Marriage of the Catholic Monarchs
On 19 October 1469, the eighteen-year-old Isabella, heir apparent to the Crown of Castile, secretly married the seventeen-year-old Ferdinand, heir to the Crown of Aragon, in Valladolid without the permission of her half-brother King Henry IV of Castile. The marriage required a forged papal dispensation (the couple were second cousins) and was consummated under conditions of political tension verging on civil war. When Isabella inherited Castile in 1474 and Ferdinand inherited Aragon in 1479, the two largest Iberian kingdoms were united under a single pair of monarchs for the first time. The union created the institutional basis for the future Spanish state, though the crowns remained legally distinct with separate institutions, courts, and laws throughout Ferdinand and Isabella's lifetimes. Together they completed the Reconquista (1492), expelled the Jews (1492), established the Spanish Inquisition (1478), and sponsored Columbus's first voyage (1492). Pope Alexander VI granted them the title 'Reyes Católicos' (Catholic Monarchs) in 1496.
- Year: 1469 CE
- Category: Political
