Catholic Monarchs: Politics

Spain: The Politics of the Catholic Monarchs  

Fernando/Ferdinand (King of Aragon 1479-1516) and Isabel/Isabella (Queen of Castile 1474-1504)

On the morning of October 19, 1469, the marriage took place between Isabel and Fernando, heirs respectively to the thrones of Castile and Aragon that would have far-reaching consequences.  The omens were not favourable: 

       • they were both teenagers, the older, Isabel, being 18 years-old and her husband, Fernando,  17;
      • Isabel's claim to the throne of Castile was disputed, and Fernando’s claim to the throne of Aragon was endangered by civil war;
      • since they were cousins they married in secret and required special papal dispensation, which turned out to be a forgery concocted by Ferdinand and his supporters;
      • both had numerous enemies, and in Castile political conditions were chaotic, with powerful nobles determined to retain their influence.
                                                                                   Nevertheless, Isabel succeeded to the throne of Castile in 1474 and Fernando to that of Aragon in 1479.

Together, Fernando and Isabel laid the foundations of Spain’s Golden Age (Siglo de Oro), a period during which it became the largest empire the world had ever seen. However, some clarification is in order here:

      • although both monarchs worked closely together in running the country, neither was officially more than a consort in the other’s kingdom;
      • both Castile and Aragon retained their own laws and customs; 
     • the kingdom of Aragon included the modern autonomous communities of Catalonia and Valencia, as well as southern Italy (the kingdom of Naples) and Sicily and Sardinia;
      • Castile because of its larger size and greater population dominated the relationship;
      • the term “Golden Age” tends to view Spain’s achievements during this period through Castilian eyes (Catalans nowadays, for example, have a different view of the period).
 
Fernando and Isabel shared similar goals when they took power. These goals included:
      • peace and order through the reduction of aristocratic power and concentration of political authority in their hands;
      • the support of the Cortes (Parliament), the body that represented not only the nobility but also the church and the municipalities;
      • the conquest of the kingdom of Granada (the last Muslim enclave in the peninsula), and religious uniformity.

That these national goals were achieved says much for the organisational skills, astuteness and maturity of Fernando and Isabel. For the general public, the best known of these goals is the conquest of Granada in 1492, followed by the expulsion of those Jews and Muslims who refused to convert to Christianity. An added bonus to the fame of the Reyes Católicos (Catholic Monarchs, a title conferred on Fernando and Isabel by the Pope Alexander VI in 1494) was the achievement of Christopher Columbus, a Genoese sailor who set out from the south of Spain for India and found America, or Las Indias as they called it.
 
On the international front, the Catholic Monarchs sought to contain the influence of Spain’s main rival, France.  France had already annexed the Catalan counties of Cerdanya and Rossello (in 1463) and also invaded Naples (1495) which belonged to the crown of Aragon.  Marriage was the most expedient way of setting up alliances to contain France. The Monarchs succeeded in this by marrying:
      • their son and heir, Juan, to the daughter of the powerful Hapsburg Emperor, Maximilian;
      • their eldest daughter, Isabel to Manuel of Portugal;
      • another daughter, Catalina/Catherine to Prince Arthur of England. (Catalina is the famous Catherine of Aragon who married Henry VIII of England after the death of Arthur.)

An unfortunate sequence of deaths, however, had unforeseen consequences.  Juan died without issue in 1497, and then the deaths of both Isabel of Portugal and her infant son soon after meant that the right of succession to the Spanish throne passed to another daughter of Fernando and Isabel: Juana, who –as it happens-- had married Maximilian’s son, the Archduke Felipe/Philip and was living in Flanders.  Juana eventually succeeded to the throne of Castile upon the death of Isabel in 1504, but her father, Fernando, remained king of Aragon.

Fortune didn’t favour either Juana or Felipe.  Felipe died suddenly in September 1506 when he’d hardly stepped on Spanish soil, and Juana –whose mental health was delicate--was soon confined to the isolated castle of Tordesillas.  Since their son and heir, Carlos/Charles, was only 6 and living in Flanders, Fernando remained as regent of Castile (and King of Aragon) for 10 years, until his death in 1516.  Carlos’s arrival in Spain in the following year as King of both Castile and Aragon marks the beginning of the Hapsburg dynasty in Spain.

Sources:

Edwards, John  The Spain of the Catholic Monarchs Oxford 2000                                                                Elliott, J.H Imperial Spain 1469-1716  London 1963
Kamen, Henry  Spain 1469-1714: A Society in Conflict  London 1983
      “         “  Golden Age Spain   Atlantic Highlands NJ  1988