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GALERÍA
HISPÁNICA:
Tales and Images From the
Spanish-Speaking World
Volume
8: The Catholic Monarchs,
Fernando and Isabel
By the
middle of the 15th
century, the ancient kingdoms of
Spain were consolidating
territories and rulers. The
reconquest of Spain from the
Moors was gaining momentum for a
couple of reasons: the
principal non-Arab kingdoms were
Christian and uniting against a
common foe, and the musulmán
rulers kept their armies in the
southern regions of Spain,
mostly in Andalucía There they
found the landscape more to
their liking and from there they
could summon soldiers from
Africa when reinforcements were
needed.
Consolidation of Christian
Kingdoms
In 1451 a
daughter, Isabel, was born to
King Juan II of Castilla and his
second queen, Isabel of
Portugal. When King Juan II
died 3 years later, princess
Isabel lived her childhood with
her mother, who had begun to
show signs of mental illness.
Her brother, Alfonso, and their
respective guardians were the
only youthful companions of
princess Isabel. When she was
13, her step brother, Enrique IV,
now king of Castilla, took
charge of his siblings and moved
them to his Court in Toledo.
Enrique’s predecessors had
demonstrated weaknesses that the
nobility of Castilla had used to
gain political power at Court.
Enrique IV moved his siblings to
Court in order to keep them at a
distance from the nobility of
the region who would have used
the young heirs to further their
own political designs. Enrique’s
first marriage was without
children and was eventually
annulled. His second marriage
was to Juana of Portugal with
whom he had a daughter, Juana,
who would be the rightful heir
to the throne of Castilla. A
scandal developed when certain
nobility, loyal to Isabel’s
claim to the throne, asserted
that Queen Juana had given birth
to Princess Juana illegitimately.
The royal incompetence and the
scandals of Enrique IV allowed
the nobility to easily undermine
his authority, so much so, that
Enrique was forced by them to
sign a treaty that named his
brother, prince Alfonso, as heir
to the Castillian throne in
place of Enrique’s daughter,
princess Juana. Interestingly,
Alfonso died on July 5, 1468 (many
believe by poison) and the
nobility immediately began to
petition the King to sign a
document naming Isabel the legal
heir to the throne of Castilla.
Enrique’s authority was so weak
that he gave in to the demands
of the nobility and, at Juana’s
expense, named Isabel the next
Castillian monarch on the 19th
of September, 1468.
History has
recognized Isabel of Castilla as
an individual with savvy and
wisdom beyond her years. When
she was offered the throne of
Castilla, she rejected it
outright saying that she would
never accept the monarchy while
her brother was living. This
was a wise decision on behalf of
Isabel because a war of
succession would then be avoided.
The nobility had their heir of
choice, Isabel, now perfectly
positioned to move Castilla
forward, and she was young.
Isabel had been living in
Segovia away from the
machinations of the Court and
protected by the nobility that
was trying to oust the
incompetent Enrique and his
“illegitimate” daughter, Juana.
The only remaining piece of the
plan lacking was a husband for
Isabel. Suitors started coming
out of the woodwork.
Image 21
Isabel
lived here in the Alcázar de
Segovia during the time when the
Castillian nobility were working
on her behalf on two fronts:
positioning her to be the next
queen and arranging a suitable
marriage for her.
It seemed
like everyone wanted to marry
princess Isabel. Suitors from
powerful Spanish noble families
and princes from the royal
houses of England, France, and
Portugal all threw their hats
into the ring. Isabel rejected
many of these advances outright
due to their ulterior political
purpose. Once again, Isabel
would make a wise decision. She
chose Fernando, heir to the
throne of Aragón, and it was he
whom she would marry in 1469.
He would eventually become King
Fernando II of Aragón and she,
upon the death of Enrique in
1474 and a 5-year war of
succession with the supporters
of Juana, would become the
undisputed Queen Isabel I of
Castilla in 1479. Fernando and
Isabel would rule their
respective kingdoms jointly as
consort to the other.
The
Stage was Set
Both
monarchs were Catholic. They
were commonly referred to as the
Catholic Monarchs and in 1494,
Alejandro VI, a Spanish Pope,
formally pronounced them
officially to be known as the
“Los Reyes Católicos”, a
moniker that would make them two
of history’s most easily
remembered rulers. At that
moment in history the stage
would be set to unite the
kingdoms of Spain in three ways:
politically, religiously, and
militarily. Once again, Isabel
would demonstrate her prudence
and gentility. She made a pact
with her husband that they would
govern jointly, with equal
authority, and that all
decisions of importance would be
made in joint consultation.
Their motto would be:
“Tanto Monta, Monta Tanto,
Isabel Como
Fernando”, “As Much As
One Is Worth, So Is The Other,
Isabel As Fernando”, or “All For
One And One For All, Just Like
Isabel And Fernando”. This
slogan was embroidered onto many
banners and tapestries that
survive to this day. The most
famous of all is the 500 years
old tapestry in the Royal
Tapestry Factory of Madrid.
Image 22
Inside the
throne room of the Alcázar de
Segovia, and above the heads of
the Catholic Monarchs as there
they sat and governed side by
side, were the embroidered words
“Tanto Monta” displayed
prominently for all their
subjects to see.
Image 23
Upon the
death of Enrique IV, Isabel was
crowned queen of Castilla in
1474. As I have mentioned, it
would eventually require 5 years
of war with Portugal to settle
the succession once and for all.
But, in 1474, Isabel and her
royal entourage left from the
front door of the Alcázar in a
procession to the Cathedral of
Segovia less than a mile down
the street where her coronation
would take place. Each year in
Segovia this spectacle is
splendidly reenacted.
History
records the reign of the
Catholic Monarchs as pivotal for
the reconquest of Spain. It was
a singularly important factor,
the missing link that was needed
to unite Spain. It was a time
in Spanish history when
political maneuvering was set
aside long enough to move Spain
forward as a nation of one, and
not as individual warring
kingdoms. Spain could then
begin to look outward and it had
enough power to accomplish two
goals simultaneously: expel the
Moors once and for all, and
explore and expand beyond its
borders. These plans would
materialize between 1474 and
1492, that watershed date in the
histories of Spain and America.
The
musulmán rules in Andalucía
began to lose territory rapidly
when the Christian armies of the
newly united Spain focused their
energies on the common Moorish
enemies of the south. Granada
at that time was the last
stronghold of the Moors in Spain.
Muslims began pouring into
Granada in the hope of making
one last stand in an effort to
regain the glory of Moorish
Spain. These citizens were
poets, architects, soldiers,
artisans, builders, and clerics.
They wanted to fight for their
cause: Islam. They wanted to
regain the dignity and Arab
sovereinty that had once been
all of Andalucía. Andalucía had
been an Arab land for 700 years
and in my opinion, it remains so
in many ways to this day. The
final rulers of Granada were
feuding endlessly with each
other over the remaining power
of Moorish Andalucía. Fernando
and Isabel took advantage of the
infighting and even supported
one faction over the other. As
the last sultán of Granada,
Boabdil, took refuge in the
Alhambra in 1498, the Christian
forces of Fernando and Isabel
encircled Granada. The monarchs
took up residence in the Alcázar
at Sevilla as they waited out
the seige. When the end finally
came, Boabdil negotiated a
treaty with the Catholic
Monarchs that would grant
muslims autonomy in Spain. Outside
of the Alhambra palace, Boabdil
finally surrendered to Fernando
and Isabel on January 1, 1492.
Boabdil handed over the keys of
Granada to the Catholic Monarchs
and he expected the treaty to be
honored with compassion and
respect; respect for their
religion and for their culture.
It was not.
Boabdil and
his family left Granada for
exile in Africa. The sun was
then setting upon the glowing
crimson Alhambra palace. As his
party reached the top of a hill
in Granada, Boabdil turned and
began to weep uncontrolably.
His mother in disdain said to
him, “cry like a woman for a
kingdom you could not defend
like a man”. That hill is known
as “The Moor’s Last Stand”. The
treaty he signed would never be
honored and Boabdil died
impoverished in exile in Morocco.
Christianity and Islam and the
cultures they each represented,
battled for the bodies, minds,
and souls of Spanish people for
700 years. Spain today is a
Roman Catholic nation for all
intents and purposes, but
musulmán genes and cultural
identity surely remain implanted
in all things Spanish. Sadly,
the conflict of these two great
religions continues today all
over the globe.
With the
conquest of Andalucía, Fernando
of Aragón and Isabel of Castilla
expanded their power as monarchs
of Spain. Freshly charged with
political power and a little bit
of money, they acquiesced to the
requests of Cristóbal Colón and
funded his voyages of discovery,
also in 1492. Spain was then in
a position to become one of the
world’s great superpowers.
Isabel de
Castilla died on November 26,
1504. Her husband, Fernando de
Aragón, died on the 25th
of January, 1516. Their tombs
are in the Cathedral of Granada,
the city that they conquered.
It is extremely rare for Spanish
monarchs to be buried outside of
the Royal Pantheon at El
Escorial.
Image 24
Underneath the marble tombs in
the Royal Chapel in the
Cathedral of Granada, are the
leaden coffins of the Catholic
Monarchs, Fernando and Isabel.
There are two coffins along side
theirs that belong to their
daughter, Juana, and her husband
Felipe.
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