Spanish History: every monarch, conqueror and turning point, from Cádiz to today

Phoenicians found Gadir (Cádiz) (c. 1100 BC by tradition; archaeology points to the 9th or 8th century BC)

Gadir was founded by Phoenicians from Tyre on an island beyond the Strait of Gibraltar, close to the metals of southern Iberia. Ancient writers dated it to about 1100 BC, but digs have found nothing older than the 9th century BC, so it may have begun as a seasonal trading post. Its great sanctuary of Melqart, the god of Tyre, was identified by Greeks and Romans with Hercules. Under Rome the town was called Gades, and Cádiz is often called one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Western Europe.

• Strabo says the Gaditanians told of an oracle that ordered the Tyrians to send a colony. The first two expeditions turned back after unfavourable omens at their sacrifices, and the men of the third expedition founded Gades.
• Excavated layers on the island go back no further than the 9th century BC, so the traditional date of about 1100 BC rests on ancient writers rather than on digs. One explanation is that Gadir began as a small seasonal trading post.
• Strabo mentions two bronze pillars of eight cubits in the temple of Heracles at Gades, which some identified with the Pillars of Heracles. Livius.org thinks it possible that the name first referred to these columns and was later applied to the headlands on either side of the Strait of Gibraltar.

Sources: Strabo, Geography 3.5 (founding of Gades), LacusCurtius; Livius.org: Pillars of Heracles; World History Encyclopedia: Gades; Wikipedia: Cádiz

Tartessos, the silver kingdom (c. 9th to 6th century BC)

Tartessos was the name Greek writers gave to a rich society around the lower Guadalquivir in south-western Spain. It left no written history of its own, so we know it from archaeology and a few ancient authors. Mining in the Huelva and Rio Tinto region produced silver, copper, tin and lead, and the metals went out through Phoenician Gadir. From the early 6th century BC the mines and many settlements were being abandoned.

• The Tartessians left no written account of their own. About 97 short inscriptions in the Southwestern (Tartessian) script survive, but the language behind them is still unclassified, and most of what we know comes from digs and from Greek and Roman authors.
• The El Carambolo treasure, found near Seville in September 1958, has 21 gold pieces weighing about 2.39 kg. The World History Encyclopedia dates it to the early 7th century BC but also gives a 6th-century date in a caption, so the date is not settled.
• Wikipedia notes that Pliny the Elder wrongly identified Carteia as the Tartessos of the Greek sources. Strabo, writing about the same region under the name Turdetania, says the Turdetani were ranked the wisest of the Iberians and, as they asserted, had laws in verse six thousand years old.

Sources: Strabo, Geography 3.1 (Turdetania and its writing), LacusCurtius; World History Encyclopedia: Tartessos; Wikipedia: Tartessos

The Iberians and Celtiberians (c. 700 BC to the 1st century BC)

The Iberians lived along the Mediterranean coast and in the south in fortified towns. They spoke their own language and wrote it in scripts influenced by the Greek and Phoenician alphabets. Inland, around the upper Tagus, Douro and Ebro, lived the Celtiberians, who spoke a Celtic language and became some of Rome's toughest opponents in Spain. Latin gradually replaced the Iberian language, which was extinct by the 1st or 2nd century AD.

• Strabo says the Iberians used alphabets, but not letters of one and the same character, and that their speech was not uniform.
• The Iberian language remains unclassified and is not Indo-European. Some scholars see links with Basque, but its origin is disputed and there is no agreement.
• Encyclopaedia Romana quotes Livy as saying that Spain, the first province Rome entered, was the last to be completely subdued.

Sources: Strabo, Geography 3.1 (Iberian alphabets), LacusCurtius; Encyclopaedia Romana: The Celtiberian War and Numantia; Wikipedia: Iberians

The Lady of Elche (5th to 4th century BC; found August 4, 1897)

The Lady of Elche is a limestone bust about 56 cm high, found at the Iberian site of La Alcudia near Elche. The Museo Arqueológico Nacional dates it to the 5th to 4th centuries BC; Visit Elche says specialists date it between about 470 BC and the early 4th century BC, a range still under discussion. She wears a tall headdress, a veil and heavy jewellery, and was once painted. A cavity in the back suggests it served as a funerary urn. Her identity is unknown, and the museum says she has both human and divine character.

• The Louvre bought the bust within weeks of its discovery for 4,000 francs, and it was displayed in Paris for more than four decades.
• It returned to Spain in 1941 through an exchange of artworks between the French and Spanish governments. Visit Elche says it crossed the border at Portbou on February 8 of that year.
• Doubts about its authenticity were raised in 1906 and again in 1995 in John Moffitt's book Art Forgery. Most Spanish archaeologists reject them, and a 2005 CSIC pigment study found no modern pigments. Accounts also differ on who found it: popular tradition names Manuel Campello, while an official report by Pere Ibarra names Antonio Maciá.

Sources: Dama de Elche, Museo Arqueológico Nacional (museum catalogue page); Visit Elche (Elche city tourism): La Dama de Elche; Wikipedia: Lady of Elche

Carthage builds an empire in Spain (237 to 221 BC)

After the First Punic War, Hamilcar Barca took an army to Iberia, and his son-in-law Hasdrubal the Fair succeeded him in 228 BC. Hasdrubal relied largely on diplomacy and marriage ties with Iberian leaders, and founded New Carthage near a silver mine. In 226 BC he agreed with Rome that the Ebro would be the limit of Carthaginian expansion. When he was murdered in 221 BC, command passed to Hamilcar's son Hannibal.

• Livius.org notes that the Ebro agreement was made between Rome and Hasdrubal, not Carthage, unlike other Roman treaties with Carthage, which suggests he acted almost like a king. Polybius says Carthage later argued the agreement did not bind it for that reason, and that Hasdrubal governed Iberia as he chose without regard to the Carthaginian Senate.
• Livy says a barbarian whose master Hasdrubal had put to death killed him in broad daylight, and that under torture the killer kept a smile on his face. Livius.org calls the killer a Celtic mercenary.
• Polybius reports Hannibal's own account that, at about nine years old, he stood by the altar while his father Hamilcar sacrificed and was made to swear never to be a friend of the Romans.

Sources: Polybius, Histories 3.11 (Hannibal's oath), 3.27 to 3.30 (Ebro treaty), LacusCurtius; Livy, History of Rome 21.2 (Hasdrubal, the Ebro, Saguntum), Perseus; Livius.org: Hasdrubal the Fair; Livius.org: Carthago Nova (Cartagena)

Hannibal besieges Saguntum (219 BC (some accounts give 218))

Saguntum was a coastal Iberian city that Rome's agreement with Hasdrubal had left free, south of the Ebro. Hannibal attacked it, and Livy and Appian describe a long, bitter siege. Rome sent envoys but no army, and the city fell. Rome then demanded that Carthage hand over Hannibal, Carthage refused, and the Second Punic War began.

• Livy says Hannibal fell with a severe javelin wound in the thigh while approaching the wall, and that the siege works were all but abandoned in the confusion.
• Appian says the Saguntines melted their gold and silver with lead and brass so Hannibal could not use it. Livy tells it differently: leading citizens threw gold and silver on a fire in the forum, and most then leapt into it.
• Livy notes that some writers placed the fall in the eighth month of the siege, and says that this raises problems with the timing of the Roman consuls. Appian says the Roman envoy at Carthage showed the fold of his toga and offered the Carthaginians peace or war, and they told him to choose.

Sources: Livy, History of Rome 21.7 (the siege), Perseus; Livy, History of Rome 21.14 to 21.15 (fall of Saguntum and the dating problem), Perseus; Appian, The Spanish Wars 11 to 13 (Livius.org); World History Encyclopedia: Hannibal; Wikipedia: Siege of Saguntum

The Second Punic War in Spain (218 to 206 BC)

Rome seized Emporion in 218 BC as a base to cut Hannibal's lines to Spain. Gnaeus and Publius Scipio won early successes but were both killed, with almost all their army, in the eighth year after their arrival. A Roman knight, Lucius Marcius, held the survivors together. Publius's son Scipio then took command, and by 206 BC Carthage had lost the peninsula.

• Livy's summary (Periocha 24) says that when Rome hired Celtiberians under the Scipio brothers, a Roman camp included mercenaries for the first time.
• After the Scipios died, the knight Lucius Marcius Septimus stormed two enemy camps. Livy's summary says about 27,000 were killed, and Marcius was surnamed Dux, Leader.
• The ancient figures for the final battle at Ilipa differ: Polybius gives the Carthaginians about 74,000 men (70,000 foot and 4,000 horse) and Livy about 54,500, so the true size is uncertain.

Sources: Livy, Periochae 21 to 25 (Livius.org); Polybius, Histories 10 (Scipio in Spain), LacusCurtius; Livius.org: Emporiae (Ampurias); World History Encyclopedia: Gades; Wikipedia: Battle of Ilipa

Scipio Africanus in Spain (210 to 206 BC)

Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, General · Rome

Publius Cornelius Scipio took command in Spain after his father and uncle fell. In 209 BC he took New Carthage, Carthage's Spanish capital. In 208 BC he fought Hasdrubal at Baecula, an indecisive battle in which Hasdrubal escaped north, and in 206 BC he won a decisive victory at Ilipa. Spain was now in Roman hands, and Scipio went on to defeat Hannibal at Zama in 202 BC. He founded Italica for his veterans at about this time.

How they rose: After his father and uncle were killed in 211 BC, the assembly gave the command in Spain to Scipio in 210 BC, although he had held neither praetorship nor consulship. Polybius gives his age on taking command as 27; modern birth-year estimates (236 or 235 BC) make him a little younger.

How they died: He left Spain in 206 BC and won the war at Zama in 202 BC. After trials in 187 BC he withdrew from public life and died around 183 BC at his villa at Liternum.

• Polybius says that Scipio learned from fishermen that the lagoon beside New Carthage was shallow and fordable and fell towards evening, and sent 500 men with ladders through it. He also told his troops that Neptune had given him the plan in a dream.
• Polybius says Scipio treated the Iberian hostages held at New Carthage, over three hundred in number, kindly and offered to send them home if their kin allied with Rome.
• Italica, which he founded in 206 BC for his veterans, later gave Rome two emperors, Trajan and Hadrian.

Sources: Polybius, Histories 10 (capture of New Carthage), LacusCurtius; Livius.org: Carthago Nova (Cartagena); Livius.org: Italica; Wikipedia: Scipio Africanus

Viriathus (147 to 139 BC)

Viriathus, leader of the Lusitani, Lusitanian leader

Viriathus led the Lusitani, in what is now Portugal and western Spain, against Rome after a Roman governor massacred surrendered Lusitanians in 150 BC. He used ambush and mobility to beat several Roman armies. A treaty made him a friend of the Roman people, but Rome broke it and the war resumed.

How they rose: Born about 180 BC among the Lusitani, according to the World History Encyclopedia, he survived Galba's massacre of 150 BC and became their war leader, defeating the Roman commander Vetilius in 147 BC and other Roman governors afterwards.

How they died: He was killed in about 139 BC; the World History Encyclopedia gives 140. His own envoys murdered him in his tent, having been bribed by the Roman general Caepio.

• Livy, as summarised on Wikipedia, describes him as a shepherd who became a hunter and then a soldier.
• Appian says Viriathus's three envoys, Audax, Ditalco and Minurus, bribed by the Roman general Caepio, stabbed him in the throat, the one part not protected by his armour, as he slept in his tent.
• Appian says his men gave him a funeral with a pyre, processions and gladiatorial contests at his tomb. Wikipedia reports that Eutropius has Caepio refusing to pay the killers further, and that the Senate refused Caepio a triumph.

Sources: Appian, The Spanish Wars 74 to 75 (death of Viriathus; Livius.org); Encyclopaedia Romana: The Celtiberian War and Numantia; World History Encyclopedia: Viriathus; Wikipedia: Viriathus

The siege of Numantia (134 to 133 BC)

Numantia, a Celtiberian town on the upper Douro, resisted Rome in a war that began in 143 BC. In 137 BC a Roman consul surrendered his army, and the Senate repudiated the treaty. In 134 BC Scipio Aemilianus took command, built a ring of walls and camps around the town, and starved it. Numantia surrendered in 133 BC, and Scipio razed it.

• Appian says Numantia had only about 8,000 fighting men before the war, while the last Roman army sent against it numbered 60,000.
• Wikipedia says Scipio's circuit of siege works was about 9 km long, and Encyclopaedia Romana says his forces numbered sixty thousand men in seven camps around the town.
• Appian says the starving Numantines ate boiled hides and then human bodies. Many killed themselves after the surrender, and Scipio kept fifty captives for his triumph, sold the rest and razed the city. The site at Garray, near Soria, was identified by Eduardo Saavedra in 1860.

Sources: Appian, The Spanish Wars 96 to 98 (surrender of Numantia; Livius.org); Appian, The Spanish Wars 76 to 80 (Numantine War; Livius.org); Encyclopaedia Romana: The Celtiberian War and Numantia; Wikipedia: Numantia

Augustus completes the conquest (29 to 19 BC (Augustus himself came to Spain in 26 BC))

The Cantabrian Wars were the final stage of Rome's conquest of Hispania, fought in the mountains of what are now Cantabria, Asturias and León. Augustus came to Spain to lead the war and fell ill, and his generals finished it. Marcus Agrippa broke the last revolt in 19 BC, ending almost two centuries of fighting in the peninsula.

• Cassius Dio says Augustus fell ill from over-exertion and anxiety and withdrew to Tarraco, while his generals fought on and took Lancia, the main Asturian stronghold.
• Dio says that in 19 BC Agrippa forced the surviving Cantabrians down from their hill forts to live on the plains, sent no report of it to the Senate, and did not accept a triumph.
• Dio says that at the war's end Augustus let his discharged veterans found Augusta Emerita (Mérida) and closed the precinct of Janus, which had been opened because of these wars. Wikipedia notes that some scholars place the Roman siege of Mons Medullius, known from Orosius, at Las Médulas, now a UNESCO site.

Sources: Cassius Dio, Roman History 53.25 to 53.26 (Augustus in Spain), LacusCurtius; Cassius Dio, Roman History 54.11 (Agrippa and the Cantabri), LacusCurtius; Encyclopaedia Romana: The Celtiberian War and Numantia; Livius.org: Tarraco (Tarragona); Wikipedia: Cantabrian Wars

Roman Hispania: Mérida, Tarraco and Italica (25 BC to the 2nd century AD)

After the conquest, Augustus split Hispania into three provinces: Baetica (capital Corduba), Lusitania (capital Emerita Augusta) and Tarraconensis (capital Tarraco). Emerita was founded for veterans in 25 BC, Tarraco was a provincial capital linked by the Via Augusta, and Italica was founded in 206 BC for veterans. The peninsula exported metals, grain, wine, olive oil, fish sauce and wool.

• Strabo says that the Turdetanians, especially those near the Baetis, had completely changed over to the Roman way of life, not even remembering their own language any more.
• Livius.org says Emerita Augusta must have been very large, since it needed three aqueducts and two fora.
• Hadrian, whose family came from Italica, gave the town colonia rights but never visited it, even though it was only a few kilometres from Seville, where he did stay, according to Livius.

Sources: Strabo, Geography 3.2 (Turdetania), LacusCurtius; Livius.org: Augusta Emerita; Livius.org: Tarraco (Tarragona); Livius.org: Italica; Wikipedia: Hispania

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC to AD 65)

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (Seneca the Younger), Philosopher · Corduba

Lucius Annaeus Seneca was born in Corduba in Baetica and trained in rhetoric and philosophy in Rome. He wrote the 124 Letters to Lucilius, essays such as On the Shortness of Life and a set of tragedies, and came from a wealthy family.

How they rose: He was recalled from exile through Agrippina and became tutor and then adviser to the young Nero. From AD 54 to 62 he guided the government together with the Praetorian prefect Burrus, and his influence faded after Burrus died in 62.

How they died: In AD 65 Nero ordered him to die after the Pisonian conspiracy, although many modern scholars doubt that he was part of it. He died at his villa near Rome that year.

• Under Claudius he was exiled to Corsica from AD 41 to 49 after an accusation of adultery with Julia Livilla, and was recalled through the influence of Agrippina.
• Tacitus says his death was slow: he cut the arteries of his arms, then of his legs and behind the knees, then took poison, which had no effect, and was finally suffocated in the steam of a hot bath.
• His wife Paulina also cut her arms, but Tacitus says Nero ordered her suicide to be prevented, her slaves bandaged her arms, and she lived on for several years.

Sources: Tacitus, Annals 15.60 to 15.64 (death of Seneca), LacusCurtius; World History Encyclopedia: Seneca; Livius.org: Corduba (Córdoba); Wikipedia: Seneca the Younger

Trajan (98 to 117)

Trajan (Marcus Ulpius Traianus), Roman emperor, Nerva-Antonine dynasty

Marcus Ulpius Traianus ruled for nearly twenty years. He conquered Dacia in two wars, then fought the Parthians, adding Armenia and Mesopotamia, and the empire reached its largest extent. The Senate gave him the title optimus princeps, the best ruler.

How they came to power: He was born at Italica on September 18, 53 (one reckoning gives 56) and was governor in Germany when Nerva adopted him in 97 (Wikipedia says summer, the World History Encyclopedia says October), partly to win army support. Nerva died on January 28, 98, and Trajan succeeded without trouble.

How it ended: He fell ill while returning from the Parthian war and died at Selinus in Cilicia in August 117, aged about 63; Wikipedia says of a stroke. Cassius Dio puts his reign at 19 years, 6 months and 15 days, and says Trajan himself suspected poison, while others blamed a blockage of blood flow.

• Cassius Dio says Nerva chose Trajan although he was a Spaniard rather than an Italian, and that no foreigner had held the Roman throne before him.
• The World History Encyclopedia says Trajan conquered Dacia in 101 to 106 and used the seized Dacian treasure to fund the Forum of Trajan.
• Tradition says his ashes were placed in a chamber beneath Trajan's Column in Rome.

Sources: Cassius Dio, Roman History 68 (adoption, character and death of Trajan), LacusCurtius; World History Encyclopedia: Trajan; Livius.org: Italica; Wikipedia: Trajan

Theodosius I (379 to 395)

Theodosius I, Roman emperor, Theodosian dynasty

Theodosius was made Augustus after the Goths had killed Valens at Adrianople. He ruled the East, and in 394 defeated the usurper Eugenius at the Frigidus, which left him sole emperor. His reign saw the Edict of Thessalonica of 380 and laws against pagan sacrifice. On his death the empire passed to his sons Arcadius in the East and Honorius in the West.

How they came to power: He was born on January 11, 347 in Hispania, probably at Cauca or Italica. After Valens died at Adrianople in 378, Gratian made him Augustus at Sirmium on January 19, 379.

How it ended: He died of an illness involving severe swelling at Milan on January 17, 395, aged 48, and was buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople.

• The Edict of Thessalonica (Cunctos populos, Codex Theodosianus 16.1.2) was issued on February 27, 380 in the names of Gratian, Valentinian II and Theodosius, and addressed to the people of Constantinople. It is often called the law that made Christianity the state religion, but Wikipedia notes that recent scholarship sees its effect as narrower than older accounts suggest.
• After a massacre at Thessalonica in 390, Livius says Ambrose of Milan excommunicated Theodosius, who did penance. Wikipedia notes that most scholars now question how directly Theodosius ordered the massacre and treat the Ambrose penance story as largely later legend.
• The Frigidus in 394, when Eugenius was defeated, was in Livius's words the last time the Roman empire was ruled by one man.

Sources: Cunctos populos (Edict of Thessalonica), Codex Theodosianus 16.1.2, translation on Andrew Jacobs's course page (Scripps College); Livius.org: Theodosius I; Wikipedia: Theodosius I

The Vandals, Suebi and Alans Enter Spain (409 to 411)

In the chronicle of the Gallaecian bishop Hydatius, 409 is the year the Alans, Vandals and Suebi entered the Spanish provinces. They had crossed the Rhine into Gaul a few years earlier, in 406, and Spain was in the middle of a Roman civil war. Hydatius, who wrote around 468 and lived through the aftermath, describes plague, famine and plunder, and then a division of the land by lot. The Roman state never fully recovered its grip on the peninsula, and the Visigoths later arrived as Roman allies to fight these newcomers.

• Hydatius, a Gallaecian bishop who wrote the chronicle decades later, says the famine was so bad that people ate human flesh. He read these troubles as the fulfilment of a biblical prophecy of four plagues: sword, famine, pestilence and wild beasts.
• Hydatius says Spain was divided by lot: the Vandals and Suebi took Gallaecia, the Alans took Lusitania and Carthaginiensis, and the Silingi Vandals took Baetica.
• The Suebian kingdom in Gallaecia lasted from the 400s until 585. Isidore of Seville counts its length as 177 years before it passed to the Goths.

Sources: Hydatius, Chronicon, sections XV to XVII on 409 (The Latin Library); Isidore of Seville, History of the Goths, Vandals and Suevi, section 92 (The Latin Library); World History Encyclopedia: Vandals; Wikipedia: Suebi

The Visigothic Kingdom of Toledo (c. 507 to 711)

The Visigoths first settled in southern Gaul in 418 under Wallia, with Toulouse as their capital. After the Franks defeated them in 507, the centre of the kingdom shifted to Hispania and in time to Toledo. A small Gothic elite ruled a mostly Hispano-Roman population. Kings were chosen by nobles and bishops, and the councils held at Toledo became the highest court of church and state.

• Kings were elected by Gothic nobles and church leaders, not inherited by right. In practice this meant frequent coups and depositions.
• After a civil war that began in 549, King Athanagild asked Justinian for troops. Byzantine forces then held a coastal province in the south until King Suintila drove them out in 624 or 625.
• The Catholic Encyclopedia notes that the national council at Toledo was the highest court, and that the king convoked it and appointed the bishops.

Sources: Isidore of Seville, History of the Goths, Vandals and Suevi, sections 47 and 62 (The Latin Library); World History Encyclopedia: Visigoths; Catholic Encyclopedia: Visigoths (New Advent); Wikipedia: Visigothic Kingdom

Isidore of Seville (c. 560 to 4 April 636)

Isidore, Archbishop of Seville (c. 560 to 636), Scholar and bishop · Seville

Isidore was a Hispano-Roman scholar and archbishop of Seville. He wrote the Etymologiae, a 20-book encyclopedia that his friend Braulio of Zaragoza corrected and divided into its final books, and also a history of the Gothic, Vandal and Suevic kings. He was influential at the court of King Sisebut and presided over the Fourth Council of Toledo in 633. The Etymologies became a standard textbook of the Middle Ages and preserved excerpts of classical writing.

How they rose: Born around 560, he was the younger brother of Leander, whom he succeeded as archbishop of Seville. He held the see for more than 32 years.

How they died: He died on 4 April 636. Pope Innocent XIII declared him a Doctor of the Church in 1722.

• The Etymologiae has 448 chapters in 20 books. Braulio praised it as containing nearly everything one needs to know.
• Isidore's derivations are often wrong by modern standards. He writes that homo (human) is named because he was made from humus (soil), and that the aranea (spider) is named from aer (air), its nourishment.
• The Etymologiae was printed ten times between 1470 and about 1530, according to the editor Arevalo cited in the Catholic Encyclopedia.

Sources: Isidore, Etymologiae, Book XI, section 1 (homo from humus) (The Latin Library); Isidore, Etymologiae, Book XII (aranea) (The Latin Library); Catholic Encyclopedia: St. Isidore of Seville (New Advent); Wikipedia: Isidore of Seville

Leovigild (568 to 586)

Leovigild (Liuvigild), King of the Visigoths, Visigothic kingdom of Toledo

Leovigild turned a loose Gothic kingdom into a centralised state. He campaigned against the Byzantines in the south, took Cordoba, and in 585 conquered the Suebian kingdom in the northwest. He took up royal display: a throne, a crown, a sceptre and a purple mantle. He struck gold coins in his own name and founded the city of Reccopolis, named for his son. He also pressed the Arian faith on his Catholic subjects, and his reign saw his own son's Catholic revolt.

How they came to power: After King Athanagild died in 567, Liuva I took the throne and made his brother Leovigild partner in the realm, giving him charge of Spain. Isidore says Leovigild reigned 18 years, and sources differ on whether the reign began in 568 or 569.

How it ended: He died at Toledo on 21 April 586. Gregory of Tours says he repented and embraced the Catholic faith before his death, though that is the account of a foreign writer. His son Reccared succeeded him.

• Around 575 his coinage began to put the Gothic king's name on the reverse beside the emperor's, and the next year the emperor's name was dropped. His coins averaged about 94 percent fine gold.
• His son Hermenegild converted to Catholicism and in 579 Baetica rose in revolt under him. Leovigild took Seville, exiled his son to Valencia in 584, and Hermenegild was murdered in 585. Later writers made him a martyr, but the Catholic Encyclopedia notes that contemporary authorities say nothing of this.
• Isidore says that in his last war Leovigild defeated the Suebian king Andeca and made him a presbyter, ending the Suebian kingdom.

Sources: Isidore of Seville, History of the Goths, sections 48 to 51 and 92 (The Latin Library); Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks, Brehaut translation (Fordham Internet Medieval Sourcebook); Coins of the Conquerors of Rome (CoinWeek); Catholic Encyclopedia: Visigoths (New Advent); Wikipedia: Liuvigild

Reccared I (586 to 601)

Reccared I, King of the Visigoths, Visigothic kingdom of Toledo

Reccared inherited a kingdom his father Leovigild had greatly extended. His main act was religious: the Gothic court had followed Arian Christianity while most of its subjects were Catholic, and he ended that split. The change was made public at the Third Council of Toledo in 589. He also put down Arian revolts and defeated a Frankish attack.

How they came to power: He succeeded his father Leovigild in April 586, and Isidore says he was crowned king after Leovigild's death.

How it ended: He died a natural death at Toledo in December 601. Isidore gives his reign as 15 years. His son Liuva II succeeded him.

• Modern accounts such as Wikipedia's article on Reccared date his own renunciation of Arianism to January 587, two years before the council.
• Arian revolts broke out in Septimania and Lusitania in 587. A conspiracy in 588, led by Bishop Uldila and the queen dowager Goiswintha, was found out.
• Isidore says he defeated a large Frankish force sent into Gaul, after sending a commander named Claudius against them.

Sources: Isidore of Seville, History of the Goths, sections 52 to 56 (The Latin Library); Catholic Encyclopedia: Visigoths (New Advent); 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica: Toledo, Councils of (Wikisource); Wikipedia: Reccared I

The Third Council of Toledo (May 589)

The council met at Toledo with Leander of Seville presiding and opened on 4 May 589. Reccared's profession of faith was ghostwritten for him, probably by Leander, and the council issued 23 canons and 23 anathemas. It marked the conversion of the Gothic crown from Arianism to Catholicism and set the pattern of church and crown governing together.

• Seventy-two bishops are listed in attendance. Eight former Arian bishops subscribed to the creeds.
• The king's profession of faith is thought to have been ghostwritten, probably by Leander. It was signed by Reccared and his queen Baddo.
• The second canon added the phrase Filioque to the creed recited at communion. The Eastern Church never accepted it, and it became a lasting point of dispute between East and West.

Sources: Third Council of Toledo, decree on the creed (The Presbyters Project, Latin with English translation); Catholic Encyclopedia: Toledo (Spain) (New Advent); 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica: Toledo, Councils of (Wikisource); Wikipedia: Third Council of Toledo

The Visigothic Code (Liber Iudiciorum) (654)

King Chindasuinth began the work in 642 to 643, and his son Recceswinth published the enlarged code in 654. It is arranged in twelve books covering topics from judicial procedure and marriage to crime and property. It ended separate laws for Goths and Romans, whose subjects came to be called hispani. It leans heavily on church law and combines Roman and Germanic legal ideas.

• Under the code women could hold and manage land independently of their husbands, and could make wills if they had no heirs.
• Braulio of Zaragoza edited Recceswinth's version of the code.
• At the Twelfth Council of Toledo in 681, 28 of the new laws added to the code concerned Jews.

Sources: The Visigothic Code: Forum Judicum, trans. S. P. Scott (Libro, Library of Iberian Resources Online); World History Encyclopedia: Visigoths; Wikipedia: Visigothic Code

Roderic (710 to 711)

Roderic (Rodrigo), last King of the Visigoths, Visigothic kingdom of Toledo

Roderic took the throne in 710 in a disputed succession, and a rival, Achila, held the northeast of the kingdom. The sources for his reign are thin, and Ardo later ruled in Septimania, so Roderic is the last Gothic king of Toledo rather than the last of all. He is remembered chiefly for being the king who lost at Guadalete.

How they came to power: The Chronicle of 754 says he invaded the kingdom, in a word (tumultuose) that modern translators render as tumultuously. The exact meaning has long been debated, and historians suggest he may simply have usurped the throne rather than come from outside.

How it ended: He died in 711 or 712, usually placed at the Battle of Guadalete in July 711. The Arabic account of Ibn Abd al-Hakam says God killed Roderic and his companions, and a Portuguese legend says he fled the field alone.

• Twelve of his coins survive, minted at Toledo and Egitania. Together with the coinage of Achila, they suggest the royal authority was divided between rival rulers.
• A story, treated as fact for centuries, said he seduced or raped Count Julian's daughter, known as La Cava or Florinda, and that Julian took revenge by helping the invaders. It is told in ninth-century Arabic accounts such as Ibn Abd al-Hakam, not in the contemporary Christian chronicle.
• A 9th-century chronicle reports a tombstone for him at Egitania, in modern Portugal, reading Hic requiescit Rodericus, rex Gothorum.

Sources: Ibn Abd-el-Hakem, The Islamic Conquest of Spain (c. 870), Fordham Internet Medieval Sourcebook. The Chronicle of 754 is available in English only in print (trans. K. B. Wolf, 1990).; Rodrigo: The Last King of the Visigoths (Ministry for Heritage, Government of Gibraltar); New World Encyclopedia: Umayyad conquest of Hispania; Wikipedia: Roderic

The Battle of Guadalete (July 711)

The battle was fought in southern Spain, traditionally in July 711, though the Mozarabic Chronicle appears to place it in 712. The invading force was mainly Berber with some Arabs, under Tariq ibn Ziyad, who served Musa ibn Nusayr, the Umayyad governor in North Africa. Roderic was killed and many Visigothic nobles with him, which opened the road to Toledo. The chief Christian source, the Chronicle of 754, was written by a Mozarab shortly after, and the Arabic accounts date from the mid-9th century on.

• The exact site is unknown. Proposed places include Shedunya (probably Medina Sidonia), the La Janda lake area, and the Barbate river valley.
• Numbers are guesswork. Ibn Abd al-Hakam gives Tariq's army as 1,700 and rejects a claim of 12,000 as false. Roger Collins suggests about 2,500 Visigoths against about 1,900 invaders, while David Levering Lewis suggests about 33,000 against 12,000. Arabic traditions claim 100,000 Visigoths, which historians consider far too high.
• Gibraltar takes its name from Jebel al-Tarik, the Mountain of Tariq, and the long speech attributed to Tariq on the eve of the battle, preserved by al-Maqqari, is a literary composition, not a record of his words.

Sources: Ibn Abd-el-Hakem, The Islamic Conquest of Spain (c. 870), Fordham Internet Medieval Sourcebook; Rodrigo: The Last King of the Visigoths (Ministry for Heritage, Government of Gibraltar); New World Encyclopedia: Umayyad conquest of Hispania; Wikipedia: Battle of Guadalete

The Umayyad Conquest of Hispania (711 to 718)

Tariq ibn Ziyad, a Berber commander serving Musa ibn Nusayr, the governor of North Africa, crossed to Iberia in 711. Estimates of his force vary widely between sources, from under 2,000 men to about 12,000. He defeated King Roderic in July 711, probably near the Guadalete river in the south; the exact site is uncertain. Musa followed in 712 with a larger army, and the two commanders pushed north over the next few years. By the late 710s only the mountains of the far north were outside Muslim control.

• Gibraltar takes its name from the Arabic Jabal Tariq, 'Tariq's mountain', after the commander who landed there.
• In 713 Theodemir, the Visigothic count of Murcia, surrendered on terms. He kept rule over his southeastern lands as a client in return for tribute, and the same terms were later extended to seven other towns.
• The best-known Arabic account, by Ibn Abd al-Hakam, was written about 150 years later and mixes legend with fact. It says Tariq took the 'table of Solomon', valued at 200,000 dinars for its pearls, and that Musa, angry with Tariq, reprimanded him severely.

Sources: Ibn Abd-el-Hakem: The Islamic Conquest of Spain (Fordham Medieval Sourcebook); Library of Congress Country Studies: Spain, Al Andalus; Wikipedia: Umayyad conquest of Hispania

Pelagius of Asturias (c. 718 to 737)

Pelagius (Pelayo), first leader of the Kingdom of Asturias, Kingdom of Asturias

Pelagius, said to be the son of Favila, led a revolt in the Asturian mountains against the new Muslim rulers. One modern account ties it to taxes they imposed; later tradition names the governor Munuza as his opponent. The later Asturian chronicles make him the founder of the kingdom of Asturias, with its centre at Cangas de Onis. Almost nothing is documented about his early life, and every account of him was written long after he died. Older writers called him a Visigothic noble. Recent scholarship more often sees a member of the local Hispano-Roman elite. His reign is remembered mainly for Covadonga.

How they came to power: Around 718 the Asturians chose him as their leader, as princeps, according to the Chronica Rotensis. Dates for these early years vary between sources.

How it ended: He reigned about 18 or 19 years and died in 737. He was first buried at Santa Eulalia de Abamia near Cangas de Onis. Alfonso X later moved his remains to the Holy Cave at Covadonga.

• The Chronicle of Alfonso III says his son Favila, who succeeded him, was killed by a bear.
• His daughter Ermesinda married the future king Alfonso I, which tied the new dynasty together.
• Whether he was Visigothic or Hispano-Roman is a live debate. Historians such as Roger Collins judge the Albelda chronicle's northern origin more credible than the later claim that he was exiled from Toledo.

Sources: Chronicle of Alfonso III, Sebastian version, English translation by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi; Biografias y Vidas: Pelayo; Wikipedia: Pelagius of Asturias

The Battle of Covadonga (c. 718 to 722 (date disputed))

Pelagius's followers took up a position in the Picos de Europa near Covadonga. The Muslim force sent against them was led by Alqama, and by legend Bishop Oppa of Seville was with it. The Chronicle of Alfonso III says Alqama was killed and Oppa captured. The defenders used the narrow valley and the slopes against a larger force. Christian accounts describe a great victory and credit divine help. Muslim accounts treat it as a minor skirmish. The date is disputed: one reading gives the summer of 722, another 718 or 719. The scale and meaning of the fight are exactly what historians argue about.

• The Chronicle of Alfonso III says 124,000 Muslim soldiers were killed and 63,000 more died when a mountainside fell into a river. Its modern translator tells readers to take such numbers with a pinch of salt.
• The Chronicle names the site only as the cave 'that is called the cove of Saint Mary'. The shrine of Our Lady of Covadonga still stands there.
• Calling the battle the start of the 'Reconquista' is itself debated. World History Encyclopedia calls the name a somewhat spurious claim to reconquer what the Visigoths had lost about 400 years earlier.

Sources: Chronicle of Alfonso III, Sebastian version, English translation by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi; World History Encyclopedia: Reconquista; Wikipedia: Battle of Covadonga

Abd al-Rahman I (756 to 788)

Abd al-Rahman ibn Mu'awiya, first Umayyad emir of Cordoba, Umayyad dynasty of Cordoba

Born in 731, probably near Damascus, Abd al-Rahman was an Umayyad prince. When the Abbasids overthrew the Umayyads in 750 he fled, and his brother Yahya was killed. He founded an independent emirate in Cordoba, ruling as emir rather than caliph. His reign of 32 years included breaking an Abbasid siege at Carmona in 763 and bringing Zaragoza under control in 783. He began the Great Mosque of Cordoba in the mid-780s.

How they came to power: He landed near Almunecar in 755, won the support of Syrian and Yemeni commanders who opposed the governor Yusuf al-Fihri, and defeated al-Fihri near Cordoba at the battle of al-Musarah. He became emir in 756.

How it ended: He died in Cordoba on 30 September 788, aged 57, and was reportedly buried near the site of the Great Mosque. His son Hisham I succeeded him.

• Al-Maqqari, a 17th-century compiler, quotes the earlier historian Ibn Hayyan for four verses the emir is reported to have spoken on seeing a lone palm tree in his garden: it was, like him, far from its kindred.
• According to the same text, he sent a botanist to bring plants from the East and introduced the peach and a pomegranate called Safari to al-Andalus.
• He was surnamed the 'Hawk (Falcon) of Quraysh'. Al-Maqqari ties the name to the speed with which he subdued the country; a modern account says the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur, his rival, reportedly used it in admiration.

Sources: Al-Maqqari, History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain, trans. Pascual de Gayangos, 1840 to 1843 (Internet Archive; a 17th-century compilation quoting Ibn Hayyan and others); World History Encyclopedia: Abd al-Rahman I; Wikipedia: Abd al-Rahman I

The Great Mosque of Cordoba (c. 785 to 988)

Abd al-Rahman I began the mosque in about 785 to 786 on a site shared with a Christian church, whose half he bought. The first prayer hall had 11 naves with arcades in two tiers. His successors kept adding to it. Abd al-Rahman II enlarged the hall to the south, and Abd al-Rahman III built a new minaret. Al-Hakam II added the decorated mihrab, dated by inscription to 965, and Almanzor added eight naves on the east in 987 to 988. In 1236 it became a church, and a cathedral nave was built inside it from 1523.

• Builders reused Roman and Visigothic columns and capitals. The original hall had some 120 columns, and the building has about 850 today.
• The alternating red brick and white stone of the arches has no agreed origin. Scholars point to Umayyad Levantine, pre-Islamic Iberian and Roman influences.
• After Almanzor sacked Santiago in 997, the bells of its church were reportedly carried to Cordoba by Christian captives and hung as lamps in the mosque. Al-Maqqari says 'it is also related' that this happened, which marks it as a report.

Sources: Al-Maqqari, History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain, trans. Pascual de Gayangos, 1840 to 1843 (Internet Archive; a 17th-century compilation quoting Ibn Hayyan and others); Discover Islamic Art (Museum With No Frontiers): Great Mosque of Cordoba; Wikipedia: Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba

The Tomb at Santiago de Compostela and the Pilgrimage (Between 818 and 842 (some later accounts say about 814))

Tradition says a hermit named Pelagius saw lights over a wooded field. Bishop Theodemir of Iria declared the tomb found there to be that of the apostle James and told King Alfonso II of Asturias, who had a small church built at the site. The discovery cannot be dated more closely than the reign of Alfonso II, 791 to 842, and Theodemir's predecessor was still alive in 818. The two surviving narratives of the discovery date from the late 11th and early 12th centuries. Richard Fletcher argues that the cult became widely known only in the 11th century, and that a charter of 1046 is among the earliest to list it with Rome.

• Theodemir's death date, 20 October 847, is inscribed on a sarcophagus found beneath the present cathedral. A 2024 study in Antiquity found that remains from the site are consistent with his: a single adult male, likely over 45. This contradicts an older claim that the bones were a woman's.
• The earliest evidence that the apostle's tomb was in Spain is Usuard's martyrology, completed about 865. A text probably of the seventh century sends James to Spain to preach but says he was not buried there.
• The folk etymology of 'Compostela' is 'field of the star'. Scholars including Richard Fletcher prefer a Latin origin from compositum, 'burial', giving 'little cemetery', possibly an older burial ground.

Sources: Al-Maqqari's account of the Santiago campaign of 997, describing the church of St. James as a goal of pilgrims from distant lands (Gayangos translation, Internet Archive); R. A. Fletcher, Saint James's Catapult, chapter 3: The Early History of the Cult of St. James (University of Central Arkansas); Max Planck Society: Study confirms likely identity of the remains of Bishop Teodomiro; American Pilgrims on the Camino: History of the Camino de Santiago; Wikipedia: Santiago de Compostela

Abd al-Rahman III (912 to 961)

Abd al-Rahman III al-Nasir, emir (912) and first caliph (929) of Cordoba, Umayyad dynasty of Cordoba

Abd al-Rahman III inherited an emirate close to falling apart and spent his early reign crushing the rebellions led by Umar ibn Hafsun and his sons. He took Seville in 913 and Toledo in 932. In 929 he declared himself caliph, breaking with both the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad and the Fatimids in North Africa. He built the palace-city of Madinat al-Zahra and expanded the use of saqaliba, slaves of European origin, at court. He relied on the Jewish courtier and physician Hasdai ibn Shaprut. By 958 the rulers of Leon and Navarre were paying homage to him. His court is often cited as an example of 'convivencia', but historians dispute that label (see the facts below).

How they came to power: His grandfather, the emir Abdallah, favoured him over Abdallah's own sons. He succeeded on 16 October 912, aged about 21.

How it ended: He died in October 961 at Madinat al-Zahra, according to al-Maqqari, of a paralytic fit. His son al-Hakam II succeeded him.

• 'Convivencia', 'living together', is a term for Muslim, Christian and Jewish coexistence in medieval Spain. Historians disagree about it. Mark Cohen calls the picture of an 'interfaith utopia' a myth that began with nineteenth-century Jewish historians, and he calls the opposite picture of constant persecution a myth too. He argues that coexistence was real but limited by legal discrimination and periodic violence.
• After a heavy defeat at Simancas in 939, he stopped leading campaigns in person.
• A Saxon nun, Hrotsvit of Gandersheim, wrote a Latin poem about a boy martyr put to death in his Cordoba. Its narrative opens by praising 'the bright ornament of the world' in the western parts. Its modern translator notes that the poem contains errors, in particular in its idea of Islam as a pagan religion.

Sources: Al-Maqqari, History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain, trans. Pascual de Gayangos, 1840 to 1843 (Internet Archive; a 17th-century compilation quoting Ibn Hayyan and others); Hrotsvit of Gandersheim, The Passion of Saint Pelagius, English translation by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi; World History Encyclopedia: Abd al-Rahman III; Mark R. Cohen, The 'Convivencia' of Jews and Muslims in the High Middle Ages (Medievalists.net, 2007 paper); Wikipedia: Abd al-Rahman III

Madinat al-Zahra (c. 936 to c. 1010 (sack dated 1010 to 1013))

Sources date the founding to 936, with the main building under way from about 940. According to Arabic sources it stood on three terraces, with the caliph's palaces at the top, offices in the middle and the town and army below. It held a mint, workshops and a mosque, and a library that some accounts put at hundreds of thousands of volumes. The Salon Rico, the main reception hall, was finished around 953 to 957. It was the setting for receptions of foreign envoys. Almanzor began his own palace-city in 978 to 979 and moved the government there. The sack of Madinat al-Zahra is dated differently: the Berbers are usually said to have destroyed it in 1010, while some accounts give the civil war years 1010 to 1013. Its materials were later reused elsewhere.

• Only about 10 of the site's 112 hectares have been excavated. It was listed as a World Heritage Site on 1 July 2018.
• Al-Maqqari describes how the Christian king Ordoño IV, received by the caliph al-Hakam II at the palace in 962, passed between lines of infantry, uncovered his head, and prostrated himself several times as he approached the throne.
• A story that the city was named for a favourite wife of the caliph, with a statue of her, is popular but doubted by scholars.

Sources: Al-Maqqari, History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain, trans. Pascual de Gayangos, 1840 to 1843 (Internet Archive; a 17th-century compilation quoting Ibn Hayyan and others); Artencordoba: Medina Azahara, the brilliant city; Victoria and Albert Museum: architectural fragment from Madinat al-Zahra; Wikipedia: Madinat al-Zahra

Almanzor (978 to 1002)

Muhammad ibn Abi Amir, al-Mansur ('the Victorious'), chamberlain of Cordoba, Chamberlain · Caliphate of Cordoba

Born about 938 to 939 (one reference work gives 914) into an Arab landowning family of modest standing near Algeciras, he trained as a legal scholar and worked as a scribe. Through the patronage of Subh, the mother of the caliph's children, he rose to vizier in 976 and chamberlain (hajib) in 978. He held real power while the caliph Hisham II was kept in seclusion. His army had Berber, Slavic and Christian troops, and Christian mercenaries made up much of his guard. His raids took Barcelona in 985, struck Zamora, Toro, Leon and Astorga in 988 to 989 (Leon itself fell in 994), and reached Santiago de Compostela in 997.

How they rose: He gained the favour of Subh, became chamberlain in 978, and in 981 defeated his father-in-law, the general Ghalib, at Torrevicente. Ghalib was found dead in a ravine after the battle.

How they died: He died at Medinaceli in August 1002 (8 or 9 August, depending on the source) and was buried there. His sons Abd al-Malik and then Abd al-Rahman Sanchuelo governed until 1009.

• Al-Maqqari says contemporary historians report that Hisham II was so well hidden that many of his subjects never saw him in their lifetimes.
• He began a rival palace-city, Madinat al-Zahira, in 978 to 979 and moved the government there.
• His name 'al-Mansur' means 'the Victorious'. The Spanish form 'Almanzor' comes from it. Sources differ on his birth year: modern accounts give about 938 or 939, while Encyclopedia.com gives 914.

Sources: Al-Maqqari, History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain, trans. Pascual de Gayangos, 1840 to 1843 (Internet Archive; a 17th-century compilation quoting Ibn Hayyan and others); Encyclopedia.com: Al-Mansur (Almanzor), Moorish Regent of Cordoba; Library of Congress Country Studies: Spain, Al Andalus; Wikipedia: Almanzor

Almanzor Sacks Santiago de Compostela (July to August 997 (one reference work says 998))

The army left Cordoba on 3 July 997 and reached Santiago on 10 August, after devastating the county of Portugal. Al-Maqqari gives the date as Wednesday 2 Sha'ban 387 (10 August 997) and says the Muslim troops found the city deserted. Wikipedia also gives 997; Encyclopedia.com dates the destruction to 998, so the year is disputed in modern reference works. The troops destroyed the church and public buildings and took the spoils. Almanzor posted guards at the tomb of St. James to prevent any harm. Bishop Pedro de Mezonzo, who had withdrawn from the city, rebuilt the church two years later.

• Al-Maqqari says 'they say' the only person found in Santiago was an old monk sitting on the tomb, who said he was 'a familiar of St. James'. Almanzor ordered that he be left alone.
• Christian counts fought in his army on this campaign. Almanzor gave his Christian allies and others 2,285 pieces of silk cloth, among other gifts, according to al-Maqqari.
• The bells were reportedly carried by captives to Cordoba. One modern account says they were later melted down into lamps for the great mosque.

Sources: Al-Maqqari, History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain, trans. Pascual de Gayangos, 1840 to 1843 (Internet Archive; a 17th-century compilation quoting Ibn Hayyan and others); Encyclopedia.com: Al-Mansur (Almanzor), Moorish Regent of Cordoba; Wikipedia: Santiago de Compostela campaign

The Fall of the Caliphate of Cordoba (1009 to 1031)

The death of Abd al-Rahman Sanchuelo in 1009 began the civil war known as the fitna. Rival claimants proclaimed themselves caliph, and Berber troops raided and then besieged Cordoba. Berber forces took and sacked the city in 1013 (April or May, depending on the source). Hisham II, the nominal caliph, was deposed in 1009, restored in 1010 and disappears from the record in 1013; sources differ on whether he was killed or escaped. The last caliph, Hisham III, was chosen in 1026 or 1027 (sources differ) and deposed in 1031. The caliphate then broke into independent small kingdoms. The destruction of Madinat al-Zahra is dated to 1010 by some accounts and to 1010 to 1013 by others.

• Al-Maqqari quotes the historian Ibn al-Rakik on a few days in 1009 (AH 399) when Cordoba was taken, an Amirid palace-city destroyed and a caliph deposed. He notes the work was done by ten men, charcoal sellers, butchers and dung carriers who served in the new caliph's army. Modern accounts place the destruction of Madinat al-Zahra later, in 1010 or after.
• Hisham II's name kept appearing on the coins of the Taifa of Zaragoza until at least 1082 to 1083, long after he disappeared.
• Hisham III's prime minister, Hakam ibn Said, was killed in an ambush by rival militiamen in late 1031 (30 November in one account). A rising followed, and Hisham III was imprisoned and forced out of the city. He died in exile in 1036.

Sources: Al-Maqqari, History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain, trans. Pascual de Gayangos, 1840 to 1843 (Internet Archive; a 17th-century compilation quoting Ibn Hayyan and others); Library of Congress Country Studies: Spain, Al Andalus; Wikipedia: Caliphate of Cordoba

The Taifa Kingdoms (1031 to about 1094)

After a civil war in the 1000s, the caliphate of Cordoba dissolved. Two to three dozen independent 'party kingdoms' (taifas, from the Arabic ta'ifa, 'faction') appeared; counts differ, from some 23 to about 33, among them Seville, Toledo, Badajoz, Zaragoza and Granada. Their rulers were often brilliant patrons of poetry and science, and often poor at war. Seville swallowed most of its weaker neighbours. The Christian north, above all Castile-Leon, learned that it could extract money from them before it conquered them.

• The taifa kings bought peace by paying parias, tribute in gold. Alfonso VI of Castile-Leon collected it from Badajoz, Toledo, Zaragoza and even mighty Seville.
• Al-Mu'tamid of Seville (1040 to 1095) was a poet-king whose wife, I'timad, began life as a slave and a mule driver and won him with a verse reply; his close friend and later vizier Ibn 'Ammar was a poet too.
• The last Zirid ruler of Granada, 'Abd Allah ibn Buluggin, ruled from 1073 until his exile in 1090 and wrote a memoir (the Tibyan). It describes Alfonso VI squeezing a city for tribute 'year after year' until it gave way, and a siege at Aledo where the defenders lit the place up every night.

Sources: The Tibyan: Memoirs of 'Abd Allah b. Buluggin, Last Zirid Amir of Granada (tr. A. T. Tibi, 1986), chapter 7 extract, De Re Militari; The Poet-King of Seville, Saudi Aramco World (July 2004); Wikipedia: Taifa

El Cid (c. 1043 to 1099)

Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, El Cid Campeador, Soldier of fortune · Castile and Valencia

Rodrigo Diaz was born near Burgos around 1043 and rose in the court of Castile. 'Cid' comes from the Arabic for 'lord' and 'campeador' means 'champion'. Exiled by Alfonso VI, he became a soldier of fortune who fought, for his own gain, against Christians and Moors alike. He later conquered Valencia and held it as a ruler who was independent in practice, though he still acknowledged Alfonso as overlord. Poems and legends turned him into Spain's national hero. The real man was a mercenary and a politician.

How they rose: He served Sancho II of Castile, and after Sancho was killed at Zamora in 1072 he served Alfonso VI. Sources date his exile between 1076 and 1081; the likely cause was an unauthorised raid into the territory of Toledo, a vassal of Alfonso. (The Catholic Encyclopedia says Alfonso exiled him in 1076 for keeping part of a tribute.)

How they died: After an uprising in Valencia in October 1092 he besieged the city, and it surrendered in 1094 (May or June, depending on the account). He ruled it until he died there on 10 July 1099. His widow Jimena held Valencia until the Almoravids retook it, in 1102.

• The story that Jimena strapped his armoured corpse to his horse Babieca to scare off besiegers is a legend, not history. It may have grown out of the way her funeral procession entered Burgos.
• The sword Tizona, displayed in Burgos and traditionally linked to him, was tested in 1999: metal analysis suggested an eleventh-century origin in Cordoba, though whether the Cid owned it rests partly on tradition.
• The Poem of the Cid, an epic of just over 3,700 surviving lines and the oldest major poem in Castilian, is literature, not a chronicle: it fictionalises his life. Rose and Bacon's English translation dates it to about 1150, and scholars still argue about when it was composed.

Sources: The Lay of the Cid, tr. R. Selden Rose and Leonard Bacon (Project Gutenberg #6088); Primera cronica general de Espana (ed. Menendez Pidal, 1906), Alfonsine chronicle that includes the Cid's story; Catholic Encyclopedia: El Cid; Wikipedia: El Cid

Alfonso VI (1065 to 1109)

Alfonso VI, King of Leon, Castile and Toledo, House of Jimena · Leon and Castile

Alfonso VI reunited Leon, Castile and Galicia after a bitter war with his brothers. His great prize was Toledo, the old Visigothic capital, which surrendered on 25 May 1085. It moved the frontier from the Duero to the Tagus. He drew in Cluniac monks, replaced the old Mozarabic liturgy with the Roman rite, and styled himself 'Emperor of the Two Religions' after Toledo. But the conquest scared the taifa kings into inviting the Almoravids, who beat him at Zallaqa (Sagrajas) in 1086.

How they came to power: The second son of Ferdinand I, he was named heir to Leon in his father's division of the realm, announced in 1063 and in force from his father's death in 1065; he was crowned in January 1066. After Sancho II was killed at the siege of Zamora in 1072, Alfonso, who had been imprisoned by Sancho and then exiled to Toledo, took Castile as well.

How it ended: The Almoravids crushed Christian forces at Ucles on 29 May 1108, and his only son and heir, Sancho, died in the battle. Alfonso himself died in Toledo on 30 June or 1 July 1109 (sources differ). His daughter Urraca succeeded him.

• At Zallaqa, according to the Muslim chronicler al-Marrakushi, the Christian cavalry attacked when the Muslims had performed the first rak'a of the Friday prayer, and Alfonso escaped the rout with only nine men.
• After his brother Sancho defeated and imprisoned him in 1072, Alfonso was exiled to Toledo, the city he later conquered.
• He styled himself 'Emperor of All Spain' from 1077, and added the title King of Toledo after 1085.

Sources: The Battle of Zallaqa, 1086: al-Marrakushi's account, in Christians and Moors in Spain (De Re Militari); The Tibyan: Memoirs of 'Abd Allah b. Buluggin (tr. A. T. Tibi), chapter 7 extract, De Re Militari, on tribute demanded by Alfonso VI; Encyclopedia.com: Alfonso VI; Wikipedia: Alfonso VI of Leon and Castile

The Almoravids (1086 to 1147)

The Almoravids (al-Murabitun, 'those from the ribats', fortress-monasteries) were a Berber movement that rose in the Sahara in the 1050s. By about 1070 they had founded Marrakesh. After Toledo fell in 1085, al-Mu'tamid of Seville and other taifa kings asked their leader, Yusuf ibn Tashfin, for help. He crossed the Strait and defeated Alfonso VI at Zallaqa on 23 October 1086. Between 1090 and 1094 he absorbed the taifas one by one, and Muslim Spain was reunited under Marrakesh.

• Granada fell to the Almoravids in September 1090, Seville in September 1091 and Badajoz in 1094; al-Mu'tamid of Seville was deported to Aghmat in Morocco, where he wrote elegies on his lost kingdom.
• According to al-Marrakushi, Yusuf landed at Algeciras with about 7,000 horsemen, and the lavish gifts al-Mu'tamid gave him first stirred his desire for al-Andalus.
• Medieval writers give dates from 1062 to 1078 for the founding of Marrakesh; modern historians most often use about 1070.

Sources: The Battle of Zallaqa, 1086: al-Marrakushi's account, in Christians and Moors in Spain (De Re Militari); Encyclopedia.com: Almoravids; Jewish Virtual Library: Almoravids; Wikipedia: Almoravid dynasty

Averroes (1126 to 1198)

Ibn Rushd, called Averroes, philosopher, judge and physician of Cordoba, Philosopher · Almohad al-Andalus

Ibn Rushd was born in Cordoba into a family of judges; his grandfather was a famous jurist. He served as a qadi in Seville and Cordoba and as court physician. He wrote commentaries on nearly all of Aristotle, a large medical encyclopedia (the Kulliyat, in Latin the Colliget) and, in the Decisive Treatise, argued that philosophy and revealed religion are compatible. Latin translations of his works began around 1220 and shaped debate in the medieval universities.

How they rose: The Almohad caliph Abu Ya'qub Yusuf, introduced to him by the philosopher Ibn Tufayl (traditionally in 1169), asked him to explain Aristotle. He later became the caliph's chief physician in Marrakesh.

How they died: In 1195 a tribunal in Cordoba condemned his teachings, ordered his works burned and banished him to Lucena; the reasons are unclear, and modern scholars point to the caliph's need for the support of conservative scholars. He died in Marrakesh on 11 December 1198 (one account only for the place), and his body was later moved to Cordoba.

• In the Decisive Treatise he argues that the harm philosophy sometimes does is accidental, like death by choking on water or a lawyer made impious by the study of law, and so is no reason to forbid it to those qualified to study it.
• Authorities in Paris condemned 'Averroist' propositions in 1270 and 1277, and Thomas Aquinas wrote against his theory of a single intellect shared by all people, yet Latin Averroism survived into the sixteenth century.
• His medical Kulliyat (Colliget) became a European textbook, and modern writers credit him with an early description of the symptoms of what is now called Parkinson's disease, though he did not name the condition.

Sources: Averroes, On the Harmony of Religion and Philosophy (Decisive Treatise), tr. George F. Hourani (1976); Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Ibn Rushd (Averroes); Wikipedia: Averroes

The Toledo School of Translators (c. 1126 to 1284)

After Alfonso VI took Toledo in 1085, the city became a meeting point of Christian, Jewish and Muslim scholars. Under Archbishop Raymond (1126 to 1151) the cathedral library became a base for a team of Mozarab, Jewish and Cluniac scholars who put Arabic works into Latin. Gerard of Cremona, traditionally said to have arrived in 1167 hunting for Ptolemy's Almagest, learned Arabic and spent his life translating. In the 1200s Alfonso X moved the work into Castilian. The Crown never officially recognised a 'school', and historians argue about how far Toledo was a place of 'convivencia', peaceful coexistence of three faiths: some see real exchange, others stress that coexistence was uneasy and sometimes violent.

• Gerard of Cremona (about 1114 to 1187) finished his Latin Almagest in 1175. Counts of his translations run from 76 (Pipino's chronicle) to more than 87 books, depending on the list used.
• Dominicus Gundissalinus (Domingo Gundisalvo), archdeacon of Segovia and translator of Avicenna, knew no Arabic and worked with Jewish or Muslim intermediaries; Ernest Renan remarked that the translator's name on a work was often a fiction.
• Under Alfonso X a translator dictated the Arabic text aloud in Castilian to a scribe, and editors, sometimes the king, then reviewed it; Jewish scholars such as Yehuda ben Moshe Cohen and Isaac ibn Sid did much of the astronomy.

Sources: Libros del saber de astronomia del rey D. Alfonso X, ed. M. Rico y Sinobas (1863); UNESCO Courier (Dec 1991): A. Badawi, 'Al-Andalus: where three worlds met' (the Toledo college), hosted on ghazali.org; Catholic Answers Encyclopedia: Gerard of Cremona; Wikipedia: Toledo School of Translators

Maimonides (1138 (some say 1135) to 1204)

Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides, the Rambam), Philosopher and physician · Cordoba to Cairo

Maimonides was born in Cordoba and educated in the Bible, Talmud and general learning. His life was shaped by the Almohad conquest. He wrote a commentary on the Mishnah, the Mishneh Torah (a fourteen-book code of Jewish law) and The Guide for the Perplexed, which tries to reconcile Aristotle's philosophy with the Torah. He was also a physician to the Ayyubid court in Egypt. His thought influenced Christian scholastics such as Thomas Aquinas and Albertus Magnus.

How they rose: After the Almohads took Cordoba in 1148 his family left rather than convert, spending about ten years on the move before settling in Fez; they reached Acre in 1165 and Fustat (Old Cairo) by about 1168. After the death of his brother David, who had carried the family's savings on a voyage and drowned, he supported himself as a doctor.

How they died: He died in Fustat on 12 December 1204. Tradition holds that he was buried in Tiberias, near the Sea of Galilee, but there is no contemporary evidence for the move.

• He wrote his Commentary on the Mishnah between 1166 and 1168, during his years of wandering before he settled in Egypt.
• He worked on the Mishneh Torah between about 1170 and 1180, and completed the Guide in about 1190.
• His brother David carried the family's savings and drowned on a voyage (between 1169 and 1177); after David's death Maimonides earned his living as a physician and served the Ayyubid court, first under Saladin's secretary al-Fadil.

Sources: The Guide for the Perplexed, tr. M. Friedlander (2nd ed. 1910; Project Gutenberg #73584), 'Life of Moses Maimonides' (gives 1135 as the birth year); Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Maimonides; Wikipedia: Maimonides

The Almohads (1147 to 1269)

The Almohads (al-Muwahhidun, 'those who affirm God's unity') began with Ibn Tumart, a preacher from the Atlas Mountains who proclaimed himself the Mahdi around 1121. His successor 'Abd al-Mu'min took Marrakesh in 1147 and ended Almoravid rule; the Almohads took over al-Andalus gradually between 1146 and 1173, with Seville as the Spanish capital. The caliphate itself ended in Marrakesh in 1269. Seville's Giralda tower was completed in 1184. After the defeat at Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212, their authority in Spain collapsed, and Seville fell to Castile in 1248.

• The Almohads ended the protected (dhimmi) status of Jews and Christians. Under al-Mansur (1184 to 1199) many Jews were forced to convert, and those suspected of secret Jewish practice had to wear distinctive clothing, including a cap, the qalansuwa; the Jewish Virtual Library notes that no official abuses are recorded before 1147.
• That policy drove many Jews out of Spain, among them the family of Maimonides, who left Cordoba after 1148.
• The Muslim chronicler al-Marrakushi blamed the defeat at Las Navas de Tolosa largely on unpaid wages, which left Almohad soldiers unwilling to fight.

Sources: Al-Marrakushi, al-Mu'jib (1224), on the Almohads at Las Navas de Tolosa, in Christians and Moors in Spain (De Re Militari); Jewish Virtual Library: Almohads; Wikipedia: Almohad Caliphate

The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (July 16, 1212)

In 1195 the Almohads beat Alfonso VIII at Alarcos, and in 1211 they captured the castle of Salvatierra. Alfonso asked Pope Innocent III to endorse a crusade. On 16 July 1212 his army, joined by Peter II of Aragon, Sancho VII of Navarre and foreign crusaders, attacked the army of Caliph al-Nasir near Santa Elena in Andalusia. Peter and Sancho attacked on the wings while Alfonso's centre broke the Almohad line, and the caliph fled, leaving his tent and standard. Baeza and Ubeda fell soon after. Spaniards later called the long frontier wars the 'Reconquista', but the word is a modern one and historians debate it: many reject the idea of one continuous Christian project, since rulers also fought each other and sometimes allied across faith lines.

• Alfonso's own letter to Pope Innocent III says the French left the campaign after the fall of Calatrava, leaving only 'scarcely 150' knights and servants and no foot soldiers, and that a shepherd showed the army a hidden pass past the Almohad position (tradition names him Martin Alhaja).
• Alfonso's letter claims the Almohads lost about 100,000 men while only 'some twenty or thirty' Christians fell. Modern historians treat the king's numbers as boasting, since he was writing to win the Pope's praise.
• Al-Nasir reportedly withdrew to Marrakesh and died in 1213. After the battle, Castilian armies took Cordoba (1236), Jaen (1246) and Seville (1248).

Sources: The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (1212): Alfonso VIII's letter to Innocent III and al-Marrakushi's account (De Re Militari); EBSCO Research Starters: Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa; Wikipedia: Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa

James I of Aragon (1213 to 1276)

James I the Conqueror, King of Aragon, Majorca and Valencia, House of Barcelona · Crown of Aragon

James came to the throne as a child and reigned for over sixty years. He conquered Majorca (1229 to 1231) and the city of Valencia (1238), and later fixed the frontier with Castile. He signed away French claims in Occitania and fixed Aragon's focus on the Mediterranean. He is remembered above all for the Llibre dels fets ('Book of Deeds'), a first-person chronicle in Catalan; scholars debate how much of it he wrote himself.

How they came to power: Born in Montpellier in 1208, he became king in 1213 when his father Peter II died at the battle of Muret. Simon de Montfort was pressed to surrender the boy, who was handed to a papal legate in 1214 and placed in the care of the Templars; he was proclaimed king amid noble rivalries.

How it ended: He fell ill at Alzira and died in Valencia on 27 July 1276. Before dying he divided his realms between his sons Peter III (the mainland) and James II (Majorca).

• Palma fell on 31 December 1229, and in 1231 James became King of Majorca when the Balearics were exchanged for Urgell.
• In the Treaty of Corbeil (1258) he settled his dispute with Louis IX of France; in the Treaty of Almizra (1244) he and Castile fixed the boundary between Murcia and Valencia.
• In 1263 he presided at the Barcelona Disputation, a public debate between the rabbi Nahmanides and the convert Pablo Christiani; in 1269 a storm drove his crusader fleet to Aigues-Mortes and he gave up the expedition.

Sources: The Chronicle of James I, King of Aragon, written by himself, tr. J. Forster (1883), vol. 1; Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed. (1911): James I. of Aragon (Wikisource); Gran Enciclopedia Catalana: Corona catalanoaragonesa; Wikipedia: James I of Aragon

Ferdinand III (1217 to 1252)

Ferdinand III the Saint, King of Castile and Leon, House of Ivrea / Burgundy · Castile and Leon

Ferdinand III united the crowns of Castile and Leon permanently in 1230. His campaigns took Cordoba in 1236, Jaen in 1246 and Seville in 1248, so that the Muslims held only the emirate of Granada, which became a tribute-paying vassal. He turned the great mosques of Cordoba and Seville into cathedrals, supported the University of Salamanca and began the legal reforms that his son Alfonso X carried on. The Church canonised him in 1671.

How they came to power: In 1217 he became king of Castile, his mother Berengaria having yielded him the crown. He inherited Leon from his father, Alfonso IX, through the Treaty of Benavente of 11 December 1230, despite the opposition of his father's family.

How it ended: He died in Seville on 30 May 1252 and is buried in its cathedral. Pope Clement X canonised him on 4 February 1671, and he is the patron saint of Seville.

• His tomb in Seville Cathedral carries an epitaph in four languages: Arabic, Hebrew, Latin and early Castilian.
• Granada's emir Muhammad I accepted vassalage and an annual tribute after the fall of Jaen in 1246, and sent troops to help Ferdinand take Seville in 1248.
• In the Treaty of Almizra (26 March 1244) with James I of Aragon, the two kings fixed the boundary of their conquests: Murcia for Castile, the kingdom of Valencia for Aragon.

Sources: Primera cronica general de Espana (ed. Menendez Pidal, 1906), the Alfonsine history running to 'the death of King Ferdinand who won Seville and Cordoba'; Catholic Encyclopedia: St. Ferdinand III; Encyclopedia.com: Ferdinand III, King of Castile, St.; Wikipedia: Ferdinand III of Castile

Muhammad I of Granada (1232 to 1273)

Muhammad I ibn al-Ahmar, first Nasrid emir of Granada, Nasrid dynasty · Emirate of Granada

Muhammad ibn Yusuf ibn Nasr, known as Ibn al-Ahmar, was a frontier chief from Arjona. In 1232 he was proclaimed leader, and in 1237 or 1238 he took Granada and made it his capital, adding Almeria (1238) and Malaga (1239). Rather than fight Castile, he bargained. After the siege of Jaen in 1246 he accepted vassalage and a heavy annual tribute, and kept his state alive by balancing between Castile and North Africa. He began building the Alhambra.

How they came to power: He was declared leader by an assembly in Arjona on 16 July 1232, after Almohad authority collapsed. He entered Granada in 1237 or 1238 (accounts differ) and later took Almeria (1238) and Malaga (1239).

How it ended: He died on 22 January 1273 near Granada after falling from his horse, and his son Muhammad II succeeded him.

• The tribute he agreed in 1246 was 150,000 maravedis a year; after he backed the Mudejar revolt against Castile in 1264 to 1266, it was raised to 250,000.
• In 1248 he sent troops to help Ferdinand III besiege Seville, even though Seville was a Muslim city; Castilian and Muslim sources describe the nature of his vassalage differently.
• His title al-Ghalib billah means 'the victor by the grace of God'; his claimed descent from a companion of the Prophet appears to be a later fabrication, since the sources date from the 14th century or later.

Sources: Primera cronica general de Espana (ed. Menendez Pidal, 1906), Alfonsine account of Ferdinand III's campaigns; Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife: History (on al-Ahmar as founder of the Nasrid dynasty and of the Alhambra); Encyclopedia.com: Granada (Oxford Dictionary of World History; capital of the Nasrid kingdom in 1238, tribute to Castile); Wikipedia: Muhammad I of Granada

The Alhambra (1238 to 1391)

Work began under Muhammad I after 1238 on the Sabika hill. The name comes from the Arabic al-Hamra, 'the red one', for the colour of its walls. The oldest surviving part is the Alcazaba fortress. Much of the character of the Nasrid palaces comes from the 1300s, under Yusuf I (1333 to 1354) and Muhammad V, who built the Palace of the Lions in his second reign (1362 to 1391); its fountain stands on twelve lions. Ibn Zamrak, a court poet and vizier, wrote poems that are carved into the walls.

• The Nasrid motto 'wa la ghalib illa Allah', 'there is no victor but God', is repeated throughout the palace inscriptions.
• A twenty-verse poem, thought to be by Ibn Zamrak (1333 to 1394), runs round the upper rim of the Lindaraja fountain; the fountain speaks in its own voice, and scholars cannot agree on its first verse.
• Scholars still debate whether the four arms of the Court of the Lions were originally paved or planted with shrubs at a lower level than the galleries.

Sources: The Lindaraja Fountain (museum object page with the poem attributed to Ibn Zamrak), Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife; The Court of the Lions, Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife; The lions from the maristan, Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife (sixteen Nasrid lion figures survive; twelve stand around the fountain); Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife: History; Wikipedia: Alhambra

Alfonso X the Wise (1252 to 1284)

Alfonso X, King of Castile and Leon (El Sabio), House of Ivrea / Burgundy · Castile and Leon

Alfonso X pressed Murcia for tribute and helped take Seville, but he is remembered for books. Under him scholars produced the Siete Partidas law code, the Cantigas de Santa Maria, a general history of Spain, astronomical tables and a Book of Games. He moved official writing from Latin to Castilian, and Christian, Jewish and Muslim scholars worked at his court. His reign also cost heavily in taxes and a debased coinage, and ended in civil war with his son Sancho.

How they came to power: Born in Toledo on 23 November 1221, eldest son of Ferdinand III, he became king on his father's death on 30 May 1252 (proclaimed 1 June). In 1257 a faction of German electors chose him as King of the Romans; Richard of Cornwall was crowned at Aachen the same year.

How it ended: He gave up his imperial claim under papal pressure in 1275. In 1276 he recognised his second son Sancho as heir over his grandsons, and in 1282 Sancho rebelled and declared him deposed. Alfonso died in Seville on 4 April 1284, deserted, and was buried in the cathedral.

• The Cantigas de Santa Maria, written in Galician-Portuguese between about 1257 and 1279, run to roughly 420 poems with musical notation; Alfonso called himself the Virgin's troubadour, but his court poets and musicians shared in the work.
• The Siete Partidas was begun under him but was proclaimed law only in 1348, by his great-grandson.
• In 1273 he gave the Mesta, the sheep-owners' guild, a formal role, and a book on chess, dice and tables was completed in 1283.

Sources: Las siete partidas del rey Don Alfonso el Sabio, cotejadas con varios codices antiguos por la Real Academia de la Historia (1807); Libros del saber de astronomia del rey D. Alfonso X, ed. M. Rico y Sinobas (1863); EBSCO Research Starters: Alfonso X; Encyclopedia.com: Alfonso X; Wikipedia: Alfonso X of Castile

The Crown of Aragon in the Mediterranean (1282 to 1442)

The Crown of Aragon joined Aragon and the county of Barcelona, and each realm kept its own laws, taxes and Cortes. After the Sicilian Vespers (30 March 1282) the Sicilians offered their island to Peter III, who landed at Trapani on 30 August and was crowned in Palermo on 4 September. Sardinia followed: the pope created a Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica for the Crown in 1297, and conquest began in 1323 to 1324. Catalan mercenaries took the Duchy of Athens in 1311. In 1442 Alfonso V (Alfons IV in Catalan numbering) conquered Naples.

• The Catalan Company, former almogavar soldiers of the Sicilian war, hired itself to the Byzantines in 1303, saw its leader Roger de Flor murdered at Adrianople in 1305 and beat the Duke of Athens at Halmyros in 1311.
• The Book of the Consulate of the Sea, written in Catalan, is one of the oldest compilations of maritime law.
• The popular tale that the Vespers rebels tested French speech with the word 'ciciri' rests on later accounts that cannot be checked, and the claim that the word 'Mafia' began in the revolt is very unlikely, since the word is first recorded in 1862.

Sources: The Chronicle of Muntaner, tr. Lady Goodenough (Hakluyt Society, 1920), vol. 1; The Chronicle of Muntaner, tr. Lady Goodenough (Hakluyt Society, 1921), vol. 2; Gran Enciclopedia Catalana: Corona catalanoaragonesa; Wikipedia: Crown of Aragon

The Pogroms of 1391 (June to August 1391)

Ferrand Martinez, an archdeacon in Seville, spent years preaching against the Jews, ignoring royal orders of 1378, 1382 and 1383 to stop. In December 1390 he ordered synagogues pulled down. After John I of Castile died in 1390, leaving the eleven-year-old Henry III under a regency, anti-Jewish riots broke out in March 1391, and on 6 June a massacre in Seville reportedly killed some 4,000 Jews. The violence spread to Cordoba, Toledo, Valencia (9 July) and Barcelona, and within three months reached more than seventy towns. Many survivors accepted baptism, creating a large new group of conversos.

• The numbers are fiercely debated. Estimates of the dead range up to about 50,000 in Castile. For Valencia, Prince Martin's report gives about 2,300 of 2,500 Jews killed, while Crescas's letter says about 250 were killed and most of the rest converted.
• Queen Violant of Aragon ordered officials on 28 June to protect the Jews of Valencia, and Prince Martin was given charge of their protection, but mobs attacked anyway from 9 July.
• Hasdai Crescas, a leading Jewish scholar of Barcelona, wrote a Hebrew letter to the Jews of Avignon dated 19 October 1391 describing the massacres, and reported that his only son, a newly married man, was killed in Barcelona.

Sources: Hasdai Crescas, letter to the Jews of Avignon, 19 October 1391 (full English text, Center for Online Judaic Studies); Jewish Encyclopedia: Martinez, Ferrand; A. Tabory, The Pogroms of 1391 in Spain (Yeshivat Har Etzion); Wikipedia: Massacre of 1391

Isabella I of Castile (1474 to 1504)

Isabella I, Queen of Castile (the Catholic Monarch), House of Trastámara · Castile

Isabella was born in 1451 and became queen of Castile in 1474. With her husband Ferdinand of Aragon she ruled two crowns that stayed legally separate but acted together. Her reign saw the start of the Spanish Inquisition, the conquest of Granada, the expulsion of the Jews and the voyages of Columbus. She also backed scholars and collected Flemish painting. Historians still argue over how far the events of 1492 show her own convictions and how far they show politics.

How they came to power: Her half-brother Henry IV died in December 1474 (usually dated the 11th) without a clear successor, and Isabella was proclaimed queen at Segovia on 13 December. She then won the War of the Castilian Succession (1475 to 1479) against the supporters of Henry's daughter Joanna.

How it ended: She died on 26 November 1504 at Medina del Campo, aged 53, of what is usually identified as uterine cancer. She is buried in the Royal Chapel at Granada, and her daughter Joanna inherited Castile.

• In 1469 she and Ferdinand married without Henry IV's consent, using a papal bull attributed to Pius II, who had in fact died in 1464.
• She came in person to the siege of Baza in 1489, during the Granada War, to help keep up the morale of the nobles and soldiers.
• Her youngest daughter, Catherine of Aragon, became the first wife of Henry VIII of England.

Sources: Edict of the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain, 1492, issued by Ferdinand and Isabella (Edward Peters's translation, Center for Online Judaic Studies); World History Encyclopedia: Isabella I of Castile; Encyclopedia.com: Isabella of Castile (1451-1504), Spanish Queen; Wikipedia: Isabella I of Castile

The Spanish Inquisition (1478 to July 15, 1834)

In 1478 Pope Sixtus IV issued a bull allowing Ferdinand and Isabella to name inquisitors in Castile. Unlike the medieval Inquisition, this one answered to the Crown. It first targeted conversos, Jews who had converted and were suspected of keeping their old faith in secret, and later also Moriscos, some Protestants and others. Historians no longer accept the old claims of hundreds of thousands of victims, but the court's methods and its seizures of property did great harm.

• The first public auto de fe was held in Seville on 6 February 1481, and six people were burned.
• The court had no fixed budget and depended almost entirely on property confiscated from the accused, which gave it a financial stake in convictions.
• Estimates differ widely. Wikipedia's summary gives about 150,000 people prosecuted and 3,000 to 5,000 handed over for execution (citing Levack); the Suprema's surviving records for 1540 to 1700 list 44,674 judgments with 826 executions in person; and Howard Sachar, writing for My Jewish Learning, counts over 2,000 burned in Torquemada's 18 years. Popular accounts such as History.com's still cite about 32,000 executions, so any single figure needs caution.

Sources: Records of the Spanish Inquisition, translated from the original manuscripts: Barcelona trial records of the 1630s (1828; Project Gutenberg); Henry Charles Lea, A History of the Inquisition of Spain, vol. 1 (Project Gutenberg); My Jewish Learning: The Inquisition II (Howard Sachar); HISTORY: Inquisition; Wikipedia: Spanish Inquisition

Ferdinand II of Aragon (1479 to 1516)

Ferdinand II of Aragon and V of Castile (the Catholic Monarch), House of Trastámara · Aragon

Ferdinand became king of Aragon in 1479 and had already been Isabella's husband for ten years. With her he completed the conquest of Granada in 1492. Much of his later reign was spent in wars with France over Italy, and by 1504 his forces had taken Naples. In 1512 he conquered most of the Kingdom of Navarre. Niccolo Machiavelli admired him, and some writers think he was a model for The Prince.

How they came to power: He succeeded his father John II as king of Aragon in 1479. After Isabella died in 1504 he gave up the title of king of Castile but governed there as regent for his daughter Joanna.

How it ended: He died on 23 January 1516 at Madrigalejo in Extremadura, aged 63, and is buried at Granada. His grandson Charles inherited his crowns.

• In October 1506 he married Germaine of Foix as part of an alliance with France. Their only son, John, was born on 3 May 1509 and died within hours.
• The Treaty of Villafáfila in June 1506 briefly pushed him out of power in Castile, but he returned as regent after his son-in-law Philip died in September that year.
• The Library of Congress notes that Machiavelli praised him in The Prince, and that a lack of contemporary sources may have helped build an idealised picture of him.

Sources: Treaty of Tordesillas, 1494, made by Ferdinand and Isabella (Avalon Project, Yale Law School); Library of Congress blog: Ferdinand II of Aragon and the Creation of a Global Empire; Encyclopedia.com: Ferdinand of Aragon (1452-1516), Spanish King; Wikipedia: Ferdinand II of Aragon

The Granada War and the Fall of Granada (1482 to January 2, 1492)

The war is usually dated from the Castilian capture of Alhama in 1482. The Christian kings took Ronda in 1485 and Malaga in 1487, and Baza in 1489 after a siege of about six months, while Granada's own rulers quarrelled. In 1491 a siege of the city of Granada began, and the surrender terms were signed on 25 November 1491. On 2 January 1492 Muhammad XI, known as Boabdil, gave up the city and the Alhambra.

• Artillery was central to the war. By 1495 Castile and Aragon controlled 179 pieces of artillery between them (Wikipedia, Granada War).
• After Malaga fell in 1487, most of its people were enslaved, but its Jews were spared because Castilian Jews paid to ransom them.
• The famous story that Boabdil wept as he left, and that his mother told him to cry like a woman for what he could not defend like a man, is a legend. The Cambridge scholar Elizabeth Drayson argues that his surrender was a deliberate choice to spare his people further suffering and slaughter.

Sources: Rolled privilege of the Capitulations of Granada, 1491 (Portal de Archivos Españoles, via HistoryLab; record and summary); University of Cambridge: The last Muslim king in Spain; Encyclopedia.com: Isabella of Castile (1451-1504), Spanish Queen; Wikipedia: Granada War

The Alhambra Decree (March 31, 1492)

Issued on 31 March 1492 by Ferdinand and Isabella, the decree gave unconverted Jews until the end of July to be baptised or leave. They could not take out gold, silver or coin, so many sold houses and land cheaply. Historians do not agree on how many left: modern estimates of Jews who went into exile run from about 40,000 to 100,000, older estimates reach several hundred thousand, and many others converted to stay. Tomas de Torquemada is said to have pressed for the order, and some scholars stress its timing just after Granada fell.

• A contemporary account says the decree was signed on 31 March but only announced on 1 May 1492.
• Spain passed a law in 2015 offering citizenship to descendants of Sephardic Jews. The application period ended in 2019.
• Estimates of the exiles vary. The 1495 account in the Fordham sourcebook calls 50,000 families the most generally accepted figure, and its editor's note says other estimates run from 100,000 to 800,000 people. Wikipedia gives about 40,000 to 100,000.

Sources: Edict of the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain, 1492 (Edward Peters's translation, Center for Online Judaic Studies); The Expulsion from Spain, 1492 CE, a 1495 account (Fordham Jewish History Sourcebook); HISTORY: Spain announces it will expel all Jews; Oxford University Press blog: Ferdinand and Isabella Order Expulsion of Jews from Spain; Wikipedia: Alhambra Decree

Columbus's First Voyage (August 3, 1492 to March 15, 1493)

Columbus, a Genoese sailor, sailed from Spain on 3 August 1492 with the Santa Maria, the Pinta and the Nina, hoping to reach Asia by going west. On 12 October he landed on an island in the Bahamas that he named San Salvador, called Guanahani by the people who lived there. He went on to explore other islands. The voyage opened the way to Spanish colonisation of the Americas and led to centuries of conquest, disease and colonisation.

• Educated Europeans already knew the Earth was round. Portuguese experts who rejected his plan did so because he put Asia far too close: he reckoned about 2,400 nautical miles from the Canaries to Japan, about 23 percent of the real distance.
• On 21 November 1492 Martin Alonso Pinzon took the Pinta off on its own. The reason is unknown, and it rejoined Columbus on 6 January 1493.
• The best list of the crews names 87 men with certainty and 19 more as doubtful, so the exact number who sailed is uncertain.

Sources: Christopher Columbus: Extracts from Journal (Fordham Medieval Sourcebook; covers the departure and landfall, up to October 1492); World History Encyclopedia: Christopher Columbus; Wikipedia: Voyages of Christopher Columbus

Nebrija's Castilian Grammar (1492)

Antonio de Nebrija, a humanist from Lebrija in Andalusia, wrote the first grammar of Castilian and addressed it to Queen Isabella. It has five books: spelling, sounds and syllables, word forms, syntax, and a last book to teach Castilian to foreigners. He also published a Latin-Spanish dictionary in 1492 and a Spanish-Latin vocabulary in about 1495. A Royal Spanish Academy grammar was published in Madrid in 1771.

• The prologue says that language was always the companion of empire, and that the two began, grew and flourished together, and then fell together.
• According to Wikipedia, when the book was presented to Isabella at Salamanca she questioned its merit. Hernando de Talavera, bishop of Ávila, answered that conquered peoples would have to accept the conqueror's laws and, with them, his language.
• Nebrija's Latin-Spanish dictionary also appeared in 1492, and his Spanish-Latin vocabulary followed in about 1495.

Sources: Nebrija, Gramática de la lengua castellana, 1492: prologue and text in Spanish (Biblioteca Antológica PDF; prologue verified); Andalucia.org: Antonio de Nebrija and his 1492 Castilian grammar; Wikipedia: Gramática de la lengua castellana

The Treaty of Tordesillas (June 7, 1494)

After Columbus returned in 1493, Pope Alexander VI issued bulls giving Spain the lands west of a line 100 leagues west of the Azores and Cape Verde. King John II of Portugal objected. He negotiated directly with Ferdinand and Isabella, and the treaty placed the line 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands. Lands east of it went to Portugal, and lands west of it to Spain.

• The treaty did not define the length of a league. It provided for a joint voyage to settle the line, but that voyage never took place.
• Francis I of France is reported to have rejected the division, saying that the sun shines for him as it does for others (Wikipedia, citing a 2005 book).
• In 1529 Charles I gave up Spanish claims to the Moluccas for 350,000 ducats of gold in the Treaty of Zaragoza.

Sources: Treaty of Tordesillas, 1494 (Avalon Project, Yale Law School, translation from Davenport, 1917); World History Encyclopedia: Treaty of Tordesillas; Wikipedia: Treaty of Tordesillas

Joanna of Castile (1504 to 1555)

Joanna I, Queen of Castile and Aragon (Juana la Loca), House of Trastámara · Castile

Joanna was the second daughter of Isabella and Ferdinand. In 1496 she married Philip the Handsome of the Habsburgs. She became queen of Castile in 1504 and of Aragon in 1516, but others governed for her: first Ferdinand, then Cardinal Cisneros, then her son Charles, who ruled alongside her as co-monarch. Her nickname 'the Mad' has been questioned by modern historians, who note that her father and husband both gained from declaring her unfit.

How they came to power: Her parents and the Castilian Cortes recognised her as heiress in 1502. She became queen when Isabella died on 26 November 1504, and her father Ferdinand then governed Castile in her name.

How it ended: She died on 12 April 1555 at Tordesillas, aged 75. Ferdinand had confined her there in February 1509, and she stayed for the rest of her life.

• Her husband Philip died on 25 September 1506 at Burgos, probably of typhoid fever. Rumours blamed Ferdinand but were never proven.
• In August 1520, during the Comuneros revolt, the rebels sought her written support. She refused to sign, and Charles's forces won at Villalar.
• Historians suggest many explanations for her condition, including melancholia, depression or psychosis, while others argue the 'madness' label was partly political.

Sources: Queen Juana: August 1520, attestation of 23 August 1520 at Tordesillas (Calendar of State Papers, Spain, Supplement, ed. Bergenroth; British History Online); Encyclopedia.com: Joanna I, the Mad (Spain) (1479-1555); Wikipedia: Joanna of Castile

Bartolomé de las Casas (1484 to 1566 (active as a reformer from 1514))

Bartolomé de las Casas, Dominican friar and Bishop of Chiapas, Friar and reformer · Spanish America

Las Casas was born in Seville in 1484 (older books say 1474). He went to Hispaniola in 1502 and held land and Native labour under the encomienda system. In 1514, preparing a sermon, he decided that the conquest was unjust, gave up his holdings the next year and returned to Spain to campaign. He became a Dominican, wrote A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, and debated Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda at Valladolid in 1550 to 1551. Modern historians tend to discount his numbers for the dead and point to disease as a major cause of population loss.

How they rose: He rose to prominence after his 1514 change of heart, as an advocate at court. He entered the Dominican order as a novice in 1522 and took vows in 1523, led a peaceful mission in Verapaz, Guatemala, from 1537, and was consecrated Bishop of Chiapas in 1544.

How they died: He left his diocese after clashes with settlers and clergy and resigned the bishopric in 1550, then spent his last years writing and lobbying. He died in Madrid on 18 July 1566.

• The region he entered peacefully in Guatemala in 1537 came to be called Verapaz, meaning 'True Peace'.
• In 1516 he proposed African slave labour to replace Native labour. Later he wrote that black slavery was as unjust as Indian slavery.
• His Account says that of three million people on Hispaniola only about three hundred remained (in the 1689 English translation, 'scarce Three Hundred'). Modern historians tend to disregard his numbers, and the book fed the Black Legend of Spanish cruelty.

Sources: Bartolomé de las Casas, A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies (English translation, 1689; Project Gutenberg); World History Encyclopedia: Bartolomé de Las Casas; Library of Congress: Interpreting the Conquest; Wikipedia: Bartolomé de las Casas

Charles V (1516 to 1556)

Charles I of Spain, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, House of Habsburg

Charles was born in Ghent in 1500 and inherited the Burgundian Netherlands, then Spain and its overseas lands, then won election as emperor in 1519. He fought Francis I of France, whose capture at Pavia in 1525 came at the hands of his army, faced the Reformation at the Diet of Worms in 1521, and fought the Ottomans. In Spain he put down the Comuneros revolt. The wealth of the Americas helped pay for his wars.

How they came to power: After Ferdinand died on 23 January 1516 Charles was proclaimed king of Castile and Aragon jointly with his mother Joanna. On 28 June 1519 he was elected Holy Roman Emperor against Francis I of France and others.

How it ended: He gave the Netherlands to his son Philip in October 1555 and Spain in January 1556, and gave up the imperial title in favour of his brother Ferdinand, though the Imperial Diet only accepted this in 1558. He retired to the monastery of Yuste in Extremadura and died there on 21 September 1558, aged 58.

• In 1518 the Castilian Cortes accepted him on condition that he learn to speak Castilian.
• His army captured Francis I at the Battle of Pavia on 24 February 1525, Charles's own 25th birthday.
• In his abdication speech of 25 October 1555 he listed his journeys: nine to Germany, six to Spain, seven to Italy, four to France, two to England and two to Africa.

Sources: The Abdication of Emperor Charles V, 1555/56 (German History in Documents and Images); World History Encyclopedia: Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor; Encyclopedia.com: Charles V, 1500-1558; Wikipedia: Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

The Magellan-Elcano Circumnavigation (September 20, 1519 to September 6, 1522)

Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese captain sailing for Charles I, led five ships out of Seville in 1519. After a mutiny at San Julián, the fleet reached the strait that now bears his name in late October to early November 1520 (sources differ) and crossed the Pacific in 98 days. Magellan was killed at Mactan in the Philippines in April 1521. Juan Sebastián Elcano took command of the Victoria and brought it home by the Indian Ocean and the Cape of Good Hope.

• The crew lost a day. Sailing west around the world, their log was one day behind the calendar on shore. At the Cape Verde Islands, Pigafetta writes, it was Wednesday by their count but Thursday by the Portuguese count.
• According to Wikipedia, the Victoria carried about 26 tons of spices, cloves and cinnamon.
• Magellan's slave and interpreter, Enrique of Malacca, was promised freedom in Magellan's will but was kept in service. According to Wikipedia, he then had secret contact with the Cebu ruler Humabon that led to the betrayal of the Spaniards, though the evidence is debated.

Sources: The First Voyage Round the World, by Magellan, from Pigafetta and other accounts (Hakluyt Society, 1874; Project Gutenberg); World History Encyclopedia: Ferdinand Magellan; Wikipedia: Magellan-Elcano expedition

Cortés and the Fall of Tenochtitlan (1519 to August 13, 1521)

Hernán Cortés, born in Medellín about 1485, sailed from Cuba in 1519 after the governor, Diego Velázquez, had revoked his commission. He reached Tenochtitlan in November 1519, was received by Moctezuma II and took him hostage. The Spanish were driven out on the Noche Triste, the night of 30 June to 1 July 1520, then rebuilt their alliances, above all with Tlaxcala. The conquest was as much the work of indigenous allies as of Spanish steel.

• Cortés built 13 brigantines to control the lake around the city, then cut the causeways and supplies.
• Smallpox struck the city from late 1520, killing leaders including Cuitláhuac and causing famine. Wikipedia reports at least 40,000 Aztec civilians killed or captured, with other estimates of 100,000 to 240,000 dead in the whole campaign.
• Bernal Díaz, who was there, wrote that the towers and buildings rising from the water resembled the fairy castles of Amadis of Gaul, and that many of the soldiers wondered whether it was a dream.

Sources: Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Memoirs of the Conquistador, vol. 1 (Project Gutenberg); World History Encyclopedia: Hernán Cortés; Wikipedia: Fall of Tenochtitlan

Pizarro and the Fall of the Inca Empire (November 1532 to 1533)

Francisco Pizarro, who could not read or write, led a small force into Peru in 1532. The Inca ruler Atahualpa had just won a civil war with his half-brother Huáscar. At Cajamarca on 16 November 1532 the Spanish ambushed Atahualpa's party and seized him, killing many of his followers. Disease, the civil war, unrest among Inca subjects and Spanish weapons all contributed to the empire's collapse.

• According to Xerez, Pizarro's secretary, Atahualpa offered to fill a room 22 feet long and 17 wide with gold up to a white line half way up the wall, and to fill the whole room twice over with silver, in two months.
• According to World History Encyclopedia, when the treasure was shared out an infantryman received about 20 kilograms of gold and a cavalryman about 41 kilograms.
• Charles V later reproached Pizarro for the execution of Atahualpa: Wikipedia quotes the king as writing that he was displeased by it.

Sources: Reports on the Discovery of Peru, incl. Francisco de Xerez, ed. Clements Markham (Hakluyt Society, 1872; Internet Archive); World History Encyclopedia: Francisco Pizarro; World History Encyclopedia: Atahualpa; Wikipedia: Francisco Pizarro

The New Laws of 1542 (November 20, 1542 to 1545)

Issued at Barcelona in November 1542 (usually dated the 20th) by Charles V, the New Laws banned the enslavement of Native people by any means, and ordered those held unjustly to be freed. Encomienda grants were not to be inherited and were to return to the Crown on the holder's death, and officials and clergy had to give theirs up. Native workers were to be paid for their labour. The laws followed the lobbying of Las Casas and provided for a viceroy for Peru.

• In New Spain, Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza avoided enforcing the most contested provisions to prevent unrest.
• Pedro de la Gasca, sent to Peru after the viceroy's death, provisionally suspended the laws.
• Bartolomé de las Casas, who pushed for the reforms, was consecrated Bishop of Chiapas on 30 March 1544, where he clashed with settlers.

Sources: Leyes y ordenanzas nuevamente hechas por Su Magestad para la gobernación de las Indias (printed 1585; Spanish text of the New Laws as revised in 1543, citing the Barcelona ordinances of November 1542; Internet Archive); Las Casas, A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies, the indictment that pressed the Crown to reform (Project Gutenberg); Library of Congress: Interpreting the Conquest; Encyclopedia.com: New Laws of 1542; Wikipedia: New Laws

Philip II (1556 to 1598)

Philip II, King of Spain (and of Portugal from 1580), House of Habsburg

Philip inherited Spain, the Low Countries, southern Italy, Milan and the American colonies from his father Charles V. He saw himself as the defender of Catholic Europe, and he fought the Ottomans, the Dutch rebels and England at once. At home he built the Escorial and added Portugal and its overseas empire to his crowns. Historians still argue over his nickname, 'the Prudent': some see careful judgment, others a king who could not delegate or decide.

How they came to power: He took over the Spanish crowns on 16 January 1556, when Charles V's abdication of Spain took effect. He had already been king of Naples and Sicily since 1554 (Charles gave up Naples on 25 July 1554 and Philip was invested with Sicily on 18 November 1554), duke of Milan since 1540, and lord of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands since 25 October 1555.

How it ended: He died at El Escorial on 13 September 1598, aged 71, a few months after the Peace of Vervins ended the war with France. The Dutch war outlasted him by half a century.

• He read and annotated enormous volumes of paperwork and kept the final decision for himself; critics, then and since, say this slowed the government badly.
• The crown suspended payments to its bankers in 1557, 1560, 1575 and 1596 (some lists add 1569), and Encyclopedia.com says Castile's royal debt tripled to 85 million ducats between 1560 and 1598.
• He married four times: Maria Manuela of Portugal (1543), Mary I of England (1554), Elisabeth of Valois (1559) and Anna of Austria (1570). Through Mary he was king of England and Ireland in name from 1554 to 1558.

Sources: Act of Abjuration, 26 July 1581: the Dutch States General depose 'the king of Spain' (Declaration Project; opened, the text never names Philip); Encyclopedia.com: Philip II (Spain), 1527-1598; Catholic Encyclopedia (1913): Philip II, King of Spain; Wikipedia: Philip II of Spain

Teresa of Avila (1562 to 1582 (lived 1515 to 1582))

Teresa of Avila (Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada), Carmelite reformer and writer, Mystic and reformer · Avila

Teresa lived for years in a large, comfortable Carmelite convent where rank and family money shaped daily life. After visions that she described in her autobiography, she set out to restore the Carmelite Rule in its original strictness. St Joseph's in Avila was consecrated on 24 August 1562; she then founded some fifteen to seventeen more convents across Spain (counts differ by source), against opposition from church and town authorities. Her Life, The Way of Perfection and The Interior Castle are still read as classics of Spanish prose and of Christian prayer.

How they rose: She was born in Avila on 28 March 1515; her father Alonso Sanchez de Cepeda was the son of a converso (convert from Judaism). She entered the Carmelite Convent of the Incarnation in 1535 and, after a vision in 1559, became convinced that she had to reform the order.

How they died: She died at Alba de Tormes on 4 October 1582. She was beatified in 1614, canonised in 1622, and named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI in 1970, the first woman to receive the title.

• St Joseph's was founded as a house of strict poverty; in her Life (chapter 35) she describes holy poverty being observed there, in contrast to the comfortable Incarnation.
• Her feast day is 15 October, not 4 October: she died on the night of 4 October 1582, when the Gregorian reform skipped ten days, so the next day was 15 October.
• About 458 of her letters survive (EBSCO). Sources differ on whether the Inquisition investigated her: one reference says an inquiry was open by late 1575, another that she was threatened but never charged.

Sources: The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus, written by herself, trans. David Lewis (Project Gutenberg); founding of St Joseph's, chapters 32 to 36; Encyclopedia.com: Teresa of Avila; EBSCO Research Starters: Saint Teresa of Avila

Building El Escorial (1563 to 1584)

The complex of San Lorenzo de El Escorial was built between 1563 and 1584. Its main role was to be the burial place of the Habsburg kings, with Hieronymite monks praying for the royal family. Around that core Philip put a basilica, a palace, a library, a college and a hospital. Juan Bautista de Toledo began the design in 1559 and died in 1567; Juan de Herrera was named his assistant in 1563 and oversaw construction until its completion in 1584. The cornerstone was laid on 23 April 1563. In his foundation deed Philip dedicated the monastery to St Lawrence in memory of the victory won on his feast day, the battle of St Quentin in 1557. He died there on 13 September 1598, and it is still the burial place of most Habsburg and Bourbon kings. UNESCO listed it as a World Heritage Site on 2 November 1984.

• The royal library holds over 40,000 volumes, and Wikipedia reports that a fire in 1671 destroyed about 5,280 handwritten codices.
• The bed in which Philip II died can still be seen in the Alcoba del Rey, a small room inside the complex.
• Contemporaries called the Escorial the 'eighth wonder of the world' (EBSCO). The basilica was first planned as a Latin cross and reshaped by Herrera into a Greek cross under a central dome (Wikipedia).

Sources: Philip II's foundation deed for the Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo, quoted in English in A. F. Calvert, The Escorial (1907; Project Gutenberg). A quoted excerpt of the primary document, not the full charter; EBSCO Research Starters: El Escorial; Encyclopedia.com: Philip II (Spain), 1527-1598 (the Escorial as palace, monastery and mausoleum; he died there); Wikipedia: El Escorial

The Dutch Revolt (1566 to 1648)

The provinces of the Low Countries had long governed themselves through their own assemblies and privileges. Philip II's taxes, his centralising government and the persecution of Protestants clashed with that tradition. Iconoclastic riots in 1566 were answered by the Duke of Alba, who set up the Council of Troubles and had the counts of Egmont and Horn beheaded in 1568. Most accounts date open war to 1568 (the battle of Heiligerlee, part of William of Orange's failed invasions); some count from the 1566 riots. The Sea Beggars took Brill in April 1572. On 26 July 1581 the northern provinces declared Philip deposed in the Act of Abjuration. A truce ran from 1609 to 1621, and the Peace of Munster of 30 January 1648 ended the war with Spain's recognition of the Dutch Republic. Historians still weigh religion, taxes and political rights differently as the main cause.

• The Act of Abjuration never names Philip II. It speaks of 'the king of Spain' and compares a prince to a shepherd who must protect his flock; a prince who oppresses his people, it says, is a tyrant.
• Philip II put a price on William of Orange's head, and Balthasar Gerard, a Catholic, shot him in Delft in July 1584 (World History Encyclopedia).
• The truce of 1609 to 1621 gave the Dutch Republic a pause in the war, and Dutch commercial trade grew at Spain's expense (World History Encyclopedia). Fighting resumed in 1621 as part of the Thirty Years' War.

Sources: Act of Abjuration, 26 July 1581 (Declaration Project); EBSCO Research Starters: Dutch Wars of Independence; World History Encyclopedia: Eighty Years' War; Wikipedia: Eighty Years' War

The Battle of Lepanto (October 7, 1571)

After the Ottomans took Cyprus from Venice, Venice, Spain and the papacy formed the Holy League. Its fleet under Don Juan of Austria met the Ottoman fleet under Ali Pasha in the Gulf of Patras on 7 October 1571. The fighting lasted a few hours (sources say about three to four, with isolated clashes until evening) and ended in a decisive Christian win; Ali Pasha was killed. Estimates of ships, men and dead vary widely between sources. Many Christian galley slaves were freed, and the victory was celebrated across Europe. Historians disagree about how much it changed: the Holy League soon fell apart, and by the peace of 7 March 1573 Venice gave up Cyprus.

• Miguel de Cervantes fought at Lepanto, ill with fever, and was wounded twice in the chest and once in the left hand, which was left permanently disabled (Ormsby's Life of Cervantes). In the preface to Part Two he wrote that he would rather have taken part in that 'mighty action' than be free of his wounds.
• Estimates of the dead differ: sources give about 7,000 to 10,000 Christians and 15,000 to 40,000 Ottomans killed (some counts add 5,000 captured), and the number of freed Christian rowers runs from 'several thousand' to about 15,000.
• By one count (Wikipedia) the Ottomans had built about 250 ships again within roughly six months; another source says they rebuilt virtually the whole fleet within a year. Pope Pius V instituted a feast of Our Lady of Victory to mark the battle.

Sources: Cervantes, Author's Preface to Don Quixote Part Two (on his wounds at Lepanto) and Ormsby's Life of Cervantes (trans. Ormsby, Project Gutenberg); Encyclopedia.com: Lepanto, Battle of; EBSCO Research Starters: Battle of Lepanto; Wikipedia: Battle of Lepanto

Miguel de Cervantes (1547 to 1616 (soldier from 1571))

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, novelist, playwright and soldier, Writer · Spanish Golden Age

Cervantes fought at Lepanto, was captured by Barbary corsairs in 1575 and was held in Algiers for almost five years. Back in Spain he struggled for money, worked as a tax collector, and was briefly jailed over irregularities in his accounts. He published Don Quixote Part One in 1605 and Part Two in 1615. Success did not make him rich: he had sold the rights to Part One outright.

How they rose: He was born about 29 September 1547 (an assumed date) in Alcala de Henares, second son of a barber-surgeon. He became a soldier, was badly wounded at Lepanto in 1571, and was ransomed from Algiers in October 1580 after four failed escape attempts.

How they died: He died in Madrid on 22 April 1616 (some sources give 23 April, which Wikipedia treats as the burial date) and was buried at the Convent of the Barefoot Trinitarians. The grave was lost after 1673, and remains were reported identified in 2015.

• He came to be known as 'el manco de Lepanto' (the one-handed man of Lepanto), and in the preface to Part Two he wrote that he would rather have fought in that battle than be free of his wounds.
• In 1614 a writer using the name Avellaneda published an unauthorised second part of Don Quixote, which pushed Cervantes to finish his own Part Two in 1615.
• Some scholars think he descended from converts from Judaism, but Wikipedia says that view has no wide following; his writing had to pass the Inquisition's censors.

Sources: Don Quixote, trans. John Ormsby, with Ormsby's Life of Cervantes and Cervantes' own preface to Part Two (Project Gutenberg); EBSCO Research Starters: Miguel de Cervantes; Newberry Library: The World of Don Quixote; Wikipedia: Miguel de Cervantes

The union with Portugal (1580 to 1640)

King Sebastian of Portugal died without an heir at Alcacer Quibir in 1578, and his elderly uncle Cardinal Henry died in 1580. Philip II claimed the throne through his Portuguese mother. His forces defeated the rival claimant Antonio at Alcantara in 1580, and the Cortes of Tomar recognised him as Philip I of Portugal in April 1581 (sources give 15 or 16 April). Portugal kept its own laws, currency and administration, with offices reserved for Portuguese, and a Council of Portugal was set up in Madrid in 1582. The union gave the Habsburgs Portugal's overseas empire, but it also pulled Portugal into Spain's wars, including the Dutch Revolt. Under Philip III and Philip IV, higher taxes and the loss of noble influence fed resentment, and on 1 December 1640 Portugal revolted. Spain recognised its independence in 1668.

• Philip's oath at Tomar promised to respect Portuguese privileges; Wikipedia says the Habsburgs largely kept the promise, reserving public offices for Portuguese subjects and keeping Portugal's currency and administration.
• Dutch attacks on Portuguese colonies, including northeast Brazil, West Africa and the spice trade, weakened the Portuguese empire during the union (Encyclopedia.com, Wikipedia).
• In his 1624 Gran Memorial, Olivares wrote that the Portuguese complained a great deal about the Council of Portugal ('Mucho se quejan deste tribunal los portugueses'). The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia calls Portugal the only conquest of Philip II's reign and says Iberian unity lasted from 1580 to 1640.

Sources: Olivares, Gran Memorial to Philip IV, dated 25 December 1624 in the Wikisource header (Spanish Wikisource transcription, marked as still in progress): section on the Council of Portugal and the kingdom of Portugal; Encyclopedia.com: Portugal, Restoration of 1640 (the union and its end); Encyclopedia.com: Philip II (Spain), 1527-1598; Catholic Encyclopedia (1913): Philip II, King of Spain; Wikipedia: Iberian Union

The Spanish Armada (1588) (Summer 1588)

Philip's aims included ending English support for the Dutch rebels and, as he saw it, restoring Catholicism in England. His plan was for an Armada from Lisbon to sail up the Channel and meet the Duke of Parma's army in the Netherlands, which would then cross to England. The fleet, about 130 ships, was led by the Duke of Medina Sidonia, a capable general with no sea experience. Philip's final instructions, dated 1 April 1588, told him to join Parma and to set rendezvous ports in case storms scattered the fleet. The fleet carried about 17,000 soldiers and 7,000 mariners and was delayed by storms, spending weeks at Coruna. Parma's force was blockaded by Dutch ships, so the two forces never joined. Fireships at Calais scattered the Armada, and storms off Scotland and Ireland did the rest. About half the fleet returned to Spain; World History Encyclopedia puts Spanish dead at 11,000 to 15,000, while Historic UK says over 20,000. Encyclopedia.com blames English naval skill and bad weather and calls the defeat a great psychological victory for Philip's Protestant foes.

• In his final instructions of 1 April 1588 Philip told Medina Sidonia that, going to fight for the cause of Our Lord and the glory of his name, he would be venerated by all (Sotheby's transcription of the Spanish: 'por la causa de Nro Senor y por la gloria de Su nombre'). The better-known line 'the cause being the cause of God, you will not fail' is quoted by World History Encyclopedia and other secondary writers; I could not find it in the original.
• At Gravelines the Spanish cut about 120 anchors to escape the fireships, which hampered their ability to manoeuvre (World History Encyclopedia).
• Sources differ on size: the World History Encyclopedia counts 132 ships, others about 130, and estimates of men run from about 24,000 to 30,000.

Sources: Sotheby's lot page: Philip II's signed Armada instructions to Medina Sidonia (19 February and 1 April 1588), with transcribed Spanish excerpts (an auction catalogue entry for the primary documents); World History Encyclopedia: Spanish Armada; Historic UK: The Spanish Armada, 1588; Encyclopedia.com: Philip II (Spain), 1527-1598

Philip III (1598 to 1621)

Philip III, King of Spain and (as Philip II) of Portugal, House of Habsburg

Philip III was known as 'the Pious'. He delegated most power to his chief minister, the Duke of Lerma. His reign brought a period of relative peace in western Europe: the Treaty of London with England in 1604 and the Twelve Years' Truce with the Dutch in 1609, which amounted to de facto recognition of Dutch independence. It also saw the expulsion of the Moriscos. Historians including J. H. Elliott have judged him an undistinguished ruler (quoted in Wikipedia), though the system of favourites has had more careful study since.

How they came to power: He became king on 13 September 1598 when his father Philip II died, and married his cousin Margaret of Austria on 18 April 1599.

How it ended: Lerma fell in 1618 after rivals, including his own son the Duke of Uceda, turned on him, and Philip announced in a decree that he would rule in person. He died in Madrid on 31 March 1621, aged 42, and was buried at the Escorial.

• The Treaty of London of 1604 ended the Anglo-Spanish war and is seen as the start of the Pax Hispanica.
• The Twelve Years' Truce of 1609 was a de facto recognition of the Dutch Republic's independence.
• The Moriscos' expulsion, ordered by his decree of 1609 (the exact date is disputed, 4 or 9 April), removed roughly 275,000 to over 300,000 people by 1614 and hurt the economies of Valencia, Aragon and Murcia (Wikipedia).

Sources: Bando (edict) of the Marques de Caracena, viceroy of Valencia, 22 September 1609, expelling the Moriscos of Valencia on the king's behalf (Spanish Wikisource; the page title says 22-11-1609, the text says 22 September); EBSCO Research Starters: Philip III of Spain; Wikipedia: Philip III of Spain

Don Quixote is published (1605 and 1615)

Alonso Quijano, a minor nobleman of La Mancha, loses his wits reading tales of knights, renames himself Don Quixote, and sets out with his squire Sancho Panza. Part One appeared in Madrid in 1605 and Part Two in 1615. Cervantes had sold the rights to the publisher Francisco de Robles in July 1604. The book was an immediate success in Spain, Europe and the Americas, and critics call it the first modern novel. Estimates of total sales run past 500 million copies worldwide, a rough figure.

• Part One was translated into English, Italian, French and German within about seven years of its appearance; Thomas Shelton's English version came out in 1612.
• An unauthorised sequel under the name Avellaneda appeared around 1614, and Cervantes answered it by finishing his own Part Two.
• According to Wikipedia, in 2002 the Norwegian Nobel Institute surveyed writers from 55 countries and most voted it the greatest work of fiction ever written.

Sources: Don Quixote, trans. John Ormsby (Project Gutenberg); Newberry Library: The World of Don Quixote; EBSCO Research Starters: Miguel de Cervantes; Wikipedia: Don Quixote

The expulsion of the Moriscos (1609 to 1614)

The Moriscos were Spaniards of Muslim descent who had been made to convert, and many still kept some Muslim practices. After the Alpujarras uprising of 1568 to 1571, the government grew more suspicious. The date of the royal decree is disputed: Wikipedia and EBSCO give 9 April 1609 (EBSCO says Philip secretly authorised it on the day he ratified the Twelve Years' Truce), History Lab gives 4 April, and New World Encyclopedia says 1610. It was applied kingdom by kingdom: in Valencia it was published on 22 September 1609 and the first ships left on 30 September, and the expulsion ran until about 1614. The Duke of Lerma and Archbishop Juan de Ribera of Valencia pushed for it. Motives cited include fear of Ottoman and pirate links, earlier revolts and economic rivalry. Estimates of those expelled are about 275,000 to 300,000, roughly 4 percent of Spain's population, though Trevor Dadson argues that about 40 percent of an estimated 500,000 Moriscos never left and tens of thousands of those expelled came back.

• About 116,000 people were shipped out of Valencia alone in three months (Wikipedia).
• Ribera proposed that Morisco property be confiscated for the treasury and that the Moriscos be enslaved; the enslavement idea was rejected.
• In 1619 the Council of Castile concluded the expulsion had no economic impact; scholars find that largely true for Castile but not for Valencia, where fields were abandoned and rents rose.

Sources: Bando (edict) of the viceroy of Valencia, 22 September 1609, expelling the Moriscos (Spanish Wikisource; the page title says 22-11-1609, the text says 22 September). Opens: 'El Rey y por S.M.D. Luis Carrillo de Toledo, Marques de Caracena'; New World Encyclopedia: Morisco; EBSCO Research Starters: Philip III of Spain; Wikipedia: Expulsion of the Moriscos

Philip IV (1621 to 1665)

Philip IV, King of Spain and (as Philip III) of Portugal, House of Habsburg

Philip IV was sixteen when he became king, and for about twenty years he relied on his chief minister, the Count-Duke of Olivares. The reign saw a state bankruptcy in 1627, the revolts of Catalonia and Portugal in 1640, the defeat at Rocroi in 1643, recognition of Dutch independence in 1648 and the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659. It was also a golden age of painting and theatre at court. Historians once treated the later Habsburgs as 'minor' kings, a label recent scholarship has challenged.

How they came to power: He succeeded his father, Philip III, in 1621 at the age of sixteen.

How it ended: He died in Madrid on 17 September 1665, aged 60. His only surviving son was Charles II, a child of three.

• He amassed over 4,000 paintings and was known as the 'Planet King' (Rey Planeta).
• He corresponded for twenty-two years with the abbess Sor Maria de Agreda, and more than 600 of their letters are documented.
• He had an estimated thirty or more illegitimate children, of whom only two were legitimised: John Joseph of Austria (born 1629, legitimised 1642) and Fernando Francisco Isidro. John Joseph later commanded Spanish armies in the 1650s and 1660s.

Sources: Olivares, Gran Memorial to Philip IV, dated 25 December 1624 in the Wikisource header (Spanish Wikisource transcription, marked as still in progress); Encyclopedia.com: Philip IV (Spain), 1605-1665; EBSCO Research Starters: Philip IV; Wikipedia: Philip IV of Spain

The Count-Duke of Olivares (1621 to 1643)

Gaspar de Guzman, Count-Duke of Olivares, chief minister of Philip IV, Chief minister · Philip IV

Olivares wanted to restore the good government of Philip II's time and to spread the cost of defence across the Habsburg kingdoms. His Union of Arms (dated 1625 or 1626 by different sources) asked Catalonia, Portugal and others to supply money and troops, which they read as an attack on their rights. He resumed the war with the Dutch when the truce ended in 1621, and his 1628 intervention in the Mantuan succession helped lead to open war with France. He also promoted the king's image through art at the new Buen Retiro palace. By 1640 his policies had provoked revolts in Catalonia and Portugal.

How they rose: He was born in Rome on 6 January 1587, third son of the Spanish ambassador, and became count of Olivares in 1607. He joined the future Philip IV's household in 1615, became chief adviser in 1621 and led the government after his uncle Zuniga died in 1622 (EBSCO places Zuniga's death in late 1621; most sources say 1622). He was made Duke of Sanlucar in 1625.

How they died: Philip IV removed him in January 1643 and he retired to Toro, where he died on 22 July 1645.

• In 1628 the Dutch admiral Piet Hein captured a Spanish treasure fleet, setting off a fiscal crisis.
• He was a passionate book collector and a generous patron of writers.
• Encyclopedia.com's entry on Philip IV quotes the historian J. H. Elliott calling the Velazquez equestrian portraits made for the Buen Retiro 'a gigantic exercise in self-projection'.

Sources: Olivares, Gran Memorial to Philip IV, dated 25 December 1624 in the Wikisource header (Spanish Wikisource transcription, marked as still in progress); EBSCO Research Starters: Gaspar de Guzman, Count-Duke of Olivares; Encyclopedia.com: Olivares, Gaspar de Guzman y Pimentel, Count of; Encyclopedia.com: Philip IV (Spain), 1605-1665

Diego Velazquez (1623 to 1660)

Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez, painter to Philip IV, Painter · Court of Philip IV

Velazquez trained in Seville under Francisco Pacheco, and moved to Madrid in 1623 after painting Philip IV. He stayed at court for the rest of his life. His works include The Surrender of Breda, the Rokeby Venus and the portrait of Pope Innocent X, made on his second Italian journey. His court duties took much of his time, which is one reason the known output is small: EBSCO counts 162 known paintings, Wikipedia estimates 110 to 120 known canvases.

How they rose: He was baptised in Seville on 6 June 1599 and apprenticed to Pacheco in 1611; in 1618 he married Pacheco's daughter Juana. He entered royal service under Philip IV on 6 October 1623, at 24.

How they died: He died in Madrid on 6 August 1660 after a fever, a year after he was admitted to the Order of Santiago. His burial place is not known.

• In 1652 he became aposentador mayor, the official who managed the court's lodgings, so he arranged rooms as well as painting.
• Counts differ: EBSCO says about 120 of his 162 known paintings survive, while Wikipedia estimates 110 to 120 known canvases in all.
• He was admitted to the Order of Santiago on 28 November 1659; his son-in-law Juan Bautista del Mazo succeeded him as court painter (EBSCO).

Sources: Antonio Palomino, El museo pictorico y escala optica, vol. 3 (1724), life of Velazquez, Spanish original (Internet Archive scan): his account of Las Meninas and Velazquez's Santiago habit; EBSCO Research Starters: Diego Velazquez; Wikipedia: Diego Velazquez

The revolt of Catalonia (Reapers' War) (June 7, 1640 to October 13, 1652 (the wider war with France continued to 1659))

Catalonia was part of the Crown of Aragon, which shared a king with Castile; it kept its own Corts and paid no taxes for the empire's wars. Olivares's Union of Arms (1625) and the quartering of Castilian troops in the principality during the war with France caused resentment, and the revolt mixed a social conflict between rich and poor with a political one between Catalans and Castilians. After rebel attacks in the spring of 1640, a mob in Barcelona killed the viceroy, the Count of Santa Coloma, on 7 June 1640. Pau Claris, president of the Generalitat, led the movement. Catalan leaders turned to France, and Barcelona surrendered to Spain on 13 October 1652 after being starved. Philip IV issued an amnesty and spared Catalan laws and the Corts, which lasted until Philip V removed many of them after the War of the Spanish Succession. The war with France went on until the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659, by which France kept Roussillon and the northern part of Cerdanya.

• The war is known as the Reapers' War (Guerra dels Segadors); according to Encyclopedia.com the armed rebels who took over the countryside were largely peasants.
• In the Gran Memorial of 1624 Olivares urged Philip IV to work 'por reducir estos reinos de que se compone Espana al estilo y leyes de Castilla' (to bring the kingdoms of Spain under the style and laws of Castile), the unifying aim that Catalan leaders resisted.
• In January 1641 the Catalan leaders proclaimed a republic under French protection and then recognised Louis XIII as Count of Barcelona (Wikipedia).

Sources: Olivares, Gran Memorial, 1624: advice to make the kingdoms of Spain follow 'el estilo y leyes de Castilla' (Spanish Wikisource, transcription incomplete); Encyclopedia.com: Catalonia, Revolt of (1640-1652); EBSCO Research Starters: Gaspar de Guzman, Count-Duke of Olivares; Wikipedia: Reapers' War

The Portuguese revolt of 1640 (December 1, 1640 to February 13, 1668)

Heavy taxation, a large revolt at Evora in 1637, Dutch seizures of territory in Brazil and West Africa, and noble anger at lost autonomy all fed Portuguese resentment. On 1 December 1640 conspirators killed the Secretary of State, Miguel de Vasconcelos, and imprisoned the vicereine, Margaret of Savoy; John, Duke of Braganza, was acclaimed John IV later that day. Encyclopedia.com describes the restoration as conservative in character, aimed at redressing the nobles' grievances. Spain was by then also fighting France and the Catalans, which helped Portugal survive. Fighting went on until the Treaty of Lisbon of 13 February 1668, when Spain recognised the House of Braganza and the Iberian Union ended.

• Sebastianism, the popular belief that the lost King Sebastian would return, motivated much of the opposition to Spanish rule before 1620 (Encyclopedia.com).
• Portugal won key victories at Montijo (26 May 1644), Ameixial (8 June 1663) and Montes Claros (17 June 1665).
• The war lasted about 28 years, and Spain's focus on Catalonia helped Portugal win it.

Sources: Olivares, Gran Memorial, 1624: section 'Reino de Portugal y sus calidades', Spain's own view of the kingdom sixteen years before the revolt (Spanish Wikisource, transcription incomplete); Encyclopedia.com: Portugal, Restoration of 1640; Encyclopedia.com: Philip IV (Spain), 1605-1665; Wikipedia: Portuguese Restoration War

The Battle of Rocroi (May 19, 1643)

A French army under the Duke of Enghien, later the Great Conde, relieved the siege of Rocroi and defeated the Spanish Army of Flanders under Francisco de Melo on 19 May 1643. Louis XIII had died on 14 May; Enghien learned of it on 17 May and kept the news from his army. The Spanish cavalry on the wings was beaten, but the veteran Spanish tercios held for a time. The Spanish lost all their cannon, and estimates of their dead, wounded and captured run from 7,300 to 15,000, against about 4,000 French losses. Historians often read Rocroi as the end of the tercios' reputation for invincibility. Others point out that its importance was largely symbolic: Spain regrouped quickly and the French could not invade Flanders.

• Enghien was 21; the elderly, gouty Spanish infantry commander Paul-Bernard de Fontaines, carried into battle in a chair, was killed.
• Wikipedia says 390 officers and 1,386 enlisted men escaped from roughly 7,000 Spanish infantry, 1,776 in all.
• Spain's decline became clearer later, after the Battle of the Dunes in June 1658 and the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659, by which Spain gave up Roussillon and part of Cerdanya.

Sources: Bossuet, funeral oration for the Prince of Conde (delivered 20 March 1687): the victory at Rocroi over the 'vieilles bandes' and the count of Fontaines (French Wikisource; a later eulogy, not an eyewitness account); Encyclopedia.com: Philip IV (Spain), 1605-1665 (Rocroi as a symbol of Spanish military decline); EBSCO Research Starters: Treaty of the Pyrenees; Wikipedia: Battle of Rocroi

Las Meninas (1656)

Las Meninas is a large oil painting, 318 by 276 centimetres. Nine figures appear, or eleven counting the king and queen in the mirror: the Infanta Margaret Theresa, two ladies-in-waiting, two dwarfs, a chaperone, a bodyguard, a courtier at the door, and Velazquez at his easel. Palomino wrote in 1724 that Velazquez finished it in 1656, and it was known in early inventories as 'La Familia' (The Family). It hung in the Alcazar and was damaged in the palace fire of 1734, then restored; it entered the Prado when the museum was founded in 1819. Scholars debate whether the mirror reflects the royal couple standing where the viewer does or the canvas Velazquez is painting.

• The red cross of the Order of Santiago on Velazquez's chest was added after the painting was finished; he was admitted in 1659, and Palomino says the king ordered it painted in after the painter's death, adding that some say the king painted it himself.
• Picasso painted 58 interpretations of it between August and December 1957, now in the Museu Picasso in Barcelona (Wikipedia's Las Meninas page; its Velazquez page counts 44 variations).
• Luca Giordano is said to have called it the 'theology of painting'.

Sources: Antonio Palomino, El museo pictorico y escala optica, vol. 3 (1724), life of Velazquez, Spanish original (Internet Archive scan): the passage describing the painting and noting the Santiago habit painted in after his death; EBSCO Research Starters: Diego Velazquez; Wikipedia: Las Meninas

Charles II (1665 to 1700)

Charles II, King of Spain, 'El Hechizado' (the Bewitched), House of Habsburg

Charles was the only surviving son of Philip IV and his niece Mariana of Austria, and was known as El Hechizado, 'the Bewitched'. His health was poor from childhood: a pronounced jaw, chronic indigestion, epilepsy, poor eyesight and other ailments are reported, and the causes remain debated. During his minority his mother ruled as regent, and her feud with his half-brother Don Juan Jose of Austria weakened the government. His two marriages produced no children, and his autopsy suggests he was likely incapable of fathering any.

How they came to power: He became king at the age of three, on 17 September 1665, when Philip IV died (he was born on 6 November 1661). Mariana was regent until he came of age in November 1675, and Don Juan Jose controlled the government from January 1678.

How it ended: He died on 1 November 1700, aged 38. He had first named Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria his heir, then Archduke Charles, and in 1700 he named Philip of Anjou, Louis XIV's grandson, insisting on an undivided monarchy. The rival claims led to the war that opens the next era.

• A contemporary said his Habsburg jaw made him swallow food without chewing; modern claims about a recessive gene are speculative.
• His autopsy reportedly found a heart 'the size of a peppercorn' along with other damage.
• Louis XIV's Royal Council decided to accept the will, and Philip of Anjou was proclaimed king of Spain at Versailles on 16 November 1700 (Wikipedia). The draft's proclamation in Madrid on 24 November could not be confirmed, so dates for the Madrid proclamation are disputed.

Sources: Charles II's will of 1700: succession clause naming the Duke of Anjou ('declaro ser mi sucesor ... el duque de Anjou'), quoted in Lafuente, Historia General de Espana, book V, ch. 14 (a 19th-century history quoting the will, not the will itself); EBSCO Research Starters: Charles II (of Spain); Wikipedia: Charles II of Spain

Philip V (1700 to 1746 (with a break in 1724))

Philip V, first Bourbon King of Spain, House of Bourbon

Born at Versailles in 1683, Philip was a grandson of Louis XIV and the first Bourbon to rule Spain. He held the throne for most of 46 years, through the War of the Spanish Succession and the Nueva Planta decrees that put the Crown of Aragon under Castilian law. Prolonged fits of melancholia weakened his hold on daily government, and historians say his second wife, Elisabeth Farnese, then steered much of policy. Her Italian ambitions led Spain into the War of the Quadruple Alliance (1718 to 1720).

How they came to power: Charles II, the last Spanish Habsburg, died childless on 1 November 1700 and his will named Philip of Anjou as heir. Philip was proclaimed king on 16 November 1700. The Austrian Habsburgs backed Archduke Charles instead, and Britain and the Dutch Republic later joined that side.

How it ended: Philip abdicated on 14 January 1724 for his son Louis I, then returned to the throne in September of that year. He died on 9 July 1746 and was buried at the Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso, near Segovia.

• The Library of Congress country study reports that Louis XIV rejoiced at his grandson's accession as Philip V with the words 'The Pyrenees are no more.'
• Philip abdicated on 14 January 1724 for his son Louis I, who died of smallpox on 31 August 1724 after about seven months; Philip took the crown back within days.
• In 1713 Spain adopted a semi-Salic rule that moved women down the line of succession (the auto acordado of 10 May 1713). The Cortes asked in 1789 to undo it, and Ferdinand VII's Pragmatic Sanction of 29 March 1830 gave effect to that request, a change that fed the Carlist Wars.

Sources: Peace and Friendship Treaty of Utrecht between Spain and Great Britain, 1713 (Wikisource); Pragmatica Sancion of 29 March 1830, which recites and revokes the 1713 auto acordado (Spanish Wikisource); Library of Congress Country Studies: Spain, The Bourbon Succession; 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica: Philip V, king of Spain (Wikisource); Wikipedia: Philip V of Spain

The War of the Spanish Succession (1701 to 1714 (Utrecht treaties 1713))

Charles II's will gave the whole Spanish empire to Philip of Anjou, Louis XIV's grandson. Britain, the Dutch Republic and Austria backed Archduke Charles of Austria instead, fearing a union of France and Spain. Fighting ran through Italy, the Low Countries, Germany and Spain itself, where Catalonia sided with the archduke. The peace treaties of 1713 and 1714 kept Philip on the Spanish throne but stripped Spain of its European possessions outside the peninsula.

• In Article II of the Utrecht treaty with Britain, Philip V renounced all claim to the French crown for himself and his descendants. The Dukes of Berry and Orleans signed separate renunciations of any claim to the Spanish crown.
• Article X of the same treaty (13 July 1713) gave Britain the town, castle and port of Gibraltar, but without any territorial jurisdiction and without open communication by land with the country round about.
• On 11 September 1714 the governing bodies of Barcelona proclaimed a call for every able-bodied man to defend the city, and warned that if too few came, the city must ask to surrender before nightfall.

Sources: Peace and Friendship Treaty of Utrecht between Spain and Great Britain, 1713 (Wikisource); Bando de los Tres Comunes de Cataluna, 11 September 1714 (Spanish Wikisource); World History Encyclopedia: War of the Spanish Succession; Library of Congress Country Studies: Spain, The War of the Spanish Succession; Wikipedia: War of the Spanish Succession

The Nueva Planta decrees (29 June 1707 to 16 January 1716)

The decrees were issued in stages: Valencia and Aragon on 29 June 1707, Mallorca on 28 November 1715 and Catalonia on 16 January 1716. They abolished the old regional courts and legislative bodies and brought the Crown of Aragon under Castilian law and government. Castilian became the language of administration and the courts. Historians describe the result as a step toward a more centralised Spanish state; Navarre and the Basque provinces kept their own rules.

• The 1707 decree justified the change by the king's right of conquest: it says Aragon and Valencia had rebelled, and that his arms had won them.
• Navarre and the Basque provinces kept their home rule, because they had backed Philip V at the start of the war. Internal customs barriers were removed everywhere except in the Basque territory.
• In Catalonia the decree abolished the Generalitat and replaced the viceroy with a Captain General. The six Catalan universities were closed and a single royal university was founded at Cervera.

Sources: Decretos de Nueva Planta, with an extract of Philip V's 1707 decree on Aragon and Valencia (Spanish Wikisource); Library of Congress Country Studies: Spain, Philip V and centralised government; Wikipedia: Nueva Planta decrees

Ferdinand VI (1746 to 1759)

Ferdinand VI, King of Spain, House of Bourbon

Ferdinand VI succeeded his father Philip V in 1746 and kept Spain neutral between France and Britain. Ministers such as the Marquis of Ensenada and Jose de Carvajal ran much of the government, with his wife Barbara of Portugal as a strong influence. The reign saw a bank (the Giro Real), a larger navy and the founding of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in 1752. The 1750 Treaty of Madrid with Portugal on the South American border led to a long conflict with the Guarani of the Jesuit missions; it was annulled in 1761. He had no children and was succeeded by his half-brother Charles III.

How they came to power: He was born in Madrid on 23 September 1713 and became king on 9 July 1746, when Philip V died.

How it ended: His wife Barbara died on 27 August 1758, and he sank into a deep depression, refusing to govern. He died at Villaviciosa de Odon on 10 August 1759, a stretch Spanish historians call the year without a king.

• He was a patron of the singer Farinelli, whose voice, a 1911 Britannica entry says, soothed his melancholy, and Domenico Scarlatti wrote many of his keyboard sonatas at his court.
• Under the Treaty of Madrid (13 January 1750) Portugal gave up Colonia del Sacramento to Spain, and Spain gave Portugal mission towns east of the Uruguay River. The exchange sparked the Guarani War.
• In 1749 he authorised a general round-up of the Roma in Spain, which affected about 9,000 people.

Sources: Tratado de Madrid entre Espana y Portugal, 13 January 1750 (Spanish Wikisource); Encyclopedia.com: Maria Barbara of Braganza (1711-1758); 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica: Ferdinand VI of Spain (Wikisource); Wikipedia: Ferdinand VI of Spain

Francisco de Goya (1746 to 1828)

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, Painter and printmaker · Spain

Goya was born in Fuendetodos, Aragon, and trained under Jose Luzan and in Madrid before becoming a court painter in 1786. He painted four Spanish monarchs and became First Painter of the Chamber in 1799. His satirical etchings, Los Caprichos (1799), and the Disasters of War, made roughly between 1810 and 1820, are among the best-known prints in European art. Historians read the Disasters as a protest against the Peninsular War and the rollback of liberal reforms that followed it.

How they rose: Born on 30 March 1746, he studied with Jose Luzan in Zaragoza and Anton Raphael Mengs in Madrid, married Josefa Bayeu in 1773, and became court painter to the Crown in 1786.

How they died: He left Spain for Bordeaux in 1824 and died there on 16 April 1828.

• A severe illness in 1792 to 1793 left him deaf. The cause was never identified.
• The Disasters of War were not published until 1863, 35 years after his death.
• He painted the Black Paintings directly onto the walls of his house, the Quinta del Sordo, from about 1819 to 1823.

Sources: Los Caprichos, 1799: the 80 prints themselves (artwork images, Wikimedia Commons category); World History Encyclopedia: The Disasters of War, Plate 3; 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica: Goya y Lucientes, Francisco (Wikisource); Wikipedia: Francisco Goya

Charles III (1759 to 1788)

Charles III, King of Spain, House of Bourbon

Charles III had been Duke of Parma and then King of Naples and Sicily before he inherited the Spanish crown from his half-brother in 1759. Spain's most prominent enlightened ruler, he leaned on reforming ministers, tightened royal control over the Church and the colonies, and promoted trade and administration. The Bourbon reforms included new viceroyalties, intendants, a standing army and, in 1778, a free trade decree for the empire. His reign also had setbacks: Britain captured Havana and Manila in 1762, and the 1766 Esquilache riots drove him from Madrid for a time.

How they came to power: Born on 20 January 1716, he reigned in Naples from 1735 and became King of Spain on 10 August 1759 when Ferdinand VI died without children.

How it ended: He died in the Royal Palace in Madrid on 14 December 1788, aged 72, and was succeeded by his son Charles IV. The Library of Congress study notes that the reform movement depended on his patronage and did not survive his death.

• The Esquilache riots began in Madrid on 23 March 1766 over an order to give up long capes and broad-brimmed hats, and over high prices for bread and other goods. Esquilache was dismissed and the king slipped away to Aranjuez.
• Sealed orders to expel the Jesuits went to every town with a Jesuit house and could not be opened until the night of 1 April 1767. Expelled priests were given lifetime pensions of 100 pesos a year; coadjutors got 90.
• He declared the Marcha Real the official ceremonial anthem on 3 September 1770.

Sources: Expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain, 1767: orders and pensions (Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes); Library of Congress Country Studies: Spain, The Enlightenment; Wikipedia: Charles III of Spain

Charles IV (14 December 1788 to 19 March 1808)

Charles IV, King of Spain, House of Bourbon

Charles IV succeeded his father Charles III and kept the enlightened style of government at first. Power passed to Manuel de Godoy, who became chief minister at 25 and in 1796 brought Spain into an alliance with France against Britain. The alliance brought defeat at sea and growing resentment at home. In 1803 the king authorised the Balmis expedition to carry smallpox vaccination to Spain's overseas territories.

How they came to power: Born at Portici, near Naples, on 11 November 1748, he became king on 14 December 1788 when his father died.

How it ended: Riots and a revolt at Aranjuez (17 to 19 March 1808) forced Godoy out and made Charles abdicate for his son Ferdinand VII. He protested that the abdication was forced, and at Bayonne in May 1808 ceded his rights to Napoleon. He settled in Rome in 1812 and died in Naples on 19 January 1819; some sources give 20 January.

• In 1789 the Cortes asked Charles IV to restore the traditional order of succession, which preferred males but did not exclude women. He agreed but ordered it kept secret 'for the time being', and it was published only in Ferdinand VII's Pragmatic Sanction of 1830.
• Godoy, a guards officer, became chief minister at the age of 25, and the Library of Congress study calls him the virtual dictator of Spain.
• The Balmis Expedition (1803) carried the smallpox vaccine to Spain's overseas territories with Charles's authorisation.

Sources: Pragmatica Sancion of 29 March 1830, which recites the Cortes petition of 30 September 1789 (Spanish Wikisource); Oficio of 12 August 1808 on the 2 May rising and the Bayonne abdications (Spanish Wikisource); Library of Congress Country Studies: Spain, The Enlightenment (Charles III and Charles IV); Wikipedia: Charles IV of Spain

The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805)

Spain had been allied with France against Britain since 1796. On 21 October 1805 the combined Franco-Spanish fleet met Nelson off Cape Trafalgar and was beaten. Admiral Federico Gravina led the Spanish squadron, which included the giant Santisima Trinidad. Collingwood's despatch records how a gale after the battle broke the tow-lines of the prizes, and many were lost.

• The Spanish supplied 15 of the allied fleet's 33 ships of the line. The Santisima Trinidad, with about 130 guns, was the largest warship in either fleet.
• Captains Dionisio Alcala-Galiano and Cosme Damian Churruca were killed after ordering their ships not to surrender. Gravina was wounded and died of his wounds months later.
• Collingwood's despatch names the captured Spanish Rear-Admiral Cisneros. It reports that British captains cleared the Trinidad of her crew and sank her.

Sources: Collingwood's Trafalgar despatch, London Gazette, 6 November 1805 (naval-history.net); Royal Museums Greenwich: Pocock drawing, Admiral Gravina in the Prince of Asturias, 21 October 1805; 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica: Trafalgar, Battle of (Wikisource); Wikipedia: Battle of Trafalgar

The Dos de Mayo uprising (2 to 3 May 1808)

French troops held Madrid in the spring of 1808 while Napoleon manoeuvred the Spanish royal family to Bayonne. On 2 May a crowd gathered at the Royal Palace to stop the removal of the Infante Francisco de Paula, and Marshal Murat's artillery fired on it. Fighting spread through the city, and at the Monteleon artillery barracks the captains Luis Daoiz and Pedro Velarde died. A military commission ordered those captured with weapons to be shot, and many were executed the next day. Goya's The Third of May 1808 (1814) shows that scene.

• On 2 May the town of Mostoles issued a bando, signed by its mayor Andres Torrejon, calling on all Spaniards to rise against the French; it opens 'The homeland is in danger.'
• Casualty counts differ among historians. Wikipedia's summary cites one count of about 200 Spanish dead, 200 wounded and 300 executed, and another of about 150 dead.
• The Second of May is a public holiday in the Community of Madrid, and the Malasana district is named after Manuela Malasana.

Sources: Oficio of 12 August 1808 describing the 2 May rising and the executions that followed (Spanish Wikisource); World History Encyclopedia: The Third of May 1808 (Goya, 1814); World History Encyclopedia: Peninsular War; Wikipedia: Dos de Mayo Uprising

The Peninsular War (War of Independence) (1808 to 1814)

Napoleon's troops entered Spain in 1807 to reach Portugal. In 1808 he forced the Spanish Bourbons to abdicate and put his brother Joseph on the throne, and Spaniards rose in juntas across the country. Spanish forces beat a French army at Bailen in July 1808, and a British army under Sir Arthur Wellesley joined the war from Portugal. The fighting wore down French forces until the victory at Vitoria on 21 June 1813, and the war ended in April 1814.

• At Bailen (16 to 19 July 1808) a Spanish army defeated a French one, the first major French defeat of the Napoleonic Wars.
• Napoleon is said to have called the war his 'Spanish ulcer'. Guerrilla fighters, estimated at 35,000 to 50,000, harassed French supply lines, and the Library of Congress study says they tied down 250,000 French troops.
• The French began besieging Cadiz on 5 February 1810, and the siege lasted until 1812. The Cortes drafted Spain's first constitution inside the besieged city.

Sources: Bando of the Junta Suprema de Gobierno of Mallorca, 23 June 1808 (Spanish Wikisource); World History Encyclopedia: Peninsular War; 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica: Peninsular War (Wikisource); Library of Congress Country Studies: Spain, The Napoleonic Era; Wikipedia: Peninsular War

Joseph Bonaparte (1808 to 1813)

Joseph Bonaparte (Jose I), King of Spain and the Indies, House of Bonaparte

Joseph was a lawyer and diplomat before Napoleon made him King of Naples in 1806. Napoleon moved him to Spain in 1808, where he ruled under the Statute of Bayonne, a constitution of 146 articles. He backed reforms, among them the dissolution of religious houses, which won him some Spanish supporters known as afrancesados. But he governed mainly where French armies held ground, and his reign was contested throughout the Peninsular War.

How they came to power: After the Bayonne abdications of 5 to 7 May 1808, Napoleon appointed Joseph King of Spain on 4 June 1808. He was born in Corte, Corsica, on 7 January 1768.

How it ended: He left Spain after the defeat at Vitoria in June 1813, and Ferdinand VII was restored on 11 December 1813. Joseph later lived in the United States as the Count of Survilliers, mainly at Point Breeze in Bordentown, New Jersey, and died in Florence on 28 July 1844.

• His enemies called him 'Pepe Botella', a smear based on a false claim that he drank heavily.
• The Statute of Bayonne (6 July 1808) had 146 articles. It set up a Cortes of 172 members drawn from the clergy, nobility and commons, and said Roman Catholicism was the only religion permitted.
• On 23 June 1808 the Junta of Mallorca ordered printed pamphlets proclaiming Joseph king to be burned by the public executioner, and called anyone who kept them a traitor to Ferdinand VII.

Sources: Constitucion de Bayona de 1808 (Statute of Bayonne), 6 July 1808 (Spanish Wikisource); Bando of the Junta Suprema de Gobierno of Mallorca, 23 June 1808 (Spanish Wikisource); Library of Congress Country Studies: Spain, The Napoleonic Era; Wikipedia: Joseph Bonaparte

Ferdinand VII (1808; 1813 to 1833)

Ferdinand VII, King of Spain, House of Bourbon

Ferdinand VII first reigned in 1808 and was then held by Napoleon at Valencay for six years. Back in Spain in 1813 and 1814, he refused to recognise the Constitution of Cadiz and abolished it in May 1814, arresting liberal leaders. A revolt led by Rafael del Riego in 1820 forced him to restore it for the Liberal Triennium, until a French army restored his absolute rule in 1823. During his reign Spain lost most of its American colonies.

How they came to power: Born on 14 October 1784, he became king on 19 March 1808 when his father Charles IV abdicated after the Aranjuez revolt. At Bayonne in early May 1808 he returned the crown to his father, who had ceded his rights to Napoleon.

How it ended: He died on 29 September 1833. With no son, he left the throne to his infant daughter Isabella under the 1830 Pragmatic Sanction, and his brother Don Carlos disputed it.

• He was arrested in 1807 over the El Escorial conspiracy against his father's favourite, Godoy.
• On 12 April 1814 deputies of the Cortes presented him with the Manifiesto de los Persas, which opens by recalling that the ancient Persians spent five days in anarchy after a king died; the deputies urged him not to swear the 1812 constitution.
• He declined the imperial crown of Mexico offered to him after the 1821 Treaty of Cordoba.

Sources: Manifiesto de los Persas, 12 April 1814 (Spanish Wikisource); Pragmatica Sancion of 29 March 1830 on the royal succession (Spanish Wikisource); Library of Congress Country Studies: Spain, Rule by Pronunciamiento; 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica: Ferdinand VII of Spain (Wikisource); Wikipedia: Ferdinand VII of Spain

The independence of Spanish America (1808 to 1833 (most of the fighting over by about 1825))

When Napoleon removed the Bourbons in 1808, Spanish provinces formed juntas, and the same movement spread to Spanish America from 1809. Armies then fought across the continent for the next decade and more. The wars ended with a patriot victory and the break-up of the empire into independent states. By 1825 only Cuba and Puerto Rico remained under Spanish control. Historians still weigh how much the war grew from the 1808 crisis and how much from older grievances.

• Juntas were formed in Chuquisaca, La Paz and Quito in 1809, and in Caracas on 19 April 1810.
• In his Letter from Jamaica (6 September 1815) Simon Bolivar argued that Americans had almost never been viceroys or governors, and that Spain had left them as farm labourers and mere consumers.
• Portugal recognised the new states in 1821, the United States in 1822 and the United Kingdom in 1825. Cuba and Puerto Rico stayed Spanish until 1898.

Sources: Simon Bolivar, Carta de Jamaica (Letter from Jamaica), 6 September 1815 (Spanish Wikisource); Library of Congress Country Studies: Spain, The Liberal Ascendancy, The Cadiz Cortes; 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica: Bolivar, Simon (Wikisource); Wikipedia: Spanish American wars of independence

The Constitution of Cadiz (1812) (19 March 1812)

A central junta convened delegates from across Spain and its empire to Cadiz in 1810, and they wrote a constitution while French troops besieged the city. Promulgated on 19 March 1812, it made Spain a limited monarchy with a Cortes that shared law-making with the king. It declared that sovereignty resides essentially in the nation, and that the nation cannot belong to any family or person. It also made Roman Catholicism the only permitted religion. Ferdinand VII abolished it in 1814; it returned in 1820 and again in 1836 to 1837.

• It was promulgated on Saint Joseph's Day, which is why it is nicknamed La Pepa, since Pepe is a short form of Jose.
• Article 1 defined the Spanish nation as all the Spaniards of both hemispheres, so it counted Spaniards in the Americas.
• The Library of Congress study calls it the sacred codex of liberalism and says it later served as a model for liberal constitutions in Latin nations.

Sources: Spanish Constitution of 1812, full English text (Wikisource); Library of Congress Country Studies: Spain, The Liberal Ascendancy, The Cadiz Cortes; World History Encyclopedia: Peninsular War (siege of Cadiz); Wikipedia: Spanish Constitution of 1812

The Carlist Wars (1833 to 1840; 1846 to 1849; 1872 to 1876)

When Ferdinand VII died in 1833, his brother Don Carlos refused to accept the 1830 Pragmatic Sanction that let his niece Isabella inherit. Carlists wanted traditional monarchy and the old local rules. Their opponents backed the regent Maria Cristina, Isabella and liberal reform. The first war (1833 to 1840) was the largest, with fighting centred on the Basque Country, Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia. A smaller Catalan rising followed in 1846 to 1849. The third war (1872 to 1876) came after Isabella's fall and ended with the Bourbon Restoration, which belongs to the next era.

• Don Carlos issued his claim from Abrantes, Portugal, on 1 October 1833, saying the crown had been taken from him by a decision that broke the law of succession.
• Wikipedia gives an estimate of over 120,000 deaths in the first war, about 5 percent of Spain's pre-war population.
• The Convention of Vergara (August 1839) let Maroto's officers keep their ranks if they served Isabella II. General Espartero agreed to urge the government to keep its promise to propose a grant or modification of the Basque fueros to the Cortes.

Sources: Manifiesto de Abrantes, Carlos Maria Isidro, 1 October 1833 (Spanish Wikisource); Convenio de Vergara, 1839 (Spanish Wikisource); Library of Congress Country Studies: Spain, Rule by Pronunciamiento; Wikipedia: Carlist Wars

Isabella II (1833 to 1868)

Isabella II, Queen of Spain, House of Bourbon

Isabella was proclaimed queen at the age of two, and her mother Maria Cristina and then General Espartero acted as regents. She was declared of age at 13. Her reign saw the First Carlist War, shifting governments of Moderates and Progressives, and several army pronunciamientos. She became unpopular for favouring conservatives and the Church. Her nicknames were the Traditional Queen and the Queen of Sad Mischance.

How they came to power: She was born on 10 October 1830. She was proclaimed queen on 29 September 1833 under the 1830 Pragmatic Sanction, with her mother as regent until 1840 and Espartero until 1843.

How it ended: The 1868 revolution ended her reign: she crossed into France on 30 September 1868. She renounced her dynastic rights in favour of her son Alfonso on 25 June 1870, and died in Paris on 9 April 1904.

• The Cortes declared her of age in November 1843, when she was 13, and she swore the 1837 Constitution.
• On 10 October 1846, her 16th birthday, she married her cousin Francisco de Asis, Duke of Cadiz. Her younger sister married the Duke of Montpensier on the same day.
• The 1837 Constitution names Isabella as the legitimate queen (Article 50) and her mother Maria Cristina as regent in her name during her minority, and it set up two chambers, the Senate and the Congress of Deputies (Article 13).

Sources: Constitucion espanola de 1837, promulgated 18 June 1837 (Spanish Wikisource); Pragmatica Sancion of 29 March 1830 on the royal succession (Spanish Wikisource); Library of Congress Country Studies: Spain, Liberal Rule; 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica: Isabella II (Wikisource); Wikipedia: Isabella II of Spain

The Glorious Revolution of 1868 (September 1868 (Alcolea, 28 September))

Isabella's reign had grown unpopular through the 1860s, with economic crises, political repression and reliance on conservative and clerical groups. Liberal and republican exiles agreed to work together at Ostend in 1866 and Brussels in 1867. In September 1868 naval forces under Admiral Juan Bautista Topete mutinied at Cadiz, and Generals Prim and Serrano denounced the government. At Alcolea on 28 September, Serrano defeated the queen's loyal forces. Isabella fled to France, and a provisional government began the period historians call the Sexenio Democratico.

• The new Cortes passed the Constitution of 6 June 1869. Article 32 says sovereignty resides essentially in the Nation, and Article 33 says the form of government is the monarchy.
• Article 21 of the 1869 text committed the nation to supporting the Catholic religion but let foreigners worship publicly or privately, and gave Spaniards of other faiths the same treatment.
• The Cortes looked abroad for a king. Candidates considered included Espartero, Isabella's son Alfonso and Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, and a possible offer to Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen raised fears of a Franco-Prussian war.

Sources: Constitucion espanola de 1869 (Spanish Wikisource); Library of Congress Country Studies: Spain, Liberal Rule; Congreso de los Diputados: Sexenio Revolucionario, 1868-1874; Wikipedia: Glorious Revolution (Spain)

Amadeo I (16 November 1870 to 11 February 1873)

Amadeo I, King of Spain (Amadeo of Savoy), House of Savoy

Amadeo, an Italian prince and son of Victor Emmanuel II, was chosen by the Cortes after the 1868 revolution. He swore to the 1869 Constitution, a liberal charter that kept the monarchy. His reign faced the Third Carlist War, the Cuban Ten Years' War and quarrels among the parties that backed him. The general who had championed his candidacy, Juan Prim, was assassinated before he arrived. Amadeo abdicated in February 1873.

How they came to power: He was born in Turin on 30 May 1845 and elected King of Spain by the Cortes on 16 November 1870. He entered Madrid on 2 January 1871.

How it ended: He abdicated on 10 to 11 February 1873, and the Cortes proclaimed a republic. He went back to Italy as Duke of Aosta, and died in Turin on 18 January 1890.

• He entered Madrid on 2 January 1871, days after General Prim's assassination, and swore to the 1869 Constitution.
• In his abdication message he said he had looked for a remedy within the law and had not found one.
• The Cortes proclaimed the republic on 11 February 1873 by a vote of 258 to 32.

Sources: Constitucion espanola de 1869 (Spanish Wikisource); Library of Congress Country Studies: Spain, Liberal Rule; Congreso de los Diputados: Sexenio Revolucionario, 1868-1874; Wikipedia: Amadeo I of Spain

The First Spanish Republic (11 February 1873 to December 1874)

The Cortes proclaimed the republic on 11 February 1873, the day after Amadeo abdicated. Four men served as president in the first year: Figueras, Pi i Margall, Salmeron and Castelar. A federal constitution was drafted, with 117 articles and 17 states, but it was never promulgated. The Republic faced the Carlist war and the cantonal rebellion, in which cities such as Cartagena and Valencia declared autonomy. The army intervened in January 1874, and the Bourbon Restoration of December 1874 belongs to the next era.

• The Cantonal revolt at Cartagena began in July 1873 and held out until January 1874. The Valencia canton's proclamation of 30 July 1873 set as its aim autonomy for the canton within the Spanish federation.
• The draft Federal Constitution of 1873 had 117 articles in 17 titles. Article 1 named 17 states, including Cuba and Puerto Rico, but the draft was never promulgated.
• After General Pavia's troops dissolved the Cortes in January 1874, General Serrano led a unitary republic that ruled largely without the Cortes.

Sources: Proyecto de Constitucion Federal de 1873, Titulo I, Article 1 (Spanish Wikisource); Proclama del Canton de Valencia, 30 July 1873 (Spanish Wikisource); Library of Congress Country Studies: Spain, Liberal Rule; Congreso de los Diputados: Sexenio Revolucionario, 1868-1874; Wikipedia: First Spanish Republic

Alfonso XII and the Restoration (1874 to 1885)

Alfonso XII, King of Spain, 'the Peacemaker', House of Bourbon

Alfonso, son of the deposed Isabella II, was studying at Sandhurst in England when the First Republic collapsed. His restoration brought back a Bourbon monarchy under the Constitution of 1876, which shared sovereignty between the King and the Cortes. Conservatives under Cánovas and Liberals under Sagasta took turns in office, and elections were often managed from above. He is remembered as 'El Pacificador' because the Third Carlist War ended in 1876, early in his reign.

How they came to power: On 1 December 1874 he issued the Sandhurst Manifesto, drafted by Cánovas del Castillo, offering a constitutional monarchy. On 29 December 1874 General Martínez Campos pronounced for Alfonso at Sagunto, near Valencia, and Alfonso was proclaimed king.

How it ended: He died of tuberculosis, with dysentery as the immediate cause, on 25 November 1885 at El Pardo, aged 27. His widow, Maria Christina of Austria, ruled as regent for their unborn son until 1902.

• The Sandhurst Manifesto is dated 1 December 1874, but according to Wikipedia the Spanish press printed it on 27 December, two days before Martínez Campos's pronouncement.
• His first wife, his cousin Mercedes of Orléans, married him on 23 January 1878 and died on 26 June 1878, aged 18. The cause is usually given as typhoid fever. He remarried on 29 November 1879, to Maria Christina of Austria.
• The Constitution of 1876 was short, only 89 articles, and stayed in force until Primo de Rivera's coup in 1923 suspended it.

Sources: Constitution of 1876 (Congreso de los Diputados, historic constitutions); Wikipedia: Alfonso XII; Biografías y Vidas: Alfonso XII

Alfonso XIII (1886 to 1931)

Alfonso XIII, King of Spain, House of Bourbon

Alfonso XIII was born after his father's death, so he was king from birth, with his mother as regent until he took the oath before the Cortes on 17 May 1902, aged sixteen. His reign saw the military disaster at Annual in Morocco in 1921, neutrality in the First World War, and rising strikes and political violence. In 1923 he accepted Primo de Rivera's coup, a choice that later tied the Crown to the dictatorship. He was also a patron of sport, tourism and the arts.

How they came to power: He inherited the throne at birth on 17 May 1886 as the posthumous son of Alfonso XII, and took up his powers at sixteen in 1902.

How it ended: After republican victories in the municipal elections of 12 April 1931, he left Madrid on 14 April, the day the Second Republic was proclaimed, and went into exile. He died in Rome on 28 February 1941.

• His wedding day, 31 May 1906, was marked by an anarchist's bomb thrown at the royal carriage in Madrid. Accounts of the dead range from about two dozen to 30, with about 100 wounded. The couple survived.
• The Spanish tooth-fairy figure, Ratoncito Pérez, first appeared in an 1894 tale by Luis Coloma, written for Alfonso when he was eight and had lost a milk tooth.
• He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1917, for humanitarian work during the First World War; the prize that year went to the Red Cross.
• Spain was neutral in the First World War, so its newspapers were not wartime-censored and reported the 1918 influenza freely. That is why it was misleadingly called the 'Spanish flu'. The outbreak did not start in Spain.

Sources: Constitution of 1876 (Congreso de los Diputados, historic constitutions); Wikipedia: Alfonso XIII; Biografías y Vidas: Alfonso XIII

The war of 1898 and the loss of the empire (April to December 1898)

A rising in Cuba in 1895 drew Spain into a hard colonial war, in which General Weyler moved rural Cubans into 'reconcentration' zones. The US battleship Maine exploded and sank in Havana harbour on 15 February 1898, pushing Washington toward war, and Spain broke diplomatic relations on 21 April. A US squadron destroyed the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay on 1 May, and Spanish ships were destroyed off Santiago de Cuba on 3 July. A cease-fire was signed on 12 August. In the Treaty of Paris, signed on 10 December 1898, Spain relinquished Cuba, ceded Puerto Rico and Guam, and ceded the Philippines in return for $20 million. The US Senate ratified it on 6 February 1899 by a margin of only one vote.

• Spain lost roughly 15,700 men in the war, and about 15,000 of them died of disease rather than in combat.
• Spain's own inquiry concluded that the Maine explosion began inside the ship, while the US Navy inquiry found an external blast. The cause was never settled to everyone's satisfaction.
• The defeat gave its name to the 'Generation of 98', writers and thinkers who re-examined Spanish society and identity.

Sources: Treaty of Peace between the United States and Spain, 10 December 1898 (Avalon Project, Yale Law School); Office of the Historian: The Spanish-American War, 1898; Wikipedia: Spanish–American War

Primo de Rivera's dictatorship (1923 to 1930)

Miguel Primo de Rivera, Captain General and dictator of Spain, Dictatorship under Alfonso XIII

Miguel Primo de Rivera, Captain General of Catalonia, seized power from Barcelona on 13 September 1923 with the King's acquiescence. He suspended the Constitution of 1876, ruled first through a military directory and then, from December 1925, a civil one, and built a government-backed party, the Unión Patriótica. A Spanish-French landing at Alhucemas in 1925 helped bring the Rif War to an end. Public works were largely financed by debt, and CAMPSA, a state oil monopoly, was created in 1927.

How they came to power: His manifesto of 13 September 1923 condemned the old parties and described the coup as a 'brief parenthesis' in the constitutional life of Spain. The King did not oppose him.

How it ended: Losing the support of the King and the army amid inflation and unrest, he resigned on 28 January 1930 and General Berenguer succeeded him. Primo de Rivera died in Paris on 16 March 1930, aged 60.

• He first said he would rule for only about three months (90 days) and then hand back power.
• A constitution drafted by his National Assembly in 1929 would have given women the vote, which he reportedly thought would make the electorate less radical. It was never adopted.
• He appeared on the cover of Time magazine on 8 June 1925.
• A 1926 plebiscite drew what the New York Times called a 'record vote' and what another American paper called a 'farce'. About a third of eligible voters abstained.

Sources: Constitution of 1876 (Congreso de los Diputados, historic constitutions); Biografías y Vidas: Miguel Primo de Rivera; Wikipedia: Miguel Primo de Rivera

The Second Republic (14 April 1931 (peacetime years to July 1936))

Republicans won the big cities in the municipal elections of 12 April 1931, Alfonso XIII left, and two days later, on 14 April, the Republic was proclaimed. The Constitution of 9 December 1931 declared Spain a 'democratic republic of workers of every class', separated Church and state, and made Spain an 'integral State' compatible with regional autonomy, which opened the way to Catalan self-government. Reforms in land, labour and education met strong resistance from the right, and the left was itself divided. The Popular Front won the 16 February 1936 election with 263 seats to 156 for the right. A military uprising began on 17 July 1936, and the Republic fought on through the Civil War until 1 April 1939.

• Article 36 gave citizens of both sexes over 23 the same electoral rights, the first Spanish constitution to recognise women's voting rights on equal terms with men.
• Article 3 said flatly that 'the Spanish State has no official religion'.
• Manuel Azaña was prime minister from October 1931 to September 1933, leading a reforming government. An uprising in Asturias in October 1934 was put down by the army after about two weeks.

Sources: Constitution of the Republic of 9 December 1931, Spanish text (University of Barcelona); Congreso de los Diputados: The 1931 Constitution of the Spanish Republic; Wikipedia: Second Spanish Republic

The Spanish Civil War (17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939)

A group of generals rose against the Popular Front government in July 1936. The coup partly failed, leaving the Republic holding the big cities and the rebels, the Nationalists, holding much of the north and west. Germany and Italy backed the Nationalists, the Soviet Union and Mexico backed the Republic, and Britain, France and the US followed non-intervention. Thousands of foreign volunteers fought in the International Brigades. Both sides carried out killings behind the lines. The rising began in Spanish Morocco on 17 July 1936 and spread to the mainland. Franco was chosen commander-in-chief in late September 1936 and was proclaimed head of the Nationalist state in Burgos on 1 October. His final war communiqué, dated Burgos, 1 April 1939, announced that the war was over. Hundreds of thousands of Republican supporters fled, many to refugee camps in southern France, and those who stayed faced persecution.

• Historians do not agree on the death toll. One widely cited set of ranges puts civilians killed behind the lines at 50,000 to 200,000 in the Nationalist zone and 38,000 to about 110,000 in the Republican zone, and the ranges depend on how deaths are counted.
• One estimate puts the International Brigades at about 32,000 volunteers over the whole war, with never more than about 18,000 deployed at once. Other counts are higher, and the Brigades were only part of the foreign involvement.
• Franco's last communiqué read: 'Cautivo y desarmado el Ejército Rojo, han alcanzado las tropas nacionales sus últimos objetivos militares. La guerra ha terminado.'

Sources: Parte Oficial de guerra correspondiente al 1º de Abril de 1939, signed Franco (Wikisource, Spanish); New World Encyclopedia: Spanish Civil War; Wikipedia: Spanish Civil War

Francisco Franco (1936 (all of Spain from 1939) to 1975)

Francisco Franco, Caudillo of Spain, Francoist Spain

Franco, born in Ferrol in 1892, was a career army officer who made his name in Morocco. As head of state he ruled through one legal party, censorship and the repression of opponents. Spain stayed out of the Second World War, though Franco met Hitler at Hendaye on 23 October 1940 and no deal was reached. In 1947 a Law of Succession declared Spain a kingdom with himself as head of state for life. The regime opened economically from 1959.

How they came to power: In the autumn of 1936 the rebel generals chose him commander-in-chief, and on 1 October 1936 in Burgos he was proclaimed Generalísimo and head of state. He merged the Nationalist parties into one movement and declared victory on 1 April 1939.

How it ended: He designated Prince Juan Carlos as his successor in 1969. Franco died in Madrid on 20 November 1975, aged 82. He was buried in the Valley of the Fallen, and in 2019 his remains were moved to Mingorrubio cemetery.

• Under the pen name Jaime de Andrade he wrote a brief novel, Raza.
• The 1947 Law of Succession declared Spain a 'Catholic, social and representative' state constituted as a kingdom, but left the throne empty. Under Article 6, Franco could propose a successor to the Cortes at any time.
• After the fall of France in June 1940, Spain moved from neutrality to 'non-belligerence' while favouring the Axis, and it later returned to 'strict neutrality' as the war turned. A volunteer Blue Division, about 18,000 men, fought for Germany on the Eastern Front between 1941 and 1944.

Sources: Ley de Sucesion en la Jefatura del Estado, 1947 (Wikisource); Biografías y Vidas: Francisco Franco; Wikipedia: Francisco Franco

The bombing of Guernica and Picasso's painting (26 April 1937)

On Monday 26 April 1937 German Condor Legion and Italian aircraft, acting for Franco's Nationalists, bombed the Basque town of Gernika (Guernica) for roughly three hours. George Steer's report in The Times of 28 April made it an international story. Picasso, commissioned in January 1937 by the Republican government to make a work for its Paris Exposition pavilion, painted Guernica, about 349 by 776 cm, which was shown there in July 1937. The raid was carried out by German and Italian units on the Nationalist side, under the code name Operation Rügen. Nationalist authorities denied responsibility at the time and blamed the town's defenders. Nationalist troops took the town on 29 April. The painting was entrusted to New York's Museum of Modern Art at Picasso's request, and it came to Spain in 1981. It has hung in the Reina Sofía Museum since 1992.

• The death toll is disputed. The Basque government in 1937 reported 1,654 dead. A local historians' study counted 126 victims, later revised to 153 and still called provisional, and current estimates generally fall between 170 and 300.
• Picasso entrusted the painting to the Museum of Modern Art and wanted it kept from Spain until liberty and democracy were established; he tied its return to a restored republic and later to public liberties and democratic institutions.
• Steer's report, datelined Bilbao, 27 April, said the raid took three and a quarter hours and stated that 'Guernica was not a military objective'.

Sources: George Steer, 'The Tragedy of Guernica', The Times, 28 April 1937 (reproduced by HistoryNet); Museo Reina Sofía: Rethinking Guernica; Wikipedia: Bombing of Guernica

The Stabilisation Plan and the economic boom (1959 to 1973)

By 1959 the self-sufficiency policy had left Spain short of foreign currency. A group of economic technocrats, several of them linked to Opus Dei and backed by Franco, replaced it with the Stabilisation Plan, issued as Decree-Law 10/1959 of 21 July 1959. It liberalised trade and imports and was followed by successive development plans. The plan brought a sharp recession first, with rising unemployment and wage freezes, but inflation then fell and the Bank of Spain's reserves grew. Growth averaged about 6.5 percent a year from 1959 to 1974, by one commonly cited figure. Industry, tourism and emigration to northern Europe all expanded. The boom ended with the international oil and inflation crises of the 1970s.

• By a commonly cited measure, Spain had the second-highest growth rate in the world from 1960 to 1975, behind Japan.
• State-owned SEAT built roughly 800,000 of its 600 model between 1957 and 1973, and it became the first car within reach of many Spanish families.
• Private cars in Spain rose from about 72,000 in 1946 to over one million in 1966.
• In 2019 a Bank of Spain speech marking the plan's 60th anniversary described it as the start of Spain's long road to modernisation after the failed dream of self-sufficiency.

Sources: Decreto-Ley 10/1959, de 21 de julio, de ordenación económica (BOE no. 174, 22 July 1959); José Luis Malo de Molina (Banco de España): La contribución del Banco de España al Plan de Estabilización, 2019; Wikipedia: Spanish miracle

Juan Carlos I (1975 to 2014)

Juan Carlos I, King of Spain, House of Bourbon

Born in Rome in 1938 while his family was in exile, Juan Carlos was educated in Spain under Franco's supervision and named his successor in 1969. As king he supported the move from the dictatorship to democracy. In 1976 he replaced prime minister Arias Navarro with Adolfo Suárez, and he sanctioned the Constitution of 1978, which made him a constitutional monarch. His public image later suffered from a 2012 hunting trip and financial questions.

How they came to power: On 22 July 1969 the Cortes named him Franco's successor with the title Prince of Spain. After Franco's death on 20 November 1975 the Cortes proclaimed him king on 22 November.

How it ended: He announced his abdication on 2 June 2014, and his son Felipe was proclaimed king on 19 June 2014. Since August 2020 he has lived outside Spain. Spanish and Swiss prosecutors investigated payments linked to Saudi Arabia; the Swiss dropped their case in December 2021 and the Spanish prosecutors closed theirs in March 2022. As of this writing he is living.

• He was proclaimed king two days after Franco died, restoring the Bourbon monarchy.
• His April 2012 elephant-hunting trip to Botswana drew heavy criticism, and he later apologised.
• He married Sofia of Greece and Denmark in 1962, and they have three children: Elena, Cristina and Felipe.

Sources: Spanish Constitution of 1978, official consolidated text (Boletín Oficial del Estado); CIDOB: Juan Carlos I de España (biography); Wikipedia: Juan Carlos I

The transition to democracy (November 1975 to October 1982)

After Franco died, King Juan Carlos worked within the existing legal framework. Adolfo Suárez became prime minister in July 1976, the Francoist Cortes approved the Political Reform Act on 18 November, and a referendum endorsed it on 15 December 1976. The Communist Party was legalised in April 1977, and the first free elections since 1936 were held on 15 June 1977. Historians stress that the transition was not calm: political violence was more common in Spain than in the comparable transitions in Greece and Portugal. Franco died on 20 November 1975 and Juan Carlos was proclaimed king on 22 November. The first government under Arias Navarro offered only limited change. The attempted coup of 23 February 1981 failed. In the election of 28 October 1982 the Socialists won an absolute majority, the first change of governing party at the ballot box since the dictatorship, which is often taken as the end of the transition.

• The Amnesty Act passed on 15 October 1977, and the Moncloa Pacts on economic policy were signed ten days later.
• The 1978 Constitution was approved in a referendum on 6 December 1978.
• The reform was legally a Francoist law: the old Cortes approved the Political Reform Act of 4 January 1977, which opened the way to elections. About 97 percent of valid votes in the December 1976 referendum were in favour, on a turnout of about 78 percent.

Sources: Ley 1/1977, de 4 de enero, para la Reforma Política (Boletín Oficial del Estado); CIDOB: Juan Carlos I de España (biography); Wikipedia: Spanish transition to democracy

The Constitution of 1978 (31 October to 29 December 1978)

The Constitution defines Spain as a 'social and democratic State subject to the rule of law', says sovereignty resides in the Spanish people, and sets a parliamentary monarchy. Article 2 combines the 'indissoluble unity' of the Spanish Nation with the right to autonomy of its nationalities and regions, which led to the system of autonomous communities. Article 56 makes the King head of state, 'symbol of its unity and permanence'. A committee of seven drafters from several parties wrote the text. The Congress and Senate approved it on 31 October 1978, voters ratified it on 6 December, and the King sanctioned it on 27 December. It was published in the Official State Gazette on 29 December 1978 and took effect that day. It remains in force.

• The seven drafters ranged from Manuel Fraga on the right to Jordi Solé Tura of the communist group, and included a Catalan nationalist, Miquel Roca.
• In the 6 December 1978 referendum about 91.8 percent of the yes-or-no votes were in favour, on a turnout of about 67 percent of the electorate.
• Article 155, which lets the government take measures to compel an autonomous community that fails to meet its constitutional obligations, was applied in October 2017, when the Senate voted 214 to 47, with one abstention.

Sources: Spanish Constitution of 1978, official consolidated text (Boletín Oficial del Estado); Spanish Constitution, preamble in English (La Moncloa); Congreso de los Diputados: Constitución de 1978; Wikipedia: Spanish Constitution of 1978

The coup attempt of 23 February 1981 (23 to 24 February 1981)

During the investiture vote for Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo, Lieutenant-Colonel Antonio Tejero led about 200 armed Civil Guards into the Congress of Deputies at 18:23 and fired shots into the air. Deputies and ministers were held for about 18 hours. In Valencia, Captain General Milans del Bosch declared a state of emergency and sent troops and tanks into the streets. How far the plot extended is still discussed by historians. At 01:14 on 24 February King Juan Carlos, in uniform, appeared on television and radio and said the Crown would not tolerate any attempt to interrupt the democratic process by force. Milans del Bosch gave up, and Tejero surrendered around midday. Tejero, Milans del Bosch and Alfonso Armada each received 30 years.

• Deputy Prime Minister General Gutiérrez Mellado, aged 68, confronted Tejero and stayed on his feet when the gunmen tried to force him down.
• Bullet holes in the ceiling of the chamber can still be seen.
• Of about 300 people accused, 30 were convicted: 12 military personnel, 17 Civil Guards and one civilian.

Sources: King Juan Carlos I's message of 23-24 February 1981 (Wikisource, Spanish); CIDOB: Juan Carlos I de España (biography); Wikipedia: 1981 Spanish coup attempt

Felipe González (1982 to 1996)

Felipe González Márquez, Prime Minister of Spain 1982 to 1996, Prime Minister · PSOE

González joined the then-banned PSOE in 1964 and became its secretary general at the 1974 Suresnes congress, aged 32. His governments expanded public services and brought Spain into the European Community. He also kept Spain in NATO, reversing the party's earlier position. His last years in office were marked by corruption scandals and by the GAL affair, the illegal anti-ETA campaign.

How they rose: On 28 October 1982 the PSOE won about 48 percent of the vote and 202 seats, an absolute majority. He took office on 2 December 1982 and was re-elected in 1986, 1989 (both with absolute majorities) and 1993 (without one).

How they died: The PP under José María Aznar won the March 1996 election, and González left office in May 1996, after 14 years. In 1997 he stepped down as PSOE secretary general. He is living.

• In the 12 March 1986 NATO referendum, 52.5 percent voted yes while 40.2 percent of registered voters abstained. González later called holding it his 'greatest error'.
• He signed Spain's accession treaty to the European Communities on 12 June 1985.
• The GAL, an illegal anti-ETA group, killed 27 people between 1983 and 1987 and was financed from reserved Interior Ministry funds. In 1998 the Supreme Court sentenced a former Interior Minister, José Barrionuevo, and a former security secretary, Rafael Vera, to ten years each for the kidnapping of Segundo Marey and misuse of public funds.

Sources: La Moncloa: Felipe González Márquez, biography (English); CIDOB: Felipe González Márquez (biography); Biografías y Vidas: Felipe González Márquez

Spain joins the European Community (12 June 1985 to 1 January 1986)

Spain signed its accession treaty on 12 June 1985 and joined the European Communities on 1 January 1986. Membership brought access to the single market and to European funds, and anchored the new democracy in western Europe. Spain joined the Schengen area on 26 March 1995 and the euro area on 1 January 1999. The treaty was signed under the Socialist government of Felipe González. Membership continues.

• Spain joined the euro area on 1 January 1999, about three years after González left office.
• In March 1986, two months after joining, Spain held a referendum on staying in NATO and voted yes, with 52.5 percent in favour.
• The accession treaty, signed on 12 June 1985, was a joint treaty with Portugal; both countries joined on 1 January 1986.

Sources: Treaty of Accession of Spain and Portugal, 12 June 1985, CELEX 11985I (text mirrored from EUR-Lex); European Union: Spain country profile; CIDOB: Felipe González Márquez (biography)

The Barcelona Olympics (25 July to 9 August 1992)

Barcelona hosted about 9,400 athletes from 169 National Olympic Committees in 257 events. The opening and closing ceremonies and athletics were at the Montjuïc stadium. It was the first Games after the end of the Cold War and Germany's reunification, and the first with South Africa back after its apartheid-era ban. NBA professionals competed for the first time in the US 'Dream Team'. The Games opened on 25 July 1992 and closed on 9 August. The Unified Team of former Soviet republics topped the table with 45 golds and 112 medals in total, ahead of the United States with 37 golds.

• Paralympic archer Antonio Rebollo opened the Games by shooting a flaming arrow that ignited the Olympic cauldron.
• In the women's 10,000 m, South Africa's Elana Meyer and Ethiopia's Derartu Tulu, the winner, ran a victory lap hand in hand.
• The future King Felipe VI competed in sailing for Spain in the Soling class and finished sixth.

Sources: Official Report of the Games of the XXV Olympiad, Barcelona 1992 (LA84 Digital Library); Olympic Museum archive (Germany): Official Report 1992 Barcelona, contents; Wikipedia: 1992 Summer Olympics

The Madrid train bombings (11 March 2004)

At about 7:40 in the morning, ten explosions hit four commuter trains on the line between Alcalá de Henares and Atocha station in Madrid. The attack came three days before a general election. About 2,000 to 2,500 people were injured. Political parties suspended their campaigns. Interior Minister Ángel Acebes initially blamed ETA, citing the explosives, and the UN Security Council's resolution that day also named ETA. ETA denied it, and investigators later concluded that local jihadist cells were responsible. On 3 April 2004 police tracked suspects to an apartment in Leganés, where they died in an explosion that also killed a police officer. The trial opened on 15 February 2007, and on 31 October 2007 the Audiencia Nacional convicted 21 of 28 defendants. It referred to a jihadist-type cell and named no specific organisation.

• Counts vary: the Audiencia Nacional judgment spoke of 191 dead, while other sources give 192 or 193, depending on how later deaths and the police officer killed at Leganés are counted.
• About 49 or 50 of the dead were foreign nationals.
• The Socialist Party won the 14 March election, a result pre-election polls had not predicted.

Sources: UN Security Council Resolution 1530 (11 March 2004) on the Madrid bombings (Wikisource); CIDOB: José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (account of the 11-M attacks); Wikipedia: 2004 Madrid train bombings

Felipe VI (2014 to present)

Felipe VI, King of Spain, House of Bourbon

Born in Madrid on 30 January 1968, Felipe is the son of Juan Carlos I. He competed in sailing at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, finishing sixth in the Soling class. Under Article 56 of the Constitution he is head of state, symbol of its unity and permanence. His acts need the countersignature of a minister to be valid, and the minister takes responsibility for them.

How they came to power: His father announced his abdication on 2 June 2014, and Felipe was proclaimed king on 19 June 2014.

How it ended: He is living and reigning. He married the journalist Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano on 22 May 2004, and they have two daughters, Leonor, Princess of Asturias, and the Infanta Sofía.

• On 3 October 2017 he gave a televised address on Catalonia in which he said certain Catalan authorities had repeatedly and deliberately breached the Constitution and the Statute of Autonomy.
• Article 56 of the Constitution says the King arbitrates and moderates the regular functioning of the institutions and represents Spain in international relations.
• At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics he was Spain's flag bearer at the opening ceremony and sailed in the Soling class, finishing sixth.

Sources: Spanish Constitution of 1978, official consolidated text (Boletín Oficial del Estado); Message of His Majesty the King, 3 October 2017 (Casa Real, French version); CIDOB: Juan Carlos I de España (biography); Wikipedia: Felipe VI

The Catalan independence referendum (6 September to 27 October 2017)

On 6 September 2017 the Catalan Parliament passed a referendum law. The Constitutional Court suspended it and the decrees calling the vote, and the Spanish government said it was under a legal obligation to prevent the vote. The Catalan government held it on 1 October anyway, asking whether Catalonia should become an independent state in the form of a republic. Supporters of independence said they were exercising a right to decide. The Spanish government and courts said the vote violated the Constitution. Pro-independence parties led the Catalan government after the 2015 election. Most opponents of independence and constitutional parties asked people not to take part. On 27 October 2017 the Catalan Parliament voted 70 to 10, with 2 blank, for a declaration of independence. The Spanish Senate then approved Article 155 of the Constitution, the Catalan government was dismissed and new regional elections were called for 21 December.

• Catalan government figures gave 2,044,038 yes votes (92.01 percent of valid votes), 177,547 no votes and turnout of 43.03 percent. It estimated that up to 770,000 more votes were not cast because polling stations were closed.
• Police intervened at some polling stations. Catalan health authorities treated 893 people on the day, a later count gave 1,066, and Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch called the force used excessive.
• On 27 October 2017 the Catalan Parliament voted 70 to 10, with 2 blank, for a declaration of independence, while 53 opposition members stayed away. The Senate approved Article 155 the same day by 214 to 47, with one abstention.
• On 2 October the European Commission said the vote was not legal. Most governments called it an internal Spanish matter.

Sources: Spanish Government, Council of Ministers statement, 29 September 2017 (La Moncloa); Spanish Constitution of 1978, official consolidated text (Boletín Oficial del Estado); Amnesty International: excessive use of force by national police and Civil Guard in Catalonia, 3 October 2017; Wikipedia: 2017 Catalan independence referendum