John Pohl

Traditionally, Late Medieval European history focuses on the Hundred Years’ War in France, followed by England’s Wars of the Roses and the Swiss wars against Burgundy and the Empire. Attention shifts to Spain only after 1492, with the fall of Granada and the first explorations and conquests in the Americas. This may leave the reader with a sense of astonishment that, seemingly from nowhere, the ‘Catholic Monarchs’ Fernando and Isabel were able to lay the foundation for the world’s first global empire.