Re: Ferdinand and Isabella's capital


atsarisborn@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> Their capital was wherever they happened to be.
>
> Spain's traditional capital was Toledo -- it had been the capital for
> the Vizigoths, and the kings who captured it, Alfonso VI and his
> grandson Alfonso VII (or VIII), took the style "Emperor of Spain" upon
> its conquest, meaning they were re-establishing the unity of the
> peninsula.
>
> (The Counts of Portugal and Barcelona protested, and the Kings of
> Portugal did so again when Ferdinand and Isabella began to call
> themselves "King and Queen of Spain" -- Spain was a Roman geographical
> term, not previously a national term, ever. Portugal felt it was part
> of Spain but not of Castille. Nowadays Iberia occupies the position
> Hispania used to hold as the geographical term.)
>
> Each king resided in whatever city he preferred, and the court and the
> cortes and the chancery followed him around. Often it was a recent
> conquest -- Alfonso XI and Pedro had their capital in Seville, which
> they had just taken from the Moors (where Pedro's Moorish palace still
> stands). Enrique IV loved Segovia above all other cities, and hated to
> leave it. Isabella's capital was Granada after 1492. Ferdinand's
> capital, of course, was Barcelona (but also Saragossa and Valencia --
> and Palermo) after his father's death in 1479. They were in Barcelona
> when Columbus returned because they wanted the cortes of that state to
> acknowledge their heir. (Aragon had different rules from Castille.)
>
> The idea of having one capital city was Philip II's, and he put it in
> Madrid for two reasons: (1) it was central to the peninsula, and (2) it
> was nowheresville, had never been of any importance, had no local power
> to frustrate his authority -- unlike Toledo, Segovia, Seville,
> Saragossa, Granada, etc. He could do what he liked with it.
>
> The confusion in Wikipedia -- typical -- is with Philip V. By the time
> he came to the throne, Madrid was far too powerful, and he resented it.
> He tried to move the capital to Valladolid, but by the end of his long
> reign, he'd given up. Besides -- the ancient alcazar of Madrid burned
> down, and he built the enormous new Oriente Palace to replace it, which
> fixed the King's town residence from that day onward. His son, Fernando
> VI, happened to adore Madrid (he and his wife are the only monarchs
> buried there, rather than in Escorial), so Madrid kept on growing.
>
> Jean Coeur de Lapin

If I am not mistaken (I will have to check that at home), the
"Privilege" ganted to Miguel de Cervantes to have copyright over his
masterpiece "Don Quixote" was a document signed joinly by Queen
Isabella and King Fernando (I remember the formulas "Yo el Rey" "Yo la
Reina"), and I recall that it was signed at Valladolid.

While that does not make that city the capital, I recall reading
somewhere else about the Court at the time of Fernando and Isabella,
and Valladolid seemed to me to be at least a leading city.

.

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