Castilians

For eight hundred years, every army that wanted to enter Portugal had to come through here.

Romans, Moors, Castilians, Spaniards during the Restoration War of sixteen forty, Napoleon's French, the English, all of them broke against it.

What you're going to walk today is not a pretty historic center for tourists.

It's a seventeenth-century war machine designed by Jesuits, Dutch engineers, and the Marquis of Vauban.

Glorious was the scene before them.

The green plain covered in every direction with white tents, surmounted with the banners or pennons of their masters, the broad red cross of St. George waving proudly in the midst, and beside it the royal lions and castles of the two Spanish monarchies.

To the south, the snowy peaks of the Pyrenees began to gleam white like clouds against the sky, and the gray sea line to the west closed the horizon.

Eustace drew his rein and gazed in silent admiration, and Gaston, riding by his side, pointed out the several bearings and devices which to the warrior of that day spoke as plainly, often more so, as written words.

Here a want of provisions was severely felt, for such was the hatred borne to Pedro the Cruel that every inhabitant of the country fled at his approach, carrying off or destroying all that could be used as food.

It was the intention of Bertrand du Guesclin, the ally of Enrique of Trastamare, to remain quietly in his camp of Navarreta and allow hunger to do its work with the invading force.

But this prudent plan was prevented by the folly of Don Tello, brother of Enrique, who, accusing Bertrand of cowardice, so stung his fiery spirit that he resolved on instant combat, though knowing how little dependence could be placed on his Spanish allies.

The challenge of the Prince of Wales was therefore accepted, and never were tidings more welcome than these to the half-famished army encamped upon the banks of the Ebro, on the same ground on which, in after years, English valor was once more to turn to flight a usurping king of Spain.

So they were in Spain for like 800 years.

Now, What happens is that when the Moors conquer Spain, there's a group of people from northern Spain called the Castilians who are fighting against the Moors.

And this war goes on for seven centuries.

They're trying to get their independence from these African colonizers, as they were.

'Twas not of my age such foul black treason that at once could petrify an old man on the threshold of his door, and make the master waiting for his grave look like his statue ready for his tomb.

Moors and Castilians, tell me, who's this man?

He raises his eyes and looks round on the portraits on the wall.

Oh, you, the Silvas who can hear me now, forgive if, in your presence by my wrath thus stirred, I say that hospitality was ill-advised.

It was the Portuguese who began the systematic work of discovery in the 15th century.

They were prompted perhaps by the desire to exercise the crusading spirit which had been fostered in them by their constant struggles with the Moors in the peninsula, and for which they had no scope at home now that the Castilians separated them from their enemies.

For more than 30 years, 1426-60, Prince Henry of Portugal, grandson of the English John of Gaunt, was the moving spirit and the organizer of these maritime expeditions, and we are able to mark the change even in his lifetime from the old crusading spirit of the Middle Ages to the commercial spirit of modern times.

When the Portuguese began to explore the western coasts of Africa, their desire was to form a Christian kingdom on the west of the Sudan which should correspond to that of Abyssinia on the east, and thus to be able to carry on from each end their work of Christianizing the natives who had not yet been converted to Islam.

the only analysts of their rude tribes, and heard them tell the story of the victory which Damel, the negro prince of the Jalafs, won over Abdelkader, the Muslim tyrant of Futatora.

This species of poetry attained a high degree of excellence among the Castilians before they began to copy Tuscan patterns.

It attained a still higher degree of excellence among the English and the lowland Scotch during the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries.

but it reached its full perfection in ancient Greece.

Of course, the cities are a long way apart, but it is in a massively exciting, means an enormous amount because you've, of course, got the...

The Castilians against the Catalinas, they take it all very seriously.

Fantastic.

Well, this is one of the things that I've enjoyed about discovering all these regional differences.

It was the Portuguese who began the systematic work of discovery in the fifteenth century.

They were prompted perhaps by the desire to exercise the crusading spirit which had been fostered in them by their constant struggles with the Moors in the peninsula, and for which they had no scope at home now that the Castilians separated them from their enemies.

For more than thirty years, 1426 to 60, Prince Henry of Portugal, grandson of the English John of Gaunt, was the moving spirit and the organizer of these maritime expeditions, and we are able to mark the change even in his lifetime from the old crusading spirit of the Middle Ages to the commercial spirit of modern times.

When the Portuguese began to explore the western coasts of Africa, their desire was to form a Christian kingdom on the west of the Sudan which should correspond to that of Abyssinia on the east, and thus to be able to carry on from each end their work of Christianizing the natives who had not yet been converted to Islam.

The Spaniards had long been at the head of a great power in Europe, and now their territories were to be divided and their consent was not even asked.

The Castilians were the proudest of all the Spaniards and had long been the ruling class in the country.

They felt it the most.

The dishonor to Spain was well expressed in a famous political satire published toward the end of Queen Anne's reign, Arbutnot's History of John Bull, from which the popular name for an Englishman is taken.

Old Lord Strutt, the King of Spain, is dying, and there assemble with measuring poles and inkhorns to divide his estate Louis Baboon, France, his neighbor John Bull, England, his tailor, and Nick Frog, Holland, his runaway servant.

But the real question as to the iniquity of the partition is not settled here.

The peace of Europe was more important than the honor of the Castilians, and the object of the treaty was to keep the nations at peace.

The soreness in Spain, however, vented itself in anger not against Louis but against William.

It was the Portuguese who began the systematic work of discovery in the fifteenth century.

They were prompted perhaps by the desire to exercise the crusading spirit which had been fostered in them by their constant struggles with the Moors in the peninsula, and for which they had no scope at home now that the Castilians separated them from their enemies.

For more than thirty years, 1426-60, Prince Henry of Portugal, grandson of the English John of Gaunt, was the moving spirit and the organizer of these maritime expeditions, and we are able to mark the change even in his lifetime from the old crusading spirit of the Middle Ages to the commercial spirit of modern times.

When the Portuguese began to explore the western coasts of Africa, their desire was to form a Christian kingdom on the west of the Sudan which should correspond to that of Abyssinia on the east, and thus to be able to carry on from each end their work of Christianizing the natives who had not yet been converted to Islam.