fwo_886828 - ESPAGNE - CATALOGNE - FERDINAND II D'ARAGON Croat n.d. Barcelone

SPAIN - CATALONIA - FERDINAND II OF ARAGON

(1479-1516)

Ferdinand is the son of Jean II, King of Aragon and Navarre and Jeanne, daughter of Frédéric Henriquez. In 1479, on the death of his father, he inherited Aragon. His union with Isabella, Queen of Castile, was at the origin of the unification of the two largest kingdoms of Spain engaged in the crusade against the Moors. As early as 1482, Ferdinand and Isabella attacked Granada, the last Islamic state in Spain, which fell ten years later in 1492. Their reign was marked by the Inquisition, instituted in 1478. In 1492 many Jews and Muslims were expelled. From their union was born Jeanne who married Philippe le Beau. Isabella sponsored the voyage of Christopher Columbus who, landing in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492, marked the beginning of the exploitation of the New World and the expansion of the Kingdom of Spain..