Mercurino Gattinara, chancellor of the recently elected…
June 1520 CE
Mercurino Gattinara, chancellor of the recently elected Habsburg emperor Charles V, in April 1520 summons the Castilian Cortes to Santiago in northwestern Spain to demand additional monies, although the former grant has not yet expired.
The towns immediately create difficulties: the Toledans refuse to appear; the delegations from other towns demand the airing of grievances before discussing funding.
The government employs a mixture of bribery and concessions to extract from a majority of the delegates (who had transferred from Santiago to La Coruña on the northwest coast) an agreement to vote the new grant.
Many of the delegates are immediately disowned in their hometowns, however, and one from Segovia is murdered by an enraged mob.
Charles sails for Spain on May 20, with the Castilian revolution already under way in Toledo.