Catholic
Monarchs
(Spanish Reyes Católicas) is a joint title used for Queen Isabella I of
Castile (Spanish: Isabel I de Castilla), (1451-1504, ruled 1474-1504) and King
Ferdinand (Spanish: Fernando) II of Aragón (1452-1516).*
*Ferdinand became King Fernando II of
Aragón in 1479, succeeding his brother Alfonso V, who had no direct heirs. He
was King of Sicily (1468-1516), of Castile (as Fernando V, 1474-1504), of
Aragón (1479-1516) and Naples (as Fernando III, 1504-1516). He was also ruler
of the Spanish crown between 1507 and 1516, due to the disqualification of his
daughter Juana I of Castile, after the death of her husband Felipe.
The title of Catholic Monarchs was bestowed on Ferdinand and Isabella by Pope Alexander VI in 1494, in recognition of their defense of the Catholic faith within their realms. They were known for completing the Reconquista by defeating the Moors in Granada in 1492.
The title of Catholic Monarchs was bestowed on Ferdinand and Isabella by Pope Alexander VI in 1494, in recognition of their defense of the Catholic faith within their realms. They were known for completing the Reconquista by defeating the Moors in Granada in 1492.
La Rendición de Granada [The Surrender
of Granada] 1882 by Francisco Pradilla Ortiz (en.wikipedia.org).**
** Francisco Pradilla Ortiz (1848-1921) was
a prolific Spanish painter famous for creating historical scenes. The Spanish
Senate commissioned him to create La Rendición de Granada (The Surrender of
Granada), which took him three years to complete (1879-1882). This romantic
interpretation reflects the chivalry of Boabdil (aka Muhammad XII), sultan of
Granada, as he surrenders the keys of the last Moorish kingdom to the Catholic
Monarchs, Fernando and Isabel, following 10 long years of war. (An eyewitness to the surrender recorded the scene in a letter to the bishop of Leon only six days after the event: “The Moorish sultan with about eighty or a hundred on horseback very well dressed went forth to kiss the hand of their Highnesses. According to the final capitulation agreement both Isabel and Ferdinand will decline the offer, and the key to Granada will pass into Spanish hands without Muhammad XII having to kiss the hands of Los Reyes, as the Spanish royal couple became known. The indomitable mother of Muhammad XII insisted on sparing her son this final humiliation.” Christopher
Columbus also seems to have been present at the surrender, since he wrote: “After
your Highnesses ended the war of the Moors who reigned in Europe, and finished
the war of the great city of Granada, where this present year 1492 on the 2nd
January I saw the royal banners of Your Highnesses planted by force of arms on
the towers of the Alhambra.” Sponsored by Ferdinand and Isabella, Columbus
began his first voyage in August 1492 and reached the New World in October.)
Although the title of Reyes Católicos was employed earlier, it
was formally conferred on them in a papal bull published by Pope Alexander VI
in 1494, giving them the Latin title Rex
Catholicissimus [Most Catholic King (and Queen)] in recognition of their
reconquest of Granada from the Moors (1481-1492).***
*** Some sources, including Encyclopædia Britanica, say that the
pope bestowed title of Catholic Monarchs not only because of their role in the Reconquista, but also for their
strengthening of the Church by such agencies as the Spanish Inquisition and
such measures as compelling Jews to convert to Christianity or face exile
(1492). However, the following facts suggest that the latter two events were
not totally supported by Pope Alexander VI or happened later under a different
pope:
In March 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella
also ordered the expulsion from Spain of all Jews and Muslims who did not
convert to Catholicism. When some 9,000 of the Jews expelled from Spain arrived
at the borders of the Papal States, Pope Alexander VI welcomed them into Rome,
permitting them to continue in their own religion.
The Inquisition had been created in the
12th century to fight heresy in what is now France and was constituted in a
number of European Kingdoms. The medieval Inquisition had played a considerable
role in Christian Spain during the 13th century, but the struggle against the
Moors had kept the inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula busy and served to
strengthen their faith. When toward the end of the 15th century the Reconquista
was all but complete, the desire for religious unity became more and more
pronounced. The Catholic Monarchs decided to introduce the Inquisition to
Castile, and requested the Pole’s assent. In 1478, Pope Sixtus IV published a
papal bull by which the Inquisition was established in the Kingdom of Castile;
it was later extended to all of Spain. The papal bull authorized the Spanish
sovereigns to appoint the inquisitors who would address the issue of Moriscos and Marranos, nominal converts from Judaism who continued to practice
their faith in secret. The Catholic Monarchs sought to use the Inquisition to
support their absolute and centralized regime and especially to increase royal
power in Aragon. The first Spanish inquisitors, operating in Seville, proved so
severe that Sixtus IV attempted to intervene. In 1483, however, the pope was
forced to authorize the naming by the Spanish government of a grand inquisitor
for Castile. The first grand inquisitor was the infamous Torquemada, and during
that same year Aragon, Valencia, and Catalonia were placed under the power of
the Inquisition.
How
they were married and how they came to rule Castile and Aragón are interesting
stories, with many complicated turns:
The intertwining of the histories of
Castile and Aragón may have begun with the marriage of Juan II of Castile and
María or Aragon, daughter of King Ferdinand I of Aragon. From that marriage,
Juan II had a son, Enrique.
In 1440, when Enrique was 15, he was
married to his cousin Blanche II of Navarre (Spanish: Blanca II de Navarra).
The marriage was never consumated, and in 1453, after 13 years, Enrique was
granted a divorce. Pope Nicholas V (papacy 1447-1455) confirmed the annulment
and supposedly provided a new papal dispensation for Enrique’s marriage to yet
another cousin (although some croniclers say he did not get a dispensation for
this second marriage).
Isabella (Spanish: Isabel) of Castile
was born in 1451, daughter of King Juan II of Castile by his second wife
Isabella of Portugal. At the time of her birth, she was second in line to the
throne after her older half-brother Enrique, who at that time was 26 and
childless. Her younger brother Alfonso was born in 1453, lowering her position
to third in line. When her father died in 1454, her half-brother ascended to
the throne of Castile as Enrique IV (1425-1474, ruled 1454-1474), and Isabella
and Alfonso were left in his care, although they moved with their mother to
Arévalo. Living conditions in their castle in Arévalo were poor, and they
suffered from a shortage of money. Although her father had arranged in his will
for his children to be financially well taken care of, Enrique did not comply
with their father’s wishes.
When Enrique became king in 1454, he was
concerned with the possibility of intervention by Juan II of Navarra (and
Aragón), and so established peace with France and Aragón. In 1455, he married
Juana of Portugal (sister of the Portuguese king and also Enrique’s second
cousin), giving him the possibity of a powerful ally.
Between 1455 and 1458, Enrique
launched a series of campaigns against the Muslim Kingdom of Granada, which
developed into a war of attrition, based on punitive raids and avoiding pitched
battles. This was not popular among the nobility, including Juan Pacheco,
Enrique’s companion and confidant since their boyhood. So the king added new
advisors, including Beltrán de la Cueva. When Juan II became King of Navarra
and Aragón in 1458, he resumed his interference with Castilian politics and supported
the faction led by Juan Pacheco.
This resulted in the formation in 1460 of
a league of nobles (headed by Juan Pachego and including Juan II) who wanted to
depose Enrique and replace him with his half-brother Alfonso. Enrique reacted
by invading Navarra, in support of Juan’s rebel son Carlos de Viana, but
eventually made peace.
In 1462, when Enrique’s second wife,
Juana of Portugal, was about to give birth to their daughter Juana, Isabella
and Alfonso were brought back to the court in Segovia. However, Enrique had his
daughter Juana installed as Princess of Asturias, making her the presumptive
heir, first in line to succeed him.
By 1464, the noble league led by Pacheco
not only conspired against Enrique but also sought to eliminate the influence
of the king’s new favorite, Beltrán de la Cueva. As part of this campaign, they
questioned the legitimacy of the Infanta (Princess) Juana, claiming that she
was actually Beltrán’s daughter. Thus, she was given the nickname “la
Beltraneja,” and Enrique was nicknamed “el Impotente” (the Impotent). Her
mother was known to have two other ilegitimate chirdren by the bishop’s nephew.
King Enrique yielded to the demands of
the league and agreed to negotiate. In 1464, the league of nobles forced
Enrique repudiate Juana (his supposed daughter, although there were doubts
about his paternity) and recognize his 11-year-old brother Alfonso (1453-1468)
as his heir. Beltrán was removed from the court, and Pacheco took charge of
Alfonso’s education. In 1465, when Enrique refused to accept other measures
proposed by the league of nobles, his opponents deposed him in effigy and
crowned Alfonso as a rival king. Alfonso began handing out land and titles as
if he were already uncontested ruler.
In 1467, the nobles backing Alfonso
clashed with Enrique’s forces in the Second Battle of Olmedo, which ended in a
draw. After the battle, the league
of nobles took the king’s wife Juana hostage, and it was later alleged that the
queen had become pregnant again during her captivity.
After his wife was returned to him,
Enrique agreed to negotiate. He again agreed to recognize Alfonso as heir
presumptive, provided that the latter would marry his (supposed) daughter
Juana. Soon thereafter, Alfonso was proclaimed Prince of Asturias. However,
Alfonso died in 1468 at the age of only 14. His will left the crown to his
sister, Isabella, who was asked to take her brother’s place as the new
candidate of the rebels, who did not accept Juana as heiress. Since both were
female, the charge of illegitimacy against Juana gained momentum. However,
Isabella refused to take the royal title (Queen), but only that of Princess of
Asturias. Rather than continuing the civil war, Isabella preferred to negotiate
with Enrique.
In 1468, Enrique and Isabella signed an
agreement, the Treaty of the Bulls of Guisando (Spanish Tratado de los Toros de Guisando), under which Isabella and her
allies received most of what they desired, and the various factions of the
nobility renewed their allegiance to the king. Enrique agreed to exclude Juana
from the succession and to recognize Isabella as his official heir.
To save face, the reason given for
setting aside the Infanta (Princess) Juana was not that she was the daughter of
another man, but rather the dubious legality of Enrique’s marriage to her
mother and the mother’s recent bad behavior, since she was accused on
infidelity during her captivity. According to the treay, Enrique was supposed
to divorce his wife, but he never initiated the proceedings.
In this treaty, Isabella was granted the
title of Princess of Asturias and therefore became heiress presumptive to the
Crown of Castile. Also, as part of the treaty, Enrique promised that his sister
not be compelled to marry against her will, while Isabella was to marry only
with the consent of the King.
Enrique
made several attempts to arrange politically advantageous marriages for
Isabella:
Already in 1457, when Isabel was only 6,
she had been betrothed to Ferdinand, son of Juan II of Navarra. At the time,
the two kings, Enrique and Juan, were eager to show their mutual friendship and
confidence. However, this arrangement did not last long. When Alfonso V of Aragón
died in 1458, all of his Spanish territories were left to his brother Juan II. Juan
now had a stronger position than ever before and no longer needed the security
of Enrique’s friendship. Enrique secretly formed a new alliance with Juan’s
elder son, Carlos of Viana, who was constantly at odds with his father. A major
part of that alliance was that a marriage was to be arranged between Carlos and
Isabella. When Juan II learned of this arranged marriage, he was outraged,
since Isabella had been destined for his favorite son, Ferdinand, and that
arrangement was still valid in his eyes. Juan II had his son Carlos thrown into
prison, where he died in 1461. In 1465, Enrique attempted to marry Isabella to
his brother-in-law, Alfonso V of Portugal, but Isabella was wary of the
marriage and refused to consent. When war broke out in Castile over Enrique’s
inability to act as sovereign, he needed a quick way to please the rebels. As
part of an agreement to restore peace, Isabella was to be betrothed to one of
the rebel noblemen, Don Pedro Giron (brother of Juan Pacheco), who in turn
would pay a large sum into Enrique’s impoverished treasury. However, Don Pedro
fell ill and died while on the way to meet his fiancée. After the Treaty of the
Bulls of Guisando (1648), there was talk of a marriage to Eduard IV or England
or to one of his brothers, but this alliance was never seriously considered.
Once again, in 1468, a marriage proposal arrived from Alfonso V of Portugal.
Going against his promises made just months earlier, Enrique tried to make the
marriage a reality. If Isabella married Alfonso, Enrique’s daughter Juana would
marry Alfonso’s son João II (John II), and
thus, after the death of the old king, João and Juana could inherit Portugal
and Castile. Isabella refused and made a secret promise to marry her cousin and
very first betrothed, Ferdinand of Aragón. Enrique once again went against his
promises and tried to marry Isabella to the brother of Louis XI of France,
hoping that this would cement the friendship of Castile and France as well as
remove Isabella from Castilian affairs. Isabella once again refused the
proposal. Meanwhile, Juan II of Aragón negotiated in secret with Isabella to
marry his son Ferdinand. In October 1469, the formal betrothal took place.
Because Isabella and Ferdinand were second cousins, they stood within the
prohibited decrees of consantuinity, and the marriage would not be legal unless
a dispensation from the Pope was obtained. With the help of the Valencian cardinal
Rodrigo Borgia (later Pope Alexander VI), Isabella and Ferdinand were presented
with a papal bull by Pius II authorizing Ferdinand to marry within the third
degree of consanguinity, making their marriage legal.**** Afraid of opposition,
Isabella eloped from Enrique’s court with the excuse of visiting her brother
Alfonso’s tomb in Ávila. Meanwhile, Ferdinand crossed into Castile in secret
disguised as a servant, and they were married immediately on reuniting, on
October 19, 1469. Isabella was 18 years old at the time, and Ferdinand was one
year younger.
****The problem with this is that Pope Pius
II died in 1464; his papacy was 1458-1464; Paul II was pope 1464-1471. Other
sources state, probably more correctly, that Ferdinand and Isabella were given
a papal dispensation by Sixtus IV (papacy 1471-1484) in 1472 to deal with
consanguinity. [If a papal dispensation had originally been issued during the
first betrothal of Isabella and Ferdinand, between 1457 and 1458, this would
have fallen during the papacy of Pope Calixtus III (1455-1458).]
Wedding portrait of Ferdinand and Isabella, c. 1469 (en.wikipedia.org).
The War
of Castilian Succession (1475-1479). started after the death of Enrique in 1474. That
war was fought between the supporters of Juana la Beltraneja and Isabella. The
war had a marked international character, since Isabella was married to
Ferdinand, heir to the Crown of Aragón, while Juana was strategically married
to King Alfonso V of Portugal, her uncle, at the suggestion of her supporters,
who proposed that he assume the throne of Castile together with her. Later in
the war, France intervened in support of Portugal, since they were rivals with
Aragón for territories. The war concluded in 1479 with a treaty recognizing
Isabella and Ferdinand as sovereigns of Castile. Juana lost her right to the
throne of Castile and remained in Portugal until her death.
The
court of Ferdinand and Isabella was constantly on the move, in order to
bolster support for the crown from local feudal lords. Ferdinald and Isabella
continued ruling through a form of medieval contractualism, which made their
rule pre-modern in many ways. One of those is that they traveled from town to
town throughout the kingdom in order to promote loyalty, rather than having a
single administrative center. Another is that each community and region was
connected to them via loyalty to the Crown, rather than bureaucratic ties.
The marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella
in 1469 would unite both kingdoms under the same crown. It has been generally
accepted by most scholars that the unification of Spain can essentially be
traced back to the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella. However, newer
historical opinions propose that, under their rule, what later became Spain was
still a union of two crowns rather than a unified state. Though their marriage
led to the beginnings of modern Spain, they ruled independently, and to a large
degree Castile and Aragon remained separate kingdoms, with most of their own
separate government institutions and regional laws, for the next few centuries.
Even after Ferdinand’s death (1516) and the union of the crowns under one
monarch, the Aragonese courts retained significant power in their own region.
The Kingdoms of Iberia in 1482, with the reduced Emirate of Granada to the south (en.wikipedia.org).
Following the death of Queen Isabella I (1504), the problem of succession arose
in Castilla. Her husband Ferdinand proclaimed their daughter Juana (1479-1555)
Queen of Castile and took over the government of the kingdom in accordance with
Isabel’s last will. However, Juana’s husband Felipe was not willing to give up
power. According to an agreement reached in 1506, Ferdinand retired to Aragón,
and Felipe was proclaimed King of Castile as Felipe I. Meanwhile, Juana
allegedly went wild, jealous of the infidelities of her husband. She was called
“la Loca” (the Crazy One). Although the courts refused to declare Queen Juana
unable to rule, Felipe exercised effective power without it. Following the
deaths of the Castilian-Aragonese Infantes Juan (1497) and Isabel of Aragón
(1498) and the latter’s son (1500), Juana became heir to Castile and Aragón.
Felipe I of Castile (1478-1506), known as Felipe el Hermoso (Phillip the
Handsome), was King jure uxoris of
Castile (1506) by his marriage to Juana, daugher and heiress of the Catholic
Monarchs after the deaths of her siblings the Infantes Juan and Isabel. Juana I
of Castile was nominally Queen of Castile from 1504 to 1555 and of Aragon
andNavarra from 1516-1555, although after 1506 she did not exercise any
effective power and after 1509 lived locked up, first by order of her father
Ferdinand and later by order of her son King Carlos I, due to her alleged
mental illness.
Also
intertwined in ths history of Castile and Aragon is the Kingdom of Navarra,
King Carlos III of Navarra (1361-1425, ruled 1387-1425) outlived his legitimate sons;
so he was succeeded by his daughter Queen Blanca I (ruled 1425-1442) and his
son-in-law, King Juan II (1397-1479). Blanca I and the Infante (Prince) Juan
were proclaimed joint monarchs of Navarra. However, Juan lived oblivious to the
affairs of Navarra, ruled by his wife, and remained fully devoted to Aragonese
matters and his interests in Castile. After Queen Blanca I of Navarra’s death
in 1441, Navarra was mired in continued disputes over royal succession. Juan II
was in effect ruling in Aragón in the name of his brother, Alfonso V of Aragón,
who had appointed him governor. He left his son, Carlos of Viana, in Navarra,
but only with the rank of governor, whereas Queen Blanca I had designated that
Carlos should succeed her, as was the custom. Juan II took advantage of his
wife’s will that their son Carlos, who as Prince of Viana was her rightful
heir, should not assume the royal title without his consent. This caused strong
discontent in Navarra, which would lead to civil war in 1451. In 1445, Juan II
remarried with Juana Enriquez, daughter of the Admiral of Castile. In 1450,
Juan II came back to Navarra and, urged on by his ambitious second wife Juana,
endeavored to obtain the succession for their son Fernando (Ferdinand). In
1451, Navarra split into two confederacies over royal succession; one sided
with Juan II and the other espoused the cause of Carlos of Viana. Carlos was
defeated by his father in 1451 and held prisoner for two years; he was
imprisoned again in 1460 and died in 1461, without being able to take the reins
of the Kingdom of Navarra. Carlos reportedly died of a pulmonary illness,
although others speculate that he was poisoned by his stepmother, King
Ferdinand II of Aragón’s mother Juana Enriquez. He named as his heir his next
sister, Queen Blanca II, but she was immediately imprisoned by Juan II and died
in 1464. On the demise of Carlos in 1461, Enrique IV of Castile occupied the
southwestern tip of Navarra, which was annexed by Castile in 1463. Juan II
continued to rule as king until 1479, when Queen Eleanor succeeded him for only
15 days and died. This inaugurated another period of instability, since the
succession of her 13-year old granddaughter Catherine (Spanish: Catalina) was
disputed by the French side of her family (she was also the granddaughter of
King Louis XI of France). The Parliament of Navarra favored Juan of Aragón, son
of Ferndinand and Isabella. Ferdinand did not recognize Catherine and imposed
the presence of Castilian troops in Navarra. The Castilians occupied Pamplona
in 1512 and went on to conquet St. Jean Pied de Port after setting fire to
Roncevaux (Roncesvalles). In 1513, the Parliament of Navarra proclaimed
Ferdinand “King of Navarra.” In 1515, Upper Navarra was annexed to the Crown of
Castile as a separate kingdom (aeque
principalis), and it would be one consistent part of the Kingdom of the
Spains, as Spain came to be known in the following period. After the Castilian
intervention, Queen Catherine and her French husband King John III withdrew to
the north of the Pyrenees, where Lower Navarra became part of France.
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