This book is about a couple, not a single, dominant ruler. Thus it raises issues of gender, and the dynamics of a marriage over thirty-five years, as well as the practice of monarchical power. The reader sees Ferdinand and Isabella struggle to establish their regime, and then work out an elaborate reform programme in Church and State. It sees them fight a 'total war', by fifteenth-century standards, against Muslim Granada, leading to that kingdom's conquest, and an equally 'total' war, through the Inquisition and the Church in general, to convert Spanish Jews and Muslims to Christianity, and to reform and purify the religious and social lives of the established Christians themselves. For readers interested in Early European History.

This book shows how Ferdinand and Isabella exercised power at work as a ruling couple, probably unique in European history, with a heady mixture of culture and intolerance.

About the Author

John Edwards has been involved in work on Spanish history and literature for over thirty years, having published, to date, eight books and over eighty articles and conference papers in Britain, the USA, Spain, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Poland and Israel.

For twenty years he has taught at the University of Birmingham, successively as Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in Medieval History and as Reader in Spanish History. He is also a University Research Fellow in Spanish at Oxford University.

Book Information
ISBN 9780582218161
Author J. Edwards
Format Paperback
Page Count 216
Imprint Longman
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 520g