Kings & rulers > History of the reign of the Emperor Charles V. > Volume 1

342 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
Spatiidi literature, complains that he could find no author
who gave a dillinft account of the Cortes or fupreme af-
fembly of the nation, or who defcribed the manner in
which it was held, or mentioned the precife number of
members who had a right to fit in it. He produces,
however, from Gil Gonzales d’Avila, who publilhed a
hifiory of Henry II. the writ of fuminons to the town
of Abula, requiring it to chufe reprefentatives to appear
in the Cortes wh ch he called to meet A. D. i 590.
From this we learn, that prelates, dukes, marquides,
the mafters of the three military orders, Condes and
Ricqs-hombres were required to attend. Thefe com-
pofed the bodies of eccleliafticsand nobles, which formed
two members of the legiflature. The cities which fent
members to that meeting of the Cottes were forty eight.
The number of reprefentatives (for the cities had right
to chufe more or fewer according to their refpeftive dig¬
nity) amounted to an hundred and twenty five. Geddes’
Mifcellaneous Trails, vol. i. 331. Zurita having occafion
to mention the Cortes which Ferdinand held at Toro
A. D. 1505, in order to fecure for himfelf the govern¬
ment of Callile after the death of Ifabella, records, with
his ufual accuracy, the names of the members prefent,
and of the cities which they reprefented. From that lift it
appears, that only eighteen cities had deputies in this
adembiy. Anales de Aragon, tom. vi. p. 3. What
was the occafion of this great difference in the number
of cities reprefented in thefe two meetings of the Cortes,
I am unabie to explain.
NOTE XXXIV. Sect. III. p. 168. [LL].
A GREAT part of the territory in Spain was engrofied
by the nobility. L. Marinteus Siculus, who compofed
his treatife De Rebus Hifpanite during the reign of
Charles V. gives a catalogue of the Spanilh nobility, to¬
gether with the yearly rent of their eftates. According
to his account, which he affirms was as accurate as the
nature of the fubje£t would admit, the fum total of the
annual revenue of their lands amounted to one million
four