Isabella of Castile - the Iron Queen of Spain

Isabella gazed upon the foreign navigator in his presence pondering on the cost and rewards of this person’s proposal, crew and ships for an expedition to China, the Spice Islands and India through a journey via west. Her defined the faith of her beloved kingdom of Castille and its newly formed union with the Kingdom of Aragon.

Early Life

Born on April 22, 1451 in a small sleepy town of Madrigal de la Torres, Isabella of Castille came to this world as if just another royal princess in Europe born to King Juan II (John II) of the Kingdom of Castille and Queen Isabella of Portugal.

 

A girl born after a Prince to a 2nd marriage supposed to have destined her to be another bargaining chip for a political marriage, but her experience at a young age turned her to a fierce woman even by today’s standard. 

At the age of 3, she lost her father and she along with her younger brother Alfonso grew up in a small town of Arevalo. Her formative years went under the Franciscan monks. She lived piously and simply for a member of the royal family. Their simple low key living lasted until 1462 when politics brought them to Segovia, capital of the Kingdom of Castile.

Alcazar of Segovia,
home of Castile's monarchs

In the capital, fierce political infighting between the nobility and their half brother, King Enrique IV, confronted them. The King lived in decadence an ruled with favouritism earning him the irk of powerful aristocrats. Isabella’s young brother Alfonso served as the champion of the disgruntled elite. 

Amidst the politics, Isabella learned to be cautious, patient, strategic, and observant in her teenage years. She eventually used all of her political lessons when in 1468, Alfonso suddenly passed away. Owing to her gender and age, she stood no chance against her brother and even the nobles with intentions of turning her to puppet.

She made pace with Enrique IV under the Accord of Toros Guisando in 1468. The treaty appointed Isabella heir to the throne of Castille provided Enrique having a say on Isabella’s marriage. She, however, had no plans of getting Enrique’s approval.

Enrique IV

She married a man with sizeable military might and wealth, which came in form of Ferdinand of Aragon. The decision infuriated Enrique who chose another heir, his daughter Juana. When death came for him in 1474, all hell broke loose with a 5 year War of Castillian Succession.

Isabella emerged as the victor and she sat to the throne of Castile as his husband also took his for Aragon. By 1479, by marriage established a united Spain. The newly established monarchs and their union must proved their worth to their nobility as well as to the rest of Europe.

The Reconquista

To mark the glory of her reign, Isabella championed 2 causes, the unification of Spain and the Catholic Church. Catholicism held a deep bond with Isabella who cherished and found comfort in it since her childhood. Moreover, with her successes, she found it as a tremendous blessing from God which she hoped to repay by championing his cause.

She then found a target that furthered her 2 agenda in the form of the Reconquista or the war against the Islamic Kingdoms in Spain. Dormant for centuries, Isabella wanted to finish the process of Reconquista by subjugating the last Islamic stronghold in the Iberian Peninsula, the Kingdom of Granada. Thus, in 1482, Isabella and his husband attacked.

The whole might of the Kingdom of Castile and Argon poured against the Islamic Kingdom. Isabella helped in the planning, logistics, and soldiers’ welfare through hospitals while his husband fought in the battlefield. A nasty crusade that took 10 gruelling years until finally, Granada surrendered and its castle of Alhambra welcomed the Catholic monarchs as its new occupants. After centuries, Islamic rule in Spain finally came to an end thanks to Isabella and her husband.

The Surrender of Grenada

Glory of God and Spain

Isabella and Fernando’s victory gave the Christian world a victory to celebrate, but they did not stop in furthering the interest of Spain and Catholicism. Their ambitions crossed oceans and controversially into the territory of bigotry. Isabella orchestrated the rise of the Spanish empire under one religion.

With the Reconquista over, Isabella needed a new outlet for the energies of Spain and to replenish their coffers. Stories of exploration by Portugal coming from her maternal relatives captivated her. The opportunity came in In early 1492 when Genoese navigator Cristobal Colon later known as Christopher Colombus knocked into Isabella’s ambitions.

Colombus at the Court of Spain

Isabella looked over the prospects of vast wealth and promises by Columbus' proposal of an westward expedition to China, the spice islands of Molucas and India. It projected Spain to command the supply of spices, silk, and porcelain all of which carried huge value in Europe. Still cautious, she agreed to finance an expedition of 3 ships that set sail with Columbus on April 17, 1492.

Unfortunately, Isabella’s bet on Columbus failed to bring her the wealth of China and India, but as consolation prize, found a new continent offering other kinds of wealth and souls for his Catholic faith. Columbus failed to reach China, but instead found a New World, the Americas. New exotic crops, animals, and civilization came to be known by Spain.

The Spanish colonization came under the famous 3Gs - God, Gold, and Glory. Isabella promoted the conversion of natives and hoped to achieve this in good will, hence she promoted the welfare of the natives. After discovering the enslavement of the Indios or local natives, she ordered their freedom. But with long distance, poor communication and oversight, her wishes fell in deaf ears and suffering befall to the colonies.

Worst, Isabella profited from the slavery of natives. She demanded 10% of the profits from the trade of goods coming from the Americas. By 1503, she authorized the Board of Trade housed in the Casa de Contratacion in Seville to supervise the trade and secure her profits.

The Catholic

As her coffers filled with the labors of the colonies, Isabella turned her attention to the matters of faith. Her actions in this matter ruined centuries of co-existence between different faiths all for the glory of her beloved church. It left far reaching consequences for centuries to come.

She left the charge of purifying the soul of Spain to the Inquisition, the Spanish Inquisition. She appointed her longtime confessor Tomas de Torquemada as its head with the marching order of making Catholicism the sole religion in the Peninsula one way or the other. The Institution earned notoriety for its use of torture, but despite later propagandas, under Torquemada, it took moderate path compared to his successors.

Tomas de Torquemada

The Spanish Inquisition targetted the Jews and Muslims in the Peninsula. Even those who already converted to Catholicism called the Moriscos for Muslims and Coversos for Jews remained under suspicion. Forced conversions became widespread and when this proved to be insufficient, expulsions began. In 1492, the Jews said goodbye to Spain after Isabella ordered their expulsion. In 1502, Islam also said farewell when the Castillian queen banned the religion.

The act led to the unification of the Kingdom on religious grounds. It nevertheless brought far reaching consequences in terms of the economy and skills. Spain lost many talents and money as most craftsmen and bankers, mainly Jews and Muslims, left. In the long term, the Inquisition stifled innovation which in the 18th and 19th centuries became evident when Spain lagged behind its peers in scientific and industrial development.

Unfortunately for the clergy, Isabella also dipped her hands in their affairs in exchange for their influence in government. Indeed, Isabella showered clerics with powerful posts, such as the cases of before mentioned Tomas de Torquemada, then Cardinal Cisneros, and Archbishop Hernando de Talavera. They also became men who implemented Isabella’s religious reforms.

Cardinal Cisneros

She wanted to reimpose strict discipline within the church. This included the reimposition of celibacy among priests. Moreover, Isabella occasionally also interfered with the Vatican’s appointment. She and her husband took control of religious military orders. Back in 1487, Fernando became Grand Master of the Order of Calatrava. By 1499, he also took control of the Order of Alcantara and Order of Santiago.

Isabella lived in during the age of the Renaissance. She supported various works of arts and letters, for instance Pietro Martire d’Angiera, an Italian born historian who wrote about Spain's conquest of the New World in his work De Orbe Novo. She also sponsored Antonio de Nebrija working until completion in 1492 the Gramatica Castellana which helped Castilian to be known as the Spanish language of today. In addition, Isabella and her husband championed the education of children of nobles including members of the royal family.

International Affairs

Despite all other affairs, Isabella and Fernando brought Spain into competition for power and influence in Europe. Their main focus: to curtail France. Hence, working with past experience Isabella forged marital alliances with great powers working against the French.

Isabella married her children off to heirs and monarchs of Europe. She sent her daughter Maria to marry King Manuel I of Portugal, thus giving Spain a stake to the equally wealthy Iberian neighbor. Then the Infante Juan married an Archduchess of the Habsburg Dynasty of the Holy Roman Empire. Not content, she later sent her daughter Juana, the future Juana la Loca (Juana the Mad) to marry Philip the Handsome, son of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. Finally, the most famous of the lot, Catherine, married first Prince Arthur of the newly established Tudor Dynasty of England, and when this prince died, to the younger Prince Henry, the notorious future King Henry VIII.

The Holy Roman Empire and England became strategic partners in containing France and hampering their interest in Italy. Aragon’s stake in Italy dragged the whole of Spain in a battle for influence in the rich Italian Peninsula. Isabella and Fernando sent troops to the region, sponsoring innovative generals such as Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordoba  who deployed their tercios in the battlefield with devastating effects to enemies. The military deployments and marriage alliances sought to contain France and secure Italian holdings for Isabella and more so for her husband Ferdinand.

Late Years

Isabella’s later years witnessed tragedies. She saw one by one her descendants passing away. Soon, she herself joined them in the afterlife.

In 1497 onwards Isabella received news of death. In 1497, her son Juan married to the Habsburgs passed away. Her daughter Isabella in 1498 followed before being married to King Manuel I of Portugal. Lastly, she heard devastating news in the same year the premature death of her grandson Miguel de Paz, the presumptive heir to Portugal, Castille, and Aragon, preventing an Iberian Union for decades.

With the series of deaths of princes and princesses, the question of succession began to be worrisome. With the passing of Juan, Isabella, and Isabella’s son Miguel, gave the succession to the son of Juana and Philip the Handsome, a prince named Carlos. This prince later took the throne of Spain as well as the Holy Roman Empire becoming known in history as Charles V.

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

Death came for Isabella of Castille and the Catholic on November 26, 1504. She left her husband Fernando as the sole monarch of Spain. Her achievements marked her as a towering figure in the history of Spain and the world.

Summing Up

From a Kingdom divided by selfish influence, Isabella stood up against gender stereotypes with her cunning and patience. She united her Kingdom of Castille and she brought the neighboring Aragon to a union that together fought in eradicating the last hold of Islam in the Iberian Peninsula. Not content, she projected a new found energy of Spain to exploration finding new lands, riches, and souls to convert. She began a trend that led Spain becoming a global Empire.

Behind the veneer of glory though, laid a devout Catholic who never let centuries of diversity to stop her from uniting her Kingdom under her beloved faith. It practically conducted genocide that erased Jewish and Islamic heritage in the Iberian Peninsula. She empowered an institution, the Spanish Inquisition, to lead this charge creating a notorious legend for torture and bigotry.

For bad or worst, Isabella changed the Iberian Peninsula and the world. She became an inspirational leader that tested a male dominated era and politics. A legend so inspiring and powerful, according to legends, made the queen in chess the most powerful piece in board.

Bibliography:

Books:

Chapman, Charles. A History of Spain. New York, New York: The Macmillan Company, 1918.

Pierson, Peter. The History of Spain. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1999.

General Reference:

Boruchoff, David. "Isabel I of Castile." In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History. Edited by Bonnie G. Smith. New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Tarver, H. Michael & Emily Slape. "Isabella the Catholic, Queen of Castile and Spain (1451-1504)." In The Spanish Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia. Edited by H. Michael Tarver and Emily Slape. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2016.

Website:

Highfield, J.R.L. "Isabella I." In Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed on July 22, 2018. URL: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Isabella-I-queen-of-Spain