Page 57 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

1 Kingdom of Aragon CITIES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN
2 Kingdom of Castile and Leon
3 Kingdom of Valencia
4 Principality of Catalonia
5 Asturias(Cantabrian States)
6 Basque Provinces
7 Galicia
8 Granada

where foreign merchants gathered annually to pious, charitable, prudent, temperate in both Juana "la Beltraneja," fruit of an illicit union of
buy Spanish wool. food and drink. This image actually better suits Henry's queen with Beltran de la Cueva, a
The economy of Andalusia in southern Spain Isabella than Ferdinand, who was something of prominent courtier. Whatever the truth of this
was even more prosperous. The former Islamic a philanderer known to have fathered at least rumor, it placed the royal succession in doubt.
caliphate of al-Andalus had been incorporated four illegitimate children, including two after The infante Alfonso, Isabella's younger brother,
into the crown of Castile following the con- his marriage. Yet Isabella had her weaknesses was supported by one noble faction, Isabella by
quests of Ferdinand in in the mid-thirteenth too, including a fondness for fine clothing and another. Alfonso's premature death at the age of
century. The region's principal city, Seville, jewels and a love of luxury partly conditioned fifteen in July 1468 favored Isabella's cause, and
with a population of almost forty thousand in by her elevated notion of monarchy and her in a treaty signed later that year King Henry
1492, was a major entrepot with trade links to desire to endow the Castilian throne with the finally agreed to name Isabella his successor on
North Africa and the Mediterranean as well as dignity and majesty it previously lacked. In Pul- the condition that she marry his ally, Alfonso v
northern Europe. Its principal exports were gar's words, "She was a woman who was very of Portugal. The independent Isabella, afraid
olive oil and wine, along with hides, soap, salt, ceremonious in her dress and adornments, in that Henry might change his mind, preferred an
and pickled tuna produced in one of the many the choice of her daises and thrones, as well as Aragonese alliance and arranged to marry Ferdi-
fisheries lining the coast around Cadiz. Anda- in the service of her person; she only wanted nand, the young son of John n of Aragon. Born
lusia also had an important offshore economy great men and nobles to attend them and then in 1452 and one year her junior, Ferdinand, the
that extended far into the Atlantic, as fishermen with humility and respect. One has never read very model of a Renaissance prince, cut a dash-
from Palos, Sanlucar de Barrameda, and other about any previous monarch who had so many ing figure. Isabella's choice of a husband was not
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ports plied the waters as far south as Cape great men as their servants/' Unlike most primarily dictated by affection, but by politics.
Bojador and the Canaries. It was this important women of her era, Isabella learned to read and Isabella needed Aragonese support against
maritime tradition, much of it financed by write, and even studied Latin. She carefully Henry and his Portuguese allies. For his part
Genoese merchants in Seville, that attracted cultivated an image of piety and chastity, going the ambitious Ferdinand hoped to utilize
Columbus to Andalusia and encouraged him to so far, it was said, as to sleep surrounded by Castile's resources in order to defend tradi-
present his enterprise to the king and queen of chambermaids whenever Ferdinand was away tional Aragonese interests in Italy and the
the Spains. in order to preserve her reputation. Mediterranean.
Isabella was born in 1451, the third child of The young couple's marriage, celebrated se-
Juan ii (d. 1454). She was raised by her mother cretly in Valladolid, immediately plunged Cas-
Ferdinand and Isabella in Arevalo, a small town in Old Castile. Her tile into a bitter war of succession involving the
"Although they are monarchs, they are human older brother Henry inherited the crown in intervention of French and Portuguese troops
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beings/' Such was the judgment of Fernando de 1454, but as a child Isabella had only limited loyal to Henry iv. Ferdinand and Isabella had a
Pulgar, one of several chroniclers employed by contact with the royal court. Henry iv was a number of powerful allies, including Alonso
Ferdinand and Isabella. Such platitudes aside, weak, unpopular monarch whose alleged impo- Carrillo, archbishop of Toledo and primate of
contemporary descriptions of the two monarchs tence prompted rumors that Juana (b. 1463), his the Spanish church, but most of the Castilian
depict them as paragons of Christian virtue: infant daughter and designated heir, was in fact nobility held aloof. Henry iv's death in Decem-

56 CIRC A 1492