Columbus never acknowledged that he had done any such thing as sail to a new world, or continent. In the face of ever-mounting contrary evidence he maintained to the grave (pictured, though this is not the original tomb; his body got moved around a great deal, but since the end of the 19th century it has been here, in Seville Cathedral, resting on the shoulders of kings of the four main Spanish realms) that the lands he had discovered, and for a time governed, were off the shores of Cathay, or even part of the Asiatic mainland. But he was that sort of man, combining an unassailable conviction that he was right about absolutely everything with a remarkable capacity for getting almost everything wrong. And if he had not been like that, and incredibly determined and resolute with it, he would never have set sail, and subsequent events would have been much different.

He would also have never set sail were it not for the support of the Catholic Kings, Ferrando II of Aragón and his wife Isabella I of Castile. That support had been by no means assured; Columbus had applied to them before and been turned down, as he had by João II of Portugal and Henry VII of England. The Spanish royal couple had had a busy year, completing the Reconquista in January by taking Granada, and expelling all the Jews from Spain in March (including those of Granada, in flagrant violation of the treaty of surrender they had signed less than three months before), but still found time to listen to Columbus, again, and turn him down, again. But this time Ferrando had a change of heart, and against his wife and fellow monarch’s objections called Columbus back and authorised the voyage.

The Portuguese and English sovereigns had more in common with the Spanish pair than just having been approached by Columbus. Both were, like the Catholic Kings, strong monarchs who centralised power in their hands, quelled a fractious nobility, restored peace and order to their realms and replenished bankrupt treasuries. Ivan III of Russia and Hans of Denmark and Norway (plus, for a time, Sweden, though not yet at this date) were also similar types, particularly Ivan III, who absorbed all the different Russian principalities plus a republic or two into the Moscow Grand Principality, and began to call himself ruler of all Russia and sometimes even Tsar, though the title was not permanently adopted until the reign of his grandson Ivan IV.

Vladislav II of Bohemia and Hungary was definitely not like that. In fact, he was nicknamed ‘King All Right’, because ‘all right’ is what he said to almost any request made of him. This King Log approach kept him on his thrones, but was not much to the benefit of his realms. Nor was Charles VIII of France much like most of his contemporary rulers, his mild, pleasant air gaining him the sobriquet of ‘Charles the Affable’. He was not in truth quite such an ineffectual ruler as Vladislav II, but unfortunately wasted his energies, and despoiled rather than replenished the French treasury, in vain struggles to conquer the Kingdom of Naples which Pope Innocent VIII had kindly bestowed on him (neglectful, as had often been the Papal habit, of the fact that it was not his to give).

James IV of Scotland was more capable than either Vladislav II or Charles VIII, and certainly much more energetic than the former. He did a considerably better job than his father James III of handling the Scottish nobility, but subduing them and bringing the country to peace, order and prosperity was far beyond the meagre resources of any Scottish monarch.

The last of the 1492 monarchs left to cover, the Emperor Friedrich III (there is not too much to say of Catherine of Navarre, except that it was during her reign that an invasion led by Ferrando II reduced what had once been the dominant Spanish realm to a remnant on the other side of the Pyrenees), was actually the first to reign. He is perhaps under-appreciated, the first Habsburg Emperor, and progenitor of all the many that followed, the last Emperor ever to be crowned in Rome, and successful with his patient policies in laying the foundations of his dynasty’s powerful position in Europe over the next several centuries.

It was, then, a time of change in Europe, the modern era as we now see really starting to take hold, and some of these monarchs, powerful rulers with quite different ideas on government than their predecessors, were important figures in the continent’s political evolution. Also important to that were the consequences of a certain Genoese sailor’s inability to get anything right, and stubborn refusal to give up on his dreams.

The relationships of the monarchs of the day are covered in a single chart, but with an additional table for Ivan III. The chart proved just slightly too large to post in one piece, and as the sole Orthodox sovereign he was the natural choice to show separately. His relationships however are not examples and are intended to be the closest, so they are included in the combined statistics that follow the chart, key and statistical summary, and table for Ivan III. A two-part note on posterities concludes the thread.

For an explanation of how to read the chart, click here.

A note on posterities – continued

Of the two legitimate children of João II, the younger died the day he was born and the elder aged 16 in a riding accident, leaving the throne to the king's first cousin Manoel I and his posterity (and that of his father, Afonso V) to his illegitimate son Jorge.

Afonso, Prince of Portugal, the king's heir who died in that tragic (and, some think, suspicious) accident in 1491, was as far as I can see the last descendant of João II to bear a royal title. Until this century, 23 April 2001 to be precise. And after the duck of centuries had been broken another royal descendant of João II was born, on 6 August 2003, one who would had things gone otherwise have one day been the royal pretender to an ancient throne:

1 João II, King of Portugal & Ana de Mendoza
2 Jorge de Lancastre, bâtard de Portugal, 2. Duque de Coimbra
3 João de Lancastre, 1. Duque de Aveiro
4 Jorge de Lancastre, 2. Duque de Aveiro
5 Juliana de Lancastre, 3. Duquesa de Aveiro m Alvaro de Lancastre, Duque de Aveiro
6 Affonso de Lancastre, 1. Duque de Abrantes
7 Agostinho de Lancastre Padilla, 2. Duque de Abrantes
8 Doña Maria Josefa de Lancastre y Noroña m Don Bernardino de Carvajal y Sanda de Vivero e Moctezuma, 2. Conde de la Enjarada
9 Don Juan Antonio de Carvajal y de Láncaster, 4. Duque de Abrantes
10 Don Manuel Bernardino Antonio de Carvajal y Zuñiga Láncaster y Noroña Ramirez de Arellano, 5. Duque de Abrantes
11 Doña Maria del Buen-Consejo de Gonzaga de Carvajal y de Gonzaga m Don Antonio Maria Ponce de León y Dávila, 3. Duque de Montemar
12 Doña Maria del Carmen Ponce de Leon y Carvajal, Duquesa de Montemar m Don Vicente Isabel Osorio de Moscoso y Alvarez de Toledo, Conde de Altamira
13 Vicente Pio Osorio de Moscoso, 15. Duque de Sessa
14 Don José Maria Osorio de Moscoso y Carvajal, 16. Duque de Sessa (m Infanta Luisa Teresa of Spain)
15 Dona Maria Cristina Osorio de Moscoso y Borbón, 9. Duquesa de Atrisco m Eugène, 6. Prince-Duc de Bauffremont-Courtenay
16 Théodore, 7. Prince-Duc de Bauffremont Courtenay
17 Jacques, 8. Prince-Duc de Bauffremont Courtenay
18 Princesse Isabelle de Bauffremont Courtenay, Princesse de Marnay m Comte Louis Mériadek de Rohan-Chabot
19 Marie-Liesse de Rohan-Chabot m Eudes, Prince d'Orléans
20 Thérèse, Princesse d'Orléans and Pierre, Prince d'Orléans

Something interesting might be noticed about the name of the husband in the eighth generation. Yes indeed, Prince Eudes' children are descendants through their mother of Montezuma II. Also, I might add, of James II and VII via his illegitimate son, the famous Marshal Duke of Berwick, of the infamous Cesare Borgia, Duke of Valentinois, who along with his full sister Lucrezia was the most notorious of Pope Alexander VI's numerous illegitimate children, and of Giacomo Boncompagni, Duke of Sora, illegitimate son of Pope Gregory XIII, of calendar fame. Descent from Popes Alexander VI and Paul III is universal in Catholic royalty, and from Innocent VIII (referred to in the introduction) and Julius II very widespread. However, descent from Gregory XIII and Clement VII, the other two Popes with known posterity today, is common in Italian and Spanish aristocracy but very unusual in royal lines; the only other royalty I can think of descended from the former are the children of the elder Prince Guillaume of Luxembourg.

Likewise, while descent from Alexander VI through Lucrezia and one or two other of his children is general in Catholic lines, descent from Cesare is not. The children and further descendants of Xavier, Duke of Parma share it, through his Bourbon-Busset wife (Prince Eudes' children also have it through a Bourbon-Busset ancestor of their mother's), but no other royalty that I am aware of. In the fourteenth generation, I put Infanta Luisa Teresa of Spain in brackets because she is there as additional information, that the rich and fascinating maternal ancestry of the young Prince and Princess includes legitimate as well as remote illegitimate (and Aztec) royal blood, rather than as part of the chain of descent. Infanta Luisa Teresa was a daughter of the Infante Francisco de Paula, youngest son of Carlos IV.

The only pity is that these very interesting descents, including that from João II, an arguably great and certainly significant Portuguese monarch, are most unlikely to spread further through even Catholic royalty. A few generations ago they would have stood a chance, but today, alas no.