King of Aragon, Valencia, Majorca, Sardinia and Count of Barcelone
King of Castile and of León
Fernando II of Aragon, the Catholic,
was born in Sos del Rey Católico village on March 10, 1452
(he died in Madrigalejo, on January 23, 1516). He was a king
of Aragon and of Castile (like Fernando V) and son of Juan
II the Big and of his second wife Juana Enríquez. Likewise,
he was a king of Aragon between the year 1479 and 1516. King of Castile
between 1474 and 1504 and also regent of the Castilian crown between
1507 and 1516 -due to the disqualification of his daughter Juana-
after the death of Felipe el Hermoso. King of Sicily (1468-1516)
and of Naples (1504-1516).
For desire of his mother, Fernando
was born in Aragonese territory, since he was in Navarre (in the succession
disputes between her stepson Carlos and her husband Juan
II) and moved up to the big house of Sada, situated on the
border with Navarre, of the town of Sos. Recognized heir of
the Aragonese crown when the death of his almost brother, Carlos,
prince of Viana (1461), was crowned like hereditary King of
Aragon in Calatayud; he was nominated a general substitute
of Catalonia (1462) also, and in 1468, king of Sicily.
During the Catalan civil war (1462 - 1472),
in which he took active part, familiarized himself with the administration
of the state to instances of his father. After dieing his cousin,
the infante Alfonso de Castilla (1468) and after being recognized
by most of the nobility the infanta Isabel -his cousin and
almost sister of Enrique IV of Castile- like heiress of Castile,
his father Juan II put his determination in obtaining Fernando's
marriage with the Castilian princess, who took place in October, 1469,
in Valladolid. Nevertheless, to the death of Enrique
IV (1474) began a civil war between Isabel's followers and
those of the daughter of Enrique, Juana de Trastamara,
nicknamed the Beltraneja supported by the king of Portugal,
Alfonso V the African, who was trying to marry her, joining
the crowns of Castile and Portugal. Fernando, after arduous
discussions with the suspicious Castilian nobility, managed to be
proclaimed co-regent of Castile with the same rights as Isabel
by means of the Concord of Segovia (1475). Fernando
took part actively in the military direction of this war, to whose
result contributed in a definitive way, especially with the victory
in the first battle of Toro (1476). From 1476 to 1477 was a
manager of the Order of Santiago.
The war ended with the Juana defeat.
For the Treaty of Alcáçovas (1479), Juana resigned from
the throne in favor of Isabel and was imprisoned in a Coímbra
convent, turning Isabel I into queen undiscussed Castile. The
same year, (January 20, 1479) Fernando succeeded to his father
as king of Aragon. But it was in the year 1475 when can be fixed the
union of both crowns as the terms of the Concord of Segovia
(corroborated later in the Concord of Calatayud of the year
1481) by which Fernando was nominated a king of Castile like
Fernando V, reigning together with his wife the queen Isabel
I, joining this way both crowns. Nevertheless, the queen Isabel
I of Castile could not be named of iure (of right) queen of Aragon,
since the salic law of the mentioned kingdom was preventing it. For
this reason, Isabel was the Queen Consort of Aragon.
After dictating the first measurements of
internal arranging of his kingdoms (in 1480 the figure of the chief
magistrate becomes institutionalized; in 1481 the Inquisition is created
in Castile; the rebellious noblemen are sanctioned and the royal treasury
is reorganized), the kings tackled in 1481 the conquest of the nazarí
Kingdom of Granada. Across the difficulties of this war (1481
- 1492) -fundamentally of siege- the king Fernando was revealing
his diplomatic and military talent. The war ended with the capitulation
of Granada on January 2, 1492. The conquest of the last Moslem
stronghold in the peninsula granted to the kings a prestige that the
real authority helped to consolidate. In the kingdoms of the Crown
of Aragon, Fernando did not modify the traditional political
system (that was making the power concentration difficult in hands
of the king), and finished in his States the problem of the Catalan
"remensas" (like a farmers sindicat) by means of the abolition of the
bad uses and the consolidation of the contracts of emphyteusis (arbitral
judgment of Guadeloupe, 1486).
He introduced in Castile the Aragonese
institutions of the consulates (like the Consulate of the Sea, of
Burgos) and the unions, favoring this way the Castilian economic
development, especially the commerce of the wool. In the religious
aspect, he took of Castile the Inquisition (present in Aragon from
1249) and reformed the program of his wife, sitting the bases of the
modern State on having introduced the religious uniformity: decree
of expulsion of the Jews of March 3, 1492 -except baptism- and necessary
conversion of the Moorishs from Granada in 1503, to whom the queen
had guaranteed the right to the religious freedom after the capitulation
of the kingdom of Granada.
From 1492, Fernando centred his activity
on the traditional Aragonese expansion towards East, principally Italy
and the north of Africa. By means of the agreement of Barcelona
(1493), he recovered the Roussillon and the Cerdaña (occupied
from 1463 by France). In Italy, to oppose to the French attempt of
being annexed the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily, he organizes the Holy
League (1495), his first big international diplomatic success. The
successes in the military campaigns (in which the army of the king
was directed by Gonzalo Fernández of Cordova, the Big Captain)
and the astuteness of the king, allowed to expel to the reigning dynasty
of the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily and, in 1504, to the French, with
what Naples joined the possessions of the crown. Pope Alejandro VI
-who in spite of belonging to native of the territories of the Crown
of Aragon, did not had good relations with him, was afraid that in
his territorial emulations he wanted to include part of the pontifical
states- granted to Fernando and his wife, the queen Isabel
I of Castile, the title of Reyes Católicos by means of the
papal bull "Si Convenit" of December 19, 1496. The above mentioned
title was inherited by the progeny in the throne (so many "austrias"
like Bourbon), possessing it at present king Juan Carlos I
of Spain.
In the north of Africa, he proved to be opposite
to large-scale occupations and restricted his actions to the occupation
of some coastal places of the Mediterranean, like for example Orán.
While all this happened in Europe, the discovery of America and the
rapid occupation and development of the American grounds were strengthening
the international position of the Reyes Católicos.
To the death of Isabel (1504),
Fernando proclaimed his daughter like queen of Castile and
took the reins of the government of the kingdom under the last will
of Isabel la Católica. But the husband of Juana, archduke
Felipe was not for the work of resigning from the power and
in the concord of Salamanca (November, 1505) he remembered
the joint government of Felipe and the proper Juana,
like kings, acting Fernando as governor. Previously, Fernando
had neutralized the French support to his son-in-law Felipe
for the Treaty of Blois, and had married Germana de Foix, niece
of king Luis XII.
On October 19, 1505, beeing 18 years old,
German married for powers Fernando II of Aragon, 53 years old,
widower of Isabel la Católica from almost one year. In the
agreements, the king of France transferred his niece the dynastic
rights of the kingdom of Naples and granted to Fernando the
king's title of Jerusalem, rights that would return France in case
the marriage had no offspring. In return, the Catolic King promised
to name heir of the possible son of the marriage. The marriage raised
the anger of the noblemen of Castile, since they saw it like a maneuver
of Fernando the Catholic to prevent Felipe El Hermoso
and Juana could inherit the Crown of Aragon. With her, Fernando
had, in 1509, another son, Juan, who of not having died at
a few hours of being born, would have turned into king of Aragon.
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In 1506, came the marriage of Juana
and Felipe to the peninsula and soon the bad relations were
evident between the son-in-law (supported the Castilian nobility,
which formed the "felipista" group) and the father-in-law
(supported by the representatives of the cities, which formed the
Aragonese group) so that for the Concord of Villafáfila (1506),
Fernando withdrew of Aragon by himself and Felipe was
proclaimed king of Castile in the Spanish Parliament of Valladolid,
with the name of Felipe I. But on September 25 of this year
dies Felipe I "the Beautiful", and by the incapability
of the queen Juana, the Cisneros Cardinal took temporarily
the responsibility of the power as President of the Council of Regency
of Castile up to Fernando's return. When he returned, locked
up his daughter's life in Tordesillas and governed like regent
in Castile leaving the government of Castile to the Cisneros
Cardinal (Concord of Burgos of 1507).
As son of Juan II intervened
of active form in the Civil war of Navarre, with the introduction
of Castilian troops inside the Kingdom of Navarre, until in 1512 and
with the excuse of supporting to the "beamontés"
group (those who have surname beamont) he realized, by an open
form, the Conquest of Navarre with the Castilian troops, supervised
by the duke of Alba. To control the kingdom and inside the
diplomatic measurements, the Spanish Parliament of Navarre met on
March 23, 1513, in an assembly to which only came "beamonteses",
for they should give him a support, which he obtained, after promising
to respect all the rights of the Kingdom. For it, the attorneys swore
obedience to him like «Catholic king don Fernando, king of
Navarre our gentleman from here on...» . On June 7, 1515, the Castilian
Spanish Parliament assembled in Burgos, without Navarrese's
presence, accepted the incorporation of the Kingdom of Navarre to
the Crown of Castile proposed by king Fernando. Nevertheless,
the war to control the kingdom would extend until 1524, reigning his
grandson, Carlos I.
In his testament, left all his possessions
to his daughter. And in her position had to assume the government
and the regency of the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, his grandson
Carlos de Gante, the future Carlos I. Until his arrival,
he named his illegitimate child Alonso de Aragón regent of
the kingdoms of the Crown of Aragon and to the Cisneros Cardinal,
regent of Castile. He died on January 23, 1516 in Madrigalejo
(province of Cáceres), when he was going to be present
at the chapter of the orders of Calatrava and Alcántara
in the Monastery of Guadeloupe.
In his testament left legacies to certain
servants, to his illegitimate child Alfonso de Aragón, to his
grandson Fernando and to his wife Germana de Foix. He
expressed likewise his will of being buried in the Real Chapel of
Granada, along with his first wife, Isabel de Castilla.
The cause of his death could be related
to the abuse of cantharides, which in those times was used like an
aphrodisiac, in an attempt for a hereditary male managed with his
wife Germana de Foix.
His father negotiated secretly Fernando's
marriage with Isabel, newly proclaimed a Princess of Asturias
and, therefore, heiress to the throne of Castile and León.
The conversations were secret because Fernando was promised
with the daughter of don Juan Pacheco, preferred of the Castilian
king Enrique IV. Isabel was inclined to this marriage,
but there was a canonical problem for this linkage: the bride and
groom were cousins (their grandparents were brothers). They needed,
therefore, a papal bull that would be authorizing the betrothal. The
Pope, nevertheless, did not go so far as to sign this document, afraid
of there being attracted the antipathies of the kingdoms of Castile,
Portugal and France.

Finally on October 19, 1469, Isabel
married -in the Palacio de los Vivero deValladolid-
Fernando, king of Sicily and Prince of Gerona. This
cost him the confrontation with his stepbrother, who went so far as
to paralyze the papal exemption bull for kinship between Isabel
and Fernando. Finally, on December 1, 1471, Sixto IV
expressed the document that was excusing to the marriage of its bonds
of consanguinity.
With his wife Isabel I the Catholic
married on October 19, 1469, he had 6 children:
  - Isabel (1470 - 1498), Princess
of Asturias (1497 - 1498); she married the infante Alfonso
de Portugal, but to his death she contracted a new marriage with
the cousin of the deceased Manuel, who would be a king of Portugal
with the name of Manuel I. She died in the childbearing of
her son Miguel de Paz.
  - Juan (1478 - 1497). The Prince
of Asturias (1478 - 1497). He married Margarita de Austria
(daughter of the Germanic emperor Maximiliano I of Hapsburg).
He died of tuberculosis.
  - Juana I de Castilla (6 de Noviembre
de 1479 – 1555). Princess of Asturias (15001504), Reigns of
Castile (1504-1555) with the name of Juana I. In 1496, married
Felipe El Hermoso of Hapsburg (also son of the emperor Maximiliano
I). With him a new dynasty entered Spain -that of Hapsburg- that was
forming the House of Austria. In 1500, she was for the second
time mother of her first son male, future Carlos I, who succeeded
her and would be also an Emperor of the Sacred Empire Romano Germánico
as Carlos V. In 1503, She gave birth to Fernando, Carlos's
successor in the Sacred Empire as Fernando I, and restored
the imperial Austrian branch of the House of the Austrias.
Mentally affected by the death of her husband, she was imprisoned
by her father Fernando in Tordesillas, where she died.
  - María (1482 - 1517). She married
the widower of her sister, Manuel I of Portugal, and was mother
of Juan III and of Enrique I the Cardinal, without forgetting
that would be the future empress Isabel de Portugal, wife of
her nephew Carlos I of Spain.
- Catalina (1485 - 1536). She
married prince Arturo de Gales and after the death of this,
his brother, who would be Enrique VIII; therefore she turned
into queen of England. She was a mother of the queen Maria
I Tudor.
- Pedro de Embasaguas (1488
– 1490), the Infante. He died to the little of having been born.
With his second wife Germana de
Foix, niece of Luis XII of France, married on October 19, 1505
in Blois:
  - Juan (3 de Mayo de 1509). He
died a few hours after being born. Prince of Gerona.
  With Aldonza de Ivorra, Catalan
noblewoman of Cervera, He had two bastard children:
  - Alonso (or Alfonso)
(1470 - 1520). Spanish prelate, abbot of the Monastery of Montearagón
from 1492 until 1520, archbishop of Saragossa and viceroy of Aragon..
  - Juana (¿? - ¿?). The second
wife of Bernardino Fernández de Velasco III, count of Haro
and VII Constable of Castile. They were parents of Juliana Ángela
de Velasco and Aragon, married with her cousin, Pedro Fernández
de Velasco, count of Haro.
  Other bastard children:
  - María (¿? - ¿?), abbess of
Our Lady of Grace the Real of Madrigal, Avila.
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