government & administration under isabella & ferdinand

Question 1

aim for establishing peace/order in castile & aragon

Answer 1

establish ‘pre-eminent monarchy’ = strove to create strong position for crown to ensure justice & order in castile & aragon but at same time respect rights/customs of individual kingdoms

Question 2

establishment of peace & order: 1) personal presence

Answer 2

• ensured peace
• F & I constantly on the move
• isabella visited every part of castile at least once over 30 years
• ferdinand spend more time in castile
• he appointed viceroys to govern aragon
• officials & advisers travelled with them
• enabled them to be in any place where there may be problems
• could arbitrate in disputes, hear lawsuits & deal personally with revolts

Question 3

establishment of peace & order: 2) use of hermandades

Answer 3

• brotherhoods
• 1476: set up in every place with 50+ inhabitants
• controlled directly by crown via santa hermandad
• remained until 1498
• provided soldiers & regularly contributed money to finance fighting in civil war/granada war
• main task to police towns & villages
• tried people for certain crimes eg. arson, robbery & murder
• punishments often severe eg. mutilation, death
• helped bring localities in castile to law & order

Question 4

limitations of hermandades

Answer 4

• brand of justice seen as harsh
• only deal with small disorders
• other law officials disliked them infringing on their own jurisdiction
• financial contributions to crown seen as a burden
• nobility in kingdom of aragon resented imposition of hermandad in cities
• very short lived

Question 5

establishment of peace & order: 3) use of corregidores in castilian towns

Answer 5

• civil/crown governors appointed to castilian towns
• appointed one in every important castilian town
• collected taxes, reported to crown on state of affairs in area & tried to ensure council followed royal policies
• also tried to ensure that royal jurisdiction was not intefered with by members of church & nobility
• other royal officials sent out to check on their work

Question 6

what measures were taken by I & F to control the nobility

Answer 6

• troublesome ones arrested, castles were burned & much of property taken from them
• crown tried to recover rights & lands it had previously lost eg. at cortes of toledo (1480), almost all royal lands lost after 1464 returned to crown
• nobles kept lands lost before 1464
• crown gave compensation for land it reclaimed in conquests of granada
• important coastal cities of cartagena & cadiz taken under royal control, & nobles who’d previously held these were given other lands as compensation
• nobles forbidden to make private war or build new castles
• nobles with right to collect royal tax of alcabala able to continue

Question 7

what was the royal tax of alcabala

Answer 7

sales tax, usually 10%

Question 8

why were measures used to control the nobility limited

Answer 8

• isabella had to make concessions to nobility to secure support for war of succession
• security in spain meant working with the nobles
• needed to ensure their support

Question 9

how did I & F try to ensure support of nobles

Answer 9

ensure support of nobles:
- encouraged titled nobility to spend time at their court
- opportunities given for them to serve in foreign wars
- support for crown led to rewards & many new titles
- crown supported efforts of nobles to remain economically viable
- nobles encouraged to use mayorazgo (forbade sales or division of land) = property/land could be passed down through generations
- crown extended hold over military orders in castile = orders of chivalry made up of knights bound by religious vows
- three in castile (santiago, calatrava & alcantara) were group of importance
- they owned large estates & wealth = powerful
- isabella determined they should come under control of the crown
- achieved when ferdinand became grand master of each of the orders = crown increased income considerably
- in 1489, council set up for administration of orders

Question 10

administration of the kingdoms of castile & aragon - the conciliar system

Answer 10

• various councils which made up central administration of government
• main council was Royal Council of Castile, which consisted of 5 parts: foreign policy, justice, the hermandades, finance & group of nobles/letrados (from aragon, catalonia, majorca, valencia & sicily)
• new councils formed eg. in 1483 supreme inquisition (suprema), in 1489 the council of orders (military orders)
• the monarchs increased number of councils to meet growing responsibilities
• use of letrados increased during reign
• by 1493, all members of royal council had to be letrados

Question 11

define letrados

Answer 11

lawyers, usually with 2 academic degrees & 10 years legal experience