When you, sir, were good enough to invite me to read a paper to the Society over which you preside, I was divided between gratification and alarm. To these conflicting emotions is now added a feeling of sympathy for the audience on which I shall have to inflict many dry details. Let me begin cy reassuring you with respect to the title of the paper. ‘Some early Spanish historians’ sounds vague and formidable. ‘Some’ might mean almost any number; but one has to select, and I shall deal with only three. It may be objected that I speak of Spain as existing in the thirteenth century, whereas Spain was not a political unit till near the end of the fifteenth century. There is a good deal of force in this objection, and I feel bound to meet it, as far as I can. In the first place, ‘Spain’ is a more convenient expression than the triple forms of Castile, León and Aragón, or Navarre, Catalonia and Valencia; and, in the second place, the sentiment of Spanish nationality existed long before complete political unity was actually achieved. Let me try to show this.