Christopher Columbus died In Valladolid, Spain on May 20, 1506 at the age of 55 years. His death occurred after staying ill for more than eighteen months in the Villa of Valladolid to the care of his family, during the reign of Fernando II of Aragon and Isabel I of Castile (Britannica, The Encyclopædia Britannica, 2007).
While in Valladolid, Christopher Columbus looked forward to being given the official recognition, money, and privileges promised to him. Even months before his death, he moved from Valladolid to Segovia with difficulty, to speak with King Fernando II, who was mainly evasive on the subject.
The tomb of Christopher Columbus, in the south arm of the cruise of the Cathedral of Seville, (Spain).
After months of agony and suffering, on May 20, 1506 Christopher Columbus suddenly became worse and his sons Diego and Fernando, his brother Diego and some fellow sailors were with him in Valladolid until the moment of his death. A Mass was celebrated in his name and the spirit of the explorer was commending to God.
After the funeral celebrated by the Catholic church in Valladolid, the body of Christopher Columbus was buried in the monastery of the Carthusian monastery of Santa María de las Cuevas in Seville. In 1542, the body was exhumed and taken to Santo Domingo in the Caribbean, where it remained until the island was ceded to the French in 1790 (Minster, 2016).
In 1790 the body of Christopher Columbus was moved back to Havana, Cuba. In 1988 Spain lost the colony of Cuba and the remains of the explorer were transferred again to Spain. Currently they remain in the Cathedral of Seville (Today, 2006).
History of Valladolid
The history of Valladolid is linked to some of the most important figures in the history of Spain, including Christopher Columbus.
The Villa of Valladolid was founded in the 11th century by Count Pedro Ansúrez, who built the church of Santa María de la Antigua and the Puente Mayor on the Pisuegra River, transforming Valladolid into a bureaucratic center.
During the two following centuries the Villa of Valladolid grew significantly, becoming the place of settlement of the Crown of Castile. In the thirteenth century, thanks to the kings Fernando III and Alfonso X, Valladolid lived its most glorious times.
It was in this Villa, in the Palace of the Nursery where Ferdinand II of Aragon and Elizabeth I of Castile (the Catholic monarchs) engaged in marriage to unite two of the greatest kingdoms of the time (Britannica, 1998).
It was the very kings of Spain, Fernando and Isabel, who sponsored Cristobal Colon's travels to America (without knowing that he had arrived in America) and later questioned the mental health of Christopher Columbus while he was in Valladolid. He was denied official recognition, money, and the privileges that had been promised to him before his expeditions.
It is said that Christopher Columbus was not the only important character in the history of Spain who died in this municipality. Miguel de Cervantes also spent his last years of life in Valladolid, where his house can still be observed.
After the death of Christopher Columbus, Valladolid saw the birth of Felipe II and Felipe III, who moved to the court of Madrid in the seventeenth century, removing the political power of Valladolid.
It was at this time that the city began to decline, and during the eighteenth century, the population of the city had been reduced by 80%, retaining only twenty thousand inhabitants of the hundred thousand who once inhabited this territory.
Valladolid overcame the French invasion in the nineteenth century and the Spanish civil war, experiencing spectacular economic growth later, thanks to the development of the automotive industry.
Today, Valladolid is a modern city with a population of approximately 400,000 inhabitants, being the capital of Castile and Leon, the largest autonomous region of Europe (Spain, 2017).
Valladolid in the 16th century
During the stay of Christopher Columbus in Valladolid, Spain was characterized by being one of the most prosperous regions of Europe. The wealth of Valladolid at this time had no equal, a condition that made it one of the most attractive places for the richest merchants in the world to settle there.
In the sixteenth century Europe faced the backwardness of the Middle Ages and Christianity that recognized poverty as one of the greatest virtues. For this reason, poverty was evident in several regions where the message of the church had been addressed.
Approximately ten years after the death of Christopher Columbus, the Court of Valladolid made an effort to control poverty, confining beggars and poor people to inhabit their villages, forbidding them to enter the Villa (Moses, 1983).
After the death of Christopher Columbus, in 1550 Valladolid was the site of an event known as the Debate, defined as the first moral debate held in the history of Europe around the rights and treatment that should be given to people Colonized by the colonizers.
The Debate of Valladolid was a moral and theological debate that discussed the colonization of the Americas and justified that the colonized people should be converted to Catholicism, which established the type of relationship that should have been between the European colonizers and the natives of the The new World.
In Valladolid were presented multiple points of view that ensured the existence of other ways of approaching Native Americans other than religion. It was argued that natives could be integrated into colonial life without the necessity of forcibly converting them to Christianity, imposing upon them certain rights and obligations.
The final verdict of the Valladolid Debate was to assume that the Native Americans were to be converted to Christianity, with the aim of correcting the crimes committed by them against nature, such as the sacrifice of innocents and cannibalism.
It is emphasized that this debate was the moral manifesto around issues related to justice and power that could be exercised by settlers in the new world (Ojibwa, 2011).
References
- Britannica, T. E. (July 20, 1998). The Encyclopædia Britannica . Retrieved from Catholic Monarchs: britannica.com.
- Britannica, T. E. (13 November 2007). The Encyclopædia Britannica . Obtained from Valladolid: britannica.com.
- Minster, C. (Aug. 22, 2016). Co . From Where are the Remains of Christopher Columbus?: thoughtco.com.
- Moses, B. (September 1983). The Economic Condition of Spain in the Sixteenth Century. Journal of Political Economy , p. 513-515.
- (July 18, 2011). Native American Netroots . Retrieved from The Great Debate: nativeamericannetroots.net.
- Spain, T. (2017). Tour Spain . Retrieved from History of Valladolid: tourspain.org.
- Today, H. (2006). Death of Christopher Columbus. History Today, Volume 56 Issue 5 .