Monarchs of the Iberian Peninsula |
al-Andalus (taifas) |
Aragon |
Asturias |
Castile |
Catalonia |
Galicia |
Granada |
León |
Majorca |
Navarre |
Portugal |
Spain Medieval · Modern |
Suebi |
Valencia |
Viguera |
Visigoths |
This is a list of Spanish monarchs, that is, rulers of the country of Spain in the modern sense of the word. The forerunners of the monarchs of the Spanish throne were the following:
These seven lineages were eventually united by the marriage of the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand II of Aragon (king of the Crown of Aragon) and Isabella I of Castile (queen of the Crown of Castile). Although their kingdoms continued to be separate, with their personal union they ruled them together as one dominion. Ferdinand also conquered the southern part of Navarre and annexed it to what was to become Spain. Isabella left her kingdom to her daughter Joanna of Castile. Ferdinand served as her regent during her insanity; though rebuffed by the Castilian nobility and replaced by Joanna's husband Philip the Handsome, he resumed his regency after Philip's death. In 1516, after Ferdinand II's death, his daughter Joanna inherited the kingdom of Aragon, but was kept prisoner at Tordesillas as insane. As Joanna's son, the future Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, did not want to be merely a regent, he was proclaimed king of Castile and Aragon jointly with his mother in Brussels. Subsequently, Castilian and Aragonese Cortes alleged oath to him as co-king with his mother. Upon her death, he became sole King of Castile and Aragon, and the thrones were thereafter united permanently.
Under Isabella and Ferdinand, the royal dynasties of Aragon and Castile were united into a single line. Historiography of Spain generally treats this as the formation of the Kingdom of Spain, but in actuality, the two kingdoms continued for many centuries with their own separate institutions. It wasn't until the Nueva Planta decrees of the early 18th century that the two lands were formally merged into a single state.