Ferdinand and Isabella

Between 1469–1556 the Iberian Peninsula transformed from disparate states into something far more familiar to the Spain we know today. It was a period of hopeful unity and cruel exclusion, where the empire's expansion brought power and wealth to Spain, and war and disease to the New World.

With their strong authority, Ferdinand and Isabella led Spain’s transition from a weak medieval fragmented peninsula to a more united Spain, and a centralised government. This new period began with their marriage in 1469.

What changes did Spain go through under the Catholic Monarchs?

This period is characterised by the creation of the Spanish Inquisition and the discovery of the New World. The new state of Spain encompassed a united Spain and its territories in the New World, and was set up by Ferdinand and Isabella’s efforts to unify the country as well as the discoveries of the explorer Christopher Columbus. The economic and political turmoil under Henry IV of Castile and Léon, the King at the start of this period, was subsequently smoothed over by the union of Isabella and Ferdinand and their joint governance.

The Iberian Peninsula in 1469

The Iberian Peninsula refers to the areas of modern-day Spain and Portugal and was a fragmented region, consisting of independently run districts under Catholic and Muslim rule. By 1469, however, many changes had happened across the region that would lay the groundwork for a united Spain.

Reconquista

By the 1400s, the Christians on the Iberian Peninsula had been fighting against the Muslim invaders (Moors) for centuries. These battles were labeled the Reconquista because their focus was the Christian reconquering of the land that the Moors had controlled since the eighth century. In 1469, only one territory remained for the Christians to reconquer: Granada.

However, although the Reconquista had returned the states to Christian rule, it did not mean Spain was unified. It was split into five individually ruled areas: the Kingdom of Portugal, the Kingdom of Castile and Léon, the Kingdom of Navarre, the Kingdom of Aragon, and the Emirate of Granada (Muslim ruled until 1492).

Henry IV of Castile

Fig. 1: Modern depiction of Henry IV of Castile.

In 1469, Henry IV of the Trastámara Dynasty was coming towards the end of his rule as King of Castile. During his reign, he had married Joan of Portugal to secure an alliance with the country, unsuccessfully invaded Granada, and established peace with France. During this period, his spending had weakened the Crown’s finances and allowed the nobles (the League of Noblemen) to become far too powerful.

The nobles’ power in the Crown’s decision-making weakened the monarch’s position. For Henry IV, this became evident in 1465 when they refused to accept his daughter as heir to the throne (due to disputes over whether he was her father) and crowned his brother Alfonso instead.

The marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain

Alfonso died in 1468, leaving Henry’s half-sister Isabella as the heir to the throne. Henry begrudgingly accepted this, providing she would allow him to arrange a strategic marriage alliance for her with Alfonso V of Portugal. Isabella refused and secretly married her cousin Ferdinand of Aragon in 1469, creating a union between Castile and Aragon rather than Portugal. A war with Portugal ensued as Alfonso V of Portugal married Henry’s IV’s daughter, Joanna, and tried to claim Castilian succession. However, Isabella emerged victorious from this conflict, which established her as a strong and legitimate ruler.

The restoration of royal authority and government

Isabella’s rocky but successful accession to the throne marked the beginning of royal authority being restored. It also established her as a powerful leader from the very start. She then utilised this reputation to build structures to support her.

Isabella’s accession and the war with Portugal

As we already mentioned, Isabella encountered one of the first problems of her reign soon after Henry IV died and left her the throne. A plot to install Henry’s daughter as the rightful queen led to a war between Castile and Portugal: the War of Castilian Succession. The Catholic Monarchs achieved a great victory at the Battle of Toro, establishing Isabella as a strong leader and securing her position as Castile’s Queen.

The war continued until 1479 with Castile winning on land and Portugal winning at sea. Whilst Castile’s result on land constituted a victory for the Catholic Monarchs, the Portuguese exclusive right to navigation in the Atlantic represented a major loss of potential wealth and power. Christopher Columbus’ discoveries later rectified this situation, as we will see.

Royal authority and government

Having asserted themselves as strong leaders, the monarchs made the government more centralised and powerful by establishing:

• The Council of Finance (1480).

• The Council of Hermandad (1476-98).

• The Council of the Orders of Knighthood.

The Monarchs collaborated with the local justice forces, called hermandades (brotherhoods), and used them to control and dispense justice in the towns and districts. The nobility had formally dispensed local justice and so a general Hermandad was established for Castile, Léon, and Asturias to give the crown more power and control.

Foreign relations with France

After Isabella died in 1504, Ferdinand married Germaine of Foix, the daughter of the claimant to the Kingdom of Navarre’s throne. This meant any children from this marriage would have a claim to the throne of Navarre. The relationship also briefly strengthened Spain’s relationship with France before the Italian Wars (French-Spanish battle for power over Italy) in 1512 when relations deteriorated again.

In an attempt to send troops into France, Ferdinand invaded the Kingdom of Navarre and established control over the region. Aragon, then, subsumed the Kingdom of Navarre, making an even more united Spain.

Social issues and policies

Isabella and Ferdinand worked hard to reverse some of the social issues that had arisen under Henry IV. The power that the nobles had amassed was dangerous to the Crown’s authority, as demonstrated by their rejection of Joana as the rightful heir. Furthermore, peasant rebellions also threatened the stability of the realm and could increase dissent against the monarchy. During Isabella and Ferdinand’s reign, urban towns and industries developed, some of the peasants’ concerns were addressed, and power shifted for the nobility.

The nobility

Isabella and Ferdinand had to be cautious in their treatment of the nobles. They had held too much power during Henry IV’s reign and been able to control the royal succession. Although the monarchs had revoked some of their lands, most of their estates remained intact. Isabella and Ferdinand reduced their power by removing them from the royal administration.

The peasantry

In Castile, the peasants were impoverished. The land was arid and agriculture underdeveloped, and Castile got a lot of money from its exports of raw wool. This gave the sheep shepherds power. They travelled hundreds of miles from summer to winter pastures, spoiling the peasants’ cultivated land.

The Iberian Peninsula, like many of the European countries, had a feudal system in place. This meant that the peasants had to pay fees and perform duties for the nobles whose land they lived on. The conditions had become progressively worse for peasants in the fourteenth century after the rise of Catalan cities, the Black Death, and bad harvests that led to a decline in the rural population and agriculture. Nobles enforced stricter seignorial rights, subjecting them to cruel money levies and harder working conditions.

In Barcelona, there had been violent social movements called the Wars of the Remences. The Catalan remença peasants and the lower classes revolted against the nobles because they were badly mistreated. In 1486, Ferdinand appeased the peasants with the Sentencia Arbitral de Guadeloupe, a legal decree, which abolished serfdom and some of the peasants’ feudal obligations in return for monetary compensation for the lords.

Historical context

Whilst this decree did not completely abolish the feudal system or the cruel treatment of the peasants, it did lead to better conditions and the right to develop rental agreements with landowners. The Catalonian countryside enjoyed general prosperity and the peasants enjoyed freedoms that other peasants in the Iberian Peninsula or across Europe would not experience until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Religion

Isabella and Ferdinand were Catholics and believed that Catholocism should be the only religion in Spain. Their strong views led to them establishing the Spanish Inquisition in 1478, which tried anyone who was accused of heresy (non-Catholicism). The Inquisition would long outlive the Catholic Monarchs and cause the deaths, expulsions, and tortures of thousands over the next few centuries.

Ferdinand and Isabella Reconquest

In 1482–92 Ferdinand directed a campaign against the Muslim kingdom of Granada, aiming to reconquer it as Christian territory. He was successful: a long siege in January 1492 forced the sultan Muhammad XII to surrender the city.

The Conquest of Granada unified Spain under Catholic rule and was a huge success for Isabella and Ferdinand. It also made Christopher Columbus’ voyages possible, as Spanish rulers could devote more time to overseas exploration now that internal disputes and territories had been settled.

Economic stagnation and change

Spain made its first discoveries in the New World in the late fifteenth century. This alleviated the issue of the Portuguese monopoly on the Atlantic and paved the way for great power and fortune.

Discovery of the New World

When Christopher Columbus, an inexperienced but determined seafarer, came to Spain to ask for support, the Crown agreed (after rejection in 1486) to sponsor his expedition in 1492.

On his expedition, Columbus found the Bahamas, Cuba, and Hispaniola and then returned several times to discover Trinidad, mainland South America, and Honduras. The Crown laid claim to these countries with the Inter caetera of 1493. These discoveries began the Spanish Empire and paved the way for future explorers.

Spanish and Portuguese rulers decided a division of influence was necessary to prevent conflict over areas of exploration. In 1494, the Treaty of Tordesillas was established, dividing the Americas between the two powers.

Whilst these discoveries were beneficial for Spain, they were detrimental to the inhabitants of these countries. Spain colonised the countries, enslaving them and forcing Spanish culture (language, Catholicism) on them. Many inhabitants died because of Spain’s exploration and the warfare, forced labour, and diseases that accompanied it.

The accomplishments of Ferdinand and Isabella

Ferdinand and Isabella centralised Spain under the dominance of the Crown and established themselves as authoritative and popular leaders. They had reformed finances, weakened the powers of the nobility, and established controlled justice systems.

Spain had certainly become more unified geographically too. By the end of Ferdinand’s reign, the five major powers had become three: Castile conquered Granada and Aragon acquired Navarre. Hence, in 1516 only Castile, Aragon, and Portugal remained as independent kingdoms.

However, whilst the crowns were united, the two kingdoms of Aragon and Castile remained vastly different in their institutions, traditions, and language. The Crown had limited power in these two kingdoms and a lot of the governance was still local. Although this period is associated with political unity, the marriage never led to a concrete political, economic, or institutional union of the Iberian Peninsula.