In the time of the Moors the fortress was capable of containing
within its outward precincts an army of forty thousand men, and served
occasionally as a strong-hold of the sovereigns against their
rebellious subjects. After the kingdom had passed into the hands of
the Christians, the Alhambra continued to be a royal demesne, and
was occasionally inhabited by the Castilian monarchs. The emperor
Charles V commenced a sumptuous palace within its walls, but was
deterred from completing it by repeated shocks of earthquakes. The
last royal residents were Philip V and his beautiful queen, Elizabetta
of Parma, early in the eighteenth century. Great preparations were
made for their reception. The palace and gardens were placed in a
state of repair, and a new suite of apartments erected, and
decorated by artists brought from Italy. The sojourn of the sovereigns
was transient, and after their departure the palace once more became
desolate. Still the place was maintained with some military state. The
governor held it immediately from the crown, its jurisdiction extended
down into the suburbs of the city, and was independent of the
captain-general of Granada. A considerable garrison was kept up, the
governor had his apartments in the front of the old Moorish palace,
and never descended into Granada without some military parade. The
fortress, in fact, was a little town of itself, having several streets
of houses within its walls, together with a Franciscan convent and a
parochial church.
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