RENDITION of Granada

The first portrait depicts Boabdil, the last King of Granada surrendering the keys of his city to Ferdinand while below shows the recreation of his portrait by the series “Isabel”.

On the 2nd of January 1492, Granada surrendered to the Catholic Kings. The Spanish Reconquest or “Reconquista” was over.

Ferdinand and Isabella rode ahead of their armies. The others present saw how the last ruler of Granada, Boabdil gave the King of Aragon the key to the city. This was a glorious day. Years of campaigning had finally paid off. The Spanish had been fighting the Moors for more than seven hundred years, little by little they had been taking back what the Moors took and at last, Isabella closed that chapter of their bloody history.

But …the truth was that the Reconquista as the Spaniards called it, was not merely taking back what their invaders took. It was meant to give a message to Western Europe, that the King and Queen of a new and unified Spain, were blessed by God.

There has always been a lot of debate as to whether the Moors were really invaders or the other way around. The fact was that Spain had been occupied many times, first by African and Celtic tribes and later by Roman and Germanic. There was never such a thing as a ‘Spain’ until the country became one under a single ideal, a single religion and the people responsible for this were Mary’s grandparents, Ferdinand and Isabella. The two had married when they were Princes. Later they became Kings and Isabella fought long and hard for her crown. Some still regarded ‘La Beltraneja’ as the true Queen. Isabella maintained that was not true, she was the true Queen because her niece was not really her niece, she was not even her brother’s daughter. But nothing could ever be proven. Yet Isabella won in the end and shortly after that she initiated a campaign to take Granada from the Moors.

Her enterprise was long and costly but at last she succeeded. On the second day of 1492, she, accompanied by Ferdinand, rode with their armies to meet Boabdil. He greeted Ferdinand and gave him the key to the city, Ferdinand in turn gave it to Isabella. She wasted no time and appointed Inigo Lopez de Mendoza, Count of Tendilla as governor and her confessor, Hernando de Talavera as Archbishop. Boabdil was allowed to live as an aristocrat but left the Spanish Court for North Africa where he died many years later. His mother and half siblings stayed and were assimilated into Castilian noble society.

Sources:

• Sister Queens: The Noble and Tragic Lives of Katherine of Aragon and Juana of Castile by Julia Fox
• Isabella Warrior Queen by Kirstin Downey