ferdinand died in 1516 in madrigalejo, cáceres, extremadura. he had made spain the most powerful country in europe. the succession of his grandson charles, who inherited not only the spanish lands of his maternal grandparents, but the habsburg and burgundian lands of his paternal family, would make his heirs the most powerful rulers on the continent. charles succeeded him in the aragonese lands, and was also granted the castilian crown jointly with his insane mother, bringing about at long last the unification of the spanish thrones under one head.