FERDINAND V. of Castile and Leon, and II. of Aragon ("the Catholic") (1452-1516), was the son of John II. of Aragon by his second marriage with Joanna Henriquez, of the family of the hereditary grand admirals of Castile, and was born at Sos in Aragon on March Io, 1452. His marriage in 1469 to his cousin Isabella of Castile (heiress of Henry IV. of Castile) was dic tated by the desire to unite his own claims to the crown with hers. When the king died in 1474 he made an attempt to procure his own proclamation as king without recognition of the rights of his wife. Isabella asserted her claims firmly, and at all times insisted on a voice in the government of Castile. But though Ferdinand had sought a selfish political advantage at his wife's expense, he was well aware of her ability and high character, and their views in government were identical. The king cared for nothing but dominion and political power, and he played a great part in Europe. His share in establishing the royal authority in all parts of Spain, in expelling the Moors from Granada, in the conquest of Navarre, in forwarding the voyages of Columbus, and in con tending with France for the supremacy in Italy, is dealt with elsewhere (see SPAIN : History). His character explains the most ungracious acts of his life, such as his breach of his promises to Columbus, his distrust of Ximenez and of the Great Captain. He feared that Ximenez and the Great Captain would become too independent, and watched them in the interest of the royal authority. He is said to have boasted that he had deceived Louis XII. of France twelve times; it is, in any case, certain that when Ferdinand made a treaty, or came to an understanding with any one, the contract was generally found to contain implied meanings favourable to himself which the other contracting party had not expected. The worst of his character was promi nently shown after the death of Isabella in 1504. He claimed the regency of Castile in the name of his insane daughter Joanna, without regard to the claims of her husband Philip of Habsburg. The hostility of the Castilian nobles baffled him for a time, but on Philip's death (1506) he reasserted his authority. His second marriage with Germaine of Foix in 1505 had apparently been contracted in the hope that by securing an heir male he might punish his Habsburg son-in-law. Aragon did not recognize the right of women to reign, and would have been detached together with Catalonia, Valencia and the Italian states if he had had a son. On this occasion Ferdinand allowed passion to obscure his political sense, and lead him into acts which tended to undo his work of national unification. As king of Aragon he abstained from inroads on the liberties of his subjects which might have pro voked rebellion. A few acts of illegal violence are recorded of him—as when he caused a notorious demagogue of Saragossa to be executed without form of trial. His arrangement of the con vention of Guadalupe, which ended the fierce Agrarian conflicts of Catalonia, was wise and profitable to the country, though it was probably dictated by a wish to weaken the landowners by taking away their feudal rights. Ferdinand died at Madrigale j o in Estremadura on Feb. 23, 1516.
The lives of the kings of this name before Ferdinand V. are con tained in the chronicles, and in the Anales de Aragon of Zurita, and the History of Spain by Mariana. Both deal at length with the life of Ferdinand V.
See W. H. Prescott, History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella (1887) ; J. H. Mariejol, L'Espagne sous Ferdinand et Isabelle (Paris, 1892).