Nor was this revolution in the art of war confined to the conduct of the Spanish troops in the field. Before the close of the campaign a national militia, or rather a standing army, had taken the place of the brave but irregular levies of medieval Spain. A royal ordinance regulated the equipment of every individual, according to his property. A man’s arms were declared free from seizure for debt, even by the Crown, and smiths and other artificers were restricted, under severe penalties, from working up weapons of war into articles of more pacific use. In 1426 a census was taken of all persons capable of bearing arms; and by an ordinance issued at Valladolid, on February 22d of the same year, it was provided that one out of every twelve inhabitants, between twenty and forty-five years of age, should be enlisted for the service of the State, whether in the conduct of a foreign war or the suppression of domestic disorder. CHAPTER VII UNITED SPAIN THE DISCOVERY OF THE NEW WORLD--VASCO DA GAMA--THE ROYAL MARRIAGES--DREAMS OF EMPIRE--THE DEATH OF ISABELLA--FERDINAND’S END The reign of Ferdinand and Isabella was made immemorial through Columbus and his discovery. The man and the event will, in subsequent chapters, be considered at length. For the present it will suffice to note that on his return from the New World, after being loaded with honors, a question arose as to Isabella’s right to confer the dignities thus bestowed--Portugal claiming the territory by reason of an anterior grant from the Pope, who, in common with all other parties, believed it to be part of India. The question was referred to a Junta of learned men of both nations, at the same time that application was made to the reigning Pope, Alexander VI., concerning it. The junta decided that the discoveries of Columbus were not included in the Portuguese grant; and his Holiness finally, as he conceived, terminated the dispute by drawing a line across the Atlantic, from pole to pole, and adjudging all lands discovered on the east of that line to Portugal, all on the west to Castile.