Everything about Isabella I totally explained
Isabella I (
April 22 1451 –
November 26 1504) was
Queen regnant of Castile and Leon. She and her husband,
Ferdinand II of Aragon, laid the foundation for the political unification of
Spain under their grandson,
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.
The
Castilian version of her name was Ysabel (Isabel in modern spelling), which traces etymologically to Hebrew
Elisth or '
Elizabeth'. In Germanic countries, she's usually known by the Italian form of her name, 'Isabella'. Likewise, her husband is
Fernando in Spanish, but
Ferdinand in other languages. The official inscription on their tomb renders their names in Latin as "Helizabeth" and "Fernandus".
Pope Alexander VI named Ferdinand and Isabella "The Catholic Kings" (In Spanish, "
Los Reyes Católicos"). She is also known as
Isabel la Católica.
Isabella and Ferdinand expelled the Jews from Spain and made the Inquisition into a powerful institution whose main victims were Catholics of Jewish or Moorish ancestry. However, like a part of
Iberians in general and most of Iberian nobility, she'd some Jewish ancestry: three of her great-great-grandparents had
Iberian (
Sephardic) Jewish roots.
Early years
Isabella was born in
Madrigal de las Altas Torres on
April 22,
1451. Her brother Alfonso was born three years later. When her father,
John II, died in 1454, her much older half-brother
Henry IV became king. As soon as he ascended to the throne, he
sequestered his half-siblings to
Segovia and his stepmother to
Arévalo, in
virtual
exile. Henry IV, whose first marriage to
Blanca of Navarre wasn't consummated and had been annulled, remarried to have his own offspring. He then married
Joana of Portugal. His wife gave birth to
Joan, princess of Castile. When Isabella was about ten, she and her brother were summoned to the court, to be under more direct supervision and control by the king. In the
Representation of Burgos the nobles challenged the King; among other items, they demanded that Alfonso, Isabella's brother, should be named the heir to the kingdom. Henry agreed, provided Alfonso would marry his daughter, Joan. A few days later, he changed his mind.
The nobles, now in control of Alfonso and claiming him to be the true heir, clashed with Henry's forces at the
Battle of Olmedo in 1467. The battle was a draw. One year later, Alfonso died at the age of fourteen, and Isabella became the hope of the rebelling nobles. But she refused their advances, acknowledging instead Henry as king, and he, in turn, recognized her as the legitimate heir in the
Treaty of the Bulls of Guisando, rather than Joan whose paternal origin was in dispute. In 1475, Joan married her uncle, the King of Portugal, but their marriage was later annulled by the Pope because of their family relation. Henry tried to get Isabella married to a number of persons of his choice, yet she evaded all these propositions. Instead she chose
Ferdinand, heir to the throne of
Aragon. They were married
October 19,
1469 in Valladolid.
Accession
When Henry IV died on
December 10 1474, Isabella acted quickly. She rightfully inherited the throne of Castile. While she and Ferdinand began to reorganize the court,
Afonso V of Portugal crossed the border and declared Joanna the rightful heir. The
War of the Castilian Succession had begun. Ferdinand beat the invaders back at the
Battle of Toro in 1476, and the challenge to the crown of Castile was rejected. In a series of separate marches, Ferdinand and Isabella went on to subjugate renegade and rebellious towns, fortresses, and points of power that had developed over time. In 1479, Ferdinand's father died, and the royal couple became rulers of Aragon. In 1480, the couple assembled the
Cortes of Toledo where, under their supervision, five royal councils and 34 civilian representatives produced a codex of laws and edicts as the legal groundwork for the future Spain. This established the centralization of power with the royals and set the basis for economic and judicial rehabilitation of the country. As part of this reform, and in their attempt to unify the country, Ferdinand and Isabella solicited Pope
Sixtus IV to authorize the Inquisition. In 1483,
Tomás de Torquemada became the first
Inquisitor General in
Seville.
The events of 1492
1492 was an important year for Isabella: seeing the conquest of
Granada and hence the end of the '
Reconquista' (reconquest), her successful patronage of
Christopher Columbus, and her expulsion of the Jews.
Granada
The Kingdom of
Granada had been held by the
Nasrids dynasty. Protected by natural barriers and fortified towns, it had withstood the long process of the
reconquista. However, in contrast to the determined leadership by Isabella and Ferdinand, Granada's leadership was divided and never presented a united front. It took ten years to conquer Granada, culminating in 1492.
When the Spaniards, early on, captured
Boabdil (Sultan of Granada) they set him free - for a ransom - so that he could return to Granada and resume his reign. The Spanish monarchs recruited soldiers from many European countries and improved their artillery with the latest and best cannons. Systematically, they proceeded to take the kingdom piece by piece. Often Isabella would inspire her followers and soldiers by praying in the middle of, or close to, the battle field, that God's will may be done. In 1485 they laid siege to
Ronda, which surrendered after extensive bombardment. The following year,
Loja was taken, and again Boabdil was captured and released. One year later, with the fall of
Málaga, the western part of the Muslim
Nasrid kingdom had fallen into Spanish hands. The eastern province succumbed after the fall of
Baza in 1489. The siege of Granada began in the spring of 1491. When the Spanish camp was destroyed by an accidental fire, the camp was rebuilt, in stone, in the form of a cross, painted white, and named Santa Fe (
for example 'Holy Faith'). At the end of the year, Boabdil surrendered. On
January 2,
1492 Isabel and Ferdinand entered Granada to receive the keys of the city and the principal
mosque was reconsecrated as a church. The
Treaty of Granada signed later that year was to assure religious rights to the Muslims - but it didn't last.
Columbus
Queen Isabella rejected
Christopher Columbus's plan to reach the
Indies by sailing west three times before changing her mind. His conditions (the position of Admiral; governorship for him and his descendants of lands to be discovered; and ten percent of the profits) were met. On
August 3, his expedition departed and arrived in America on
October 12. He returned the next year and presented his findings to the monarchs, bringing natives and gold under a hero's welcome. Spain entered a
Golden Age of
exploration and
colonization. In 1494, by the
Treaty of Tordesillas, Isabella and Ferdinand divided the Earth, outside of Europe, with king
John II of
Portugal.
Isabella tried to defend the
American aborigines against the abuse of the colonists. In 1503, she established the Secretary of Indian Affairs, which later became the
Supreme Council of the Indies.
Expulsion of the Jews and Muslims
With the institution of the Roman Catholic Inquisition in Spain, and with the
Dominican friar Tomás de Torquemada as the first Inquisitor General, the Catholic Monarchs pursued a policy of religious unity. Though Isabella opposed taking harsh measures against Jews on economic grounds, Torquemada was able to convince Ferdinand. On
March 31 1492, the
Alhambra Decree for the expulsion of the Jews was issued (See main article on
Inquisition). Approximately 200,000 people left Spain. Others converted, often only to be persecuted further by the Inquisition investigating Judaizing
conversos (
Marranos). The Muslims of the newly conquered Granada had been initially granted religious freedom, but pressure to convert increased, and after some revolts, a policy of forced expulsion or conversion was also instituted in 1502 (see
Moriscos).
Later years
Isabella received with her husband the title of
Reina Católica by
Pope Alexander VI, a pope of whose secularism Isabella didn't approve. Along with the physical unification of Spain, Isabella and Ferdinand embarked on a process of spiritual unification, trying to bring the country under one faith (
Roman Catholicism). As part of this process, the Inquisition became institutionalized. After an uprising in 1499, the
Treaty of Granada was broken in 1502 and Muslims were forced to either be baptized or to be expelled. Isabella's confessor,
Cisneros, was named Archbishop of
Toledo. He was instrumental in a program of rehabilitation of the religious institutions of Spain, laying the groundwork for the later
Counter-Reformation. As Chancellor, he exerted more and more power.
Isabella and her husband had created an empire and in later years were consumed with administration and politics; they were concerned with the succession and worked to link the Spanish crown to the other rulers in
Europe. Politically this can be seen in attempts to outflank France and to unite the Iberian peninsula. By early 1497 all the pieces seemed to be in place:
Don Juan, the Crown Prince, married
Margaret of Austria, establishing the connection to the
Habsburgs. The eldest daughter,
Infanta Isabella, married
Manuel I of Portugal, and the
Infanta Juana was married to another Habsburg prince,
Philip of Burgundy. However, Isabella's plans for her children didn't work out. Juan died shortly after his marriage.
Isabella, Princess of Asturias died in childbirth and her son
Miguel died at the age of two. Queen Isabella's titles passed to her daughter
Joan the Mad (
Juana la Loca) whose marriage to
Philip the Handsome was troubled. Isabella died in 1504 in
Medina del Campo, before Philip and Ferdinand became enemies, she reaped what she'd sown.
Isabella is entombed in
Granada in the
Capilla Real, which was built by her grandson,
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (Carlos I of Spain), alongside her husband Ferdinand, her daughter Juana and Juana's husband Philip; and Isabella's 2-year old grandson, Miguel (the son of Isabella's daughter, also named Isabella, and King Manuel of Portugal). The museum next to the Capilla Real houses her
crown and
scepter. She only bathed twice in her life.
Influence
Isabella and her husband established a highly effective coregency under equal terms. They utilized a prenuptial agreement to lay down their terms. During their reign they supported each other effectively in accordance to their joint motto of equality:
Tanto monta, monta tanto, Isabel como Fernando ("They amount to the same, Isabella and Ferdinand"). In addition to her sponsorship of Columbus, Isabella was also the principal sponsor of
Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, the greatest military genius and innovator of the age. Isabella and Ferdinand's achievements are remarkable - Spain was united, the crown power was centralized, the reconquista was successfully concluded, the groundwork for the most dominant military machine of the next century and a half was laid, a legal framework was created, the church reformed. Even without the benefit of the American expansion, Spain would have been a major European power. Columbus' discovery set the country on the course for the first modern
world power.
Isabella and contemporary politics and religion
In the twentieth century, the regime of
Francisco Franco claimed the prestige of the Catholic Monarchs. As a result, Isabella was despised by those opposed to Franco.
Some Catholics from different countries have attempted to have Isabella declared as
Blessed, with the aim of later having her
canonized as a Saint. Their justification is that Isabella was a protector of the Spanish poor and of the
American Indians from the rapacity of the Spanish nobility; in addition,
miracles have reportedly been attributed to her. This movement has met with opposition from Jewish organizations,
Liberation theologians and
Jean-Marie Cardinal Lustiger, due to the fact that Isabella had many Moors killed after her entrance to
Cordoba. In 1974,
Pope Paul VI opened her cause for
beatification. This places her on the path toward possible
sainthood. In the Catholic Church, she's thus titled
Servant of God.
Isabella was the first named woman to appear on a United States coin, an 1893
commemorative quarter, celebrating the 400th anniversary of
Columbus's first voyage. In the same year she was the first woman to be featured on U.S. postal stamps, namely on three stamps of the
Columbian Issue, also in celebration of Columbus. She appears in the Spanish court scene replicated on the 15-cent Columbian (above), on the $ 1 issue, and in full portrait, side by side with Columbus, on the $4 Columbian, the only stamp of that denomination ever issued and one which collectors prize not only for its rarity (only 30,000 were printed) but its beauty, an exquisite carmine with some copies having a crimson hue. Mint specimens of this commemorative have been sold for more than $20,000.
Isabella in popular culture
- Ferdinand and Isabella appear in Lope de Vega's play Fuente Ovejuna (c. 1611), represented positively as supporters of a group of villagers in their struggle against their feudal overlord.
- Isabella appears as the mother of Catherine, the titular heroine of the novel The Constant Princess, by Philippa Gregory.
- The Royal Diaries, a series of biographical novels about royal women from around the world, includes Isabel, Jewel of Castilla, Spain, 1466 by Carolyn Meyer. It details her life from the time she was exiled to the time she married.
- Isabella is movingly evoked in Norah Lofts' historical novel "Crown of Aloes" (1973).
- Christopher Columbus negotiates with Isabella and her husband, Ferdinand of Aragon, in Orson Scott Card's Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus.
- Isabella is a character in the short story "Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella of Spain Consummate Their Relationship" by Salman Rushdie.
- In film, Isabella has been played by Lola Flores, in Juana la Loca, de vez en cuando (1983), by Sigourney Weaver, in Ridley Scott's (1992), by Rachel Ward, in "Christopher Columbus: The Discovery" (1992), and fictionally interpreted by Rachel Weisz in Darren Aronofsky's film, The Fountain (2006).
- She was also played in the 1985 TV miniseries "Christopher Columbus" by Faye Dunaway, opposite Gabriel Byrne as Colombus.
- In the video game Civilization IV Isabella appears as a leader for the Spanish Empire.
- Isabella is the Royal leader of the Spanish Empire in the computer game Age of Empires III.
Ancestors
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