FERDINAND I.

ferdinand i., king of aragon (1373-1416), called "of antequera," was the son of john i. of castile by his wife eleanor, daughter of the third marriage of peter iv. of aragon. his surname "of antequera" was given him because he was besieging that town, then in the hands of the moors, when he was told that the cortes of aragon had elected him king in succession to his uncle martin, the last male of the old line of wilfred the hairy. as infante of castile ferdinand had played an honourable part. when his brother henry iii. died at toledo, in 1406, the cortes was sitting, and the nobles offered to make him king in preference to his nephew john. ferdinand refused to despoil his brother's infant son, and even if he did not act on the moral ground he alleged, his sagacity must have shown him that he would be at the mercy of the men who had chosen him in such circumstances. as co-regent of the kingdom with catherine, widow of henry iii. and daughter of john of gaunt by his marriage with constance, daughter of peter the cruel and maria de padilla, ferdinand proved a good ruler. he restrained the follies of his sister-in-law, and kept the realm quiet, by firm government, and by prosecuting the war with the moors. as king of aragon his short reign of two years left him little time to make his mark. having been bred in castile, where the royal authority was, at least in theory, absolute, he showed himself impatient under the checks imposed on him by the _fueros_, the chartered rights of aragon and catalonia. he particularly resented the obstinacy of the barcelonese, who compelled the members of his household to pay municipal taxes. his most signal act as king was to aid in closing the great schism in the church by agreeing to the deposition of the antipope benedict xiv., an aragonese. he died at ygualada in catalonia on the 2nd of april 1416. ferdinand v. of castile and leon, and ii. of aragon (1452-1516), was the son of john i. of aragon by his second marriage with joanna henriquez, of the family of the hereditary grand admirals of castile, and was born at sos in aragon on the 16th of march 1452. under the name of "the catholic" and as the husband of isabella, queen of castile, he played a great part in europe. his share in establishing the royal authority in all parts of spain, in expelling the moors from granada, in the conquest of navarre, in forwarding the voyages of columbus, and in contending with france for the supremacy in italy, is dealt with elsewhere (see spain: _history_). in personal character he had none of the attractive qualities of his wife. it may fairly be said of him that he was purely a politician. his marriage in 1469 to his cousin isabella of castile was dictated by the desire to unite his own claims to the crown, as the head of the younger branch of the same family, with hers, in case henry iv. should die childless. when the king died in 1474 he made an ungenerous attempt to procure his own proclamation as king without recognition of the rights of his wife. isabella asserted her claims firmly, and at all times insisted on a voice in the government of castile. but though ferdinand had sought a selfish political advantage at his wife's expense, he was well aware of her ability and high character. their married life was dignified and harmonious; for ferdinand had no common vices, and their views in government were identical. the king cared for nothing but dominion and political power. his character explains the most ungracious acts of his life, such as his breach of his promises to columbus, his distrust of ximenez and of the great captain. he had given wide privileges to columbus on the supposition that the discoverer would reach powerful kingdoms. when islands inhabited by feeble savages were discovered, ferdinand appreciated the risk that they might become the seat of a power too strong to be controlled, and took measures to avert the danger. he feared that jimenez and the great captain would become too independent, and watched them in the interest of the royal authority. whether he ever boasted, as he is said to have boasted, that he had deceived louis xii. of france twelve times, is very doubtful; but it is certain that when ferdinand made a treaty, or came to an understanding with any one, the contract was generally found to contain implied meanings favourable to himself which the other contracting party had not expected. the worst of his character was prominently shown after the death of isabella in 1504. he endeavoured to lay hands on the regency of castile in the name of his insane daughter joanna, and without regard to the claims of her husband philip of habsburg. the hostility of the castilian nobles, by whom he was disliked, baffled him for a time, but on philip's early death he reasserted his authority. his second marriage with germaine of foix in 1505 was apparently contracted in the hope that by securing an heir male he might punish his habsburg son-in-law. aragon did not recognize the right of women to reign, and would have been detached together with catalonia, valencia and the italian states if he had had a son. this was the only occasion on which ferdinand allowed passion to obscure his political sense, and lead him into acts which tended to undo his work of national unification. as king of aragon he abstained from inroads on the liberties of his subjects which might have provoked rebellion. a few acts of illegal violence are recorded of him--as when he invited a notorious demagogue of saragossa to visit him in the palace, and caused the man to be executed without form of trial. once when presiding over the aragonese cortes he found himself sitting in a thorough draught and ordered the window to be shut, adding in a lower voice, "if it is not against the _fueros_." but his ill-will did not go beyond such sneers. he was too intent on building up a great state to complicate his difficulties by internal troubles. his arrangement of the convention of guadalupe, which ended the fierce agrarian conflicts of catalonia, was wise and profitable to the country, though it was probably dictated mainly by a wish to weaken the landowners by taking away their feudal rights. ferdinand died at madrigalejo in estremadura on the 23rd of february 1516. the lives of the kings of this name before ferdinand v. are contained in the chronicles, and in the _anales de aragon_ of zurita, and the history of spain by mariana. both deal at length with the life of ferdinand v. prescott's _history of the reign of ferdinand and isabella_, in any of its numerous editions, gives a full life of him with copious references to authorities.