Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
By the mid-1400s the options and opportunities of the Iberian states
might have interacted in several different ways. With the Muslim power
shrinking to a soon-to-disappear remnant around Granada, the Iberian
peoples were poised to move beyond the physical and political limita-
tions that had been imposed upon them by the Cruzada (the war waged
by Christian Iberian kingdoms against the Muslim states). Would they
pursue the retreating Moorish enemy into Morocco and beyond? Would
they venture beyond early Atlantic outposts established in Madeira and
the Azores? Would they renew old ties with Italy? As late as 1476 Por-
tuguese rulers sought to seize the throne of Castile and become the
dominant force on the peninsula. Aragon, on Castile's eastern flank,
had similar ambitions. Castile, through a combination of superior size
of territory and population, would eventually triumph over the reckless
military adventurism of the Portuguese and the guileful diplomacy of
the Aragonese to emerge as the dominant player and the molder of
Iberia's future.
UNIFICATION AND EXPANSION
In 1469 Isabella, sister of the reigning monarch of Castile, married Fer-
dinand, son and heir of the king of Aragon. In 1474, on the death of
her brother, she ascended the Castilian throne after defeating a chal-
lenge from the king of Portugal, who had previously courted her him-
self and who now supported the claims of her niece in another attempt
to gain control. In 1479 Ferdinand succeeded his father as king of Ara-
gon. Thus, within 10 years the future direction of the peninsula had
been decided. Portugal would remain a separate and unequal player.
Spain would move toward unity, but not as the old king of Aragon had
envisioned when he secured the hand of Isabella for Ferdinand. Wily
though the Aragonese rulers might be, they were doomed to subordi-
nation by the sheer weight of Castile. Castile's landmass and population
far outweighed those of Aragon. Furthermore, the cortes of Castile,
which represented all the components of the kingdom, was a much
more manageable parliamentary instrument than the three separate
legislatures of the autonomous kingdoms of Aragon proper and Valen-
cia and the principality of Catalonia. Each of these had not only its own
cortes but its own administration, and laws and prerogatives that had to
be manipulated (often with difficulty and delay) by their shared sover-
eign. By the terms of Isabella's marriage Ferdinand became coruler of
Castile, but many restrictions were placed upon his freedom of action,
and numerous barriers were set up against Aragonese interference with
Castilian property and privileges. As long as the two maintained a true
 
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