World Gold - ND (1504-1516) Gold Ducat, Fernando the Catholic Madrid, Italy NGC MS63

Ferdinand II (Ferdinando the Catholic, 1452-1516) was King of Aragon from 1479 until his passing in 1516. As the husband of Queen Isabella I of Castile, he was the King of Castile from 1475 to 1504 as Ferdinand V. Jointly with Isabella, he ruled over a dynastically unified Spain. The two of them are known as the Catholic Monarchs. The Crown of Aragon inherited by Ferdinand in 1479 included the kingdoms of Aragon, Valencia, Majorca, Sardinia, and Sicily, as well as the Principality of Catalonia. His marriage to Isabella I of Castile is considered the "cornerstone in the foundation of the Spanish monarchy." They played an important role in the European colonization of the Americas, for they sponsored Christopher Columbus' first voyage in 1492. It was that same year that Ferdinand and Isabella defeated Granada, which was the last Muslim state in Western Europe. That event completed the centuries-long Reconquista. In 1504, after a war with France, Ferdinand conquered the Kingdom of Naples. The year 1512 saw him conquer the Kingdom of Navarre, thereby ruling all lands comprising modern-day Spain until his death in 1516. He was nominally succeeded by his daughter Joanna, however power was soon in the hands of her son Charles I, who later became Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.