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King Joan II, Part 2
It is generally agreed that the shocking annexation of Leon by Portugal focused the attention and spurred the involvement in government by Joan II to levels far above the preceding two decades.
- It might have been that he felt his diplomatic and spy corps had failed him completely by failing to alert him to the possibility of the wholesale disappearance of Leon.
- It might have been that the merchant and traders spread their fear of Portugal’s intentions in Seville, now that it exercised significant power there thanks to its expanded Iberian holdings.
- It might have been that the rise of Portugal from a key, but junior ally into a powerful competing presence in Iberia, and one poised on the borders of the Kingdom alarmed the military enough for them to push the king into a more active role in the government.
Whatever the reason, for the next several years (almost 2 decades, in fact) we will see for better and worse a much more active King driving the affairs of the Crown.
One other possibility exists to explain Joan’s much more personal and active involvement in affairs of state - the appearance in the late 1470s of Isabel of Trastamara at the royal court.
The Trastamara were, of course, intimately involved in the rise of Aragon and the fall of Castile - their attacks on Peter of Castile in the mid 1350s opened the door to the expansion of Aragon in Iberia. For several years there had been rumors of an Isabel (or Ysabelle, or Isebet, or a few other variants of the name) who claimed descent from the Trastamara line. She was said to be actively courting the peasants as well as disaffected nobles in the old Castilian provinces now ruled from Barcelona. There were certainly enclaves of Castilian and Trastamaran supporters in these border provinces, and some of the provinces still had not fully accepted rule from Barcelona even after a century or more under the Crown of Aragon. It is not hard to believe that a charismatic person (man or woman) could fan flames still smoldering in these remote places.
In any event, Isabel of Trastamara finally imposed herself on the consciousness of the Court by claiming that she had been secretly married to Joan II. She spun a story of being cast aside by Joan and threatened to raise the banner of rebellion for an infant she claimed was her son, and rightful heir to Aragon (and she would rule as regent, naturally.) She gathered supporters as a candle gathers moths. And she suddenly became a very serious concern for Joan and his ministers. With most people in this period tied very tightly to their villages and farms, most had no idea who the wife of the King was, and so Isabel was able to create a whirl of controversy and confusion in the countryside.
Joan sent troops to escort Isabel to the court - why she went we can only guess. But perhaps like all charismatic delusion people, she had convinced herself that her story was true, or that she could at least carry it off, and perhaps come out for the better. And in fact, the King was very much taken with her charisma, cunning and capabilities. While of course not interested in supporting her claims to his throne, he brought his own charms and charisma to bear, and eventually convinced Isabel to serve him. Her supporters were bought off with gold and promises of investments and developments (the nobles and merchants) and harsh treatment (the peasants). Isabel ended up serving Joan as his key foreign policy advisor for many years, and was instrumental in driving some key developments over the next few years - but it was a close call for the stability of the Crown.
Soon after the issues with Isabel were settled, Toulouse and France ended their war, with Toulouse gaining back not only the territories she had lost to France in the last war, but even more. Combined with the freeing of Nice, the loss of the Burgundian provinces to Switzerland, the freeing of Anjou (including Provence) and her inability to defeat the English, France was once again a shattered husk of its former self.
In fact, France had fallen so far from its pinnacle that it was no longer counted among the major powers of Europe.
What were some of the activities that engaged the king’s attention and occupied his time in these years?
At the top of the list was what to do about Portugal. Although Joan, his military, the merchants and traders active throughout Iberia and the Mediterranean, and the nobles across Aragon were united in their opposition to the annexation of Leon, Joan decided the alliance with Portugal was simply too important to put at risk, at least at that time. He writes this, in a letter to Isabel, after she assumed the post of chief foreign policy advisor.
“The Portuguese have most certainly overstepped themselves. You are probably right - the nobles of Leon will chafe at their new-found subservience to Lisboa, the nobles of Castile will chafe at being subordinated to the coastal Portuguese, and the townspeople and merchants will have to learn Portuguese to continue in their various callings and careers.
And of course, we are alarmed at the overnight growth of what was our friend into a potential enemy. But we cannot ignore them. If not our friend, then they will default to being our enemy. Once they sat on the edge of Europe, looking out at the sea and whatever lays beyond that. But now they sit in the middle of Iberia, and press on our borders. So we have to choose - do we embrace them in an even tighter brotherly love, or do we antagonize them in ways that will inevitably lead to war?
I want to hear your voice on this, but I know my own mind - I see Portugal as indeed a friend near and dear to our heart, and believe they see us in the same light. So I will not have them antagonized by petty or even major things - we will work to assure them of our trust and friendship.”
Diplomats were sent to Lisbon to create the best possible relations with the Crown of Portugal. In fact, the road between Barcelona and Lisbon would be worn smooth by the tread of diplomats over the rest of Joan’s reign - the Portuguese Alliance would remain the centerpiece of his foreign policy.
Secondly, Joan declared war on the Emirate of Granada. This, too, would become a central activity of the reign of Joan. It helped bind the people of Aragon together, it allowed Aragon and Portugal to collaborate against a common foe (rather than against each other), and with that collaboration it helped the Aragonese military dissolve some of the distrust it felt against its Portuguese counterpart.
Over the course of the summer and autumn of 1486, Granada’s armies were quickly overwhelmed and her major cities and fortresses besieged.
Unlike the previous wars between Aragon and Granada, this war was one of sieges and waiting. With the armies of Granada swept from the field quickly, Aragon simply had to wait for the fall of the Emirate’s cities and forts. Although this would end up taking almost two years, it did not require the full (or even partial) concentration of the king or the administration.
In 1488, as the war in Granada was slowly yielding results (the Granadan defenses had proven to be resilient, even though their armies on the field had not), Aragon turned its eyes westward to Castile and declared war. The goal of this war was two-fold - seize the rich silver mines of Badajoz before the Portuguese could (even though this would create a strangely isolated position almost completely surrounded by Portuguese territory), and eliminate some of the other Castilian territory that sat deep within Aragon.
By the end of 1488, Castile’s armies had been defeated and eliminated, her provinces were being put under siege, and the stark difference in the capabilities of the generals of Aragon vs. those of Castile was clear to see. The war with Granada was also at an end. Joan’s goals in the war with the Emirate had been the fertile fields of Malaqa (a major producer of sugar, then a rare commodity and worth owning); he also wanted the province of Ecija to link Cadiz and Cordoba to Malaqa. The Emir reluctantly surrendered these territories (which also cut the Emirate into two pieces), and Aragon strengthened her hold over the trade in Seville.
By 1489, Castile was also beaten and was forced to surrender the silver mines of Badajoz as well as the cities and fortresses of San Juan.
With the war reparations and the immense wealth now pouring through the trade centers of Seville and Barelona, Joan launched an extensive road building efforts across the conquered territories in Iberia in order to move closely bind the distant towns and ports to Barcelona.
Following peace with Castile, Joan was finally in a position to introduce a significant change in the nature of the Crown. As we’ve discussed earlier, the Crown was a fairly decentralized (although slowly becoming less decentralized) union of many kingdoms, principalities, counties, trading cities, and other assorted political units. Joan and his ministers realized that the sprawling kingdom needed additional powers to help maintain central oversight of these political units. And so, in 1498, Joan II issued edits declaring the Crown of Aragon an Empire, with himself as Emperor. it improved the morale of the military, allowing the army to recruit more men more quickly, it actually improved internal and external diplomatic relations, and increased income from the Kingdom of Sicily, Aragon’s only major vassal at this time.
The second transformational event Joan was able to announce was, in the words of the Imperial Edit issued by Joan, the dawning of an Age of Exploration:
“For too long we have been content to sit on the edges of Africa, accepting into our markets the camel trains that lumbered out of the desert loaded with gold and exotic spices, silks and dyes, and other products. We happily welcomed these to our ports; we profited from them and sent other goods back into the unknown.
"But our age of ignorance must come to an end. To control trade we must learn of the sources of these goods - the gold, spices, silks, dyes, slaves and other goods that arrive from beyond the horizon and on the other side of the great African deserts. We must learn of these sources and profit from them - either in partnership with the cities we will find there or by wresting control of these goods from their lords and rulers if partnership is denied us.”
Joan knew that the Portuguese and Castilians sent ships south, beyond the Canaries. But to where was not known, and he feared that the Portuguese and the Castilians were finding new territories and sources of wealth in areas beyond the knowledge of the Crown. He was determined to close this knowledge gap.
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But stating the goal of discovery was easier than accomplishing the same. For almost 10 years the Kingdom pursued every possible avenue of discovery - merchants were bribed to reveal their sources, scouts were sent into the wilderness (not explorers, but intrepid locals who hoped to find great riches and knowledge, but none of whom returned), spies were sent to Portugal and Castile (both of which clearly knew what lay beyond the borders of the vast Sahara and south beyond the Moroccan shores) - none of these efforts bore any fruit for many years.
War was even declared on Granada again in the hope that secret chambers could be found in the Emir’s palace showing the land and sea routes to the distant Indies and the coasts of China. Although Granada again fell quickly, no progress was made against the grand goal that the Emperor had set his people.
The palaces of the Emir were searched for every possible piece of information, the ports were ransacked and the forts were overturned, but nothing of use was found. Peace was agreed, and Aragon returned to its efforts to discover the routes across the desert and beyond the known seas.
And then in 1498 - almost an entire decade after the grand pronouncement by Joan II - the Portuguese offered the first glimpse of what lay along the coasts of Africa beyond Morocco. And it was not just what lay there, but which countries were to be found there. And it becomes clear to Joan the reasons why Portugal suddenly was willing to share what it had for so long sought to hide.
The English, long the allies of Portugal, were now spreading their tentacles along the coasts of Africa - finding the protected harbors and settling their colonists, armed men and traders in them, like the pearls in a strand, or the links in an iron shackle forming around Africa. And where England was not, Castile was - and Portugal appeared to be locked out of the harbors and the trade of Africa. There is a note in the Imperial Archives that addresses this moment:
“The Portuguese have finally shared with us that which we have for long long sought in vain. And why? Is it because they are suddenly beneficent, or have taken to heart an admonition to share all with their brother? Surely not - the idea is laughable!
“Rather, there is but one possible reason - they face our joint ancient foe of Castile, and where they once had the English crown to help defend their interests, now that crown actively works against it. And so they find themselves outnumbered and overwhelmed (and they are cowards who fear to act directly) - and so they feed us this information as a way of enticing us to act with them - or perhaps for them. But of course the harbors and havens that we might have profited from are all taken, and so they also try to spin gold from tares - they offer knowledge that we cannot use while asking us to support them in whatever coming battles they anticipate.
“We will most certainly accept this knowledge, but we will use it to our own advantage, in our own way and at the time of our choosing.”
So the joy at finally beginning to penetrate the vast unknown lands and seas beyond Morocco were tempered in the Imperial Court by three things:
- The realization that Castile, even in its weakened and fractured state had somehow managed to discover river deltas and havens, and then establish and grow trading ports along the African coast long before Aragon was able to do the same
- The shock that the English (who for so long had been fighting for their continental domains) had discovered and settled in even more locations than Castile
- The mystery of where the Portuguese were. The Court knew that ships are sailing regularly from Lisboa southwards, and the Aragonese agents in the Canaries had seen these Portuguese fleets passing the islands on their way south, but there were no Portuguese settlements or colonies along the African coasts.
These were in fact all good questions. But Joan and his military advisors focused on the immediate task - countering the Castilians in the expansion south. War was immediately declared with the stated aim of adding the towns and fortresses of Soria to the Crown of Aragon. The main army was dispatched into Castile. But 4 small squadrons departed with the Imperial Fleet from Cadiz and headed south - each squadron aimed at one of the Castilian trading ports. The ruse worked completely - Castile gathered her armies to resist in the north, and the Aragonese troops landed unopposed in each of the trading ports, and placed them under siege.
While Aragon fought Castile, things were happening elsewhere in Europe. Joan’s agents sent back regular reports, many of which remain in the archives for scholars today. A few interesting developments were afoot across Europe as the continent closed in on 1500.
Among these:
1. France was attempting yet another renaissance by attempting to recover lands recently won by Toulouse.
2. Switzerland reached the height of its prosperity and size, with extensive possessions in the Low Countries and Holland as its vassal. It also had strong allies in Lorraine and Milan. Joan had to consider whether Switzerland was an ally or a potential foe.
3. The ancient kingdom of Bosnia transformed itself into a revitalized version of the even more ancient kingdom of Illyria, and displaced Hungary as the leading power in the Carpathian Basin. It also became a major rival to Venice, with each vying to control Dalmatia and the trade on the Adriatic. Byzantium also reached new heights of power, although it would continue to be plagued by peasant uprisings for many years.
4. Taking advantage of the French wars against Toulouse, nobles styling themselves descendants of the ancient House of Guyenne rebelled against Toulouse, and having overpowered the local garrisons were able to gain independence. Toulouse immediate declared war, but Guyenne managed to hold off the armies of Toulouse and even capture some territory as it worked to force the recognition of its independence.
An even more amazing event briefly illuminated the Gnostic world at this time. Anjou, recently independent of France, was really a country split in two distinct geographic parts - the heartland of Anjou in the northern French countryside, and the rich provinces in the south that made up the ancient Kingdom of Provence. The peasants and nobles of Provence, seeing their chance, rebelled against the Duke of Anjou. After reducing the cities and fortresses into submission, these men of Provence were able to wrest control away from the Duke. And instead of creating yet another Duchy in the south of France, the revolutionaries did something extraordinary. They elevated the Gnostic Bishop of Provence to a position of Gnostic Pope. It was an amazing event, and one about which there are several excellent studies already written. Aragon quickly offered an alliance with the Gnostic Pope, which he accepted - there was a strong desire on the part of Aragon to see the prestige of what had once been a heretical religion protected and fostered.
5. The long Mamluk - Anazah war came to and end, with the Mamluk’s victorious and gaining lands along the Red Sea. it’s important to this study in one way only - the Crown of Aragon and the Mamluk kingdom in Egypt had long been allies and had intermarried over many generations. Until the Azanah war, however, the Mamluks had never requested not offered military aid to the Crown. For Aragon the value of the alliance lay in the ability, if needed, for the Mamluks to quickly deeply troops to defend Athens and the surrounding province. That had never been needed, but the alliance was worth keeping as it cost nothing to maintain and promised help in the eventuality it would be required. On the other hand, the fact that no troops were ever sent from Aragon to support the Mamluks, or the reverse, means that it has been ignored with no detriment to our study of Aragon up to this point. While it may seem strange to have not mentioned this earlier, this alliance (although over 100 years old at this time) simply had never been a factor in any Aragonese war up to this point.
Joan and his domestic advisors commissioned a study of the Crown at the turn of the century. We don’t know most of what was included, but a few bits of data remain. Among those are data showing the ethnic, religious, and production makeup of the Kingdoms and Aragon. This data, fragmentary as it is, shows the openness and multi-everything nature of the Crown at this time. In so may ways, the Crown was unique in European history at the time, and it will remain so for a long time as we will see.
As the African ports of Castile began to fall to Aragon, and as the armies of Aragon and Navarre fought and sieged the eastern provinces of Castile, another almost unprecedented event happened. The African nation of Jolof, long a protectorate of Castile, threw off the control of Castile and actually landed troops in the Galician provinces of its former overlord. Although they proved to almost completely ineffective (there’s not a record of single battle being won by these troops, or city being captured by the Jolofian troops), it was a fact that no African forces had invade Iberia for hundreds of years, and no sub-Sarahan African troops had ever managed to invade Europe. It certainly indicated the depths to which Castile was falling at the time.
In 1503, the Pope somehow managed a fantastically Machiavellian coup. With the riches of centuries, the cunning of a fox and the morality of the most wanton whore, he cajoled, bribed, threatened and finally wore down the will of the Gnostic Pope in Provence. In return for becoming the Cardinal of Provence and (the rumors at the time said) for mountains of gold and seas of pearls, the Gnostic Pope resigned and passed his territories to Rome. It is said that the bells of the churches throughout Aragon tolled in mourning for 100 days.
With this brilliant maneuver, the Pope more than doubled his territory, and became a relevant political power in Europe again. And he gained the enmity of Aragon, which would soon begin efforts to revive the ancient claims to Provence - once held by the Counts and Princes of Barcelona.
In 1504, Castile finally defeated. At the negotiating table, Aragon surprised Castile by only claiming the 4 African enclaves. Castile happily surrendered them to Aragon, confident that she had avoided the much worse fate of further losses in Iberia. To Aragon,however, these 4 cities were the first step toward recovering lost ground in the race to discover the land and sea routes to the distant East.
And in fact, the knowledge, contacts, maps and alliances with local elites that were gained by acquiring these 4 trading entrepôts delivered the longed-for knowledge. Within just a few years, the Crown of Aragon had gathered enough information about Africa, the Levant and the far-off Indies to produce the following map - it was a signifiant leap forward in the long-term designs of the Crown to find and dominate the trade routes to the East.
And finally, after an extraordinary reign of almost 4 decades, Joan II, first Emperor of Aragon, died. He was succeeded by his brother, also named Joan, who rose to the throne as Emperor Joan III.
