I Take History With My Coffee

A historical journey through the Early Modern period

I Take History With My Coffee


Recent Episodes

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84: The Squalid Drama: Succession, Madness, and the Foreign Takeover of Spain (1504-1517)
Dec. 2, 2025

84: The Squalid Drama: Succession, Madness, and the Foreign Takeover of Spain (1504-1517)

When Queen Isabel of Castile died on November 26, 1504, she left behind a unified Spain and a disastrous succession crisis. Over the following thirteen years, a series of unexpected deaths, political conspiracies, and a conve...
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83: The Crucible of Spanish Power: How Granada Forged Spanish Dominance
Nov. 17, 2025

83: The Crucible of Spanish Power: How Granada Forged Spanish Dominance

On the night of January 1, 1492, Christian soldiers quietly entered Granada's Alhambra palace. By dawn, the banners of Castile and Aragon flew from the towers of Iberia's last Muslim kingdom. Royal heralds announced a glorious military conquest blessed by divine providence. The reality was much mes…
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82: Crown, Cross, and Crisis: Spain's Inquisition and the Expulsion of 1492
Nov. 3, 2025

82: Crown, Cross, and Crisis: Spain's Inquisition and the Expulsion of 1492

The year 1492 is one of the most important in Spanish history. While Columbus sailed west across the Atlantic, Jews were forced to flee east, ending over a thousand years of Jewish presence on the Iberian Peninsula. That same...
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81: The Making of Royal Spain: Isabel, Fernando, and the 1480 Reforms
Oct. 20, 2025

81: The Making of Royal Spain: Isabel, Fernando, and the 1480 Reforms

Send Me A Text Message In 1480, the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon faced a pivotal moment. Years of civil war, noble violence, and weakening royal authority had left Spain divided and fragile. However, during a single parliamentary session—the Cortes of Toledo—Isabel and Fernando implemented reform…
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80: Blood, Vows, and the Throne: Isabel and Fernando's Fight for Castile
Oct. 1, 2025

80: Blood, Vows, and the Throne: Isabel and Fernando's Fight for Castile

Send Me A Text Message In October 1469, two 17-year-old cousins made a decision that would change European history. Their secret marriage, performed with a possibly forged papal bull and in direct defiance of the King of Castile, sparked a decade-long struggle that would determine the future of med…
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79: Iberia at the Crossroads: Political Crisis in the 15th Century
Sept. 17, 2025

79: Iberia at the Crossroads: Political Crisis in the 15th Century

Send Me A Text Message In the 15th century, the Iberian Peninsula stood at a crossroads between medieval fragmentation and modern unity. Four Christian kingdoms—Castile, Aragon, Portugal, and Navarre—shared the peninsula with the Muslim emirate of Granada, each fiercely independent yet shaped by ce…
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Recent Blog Posts

15th Century Aragonese Monarchs
Sept. 15, 2025

15th Century Aragonese Monarchs

Marti I (1396-1410), Book of Privileges of the Carthusian Monastery of Valldecrist, 15th century   Central panel of the altarpiece of the Archbishop of Toledo Sancho de Rojas, from San Benito el Real, Valladolid. The Virgin crowns the arc…

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15th Century Castilian Monarchs
Sept. 15, 2025

15th Century Castilian Monarchs

Juan II (1406-1454). Portrait by Francisco Prats y Velesco, 1848   Enrique IV (1454-1474). Miniature from the  journal of Georg von Ehingen, 1481   Isabella (1474-1504), anonymous portrait, circa 1490

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Spanish Monarchies - 15th-Century
Sept. 12, 2025

Spanish Monarchies - 15th-Century

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