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Catholic Monarchs of Spain

Title for Isabella I and Ferdinand II

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 4, 2026
Entity authoritySource title only
Source-derived summary

The Catholic Monarchs were Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, whose marriage and joint rule marked the de facto unification of Spain. They were both from the House of Trastámara and were second cousins, as they were both descended from John I of Castile. To remove the obstacle that this consanguinity would otherwise have posed to their marriage under canon law, they were given a papal dispensation by Sixtus IV. They married on October 19, 1469, in the city of Valladolid; Isabella was 18 years old and Ferdinand a year younger. Their reign was called by W. H. Prescott "the most glorious epoch in the annals of Spain."

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Catholic Monarchs of Spain” as title for Isabella I and Ferdinand II. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1469—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Catholic, Monarchs and Spain can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as title for Isabella I and Ferdinand II. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The first chronological checks are 1469.

Critical limits

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  2. Expand the search: follow Catholic Monarchs of Spain primary sources, Catholic Monarchs of Spain archive and Catholic research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Catholic Monarchs of Spain” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.