These changes, and other important measures, were not carried into effect without great discontent and considerable open resistance. But the Cardinal was strong, in the resources of his own powerful mind, in the general reverence of the people for the sanctity of his character, in his exalted rank as head of the Spanish church, and in the immense revenues of his see, which gave him a command of money not enjoyed by the crown, and enabled him to keep in his own pay a considerable body of troops. With these he maintained order, and repressed feuds, which the barons, trusting to the common weakness of a regency, hastened to decide by the sword; and set at defiance the enmity of the nobility at a later period, when more decided encroachments on the privileges of the order had produced a general spirit of discontent. On one occasion a deputation of the chief grandees of Castile required to be informed, under what title he presumed to exercise such high authority. The Cardinal showed the will of Ferdinand, and its confirmation by Charles V., and finding them still unsatisfied, led them to a window, from which he pointed out a strong military force under arms. “These,” he said, “are the powers which I have received from the king. With these I govern Castile; and with these I will govern it, until the king, your master and mine, takes possession of his kingdom.” One of his schemes for strengthening the crown was the erection of a species of militia, composed of burghers of cities; but that class was not sufficiently advanced in knowledge to appreciate the immense accession of importance which would accrue from this measure, which they regarded solely as a burden. It was therefore unpopular among them, as well as unpalatable to the barons; and was entirely dropped soon after the regent’s death. His foreign policy was nearly confined to the conduct of two wars: the one to maintain Navarre, which had been usurped by Ferdinand, against the legitimate monarch John d’Albret; the other, an expedition against the pirate Barbarossa, King of Algiers, who inflicted a signal and entire discomfiture on the invading army.