The Kingdom of 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 Kingdom of Castile, Castile and Kingd ...

from the conclusion of the ''

Reconquista The ''Reconquista'' (Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese for ) or the fall of al-Andalus was a series of military and cultural campaigns that European Christian Reconquista#Northern Christian realms, kingdoms waged ag ...

'' 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. After the

Granada War The Granada War was a series of military campaigns between 1482 and 1492 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 ended with the defeat o ...

ended 2 January 1492, the old

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

-ruled

Emirate of Granada The Emirate of Granada, also known as the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada, was an Emirate, Islamic polity in the southern Iberian Peninsula during the Late Middle Ages, ruled by the Nasrid dynasty. It was the last independent Muslim state in Western ...

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 ( ; ) 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 foot of the Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence ...

, which had been the last center of Muslim power in the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprisin ...

, 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 (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

gave preeminence to

Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...

, 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 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 pr ...

. The difficulties of religious and ethnic integration of the ''

Morisco ''Moriscos'' (, ; ; "Moorish") were former Muslims and their descendants whom the Catholic Church and Habsburg Spain commanded to forcibly convert to Christianity or face compulsory exile after Spain outlawed Islam. Spain had a sizeable Mus ...

s'' (former Muslims who had converted to Christianity) with the now-dominant

Old Christian Old Christian (, , ) 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 attested as having cleanliness of blood, known as Limpieza ...

s resulted in the unsuccessful, harshly repressed

Morisco Revolt ''Moriscos'' (, ; ; "Moorish") were former Muslims and their descendants whom the Catholic Church and Habsburg Spain commanded to forcibly convert to Christianity or face compulsory exile after Spain outlawed Islam. Spain had a sizeable Mus ...

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 The autonomous communities () are the first-level administrative divisions of Spain, created in accordance with the Spanish Constitution of 1978, with the aim of guaranteeing limited autonomy to the nationalities and regions that make up Sp ...

Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

Coat of arms

The heraldry of Granada was employed as a personal device by

Henry IV of Castile Henry IV of Castile (Spanish language, Castilian: ''Enrique IV''; 5 January 1425 – 11 December 1474), nicknamed the Impotent, was King of Kingdom of Castile, Castile and Kingdom of León, León and the last of the weak late-medieval kings of Ca ...

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 Punica, Punicoideae, that grows between tall. Rich in symbolic and mythological associations in many cultures, it is thought to have o ...

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 Isabella I of Castile, Queen Isabella I of Crown of Castile, Castile () and Ferdinand II of Aragon, King Ferdinand II of Crown of Aragón, Aragon (), whose marriage and joint rule marked the ''de facto'' unification of ...

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) Former kingdoms 1490s establishments in Spain 1492 establishments in Europe 1833 disestablishments in Spain History of Castile States and territories disestablished in 1833 Kingdom of Castile

Coat of arms

See also

References