PADILLA, JUAN LOPEZ DE, a famous Spanish patriot, was the eldest son of the commendator of Castile, and was born in Toledo towards the close of the fifteenth century. He grew up a brave, high-souled, and patriotic citizen, and only waited for an opportunity to play a distinguished part in the history of his country. This opportunity was soon brought about by the series of events which followed the accession of Charles V. to the crown of Spain. The entire administration during the absence of the king was placed in the hands of his Flemish favourites. A Flemish cardinal, Adrian of Utrecht, held the regency; Flemish courtiers
sold the offices of state to the highest bidders; and Flemish place-hunters, after a short and lucrative sojourn, carried the wealth of Spain home to their own country. Incensed at this system of oppressive misrule, the rich and powerful cities of Castile laid before Charles, by the hands of their deputies, a long list of grievances; and finding that their claims were treated with silent neglect, they took up arms in vindication of their rights in 1522. It was then that Juan Lopez de Padilla appeared in the arena of history as the leader of the citizens of Toledo, and the most zealous promoter of the cause of the general insurrection. His first act was to form the deputies of the several towns into an association under the name of the "Holy Junta," which should take charge of the general interests of the people. Then proceeding at the head of a body of troops to Tordesillas, the residence of Joanna, the imbecile grandmother of the king, he succeeded in gaining admittance into the town, obtaining an audience of the queen, and exacting from her a sanction to do whatever should be necessary for the public welfare. His next enterprise was to strip the regent of the authority and ensigns of government. He marched to Tordesillas, the seat of the regency, seized upon the treasury books, the archives, and the seals of the kingdom, and left Adrian in the position of a private individual. At this juncture, however, the over-arrogant and injudicious measures of the Junta began to check the successes, and led to the ruin of Padilla. That body, by inserting among their plans of reformation a direct attack upon the power of the nobility, brought upon themselves the armed hostility of the warlike and chivalrous aristocracy of Spain. Not content with one indiscretion, they intrusted the defence and maintenance of their cause to Don Pedro de Giron, an individual who had no recommendation but his high birth. The consequence was, that the army of the nobility was allowed, without opposition, to attack and capture the important town of Tordesillas, and thus to inflict a deadly blow upon the success of the revolution. Again did Padilla assume the chief command, and, by the capture of Torrelobaton and other towns, maintain the cause of the Junta. But again did the Junta themselves, by granting a suspension of arms, betray that cause. At the end of the truce, Padilla found that so many of his soldiers had departed to their homes that he could not face the advancing enemy. He retreated towards Toro; the enemy overtook him on a piece of disadvantageous ground near Villalar on the 23d April 1522; and all his desperate measures and chivalrous valour could not prevent his fatigued and disheartened recruits from yielding before the dashing charge of the royalist cavalry. The hopes of the revolutionists were thus irretrievably ruined. Padilla, resolving not to survive the frustration of Spanish freedom, fought till the very last; but he was carried, captive and wounded, from the field to brave a public execution. On the next day, after addressing to his wife and his native city respectively, two letters full of tender devotion and triumphant heroism, he bravely laid down his life for his country.