Nowhere was the absolutism of the kings more manifest than in their dealings with the Castilian _Cortes_. The principal functions of this body had always been to grant or withhold subsidies and to make petitions, which the kings might, or might not, enact into law. In this period the deputies were so submissive that they never failed to grant the required subsidy, despite the exhaustion of the country, while their petitions received scant attention. Under the circumstances, since the grant of a subsidy by the representatives of the towns was now the only reason for calling a _Cortes_, the nobles and the clergy were not always summoned. Charles I encountered some resistance of the _Cortes_ in the early part of his reign, but in later years the kings experienced no serious difficulty. The deputies themselves lost interest, and not infrequently sold their privilege of attendance to some individual who might even be a non-resident of the town he was to represent. The kings procured the right to appoint many of the deputies, or else issued orders to the towns, directing them how to instruct their delegates, and also gave pensions to the deputies, thus insuring the expression of their own will in the meetings of the _Cortes_. It is not strange that the _Cortes_ was called frequently,--forty-four times down to 1665. In 1665 the function of granting subsidies was given directly to the towns,--with the result that no _Cortes_ was held in the entire reign of Charles II. The various other _Cortes_ of the peninsula were more fortunate than that of Castile. Those of the kingdom of Aragon (Aragon proper, Catalonia, and Valencia) had always participated more than that of Castile in legislation, and had been more prone to voice their grievances. The calling of a _Cortes_ in these regions involved difficulties, especially in Valencia, where the king was obliged to be present, in order to constitute a legal meeting. The need for funds was such, however, that a number of _Cortes_ were summoned,--seventeen in Aragon, thirteen in Catalonia, fourteen in Valencia, and seventy-three in Navarre,--but the kings did not obtain a great deal from them. Often the delegates refused to make a grant, or else gave so little that it hardly covered the expenses of the king’s journey to the place of meeting. No effort was made to join these bodies with that of Castile to form a national _Cortes_; the force of particularism was as yet too strong to attempt it. [Sidenote: Subservience of the towns to the royal will.]