Christian Spain, c. 1260–1479

Castile and León, 1252–1479

As the kings of Castile endeavoured to strengthen monarchical power in the late medieval centuries, they encountered a stiff challenge from the nobility, who tried to use the institutions of government for their own interests. The struggle for power commenced during the reign of Alfonso X (the Learned, 1252–84), who is perhaps best known for the literary and scientific achievements under his direction by scholars whom he summoned to his court. His aim to gain control of the Moroccan ports giving access to the Iberian Peninsula provoked a revolt in 1264–66 by the Mudéjares of Andalusia and Murcia, abetted by the king of Granada. Elected Holy Roman emperor in 1257, Alfonso spent the next 17 years engaged in a vain effort to counter a rival claimant and to secure papal acceptance. His expenditure of great sums of money on this enterprise and his innovations in taxation and legislation eventually brought about a grave challenge to his rule.

Alfonso concluded that a uniform royal law was necessary to overcome the multiplicity and diversity of local and regional laws, such as the municipal fueros and the Liber Judiciorum used in León (which Ferdinand III had translated into Castilian as the Fuero Juzgo). The Espéculo, a code of law intended for use in the royal court, and the Fuero Real, a code of municipal law meant for the towns of Castile and Extremadura, were drawn up and likely promulgated in 1254. Between 1256 and 1265 royal jurists, drawing heavily on Roman law, revised and amplified the Espéculo, which in its new form came to be known as the Siete Partidas (Seven Divisions). The nobles and the towns objected to these changes in the law and in 1272 compelled the king to confirm their traditional laws and customs. To underscore their opposition to royal policy, the magnates went into exile in Granada for two years. Following this setback, the pope in 1274 refused to recognize Alfonso’s imperial claims, and the king’s eldest son and heir, Fernando de la Cerda, died in 1275 while hastening to repel a Moroccan invasion. A dispute over the succession then ensued between the adherents of Fernando de la Cerda’s son, Alfonso, and the king’s second son, Sancho. Although the king recognized Sancho, their relationship deteriorated, in part because Alfonso X’s ill health rendered him less able to carry out his duties and caused him to act arbitrarily. In 1282 an assembly of nobles, prelates, and townsmen transferred the responsibilities of government from the king to Sancho. While the Muslims continued to threaten the kingdom externally, Castile was torn apart by civil war until the king’s death.

During the reign of Sancho IV (1284–95), domestic and foreign supporters of his nephew maintained a steady opposition. At the same time, Sancho had to defend the realm against another Muslim invasion from Morocco. Thus began a long struggle to control the Strait of Gibraltar and to close that invasion route. During the minority of Ferdinand IV (1295–1312), new efforts were made in favour of Alfonso de la Cerda, but in 1304 he renounced all claims to any portion of the Crown of Castile. Although the king seized Gibraltar in 1309, the Muslims regained possession a quarter century later. The minority of Alfonso XI (1312–50) witnessed new disorders, but when Alfonso reached adulthood he brutally crushed his enemies among the nobility. Aided by his Christian neighbours, he gained a great triumph over the allied Islamic forces from Granada and Morocco at the Salado River in 1340 and thus ended for good all Moroccan attempts to establish a base in Spain. He captured Algeciras (Al-Jazīrah al-Khaḍrāʾ) four years later, but he was unable to take the nearby fortress of Gibraltar because he fell victim to the Black Death.

During the reign of Peter the Cruel (1350–69), the monarchy and the nobility again came into violent conflict. Challenging the king’s right to rule, his half brother, Henry of Trastámara, an illegitimate son of Alfonso XI, appealed to France for support. Backed by a mercenary army commanded by the Frenchman Bertrand du Guesclin, Henry was able to eject Peter from the kingdom in 1366. In order to recover his throne, the king enlisted the help of Edward, prince of Wales, and a combined Anglo-Castilian army defeated Henry of Trastámara at Nájera in 1367. After Edward’s withdrawal, however, Henry and du Guesclin defeated and killed Peter at Montiel in 1369.

As the first of the Trastámara dynasty, Henry II (1369–79) had to maintain his rights to the throne against his peninsular neighbours and domestic enemies. He eventually overcame his opponents and was even able to assist his French allies by providing a fleet to attack English shipping. As an ally of France, Henry’s son John I (1379–90) acknowledged the Avignonese pope during the Great Schism. The Trastámara family’s aspirations to acquire the other peninsular kingdoms were first manifested when John claimed Portugal by right of marriage. His invasion in 1385 roused the Portuguese national spirit, and he suffered a grievous defeat at Aljubarrota. Then John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, claiming the Castilian throne as the husband of Peter I’s daughter, landed in Galicia in 1386. Although John was aided by the Portuguese, he was unsuccessful and came to terms in 1388. The marriage of his daughter Catherine to Henry III, John I’s oldest son, ended the hostility between the two branches of the Castilian royal family.

The nobility took advantage of the minority of Henry III (1390–1406) to pursue their own gain at royal expense, but, once the king reached adult age, he strongly asserted his power. However, royal prestige and authority suffered terribly during the long reign of his son, John II (1406–54). The king’s uncle, Fernando de Antequera, who acted as regent, maintained stability until he was elected king of Aragon in 1412. John II, a weak and disinterested monarch, allowed Álvaro de Luna, the royal favourite, to dominate him and to direct royal policy. Fernando’s sons, Henry and John of Navarre, tried to gain control of the king and the organs of government, but Luna successfully thwarted their schemes. Luna retained effective authority during most of the reign, but in 1453 he incurred the king’s wrath and was summarily executed.

The nobles continued to engage in an intense struggle for influence and power in the reign of Henry IV (1454–74). Although Juan Pacheco, marqués de Villena, initially gained ascendancy over the king, others vied for royal favour. The nobles, alleging Henry’s impotence, refused to accept the legitimacy of the infanta Joan, who they declared was the child of the queen and of the king’s most recent favourite, Beltrán de la Cueva. Because of that account, the young girl was derided as “La Beltraneja.” Henry IV repudiated her and recognized his sister Isabella as heir to the throne in the Pact of Los Toros de Guisando in 1468. Although Villena and his supporters hoped to control Isabella, they soon learned that they could not. Without first seeking her brother’s consent as she had promised, in 1469 Isabella married Ferdinand, son and heir of John II of Aragon. An angry Henry IV denounced her and tried to exclude her from the succession, but when he died she was proclaimed Queen Isabella I (1474–1504). Afonso V of Portugal, who was betrothed to Joan, invaded Castile on her behalf, but in 1479 Joan abandoned her rights to the throne. Ferdinand’s accession to the Aragonese throne in the same year brought about a personal union of Aragon and Castile.

Castilian institutions, society, and culture

In the 13th century the recovery of the idea of the state, as reflected in Roman law and Aristotle’s Politics, profoundly influenced the development of the Castilian monarchy. As the one primarily responsible for maintaining the well-being of the state, the king (God’s vicar on earth, according to the Siete Partidas and numerous other medieval texts) tended to concentrate power in his own hands. The royal bureaucracy, now largely directed by jurists, attempted to strengthen royal authority in every way. Although contemporaries were wary of Roman law, its influence continually expanded. The place of Roman law and legal procedure in the courts was secured when Alfonso XI promulgated the Ordenamiento de Alcalá in 1348. Henry II reorganized the royal tribunal (audiencia), but its development was not completed until the end of the Middle Ages. In the pursuit of greater centralization of power, the crown took advantage of the persistent factionalism in the towns to intervene frequently in municipal administration. The lower classes were denied any civic role, as the urban knights, a non-noble aristocracy, controlled town affairs. The knights also struggled to win noble status for themselves, with its accompanying exemption from taxation. The crown dispatched corregidores (governors) to the towns to restrain violence and to supplant local governmental officials. Although this was initially a temporary expedient, by the 15th century it had become a permanent institution.

Both the nobility and the representative assembly of the municipalities, the Cortes, challenged the royal inclination toward absolutism. In 1386 John I, responding to the demands of the Cortes, included representatives of the three estates (consisting of the nobility, the church, and the towns) in the royal council (consejo real) where they could regularly monitor royal policy. That plan did not succeed, because in the 15th century the nobility came to dominate the council and used it to further their own interests. Throughout the realm the power and influence of the magnates continued to grow, as they were entrusted with various territorial administrative responsibilities, including the posts of adelantado mayor (governor) in Castile, Murcia, and Andalusia. In order to retain their favour, the Trastámara kings granted them vast territorial lordships as well as lordships over some of the principal municipalities. This was a serious loss for the monarchy, as the cities and towns had long been the chief supporters of royal authority. As a mentality favourable to the aristocracy came to the fore in the 15th century, the magnates became ever more brazen in arrogating royal rights to themselves.

The role of the Cortes in the political life of the kingdom was especially important from about 1250 to 1350 and again during the reigns of Henry I and John I, who hoped to use it to strengthen their hold on the throne. The Cortes was convened frequently to consent to taxation (servicio) for fixed terms and for specific purposes. Both Ferdinand IV and Alfonso XI explicitly stated that they would not levy an extraordinary tax without the consent of the Cortes, and John I agreed to let the Cortes audit his accounts. The monarch often enacted ordinances in the Cortes, and if he accepted petitions presented by that body, they became the law of the land. John II and Henry IV curtailed the role of the Cortes and abused the rights that it had gained in the 14th century. At times the crown appointed municipal procurators and summoned fewer and fewer towns, so that eventually only 18 were called to represent the entire realm. Indeed, many towns held in lordship by the magnates, who claimed to speak for them, lost their right to attend the Cortes.

The predominance of agriculture and pasturage in the Castilian economy continued. As the Reconquista opened vast pasturelands in Extremadura and Andalusia, sheep and cattle grazing acquired new importance. The Mesta, a kingdomwide organization of sheep owners chartered originally by Alfonso X, had great economic and political power. Although the manufacture of woolen cloth became important in the towns, the urban middle class was not especially strong, and an effective guild organization never really matured. Forged during the Reconquista, the urban aristocracy’s military mentality impeded its participation in trade and crafts. While the ports of the Bay of Biscay maintained a substantial trade with England, Flanders, France, and Portugal, the Genoese, who were solidly established at Sevilla, the chief southern port, had a great share in the overseas trade originating there.

Following the outbreak of the Black Death in the middle of the 14th century, the population declined sharply, and there was serious social and economic unrest. In 1351 Peter I (the Cruel) tried to guarantee stability by enacting the Ordenamiento de Menestrales, which required workers to accept the same wages as before the plague. Owing to popular agitation, a great pogrom against the Jews erupted in 1391 and rapidly spread throughout the peninsula. Forced to choose Christianity or death, many Jews converted. A number of these conversos, freed of earlier legal restraints, now attained prominence in public life, but they were always suspected of continuing privately to observe Jewish practices. The demand that they demonstrate limpieza de sangre—i.e., that their ancestry was unsullied by Jewish or Muslim blood—was intended to exclude them from any important place in government or the church.

The cultural integration of Castile into western Europe was now complete. The development of Castilian as a literary language owed much to Alfonso X, whose stimulus to learning has been described as having prompted an intellectual renaissance. Under his patronage both the General estoria (“General History”) and the Estoria de Espanna (“History of Spain”) were written; astronomical tables were arranged, and translations of Arabic scientific works were undertaken; and the Siete Partidas was compiled. The Cantigas de Santa María (“Songs to the Virgin”) is a collection of more than 400 poems written in Galician, a language considered appropriate for lyric poetry; the poems are generally assumed to be the work of Alfonso himself, and many of them constitute a royal autobiography. Alfonso’s nephew, Don Juan Manuel (died 1348), authored many works, including El Conde Lucanor; o, el libro de Patronio (1328-35; “Count Lucanor; or, The Book of Patronius”, a collection of fables and folk tales with a didactic intent) and the Libro de los estados (a treatise on social classes). Juan Ruiz, the archpriest of Hita (died c. 1350) and one of the great medieval poets, took a satirical look at love; his Libro de buen amor (1330; expanded 1343; Book of Good Love) intersperses ribald and comic poems of love with beautiful hymns in praise of the Virgin Mary. The history of this period was recorded in a succession of royal chronicles. Pedro López de Ayala (died 1407), a brilliant writer who searched for motives and realized the importance of social and institutional developments, wrote excellent chronicles of Peter I, Henry II, John I, and Henry III. During the reign of John II, who was a patron of poets and scholars, the Italian Renaissance influenced Castilian writers and thinkers, including the marqués de Santillana (died 1458), whose lyric poems have great beauty; Jorge Manrique (died 1479), who reflected on the vanities of the world in the Coplas por la muerte de su padre (Verses on the Death of His Father); and Fernán Pérez de Guzmán (died c. 1460), who sketched the characters and personalities in the court of Henry III in the Generaciones y semblanzas (Generations and Sketches).