ОH, LOVE: the devoted fanatic and the cunning strategist
Art design: huxley.media via Photoshop
THE NICKNAME OF KING ENRIQUE
By the mid-15th century, the situation on the Iberian Peninsula was, as always, complicated. Navarre lay to the north, Portugal to the west, Aragon to the east, Castile in the center, and to the south, the Muslim Emirate of Granada. Uniting against the last remaining Moors on the peninsula would have been ideal, but how? Military force wasn’t working — perhaps a dynastic marriage could do the trick?
In the most prominent kingdom, Castile, difficulties arose. After 13 years of a barren marriage, King Enrique divorced his wife. A commission from the Pope himself examined the matter and issued a decision that diplomatically offended no one: the marital duties had not been performed for 13 years, and the queen remained a virgin. In Rome, she would have been made a Vestal Virgin, as the couple was supposedly under a curse (today, we might call it a «psychological block», meaning essentially the same thing).
The king then married Joanna of Portugal, but once again, the wedding night was unsuccessful. Seven years later, however, the queen gave birth to a daughter named Juana, who was referred to exclusively as «La Beltraneja». This was because a nobleman in the queen’s entourage, Beltrán de la Cueva, was greatly esteemed by her, and people speculated about the exact nature of that esteem…
The queen later gave birth to twins, rumored to be fathered by Bishop Fonseca’s nephew, prompting the king to divorce her as well. At the same time, he declared La Beltraneja illegitimate, earning from his people the nickname Enrique the Impotent (which, in Spanish, sounds even more poetic: Enrique el Impotente).
ROYAL MARRIAGE
Who would inherit the Castilian throne? The king had a younger brother, Alfonso, but he mysteriously died. There was also his sister, Isabella, but in Christian kingdoms, unlike their Muslim neighbors, passing the throne to a woman was not widely encouraged, though it was considered possible. Eventually, Enrique declared his sister as heir on the condition that she must get his approval for any potential husband before marriage.
The king had a suitor in mind for Isabella — Afonso of Portugal, the brother of the rejected Joanna and uncle of the illegitimate La Beltraneja. However, Isabella was adamantly opposed. Instead, she was drawn to Ferdinand, the son of the King of Aragon, despite the fact that Ferdinand had fathered two illegitimate children before coming of age.
At the time, the only way to «meet» a potential husband was through portraits. Perhaps Ferdinand’s portrait was painted by an ancestor of the great Diego Velázquez, while Alfonso’s was by an ancestor of the equally grand Pablo Picasso?
Negotiations began and were progressing well in all but one small detail — King Enrique had no idea about them! He wouldn’t have approved of the match any sooner than wolves would lie peacefully beside lambs in Castile’s town squares. Considering that Portugal’s population was six times that of Aragon, Enrique’s perspective was understandable, but Isabella remained steadfast.
Another obstacle was that nearly all the nobility of the peninsula was related. Ferdinand and Isabella were no exception, meaning they needed a papal dispensation, which was typically granted in exchange for favors and concessions.
Nevertheless, they managed to marry under circumstances worthy of a Lope de Vega plot. Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile slipped into Valladolid under the cover of secrecy, disguised as merchants, ensuring that no one, especially King Enrique, would find out.
They did have a papal dispensation, albeit one written and signed without the Pope’s knowledge — time was of the essence, and they hoped to sort it out later. The Pope was merciful, they believed, especially if paid well. How many royal weddings like this have you ever heard of?
THE BEAUTIFUL BEGINNING OF FERDINAND’S DAYS
Naturally, Enrique stripped Isabella of her right to inherit the throne, declared La Beltraneja entirely legitimate, and arranged for her to marry Afonso, her uncle, aiming to transfer the crowns of Portugal and Castile to him. In essence, he exposed himself as a liar and slanderer… Yet, the Castilian nobility were far from pleased with this and almost unanimously sided with Isabella.
What could poor Enrique do, genuinely proving himself to be Impotent, El Impotente, in matters far more critical than those of the bedroom? Only one thing — and he died in 1475. Four years later, the father of Don Fernando, King Juan II, also passed away, leaving no obstacles for Castile and Aragon to come under the unified rule of the royal couple.
Their joint reign began quite successfully. The couple did not quarrel; they acted in unison, spoke little, and reasoned wisely. Almost immediately, they addressed one of the major issues plaguing both kingdoms — highway robbery, committed not only by outright bandits but also by rogue knights who considered such misdeeds their sacred right.
To tackle this, they mobilized the Holy Brotherhood, the Santa Hermandad — a sort of medieval community militia that previously had little effect on combating such lawlessness in its spare time.
Don Fernando realized that this unregulated force could be transformed into his asset! He provided the Brotherhood with funds and authority, expanded this Castilian institution to Aragon, and took personal command, and soon, the roads in both kingdoms became safer. Trade flourished, revenues increased, and, most importantly, a genuine deterrent emerged against arrogant hidalgos who had delusions of grandeur about their feudal rights.
GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS
The people were pleased — life was improving, coins jingled in their pockets, and there was less risk of being robbed and left begging in the streets or threatened on the highways with a knife. The monarchs were well-liked by their subjects, even in appearance. Don Fernando was quite dignified and popular with the ladies (rumor had it he enjoyed this attention but discreetly, without scandal).
There were whispers that after shaking his hand, people would count their fingers, but he always maintained decorum, calm and courteous. Isabella was somewhat more emotional, capable of delivering a rousing speech or riding at the head of an army, but still conducted herself without excess.
Well-educated, she could spend hours discussing state affairs with her clerks, and on the domestic front, there seemed to be no complaints — five children (one son and four daughters), with the third, Juana, being especially beautiful, intelligent, and charming. However, their marriage was close in kinship — they had reached an agreement with the Pope, who legitimized their forged dispensation, but the then-unknown science of genetics was beyond papal authority…
The strengthened united kingdoms felt ready to complete the Reconquista by conquering Granada. They benefited from an old trait of victors in war: adopting the vices of the defeated. The last Visigoth king, Rodrigo, was a usurper, a tyrant, and, according to popular ballads, a rapist.
His misdeeds led many of his nobles to eagerly collaborate with the Arabs to overthrow him (since he had overthrown his predecessor, Witiza). The last Emir of Granada, Boabdil, faced many enemies as well, having overthrown his father and waged war not only against the Spaniards but also against his brother. Ultimately, Granada fell, and the non-Christian residents were promised freedom of worship. But would that promise be kept?
In that same year, 1492, another significant event took place: the capitulation of Granada and a far more consequential agreement made by Ferdinand and Isabella with a specific Genoese merchant. This man held a heretical-sounding idea that the Earth was round and that sailing westward would reach the riches of India as effectively as going east.
Negotiations dragged on for seven years. If successful, Cristóbal Colón demanded the titles of Viceroy and Admiral of the Ocean Sea. Of course, they could promise and then deny him, as eventually happened, but it seemed unwise to invest.
Cautious Don Fernando wouldn’t have given him a maravedí, but his romantic wife decided to take the risk and threatened to pawn her jewels to fund the expedition, prompting her husband to relent.
The expedition ended with unprecedented success, bringing back novelties such as cocoa, red pepper, tobacco, and syphilis to Europe. Fifty years later, streams of gold and silver from these new lands flowed into Spain, and it became clear that this discovery was epoch-making not only for Castile and Aragon but for civilization as a whole.
MAD DECISIONS
Relations within the ruling couple soured. Don Fernando behaved like a typical Spanish macho, barely keeping up with recognizing his illegitimate daughters and not even bothering to give them new names — at least two of them were named Maria.
Meanwhile, Isabella maintained perfect marital fidelity, with no affairs or rumored dalliances, not even with Columbus himself — no yellow journalist dared to suggest otherwise. Yet, contemporaries noted that the queen had grown sad and anxious, and her beloved daughter Juana seemed overly melancholic. Things were not going well, though it was unclear who would suffer the most…
The blow fell upon the peninsula’s greatest asset — interfaith peace. Previously, Spain had been unusually harmonious in this regard. Christians, Muslims, and Jews living there naturally believed they were the ones with the true faith yet acknowledged others as people with whom they could do business. However, Isabella’s fervent piety led her to entrust the fight for Catholic orthodoxy to a terrifying organization called the «Holy Inquisition».
The Moors and Jews of Granada, you may recall, were promised freedom of faith, but that promise was disregarded: after all, their souls needed saving! They were «saved» through merciful punishments that avoided bloodshed — usually by burning at the stake.
Conversion to Christianity offered little protection, as baptized Jews and Moors were still stripped of many rights, suspected of insincerity, and could be dragged to the stake for as little as wearing clean clothes on Saturday — a supposed mark of observing the Sabbath.
Those who refused to convert were expelled from the country. Columbus didn’t set sail from Seville or Cádiz but from the small town of Palos, which, 500 years later, had become so overgrown with silt that retracing Columbus’s voyage for its quincentennial was physically impossible.
The large ports were filled with ships carrying Jews and Moors into exile, enriching hostile Turkey with their skills and knowledge. The Turkish sultan Murad rubbed his hands in glee, sarcastically commenting on the foolish King Fernando, who impoverished his own country to enrich Turkey. Yet Isabella believed she was saving the country, and Don Fernando saw no reason to quarrel with his wife over it.
A SAD END
Despite her sincere faith, the queen could not help but feel the repulsiveness of her position, which rendered her word worthless. She also saw the actual behavior of her beloved husband but said nothing — she simply remained silent, growing more nervous and constrained. And that’s without mentioning the worsening condition of her dear daughter… Departing from this world in 1504, Isabella clearly left with the expectation of terrible calamities.
Indeed, the unfortunate Doña Juana, deeply in love with her husband, Duke Philip of Austria, succumbed to madness after his sudden death. She was so possessive that she forbade any women from approaching his coffin and demanded that a women’s monastery, which unknowingly offered shelter to his funeral procession, be vacated immediately.
Juana ate only bread and cheese, slipped under her door, and refused to dine in front of others. Thus, she lived until the age of 76. By the will of her son, the future emperor not only of Spain but also of the Holy Roman Empire, Charles V, she was seen by almost no one. It was as if she had been buried alive.
After his wife’s death, Don Fernando married the daughter of a Navarrese viscount, who was exactly one-third his age. He schemed, fought in Italy, deceived allies as he pleased, and considered his most significant achievement not the conquest of Granada or the discovery of America but the capture of French Roussillon, which had to be returned anyway.
Considering the beautiful start to their reign, the romantic journey to the altar incognito, and the seemingly all-consuming passion — it’s almost embarrassing… One can feel genuine pity for the truly in-love Isabella, but when reflecting on the horrors wrought by the Inquisition she established, that pity vanishes. She received what she deserved, though even that was with a significant discount.
