Ferdinand II of Aragon

Ferdinand V & II
King of Aragon, King-consort of Castile and Léon
Reign	1479-1516
Born	March 10 1452(1452-03-10)
Died	January 23 1516 (aged 63)
	Spain
Predecessor	John II (Aragon) Louis XII (Naples)
Successor	Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Consort	i) Isabella I of Castile ii) Germaine of Foix
Issue	Joanna of Castile Isabella of Asturias Juan, Prince of Asturias Maria of Aragon Catherine of Aragon
Royal House	House of Trastamara
Father	John II
Mother	Joanna Enriquez

Ferdinand V of Castile & 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), Castile (1474–1504), Sicily (1468–1516), Naples (1504–1516), Valencia, Sardinia and Navarre and Count of Barcelona.

Biography

Acquiring titles

Ferdinand was the son of John II of Aragon (whose family was a cadet branch of the House of Trastámara) by his second wife, the Castilian noblewoman Joanna Enriquez. He married Infanta Isabella, the half-sister and heiress of Henry IV of Castile, on October 19, 1469 in Valladolid and became king consort of Castile when Isabella succeeded her brother as Queen of Castile in 1474. Isabel also belonged to the royal House of Trastámara. 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 which might be called Spain, although the various territories were not properly administered as a single unit until the 18th century. 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.

Wedding portrait of King Ferdinand II of Aragón and Queen Isabella of Castile.

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..

After Isabella

Aragonese, Valencian and Sicilian Royalty
House of Trastámara

Ferdinand I Children include    Alfonso (future Alfonso V of Aragon, III of Valencia and I of Sicily and Naples)    John (future John II of Aragon, Valencia and Navarre and I of Sicily)    Eleanor, Queen of Portugal Alfonso V (III of Valencia and I of Sicily and Naples)    Ferdinand I of Naples (natural son) John II (I of Sicily and II of Navarre) Children include    Eleanor, Queen of Navarre    Ferdinand (future Ferdinand II of Aragon, Valencia and Sicily, III of Naples, IV of Castile and V of Leon)    Blanca    Joan, Queen of Naples    Charles IV of Navarre Ferdinand II (III of Naples, IV of Castile and V of Leon) Children include    Isabella, Queen of Portugal    Joan, Queen of Castile    Juan, Prince of Asturias    Mary, Queen of Portugal    Catherine, Queen of England Grandchildren include    Miguel da Paz, Crown Prince of Portugal and Spain    Charles (future Charles I of Spain and V of the Holy Roman Empire)

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 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.

Legacy

Ferdinand and Isabel had together made Spain the most powerful country in Europe. The succession of 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. Charles succeeded him in the Aragonese lands, and was also granted the Castilian crown jointly with his insane mother, bringing about at long last the unification of the Spanish thrones under one head.

Ancestry

See also

• History of Spain
• Spanish Inquisition
• Monarchs of Naples and Sicily
• Cardinal Cisneros

References

External links

• "Ferdinand II", from Encyclopedia Britannica Online.