As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This means if you click on a link and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Historical person
1452–1516
Ferdinand II of Aragon ruled jointly with Isabella I of Castile and helped create the dynastic foundations of a united Spanish monarchy. Their reign completed the conquest of Granada, strengthened royal institutions, supported Columbus’s Atlantic voyage and established the Spanish Inquisition. It also ordered the expulsion of Jews who refused conversion. After Isabella’s death Ferdinand continued to rule Aragon and sought to control Castile through regency and dynastic diplomacy.
Ferdinand appears in C. W. Gortner’s The Queen’s Vow and in Philippa Gregory’s The Constant Princess, where his decisions shape the life of his daughter Catherine of Aragon. Historical fiction often places him behind Isabella’s more celebrated image, portraying him as the colder practitioner of diplomacy and war. His policies, however, were produced through a partnership that combined distinct kingdoms rather than through a fully unified Spanish state.
In Alison Weir’s Katherine of Aragon, in this captivating opening volume, Weir brings to life the tumultuous tale of Katherine of Aragón. In Jean Plaidy’s Castile for Isabella, Numbed with grief and fear, Isabella holds onto one cherished hope: that one day, she will escape her tormentors and marry Ferdinand, the handsome young Prince of Aragon - her only true betrothed. Other novels featuring Ferdinand II of Aragon include Alison Weir’s Six Tudor Queens, Robyn Young’s Court of Wolves, Jean Plaidy’s Daughters of Spain, Tariq Ali’s Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree, and Rozsa Gaston’s Anne and Louis: Rulers and Lovers.
Series
Rozsa Gaston’s four-volume Anne of Brittany sequence follows the last independently ruling Duchess of Brittany from her contested inheritance to her final years as queen of France. The novels move through the French–Breton conflict, Anne’s compelled marriage to Charles VIII, her restoration to ducal authority after his death…
All books in this series
All books in this series
Epic Historical Adventure is Colin Falconer's publisher-defined collection of stand-alone historical thrillers rather than a continuous narrative sequence. The novels range from Alexander the Great, Cleopatra and the Mongol Empire to the Ottoman court, the conquest of Mexico, colonial India, shipwreck and twentieth-century Palestine. Most volumes can be…
All books in this series
This trilogy follows Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon as they secure their crowns, complete the conquest of Granada and establish a united Spanish monarchy. The final volume turns to their daughters, whose marriages carried Spanish power into Portugal, England and the Habsburg world.
All books in this series
New World Rising follows the fictional half-brothers Jack Wynter and Harry Vaughan through the dynastic upheavals that ended Plantagenet rule and opened the early Tudor age. Sons of the Blood begins in 1483 with Edward IV’s death, the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower and Richard III’s…
All books in this series
The Islam Quintet is Tariq Ali’s cycle of five historical novels examining encounters between Islamic societies and the Christian West across more than five centuries. Moving from the fall of Muslim Granada and the Crusades to Norman Sicily, the late Ottoman Empire and the modern transnational world, the…
All books in this series
