Spain's Centuries of Crisis (eBook)

Teofilo F. Ruiz is Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles. His publications include Crisis and Continuity: Land and Town in Late Medieval Castile (1994) and Spanish Society 1400-1600 (2002) and From Heaven to Earth. The Reordering of Castilian Society, 1150-1350 (2004).

Preface and Acknowledgments viii

Map 1: Spain in the Late Fifteenth Century xi

Map 2: The Crown of Aragon and the Western Mediterranean
in the Late Middle Ages xii

1 At the Dawn of a New Century: The Spains around 1300 1

2 Medieval Spain in the Late Middle Ages: Society and Economy 28

3 The Answers of Politics: Spain, 1300-1350 51

4 Toward Trastámara Spain, 1350-1412 72

5 Spain in the Fifteenth Century: Toward the Rule of the Catholic Monarchs, 1412-1469 86

6 The Sinews of Power: Administration, Politics, and Display 110

7 Muslims, Jews, and Christians in a Century of Crisis 139

8 Culture and Society in an Age of Crisis 164

9 Epilogue 196

Notes 202

Bibliographical Essay 217

Index 228

"The major accomplishment of this book, in addition to
guiding the reader through the dangerous thickets of political and
social upheaval, is the delineation of the factors that preserved
the monarchy and expanded its potential sway." (English
Historical Review, February 2009)

"The major accomplishment of this book, in addition to
guiding the reader through the dangerous thickets of political and
social upheaval, is the delineation of the factors that preserved
the monarchy and expanded its potential sway." (English
Historical Review, February 2009)

"A comprehensive history of the political development...during a
period of...crisis.... Bridges the gap between the central Middle
Ages and the Renaissance." (Speculum)

"Plagues, crusades, civil wars and fratricidal princes: there is no
better introduction to the chaotic political and cultural history
of fourteenth and fifteenth century Spain than this vivid volume by
a magisterial scholar, master teacher, and dean of Spanish
historians."

-David Nirenberg,The University of Chicago