Everything about Ferdinand The Catholic totally explained
Ferdinand II of Aragon the Catholic ( ;
March 10,
1452 –
January 23,
1516) was king of
Aragon (1479–1516),
Sicily (1468–1516),
Naples (1504–1516),
Valencia,
Sardinia and
Navarre,
Count of Barcelona,
jure uxoris King of
Castile (1474-1504) and regent and true ruler of this country from 1508 to his death, in the name of his mentally challenged daughter
Joanna the Mad.
Biography
Acquiring titles
Ferdinand was the son of
John II of Aragon (whose family was a cadet branch of the
House of Trastámara ) by his 2nd wife, the Castilian noblewoman
Juana Enriquez. He married
Infanta Isabella, the half-sister and heiress of
Henry IV of Castile, on
October 19,
1469 in
Valladolid and became
jure uxoris King of Castile when Isabella succeeded her brother as Queen of Castile in 1474. Isabel also belonged to the royal
House of Trastámara. Married under the joint motto,
tanto monta, monta tanto, the two young monarchs were initially obliged to fight a civil war against
Joan, princess of Castile (also known as Juana la Beltraneja), the purported daughter of Henry IV, but were ultimately unsuccessful. When Ferdinand succeeded his father as King of Aragon in 1479, the Crown of Castile and the various territories of the Crown of Aragon were united in a personal union creating for the first time since the 8th century a single political unit began to be called
España (Spain), the root of which is the ancient name
Hispania, although the various states were not formerly administered as a single unit until the 18th century, but rather, as separate political units under the same Crown.
The first decades of Ferdinand and Isabella's joint rule were taken up with the conquest of the
Kingdom of Granada, the last Muslim enclave in the Iberian peninsula, which was completed by 1492. In that same year, the
Alhambra Decree was issued, expelling the
Jews from both Castile and Aragon, and
Christopher Columbus was sent by the couple on his infamously accidental expedition to the new world. By the
Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, the extra-European world was split between the crowns of Portugal and Castile by a north-south line through the
Atlantic Ocean.
The latter part of Ferdinand's life was largely taken up with disputes over control of Italy with successive Kings of France, the so-called
Italian Wars. In 1494,
Charles VIII of France invaded Italy and expelled
Alfonso II (who was Ferdinand's first cousin once removed and stepson of Ferdinand's sister) from the throne of Naples. Ferdinand allied with various Italian princes and with Emperor
Maximilian I, to expel the French by 1496 and install Alfonso's son, Ferdinand, on the Neapolitan throne. In 1501, following the death of
Ferdinand II of Naples and his succession by his uncle
Frederick, Ferdinand of Aragon signed an agreement with Charles VIII's successor,
Louis XII, who had just successfully asserted his claims to the
Duchy of Milan, to partition Naples between them, with
Campania and the
Abruzzi, including Naples itself, going to the French and Ferdinand taking
Apulia and
Calabria. The agreement soon fell apart, and over the next several years, Ferdinand's great general
Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba conquered Naples from the French, having succeeded by 1504. Another less famous "conquest" took place in 1503, when
Andreas Paleologus, de jure Emperor of the
Eastern Roman Empire, left Ferdinand and Isabella as heirs to the empire, thus Ferdinand became de jure Roman Emperor.
After Isabella
After Isabella's death, her kingdom went to their daughter
Joanna. Ferdinand served as the latter's regent during her absence in the
Netherlands, ruled by her husband
Archduke Philip. Ferdinand attempted to retain the regency permanently, but was rebuffed by the Castilian nobility and replaced with Joanna's husband, who became
Philip I of Castile. After Philip's death in 1506, with Joanna mentally unstable, and her and Philip's son
Charles of Ghent was only six years old, Ferdinand resumed the regency, ruling through
Francisco Cardinal Jimenez de Cisneros, the Chancellor of the Kingdom.
Ferdinand disagreed with Philip's policies. In 1505, Ferdinand remarried to
Germaine of Foix, a granddaughter of his half-sister
Queen Leonor of Navarre, in hopes of fathering a new heir and so separating Aragon and Castile (denying Philip the governance of Aragon), and to potentially lay claim to
Navarre.
Ferdinand also had children from his mistress, Aldonza Ruiz de Iborre y Alemany of
Cervera. He had a son, Alfonso de Aragon (born in 1469), who later became
archbishop of
Zaragoza, and a daughter Joanna (born in 1471), who married Bernardino de Valsco, the 1st Duke of
Frias.
In the 1500s, Alfonso de Aragon, who later became
archbishop of
Zaragoza found a hidden study under the palace of Ferdinand, containing over 400 documents written by Ferdinand himself. In these documents, Ferdinand explained his general outlook on political power, and his true goals behind all his decisions during life as the King of Spain. Also through these documents, which surprised many people, writings stated that Ferdinand, during times of very complicated decision making, blindfolded himself to concentrate on the true matter of the situation, as to not let various things cloud his judgment.
In 1508, war resumed in Italy, this time against
Venice, which all the other powers on the peninsula, including Louis XII, Ferdinand, Maximilian, and
Pope Julius II joined together against as the
League of Cambrai. Although the French were victorious against Venice at the
Battle of Agnadello, the League soon fell apart, as both the Pope and Ferdinand became suspicious of French intentions. Instead, the
Holy League was formed, in which now all the powers joined together against France.
In November 1511 Ferdinand and his son-in-law
Henry VIII of England signed the
Treaty of Westminster, pledging mutual aid between the two against
France. Earlier that year, Ferdinand had conquered the southern half of the
Kingdom of Navarre, which was ruled by a French nobleman, and annexed it to Spain. The Holy League was generally successful in Italy, as well, driving the French from Milan, which was restored to its
Sforza dukes by the peace treaty in 1513. The French were successful in reconquering Milan two years later, however.
Ferdinand died in 1516 in Madrigalejo, Cáceres,
Extremadura,
Spain.
Legacy and succession
Ferdinand and Isabel had together made Spain the most powerful country in Europe.
In 1502, the Aragonese
Cortes gathered in Saragossa, alleged oath to his daughter
Joanna as heiress, but the Archbishop of Saragossa expressed firmly that this oath couldn't establish jurisprudence, that's to say, without modifying the right of the succession, but by virtue of a formal agreement between the
Cortes and the King. So, when he was dead on
January 23 1516, his daughter Joanna inherited the
Crown of Aragon, and his grandson
Charles became General Governador. Nevertheless, the Flemings wished that Carlos assumed the royal title, and this was supported by his paternal grandfather the emperor
Maximilian I and the
Pope Leo X, this way, after the celebration Ferdinand II's obsequies on
March 14 1516, he was proclaimed as king of Castile and of Aragon jointly with his mother. Finally, the Castilian
regent, Cardinal
Jiménez de Cisneros accepted the
fait accompli, and the Castilian and Aragonese
Cortes paid homage to him and finally he was recognized king of Aragon jointly with his mother.
Thus, his grandson
Charles, who would inherit not only the Spanish lands of his maternal grandparents, but the
Habsburg and
Burgundian lands of his paternal family, would make his heirs the most powerful rulers on the continent.
Ancestry
Further Information
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