In A.D. 1626, Fernández de Navarrete complained of the tendency prevailing among the Spaniards generally to usurp the title _Don_. "Nowadays in Castile," he wrote (_Conservación de Monarquías_, p. 71, etc.), "exists a horde of turbulent and idle fellows that so style themselves, since you will hardly find the son of a craftsman (_oficial mecánico_) that does not endeavour by this trick to filch the honour that is owed to true nobility alone; and so, impeded and weighed down by the false appearance of _caballeros_, they are unsuited to follow any occupation that is incompatible with the empty authority of a _Don_." Some of the reasons why these rogues or _pseudonobles_ (as Fernández de Navarrete called them), attempted to pass for _hidalgos_ or "sons of somebody," are disclosed by Townsend, writing a century and a half later. "Numerous privileges and immunities enjoyed by the _hidalgos_ or knights, sometimes called _hijos dalgo_, have contributed very much to confirm hereditary prejudices to the detriment of trade. Their depositions are taken in their own houses. They are seated in the courts of justice, and are placed near the judge. Till the year 1784, their persons, arms, and horses were free from arrest. They are not sent to the common jails, but are either confined in castles or in their own houses on their parole of honour. They are not hanged, but strangled, and this operation is called _garrotar_, from _garrote_, the little stick used by carriers to twist the cord and bind hard their loading. They cannot be examined on the rack. They are, moreover, exempted from the various taxes called _fechos_, _pedidos_, _monedas_, _martiniegas_, and _contribuciones reales_ and _civiles_: that is, from subsidies, benevolence, and poll tax, or taille paid by the common people, at the rate of two per cent., in this province, but in others at the rate of four. They are free from personal service, except where the sovereign is, and even then they cannot be compelled to follow him. None but the royal family can be quartered on them. To conclude, the noble female conveys all these privileges to her husband and her children, just in the same manner as the eldest daughter of the titular nobility transmits the titles of her progenitors.