In 1489, King Ferdinand, who had assembled a powerful force at Jaen, marched to the assault of Baza, a strong place, ably defended at that time by Abdullah, known under the proud title of El Zagal—­the Victorious—­because of his many victories over the Christian armies he had encountered.  During the memorable siege that ended in the fall of Baza, Peter Martyr played his dual role of soldier and historian.  The Moors defended the city with characteristic bravery, for they were fighting for their property, their liberty, and their lives.  From Jaen, where Isabella had established herself to be near the seat of war, messages of encouragement daily reached the King and his commanders, inciting them to victory, for which the Queen and her ladies daily offered prayers.  Impregnable Baza fell on the fourth of December, and, with its fall, the Moorish power in Spain was forever broken.  Smaller cities and numerous strongholds in the surrounding country hastened to offer their submission and, after the humiliating surrender of El Zagal in the Spanish camp at Tabernas, Almeria opened its gates to the triumphant Christians who sang Te Deum within its walls on Christmas day.  Peter Martyr’s description of this victorious campaign has proved a rich source from which later writers have generously drawn, not always with adequate acknowledgment.  From Jaen the Court withdrew to Seville, where the marriage of the princess royal to the crown prince of Portugal was celebrated.

Boabdilla still held Granada, oblivious of his engagement to surrender that city when his rival, El Zagal, should be conquered.[1] We need not here digress to rehearse the oft-told story of the siege of Granada, during which Moslem rivalled Christian in deeds of chivalry.  Peter Martyr’s letters in the Opus Epistolarum recount these events.  He shared to the full the exultation of the victors, but was not oblivious of the grief and humiliation of the vanquished whom he describes as weeping and lamenting upon the graves of their forefathers, with a choice between captivity and exile before their despairing eyes.  He portrays his impressions upon entering with the victorious Christian host into the stately city. Alhambrum, proh dii immortales!  Qualem regiam, romane purpurate, unicam in orbe terrarum, crede, he exclaims in his letter to Cardinal Arcimboldo of Milan.

[Note 1:  The Moorish power was at this time weakened by an internal dissension.  El Zagal had succeeded his brother, Muley Abdul Hassan, who, at the time of his death ruled over Baza, Guadiz, Almeria, and other strongholds in the south-east, while his son Boabdil was proclaimed in Granada, thus dividing the kingdom against itself, at a moment when union was most essential to its preservation.  Boabdil had accepted the protection of King Ferdinand and had even stipulated the surrender of Granada as the reward for his uncle’s defeat.  Consult Prescott’s Ferdinand and Isabella.]