Created by María Jesús Campos Fernández, Geography and History teacher at a bilingual section in Madrid (Spain)

1. THE LATE MIDDLE AGES IN EUROPE AND THE
IBERIAN PENINSULA: THE 15TH CENTURY
María Jesús Campos
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2. 
The 15th century is considered to be a period
of transition between the Middle Ages and
the Early Modern Age.

The Early Modern Age was a period full of
changes but most of these changes were
seeded during the 15th century.

3. DEMOGRAPICH GROWTH IN EUROPE



During the 14th
century, Europe
suffered a crisis as a
result of poor harvests,
wars and illness.
The most terrible
event was the Plague
or Black Death.
The Black Death wiped
out a quarter of the
population in Europe.

5. People thought that God was punishing
them for their sins.
 Today we know that the Black Death was
an illness caused by the fleas carried by the
black rat.
 As cities were crowded and had no sewage,
healthy conditions there were very poor so
more people died in the cities than in the
countryside.


6. During the 15th
century, the situation
improved. The
population began to
recover slowly.
 Mortality was still
high but the end of
the Black Death and
the higher birth rate
helped population
growth.


7. ECONOMIC GROWTH IN EUROPE



The population needed to
be fed, so there was a
greater demand for
agricultural products.
Agriculture improved as
new lands were cultivated.
The improvement in the
quality and quantity of food
decreased the number of
epidemics, thus fostering
demographic growth.

8. The growing population also demanded
more goods so craftsmanship
developed.
 The demand of the population needed to
be satisfied so trade increased.
 This fostered the foundation of cities as
they were the centres of commerce.


9. 
As the economy
and trade
expanded, the
banking system
improved thanks to
the use of new
payment and
lending methods
that made financial
transactions easier.

10. Population grew:
Greater demand of
food and goods
Economy
expanded: the
quantity and quality
of food and goods
increased
Agriculture and
craftmanship
improved and
developed
Trade increased
and new banking
techniques were
invented

11. SOCIAL CHANGES IN EUROPE


Society was still divided into
three estates: two privileged
estates, the clergy and the
nobles, and a non-privileged
estate, the workers.
But out of the commercial
development that took place
during the 15th century, a
new group within the workers
was going to appear, the
bourgeoisie.

12. The bourgeoisie was
made up of rich and
powerful merchant
and banking families.
 They belonged to the
Third Estate so they
didn’t have privileges
although sometimes
they were richer than
the nobles.


13. They achieved political power in the cities
and near the monarchs as they used to
lend money and support the kings against
the nobles to gain power over them.
 The peasants continued to live under harsh
conditions and most of them were very
poor. In Western Europe, peasants
became free and were no longer serfs but
in Eastern Europe servitude continued.


14. POLITICAL CHANGES: FROM FEUDAL TO
AUTHORITARIAN MONARCHIES


As a result of the wars and military conflicts that
had taken place during the first part of the Middle
Ages, the nobility had obtained great influence
and power.
One of the main objectives of the monarchs by
the end of the Middle Ages was to get rid from the
nobles influence and to strenghten their political
power.

15. Means used to reduce the power of the nobility and the clergy





Professional and centralized
administration: a bureaucracy that
depended directly on the monarchs
formed by officials from the
bourgeoisie and the lower nobility.
Professional army: paid by the
monarchs.
Diplomatic system: to maintain
relations with other countries, set up
alliances, etc.
Royal Treasury: to collect taxes and
organize expenses.
Reforms: new legal codes; religious
reform, etc.

16. Professional and
centrilized
administration
Professional army
The path to
Authoritarian
Monarchies
Royal Treaury
Diplomatic system

17. 
By the end of the 15th century
Europe was divided into different
political states but the ones that were
going to gain more power and
influence during the following century
would be:
 Spain:
the Crown of Castille+the Crown
of Aragon
 England
 France

19. THE IBERIAN PENINSULA DURING THE
15TH CENTURY

20. THE IBERIAN PENINSULA IN THE 15TH CENTURY

In the first half of the
15th century, the
Iberian Peninsula was
divided into:





The Crown of Castile
The Crown of Aragon
The Kingdom of
Navarre
The Kingdom of
Portugal
The Nasrid Kingdom of
Granada

21. THE CROWN OF CASTILE


Continuous revolts of
the nobles: they had
obtained great
influence during the
Reconquest and they
did not want to lose it
and submit to the
monarch’s authority.
Ruling dinasty: the
Trastamaras

23. After King Henry IV’s
death there was an
internal struggle between
the supporters of his
daughter Juana, la
Beltraneja, and the
supporters of his sister,
Isabel.
 After the civil war: Juana
was helped by Portugal,
and Isabel by Aragon;
Isabel was proclaimed
Queen of Castile


24. Political organization



The monarch was the
highest authority.
The monarch’s power
came from God’s
desire. He/she had
been chosen by God
to govern and protect
the kingdom’s
subjects.
Divine right of
kings/queens.
God
Monarch
Laws
Government
Subjects
Justice

25. Monarch
• Highest authority
• Executive, legislative, judicial
power + army + coinage
• Assisted by the court, later
the Royal Council

26. Royal Council
• Previously known as
the court
• Formed by
nobles, important
clergy and some
jurists
• Advised the monarch
but needed his/her
approval to
implement measures

27. Cortes
• Assembly of representatives
of the nobles, the clergy and
the workers (mainly
representatives from the
cities)
• The monarch called them and
closed them
• Did not have legislative power
• Their function was to aprove
or reject taxes and to promise
loyalty to the heir of the
throne

28. Municipalities
• Territories under the
King’s
authority, “realengo”.
• Ruled by the City
Council.
• Applied the monarch’s
decissions and orders
• Fueros granted by the
monarchs

29. THE CROWN OF ARAGON


The Crown of Aragon had been
founded in 1137, when Petronila,
the heiress of Aragón, married
Ramón Berenguer IV, Count of
Barcelona. Their son Alfonso II of
Aragon inherited both territories in
1164, becoming its first king.
In 1410, King Martin I died without
descendants. By the Pact of Caspe,
Ferdinand of Antequera, from the
Castilian dynasty of Trastámara,
received the Crown of Aragon as
Ferdinand I.

30. New dynasty: Trastamara.
 After the Reconquest, the Crown of
Aragon focused on its expansion through
the Mediterranean Sea.


31. Political organization



The monarch was the
highest authority.
The monarch’s power
came from a pact with
the subjects who gave
them authority to
govern and organize
the territories but
respecting their natural
rights and customs.
Pactist monarchy
Monarch
Laws
Government
Subjects
Justice

32. 
In 1238, King Pedro III, the
Great, needing money for
the conquest of Sicily gave
the General Privilege to
the Aragonese and the
Catalan Cortes. The king
compromised himself and
his succesors to ask for the
Cortes approval in any
important issue concerning
the territory.

33. 
Thus, the Crown of
Aragon established a
pactist monarchy, a
type of government in
which the monarch had
negotiate with the
territories’
representatives and
obtain their approval
whenever a new law,
tax or governmental
mesure was going to be
taken.

34. 
The Crown was
organized as a
confederacy of
territories:
 Kingdom
of Aragon
 Catalan Counties
 Kingdom of Valencia
 Kingdom of Mallorca
 Kingdom of Naples
(Naples, Sicily, Sardinia)
 Dukedom of Athens

36. Monarch
• Highest authority
• Executive, legislative, judicial
power + army + coinage
• Needed the Cortes approval
to impose new taxes or
change laws

37. Viceroy
• Represented the
monarch’s
authority on the
different territories
of the Crown
• Chosen among
the royal family
members.

38. Cortes
• Assembly of
representatives of the
nobles, the clergy and the
workers (mainly
representatives from the
cities)
• 3 Cortes, one for each
territory:
Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia
• They approved or rejected
new taxes and new laws
proposed by the monarch

39. Diputaciones
• Committees created by
the Cortes to supervise
their decissions in
taxation, they also had
some executive power
over the territories.
• 3 diputaciones:
Diputación of
Aragón, Diputación of
Valencia, Generalitat of
Catalonia
Municipalities
• Territories under the
King’s
authority, “realengo”.
• Ruled by the City
Council.
• Applied the
monarch’s decissions
and orders
• Fueros granted by
the monarchs

40. Justicia of Aragon
• Only for the Kingdom
of Aragon
• Official chosen from
the nobility
• His function was to
defend Aragonese
subjects rights and
privileges from the
monarch’s abuses.

41. THE KINGDOM OF NAVARRE


In mid 11th century, Navarra
had lost its frontier to the
Muslims so the kingdom
could not expand further.
Sandwiched between the
Crown of Castile and the
Crown of Aragon, the
Kingdom of Navarre
established marriage
alliances with France to
obtain support and
protection.

42. At the beginning of the
15th century, Queen
Blanca I of Navarra
married King Juan II of
Aragon (son of Ferdinand
I of Aragon).
 When Queen Blanca I
died, she was succeded
by their son Charles,
Prince of Viana (1441) but
his father Juan II was de
facto ruler of Navarre.


43. In 1447, King Juan II of
Aragon remarried with
Juana Enriquez, a
Castilian noblewoman,
who bore him a son, the
future Ferdinand II.
 Their attempt to assure
the succession of
Aragon to their son
Ferdinand provoked a
civil war which Charles
of Viana won


44. 


But when Charles of Viana
died in 1461, his sister
Blanca, who succeeded
him, was inmediately
imprisoned by his father
King Juan II and died 3
years later.
Nevertheless, the
Navarrese revolt against
Juan II continued until 1472.
After King Juan II’s death,
there was a struggle among
different pretenders to the
throne from French,

45. THE KINGDOM OF PORTUGAL


King John I of Portugal
defeated the Castilian
forces in the Battle of
Aljubarrota (1385),
beginning a proccess in
which Portugal would
become completely
independent.
After the Reconquest,
Portugal continued its
territorial expansion
through Africa.

46. THE NASRID KINGDOM OF GRANADA



Last Muslim kingdom
in the Iberian
Peninsula after the
battle of Las Navas de
Tolosa.
Vassal of the Crown of
Castile.
It survived until 1492
when the Catholic
Monarchs conquered it
and annexed it to the
Crown of Castile.

47. Developed by María Jesús Campos
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