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 N ...

'' 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 th ...

' 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 ) , common_languages = Official language: Classical ArabicOther languages: Andalusi Arabic, Mozarabic, Berber, Ladino , capital = Granada , religion = Majority religion: Sunni IslamMinority religions:R ...

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 Forced conversion is the adoption of a different religion or the adoption of irreligion under duress. Someone who has been forced to convert to a different religion or irreligion may continue, covertly, to adhere to the beliefs and practices whi ...

, a Morisco rebellion in 1568–1571. Following the annexation, The city of

Granada Granada (,, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the c ...

, 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, def ...

, 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 territori ...

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 Penins ...

, 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, the Granada Cathedral was the seat of an archdiocese and the Royal Chancery of Granada was the highest judicial court for half of the Crown of Castile, equaled only by a corresponding institution in

Valladolid Valladolid () is a municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and de facto capital of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. It has a population around 300,000 peop ...

. 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 ...

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 att ...

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 ...

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost 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 "historical nationality". The ...

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

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

Coat of arms

See also

References