African pirates were raiding the coast of Andalusia, and in 1400 Enrique III (r. 1390-1406) sent a naval expedition against Tetuan that destroyed the pirates’ home city of Martin. In 1402 his navy led by Rubin de Bracamonte and Jean de Béthencourt captured and colonized the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. The Cortes passed little legislation except against the Jews in 1405 when they revived the 1348 law that required Jews to wear a badge. During the riots of 1391 the chief rabbi of Burgos, Solomon ha-Levi, had converted and became known as Paul of Burgos. In July 1403 Pope Benedict appointed him bishop of Cartagena in Murcia, and in 1406 Enrique appointed Paul major chancellor and tutor of his son Juan.
Enrique III’s only son Juan was born on March 6, 1405, and after a long illness the King died on December 25, 1406. Granada’s Muhammad VII had attacked Castile in 1405 and quickly broke the truce made on October 6, 1406. Enrique’s brother Fernando presided over the Cortes, and he demanded the Cortes vote 45,000,000 maravedis for the war against Granada. Enrique’s will designated Fernando and Queen Catalina as regents with separate tutors for Juan. Catalina retained northern Castile; but the 26-year-old Fernando gained control over most of Castile, and he betrothed his oldest son Alfonso to Enrique’s oldest daughter Maria. In 1407 the Moroccan fleet bringing 800 horses, money, and provisions was destroyed, and Granada could not get aid from Aragon either; but Fernando’s campaign was not well planned, and a two-year truce was made.
In 1408 Queen Catalina promulgated anti-Jewish and anti-Mudejar laws, but Fernando blocked them in his provinces. Her laws of 1412 were designed to humiliate and impoverish Jews by subjecting them to the loss of all their possessions and to corporal punishment. All Jews and Muslims caught leaving the kingdom could lose all they had with them and become the King’s slaves. From February to April in 1413 at Tortosa a debate was held between Christians and Jews on whether the Messiah had come and between the differences in the religions. The Christians were led by a disciple of Paul of Burgos—Joshua ha-Lorki, who had converted to become Jeronimo de Santa Fe.
Fernando made his son Sancho master of Alcantara in 1408 and his son Enrique master of Santiago the next year. In 1410 Fernando besieged Antequera for five months and then captured it with large siege-engines. That year the Queen and Castile supported the candidacy of Fernando for the succession in Aragon. Fernando ruled Aragon as king 1412-16 while maintaining his regency in Castile. His son Alfonso succeeded him as king of Aragon, and his son Juan married the heiress of Navarre. Fernando’s son Enrique became master of the military order of Santiago. Fernando’s daughter Maria became queen of Castile, and his daughter Eleanor became queen of Portugal.
Juan II began ruling in 1419, but he relied on the noble Alvaro de Luna to manage the government as constable of Castile. Alvaro was often banished from the court and then recalled. Castile was involved in a long war against Hansa ports from 1419 to 1443. In 1420 the Infante Enrique tried to take power by breaking into the palace at Tordesillas and capturing King Juan, who managed to escape in November. In 1422 Alvaro ordered Enrique arrested for treason and communicating with the emir of Granada. Alvaro confiscated his estates and distributed them to his supporters. Alvaro as constable commanded all military forces. Alfonso V of Aragon denounced Alvaro for usurping the administration and for not allowing the King to rule or know his subjects. Alfonso demanded that Enrique be released, and he threatened to invade Castile.
Alfonso V’s brother Juan became king of Navarre in 1425; but he went back to Castile and in September 1427 persuaded King Juan II to dismiss the powerful Alvaro. However, Juan II was a weak ruler, and he did not trust Juan, whom he thought should be in his own kingdom. Juan II recalled Alvaro in February 1428. Juan of Navarre left Castile, but he appealed to his brother Alfonso V of Aragon. Both sides prepared for war, but Maria, Alfonso’s queen and Juan II’s sister, placed her tent between the two armies and persuaded them to withdraw. Juan II occupied lands of Enrique, who fled to Aragon, but Alfonso V avoided a battle. The Cortes of Castile provided military funds, but Alvaro de Luna lost his possessions in Castile in the spring of 1430. In July the kings of Castile and Aragon agreed on an armistice for five years, and Juan II decided to intervene in Granada. Aragon’s infantes Enrique and Pedro withdrew from Castile. When Muhammad IX refused to pay tribute to Castile, Juan II and Alvaro backed Yusuf IV in Granada, and in 1430 a treaty obligated Granada to pay Castile an annual tribute of about 225 pounds of gold. On July 1, 1431 Castile defeated the Muslims at La Higeruela near the capital of Granada. Castile’s army enabled Yusuf to enter the city of Granada in January 1432, but he was unpopular in the country and was assassinated three months later.
After the truce began in 1430 Alvaro de Luna acquired more land and riches while governing Castile as he wished. After being captured in Naples, Juan and his brother Enrique eventually returned to Castile. Pedro Carrillo de Huete also led disaffected nobles against Alvaro in 1438, urging King Juan II to govern himself. In October 1439 the King dismissed Alvaro for six months. Juan II also tried to avoid Juan of Navarre’s advice by moving from town to town. In 1440 Castile’s heir Enrique, prince of Asturias, married Blanca, daughter of Juan of Navarre. When Alvaro returned to court, the infantes of Aragon charged him with usurping royal power. In July 1441 Alvaro was ordered to retire for six years. However, Enrique of Asturias was influenced by the ambitious Juan Pacheco, and they joined with Alvaro and proclaimed themselves champions of monarchy.
After going back to Navarre, Juan joined with his brother Enrique and Castilian nobles to challenge the King, the Prince, and the Constable. On June 16, 1444 King Juan II escaped from the influence of Juan of Navarre, and on July 13 Juan II instructed the councils of the principal cities to administer justice without any discrimination against converts. Five days later the Castilian army attacked the castle of Peñafiel, which surrendered on August 16. This military campaign was intended to conquer all the fortresses held by the Infantes on the Duero River in the north. The royal army defeated the aristocratic rebels in the battle at Olmedo on May 19, 1445. That year Queen Maria died. Alvaro arranged for Juan II to marry Isabella of Portugal on July 22, 1447, but she favored a faction that opposed Alvaro. On June 5, 1449 Governor Pedro Sarmiento of Toledo proclaimed in the town hall a new law that denied converts the right to hold any office or ecclesiastical benefice, and they were denied the right to testify in any court. Converts were attacked in Toledo and around the kingdom. In Ciudad Real alone 22 converts were killed in July, and many more were maimed and wounded. After Queen Isabella gave birth to Isabella in 1451, she persuaded Juan to get Alfonso Perez de Vivero to remove Alvaro de Luna, who discovered this and murdered Perez. The King had Alvaro arrested, and he was executed for sorcery on June 2, 1453. Juan II died on July 20, 1454.
By the middle of the 15th century only the following seventeen towns were represented in the Cortes of Castile: Burgos, Leon, Seville, Toledo, Cordoba, Murcia, Jaen, Zamora, Toro, Salamanca, Segovia, Avila, Valladolid, Soria, Cuenca, Madrid, and Guadalajara. Large regions were completely unrepresented, such as Galicia, Asturias, Santander, Extremadura, La Mancha, and the Basque country.
Marti, who had been ruling Sicily, became king of Aragon in 1396. At this time the kingdom of Aragon had about 200,000 Mudejars who were mostly peasants and artisans. In 1401 a pogrom against Jews in Barcelona forced many to convert to Christianity. Pestilence delayed Marti’s entry to Valencia until April 1402. He made peace with Tunis in 1403. With the papal schism still continuing in April 1403 Castile’s Enrique III resumed his allegiance to Benedict, and the French did so a month later. The Catalans did not meet until 1405, and a brilliant assembly convened at Perpignan on January 26, 1406. Marti sought to constrain the power of the aristocrats and to restore the fiscal stability of the kingdom. In 1409 his son Marti led an expedition from Sicily that defeated the Sardinian rebels at Sanduri on June 30; but he died a month later. King Marti moved his court to Barcelona and married Margarita de Prades in September. Marti was ailing, and he died without a surviving son on May 31, 1410. Marti was considered a good king and was called “the Humane.”
Jaume II of Urgell was the great-grandson of Alfonso IV, and he acted as governor-general in Aragon; but he refused to accept the crown. In the spring of 1411 his Aragonese allies murdered Archbishop Garcia Fernandez de Heredia, who had supported the Angevins. Fernando Antequera was the son of Juan I of Castile and the grandson of Pedro IV of Aragon. He was thirty years old and was acclaimed for his conquest of the Moors at Antequera. Pope Benedict XIII suggested a representative commission, and three electors chosen from each of the parliaments of Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia met at Caspe in the spring of 1412 and elected Fernando. Jaume tried to rebel, but he was captured in November 1413 and deprived of his lands. King Fernando I (r. 1412-16) convoked a Cortes at Zaragoza and in September 1412 swore to uphold Aragonese privileges. He secured the investiture of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica from Pope Benedict in 1412, and he sent his second son Juan to govern Sicily as viceroy. In 1413 it was decided that the fourth estate would not be admitted into the assemblies. Fernando was crowned at Zaragoza in February 1414, and he named his oldest son Alfonso heir and the duke of Gerona. In January 1416 Fernando withdrew his obedience from Benedict XIII, and he died on April 2.
Fernando’s son Alfonso had married his cousin Maria of Castile at Valencia in 1415, and he succeeded his father as Alfonso V (r. 1416-58). His first Cortes in Catalonia refused to grant him a subsidy in 1416. His brother Juan governed Sicily; but when the Sicilians tried to become independent by making Juan their king, Alfonso recalled him. Alfonso went to Sardinia to subdue an uprising in 1420, though the Genoese forced him to withdraw. That year much of Corsica was reconquered. In July 1421 he went to Naples, where the childless Queen Giovanna adopted him as her son and heir. He sent an Aragonese fleet of ten galleys commanded by Romeu de Corbera of Montesa to aid the Milanese army against Genoa, and on October 22 they defeated the Genoese, sinking five of their seven galleys. In May 1423 Alfonso had Giovanna’s lover Giovanni Caracciolo arrested, but Giovanna escaped and repudiated her adoption of Alfonso, naming Louis III of Anjou heir with Pope Martin V’s blessing. In June 1423 Giovanni Caracciolo and Sforza de Tennebello took over the city of Naples for Louis. Alfonso with a Catalan fleet blockaded Naples against the Genoese and attacked Marseilles. His fleet was battered by storms and returned to Barcelona in December.
Alfonso’s brother Juan had married Blanche of Navarre in 1420. Their other brother Enrique tried to take power in Castile by breaking into the palace at Tordesillas and capturing King Juan II, who managed to escape in November. He and Alvaro de Luna then imprisoned Infante Enrique, and the prince’s party found refuge in Valencia, appealing to Alfonso, who had returned to Aragon. When Carlos III (r. 1387-1425) the Noble died, Blanche became queen regnant of Navarre (r. 1425-41) with Juan as king consort. A treaty with Juan II in 1425 released Enrique. Alfonso V blamed Alvaro for controlling Juan II and threatened to invade Castile. At this time members of the Trastamara dynasty were the kings of Castile, Aragon, and Navarre.
Barcelona suffered a second and worse financial crash in 1427 that lasted five years. Alfonso favored a wider franchise, and election reforms spread from Jativa in 1427 to other towns in Valencia. In 1429 Alfonso’s queen Maria persuaded him and her brother Juan II of Castile to avoid war. The people were tired of war, and in July 1430 they agreed to a truce for five years. In 1432 Alfonso wanted to return to Italy, and he planned to turn Aragon over to Juan, who was king of Navarre; but the Catalan Cortes asked him to make Queen Maria regent, and he did so. He said goodbye to his wife in the Barcelona palace on May 26 and never saw her again. Alfonso had built a large fleet and spent most of the next three years in Sicily. Juan and Maria managed to negotiate a peace treaty with Castile that was finally signed on September 22, 1436; both sides restored territories taken during the war. Juan gave up his Castilian lands, and his daughter Blanca was betrothed to Enrique of Asturias, heir to the throne of Castile.
Queen Giovanna died in February 1435, and she bequeathed Naples to René of Anjou, brother of Louis III. However, René was being held prisoner by the duke of Burgundy. In May 1435 Alfonso sailed to besiege Gaeta and began his advance toward Naples; but Milan’s Duke Filippo Maria Visconti sent 25 Genoese ships, and on August 5 they defeated the Aragonese forces, capturing Alfonso and his brothers Juan and Enrique with other distinguished barons. Alfonso was taken to Genoa and then to Milan, where he persuaded Visconti to recognize him as king of Naples to keep out the French. On October 8 they agreed to divide Italy between them. After the Cortes of Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia sent a ransom of 30,000 ducats in February 1436, Alfonso returned to find that his brother Pedro had secured Gaeta. Alfonso gave up Corsica and sent his brother Juan to govern Aragon.
Alfonso V began besieging Naples in 1438, but his brother Pedro was killed by a cannonball on October 17. In 1439 the Council of Basel deposed Pope Eugenius IV and elected Felix V. Then they authorized Visconti and Alfonso to conquer the papal states. Alfonso captured the towns of Puzzuoli and Torre del Greco in December 1441. He learned of water tunnels, and they were used by two hundred men to get into Naples on June 1, 1442. Alfonso’s forces won the battle on June 28, and René fled to Florence. Alfonso made his triumphant entry into Naples in February 1443. On June 14 he pledged his loyalty to Pope Eugenius, and he broke off relations with the Council of Basel. Eugenius invested him with Naples on July 15. Alfonso pacified his enemies, and his illegitimate son Ferrante (Ferdinando) was proclaimed his heir in Italy and duke of Calabria. Not content with ruling southern Italy, the aggressive Alfonso invaded Tuscany in 1448; but he only captured a few castles, and Pope Nicholas V mediated a peace in 1450. Alfonso promoted maritime trade and initiated consulates at Modo in the Morea in 1416, at Candia in 1433, and at Ragusa in 1443. He also protected the Knights of St. John at Rhodes. Alfonso spent the rest of his life in Italy, and he died on June 27, 1458.
In 1443 King Juan of Navarre came into conflict with his sister Maria, queen of Castile, and his son-in-law Enrique, and in September 1444 Juan and his brother Enrique were driven out of Castile. Messages were sent to Alfonso, but he decided to stay in Naples. On May 19, 1445 Juan and Enrique suffered a disastrous defeat in the battle of Olmedo in which Enrique was mortally wounded. Juan was unable to get much support from Navarre or Aragon for fighting Castile. The terrorism of Catalan ships was a major factor in the economic decline of Catalonia in the 15th century. The slave trade in Barcelona reached its height in the early 1440s, but it began its decline in 1450. A peasant rebellion began in Majorca in 1450 that lasted four years.
Muhammad VII (r. 1391-1408) was trying to negotiate peace with Aragon from 1404 to 1408 while Enrique III tried to get Aragon into an anti-Granada alliance until his death in late 1406. Castile’s regents Fernando and Catherine were given money for a campaign by the Cortes, and by then they had developed the use of cannons with gunpowder using crews of two hundred men for the various tasks. After Fernando failed at Setenil, he returned to Seville. A truce was negotiated in April 1408 but only for seven months. Muhammad VII died in May, and his brother, who had been a prisoner at Salobreña for so long, became Yusuf III.
Yusuf III (r. 1408-17) began his reign by negotiating another short truce. Four days after it expired in April 1410, the Granadans attacked Zahara, killing 140 men and taking 61 women and 122 children captive. That month Fernando began the siege of Antequera for which he would become famous. Granada had not been paying tribute for more than thirty years and would not agree to do so. A scaling ladder enabled the Castilians to take Antequera on September 16, and they captured 895 men, 770 women, and 863 children. Fifty died waiting for transportation, and more died on the way. This was followed by another period of peace as Juan II’s regent Enrique negotiated a truce from 1412 to 1415, and Catherine of Lancaster renewed it in 1417, the year Yusuf III died.
As Muhammad VIII was only eight years old in 1417, Yusuf’s chief minister ‘Ali al-Amin continued to govern. In 1419 the Banu Sarraj from Guadix and Illora removed young Muhammad VIII and killed ‘Ali al-Amin, making left-handed Muhammad IX emir. Alonso de Guzman and Rodrigo Narvaez led raids into Granada in 1420, but Muhammad IX let frontier judges resolve the disputes. When he could not renew a truce in 1427, the city of Granada revolted against paying more tribute. They removed the Banu Sarraj government and restored Muhammad VIII on the throne while Muhammad IX took refuge in Almeria. Muhammad VIII was willing to be a vassal to Juan II, but Muhammad IX held out for independence. In late 1439 Muhammad VIII surrendered; he and his brother were sent to Salobreña, where they were put to death in March 1431.
Muhammad IX’s second reign lasted only two years. In April 1430 he sent Ibrahim ‘Abd al-Barr to Juan II, offering Castile help against Aragon. When Muhammad IX refused to pay tribute or return prisoners, Juan ordered a military offensive. Muhammad VIII’s former minister Ridwan Venegas went to Cordoba and asked Juan to make Muhammad VI’s grandson Ibn al-Mawl Yusuf IV, who swore fealty to Juan. Castilians won the battle of La Higuerela (Andaraxemel) and installed their vassal Yusuf IV in the city of Granada. The rest of the country was against him, and he was soon killed.
Muhammad IX’s third reign was from 1432 to 1445. In the summer of 1432 Castile launched a crusade against Granada, destroying its agriculture and taking over castles and villages one at a time over a period of years. Chopping down orchards caused more lasting damage. Eventually in 1439 divisions within Castile caused Juan II to send Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza to negotiate a truce for three years. During this peace two rivals challenged Muhammad IX, and in 1445 the governor of Almeria drove out the Banu Sarraj government and proclaimed himself Muhammad X. Once again the Castilians installed their puppet ruler as Yusuf V within a year; but he too was quickly thrown out as Muhammad X came back for two years. In 1447 a Granadan offensive pushed back the frontier almost to where it had been in 1410, and Navarre became Granada’s ally in 1449. Muhammad IX’s fourth reign lasted from 1448 until his death in 1453.
A series of truces that began in 1387 were interrupted occasionally by border raids, and a formal peace between Castile and Portugal was finally signed on October 31, 1411. Joao I preferred educated advisors, and many lawyers and merchants replaced the landed magnates who had supported Leonor. Joao studied English history, and the titles were based on the English system. Joao Afonso de Azambuja, the archbishop of Lisbon, proposed a campaign to capture vulnerable Ceuta. In July 1415 during a plague that killed Queen Philippa, the Portuguese led by King Joao and Prince Henrique captured Ceuta from the Muslims. The King’s sons Pedro and Henrique were made the dukes of Coimbra and Viseu. The organizations of master craftsmen helped Joao to the throne, and he gave them privileges and favors. Joao did not call a Cortes between 1418 and 1427. He frequently depreciated the coins, and a mark of silver went from 18 libras in the time of Fernando to 29,000 in his reign.
Prince Henrique established an office for navigation and cosmography near Cape St. Vincent on the southwest tip of Portugal from where he patronized voyages of exploration. He encouraged his captains to make peace with the natives in Africa. Portugal also annexed the uninhabited islands of Madeira, the Azores, and Cape Verde. Joao Gaonçalves Zarco and Tristao Vaz Teixeira went to Porto Santo in the Madeira islands in 1418. Two years later Bartolomeu Perestrelo and others began colonizing them. The Portuguese tried to conquer the Canary Islands from Castile in 1425. The Jewish mapmaker Jafuda Cresques came from Majorca with much knowledge. About 1431 Gonçalo Velho Cabral explored the Azores, and the next year he stocked the large island of Santa Maria with cattle.
King Joao I died in 1433, and the Cortes lost its fight to be summoned every year. His son Duarte (Edward) became king, and he supported Henrique’s explorations. Duarte wrote the ethical Loyal Counselor and initiated the process of compiling Portuguese royal law, which was named after his son who completed the Ordenaçoes Afonsinas. In 1434 Gil Eanes went around the feared Cape Bojador, looking for a river of gold. The Africans were not trading much at Ceuta, and the idea of attacking Tangier persuaded Duarte to convene a Cortes, which funded the expedition. In August 1437 the princes Henrique and Fernando led the Portuguese army from Ceuta to Tangier. Salah ibn Salah, the former governor of Ceuta, defended Tangier with help from Granada, which was at peace with Castile. The larger Moroccan army surrounded the Portuguese and forced them to surrender. Ceuta had to be abandoned, and Fernando was left as a hostage. He was taken to Fez and died in June 1443.
Duarte felt bad about not ransoming his brother Fernando and died of illness on September 9, 1438. His son Afonso V was only six years old, and Duarte had appointed Queen Leonor his tutor and regent. However, the Cortes elected Pedro regent in 1440, though he was opposed by Leonor and the nobles led by his half-brother Count Afonso of Barcelos. A mission from Castile demanded the restoration of Queen Leonor, and she went to Crato; but Pedro forced her to leave there for Castile by the end of the year. Barcelos submitted, and Pedro pardoned him. In January 1442 an Aragonese party obtained a subsidy from the Cortes for a war against Portugal, and Portuguese forces supported Castile’s constable Alvaro in the victory at Olmedo on May 19, 1444. Pedro’s son Pedro led the Portuguese troops as constable.
Exploration resumed in 1441, and the new caravela ships were better at sailing away from the coast. Antao Gonçalves and Nuno Tristao brought back seal oil and skins with ten African captives. Learning they were Muslims, Henrique asked Pope Eugenius IV to declare a crusade, and he offered rewards to those who would fight the “infidels.” Pedro gave his brother Henrique a monopoly on all voyages south of Cape Bojador. Another fleet in 1444 brought back several hundred slaves, and the next year Dinis Dias discovered Cape Verde in the Senegal region. The African slaves were curiosities in Portugal, and those converted were often taught trades and married Portuguese. In 1446 an expedition with 51 caravels ended the friendly policy of Henrique as profit-seeking adventurers used more violence. In retaliation Nuno Tristao and most of his crew were killed by poison arrows. During Pedro’s regency (1441-47) the Portuguese sent twenty expeditions to the Atlantic coast of Africa and no military campaigns to Morocco. They discovered 198 leagues of coastline in those six years but only 94 leagues in the next twelve years when the Portuguese established trading posts along the African coast.
Regent Pedro arranged for his daughter Isabel to marry King Afonso V; but after the wedding in 1447 the Barcelos faction persuaded the King to terminate the regency. Pedro reluctantly retired to Coimbra. His son Pedro and his friend Alvaro Vaz de la Almada, governor of the Lisbon castle, were also dismissed. The duke of Bragança and his son the Count of Ourém governed for the King and turned him against Pedro. When Afonso ordered Pedro to let Bragança’s men pass through his territory, Pedro gathered a small army. King Afonso declared Pedro a rebel and raised an army. Henrique’s efforts to resolve the conflict failed. When Afonso V came to Lisbon in October 1448, Pedro refused to surrender his arms. Pedro arrested a royal messenger to gain information, and his estates were ordered confiscated. The two armies met by the Alfarrobeira River, and on May 20, 1449 Pedro was killed by an arrow in his heart.