to them. Their consent was esteemed indispensable to the validity of a
title to the crown, and this prerogative, or at least the image of it, has
continued to survive the wreck of their ancient liberties. [38] Finally,
they more than once set aside the testamentary provisions of the
sovereigns in regard to the succession. [39]

Without going further into detail, enough has been said to show the high
powers claimed by the commons, previously to the fifteenth century, which,
instead of being confined to ordinary subjects of legislation, seem, in
some instances, to have reached to the executive duties of the
administration. It would, indeed, show but little acquaintance with the
social condition of the Middle Ages, to suppose that the practical
exercise of these powers always corresponded with their theory. We trace
repeated instances, it is true, in which they were claimed and
successfully exerted; while, on the other hand, the multiplicity of
remedial statutes proves too plainly how often the rights of the people
were invaded by the violence of the privileged orders, or the more artful
and systematic usurpations of the crown. But, far from being intimidated
by such acts, the representatives in cortes were ever ready to stand
forward as the intrepid advocates of constitutional freedom; and the
unqualified boldness of their language on such occasions, and the
consequent concessions of the sovereign, are satisfactory evidence of the
real extent of their power, and show how cordially they must have been
supported by public opinion.

It would be improper to pass by without notice an anomalous institution
peculiar to Castile, which sought to secure the public tranquillity by
means scarcely compatible themselves with civil subordination. I refer to
the celebrated _Hermandad_, or Holy Brotherhood, as the association was
sometimes called, a name familiar to most readers in the lively fictions