government & administration under isabella & ferdinand Flashcards
aim for establishing peace/order in castile & aragon
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
establishment of peace & order: 1) personal presence
- 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
establishment of peace & order: 2) use of hermandades
- 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
limitations of hermandades
- 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
establishment of peace & order: 3) use of corregidores in castilian towns
- 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
what measures were taken by I & F to control the nobility
- 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
what was the royal tax of alcabala
sales tax, usually 10%
why were measures used to control the nobility limited
- 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
how did I & F try to ensure support of nobles
- encouraged titled nobility to spend time at their court
- opportunities given 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)
- I determined they should come under control of the crown
- achieved when F became grand master of each of the orders = crown increased income considerably
- in 1489, council set up for administration of orders
describe the administration of the kingdoms of castile & aragon - the conciliar system
- various councils made up central administration of government
- main council was Royal Council of Castile
- new councils formed
- 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
define letrados
lawyers, usually with 2 academic degrees & 10 years legal experience
examples of new councils formed (conciliar system)
- 1483 supreme inquisition (suprema)
- 1489 the council of orders (military orders)
what was the Royal Council of Castile consist of (conciliar system)
5 parts:
- foreign policy
- justice
- the hermandades
- finance
- group of nobles/letrados (from aragon, catalonia, majorca, valencia & sicily)
how did I & F attempt to increase their control over justice
- issued ordinances in 1489 = established permanent court at valladoid
- further permanent courts established in granada, santiago de compostela & seville (1st two considered most important & appeals from these went to council of castile)
- criminal & civil cases tried by courts
- attempts to ensure similar laws throughout castile
- collections of late medieval codes & pragmaticas of catholic monarchs were published
- different system in aragon: each kingdom had own audiencia to try cases, justicia was independent of crown & the court was usually considered protector of fueros & liberties of aragon
why was it difficult for I & F to attempt to increase their control over justice
in castile it was difficult due to local rights/powers of nobles & the church
define ordinances
decrees issued by the monarchs
define pragmaticas
laws which 2 monarchs issued without going through cortes of castile but still had to be obeyed by inhabitants of castile
define audiencia
court of appeal
describe the cortes
- each spanish kingdom had it’s own cortes
- called on by F & I when needed money & confirm royal legislation
- provided monarchs with another way of hearing grievances from representatives who attended cortes
- castile: consisted of 17 towns (granada after 1942), who could send 2 representatives to meetings
- neither clergy nor nobility usually attended as exempt from taxes
- main business of cortes to vote for taxes
- aragon: 3 cortes & expected grievances discussed prior to granting money (considerable power)
when didn’t the castilian cortes meet between & why
1482 to 1498
- isabella was able to obain soldiers & money from hermandad so didn’t need to ask cortes for funds
when did the castilian cortes meet 12 times
1498 to end of the reign
when was the power of aragonese cortes shown
in 1488, when strong opposition to hermandad in kingdom of aragon led to suspension of hermandad there & it’s final suppression in 1495 cortes
why was obtaining finance a considerable problem for I & F at the start of their reign
- spain was a poor country
- civil wars of 1470s made normal income from taxes difficult to collect
why did I & F need good finances
to secure their position
