The Kingdom of Granada (; es, link=no, Reino de Granada) was a territorial jurisdiction of the
Crown of Castile
The Crown of Castile was a medieval polity in the Iberian Peninsula that formed in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and, some decades later, the parliaments of the kingdoms of Castile and León upon the accessi ...
from the conclusion of the ''
Reconquista
The ' (Spanish, Portuguese and Galician for "reconquest") is a historiographical construction describing the 781-year period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula between the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711 and the fall of the Nasrid ...
'' in 1492 until
Javier de Burgos
Francisco Javier de Burgos y del Olmo (22 October 1778—22 January 1848) was a Spanish jurist, politician, journalist, and translator.
Early life and career
Born in Motril, into a noble but poor family, he was destined for a career in the ...
'
provincial division of Spain in 1833. This was a "kingdom" (''"reino"'') in the second sense given by the ''
Diccionario de la lengua española de la Real Academia Española'': the Crown of Castile consisted of several such kingdoms. Its extent is detailed in Gelo del Cabildo's 1751 ''Respuestas Generales del
Catastro de Ensenada'' (1750–54), which was part of the documentation of a census. Like the other kingdoms within Spain, the Kingdom of Granada was abolished by the
1833 territorial division of Spain
The 1833 territorial division of Spain divided the country into provinces, in turn classified into "historic regions" ( es, link=no, regiones históricas).[Granada War
The Granada War ( es, Guerra de Granada) was a series of military campaigns between 1482 and 1491 during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, against the Nasrid dynasty's Emirate of Granada. It e ...]
ended 2 January 1492, the old
Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
-ruled
Emirate of Granada
The Emirate of Granada ( ar, إمارة غرﻧﺎﻃﺔ, Imārat Ġarnāṭah), also known as the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada ( es, Reino Nazarí de Granada), was an Emirate, Islamic realm in southern Iberia during the Late Middle Ages. It was the ...
became part of the Crown of Castile. The kingdom was the location of
a Muslim rebellion in 1499-1501 and after the Muslims were defeated and
forcibly converted, a
Morisco rebellion in 1568–1571. Following the annexation, The city of
Granada
Granada (,, DIN 31635, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the fo ...
, which had been the last center of Muslim power in the
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula (),
**
* Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica''
**
**
* french: Péninsule Ibérique
* mwl, Península Eibérica
* eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...
, lost its political importance and even much of its economic importance, and entered a long period of decline. The
European discovery of
America
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
gave preeminence to
Seville
Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...
, the only important inland port, which by the 16th century had become the principal city not only of Andalusia, but of all Spain. Nonetheless, Granada continued to play a significant institutional role: it was one of the seventeen cities with a vote in the
Cortes de Castilla
Cortes, Cortés, Cortês, Corts, or Cortès may refer to:
People
* Cortes (surname), including a list of people with the name
** Hernán Cortés (1485–1547), a Spanish conquistador
Places
* Cortes, Navarre, a village in the South border of N ...
, the
Granada Cathedral
Granada Cathedral, or the Cathedral of the Incarnation ( es, Catedral de Granada, Santa Iglesia Catedral Metropolitana de la Encarnación de Granada) is a Roman Catholic church in the city of Granada, capital of the province of the same name in ...
was the seat of
an archdiocese and the
Royal Chancery of Granada
The High Court of Justice of Andalusia, Ceuta and Melilla ( es, Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Andalucía, Ceuta y Melilla, ''TSJA''), is the highest court of Andalusia, and for the Spanish autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla. was the highest judicial court for half of the Crown of Castile, equaled only by a corresponding institution in
Valladolid
Valladolid () is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and de facto capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the province o ...
.
The difficulties of religious and ethnic integration of the ''
Morisco
Moriscos (, ; pt, mouriscos ; Spanish for "Moorish") were former Muslims and their descendants whom the Roman Catholic church and the Spanish Crown commanded to convert to Christianity or face compulsory exile after Spain outlawed the open p ...
s'' (former Muslims who had converted to Christianity) with the now-dominant
Old Christian
Old Christian ( es, cristiano viejo, pt, cristão-velho, ca, cristià vell) was a social and law-effective category used in the Iberian Peninsula from the late 15th and early 16th century onwards, to distinguish Portuguese and Spanish people atte ...
s resulted in the unsuccessful, harshly repressed
Morisco Revolt
Moriscos (, ; pt, mouriscos ; Spanish for "Moorish") were former Muslims and their descendants whom the Roman Catholic church and the Spanish Crown commanded to convert to Christianity or face compulsory exile after Spain outlawed the open p ...
of 1568–1571. The ''Moriscos'' were initially dispersed in the Castilian interior, then
expelled outright from Spain in 1609.
Today, all the territory of the Kingdom of Granada is part of the territory of the
autonomous community
eu, autonomia erkidegoa
ca, comunitat autònoma
gl, comunidade autónoma
oc, comunautat autonòma
an, comunidat autonoma
ast, comunidá autónoma
, alt_name =
, map =
, category = Autonomous administra ...
of
Andalusia
Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a ...
.
Coat of arms
The heraldry of Granada was employed as a personal device by
Henry IV of Castile
Henry IV of Castile ( Castilian: ''Enrique IV''; 5 January 1425 – 11 December 1474), King of Castile and León, nicknamed the Impotent, was the last of the weak late-medieval kings of Castile and León. During Henry's reign, the nobles became ...
before the conquest of Granada, in the form of two fruited
pomegranate
The pomegranate (''Punica granatum'') is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub in the family Lythraceae, subfamily Punicoideae, that grows between tall.
The pomegranate was originally described throughout the Mediterranean Basin, Mediterranean re ...
branches, known as a ''granada'' in Spanish, with the motto ''reinar es agridulce'' ("reigning is bittersweet"). It was later incorporated into the coats of arms used by 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 ...
and their descendants. From 1475, the monarchs of Castile called themselves also monarchs of Granada, but it was not until 1492 that their military might made the title more than a boast. In 1497, a new coin, the ''excelente de granada'', featured the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Granada. This heraldic figure became part of
Spain's national coat of arms.
[Faustino Menedes Pidal, ''El Escudo de España'', Real Academia Matritense de Heráldica y Genealogía, Madrid, 2004, , pag.199–203]
See also
*
:es:Anexo:Localidades del Reino de Granada, a list of the localities that composed the Kingdom of Granada, according to the
Catastro of Ensenada
In 1749 a large-scale census and statistical investigation was conducted in the Crown of Castile (15.000 castilian places; excluded the Basque provinces, Navarre and the Crown of Aragon). It included population, territorial properties, buildings, ...
(1750–54); this page is an appendix to the Spanish-language Wikipedia.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Granada, Kingdom of, (Crown of Castile)
History of Andalusia
Kingdom of Granada (Crown of Castile)
The Kingdom of Granada (; es, link=no, Reino de Granada) was a territorial jurisdiction of the Crown of Castile from the conclusion of the ''Reconquista'' in 1492 until Javier de Burgos' provincial division of Spain in 1833. This was a "kingdo ...
Former kingdoms
1492 establishments in Europe
1833 disestablishments in Europe
History of Castile