By Frances Elliot
———
Old Court Life in France
Old Court Life in Spain

Entrance to the Mosque of the Alhambra.

 

OLD   COURT
LIFE   IN   SPAIN

BY
FRANCES ELLIOT
AUTHOR OF “OLD COURT LIFE IN FRANCE,” ETC.



ILLUSTRATED

———
VOLUME I.
———

G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
The Knickerbocker Press

 
The Knickerbocker Press, New York

To

MRS. HUMPHRY WARD

TO WHOSE RESEARCHES

I AM SO MUCH INDEBTED, THIS REVIVAL OF

OLD SPANISH TIMES

IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED

PREFACE

N no boastful spirit I gratefully acknowledge the flattering success of Old Court Life in France, written twenty years ago. It is precisely owing to the favour with which the public in England, America, and on the Continent still honour this work that I have endeavoured to reproduce on the same plan some pictures of early Spanish history comparatively little known to the general public.

Nothing can possibly be more thrilling and more romantic.

It is with the earlier and less known passages of old Court life I have dealt down to the reign of Ferdinand and Isabel, from which period the history of Spain loses its peculiar identity and becomes merged into that of Europe.

If I have loved the courtly history I also love the country. A great part of this work was written in Spain, in the very places where the events occurred. May the reader share the same enthusiasm I felt in describing them!

AUTHORITIES

Dozy—Histories.

Mrs. Humphry Ward in Smith’s Dictionary of Christian Biography on Gothic Ecclesiastical History.

Biographie Universelle.

Bradley—Story of the Nations.

Lane Poole—The Moors.

Romanceros, Ballads of the Cid, Ballads of Bernardo del Carpio.

Lockhart—Spanish Ballads.

Cid Campeador, by Prince Odescalchi.

Storia de Don Pedro Abogado da los Tribunales Nacionales.

Chronicles of King Alfonso El Sabio.

Washington Irving’s Works.

Murray’s Guide for Spain.

Diary of an Idle Woman in Spain.

Prescott’s History of Ferdinand and Isabel.

CONTENTS