United Crown of Great Iberia (Principia Moderni IV Map Game)

Great Iberia, officially the United Crown of Great Iberia, is a political, economic, social and military union of the Crown of Aragon and Crown of Castile. It was established in 1459 following the invocation of the Acts of Union, 1434 by the King of Castile, Sancho I, and Queen of Aragon, Eleanor I. The Acts of Union themselves were signed by their predecessors, King Henry IV of Castile and King Alfonso V of Aragon. Great Iberia combined, including vassals, controls all of the Iberian Peninsula, Morocco, Sardinia, the Balearic Islands, and parts of Greece. It also claims sovereignty over Corsica, though since 1463 island has been under the rule of Italy. Portugal has been a member of the Union since 1462; Navarre was annexed into the Union in 1465.

1434 - 1500
The first mention of a unified "Great Iberia" can be found in the union's founding documents, the Acts of Union of 1434, which were identical legislative acts signed into law by the Kings of Aragon and Castile, Alfonso V and Henry IV respectively. The Acts of Union established the conditions under which the union was to occur, and provided that the two would be united under a semi-federal structure, and thereafter slowly transition into a unitary state under an Iberian central government.

Following the sudden death in 1451 of Alfonso V and his heir, Crown Princess Arianne, the next in line, Princess Eleanor, was crowned the Queen of Aragon, the second queen regnant in Aragonese history. The newly crowned Eleanor I immediately began strengthening Aragon's military and economy, and along with her new husband Crown Prince Sancho of Castile solidified the union upon his own accession to the throne of Castile after the death of Henry IV in 1459.

The union of the Crowns was officially proclaimed on 1 January 1460, and the merger of Aragon's and Castile's political infrastructures commenced. An invasion of Portugal in response to its attempt to control the Atlantic through the Cartaz tax resulted in Portugal's total subjugation under Iberia; King Afonso V was deposed and replaced with Castile's vassal, King Fernando I of Morocco.

The union was interrupted in 1463 when the Kingdom of Italy invaded Aragon's Mediterranean territories in order to secure supremacy in the Mediterranean, a position which up to that point Aragon had enjoyed. France, a long time ally of Castile, suddenly changed political positions and invaded the Kingdom of Aragon itself. In what became known as the Iberio-Franco-Italian War of 1463, Castile chose to fall back, allowing France to occupy the Aragonese heartland, and Italy to annex Sardinia, Sicily and Genoa without much resistance; the Treaty of Zaragoza was signed, ending the war in favour of the Franco-Italian coalition. Thus, it appeared the Union had been ended only but three years after it was formed.

Fortunately for Iberia, the occupation did not last long, as in 1464, the Duke of Burgundy, an Iberian ally and vassal of France, declared his realm's independence from French suzerainty, and began the Burgundian War of Independence, joined by the Kingdom of England under Richard IV. This decisive conflict resulted in the occupation of Paris itself by a coalition of Castilian, Aragonese, English and Burgundian soldiers. Shortly after a French surrender in late 1464, negotiations in the city of Nancy reversed all French gains in the War of 1463, and restored the Union; it also gained territory in the form of Navarre, which was ceded to the Castilian crown. France was also forced by the Treaty to cease recognising Italy's gains in Iberian territory.

However, Italy established the Compact of Valletta with the Abbasid Caliphate, blocking Iberia off from its eastern vassal, the Duchy of Athens and from its main trading partners in the eastern Mediterranean. Italy began to insist that Iberia sign the Compact, with the condition that Iberia renounce its claims to Sardinia, Sicily and Malta, three islands which had fallen under the occupation of Italy. It took until 1475 for the Queen of Aragon, Eleanor I, to reluctantly renounce her claims, and the Sicilian Channel was re-opened to Iberian merchants, barely averting a second Iberian economic meltdown.

Fortunately for Iberia's remaining prestige, the Papal States came to the rescue when it declared its ports of Civitavecchia and Ancona open to Mediterranean merchants, allowing Iberia to completely bypass the Sicilian Channel. Iberia has since taken this opportunity to the fullest, totally redirecting trade through the Papal States, and emptying the Sicilian Channel of Iberian vessels. As a result, Iberia in 1484 withdrew from the Compact and declared war on Italy with the support of a Coalition consisting of, besides Iberia itself, Austria, Burgundy, Bulgaria, Greece, the Knights Hospitaller and the Papal States. Iberia is currently in the process of attempting to seize the lands that Italy occupied during the war of 1463.

In 1485, Iberia succeeded in retaking Sardinia, and the Queen was crowned Queen of Sardinia in Barcelona with great ceremony. In the same year, the Iberian military was redirected to the Italian heartland, in an attempt to permanently disable the Italian threat to Iberian dominance. Italy surrendered in 1487, and the resulting Treaty of Genoa partitioned Italy into its constituents, with Iberia officially receiving Liguria, Corsica, Sardinia and Malta. This is considered Iberia's greatest victory to date.

Following conclusion of the war, Great Iberia began an attempt to become the first European nation to have its ships cross the Atlantic. A Neapolitan, Esteban Ferrera, was recruited by the government to lead a fleet of ten ships across the ocean starting in 1493, in the hopes of obtaining an alternative route in Asia so as to no longer be dependent on the Silk Road and on the Gurkani Sultanate.

Royal family
Since its foundation, Great Iberia has been under the rule of the House of Trastamara.

Ferdinand I of Great Iberia (born 1459) currently rules as the King of Great Iberia. He is also heir presumptive to the throne of Portugal.
 * 1) HRH Prince Alfonso of Great Iberia (born 1469) is the third child and second son of Sancho I and Eleanor I. He is currently the heir presumptive to the throne of Great Iberia.
 * 2) HRH Prince Henry of Great Iberia, Duke of Calabria (born 1469) is the twin brother of Prince Alfonso, although he is considered for purposes of succession younger than Alfonso, as Alfonso was born first. As such, Prince Henry is behind Prince Alfonso in the line of succession. In addition to holding a place in the line of succession, Prince Henry has also since 1496 been the Duke of Calabria and a noble in the court of Sicilia.
 * 3) Princess Arianne of Great Iberia (born 1462) is the second child and only daughter of Sancho I and Eleanor I.