This same year, 1718, witnessed the greatest benefits to Peter’s subjects—­in general improvements, in the establishment and perfecting of manufactures, in the construction of canals, and in the development of commerce.  An extensive commerce was established with China through Siberia, and with Persia through Astrakan.  The new city of Petersburg replaced Archangel as the seat of maritime intercourse with Europe.

Peter was now the arbiter of Northern Europe.  In May 1724, he had Catherine crowned and anointed as empress.  But he was suffering from a mental disease, and of this he died, in Catherine’s arms, in the following January, without having definitely nominated a successor.  Whether or not it was his intention, it was upon his wife Catherine that the throne devolved.

* * * * *

W.H.  PRESCOTT

The Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella

William Hickling Prescott was born at Salem, Massachusetts, on May 4, 1796.  His first great historical work, “The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella,” published in 1838, was compiled under circumstances of extraordinary difficulty.  During most of the time of its composition the author was deprived of sight, and was dependent on having all documents read to him.  Before it was completed he recovered the use of his eyes, and was able to correct and verify.  Nevertheless, the changes required were few.  The “Conquest of Mexico” and “Conquest of Peru” (see ante) followed at intervals of five and four years, and ten years later the uncompleted “Philip II.”  He died in New York on January 28, 1859.  The subjects of this work, Ferdinand and Isabella, were the monarchs who united the Spanish kingdoms into one nation, ended the Moorish dominion in Europe, and annexed the New World to Spain, which during the ensuing century threatened to dominate the states of Christendom.

I.—­Castile and Aragon

After the great Saracen invasion, at the beginning of the eighth century, Spain was broken up into a number of small but independent states.  At the close of the fifteenth century, these were blended into one great nation.  Before this, the numbers had been reduced to four—­Castile, Aragon, Navarre, and the Moorish kingdom of Granada.

The civil feuds of Castile in the fourteenth century were as fatal to the nobility as were the English Wars of the Roses.  At the close, the power of the commons was at its zenith.  In the long reign of John II., the king abandoned the government to the control of favourites.  The constable, Alvaro de Luna, sought to appropriate taxing and legislative powers to the crown.  Representation in the cortes was withdrawn from all but eighteen privileged cities.  Politically disastrous, the reign was conspicuous for John’s encouragement of literature, the general intellectual movement, and the birth of Isabella, three years before John’s death.