10 Things to Know about Queen Isabella of Castille

A woman that towered over a patriarchal society and period. Isabella of Castille transformed her Kingdom from a divided society into a great power in Europe. Her reign saw the establishment of an Empire where the sun never sets.

1. Isabella grew up a country girl

Isabella of Portugal and King John II of Castille welcomed their daughter Isabella on April 22, 1451 in the town of Madrigal de las Altas Torres. Her birth went less celebrated than her male siblings, her older brother the future King Enrique IV and her younger brother Alfonso. At the age of 3, she lose her father and she, Alfonso, and Isabella went in a small town of Arevalo.

Isabella then lived simpler for a member of the royal family and tended to her brother. Meanwhile, she also began her early instruction under the Franciscan monks of the nearby monastery. She became pious finding comfort and strength in the Catholic Church. A relationship that impacted her future reign.

Isabella of Castile

2. Her brother came to be a notorious impotent

While Isabella lived her childhood peacefully, her older brother King Enrique IV reigned turbulently. He started as a promising monarch, but descended towards decadence and favouritism. In particular, he showered favors to a humble-by-birth Beltrán de la Cueva. With personal preference as norm of governance, nobles began to fight over influence and power while others alarmed by the decline of a once mighty power in the Iberian Peninsula.

Enrique's lack of effort for a sagacious kingship said to have reflected his lack of interest in bed. He had no male heir triggering nobles to call him insultingly as “El Impotente” (the Impotent). Thus, salacious rumors even spread of a liaison between Enrique’s wife and Cueva, resulting to the birth of Juana. 

Enrique IV

3. She had a politically turbulent teenage years

As puberty came, Isabella’s family received a royal command for them to move to the Castilian capital of Segovia. Officially, the move aimed to further their education, but in reality a way to keep an eye on the competition. Enrique mistrusted Isabella and Alfonso.

As Isabella saw the fairytale-like Alcazar Castle of Segovia, nobles looked more and more disgusted over Enrique’s rule. The King seemed weak and descended into further influence of Cueva, who he raised as Duke of Albuquerque. The nobles, thus, looked to Alfonso as an alternative.

By 1464, group of nobles declared Alfonso King in Avila. Rebellion soon began, while Isabella stayed a prisoner in Alcazar, her brother fought in a rebellion winning against Enrique himself. Tide seems in their favour but in 1468, the would-be King suspiciously died.

Earstwhile, Isabella observed and learned politics, diplomacy, patience, and strategy. Realizing her gender and age placing her in a disadvantage after her brother’s passing, she bought time and sued for a favourable peace with Enrique under the Accord of Toros Guisando on September 19, 1468.

Etching of Alcazar, 1842, by Jose Maria Avrial

4. She fought her niece for the throne

A stipulation of the Accord appointed Isabella as heir of Enrique IV, who, in exchange, gained the right to choose his younger sister’s future husband. Isabella, unfortunately, deprived Enrique of this right and in 1479 married the most politically advantageous man in the Peninsula, Prince Fernando of the Kingdom of Aragon, a country that recently built a Mediterranean Empire.

As a result, Isabella lose her position as heir to her “bastard” niece, Juana. In 1474, Enrique finally passed away leaving no will but married off Juana to King Afonso V of Portugal. Isabella knew her blood ties stronger than the so-called la Beltraneja (little Beltrán). 

With the might of Aragon and loyal Castillians, she fought a nasty War of Castillian Succession that lasted until 1479. Afonso V decided he wanted to live as a hermit and planned to abdicate while in doing so abandon the claims of her wife. The war ended with the Treaty of Alcacovas where the Isabella secured her crown, Afonso dropping the claims of the Portuguese King and her wife, who entered a convent to live as a nun.

Juana aka La Beltraneja

5. United but Divided

Tanto Monta, Monta Tanto, Isabella como Fernando became the famous slogan of marriage and the political union formed by the bond of Isabella of Castille and Fernando of Aragon. In 1479, while Isabella secured Castile, Fernando ascended to thrown of Aragon. 2 biggest Kingdom of the Iberian Peninsula virtually united and formed the foundation of Spain.

Though united in the marriage of their monarchs, the 2 Kingdoms remained to be administered separately. Even Isabella and Fernando split duties to respect the specalties and sovereignty of of each other. Different law and government remained for centuries until 1715. 

Furthermore, 1 piece remained missing before Spain truly united. A piece of land called the Kingdom of Granada ruled by the Islamic Nasrids.

Fernando and Isabella

6. She ended the centuries goal of the Reconquista

Queen Isabella and King Fernando needed to make their reign remarkable for the history books. They set their sights on the centuries-old Reconquista campaign against the Muslims of the Iberian Peninsula. The last of the Muslims reprsented by the Nasrids of the Kingdom of Granada.

In 1482, forces of Castile and Aragon attacked Granada. The 2 monarchs went to work displaying a formidable couple in a Crusade. While Isabella managed the logistics and welfare of soldiers, Fernando boosted morale of troops by fighting in the front. Unfortunately, the Muslims offered robust defense and a nasty war dragged on until 1492 when Alhambra surrendered and welcomed the royal Catholic monarchs as its new occupants.

The campaign showered Isabella and Fernando with glory. They did not just completed a long time aspiration of defeating Muslim countries with in the Iberian Peninsula, but they also scored a victory that matched the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans back in 1453.

The Surrender of Granada

7. She sponsored Columbus

As Granada crumbled, Isabella also received an interesting proposal from a Genoese navigator and merchant with the name of Cristobal Colon aka Christopher Columbus. The proposal she received called for Columbus travelling westward to reach the riches of China, India, and the Spice Islands. A lucrative prospect, Isabella also enjoyed the possibility of having her own successful expedition just as stories she heard about Portuguese exploits.

Hesitant at first, but in the middle of 1492, she agreed to sponsor Columbus' expedition who set out on April 17, 1492. The Genoese navigator set sail from Seville with 3 ships and reported back in January 1493. The expedition failed to reach Asia, but it stumbled upon a New World - the Americas. Isabella’s investment failed to bring her the expected return, but in consolation laid claim on a vast continent which later spewed huge quantities of silver and gold.

Isabella sponsored more voyages and colonization of the New World. She made the famous 3Gs - God, Gold, and Glory - as cornerstone of Spanish colonization. She cared and freed natives from slavery, but lack of oversight across vast distance led her intentions being wasted. Slave labor allowed riches to flow to Spain with Isabella grabbing 10% of the profits through the Board of Trade she established in 1503.

Columbus before the Queen by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze

8. A Bigot?

Her compassion to the welfare of natives of the faraway Americas failed to reach to the Jews and Muslims at home. She wanted to unite her Kingdom under her cherished Catholic Church. She then sought to purify Spain of heretics through an institution that earned legendary notoriety.

In 1478, Isabella and Fernando received authorization from the Vatican to appoint a Grand Inquisitor establishing the Spanish Inquisition. However, the initial campaigns of the Inquisition terrified Vatican and Isabella appointed as Grand Inquisitor in 1483 her long time confessor Tomas de Torquemada. Contrary to usual portrayals of him as ferociously evil, moderated the proceedings of the inquisition. Isabella and Torquemada’s Inquisition lasted until 1834.

The Spanish Inquisition became an instrument of control and terror. From heresy and witchcraft, it expanded against followers of other faith attacking centuries diversity in the Peninsula. Jews and Muslims subjugated to force conversions, but when this failed, expulsions began. Even those who already converted remained under suspicion. In 1492, Isabella expelled Jews and in 1502 chased out Muslims. In the name of her faith and unifying her Kingdom under that religion, Isabella committed what today could be classified as genocide.

Spain suffered a drop in its wealth and skills. It turned the Catholic Church into a formidable power in Spanish politics. Moreover, the Inquisition stifled innovation as it may entail charges of witchcraft and sorcery which led for the Kingdom to lag behind its neighbors in scientific and later industrial development centuries after Isabella's time.

Tomas de Torquemada

9. Marriage Politics

Isabella and Fernando owned interest in Italy and competed with France for influence in the Peninsula. They looked forward then into partnering with France’s rival to contain and even weaken it. They forged alliances sealed by marriages.

She sent her children to be tied into allied royal houses. Starting with the legendary La Loca (the Mad), Juana married Philip the Handsome, son of the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. On the other hand, their son Juan married the Habsburg Princess Margaret of Austria. Most famously, Isabella sent her daughter Catherine to  France’s rival in the north, England, to marry Prince Arthur of the newly established Tudor Dynasty, but after this prince’s death, married the young Prince Henry (the future King Henry VIII).

In addition to Spain, Isabella also established ties with Portugal by marrying off her daughter Isabella to King Manuel II of Portugal, but when she passed away, sent Maria instead. This set the ties that later united the whole of the Iberian Peninsula under 1 monarch.

Juana and Philip at their thrones

10. The last Trastamara 

Isabella stood as the last of the Trastamara Dynasty of the Kingdom of Castille. It later became absorbed by the Habsburg Dynasty through the marriage alliances she established. She witnessed this during her later years as she heard news of her offsprings' passing.

Most of her children passed away before she did. Her son Juan married to a Habsburg passed away in 1497 without a child. The younger Isabella, married to Portugal, passed away in 1498, but not before leaving a child Miguel da Paz, heir to the Portugal, Castile, and Aragon. But this grandson with a bright future ahead also passed away in 1500. 

With the following deaths, the Crown of the Union of Spain fell to the children of Juana and Philip, in particular, to Prince Carlos. He later became Holy Roman Emperor Charles V or Carlos I of Spain who established the Spanish Habsburg Dynasty that lasted until 1700. But before this, Isabella herself passed away on November 26, 1504.

See also:

Isabella of Castile