Ferdinand II of Aragon

Ferdinand II
Catholic King of the Spains[a]
Portrait by Michael Sittow
King of Aragon, Valencia, Sardinia, Majorca and Count of Barcelona
Reign	20 January 1479 – 23 January 1516
Predecessor	John II
Successor	Joanna I
King of Castile and León (jure uxoris) (as Ferdinand V)
Reign	15 January 1475 – 26 November 1504
Predecessor	Isabella I
Successor	Joanna I
Co-monarch	Isabella I
King of Sicily
Reign	1468 – 23 January 1516
Predecessor	John I
Successor	Joanna I
King of Naples (as Ferdinand III)
Reign	31 March 1504 – 23 January 1516
Predecessor	Louis II
Successor	Joanna III
King of Navarre (as Ferdinand I)
Reign	24 August 1512 – 23 January 1516
Predecessor	John III & Catherine I
Successor	Joanna III
Born	10 March 1452 Sos, Kingdom of Aragon
Died	23 January 1516 (aged 63) Madrigalejo, Extremadura, Crown of Castile
Burial	Royal Chapel of Granada
Spouses	Isabella I of Castile ​ ​ (m. 1469; died 1504)​ Germaine of Foix ​ ​ (m. 1506)​
Issue more...	Isabella, Queen of Portugal John, Prince of Asturias Joanna, Queen of Castile and Aragon Maria, Queen of Portugal Catherine, Queen of England Alonso, Archbishop of Zaragoza and Viceroy of Aragon (ill.)
House	Trastámara
Father	John II of Aragon and Navarre
Mother	Juana Enríquez
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Signature

Ferdinand II^[b] (10 March 1452 – 23 January 1516), called Ferdinand the Catholic, was King of Aragon from 1479 until his death in 1516. As the husband of and co-ruler with Queen Isabella I of Castile, he was also King of Castile from 1475 to 1504 (as Ferdinand V). He reigned jointly with Isabella over a dynastically unified Spain; together they are known as the Catholic Monarchs. Ferdinand is considered the de facto first king of Spain, and was described as such during his reign, even though, legally, Castile and Aragon remained two separate kingdoms until they were formally united by the Nueva Planta decrees issued between 1707 and 1716.^[1]

The Crown of Aragon that Ferdinand inherited in 1479 included the kingdoms of Aragon, Valencia, Majorca, Sardinia, and Sicily, as well as the Principality of Catalonia. His marriage to Isabella is regarded as the "cornerstone in the foundation of the Spanish monarchy".^[2] They played a major role in the European colonization of the Americas, sponsoring the first voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1492. That year the couple defeated Granada, the last Muslim state in Western Europe, thus completing the centuries-long Reconquista.

Following Isabella's death in 1504, the couple's daughter Joanna became queen of the Crown of Castile. That year, after a war with France, Ferdinand conquered the Kingdom of Naples. In 1507 he became regent of Castile on behalf of Joanna, who was alleged to be mentally unstable. In 1506, as part of a treaty with France, Ferdinand married Germaine of Foix, with whom he had no surviving children. In 1512 he conquered most of the Kingdom of Navarre, ruling all the territories comprising modern-day Spain until his death in 1516. He was nominally succeeded by his daughter Joanna, but power was soon assumed by her son Charles I (later Holy Roman Emperor Charles V).

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