236 THE AGE OF HAPSBURG ASCENDENCY Naples, which was now held, as we have seen, by a junior branch of the house of Aragon. In Spain, Isabella, Queen of Castile, and Ferdinand, King of Aragon, were husband and wife. They intended to create a united Spain, and were jealous enough of France. To check France they had fostered trouble in Brittany, and were about to give one daughter in marriage to the son of Maximilian, and another to the son of Henry of Eng- land. But their first and most important business was the destruction of the Moorish kingdom in Granada, the existence of which was incompatible with the unification of Spain. While, as with every other king, their domestic policy was directed to strengthening the power of the Crown as against that of the nobles, both in Castile and in Aragon, they materially assisted their policy by a war which brought prestige to the monarchs and diverted the attention of the nobles to the pursuit of military glory. The war was at last brought to a close at the end of 1491 by the capture of the city of Granada itself. Except Portugal and Navarre, the whole peninsula was in the grip of the two wedded sovereigns. Ferdinand could turn his eyes to Italy, and to counteracting the extension of the French power. In 1494 Charles entered Italy, made an easy conquest of Naples, and then withdrew j but his back was no sooner turned than the French were again expelled. Charles died, and was succeeded by his cousin Louis xn., who renewed the claim to Naples, and added his own personal claim, as the grandson of a Visconti, to the dukedom of Milan. Ferdinand of Aragon agreed to a partition of the Neapolitan kingdom between himself and Louis, but pretexts were soon found for breaking through the arrangement ; the French were again expelled by Gonsalvo di Cordova, known as the ' Great Captain,' and the kingdom was annexed to Aragon. Meanwhile, the momentous marriage had taken place be- tween the Archduke Philip and Joanna of Castile, who, through Ferdinand and the death of an elder sister and brother, became Maximilian. heiress to both the Spanish kingdoms. Joanna herself became insane ; Isabella of Castile died, and soon after
