Ferdinand and Isabella

Stop! Spaniard Time!

Ferdinand (1452-1516) Isabella (1451-1504)

Juan II (his dad) Juan II (her dad)Isabella of Portugal (her mom)

Henry (Her Half-brother), aka Henry IV

Aragon (his principality) Castile (Her principality/ Leon-Castile).

Alfonso (her full brother)

Naples & Sicily, Catalonia, Valencia. Other places Juan II rules.Leon-Castile is the big deal principality in Spain. (Portugal note: Portugal is independent and has been since the Reconquista) (Granada note: Granada is Muslim and in the south. And small.) Aragon is the second biggest.

And now, for the tale of Ferdinand and Isabela: Let’s start with Isabela. By the time she was young, her dad Juan II was dead (meaning we only have to deal with one Juan II. YAY!). So her half-bro, Henry IV was king. A lot of nobles didn’t like it, and wanted Alfonso to be king instead. There’s a big fight, and they cut some deals. Henry IV has a daughter named Joanna; Alfonso promises he will marry her (his first cousin!) and, in exchange, Henry IV names Alfonso heir to the throne instead of Joanna (not being French, they’re perfectly willing to put women on the throne). Things remain unstable despite this. And then Alfonso croaks. And now the rebels look to Isabella (the youngest), telling her that they’ll back her claim to the throne. She agrees, but she doesn’t like this whole war thing and refuses to lead them in a civil war, instead striking another compromise with Henry IV: Isabella agrees to let Henry IV make her marriage (which is to say pick her husband), and in exchange he will name her heir to the throne of Castile (and he can’t make her marry somebody she doesn’t want to). This brings some more peace to Castile.

So now Henry IV’s looking for someone to marry her to. A while ago she was matched up with Ferdinand (since she was three, in fact!), but Henry IV had previously tossed it out, cause he was stupid. Meanwhile, she’s negotiating with Juan II of Aragon to marry Ferdinand. The only problem is that Isabella has some second thoughts about marrying Ferdinand, since the two of them have the same grandfathers (more incest! It’s Spanish!) Since the church doesn’t like that, she wants a papal dispensation from Pious III (who doesn’t want to give one since he would piss off all the other suitors). Then Rodriguo B-something (AKA Alexander VI, future pope) intervenes on her behalf, and scores her a dispensation.

As their proposed secret marriage day approaches, Henry IV is watching Isabella closely (‘cause that’s what you do with noble daughters). She tells him she’s going to visit Alfonso’s grave. Henry IV lets her go, but she instead goes to Valladolid. Meanwhile, Juan II sends a message to Ferdinand, who is currently in Sicily (he’s titular ruler of various places, but his father’s in charge). They meet up at Valladolid in disguise. After a fairly unassuming ceremony (for royalty), they’re married. It’s October 19, 1469. Right now, neither wields significant power. Isabella goes home, marches up to Henry IV, and

informs him that she’s married. He gets pissed, but he can’t do anything, since it’s one of those Catholic Marriages (Isabella gets what she wants).

Skip ahead to Henry IV’s death: Isabella is recognized as queen of Castile in 1474. That immediately starts a war with Portugal, since her mom’s the queen of Portugal and has a claim to the throne of Castile. This lasts 5 years, ending in 1479. Isabella wins (Isabella gets what she wants!) and Portugal recognizes her claim to the throne. And, in the same year, Juan II dies, making Ferdinand king of Aragon, Naples & Sicily, Catalonia, and Valencia. So now they’ve come into their full power. But it’s still one of the least promising inheritances of Europe: Castile’s civil war is done, but the countryside is in the hands of noble warlords. So these two didn’t come to their crowns with the kind of (military) power that would allow them to enforce their will on ‘mostly Castile (but also Aragon)’, forcing them to be diplomatic and shrewd, rather than forceful. So they need to make alliances with four sectors in order to stabilize their rules:

1. The Church. The Catholic Church in Spain/Castile is a big deal.2. The Nobility (the Spanish Grandise). 3. The Mercantile Sector (of Castile and Aragon)4. The principle towns/cities of Castile and Aragon (like Madrid and Toledo. Especially Madrid

and Toledo)

They will succeed spectacularly in all of these alliances.

However, this isn’t a promising economic situation at all: Spain doesn’t exactly have much in the way of natural resources (then or now), and too much land is in the hands of too few people (which creates economic stagnation). The main ‘industry’ is Sheep, and Castile regularly suffers climatic extremes. They suffer a serious trade deficit, importing grain (not much arable land), armaments (short on heavy industry, which will go BADLY in a couple hundred years), paper, all kinds of small manufactured goods (indicating a non-diverse economy), and textiles (Which are made of wool. So, yeah, they’re buying their own wool back. Really really bad.). So now Ferdinand and Isabella have to find something to do about their backwards economy. For Pete’s sake, city-states are ahead of them. City-states!

Oh, yeah, and, looking around, they think they’re surrounded by enemies (it’s usually Germans that think that, and they’re usually right). They’ve got Portugal to the west, Muslims to the south, and France(!) to the north. So they fortify the south up (cause, hey, they already fought the Portuguese, and if the French decide to smoosh them, they’re fucked anyway!)

ANOTHER problem: Castile and Aragon are hella underpopulated: put together, they’ve got the same population as ENGLAND (which is ALSO underpopulated, but on WAY less land). They can’t solve that problem.

All of their efforts focus on Castile (since 2/3 of the land and 80% of the people are there). In order of power/importance, it’s Isabella and Ferdinand. So, the question is: Did they expect to unify Spain? Bringing Castile and Aragon (and Ferdinand’s other holdings) together was a HUGE step toward

unifying Spain: All that’s missing is tiny little Navarre (and the little problem of Granada, but Ferdinand has always planned to deal with them). Well, they don’t. And neither do their kids: Isabella has 5 (4 girls and a boy): the girls all become queens (Two of Portugal, one of Castile, and one gets married to Henry VIII), and the boy croaks. But this does set the process in motion, resulting in Spain unifying way sooner than Germany or Italy.

And that’s it! The rest of these two’s story got cut off by snow days.