elevated to the rank of knighthood. [42] The excellent breed of sheep,
which early became the subject of legislative solicitude, furnished them
with an important staple which, together with the simpler manufactures and
the various products of a prolific soil, formed the materials of a
profitable commerce. [43] Augmentation of wealth brought with it the usual
appetite for expensive pleasures; and the popular diffusion of luxury in
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries is attested by the fashionable
invective of the satirist, and by the impotence of repeated sumptuary
enactments. [44] Much of this superfluous wealth, however, was expended on
the construction of useful public works. Cities, from which the nobles had
once been so jealously excluded, came now to be their favorite residence.
[45] But, while their sumptuous edifices and splendid retinues dazzled the
eyes of the peaceful burghers, their turbulent spirit was preparing the
way for those dismal scenes of faction, which convulsed the little
commonwealths to their centre during the latter half of the fifteenth
century.

The flourishing condition of the communities gave their representatives a
proportional increase of importance in the national assembly. The
liberties of the people seemed to take deeper root in the midst of those
political convulsions, so frequent in Castile, which unsettled the ancient
prerogatives of the crown. Every new revolution was followed by new
concessions on the part of the sovereign, and the popular authority
continued to advance with a steady progress until the accession of Henry
the Third, of Trastamara, in 1393, when it may be said to have reached its
zenith. A disputed title and a disastrous war compelled the father of this
prince, John the First, to treat the commons with a deference unknown to
his predecessors. We find four of their number admitted into his privy
council, and six associated in the regency, to which he confided the
government of the kingdom during his son's minority. [46] A remarkable