Catholic kings

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Spain at the time of the Catholic Kings
Madonna of the Catholic Kings by Fernando Gallego (1490–95)
Queen Isabella
King Ferdinand

The Spanish monarchs Queen Isabella I of Castile (1451–1504) and King Ferdinand II of Aragon (1452–1516), who as Ferdinand V was also King of Castile, are called Catholic Kings ( Spanish Reyes Católicos ) . The title of ruler Reyes Católicos was given to them in 1496 by Pope Alexander VI. awarded.

The full title of the Catholic Kings, as it is given in the Treaty of Tordesillas of June 7, 1494, was: Ferdinand and Isabella by the grace of God King and Queen of Castile, León, Aragon, Sicily, Granada, Toledo , Valencia, Galicia, Mallorca, Seville, Sardinia, Corsica, Murcia, Jaén, the Algarve, Algeciras, Gibraltar, the Canary Islands, Count and Countess of Barcelona, ​​Lord and Mistress of the Bay of Biscay and by Molina de Aragón, Duke and Duchess of Athens and the Duchy of Neopatria, Count and Countess of Roussillon and of Cerdanya, Margrave and Margravine of Oristano and Gociano . This, later to some domains such as z. B. Navarre The extended ruler's title was intended to indicate that the kings were interested in respecting the constitutional specifics of the different empires.

The title of ruler King of Spain was not used until the 19th century.

Title "Catholic Kings"

Use of the term

The title was bestowed on Isabella and Ferdinand in 1496, but in literature the royal couple is usually referred to as Catholic Kings after they took over the government in Castile in 1474 . This is a fixed term in German historiography. In the Duden, the term Most Catholic Majesties is used as the title of the Spanish kings. In Spain, the abbreviation RRCC ( Reyes Catolicos ) or "Los Reyes" is a well-known, common name for the Catholic Kings. The Diccionario de la lengua española de la Real Academia Española does not display the term “Reyes Catolicos”.

Award of the title

The honorary title was given to the royal couple Isabella and Ferdinand by the bull Si convenit , dated December 19, 1496 by Pope Alexander VI , who came from the Kingdom of Valencia . awarded. The term kings or king and queen as such does not appear in the bull . Isabella and Ferdinand are referred to as majesties, a form of address that was only used for emperors and kings. The honorary title is hereditary. The successors of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand carried the title. Even today it is considered one of the honors due to the Spanish king.

Other European kings had similar hereditary titles conferred by popes:

Marriage

Isabella and Ferdinand were married on October 19, 1469 in Valladolid . The marriage took place without the consent of the then King of Castile, Isabella's half-brother Henry IV . Isabella held the title of Princess of Asturias at that time . The heirs to the throne in Castile had carried this title since 1388.

On January 7, 1469, nine months before the marriage, Ferdinand had undertaken, as co-regent in Castile, to respect the privileges and freedoms of the clergy, to restore order in the administration of justice, to fight the Moors and, above all, to work closely with Isabella to work together. All decisions should be made together, all edicts should be signed by the king and queen, but legally only Isabella should be the bearer of the crown.

Accession to the throne in Castile

On December 11, 1474, Henry IV died. Since Ferdinand was staying in Aragón at that time, Isabella was proclaimed queen on December 13, 1474 in Segovia alone. (In contrast to France or England, there was and is no anointing or coronation ceremony in Spain.) In the appeals, the formula “Isabella, Queen of Castile; Ferdinand, her rightful husband ”. used. When Ferdinand reached Segovia on January 2, 1475, he was annoyed by this formula. He claims the title of King of Castile. The question of his participation in the government of Castile was determined by the Treaty of Segovia drawn up by Cardinal Pedro González de Mendoza and Alfonso Carrillo , Archbishop of Toledo , and accepted by Isabella and Ferdinand on January 15, 1475.

It stipulated that

"1. All documents that required the royal signature were to be issued in the name of both monarchs, with the name of the male partner mentioned first, but Castile mentioned first in the title of the rulers and in the sequence of coats of arms and insignia should be;

2. Isabella, as the real queen, was to receive the homage of the kingdom;

3. All earnings of the crown, after deduction of all payment obligations, should be communicated by the queen to her husband, so that they can jointly decide on their distribution;

4. All civil servants whose salaries are to be paid from the income of the Crown of Castile are appointed by Isabella. "

Unification of Spain

If today we speak of political decisions in Castile between 1475 and 1504, we are talking about joint decisions by Isabella and Ferdinand. The decisions are usually referred to in the literature as decisions of the Catholic Kings, even if this title was first given to them by Alexander VI in 1496. was awarded. With the end of the Castilian War of Succession and Ferdinand's accession to the throne in Aragón, the actual reign of the Catholic Kings began in 1479.

Because of the marriage between Isabella and Ferdinand, there was no formal connection between the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragón. It was merely a personal union, which was abolished in 1504 with the succession to the throne of Johannas and was not restored until 1516 under Charles I.

With the exception of the Spanish Inquisition, there were no common institutions. In Castile and some lands belonging to the Crown of Aragon there were separate Cortes . Customs duties were levied when crossing the border. Citizens from Aragón were foreigners in Castile. B. could not participate in the colonization of America.

See also

literature

  • Friedrich Edelmayer : The Spanish monarchy of the Catholic kings and the Habsburgs (1474-1700). In: Peer Schmidt (ed.): Small history of Spain. Reclam, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-15-010559-5 , pp. 123-207.
  • John Edwards: The Spain of the Catholic Monarchs. Blackwell Publishers, Massachusetts 2000, ISBN 0-631-22143-3 .
  • John Edwards: Ferdinand and Isabella: Profiles in Power. Pearson Education, New York 2005, ISBN 0-582-21816-0 .
  • John Edwards: History of the Government of Ferdinand and Isabella of the Catholics of Spain . Vol. 1-2. FA Brockhaus, Leipzig, 1842 ( digitized version )
  • Juan Eslava Galán: Los reyes católicos . Editorial Planeta, Barcelona 2004, ISBN 978-84-08-05121-3 .
  • Joseph Pérez: Ferdinand and Isabella. Spain at the time of the Catholic Kings . Diederichs, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-424-01238-6 .

Web links

Commons : Catholic Kings  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ana Belén Sánchez Prieto: La Intitulación Diplomática de los Reyes Católicos . (PDF) Un Programa y una Lección de Historia . Universidad Complutense de Madrid , accessed on October 20, 2014 (Spanish, own translation).
  2. ↑ Walther L. Bernecker , Horst Pietschmann : History of Spain: From the early modern times to the present . 4th, revised. u. act. Edition. W. Kohlhammer , Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-17-018766-X , p. 36 .
  3. ^ Faustino Menéndez Pidal de Navascués: Las armas de los Reyes Católicos . In: Hidalgos: la revista de la Real Asociación de Hidalgos de España . No. 525 , 2011, pp. 25 (Spanish, hidalgosdeespana.es [PDF; accessed January 1, 2019]).
  4. ↑ In the literature, the term “ papal bull ” is often used for papal documents, which in modern diplomacy are not counted as bulls in the narrower sense.
  5. ↑ La casa de su Majestad el Rey etc. (Ed.): Abdicación de su Majestad el Rey Juan Calos I y juramento y proclamción de su Majestad el Rey Felipe VI . Madrid 2014, p. 85 (Spanish, casareal.es [PDF; accessed July 7, 2015]).
  6. ↑ Joseph Perez: Ferdinand and Isabella . Callwey, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-7667-0923-2 , pp. 70 (from the French by Antoinette Gittinger).
  7. ↑ Shima Ohara: La propaganda política en torno al conflicto sucesorio de Enrique IV (1457-1474). Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, Alicante 2004, ISBN 84-688-7203-2 , footnote 872 (Dissertation University of Valladolid , 2003; PDF ).
  8. ↑ Joseph Perez: Ferdinand and Isabella . Callwey, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-7667-0923-2 , pp. 81 (from the French by Antoinette Gittinger).
  9. ↑ Joseph Perez: Ferdinand and Isabella . Callwey, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-7667-0923-2 , pp. 82 (from the French by Antoinette Gittinger).
  10. ↑ Walther L. Bernecker; Horst Pietschmann: History of Spain - From the early modern period to the present . 4th edition. W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-17-018766-X , p. 34 .
  11. ↑ Joseph Perez: Ferdinand and Isabella . Callwey, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-7667-0923-2 , pp. 7 (from the French by Antoinette Gittinger).
  12. ↑ Joseph Perez: Ferdinand and Isabella . Callwey, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-7667-0923-2 , pp. 236 (from the French by Antoinette Gittinger).