Group

Castile, Crown of

State Defunct 1230 CE – 1516 CE Capital Toledo > Tolentum Castilla-La Mancha Spain

The Crown of Castile is a medieval state in the Iberian Peninsula that forms in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and parliaments of the kingdoms of Castile and León upon the accession of the then king, Ferdinand III of Castile, to the vacant Leonese throne.

It continues to exist as a separate entity after the personal union in 1469 of the crowns of Castile and Aragon with the marriage of the Catholic Monarchs up to the dynastic union occasioned by the succession of Charles I of Spain, the Habsburg heir to both crowns in 1516.The Indies, Islands and Mainland of the Ocean Sea are also a part of the Crown of Castile when transformed from lordships to Kingdoms of the heirs of Castile in 1506, with the treaty of Villafáfila, and upon the death of Ferdinand the Catholic.The title of King of Castile remains in use by the Habsburg rulers during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Charles I is King of Aragon, Majorca, Valencia, and Sicily; Count of Barcelona, Roussillon and Cerdagne as well as King of Castile and León, 1516–1556.In the early eighteenth century, Philip of Bourbon wins the War of the Spanish Succession and imposes unification policies over the Crown of Aragon, supporters of their enemies.

This unifies the Crown of Aragon and the Crown of Castile into the kingdom of Spain.

Even though the Nueva Planta decrees do not formally abolish the Crown of Castile, the country (Castile and Aragon) is called Spain by both contemporaries and historians to refer to the unified territories.

"King of Castile" also remains part of the full title of Felipe VI of Spain, the current king of Spain according to the Spanish constitution of 1978, but in the same sense as King of Jerusalem: as titles not as states.

Member Cities

Moran, J. (n.d.). Castile, Crown of. History Atlas. Retrieved 16 September 2026, from https://www.historyatlas.com/groups/castile-crown-of/

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