Resplendence of the Spanish Monarchy Renaissance Tapestries and Armor from the Patrimonio Nacional

With the conquest of Granada in 1492, Ferdinand of Aragón and Isabelle of Castile became the first rulers of all Spain. The discovery of the New World in the same year put them in command of vast, previously untapped resources. When their Hapsburg grandson came to the throne in 1516 as Charles I of Spain—later to govern the Holy Roman Empire as Charles V—Spanish sovereignty expanded still further, for Charles brought with his as his paternal inheritance the duchy of Burgundy, including the Netherlands where he was born. A formidable power in Europe, endowed with a flourishing empire overseas, Spain in the sixteenth century was thus ideally placed to enjoy a Golden Age.
Both Charles I and his son Philip II were monarchs of their time, acting as generous patrons of the arts. They were in a position to call on the best that Europe could supply, and with possessions in Italy as well as Flanders, they had ready access to the two mainsprings of the Renaissance. The collections they formed offer a uniquely privileged view of Renaissance taste and artistry.