New Monarchs

Question 1

Criteria for new Monarchy

Answer 1

Limiting the power of the feudal aristocracy + Creation of Standing Army

Creating efficient, centralized systems of taxation + Fostering trade

Encouraging some sense of national identity (but by no means nationalism yet)

Enforcing religious unity within their countries

Question 2

Limiting the Power of Nobility

- What Methods did Monarchs employ

Answer 2

Did not get vote in council
–> Limited the influence of the greater nobles over political + admin office in central gov by restricting their role on the Royal Council (letrados + could not vote in royal council)

Mayorazgo
Disagreements = mainly about inheritance of land, estates traditionally split between several heirs
// at Cortes of Toro (1505) F encouraged the use of mayorazgo = an entail that prohibited the sale/ division of estates
Significantly reduced the amount of conflict

Act of Resumption (1480)→ Cortes of Toledo Confirmed nobility in possession of any land they had owned before 1464 BUT which restored to the crown most estates alienated after that date
1464 = date which I regarded herself as the rightful heir to the throne

Santa Hermandad → Set up 1476 →
(Only) Full competence in cases of violent crime
Often brutal justice over those who had been caught
In the aftermath of the civil war, seems to have popular support
1498 = DISBANDED central mechanism for organisation, but allowed local hermandas to survive but with considerably reduced powers + only where there was support for them
→ Disbanded because less need for it // successful in its aim
→ only meant to be a temporary measure anyway

Was in effect an armed militia
Rather than disband it when civil war concluded, F + I used its 3,000 members as the core of the royal army in conquest of Granada → as war progressed, grew to 10,000

Question 3

Example of an over powerful Noble

Answer 3

Eg. At start of I + F reign → Marquis of Villena owned 25,000 square kilometers of land, direct authority over 150,000 men + revenues in excess of 100,000 ducats/year

Question 4

Successes/ Weaknesses of Nobility Control and Standing Army

Answer 4

Council
// Nobles forbidden a voice in the council’s decision making
→ BUT did advise in foreign policy chamber → more experienced
Grandees + leading prelates had the right to attend meeting of the royal council still - F + I could not easily withdraw this privilege

Mayorazgos
Not enough to define limits on nobles tho
→ violent disagreements between/ within families could drag crown into disputes = effect on law + order → primary concern of gov

Cortes of Toledo
BUT still left the bulk of her lands granted away/ seized from the crown during Henry’s reign in the hands of the aristocracy

Santa Hermandad
Argaon: Nobles in Aragon resisted the imposition of an Hermanda in cities of Aragon - although introduced here → was very short lives

// Several towns reluctant to join eg. Mercia but local opposition overridden 
→ eg. Seville only joined after the royal army occupied them 1477

Kamen → Argues its law enforcement role has assumed too great a significance in the minds of historians + it only survived so long because crown had other important uses for it - No Cortes between 1480 and 1498
Comprised of representatives of towns that contributed to it // crown had standing forum for discussing policy with + obtaining taxes from towns without the bother of summoning Cortes

Question 5

Religious Unity + Control over the Church

• Strengths and Weaknesses

Answer 5

La Convavencia

–> Moors - expelled after the Granada war
BUT - Initially allowed to stay under Talavera but Cisneros
–> Inquisition - Conversos under suspicion
–>Jews expelled 1492 from Both Aragon and Castile
Banned all religions apart from Catholicism

1478: Seville
1 year later allowed to elect Bishop of Cuenca

1486: Patronage and Church appointments over Granada
- -> New Worlds 1508

Question 6

Centralisation of taxation and fostered Trade

Answer 6

Economy:
Economy
Protected and enhanced the privileges of the Mesta
= Sheep + wool producers guild, huge migratory flocks, exported it

Agents sent to London, Bruges to facilitate sale of wool but also wine and iron + Navigation laws passed to stimulate the carrying of goods in spanish ships

Fiances:
Servicio y montazgo = Originally tax on migratory herds of sheep owned my the Mesta
–> BUT F + I successfully extended this to all sheep at pasture // substantially increasing their income from resources

Exploitation from crown lands - Act of Resumption (1480) restored land seized by nobles in anarchi years after 1464
Conquest of Granada increased
Crowns assumption of the headship of Military orders in Castile

Servicios → taxes granted by the Cortes w. The burden of paying this tax falling on the townsfolk + peasantry since clergy + nobility was exempt
→ Unofficial taxes granted by the council of the Santa Hermandad between 1480-98 when crown didn’t summon cortes
= so efficient that the council was also made responsible for the cruzada + servicio y montazgo
// some historians regarded it as the model for the reformed Hacienda (royal treasury of Castile)

Question 7

Strengths and Weaknesses of Fostering Trade and centralised system of taxation

Answer 7

Strengths
In return, F + I gained control of the Mesta + its resources
→ formally acknowledged 1500 when a member of the Royal Council became president of the cooperation

Wool production benefited + grew in importance
F + I = more money bc. Servicio y montazgo tax on sheep

Measures provoked hundreds of lawsuits, but F + I backed landowners in such cases

Weaknesses:
The economy was distorted + food production fell behind
1502-8 = shortages // necessitated large scale imports
Crown tried to enforce price controls on grain + flour to prevent profiteering + hoarding

// Aded breakout of plague 1507
\+Inflation

Grain still had to be imported regularly in Galicia, Aragon + American colonies
→ Much grain imported from

Question 8

Encouraging sense of National Identity

- Sense of Unity between nations

Answer 8

Strengths

• -> Peripatetic Monarchy
• -> Marriage Agreement
• -> Double Exelente
• -> 1 Castilian Ducat, 1 Catalonian Principat, 1 Valencian Exculente

Inquisition: 1480 Castile and 1481 Aragon
= TORQUEMADA - Inquisitor General of Castile and Aragon

Death of Isabella
Marraige of Ferdiand to Germaine de Fiox