page_title: Province of Guadalajara
section_title: Modern age and Renaissance
hierarchical_section_title: Province of Guadalajara / History / Modern age and Renaissance
caption_attribution_description: El Cardedal Mendoza, rodeado de obispos.
context_page_description: Guadalajara is a province of central/north-central Spain, in the northern part of the autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha. As of 2013 it had a population of 257,723 people. The population of the province has grown in the last 10 years.
context_section_description: The modern age began with the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon whose marriage in Valladolid in 1469 united the crowns of Castile and Aragón. They centralized the authority which had developed in the church, the military and the nobility ostensibly to earn income for fighting the infidels by reselling the territories they had gained. In the 16th century, this practice was reinforced by Charles I and Philip II. In Guadalajara, this was particularly the case with areas that had belonged to the military orders of Calatrava and Pastrana. The Mendozas who succeeded in acquiring substantial territories built a fortified palace in Pastrana and extended their influence over Sayatón, Escopete and Albalate.
  Under the Mendozas, the city of Guadalajara prospered in the 15th and 16th centuries, attracting writers, historians and philosophers, bringing it the name la Atenas alcarreña (the Alcarrian Athens). Encouraged by the Renaissance, Íñigo López de Mendoza, 1st Marquis of Santillana, (1398–1458) not only built palaces, churches and monasteries but developed a large library of Greek and Latin volumes. In the 16th century, his namesake Íñigo López de Mendoza, 4th Duke of the Infantado, (1493–1566) went on to found an academy in the city, attracting additional writers. Pastrana also prospered during the Renaissance under the leadership of Ruy Gómez de Silva (1516–1573) with the establishment of Latin and choir schools. By the end of the 16th century, the town was famous for its tapestries and its Carmelite convents. With the death of Ruy's widow, Ana de Mendoza in 1592, the nobility moved to Madrid, causing the province to lose the high status it had achieved. While the Spanish Golden Age developed in central Spain during the 17th century, Guadalajara experienced an extended period of decline as the Habsburgs brought about increased centralization.
caption: Pedro González de Mendoza, the Cardinal Mendoza.
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