Toledo, the Story of an Old Spanish CapitalLynch, Hannah
History
Toledo, the Story of an Old Spanish Capital
Lynch, Hannah
Toledo (Spain) -- Description and travel; Toledo (Spain) -- History
against robbers, _San Martin de la Montiña_, with similar privileges
granted by royal decree as those of the more famous _Hermandad_. Later,
the Catholic kings instituted the _Hermandad nueva_, of disastrous
memory, formed of one thousand horse and foot with a captain, general,
and a supreme council, whose duties and functions were multiplied and
extended beyond the province all over the unhappy Peninsula. This
brotherhood we know, alas! played a terrible part in the terrible
Inquisition, and hunted down bigger and more historic game than mere
robbers and assassins.
The hum of the Moorish wars ever accompanied the interior war of discord
and turbulent dissensions. When St Fernando entered Toledo as the new
sovereign, he found the town groaning under the tyranny of the wicked
governor, Fernandez Gonzalo. Two girls, one a young lady and the other a
girl of the people, flung themselves before the saintly young monarch to
complain of seduction under promise of marriage. San Fernando, who did
not trifle in these matters, expressed his horror and demanded the name
of the seducer. The instant the governor, Fernandez Gonzalo, was
mentioned, he turned furiously to his men and cried, "Cut me off that
rascal's head this very moment." Within an hour the gallant governor's
livid features were fixed above the Puerta del Sol. Here was a man
without any of the freemasonry of his sex. Death itself was the penalty
he unhesitatingly meted out without debate for wrong done to women. Not
a word of blame for the girls, no compliance to the conventional theory
of gallantry. The man who betrays a woman is a blackguard; then off with
his head, and space for cleaner souls. A little drastic, perhaps, but
conceive our civilised world in the eyes of a San Fernando. Conceive him
presiding over one of our Courts of Justice for the settlement of
breaches of promises! So wise his judgment in the esteem of Toledo that
to-day the historic scene is in relief on the glorious Puerta del Sol.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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