Strengthening the State, 1500 - 1516 (part 1)

Strengthening the State, 1500 - 1516

The Dual Monarchy & Personal Rule:

• Partnership grew
• Monarchy of Ferdinand + Isabella, up to Isabella's death (1504) = "dual monarchy"
• Term empasises = authority more than just their individual personal authority in their own states
• They would not tolerate any limitations to their rule
• Historians confirm this by pointing to the fact that they were able on occasion to ignore the law
• Ferdinand + Isabella were absolutely clear that the Pope's power in their kingdoms was limited to matters of faith
• Although F + I = pious people & anxious to promote the faith = did not want a third party in their partenership + were not prepared to tolerate papal interference in their political position
• Further example of their establishment of direct & personal rule
• Together they were the soverigns + "natural lords" of their lands & peoples
• Dual monarchy is the term often used to describe this partnership
• Dual monarchy = i.e. a strong & an equal partnership had not been force upon F + I
• The concept of a dual monarchy rather than a more informal partnership, placed a particularly strong empasis on the decline of feudal ties as the main form of social + political organisation + as a historian puts it "strengthening of centralised royal authority, at the expense of traditional social groups such as the military aristocracy and the Church"
• Feudal ties = in the feudal system, peasants were subject to their landlords through a wide range of requirements, i.e. work on te land = helped the nobility = Kamen considered that it gave the nobility too much control and the crown too little
• Power & authority were focused on the 2 monarchs rather than shared or delegated to other potentially powerful individuals
• Death of Isabella (1504) = focuses on the monarch & its officers became even more noticeable e.g. in the membership & authority of the Council of Castile
• Nobles were allowed to attend, but they were not able to vote; the business of the realm became the province of a small number of caballeros, or gentlemen, members of the higher clergy and a larger number of letrados or lawyers, rather than aristocrats

The extent of their partnership:

• Isabella on her accession, instructed her chroniclers always to support government actions as having been done by both herself & Ferdinand
• This was not always trus = they were bound to have different obligations at certain times

Common Aims:

• Separately governed their states with differing laws & traditions in Castile & Aragon
• Differences would not be easy to reduce + it would seem that the young + inexperienced Ferdinand & Isabella did not deliberately set to unify their kingdom & become King & Queen of "Spain"
• HOWEVER = some issues were addressed in both states = suggests common aims
• One of these was the aim of restoring law & order following civil war
• Aragon = move to abolish some feudal dues = allowing posts in government by lottery…