The Bulls of Donation, also called the Alexandrine Bulls, and the Papal donations of 1493, are three papal bulls of

Pope Alexander VI Pope Alexander VI ( it, Alessandro VI, va, Alexandre VI, es, Alejandro VI; born Rodrigo de Borja; ca-valencia, Roderic Llançol i de Borja ; es, Rodrigo Lanzol y de Borja, lang ; 1431 – 18 August 1503) was head of the Catholic Churc ...

delivered in 1493 which granted overseas territories to

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

and the

Catholic Monarchs 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, being bot ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. A fourth bull followed later the same year, and all four bulls were replaced by the

Treaty of Tordesillas The Treaty of Tordesillas, ; pt, Tratado de Tordesilhas . signed in Tordesillas, Spain on 7 June 1494, and authenticated in Setúbal, Portugal, divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between the Portuguese Empire and the Spanish Emp ...

of 1494.

Description

The Pope issued edicts dated . The third superseded the first two. A final edict, ''

Dudum siquidem ''Dudum siquidem'' (Latin for "A short while ago") is a papal bull issued by Pope Alexander VI Borgia on , one of the Bulls of Donation addressed to the Catholic Monarchs Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon which supplemente ...

'' of , supplemented the ''Inter caetera''.. Online
Google Books entry
/ref> * The first bull, ''

Inter caetera ''Inter caetera'' ('Among other orks) was a papal bull issued by Pope Alexander VI on the 4 May () 1493, which granted to the Catholic Monarchs King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile all lands to the "west and south" o ...

'', dated 3 May, recognized Spain's claim to any discovered lands not already held by a Christian prince, and protected Portugal's previous rights. Both parties found this too vague. * The second bull, ''

Eximiae devotionis ''Eximiae devotionis'' declared on 3 May 1493 is one of three papal bulls of Pope Alexander VI delivered purporting to grant any and all overseas territories in the west and ocean to kings of Castile and León that were found by the kings of Casti ...

'', also dated 3 May, granted to the kings of Castile and León and their successors the same privileges in the newly discovered land that had been granted to the kings of Portugal in the regions of Africa, and Guinea.Pope Alexander VI, ''Eximiae Devotionis'', 1493 * The third bull, also entitled ''Inter Caetera'', dated 4 May, exhorts the Spanish monarchs to spread the faith west from a line drawn "... one hundred leagues towards the west and south from any of the islands commonly known as the Azores and Cape Verde". Diffie notes that it has been suggested that this change may have been prompted by the Portuguese ambassador.Diffie, Bailey Wallys. ''Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, 1415–1580'', p. 172, University of Minnesota Press, 1977
''Dudum siquidem'' of 26 September 1493 addressed to the Catholic Monarchs

Isabella I Isabella I ( es, Isabel I; 22 April 1451 – 26 November 1504), also called Isabella the Catholic (Spanish: ''la Católica''), was Queen of Castile from 1474 until her death in 1504, as well as Queen consort of Aragon from 1479 until 1504 by ...

of Castile and Ferdinand II of

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to sou ...

which supplemented the bull ''Inter caetera'' and purported to grant to them "all islands and mainlands whatsoever, found and to be found, discovered and to be discovered, that are or may be or may seem to be in the route of navigation or travel towards the west or south, whether they be in western parts, or in the regions of the south and east and of India".Dudum siquidem
at reformation.org, accessed 5 January 2013 The bulls were the basis for negotiation between the two powers which resulted in the

of 1494 (ratified by

Pope Julius II Pope Julius II ( la, Iulius II; it, Giulio II; born Giuliano della Rovere; 5 December 144321 February 1513) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 1503 to his death in February 1513. Nicknamed the Warrior Pope or th ...

), dividing the non-Christian world beyond Europe between them. At first these arrangements were respected by most other European powers, but as the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

proceeded the states of Northern Europe came to consider them as a private arrangement between Spain and Portugal.

References

*H. Vander Linden, 'Alexander VI and the demarcation of the maritime and colonial domains of Spain and Portugal 1493-4', ''

The American Historical Review ''The American Historical Review'' is a quarterly academic history journal and the official publication of the American Historical Association. It targets readers interested in all periods and facets of history and has often been described as the ...

'' 22 (1916) *Luis Weckmann, ''Las bulas alejandrinas de 1493 y la teoría política del Papado medieval: estudio de la supremacía papal sobre las islas'' (Mexico: 1949) {{reflist 1493 documents 1493 in Portugal 15th-century papal bulls Documents of Pope Alexander VI Geopolitical rivalry Portuguese colonization of the Americas Spanish colonization of the Americas

Description

See also

References