The Catholic monarchs (Spanish: Reyes Católicos) is the collective title used in history for Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon. They married in 1469, uniting both crowns and eventually through their descendants creating the kingdom of Spain. The title "Catholic King" was bestowed on them by Pope Alexander VI. Isabella of Castile (Spanish: Ysabel, Isabel or Isabela) (22 April 1451 - 26 November 1504) was queen of Castile. ... Ferdinand and his wife Isabella of Castile Ferdinand II (Fernando de Aragón in Spanish and Ferran dAragó in Catalan), nicknamed the Catholic (March 10, 1452 – June 23, 1516) was king of Aragon, Castile, Sicily, Naples, Valencia, Sardinia and Navarre and Count of Barcelona. ... Events July 26 - Battle of Edgecote Moor October 17 - Prince Ferdinand of Aragon wed princess Isabella of Castile. ... The sobriquet Catholic King is a title awarded by the Pope as head of the Roman Catholic Church to a monarch who in the eyes of the papacy embodies Catholic principles in his or her personal live and state policies. ... The Pope is the Catholic Bishop and patriarch of Rome, and head of the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches. ... Alexander VI, né Rodrigo Borgia (January 1, 1431 - August 18, 1503) pope (1492-1503), is the most memorable of the secular popes of the Renaissance. ...

Although the Queen had several Converso counselors, the monarchs' Catholic views led them to end the independence of Moors in the Iberian Peninsula with the conquest of Granada and to force the expulsion or conversion of thousands of Sephardic Jews (see Alhambra Decree). The Spanish Inquisition, inspired by earlier European Inquisitions, was created by their royal decree. Spanish for converted one, converso (feminine conversa) referred to Jews or Muslims or the descendants of Jews or Muslims who had converted, sometimes unwillingly, to Catholicism in Spain, particularly during the 1300s and 1400s. ... Moors is used in this article to describe the medieval Muslim inhabitants of al-Andalus (the Iberian Peninsula including the present day Spain and Portugal) and the Maghreb, whose culture is often called Moorish. Origins of the Name Juba II king of Mauretania The name derives from the ancient Berber... topographic map of the Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula, or Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe. ... The City of Granada Alhambra, Courtyard of the Lions Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in Spain. ... In the strictest sense, a Sephardi (ספרדי, Standard Hebrew Səfardi, Tiberian Hebrew Səp̄ardî; plural Sephardim: ספרדים, Standard Hebrew Səfardim, Tiberian Hebrew Səp̄ardîm) is a Jew original to the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal: ספרד, Standard Hebrew Səfárad, Tiberian Hebrew Səp̄áraḏ / Səp̄āraḏ), or whose ancestors were among the Jews expelled from... The Alhambra Decree was issued in 1492, by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, following the final triumph over the Moors after the fall of Granada. ... Pedro Berruguete. ... Pedro Berruguete. ...

Their joint motto was Tanto monta, monta tanto ("It amounts so, so it amounts").

It was created by Antonio de Nebrija and was either: In 1492, Antonio de Nebrija published the first grammar of the Spanish language, which was the first grammar produced of any Romance language. ...

• an allusion to the Gordian Knot: Tanto monta, monta tanto, cortar como desatar ("..., cutting as untying")
• explaining the equal footing for both monarchs in the governance of Castile: Tanto monta, monta tanto, Isabel como Fernando ("..., Isabella as Ferdinand")

Their symbol was el yugo y las flechas, a yoke and a fasces of arrows. The yoke is another allusion to the Gordian knot. Y and F are the initials of Ysabel (archaic spelling) and Fernando. This symbol was later used by the Spanish fascist party the Falange, which claimed the glory and the ideals of the Reyes Católicos. Alexander cuts the Gordian Knot, by Jean-Simon Berthélemy ((1743—1811) The Gordian Knot is a metaphor for an intractable problem, solved by a bold stroke (cutting the Gordian knot). The myth it refers to is associated in legend with Alexander the Great. ... A yoke is a shaped wooden crosspiece bound to the necks of a pair of oxen, occasionally horses. ... Fasces on the reverse of the US dime A statue of Cincinnatus returning the Roman fasces Fasces consist of a bundle of wooden rods tied together as a cylinder around an axe. ... Fascism (in Italian, fascismo), capitalized, was the authoritarian political movement which ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943 under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. ... The Falange or sometimes the Phalange is the name assigned to several political movements and parties dating from the 1930s, most particularly the original movement in Spain. ...