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SPRINGER BRIEFS IN APPLIED SCIENCES AND
TECHNOLOGY  POLIMI SPRINGER BRIEFS
Luca Tamini
Re-activation
of Vacant Retail
Spaces
Strategies, Policies
and Guidelines
123
SpringerBriefs in Applied Sciences
and Technology
PoliMI SpringerBriefs
Editorial Board
Barbara Pernici, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Stefano Della Torre, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Bianca M. Colosimo, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Tiziano Faravelli, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Roberto Paolucci, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Silvia Piardi, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11159
http://www.polimi.it
Luca Tamini
Re-activation of Vacant
Retail Spaces
Strategies, Policies and Guidelines
123
Luca Tamini
Department of Architecture and Urban
Studies
Politecnico di Milano
Milan
Italy
ISSN 2191-530X ISSN 2191-5318 (electronic)

SpringerBriefs in Applied Sciences and Technology
ISSN 2282-2577 ISSN 2282-2585 (electronic)
PoliMI SpringerBriefs
ISBN 978-3-319-70871-3 ISBN 978-3-319-70872-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70872-0
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017958617
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Preface
Retail has undergone deep structural and spatial evolutions throughout the decades,
with dramatic and radical consequences in terms of functional concentration,
attractiveness, scale and location of stores. In the most recent period, these
long-standing trends have been further exacerbated by the stunning development
of the Internet and related e-commerce practices, together with the effects of more
than 10 years of economic crisis. Consumer behaviours and retail strategies have
changed dramatically, and the evidences of this process are clear: inner-city areas
have become less central to people’s lives, the economic impact of traditional
businesses is decreasing and shopping malls and big-box stores are also falling into
decay.
Although more advanced in the US, the weakening of urban retail systems—up
to desertification—is a widespread phenomenon in many European cities and
regions, and Italy makes no exception. The formerly dynamic, both urban and
suburban, spaces once acting as magnets for a diversified range of activities and
user inflows are now dotted with vacant units gradually losing commercial attrac-
tiveness. The impact of this trend exceeds a sectoral dimension and bears several
social and economic costs, in terms of loss of new business opportunities, revenues
and employment for both SMEs and local branches of transnational companies.
Therefore, this issue represents an important factor affecting the quality of life of
users and consumers, as well as the vibrancy of local economies.
Public authorities are asked to tackle this topic and to set up actions and policies
meant to revitalize the sector, and, as a result, they must consider the territorial role
of trading activities, as well as their relevance for local and regional development.
In fact, demalling and other actions aimed to face the shrinking of urban retail
systems have become a new task for urban planning in those areas where public and
private actors need support in their effort to redevelop vacant malls, big-box and
high-street stores. This study is partially inspired by the outcomes of a research
project titled Analisi delle criticità e delle opportunità di sviluppo del fenomeno
della dismissione commerciale ai fini dell’attrattività urbana, developed by the
Urb&Com Lab (Department of Architecture and Urban Studies/DAStU, Politecnico
di Milano) and supported by Éupolis Lombardia, the Lombardy Region Institute for
v
vi Preface
Research, Statistics and Training.1 The aims of the research are as follows:
(i) framing the multidimensional aspects of the problem, and (ii) showing that there
are many different approaches to the issue, depending on the socio-economic and
institutional context, the nature of the involved actors (private or public) and their
specific goals.
The causes of the weakening of local retail systems are twofold: on the one hand,
there are specific conditions for every single case, such as the relationship with the
context, the saturation of markets (due to horizontal competition among operators,
or to format obsolescence) and the decrease in the offer quality. On the other hand,
some transversal factors must be taken into account, including the economic crisis
and other current global trends, changes in the customers’ behaviours (such as the
emerging sharing economy and the decrease of consumption) and competition
between formats and among different shopping practices (e.g. traditional purchase
vs. e-commerce). In the first part of this work, all the above-mentioned factors are
examined, and the overall investigation perimeter is drawn.
The book also aims to be an operative tool and a useful contribution to the
current debate on how to deal with the issue of reactivating local economies.
A particular focus is devoted to some international policies, programmes and
actions implemented during the last years. The first chapter identifies a series of
strategies after drawing them from some significant case studies located in France,
Spain, UK, Germany and USA. The focus on the Italian case, in the second chapter,
allows pointing out processes, instruments and methodologies within a set of cases
in which the author was involved as a technical consultant to policymakers and
institutional actors during the last 10 years. These direct experiences have served as
a basis for collecting and implementing the tools and proposals for developing
public and private strategies aimed at reactivating retail areas (third chapter), with
expected positive consequences on the vitality of local economies. Indeed, the
publication represents a sort of original and innovative handbook for an unexplored
field, which brings together economic and spatial elements and which can be used
by scholars and students, as well as by technicians and public institutions.
Milan, Italy Luca Tamini
1
Research Project (March 2015): Attuazione strategie europee 2014/2020: individuazione priorità
e linee di azione ed evento di confronto sulle tematiche del commercio tra le Regioni dei Quattro
motori. Research team: Luca Tamini (coord.), Giorgio Limonta, Mario Paris, Silvia Carena,
Agathe Dessuges, Vittoria Rossi, with Luca Zanderighi (Department of Economics, Management,
and Quantitative Methods, University of Milan).
Contents
1 Re-activation Strategies, Experiences from Europe and USA ...... 1

1.1 Before the Dismantling: Facing Threats and Weaknesses . ...... 3
1.1.1 French Policies Against Retail Desertification . . . . ...... 3
1.2 During the Process: Supporting, Integrating
and Repositioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... 5
1.2.1 The EPARECA Case: The Lucien Sampaix
Shopping Mall, Bagnolet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... 5
1.3 Demalling: How to Re-activate Big-Boxes and Urban
Retail Districts? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... 9
1.3.1 Dismantled Big Boxes: Governance and Tools
in U.S. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... 9
1.3.2 The Vital’ Quartier Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... 13
1.3.3 An Innovative Legal Tool: Taxes on Closed Down
Retail Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... 22
1.4 Reflecting on Cases: Strategies, Actors and Proposals . . . . ...... 23
1.4.1 From Case Studies to Policy Innovation . . . . . . . . ...... 24
Appendix: Planned Centres: Medium and Large Scale
Retail Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... 29
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... 34
2 What Future for Vacant Retail Spaces? Recent Experiences
in Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... 37
2.1 Identifying an Existing and Pervasive Phenomenon:
Dimensions, Geographies and Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... 37
2.2 Re-thinking Urban Retail Systems and Sub-urban
Dead Malls: Responsive Strategies for Retail Vacancy . . . ...... 41
2.2.1 The Reuse of Large Urban Buildings . . . . . . . . . . ...... 41
2.2.2 Transformation of the Medium- and Large-Size
Extra-Urban Containers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... 52
vii
viii Contents
2.3 Recent Experiences: From Practices to an Integrated

Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... 59
2.3.1 Public Policies Supporting Urban Retail System:
Urban Retail District . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
2.3.2 (Oriented) Policies for Urban Retail Systems . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
3 Re-activating Retail Spaces: A Toolbox for Strategies,
Policies and Pilot Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 77
3.1 Innovating the Planning, Spatial and Regulative Approaches
to Retail Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 77
3.2 Working on Retail, Re-activating the City: A Toolbox
for Public and Private Actors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 87
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 92
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Chapter 1
Re-activation Strategies, Experiences
from Europe and USA
Abstract The chapter contains a sort of inventory of experiences in which urban

and suburban retail weakening is contrasted and the re-activation of its spaces is
sought. The cases are located in both Europe and the US and vary according to the
moment of the process they involve. For each case, we introduce the specific
situation/context and provide one or two examples that illustrate the ongoing
dynamics, and the potential solutions to them. Several situations are described, in
order to show the variety of approaches and proposals and, secondly, to compare
the cases. For this purpose, the inventory is followed by a matrix aiming both to
relate the different strategies to each other and to point out some innovative ways
private operators and public bodies can resort to in order to develop their actions
and programs.
An analysis of international best practices is fundamental to identify suitable active

policies designed to control and prevent retail dismantling, in so far as it supplies a
wide-ranging overview of such phenomena and offers examples, which can be used
as models. Local areas are in great need of such work but town planning regulations
have not yet codified successful response paradigms. The case review should be
interpreted in this way and consequently comparison between national and inter-
national cases should not be forced, as these are often linked to issues of scale and
settlement pattern, as well as cultural and economic contexts which vary widely. On
the contrary, the established goal is to illustrate the point in the retail desertification
process on which it is possible to intervene with measures and policies, as well as
the potential outcomes, rather than analysing specific concrete circumstances. For
this reason, it is also important to introduce the variable “time” and the moment at
which each strategy should be applied. Some of the collected experiences should
take place before the process of dismantling, when the attractiveness of the retail
activity is diminishing, like in the cases of refurbishment of urban big-boxes in
Germany, developed while the structure is still working. Other strategies should be
applied when several vacancies dotted the retail systems, like in Vital’quartier
(Paris) or Barcelona PECAB. Finally, the publication proposes some ideas related
© The Author(s) 2018 1

L. Tamini, Re-activation of Vacant Retail Spaces, PoliMI SpringerBriefs,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70872-0_1
2 1 Re-activation Strategies, Experiences from Europe and USA
to the re-activation of urban and suburban retail spaces (demalling), collecting some
example of re-functionalization of these volumes (from Italy or USA).
The choice of study cases is therefore as relevant as focusing on each single
process. Best practice and elements, which could potentially be integrated into
future public policies, aimed at preventing retail desertification phenomena, will be
highlighted.
This study involves an in-depth analysis of this subject in five European
countries and in the United States, and in-depth case studies linked to intervention
and action on the big boxes of large scale retail channel or local retail. The fol-
lowing are of special note:
• France: in-depth study of the outcomes of the most advanced policies against the
dismantling of the retail sector, developed from 1973 onwards, with specific
measures, such as the setting up of the EPARECA institution (and the outcomes
on the Lucien Sampaix shopping mall in Bagnolet) on the one hand; and the
case of the Vital’Quartier programme in Paris on the other (Apur and Semaest
2013; Dessuges 2013; Fleury 2010; IAU 2013).
• Spain; analysis of the Avenida M40 shopping mall and Parque Warner Madrid
Resort y Parks that are both located within the Madrid metropolitan area on the
big box store and need intervention on retail and tertiary sector structures, versus
the Plan Especial de Equipamiento Comercial de la Ciudad de Barcelona and
Plan Local de Equipamiento Comercial de Zaragoza that are two strategic and
planning tools, in which the cities aims to equip themselves with guideline
documents to strengthen and modernise the respective local retail areas (Ayto
Barcelona 2011; Ayto Zaragoza 2009; Sectores D. B. K. 2014).
• United Kingdom: study of the Liverpool One Urban Regeneration Project,
where retail was used as a vehicle and driving force for the recovery of its
industrial port (BDP 2009; Drivers Jonas Deloitte 2012; University of Liverpool
2008), together with the re-launch of Brixton Village in Lambeth town in
London’s southern quarter (English Heritage 2013; Fluid 2014; Hine 2010;
Lambeth Municipality 2014; Lambeth Planning Division 2012; NLP 2012).
• Germany: focus on the potential role of shopkeepers themselves, since in the
two presented cases (the Sophienhof shopping mall in Kiel, and the Forum
Steglitz shopping mall in Berlin), shopkeepers activated action on still operative
structures, that were subsequently considered obsolete or unable to respond to
market demands. These case studies show that such choices have increased the
attractiveness of the aggregates both to consumers and potential new
investors (DTZ 2011; Union Imm. 2013).
• United States of America: considerations on the crisis of the shopping mall
format, especially in its suburban locations, concluding with a presentation on
the Shannon Mall-Union Station Mall re-use case study in Union City, Atlanta
GA(Congress for the New Urbanism 2005; Congress for the New Urbanism and
PrincewaterhouseCoopers 2001a, b; McAuliffe and LEED AP 2010; PBSJ
2001; Perry 2001; Rossi 2015; Sobel et al. 2002; Tunnell-Spangler-Walsh and
Associates 2003; Union City 2010, 2013).
1.1 Before the Dismantling: Facing Threats and Weaknesses 3
1.1 Before the Dismantling: Facing Threats

and Weaknesses
1.1.1 French Policies Against Retail Desertification
Many public bodies have been set up in France to monitor, understand and act on
retail. Whilst these are based on town planning and economic type expertise, the
monitoring tools1 used consider almost exclusively the consequences for the
economy as a whole, giving no importance to the urban effects,2 while the town
planning measures dealing with this sector are introduced via PLU town plans3 and/
or SCoT regional plans4 and/or town council SDCs.5
From the point of view of commercial trends, it should be noted that the
American mall model developed immediately after World War Two on the French
territory. The format was introduced by Edouard Leclerc with the first discount
supermarket opened in Landerneau in 1949. It was a great success and this new
model later spread to the majority of French outlying urban districts. To prevent
uncontrolled development of this new retail model the state decided to develop
tools to monitor retail businesses with the aim of counteracting their negative effects
on local economy in the town centres.
On 27th December 1973, Law Royer decreed that a permit from the Commission
Départementale d’Urbanisme Commercial (CDUC)6 was required prior to building
any retail outlet larger than 1000 m2 in size. The purpose of this law was to
safeguard town centre shops.
Public powers guarantee that the expansion of retail and artisanship will safeguard the
development of all business forms both independent, group or integrated, ensuring that
uncontrolled growth in new forms of distribution does not squeeze out small business,
waste retail surfaces or compromise employment.7
1
These documents often take the form of town planning and building regulations drawn up from
local studies carried out by a number of provincial and/or local council level bodies.
2
A phenomenon previously identified by René Péron, La fin des vitrines, des temples de la
consommation aux usines à vendre, éditions de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan, 1993.
3
Plan Local d’Urbanisme is the equivalent of Italian town plans.
4
Schéma de COhérence Territoriale [regional plans]. The goal is coherence between the various
town council town plans and the development of town planning concepts and guidelines, which
will then take precedence over the town regulations. They are made up of agglomerations of town
councils.
5
Schéma de Développement Commercial [retail development plans]. The goal is to set the foun-
dations for commercial town planning designed to provide guidelines for new retail outlets.
6
Provincial Commercial Town planning Commission.
7
“Les pouvoirs publics veillent à ce que l’essor du commerce et de l’artisanat permette l’expansion
de toutes les formes d’entreprises, indépendantes, groupées ou intégrées, en évitant qu’une
croissance désordonnée des nouvelles formes de distribution ne provoque l’écrasement de la petite
entreprise et le gaspillage des équipements commerciaux et ne soit préjudiciable à l’emploi”, art.1
Legge Royer, 27th Dec. 1973.
The CDUC is composed of twenty members8:

• 9 mayors including the mayor of the town in which the permit has been applied
for;
• 9 delegates from retail activities and craftsman business;
• 2 delegates from consumer rights associations.
Other delegates take part without having the right to vote, these are the prefect and
mayors from neighbouring town councils, reporting to the town in which a permit
has been applied for.
The CDUC bases its decisions on very precise elements of a prevalently
quantitative type9:
• balanced supply and demand in each business sector within the catchment area;
• medium and large retail shop density in the area of reference;
• the potential effect of the project on the retail and craftsman fabric of the urban
agglomerations in the proximity of the catchment area;
• the employment effect of the project in terms of full time jobs generated, both
permanent and fixed term;
• competitiveness outcomes of the project in the retail and craftsman sectors;
• commitments by the project manager to fund food sector retail outlet creation on
at least 10% of the surface area applied for in zones requiring urban redevel-
opment or rural areas, in which the development of retail activities with a
vending surface area of less than 300 m2 is considered top priority.
All the decisions taken by this commission must refer to the studies of the
Provincial Retail Building Observatory. These policy measures have immediate and
significant impact on the opening of shopping malls in the vicinity of town centres.
This powerful monitoring tool has been modified over the years on a number of
occasions, culminating in Loi Raffarin which transformed the CDUC into
Commission Départementale d’Equipement Commercial (CDEC)10 and in 2000
with the Loi SRU which converted the CDEC into Commission Départementale
d’Aménagement Commercial (CDAC).11
In 1996, for example, the 1000 m2 threshold for retail licences was lowered to
300 m2 and, consequently, all the large scale distribution networks in the town
centres were obliged to apply for permits too. By contrast from 1996 to 2000, when
this legal threshold of 1000 m2 was restored, fewer medium and large-scale retail
businesses were opened.
8
Legifrance.gouv.fr.
9
Raffarin law dating to 5th July 1996, art. 28, legifrance.gouv.fr.
10
Provincial Commercial Building Commission.
11
Provincial Commercial Planning Commission.
1.2 During the Process: Supporting, Integrating and Repositioning 5
1.2 During the Process: Supporting, Integrating

and Repositioning
1.2.1 The EPARECA Case: The Lucien Sampaix Shopping

Mall, Bagnolet
The case of the Lucien Sampaix shopping mall is an opportunity to study the work
of the EPARECA public company,12 which deals specifically with re-launching
abandoned retail big boxes in the outskirts of French towns, as first priority in urban
renewal. The case is an interesting one because the mall is situated in a poor urban
context suffering from serious safety problems.
The socio-economic and regional context
Bagnolet has direct links with Paris on metro line number 3 (last stop Gallieni, close
to Porte de Bagnolet). The town centre shops thus compete with the Parisian retail
fabric. Their main retail customers are local and they supply services and primary
necessities. The Bel-Est shopping mall is at Porte de Bagnolet with 60 shops and a
food store base, an Auchan supermarket. Its client base is not solely local but it also
attracts people living in central Paris, thanks to its proximity to the Gallieni metro
stop and the accessibility and visibility of motorway A3, as well as the Paris
ringroad. Lucien Sampaix shopping mall (Fig. 1.1) is around 1.4 km from this
network of shops, which gives it a powerful competitive edge in the local context
(Table 1.1). Bel-Est is difficult to reach on foot but has local public transport links.
It should be noted, however, that the town’s retail businesses have held out against
the attractions of the shopping mall partly as a result of low vehicle ownership per
person ratios.13 The Paris ringroad passes through Bagnolet. The A3 motorway
divides it in two, making it almost impossible to walk through. A large scale urban
renovation project has been launched to rebuild links between the various quarters
and increase the density of the urban fabric.14
Permit and building process time frame
Reconstruction of the dismantling process:
• 1948–1967: 3800 social housing flats were built in the Malassis quarter.
• 1960s: building of a 1120 m2 supermarket and 16 shops.
12
Établissement Public National d’Aménagement et de Restructuration des Espaces Commerciaux
et Artisanaux: National Public Commercial and Artisan Spaces Planning and Renovation
Institution.
13
One third of those living in Bagnolet town do not own a car (Source: http://www.ville-bagnolet.
fr/).
14
It should be noted that the retail programme is an integral part of a social residence programme:
95% of the town’s housing is social housing (the Malassis quarter has a population of around
5000).
1 – Café, bar and tobacconist 150 m2.

2 – Local association 103 m2.
3 – Chemist 100 m2.
4 – Driving school 30 m2.
5 – Taxiphone 103 m2.
6 – Tailor's shop 38 m2.
7 – Bank 200 m2.
8 – Costume jeweller's 40 m2.
9 – Horsemeat butcher's 65 m2.
10 – Hairdresser's 60 m2.
11 – Ethnic shop 70 m2.
12 – Baker's 100 m2.
13 – Laundry 40 m2.
14 – Hairdresser's 40 m2.
15 – Sandwich bar 110 m2.
16 – Bookshop 110 m2.
17 – Halal supermarket 1,120 m2.
Fig. 1.1 The Lucien Sampaix shopping mall, Bagnolet (F): layout
Table 1.1 The Lucien Sampaix shopping mall, Bagnolet (F): dimensional data
Format Small shops (EdV): 16
Medium sized retail outlets (MSV): 1 supermarket
Surface area covered EdV: 1359 m2
MSV: 1120 m2
Disused surface area EdV: 700 m2
MSV: 1120 m2
Authorised retail Existing:
surface area EdV: 1359 m2
MSV: 800 m2
Project:
EdV: 350 m2
MSV: 300 m2
Tertiary and service sector businesses 1100 m2
Car parking spaces 82
Building permit issue 1960
Closing 1992 closing of the first offices in the area was followed by the first
retail dismantling. The supermarket burnt down in 2007, judicial
liquidation took place in July 2010 for Primeur Land and this was
followed by the closing of many neighbourhood businesses
• 1967–87: building of additional social housing flats in the Malassis quarter and
the creation of the La Noue quarter for 6000 inhabitants.
• 1992: dismantling of retail and tertiary sector.
• 2007: ANRU began an ambitious town redevelopment programme.
• 2007: arson at the Lucien Sampaix supermarket.
• 2010: judicial liquidation and closing of two shops (57% closed).
• 2010–2014: closing of five other small shops (73% closed).
Project time frame:

• April 2010: EPARECA is given the task of renovating the retail fabric by
Bagnolet town council.
• June 2010: studies began.
• December 2011: market study by Pivadis completed.
• September 2012: judicial and real estate study completed.
• 2012–13: retail project integrated into ANRU’s urban renovation project.
• June 2013: project modified.
• Nov–Dec 2013: existing supermarket demolished.
Action planned:
• Road network modification—2014–16.
• Building of an open air market—2015.
• New tertiary and service sector businesses added (medical and social centre,
nursery school, pre-school club) on the ground floor of the new buildings
(2015–16).
• New retail surfaces added (2016–17).
Economic analysis identifies a potential market of around 27 million Euros
which could increase to 34 million as a result of the growth in population density
expected by the time the town redevelopment plan is completed. Recent enquiries
into consumption habits in the quarter have, in fact, shown that an unsatisfied
demand for local retail exists (Fig. 1.2).
Following on from its market study EPARECA identified the type of activities it
considered sustainable:
• medium sized food retail with a surface area of no more than 300/400 m2 (the
hard-discount option was discarded right away);
• neighbourhood businesses; The chemist is in much demand so it is expected to
remain.
Low profitability scenario
High profitability scenario
Project sustainability
threshold
Fig. 1.2 The results of the market study by type of retail activity and profitability scenarios (in
millions of €). Source EPARECA/Pivadis, Dec. 2011
This new retail aggregate will function only if certain factors impact on the
economic sustainability of the new retail system such as:
• visibility;
• the presence of a large distribution network brand supermarket, as a retail
attraction;
• the creation of partnerships with other sectors (tertiary, services);
• the maintenance and growth of the neighbourhood catchment area.
Once the format was established EPARECA studied the new locations of all
businesses and the public space project with ANRU.15
A number of agreements with the town council to sustain retail businesses were
drawn up, especially:
• the setting up of council services (nursery school and pre-school club);
• changes to a public transport bus route;
• the organisation of a weekly open air market in the new square;
• the relocation of the goods loading/unloading area.
Partners
• EPARECA: involved in funding, local diagnosis, work management
• ANRU: involved in funding work
• Bagnolet town council: requested EPARECA’s intervention and will be
involved in investment
• Sequano Aménagement: mixed ownership company16 which owns the shops
• Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations17: partial funding of work
• The state: represented by the prefecture, EPARECA controlling powers,
decision-making powers
• Other partners involved in the social housing renovation project: Sem Pact 93,
Paris Habitat OPH,18 OPH Bagnolet and Association Foncière Logement.
SWOT Analysis
The case main strengths and potential can be summed up as follows:
• Strengths: location of the established urban fabric which guarantees a potentially
extremely large catchment area; a large scale urban renewal project; urban safety
measures; significant public investment; considerable attractiveness due to its
proximity to Paris; limited real estate pressure.
15
Agence Nationale pour la Rénovation Urbaine: National Urban Renewal Body.
16
67.54% public*, 32.46% private**: *province of Seine-Saint-Denis (62.20%)—Aubervilliers,
Blanc-Mesnil, Bobigny, Gagny, Les Lilas, Pierrefitte-sur-Seine, Le Pré Saint-Gervais,
Trembay-en-France, Villetaneuse town councils (5.34%); **Caisse des dépôts, Caisse d’Epargne
d’Ile-de-France (15.04%)—OPH de Seine-Saint-Denis, OPH de Bobigny, Logirep (7.93%)—other
private shareholdersi (9.49%).
17
Loan and deposit bank.
18
Office Public de l’Habitat: Public Residential Institute.
• Potential: the urban renewal project links two social housing quarters, identified
as ‘sensitive’, thus increasing town council services and public spaces with the
objective of raising living standards and making the area more attractive. As it is
classified as a ZUS (sensitive urban area) zone shopkeepers opening up retail
outlets receive incentives and both financial and bureaucratic help.
The case weaknesses and threats are, on the other hand, as follows:
• Weaknesses: enclave situation, which blocks the area’s economic development,
a population in financial difficulty with limited buying power, a climate of
insecurity, extremely high levels of competition and a degraded neighbourhood
in both social and town planning terms.
• Threats: still under-assessed to the extent that the negative consequences will
only become apparent when the project is complete: the park built above the A3
motorway to link the two quarters could become the site of clashes and/or illegal
exchange increasing the area’s insecurity and diminishing the power of efforts to
renew the area.
1.3 Demalling: How to Re-activate Big-Boxes and Urban

Retail Districts?
1.3.1 Dismantled Big Boxes: Governance and Tools in U.S.
The dynamics observed in Lombardy and overall Italian context, as well as in

international case studies relating to the planned dismantling of retail units provide
indications for the formulation of a number of useful approaches to managing and
minimising retail closing dynamics.
The first map of potential closings of medium-large retail units (Fig. 1.3)
highlights the fact that today this phenomenon seems to relate above all to medium
sized units (retail area < 2500 m2), although some shopping malls have also begun
facing anchor store dismantling, vacant units, a drop in sales, lower employment
rates, worker dismissals (see shopping malls such as Verola Center and Le Robinie
in Verolanuova BS, Le Acciaierie in Cortenuova BG). In the Italian and Lombard
scenario a first case of demalling has occurred: the former Esselunga brand
superstore in Pioltello (MI), a medium sized retail structure, which, after its
abandonment as a result of retail de-localisation, has been made into a health unit
through a joint public-private initiative (Cavoto 2014).
The thoughts expressed below follow the logic of the qualitative programming
of retail areas with the goal of possibly building additions to the new regional
programme and, on a cascade process, to local planning and regulatory approaches
by means of the retail components of town plans and local building regulations.
Fig. 1.3 Milan competitive landscape: Deadmall snd Ghostboxes. Source Urb&Com Lab,
Politecnico di Milano, 2015
1. We will start with considerations on the location of new buildings, proposing a

model inspired by the British world’s sequential approach (Findlay and Sparks
2010), which has seen interesting applications in Italy in a number of regional
contexts. Public action involves introducing a regulatory mechanism for the
quantitative and comparative evaluation of location applications and available
areas, which prioritise central or at least urbanised locations, ensuring that
certain requisites such as accessibility on public transport networks, the absence
of soil consumption, limitations on environmental and landscape impact, energy
efficiency, sustainability and material re-use are satisfied.
2. Secondly, it would be useful to consider the economic cycle of large scale retail
areas at the planning and evaluation stage, identifying the various phases in their
lifecycles and planning re-functionalisation, optimisation and re-conversion of
such areas in order to adequately forecast and consider how architectural and
town planning projects, already under way, could be reused in the future. In this
sense, it is important to intervene also by drawing up planning guidelines,
designed to introduce specific requisites and building recommendations with the
intention of minimising the landscape impact of retail areas. which may facil-
itate their later re-use or reconversion/breakdown.
1.3 Demalling: How to Re-activate Big-Boxes and Urban Retail Districts? 11
The United States experience shows that it is possible to import certain measures
designed to favour building re-use when big boxes close. Specifically, large format
retail units in the planning stage should be accompanied by documentation illus-
trating the potential of parcelling out the rentable (or saleable) public space to
multiple shops, thus reducing interior sizing. And this in consideration of the fact
that the bulk of potential tenants, interested in re-using abandoned retail spaces, are
small-scale businesses. In the Bozeman (MT), Olympia (WA) and Reno (NV) area
ordinances apply, requiring appropriate paperwork certifying any transformation,
which buildings would need in order to host multiple retail outlets via internal
walls, utility adaptation and transformation of the façade, by adding extra entrances
to it. In Bozeman, specifically, clauses have been applied to surface areas of around
3700 m2, in Olympia for around 2300 m2 and in Reno for 5500 m2 for buildings of
a surface area of around 4600 m2. Planning for the future transformation and re-use
of buildings can involve extra planning costs but these may limit later modification
costs and favour re-use.
As an alternative to re-use, once again on the basis of US experience, a con-
tractual clause, known as the demolition bond, means that owners must transfer a
sum equivalent to 110% of the building‘s value in the event of closing to local
councils. Demolition can be implemented when the building reaches retail vacancy
levels of 30%. This clause has been adopted in Oakdale (CA), for example, on
buildings of more than 9290 m2 and the bond there covers expenses not only of
demolition in the event of closing, but also maintenance for a total of 12 months.
In Milwaukee (WI), on the other hand, retail businesses occupying surface areas
of more than 4645 m2 require contributions of $0.20/ft2 (0.0929 m2) to the City
Land Conservation Fund, which can be used to demolish the building if necessary.
Contracts set out that owners commit themselves to drawing up projects for
potential re-use or demolition in the event of the area’s bankruptcy.
As far as demolition is concerned, a useful reference is American LEED certi-
fication (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), developed by the U.S.
Green Building Council (USGBC) for environmental building sustainability. This
certification encompasses not only measures to minimise energy consumption, but
also the use of materials and resources, which can facilitate reuse at the end of its
lifecycle, with a minimum of dismantling costs in both financial and environmental
terms. In view of the expenses involved in invasive work to adapt buildings with
the necessary modifications to new functions, this approach could be extended.
Potential physical decay of the building, as well as negative visual and social
impact in the context of reference, following retail dismantling, can be significantly
diminished with contractual clauses between owners and tenants or with local
councils. The maintenance of abandoned buildings is essential if decay is to be
prevented. The American experience provides case studies, such as Newberg (OR),
where 1% of the value of retail businesses in buildings, that are larger than 3700 m2
approximately, is paid into a citizens’ fund used to maintain such properties in the
event of closing or, as an alternative, as incentives for new tenants to encourage
re-use. In order to ensure continuity in retail activities and reduce closings costs,
other measures can be implemented on a contractual level, using certain US models.
Certain ordinances ban rental payments in the event of retail dismantling or, as an
alternative, block retail businesses from retaining tenancies in the event of closing,
without the property being relocated on the market. This favours the immediate
integration of retail businesses into vacant spaces. In the event of the dismantling of
spaces larger than 7000 m2 in Forsyth County (GA), contractual competition
clauses are cancelled, thus allowing the building to be re-used by any business
authorised in zoning regulations. Within 24 months of closing, a demolition or
re-use building project must be presented. In Evaston (NY) a clause was stipulated
with Walmart, which identifies new tenants in the event of closing.
Once again considering the importance of ensuring the maintenance of aban-
doned property, the potential for temporary re-use of buildings in the intermediate
phase between closing and new use identification is a strategic priority. The
American strategic demalling model, involving non-invasive re-use of architectural
structures, often emerges from the logic of maintaining internal spaces active as
much as possible by ensuring the maintenance of a continual flow of users.
Additional functions, some of which were alternative, were used at a number of
malls during the economic crisis, and these ensured the maintenance of such spaces,
the attractions of centres and profits for owners. Case studies include that of
Eastmont Mall (Oakland CA), whose original regional mall went into bankruptcy,
and which is currently targeting rental of its indoor spaces to local organisations,
social activities and small businesses, while awaiting a definitive strategic plan.
Despite the many activities it hosts, there are still a great many vacant spaces.
However, the recurring absence of an overall co-ordination plan for this type of
re-use of the whole or part of its indoor spaces, in terms of functions and time,
frames counteracting decline only weakly by simply putting off the inevitable. This
underlines the need to understand the potential for temporary planned re-use of
buildings, as a forerunner to definitive re-use (or demolition).
Prioritising associations and citizens’ co-operatives has been shown to be a
possible solution to the maintenance and re-use of vacant spaces on the high streets
of many American urban and suburban areas. The Northeast Investment
Ccoperative was the first of its kind in the United States to create a system in 2011,
where residents could invest in buying, renovating and subsequently relaunching
vacant retail buildings with a $1000 stake. In 2012, the Cooperative began con-
cretely investing in the Central Avenue closing, in the north-east of Minneapolis
(MI), re-launching local activities and promoting urban renewal in the surrounding
areas, especially in the Central and Lowry intersection areas. Urban renewal is
accompanied by positive increases in employment, in returns on investments within
the community itself, in re-launching local businesses and start-up initiatives and in
the reinforcement of a sense of community, which is much sought after in the
United States. In some Canadian provinces, support to cooperatives also comes
from governmental institutions, where tax deductions of up to 35% of retail
investments and local business activities are applicable thanks to Community
Economic Development Investment Funds (CEDIF).
1.3.2 The Vital’ Quartier Plan
The socio-economic and regional context

The problem of urban attractiveness and retail desertification has been a research
theme for some time in Paris, a veritable town planning workshop on new ways of
managing new urban problems.
In fact, Ile de France is set out around the Paris metropolis and influenced by the
powerful attractions of its city centre. In a context of this sort, where accessibility is
a factor creating inequality in the territorial distribution of retail businesses, critical
points have emerged also for the medium-large scale retail network which has to
renew itself constantly, in both format and the range it offers to maintain or
regenerate its attractiveness.
To give the retail supply greater coherence in this macro-region, and confront
mono-function and closing issues, identified in both town centres and outlying areas,
a number of monitoring and town planning tools have been used. For example, Paris
town council has an urban research workshop, APUR,19 which publishes a great deal
of research on the key theme of the metropolis every year, and works in partnership
with local councils. In-depth studies into changes in the retail sector enable constant
updates on the trends outlined above (to be obtained), as well as on the consequences
on the urban level, or the whole region, to be forecast. For this reason, an overview of
businesses is drawn up every four years in order to supply an objective research base,
which will enable an overall framework of the retail situation and of the problems,
emerging from the towns to be drawn up (Apur and Cci Paris-Idf 2013).
In the early years of the new millennium Paris city council created new tools or
updated existing ones (Fleury 2010), which may be examples of good practice for
the subject matter of this research. These include:
• 2001–2003: creation of the Quartier Vert programme as a tool to enhance
existing local retail businesses. It is expected to potentially help create goods
loading/unloading areas and renew the urban fabric.
• 2004: activating the experimental Vital’ Quartier programme to incentivise/
re-establish retail in the proximity of urban areas experiencing powerful retail
dismantling and single business phenomena.
• 2006: identifying the main Plan Local d’Urbanisme the main retail axes. This
tool involved the potential for limiting the space along the axes identified that
are allotted to retail and craftsman functions.
Lastly, the action identified in Paris fit into a global regional management
approach. It is the intention of the issuing body that such operations should improve
relationships between the distributional system in the historic centre, as well as
those of outlying areas, and ensure a better balance between the two.
19
Agence Parisienne d’Urbanisme, Paris Town Planning Agency.
The role of SEMAEST within the program

Given evident difficulties in the Parisian retail fabric, in 2004 the city council
decided to assign the firm SEMAEST20 the task of studying the urban retail system
and setting up the Vital’ Quartier programme in certain areas, in partnership with
the Paris city council and the mayors of the various quarters. SEMAEST and the
city council set out a Convention Publique d’Aménagement21 agreement, which
enables public bodies to monitor SEMAEST’s actions and delegate its powers such
as, for example, the right of first refusal in buying space.
SEMAEST is a mixed capital company with powers to receive and manage both
public and private funds with the corresponding obligation to report its actions to
the public body funding it. In this case the Paris city council has set aside 87.5
million Euros in funds, which will be paid back on completion of the project
including in the form of real estate. The total sum has been split into 50.4 million
Euros to the Vital’Quartier 1 programme (2004–15 period) and 37.1 million Euros
to Vital’Quartier 2 (2008–2021 period).
The programme was launched in six urban districts in 2004. Four of these
featured marked specialisation in retail outlets—called single activity—seen as
critical points, as a result of their predominant goods base (wholesalers, ‘red light’
retail, etc.), while two had a significant proportion of disused shops on the ground
floor, 15% of the total (and 27% of spaces).22
After initial tests on these districts (Fig. 1.4), other mayors put forward their own
struggling retail districts. A second phase of the project began in 2008 with five new
districts. Three were experiencing single activity problems, and one retail deserti-
fication averaging 15%. The goal in the last of these districts was very different. It
aimed to safeguard a single type of retail outlet—bookshops—which is one of the
historic features of the area, but which was struggling, due to the powerful
attractions of its central position and the consequent tendency to replace such shops
with other, more profitable urban sectors.23
In 2014 the Vital’Quartier programme was awarded the European CEEP-CSR
prize for the fourth year running on social and environmental responsibility
grounds.
20
Société d’Economie Mixte d’Animation Economique au Service des Territoires.
21
The CPA is now obsolete on a judicial level and has been transformed into a public concession.
22
Retail dismantling in Paris approximated 9.9% in the 2003–2005 period, when the programme
was launched (See Commerce Database BDCOM managed by Agence Parisienne d’Urbanisme
APUR).
23
The large national and international retail chains—with their contractual power in both financial
and taxation terms—often increase the real estate value of retail outlets, when they enter the
marketplace. Rents thus often become unaffordable for local retail outlets of a cultural kind or
those with a local client base.
Fig. 1.4 Development operations managed by Semaest. Source Apur and Semaest (2013)
Goals
The program fixed the following goals:
• re-valuing vacant shops;
• re-developing urban areas;
• increasing urban safety;
• creating new jobs;
• promoting and/or safeguarding a specific type of retail (organic, environmen-
tally friendly, cultural, small scale retailers…);
• creating an ‘urban village’ environment in which neighbourhood relationships
are reinforced;
• confronting retail desertification;
• resisting mono-function aggregation phenomena;
• preserving historic and traditional retail;
• supporting shops as neighbourhood services.
Actors
Local government in France is made up of a multiplicity of actors, each one having
a precise function. This number is doubled in Paris because the metropolitan area is
subdivided into twenty quarters, each of which is managed by local councils, in
addition to Paris city council. Consequently, a multiplicity of public actors are

involved in the Vital’Quartier programme. The main actors are the following:
• APUR, which carried out preliminary research into urban retail;
• Paris city council, which identifies the districts where to implement the pro-
gramme with the participation of local councils;
• the Semaest firm, which has been given the task of activating urban redevel-
opment projects.
SEMAEST has to keep Paris city council informed on its work for the duration
of the project, despite the fact that its funding comes from the banks which sustain
the project. Furthermore a Groupe Technique Local24 regularly makes on site visits
to gather information from shopkeepers, residents and local councils. The goal is to
keep up-to-date on trends in local markets, in real time in both sales and rental
terms, in partnership with Centre des impôts foncières (Real Estate Tax Service).
SEMAEST also keeps contacts with another public body Direction de
l’Urbanisme,25 which is involved in shop sales via the Déclaration d’Intention
d’Aliéner,26 a measure that ensures the company a binding right to buy spaces
granted directly by the Paris city council.
Subsequently, shop owners are contacted for sale agreements mainly via private
deeds or for the purposes of launching a protocol for the next potential owner, or
renting a place. In some districts, SEMAEST offers management of vacant or
un-used spaces to the companies which manage the public building patrimony, on
the same conditions, applied to the Vital’Quartier programme.
When units fall into the SEMAEST system, management companies can be
contacted for renovation. In this way, another body enters the equation—the
Paris-Ile-de-France Chamber of Commerce and Chamber of Commerce—which
announces tenders for the management of the shops, and publicises them with
interested retailers. Future shop owners submit their business projects to
SEMAEST, which selects them on the basis on the information dossier presented
by future tenants.
Local councils are kept constantly up-to-date over the whole process, including
sale of shops and the GTL (Groupe Technique Local) manages an active moni-
toring body.
In order to manage the sale of shops and the completion of the Vital’Quartier
programme, Caisse des Dépots and SEMAEST set up a further company, Foncière
Paris Commerce with the purposes of purchasing these spaces. Paris city council
will also own all the shops in the Quartier Latin district, for example, to act as a
stabilising presence and give continuity to the district’s historic bookshops.
24
GTL: Local Technical Group.
25
DU: Town Planning Management.
26
Commencement notice, mandatory only in urban areas selected by Paris city council.
Fig. 1.5 Time frame and actors involved in the Vital’Quartier programme
Actions
The following implementation actions were necessary (Fig. 1.5):
1. Study
Retail districts were identified after shop monitoring by Paris city council in
agreement with local councils. Once these areas of action had been established,
SEMAEST mandated Local Technical Groups to identify the key points in the retail
axis, gather information on the state of abandonment of vacant units, and monitor
the sale of shops. This local contact is indispensable for the purposes of preventing
shop tenancy turnover, and gathering information on shopkeepers (loading/
unloading goods, parking, opening hours, local associations, etc.), as well as on
consumer habits, highlighting indispensable elements in selecting new shopkeepers
to manage spaces.
2. Buying
Once the district’s potential is known, the Vital’Quartier programme sets out two
potential options for managing vacant spaces:
(a) If the shop is on sale:
• Buying: owners are contacted and if an offer has already been made privately,
SEMAEST can exercise its right of first refusal.
• A protocol of understanding: an agreement offered to future owners, who

commit themselves to maintaining the unit’s current business model, in
exchange for not exercising its right of first refusal.
(b) If the shop is not on sale:
• A retail 3/6/9 rental contract is offered to owners (a classic rental contract on a
three, six or nine year time frame), with a clause that specifies the option to
sub-rent to a third party.
• Leasehold or loan for use: mainly used with public bodies (bodies managing
public housing), which are variable in length but usually 25 years.
Shops managed by the programme are renovated with the goal of enhancing the
local supply context. Work done by companies contacted directly by SEMAEST fit
out retail outlets, in which business is to take place. As far as those activities, which
require the introduction of specific machines or structures (such as butchers’ and
bakers’), are concerned, the programme provides extra funding to encourage such
shops to set up in the area.
Renovation work is done mainly to bring shops into line with the law, as this is
something, which shopkeepers can often not afford. Shops are insulated to respond
to the requirements of Paris Plan Climat27 and supplied with disabled access. Shop
windows are renovated in ‘traditional’ style with natural painted wood. SEMAEST
commissions an architect to design work. Tenders are then set up for companies.
3. Rent
Setting in motion the process of finding a new lessee (e.g. shopkeeper) is done in
the following stages: every month, a list of vacant shops is sent into the Chamber of
Commerce, the city quarter councils and the City council and then published in the
Bulletin Municipal Officiel de la Ville de Paris.28 Residents and shopkeepers are
kept informed with posters affixed to the windows of vacant shops. The Chamber of
Commerce can put forward candidates who send in their applications to
SEMAEST, which has compiled a list of shopkeepers intending to take part in the
programme.
After a first selection in this list, the Comité d’Investissement et d’Attribution,29
linked to the quarter’s public administrators, is drawn up. The main factors taken
into consideration in the selection are: (i) the financial prospects of the hypothetical
business and (ii) the type of goods to be sold, which must correspond to the site’s
potential, as identified by SEMAEST.
The yearly rent must balance the operation. It is fixed on the basis of the shop’s
buying price, the cost of the work done, the street’s retail appeal and the type of
business to be set up. Lessees are exempt from rental payments for the first three
27
Laws on insulation and building CO2 emissions. All renovated shops must respect these
requirements.
28
Official Journal of Paris City Council.
29
CIA: Investment and Attribution Committee.
months and from business start up. Rents can be raised after the first year on the
basis of market trends.
The programme also involves business support services to shopkeepers for the
duration of the Vital’Quartier programme. The services supplied and/or put forward
are as follows:
• List of useful contacts with local bodies (associations, local councils, etc.);
• (Paid) training and conference organisation every two months;
• (Paid) services: audits, business management, retail strategies, etc.;
• Help in the search for funding (special relationships with banks sustaining the
project, inviting shopkeepers to use crowdfunding, and recommending Internet
platforms, etc.);
• Marketing and entertainment activities,30 at the Club’Vital’Quartier.
4. Resale
At the end of the rental period between SEMAEST and shopkeepers, shops are put
up for sale once again. At this point there are four potential options:
• the lessee buys the shop. This is the preferred solution, but one which is often
difficult to sustain financially by shopkeepers;
• shops are sold to Foncière Paris-Commerce31;
• Resale to private owners. This is the last solution, in spite of the retail potential
re-generated by the Vital’Quartier programme, which is often rejected as a result
of the unstable character of the site’s real estate value, which puts businesses at
risk;
• Shops are assigned to Paris City Counciland, and the funds invested are
reimbursed.
A district fighting against retail desertification: the Belleville case
To understand the impact of this action the results obtained in Belleville, the
district, which presented the greatest number of vacant shops in 2003, when the
programme began, are shown below (Apur and Semaest 2013).
The process of retail decline was already advanced when the programme began
and thus regenerating the area’s retail fabric was more challenging than in other
districts, where the programme was more successful (Table 1.2).
Belleville had a closing rate of 22.7% in 2000 and this trend continued, cul-
minating in a figure of 27.4% in 2003. Paris City Council thus decided to integrate
it into the Vital’Quartier 1 programme, which began in 2004. In 2002 the number of
vacant shops dropped by 40%, representing 17% of retail units. Over ten years, the
Vital’Quartier programme succeeded in inverting the previous tendency of an
increase in numbers of vacant shops.
30
Participation funded by SEMAEST.
31
Paris Commerce freehold founded by Caisse des Dépots and SEMAEST in May 2013.
Table 1.2 Retail features of Belleville district (2003–2012)
This outcome was made possible by buying only 19 shops, representing less
than 2% of the district’s shops. As of today, three of them have been resold with a
clause limiting shop use. In addition to the protocols of understanding drawn up
(19), a partnership with SIEMP32 (a company managing public housing buildings
with vacant shops) was activated. SEMAEST intervened in a total of 39 retail
outlets, representing 3.7% of the area’s retail fabric.
In the choice of shops bought, priority is given to corner shops. This location
gives shops greater visibility and heightens the urban impact These corners are
usually between a shopping street and one with a large number of abandoned units,
in order to increase pedestrian traffic from the main street to the secondary one.
Later acquisitions are made in order to extend this pedestrian flow along the street.
The Vital’Quartier shops thus became a reference point along the street, attracting
potential users and clients (Fig. 1.6).
Having faced high retail closing rates for many years, the Belleville district
decided to incorporate tertiary activities, such as offices and art galleries on the
ground floor of the shops bought, into the project. Whilst the ultimate goal is to
establish shops also in these secondary roads, this principle acted as an incentive to
pedestrian flows there. This flow represents potential customers for retail units,
which will find it easier to take the place of the initial tertiary activities in this way.
Retail desmantilng are still widespread today and the shops bought will, for the
most part, be resold to Foncière Paris Commerce, which will enable the process
under way to continue.
32
Société Immobilière d’Economie Mixte de la ville de Paris.
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Princess, brought forward all his arguments, laying stress not only on
the wealth and personal charms of the Duke, but on the joy such an
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This was equivalent to a refusal; and the Cardinal, having exerted
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Unable to leave Andalusia themselves, they warned the citizens of
Madrigal that any favour shown to the Princess would be regarded as
an act of treachery to the Crown, while she was so surrounded by
spies and enemies that even her faithful lady-in-waiting, Beatriz de
Bobadilla, grew frightened and besought her to break off the
Aragonese alliance. Isabel knew that, once intimidated into doing
this, she would remain absolutely at her brother’s mercy, and she
therefore implored the Archbishop of Toledo to come to her
assistance before it was too late. A lover of bold and decisive actions,
that warlike prelate was soon at the gates of Madrigal at the head of
an armed force; and Isabel, refusing to listen to the threats of the
Bishop of Burgos, at once joined him, going with him to Valladolid,
the headquarters of the Admiral, Don Fadrique.
She had burned her boats, and it only remained for the man on
whom she had pinned her faith to play his part in the drama
adequately. Both Ferdinand and his father realized the seriousness of
the situation. If the treaty of Fuenterrabia had spelled trouble and
disaster for Castile, it had been the source of even greater evils in
Aragon; for the Catalans, far from returning to their old allegiance,
as they were advised, had continued to maintain their desperate
resistance in Barcelona. They had elected as their Count first one
prince of royal extraction and then another; each new puppet
doomed to ultimate failure, but leaving behind him a defiance
increasing in ferocity as it lost power in other ways.
Nor was chronic rebellion John II.’s only serious trouble. The
important counties of Roussillon and Cerdagne, pledged to Louis XI.
in return for troops, had been seized by that monarch, as soon as he
saw his neighbour too involved in difficulties to show practical
resentment; and the web of French diplomacy was now being spun
over Navarre, through the medium of the King of Aragon’s son-in-
law, the Count of Foix. Personal sorrows added their quota: the loss
of sight at a time when political clouds looked blackest, followed by
the death of Queen Joanna, whose courage and brains had made her
a fitting helpmate for her ambitious husband, whether in the council-
chamber or on the battlefield. John was indeed repaid with added
measure for the turbulence and treachery of his early days; but like
many men of his type he showed better in adversity than in success.
Doggedly he laid fresh plans, and Providence that seldom hates the
brave rewarded him by the recovery of his eyesight.
The realization of his son’s marriage with Isabel of Castile, always
favoured by him, was now his dearest ambition; for he believed that
the final union of the two kingdoms would mean the death-blow to
Louis XI.’s hopes of dominating the Pyrenees, as well as the building
up of the power of the Crown at home against unruly subjects. Such
designs were, however, of the future, while the immediate steps to
achieve them were fraught with danger.
Isabel, the bride-elect was at Valladolid, temporarily protected by
the Archbishop of Toledo and the Admiral; but to the north lay the
hostile Bishopric of Burgos, to the south-east a line of fortified
strongholds, all in the hands of the Mendozas, the chief supporters of
Joanna La Beltraneja and therefore enemies of the Aragonese match.
It only needed the return of Henry IV. from Andalusia to make her
position untenable.
Isabel and the Archbishop of Toledo therefore dispatched
messengers to Aragon in haste to insist that the King of Sicily should
come to Valladolid. They found him in Saragossa, and suggested
that, as every moment of delay increased the danger, he should
disguise himself and go to Castile with only a few adherents, thus
hoodwinking the Mendozas, who would never expect him to take this
risk, and who also believed the negotiations for the marriage to be at
a much earlier stage.
Notwithstanding his later reputation for a hard head and a cool
heart, Ferdinand in his youth possessed a certain vein of
adventurous chivalry. It was with difficulty that he had been
prevented from leading an entirely rash expedition to Isabel’s rescue
at Madrigal, and he now readily agreed to a scheme, whose chief
merit lay in its apparent impossibility.
Sending one of the Castilian messengers on before to announce his
coming, he and a few of the most trusted members of his household
boldly crossed the frontier. The rest were disguised as merchants,
Ferdinand himself as a servant; and at the inns where they were
forced to halt he played his part, waiting at table and tending the
mules. They did not stop often, riding in spite of the intense cold by
day and night; with the result that they arrived before they were
expected at the friendly town of Burgo de Osma. Ferdinand, whom
excitement had rendered less tired and sleepy than the others,
spurred forward as they came in sight of the gates, narrowly escaping
death at the hands of an over-zealous sentry. Soon, however, their
identity was explained, and amid the blowing of trumpets and joyful
shouts the young King was welcomed by his allies.
At Valladolid the news of his arrival into safe territory was the
signal for feasting and jousts, and preparations for the marriage were
pushed on apace. Ferdinand came by night to Valladolid, and, being
met at a postern gate by the Archbishop of Toledo was led to the
house where the Princess lodged.
Four days later, on October 18, 1469, the formal betrothal took
place. Isabel and Ferdinand as second cousins stood within the
prohibited degrees of consanguinity; but the Archbishop of Toledo
produced a bull, affording the necessary dispensation. This bore the
signature of Pius II., who had died in 1464, and authorized
Ferdinand to marry within the third degree of consanguinity, on the
expiration of four years from the date of the bull. Granted its
authenticity, the marriage was perfectly legal; but it is almost certain
the document was an elaborate forgery, constructed by John of
Aragon and the Archbishop to meet their pressing needs.[2] The
dispensation was essential to satisfy, not only Isabel, but any
wavering supporters of orthodox views. On the other hand, apart
from the haste required and known dilatoriness of the Papal Court,
Paul II., who at that time occupied the See of Saint Peter, was the
sworn ally of Henry IV.; and those who were negotiating the
Aragonese alliance recognized that there could be no successful
appeal to his authority.
2. See Clemencin, Elogio de Isabella, Illustracion II.
Another matter requiring delicate handling had been the marriage
settlement that, signed by Ferdinand and ratified by his father, was
read aloud at the betrothal ceremony by the Archbishop of Toledo. In
it Ferdinand declared his devotion to the Mother Church and
Apostolic See, and his undying allegiance to Henry IV. The document
then went on to say that the signatures of both husband and wife
must be affixed to all ordinances and public deeds; while the
remainder of the clauses were directed to allaying the suspicions of
those who feared that the King of Sicily might use his new position
for the good of Aragon rather than Castile. In them he promised not
to leave the kingdom himself without consent of the Princess, nor to
remove any children that they might have, whether sons or
daughters. He would not on his own account make peace nor war nor
any alliance. He would not appoint to offices any save natives of
Castile; while he pledged himself to take no new steps with regard to
the lands that had once belonged to his father but had since been
alienated.
After the ceremony was over, Ferdinand retired with the
Archbishop to his lodging in Valladolid; and the next day, October
19th, he and Isabel were married; and for six days the town kept
festival in honour of the event.
Henry learned of his sister’s marriage from the Master of Santiago,
and naturally nothing of the insolence of such proceedings towards
himself was lost in the telling. The news found him in broken health,
the result of his life-long self-indulgence, and with his vanity badly
wounded by the scorn and defiance he had encountered in
Andalusia. He was therefore in no mood for conciliation, and
received Isabel’s letters, explaining the necessity under which she
had acted and her assurances of loyalty, in gloomy silence, lending a
willing ear to the Master of Santiago’s suggestion that he might
retract the oath he had taken at the Toros de Guisandos.
Circumstances favoured such a course; for Louis XI., who looked
on the Castilian-Aragonese alliance with alarm as inimical to French
expansion, offered Isabel’s rejected suitor, Charles, now Duke of
Guienne, to the Infanta Joanna, the underlying condition being of
course that Henry should disinherit Isabel in her favour.
Negotiations were at once begun; and in 1470, the Cardinal of Arras
appeared at the Spanish Court charged with the final conclusion of
the terms. He had never forgiven the Infanta’s indifference to his
oratory; and, as diligent enquiry had made him cognizant of the fact
that Pius II.’s bull must be a forgery, he proceeded to denounce her
in words, according to Enriquez de Castillo, “so outrageous that they
are more worthy to be passed over in silence than recorded.”
Henry far from being shocked was obviously pleased; and, having
completed the agreement with the Cardinal, in October, 1470, he
publicly withdrew his oath, taken at the Toros de Guisandos, and
acknowledged the Infanta Joanna, then nine years old, as his
daughter and heir. Her formal betrothal to the Duke of Guienne
followed, and then the little Princess was handed over to the care of
the Master of Santiago, much to the indignation of the Marquis of
Santillana and the Mendozas, in whose keeping she had hitherto
been.
Henry now published a manifesto, in which he declared that his
sister had broken her oath in marrying without his consent, and had
aggravated her offence by her choice of an enemy of Castile, and by
not waiting to obtain a dispensation from the Pope. He had therefore
judged her unfit to succeed to the throne and had restored Doña
Joanna to her rights.
This document did not meet with general approval. Indeed the
principal towns of Andalusia, already disaffected, openly expressed
their refusal to consent to its terms. Yet to Isabel in Dueñas, where
her first child, a daughter named after herself, had been born in the
October of this year, the prospect seemed bleak enough. Her
difficulties in Castile were intensified by the ill-fortunes of John of
Aragon in his war against Louis XI. for the recovery of Roussillon
and Cerdagne; so that in spite of the critical position of affairs at
home, she was forced to let Ferdinand go to his father’s assistance.
Hiding her fears, she replied to Henry’s manifesto by a counter-
protest, in which she recalled her own moderation in refusing the
crown on her brother Alfonso’s death, and vindicated her marriage
as performed on the advice of the wiser and larger section of the
leading nobility. Henry, she declared had broken his oath, not only in
acknowledging Joanna, who was known to be illegitimate, as his
daughter and heiress; but long before, when he had failed to divorce
and send away the Queen as he had promised, and when he had tried
to force his sister to marry the King of Portugal against her will.
In the meanwhile, in spite of the flourish of trumpets with which
the betrothal had taken place, the French marriage hung fire. Gossip
maintained that the Duke of Guienne’s interest in Joanna had been
merely the result of pique at Isabel’s refusal; while Louis XI. had
used it as a temporary expedient against his enemy, the King of
Aragon. At any rate the French Prince was openly courting the
heiress, Mary of Burgundy, when death cut short his hopes in May,
1472.
Various bridegrooms were now suggested for the Infanta Joanna;
amongst them her own uncle the King of Portugal.
Henry IV. was at this time at Segovia, whose Alcayde, Andres de
Cabrera, husband of Isabel’s lady-in-waiting, Beatriz de Bobadilla,
had always been one of his faithful adherents. In the Alcazar was
stored a considerable sum of money; and the Master of Santiago now
advised the King to demand its surrender and also that of the
fortress, hoping to get them into his own hands, as he had done with
the Alcazar at Madrid. Cabrera, suspecting rightly a plot for his own
ruin, stoutly refused; and his enemy, after stirring up in the town a
rebellion which the Alcayde promptly quelled, left the city in disgust.
Henry, who loved Segovia, remained behind, unable to make up his
mind to any decisive action.
The favourite’s departure was the opportunity for which those
inclined to Isabel’s interests had long been waiting; and Beatriz de
Bobadilla urged her husband to effect a reconciliation between the
King and his sister. This plan met with the approval of no less
important a person than Pedro Gonsalez de Mendoza, Bishop of
Siguenza, whose material position had been lately increased, not
only by the Archbishopric of Seville, but also by receiving a long-
coveted Cardinal’s hat. At the time of the Aragonese marriage the
Mendozas had been amongst Isabel’s most formidable opponents,
but their enforced surrender of the Infanta Joanna to the Master of
Santiago after the French betrothal, had quite altered their views;
and the Cardinal of Spain, as Pedro Gonsalez was usually called, now
worked to secure Isabel’s accession, as the best means of ruining his
rival.
Another person, who had set himself to negotiate an agreement,
was the Papal Legate, Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, by birth a Valencian.
John of Aragon’s old enemy, Paul II. had died in 1471; and Sixtus IV.,
his successor, when dispatching Cardinal Borgia to Castile, in 1473,
to demand a clerical subsidy, gave him at the same time a bull of
dispensation, which legalized Ferdinand and Isabel’s marriage, and
also affirmed the legitimacy of their daughter and her rights of
inheritance.
Isabel’s prospects had considerably brightened, and a bold action
on her part was to put them to the test. One day, Beatriz de
Bobadilla, who had secretly kept her informed of the current state of
affairs, disguised herself as a countrywoman and, mounted on an ass,
rode out to the city of Aranda, where her mistress was living. She
begged her to come to Segovia immediately; and, on a day arranged,
Isabel and the Archbishop of Toledo appeared in the city before
dawn and were received into the Alcazar. Henry was then in his
hunting-box in the woods outside, but that evening he returned to
the palace and saw his sister. With his usual impressionability he
echoed the joy of all around him, and embracing her informed her of
his goodwill and the pleasure her coming had given him. The next
day they rode through the city together, his hand on her bridle-rein;
and some little time afterwards Ferdinand, who had been hastily
summoned, was reconciled to his brother-in-law.
Andres de Cabrera, delighted at the success of his hazardous
scheme, arranged an elaborate dinner on the Feast of the Epiphany
of that year, 1474, in order to celebrate the occasion; but
unfortunately Henry, who was in delicate health, fell ill. Secret
supporters of the Master of Santiago cleverly suggested that he had
been poisoned, and that this had been the main object of the
reconciliation. Henry, thoroughly alarmed, in spite of all his sister’s
efforts to allay his fears, left Segovia, as soon as he was well enough
to bear the journey, joining the Master of Santiago and the Infanta
Joanna at Madrid.
All the old trouble and discord seemed destined to begin once
more, but in reality the labours of both schemer and dupe were
nearly at an end. Early in the autumn the Master of Santiago
hastened to Estremadura to gain possession of a certain fortress, and
there, on the eve of achieving his purpose, he fell ill and died.
Henry, though almost inconsolable at the news, transferred his
affections to his favourite’s son, the Marquis of Villena, confirming
him in all his father’s offices and titles and creating him Master of
Santiago. It was to be almost the last of the many honours and gifts
that he bestowed in the course of his long reign, for on December 11,
1474, a few weeks before his fiftieth birthday, he also died.
The same atmosphere of vacillation, in which he had moved in his
life, enveloped his death-bed. When questioned as to the succession,
the chronicler, Alonso de Palencia, declares that he equivocated,
saying that his secretary knew what he wished; other writers that he
confessed to a friar that the Princess Joanna was indeed his
daughter, and that he left a will to this effect. Enriquez del Castillo,
his chaplain and chronicler, makes no mention of Joanna’s name.
Henry’s personal beliefs and wishes had availed little in his own day,
and he may have guessed that they would carry no weight after his
death. One at any rate was fulfilled, and he was buried, as he had
asked, in the Church of Sancta Maria de Guadalupe, at the foot of his
mother’s tomb.
CHAPTER IV
ACCESSION OF ISABEL: THE PORTUGUESE
WAR
1475–1479
The news of Henry IV.’s death was the signal for Isabel’s
proclamation as Queen in Segovia. Riding through the crowded
streets, her palfrey led by two of the “regidores” of the city, she came
amid the shouts of the people to the principal square. Before her
walked four kings-at-arms, and after them Gutierre de Cardenas,
bearing a naked sword, emblem of the justice that should emanate
from kingship. In the square stood a high scaffold, hung with rich
embroidered stuffs, and on it a throne, raised by three steps from the
surrounding platform. Isabel ascended these and took her place; and
then, a king-at-arms having called for silence, a herald cried in a loud
voice: “Castile! Castile for the King Don Fernando and the Queen
Doña Isabel, his wife.” Those watching below took up the shout, and
amid cheers the royal standard was raised.
Ferdinand was in Aragon; but news had at once been sent him of
the King’s death, and in the meanwhile Isabel received the homage of
the great nobles and knights who were ready to pledge themselves to
her cause. Chief amongst them were the Admiral of Castile, the
Cardinal of Spain, his brother, the Marquis of Santillana, and the rest
of the Mendozas; while they brought with them Beltran de La Cueva,
Duke of Alburquerque, whose fortunes scandal would naturally have
linked with the cause of the Infanta Joanna.
Significant was the tardy appearance of the Archbishop of Toledo,
once so hot in Isabel’s cause. Now he came in the train of all the rest,
with little enthusiasm in his homage or in the oath he took in the hall
of the palace, his hand resting on a copy of the Gospels. On the 2d of
January he and the Cardinal of Spain rode out to meet the King of
Sicily, returning with him, one on either side, amid such crowds that
it was past sunset before they reached the palace.
He was a young man of twenty and two years ... [says Colmenares, the historian
of Segovia, commenting on Ferdinand’s appearance], of medium height, finely
built, his face grave but handsome and of a fair complexion, his hair chestnut in
shade but somewhat spare on the temples, his nose and mouth small, his eyes
bright with a certain joyful dignity, a healthy colour in his cheeks and lips, his head
well set on his shoulders, his voice clear and restful. He carried himself boldly both
on horse and foot.
His character, his new subjects could not fully gauge; but the
contrast with Henry’s vacillating puerility was obvious. Here at any
rate was a man, who would not fail in what he undertook through
indecision or lack of courage.
The Cardinal of Spain and Archbishop of Toledo proceeded to
draw up “Provisions” for the future government of the kingdom,
adjusting the exact relations of the sovereigns on the basis of the
marriage settlement. Royal letters and proclamations were to be
signed by both, the seals affixed to be stamped with the joint arms of
Castile and Aragon, the coinage engraved with the double likeness.
Justice was to be awarded by the two sovereigns, when together; by
each, when separated. Castile safeguarded her independence by
placing the control of the Treasury in the hand of the Queen, and by
insisting that the governors of cities and fortresses should do homage
to her alone. She alone, also, might appoint “corregidores” and
provide incumbents for ecclesiastical benefices, though the
nominations were to bear Ferdinand’s signature as well as her own.
FERDINAND OF ARAGON
FROM “ICONOGRAFIA ESPAÑOLA” BY

VALENTIN CARDERERA Y SOLANO
It can be imagined that such a settlement would depend for its

success largely on the goodwill and tact of those called on to fulfil it;
and Ferdinand though he consented to sign his name to the
document did so with considerable reluctance. Many of the nobles in
Segovia, though mainly those of Aragonese birth, had professed their
annoyance that Ferdinand’s position should be in any way
subordinated to that of his wife. They declared that the Salic law,
excluding women from the royal succession, should hold good in
Castile as well as in France; and that, the Castilian House of
Trastamara having died out in the male line with Henry IV., the
crown should pass directly to the Aragonese branch, in the person of
King John and his son, the King of Sicily.
Loud was the indignation of Isabel’s Castilian supporters at this
suggestion. The Salic law, they maintained, had never been
acknowledged in Castile; on the contrary, cases could be cited in
which women had succeeded to the throne to the detriment of the
obvious male heir.
Thus, between arguments on the one side and the other, feelings
ran high, for Ferdinand himself inclined to a theory that flattered his
love of power and independence. Isabel, who had no intention of
ceding her rights, at length exerted her influence to win him to her
point of view.
“Señor,” she said, after a stormy council-meeting that had in the
end upheld her right of succession, “this matter need never have
been discussed, because, owing to the union that, by the Grace of
God, there is betwixt us, there can be no real disagreement.”
She then alluded to her duty of obedience as his wife; but perhaps
to Ferdinand her most convincing argument was the pertinent
suggestion that if the Salic law were acknowledged and they should
have no male heirs, their daughter Isabel could not lawfully succeed
them. It would ill have pleased Ferdinand to leave his possessions to
any of his Aragonese cousins. “The King,” we are told, “having heard
the Queen’s reasons was highly pleased, because he knew them to be
true; and both he and she gave orders that there should be no more
talk on this matter.”
The chronicler then goes on to remark on the complete concord
that ever afterwards existed between the sovereigns.
And when it was necessary that the King should go to look after affairs in one
part of the kingdom and the Queen in another, it never happened that he or she
issued a command that conflicted with those that the other gave. Circumstances
might separate them, but love held their wills joined.
Ferdinand and Isabel had shown their wisdom in refusing to let

the rift between them widen into an open quarrel. In a crisis the least
straw may turn the balance; and the condition of affairs required
their combined energies in the one scale. It is true that the majority
of nobles and knights had either in person, or by deputy, expressed
their allegiance; but there still remained a small though powerful
group, headed by the young Marquis of Villena, who maintained that
the Infanta Joanna was the rightful Queen.
That their objective was rather self-interest than any deep loyalty
to the little Princess was obvious from Villena’s letter, mentioning
the terms on which he and his followers would consent to submit.
For himself he demanded, first his acknowledgment as Master of
Santiago, next the confirmation of all lands, castles, and revenues
that had belonged to his father, including the Alcazar at Madrid, and
thirdly a yearly income of over two million maravedis to be paid by
the Crown. The Count of Plasencia, his ally, whom Henry IV. had
created Duke of Arévalo with the gift of that town (taken from the
widowed Queen Isabel for the purpose), sought also the confirmation
of his honours.
With regard to Joanna, whom Villena and his followers styled
“Princess of Castile,” they insisted that she should be suitably
married; and on this demand all negotiations ultimately broke down.
Ferdinand and Isabel were willing to grant the Marquis the
Mastership, in spite of the clamours of seven other candidates; they
agreed to the idea of Joanna’s marriage; but their stipulation that,
while this subject was under consideration, she should be handed
over to some trustworthy person, virtually put an end to all hopes of
reconciliation. Joanna was the Marquis’s trump card, and he had no
intention of playing her until he was certain of his trick, far less of
passing her into the hands of anyone, whom her rivals would
consider trustworthy.
Dazzled by the schemes he had planned, he believed it would be an
easy matter to secure Isabel’s ruin, and in this view he was
strengthened by the secret correspondence he had been carrying on
with his great-uncle, the Archbishop of Toledo. The latter’s conduct
is on the surface inexplicable; for, having maintained Isabel’s cause
with unswerving loyalty throughout the negotiations for her
marriage, when she was in danger of imprisonment and he of
incurring, on her account, not only papal censure but the loss of his
archbishopric, he had yet at the end of Henry IV.’s reign reconciled
himself to that monarch and his favourite the young Marquis of
Villena, to the weakening of his old allegiance. His tardy appearance
at Segovia, and the sulky manner he had adopted towards Ferdinand
and the Queen, were alike in keeping with a change of policy that in a
man of his ambitions seemed as shortsighted as it was
unaccountable. The explanation lies in Carrillo’s lack of self-control
that made his ambition the plaything of his besetting vice.
Like Juan Pacheco, he loved wealth, the more that he was in secret
an alchemist and squandered the revenues of his see in a vain
endeavour to make gold; but even the glitter of precious metals lost
its charm beside his lust for power and influence. He must be first.
This was the motive that had driven him to desert Henry IV., to
break with his nephew in the revolt of the League, and now, finally,
when the cause for which he had laboured was on the eve of success,
to renounce his allegiance to Isabel, because of his jealousy of her
new adviser the Cardinal of Spain.
In vain the Queen, who knew his character, tried to dissipate his
suspicions. Carrillo’s temperament set his imagination afire at the
least glimmer of insult or neglect; his manner grew morose and
overbearing, his desire for gifts and rewards every day more
rapacious. At length, when Ferdinand ventured to oppose his
demands, the Archbishop openly expressed his anger and, leaving
the Court, withdrew to his town of Alcalá de Henares, where he
began to plot secretly with Joanna’s supporters.
Between them he and the Marquis hatched a scheme, whose
success would, they hoped, make them the arbiters of Castile. This
was nothing less than a Portuguese alliance by which Alfonso V.,
married to his niece, would in her name cross the border, and aided
by his Castilian allies drive out Ferdinand and his Queen. With this
intention, the Marquis dispatched a letter to Alfonso full of showy
promises. The most important Castilian nobles, he declared,
including himself and all his relations, the Duke of Arévalo, and the
Archbishop of Toledo, were pledged to Joanna’s cause; while
numbers were only waiting to follow their example as soon as they
were reassured by the first victory. Furthermore, he guaranteed the
goodwill of fourteen of the principal towns in the kingdom; while,
alluding to the factions that convulsed the rest, he prophesied that
one side would be certain to adopt the Portuguese cause and with a
little help secure the upper hand. Victory was the more certain by
reason of the penniless state in which Henry IV. had left the treasury.
It was impossible that Ferdinand and Isabel could compete without
financial assistance against the wealth and well-known military
strength of Portugal.
Such arguments had a surface plausibility; though a statesman
might have asked himself if they did not take Fortune’s smiles too
much for granted. Was it safe to ignore the deep-rooted dislike that
Castile bore Portugal, or to assume the friendliness of the larger
towns, on whose possession the ultimate victory must depend?
Alfonso V. was not the type of man to ask uncomfortable questions.
He saw the object of his desire in a glamour that obscured the pitfalls
along the road on which he must travel; and where courage and
enthusiasm were the pilgrim’s main requisites he was rewarded by
success. Three times he had defeated the Moors beyond the sea; and,
dowered with the proud title “El Africano,” he now aspired to be the
victor of a second Aljubarrota. The rôle pleased his romantic and
highly strung nature for, while posing as the defender of injured
womanhood in the person of his niece, he could also hope to avenge
on Queen Isabel the slight his vanity had suffered from her persistent
refusal of his suit.
Practical-minded councillors shook their heads over his sanguine
expectations and pointed out the untrustworthy reputations of the
Marquis of Villena and the Archbishop of Toledo. That these same
men had sworn to Joanna’s illegitimacy and made it a cause of
rebellion against King Henry looked as if love of self rather than love
of justice were now their inspiration.
Isabel and the Cardinal of Spain wrote letters of remonstrance to
the same effect, begging Alfonso to submit the matter to arbitration;
but that credulous monarch chose to believe that their advice arose
merely from a desire to gain time, and therefore hurried on his
preparations for war.
In May, 1475, having collected an army of 5600 horse and 14,000
foot, he crossed the border and advanced to Plasencia. His plan of
campaign was to march from there northwards in the direction of
Toro and Zamora, as secret correspondence had aroused his hope of
winning both these strongholds. At Plasencia he halted, until the
Marquis of Villena and the Duke of Arévalo appeared with his niece,
and then he and Joanna were married on a lofty platform in the
centre of the city, the marriage awaiting fulfilment pending the
necessary dispensation from Rome. A herald, however, using the old
formula at once proclaimed the union: “Castile! Castile for the King
Don Alfonso of Portugal and the Queen Doña Joanna his wife, the
rightful owner of these kingdoms.”
From Plasencia the Portuguese at length marched to Arévalo,
where another delay, this time of two months, took place, Alfonso
determining to await the troops that had been promised him by his
Castilian allies. He had with him the chivalry of his own Court, young
hot-bloods, who had pledged their estates in the prospect of speedy
glory and pillage. In their self-confidence the easy theories of Villena
found an echo; and they loudly boasted that Ferdinand and his wife
would never dare to meet them, but were in all probability on the
road to Aragon. “Before gaining the victory they divided the spoil,”
comments Pulgar sarcastically.
The Castilian sovereigns were far from meditating flight. The war
had not been of their choosing, but, since it had been forced upon
them, they were ready to prosecute it to the end. For the moment
affairs looked threatening. Not only was their treasury practically
empty, and a hostile army on the march across their western border,
but news came from France that Louis XI., who had at first
expressed his pleasure at their accession, was now in league with
their enemies and intended to invade the provinces of Biscay and
Guipuzcoa; Villena and his companions were in arms; the
Archbishop of Toledo sulking in Alcalá de Henares.
To him the Queen determined to go and address a last appeal in
person, leaving her husband to watch the movements of the
Portuguese from Valladolid. Some of those at Court, who knew the
pitch of resentment and fury to which the old Primate had brought
his broodings, assured her that her mission would be in vain, saying
that it was beneath her dignity to thus humble herself to a subject.
Isabel replied that she counted as little on his service as she feared
his disloyalty, and that if he had been anyone else, she would most
certainly have weighed the matter more carefully, but she added, “I
would not accuse myself later with the thought that if I had gone to
him in person, he would have withdrawn from the false road he now
seeks to follow.”
She then set out southwards, accompanied by the Marquis of
Santillana newly-created Duke of Infantado, and the Constable of
Castile, the Count of Haro, sending the latter on in advance as they
drew near to Alcalá to announce her coming. Carrillo listened to the
Constable’s skilful reasoning in uneasy silence; but he was not to be
cajoled either by his conscience or by appeals to his vanity, and at
length burst into a storm of passion, declaring that it was his
intention to serve the King of Portugal, and none should turn him
from it. If Isabel entered Alcalá by one gate, he himself would leave
by another.
This was plain speaking; and the Queen, who had planned the
interview less from policy than out of regard for the old man, whose
restless jealousy she knew so well, continued on her way to Toledo,
where she intended to make preparations for the defence of
Estremadura and Andalusia.
Ferdinand, in the meanwhile, mustered his forces in Valladolid. So
great was the hatred of the Portuguese that many of the towns of Old
Castile sent citizens equipped at their own expense; while nobles in
mail, and ginetes, or lightly-armed horsemen, flocked to the royal
standard along with Biscayan archers and hardy mountaineers from
the north. Joined with the levies of Segovia and Avila, that Isabel had
collected on her journey to Toledo, the whole army mustered about
12,000 horse and 80,000 foot, as it advanced to the relief of the
citadel of Toro, both that town and Zamora having surrendered to
the Portuguese through the treachery of their respective governors.
The enthusiasm was general, and Ferdinand himself burned with the
desire to achieve some great deed.
Unfortunately Toro, flanked by fortresses in the power of the
Portuguese, and protected on the rear by the Douro, whence
provisions could be passed into the town, proved altogether too
strong for the besiegers. A stormy council-of-war was held in the
Castilian camp, it being decided that the only wise course would be
to retreat. This rumour spread, gradually taking the shape that the
nobles were forcing the King for their own ends to give up the siege;
and in a fury the ordinary soldiery rushed to the royal tent, swearing
to stand by Ferdinand in whatever act of daring he sought to do, and
above all to protect him from traitors. In bitterness of spirit they
learned that he also counselled retreat, and in disorderly fashion they
shook the dust of Toro from their feet and returned to Valladolid.
Their departure resulted in the surrender of the citadel to the
Portuguese, with whom the Archbishop of Toledo now openly allied
himself, rancorously declaring that he had called Isabel from her
spinning-wheel and would send her back to it again.
From Valladolid Ferdinand was summoned to Burgos. The city
was almost entirely in his favour, but the fortress and the church of
Santa Maria La Blanca were held by the men of the Duke of Arévalo,
whose catapults caused so much destruction that the inhabitants
declared unless help was given they must surrender. In one of the
principal streets alone, over three hundred houses had been burned,
while the firing never ceased by night or day.
Ferdinand and his illegitimate brother, Alfonso, Duke of
Villahermosa, were soon on the scenes, for Burgos was too important
a place to be lost; and earthworks and fortifications were hastily
constructed over against the citadel to prevent help reaching it from
the King of Portugal. All this, however, cost time, and, still more
disastrous, money; for the contents of the treasury in Segovia,
handed over by Andres de Cabrera, were exhausted, and the land,
impoverished by Henry IV.’s misgovernment, could obviously yield
few taxes.
The sovereigns, in deep gloom, called a meeting of the Cortes in
Medina del Campo, and laid their monetary difficulties before it.
How was the army to be paid? The problem was the harder for the
reckless generosity of the Portuguese, who gave fine promises of
lands and revenues to all who joined them, the fulfilment depending
on the success of the war. One solution was to permit the Castilian
troops to provide for themselves by pillage and robbery. This the
sovereigns at once rejected, nor would they consent to alienate the
few royal estates still remaining to them. A third suggestion was to
exact a loan from the Church, and it speaks well for the reputation
that Ferdinand and Isabel had already established, that the clergy at
once consented to this arrangement. In the end it was settled that the
Church should surrender half her silver plate to specified royal
officials, and that this should be redeemed at the end of three years
by the payment of thirty millions of maravedis.
The war now continued with unabated vigour, not only in the
north-west corner, occupied by Alfonso V., but throughout Castile
and even across the Portuguese border. On hearing of the
proclamation at Plasencia, Ferdinand and Isabel, by way of
retaliation, had added to their titles that of King and Queen of
Portugal. This encouraged their partisans in Galicia and
Estremadura to cross the frontier and seize certain of the enemy’s
strongholds, from which they raided the country round, carrying off
cattle and burning villages. In the neighbourhood of Toledo, those
who were discontented with the over-lordship of Archbishop Carrillo
and his nephew the Marquis of Villena took the opportunity to
proclaim their allegiance to Isabel, and in the latter’s name threw off
the yoke they hated. The Count of Paredes, an old warrior who had
fought against the Moors, and who was one of the candidates for the
Mastership of Santiago, joyfully went to their assistance with a large
body of troops, collecting his rival’s revenues at the point of the
sword, until the turmoil forced Villena to leave the King of Portugal
and hurry to the protection of his own estates.
He did not attempt to conceal his indignation with his ally,
insisting that Alfonso should go immediately to Madrid, that from
there he might aid those who had put their trust in him. To this the
King replied with equal bitterness that he saw no reason to risk the
loss of Toro and Zamora by leaving the north; nor was his conscience
burdened with the ill-luck of his allies, seeing that their help had
fallen far short of their promises. This was very true. But a small
portion of the nobles committed to Joanna’s cause had appeared
when expected at Arévalo, the majority of the defaulters not having
dared to leave their own territory, where Ferdinand and Isabel’s
partisans kept them occupied in the defence of their houses and
lands.
Isabel herself from Valladolid placed careful guard over the road to
Burgos, that the King of Portugal might not send relief to that citadel.
Ever since the beginning of the war, she had spared herself no pains
or trouble, in her effort to aid Ferdinand in his campaign. At one
time she had journeyed to Toledo to raise the levies of New Castile, at
another hastened northwards to rescue Leon from a governor
suspected of treachery; then again collected and dispatched troops to
the help of Guipuzcoa, where Louis XI. was endeavouring to win a
stretch of coveted seaboard. One evil result of the strain entailed by
such exertions had been her miscarriage in the summer of 1475. Her
daughter Isabel was now doubly precious; and her parents for her
better safety had sent her to Segovia, where she remained in the
charge of Andres de Cabrera, lately created for his services Marquis
of Moya.
While the siege of Burgos still delayed, Ferdinand succeeded in
gaining possession of the town of Zamora, after secret
correspondence with the captain who had guard of the main
entrance, a strongly fortified bridge. The Portuguese King was forced
to retreat to Toro, and the Castilians, entering at once, placed siege
to the citadel; Isabel supplied troops and artillery from Valladolid,
while each day fresh loyalists appeared from Galicia.
TOLEDO, LA PUERTA DEL SOL
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY
ANDERSON, ROME
Alfonso now found himself cut off from Portugal, and, aware that
his fortunes had not matched his hopes, began to try and negotiate
favourable terms of peace. These were still in keeping with his lofty
pretensions; for, in addition to a large sum of money and the

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Re-activation of Vacant Retail Spaces:

Strategies, Policies and Guidelines 1st

Biota Grow 2C gather 2C cook Loucas

Mapping the Influencers in EU Policies Dan Luca

Pediatric Clinical Practice Guidelines Policies

Neonatal Care: A Compendium of AAP Clinical Practice

Community Policing - A European Perspective:

Regional and Local Development in Times of

Faceless Re inventing Privacy Through Subversive Media

Pediatric clinical practice guidelines policies a

ISSN 2191-530X ISSN 2191-5318 (electronic)

© The Author(s) 2018

Printed on acid-free paper

This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature

Milan, Italy Luca Tamini

1 Re-activation Strategies, Experiences from Europe and USA ...... 1

2.3 Recent Experiences: From Practices to an Integrated

Abstract The chapter contains a sort of inventory of experiences in which urban

An analysis of international best practices is fundamental to identify suitable active

© The Author(s) 2018 1

1.1 Before the Dismantling: Facing Threats

1.1.1 French Policies Against Retail Desertiﬁcation

The CDUC is composed of twenty members8:

1.2 During the Process: Supporting, Integrating

1.2.1 The EPARECA Case: The Lucien Sampaix Shopping

1 – Café, bar and tobacconist 150 m2.

Project time frame:

Low profitability scenario

High profitability scenario

1.3 Demalling: How to Re-activate Big-Boxes and Urban

1.3.1 Dismantled Big Boxes: Governance and Tools in U.S.

The dynamics observed in Lombardy and overall Italian context, as well as in

1. We will start with considerations on the location of new buildings, proposing a

1.3.2 The Vital’ Quartier Plan

The socio-economic and regional context

The role of SEMAEST within the program

addition to Paris city council. Consequently, a multiplicity of public actors are

• A protocol of understanding: an agreement offered to future owners, who

Table 1.2 Retail features of Belleville district (2003–2012)

FROM “ICONOGRAFIA ESPAÑOLA” BY

It can be imagined that such a settlement would depend for its

Ferdinand and Isabel had shown their wisdom in refusing to let

TOLEDO, LA PUERTA DEL SOL

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