Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/90

 80 FERDINAND Ferdinand and Leonora of Castile. But before the union could take place the former had suddenly become passion ately attached to Leonora Tellez, the wife of one of his own courtiers, and having procured a dissolution of her previous marriage, he lost no time in making her his queen. This strange conduct, although it raised a serious insurrection in Portugal, did not at once result in a war with Henry ; but the outward concord was soon disturbed by the intrigues of the duke of Lancaster, who prevailed on Ferdinand to enter into a secret treaty for the expulsion of Henry from his throne. The war which followed was unsuccessful ; and peace was again made in 1373. On the death of Henry in 1379, the duke of Lancaster once more put forward his claims, and again found an ally in Portugal ; but, according to the Continental annalists, the English proved as offensive to their companions in arms as to their enemies in the field ; and Ferdinand made a peace for himself at Badajoz in 1382, it being stipulated that Beatrix, the heiress of Ferdinand, should marry King John of Castile, and thus secure the ultimate union of the crowns. On the death of Ferdinand at Lisbon in the following year (22d October 1383), leaving no male issue, the direct Burgundian line, which had been in possession of the throne since the days of Count Henry (about 1112), became extinct. The stipu lations of the treaty of Badajoz were set aside, and John, grand-master of the order of Aviz, Ferdinand s illegitimate brother, was proclaimed. This led to a war which lasted for several years. FERDINAND I. of Aragoa and Sicily (1379-1416), surnamed the Just, the younger sou of John I. of Castile and Leonora of Aragon, was born in 1379. On the death of his elder brother Henry III. in 1406, he refused the crown of Castile which the nobles had offered, but in accordance with his brother s will undertook the office of regent during the minority of his nephew John II. In this capacity he distinguished himself by his pru dent administration of home affairs, and by his victories over the Moors by land and sea. He took the title de Antequera on the surrender of that fortress after a siege of five months (1410). On the death of his maternal uncle, King Martin of Aragon and Sicily, his claims to the throne, though not derived from the usual laws of descent, were taken up and keenly pressed by a powerful party in the state. The question of the succession was ultimately re ferred to a committee of nine judges equally representing Catalonia, Valencia, and Aragon ; and the result was his election by a majority (1412). After he had defeated, at Balaguer, Count Jayme of Urgel, the last and most for midable of his rivals, he was formally crowned at Saragossa in 1414. From the year 1378 Europe had been scandalized by the spectacle of the papal schism; and since 1410 three rival popes had been claiming the obedience of the faithful. At the council of Constance in 1414, Ferdinand of Aragon was a prominent supporter of the Spaniard, Benedict XIII. (Peter de Luna), who had been deposed at Pisa in 1408. The deposition of John XXIII., and the abdication of Gregory XII. in 1415, having paved the way for peace, Ferdinand consented to be present at the meeting of Sigis- mund with the ambassadors of France, Castile, and Na varre in Perpignan ; and after long temporizing he ulti mately agreed, for the sake of the unity of the church, to withdraw his obedience from Luna. He died in the following year at Ygualada (2d April 141G), and was succeeded by his son Alphonso V., the conqueror of Naples. Sec Zurita, Analcs de la Corona dc Arayon, xi., xii. : Mariana, Hist. Gen. xix. 15 xx. 8. FERDINAND II. of Aragon and Sicily. See FERDI NAND V. of Castile. ^ FERDINAND I. (dr. 1000-1065), surnamed the Great, first sovereign of independent Castile, was the second son of Sancho III. (el Mayor) of Navarre, who about 1026 compelled Bermudo III. of Leon, the last direct descendant of Pelayo in the male line, to surrender his rights over Castile, and also to give his sister Sancha in marriage to Ferdinand, then regent of that province. Sancho, towards the close of his energetic life, divided his extensive dominions among his four sons, Castile being the portion allotted to the second (1035). Bermudo of Leon, shortly after Sancho s death, sought to recover his lost possessions, but was defeated and slain in the attempt at Lantada near Rio Carrion (1038). Ferdinand, now king of Leon as well as of Castile, by a conciliatory yet firm policy, soon esta blished his authority over his conquered subjects; and when in 1053 his dominions were invaded by his brother Garcia III. of Navarre, the attack issued in the death of the latter on the battlefield of Atapuerca near Burgos, and the annexation of a large portion of his dominions. At an early period of his reign Ferdinand began to direct his arms against the Moors ; and by a series of successful campaigns he extended the Christian frontier from the Douro to the Mondego, and reduced to vassalage the emirs of Toledo, Saragossa, and Seville. Even the Arab chronicles mention his victories from Badajoz in Estremadura to Albarracin in Aragon (Gayangos, Mohammedan Dynasties in /Spain, vol. ii.). He had set out on an expedition against Valencia when he was seized with a mortal illness which compelled him to retire to his capital (Leon), where, after having divided his dominions among his three sons, he died on the 27th of December 1065. Ferdinand appears to have laid claim to the title of &quot; emperor &quot; of Spain ; and Mariana alleges that at a council held at Florence in 1055 the emperor Henry III. lodged a formal complaint against this infringement of his rights of suzerainty, that this complaint was sustained by Pope Victor II., but that at a conference afterwards held at Toulouse a decision favourable to Ferdinand s imperial rights, so far as they related to the territories which had been conquered from the Moors, was given, chiefly in con sequence of the representations made by the famous Cicl, Ruy Diaz de Bivar. Though this statement can only be received with reserve, it is certain that both in virtue of the ascendency he won for himself in Christian Spain, and also in virtue of his very considerable successes over the Moors, Ferdinand I. is fully entitled to the rank which tradition has assigned to him among the greater Spanish sovereigns. See Mariana s Historia General dc E.vpaiia, IX. i.-vi. FERDINAND II. (1136-1188), younger son of Alphonso VIII. (el Emperador), became king of Leon on the death of his father in 1157. The history of his reign of thirty- one years is obscure. A dispute that arose between him and some of his powerful nobles gave his brother Sancho III. of Castile a pretext for invading his territory (1158), but the timely submission of Ferdinand averted serious disaster. The death of Sancho shortly afterwards led to a military occupation of Castile by Ferdinand, professedly in the interests of his nephew Alphonso III.; and this occupa tion lasted till the marriage of Alphonso to Leonora, daughter of Henry II. of England, in 1170. Meanwhile Ferdinand, having repudiated his wife Dona Urraca, had become involved in a war with his father-in-law Alphonso I. of Portugal, which resulted in the defeat and capture of the latter at Badajoz in 1169. The later years of the reign of Ferdinand II. were distinguished by sundry successes over the Moors, especially by a brilliant victory at Santarcm (dr. 1181); and also by the incorporation of the great military order of Alcantara, which received its first regular charter from Pope Alexander III. in 1177. He died at