For, as we have shown (Chap. IV. Secs. 5, 6), a
king can be deprived of the power of ruling, not by the civil law, but
by the law of war, in other words the subjects may resist his violence
with violence. Besides this condition they stipulated others, which do
not concern our present design. Having by these customs given themselves
a constitution to the mind of all, they continued for an incredible
length of time unharmed, the king's loyalty towards his subjects being
as great as theirs towards him. But after that the kingdom fell by
inheritance to Ferdinand of Castile, who first had the surname of
Catholic; this liberty of the Arragonese began to displease the
Castilians, who therefore ceased not to urge Ferdinand to abolish these
rights. But he, not yet being accustomed to absolute dominion, dared
make no such attempt, but replied thus to his counsellors: that (not to
mention that he had received the kingdom of Arragon on those terms,
which they knew, and had most solemnly sworn to observe the same, and
that it was inhuman to break his word) he was of opinion, that his
kingdom would be stable, as long as its safety was as much to the
subjects' as to the king's interest, so that neither the king should
outweigh the subjects, nor yet the subjects the king; for that if either
party were too powerful, the weaker would not only try to recover its
former equality, but in vexation at its injury to retaliate upon the
other, whence would follow the ruin of either or both.
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