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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Isabella I Biography ISABELLA I, Sp. ISABEL, (1451–1504). Queen of Castile, known as the Catholic. She was born at Madrigal, Old Castile, the daughter of John II, King of Castile and León, by his second wife, the Infanta Isabella of Portugal. In 1454 Isabella’s brother Henry ascended the throne of Castile, and in 1469 the Princess, after considerable opposition and in the face of great difficulties, married Ferdinand of Aragon. On the death of Henry IV, in 1474, Isabella and Ferdinand, jointly, succeeded to the throne of Castile and León, to the exclusion of her niece Joanna. She had won the support of a great part of the estates of the kingdom during her brother's life, and the victorious arms of her husband compelled the consent of the rest. A war with Portugal, which was waged by King Alfonso in behalf of the Princess Joanna, was terminated in Isabella's favor in 1479, and the same year Ferdinand succeeded to the throne of Aragon as Ferdinand V. This union of the two chief Spanish kingdoms laid the foundation of Spain's future greatness. The first task the allied sovereigns set themselves to perform was the pacification and consolidation of the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon. Then in 1482 they began the 10 years' war against the Moors of Granada, which culminated with the capture of the Moorish capital and the extinction of Moorish sovereignty in Spain at the beginning of 1492. It was towards the end of this struggle, the danger and hardships of which Isabella shared with her army, that the Queen of Castile earned her greatest title to fame in the eyes of posterity, by her acquiescence in the plans of Columbus, who was then a suppliant at the Spanish court. For their successes against the Moors and their stanch Catholicism the title of "Catholic sovereigns" was conferred by the Pope on Ferdinand and Isabella. Queen Isabella was possessed of no inconsiderable beauty and much winning grace, although proud, ambitious, and exceedingly punctilious. She was always present in meetings of the council, and insisted on the use of her name with that of Ferdinand in all public documents. The consolidation of the Spanish Kingdom through the organization of the Hermandad (q.v.) and the establishment of the royal supremacy over the great military orders were in a large measure her work. In the reign of Isabella the Inquisition was organized in Castile by Torquemada, under whom its work was carried on with a barbarity bred of the most fanatical zeal. In 1492 the Jews were expelled from Castile and the rest of Spain, to the great detriment of the country. She died at Medina del Campo on Nov. 26, 1504, and was buried in accordance with her own wishes in the Franciscan monastery at Granada, whence her remains and those of Ferdinand were removed to the royal chapel of the cathedral in 1521. Of her five children, the two eldest, Isabella, Queen of Portugal, and John, her only son, died in 1498 and 1497 respectively. Of her three remaining daughters, Joanna the Mad became the wife of Philip of Austria and the mother of Charles V of Germany; Maria married Emmanuel of Portugal; and Catharine of Aragon was the unfortunate first wife of Henry VIII of England and the mother of Mary Tudor. The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 409. |