Ferdinand II of Aragon

Andrés Bernáldez, a priest of his own time, says that he was born in Aragon in March 1452, the son of King Juan of Navarre and Aragon, and that he married Isabella I of Castile at Valladolid in 1469, when he was king of Sicily and prince of Aragon (Bernáldez, History of the Catholic Monarchs, chs. 8–9 (vol. 1, pp. 29–31)).

The bull of 1 November 1478 is addressed to him and Isabella as king and queen of Castile and León and lets them choose, remove and replace inquisitors (Sixtus IV, Exigit sincerae devotionis, Fita, pp. 449–452). They used it on 27 September 1480, when they commissioned two Dominicans and reserved the right to remove them (Sixtus IV, Exigit sincerae devotionis, royal commission of 27 September 1480 (Fita, pp. 448–453)).

On 18 April 1482 Sixtus IV ordered that in Aragon, Valencia, Mallorca and Catalonia the accused be told who had testified against them and be free to appeal to Rome (Sixtus IV, Letters of 1482, bull of 18 April 1482 (Lea, vol. 1, pp. 587–590)). Ferdinand answered from Córdoba on 13 May, signing as king of Castile and of Aragon. He gave the report of these concessions no credit, he wrote, and if they had been granted he did not intend ever to let them take effect; inquisitors in his kingdoms and lands were to be appointed according to his pleasure and will, and he would never allow others to hold the office against it (Ferdinand, Letter to Sixtus IV, Lea, vol. 1, pp. 590–592).

Bernáldez describes how the king of Granada gave him the keys of the city on 2 January 1492 (Bernáldez, History of the Catholic Monarchs, ch. 102 (vol. 1, pp. 300–303)). On 31 March, in that city, he and the queen signed the edict that ordered every Jew to leave their kingdoms (Edict of Expulsion (1492), Amador de los Ríos, vol. 3, pp. 603–607). See the Spanish Inquisition and the Expulsion of the Jews.