CATHOLIC
KINGS SWORD
The sword of the catholic
kings was famous in all its empire.
Isabel I of Castile,
"la Católica", daughter of Juan II of Castile and Isabel of
Portugal, second wife of this, was born in Madrigal of the High Towers in
April of 1451.
Fernando, son of Juan II of
Aragon and Juana Enriquez, contracted marriage in the 19 Valladolid of
October of 1469, between strong oppositions to the same one. The
consanguinity of both spouses (they were prime) was solved through one bula
signed by Calixto Pope, bula that had been falsified by the bishop of
Segovia.
To the death of king Juan II
of Castile, his brother Enrique IV inherited the throne of Castile. When
finding out Enrique IV that the marriage had been completed without its
consent, declared to his daughter Juana like legitim and heiress to the
throne. This real decision caused a series of you intrigue around two sides,
those that supported to Juana and those in favor of Isabel. The death
without naming successor to the throne of Enrique IV unleashed a war of
succession, that lasted seven years, in charge of those in favor of the
legitimacy of Juana and those of Isabel. The 13 of December of 1474, in
Segovia, Isabel was recognized propietary queen of Castile, Fernando was
absent and to his return he demanded his rights on Castile like descendant
of the House of Trastámara. The Concord of Segovia, signed in 1475, would
determine the part that to each one corresponded to him in the government.

Image of the sword of
Catolics Kings .
Conflict between Isabel and
Juana followed present after coronation, since Alfonso V of Portugal,
husband of Juana, sent an offensive in support of this one, offensive that
was disputed in the battles of Toro and Albuera after who Isabel, that
winner left, was recognized queen by Cortes of Madrigal.
Meanwhile Fernando was named
inheriting after the death of his brother Carlos. In 1468 he received the
throne of Sicily and to the death of his father in 1479, the one of the
crown of Aragón. It participated in the fights with its sword in favor of
its Isabel wife and as of this date one took place the dynastic union of
Aragón and Castile and the beginning of the joint reign, following the
agreements that had been signed in 1475 in the Concord of Segovia by which
both monarchs maintained their equality in the referred thing to Justice,
currency and expedition of privileges, but reserved to Isabel the fidelity
of the possesors of Castles and the questions of Property.

Picture of the Virgin of
Catolics Kings.
This marriage has been considered
like the departure point of the unit and the greatness of Spain. Immediate
goal of the new monarchs was the one to restore the real authority for which
they used as a powerful organization, Santa Hermandad created in 1476 which
it was a species of judicial police that persecuted the disturbers of the
order.
Also they constituted the Real
Council who replaced Cortes and named corregidores to control the cities and
tied the direction of the Mesta of the Real Council. This way it was
controlled the policy of the kingdom, because its main objective was to
adjust the existing institutions and to create other that could serve their
authority, although these measures weighed more on the kingdom of Castile
that on the one of Aragon.
The following mission was to
conclude reconquers it in the nazarí kingdom of Granada which obtained in
1492.

Tomb where the rest of
Kings Catolicos rest .
Inner La Paz and the good
organization of the kingdom allowed that the real coffers filled and with
them new companies like the support were carried out to the admiral genovés
Cristobal Columbus who would discover America in 1492, contributing to
wealth for the kingdom and the strong outer expansionism.
The success of the
antiMuslim war and the pressure of the confesores of the queen induced the
Kings to unify the religion of their subjects thus in 1492 was come to expel
to the granadinos Jews and mudéjares, forced to become. In 1478 the
Inquisición had been created already to persecute the new Christians who
returned to their old beliefs.
The contribution of the
kingdoms of Fernando extended the Castilian horizons, only Granada stayed as
last Arab redoubt, and the possessions in the Balearic ones, Sicily,
Sardinia and the Rosellón, in agreement with the treaty of Barcelona in
1493, formed the territory reigned by Isabel and Fernando.
Also in Italy one faced the
French monarch obtaining the conquest of the kingdom of Naples in 1504. In
that same year queen Isabel passed away and although she left as she runs of
the heiress to the throne, Juana I, to his husband Fernando the Catholic,
the Castilian nobility did not support it reason why this one marched to its
states of Aragón. This way the one in charge of the government of Castile
had left Felipe of Austria, the Beautiful one, husband of queen Juana I of
Castile, the Crazy person.
But the death of Felipe in
1506 forced to restitute to Fernando, called by Cisneros Cardinal to Castile
in 1507. The last years of their reign were characterized by the
confrontations with Italian land France. To the death of Fernando the
Catholic inherited the throne his grandson Carlos I of Spain.

Image of the Catolics
Kings.
From the artistic point of
view this stage characterizes by the survival of the gothic tradition and
the slow penetration of the new Renaissance molds. Under the impulse of the
monarchs or the high nobility numerous buildings were elevated, churches,
universities, hospitals, castles, etc., specially in Castilian earth given
the economic supremacy of this kingdom then. In the field of the painting
they continued developing to his work painters who or had begun time back
like Huguet, Gallego, Bermejo simultaneously who the new Renaissance style
showed to works of artists like Rodrigo de Osona Viejo or Pedro Berruguete.
Although Isabel and Fernando
governed of joint form, this one was centered more in making decisions in
the matter of inner policy and obtaining the religious unit by means of the
selection of the bishop, a reform of the clergy, the establishment in 1478
of the new Inquisición, directed in principle to the conversos that
judaizaban in Andalusia and extended later by all the kingdom, the expulsion
of the Jews, that forced to them by means of decree to become or to emigrate,
and the conversion of other religious minorities like the moriscos of
Granada. On the other hand, Fernando was centered more in the government of
the foreign policy.
Isabel and Fernando designed
a policy of connections for their children, through a series of marriages
that they had as purpose of strengthening the crown like an international
power and of isolating France.
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