Spain: A Union of Equals under Their Catholic Majesties
No, I am not jumping ahead. I have no intention of telling you here how it came about that the king and queen of Spain ended up being the ones who financed the Columbus voyage, that will come later. All I want to do here is see how things stood in Spain, and how and why he was able to go to the Spanish court and get the help he needed. And as always, for that, we need to go back in time a little and check out the situation in Spain and how it came to be where it was by the time of Columbus. And one thing I find amazing, which I certainly did not know, is that for over 700, nearly in fact 800 years, Spain and Portugal - known then as the Iberian Peninsula, or Hispania - were under Muslim control, part of what was called the Umayyad Caliphate, which at its height stretched from Syria in the Middle East to Egypt in North Africa, and covered over four million square miles, making it one of the largest empires in history. Interestingly, and perhaps at odds with current Islamic countries, both Christians and Jews were not only allowed practice their own religion in the Caliphate, but could also hold government positions.
Without getting too much though into the history, in 718 or 722 the Christian States began to invade, ostensibly to take back land they had lost to the Muslims, in what became known as the Reconquista, or reconquest, a period of wars that would last for over six centuries, and which would culminate, in one of those little quirks of history, in the very year Columbus would discover (yes, yes!) America, as Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castille took the last remaining kingdom in the Caliphate, Granada. In truth though the Caliphate had been smashed two hundred years earlier, with the major battles of Cordoba (1256) and Seville (1248) bringing all but Granada under the control of the Catholic monarchs. Bad news for the Jews, incidentally, who, having lived in relative peace under the Caliphate were expelled under the Alhambra Decree in 1492 unless they converted, and Muslims were equally treated, though the latter were then expelled anyway a century later. This draconian law was not revoked until the nineteenth century, and symbolically so another century later, in 1968.
As can be seen from the map above, Spain in the Middle Ages was made up mostly of three major kingdoms, these being primarily Aragon and Castille, with Leon, Navarra and Galacia, and as Castille in time absorbed Leon, Cordoba, Navarra and Seville, as well as the other smaller kingdoms they became known as the Crown of Castille. When Ferdinand married Isabella their union signified the joining of the two main kingdoms into one, which became espana, modern Spain. Rather than being known as king and queen of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella were given by the Pope the title of “The Catholic Monarchs” in 1494, though they had married in 1469.
King Ferdinand II of Aragon (1452 - 1516)
Although born a prince of the blood, the second son of King John of Castille, Ferdinand was not the heir to the throne until the mysterious death - some say poisoning at the hands of his stepmother - of his elder brother Charles. A child prodigy, he was nevertheless respectful of the lower classes, ensuring he would, when he took the Crown of Castille, be loved by them, and when his mother died in only his sixteenth year he conducted the arrangements for her funeral (his father being away at battle) and then joined King John, a seasoned campaigner by seventeen. It’s easy to take written accounts of the man as fawning, exaggerated or even politically motivated, but certain attributes seem to be common to all the ones I’ve read: smiling eyes, kindness, gentle handling of the poor, pious, moderate, humble, thoughtful - these are all mentioned in about seven different sketches of him by various authors, so there must be some truth in them. Few if any have a bad word to say about him.
His marriage in 1460 to Isabella of Castille was not smiled upon: her half-brother, Henry IV of Castille, had wished Ferdinand to marry instead the daughter of the Duke of Burgundy, Mary, and was so angry at the match that he disinherited Isabella in favour of his daughter Joanna. Once Henry died, Isabella turned the tables on her niece and took the throne of Castille for herself. Seems Ferdinand was a bit miffed at this, possibly (though I’m just guessing here) because he expected to be crowned king, and was only referred to as Isabella’s “legitimate husband” (there’s damning with faint praise if ever I heard it). So he returned hotfoot to Segovia, where his wife had set up court, and they had a right old ding-dong, thrashing it out just in time to face a challenge from Joanna’s hubby, Alfonso V, king of Portugal, who wanted the throne for his wife and himself. Isabella thus claimed Portugal as hers, and war were declared.
Ferdinand of course brought Aragon in on her side, but her own people were divided, some of them rooting for the woman they believed to be the true heir to the throne, Queen Joanna of Portugal. France got involved - not surprisingly, on the side of Portugal, as Ferdinand had been in the middle of battling their forces when the news of Isabella’s coronation had reached him - while various other Spanish states, such as Navarre, Granada and Galicia, had enough troubles of their own with civil wars and said “you’re all right, mate: you just continue on without us.” The war raged on for four years, but in the end Ferdinand and Isabella were victorious, and in 1481, with the death of his father and his ascension to the throne of Aragon, Ferdinand merged his kingdom with that of Isabella, and Castille and Aragon became the foundation of what is today modern Spain.
So with the final annexation of Granada in 1492, it would seem Ferdinand and Isabella were powerful enough, jointly as rulers of the new Spain, to have considered gaining new territory, which may be (we will see) why they were prepared to back Columbus. Even so, you would imagine after such a costly war with the French and Portuguese, that they might not have been so quick to pony up the readies. However, I have read in passing that there was some form of financial trickery/compulsion used which ended up leaving Ferdinand’s accountant personally responsible for shouldering much of the burden of the loan the Crown gave to Columbus. If so, then it was a pretty clever masterstroke.
Queen Isabella I of Castile (1451 - 1504)
The other half of the power double in Spain was of course Queen Isabella, monarch of Castile, but as already mentioned she was only third in line to the throne, her half-brother Henry being the heir when their father, John II, died, and she and her brother Alfonso being basically kicked to the curb, left to all but starve in a castle until summoned to court by the King of Portugal, who made sure they were looked after and educated. Alfonso died in 1458, leaving Isabella next in line to the throne. With a civil war going on in Castile, Henry tried to marry his sister off to various princes and nobles in order to secure alliances, but none succeeded. One such suitor, Charles of Berry, actually died on the way to meet his proposed new bride, who had prayed to God not to let the marriage take place. Guess God was quicker in those days!
In the end, the marriage between her and the man she had been originally betrothed to, and who would become King of Aragon, took place with quite a dash of romance. Isabella, fearing she would be prevented by her brother marrying Ferdinand, legged it from the palace while he met her disguised as a servant. The two eloped, basically, and were married in 1469. Ah, bless. They would soon become the two most powerful forces in the country, their twin kingdoms uniting to create modern Spain. Isabella was crowned Queen of Castile on the death of her brother five years later, but was immediately challenged by King Afonso V of Portugal, who believed Henry’s daughter, Joanna, was the rightful heir, and they went back and forth till eventually Castile were able to claim the victory, and Isabella’s reign was ratified.
She proved to be a more than competent ruler. In a time when England had yet to see its first (official) queen, and most of Europe was ruled by men, she grasped the political and economic realities with the acumen of any man, and better than most. She re-established justice and law and order throughout Castile, sorted out the finances and grew to be a well-liked monarch