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In the 15th century, the Iberian Peninsula stood at a crossroads between medieval fragmentation and modern unity. Four Christian kingdoms—Castile, Aragon, Portugal, and Navarre—shared the peninsula with the Muslim emirate of Granada, each fiercely independent yet shaped by centuries of warfare that had created militarized societies and unstable political structures.

This episode explores the dramatic political crises that transformed Iberia between 1400 and 1468. In Castile, weak kings battled powerful nobles while relying on controversial royal favorites like Álvaro de Luna, whose thirty-year dominance ended in execution. King Enrique IV's alleged impotence and scandalous court led to noble rebellions culminating in the "Farce of Ávila," where he was symbolically deposed in favor of his eleven-year-old half-brother.

Meanwhile, the Crown of Aragon faced an even greater crisis when its native dynasty died out in 1410. The resulting succession dispute was resolved through the Compromiso de Caspe—a rigged legal proceeding that brought Castilian rule to Aragon through papal manipulation and military pressure rather than conquest. This foreign dynasty's absolutist policies sparked a devastating ten-year Catalan civil war that permanently weakened the region's autonomy.

From the execution of royal favorites to the symbolic deposition of kings, from succession crises resolved by foreign judges to civil wars that devastated entire regions, the 15th century revealed the fatal weaknesses of medieval political structures while setting the stage for the eventual union of Castile and Aragon under the Catholic Monarchs.

Discover how dynastic accidents, constitutional conflicts, and foreign interventions reshaped the Iberian Peninsula and laid the foundation for Spain's emergence as a global power.

Resources:

The Spain of the Catholic Monarchs by John Edwards

The Spanish Kingdoms, 1250-1516. Volume 2: 1410-1516 - Castilian Hegemony by J.N. Hillgarth

Map of Spanish Kingdoms, 1370

Lineage of Spanish Monarchies in the 15th Century

15th Century Castilian Monarchs

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Intro Music: Hayden Symphony #39
Outro Music: Vivaldi Concerto for Mandolin and Strings in D