Ferdinand II (1452-1516)

King-consort of Castile from 1474 (as Ferdinand V), King of Aragon from 1479, and Ferdinand III of Naples from 1504. In 1469 he married his cousin Isabella I, who succeeded to the throne of Castile in 1474; they were known as the Catholic Monarchs because they completed the reconquista (reconquest) of the Spanish peninsula from the Muslims by taking the last Moorish kingdom, Granada, in 1492. To celebrate this success they expelled the Jews and financed Christopher Columbus's expedition to the Americas in 1492.

Ferdinand conquered Naples 1500-03 and Navarre in 1512. On his wife's death, the crown of Castile passed to his daughter Joanna and her husband, Philip the Handsome of Burgundy, in 1506. However, on Philip's death and Joanna's subsequent decline into madness, Ferdinand was recognized as ruler of Castile, establishing the rule of one man for all the kingdoms which became permanent under his grandson, Charles I of Spain (later Emperor Charles V).