The update about Granada is coming soon.I will superficially touch it and expand it as the timeline progresses.
La republica comunera de Castilla (a succesful comunero revolt)
- Thread starter Padilla
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Um... can we get an explanation for that? Does Padilla actually have a sock account? What's going on?
The Four years war Part 1
The conquest of Navarra
After the stablishment of the republic France abandoned its ambitions on reconquering the Spanish part of Navarra as long as Francis could annex the French part of Navarra to their own kingdom. The junta agreed to these terms and in October 15 of 1521 the treaty of Burgos was signed and the partitioned of Navarra was agreed on. On November of the same year the French army would invade their former ally Henry of Navarra and annexing his land. On the other hand an army from Guipuzcoa and from the comunidad of el condado de Castilla was assembled and simultaniously launched an invasion on Navarra and succesfully invading the territory on december of the same year.Soon a new comunidad would be formed once the land was pacified. For the moment it would be ruled as the canary islands by an appointed captain.
After settling the borders the French was ready to land the final blow to the person that had stolen the imperial crown now that half of his strongholds were in an open rebillion.
The rebellion of the Germanias
In 1519, the plague struck Valencia. Several of the most important nobles died, and many of the others fled to the countryside. The superstitious population concluded that the disease was punishment for immorality, and rioted against people suspected of being homosexual as well as Muslims. The government tried to contain the rioters, but the rioters deposed the government instead. The Germanies stepped into this power vacuum, and gradually replaced the royal government of the capital of Valencia. The "Council of Thirteen" (Catalan: Junta dels Tretze, Spanish: Junta de los Trece), comprising one representative from each union, became the new government of the capital city. Joan Llorenç (Juan Llorens) emerged as the leader and intellectual statesmen of the Germanies, and he sought a representative government similar to the Italian republics such as the Republic of Genoa. Llorenç and the Council of Thirteen gave power to the Germanies, who re-established their monopolies on their professions and forbade anyone to work who did not affiliate with one of the guilds.
King Charles I was in Aachen, Germany in 1520 where he was dealing with his coronation as Holy Roman Emperor. The only steps he took initially was to revoke his grant of arms to the Germanies and several other concessions, measures which were completely ignored. The tension increased with the nomination of the Castilian war veteran Diego Hurtado de Mendoza as viceroy in April 1520. At this point, the Germanies staged a coup d'état in which Mendoza was forced to flee and popular representatives replaced most of the remaining government functions and the courts. Councils of Thirteen took power in the other cities of Valencia as the revolt spread. With this, what had previously been a quiet assertion of power became a civil war.
The moderate Joan Llorenç died in 1520, and was replaced by Vicent Peris. The death of Llorenç robbed the moderate faction (including Caro, Sorolla, and Montfort), concerned with the good governance of Valencia, of its strongest voice; the radical faction took power (including Urgellés, Estellés, Peris, and Borrell) which sought land reform and a social revolution to reduce the power of the aristocracy. Peris took an extremely aggressive stand toward both the nobles and the Muslims.
In the summer of 1520, some military actions occurred such as an assault on the viscounty of Xelva, the pillage of noble palaces, and the redistribution of nearby land. The Moorish quarters of the city of Valencia were attacked and burned after an accusation of collaboration with the nobility. However, the war did not truly expand until June 1521. The royalists were separated into two groups. In the south, the viceroy personally led a force based out of Denia. Andalusian nobles that were provisionally stationed in Valencia until the revolt in Castile was supressed, sent an army to assist as well, headed by Pedro Fajardo, 1st Marquis of los Vélez. In the north, Alonso de Aragon, the Duke of Segorbe, captained a force. The Germanies took over several cities at once: in the north, the regions of the Maestrat and Camp de Morvedre; and in the south, in Alzira, Xàtiva, Gandia, and Elx.
The revolt was known in other realms of Aragon, and inspired a new overthrow of the government in the Kingdom of Majorca after the unpopular imprisonment of seven guild members. As in Valencia, a Council of Thirteen was constituted to rule, led by Juan Crespí. The rebels gained control of the capital and dismissed the governor-general, Miguel de Gurrea, who fled to Ibiza. The nobles who survived the massacre that occurred in the Bellver Castle took refuge in Alcúdia, the only part of the island that remained faithful to the King during the year and a half the Germanies ruled Majorca. During this period, the Council of Thirteen ran an independent government, and did not coordinate with their brethren in Valencia. In August 1522, the emperor sent 800 men to help Gurrea. By the next year, they had taken the capital, and on March 8, 1523, the agermanats surrendered with the mediation of the bishop. Despite this mediation, more than 200 agermanats were executed, and many others fled.
The council of thirteen of Valencia and later Mallorca asked the Junta de Toledo to join the Castillian republic as a comunidad. The junta for the moment stayed neutral as they were trying to get recognization from Charles himself. After multiple unanswered letters the junta was starting to become frustrated but was still scared of declaring waron the emperor. The comunidades on the hand started to be scared at the sight of the noble armies that were operating in their borders and the regidor de Cuenca started to raise armies from Cuenca,Guadalajara,Sigüenza,Belmonte,Albacete,Almansa and Villena.
After the Andalusian nobles had been pushed out of Valencia they decided to sack Requena for supplies.After news came from this the Archbishop of Sigüenza declared war on the crown of Aragon,the kingdom of Naples and Sicily and the Holy Roman empire.
Cuenca managed to raised 1500 piqueros and 750 archabusiers. Sigüenza managed to raise 750 pikemen and 300 archabusiers.So did Guadalajara and Albacete. Almansa,Belmonte and Villena managed to raise 250 knights each.On top of that the maester of Santiago's order sent 300 skilled footsoldiers and 200 horsemen from Uclés and ordered all castles of his order to send at least 20 soldiers each. The comunidad of Soria and Najera and the comunidad of Toledo sent 500 men each and promised to finance the war.The comunidad of Segovia refused to send an army due the beef that they had with Cuenca but offered to pay for a company of mercenaries of Salamanca for a year as a sign of good will. The original army from Cuenca quickly tooked Requena back slaying all the nobles and in the next months soldiers from other comunidades and Santiago's order soldiers started arriving and joining the army which after 2 months had 7250 souls and started to attack the noble armies from Valencia with the notable masacre of Alcala del Jucar in which 200 Castillian and Valencian nobles were slayed without a trial. After the victories against the nobles the council of the thirteen decided to join their army with the one of the archbishop of Sigüenza
Charles was amassing an army on Naples at the time to supress the rebelion in Valencia and later on supressed the rebelion in Castile.But gathering a navy strong enough to transport it would be the hardest task.As the king of France refused to let a foreign army step foot on his soil.But his plans of invading Valencia would have to be cancelled as the king of France declared war on the Empire and started to invade Flanders and the north of Italy.
After the stablishment of the republic France abandoned its ambitions on reconquering the Spanish part of Navarra as long as Francis could annex the French part of Navarra to their own kingdom. The junta agreed to these terms and in October 15 of 1521 the treaty of Burgos was signed and the partitioned of Navarra was agreed on. On November of the same year the French army would invade their former ally Henry of Navarra and annexing his land. On the other hand an army from Guipuzcoa and from the comunidad of el condado de Castilla was assembled and simultaniously launched an invasion on Navarra and succesfully invading the territory on december of the same year.Soon a new comunidad would be formed once the land was pacified. For the moment it would be ruled as the canary islands by an appointed captain.
After settling the borders the French was ready to land the final blow to the person that had stolen the imperial crown now that half of his strongholds were in an open rebillion.
The rebellion of the Germanias
In 1519, the plague struck Valencia. Several of the most important nobles died, and many of the others fled to the countryside. The superstitious population concluded that the disease was punishment for immorality, and rioted against people suspected of being homosexual as well as Muslims. The government tried to contain the rioters, but the rioters deposed the government instead. The Germanies stepped into this power vacuum, and gradually replaced the royal government of the capital of Valencia. The "Council of Thirteen" (Catalan: Junta dels Tretze, Spanish: Junta de los Trece), comprising one representative from each union, became the new government of the capital city. Joan Llorenç (Juan Llorens) emerged as the leader and intellectual statesmen of the Germanies, and he sought a representative government similar to the Italian republics such as the Republic of Genoa. Llorenç and the Council of Thirteen gave power to the Germanies, who re-established their monopolies on their professions and forbade anyone to work who did not affiliate with one of the guilds.
King Charles I was in Aachen, Germany in 1520 where he was dealing with his coronation as Holy Roman Emperor. The only steps he took initially was to revoke his grant of arms to the Germanies and several other concessions, measures which were completely ignored. The tension increased with the nomination of the Castilian war veteran Diego Hurtado de Mendoza as viceroy in April 1520. At this point, the Germanies staged a coup d'état in which Mendoza was forced to flee and popular representatives replaced most of the remaining government functions and the courts. Councils of Thirteen took power in the other cities of Valencia as the revolt spread. With this, what had previously been a quiet assertion of power became a civil war.
The moderate Joan Llorenç died in 1520, and was replaced by Vicent Peris. The death of Llorenç robbed the moderate faction (including Caro, Sorolla, and Montfort), concerned with the good governance of Valencia, of its strongest voice; the radical faction took power (including Urgellés, Estellés, Peris, and Borrell) which sought land reform and a social revolution to reduce the power of the aristocracy. Peris took an extremely aggressive stand toward both the nobles and the Muslims.
In the summer of 1520, some military actions occurred such as an assault on the viscounty of Xelva, the pillage of noble palaces, and the redistribution of nearby land. The Moorish quarters of the city of Valencia were attacked and burned after an accusation of collaboration with the nobility. However, the war did not truly expand until June 1521. The royalists were separated into two groups. In the south, the viceroy personally led a force based out of Denia. Andalusian nobles that were provisionally stationed in Valencia until the revolt in Castile was supressed, sent an army to assist as well, headed by Pedro Fajardo, 1st Marquis of los Vélez. In the north, Alonso de Aragon, the Duke of Segorbe, captained a force. The Germanies took over several cities at once: in the north, the regions of the Maestrat and Camp de Morvedre; and in the south, in Alzira, Xàtiva, Gandia, and Elx.
The revolt was known in other realms of Aragon, and inspired a new overthrow of the government in the Kingdom of Majorca after the unpopular imprisonment of seven guild members. As in Valencia, a Council of Thirteen was constituted to rule, led by Juan Crespí. The rebels gained control of the capital and dismissed the governor-general, Miguel de Gurrea, who fled to Ibiza. The nobles who survived the massacre that occurred in the Bellver Castle took refuge in Alcúdia, the only part of the island that remained faithful to the King during the year and a half the Germanies ruled Majorca. During this period, the Council of Thirteen ran an independent government, and did not coordinate with their brethren in Valencia. In August 1522, the emperor sent 800 men to help Gurrea. By the next year, they had taken the capital, and on March 8, 1523, the agermanats surrendered with the mediation of the bishop. Despite this mediation, more than 200 agermanats were executed, and many others fled.
The council of thirteen of Valencia and later Mallorca asked the Junta de Toledo to join the Castillian republic as a comunidad. The junta for the moment stayed neutral as they were trying to get recognization from Charles himself. After multiple unanswered letters the junta was starting to become frustrated but was still scared of declaring waron the emperor. The comunidades on the hand started to be scared at the sight of the noble armies that were operating in their borders and the regidor de Cuenca started to raise armies from Cuenca,Guadalajara,Sigüenza,Belmonte,Albacete,Almansa and Villena.
After the Andalusian nobles had been pushed out of Valencia they decided to sack Requena for supplies.After news came from this the Archbishop of Sigüenza declared war on the crown of Aragon,the kingdom of Naples and Sicily and the Holy Roman empire.
Cuenca managed to raised 1500 piqueros and 750 archabusiers. Sigüenza managed to raise 750 pikemen and 300 archabusiers.So did Guadalajara and Albacete. Almansa,Belmonte and Villena managed to raise 250 knights each.On top of that the maester of Santiago's order sent 300 skilled footsoldiers and 200 horsemen from Uclés and ordered all castles of his order to send at least 20 soldiers each. The comunidad of Soria and Najera and the comunidad of Toledo sent 500 men each and promised to finance the war.The comunidad of Segovia refused to send an army due the beef that they had with Cuenca but offered to pay for a company of mercenaries of Salamanca for a year as a sign of good will. The original army from Cuenca quickly tooked Requena back slaying all the nobles and in the next months soldiers from other comunidades and Santiago's order soldiers started arriving and joining the army which after 2 months had 7250 souls and started to attack the noble armies from Valencia with the notable masacre of Alcala del Jucar in which 200 Castillian and Valencian nobles were slayed without a trial. After the victories against the nobles the council of the thirteen decided to join their army with the one of the archbishop of Sigüenza
Charles was amassing an army on Naples at the time to supress the rebelion in Valencia and later on supressed the rebelion in Castile.But gathering a navy strong enough to transport it would be the hardest task.As the king of France refused to let a foreign army step foot on his soil.But his plans of invading Valencia would have to be cancelled as the king of France declared war on the Empire and started to invade Flanders and the north of Italy.
The Four years war Part 2
The French offensive
After some initial attacks to the low countries the French armies were repelled by the army leaded by Henry of Nassau that started launching an invasion of northern France.On the other side of the war Francis managed to send reinforcements to Milan and hire some Swiss mercenaries under the service of the Vicomte de Lautrec.The French army now outnembering the imperial army decided to push southwards against the Pope and the imperial army with the aid of Venice who had recently joined the war.With a big part of the Castillian troops deserting the imperial army was severily weekend and seeing the prospects of victory the Swiss mercenaries that had been underpaid decided to remain in the army for the possibilities of loot.In 1522 close to the city of Bicoca the French army defeated the weakend imperial army leaving Milan protected and allowing the French army to plunder through all of Italy starting at Florence and later on plundering Pisa and Siena with the clear intention to push towards Naples. Prospero Colonna decided to leave Rome unprotected and to unite his army with the Napolitan one that was about to embark to Spain which stayed in Naples as it was under direct danger.
Charles response
Lacking the military might to defeat Francis on his own Charles decided to use diplomacy to surround his enemies while hoping that his few forces in Italy could resist the French attacks.
His first move was to marry with her cousin Isabel of Portugal.To have another ally in the Peninsula.As his situation was not as strong as it used to be the dowry would be just 300,000 Portuguese cruzados instead of the 900,000 cruzados that were expected for marrying an emperor.But in exchange of the lower dowry the Portuguese army would invade Castile and crush the rebellion. The 300,000 cruzados were used to hire more mercenaries for the war and to bribe officials.
The next move that he made was to marry his unborn and unconcieved son with Mary of England the daughter of Charles' aunt. The dowry would be payed when the marriage would be consumated. Charles would also recognize the English claims in France in exchange of their support in the current war which Henry gladly accepted. Henry sent a letter to Francis denoucing the support that the French had given to the Duke of Albany and after signing the treaty of Winsor in June of 1522 the English would formally declare war on France
The army of Aragon and the generalitat
Seeing that the rebellion of the Germanias was expanding throughout the crown the kingdom of Aragon and the Generalitat of Catalunya decided to raise their own armies. The few sparks of revolutions in their lands were crushed in Tarragona,Lloret del Mar and Zaragoza.Afterwards the kingdom and the principality decided to join their army to free Valencia from the Castillian invaders. The Aragonese army had in total around 15000 soldiers that were ready to avenge the masacred nobles.On may of 1522 the Aragonese army started the siege of Castellón.
Formal declaration of war by the Junta
After the initial success of the Archbishop of Sigüenza and his army and the declaration of war of France against the empire the Junta declared war to the emperor Charles the V on April of 1522.This forced all comunidades to declare war on Charles with the exception of Granada that pleaded to la camara de disputas territoriales an excenssion as they were having their own war against the emirate of the Alpujarras. As such all the comunidades had to raise their armies for war. At the beginning some did a very poor job of raising their armies and very few banners had been raised for the juntas expectations.But after the first attack of Portugal on Galicia most people started seeing Charles and the Portuguese as an invader which made the army of the republic a formidable force with more soldiers than what the Junta had expected. The comunidades of Toledo,Murcia,Cordoba and Jaen and Segovia were commanded by the Junta to reinforce the army of the archbishop García de Loaysa y Mendoza. The comunidad of the county of Castile would reinforce the border of Navarra and Soria while the comunidades of Salamanca,León,Sevilla and Niebla and Tarifa would launch an attack on Portugal and aid Galicia. The junta's navy at Sevilla and Laredo were tasked on making war against the Portuguese and English navies while the navy at Cartagena would block the Aragonese navy to send reinforcements to Spain.The hermandad de las marismas declared war on the Portuguese merchant fleet expecting to loot their spice trade.
Situation of the war
After some initial attacks to the low countries the French armies were repelled by the army leaded by Henry of Nassau that started launching an invasion of northern France.On the other side of the war Francis managed to send reinforcements to Milan and hire some Swiss mercenaries under the service of the Vicomte de Lautrec.The French army now outnembering the imperial army decided to push southwards against the Pope and the imperial army with the aid of Venice who had recently joined the war.With a big part of the Castillian troops deserting the imperial army was severily weekend and seeing the prospects of victory the Swiss mercenaries that had been underpaid decided to remain in the army for the possibilities of loot.In 1522 close to the city of Bicoca the French army defeated the weakend imperial army leaving Milan protected and allowing the French army to plunder through all of Italy starting at Florence and later on plundering Pisa and Siena with the clear intention to push towards Naples. Prospero Colonna decided to leave Rome unprotected and to unite his army with the Napolitan one that was about to embark to Spain which stayed in Naples as it was under direct danger.
Charles response
Lacking the military might to defeat Francis on his own Charles decided to use diplomacy to surround his enemies while hoping that his few forces in Italy could resist the French attacks.
His first move was to marry with her cousin Isabel of Portugal.To have another ally in the Peninsula.As his situation was not as strong as it used to be the dowry would be just 300,000 Portuguese cruzados instead of the 900,000 cruzados that were expected for marrying an emperor.But in exchange of the lower dowry the Portuguese army would invade Castile and crush the rebellion. The 300,000 cruzados were used to hire more mercenaries for the war and to bribe officials.
The next move that he made was to marry his unborn and unconcieved son with Mary of England the daughter of Charles' aunt. The dowry would be payed when the marriage would be consumated. Charles would also recognize the English claims in France in exchange of their support in the current war which Henry gladly accepted. Henry sent a letter to Francis denoucing the support that the French had given to the Duke of Albany and after signing the treaty of Winsor in June of 1522 the English would formally declare war on France
The army of Aragon and the generalitat
Seeing that the rebellion of the Germanias was expanding throughout the crown the kingdom of Aragon and the Generalitat of Catalunya decided to raise their own armies. The few sparks of revolutions in their lands were crushed in Tarragona,Lloret del Mar and Zaragoza.Afterwards the kingdom and the principality decided to join their army to free Valencia from the Castillian invaders. The Aragonese army had in total around 15000 soldiers that were ready to avenge the masacred nobles.On may of 1522 the Aragonese army started the siege of Castellón.
Formal declaration of war by the Junta
After the initial success of the Archbishop of Sigüenza and his army and the declaration of war of France against the empire the Junta declared war to the emperor Charles the V on April of 1522.This forced all comunidades to declare war on Charles with the exception of Granada that pleaded to la camara de disputas territoriales an excenssion as they were having their own war against the emirate of the Alpujarras. As such all the comunidades had to raise their armies for war. At the beginning some did a very poor job of raising their armies and very few banners had been raised for the juntas expectations.But after the first attack of Portugal on Galicia most people started seeing Charles and the Portuguese as an invader which made the army of the republic a formidable force with more soldiers than what the Junta had expected. The comunidades of Toledo,Murcia,Cordoba and Jaen and Segovia were commanded by the Junta to reinforce the army of the archbishop García de Loaysa y Mendoza. The comunidad of the county of Castile would reinforce the border of Navarra and Soria while the comunidades of Salamanca,León,Sevilla and Niebla and Tarifa would launch an attack on Portugal and aid Galicia. The junta's navy at Sevilla and Laredo were tasked on making war against the Portuguese and English navies while the navy at Cartagena would block the Aragonese navy to send reinforcements to Spain.The hermandad de las marismas declared war on the Portuguese merchant fleet expecting to loot their spice trade.
Situation of the war
The Four years war Part 3
The war in the Low countries and France
The army of Henry of Nassau after raising and Ardres and Mouzon laid siege to Mezieres. The resistance of the French village allowed the French army to reorganize and push back the army of Henry of Nassau.In the city of Valenciennes Francis decided to not attack the imperial army which allowed the army of Flanders to join its numbers with the English troops. Due internal problems and the might of the new army the French strategy swifted to a defensive strategy. Francis now was more worried about financing the war than to fighting it.To raise money he sued the Duke of Bourbon. The duke of Bourbon recieved most of his lands from his wife Suzanne Duchess of Bourbon and after her death Francis started seizing the lands of the Duke of Bourbon in the name of Louis of Savoy to raise money for the war. This humilliation led to the duke of Bourbon to start thinking about joining Charles and to betray his king.
Charles the III Duke of Bourbon
The Anglo-imperial army seeing that they had the numbers started to make an offensive effort and tried to push to Paris but seeing the move as too risky the Duke of Suffolk decided to just lay siege on Calais
The invasion of Galicia
The Portuguese decided to invade Galicia as the first course of action.King John believed that he could annex the region so he set Galicia as his priority.His miliary advisors recommend and straight attack to Toledo first taking Caceres and Plasencia and then to kickly attack Toledo to kill the junta and the leaders of the revolt.
At first the attack on Galicia was succesful.The army of Galicia was kickly defeated at Vigo forcing the Galician army to flee to Santiago. The Portuguese army was not able to capitalize on this victory. Galicia was a rocky region in which transportation and moving through the region took always more time than normal.On top of an attrition warfare benefited the Galician forces as the Portuguese army was better trained and equiped. After 2 months in Galicia king John had barely conquered the province of Pontevedra and most of his army was spread out and stucked in regions that had poor comunications amongst each other.
After seeing the failure of the Portuguese army to take Galicia Maldonado the regidor of Salamanca and a experienced military leader decided to attack directly on Portugal and he was followed by the regidor of Leon and his army. The Castillian army under their commands caused havoc in the underdefended Portuguese country side and had effectively encircled the Portuguese army.King John after seeing that the numbers of his army had been reduced since the beginning of the war and the lack of success decided to return to Portugal.
After fleeing from Galicia the Portuguese army faced the army of the republic of Castile.The fatigued Portuguese army put an extraordinary fight but the low morale and attrition had made the army a shadow of what it was.On the 23 of April king John had been captured. The surviving men of his army had been allowed to return home for the courage that they had shown in battle
The war at sea
The Castillian navy mainly fought the Portuguese navy in the atlantic.The Portuguese navy recieved the order to block trade to Seville. Despite the fact that the Portuguese navy was more formidable than the Castillian navy in the war of Castillian succession the navy had been reinforced and currently the Castillian navy was bigger than the Portuguese navy.The blockade didn't last more than 2 weeks when the navy from Laredo joined the navy from Seville and soundly defeated the Portuguese navy.
This defeat was used by the Hermandad de las marismas as an opportunity to seize the spice cargo that was heading to Lisbon.On the 1 of April the spice cargo was captured making the single profit of the Hermandad.
On the mediterranean the Genovese fleet joined forces with the Castillian fleet of Cartagena and the Venitian fleet which effectively blocked the port of Naples impeading reinforcements to arrive to Spain.
The war in Valencia
The army of the archbishop of Sigüenza was smaller than the army of the Aragonese nobles.The latter offered him an honorable retreat if he left the land with his troops. The archbishop refused and the siege of Valencia started.Due the lack of naval support the Castillian fleet had been able to smuggle provisions which prolongued the siege.
The Aragonese nobles during the following weeks had the idea of lifting the siege but decided to pursue it as capturing the archbishop would put an effective end to the Valencian revolt.On the third week of the siege the Aragonese artillery started storming the walls and launched its first attacks.After the first attacks were repealled the Aragonese army decided to reorganize,but reinforcements from Soria,Murcia and Segovia had come.The combined Castillian army was enough to overpower the noble army which would determine the end of Aragonese control of Valencia and Mallorca.
The war in Italy
As Francis was unable to pay the Swiss mercenaries a push towards Naples had to be posponed. After a few failed offensives from small armies from the Papal states the Swiss mercenaries starting seeing in Rome an easy pray for their material dessires. The French command was weaker everyday that passed and the underpaid soldiers and the Swiss mercenaries decided to attack Rome. The French commander the Vicomte of Lautrec tried to stop his troops but the lower commanders and the bulk of the army ignored him.
On the 2 October of 1523 the French army attacked the walls at the Gianicolo and Vatican Hills. The Vicomte was fatally wounded in the assault, allegedly shot by Benvenuto Cellini. The Duke was wearing his famous white cloak to mark him out to his troops, but it also had the unintended consequence of pointing him out as the leader to his enemies. The death of the last respected command authority among the French army caused any restraint in the soldiers to disappear, and they easily captured the walls of Rome the same day. Philibert of Châlon took command of the armies, but he was not as popular or feared, leaving him with little authority. One of the Swiss Guard's most notable hours occurred at this time. Almost the entire guard was massacred by French troops on the steps of St Peter's Basilica. Of 189 guards on duty only the 42 who accompanied the pope survived, but the bravery of the rearguard ensured that Pope Clement VII escaped to safety, down the Passetto di Borgo, a secret corridor which still links the Vatican City to Castel Sant'Angelo.
The French and Swiss mercenaries looted Rome for 3 days.An action that shoocked the world.
After this action Francis formaly apologized to the Pope and promised him that the leaders of the sack would be appropiatly punished.Seeing that Charles could not defend him the Pope started to be more permissive with French actions and inmidiatly withdrew from the war.
Sack of rome
Final moves and the end of the war
In Italy there was a lack of military activity after the sack of Rome.The French army returned to lombardy and proceded to defend its position. On the north of France the anglo-imperial army had seen some success but both Charles and Henry were running low on funds. In the empire Charles had to deal with Luther and his heresy, so the war was not of his interests.After the collosal failure of the Portuguese king and the Aragonese army Charles had no other option to forget about his claims on Castile,Valencia and Mallorca.
The Castillian army after capturing king John had little resistance which caused the regidor of Galicia,the archbishop of Santiago, to launch an attack on Portugal as a payback.
The 3 of March of 1524 both France and Charles sued for peace. Calais was chosen as the city for the peace talk
The army of Henry of Nassau after raising and Ardres and Mouzon laid siege to Mezieres. The resistance of the French village allowed the French army to reorganize and push back the army of Henry of Nassau.In the city of Valenciennes Francis decided to not attack the imperial army which allowed the army of Flanders to join its numbers with the English troops. Due internal problems and the might of the new army the French strategy swifted to a defensive strategy. Francis now was more worried about financing the war than to fighting it.To raise money he sued the Duke of Bourbon. The duke of Bourbon recieved most of his lands from his wife Suzanne Duchess of Bourbon and after her death Francis started seizing the lands of the Duke of Bourbon in the name of Louis of Savoy to raise money for the war. This humilliation led to the duke of Bourbon to start thinking about joining Charles and to betray his king.
Charles the III Duke of Bourbon
The Anglo-imperial army seeing that they had the numbers started to make an offensive effort and tried to push to Paris but seeing the move as too risky the Duke of Suffolk decided to just lay siege on Calais
The invasion of Galicia
The Portuguese decided to invade Galicia as the first course of action.King John believed that he could annex the region so he set Galicia as his priority.His miliary advisors recommend and straight attack to Toledo first taking Caceres and Plasencia and then to kickly attack Toledo to kill the junta and the leaders of the revolt.
At first the attack on Galicia was succesful.The army of Galicia was kickly defeated at Vigo forcing the Galician army to flee to Santiago. The Portuguese army was not able to capitalize on this victory. Galicia was a rocky region in which transportation and moving through the region took always more time than normal.On top of an attrition warfare benefited the Galician forces as the Portuguese army was better trained and equiped. After 2 months in Galicia king John had barely conquered the province of Pontevedra and most of his army was spread out and stucked in regions that had poor comunications amongst each other.
After seeing the failure of the Portuguese army to take Galicia Maldonado the regidor of Salamanca and a experienced military leader decided to attack directly on Portugal and he was followed by the regidor of Leon and his army. The Castillian army under their commands caused havoc in the underdefended Portuguese country side and had effectively encircled the Portuguese army.King John after seeing that the numbers of his army had been reduced since the beginning of the war and the lack of success decided to return to Portugal.
After fleeing from Galicia the Portuguese army faced the army of the republic of Castile.The fatigued Portuguese army put an extraordinary fight but the low morale and attrition had made the army a shadow of what it was.On the 23 of April king John had been captured. The surviving men of his army had been allowed to return home for the courage that they had shown in battle
The war at sea
The Castillian navy mainly fought the Portuguese navy in the atlantic.The Portuguese navy recieved the order to block trade to Seville. Despite the fact that the Portuguese navy was more formidable than the Castillian navy in the war of Castillian succession the navy had been reinforced and currently the Castillian navy was bigger than the Portuguese navy.The blockade didn't last more than 2 weeks when the navy from Laredo joined the navy from Seville and soundly defeated the Portuguese navy.
This defeat was used by the Hermandad de las marismas as an opportunity to seize the spice cargo that was heading to Lisbon.On the 1 of April the spice cargo was captured making the single profit of the Hermandad.
On the mediterranean the Genovese fleet joined forces with the Castillian fleet of Cartagena and the Venitian fleet which effectively blocked the port of Naples impeading reinforcements to arrive to Spain.
The war in Valencia
The army of the archbishop of Sigüenza was smaller than the army of the Aragonese nobles.The latter offered him an honorable retreat if he left the land with his troops. The archbishop refused and the siege of Valencia started.Due the lack of naval support the Castillian fleet had been able to smuggle provisions which prolongued the siege.
The Aragonese nobles during the following weeks had the idea of lifting the siege but decided to pursue it as capturing the archbishop would put an effective end to the Valencian revolt.On the third week of the siege the Aragonese artillery started storming the walls and launched its first attacks.After the first attacks were repealled the Aragonese army decided to reorganize,but reinforcements from Soria,Murcia and Segovia had come.The combined Castillian army was enough to overpower the noble army which would determine the end of Aragonese control of Valencia and Mallorca.
The war in Italy
As Francis was unable to pay the Swiss mercenaries a push towards Naples had to be posponed. After a few failed offensives from small armies from the Papal states the Swiss mercenaries starting seeing in Rome an easy pray for their material dessires. The French command was weaker everyday that passed and the underpaid soldiers and the Swiss mercenaries decided to attack Rome. The French commander the Vicomte of Lautrec tried to stop his troops but the lower commanders and the bulk of the army ignored him.
On the 2 October of 1523 the French army attacked the walls at the Gianicolo and Vatican Hills. The Vicomte was fatally wounded in the assault, allegedly shot by Benvenuto Cellini. The Duke was wearing his famous white cloak to mark him out to his troops, but it also had the unintended consequence of pointing him out as the leader to his enemies. The death of the last respected command authority among the French army caused any restraint in the soldiers to disappear, and they easily captured the walls of Rome the same day. Philibert of Châlon took command of the armies, but he was not as popular or feared, leaving him with little authority. One of the Swiss Guard's most notable hours occurred at this time. Almost the entire guard was massacred by French troops on the steps of St Peter's Basilica. Of 189 guards on duty only the 42 who accompanied the pope survived, but the bravery of the rearguard ensured that Pope Clement VII escaped to safety, down the Passetto di Borgo, a secret corridor which still links the Vatican City to Castel Sant'Angelo.
The French and Swiss mercenaries looted Rome for 3 days.An action that shoocked the world.
After this action Francis formaly apologized to the Pope and promised him that the leaders of the sack would be appropiatly punished.Seeing that Charles could not defend him the Pope started to be more permissive with French actions and inmidiatly withdrew from the war.
Sack of rome
Final moves and the end of the war
In Italy there was a lack of military activity after the sack of Rome.The French army returned to lombardy and proceded to defend its position. On the north of France the anglo-imperial army had seen some success but both Charles and Henry were running low on funds. In the empire Charles had to deal with Luther and his heresy, so the war was not of his interests.After the collosal failure of the Portuguese king and the Aragonese army Charles had no other option to forget about his claims on Castile,Valencia and Mallorca.
The Castillian army after capturing king John had little resistance which caused the regidor of Galicia,the archbishop of Santiago, to launch an attack on Portugal as a payback.
The 3 of March of 1524 both France and Charles sued for peace. Calais was chosen as the city for the peace talk
The peace of Calais and the consolidation of the republic and its reforms
The Peace of Calais
The first peace negotiations started in Calais in 1524.
The anglo-imperial side had failed to repel French influence in Italy while doing little damage in France.On top of that the war on the peninsula had been a disaster in which land was lost and one of the main members of the coallition,the king of Portugal, had been captured due his own ambition and incompetence.As the clears losers of this war the emperor was open to make some concessions like renouncing his claims to the crown of Castile.
Francis on the other hand claimed at first the recognization of his claims on Burgandy,Lombardy and the annexation of Tuscany. Charles and Henry saw this claims as unacceptable and even the diplomatic mission of the Castillian republic saw them as excessive.
The junta's interest were simply related to the recognition of the republic and the incorporation of Valencia,Navarra and Mallorca to the republic and as an exchange king John would be freed.
After 2 months of failed negotiations Charles tried to sign a separate deal with Castile allowing them to keep everything that they obtained in exchange of some minor reparations.
Pleased with the deal the Castillian diplomatic mission preassured king Francis to sign the peace deal that Charles was offering.Francis saw this act as a treason and threatened to declare war of Castille, but his lack of founds and the fact of being encircled again by enemies Francis complied.The treaty was signed on the month of July.
Peace of Calais
The treaty
The consolidation of the republic
A couple of weeks after the treaty was signed the Junta moved to Segovia due the itenerate cortes that had to move through a different comunidad every 3 months.The new president of the Junta was Pedro Fernández de Saavedra the current rector of Alcala's university.
After its consolidation as a republic the junta started some of their reforms
Currency devaluation
“Item, que se labre luego moneda en estos reinos, e que sea
diferente en ley e valor a lo que se labra en los reinos comarcanos, e que sea moneda apacible
y baja de ley de veinte e dos quilates, que en peso e valor venga a respeto de
las coronas del sol que se labran en Francia, porque desta manera no la
sacarán del reino”
The castellano,the main coined that was coined in Castile, since the XV always contained more gold than the French sun and other currencies in Europe. This led to a continous lose of currency as the more valueable Castillian coin had more value than its competitors.Devaluating the currency had the main purpose of keeping the currency circulating inside the country to favour local trade,exportation of Castillian products and to stop the continous coinage of coins which the previous rulers of the kingdom had been force to do the strong value of the currency which favoured importing goods instead of the local guilds and producers.
Cattle exports
“Item, que no se puedan sacar ni saquen de aquí adelante ganados, ni
puercos vivos ni muertos, ni otros ganados fuera destos reinos. Que por esta
causa sea subido el precio de las carnes e de los cueros, e calzado e sebo, dos tantos más de lo que solian valer”
During the middle ages the Castillian kings had favored the exportation of cattle and its derive products like meat and wool.This was causing an inflation of basic woods for the average peasant which had led to a general empobrishment of the lowers echelons of society.This measures had the intentions of killing this unecessary inflation of basic goods.
Wool exports
"Item, que los mercaderes e hacedores de paños e otros
obrajes destos reinos
puedan tomar para gastar e labraren ellos la mitad de cualesquier lanas que
hobieren comprado los naturales o extranjeros para enviar fuera de estos
reinos pagando el mismo precio, porque asi las tuvieron compradas, luego
como lo paga
ren los compradores. E si las hubiere comprado fiado, dando
seguridad de lo pagar a los plazos e de la manera que los otros lo tenían
comprado con las mismas condiciones, dando fianzas de seguridad e los
mismos obligados a sus fiadores”
The castillian cloth manufacturers from the interior usually faced a lack of wool suply despite the kingdom being the biggest producer in Europe.This was mostly due the inmediate profit of just exporting the wool to Flanders as the Flemish usually paid more for the wool than the artisians from the interior of Castille.
This measure was meant to favour the Castillian artisians and cloth producers which were amongst the most loyal supporters of the revolt.Castillian merchants would be allowed to export wool only in Medina's del Campo fair which would be hosted once a year to please the merchant class of Burgos.
The rights of the indians
“Item, que no se hagan ni puedan hacer perpetuamente mercedes algunas a
ninguna persona de cualquier calidad que sea, de indios algunos, para que
caven e saquen oro, ni para otra cosa alguna. E que revoquen las mercedes
de ellos fechas hasta aquí. Porque en se haber fecho merced de los dichos
indios, se ha seguido antes daño que provecho del patrimonio real de Sus
Majestades, por el mucho oro que se pudiera haber de ellos: demás que
siendo, como son, cristianos, son tratados como infieles y esclavos"
The revolt that had a humanitarian side, heavily opposed the current systems of encomiendas and believed that preserving the rights of fellow christians was more important than the material wealth that could be obtained from exploiting them.Indians inmediatly recieved the right of behetria but for the moment they wouldn't be allowed to rule concejos or participate in them as they were in a state of "childhood" and needed time to grow spiritually as a whole.As such the Americas were splitted in capitanias that would be rulled by the Junta until the regions were ready to form a comunidad of their own just like the Canary Islands. As such they controlled the regions mining and fiscal policies. Cortés was named the captain of New Spain,Francisco de Montejo as captain of Cuba and Gaspar de Espinosa captain of Santo Domingo.
First captain of New Spain
Exploration campaings
The Junta encouraged the exploration and conquest of land.As such they gave licenses to the explorers in which they would recieve 10% of the mining rents for 4 years of the mines that they found.This led to massive exploration trips through all America and the first projects on expanding the trade in other unknown regions
La compañia de las indias orientales
After the huge profit that the hermandad de las marismas made with the spices from the Portuguese they bought a building in Cadiz to orquestrate their ambitious project of expansion on the spice islands.Despite those lands belonging to Portugal due the treaty of Tordesillas the Hermandad would try to find alternative routes to the spice islands and if necessary they would declare war of Portugal if the former is impossible. The noble-merchant family of la casa de Arcos was also really interested in this project as a way to compete against Seville and its monopoly with America. The shares of the compañia de las indias orientales would be distributed between the Hermandad de las marismas that would own 50% of the shares, the Casa de Arcos and the comunidad of Niebla y Tarifa owning 40% of the shares and the Junta owning 10% of the shares.
Central quarters of the compañia de las indias orientales
War compensations
As some comunidades had been affected more by the war and had a more prominent war on it the junta decided to compensate them economically.
The first peace negotiations started in Calais in 1524.
The anglo-imperial side had failed to repel French influence in Italy while doing little damage in France.On top of that the war on the peninsula had been a disaster in which land was lost and one of the main members of the coallition,the king of Portugal, had been captured due his own ambition and incompetence.As the clears losers of this war the emperor was open to make some concessions like renouncing his claims to the crown of Castile.
Francis on the other hand claimed at first the recognization of his claims on Burgandy,Lombardy and the annexation of Tuscany. Charles and Henry saw this claims as unacceptable and even the diplomatic mission of the Castillian republic saw them as excessive.
The junta's interest were simply related to the recognition of the republic and the incorporation of Valencia,Navarra and Mallorca to the republic and as an exchange king John would be freed.
After 2 months of failed negotiations Charles tried to sign a separate deal with Castile allowing them to keep everything that they obtained in exchange of some minor reparations.
Pleased with the deal the Castillian diplomatic mission preassured king Francis to sign the peace deal that Charles was offering.Francis saw this act as a treason and threatened to declare war of Castille, but his lack of founds and the fact of being encircled again by enemies Francis complied.The treaty was signed on the month of July.
Peace of Calais
The treaty
- England and the Emperor Charles the V recognize the independence and sovereignity of la republica de las comunidades libres de Castilla
- The emperor Charles the V would recieve annual reparations due its lose of land.Castille would have to pay Charles 200,000 castellanos every year
- Charles recognized the authority of Francis over Lombardy
- The Portuguese king would be freed
- Valencia and Mallorca would be annexed by Castile
- King Francis would have to pay annual reparations to the Papal states for the damage caused by the sack.The first payment would be of 300,000 French sun
The consolidation of the republic
A couple of weeks after the treaty was signed the Junta moved to Segovia due the itenerate cortes that had to move through a different comunidad every 3 months.The new president of the Junta was Pedro Fernández de Saavedra the current rector of Alcala's university.
After its consolidation as a republic the junta started some of their reforms
Currency devaluation
“Item, que se labre luego moneda en estos reinos, e que sea
diferente en ley e valor a lo que se labra en los reinos comarcanos, e que sea moneda apacible
y baja de ley de veinte e dos quilates, que en peso e valor venga a respeto de
las coronas del sol que se labran en Francia, porque desta manera no la
sacarán del reino”
The castellano,the main coined that was coined in Castile, since the XV always contained more gold than the French sun and other currencies in Europe. This led to a continous lose of currency as the more valueable Castillian coin had more value than its competitors.Devaluating the currency had the main purpose of keeping the currency circulating inside the country to favour local trade,exportation of Castillian products and to stop the continous coinage of coins which the previous rulers of the kingdom had been force to do the strong value of the currency which favoured importing goods instead of the local guilds and producers.
Cattle exports
“Item, que no se puedan sacar ni saquen de aquí adelante ganados, ni
puercos vivos ni muertos, ni otros ganados fuera destos reinos. Que por esta
causa sea subido el precio de las carnes e de los cueros, e calzado e sebo, dos tantos más de lo que solian valer”
During the middle ages the Castillian kings had favored the exportation of cattle and its derive products like meat and wool.This was causing an inflation of basic woods for the average peasant which had led to a general empobrishment of the lowers echelons of society.This measures had the intentions of killing this unecessary inflation of basic goods.
Wool exports
"Item, que los mercaderes e hacedores de paños e otros
obrajes destos reinos
puedan tomar para gastar e labraren ellos la mitad de cualesquier lanas que
hobieren comprado los naturales o extranjeros para enviar fuera de estos
reinos pagando el mismo precio, porque asi las tuvieron compradas, luego
como lo paga
ren los compradores. E si las hubiere comprado fiado, dando
seguridad de lo pagar a los plazos e de la manera que los otros lo tenían
comprado con las mismas condiciones, dando fianzas de seguridad e los
mismos obligados a sus fiadores”
The castillian cloth manufacturers from the interior usually faced a lack of wool suply despite the kingdom being the biggest producer in Europe.This was mostly due the inmediate profit of just exporting the wool to Flanders as the Flemish usually paid more for the wool than the artisians from the interior of Castille.
This measure was meant to favour the Castillian artisians and cloth producers which were amongst the most loyal supporters of the revolt.Castillian merchants would be allowed to export wool only in Medina's del Campo fair which would be hosted once a year to please the merchant class of Burgos.
The rights of the indians
“Item, que no se hagan ni puedan hacer perpetuamente mercedes algunas a
ninguna persona de cualquier calidad que sea, de indios algunos, para que
caven e saquen oro, ni para otra cosa alguna. E que revoquen las mercedes
de ellos fechas hasta aquí. Porque en se haber fecho merced de los dichos
indios, se ha seguido antes daño que provecho del patrimonio real de Sus
Majestades, por el mucho oro que se pudiera haber de ellos: demás que
siendo, como son, cristianos, son tratados como infieles y esclavos"
The revolt that had a humanitarian side, heavily opposed the current systems of encomiendas and believed that preserving the rights of fellow christians was more important than the material wealth that could be obtained from exploiting them.Indians inmediatly recieved the right of behetria but for the moment they wouldn't be allowed to rule concejos or participate in them as they were in a state of "childhood" and needed time to grow spiritually as a whole.As such the Americas were splitted in capitanias that would be rulled by the Junta until the regions were ready to form a comunidad of their own just like the Canary Islands. As such they controlled the regions mining and fiscal policies. Cortés was named the captain of New Spain,Francisco de Montejo as captain of Cuba and Gaspar de Espinosa captain of Santo Domingo.
First captain of New Spain
Exploration campaings
The Junta encouraged the exploration and conquest of land.As such they gave licenses to the explorers in which they would recieve 10% of the mining rents for 4 years of the mines that they found.This led to massive exploration trips through all America and the first projects on expanding the trade in other unknown regions
La compañia de las indias orientales
After the huge profit that the hermandad de las marismas made with the spices from the Portuguese they bought a building in Cadiz to orquestrate their ambitious project of expansion on the spice islands.Despite those lands belonging to Portugal due the treaty of Tordesillas the Hermandad would try to find alternative routes to the spice islands and if necessary they would declare war of Portugal if the former is impossible. The noble-merchant family of la casa de Arcos was also really interested in this project as a way to compete against Seville and its monopoly with America. The shares of the compañia de las indias orientales would be distributed between the Hermandad de las marismas that would own 50% of the shares, the Casa de Arcos and the comunidad of Niebla y Tarifa owning 40% of the shares and the Junta owning 10% of the shares.
Central quarters of the compañia de las indias orientales
War compensations
As some comunidades had been affected more by the war and had a more prominent war on it the junta decided to compensate them economically.
- Cuenca and Galicia would recieve 1/8 of the Junta's gold from America for 2 years
- Soria,Salamanca and Leon would recieve 1/15 of the Junta's gold from America for 2 years.
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And it continues to fascinate! (sock Account or not)
What is behetria really going to change for the Indios? (i doubt that Castilians will consider them "grown up" any time soon, given that this would mean letting go of enormous amounts of precious metals which the Republic needs (see both reconstruction provisions and, more importantly, reparations to Charles). A propos: clever move to debase the castellano after having fixed a reparation sum in castellanos. Will charles just take that lying down??
What is behetria really going to change for the Indios? (i doubt that Castilians will consider them "grown up" any time soon, given that this would mean letting go of enormous amounts of precious metals which the Republic needs (see both reconstruction provisions and, more importantly, reparations to Charles). A propos: clever move to debase the castellano after having fixed a reparation sum in castellanos. Will charles just take that lying down??
Behetrias was the right to choose your lord and to move freely through the land without paying any fees to the landlord that you have been working the land for.This means that indians were allowed to chose where and how to work hipothetically (the church,some landlord,a city,in a mine). This will probably lead to less production of the mines or just bringing more slaves to do the job.All the reforms came from the demands that they did to Charles in 1520,so I am going to stick with them even if they might be economically deprimental,which btw I don't it would as most of the reforms were pretty smart and were spot on at attacking what would cause the decadence of Castile.
And devaluating the currency is not going to please Charles,but right now he has his hands tied with more important stuff...
The emirate of the Alpujarras,the new Castillians and piles of debt
The emirate of the Alpujarras
After deciding to expell all its muslim residents de Comunidad of Granada had been one of the most violent regions in all of Europe.Fanatism run rampant in both sides and genocide and brutality had reach heights that had barely been seeing in all of the reconquista.
The concejo of Granada gave the muslims in its borders a window of 2 months to leave the land to north Africa with a ship leaving from Malaga everyday. After the deadline was over the armies from Granada had been raised and the morería of Granada was the first one to suffer the attacks.The army of Granada recieved the order to kill any muslim in la moreria killing around 10000 people in just one night.With the intention of creating fear to the muslims and speed up the process of deportation.This action had the opposite effect.Close to Sierra Nevada in an area that was predominatly fill with muslim farmers a resistance started to organize.As the region was poorly communicated with the other regions of Granada the muslims in the region were able to kill the christian authorities in the area and put their heads in spikes in what they considered their borders.The leader of this uprising was organized by Francisco de Córdoba or Mahoma Humeya.He was the son of Hernando de Córdoba a morisco converso that colaborated with the catholic kings.This family claimed that they were descendants from the Umayyad caliphs.Seeing how the situation for his people was going for the worse in the region Francisco converted to Islam and due his bloodties and superior training he was able to lead the muslims of the Alpujarras to their first victory.
After muslims had been mostly removed from the main cities the Granadian army tried to crush the rebellion in the Alpujarras,but due its rough terrain and its easy defensivility the new emirate was able to succesfully defend his land at the battle of Aljarón.Seeing its success and the big muslim population in the Almerian alpujarra the emir decided to invade that region from the bordering comunidad of Murcia which he succesfully did in 1523.
Province of Granada and the region of alpujarra
Alpujarra almeriense the new province of the emirate
After the conquest of these regions the emir tried to push and get access to the sea,but the Murcian army stomped him at the battle of El Ejido which greatly decimated the offensive capacity of the Alpujarra army.In the year 1524 the Junta of Segovia called an state of emergency and called for aid to Almeria in which just the order of Santiago,Calatrava and the army of Toledo came for aid.As the Junta had abolished the tax for crusading the goverment was low on funds due the debt that they had contracted in the previous war so little help was sent from there.The rest of comunidades that would be willing to help like Galicia,Soria,León or Cuenca had been highly affected by the war against Aragon and just sent their moral support.The rest of the comunidades just saw the rebellion as a minor issue that would be easily stomped.
The war in Almeria had been succesfull but all the attempts to take the Granadian side of the emirate had failed for the moment.Due the harsh terrain of the region the comunidad de Granada and La comunidad de Murcia decided to just block all trade to the region and starve the region to death as the highly populated region relied on wheat imports to feed its inhabitants.This was seen as the conclusion of the first Alpujarras war.
This war happened in parallel with the persecution of muslims in Valencia due their supposed colaboration with the nobles but the later one had been less brutal and long but ended up causing a slight economic recession and a movement that would shape the region for years to come
The new Castillians
Some regions had suffered a big economic recession and demographic crisis due the expulsion of the jews,after the raise in prominence and power of a merchantant elite some decided to let the jews live inside their borders.This decission was made for access to easier credite,despite jews losing part of their patrimony in 1492, they were still allowed to give credits a practice that some christians struggled to due do moral reasons.Jews and their network throughout all of Europe,north Africa and the middle east were also good trade partners to have for trade which was a bracket open due the devaluation of the coin. But jews were also an important demographic element of some regions and after their expulsion a good percentage of the population had banished from one day to another as it happened in Soria.
The first Jews that came to Spain were the ones that stationed in Portugal.To do so they took a boat to Laredo which was the only port of Castile that made contact with one of the regions that allowed jews to comeback.Between 1522-1225 30 thousand jews had come to Castile.They mostly went to Burgos,Valladolid,Soria and la Najera.
In the county of Castile jews were only allowed to stay in their juderias and were marked to show that they were protected by the authority. In Valladolid they were allowed to settle in the former juderia but were not marked.In Soria and Najera the jews were allowed to live anywhere and no mark was needed.
As the Junta's law was stablished only for christians, the jews didn't had the right of Behetria as Castillians did and were technically a property of the comunidad as they were under the christian kings.They had a different law to that of the average Castillian which was something that never seem to bother them.
The also shocking movement that this new policies produced was the move from fake conversos to this comunidades in which they went back to practicing their religion in public in exchange of losing their rights.
The other inhabitants of Castile were the people from Valencia and Mallorca.This regions that had traditionally being Aragonese were allowed to keep their language and distinct laws (instead of a concejo they would be ruled by the council of 13) but they would be allowed to send 3 delegates as any other comunidad.
After the new decree the indians in America started to move outside of the encomiendas in favour of comunal lands and church owned land.This movement caused a lot of anger amongst the former encomenderos which were planning on revolting all over New Spain.The plans of a revolt were closely shutdown by Cortes and his army (as he was bribed by the Junta) and at the end the pact of Oaxaca was signed in which the former encomenderos would be allowed to use slaves on their lands.This brought a massive influx of Morisco slaves from Granada,Almeria and Valencia to the region to work the land as they had the reputation of being good farmers.Shipments of Africans were also bought from the Portuguese and this population grew steadily in the caribean plantations.
As fewer and fewer indios wanted to work on the mines the Junta started to give incentives and raise the wages from miners, which saw a lot of poor Castillians taking the job in combination with the indios.This lead to a process of interaction between the 2 cultures leading to a process of hispanization of this indigineous people. Despite all of this labor on the mines wasn't enough in some areas and slaves had to be bought as well. As christians were not allowed to be enslaved,some slave owners cut the tongue and ears to their slaves so they wouldn't convert to the one true faith.
Indians and Castillians working in the mines
Another problem that was arising in New Spain was the rising mestizo population.As indians were declared in a state of youth this mixed heritage people that identified more with their European roots would raise a debate in the junta.The fathers of the kids which were mostly Spaniards were for the most part fond of their children but problems related to inheritance,getting a public charge or ruling concejos were a matter of its own. And the number of mestizos would only grow as time progressed.
Debt and financial issues
As extraordinary payments had been banned the war campaing had to be financed with debt from mostly Genovese bankers. As the revenue could hardly be increased in any measure that was not related to commerce the Junta would have to choose between maintaining its current form or paying the interests of the debt.As the navy,state workers,diplomats and the santa hermandad had to be mantained,the junta decided to rent its ownership over the ports and its taxes to the comunidades,sacrifying long term income for direct cash to repay their debt.The bonds the aduanas portuarias were a golden oportunity to get rich and all comunidades were eager to pay for the ownership of the port for 50 years.The first port that was rented was Cadiz to Tarifa,then Huelva was rented to Salamanca,Laredo to the county of Castile and the port of Valencia became of shared ownership between Valencia and Cuenca.
Another way of increasing its revenue would be through the capitanias which they directly controlled.This allowed an increase on taxes on the region,but specially mining which was saw as the fastest source of revenue.Using the power of the capitinias allowed the juntas to stablish a strong grip of power and the idea of making this lands of America and the Canary islands as new comunidades was started to be seen as a mistake by the less idealistic and more pragmatic members of the junta
After deciding to expell all its muslim residents de Comunidad of Granada had been one of the most violent regions in all of Europe.Fanatism run rampant in both sides and genocide and brutality had reach heights that had barely been seeing in all of the reconquista.
The concejo of Granada gave the muslims in its borders a window of 2 months to leave the land to north Africa with a ship leaving from Malaga everyday. After the deadline was over the armies from Granada had been raised and the morería of Granada was the first one to suffer the attacks.The army of Granada recieved the order to kill any muslim in la moreria killing around 10000 people in just one night.With the intention of creating fear to the muslims and speed up the process of deportation.This action had the opposite effect.Close to Sierra Nevada in an area that was predominatly fill with muslim farmers a resistance started to organize.As the region was poorly communicated with the other regions of Granada the muslims in the region were able to kill the christian authorities in the area and put their heads in spikes in what they considered their borders.The leader of this uprising was organized by Francisco de Córdoba or Mahoma Humeya.He was the son of Hernando de Córdoba a morisco converso that colaborated with the catholic kings.This family claimed that they were descendants from the Umayyad caliphs.Seeing how the situation for his people was going for the worse in the region Francisco converted to Islam and due his bloodties and superior training he was able to lead the muslims of the Alpujarras to their first victory.
After muslims had been mostly removed from the main cities the Granadian army tried to crush the rebellion in the Alpujarras,but due its rough terrain and its easy defensivility the new emirate was able to succesfully defend his land at the battle of Aljarón.Seeing its success and the big muslim population in the Almerian alpujarra the emir decided to invade that region from the bordering comunidad of Murcia which he succesfully did in 1523.
Province of Granada and the region of alpujarra
Alpujarra almeriense the new province of the emirate
After the conquest of these regions the emir tried to push and get access to the sea,but the Murcian army stomped him at the battle of El Ejido which greatly decimated the offensive capacity of the Alpujarra army.In the year 1524 the Junta of Segovia called an state of emergency and called for aid to Almeria in which just the order of Santiago,Calatrava and the army of Toledo came for aid.As the Junta had abolished the tax for crusading the goverment was low on funds due the debt that they had contracted in the previous war so little help was sent from there.The rest of comunidades that would be willing to help like Galicia,Soria,León or Cuenca had been highly affected by the war against Aragon and just sent their moral support.The rest of the comunidades just saw the rebellion as a minor issue that would be easily stomped.
The war in Almeria had been succesfull but all the attempts to take the Granadian side of the emirate had failed for the moment.Due the harsh terrain of the region the comunidad de Granada and La comunidad de Murcia decided to just block all trade to the region and starve the region to death as the highly populated region relied on wheat imports to feed its inhabitants.This was seen as the conclusion of the first Alpujarras war.
This war happened in parallel with the persecution of muslims in Valencia due their supposed colaboration with the nobles but the later one had been less brutal and long but ended up causing a slight economic recession and a movement that would shape the region for years to come
The new Castillians
Some regions had suffered a big economic recession and demographic crisis due the expulsion of the jews,after the raise in prominence and power of a merchantant elite some decided to let the jews live inside their borders.This decission was made for access to easier credite,despite jews losing part of their patrimony in 1492, they were still allowed to give credits a practice that some christians struggled to due do moral reasons.Jews and their network throughout all of Europe,north Africa and the middle east were also good trade partners to have for trade which was a bracket open due the devaluation of the coin. But jews were also an important demographic element of some regions and after their expulsion a good percentage of the population had banished from one day to another as it happened in Soria.
The first Jews that came to Spain were the ones that stationed in Portugal.To do so they took a boat to Laredo which was the only port of Castile that made contact with one of the regions that allowed jews to comeback.Between 1522-1225 30 thousand jews had come to Castile.They mostly went to Burgos,Valladolid,Soria and la Najera.
In the county of Castile jews were only allowed to stay in their juderias and were marked to show that they were protected by the authority. In Valladolid they were allowed to settle in the former juderia but were not marked.In Soria and Najera the jews were allowed to live anywhere and no mark was needed.
As the Junta's law was stablished only for christians, the jews didn't had the right of Behetria as Castillians did and were technically a property of the comunidad as they were under the christian kings.They had a different law to that of the average Castillian which was something that never seem to bother them.
The also shocking movement that this new policies produced was the move from fake conversos to this comunidades in which they went back to practicing their religion in public in exchange of losing their rights.
The other inhabitants of Castile were the people from Valencia and Mallorca.This regions that had traditionally being Aragonese were allowed to keep their language and distinct laws (instead of a concejo they would be ruled by the council of 13) but they would be allowed to send 3 delegates as any other comunidad.
After the new decree the indians in America started to move outside of the encomiendas in favour of comunal lands and church owned land.This movement caused a lot of anger amongst the former encomenderos which were planning on revolting all over New Spain.The plans of a revolt were closely shutdown by Cortes and his army (as he was bribed by the Junta) and at the end the pact of Oaxaca was signed in which the former encomenderos would be allowed to use slaves on their lands.This brought a massive influx of Morisco slaves from Granada,Almeria and Valencia to the region to work the land as they had the reputation of being good farmers.Shipments of Africans were also bought from the Portuguese and this population grew steadily in the caribean plantations.
As fewer and fewer indios wanted to work on the mines the Junta started to give incentives and raise the wages from miners, which saw a lot of poor Castillians taking the job in combination with the indios.This lead to a process of interaction between the 2 cultures leading to a process of hispanization of this indigineous people. Despite all of this labor on the mines wasn't enough in some areas and slaves had to be bought as well. As christians were not allowed to be enslaved,some slave owners cut the tongue and ears to their slaves so they wouldn't convert to the one true faith.
Indians and Castillians working in the mines
Another problem that was arising in New Spain was the rising mestizo population.As indians were declared in a state of youth this mixed heritage people that identified more with their European roots would raise a debate in the junta.The fathers of the kids which were mostly Spaniards were for the most part fond of their children but problems related to inheritance,getting a public charge or ruling concejos were a matter of its own. And the number of mestizos would only grow as time progressed.
Debt and financial issues
As extraordinary payments had been banned the war campaing had to be financed with debt from mostly Genovese bankers. As the revenue could hardly be increased in any measure that was not related to commerce the Junta would have to choose between maintaining its current form or paying the interests of the debt.As the navy,state workers,diplomats and the santa hermandad had to be mantained,the junta decided to rent its ownership over the ports and its taxes to the comunidades,sacrifying long term income for direct cash to repay their debt.The bonds the aduanas portuarias were a golden oportunity to get rich and all comunidades were eager to pay for the ownership of the port for 50 years.The first port that was rented was Cadiz to Tarifa,then Huelva was rented to Salamanca,Laredo to the county of Castile and the port of Valencia became of shared ownership between Valencia and Cuenca.
Another way of increasing its revenue would be through the capitanias which they directly controlled.This allowed an increase on taxes on the region,but specially mining which was saw as the fastest source of revenue.Using the power of the capitinias allowed the juntas to stablish a strong grip of power and the idea of making this lands of America and the Canary islands as new comunidades was started to be seen as a mistake by the less idealistic and more pragmatic members of the junta
Just what I thought, the capitanías are there to stay, colonies to be exploited. And now, the junta would have everyone against them (well, perhaps except the indios? althought they, too, would certainly like their old self-government back and might create chaos, too): disgruntled encomenderos, and everyone else whom the former could sway should they decide to lead another rebellion, with the argument of tax exploitation. Actually, it sounds like "No taxation without representation" is going to sound "Nada de tributacion sin representacion" in this timeline...
The ITL colonization of the Philippines IOTL was Philip II's idea and strategy with a different strategy and idea, I think a Spanish ruler with a different strategy would end up with only visayas.
Or no Phillipines at all.I haven't thought about it yet.I know that eventually la compañia de las indias orientales will arrive to East Asia but I don't know yet what they are going to do there. I will have to read a bit more about East Asia in general.If you want to give me some source to give me any idea I would be very thankful
The rise of Ferdinand
According to the terms set at the First Congress of Vienna in 1515, Ferdinand married Anne Jagiellonica, daughter of King Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary on 22 July 1515. Both Hungary and Bohemia were elective monarchies, where the parliaments had the sovereign right to decide about the person of the king. Therefore, after the death of his brother-in-law Louis II, King of Bohemia and of Hungary, at the battle of Mohács on 29 August 1526, Ferdinand immediately applied to the parliaments of Hungary and Bohemia to participate as a candidate in the king elections. On 24 October 1526 the Bohemian Diet, acting under the influence of chancellor Adam of Hradce, elected Ferdinand King of Bohemia under conditions of confirming traditional privileges of the estates and also moving the Habsburg court to Prague. The success was only partial, as the Diet refused to recognise Ferdinand as hereditary lord of the Kingdom.
John Zápolya
Ferdinand von Habsburg
On 10 November 1526, John Zápolya the Voivode of Transylvania had himself proclaimed king by the Diet at Székesfehérvár, John Zápolya was elected in the parliament by the untitled lesser nobility (gentry).
Nicolaus Olahus, secretary of Louis, attached himself to the party of Ferdinand but retained his position with his sister, Queen Dowager Mary. Ferdinand was also elected King of Hungary by the higher aristocracy (the magnates or barons) in a rump Diet in Pozsony on 17th December 1526.
The Croatian nobles unanimously elected Ferdinand I as their king in the 1527 election in Cetin, and confirmed the succession to him and his heirs. In return for the throne, Archduke Ferdinand promised to respect the historic rights, freedoms, laws and customs of the Croats when they united with the Hungarian kingdom and to defend Croatia from Ottoman invasion.
The throne of Hungary became the subject of a dynastic dispute between Ferdinand and John Zápolya, Voivode of Transylvania. They were supported by different factions of the nobility in the Hungarian kingdom. Ferdinand also had the support of his brother, the Emperor Charles V. Ferdinand defeated Zápolya at the Battle of Tarcal in September 1527 and again in the Battle of Szina in March 1528. Zápolya fled the country and applied to Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent for support, making Hungary an Ottoman vassal state.
Seeing the threat that the Ottomans having direct control of Hungary the emperor Charles decided to intervene directly on the war in favour of his brother.
As the threat of Charles had been highly reduce king Francis I of France decided to let Charles pursue war against the Ottomans as both rulers at the end of the day despite being rivals were also christians.
Charles also tried to stop the split of the church using the ottomans as an enemy to unite all christians.
The eastern crusade
Charles seeing the expansion of the ottomans decided to call a crusade to push the ottomans out of Hungary.After asking Clement VII and the approval of Francis and all the christian states Charles was on its way on leading the fight against the Ottomans.Troops from all over Europe volunteered to fight for Hungary and push back the Ottomans.In 1529 Suleiman striked first and laid siege Vienna.
After failing on taking the city as fast as he expected Suleiman was forced to withdraw the siege after his forces had been decimated. After the succesful victory the imperial army leaded by Charles and the Hungarian and Bohemian troops leaded by Ferdinand succesfully took back control of Hungary kicking out Zápolya and his supporters out of the kingdom.Suleiman unhappy with the situation decided to attack again adn laid siege on Kőszeg after the failed invasion of Hungary Ferdinand was elected as the single king of Hungary by all his subjects. After securing Hungary Charles decided to launch an invasion on Bosnia and Serbia.
The Bosnian fortresses on the south bank of the Sava and Jajce.But a further push towards the majority muslim bosnian was stopped at the battle of Vrhbosna.
Serbia that had fallen recently and still had a majority christian population was easier to free and after the battle of Belgrado the kingdom of Serbia was restablished and Jovan Nenad,a serb mercenary that had effectively defeated the Hungarian troops under Zápolya was crowned as the emperor of the serbs.
First emperor of Serbia
After theconquest of Serbia the emperor Charles chose to withdrew the crusade.
According to the terms set at the First Congress of Vienna in 1515, Ferdinand married Anne Jagiellonica, daughter of King Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary on 22 July 1515. Both Hungary and Bohemia were elective monarchies, where the parliaments had the sovereign right to decide about the person of the king. Therefore, after the death of his brother-in-law Louis II, King of Bohemia and of Hungary, at the battle of Mohács on 29 August 1526, Ferdinand immediately applied to the parliaments of Hungary and Bohemia to participate as a candidate in the king elections. On 24 October 1526 the Bohemian Diet, acting under the influence of chancellor Adam of Hradce, elected Ferdinand King of Bohemia under conditions of confirming traditional privileges of the estates and also moving the Habsburg court to Prague. The success was only partial, as the Diet refused to recognise Ferdinand as hereditary lord of the Kingdom.
John Zápolya
Ferdinand von Habsburg
On 10 November 1526, John Zápolya the Voivode of Transylvania had himself proclaimed king by the Diet at Székesfehérvár, John Zápolya was elected in the parliament by the untitled lesser nobility (gentry).
Nicolaus Olahus, secretary of Louis, attached himself to the party of Ferdinand but retained his position with his sister, Queen Dowager Mary. Ferdinand was also elected King of Hungary by the higher aristocracy (the magnates or barons) in a rump Diet in Pozsony on 17th December 1526.
The Croatian nobles unanimously elected Ferdinand I as their king in the 1527 election in Cetin, and confirmed the succession to him and his heirs. In return for the throne, Archduke Ferdinand promised to respect the historic rights, freedoms, laws and customs of the Croats when they united with the Hungarian kingdom and to defend Croatia from Ottoman invasion.
The throne of Hungary became the subject of a dynastic dispute between Ferdinand and John Zápolya, Voivode of Transylvania. They were supported by different factions of the nobility in the Hungarian kingdom. Ferdinand also had the support of his brother, the Emperor Charles V. Ferdinand defeated Zápolya at the Battle of Tarcal in September 1527 and again in the Battle of Szina in March 1528. Zápolya fled the country and applied to Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent for support, making Hungary an Ottoman vassal state.
Seeing the threat that the Ottomans having direct control of Hungary the emperor Charles decided to intervene directly on the war in favour of his brother.
As the threat of Charles had been highly reduce king Francis I of France decided to let Charles pursue war against the Ottomans as both rulers at the end of the day despite being rivals were also christians.
Charles also tried to stop the split of the church using the ottomans as an enemy to unite all christians.
The eastern crusade
Charles seeing the expansion of the ottomans decided to call a crusade to push the ottomans out of Hungary.After asking Clement VII and the approval of Francis and all the christian states Charles was on its way on leading the fight against the Ottomans.Troops from all over Europe volunteered to fight for Hungary and push back the Ottomans.In 1529 Suleiman striked first and laid siege Vienna.
After failing on taking the city as fast as he expected Suleiman was forced to withdraw the siege after his forces had been decimated. After the succesful victory the imperial army leaded by Charles and the Hungarian and Bohemian troops leaded by Ferdinand succesfully took back control of Hungary kicking out Zápolya and his supporters out of the kingdom.Suleiman unhappy with the situation decided to attack again adn laid siege on Kőszeg after the failed invasion of Hungary Ferdinand was elected as the single king of Hungary by all his subjects. After securing Hungary Charles decided to launch an invasion on Bosnia and Serbia.
The Bosnian fortresses on the south bank of the Sava and Jajce.But a further push towards the majority muslim bosnian was stopped at the battle of Vrhbosna.
Serbia that had fallen recently and still had a majority christian population was easier to free and after the battle of Belgrado the kingdom of Serbia was restablished and Jovan Nenad,a serb mercenary that had effectively defeated the Hungarian troops under Zápolya was crowned as the emperor of the serbs.
First emperor of Serbia
After theconquest of Serbia the emperor Charles chose to withdrew the crusade.
It might be a bit far stretch but my thought process was basically that without an agressive France and the league of Cognac Charles could have fared much better against the Ottomans,and in fact they eventually did.
I also kept Jovan Nenad alive in this timeline because it was hard to find any legit emperor of Serbia outside of him so he defeated the Hungarian nobles and his resistance and aid to the Habsburg cause made him an emperor in this TL.
I also kept Jovan Nenad alive in this timeline because it was hard to find any legit emperor of Serbia outside of him so he defeated the Hungarian nobles and his resistance and aid to the Habsburg cause made him an emperor in this TL.
The reformation
Holy Roman empire
The Reformation is usually dated to 31 October 1517 in Wittenberg, Saxony, when Luther sent his Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences to the Archbishop of Mainz. The theses debated and criticised the Church and the papacy, but concentrated upon the selling of indulgences and doctrinal policies about purgatory, particular judgment, and the authority of the pope. He would later in the period 1517–1521 write works on the Catholic devotion to Virgin Mary, the intercession of and devotion to the saints, the sacraments, mandatory clerical celibacy, monasticism, further on the authority of the pope, the ecclesiastical law, censure and excommunication, the role of secular rulers in religious matters, the relationship between Christianity and the law, and good works.
Reformers made heavy use of inexpensive pamphlets as well as vernacular Bibles using the relatively new printing press, so there was swift movement of both ideas and documents.
Parallel to events in Germany, a movement began in Switzerland under the leadership of Ulrich Zwingli. These two movements quickly agreed on most issues, but some unresolved differences kept them separate. Some followers of Zwingli believed that the Reformation was too conservative, and moved independently toward more radical positions, some of which survive among modern day Anabaptists. Other Protestant movements grew up along lines of mysticism or humanism, sometimes breaking from Rome or from the Protestants, or forming outside of the churches.
After this first stage of the Reformation, following the excommunication of Luther and condemnation of the Reformation by the Pope, the work and writings of John Calvin were influential in establishing a loose consensus among various groups in Switzerland, Scotland, Hungary, Germany and elsewhere.
The Reformation foundations engaged with Augustinianism; both Luther and Calvin thought along lines linked with the theological teachings of Augustine of Hippo. The Augustinianism of the reformers struggled against Pelagianism, a heresy that they perceived in the Catholic Church. In the course of this religious upheaval, the German Peasants' War of 1524–1525 swept through the Bavarian, Thuringian and Swabian principalities, including the Black Company of Florian Geier, a knight from Giebelstadt who joined the peasants in the general outrage against the Catholic hierarchy. Zwinglian and Lutheran ideas had influence with preachers within the regions that the Peasants' War occurred and upon works such as the Twelve Articles. Luther, however, condemned the revolt in writings such as Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants; Zwingli and Luther's ally Philipp Melanchthon also did not condone the uprising. Some 10,000 peasants were killed by the end of the war.
By 1530, over 10,000 publications are known, with a total of ten million copies. The Reformation was thus a media revolution. Luther strengthened his attacks on Rome by depicting a "good" against "bad" church. From there, it became clear that print could be used for propaganda in the Reformation for particular agendas. Reform writers used pre-Reformation styles, clichés and stereotypes and changed items as needed for their own purposes. Especially effective were writings in German, including Luther's translation of the Bible, his Smaller Catechism for parents teaching their children, and his Larger Catechism, for pastors.
Protestantism expansion was temporarily stopped after the eastern crusade but its spread in urban centers were the printing press was more common it kept growing.
Sweden
Gustav Vasa
In Sweden, the Reformation was spearheaded by Gustav Vasa, elected king in 1523. Friction with the pope over the latter's interference in Swedish ecclesiastical affairs led to the discontinuance of any official connection between Sweden and the papacy from 1523. Four years later, at the Diet of Västerås, the king succeeded in forcing the diet to accept his dominion over the national church. The king was given possession of all church property, church appointments required royal approval, the clergy were subject to the civil law, and the "pure Word of God" was to be preached in the churches and taught in the schools – effectively granting official sanction to Lutheran ideas.
Denmark
Hans Tausen
Under the reign of Frederick I (1523–33), Denmark remained officially Catholic. But though Frederick initially pledged to persecute Lutherans, he soon adopted a policy of protecting Lutheran preachers and reformers, of whom the most famous was Hans Tausen. During his reign, Lutheranism made significant inroads among the Danish population. Frederick's son, Christian, was openly Lutheran, which prevented his election to the throne upon his father's death. In 1536, the authority of the Catholic bishops was terminated by national assembly. The next year, following his victory in the Count's War, he became king as Christian III and continued the Reformation of the state church with assistance of Johannes Bugenhagen.
England
Thomas Wolsey
As long as Wolsey had his ear, Henry's Roman Catholicism was secure: in 1521, he had defended the Roman Catholic Church from Martin Luther's accusations of heresy in a book he wrote—probably with considerable help from the conservative Bishop of Rochester John Fisher—entitled The Defence of the Seven Sacraments, for which he was awarded the title "Defender of the Faith" (Fidei Defensor) by Pope Leo X. Wolsey's enemies at court included those who had been influenced by Lutheran ideas, among whom was the attractive, charismatic Anne Boleyn.
Anne arrived at court in 1522, from years in France where she had been educated by Queen Claude of France, as maid of honour to Queen Catherine, a woman of "charm, style and wit, with will and savagery which made her a match for Henry." By the late 1520s, Henry wanted his marriage to Catherine annulled. She had not produced a male heir who survived longer than two months, and Henry wanted a son to secure the Tudor dynasty.
Henry claimed that this lack of a male heir was because his marriage was "blighted in the eyes of God". Catherine had been his late brother's wife, and it was therefore against biblical teachings for Henry to have married her (Leviticus 20:21); a special dispensation from Pope Julius II had been needed to allow the wedding in the first place. Henry argued that this had been wrong and that his marriage had never been valid. In 1527 Henry asked Pope Clement VII to annul the marriage, but the Pope preasured by king Francis,that after the sack of Rome had a great influence over the pope, that wanted to break down the anglo-imperial alliance. Holy Roman Emperor Charles V protested, as according to Canon Law the Pope cannot annul a marriage on the basis of a canonical impediment previously dispensed. Clement just ignored him.
After recieving the news Henry started to prosecute English lutherans as he was very thankful to the Pope.After writting a letter to the Pope praising his decission Clement simply answered with a short letter which explicitly pointed to Francis.
Castile
Some small lutheran pockets had appeared in Valladolid mostly due the international fair of Medina del Campo which saw a lot of German merchants spreading luther's believes in the region. This small pockets of lutheranism had been protected by Gómez Pereira which was a big opposer of dogmatism and the inquisition. Despite all of this the group of Valladolid was in reality formed by only 200 people which were mostly merchants.
What would distinguish Castillian reformation to the rest of Europe would be rise of a totally different heresy called the alumbrados.
The alumbrados held that the human soul can reach such a degree of perfection that it can even in the present life contemplate the essence of God and comprehend the mystery of the Trinity. All external worship, they declared, is superfluous, the reception of the sacraments useless, and sin impossible in this state of complete union with God. Persons in this state of impeccability could indulge their sexual desires and commit other sinful acts freely without staining their souls.
The alumbrados had clear influences from gnosticism,which is said to be introduced from Italy by Genovese merchants and the specially from the soldiers that were returning to Castile after the Italian wars,as in the first meetings there was a clear presence of former soldiers and captains.
As this ideas had been introduced by soldiers, the first alumbrado communities were in the comunidad the Cuenca which was known for its historical martial tradition. The first meetings were held in the palace of the infantado in Guadalajara.
Palacio del infantado
The alumbrados always met up to read the bible and reflect about the gospel.They believed that the only way to reach God was through silence and reflection so after reading the gospel they would remain quite for 20 minutes to get in contact with God.
As the heresy started to grow the archbishop of Sigüenza who was the regidor of Cuenca started persecuting their communities.This caused an exodus to Segovia and Campos in where the founded their official first society.
The alumbrados are first were just tiny communities of free individuals but in 1529 in Alcalá de Henares Juan de Valdés (born in Cuenca) published Diálogo de la doctrina cristiana which set the theological basis of this group of people. Through the printing press this book could be found practically in any big Castillian city,despite being banned in a lot of them. The little sect grew in popularity amongst merchants and artisians as it allowed them to have a looser morality than what the catholic church had imposse,but also made them feel special,as the esence of the movement was on its core elitists as the name indicated "alumbrados" just means iluminated. The most important member of the community would be Gómez Pereira which he joined secretly to not cause havoc against the Junta and other comunidades.
Diálogo de la doctrina cristiana
This movement was just practiced by the urban elite at first,until the arrival of molinism 40 years later based around Luis de Molina's (also from Cuenca) work Salvation and Sovereignty which was the first attempt of spreading the alumbrado faith throughout Castile and the Americas.
Luis de Molina
As all the major alumbrado theologists and the birthplace of the movement was Cuenca these movement is also refered as reformismo conquense.
After the rise of this heresy a young Basque priest that had been a soldier during the invasion of Navarra named Ignacio de Loyola started to debate and fight the heresy with a group of catholic intelectuals in Salamanca. Later on he would found the Jesuit order that would have a big impact in Spain,Europe,Asia and the Americas.
Ignacio de Loyola
Calvinism would spread through Sevilla but they were persecuted and most fled to Campos or Segovia just like the lutherans and the alumbrados.
The Reformation is usually dated to 31 October 1517 in Wittenberg, Saxony, when Luther sent his Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences to the Archbishop of Mainz. The theses debated and criticised the Church and the papacy, but concentrated upon the selling of indulgences and doctrinal policies about purgatory, particular judgment, and the authority of the pope. He would later in the period 1517–1521 write works on the Catholic devotion to Virgin Mary, the intercession of and devotion to the saints, the sacraments, mandatory clerical celibacy, monasticism, further on the authority of the pope, the ecclesiastical law, censure and excommunication, the role of secular rulers in religious matters, the relationship between Christianity and the law, and good works.
Reformers made heavy use of inexpensive pamphlets as well as vernacular Bibles using the relatively new printing press, so there was swift movement of both ideas and documents.
Parallel to events in Germany, a movement began in Switzerland under the leadership of Ulrich Zwingli. These two movements quickly agreed on most issues, but some unresolved differences kept them separate. Some followers of Zwingli believed that the Reformation was too conservative, and moved independently toward more radical positions, some of which survive among modern day Anabaptists. Other Protestant movements grew up along lines of mysticism or humanism, sometimes breaking from Rome or from the Protestants, or forming outside of the churches.
After this first stage of the Reformation, following the excommunication of Luther and condemnation of the Reformation by the Pope, the work and writings of John Calvin were influential in establishing a loose consensus among various groups in Switzerland, Scotland, Hungary, Germany and elsewhere.
The Reformation foundations engaged with Augustinianism; both Luther and Calvin thought along lines linked with the theological teachings of Augustine of Hippo. The Augustinianism of the reformers struggled against Pelagianism, a heresy that they perceived in the Catholic Church. In the course of this religious upheaval, the German Peasants' War of 1524–1525 swept through the Bavarian, Thuringian and Swabian principalities, including the Black Company of Florian Geier, a knight from Giebelstadt who joined the peasants in the general outrage against the Catholic hierarchy. Zwinglian and Lutheran ideas had influence with preachers within the regions that the Peasants' War occurred and upon works such as the Twelve Articles. Luther, however, condemned the revolt in writings such as Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants; Zwingli and Luther's ally Philipp Melanchthon also did not condone the uprising. Some 10,000 peasants were killed by the end of the war.
By 1530, over 10,000 publications are known, with a total of ten million copies. The Reformation was thus a media revolution. Luther strengthened his attacks on Rome by depicting a "good" against "bad" church. From there, it became clear that print could be used for propaganda in the Reformation for particular agendas. Reform writers used pre-Reformation styles, clichés and stereotypes and changed items as needed for their own purposes. Especially effective were writings in German, including Luther's translation of the Bible, his Smaller Catechism for parents teaching their children, and his Larger Catechism, for pastors.
Protestantism expansion was temporarily stopped after the eastern crusade but its spread in urban centers were the printing press was more common it kept growing.
Sweden
Gustav Vasa
In Sweden, the Reformation was spearheaded by Gustav Vasa, elected king in 1523. Friction with the pope over the latter's interference in Swedish ecclesiastical affairs led to the discontinuance of any official connection between Sweden and the papacy from 1523. Four years later, at the Diet of Västerås, the king succeeded in forcing the diet to accept his dominion over the national church. The king was given possession of all church property, church appointments required royal approval, the clergy were subject to the civil law, and the "pure Word of God" was to be preached in the churches and taught in the schools – effectively granting official sanction to Lutheran ideas.
Denmark
Hans Tausen
Under the reign of Frederick I (1523–33), Denmark remained officially Catholic. But though Frederick initially pledged to persecute Lutherans, he soon adopted a policy of protecting Lutheran preachers and reformers, of whom the most famous was Hans Tausen. During his reign, Lutheranism made significant inroads among the Danish population. Frederick's son, Christian, was openly Lutheran, which prevented his election to the throne upon his father's death. In 1536, the authority of the Catholic bishops was terminated by national assembly. The next year, following his victory in the Count's War, he became king as Christian III and continued the Reformation of the state church with assistance of Johannes Bugenhagen.
England
Thomas Wolsey
As long as Wolsey had his ear, Henry's Roman Catholicism was secure: in 1521, he had defended the Roman Catholic Church from Martin Luther's accusations of heresy in a book he wrote—probably with considerable help from the conservative Bishop of Rochester John Fisher—entitled The Defence of the Seven Sacraments, for which he was awarded the title "Defender of the Faith" (Fidei Defensor) by Pope Leo X. Wolsey's enemies at court included those who had been influenced by Lutheran ideas, among whom was the attractive, charismatic Anne Boleyn.
Anne arrived at court in 1522, from years in France where she had been educated by Queen Claude of France, as maid of honour to Queen Catherine, a woman of "charm, style and wit, with will and savagery which made her a match for Henry." By the late 1520s, Henry wanted his marriage to Catherine annulled. She had not produced a male heir who survived longer than two months, and Henry wanted a son to secure the Tudor dynasty.
Henry claimed that this lack of a male heir was because his marriage was "blighted in the eyes of God". Catherine had been his late brother's wife, and it was therefore against biblical teachings for Henry to have married her (Leviticus 20:21); a special dispensation from Pope Julius II had been needed to allow the wedding in the first place. Henry argued that this had been wrong and that his marriage had never been valid. In 1527 Henry asked Pope Clement VII to annul the marriage, but the Pope preasured by king Francis,that after the sack of Rome had a great influence over the pope, that wanted to break down the anglo-imperial alliance. Holy Roman Emperor Charles V protested, as according to Canon Law the Pope cannot annul a marriage on the basis of a canonical impediment previously dispensed. Clement just ignored him.
After recieving the news Henry started to prosecute English lutherans as he was very thankful to the Pope.After writting a letter to the Pope praising his decission Clement simply answered with a short letter which explicitly pointed to Francis.
Castile
Some small lutheran pockets had appeared in Valladolid mostly due the international fair of Medina del Campo which saw a lot of German merchants spreading luther's believes in the region. This small pockets of lutheranism had been protected by Gómez Pereira which was a big opposer of dogmatism and the inquisition. Despite all of this the group of Valladolid was in reality formed by only 200 people which were mostly merchants.
What would distinguish Castillian reformation to the rest of Europe would be rise of a totally different heresy called the alumbrados.
The alumbrados held that the human soul can reach such a degree of perfection that it can even in the present life contemplate the essence of God and comprehend the mystery of the Trinity. All external worship, they declared, is superfluous, the reception of the sacraments useless, and sin impossible in this state of complete union with God. Persons in this state of impeccability could indulge their sexual desires and commit other sinful acts freely without staining their souls.
The alumbrados had clear influences from gnosticism,which is said to be introduced from Italy by Genovese merchants and the specially from the soldiers that were returning to Castile after the Italian wars,as in the first meetings there was a clear presence of former soldiers and captains.
As this ideas had been introduced by soldiers, the first alumbrado communities were in the comunidad the Cuenca which was known for its historical martial tradition. The first meetings were held in the palace of the infantado in Guadalajara.
Palacio del infantado
The alumbrados always met up to read the bible and reflect about the gospel.They believed that the only way to reach God was through silence and reflection so after reading the gospel they would remain quite for 20 minutes to get in contact with God.
As the heresy started to grow the archbishop of Sigüenza who was the regidor of Cuenca started persecuting their communities.This caused an exodus to Segovia and Campos in where the founded their official first society.
The alumbrados are first were just tiny communities of free individuals but in 1529 in Alcalá de Henares Juan de Valdés (born in Cuenca) published Diálogo de la doctrina cristiana which set the theological basis of this group of people. Through the printing press this book could be found practically in any big Castillian city,despite being banned in a lot of them. The little sect grew in popularity amongst merchants and artisians as it allowed them to have a looser morality than what the catholic church had imposse,but also made them feel special,as the esence of the movement was on its core elitists as the name indicated "alumbrados" just means iluminated. The most important member of the community would be Gómez Pereira which he joined secretly to not cause havoc against the Junta and other comunidades.
Diálogo de la doctrina cristiana
This movement was just practiced by the urban elite at first,until the arrival of molinism 40 years later based around Luis de Molina's (also from Cuenca) work Salvation and Sovereignty which was the first attempt of spreading the alumbrado faith throughout Castile and the Americas.
Luis de Molina
As all the major alumbrado theologists and the birthplace of the movement was Cuenca these movement is also refered as reformismo conquense.
After the rise of this heresy a young Basque priest that had been a soldier during the invasion of Navarra named Ignacio de Loyola started to debate and fight the heresy with a group of catholic intelectuals in Salamanca. Later on he would found the Jesuit order that would have a big impact in Spain,Europe,Asia and the Americas.
Ignacio de Loyola
Calvinism would spread through Sevilla but they were persecuted and most fled to Campos or Segovia just like the lutherans and the alumbrados.
Medina del Campo,la Mesta, and a new frontier
Medina del Campo
After rebuilding the burnt city of Medina del Campo in 1525 the junta gave back the priviledge of holding the annual fair of the republic. The fair at first was set by the mesta to trade wool with Flemish cloth producers but slowly throughout the XV century the fair became one of the most important in Europe in which almost any commodity,from currency to books could be bought or exchange.
Every merchant from Castile had the right to hold 2 tents which could be sold to other merchants if said person was not interested on them.This distribution for the tents ended up favouring merchantile assacociations like the Hermanadad de las Marismas which ended up holding 40% of the fair's tents in 1525 which forced the guilds and artisians through all the republic to sell their goods to a lower price than the one that they would be sold in the fair.
The fair's opening in 1525 was expected to be massive as it had not been called for 5 years,but the limitations on wool trade by the junta made the old Flemish cloth merchants less interested in the fair,which hosted a way smaller number of foreign visitors than the previous one in 1520. Still this fair would be really important for the economic development of the young republic.
For starters wool sales had obviously being down but cloth sells had increased drastically, mainly due the more competitive prices that the Castillian textile sector had compared to the Flemish one as the former could get wool at a very low price due exportation restrictions and the devaluation of the castellano.This allowed French and Genovese merchants who were at odds with the emperor to buy and distribute this cloths through the markets,and in some cases just claiming that they were Flemish cloths as they were made with the same wool.
Weapon had a small increase mostly due the war against the turks which a lot of people saw as an opportunity to sell weapons to the crusaders and the imperial troops that were fighting on the Balkans. The new Arquebus model called the musket that was longer and more precise than the traditional arquebus became a really popular item from the fair and it started to be manufactured all around europe due its destructive power against armor and cavalry
Book sales also saw a slight increase, mainly the laws of Avila which fascinated lots of schoolars as no one expected a republic to last too long in Castile.In future fair's the texts from Juan de Valdés became very popular amongst merchants and small alumbrado communities would be formed in France due to this.
Oil,oranges and lemons sells remained pretty similar to those of the previous year,but at a higher price mainly because the wars in Italy and Spain had stopped the trading of those commodities for the period of the 4 years war.
The main profit of all the fair would be done by selling spices from the Portuguese fleet.This huge demand of spices and the lower prices that were set to compete against the Portuguese made the fair one of the most profitable in the last 50 years despite the lower attendance which would drastically increase the interest of Castillian merchants with this spices.
The fair of 1525 would change the character of the fair to one more concentrated on manufactured goods made by Castillian guilds and artisians instead of one that mostly focused on selling raw materials to the rest of Europe which would shape the landscape of the new republic
La Mesta
The Honrado Concejo de la Mesta was a powerful association of sheep ranchers in the medieval Crown of Castile.
The sheep were transhumant, migrating from the pastures of Extremadura and Andalusia to León and Castile and back according to the season.
The no-man's-land (up to 100 km across) between the Christian-controlled north and Moorish-controlled south was too insecure for arable farming and was only exploited by shepherds. When the Christians conquered the south, farmers began to settle in the grazing lands, and disputes with pastoralists were common. The Mesta, set up in the late 13th century, can be regarded as the first, and most powerful, agricultural union in medieval Europe.
The kings of Castile conceded many privileges to the Mesta. The cañadas (traditional rights-of-way for sheep that perhaps date back to prehistoric times) are legally protected "forever" from being built on or blocked. The most important cañadas were called cañadas reales (or "royal cañadas"), because they were established by the king.
Sheep hearding routes
The Mesta recieve lots of priviledge from the king due the high revenues that the wool selling business produced for the crown. But this model of sheep hearding came at a cost.
The sheep from the Mesta would often ravage and eat the crops of farmers and as they were one of the main sources of income of the crown, most sue cases were mostly won by the Mesta.
This agressive sheep hearding started to make the soil less fertile and the beginning of the deforestation of some regions.
The limitation of wool exports hurted the Mesta drastically as Flemish cloth producers were willing to pay higher prices for wool than their Castillian counterparts. This and the natural excess of wool that the Castillian wool industry could not absorve yet made the Mesta´s profit to decrease drastically which forced a renegociation with the Junta and the military orders.
In 1526 in Madrid the Mesta signed a deal with the junta and the military orders in which they would sell the rights of parts of their "cañadas" for agriculture and other farming activities, in exchange of recieving one fith of the agricultural production.The mesta would also recieve 20 tents in Medina del Campo's fair for now on.
The pact of Madrid would have really deep repercusions in Castillian society as now land that was not able to be worked would be used to produce different crops and grooming different lifestock which would produce a massive boost in agricultural production. This measure and the beginning of peasants settling on the church's land woild lead to a population boom even bigger than the one that happened between 1500-1520's.
The new frontier
Nueva España
The deregulation of the exploration letters led to a massive boom of young explorers trying to find precious metals all over the new continent. The first boom happened in New Spain. The capitania was still highly unexplored and in the decade of the 20's and 30's multiple expeditions to the northern part of the capitania which saw multiple gold and silver minds to be found on Sonora,Chiguagua and Zacatecas.The gold rush that was happening in the region saw multiple peninsulares and mestizos (mostly the sons of older miners) settling the region and spreading the population of the new capitania.This northern region would be named Nueva Vizcaya due its rich mineral wealth and being in the northern region of New Spain.
Nueva Spain political distribution
This gold rush would lead to merchants,explorers and guilds from all over Castile,New Spain and Cuba to organize expeditions on their own.From Oaxaca the jewelry guild from Cordoba and Jaen with a loan from Moises ben Eliyahu funded and expedition to explore the northern pacific ocean under the comand of Pedro de Alvarado.This expedition would also supply Hernando de Alarcón, Vázquez de Coronado and Melchior Díaz which were trying to find the even Cities of Gold.This expedition was expected to take place around 1540.
Nueva Granada
Castillo de san Felipe Cartagena de Indias
With Santa Marta (1525) and Cartagena de Indias (1533), Spanish control of the coast was established, and the expansion for territorial control of the interior began. The conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada colonized a vast area in the region following the course of the Magdalena River in the interior of the Andes in Colombia, defeating the powerful Muisca culture, founding the city of Santafé de Bogotá (c.1538, now Bogotá) and naming the region as the New Kingdom of Granada, in homage to the Kingdom of Granada, in Spain.
The Kingdom of Quito, a confederation against the Inca empire would be conquered by Pizarro in the year 1531.
El Perú
Inca empire
After the failed conquest of Pascual de Andagoya the wealth of these southern empire started to be known all around the Americas. After Pizarro's first visit of the region he wrote everything that he saw from the empire and sent a letter to different investors to finance its conquest.Word of Pizarro's letter spread and a fierce competition to conquer the region started.
After rebuilding the burnt city of Medina del Campo in 1525 the junta gave back the priviledge of holding the annual fair of the republic. The fair at first was set by the mesta to trade wool with Flemish cloth producers but slowly throughout the XV century the fair became one of the most important in Europe in which almost any commodity,from currency to books could be bought or exchange.
Every merchant from Castile had the right to hold 2 tents which could be sold to other merchants if said person was not interested on them.This distribution for the tents ended up favouring merchantile assacociations like the Hermanadad de las Marismas which ended up holding 40% of the fair's tents in 1525 which forced the guilds and artisians through all the republic to sell their goods to a lower price than the one that they would be sold in the fair.
The fair's opening in 1525 was expected to be massive as it had not been called for 5 years,but the limitations on wool trade by the junta made the old Flemish cloth merchants less interested in the fair,which hosted a way smaller number of foreign visitors than the previous one in 1520. Still this fair would be really important for the economic development of the young republic.
For starters wool sales had obviously being down but cloth sells had increased drastically, mainly due the more competitive prices that the Castillian textile sector had compared to the Flemish one as the former could get wool at a very low price due exportation restrictions and the devaluation of the castellano.This allowed French and Genovese merchants who were at odds with the emperor to buy and distribute this cloths through the markets,and in some cases just claiming that they were Flemish cloths as they were made with the same wool.
Weapon had a small increase mostly due the war against the turks which a lot of people saw as an opportunity to sell weapons to the crusaders and the imperial troops that were fighting on the Balkans. The new Arquebus model called the musket that was longer and more precise than the traditional arquebus became a really popular item from the fair and it started to be manufactured all around europe due its destructive power against armor and cavalry
Book sales also saw a slight increase, mainly the laws of Avila which fascinated lots of schoolars as no one expected a republic to last too long in Castile.In future fair's the texts from Juan de Valdés became very popular amongst merchants and small alumbrado communities would be formed in France due to this.
Oil,oranges and lemons sells remained pretty similar to those of the previous year,but at a higher price mainly because the wars in Italy and Spain had stopped the trading of those commodities for the period of the 4 years war.
The main profit of all the fair would be done by selling spices from the Portuguese fleet.This huge demand of spices and the lower prices that were set to compete against the Portuguese made the fair one of the most profitable in the last 50 years despite the lower attendance which would drastically increase the interest of Castillian merchants with this spices.
The fair of 1525 would change the character of the fair to one more concentrated on manufactured goods made by Castillian guilds and artisians instead of one that mostly focused on selling raw materials to the rest of Europe which would shape the landscape of the new republic
La Mesta
The Honrado Concejo de la Mesta was a powerful association of sheep ranchers in the medieval Crown of Castile.
The sheep were transhumant, migrating from the pastures of Extremadura and Andalusia to León and Castile and back according to the season.
The no-man's-land (up to 100 km across) between the Christian-controlled north and Moorish-controlled south was too insecure for arable farming and was only exploited by shepherds. When the Christians conquered the south, farmers began to settle in the grazing lands, and disputes with pastoralists were common. The Mesta, set up in the late 13th century, can be regarded as the first, and most powerful, agricultural union in medieval Europe.
The kings of Castile conceded many privileges to the Mesta. The cañadas (traditional rights-of-way for sheep that perhaps date back to prehistoric times) are legally protected "forever" from being built on or blocked. The most important cañadas were called cañadas reales (or "royal cañadas"), because they were established by the king.
Sheep hearding routes
The Mesta recieve lots of priviledge from the king due the high revenues that the wool selling business produced for the crown. But this model of sheep hearding came at a cost.
The sheep from the Mesta would often ravage and eat the crops of farmers and as they were one of the main sources of income of the crown, most sue cases were mostly won by the Mesta.
This agressive sheep hearding started to make the soil less fertile and the beginning of the deforestation of some regions.
The limitation of wool exports hurted the Mesta drastically as Flemish cloth producers were willing to pay higher prices for wool than their Castillian counterparts. This and the natural excess of wool that the Castillian wool industry could not absorve yet made the Mesta´s profit to decrease drastically which forced a renegociation with the Junta and the military orders.
In 1526 in Madrid the Mesta signed a deal with the junta and the military orders in which they would sell the rights of parts of their "cañadas" for agriculture and other farming activities, in exchange of recieving one fith of the agricultural production.The mesta would also recieve 20 tents in Medina del Campo's fair for now on.
The pact of Madrid would have really deep repercusions in Castillian society as now land that was not able to be worked would be used to produce different crops and grooming different lifestock which would produce a massive boost in agricultural production. This measure and the beginning of peasants settling on the church's land woild lead to a population boom even bigger than the one that happened between 1500-1520's.
The new frontier
Nueva España
The deregulation of the exploration letters led to a massive boom of young explorers trying to find precious metals all over the new continent. The first boom happened in New Spain. The capitania was still highly unexplored and in the decade of the 20's and 30's multiple expeditions to the northern part of the capitania which saw multiple gold and silver minds to be found on Sonora,Chiguagua and Zacatecas.The gold rush that was happening in the region saw multiple peninsulares and mestizos (mostly the sons of older miners) settling the region and spreading the population of the new capitania.This northern region would be named Nueva Vizcaya due its rich mineral wealth and being in the northern region of New Spain.
Nueva Spain political distribution
This gold rush would lead to merchants,explorers and guilds from all over Castile,New Spain and Cuba to organize expeditions on their own.From Oaxaca the jewelry guild from Cordoba and Jaen with a loan from Moises ben Eliyahu funded and expedition to explore the northern pacific ocean under the comand of Pedro de Alvarado.This expedition would also supply Hernando de Alarcón, Vázquez de Coronado and Melchior Díaz which were trying to find the even Cities of Gold.This expedition was expected to take place around 1540.
Nueva Granada
Castillo de san Felipe Cartagena de Indias
With Santa Marta (1525) and Cartagena de Indias (1533), Spanish control of the coast was established, and the expansion for territorial control of the interior began. The conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada colonized a vast area in the region following the course of the Magdalena River in the interior of the Andes in Colombia, defeating the powerful Muisca culture, founding the city of Santafé de Bogotá (c.1538, now Bogotá) and naming the region as the New Kingdom of Granada, in homage to the Kingdom of Granada, in Spain.
The Kingdom of Quito, a confederation against the Inca empire would be conquered by Pizarro in the year 1531.
El Perú
Inca empire
After the failed conquest of Pascual de Andagoya the wealth of these southern empire started to be known all around the Americas. After Pizarro's first visit of the region he wrote everything that he saw from the empire and sent a letter to different investors to finance its conquest.Word of Pizarro's letter spread and a fierce competition to conquer the region started.
- Pizarro would be financed by la casa de contratación de Sevilla
- Almagro Pizarro´s former partner would be financed by la sociedad de la Nueva España an association of explorers that had recently become very rich after their success in New Spain
- Hernando de Luque would be financed by the church, with its main supporter being the archbishop of Toledo
- Carvajal would be supported by a conglomarate of peninsular guilds and jewish loaners that for the most part were just interested in finding new mines to feed their production.
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