Prologue: Between Light and Darkness

The flame of one man's life is now about to burn out.

It was a glorious life. Many would look back upon his lifetime in such terms. Even heaven itself welcomes the invitation of this man to ascend above. The mountains of Moncayo, viewed from his deathbed, burn crimson in the setting sun. The atmosphere is tensely sacred, clear and transparent. The twilight curtain folds its pleats from dawn to indigo, then to blue, enveloping the castle. Heaven and earth, light and darkness, life and death. Everything intersects in the twilight zone, and the heavenly bells ring out to honor the man's lifetime. Yet at that moment, what passes through his heart is nothing but regret and despair.

The man emerged into the world early. Those who encountered him in his childhood days—whether wise or dull—immediately understood that a special intelligence dwelt deep within the boy's eyes. When he became a young man, that intelligence, guided by an inevitability like waves returning to the sea from the shore, came to the attention of King Juan II of Aragon.

Medicine, herbalism, astronomy, geopolitics, military affairs. The man's intellect excelled in every domain. However, what particularly caught the attention of Juan II was his ability to manage the kingdom's finances. Like many medieval states, the history of the Kingdom of Aragon was one of constant warfare and internal strife. Juan II needed great wisdom and money to overcome the chaos and achieve peace for his kingdom.

The man's special abilities in finance were influenced by ethnic background that transcended individual power. He was a descendant of the trading people who had fled from the eastern Mediterranean coast to the Iberian Peninsula during the era when Jesus of Nazareth was said to have lived. This group, later called Sephardim (Spanish Jews), settled in the Iberian Peninsula and coexisted with successive rulers. In ancient times with the Muslims of the Umayyad dynasty or the Nasrid dynasty. Later with Roman Catholic Christians. The man's clan had also preserved their faith for hundreds of years, living as a precarious minority exposed to danger within the mainstream.

However, a little before the man's grandfather's generation, a terrible plague swept the world. The plague. The Iberian Peninsula also became purgatory. One in three died. Christians sought an outlet for their fear in the internal foreigners and pressed upon them. This is your fault. Will you convert, die, or leave forever?

Many Jews chose exile or death. Among them, the man's clan, who held responsibility for the survival of their people, chose to fulfill their duty to those who remained. Many members of the clan kissed the cross while trembling with humiliation. They were called Conversos.

The Jewish people had been deeply involved in Mediterranean trade since long before the time of Jesus of Nazareth. There, the preservation, measurement, and exchange standards of value were always at issue. The Sephardic people who lived at the crossroads of trade developed their own monetary concepts and deepened their insights regarding their utilization. The man's father was already involved in royal finances as a capable tax farmer. Other members of the clan were engaged in treasury asset management. It could be said that such ethnic accumulation was sublimated through the intellect of one man and appeared before Juan II.

Of course, the king knew that the man was a Converso. However, this did not in the least dull the king's resolve. This man harbors a power that no one in his clan possesses. Juan II promoted the man without hesitation.

"Luis de Santángel. I appoint you as Treasurer of the Kingdom of Aragon."

This story begins by shedding light on the life of one royal treasurer who survived the turbulent era of medieval Spain.

Days of Advancement

The 1460s. The Kingdom of Aragon, together with the Kingdom of Castile, was a multi-ethnic, multi-institutional state in the preliminary stage toward Spanish unification. The Catalonia region, over which the Kingdom of Aragon had exerted influence, bore the autonomous charter "Usatges" and had long held unique autonomous rights. Catalonia had long developed commerce and handicraft industries, and its core city Barcelona had developed its own powerful economic sphere. The Catalonian autonomous forces, backed by this economic power, viewed Juan II as a symbol of centralization and an enemy of autonomy.

In the summer of 1460, rebellion began in earnest in the Catalonia region. Urban nobles and autonomous institutions centered in Barcelona began to confront royal authority with armed force. This was the Catalonian Conflict. The interests of the Catalonian rebel faction aligned with those of King Pedro of Portugal and the Kingdom of France in their desire for the weakening of the Kingdom of Aragon. With such external powers supporting Catalonia, the conflict intensified.

Like many famous strategists who left their names in history, Santángel did not mistake the master he should serve in the tense situation. Santángel chose to live for Juan II. Summer of 1462. In the hot season when the scorching sun burned the skin, he moved from Barcelona, where he had previously established residence, to Valencia, the central city of the royalist faction. Barcelona was a city that formed the core of Catalonian forces, and continuing to reside there could well have been seen as anti-royalist. Santángel demonstrated through action the life-or-death decision he had made and pledged loyalty to the king.

Moving to Valencia, Santángel worked energetically. He devoted his intellect, financial resources, and network to resolving the Catalonian Conflict. His first undertaking was to improve the kingdom's financial situation. In 1472, Santángel obtained leasing rights to the La Mata salt works near Valencia, which was royal property. He entered into a contract to pay annual usage fees to the royal household. In effect, he undertook the "privatization" of royal assets and financed the treasury, which had become strained by civil war. Through such transactions, Juan II came to place even greater trust in the loyalty and capabilities of Santángel and his clan.

Isabella and Ferdinand

At the same time as this financial management, Santángel was involved in an even more significant secret project: the political marriage between Ferdinand II, son of Juan II, and Isabella I of the Kingdom of Castile. The neighboring Kingdom of Castile to Aragon was ruled by Henry IV. After bloody political strife, Henry recognized his half-sister Isabella as heir to the throne. Henry sought to arrange Isabella's political marriage with the King of Portugal or French royalty to expand Castile's influence.

If the Kingdom of Castile, which formed the core of the Iberian Peninsula, allied with Portugal or France, the small kingdom of Aragon would be helpless. The Catalonian autonomous forces would also regain momentum, the Aragonese royalist faction would split, and eventually face the crisis of destruction. Marrying Ferdinand II to Isabella was a national project that would determine the fate of the Kingdom of Aragon. And its realization would actually move the world significantly.

Juan II presented Isabella with a ruby necklace, a secret treasure of the Aragonese royal house, to win her favor. Its value was said to be equivalent to an entire great castle. However, this was not all that Juan II prepared as dowry for this engagement. It is said he even pledged that after the marriage of the two, all income derived from the territories of Aragon, Valencia, and Castile would belong personally to Isabella. Juan II literally staked everything on this political marriage. And it was Santángel who, at the king's request, devised the strategy for this dangerous gamble and executed it.

October 19, 1469. The two monarchs held their wedding ceremony in utmost secrecy in the "Hall of Wealth" of the Vivero Palace in Valladolid. At this time Isabella was eighteen years old. Ferdinand was seventeen. Learning of this later, Henry was furious and declared he would revoke Isabella's right of succession to the throne. However, the marriage of the two had already become a fait accompli among influential people in society. Henry could not overturn this. Juan II and Santángel had won their gamble.

Through this political marriage, the United Kingdom of Castile and Aragon secured its position as the leading power of the Iberian Peninsula. Both monarchs would turn the wheels of history vigorously to unify the peninsula, which had been in turmoil for over a millennium.

Where Did I Go Wrong

Suddenly realizing, the mountains of Moncayo had already passed through the twilight zone and were about to sink into the melancholy darkness of late autumn. Santángel's physical body had already completed its role, and now there remained only to wait quietly for heaven to gently extinguish that pale, thin flame of life. The candlelight quietly illuminates that face, deeply etched with the furrows of anguish. That strangely pure light resurrects yet more memories of the past in the man's mind. Even at death's door, he continues to question himself.

"Where did I go wrong?"

When Juan II departed this world, perhaps he too should have returned to being a common citizen. However, the times still needed Santángel's abilities, and he took pride in believing he could respond to that need.

Ferdinand II, the son entrusted to him by the late king. And Queen Isabella, who carved out her own destiny. If he supported both monarchs, surely the united kingdom could achieve unification of the peninsula. And the human hearts devastated by plague and war would find peace, and the Sephardim would also be able to continue coexisting with Christians. Until the beginning of that year when tragedy struck, Santángel believed this.

However, the wheels of history sometimes mercilessly and cruelly mark the times. When a lifelong wish is fulfilled, that very moment can become the trigger for despair. Such things happen from time to time.

Everything in his life existed for that one year. Before his departure into death, Santángel understood this. 1492. For the sake of the days of that year, he was born, learned, and prepared. And he ran through it frantically. What was justice and what was evil? He still does not know. However, after that year passed, what remained for Santángel was regret and anguish that would never disappear until the moment his life ended.