Habsburg Spain: Encyclopedia II - Habsburg Spain - The beginnings of the empire 1504-1521

Habsburg Spain - The beginnings of the empire 1504-1521

Spain as we know it today had first become united after the 1469 marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, and their subsequent conquest of Granada. In 1504, Queen Isabella died, and although Ferdinand tried to maintain his position over Castile in the wake of her death, the Castilian Cortes Generales (the royal court of Spain) chose to crown Isabella's daughter Joanna queen. Her husband Philip was the Habsburg son of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I and Mary of Burgundy and simultaneously became king-consort Philip I of Castile. Shortly thereafter Joanna began to lapse into insanity. In 1506, Philip assumed the regency on her behalf, but he died later that year under mysterious circumstances, possibly poisoned by his deranged wife [1]. Since their oldest son Charles was only six, the Cortes reluctantly allowed Joanna's father Ferdinand to rule the country as the regent of Joanna and Charles.

Spain was now united under a single ruler, Ferdinand II of Aragon. As sole monarch, Ferdinand adopted a more aggressive policy than he had as Isabella's husband, enlarging Spain's sphere of influence in Italy, strengthening it against France. As ruler of Aragon, Ferdinand had been involved in the struggle against France and Venice for control of Italy; these conflicts became the center of Ferdinand's foreign policy as king. Ferdinand's first investment of Spanish forces came in the War of the League of Cambrai against Venice, where the Spanish soldiers distinguished themselves on the field alongside their French allies at the Battle of Agnadello (1509). Only a year later, Ferdinand joined the Holy League against France, seeing a chance at taking both Naples - to which he held a dynastic claim - and Navarra, which was claimed through his marriage to Germaine de Foix. The war was less of a success than that against Venice, and in 1516, France agreed to a truce that left Milan under French control and recognized Spanish hegemony in northern Navarre. Unfortunately Ferdinand died later that year.

Ferdinand's death led to the ascension of young Charles to the throne as Charles I of Castile and Aragon, effectively founding the monarchy of Spain. His Spanish inheritance included all the Spanish possessions in the New World and around the Mediterranean. Upon the death of his Habsburg father in 1506, Charles had inherited the Netherlands and Franche-Comté, growing up in Flanders. In 1519, with the death of his paternal grandfather Maximilian I, Charles inherited the Habsburg territories in Germany, and was duly elected Emperor Charles V that year. His mother remained as titular queen of Castile until her death 1555, but due to her health, Charles (titled there as king also) exercised all true power. At that point, Emperor and King Charles was the most powerful man in Christendom.

The accumulation of so much power to one man and one dynasty greatly concerned the king of France, Francis I, who found himself surrounded by Habsburg territories. In 1521, Francis invaded the Spanish possessions in Italy and inaugurated a second round of Franco-Spanish conflict. The war was a disaster for France, which suffered defeats at Biccoca (1522), Pavia (1525, at which Francis was captured), and Landriano (1529) before Francis relented and abandoned Milan to Spain once more.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The beginnings of the empire 1504-1521", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki