The justice shown in Galicia and Seville was typical of the measures adopted elsewhere; measures so widespread that the old machinery of government proved totally inadequate for their execution. Reconstruction went perforce hand in hand with reform; and, just as in the Cortes of Madrigal and Dueñas the Santa Hermandad had been placed on a new and more practical basis, so in the Cortes of Toledo of 1480 the whole executive and judicial system was subjected to a close revision. Amongst the changes effected, none was to prove of more lasting influence than the decided bias there given towards the employment of the lawyer class in all important matters of state. Sprung mainly from the _bourgeoisie_, or from the ranks of the lesser nobility, the lawyers had for a long time rendered to Castilian sovereigns their services of penmanship and technical knowledge; but the preponderating power in the royal counsels had remained the higher aristocracy with its claims of blood and wealth. Ferdinand and Isabel did not set themselves openly to humble the latter class, as Henry IV. had attempted in his new creations; but the fact that the government was daily growing more specialized made it necessary that trained and expert officials should take the place of amateurs, however high their personal qualifications. Thus, in the Cortes of Toledo, the composition of the Royal Council, before mainly aristocratic, was officially settled as one bishop, three “caballeros,” or knights, and eight or nine lawyers. This does not mean that the greater nobles suddenly received an intimation that their presence was no longer required. They were welcomed as before with profound respect, but the feeling that it rested with themselves whether they attended or no would soon encourage the less strenuous to withdraw. A further impetus to their exclusion would be given by the division of the government into the specialized departments described by Hernando de Pulgar in his account of the Cortes of Toledo. Hitherto the Royal Council, “Nuestro Consejo” as the sovereigns were fond of alluding to it, had been the chief medium of their will. At times a consultative committee, its functions were also administrative and judicial; and, in the latter aspect, it had tended to absorb much of the work belonging to the other Courts of Law, such as the “Royal Audiences” or “Chancery” for civil cases, and the supreme criminal court of the “Alcaldes de Corte.”