The Catholic Monarchs: Unifying Spain and Shaping a Golden Age

Clasificado en Inglés

Escrito el 28 de Junio de 2025 en español con un tamaño de 7,46 KB

The Dynastic Union of the House of Trastámara

At the beginning of the Early Modern Period, there were five kingdoms in the Iberian Peninsula:

The Crown of Aragon.
The Crown of Castile.
Granada (Nasrid Kingdom).
Navarre.
Portugal.

Key Events in the Dynastic Union:

1469: Ferdinand II of Aragon married Isabella of Castile, half-sister of Henry IV of Castile.
1474: Henry IV died. His daughter Joanna (La Beltraneja) was meant to inherit the Crown of Castile.
1474-1479: A civil war ensued between Joanna and Isabella of Castile, supported by Portugal and Aragon, respectively.
1479: Isabella won the war over Joanna, and Ferdinand became King of Aragon after the death of his father. From then on, Isabella I would be the ruler of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon.
The new monarchy was a dynastic union, not a fusion of two kingdoms. This union of the reigning families did not result in the creation of a unitary state. Each kingdom retained its own institutions, laws, currency, and internal boundaries. As a single state was not created, it is referred to as the Hispanic Monarchy.
1492: After a ten-year war, Boabdil, the ruler of the Kingdom of Granada, surrendered the last existing Muslim state on the peninsula.
1496: The Pope bestowed the title of Catholic King and Queen on the couple after they had conquered the Kingdom of Granada and expelled the Jews.
1512: Ferdinand II conquered Navarre to prevent it from forming an alliance with France. It became part of the Crown of Castile.

The Religious Policy of the Catholic Monarchs

Religion was probably the most effective way for the Catholic Monarchs to impose their authority. They implemented a policy of religious unification.

The first step in this process was to obtain a papal bull establishing the Holy Office of the Inquisition (1478). This institution played a key role in the process of religious unification.

Religious Groups and Policies:

Jews: Most of them were expelled unless they converted to Christianity. Those who remained and converted were known as conversos, but the Inquisition was not very convinced, so they were always under suspicion.
Mudéjares: These were Muslims from Al-Andalus who remained in Castile after the fall of the Kingdom of Granada. They were forced to convert to Catholicism through a royal decree in 1502. Conversion required them to renounce their religion or be expelled. The majority converted, but like the Jews, they were always under suspicion. These converts were known as Moriscos.

The Foreign Policy of the Catholic Monarchs

Through different strategies, the Catholic Monarchs wanted to achieve the following objectives:

The unification of the Iberian Peninsula.
The isolation of France.
The consolidation of the Crown of Aragon in the Mediterranean.
The expansion of the Kingdom of Castile across the Atlantic.

Alliances Through Marriage

They formed alliances by having their children marry heirs to other kingdoms. They had two main aims:

To maintain peace with Portugal: They had Infanta Isabella marry Manuel I of Portugal. When she and her son died, Maria (Isabella's sister) was married to the widowed king.
To isolate France, their main enemy: They married their children to English princes (also enemies of France) and the Habsburgs of the Holy Roman Empire, who governed Austria and...

Literary Devices and Figures of Speech

This section provides a comprehensive overview of common literary devices, complete with descriptions and illustrative examples.

FIGURE	DESCRIPTION	EXAMPLE
ALITERACIÓN	Repetition of one or more sounds, in one or more verses.	Susurraban suavemente sus sabias palabras
ANÁFORA	Repetition of one or more words at the beginning of several verses.	¡Oh noche que guiaste! ¡Oh noche amable más que la alborada! ¡Oh noche que juntaste!
ASÍNDETON	Consecutive enumeration of several elements without any conjunction.	En tierra, en humo, en polvo, en sombra, en nada.
POLISÍNDETON	Forced repetition of several conjunctions.	El tiempo lame y roe y pule y mancha y muerde
ANTÍTESIS	Opposition of two ideas with opposite, antonymous words.	Me esfuerzo por olvidarte y sin querer te recuerdo
PERSONIFICACIÓN	Association of human qualities with an animal or object.	Las estrellas nos miraban mientras la ciudad sonreía
HIPÉRBOLE	Unbelievable exaggeration of a fact.	Por un metro de dulce el aire, el corazón y el sombrero
HIPÉRBATON	Inversion of the natural order of the phrase.	Volverán las oscuras golondrinas en tu balcón sus nidos a colgar. Y, otra vez, con el ala en sus cristales jugando llamarán.
METÁFORA	Relationship between a real element or concept (A) and another unreal element or concept (B), establishing a similarity in the original: A es B B de A A como B A = B Solo B B en A / B de A	"Las perlas de tu boca" (Solo B) "El blanco algodón que nos cubre el cielo" (Solo B) "El laberinto de pétalos de tus nervios" (Solo B) "La culebra de humo" (Solo B) "El árbol de las manzanas" (B en A) "El atardecer de tu vida" (B de A)
EPÍTETO	Use of redundant adjectives to reinforce an idea.	"Luminoso amanecer"
PARALELISMO	Repetition of the same structure in several distichs, altering an element.	"que te amo con el alma, que te amo con el corazón"
ENCABALGAMIENTO	Occurs when a sentence is abruptly split between two verses.	"Que tan grandes tormentos sufriste 'tú, en tu persona'."
ANADIPLOSIS	Repetition of one or more words at the end of a verse and at the beginning of the next.	"No tengas miedo y avísale, avísale de que he llegado."
PARADOJA	Employing terms that apparently involve a contradiction.	"Ya no la quiero, es cierto, pero la quiero."
OXÍMORON	Complementing a word with an opposite that contradicts it.	"Soledad sonora."
COMPARACIÓN	Relationship of similarity between two terms. Usually goes with the verb "ser" or the adverb "como".	"Sus manos son suaves como el terciopelo."

Entradas relacionadas:

Etiquetas: