Ferdinand And Isabellas Short Term Effects

What are the short-term effects of the accession of Ferdinand and Isabella until 1483?

The accession of Ferdinand and Isabella in 1469 succeeded in uniting two of the largest sections of the Iberian Peninsula, Castile and Aragon. There was a prenuptial agreement made by both Ferdinand and Isabella’s families, of, ‘Tanto Monta Monta Tanto’ (‘equal opposites in balance’) which sums up the attempt of joint rule in an effort to create a single Spanish state. However, the idea of a single ‘Spanish’ state is not seen to occur till Philip v’s reign in 1707-1715 and therefore not a short term effect however the idea of conquest and creation of a power base in Spain is certainly relevant in the short term, examples of this being the war against the moors in Granada and the defeat of

Joanna la Beltranja at the battle of Toro in 1475. Other effects of the accession include administrative reform, especially in Castile, linked to this, they reintroduced the ‘Spanish Inquisition’ which, when viewing the whole of their reign, is easily the most controversial change they made.

Religion in Spain was very important, a politically Catholic country, with the vast majority of the country following the Catholic tradition. As Pendrill says in (Spain 1474-1700), ‘Even more threatening to the Moorish community than the political re-conquest of Spain were the efforts to conquer the Moors spiritually’, which explicitly states the importance of the Inquisition over the Reconquista. The Spanish Inquisition commenced in 1478, it was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in the kingdom and to replace the Medieval Inquisition, which was previously under Papal control. The inquisition was provoked by a conversation between a Dominican friar from Seville and Isabella, who convinced Isabella that there was Crypto-Judaism taking place throughout her kingdom. After the creation of the Inquisition, they found power amongst the nobility which rose to the first ‘auto-da-fé’ in Seville 1481, where six people were burnt alive as heretics. The premise of the Inquisition was to secure the catholic religious security in Spain, and some would argue that it was to scapegoat

other religions for personal and federal problems. To what extent Ferdinand and Isabela were directly involved is hard to confirm, we certainly are aware that Isabella commenced the proceedings, but how much control over the Grand Inquisitor she had it is hard to tell. The First Grand Inquisitor was her close ally Tomás de Torquemada, who led the Alhambra Decree, which issued that non-converted Jews must leave Spain, in 1483. However, historian Jordi Vidal-Robert, Boston University removes responsibilty from the crown and designates it more unto the Pope, as he states ‘The establishment of the Holy Office was the result of an agreement between the Pope and the Catholic Kings to maintain the social order established in both political and religious spheres’ (http://www.ub.edu/histeco/iberometrics/pdf/Vidal.pdf). This shows perhaps a limiting factor from one perspective, showing the push came from the religious authority and would have occurred regardless of the succession. However, Brian Chalmers (The Journal of Historical Review, January-February 1996 (Vol. 16, No. 1), pages 2-22), reiterates the edict they gave which ‘announced their decision to banish all Jews of both sexes forever from the precincts of our realm’. The present-day historical debate over the Inquisition is clouded by overt religious or revisionist bias, with special focus on the latter. However, the clarity of the edict makes it clear ‘banish all jews’ shows a clear objective within the edict but how effective this effect was is unclear.
The idea of ‘Reconquista’ (re-conquest) was highly important amongst the ruling classes, with regard to the moors in Granada. After El-Cid (1094), there was a tolerance of the Moors amongst the royalty in the regions due to the expense that a war would entail; yet there was an underlying dissatisfaction with such an alien culture living next to the Catholic tradition. It could be said that the lack of religious unity is what kept the Spanish regions from combining. Isabella and Ferdinand’s campaign started in 1481 after the Muslims in Granada attacked Zahara, in a surprise attack, enslaving the population. This seemed to have a great impact on Ferdinand and Isabella’s factions, the majority of which supported conflict against the southern Muslims. This war was a direct short-term consequence of the accession as was the success that the campaign saw in the later years.

Internal religious efforts
Religious conquest
Control of nobility – power was both curtailed and emphasized, clarifies importance, softened the blow by giving land and riches. ‘We’re gonna take this away but look at how much we’ll give you’
Centralized authority -