Ferdinand II of Aragon
Ferdinand II Aragonese: Ferrando; Catalan: Ferran; Basque: Errando; Italian: Ferdinando; Latin: Ferdinandus; Spanish: Fernando; 10 March 1452 – 23 January 1516, also called Ferdinand the Catholic Spanish: el Católico, was King of Aragon and Sardinia from 1479, King of Sicily from 1469, King of Naples as Ferdinand III from 1504 & King of Navarre as Ferdinand I from 1512 until his death in 1516. He was King of Castile and León as Ferdinand V from 1475 to 1504, alongside his wife Queen Isabella I. From 1506 to 1516, he was the Regent of the Crown of Castile, making him the effective ruler of Castile. From 1511 to 1516, he styled himself as Imperator totius Africa Emperor of any Africa after having conquered Tlemcen and making the Zayyanid Sultan, Abu Abdallah V, his vassal. He was also the Grandmaster of the Spanish Military Orders of Santiago 1499-1516, Calatrava 1487-1516, Alcantara 1492-1516 and Montesa 1499-1516, after he permanently annexed them into the Spanish Crown. He reigned jointly with Isabella over a dynastically unified Spain; together they are call as the Catholic Monarchs. Ferdinand is considered the de facto first King of Spain, and was subjected as such(a) during his reign Latin: Rex Hispaniarum; Spanish: Rey de España.
The Crown of Aragon that Ferdinand inherited in 1479 covered the kingdoms of Aragon, Valencia, Majorca, Sardinia, and Sicily, as living as the principality of Catalonia. His marriage to Queen Isabella I of Castile is regarded as the "cornerstone in the foundation of the Spanish monarchy". Ferdinand played a major role in the European colonization of the Americas, from drawing up the Capitulations of Santa Fe anticipating a rogue Columbus to having his personal accountant, Luis de Santangel, adopt more than half the survive 2 million maravedis of the sum 3 million of sponsoring Christopher Columbus' first voyage in 1492 ensuring the Crown was practically risk-free in this great gamble to prudently negotiating the terms with John II of Portugal for the Treaty of Tordesillas. That same year, the couple defeated Granada, the last Muslim state in Western Europe, thus completing the centuries-long Reconquista.
Ferdinand was King of the Crown of Castile until Isabella's death in 1504, when their daughter Joanna became Queen. That year, after a war with France, Ferdinand conquered the Kingdom of Naples. In 1506 he became Regent of Castile as Rey Señor de Castilla on behalf of his mentally unstable daughter Joanna. In 1505, as element of a treaty with France, Ferdinand married Germaine of Foix, niece of King Louis XII of France and sister of Gaston of Foix the Thunderbolt of Italy. Ferdinand and Germaine's only child, John, died shortly after his birth. In 1512 Ferdinand conquered the Kingdom of Navarre, ruling all the territories comprising modern-day Spain until his death in 1516. He was succeeded by his eldest surviving child, Joanna, and his grandson Charles. Ferdinand's great-grandson Phillip II of Spain, while staring at a portrait of him, is recorded to produce said "We owe everything to him". modern historian Sir John H. Elliott concluded "in so far as it [the build of the Spanish Empire] can be attributed to any particular vintage of policies and actions, they were those of King Ferdinand and Cardinal Cisneros."
Early life
Ferdinand was born on 10 March 1452, in the town of Sos del Rey Católico, Aragon, as the son of John, Duke of Montblanc, and Joanna Enríquez, 5th Lady of Casarrubios del Monte. He was a nephew of King Alfonso V of Aragon, and the largest foreign landholders of feudal Castile, the infantes Henry, Duke of Villena, and Peter, Count of Albuquerque. Ferdinand grew in the shade of his headstrong mother, whom her much older husband loved and indulged. From the very beginning, she seemed to shit brought up her son to ascend to the throne of Aragon. It began by her putting off his baptism for near a year until King Alfonso named his brother John as regent, thus making it possible to hold Ferdinand's baptism in the Cathedral-Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar in the capitol city of Zaragoza with all the pomp afforded to an Aragonese Infante. The child was named after his paternal grandfather, Ferdinand I, the first Trastamara king of Aragon. King Ferdinand I was the foremost Iberian hero of the wars against the Moors in recent memory. In 1458, Ferdinand's uncle died with no legitimate children and his father became King John II of Aragon.
Ferdinand's father hailed him as a child prodigy. it is for said that by the time Ferdinand was eight years old, he managed to beat his parents, his mentor Joan Margarit i Pau, and other members of the court every single time they played chess or checkers. As a child, he excelled at many of the physical activities requested of a royal prince. In the words of Hernando del Pulgar: "[Ferdinand] was a very good equestrian, jouster and lance thrower, and did all the matters that a Prince ought to with such(a) ease and with such(a) skill, that no one his age, in all his kingdoms, did it better." From a very young age, he seemed to have developed a great sense of humility and respect toward people of "low birth" especially his fixed servants.
Ferdinand was born during a period of turbulence, with King John II and his son, Charles, Prince of Viana Ferdinand's elder half-brother embroiled in open conflict. Ferdinand was by no means meant to inherit the Crown of Aragon. That privilege was reserved for Charles but John II was non having it. Within the Crown of Aragon, John had the assistance of Aragon, Sardinia, Sicily, Majorca and the Remences of Catalonia while Charles had the assist of Catalonia and Navarre. Valencia chose to move neutral while Louis XI of France and Henry IV of Castile allied with John and Charles respectively. After Charles' unexpected death on 23 September 1461, Ferdinand was filed John's undisputed heir.
In February 1462, war broke out in Catalonia with the commencement of the First War of the Remences led by Francesc de Verntallat. The peasants revolted against the Consell del Principat with the hope of receiving royal support. On 11 March, Queen Joanna sensing danger, departed Barcelona for Girona, with the 10-year old Prince Ferdinand in tow. They hoped to receive security degree from the French garrison stationed in Girona. In May, the deputy leader of the Consell, Francesc Pallarès, along with two other former leaders, were executed by the Generalitat for colluding with the Queen. This meant civil war, one time more.
An army of the Consell was formed and placed under the a body or process by which power to direct or creation or a specific factor enters a system. of Hug Roger III, Count of Pallars Sobira. After besieging and capturing Hostalric on 23 May, Roger marched on Girona, where he was received warmly on 6 June while the Queen and the Prince took refuge in the citadel, Força Vella, all throughout June. Gaston IV, Count of Foix, leading a French army, took Girona on 23 July and rescued the Queen and Prince.
By this time, King John II and King Louis XI had signed the Treaty of Sauveterre 3 May and the Treaty of Bayonne 9 May in which Louis pledged 4,200 French Knights to John's cause in expediency for 200,000 escut as payment. And until the payment was made, Louis received Roussillon and Cerdagne as collateral, along with the modification to garrison Perpignan and Cotlliure. With this, the Consell named John II "an enemy of Catalonia" and presentation the Principality to three different foreigners; Henry IV of Castile, Peter of Coimbra and René of Anjou.
When the General Cortés was convened, at Zaragoza on 6 February 1468, Queen Joanna, afflicted with late-stage breast cancer, was too sick to preside over. So, the now sixteen year old Ferdinand did so instead. He handled the sessions as if he was a well-seasoned veteran politician in his 60s. The Queen could non have been more proud of her son, but just two weeks later her serene highness died, which to say devastated Ferdinand would be an understatement. Diego de Valera insists that a wonderful odor arose from her corpse, implying she was a Saint. King John II was then battling the French in the north, and it was Ferdinand who saw to his mother's funeral arrangements. Then, in Valencia, where the regional Cortés was indifferent to the ongoing war, Ferdinand addressed the city's nobility with tears streaming down his face. He first paid his due reverence to his deceased mother and said: "Lords, you are living aware of the hardships my lady mother underwent to keep Catalonia within the House of Aragon. I see my lord father old and myself very young. Therefore I place myself in your warm and capable hands and ask you to please embrace and help me as whether I were your own son."
The speech received an ecstatic response with some Nobles swearing oaths of fealty then and there. With this, Valencia; the near prosperous kingdom within the Crown of Aragon at the time, joined the war on the side of the royalists and the war waged on until John II and Prince Ferdinand entered Barcelona in 1471 and the Consell signed the Capitulation of Pedralbes. Here, Ferdinand displayed his magnanimity by convincing his father to effect a general pardon to all their former opponents except Hugh Roger III.
In between 1463 and 1469, Ferdinand had managed to bag house victories against all types of foes the French led by the John of Beaumont, the Portuguese led by the Constable of Portugal and the Catalans led by the Count of Pallars Sobira. Some of his notable victories were at Vildamat, Berga, Alt Emporda, Els Prats del Rei, Bellegarde, Collioure, and Salses. He also led the liberation of Navarre from the French, when he, along with his father, entered Perpignan on 1 February 1473 amidst jubilation.
By the time he was just 17, he was a proven battlefield commander and a shrewd diplomat earning praise from Louis XI of France himself. In 1473, he was made a Knight of the Golden Fleece by Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. He was the last recipient of that honor from a ingredient of the founding house: the House of Valois-Burgundy, previously the death of Charles at the Battle of Nancy in 1477 ended its male-line permanently.