the year of death of Ferdinand Charles,
the last of the line.
SEEALSO: d’Este, Isabella; Gonzaga, Gian-
francesco; Gonzaga, Ludovico
Gonzaga, Ludovico ..........................
(1412–1478)
Duke of Mantua, the son of Gianfrancesco
Gonzaga. He inherited the throne of Man-
tua in 1444 and allied his forces with that
of Milan in 1446. In the next year he
joined an alliance with Florence and Ven-
ice against Milan. In 1450 he fought for
King Alfonso of Naples in northern Italy,
but was bribed by Francesco Sforza of Mi-
lan with territories belonging to Venice.
Ludovico scored an important victory
against his brother Carlo, who was fight-
ing for Venice, at the Battle of Goito in
- In 1454 the Peace of Lodi returned
cities Gonzaga had conquered to Venice.
When Carlo died without an heir in 1487,
Ludovico inherited his lands. In 1459 Lu-
dovico presided at an important council
convened by Pope Pius II, who was intent
on turning back the Ottoman Turks from
Europe after their conquest of Constanti-
nople.
Ludovico was a patron of the arts and
appointed Andrea Mantegna as his court
painter. He died of the plague in 1478.
Granada (Sultanate) .........................
A Moorish realm established in what is
now southern Spain, the Granada Sultan-
ate was the last remnant of the Moorish
invasion of Europe from northern Africa
in the early eighth century. Granada origi-
nated as a provincial capital of the caliph-
ate of Cordoba. In the eleventh century,
the Zirid dynasty was founded and
Granada became an independent sultan-
ate. In 1228, the leader Mohammad Ibn
al-Ahmar established a new dynasty,
known as the Nasrids, that later began pay-
ing tribute to the Christian kingdom of
Castile and helped the Castilian kings put
down Moorish revolts in their own realm.
In Granada, the sultan Muhammed V built
an elaborate palace, the Alhambra, that
still stands as the most important work of
Moorish architecture in Europe.
Granada became a center of Moorish
scholarship and learning with the estab-
lishment of a university, known as the
Madraza, under the sultan Yusuf I in 1349.
The city also provided Spain and the rest
of Europe with an important link to mar-
kets in North Africa. Through Granada,
European goods were traded for gold,
ivory, and other items brought north
across the Sahara Desert in long caravans.
The kingdom’s economic importance de-
clined, however, as the Portuguese opened
up new sea routes to western and south-
ern Africa. In the fifteenth century, with
the unification of Castile and Aragon, the
Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella
resolved to conquest the remaining Moor-
ish states in the Iberian peninsula, and the
territory of Granada gradually shrank un-
der repeated assaults by the Christian
armies. In 1492, Muhammad XII, also
known to the Christians as Boabdil, sur-
rendered Granada after a siege, and the
Reconquista was complete. By the Alham-
bra Decree, the rulers of Spain demanded
the sincere conversion of the Moors from
Islam (as well as Jews) to Christianity.
Those who resisted or falsely converted
were tried by the Inquisition and executed,
while others fled to Africa. The city’s
mosques were converted to Christian
churches, and the Madraza was rededicated
as the University of Granada by Emperor
Charles V in 1526.
Granada’s art and architecture had a
lasting effect in Spain. The Moorish artistsGranada (Sultanate)