Wikipedia, probably. Most specifically, Spanish history articles, especially from 1480-1530 or so. My main Wikipedia article I wrote - which I proposed for "Featured Article" status, i.e. can hit the front page for a day, but was rejected due to nebulous concerns about prose - is at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolt_of_the_ComunerosSo this involved reading all the English language literature on it, as well as some of the Spanish language stuff. This is a pretty neat revolt if I do say so myself - while Hernando Cortes was conquering Mexico, rebels controlled the capital and main central area of Spain (!!) while the King was busy overseas. It's interesting from a modern perspective, too - the rebels were basically democrats with a light early-Christian-socialist edge in the sense of "get rid of feudal lords, distribute land equally," etc. They also had zero interest in Spanish imperialism where Spain would try and conquer the world, rule Germany, etc. at great cost. On the downside by modern values, the rebels were also bigoted xenophobes - one of their complaints about the court was that it was "corrupt." And by corrupt we mean "includes Jews and converted Jews, and accepts Jewish bribes for non-interference with their affairs." Also there were too many foreigners the foreign king brought along into his court and not enough pure-blooded Castilians. To be clear I'm probably on the rebel side, but hey. You'd think that the royalist side would be the usual coalition of nobles, except the royalty was normally seen as a *check* on the nobility, and the nobility were pissed off that foreigners had gotten plum court positions too. So some nobles joined the rebellion at first. Once the rebellion got all radical and land reformy, the nobles decided that they loved the king after all, and joined in. Also merchants and traders and capitalists - especially in Andalusia, the southern coast - were definitely on the side of the King here. Interesting stuff.
To be geekier, a lot of the revolt reminds me of Suikoden V, with some of the positions reversed (i.e. the nobles and royalists are the same side, unlike Suiko V, but the royalists are still the more "enlightened" side with regard to racism and such.) One of the signal incidents of the war is the same as Suiko V, with sides reversed - the royalists burn down a village, which has the effect of causing many more towns to rise in revolt rather than be cowed into submission. Oops.
If anybody has any prose suggestions, definitely send them over. I've been meaning to re-proposed this for Featured Article status sometime.
Other notable articles:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granada_WarStill incomplete, the final conquest by Ferdinand & Isabella of Muslim Granada.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolt_of_the_BrotherhoodsWhile the Revolt of the Comuneros was going on in Castile, the Germanies (= Brotherhoods) were revolting in Aragon. This time it was the merchant tradesmen in revolt, although a smaller one. The rebels also turned violently anti-Muslim later, as the noblemen who employed cheap Muslim labor stood up for 'em while the poor Christians hated them for lowering wages. Sound familiar? They did a bunch of forced baptisms, too. Later found to be legit, since they weren't totally forced- it was "convert or die" not "you are not converted." How sweet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27EncobertI wrote some spinoff articles on the Comunero events too, but this guy from the Revolt of the Brotherhoods is extra fun. Mysterious dude with a secret past who was given a message by God to be the chosen one to save the people and lead the revolt? Right out of an RPG. Until he dies. Oops. We still have no idea who he really was.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsion_of_the_MoriscosSo there's a money shortage and a combination of the greedy treasurer and the fanatic cardinal team up to say "Hey we can cure our budget crisis and do our bit for Christ by robbing all of our Moriscos! Who cares that they're technically fellow Christians now!" This is 100 years after the forced conversion, so while they were weird Christians, they actually kinda were at this point. One of the main guys behind this,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_de_Ribera , ends up getting canonized in the 1960s. I seriously wonder WTF happened there - this guy was literally an anti-missionary in the sense that he lost souls for Christ by kicking them out and sending them to Muslim lands, because by this point it had become a racism / classism thing in Spain where the Moriscos were just a hated underclass.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolt_of_the_Barretinashttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_BrotherhoodThese two revolts happen much later. Check out the first article for funny hats and arguments over a chicken. France misses another golden opportunity to invade after stirring up a rebellion, and later makes the entire region hate them. Fun.
