Madrigalejo, 14 April. On Saturday, the Town Council of Madrigalejo, the Government of Extremadura and the House of Alba Foundation will present the new facsimile of the final will of Ferdinand the Catholic, a document whose original was signed by the monarch on 22 January 1516 in Casa de Santa Maria in Madrigalejo, in other words, just one day before his death in this town in Cáceres.
The ceremony, which will be held in the Church of San Juan Bautista in Madrigalejo, will be attended by Guillermo Fernández Vara, President of the Government of Extremadura, Sergio Rey, Mayor of Madrigalejo, Carlos Fitz-James Stuart y Martínez de Irujo, Duke of Alba. José Manuel Calderón, archivist and librarian of the Casa de Alba Foundation, will perform the presentation and provide a historical review of the will.
This second facsimile of the will has been completed by the Town Council of Madrigalejo and the European Academy of Yuste Foundation. This limited edition is accompanied by a historical introduction and also includes a full transcript of the will written on parchment, the original of which is housed in the Library of the Casa de Alba Foundation.
After the presentation of the will the Orchestra of Extremadura will offer a concert commemorating the 5th Centenary of the Death of Ferdinand the Catholic, presented by Emilio González Barroso.
The great importance of this final will of Ferdinand the Catholic lies in the fact that in it he named Queen Joanna of Castile as his universal heir and, in view of the latter’s supposed inability to rule, his grandson Charles. Thus, all the territories we now know as Spain were unified under one crown for the first time.
This year sees the celebration of the 5th Centenary of the Death of Ferdinand the Catholic in Madrigalejo, an event which has been declared an Event of Exceptional Public Interest by the Spanish Parliament.
The event is sponsored by Caja Almendralejo, with the collaboration of the European Academy of Yuste Foundation, the Tatiana Pérez de Guzmán el Bueno Foundation, Iberdrola and the Royal Monastery of Guadalupe.
