Bearing in mind that his ancestor Jaime I had that epithat, I'll bet we need to find a new one... The "Warrior King"?
But wait, there's much to see about him yet...
After the forest of Foixà: a new beginning for the House of Barcelona
- Thread starter Kurt_Steiner
- Start date
But wait, there's much to see about him yet...
How about "El Rey Soldado" "The Soldier King"?
And i cannot wait!
Chapter 11: Great Expectations (1470-1483).
Chapter 11: Great Expectations (1470-1483).
After his son Jaime was born in 1465, Jaime V began to look for a wife for him. In 1470 Enrique IV of Castile, who was determined to avoid his sister Isabel becoming the next ruler of Castile, offered the hand of his daughter Juana to the young Aragonese prince. Jaime V seemed to be close to achieve his dream of uniting Aragon and Castile, but he was too aware of the shaky position of Enrique and of the opposition to a foreign marriage among his subjects. Then, in March 1471 Enrique, who was ill and determined to keep Isabel out of the Castilian throne, tired of the opposition of his noblemen led by Alfonso Carrillo, archbishop of Toledo, and Rodrigo Manrique, count of Paredes, to the Aragonese marriage, send Álvaro de Zúñiga, count of Plasencia to England to offer to marry his daughter to Edward of Westminster (1454-1492), the heir of Henry VI of England. However, there were widespread rumours that the prince was the result of an affair between his mother Marie of Armagnac (1420-1473), daughter of Jean, count of Armagnac. and one of her loyal supporters, James Butler, 5th Earl of Ormonde. Eventually, tensions flared and open warfare became unavoidable between the Lancastrians and the Yorkist after Henry VI's death in 1471. The Battle of St Albans signalled the beginning of the English Civil War (1472-1476) when Richard, Duke of York, (1441-1484) put forward his rights of succession.
Determined to avoid a Lancaster pretender to the Castilian crown, Jaime V of Aragon supported Richard of York, the future King Richard III of England. Eventually, the English strife led to an Aragonese-Castilian War (1475-1480), as Jaime was fully determined to avoid a Trastámara sitting on the English throne or even close to it and, in addition to this, to fulfill his old dream to have the Castillian crown on his head. Two early victories (Ágreda and Toro) made Jaime V master of Castile, but most of the nobility had either remained loyal to Juana or stayed neutral, forcing Jaime to rely heavily on archbishop Carrillo and Manrique, who were later joined by Juan Pacheco, count of Villena. Soon Pacheco rose to power, displacing Carrillo and Manrique, who was sent to England as embassador. In May 14, 1481, his son Jaime and the Castilian heir, Juana, were finally married.
The taxation needed to pay for the cost of the war was the cause of widespread discontent in Aragon and Castile. In Barcelona, the members of the Biga₁ refused to grant any more loans to the king for his Castilian enterprise and protested bitterly against the taxes. However, the moderate wing of the Biga, afraid of the reaction of the king, changed their vote in the last session of the Parliament and the loans were finally granted. This action brought down the strategy of the Biga, which considered this move as the first step into a wider action to reduce the power of the monarchy and to increase its control over the Consell de Cent (Council of One Hundred)₂ . With this schism, the power of the Biga was broken for a time and the rule of the Busca over the Consell granted.
Meanwhile, to Jaime (both father and son)'s happiness, the marriage of his heir and of Juana was a happy one. Juana seemed inclined to play just a little role in politics, as much as his role as regnant queen forced her, but he left most of the ruling questions in the hands of his husband and of his father in law. Jaime V was clever enough to disguise his participation in the ruling of Castile as the role of a caring father who limited himself to give some pieces of advice to his son and his daughter in law. This helped to keep Castile at bay, until small troubles began to appear. The first one took place in the royal court, when Francisco Fernández de la Cueva, 2nd Duke of Albuquerque, held Juan Pacheco responsible for his father's death in the battle of Ágreda (1476), when Pacheco executed Beltrán de la Cueva after he was captured at the end of the battle. Francisco, on his part, had executed Juan's brother, Pedro Girón, after the battle of Cigales (1477). Not even the death of Pacheco in 1479 seemed to mollify de la Cueva's hatred and soon he began to openly complain that there were too many Aragonese advisors close to the queen, a claim that was not true but which help to gather many discontent noblement around the duke.
Then, in 1482, de la Cueva contacted Joao II of Portugal and offered him the crown of Castile and the hand of Juana for his illegitimate (and only) son Jorge, Duke of Coimbra. The relentless Alfonso Carrillo changed sides once more and joined de la Cueva in his deals and, eventually, they won to their side Álvaro de Zúñiga and Rodrigo Ponce de León. Their rising began on July 24, 1483 when they defeated a small royal force that was sent to arrest them. This led to an early rebellion and some of the noblemen that had conspired with de la Cueva, Zúñiga and Ponce de León were unready or felt that the rebellion had little chance of success as the Portugese king had not commited himself with the conspiracy and the French contacts had brought little support. Thus, de la Cueva, Carillo and Zúñiga were on their own. Even in his situation, they were close to succeed, as they defeated in Ledesma (August 24, 1483) a second force sent to arrest them, led by the Consort King himself, Jaime, who escaped his enemies just in the nick of time.
However, when the Mendozas remained firmly on the queen's side and the south of Castile was thus lost to the rebels, their fate was sealed. In November 1483 a strong royal host reinforced with Aragonese troops against the rebel army, that simply dissolved itself in the battlefield as the soldiers saw the royal standard. De la Cueva and his allies fled, but a royal scouting party caught them when they were on the verge of crossing the Portuguese border and, in the ensuing fight, de la Cueva was fatally wounded..Carrillo and Zúñiga were captured and executed shortly afterwards.
₁ - La Biga and La Busca were the two main political blocs into which the Barcelona bourgeoisie was divided during the 15th century. La Biga ('the beam') was made up of the majority of urban oligarchy and some merchants, importers of luxury fabrics. They acted as if they were part of the nobility: they owned land, castles and seigneurial rights and lived on income. They also had control of municipal power.
La Busca ('the splinter') was the party of merchants, artisans who aspired to control municipal power to enforce the privileges, freedoms and customs granted to the people of Barcelona. They wanted currency devaluation and protectionist measures.
₂ - IOTL, during the reign of Jaume I (1218-76), King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona, the government of Barcelona passed into the hands of the Consell de Cent, a new form of municipal government comprising 128 members, that lasted until 1714.
After his son Jaime was born in 1465, Jaime V began to look for a wife for him. In 1470 Enrique IV of Castile, who was determined to avoid his sister Isabel becoming the next ruler of Castile, offered the hand of his daughter Juana to the young Aragonese prince. Jaime V seemed to be close to achieve his dream of uniting Aragon and Castile, but he was too aware of the shaky position of Enrique and of the opposition to a foreign marriage among his subjects. Then, in March 1471 Enrique, who was ill and determined to keep Isabel out of the Castilian throne, tired of the opposition of his noblemen led by Alfonso Carrillo, archbishop of Toledo, and Rodrigo Manrique, count of Paredes, to the Aragonese marriage, send Álvaro de Zúñiga, count of Plasencia to England to offer to marry his daughter to Edward of Westminster (1454-1492), the heir of Henry VI of England. However, there were widespread rumours that the prince was the result of an affair between his mother Marie of Armagnac (1420-1473), daughter of Jean, count of Armagnac. and one of her loyal supporters, James Butler, 5th Earl of Ormonde. Eventually, tensions flared and open warfare became unavoidable between the Lancastrians and the Yorkist after Henry VI's death in 1471. The Battle of St Albans signalled the beginning of the English Civil War (1472-1476) when Richard, Duke of York, (1441-1484) put forward his rights of succession.
Determined to avoid a Lancaster pretender to the Castilian crown, Jaime V of Aragon supported Richard of York, the future King Richard III of England. Eventually, the English strife led to an Aragonese-Castilian War (1475-1480), as Jaime was fully determined to avoid a Trastámara sitting on the English throne or even close to it and, in addition to this, to fulfill his old dream to have the Castillian crown on his head. Two early victories (Ágreda and Toro) made Jaime V master of Castile, but most of the nobility had either remained loyal to Juana or stayed neutral, forcing Jaime to rely heavily on archbishop Carrillo and Manrique, who were later joined by Juan Pacheco, count of Villena. Soon Pacheco rose to power, displacing Carrillo and Manrique, who was sent to England as embassador. In May 14, 1481, his son Jaime and the Castilian heir, Juana, were finally married.
The taxation needed to pay for the cost of the war was the cause of widespread discontent in Aragon and Castile. In Barcelona, the members of the Biga₁ refused to grant any more loans to the king for his Castilian enterprise and protested bitterly against the taxes. However, the moderate wing of the Biga, afraid of the reaction of the king, changed their vote in the last session of the Parliament and the loans were finally granted. This action brought down the strategy of the Biga, which considered this move as the first step into a wider action to reduce the power of the monarchy and to increase its control over the Consell de Cent (Council of One Hundred)₂ . With this schism, the power of the Biga was broken for a time and the rule of the Busca over the Consell granted.
Meanwhile, to Jaime (both father and son)'s happiness, the marriage of his heir and of Juana was a happy one. Juana seemed inclined to play just a little role in politics, as much as his role as regnant queen forced her, but he left most of the ruling questions in the hands of his husband and of his father in law. Jaime V was clever enough to disguise his participation in the ruling of Castile as the role of a caring father who limited himself to give some pieces of advice to his son and his daughter in law. This helped to keep Castile at bay, until small troubles began to appear. The first one took place in the royal court, when Francisco Fernández de la Cueva, 2nd Duke of Albuquerque, held Juan Pacheco responsible for his father's death in the battle of Ágreda (1476), when Pacheco executed Beltrán de la Cueva after he was captured at the end of the battle. Francisco, on his part, had executed Juan's brother, Pedro Girón, after the battle of Cigales (1477). Not even the death of Pacheco in 1479 seemed to mollify de la Cueva's hatred and soon he began to openly complain that there were too many Aragonese advisors close to the queen, a claim that was not true but which help to gather many discontent noblement around the duke.
Then, in 1482, de la Cueva contacted Joao II of Portugal and offered him the crown of Castile and the hand of Juana for his illegitimate (and only) son Jorge, Duke of Coimbra. The relentless Alfonso Carrillo changed sides once more and joined de la Cueva in his deals and, eventually, they won to their side Álvaro de Zúñiga and Rodrigo Ponce de León. Their rising began on July 24, 1483 when they defeated a small royal force that was sent to arrest them. This led to an early rebellion and some of the noblemen that had conspired with de la Cueva, Zúñiga and Ponce de León were unready or felt that the rebellion had little chance of success as the Portugese king had not commited himself with the conspiracy and the French contacts had brought little support. Thus, de la Cueva, Carillo and Zúñiga were on their own. Even in his situation, they were close to succeed, as they defeated in Ledesma (August 24, 1483) a second force sent to arrest them, led by the Consort King himself, Jaime, who escaped his enemies just in the nick of time.
However, when the Mendozas remained firmly on the queen's side and the south of Castile was thus lost to the rebels, their fate was sealed. In November 1483 a strong royal host reinforced with Aragonese troops against the rebel army, that simply dissolved itself in the battlefield as the soldiers saw the royal standard. De la Cueva and his allies fled, but a royal scouting party caught them when they were on the verge of crossing the Portuguese border and, in the ensuing fight, de la Cueva was fatally wounded..Carrillo and Zúñiga were captured and executed shortly afterwards.
₁ - La Biga and La Busca were the two main political blocs into which the Barcelona bourgeoisie was divided during the 15th century. La Biga ('the beam') was made up of the majority of urban oligarchy and some merchants, importers of luxury fabrics. They acted as if they were part of the nobility: they owned land, castles and seigneurial rights and lived on income. They also had control of municipal power.
La Busca ('the splinter') was the party of merchants, artisans who aspired to control municipal power to enforce the privileges, freedoms and customs granted to the people of Barcelona. They wanted currency devaluation and protectionist measures.
₂ - IOTL, during the reign of Jaume I (1218-76), King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona, the government of Barcelona passed into the hands of the Consell de Cent, a new form of municipal government comprising 128 members, that lasted until 1714.
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Awesome! And with Spain formed by the 2 of them, let's hope they have better luck than the Habsburgs in brining forward the Iberian Union in the future.
The Habsburgs are going to be careful about the path they take...
No doubt, seeing as though they will remain focused on their Imperial and personal holdings.
Without the American gold they are going to face quite an struggle.
True, but i'm certain the Imperial Eagle will spread it's wings across Germany and eastern Europe.
Let's hope they secure an marriage alliance with the Barcelonas then, so that may get a sweet taste of that new world gold.
Excellent chapter. After unification, I can see Spain taking over North Africa while Italy is divided with HRE.
North Africa is a mountainous , tribal and deeply hostile to Spain they won't be able to hold anything more than position along the coast and even then like in OTL they would be at risk of loosing them .
Spain taking over North Africa seem to be a common troop , but I really don't think it's that feasible at the moment
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You may be right, Spain may simply concentrate on the colonisation and development of the Americas. They may be able to expand further north to Florida and southern Brazil while Portugal is having better luck in Asia.
It is likely that North Africa will not be targeted for colonisation until the mid-18th or early 19th century.
Right now, there's a "Reconquista" to finish. Then, the question would be: where to go? North Africa? Naples? Unifying Iberia by adding Portugal to the unified crown? Settling old accounts with France?
And then there's the unexpected fate having a saying on the matter.
I can say that I'm not too inclined to go after common trops and topics (ie North Africa, Naples).
And then there's the unexpected fate having a saying on the matter.
I can say that I'm not too inclined to go after common trops and topics (ie North Africa, Naples).