken care of in such a way that is in our service, we command and order that without any excuse you consent to this task and, because we have been informed that some of the enrolled villages had suffered troubles in the payments of the aforesaid last year ninety-six, and they were excused later and allowed to go past each payment period, without being required beforehand that they be on time in those aforementioned periods so that they could be diligent in the collection of taking and charging the maravedís that they owe us. Concerning this, some say they were about to engage in enforcement in the aforementioned villages and take from them the costs and rightful fees, and they say that some of them reimbursed the enforcement that the laws of our kingdom set out that they may undertake to free themselves of the debts of our revenue by which the councils [town governments] saw themselves aggrieved, and by which if in the future it is not resolved it will be enormously detrimental to us and the affected villages will not respond to us. Because of that these villages must be freed from the extortions and payments and damages and for that we charge you that you make a petition to each village with enough time before the end of the period of each payment, that they may apply great diligence and insistence in the collecting of our revenue, because it must be clear that there are no excuses in the collection. They should treat the villages with all of the equanimity possible and when the villages cannot pay the maravedís that they owe, some of them may be punished moderately with a smaller fine if it can be done without applying greater penalties than those which our kingdom provides to be applied to the enforcement of the debts for our revenue, because if the opposite is done we certify that we will order that it will be addressed since we would have been [in that case] disobeyed, and [so] they should try to treat the

LION HEART AUTOGRAPHS 216 East 45 th Street, Suite 1100 New York, NY 10017 www.lionheartautographs.com Tel: 212.779.7050 Toll-free: 800.969.1310 villages well, in the manner that they may know through the magistrate that they are valued, and that it pleases us that he should receive the letters of report that we send you with this letter. Send us your answer and do not delay.

Written in Burgos, April 8 of ninety-seven.

[signed] I, the King [signed] I, the Queen

By order of the King and of the Queen Juan de la Parra

[Docketed on the verso:] From the King and the Queen To the Doctor Alonso Rodríguez de Villescusa, their chief magistrate of the noble town of Valladolid

With the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella in 1469, the king and queen immediately began strengthening their royal power. An important reform was the creation of the Royal Council or Council of Castile which appointed municipal judges such as Alonso Rodrigues de Villaescusa to enforce their laws at a local level. With the establishment of the Council, the monarchs attempted to diminish the power of the nobility by taking aim at the Cortes Generales, the body which controlled taxation. Our document’s statement about previous “ affronts and extortions that their landlords and tax collectors and property administrators used to subject them to in the collection of our revenue ” is likely referring to the Cortes. Ferdinand and Isabella’s unification of the Castilian judicial system was part of the Pacification of Castile which allowed it to become one of the first strong nation states.

One of the towns mentioned in our document, Tordesillas, became known throughout the world for the famous treaty signed there in 1494 that divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between the Portuguese and Spanish Kingdoms. The town of Olmedo was the site of two famous battles, the first of which, in 1445, concerned the payment of taxes between the opposing kings, John II of Navarre and John II of Aragon.

On March 19, 1497, Ferdinand and Isabella and their royal entourage arrived in the city of Burgos, where their son and heir apparent John married Margaret of Austria on April 4, 1497, four days before our letter was signed. The marriages Isabella arranged for her five children contributed greatly to the political stability enjoyed by the kingdom. John and Margaret’s union was a love match as well as a political alliance. Sadly, 18-year-old John died six months after his wedding, and his young widow’s pregnancy ended in a stillbirth in December. John’s death and his sister Isabella’s death the following year made Joanna of Castile heir to the throne. Known as “Joanna the Mad,” she succeeded her parents and reigned from 1504 to 1516, when she was declared unfit and confined to a nunnery.

Lightly folded and in nearly pristine condition – a magnificent and primary addition to any history of the New World. Very rare in this condition. $12,000

Item #19003 F:\NewWorks\Isabella I, Queen of Spain DS 19003.doc

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