Ferdinand II of Aragon
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| Ferdinand II | |
| King of Aragon, King of Castile and Léon | |
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| Reign | 1479-1516 |
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| Born | 10 March 1452 |
| Died | January 23, 1516 (aged 63) |
| Place of death | Spain |
| Predecessor | John II (Aragon) Louis XII (Naples) |
| Successor | Joanna of Castile and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor |
| Consort | Isabella I of Castile Germaine of Foix |
| Issue | Joanna of Castile Isabella, Princess of Asturias Juan, Prince of Asturias Maria of Aragon Catherine of Aragon |
| Royal House | House of Trastamara |
| Father | John II |
| Mother | Juana Enriquez |
Ferdinand II of Aragon the Catholic (Spanish: Fernando II de Aragón y V de Castilla "el Católico", Catalan: Ferran II d'Aragó "el Catòlic", Aragonese: Ferrando II d'Aragón "lo Catolico"; 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.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] 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.
[edit] After Isabella
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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.
[edit] 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 could not establish jurisprudence, that is to say, without modifying the right of the succession, but by virtue of a formal agreement between the Cortes and the King.[1][2] So, when he was dead on January 23, 1516, his daughter Joanna inherited the Crown of Aragon, and his grandson Charles became General Governador.[3] 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 [4] and finally he was recognized king of Aragon jointly with his mother.[5]
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.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Estudio documental de la moneda castellana de Carlos I fabricada en los Países Bajos (1517); José María de Francisco Olmos, Revista General de Información y Documentación 2003, vol 13, núm.2 (Universidad complutense de Madrid)], page 137
- ^ Estudio documental de la moneda castellana de Juana la Loca fabricada en los Países Bajos (1505-1506); José María de Francisco Olmos, Revista General de Información y Documentación 2002, vol 12, núm.2 (Universidad complutense de Madrid), page 299
- ^ Estudio documental de la moneda castellana de Carlos I fabricada en los Países Bajos (1517); José María de Francisco Olmos, page 138
- ^ Historia general de España; Modesto Lafuente (1861), pp. 51-52.
- ^ Fueros, observancias y actos de corte del Reino de Aragón; Santiago Penén y Debesa, Pascual Savall y Dronda, Miguel Clemente (1866), page 64
[edit] External links
- "Ferdinand II", from Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
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Ferdinand II of Aragon
Born: 10 March 1452 Died: 23 June 1516 |
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| Regnal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by John II |
King of Aragon, Valencia, and Majorca, Count of Barcelona 1479–1516 |
Succeeded by Joanna and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (as Charles I of Spain) |
| King of Sicily 1468–1516 |
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| Preceded by Louis XII of France |
King of Naples 1504–1516 |
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| Preceded by Catherine of Navarre |
King of Upper Navarre 1512-1516 |
Absorbed into Crown of Castile |
| Preceded by Henry IV |
King of Castile and León 1474–1504 with Isabella I |
Succeeded by Joanna and Philip I |
| Titles in pretence | ||
| Preceded by Andreas Palaiologos |
— TITULAR — Byzantine Emperor with Isabella I 1503–1516 Reason for succession failure: The Fall of Constantinople led to the Ottoman conquest of the Byzantine Empire |
Succeeded by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor |
