Prominent among the late Castilian monarchs were Ferdinand 111.. who extended the dominions of Castile far into Andalusia, conquering Cor dova in 1236 and Seville in 1248; Alfonso X.. the Wise, famous as a legislator, writer, and patron of learning; Alfonso XL.; Peter the Cruel; and Isabella, whose marriage with Ferdinand the Catholic (1469) brought about the union of Castile and Aragon in 1479. Among the sov ereigns who raised Aragon to the position of an important power and extended its dominion be vend the bounds of the Iberian Peninsula were James I. (1213-76). who conquered Valencia and the Balearic Islands; Pedro III. (1276-85), who obtained Sicily (1232) ; James 11. (1291-1327). who annexed Sardinia ; Alfonso V. (1416-5S), who conquered Naples; and Ferdinand V., the Catholic (1479-1516), who became the ruler of the whole of Spain. The mediaeval history of Castile and Aragon is marked by a vigorous development of constitutionalism as embodied in the assertion of their power by the es tates of the realm. (See CORTES.) In both king doms the cities enjoyed great political freedom. of which they were gradually deprived after the consolidation of Spain into a single monarchy.
The union of Castile and Aragon enabled the Christians of Spain to undertake the subversion of what remained of Moorish dominion in the peninsula. In 1482 Ferdinand and Isabella en tered upon a war for the subjugation of the King dom of Granada, and at the beginning of 1492 the sovereigns made their entry into the .1loorish capital. All Spain, with the exception of Navarre, was now practically one power. The shrewd policy of Ferdinand the Catholic, who followed the tendency of the age and strengthened the royal power at the expense of the privileges bath of the feudal nobility and the people, enabled Spain to grow in external power and influence. and to assume a military prePtuinence among the countries of Europe. In Italy the arms of Spain. under Gonsalvo de Cbrdo•a, triumphed over those of France. In 1512 Ferdinand made himself master of Navarre, with the exception of the district north of the Pyrenees. and thus completed the unification of Spain. The discovery of the World by Columbus and his successors under Spanish auspices in the closing years of the fifteenth century made Spain the pioneer colonial power, and for a considerable period the greatest. The expulsion of the Jews from the Spanish do minions in 1492 deprived them of a large body of industrious citizens. In 1516 Charles I. (from 1519 Holy Roman Emperor as Charles V.), the grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella, and of Maxi milian of Austria and Mary of Burgundy, in augurated the Hapsburg dynasty on the throne of Spain. He was the ruler of the Netherlands,
which became part of the Spanish realm, and he acquired the Duchy of Milan (embracing most of Lombardy), which was made a Spanish possession. Mexico and Peru, whose mines poured the precious metals into Spain in an inexhaus tible supply, were acquired during his reign. Charles was the most powerful Christian mon arch of his time. His reign was taken up with endless contests with the French. and. as Ger man Emperor, with efforts to suppress Protest antism. as well as with war against the Turks. (See CHARLES V., HOLY ROMAN EMPEROR.) His son Philip II. (q.v.) (1556-98), who succeeded to the Spanish possessions of the House of Haps burg, prepared the way by his narrow and bigoted policy for the decline of Spain. He developed the inquisition, which had been introduced by Ferdinand and Isabella, into a powerful engine for the repression of religious and political dis sent, and his attempt forcibly to root out the Reformation in the Netherlands brought about a rising which resulted in the severance of the Dutch provinces from Spain. With England he waged long wars, which were disastrous to the Spanish naval power. (See ARMADA; DRAKE.) In 1530 Philip 11. conquered and annexed Portu gal. The Spaniards took possession of the Philip pines in his reign. Under Philip III. (1598 1621). in whose reign the Moriscos were expelled, and under Philip IV. ( 1621-65). in whose reign the Dutch Netherlands were definitively given up and Portugal reasserted its independence. the de cadence of the nation proceeded at a rapid rate. The male line of the Hapsburgs became extinct in Charles II. (1665-1700) and the conflicting claims to the throne produced the war of the Spanish Succession (see SFCCESSION WARS), in which England and Holland were allied with Austria, Prussia. the German Empire, and Savoy against Louis XTV. to prevent the aggrandize ment of France by the acquisition of Spain as an appanage of the House of Bourbon. When the rival Austrian claimant became Emperor and head of the Austrian dominions as Charles VI., in 1711, a similar objection existed to his obtain ing the throne of Spain, and the allies conceded the succession to I'hilip of Anjou, who had been proclaimed King of Spain as Philip V. in 1700, and was confirmed by the Peace of Utrecht in 1713. This was the beginning of the Bourhon dynasty in Spain. Spain emerged from the War of Succession stripped of the Belgian Nether lands. Naples. Sicily, Sardinia, and her Lombard territories. She had to cede Gibraltar to the English, who had captured it in 1704.