Originally posted by Doomdark:
About Aragon, are you saying that it was still independent in 1492?
Note: you can skip til the * if you wanna
Theorically, yes
The Castilian-Leonese king that now also was the Aragonese was supposed to have the obligation of going to the Courts of Barcelona, Zaragoza and València(+Pamplona, in Navarra and Lisboa later on) to give noblemen there a good reason not to rebel against them(bribes, not having to pay as much as the other kingdoms in spain, priviliges, osv), coz they were never threatened, they could have refused being vassals if they wanted(theorically, again, if they did so they would instead be vassals by force, it was just a matter of time

).
But lots of laws remained the same after the marriage of Fernando and Isabel, in all of the kingdoms and duchies and so on, even if these laws mostly werent respected. 'Ley es lo que manda el rey', ie 'if the king wants something he'll get it wether you like or not' This was the way they dealt with Aragon all the time.
And when that war in 15** against france broke out-the one in which france annexed rosselló(I think its called rousillion in french)- troops from Castile came and defended catalunya with the help of a aragonese army that only existed in case Aragó was invaded.
After years of decrease of every single sort of power, the aragonese, catalan, valencian and balearic noblemen turned their sights(probably foolishly) to the austrian emperor instead of to the french one when the spanish war of succession broke out. They lost, so all their laws and privileges suddenly dissapeared
* So, what I mean is:
I dont have the game, but I think a vassal country in EU pays to the stronger country half of his income and has to help him in exchange if the lil poor is in military trouble. And so it was historically in Spain. So Aragó shouldnt be totally independent, that wouldnt be historical, but a vassalage would be grate.
[This message has been edited by pcongre (edited 30-01-2001).]