WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.020 You know, there are certain names in history 00:00:02.020 --> 00:00:04.839 that just they act like magnets. They just snap 00:00:04.839 --> 00:00:06.839 together. You can't really say one without the 00:00:06.839 --> 00:00:09.000 other. You have Romeo and Juliet, Lewis and Clark. 00:00:09.259 --> 00:00:11.259 And if you're looking at European history, especially 00:00:11.259 --> 00:00:14.800 Spain, there's one brand name that just dominates 00:00:14.800 --> 00:00:18.320 everything. Ferdinand and Isabella. The ultimate 00:00:18.320 --> 00:00:20.960 power couple. The Catholic monarchs. It's iconic. 00:00:21.480 --> 00:00:23.859 Exactly. But here's the thing that's always sort 00:00:23.859 --> 00:00:26.829 of bugged me. When we talk about them. The spotlight 00:00:26.829 --> 00:00:29.370 usually drifts towards Isabella. Oh, absolutely. 00:00:29.629 --> 00:00:32.750 She's the one with the dramatic will, the, you 00:00:32.750 --> 00:00:35.710 know, the fervent piety. She's the one who gets 00:00:35.710 --> 00:00:38.270 the credit for backing Columbus. Ferdinand usually 00:00:38.270 --> 00:00:41.130 feels like, well, like the husband. The supporting 00:00:41.130 --> 00:00:42.630 character. Yeah, the supporting character in 00:00:42.630 --> 00:00:44.869 her biopic. It's a really common perception. 00:00:45.030 --> 00:00:48.369 And Isabella has this incredibly strong cultural 00:00:48.369 --> 00:00:51.179 gravity for good reason. But if you actually 00:00:51.179 --> 00:00:53.920 peel back the layers of how modern Spain was 00:00:53.920 --> 00:00:56.799 built, the mechanics of the state, the military, 00:00:57.200 --> 00:01:00.880 the foreign policy, you find that Ferdinand II 00:01:00.880 --> 00:01:03.780 of Aragon wasn't just a supporting actor. He 00:01:03.780 --> 00:01:05.640 was, and you could argue this pretty strongly, 00:01:05.819 --> 00:01:08.920 the most effective political operator of the 00:01:08.920 --> 00:01:11.469 entire Renaissance. So today we're going to try 00:01:11.469 --> 00:01:13.569 and fix the lighting on this stage. We're diving 00:01:13.569 --> 00:01:15.730 deep into the life and reign of Ferdinand II. 00:01:16.349 --> 00:01:18.829 And looking at our source material, biographies, 00:01:18.829 --> 00:01:21.530 treaties, military records, the mission is to 00:01:21.530 --> 00:01:24.030 see how this guy wasn't just Isabella's husband. 00:01:24.329 --> 00:01:28.109 Right. But the de facto first king of Spain and 00:01:28.109 --> 00:01:31.230 a master strategist who basically invented the 00:01:31.230 --> 00:01:34.129 concept of the modern superpower. And he did 00:01:34.129 --> 00:01:37.689 it while juggling. a geopolitical situation that 00:01:37.689 --> 00:01:39.829 would make a modern head of state just have a 00:01:39.829 --> 00:01:42.489 complete breakdown. That is the first big aha 00:01:42.489 --> 00:01:45.230 moment I had going through all this. I think 00:01:45.230 --> 00:01:48.590 most of us picture Spain on a map as this solid 00:01:48.590 --> 00:01:50.950 square block. Yeah, one big country. But when 00:01:50.950 --> 00:01:53.530 Ferdinand comes to power. Spain didn't exist, 00:01:53.730 --> 00:01:56.469 did it? Not even close. Yeah. If you looked at 00:01:56.469 --> 00:01:59.549 a map of the Iberian Peninsula in, say, the mid 00:01:59.549 --> 00:02:01.989 -1400s, you wouldn't see one country. You'd see 00:02:01.989 --> 00:02:04.189 a patchwork cult. Okay. You had Portugal on the 00:02:04.189 --> 00:02:06.590 west coast doing its own thing. You had the tiny 00:02:06.590 --> 00:02:08.849 kingdom of Navarre tucked up in the Pyrenees 00:02:08.849 --> 00:02:11.110 Mountains. Right. You had the Islamic Emirate 00:02:11.110 --> 00:02:13.229 of Granada all the way down south. Yeah. And 00:02:13.229 --> 00:02:14.550 then you had the two heavyweights, the Crown 00:02:14.550 --> 00:02:16.349 of Castile and the Crown of Aragon. And these 00:02:16.349 --> 00:02:18.169 weren't just two provinces at the same place. 00:02:18.250 --> 00:02:20.430 They were like totally different worlds. Completely 00:02:20.430 --> 00:02:23.159 different. Castile. where Isabella would rule, 00:02:23.280 --> 00:02:26.219 was massive. It was agricultural, and it had 00:02:26.219 --> 00:02:28.680 a tradition of a strong, centralized monarchy. 00:02:28.819 --> 00:02:32.020 It looked out towards the Atlantic. Aragon, which 00:02:32.020 --> 00:02:35.120 was Ferdinand's heritage, was actually a confederation. 00:02:35.280 --> 00:02:37.639 It wasn't just one kingdom. It included Aragon 00:02:37.639 --> 00:02:40.939 proper, but also Catalonia, Valencia, and islands 00:02:40.939 --> 00:02:44.020 like Majorca, Sicily, and even Sardinia. Wow. 00:02:44.419 --> 00:02:47.159 It was a Mediterranean merchant empire. And the 00:02:47.159 --> 00:02:49.740 king's power there was much, much more limited 00:02:49.740 --> 00:02:54.020 by local laws and parliaments. So Ferdinand is 00:02:54.020 --> 00:02:56.300 the figure who somehow has to stitch this whole 00:02:56.300 --> 00:02:58.699 patchwork quilt together. He's the guy who connects 00:02:58.699 --> 00:03:01.400 the medieval world, the world of, you know, local 00:03:01.400 --> 00:03:03.599 feudal squabbles and the Reconquista to the modern 00:03:03.599 --> 00:03:06.680 era of global empires. But he didn't do it by 00:03:06.680 --> 00:03:09.300 magic. He did it through a relentless, lifelong 00:03:09.300 --> 00:03:11.360 hustle. So let's start the merger then. Section 00:03:11.360 --> 00:03:15.050 one of our dive, the marriage, 1469. The year 00:03:15.050 --> 00:03:17.530 it all begins, a very big year. On the surface, 00:03:17.669 --> 00:03:19.870 it looks like a fairy tale, right? The Prince 00:03:19.870 --> 00:03:23.770 of Aragon marries the Princess of Castile. But 00:03:23.770 --> 00:03:26.449 looking at the details, this was a high -stakes 00:03:26.449 --> 00:03:28.710 business deal from the get -go. First off, they 00:03:28.710 --> 00:03:31.110 were cousins. Second cousins, to be exact, both 00:03:31.110 --> 00:03:33.169 from the House of Trasma. And you have to understand, 00:03:33.270 --> 00:03:36.169 in the 15th century, that degree of blood relation 00:03:36.169 --> 00:03:41.620 was a major canonical impediment. Meaning the 00:03:41.620 --> 00:03:43.580 church wouldn't allow it. Exactly. You couldn't 00:03:43.580 --> 00:03:45.840 just get married. The church forbade it. They 00:03:45.840 --> 00:03:48.539 needed what's called a papal dispensation, basically 00:03:48.539 --> 00:03:51.020 a special permission slip from the pope to make 00:03:51.020 --> 00:03:52.800 the whole thing legal. And the sources imply 00:03:52.800 --> 00:03:54.599 there was some shady business with that paperwork, 00:03:54.759 --> 00:03:57.520 right? Oh, yeah, there was. The original dispensation 00:03:57.520 --> 00:04:00.280 they used might have been, well, let's call it 00:04:00.280 --> 00:04:02.939 creatively acquired. Creatively acquired. Or 00:04:02.939 --> 00:04:05.560 even forged by Ferdinand's father and the Archbishop 00:04:05.560 --> 00:04:07.539 of Toledo to make sure the wedding happened fast. 00:04:08.219 --> 00:04:10.620 They didn't get the official retroactive approval. 00:04:11.129 --> 00:04:13.310 until much later. So that just shows you how 00:04:13.310 --> 00:04:16.089 desperate they were to seal this alliance. Exactly. 00:04:16.089 --> 00:04:18.850 Why the rush? Well, Isabella's position in Castile 00:04:18.850 --> 00:04:21.829 was really precarious. She had a rival for the 00:04:21.829 --> 00:04:24.790 throne. She needed Ferdinand's military strength, 00:04:24.910 --> 00:04:27.350 and she needed it immediately. And what did he 00:04:27.350 --> 00:04:29.889 get out of it? Ferdinand needed Castile's resources. 00:04:30.529 --> 00:04:33.509 Aragon was constantly fighting with France. This 00:04:33.509 --> 00:04:36.329 was, at its heart, a survival pact. And like 00:04:36.329 --> 00:04:39.110 any good business partnership, they had a contract. 00:04:39.829 --> 00:04:43.490 This prenuptial agreement is fascinating. The 00:04:43.490 --> 00:04:47.449 motto they adopted was tento monta, monta tanto. 00:04:47.790 --> 00:04:50.649 Which translates roughly to they amount to the 00:04:50.649 --> 00:04:54.069 same, or maybe more accurately, she amounts to 00:04:54.069 --> 00:04:56.860 as much as he. Now, traditionally, I've always 00:04:56.860 --> 00:04:59.120 heard that interpreted as a romantic statement 00:04:59.120 --> 00:05:01.779 of equality. You know, we are equals in love, 00:05:02.019 --> 00:05:04.199 but you're saying it was more like a legal firewall? 00:05:04.519 --> 00:05:06.079 Absolutely. One hundred percent. You have to 00:05:06.079 --> 00:05:08.180 remember the context. The Castilian nobles were 00:05:08.180 --> 00:05:10.879 terrified that Ferdinand, this Aragonese prince, 00:05:11.040 --> 00:05:12.819 was going to come in and just take over their 00:05:12.819 --> 00:05:14.579 country. Right. They didn't want a foreign king. 00:05:14.800 --> 00:05:17.420 Of course not. So this motto and the whole marriage 00:05:17.420 --> 00:05:20.300 contract were designed to reassure them. It explicitly 00:05:20.300 --> 00:05:23.639 stated that in Castile, Isabella was the true 00:05:23.639 --> 00:05:27.060 monarch. Her signature was required. Her appointments 00:05:27.060 --> 00:05:29.680 were valid. Ferdinand was effectively being told, 00:05:29.779 --> 00:05:32.639 you are the king, but she is the boss of this 00:05:32.639 --> 00:05:35.120 territory. This leads us to a term that kept 00:05:35.120 --> 00:05:38.139 popping up in the research, jura uxoris. Right. 00:05:38.220 --> 00:05:41.000 It's Latin. It means by right of his wife. OK. 00:05:41.100 --> 00:05:43.939 So when Isabella's brother died in 1474 and she 00:05:43.939 --> 00:05:46.600 became queen of Castile, Ferdinand became king 00:05:46.600 --> 00:05:49.709 of Castile jura uxoris. He was king. only because 00:05:49.709 --> 00:05:51.870 he was married to her. So if she died? If she 00:05:51.870 --> 00:05:54.490 died, or if they divorced, his authority in Castile 00:05:54.490 --> 00:05:57.269 would, in theory, just evaporate. Poof. Gone. 00:05:57.509 --> 00:06:00.310 Whereas in Aragon... In Aragon, it was a complete 00:06:00.310 --> 00:06:03.129 opposite. When Ferdinand's father died in 1479, 00:06:03.490 --> 00:06:05.569 Ferdinand became the king of Aragon in his own 00:06:05.569 --> 00:06:08.430 right. Isabella became the queen consort. She 00:06:08.430 --> 00:06:11.069 had no legal power to govern Aragon at all. This 00:06:11.069 --> 00:06:13.490 concept is so important for you to grasp. We 00:06:13.490 --> 00:06:15.529 call it the Union of the Crowns, but it wasn't 00:06:15.529 --> 00:06:18.660 a unification of the nations. No. Not even close. 00:06:18.860 --> 00:06:21.879 It was a personal union. Yeah. Think of it like 00:06:21.879 --> 00:06:25.540 this. Imagine two separate corporations, let's 00:06:25.540 --> 00:06:27.300 say a shipping company and a farming company. 00:06:27.540 --> 00:06:30.720 Okay. They agree to hire the same CEO. The CEO 00:06:30.720 --> 00:06:33.160 runs both, but the companies keep their separate 00:06:33.160 --> 00:06:35.360 bank accounts, separate boards of directors, 00:06:35.560 --> 00:06:38.459 separate HR policies, and totally separate laws. 00:06:39.000 --> 00:06:42.759 So if you were a citizen of Zaragoza in Aragon. 00:06:43.100 --> 00:06:46.060 You were a foreigner in Toledo in Castile. You 00:06:46.060 --> 00:06:48.019 had to pay customs duties to cross the border. 00:06:48.139 --> 00:06:49.920 You couldn't hold office in the other kingdom. 00:06:50.100 --> 00:06:53.259 It was not one country. That is wild. So Ferdinand 00:06:53.259 --> 00:06:55.540 is basically the CEO of a holding company with 00:06:55.540 --> 00:06:57.560 two very different subsidiaries that frankly 00:06:57.560 --> 00:06:59.639 don't really like each other. That's a perfect 00:06:59.639 --> 00:07:02.199 analogy. And for the first few years, his main 00:07:02.199 --> 00:07:04.399 job was just stopping the Castilian subsidiary 00:07:04.399 --> 00:07:06.620 from going bankrupt. They had to fight a civil 00:07:06.620 --> 00:07:09.000 war immediately after taking the. throne. Against 00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:12.240 Isabella's niece, Joanna la Beltranea. Yes. Joanna 00:07:12.240 --> 00:07:14.459 was the daughter of the previous king, but there 00:07:14.459 --> 00:07:16.540 were rumors she was illegitimate. The Portugal 00:07:16.540 --> 00:07:19.459 backed Joanna's claim. Aragon backed Isabella's. 00:07:19.560 --> 00:07:21.319 This was the war of the Castilian succession. 00:07:21.930 --> 00:07:24.050 And this is where Ferdinand proves he isn't just 00:07:24.050 --> 00:07:26.529 a trophy husband. He actually leads the armies. 00:07:26.769 --> 00:07:29.310 He was a very capable field commander. He'd spent 00:07:29.310 --> 00:07:31.709 his youth fighting in Catalonia, so he knew warfare. 00:07:32.110 --> 00:07:34.990 He led the Castilian troops. He secured the key 00:07:34.990 --> 00:07:38.550 cities. And by 1479, the war was won. Okay, so 00:07:38.550 --> 00:07:41.790 Isabella is secure on her throne. She's secure. 00:07:42.509 --> 00:07:44.930 Ferdinand succeeds his father in Aragon, and 00:07:44.930 --> 00:07:46.990 the two crowns are finally united in practice. 00:07:47.550 --> 00:07:49.410 But again, I just want to stress this, united 00:07:49.410 --> 00:07:53.189 only in their persons. Correct. The legal merging 00:07:53.189 --> 00:07:56.129 of Spain into one centralized state. That wouldn't 00:07:56.129 --> 00:07:58.129 happen for another two centuries, really until 00:07:58.129 --> 00:08:01.069 the Bourbon dynasty in the 1700s. Ferdinand was 00:08:01.069 --> 00:08:03.050 managing a balancing act that relied entirely 00:08:03.050 --> 00:08:05.410 on his personal presence and his relationship 00:08:05.410 --> 00:08:07.810 with Isabella. So he's got the chair, he's the 00:08:07.810 --> 00:08:10.790 CEO. Now we get to the year that really defines 00:08:10.790 --> 00:08:15.120 the brand, 1492. The Annus Mirabilis. The miraculous 00:08:15.120 --> 00:08:18.160 year. The outline calls it a tripod of events. 00:08:18.259 --> 00:08:20.600 Three massive pillars that hold up the legacy 00:08:20.600 --> 00:08:22.839 of Ferdinand and Isabella, all happening in the 00:08:22.839 --> 00:08:25.720 same calendar year. It is genuinely hard to find 00:08:25.720 --> 00:08:28.639 another year in history where so many world -altering 00:08:28.639 --> 00:08:31.240 events happen in such a short span, all driven 00:08:31.240 --> 00:08:32.960 by the same two people. Let's start with pillar 00:08:32.960 --> 00:08:35.940 number one, the end of the Reconquista. The conquest 00:08:35.940 --> 00:08:38.720 of Granada. We have to understand the scale of 00:08:38.720 --> 00:08:41.740 this. For nearly 800 years since the Umayyad 00:08:41.740 --> 00:08:44.679 conquest way back in 711, there had been a Muslim 00:08:44.679 --> 00:08:48.360 presence in Spain. A huge part of the peninsula's 00:08:48.360 --> 00:08:51.259 history. A foundational part. The Christian kingdoms 00:08:51.259 --> 00:08:53.779 had been slowly, century by century, pushing 00:08:53.779 --> 00:08:57.360 south. By 1482, only the Emirate of Granada was 00:08:57.360 --> 00:08:59.500 left. And Ferdinand decides it's time to close 00:08:59.500 --> 00:09:01.799 the account. He and Isabella launched a 10 -year 00:09:01.799 --> 00:09:05.149 war. And it wasn't easy. Granada was mountainous, 00:09:05.169 --> 00:09:07.389 it was heavily fortified, and it was wealthy. 00:09:08.070 --> 00:09:10.269 Ferdinand had to basically revolutionize the 00:09:10.269 --> 00:09:12.750 Spanish military to take it. How so? He brought 00:09:12.750 --> 00:09:14.970 in experts in artillery and siege warfare from 00:09:14.970 --> 00:09:17.450 all over Europe. This wasn't just knights charging 00:09:17.450 --> 00:09:19.929 on horses anymore. This was modern industrial 00:09:19.929 --> 00:09:22.350 warfare with gunpowder. And when Granada finally 00:09:22.350 --> 00:09:25.450 surrendered in January 1492, the optics must 00:09:25.450 --> 00:09:28.070 have been just incredible. It was sensational 00:09:28.070 --> 00:09:30.830 news across all of Europe. You have to remember, 00:09:30.990 --> 00:09:34.090 just a few decades earlier, Constantinople had 00:09:34.090 --> 00:09:36.509 fallen to the Ottoman Turks. Christendom felt 00:09:36.509 --> 00:09:39.350 like it was losing. Right. The fall of Granada 00:09:39.350 --> 00:09:42.570 was seen as the great counterpunch. It made Ferdinand 00:09:42.570 --> 00:09:44.850 and Isabella heroes of the faith. Which is why 00:09:44.850 --> 00:09:47.210 the Pope, Alexander VI, the Spaniard himself, 00:09:47.350 --> 00:09:50.529 by the way, of Borgia, gave them the title the 00:09:50.529 --> 00:09:53.169 Catholic Monarchs. Los Reyes Católicos. It gave 00:09:53.169 --> 00:09:55.990 them immense moral authority. But that authority 00:09:55.990 --> 00:09:59.049 led directly into the second pillar of 1492, 00:09:59.289 --> 00:10:01.809 which is much more controversial and tragic to 00:10:01.809 --> 00:10:04.549 modernize. The Alhambra Decree. Yes. Less than 00:10:04.549 --> 00:10:06.429 three months after entering the Alhambra Palace 00:10:06.429 --> 00:10:10.009 in Granada as victors, they signed the edict 00:10:10.009 --> 00:10:12.730 expelling all practicing Jews from Spain. The 00:10:12.730 --> 00:10:14.450 source material is just stark on this. It wasn't 00:10:14.450 --> 00:10:16.850 a suggestion. It was convert or leave. It was 00:10:16.850 --> 00:10:19.080 an ultimatum. The Jewish community had been in 00:10:19.080 --> 00:10:21.220 Spain since Roman times. They were woven into 00:10:21.220 --> 00:10:24.480 the very fabric of society, doctors, financiers, 00:10:24.500 --> 00:10:26.759 scholars, artisans. And Ferdinand and Isabella 00:10:26.759 --> 00:10:28.759 gave them four months to sell their property, 00:10:28.919 --> 00:10:32.000 often at ruinous prices because, of course, everyone 00:10:32.000 --> 00:10:34.519 knew they had to sell and get out. Unless they 00:10:34.519 --> 00:10:37.139 accepted baptism. Why? I mean, if Ferdinand is 00:10:37.139 --> 00:10:40.679 this pragmatic, calculating genius, why expel 00:10:40.679 --> 00:10:43.080 a population that is so vital to your economy? 00:10:43.460 --> 00:10:46.460 That is the great historical debate. And it's 00:10:46.460 --> 00:10:48.960 complicated. Some blame Isabella's religious 00:10:48.960 --> 00:10:51.980 zeal. But if we look at Ferdinand's pattern of 00:10:51.980 --> 00:10:55.139 behavior, it also fits his political goals perfectly. 00:10:55.559 --> 00:10:59.100 He was building a modern state. And in his mind, 00:10:59.139 --> 00:11:01.279 and in the mind of many Renaissance rulers, a 00:11:01.279 --> 00:11:04.250 strong state required social cohesion. And for 00:11:04.250 --> 00:11:06.529 him, the glue of that cohesion was religion. 00:11:06.669 --> 00:11:09.809 One king, one law, one faith. He viewed religious 00:11:09.809 --> 00:11:12.149 diversity as a political weakness, a source of 00:11:12.149 --> 00:11:14.649 potential treason or disunity. So he prioritized 00:11:14.649 --> 00:11:17.490 political unity over economic stability. Precisely. 00:11:17.490 --> 00:11:19.649 He was willing to take the economic hit to secure 00:11:19.649 --> 00:11:21.750 what he saw as the ideological purity of the 00:11:21.750 --> 00:11:24.110 realm. Tens of thousands left moving to Portugal, 00:11:24.269 --> 00:11:26.149 to Italy, and largely to the Ottoman Empire. 00:11:26.370 --> 00:11:28.860 But many stayed and converted. They did. They 00:11:28.860 --> 00:11:31.679 became known as conversos. But this created a 00:11:31.679 --> 00:11:34.539 whole new problem for Ferdinand. Were these conversions 00:11:34.539 --> 00:11:37.779 sincere? Or were they secret Jews practicing 00:11:37.779 --> 00:11:41.019 in private? This paranoia is what empowered the 00:11:41.019 --> 00:11:43.279 Spanish Inquisition. And the Inquisition was 00:11:43.279 --> 00:11:45.279 already active by this point, right? Yes. It 00:11:45.279 --> 00:11:47.899 had been established in 1478. But the expulsion 00:11:47.899 --> 00:11:50.940 turbocharged it. Ferdinand used the Inquisition 00:11:50.940 --> 00:11:53.440 not just as a religious court, but as a tool 00:11:53.440 --> 00:11:56.279 of state control. It was one of the few institutions 00:11:56.279 --> 00:11:59.279 that had authority in both Castile and Aragon. 00:11:59.740 --> 00:12:02.279 It was a way for him to reach across those borderlines 00:12:02.279 --> 00:12:04.440 we talk about. If you were a noble in Aragon 00:12:04.440 --> 00:12:07.700 who was, say, annoying the king, the Inquisition 00:12:07.700 --> 00:12:09.700 could be a very convenient weapon to use against 00:12:09.700 --> 00:12:12.039 you. It's a chilling example of how state building 00:12:12.039 --> 00:12:14.259 works in this era. It's not about freedom. It's 00:12:14.259 --> 00:12:17.000 about control. Absolute control. And then weirdly, 00:12:17.179 --> 00:12:20.559 in the middle of all this heavy, brutal statecraft, 00:12:20.860 --> 00:12:23.799 you have pillar number three, the Atlantic expansion. 00:12:25.100 --> 00:12:27.919 Christopher Columbus. The wild card. The outlier. 00:12:28.100 --> 00:12:30.220 I always find it funny that Ferdinand was the 00:12:30.220 --> 00:12:32.200 skeptic here. We grew up thinking of Columbus 00:12:32.200 --> 00:12:34.320 as this great visionary, but Ferdinand basically 00:12:34.320 --> 00:12:37.419 looked at his math and said, you're wrong. And 00:12:37.419 --> 00:12:40.159 Ferdinand was right. Columbus had calculated 00:12:40.159 --> 00:12:43.360 the size of the Earth incorrectly. He thought 00:12:43.360 --> 00:12:46.440 Asia was much closer than it was. Ferdinand's 00:12:46.440 --> 00:12:48.460 royal astronomers looked at the data and told 00:12:48.460 --> 00:12:52.360 the king, this Italian sailor is massively underestimating 00:12:52.360 --> 00:12:54.559 the width of the ocean. He'll starve before he 00:12:54.559 --> 00:12:57.100 gets to Japan. So why on earth did he sign off 00:12:57.100 --> 00:13:00.279 on it? Low risk, high reward. Isabella was the 00:13:00.279 --> 00:13:02.899 primary backer, but Ferdinand allowed it because 00:13:02.899 --> 00:13:05.259 the cost was minimal. It cost about the same 00:13:05.259 --> 00:13:07.159 as maintaining a royal guest house for a week. 00:13:07.279 --> 00:13:10.120 That's it. That's it. If Columbus drowned, they 00:13:10.120 --> 00:13:12.940 lost three small ships. No big deal. If he was 00:13:12.940 --> 00:13:15.570 right. Yeah. Well, they might beat Portugal to 00:13:15.570 --> 00:13:17.590 the spice trade. And he was right in the sense 00:13:17.590 --> 00:13:20.049 that he hit land. He just hit the wrong continent. 00:13:20.370 --> 00:13:23.669 He hit the jackpot. The discovery of the Americas 00:13:23.669 --> 00:13:26.169 fundamentally changed the entire portfolio of 00:13:26.169 --> 00:13:28.950 Ferdinand's holding company. Suddenly, they aren't 00:13:28.950 --> 00:13:31.289 just a Mediterranean power. They are an Atlantic 00:13:31.289 --> 00:13:34.029 power. And this brings us to the Treaty of Tordesillas 00:13:34.029 --> 00:13:38.389 in 1494. This, to me, is the peak of Ferdinand's 00:13:38.389 --> 00:13:42.169 arrogance. Or maybe confidence. It is breathtakingly 00:13:42.169 --> 00:13:44.649 audacious. Ferdinand and the King of Portugal, 00:13:44.730 --> 00:13:47.590 with the Pope's blessing, literally take a map 00:13:47.590 --> 00:13:49.789 of the Atlantic and draw a line down the middle. 00:13:49.909 --> 00:13:52.289 Just a line on a map? A line on a map. Everything 00:13:52.289 --> 00:13:54.929 discovered west of the line belonged to Castile. 00:13:55.490 --> 00:13:58.490 Everything east belonged to Portugal. They carved 00:13:58.490 --> 00:14:01.169 up the entire non -European world before they 00:14:01.169 --> 00:14:03.029 even knew what was in it. It shows you the scope 00:14:03.029 --> 00:14:05.269 of Ferdinand's ambition. He wasn't just thinking 00:14:05.269 --> 00:14:08.009 about the next border town in Spain. He was thinking 00:14:08.009 --> 00:14:10.659 about global hegemony. But I want to circle back 00:14:10.659 --> 00:14:12.779 to the internal policy for a second. We talked 00:14:12.779 --> 00:14:15.419 about the Jews in 1492, but the sources mention 00:14:15.419 --> 00:14:18.720 a broken promise in 1502 regarding the Muslims. 00:14:19.240 --> 00:14:21.840 This is key to understanding Ferdinand's ruthlessness. 00:14:22.039 --> 00:14:25.419 When Granada surrendered in 1492, the Treaty 00:14:25.419 --> 00:14:28.100 of Granada was signed, and it was a surprisingly 00:14:28.100 --> 00:14:31.019 generous treaty. What did it say? It guaranteed 00:14:31.019 --> 00:14:33.240 that the Muslims, who were called the Mudijars, 00:14:33.399 --> 00:14:35.779 could keep their religion, their customs, and 00:14:35.779 --> 00:14:37.679 their property. They were subjects of the crown, 00:14:37.860 --> 00:14:40.429 but they could remain Muslim. So a live and let 00:14:40.429 --> 00:14:44.250 live approach. Initially, yes, but it didn't 00:14:44.250 --> 00:14:46.470 last. The pressure from the church to convert 00:14:46.470 --> 00:14:48.710 them just increased and increased. There were 00:14:48.710 --> 00:14:51.669 some revolts in the mountains. And by 1502, just 00:14:51.669 --> 00:14:54.350 10 years later, Ferdinand and Isabella decided 00:14:54.350 --> 00:14:56.909 the live and let live phase was over. So they 00:14:56.909 --> 00:14:59.070 just abrogated the treaty. They ripped it up 00:14:59.070 --> 00:15:02.470 completely. They issued a decree for Castile. 00:15:02.960 --> 00:15:06.000 convert to Christianity or be expelled, the exact 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:08.960 same choice they gave the Jews in 1492. So the 00:15:08.960 --> 00:15:11.179 Muslims who converted became known as Moriscos. 00:15:11.340 --> 00:15:13.820 Yes, and just like the Cantorsoes, they lived 00:15:13.820 --> 00:15:15.980 under a constant cloud of suspicion for the next 00:15:15.980 --> 00:15:19.259 century. But for Ferdinand, the goal was achieved. 00:15:19.860 --> 00:15:22.720 On paper, at least, Spain was now an entirely 00:15:22.720 --> 00:15:25.340 Christian kingdom. He had forced homogeneity 00:15:25.340 --> 00:15:27.559 on a very diverse population. It's so interesting 00:15:27.559 --> 00:15:29.919 to see the contrast. At home, he demands total 00:15:29.919 --> 00:15:32.570 obedience and rigid adherence to the rules. But 00:15:32.570 --> 00:15:35.490 abroad, section four of our deep dive abroad, 00:15:35.710 --> 00:15:37.549 Ferdinand was playing a completely different 00:15:37.549 --> 00:15:40.690 game. Foreign policy is where Ferdinand II earns 00:15:40.690 --> 00:15:44.629 his reputation as the master. In fact, Machiavelli 00:15:44.629 --> 00:15:47.750 famously admired Ferdinand. He saw him as the 00:15:47.750 --> 00:15:50.789 prototype of a new prince, someone who uses religion 00:15:50.789 --> 00:15:53.649 and reputation to gain power, but who is willing 00:15:53.649 --> 00:15:56.029 to braid his word the moment it becomes advantageous. 00:15:56.429 --> 00:15:58.750 The source material has this fantastic anecdote 00:15:58.750 --> 00:16:01.990 involving the king of France. Yes, Louis XII, 00:16:02.049 --> 00:16:04.129 the constant rival. So Louis was complaining 00:16:04.129 --> 00:16:06.470 that Ferdinand had deceived him twice in their 00:16:06.470 --> 00:16:08.850 negotiations. And when Ferdinand heard this report, 00:16:09.049 --> 00:16:11.470 he didn't get offended. He didn't deny it. He 00:16:11.470 --> 00:16:13.470 reportedly laughed and said, The king of France 00:16:13.470 --> 00:16:15.129 complains that I have twice deceived him. He 00:16:15.129 --> 00:16:17.289 lies, the fool. I have deceived him 10 times 00:16:17.289 --> 00:16:20.129 and more. Ten times and more. That is such a 00:16:20.129 --> 00:16:22.110 flex. I mean, it tells you everything you need 00:16:22.110 --> 00:16:24.289 to know about his diplomatic style. He viewed 00:16:24.289 --> 00:16:27.710 diplomacy as war, by other means. To him, a treaty 00:16:27.710 --> 00:16:30.710 wasn't some sacred bond. It was a temporary tactic. 00:16:31.070 --> 00:16:33.470 If breaking the treaty gave him a better outcome 00:16:33.470 --> 00:16:36.049 than keeping it, well, he broke it. So let's 00:16:36.049 --> 00:16:37.889 look at the Italian wars, because that seems 00:16:37.889 --> 00:16:40.610 to be where he practiced this the most. Why was 00:16:40.610 --> 00:16:43.169 everyone so obsessed with Italy at this time? 00:16:43.409 --> 00:16:46.379 Italy was the prize of Europe. It was the center 00:16:46.379 --> 00:16:47.899 of the Renaissance. It was incredibly wealthy. 00:16:48.159 --> 00:16:50.460 But it was politically fractured into all these 00:16:50.460 --> 00:16:53.539 small city -states. Easy pickings. Exactly. France 00:16:53.539 --> 00:16:56.539 wanted to control it. Spain wanted to control 00:16:56.539 --> 00:16:59.360 it. It was the battleground for who would dominate 00:16:59.360 --> 00:17:01.820 the continent. And the Naples Campaign is the 00:17:01.820 --> 00:17:04.579 perfect example of Ferdinand's method. Oh, absolutely. 00:17:04.859 --> 00:17:07.180 The Kingdom of Naples is basically the southern 00:17:07.180 --> 00:17:11.799 half of Italy. In the year 1500, Ferdinand and 00:17:11.799 --> 00:17:14.140 the King of France signed the Treaty of Granada. 00:17:14.519 --> 00:17:16.279 Not to be confused with the city's surrender. 00:17:16.559 --> 00:17:19.000 Another Treaty of Granada. Okay. In this treaty, 00:17:19.160 --> 00:17:21.500 they agreed to conquer Naples together and split 00:17:21.500 --> 00:17:23.819 it. You take the north, I'll take the south. 00:17:23.980 --> 00:17:27.240 A partition plan. Sounds reasonable. Right. So 00:17:27.240 --> 00:17:29.660 they go in, they conquer it. But Ferdinand knew 00:17:29.660 --> 00:17:31.740 the partition wouldn't work. The border was fuzzy. 00:17:32.140 --> 00:17:35.099 So while they were supposedly allies, Ferdinand 00:17:35.099 --> 00:17:38.029 sent his best general. Gonzalo Fernandez de Córdoba, 00:17:38.089 --> 00:17:41.130 the great captain, to the region. And Gonzalo 00:17:41.130 --> 00:17:43.950 completely retrained the Spanish infantry, creating 00:17:43.950 --> 00:17:46.789 the early version of the Tertios, heavily armed 00:17:46.789 --> 00:17:49.970 with pikes and firearms, a revolutionary force. 00:17:50.210 --> 00:17:52.730 And then as soon as a dispute over the border 00:17:52.730 --> 00:17:55.009 arose, which Ferdinand probably manufactured, 00:17:55.369 --> 00:17:58.309 he ordered Gonzalo to attack the French. His 00:17:58.309 --> 00:18:01.390 own allies. His own allies. And the Spallic army, 00:18:01.549 --> 00:18:03.309 which was now better trained and better led, 00:18:03.490 --> 00:18:06.839 just smashed the French. By 1504, the French 00:18:06.839 --> 00:18:09.099 were kicked out and Ferdinand was the sole king 00:18:09.099 --> 00:18:12.339 of Naples. So he signed a treaty to share it 00:18:12.339 --> 00:18:14.299 just to get his foot in the door so he could 00:18:14.299 --> 00:18:16.500 take the whole thing. Classic Ferdinand. And 00:18:16.500 --> 00:18:18.019 he did the same thing with shifting alliances. 00:18:18.400 --> 00:18:20.779 Look at the League of Cambrai. This is the team 00:18:20.779 --> 00:18:23.539 switching moment, right? It is dizzying. First, 00:18:23.680 --> 00:18:26.319 he joins the League of Cambrai. He's allied with 00:18:26.319 --> 00:18:28.980 France and the Pope to fight against the city 00:18:28.980 --> 00:18:31.180 of Venice because he wants some Venetian ports 00:18:31.180 --> 00:18:33.440 in southern Italy. Okay, so they beat Venice. 00:18:33.619 --> 00:18:36.680 They beat Venice. Ferdinand gets his ports. Mission 00:18:36.680 --> 00:18:38.900 accomplished. Right. But then he looks at the 00:18:38.900 --> 00:18:41.740 map and thinks, hmm, France is getting too strong 00:18:41.740 --> 00:18:45.119 in northern Italy now. So what does he do? He 00:18:45.119 --> 00:18:48.180 leaves that alliance and forms a new one. The 00:18:48.180 --> 00:18:51.079 Holy League allied with Venice and the Pope against 00:18:51.079 --> 00:18:53.940 his old partner, France. Wait, he literally switched 00:18:53.940 --> 00:18:57.299 jerseys in the middle of the game. He did. And 00:18:57.299 --> 00:18:59.799 it worked. He checked French power and he consolidated 00:18:59.799 --> 00:19:02.099 his own. He was the great balancer of Europe. 00:19:02.339 --> 00:19:04.319 He always made sure no one else got strong enough 00:19:04.319 --> 00:19:06.900 to threaten him. And he applied this expansionist 00:19:06.900 --> 00:19:09.619 logic to his own backyard, too. We can't forget 00:19:09.619 --> 00:19:12.160 Navarre. No, that is the final piece of the puzzle. 00:19:12.579 --> 00:19:16.160 This happens late in his life, in 1512. Ferdinand 00:19:16.160 --> 00:19:18.539 is an old man. Isabella has been dead for years. 00:19:18.779 --> 00:19:21.359 And the kingdom of Navarre is that final independent 00:19:21.359 --> 00:19:24.390 chunk up in the north of Spain. So how did he 00:19:24.390 --> 00:19:27.430 justify taking it over? He used a religious excuse, 00:19:27.670 --> 00:19:30.509 as he often did. The Pope had excommunicated 00:19:30.509 --> 00:19:32.349 the King of Navarre for being too friendly with 00:19:32.349 --> 00:19:35.509 France. Ferdinand used that as a pretext to invade. 00:19:35.890 --> 00:19:38.470 He sent the Duke of Alba in, conquered the southern 00:19:38.470 --> 00:19:40.049 part of the kingdom, which is essentially the 00:19:40.049 --> 00:19:42.930 Spanish Basque country today, and he annexed 00:19:42.930 --> 00:19:45.289 it. Initially, he attached it to his own kingdom, 00:19:45.349 --> 00:19:48.210 to Aragon, right? He did. But he realized pretty 00:19:48.210 --> 00:19:50.710 quickly that Castile was the stronger long -term 00:19:50.710 --> 00:19:53.240 partner for it. So he eventually shifted the 00:19:53.240 --> 00:19:55.700 legal annexation to the Crown of Castile. And 00:19:55.700 --> 00:19:58.519 that move, that physically completed the map 00:19:58.519 --> 00:20:01.220 of modern Spain. If you look at a map today, 00:20:01.400 --> 00:20:03.799 the borders of mainland Spain are essentially 00:20:03.799 --> 00:20:06.799 what Ferdinand established in 1512. So he's the 00:20:06.799 --> 00:20:09.079 architect, he's the conqueror, he's the deceptive 00:20:09.079 --> 00:20:12.039 genius. But section five of our outline is where 00:20:12.039 --> 00:20:14.299 the story just turns into a full -blown soap 00:20:14.299 --> 00:20:18.039 opera. Yeah, it does. Because for all his meticulous 00:20:18.039 --> 00:20:20.339 planning, Ferdinand had a massive blind spot. 00:20:21.250 --> 00:20:23.730 Biology. The succession crisis. This is the part 00:20:23.730 --> 00:20:25.289 of the story that often gets skipped in high 00:20:25.289 --> 00:20:27.690 school history, but it is by far the most dramatic 00:20:27.690 --> 00:20:30.809 part of his life. It all starts in 1504. Isabella 00:20:30.809 --> 00:20:33.349 dies. And the moment she takes her last breath, 00:20:33.569 --> 00:20:35.930 that personal union we talked about just falls 00:20:35.930 --> 00:20:39.069 apart. Remember, Ferdinand was King of Castile, 00:20:39.069 --> 00:20:41.650 Jure Xorus. By right of his wife. By right of 00:20:41.650 --> 00:20:44.480 his wife. And when the wife dies... The widower 00:20:44.480 --> 00:20:47.119 loses his job. So he's fired from being king 00:20:47.119 --> 00:20:50.259 of Castile. Legally, yes. He's out. The crown 00:20:50.259 --> 00:20:53.200 passes directly to their daughter, Joanna. Joanna. 00:20:53.539 --> 00:20:57.609 The famous Juana la Loca. Joanna the Mad. We 00:20:57.609 --> 00:20:59.809 need to untack her situation. Joanna was married 00:20:59.809 --> 00:21:01.789 to Philip the Handsome, the Duke of Burgundy, 00:21:01.930 --> 00:21:04.130 and a member of the powerful Habsburg family. 00:21:04.529 --> 00:21:07.710 And Philip was young, he was ambitious, and he 00:21:07.710 --> 00:21:10.269 wanted to rule Castile himself. And Ferdinand 00:21:10.269 --> 00:21:12.470 wanted to keep ruling Castile as regent for his 00:21:12.470 --> 00:21:14.789 daughter. So you have a father -in -law versus 00:21:14.789 --> 00:21:18.109 son -in -law showdown. Huge showdown. And the 00:21:18.109 --> 00:21:20.849 Castilian nobility had to pick a side. And guess 00:21:20.849 --> 00:21:23.859 what? They hated Ferdinand. Why? He just won 00:21:23.859 --> 00:21:25.619 them an empire. But he was an Aragonese outsider. 00:21:25.900 --> 00:21:28.599 He was strict. He enforced the laws. He taxed 00:21:28.599 --> 00:21:30.819 them. Philip, on the other hand, was a stranger 00:21:30.819 --> 00:21:32.420 who didn't know the language or the customs. 00:21:32.619 --> 00:21:35.059 Ah. So the nobles thought, if we back Philip, 00:21:35.200 --> 00:21:37.900 he'll be weak and we can run the show. So they 00:21:37.900 --> 00:21:40.079 betrayed Ferdinand and they backed Philip. That 00:21:40.079 --> 00:21:41.880 must have been a bitter pill for Ferdinand to 00:21:41.880 --> 00:21:44.400 swallow. He spends 30 years building this kingdom 00:21:44.400 --> 00:21:46.579 and they kick him to the curb. It was utterly 00:21:46.579 --> 00:21:50.789 humiliating. In 1506, Ferdinand was forced to 00:21:50.789 --> 00:21:54.109 sign the Treaty of Villa Fafla. He formally renounced 00:21:54.109 --> 00:21:56.670 his government of Castile. He packed his bags 00:21:56.670 --> 00:21:59.750 and went back to Aragon. Philip and Johanna were 00:21:59.750 --> 00:22:02.390 the new monarchs of Castile. And this is where 00:22:02.390 --> 00:22:04.509 Ferdinand does something that just really reveals 00:22:04.509 --> 00:22:06.569 his character. He doesn't just retire to play 00:22:06.569 --> 00:22:09.890 golf or, you know, hunt in his case. No. He plots 00:22:09.890 --> 00:22:13.150 revenge. and he decides to get remarried. This 00:22:13.150 --> 00:22:15.849 is the plot twist of all plot twists. He marries 00:22:15.849 --> 00:22:17.690 Germaine of Foix. And Germaine isn't just some 00:22:17.690 --> 00:22:20.089 random noblewoman. No, she is the niece of the 00:22:20.089 --> 00:22:22.289 King of France. Wait, the guy he deceived ten 00:22:22.289 --> 00:22:25.609 times? His archenemy? The very same. Ferdinand 00:22:25.609 --> 00:22:28.130 was so desperate to check Philip's power that 00:22:28.130 --> 00:22:30.349 he allied with his worst enemy. But the marriage 00:22:30.349 --> 00:22:32.970 had a very specific biological goal. He wanted 00:22:32.970 --> 00:22:35.250 a son. Okay, let's game this out. This is the 00:22:35.250 --> 00:22:37.730 big what -if scenario. If Ferdinand and Germaine 00:22:37.730 --> 00:22:40.049 have a son... If they have a son who survives... 00:22:40.250 --> 00:22:43.589 That boy inherits the crown of Aragon. Joanna 00:22:43.589 --> 00:22:46.089 and Philip keep Castile. Which means Spain splits 00:22:46.089 --> 00:22:49.089 in half? Correct. The union is dissolved. Gone. 00:22:49.769 --> 00:22:52.950 Aragon and Castile go their separate ways. Aragon 00:22:52.950 --> 00:22:55.289 probably remains a Mediterranean power, maybe 00:22:55.289 --> 00:22:57.750 focusing on Italy. Castile goes alone into the 00:22:57.750 --> 00:23:00.609 Atlantic. There is no Spanish empire. There is 00:23:00.609 --> 00:23:03.029 just a Castilian empire and an Aragonese empire. 00:23:03.210 --> 00:23:05.190 He was willing to destroy his entire life's work, 00:23:05.329 --> 00:23:08.089 the unification of Spain, just to cite his son 00:23:08.089 --> 00:23:10.269 -in -law. It wasn't just spite. It was dynastic 00:23:10.269 --> 00:23:12.690 survival. He did not want the Habsburgs taking 00:23:12.690 --> 00:23:15.490 over his ancestral lands of Aragon. And here 00:23:15.490 --> 00:23:18.250 is the kicker. They did have a son. They did. 00:23:18.369 --> 00:23:21.430 Prince John of Girona was born in May of 1509. 00:23:21.549 --> 00:23:24.750 And he died a few hours later. Wow. Just think 00:23:24.750 --> 00:23:27.009 about that. The entire history of modern Spain, 00:23:27.289 --> 00:23:30.369 the global empire, the map of Europe. Yeah. It 00:23:30.369 --> 00:23:32.490 all hung on the lungs of an infant who lived 00:23:32.490 --> 00:23:35.200 for maybe. Six hours. Okay. If that baby survives, 00:23:35.539 --> 00:23:38.220 history forks completely. That is just terrifyingly 00:23:38.220 --> 00:23:40.940 fragile. So the baby dies. The union is preserved 00:23:40.940 --> 00:23:43.880 by tragedy. But Ferdinand gets lucky again, right? 00:23:43.980 --> 00:23:45.599 Because Philip doesn't stick around long either. 00:23:45.920 --> 00:23:48.160 It's not at all. Yeah. Philip the Handsome enjoys 00:23:48.160 --> 00:23:50.220 his victory in Castile for about five months. 00:23:50.740 --> 00:23:54.140 Then, in September 1506, he plays a game of pelota, 00:23:54.259 --> 00:23:58.059 an early form of handball, gets sweaty, drinks 00:23:58.059 --> 00:23:59.900 a glass of ice -cold water, and gets a raging 00:23:59.900 --> 00:24:03.420 fever. Days later, he's dead. Ice water? Do we 00:24:03.420 --> 00:24:05.660 buy that? I mean, come on. Well, historically, 00:24:06.019 --> 00:24:08.400 dysentery or typhoid is the most likely culprit. 00:24:08.539 --> 00:24:11.579 But at the time, everyone whispered poison. And 00:24:11.579 --> 00:24:15.440 who benefits most? So Philip is dead. Joanna 00:24:15.440 --> 00:24:18.240 is the queen, but she is understandably distraught. 00:24:18.359 --> 00:24:20.359 She was absolutely devastated. She traveled across 00:24:20.359 --> 00:24:23.039 Spain with his coffin for months, refusing to 00:24:23.039 --> 00:24:25.660 bury him. And this behavior, whether it was genuine 00:24:25.660 --> 00:24:28.180 grief or something else, it cemented her reputation 00:24:28.180 --> 00:24:30.880 as Joanna the Mad. And this gave Ferdinand the 00:24:30.880 --> 00:24:33.319 opening he needed. He comes back. He swoops back 00:24:33.319 --> 00:24:35.579 into Castile. He claims his daughter is mentally 00:24:35.579 --> 00:24:38.319 unfit to rule, and he has her confined to a palace 00:24:38.319 --> 00:24:40.970 in Tordesillas. And she stays there. For a while. 00:24:41.069 --> 00:24:42.910 For almost 50 years. She remains the nominal 00:24:42.910 --> 00:24:45.750 queen until she dies in 1555, but she never rules 00:24:45.750 --> 00:24:49.069 again. Ferdinand takes over as regent. He essentially 00:24:49.069 --> 00:24:50.990 locks up his own daughter to secure his power. 00:24:51.170 --> 00:24:53.930 That is Shakespearean. It's just brutal. It is. 00:24:54.009 --> 00:24:56.549 He crushed the rebellious nobles who had sided 00:24:56.549 --> 00:24:59.470 with Philip. He restored order, and he ruled 00:24:59.470 --> 00:25:02.369 both kingdoms effectively as one until his own 00:25:02.369 --> 00:25:05.210 death in 1516. So let's look at the legacy then. 00:25:05.609 --> 00:25:09.329 Section 6. Ferdinand dies. He leaves this complicated 00:25:09.329 --> 00:25:12.690 double kingdom structure behind. Who gets the 00:25:12.690 --> 00:25:16.410 keys to the car? His grandson, Joanna and Philip's 00:25:16.410 --> 00:25:19.289 son, Charles. Charles of Ghent. Who becomes the 00:25:19.289 --> 00:25:21.730 Holy Roman Emperor Charles V? Charles is the 00:25:21.730 --> 00:25:24.410 ultimate beneficiary of all this tragedy and 00:25:24.410 --> 00:25:27.069 all this strategy. Because of the alleged madness 00:25:27.069 --> 00:25:29.450 of his mother, the early death of his father, 00:25:29.609 --> 00:25:31.970 and the death of Ferdinand's infant son with 00:25:31.970 --> 00:25:34.950 his second wife, Charles inherits everything. 00:25:35.230 --> 00:25:36.990 It's the greatest inheritance in history, isn't 00:25:36.990 --> 00:25:39.210 it? It's staggering. From his mother's side, 00:25:39.269 --> 00:25:41.490 he gets Castile in the growing American colonies. 00:25:41.650 --> 00:25:43.690 From his grandfather, Fudnan, he gets Aragon, 00:25:43.910 --> 00:25:46.769 Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia. And from his father, 00:25:46.809 --> 00:25:48.670 Philip's side, he gets the Netherlands and the 00:25:48.670 --> 00:25:51.450 Habsburg lands in Austria. And this is the moment. 00:25:51.509 --> 00:25:54.029 This is when Spain becomes the global superpower. 00:25:54.609 --> 00:25:57.710 Yes. This is the birth of the empire, where the 00:25:57.710 --> 00:26:00.250 sun never sets. But you have to see that Charles 00:26:00.250 --> 00:26:02.960 didn't build the engine. He just turned the key. 00:26:04.000 --> 00:26:06.599 Ferdinand built the engine. Explain that. What 00:26:06.599 --> 00:26:09.319 specifically did Ferdinand leave him that made 00:26:09.319 --> 00:26:11.240 this all work? He left him a professionalized 00:26:11.240 --> 00:26:13.759 diplomatic corps. The first permanent embassies 00:26:13.759 --> 00:26:16.480 in Europe were Ferdinand's idea. He left him 00:26:16.480 --> 00:26:19.299 the tertios, that military infantry organization 00:26:19.299 --> 00:26:21.619 that would dominate European battlefields for 00:26:21.619 --> 00:26:25.519 150 years. He left him a secure border with France, 00:26:25.640 --> 00:26:28.119 thanks to annexing Navarre, and a secure southern 00:26:28.119 --> 00:26:30.849 border. thanks to conquering Granada. And of 00:26:30.849 --> 00:26:33.269 course, he left him the legal claim to the Americas. 00:26:33.529 --> 00:26:35.730 So without Ferdinand the Shark, Charles V is 00:26:35.730 --> 00:26:38.089 just a guy with a lot of titles, but no real 00:26:38.089 --> 00:26:40.730 power. Exactly. Ferdinand did the dirty work. 00:26:40.849 --> 00:26:43.170 He broke the treaties. He expelled the dissenters. 00:26:43.170 --> 00:26:45.430 He fought the civil wars. He locked up his daughter. 00:26:45.869 --> 00:26:48.210 He paved the road that Charles marched down. 00:26:48.349 --> 00:26:50.930 It really changes how you view the Catholic monarchs. 00:26:50.930 --> 00:26:53.130 We see them in paintings looking all pious and 00:26:53.130 --> 00:26:56.450 calm. But the reality was a lot more. Game of 00:26:56.450 --> 00:26:59.769 Thrones. It was pure real politic. Ferdinand 00:26:59.769 --> 00:27:02.109 was a man of his time. He was intolerant, he 00:27:02.109 --> 00:27:04.430 was ruthless, and he was incredibly ambitious. 00:27:05.150 --> 00:27:08.029 But he was effective. He took a medieval peninsula 00:27:08.029 --> 00:27:11.049 and turned it into the first modern world power. 00:27:11.390 --> 00:27:13.710 So let's wrap this up with a final thought for 00:27:13.710 --> 00:27:16.390 you to take away. When we go to Spain today, 00:27:16.490 --> 00:27:18.809 or when we look at the world map, where do we 00:27:18.809 --> 00:27:22.589 see Ferdinand's ghost? I think we see it in the 00:27:22.589 --> 00:27:24.509 tension that still exists within Spain itself. 00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:26.720 You know, we hear about Catalan independence 00:27:26.720 --> 00:27:30.500 movements or Basque regionalism. That is a direct 00:27:30.500 --> 00:27:33.279 legacy of Ferdinand's decision to create a personal 00:27:33.279 --> 00:27:36.470 union rather than a fully unified state. Because 00:27:36.470 --> 00:27:39.529 he respected or was forced to respect the local 00:27:39.529 --> 00:27:42.450 laws and institutions. Yes. He kept the Generalitat 00:27:42.450 --> 00:27:44.890 in Catalonia. He kept the Fueros in the Basque 00:27:44.890 --> 00:27:47.269 Country. He didn't smash them all into one Spanish 00:27:47.269 --> 00:27:49.569 identity legally. He just put them all under 00:27:49.569 --> 00:27:52.250 one roof. That distinctiveness survived for centuries 00:27:52.250 --> 00:27:54.410 because of how he chose to structure the union. 00:27:54.630 --> 00:27:56.190 And the what if is going to stick with me, the 00:27:56.190 --> 00:27:58.730 fragility of it all. It is the ultimate historical 00:27:58.730 --> 00:28:01.809 lesson, isn't it? We tend to think that the rise 00:28:01.809 --> 00:28:04.650 of nations is inevitable, that Spain was always 00:28:04.650 --> 00:28:07.240 going to happen. But it wasn't. It was a series 00:28:07.240 --> 00:28:10.200 of accidents, strategic marriages, and one very 00:28:10.200 --> 00:28:13.119 short -lived baby. Right. If Prince John of Girona 00:28:13.119 --> 00:28:16.500 lives, the Spanish Armada never happens. The 00:28:16.500 --> 00:28:19.319 Habsburgs never dominate Europe. The colonization 00:28:19.319 --> 00:28:21.220 of the Americas happens in a completely different 00:28:21.220 --> 00:28:23.519 way. The world we live in is essentially the 00:28:23.519 --> 00:28:27.380 result of a coin toss in 1509. A coin toss and 00:28:27.380 --> 00:28:30.619 a very, very cunning king who knew how to capitalize 00:28:30.619 --> 00:28:33.220 on every single outcome. Well, there you have 00:28:33.220 --> 00:28:36.230 it. Ferdinand II of Aragon. The man who deceived 00:28:36.230 --> 00:28:39.250 the King of France 10 times, drew a line down 00:28:39.250 --> 00:28:42.009 the Atlantic Ocean, and almost accidentally dismantled 00:28:42.009 --> 00:28:43.769 the country he spent his entire life building. 00:28:43.970 --> 00:28:46.369 A complicated legacy for a fascinating man. Thanks 00:28:46.369 --> 00:28:47.829 for diving in with us. We'll catch you on the 00:28:47.829 --> 00:28:48.150 next one.