page_title: Ferdinand II of Aragon
hierarchical_section_title: Ferdinand II of Aragon
caption_attribution_description: Español: Fernando II de Aragón, el Católico English: Ferdinand II of Aragon, the Catholic
context_page_description: Ferdinand II was King of Aragon from 1479 and, by marriage, King of Castile from 1474, reigning over a dynastically unified Spain jointly with his wife Isabella I. Ferdinand is considered de facto the first King of Spain, being described as such during his own lifetime, although Castile and Aragon remained de jure two different kingdoms until the Nueva Planta Decrees of 1716.
  He was called the Catholic. The crown of Aragon he inherited in 1479 included the kingdoms of Majorca, Sardinia, Sicily, and Valencia, as well as the Principality of Catalonia. In 1469, he married Infanta Isabella, the future queen of Castile, which was regarded as the marital and political "cornerstone in the foundation of the Spanish monarchy". As a consequence of the marriage, in 1474 he became de jure uxoris King of Castile as Ferdinand V, when Isabella held the crown of Castile, until her death in 1504. At Isabella's death the crown of Castile passed to their daughter Joanna, by the terms of their prenuptial agreement and Isabella‘s last will and testament, and Ferdinand lost his monarchical status in Castile.
context_section_description: Ferdinand II (Aragonese: Ferrando II; Catalan: Ferran II; Basque: Errando II; Spanish: Fernando II; 10 March 1452 – 23 January 1516) was King of Aragon from 1479 and, by marriage, King of Castile (as Ferdinand V) from 1474, reigning over a dynastically unified Spain jointly with his wife Isabella I. Ferdinand is considered de facto the first King of Spain, being described as such during his own lifetime, although Castile and Aragon remained de jure two different kingdoms until the Nueva Planta Decrees of 1716.
  He was called the Catholic (Spanish: el Católico). The crown of Aragon he inherited in 1479 included the kingdoms of Majorca, Sardinia, Sicily, and Valencia, as well as the Principality of Catalonia. In 1469, he married Infanta Isabella, the future queen of Castile, which was regarded as the marital and political "cornerstone in the foundation of the Spanish monarchy". As a consequence of the marriage, in 1474 he became de jure uxoris King of Castile as Ferdinand V, when Isabella held the crown of Castile, until her death in 1504. At Isabella's death the crown of Castile passed to their daughter Joanna, by the terms of their prenuptial agreement and Isabella‘s last will and testament, and Ferdinand lost his monarchical status in Castile. Joanna's husband Philip became de jure uxoris King of Castile, but died in 1506, and Joanna ruled in her own right. In 1504, after a war with France, he became King of Naples as Ferdinand III, reuniting Naples with Sicily permanently and for the first time since 1458. In 1506, as part of a treaty with France, Ferdinand married Germaine of Foix of France, but Ferdinand's only son and child of that marriage died soon after birth. (Had the child survived, the personal union of the crowns of Aragon and Castile would have ceased.) In 1508, Ferdinand was recognized as regent of Castile, following Joanna's alleged mental illness, until his own death in 1516.  In 1512, he became King of Navarre by conquest. At Ferdinand's death Joanna's son, Ferdinand's grandson, Charles I, became ruler of all the several Iberian kingdoms except for Portugal.
  Ferdinand had a role in inaugurating the first European encounters in the future Americas, since he and Isabella sponsored the first voyage of Christopher Columbus (1451–1506), in 1492. That year was the final victory in the war with Granada which defeated the last Muslim state in Iberia and all of Western Europe. This brought to a close the centuries-long Christian reconquest of Iberia. For that Christian victory, Pope Alexander VI, born in the Kingdom of Valencia, awarded the royal couple the title of Catholic Monarchs.
caption: Portrait by Michael Sittow
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