Both sides were ruined by the war which, beginning in 1519, dragged along for several years until the proletariat was completely crushed.
[The Cortes] The armed triumph of the government hardly damaged popular liberties as embodied in the constitution of the Cortes of Castile.

When Charles became king this body was not, like other parliaments, ordinarily a representative assembly of the three estates, but consisted merely of deputies of eighteen Castilian cities.

Only on special occasions, such as a coronation, were nobles and clergy summoned to participate.

Its great {429} power was that of granting taxes, though somehow it never succeeded, as did the English House of Commons, in making the redress of grievances conditional upon a subsidy.

But yet the power amounted to something and it was one that neither Charles nor Philip commonly ventured to violate.