The Catholic Monarchs

Los Reyes Católicos

1469–1516. Isabel of Castile married Fernando of Aragon in 1469, and from 1479 the two ruled their kingdoms jointly, though each crown kept its own laws.

What happened

Isabel of Castile married Fernando of Aragon in 1469, and from 1479 the two ruled their kingdoms jointly, though each crown kept its own laws. They set up the Inquisition in 1478, took Granada in 1492, expelled the Jews the same year and backed Columbus's voyage west. Pope Alexander VI gave them the title 'Catholic Monarchs'. Isabel died in 1504 and Fernando in 1516, when their grandson Charles of Habsburg inherited both crowns. Historians see the reign as the start of a Spanish state and of Spain's overseas empire, but the union was dynastic: Castile and Aragon stayed separate kingdoms for another two centuries.

Its events

1. 12 October 1492: Columbus reaches America

Sources

1. Isabella I of Castile — World History Encyclopedia
2. Christopher Columbus — World History Encyclopedia
3. Treaty of Tordesillas — World History Encyclopedia