FERDINANDO, the Catholic, II (V) of ARAGON (III of NAPLES, II of SICILY). — B. on 10 May 1452 at Sos (Aragon), d. on 23 January 1516 at Madrigalejo (Cáceres). Son of Giovanni II of Aragon and Giovanna Enriquez, F. was not destined for the throne, which came to him after the death of his elder brother Carlo of Viana. Having married Isabella, heir to the Kingdom of Castile, in 1468, he became involved in a lengthy dispute with Alfonso V of Portugal, which was brought to an end by the Treaty of Alcacobas (1479). Immediately afterward the two sovereigns began the war against the Kingdom of Granada, the last Muslim stronghold in Spain; it lasted more than a decade, but finally, in January 1492, Granada was conquered.
Having thus completed Spanish unity, F. found broader political horizons opening before him. His relations with Columbus (v. ) are well known. After the discovery of the new lands had given rise to a dispute between Spain and Portugal over possession of the American territories, F. appealed to Alexander VI, who issued bulls by which the disputed territories were assigned to Spain. Through these bulls Isabella and F. were also granted the exclusive evangelization of the new lands and the right of presentation for ecclesiastical dignitaries, a privilege that constituted the first step toward the Patronato de Indias, granted by Julius II in 1508.
F.’s foreign policy was determined by the aggressive French policy of Charles VIII and Louis XII, who sought to conquer the Kingdom of Naples. Nor did the expulsion of the enemy from the Kingdom of Naples seem sufficient to reassure F., who wished to confine France within its natural limits, opposing every imperialistic design. The King therefore did not grant his support to the Spanish cardinal Carvajal, who, using the need for a reform of the Church as a pretext and with the aid of Louis XII, had convoked a conciliabulum at Pisa; the Spanish prelates instead took part in the ecumenical Lateran Council (1512). It is difficult to say whether, in the monarch’s intentions, F.’s policy was exhausted in a coherent and continuous anti-French action, or whether it aimed, as Doussinague maintains, at realizing the grand design of a war against the infidels and the definitive elimination of the Turkish danger.
In any event, it is certain that F.’s personality occupies a prominent place not only in the history of his own country but also in that of the Europe of his time, and that the effects of his political action were lasting and laid the foundations of the Spanish state in the modern age.