Biography. Biography Political intrigues of recent years

From 1590 he studied at the University of Ingolstadt, where the Jesuits taught. Here the future emperor was inculcated with the strictest rules of faith and the most sublime ideas about his future destiny. FROM early years and until his death, Ferdinand considered himself a warrior catholic church destined from God to restore its ancient teachings. In 1595 he returned to Graz, was declared of age the following year, and took possession of his Central Austrian duchy, which included Styria, Carinthia and Carniola.

By nature, Ferdinand was a pleasant secular person: kind to those close to him and merciful to servants, he easily converged with people, was generous, passionately loved music and was passionately fond of hunting. At the same time, he was an active and business-like sovereign, who never neglected his duties. But main feature his nature was a fanatical commitment to the Catholic Church, which he was ready to serve with both word and sword. The Jesuits had a huge influence on him. Two of them were always in his hallway and had the right to enter him at any time, even at night, for advice and edification.

As soon as he took power, the young duke began to relentlessly persecute the Protestants. Everyone who did not want to change their religion, Ferdinand ordered to leave the country. Like his uncle, Ferdinand liked to repeat the words: "Better a desert than a country inhabited by heretics." A few years later, in the Austrian possessions, where before half the population consisted of Lutherans and Calvinists, not a single Protestant church remained.

Since Ferdinand's older cousins, and, did not have legitimate sons, he early XVII century began to be seen as their potential heir. Every year Ferdinand had more and more influence on imperial affairs. In 1617, Ferdinand was elected king of the Czech Republic, and the following year he ascended the Hungarian throne. Following this, complex negotiations began with the imperial princes on the election of Ferdinand as emperor. At this moment, in May 1618, a national uprising broke out in Prague, which served as a prologue to the devastating Thirty Years' War.

It all started with the fact that back in December 1617, the Archbishop of Prague ordered the destruction of the Protestant church in Klostergrab. This incident made a lot of noise in the Czech Republic and throughout the empire. Czech Protestants gathered in Prague and after heated debate decided that such lawlessness could not be left without consequences. On May 23, 1618, several hundred nobles went to the ancient Hradcany castle, where ten governors who ruled the Czech Republic in their absence were conferring, grabbed two of them, especially for all the hated ones, and threw them out the window (the so-called "Second Prague Defenestration").

Obviously, after this, the war was to begin. However, neither the emperor nor his minister wanted her. Klezl made an attempt to resolve the conflict peacefully. Then Ferdinand took the cardinal into custody in July and imprisoned him in the castle of Ambras. Having lost his adviser of many years, Matvey was confused, put all the levers of power in the hands of Ferdinand, and could only watch helplessly as events led Germany to a destructive religious war.

Meanwhile, the uprising in Bohemia was supported by Protestants in Austria itself. The Czechs, under the leadership of Count Turn, moved to Vienna and in June 1619 took possession of its suburbs. At the same time, Austrian rebels seized the imperial palace and demanded that Ferdinand proclaim religious freedom. One of the brave leaders of the opposition, Tonradel, even grabbed the button of the imperial jacket and pushed Ferdinand several times. Fortunately, at that moment a cavalry detachment had just entered the city, and the rebels were frightened by the loud sound of trumpets.

In August 1619, after his death, Ferdinand was elected emperor. He came to the throne under the most difficult circumstances. The Czechs had already openly seceded from the Habsburgs, declared Ferdinand deposed, and handed over the crown to the Elector of the Palatinate. The Hungarians soon followed their example: on August 25, 1620, a Transylvanian prince was elected king of Hungary at the Diet in Bestetsebane. Together, the Czech-Moravian-Hungarian army even laid siege to Vienna, but was forced to retreat after the blows of enemies to the rear.

Soon, Count Tilly, who commanded the Bavarian army, easily suppressed the uprisings in Upper and Lower Austria, entered the Czech Republic and quickly pushed the rebels back to the walls of Prague. The Czechs occupied an elevation to the west of their capital, which was called the White Mountain. On November 8, Tilly attacked their positions and won a decisive victory. This put an end to the Czech uprising. Prague opened its gates to the victorious imperial army, Moravia and Silesia also expressed their obedience. The "Royal Rescript" and other acts that gave the Czechs national and religious freedom were destroyed, and the rights of the Sejm were curtailed so much that the Czech Republic was in the position of an Austrian province. But, in order to completely eradicate the spirit of freedom in the kingdom, laws alone were not enough. Severe repression fell upon the participants in the uprising: 24 nobles were beheaded in Prague, many nobles and ordinary citizens were whipped, imprisoned or expelled from the country. Then began the confiscation of estates, which took on colossal proportions. Three-quarters of all land was taken from the national nobility, given to monasteries and German Catholics. Since the nobility from time immemorial was considered the main force of the national movement, this action broke the freedom-loving spirit of the Czech people. At the same time there was a planting of Catholicism. All Czech books of suspicious content were burned. Anyone who did not want to renounce the Protestant faith was ordered to leave the country. About 40 thousand families then went into exile.

On December 31, 1621, the emperor signed a peace treaty in Nikolsburg with. The Transylvanian prince renounced his claims to the Hungarian crown, receiving in return part of Slovakia, Subcarpathian Rus, part of North-Eastern Hungary and the principality of Opole and Racibórz in Silesia.

Since he did not want to give up the title of Czech king given to him by the rebels, he became the next victim of the Catholics - by 1623 the Bavarians had captured the entire Palatinate. Then, on the side of the Protestants, the Danish king entered the war, having received significant subsidies from England for the recruitment of troops. Seeing that the Protestants were multiplying their forces, the leaders of the Catholic League began to demand help from the emperor. Ferdinand himself understood that it was impossible to place all the hardships of the war on one Bavarian army, but he had absolutely no means to recruit his own troops. In these difficult circumstances, the Duke of Friedland Wallenstein undertook to deliver an army to the emperor at his own expense. Two years later, he gathered under the banner of more than 50 thousand adventurers from all over Europe, organized them and created a completely combat-ready army. main idea Wallenstein was that the army should supply itself, collecting indemnities from the population. Soon he managed to put things in such a way that the maintenance of his army cost the emperor almost nothing. True, we had to turn a blind eye to the fact that everywhere where Wallenstein's soldiers appeared, general robberies, murders and cruel tortures of civilians began. But since these brave warriors were able not only to loot, but also to fight and actually won glorious victories, Ferdinand did not pay attention to their outrages for a long time.

In April 1626, Wallenstein inflicted a decisive defeat on the Protestants at the Dessau Bridge on the Elbe. Then he moved to Hungary and forced the rebels there into submission. Meanwhile, Tilly, beside Lutter, put to flight. All of northern Germany hastened to show obedience to the emperor. Wallenstein and Tilly, pursuing the Danes, took possession of all of Holstein, Schleswig and Jutland. In 1629 Ferdinand made peace. The Danish king received back all his possessions, but had to refuse to interfere in German affairs. In March of the same year, the emperor promulgated the edict of restitution (restoration), according to which the Protestants were to return to the Catholics all the lands seized by them after the Peace of Augsburg. This law took away from the Protestants two archbishoprics, twelve bishoprics, many monasteries, priories and other possessions. If it were carried out, the Protestant party would be finally broken. However, the Swedish king stood in the way of Ferdinand's ambitious plans. In the summer of 1630, he declared war on the emperor and quickly took possession of Pomerania with Mecklenburg.

The war resumed with the same ferocity. In the same year, Tilly took Magdeburg and betrayed it to terrible ruin. The city burned to the ground, about 20 thousand people died from the sword, fire and horror. Tilly then invaded Saxony and occupied Leipzig. The outraged Saxons, who had previously observed neutrality, went over to the side. On September 17, 1631, a great battle took place near the village of Breitenfeld, and Tilly was defeated in it. After this important victory, he took possession of Würzburg and invaded the Rhenish Palatinate. In 1632 he moved against Bavaria. In April, in the battle on Lech, Tilly was defeated for the second time and received a mortal wound. But when, following this, the Swedish king attacked Wallenstein's camp near Nuremberg, he met with a strong rebuff and retreated with heavy losses. Wallenstein followed him into Saxony. On November 16, a decisive battle took place at Lütsenne. Under pressure from the Swedes, Wallenstein's regiments were dispersed and driven back. But the winner fell in this battle, and this nullified the entire success of his army. The Protestant coalition broke up. The Swedes avoided decisive action and no longer seemed so dangerous. But there was another threat. By the early 1630s, Wallenstein's power had become so great that it began to inspire fear in the emperor himself. In 1634, the highest officers of the army plotted in favor of their commander. Upon learning of this, Ferdinand ordered his loyal troops to crush the rebellion with all possible firmness, at the same time he gave a secret order to the governor of Eger Gordon to deal with Wallenstein. On February 25, the famous commander was suddenly caught by assassins in his castle and killed the minute he left the bathroom.

The new head of the imperial army, Gallas, took Regensburg, and in September defeated the Swedes at Nordlingen. The Elector of Saxony had to retreat from his allies and in the spring of 1635 made peace with the emperor in Prague. This treaty left to the Protestants those lands which they owned in 1552 and the right to use the possessions appropriated between 1552 and 1555 for a period of 40 years. Other Protestant princes were indignant at the betrayal of the Saxons, but were forced one by one to join the concluded peace. The war might have ended there if not for the intervention of France. In October 1635, Cardinal Richelieu attracted Duke Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar to his side. On French gold, he recruited a large army and led successful operations against the imperial commanders. The war began to flare up with renewed vigor. Ferdinand never lived to see its end - he died two years after the Peace of Prague.

Emperor Charles V had younger brother— Ferdinand. He was the fourth child of Archduke Philip the Handsome of the Habsburg family and the unfortunate Queen Juana of Castile - "Juana the Mad".

By his mother, he was the grandson of the unifiers of Spain - Queen Isabella of Castile and her husband, King Ferdinand of Aragon, nicknamed "Catholic kings" for their steel-hard commitment to Catholicism. The Inquisition began to punish even minimal deviations from the dogmas of the Faith, starting with the "Catholic king and queen."

According to his father, Ferdinand is the grandson of Emperor Maximilian, the same one who, having married Mary, the only daughter of the last duke of independent Burgundy, Charles the Bold, acquired a huge, but incredibly restless “Burgundian inheritance”, the brightest diamond of which was the “Lower Lands”, otherwise called the Netherlands.

The future emperor received his name in honor of his grandfather Ferdinand the Catholic, King of Aragon, who, in fact, built “an empire over which the sun does not set. Ferdinand from his youth was in the shadow of his ambitious brother Charles. The brother once reacted with jealousy to the fact that the younger Ferdinand, who was brought up in Spain, was loved by the Castilians - he, Charles, subjects - and sent him in the spring of 1518 to the Netherlands. Ferdinand never returned to his beloved Castile, the fate of him and his descendants now belonged undividedly to Germany and Austria.

When Charles becomes emperor in 1519, Ferdinand receives the rights of his governor in Germany, divided into a huge number of independent principalities.

Ferdinand witnessed how at the Church Council in German city Worms monk Martin Luther presented his ideas on the need to correct abuses in the Roman Church. Despite the fact that the majority reacted very calmly to the speeches of the learned monk, Karl attacked him with the most severe criticism, accusing him of schismatic activity in relation to the united Christian world. With his imperial power, he insisted on the prohibition public speaking and Luther's sermons. Ferdinand could not understand why his brother went into such a frenzy, because there is so much truth in Luther's words!

Ferdinand was then 16 years old, and Charles 19.

In 1521, Ferdinand married Anna Jagiellonka, her father Vladislav II (from the family of Polish kings) was simultaneously the king of Bohemia (Czech Republic) and Hungary. These countries "rolled away" from under the scepter of the Habsburgs, and the marriage of Ferdinand pursued the goal of gradually returning them back. At the same time, he received from his older brother their main ancestral lands- Upper and Lower Austria, Carinthia and Styria, as well as Krajina (as Slovenia used to be called), and a little later - Tyrol. They were owned for several centuries by their ancestors, the archdukes of the Austrian houses of the Habsburgs.

In 1536, the marriage with Anna began to pay dividends - in the battle with the Turks at Mohacs, her childless brother Louis (in Hungarian Lajos), the king of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia, died. Ferdinand made his legal claim to these orphaned crowns. But the Hungarians and Czechs did not recognize the heredity of royal dignity in their countries. In October 1526, the Bohemian Sejm elected Ferdinand king, while setting certain conditions for him, while the Sejms of Moravia and Silesia recognized both Anna and Ferdinand as sovereigns by right of succession. In 1531 Ferdinand was also crowned king of Rome.

Further, Ferdinand had to fight for Hungary with the Turks for a long time, in that era the Great Ottoman Empire waged wars of conquest in Europe, and the task of stopping the Turkish invasion of Christian Europe quickly became the work of his life for Ferdinand.

Ferdinand fighting the Turks for Hungary

Ferdinand was opposed by the ruler of Transylvania, Janos Zapolya, who in 1526, dissatisfied with the foreign ruler, the Hungarian nobles in the Tokay castle proclaimed king. In 1527–1528, Ferdinand's army invaded Hungary, defeated Zápolya's troops, and drove him out of the country to Poland. Janos Zapolya turned in 1528 for help to the Ottoman Empire.

In 1529 Suleiman the Magnificent invaded Hungary. Ottoman troops drove the Habsburg forces out of the country and restored Janos to power in most (eastern) parts of Hungary. Janos Zapolya in July 1529 took the vassal oath to the Turkish sultan and was recognized by him as the king of Hungary.

But the most dramatic moment in the life of Ferdinand was the appearance in the spring of 1529 of the army of Suleiman the Magnificent near the walls of Vienna! The siege of the capital of Austria is seen by some historians as a test of strength for a large-scale Turkish invasion of Germany, and by others simply as a desire to unite Hungary under Turkish rule. The Turks near Vienna suffered great hardships, the number of deserters increased, and after an unsuccessful assault, Suleiman the Magnificent ordered a retreat. Ferdinand, with the help of the troops of his elder brother Emperor Charles V, kept western Hungary under his rule.

Ferdinand - arbiter of the German lands

Charles V “spent his whole life in the saddle”, moving from one battle to another, while his younger brother Ferdinand really ruled and solved the most difficult tasks every day. Ferdinand gained invaluable long-term experience in resolving the most difficult disputes between princes and Catholic nobles and electors, princes, dukes and landgraves who went over to the Protestant camp. When the elder brother by force of arms did not reach complete victory, the younger one entered the case, possessing the ability to reach an agreement in almost hopeless cases.

The main achievement of Ferdinand as a ruler was the inter-religious peace concluded in the City of Augsburg in 1555. He formulated the principle "Whose power, that is faith." His elder brother for a long time did not want to recognize the rights of the Protestant princes to determine the dominant religion in their state. He correctly suspected that this would mean his personal defeat, the impossibility of maintaining a single Christian Empire and the final split of Germany along religious lines.

But the day came when even the Catholic allies of the emperor spoke out that it was impossible to fight endlessly, we had to negotiate! Thus came the personal triumph of Ferdinand Habsburg!

And for his descendants, this meant that the power of the Habsburgs was preserved in that part of Germany that defended its Protestant religion by force of arms. The Peace of Augsburg lasted for more than six decades.

In 1558, Charles V abdicated the crown of the Holy Roman Empire, and it was his brother Ferdinand, and not his son Philip, who became his successor-emperor. This marked the split in the history of the Habsburgs into Spanish and Austrian parts.

Husband and co-ruler of Queen Isabella of Castile. During his almost forty-year reign, thanks to a combination of happy circumstances and his own talents, he managed to play a significant role in pan-European politics. Under him, the political unity of Spain was guaranteed (1479), the Reconquista (1492) ended with the capture of Granada, and the discovery of America (1492) took place. He began an era of Spanish power that ended with Philip II. Ferdinand was a remarkable diplomat and an unusually active and cautious politician both in the internal affairs of the state and in foreign relations. Like all his political rivals, devoid of anything resembling a moral sense, Ferdinand surpassed them all in intelligence, tact and dexterity.

Dynastic Union of Castile and Aragon

Even during the life of his father, Juan II of Aragon, Ferdinand in 1469 married Isabella, heiress (and then queen) of Castile, and after the death of Juan (in 1479) became the owner of the two strongest kingdoms of the peninsula: Aragon and Castile. Because of Castile, the spouses had to endure a fierce struggle with the Portuguese king, who made claims on behalf of his niece, the daughter of Isabella's older brother, Juana, who was suspected of being born not from the king, but from her lover; the struggle ended (in 1476) with a decisive defeat for Portugal.

Creation of the Holy Hermandade

In the age of the almost complete absence of the right police in most European states, Ferdinand managed to organize a whole police army, which perfectly coped with all sorts of separatist and heretical movements.

It was the so-called "Saint Hermandada" (Spanish: Santa Hermandad), which arose in the 13th century, mainly in Castilian cities. The “Brotherhood” then called itself a saint on the grounds that the townspeople who made it up and replenished its ranks with mercenaries set themselves the goal of fighting robbers and robber knights. To achieve this goal, there was a special tax. Trustworthy (that is, not robbed) knights were often invited to serve in the hermandads of the city, as people accustomed to military enterprises. This institution was very skillfully used by Ferdinand to form a special, subordinate exclusively to the king, police militia. First (in 1476) he made the hermandade obligatory even where there was none; from Castile, the "brotherhood" was soon extended to Aragon. Ferdinand used Ermandade to fight the feudal lords, who for a long time did not want to recognize the royal city police, but ended up submitting. From 1498, Ferdinand finally expelled from the hermandade all traces of the former elected city posts and subordinated it directly to the central government; the tax that ensured the existence of the “brotherhood” remained in full force. Roads became safer, which immediately affected trade relations. Subsequently, the hermandade contributed to the fall of the Cortes, who withered under Ferdinand and died in the 16th century. In general, the hermandade was one of the main supports of royal arbitrariness. She also became an instrument of the Inquisition, in the history of which the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella is an era.

Inquisition

The Inquisition existed in Spain before Ferdinand; bishops in the 14th century. carried out a spiritual search, trial and reprisals against heretics, but this legal proceedings were not united and settled. Ferdinand and Isabella made the Inquisition a leveller, which was supposed to turn all their subjects into a "single herd" in a religious sense, just as the royal power equalized everyone in a political sense. Since 1480, the actions of the Inquisition of a new type began - the auto-da-fe of heretics and imaginary heretics, the merciless confiscation of their property. During the first 16-18 years of the existence of the Inquisition, about 104 thousand people were convicted in Spain by the Inquisition Tribunal; of these, 8,800 were burned alive.

Jews, Muslims, Christians, who had the imprudence to express dissatisfaction with the Pope, adherents of some mystical sects, first of all fell under the influence of the Inquisition. Ferdinand was especially concerned about the confiscation of the property of heretics - he got a third of them by law and usually almost as much more by the right of the strong, because the three inquisitors appointed by him did not dare to protest against the violation of the privileges of the Papal Throne and the Inquisition, who, according to the law, were supposed to get the other two thirds.

Conquest of Granada

Ferdinand took advantage of the income obtained through confiscations to accelerate the enterprise, which his predecessors had already unsuccessfully launched several times. The papal treasury and private individuals willingly donated money when they learned that Ferdinand was going to go against the Moors, who still held the kingdom of Granada in the south of the peninsula. New taxes, specially created for this purpose, further strengthened the royal treasury, and in 1482 it was possible to go on a campaign. This war lasted ten years and made Ferdinand extremely popular even in those parts of the kingdom where he could be looked upon as a tyrant and usurper. Granada surrendered in 1492. Ferdinand terribly devastated the newly conquered kingdom, and the Inquisition immediately began its activities, which completely ruined this entire richest industrial country.

Fight with France

Shortly after the fall of Granada, Ferdinand succeeded, through a series of false promises, intrigues and deceptions, in regaining Roussillon and other border regions of the north, which were in the hands of Charles VIII, King of France. Ferdinand studied the character of Charles to perfection and repeatedly deceived him, taking advantage of his vanity and frivolity. Almost immediately after the Treaty of Tours-Barcelona, ​​which gave the rich northern regions into the hands of Ferdinand only under the condition of his non-interference in the wars of Charles in Italy, Ferdinand sent troops to Italy and declared war on Charles who invaded there under the pretext that the treaty gave him the right "to defend the holy father ".

All of Carl's initial successes on peninsula were lost. In 1500, Charles's successor, Louis XII, concluded a treaty with Ferdinand for the joint conquest of Naples. This conquest took place, but immediately Ferdinand began a treacherous struggle against the French and in the spring of 1503 captured Naples in his hands, displacing the French army from there.

Castile under Ferdinand and Isabella

This was the last success of Ferdinand, in which Isabella took part; in 1504 she died. She obeyed the will of her husband in almost everything; During her reign, Castile was ruled by Cardinal Francisco Jimenez, a fanatic who persecuted Muslims, Jews and heretics with incredible cruelty. At the request of Isabella, the actions of the Inquisition also extended to the newly discovered American lands; redskins were tortured and burned by the hundreds. On her initiative, one of the points of the Granada capitulation was violated, which ensured freedom of religion for the Jews. The law that ordered them either to convert to Catholicism or to leave Spain forever created among the Jews a whole class of people (Marans) who outwardly accepted Catholicism, but in reality remained Jews. The Inquisition hunted them down and burned them, and confiscated their property. After the death of Isabella, religious persecution did not stop, because Ferdinand's enterprises required new and new incomes, and also because the Inquisition had already managed to firmly establish itself in all the possessions of the Spanish king.

Discovery of America

Characteristically, Ferdinand viewed the discovery of America as a fact of incomparably less importance than the almost simultaneous annexation of Roussillon. When Vasco da Gama opened the sea route to India, the Spanish government was envious of the Portuguese; but in the last years of his life, Ferdinand was already able to ascertain the immensity of those material resources with which the discovery of Christopher Columbus endowed him.

Political intrigues of recent years

In 1506, Ferdinand made political use of his widowhood by marrying Germaine de Foix, niece of King Louis XII. Having become close to Louis, Ferdinand began intrigues against his son-in-law Philip, the husband of Juana the Mad, to whom her mother Isabella bequeathed Castile so that Ferdinand would remain regent of the country. Juana was mentally unstable during the life of Isabella, and Ferdinand, taking advantage of her emotional instability, tried in every possible way to remove Philip, her husband, from the inheritance. For success in this enterprise, he needed the support of Louis of France. After a whole series of intrigues, drawing up forged and secret acts, and other things, Ferdinand had to confine himself to the regency and monetary reward.

Ferdinand's successes in Italy continued. He first joined the league against Venice, then betrayed the French, in return for which he demanded and received several cities on the Adriatic Sea. Ferdinand's daughter, Catherine, was betrothed to the heir to the English throne, Henry, but Ferdinand did not give the promised dowry, and before receiving it, Henry VII did not want to marry his son. When he died in 1509, the new king Henry VIII, without waiting for the payment, married, and Ferdinand immediately began to drag him into an alliance with himself, the Pope and Venice against France. The expulsion of the French from Italy was one of the main motives for all of Ferdinand's diplomatic activities; to this idea he constantly returned, after more or less accidental deviations. The alliance with Henry allowed him to successfully fight against Louis and take part of Navarre from Jean d'Albret.

Having deceived Henry VIII, his father-in-law called the English troops not to the north of France, as the benefits of England demanded, but to the south, to Gascony, which Ferdinand needed. As a result, the entire burden of the war fell on Henry, and all the benefits both in Italy and on the Pyrenean border remained with Ferdinand. Simultaneously with these successes in Europe, Ferdinand completed the conquest of the North African Barbary possessions, begun in the last decade of the 15th century, which had been under the leadership of Jimenez since 1505.

The result of the reign

By the end of Ferdinand's life, his power was firmly established inside Spain, in the newly conquered possessions in Italy, America, Africa; all his enemies were who by cunning, who were defeated by force. Ferdinand himself quite frankly joked that his opponents were "drunk and stupid" and he deceived them much more often than they did him. In 1515, the king fell seriously ill, and died early the next year. He received the title of "Catholic King" from Pope Alexander VI for his expressed desire to defend the holy throne. He was distinguished all his life by great hypocrisy and superstition, but this never prevented him from deceiving and robbing the Pope when necessary or an opportunity presented itself. He prepared for his successor and grandson Charles, the son of Juana the Mad, a colossal state, but under him the Inquisition instilled in Spain that gangrene, which, aggravated by new conditions, soon crippled the country's vitality.

King Ferdinand was buried in the Royal Chapel in Granada.

Marriages and children

First marriage

Isabella (1470-1498), first marriage to Infante Alfonso of Portugal, second to his uncle Manuel I of Portugal, the next heir to the throne.

Juan (1479-1497), was married to Margaret of Austria.

Juana the Mad, Queen of Castile, married to Philip the Handsome (brother of Margaret of Austria, these were double marriages).

Maria of Aragon - after the death of her sister Isabella, she became the next wife of Manuel I of Portugal.

Catherine of Aragon - in the first marriage, the wife of Arthur, Prince of Wales, in the second - his brother Henry VIII Tudor.

Second marriage

After the death of Isabella, with whom he lived for 35 years, in 1506, 54-year-old Ferdinand married Germaine de Foix (fr. Germaine de Foix), the 18-year-old daughter of the Navarre viscount, among other things, and in the hope of further offspring (situation with children from Isabella was very deplorable). And indeed, the child was born, but did not survive:

Juan de Aragon y de Foix (Spanish: Juan de Aragón y de Foix) (b. 1509). This boy would have inherited one crown of Aragon and would have prevented Charles V from uniting Spain.

King of Aragon 1479-1516 King of Naples 1504-1516 Son of Juan II and Juana Henriquez. Woman: from 1469 Queen Isabella I of Castile (b. 1451; died 1504); 2) from 1506 Germaine, daughter of Count John de Foa (died 1536). Genus. 1452 Died 23 Jan. 1516

Ferdinand, according to all his contemporaries, was an extremely handsome man and combined the properties of a brilliant knight and a clever ruler. His courageous and intelligent mother brought him up in a completely different way than the Spanish kings were usually brought up. Under her leadership, already in childhood, he experienced all the dangers of war, participated in campaigns in Catalonia and in the siege of Barcelona. At the age of seventeen he was proclaimed king of Sicily and appointed his father's viceroy in Aragon. In 1468, when the Castilian princess Isabella was looking for a groom, she chose Ferdinand without much hesitation, largely because of his personal merit. This marriage also had the advantage that in the future it was supposed to lead to the unification of Aragon and Castile into a single state. The union of Ferdinand and Isabella was successful. Despite the fact that Ferdinand cheated on his wife (the couple lived apart for a long time, each in his own kingdom), she loved him passionately and tenderly all her life.

Ferdinand was very superficially educated, turned out to be a mediocre commander, but he was a very clever politician and a master of intrigue. Machiavelli himself, in his book The Sovereign, declared Ferdinand the model of all sovereigns who wish to increase their power. Having received the Aragonese crown after the death of his father, Ferdinand spent a lot of effort on strengthening royalty. Like his wife, Ferdinand introduced the germandades in Aragon - police unions of the townspeople to maintain order. In 1498 he made them royal. This allowed Ferdinand to create a large army to fight the recalcitrant nobles and to restore order in the country.

In 1482, Ferdinand and Isabella began a war against the Mohammedans of Granada and waged it continuously for ten years. The beginning of hostilities was unsuccessful for Christians. In the first year of the war, Ferdinand went to the He-nil valley and laid siege to the rich and heavily fortified city of Lohu. The Moors made a sortie and defeated the Spaniards, who then lost many brave knights. Another campaign ended in defeat, the following year. But soon a strife began in Granada between the emir Abul-Hasan and his son Abu-Abdallah. Christians began to win. In 1487 Ferdinand laid siege to Malaga. For three months there was a fierce war at sea, on land and underground; mine explosions destroyed part of the city wall; The inhabitants began to languish from hunger and thirst. In August, they surrendered to the mercy of the winner. Ferdinand and Isabella, however, were inflamed with them without any leniency: all the property of the Muslims was confiscated, and they themselves were enslaved and sold to Africa. In 1488 Ferdinand went to Basu. This city was almost impregnable and had large food supplies. The siege lasted nine months. Finally, the residents surrendered on the terms of keeping their property. After that, the entire mountainous region submitted to the Spaniards. In 1490 the siege of Granada began. Its inhabitants also capitulated when they were promised the preservation of their faith, customs and property. In January 1492, Isabella and Ferdinand solemnly entered the conquered city. Thus ended the dominion of the Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula.

It was the first successful war fought by a united Spain. Its power was soon felt in other parts of Europe. In 1493, the French king Charles VIII returned Roussillon and Cerdan, captured by his father Louis XI, to Ferdinand. In 1502-1504. The Spaniards ousted the French from the Kingdom of Naples and took control of southern Italy. In 1504 Isabella died. According to the law, the throne was to go to her daughter Juana. But because of her mental disorder, she could not rule on her own. Ferdinand was declared regent for his daughter until her son Charles came of age. But not all Castilians were happy with this state of affairs. The nobles did not want to be ruled by an Aragonese; the personal qualities of the king were also unpleasant: stinginess, pettiness and deceit. The Castilians turned to Juana's husband Philip I, Archduke of Austria, who was then living in Flanders, for support. Ferdinand did not want to concede to his son-in-law of Castile and, in order to upset his alliance with the French king, he married in 1506 the niece of Louis XII, Germaine de Foa. At the same time, an agreement was reached on the Kingdom of Naples - the rights to it were transferred to Germain and her children. In view of this, Philip had to abandon the war with his father-in-law. In April 1506, he arrived with his wife in Castile and was enthusiastically received by the nobles there. Ferdinand saw that it was dangerous to fight Philip now. In June he renounced the regency in favor of a son-in-law, but was convinced that he was losing power for a short time. And indeed - in September of the same year, Philip died of a fever. After that, Juana completely lost her mind. The Castilians had no choice but to recognize Ferdinand's regency again. In 1507 he came to Castile, and since then his authority here has not been questioned. He ruled very carefully, carefully observing legal forms, did not take revenge on any of his enemies, and thus strengthened the connection of the two kingdoms. These and subsequent years were the pinnacle of Ferdinand's power. He was so good at cunning and intrigue that he managed to outwit all his external enemies. In December 1508, he signed an alliance treaty at Cambrai with Julius II, Emperor Maximilian and Louis XII against Venice, which owned several ports within the Kingdom of Naples. Leaving his allies to exhaust their forces in the war with the Venetians, Ferdinand himself limited himself only to the capture of these ports. Then, when the French began to win one victory after another and became dangerous neighbors, Ferdinand in 1511 formed a coalition against them, which included Venice, the English king and emperor. In 1512, France suffered several defeats and lost all Italian possessions. Ferdinand meanwhile conquered the Spanish half of Navarre. He died shortly thereafter, having bequeathed both kingdoms and all Spanish possessions in the Old and New Worlds to his daughter Juana and her descendants (that is, in fact, to the grandson Charles). Like his wife Isabella, Ferdinand was an outstanding sovereign, although in a completely different way. He was much inferior to her in the nobility of nature, he was treacherous, cunning and stingy, but he understood well and firmly defended the interests of Spain. It was to him that she owed the first steps of her world greatness.

Ferdinand II.
Reproduction from the website http://monarchy.nm.ru/

Ferdinand II of Aragon, Catholic (1452-1516). Son of Juan II of Aragon and his second wife Juana Enriques of Castile, born in Sosa in 1452, Ferdinand became King of Sicily in 1468; the next year he married in Valladolid Infanta Isabella of Castile. After becoming king of Castile in 1474, he succeeded to the throne of Aragon in 1479. He led military campaigns against Portugal, then against Granada (1492) and entered Italy, capturing Cerdan and Roussillon before that in 1493; Naples was subject to the Crown of Aragon in 1504 and Navarre to the Crown of Castile in 1512. Ferdinand supported church reform and the creation of the Court of the Inquisition, subjugated the nobility. He married his children in Portugal, Germany and England. Becoming regent of Castile after the death of Isabella in 1504, and then again in 1506 after his brother-in-law, Philip the Handsome, in 1516 he appointed his grandson, Charles of Habsburg - Charles V, heir to the crown of Aragon and Castile. A skilled politician and good strategist, Ferdinand represented a model of the ruler, who inspired Machiavelli to write the book The Sovereign.

Ryukua A. Medieval Spain / Adelina Ryukua. - M., Veche, 2014, p. 374-375.

Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella.
15th century gold coin

Ferdinand II (Fernando) of Aragon, Ferdinand the Catholic (10.III.1452 - 23.I.1516), - King of Aragon from 1479, Sicily (Ferdinand II) from 1468, Castile (Ferdinand V) in 1479-1504 (as husband (from 1469) of Isabella, who became Queen of Castile from 1474 (finally from 1479), King of Neapolitan (Ferdinand III) from 1504. He united Aragon and Castile on the basis of a personal union. After the death of Isabella (1504) he was declared regent of Castile under their daughter Juan the Mad. In 1492, he conquered Granada from the Arabs (thus completing the Reconquista), in 1493, under the Treaty of Barcelona with the French king, he annexed Roussillon and Cerdan, in 1512 he conquered Upper Navarre. As a result of hostilities against France, he annexed the Kingdom of Naples in 1504. Being in fact the first king of united Spain, Ferdinand sought to establish royal absolutism: under him the apparatus of state administration was centralized, the privileges of large feudal lords were significantly limited - they were deprived of the right to vote in the royal council, the right to mint coins. In the fight against the nobility, Ferdinand relied on the middle and small nobility and cities, then he also limited the privileges of the cities, subordinating their internal administration and judicial structure to the crown. During the reign of Ferdinand, the importance of the Cortes fell, which began to convene irregularly and were made dependent on the royal treasury. Ferdinand declared himself Grand Master of the spiritual and chivalric orders in Spain, representing a significant economic and political force. In 1486, Ferdinand issued the Guadalupe Sentence, which abolished serfdom in Catalonia (for a ransom), abolished the criminal jurisdiction of the lords, which became the prerogative of royal power. Ferdinand pursued an active prokatolytic policy, for which he received the nickname "Catholic". In 1480, Ferdinand and Isabella established a tribunal of the Inquisition in Castile, in 1492 they issued a decree on the expulsion of Jews, and intensified the persecution of the Moors, who were subjected to forced conversion to Christianity.

L. T. Milskaya. Moscow.

Soviet historical encyclopedia. In 16 volumes. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. 1973-1982. Volume 15 1974.

Literature: Altamira y Crevea R., History of Spain, abbr. per. from Spanish, (vol.) 1, M., 1951, p. 418-97; Prescott W. H., History of the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, v. 1-4, Phil., 1873-1904; Jiménez Soler A., ​​Fernando el Católico, Barcelona, ​​1941; Vicens Vives J., Fernando el Católico, Madrid, 1952.

Ferdinand II, King of Aragon, Sicily, Valencia, Count of Barcelona
Ferdinand V, King of Castile
Ferdinand III, King of Naples
Ferdinand, King of Navarre
Ferdinand the Catholic
Fernando II el Catolico
Years of life: March 10, 1452 - June 23, 1516
Reigns: Aragon, Sicily, Valencia, Barcelona: January 20, 1479 - June 23, 1516
Naples: 1504 - 23 June 1516
Castile: 1506 - 23 June 1516
Navarre: 1512 - 23 June 1516
Father: Juan II
Mother: Juana Enriquez
Wives:
(1) Isabella I of Castile
(2) Germaine de Foix
Son: (1) Juan
Daughters: (1) Isabella, Juana, Maria, Catalina

Ferdinand was very handsome, combining the qualities of a brilliant knight and a clever politician. He was not very well educated and did not shine with military talents, but he was a master of political intrigue. No wonder Machiavelli in the book "The Sovereign" called Ferdinand an exemplary ruler.

A smart and energetic mother raised Ferdinand in strictness. From a young age, he took part in campaigns, experienced the dangers of war during the siege of Barcelona. At the age of 17, he was proclaimed king of Sicily and viceroy of his father in Aragon. In 1468, Isabella of Castile, in search of a groom, chose Ferdinand, largely because of his personal qualities. Despite the fact that the spouses lived apart for a long time, each in their own state, very warm feelings remained between them all their lives.

After becoming king of Aragon, Ferdinand introduced reforms similar to those carried out by Isabella in Castile, aimed at strengthening royal power. Ermandades were created, unions of citizens to maintain order, which became the support of the king in the fight against recalcitrant nobles.

In 1482, Ferdinand and Isabella launched a war against the Emirate of Granada, the last stronghold of the Moors in the Iberian Peninsula. The first trips were not very successful. The Spanish troops suffered a series of defeats. Ferdanand was ready to abandon the continuation of the war, but his energetic wife kept him from this step. Soon, taking advantage of the strife between Emir Abul-Hasan and his son Abu-Abdallah, the Christians began to win. In 1487, after a three-month siege, Malaga was taken, in 1499 - Basa, and in 1490 the siege of Granada began, but at the very beginning of 1492 this city capitulated. Soon the power of a united Spain was felt in other parts of Europe. In 1493, Charles VIII was forced to give up Roussillon and Cerdanya, captured by his father. In 1502-1504. The Spaniards expelled the French from the Kingdom of Naples.

Meanwhile, in 1504, Isabella died, and the Castilian throne was to go to her mentally ill daughter Juana, unable to rule on her own. Ferdinand sought the position of regent for his daughter, but the Castilian nobles did not like the stingy and treacherous Aragonese and called for help from Juana's husband, Philip Habsburg, who lived in Flanders. Realizing that he was not able to fight Philip, Ferdinand successfully yielded, and he did the right thing: Philip died of a fever a few months later. Juana finally lost her mind, and the Castilians had to recognize the regency of Ferdinand. In Castile he ruled very carefully, respecting local customs, and his authority was not questioned.

The following years were the pinnacle of Ferdinand's power. In 1508, at Cambrai, he entered into an alliance with Pope Julius II, Emperor Maximilian and Louis XII against Venice, which owned several ports in the Kingdom of Naples. Leaving his allies to lead the main fighting, Ferdinand limited himself to the capture of these ports. When the French began to win one victory after another and dangerously intensified, Ferdinand entered into a coalition with Venice, England and the emperor. In 1512, France suffered several defeats and lost all Italian possessions. Ferdinand, meanwhile, conquered the Spanish half of Navarre. He died in 1516, having bequeathed all Aragonese possessions to his grandson Charles.

Used material from the site http://monarchy.nm.ru/

Ferdinand II the Catholic (Fernando II El Catlico) (1452–1516), King of Aragon and Sicily (as Ferdinand II), King of Castile (as Ferdinand V, in 1474–1504), King of Naples (as Ferdinand III, from 1504). Ferdinand, the son of King Juan II of Aragon and Juana Enriquez (both from Castile), was born in Sosa (modern Sos del Rey Catolico) on March 10, 1452. His marriage in 1469 to Isabella, who became in 1474 (not without armed struggle , which ended in 1479) as the queen of Castile, created the prerequisites for the unification of Spain, although formally the two kingdoms continued to be ruled separately. Ferdinand and Isabella established a lasting peace in the country, strengthened royal power and their active foreign policy, as well as colonial expansion, made Spain the most powerful power in Europe. Secretive and treacherous, skillfully using the mistakes and weaknesses of opponents, Ferdinand earned the highest praise of Machiavelli: “There is one sovereign in our time .. who, apart from peace and fidelity, never preaches anything. In fact, he is both great enemy; and it is true - if he had kept loyalty and peace, he would have long ago lost both glory and the state ”(The Sovereign, ch. 18). With the help of Isabella, Ferdinand managed to centralize power, crushing the resistance of the feudal nobility, clergy and cities. Instead of representatives of the highest aristocracy, people from the middle class and lower nobility were appointed to important administrative posts and to the royal council. The monarchs launched a struggle against the abuses of officials, with feudal freemen and robbery on the roads, followed strict observance laws and adopted a number of decrees aimed at protecting and developing trade and entrepreneurship. However, they themselves largely devalued these measures and dealt a severe blow to the country's economy when, with the blessing of Pope Sixtus IV (1478), they established the Inquisition in Spain and expelled the Jews from the country (1492). Ferdinand and Isabella can also be blamed for their patronage of the Meste, the sheep breeders' guild, which pastured the forests and thereby caused agriculture Castile irreparable damage.

In general, the royal agrarian policy was aimed at the concentration of land in the hands of the aristocracy, which exacerbated the social and economic problems of Spain. At the same time, in Catalonia, Ferdinand put an end to the fierce struggle of peasants and feudal lords, abolishing serfdom in this kingdom by his decision (Guadalupe maxim, 1486), which allowed 50,000 peasants to become small landowners.

But Spain owes its greatness and power most of all to the policy pursued by Ferdinand in the international arena. If the country is obliged to Isabella for two events that occurred in 1492 - the conquest of the Emirate of Granada (she took an active part in this matter, both financially and practically - improved supply organization, the introduction of army hospitals) and the discovery of America (support provided to Columbus), then Ferdinand in 1493, by agreement with the French king, annexed Roussillon and Cerdan to Spain, took possession of the Kingdom of Naples in Italy (1504) and conquered Navarre (1512). To consolidate his acquisitions, Ferdinand married one of his daughters, Catherine, to the English king Henry VIII, and the other, Juan, to Philip the Handsome, son of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor.

After Isabella's death in 1504, Philip claimed the crown of Castile for himself. Ferdinand did not dare to come into conflict with his son-in-law and his powerful supporters from the Castilian nobility and moved to Aragon. In October 1505, Ferdinand married Germaine de Foix, niece of the King of France. In 1506, Philip the Handsome died, and Ferdinand was declared regent of Castile under his daughter Juan the Mad. Ferdinand died in Madrigalejo (Extremadura) on January 23, 1516. On the throne of Aragon, he was succeeded by his grandson Charles V, later Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, who, in addition to Spain and the New World, was to soon unite in his hands the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, as well as the possessions of the Austrian house of Habsburg and Dukes of Burgundy.

Materials of the encyclopedia "The World Around Us" are used

Ferdinand II (1452-1516) - King of Aragon in 1479-1516. King of Naples 1504-1516 Son of Juan II and Juana Henriquez.

1) from 1469 Queen of Castile Isabella I(b. 1451 + 1504);

2) from 1506 Germaine, daughter of Count John de Foa (+ 1536).

Ferdinand, according to all his contemporaries, was an extremely handsome man and combined the properties of a brilliant knight and a clever ruler. His courageous and intelligent mother brought him up in a completely different way than the Spanish kings were usually brought up. Under her leadership, already in childhood, he experienced all the dangers of war, participated in campaigns in Catalonia and in the siege of Barcelona. At the age of seventeen he was proclaimed king of Sicily and appointed his father's viceroy in Aragon. In 1468, when the Castilian princess Isabella was looking for a groom, she chose Ferdinand without much hesitation, largely because of his personal merit. This marriage also had the advantage that in the future it should lead to the unification of Aragon and Castile into a single state. The union of Ferdinand and Isarella was successful. Despite the fact that Ferdinand cheated on his wife (the couple lived apart for a long time, each in his own kingdom), she loved him passionately and tenderly all her life.

Ferdinand was very superficially educated, turned out to be a mediocre commander, but he was a very clever politician and a master of intrigue. Machiavelli himself, in his book The Sovereign, declared Ferdinand the model of all sovereigns who wish to increase their power. Having received the Aragonese crown after the death of his father, Ferdinand G spent a lot of effort on strengthening

royal power. Like his wife, Ferdinand introduced the germandades in Aragon - police unions of the townspeople to maintain order. In 1498 he made them royal. This allowed Ferdinand to create a large army to fight the recalcitrant nobles and to restore order in the country.

In 1482, Ferdinand and Isabella began a war against the Mohammedans of Granada and waged it continuously for ten years. The beginning of hostilities was unsuccessful for Christians. In the first year of the war, Ferdinand went to the Henil valley and laid siege to the rich and heavily fortified city of Lohu. The Moors made a sortie and defeated the Spaniards, who then lost many brave knights. Another campaign ended in defeat, the following year. But soon a strife began in Granada between the emir Abul-Hasan and his son Abu-Abdallah. Christians began to win. In 1487 Ferdinand laid siege to Malaga. For three months there was a fierce war at sea, on land and underground; mine explosions destroyed part of the city wall; The inhabitants began to languish from hunger and thirst. In August, they surrendered to the mercy of the winner. Ferdinand and Isabella, however, treated them without any condescension: all the property of the Muslims was confiscated, and they themselves were enslaved and sold to Africa. In 1488 Ferdinand went to Basu. This city was almost impregnable and had large food supplies. The siege lasted nine months. Finally, the residents surrendered on the terms of keeping their property. After that, the entire mountainous region submitted to the Spaniards. In 1490 the siege of Granada began. Its inhabitants also capitulated when they were promised the preservation of their faith, customs and property. In January 1492, Isabella and Ferdinand solemnly entered the conquered city. Thus ended the dominion of the Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula.

It was the first successful war fought by a united Spain. Its power was soon felt in other parts of Europe. In 1493, the French king Charles VIII returned to Ferdinand Rousillon and Cerdan, captured by his father Louis XI. In 1502-1504. The Spaniards ousted the French from the Kingdom of Naples and took control of southern Italy. In 1504 Isabella died. According to the law, the throne was to go to her daughter Juana. But because of her mental disorder, she could not rule on her own. Ferdinand was declared regent for his daughter until her son Charles came of age. But not all Castilians were happy with this state of affairs. The nobles did not want to be ruled by an Aragonese; the personal qualities of the king were also unpleasant: stinginess, pettiness and deceit. The Castilians turned to Juana's husband Philip I, Archduke of Austria, who was then living in Flanders, for support. Ferdinand did not want to give in to his son-in-law of Castile and, in order to upset his alliance with the French king, he was lazy in 1506 on the niece of Louis XII, Germain de foa. At the same time, an agreement was reached on the Kingdom of Naples - the rights to it were transferred to Germain and her children. In view of this, Philip had to abandon the war with his father-in-law. In April 1506, he arrived with his wife in Castile and was enthusiastically received by the nobles there. Ferdinand saw that it was dangerous to fight Philip now. In June he renounced the regency in favor of a son-in-law, but was convinced that he was losing power for a short time. And indeed - in September of the same year, Philip died of a fever. After that, Juana completely lost her mind. The Castilians had no choice but to recognize Ferdinand's regency again. In 1507 he came to Castile, and since then his authority here has not been questioned. He ruled very carefully, carefully observing legal forms, did not take revenge on any of his enemies, and thus strengthened the connection of the two kingdoms. These and subsequent years were the pinnacle of Ferdinand's power. He was so good at cunning and intrigue that he managed to outwit all his external enemies. In December 1508 he signed an alliance treaty at Cambrai with Pope Julius II, Emperor Maximilian and Louis XII against Venice, which owned several ports within the Kingdom of Naples. Leaving his allies to exhaust their forces in the war with the Venetians, Ferdinand himself limited himself only to the capture of these ports. Then, when the French began to win one victory after another and became dangerous neighbors, Ferdinand in 1511 formed a coalition against them, which included Venice, the English king and emperor. In 1512, France suffered several defeats and lost all Italian possessions. Ferdinand meanwhile conquered the Spanish half of Navarre. He died shortly thereafter, having bequeathed both kingdoms and all Spanish possessions in the Old and New Worlds to his daughter Juana and her descendants (that is, in fact, to the grandson Charles). Like his wife Isabella, Ferdinand was an outstanding sovereign, although in a completely different way. He was much inferior to her in the nobility of nature, he was treacherous, cunning and stingy, but he understood well and firmly defended the interests of Spain. It was to him that she owed the first steps of her world greatness.

All the monarchs of the world. Western Europe. Konstantin Ryzhov. Moscow, 1999.

Read further:

Marita A. Panzer. "Catholic royal couple": Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon (1479-1504/16) ( Spanish kings. Rostov-on-Don, 1998).

Historical Persons of Spain (index of names).

The main events of the XVI century (chronological table).

Literature:

Piskorsky V. History of Spain and Portugal. St. Petersburg, 1909

Socio-political development of the countries of the Iberian Peninsula under feudalism. M., 1985

Kuchumov V. Formation of estate representative monarchy in Aragon and Catalonia in 12-15 centuries. Dissertation abstract. M., 1990

Altamira y Crevea R., History of Spain, abbr. per. from Spanish, (vol.) 1, M., 1951, p. 418-97;

Prescott W. H., History of the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, v. 1-4, Phil., 1873-1904;

Jiménez Soler A., ​​Fernando el Católico, Barcelona, ​​1941;

Vicens Vives J., Fernando el Católico, Madrid, 1952.