Ferdinand and Isabella Marry in Valladolid

October 19, 1469

The seventeen-year-old princess of Castile and the eighteen-year-old prince of Aragon were secretly wed in a private ceremony with a forged papal dispensation, both dressed in borrowed finery. The marriage quietly united the Iberian crowns and set in motion the Reconquista's completion, the Inquisition, and eventually the Spanish Empire. The forged papal dispensation was replaced by a genuine one only after consummation, a diplomatic irregularity that nearly derailed the union.