The evil of internal disorder which for so many years had been hanging over the Castilian monarchy came to a head in the reign of Henry IV “the Impotent” (1454-1474). If Juan II had been weak, Henry IV was weaker still, and he had no Álvaro de Luna to lean upon. He commenced his reign with an act of characteristic flaccidity which was to serve as one of the pretexts for the insurrections against him. War was declared upon Granada, and the Castilian army reached the gates of the Moslem capital, when the king developed a humanitarianism which hardly fitted the times, declining to engage in a decisive battle lest it prove to be bloody. A more important pretext for rebellion arose out of a dynastic question. Failing to have issue by his first wife, Henry procured a divorce and married again. For six years there were no children by this marriage, wherefore the derisive name “the Impotent” was popularly applied to the king, but at length a daughter appeared, and was given the name Juana. Public opinion, especially as voiced by the nobles, proclaimed that the father was the king’s favorite, Beltrán de la Cueva, on which account the young Juana became known vulgarly as “La Beltraneja.” The _Cortes_ acknowledged Juana, and she was also recognized as heir to the throne by the king’s brothers and by his sister, Isabella, but the nobles formed a league on the basis of her supposed illegitimacy with the object of killing the favorite. They directed an insulting letter to the king, demanding that his brother, Alfonso, should be named heir. Instead of presenting a bold front against these demands, Henry was weak enough to consent to them. [Sidenote: The seigniorial program and the vacillation of the king.]