The expenses of the new machinery were met by a tax of 1800 maravedis on every one hundred householders, to provide for the maintenance and equipment of a single horseman. In a country, poverty-stricken through long years of internal unrest and consequent commercial insecurity, such a burden could only be justified by extreme need; but time was to prove the compensation more than adequate. “None of the reforms of Ferdinand and Isabella were so efficient in restoring order,” says a modern historian, speaking of the Santa Hermandad, and, he also adds, “none did more to centralize power.” This latter fact was realized by many of the nobles. Here was the nucleus of a standing army, controlled by a central council under royal supervision. Its officers, when in pursuit of their prey, claimed the right of entry, not only within the gates of walled cities under municipal jurisdiction, but into fortified castles hitherto inviolable. Thus the Santa Hermandad, in attacking anarchy, threatened territorial independence; and an aristocracy, that had zealously fomented trouble for its private ends, received the due reward of its efforts. In vain a gathering of prelates and nobles complained at Corbeñas of the arbitrary and illegal character of the new police force. They had lived as a class apart and could expect no sympathy from the mass of the nation. Neither with peasant nor burgher were the expenses of the Holy Brotherhood popular, but both were willing to pay a high price for the security of their lives and goods. The citizens and artisans and all the poor people desirous of peace [says Pulgar] were very joyful; and they gave thanks to God, because they saw a time in which it pleased Him to have pity on these kingdoms, through the justice that the King and Queen began to execute, and because each man thought to possess his own without fear that another would take it from him by force. At the end of three years the Hermandad, to the general satisfaction, was granted a new lease of life. Its path was also smoothed by the conduct of the Constable of Castile, Pedro Fernandez de Velasco, Count of Haro,—the same who had once argued with the recalcitrant Archbishop of Toledo on the subject of loyalty. Eager to prove his own, he willingly gave the officers of the Hermandad access to his demesnes, even joining with the members of his household to assist them in their work. As he was accredited with more vassals than any other of his peers, his example was followed by those of the leading nobles who wished to win royal favour. Lesser territorial magnates yielded perforce to the trend of popular opinion; and the sphere of action enjoyed by the Hermandad widened, not only to include the entire dominions of Castile but also the kingdom of Aragon.