The judicial functions of the cortes have not been sufficiently noticed by writers. They were extensive in their operation, and gave it the name of the General Court. They were principally directed to protect the subject from the oppressions of the crown and its officers; over all which cases it possessed original and ultimate jurisdiction. The suit was conducted before the Justice, as president of the cortes, in its judicial capacity, who delivered an opinion conformable to the will of the majority. [45] The authority, indeed, of this magistrate in his own court was fully equal to providing adequate relief in all these cases. [46] But for several reasons this parliamentary tribunal was preferred. The process was both more expeditious and less expensive to the suitor. Indeed, "the most obscure inhabitant of the most obscure village in the kingdom, although a foreigner," might demand redress of this body; and, if he was incapable of bearing the burden himself, the state was bound to maintain his suit, and provide him with counsel at its own charge. But the most important consequence, resulting from this legislative investigation, was the remedial laws frequently attendant on it. "And our ancestors," says Blancas, "deemed it great wisdom patiently to endure contumely and oppression for a season, rather than seek redress before an inferior tribunal, since, by postponing their suit till the meeting of cortes, they would not only obtain a remedy for their own grievance, but one of a universal and permanent application." [47]
The Aragonese cortes maintained a steady control over the operations of government, especially after the dissolution of the Union; and the weight of the commons was more decisive in it, than in other similar assemblies of that period. Its singular distribution into four estates was favorable to this. The knights and _hidalgos_, an intermediate order between the great nobility and the people, when detached from the former, naturally lent additional support to the latter, with whom, indeed, they had considerable affinity. The representatives of certain cities, as well as a certain class of citizens, were entitled to a seat in this body; [48] so that it approached both in spirit and substance to something like a popular representation. Indeed, this arm of the cortes was so uniformly vigilant in resisting any encroachment on the part of the crown, that it has been said to represent, more than any other, the liberties of the nation. [49] In some other particulars the Aragonese commons possessed an advantage over those of Castile. 1. By postponing their money grants to the conclusion of the session, and regulating them in some degree by the previous dispositions of the crown, they availed themselves of an important lever relinquished by the Castilian cortes. [50] 2. The kingdom of Aragon proper was circumscribed within too narrow limits to allow of such local jealousies and estrangements, growing out of an apparent diversity of interests, as existed in the neighboring monarchy. Their representatives, therefore, were enabled to move with a more hearty concert, and on a more consistent line of policy. 3. Lastly, the acknowledged right to a seat in cortes, possessed by every city which had once been represented there, and this equally whether summoned or not, if we may credit Capmany, [51] must have gone far to preserve the popular branch from the melancholy state of dilapidation to which it was reduced in Castile by the arts of despotic princes. Indeed, the kings of Aragon, notwithstanding occasional excesses, seem never to have attempted any systematic invasion of the constitutional rights of their subjects. They well knew, that the spirit of liberty was too high among them to endure it. When the queen of Alfonso the Fourth urged her husband, by quoting the example of her brother the king of Castile, to punish certain refractory citizens of Valencia, he prudently replied, "My people are free, and not so submissive as the Castilians. They respect me as their prince, and I hold them for good vassals and comrades."[52]