The queen’s horse sent up plumes of dust from off the rocky, arid ground—a cloudy trail quickly torn away by the jealous wind—as she hastened to Avila. Not many queens would be willing to ride back and forth across the lonely, baked plains of Castile to personally gather troops in a desperate attempt to stave off invasion. But Queen Isabella of Spain was willing. And she did it while pregnant.
The need was dire, for King Afonso V of Portugal had challenged Isabella’s right to rule Castile, and he was fast descending on her lands with his army. Isabella, on the other hand, had no army—hence the queen’s daring attempts to scrape together forces to oppose Afonoso at the last minute. It worked—8,000 soldiers were recruited—though, tragically, she miscarried her son.
Isabella brought her troops to join the army of her husband, Ferdinand, assembled in opposition to the invading Afonso at Toro, near the Portuguese border. But at this point, the army hesitated, and more cities fell to the enemy.
Isabella and Ferdinand’s forces returned to their base without stopping the invasion. Unimpressed and still determined to protect her people, Isabella sent a firmly worded letter to rally the commanders: “One must first give battle to be able to proclaim victory; he who begins nothing, finishes nothing. Where will we go and what will we attempt that is good, when with so many people and so many resources we bring forth so cold a triumph? ... Those who do not recognize opportunity when it comes, find misfortune when they do not look for it.”
Urged on by their queen’s confidence, the commanders marched out again, this time halting the enemy. The tide began to turn, and over the course of the next few battles, Isabella and Ferdinand’s forces ultimately won the War of the Castilian Succession, which the Battle of Toro was a part of.This episode is typical of the strong-willed, highly principled Isabella, who always put her people first and placed her trust in God. In the person of this late medieval queen, we find the rare combination of determined intelligence and uncompromising virtue. This made her an extremely effective ruler. “It may be strongly argued that Isabel of Castile was the greatest woman ruler in history,” proclaimed historian Warren Carroll in “The Glory of Christendom.”
Another example of Isabella’s poise under pressure and ability for decisive action springs from the pages of the history books. In the summer of 1476, her 5-year-old daughter was kidnapped by rebels. As soon as Isabella heard the sickening news, the 25-year-old queen took to the saddle with only two companions—an aging cardinal and a heroic count. The three figures coursed through the countryside without stopping. Day faded to night, night to dawn, and they rode as one.
When they came to the castle where the princess was being held, Isabella confronted the rebels with these words, recorded by Carroll: “Tell those cavaliers and citizens of Segovia that I am Queen of Castile, and this city is mine, for the king my father left it to me; and to enter what is mine no laws nor conditions may be laid down for me. I shall enter the city by whatever gate I choose; I shall enter with the Count of Benavente, and all others whom I need for my service. Say to them also that they should all come to me, and obey my orders, like loyal subjects, and stop making tumults and scandals in my city, lest they suffer harm in their persons and in their property.”
Stunned into silence and submission by the queen’s fearless and commanding air, the rebels simply fell back and allowed her to pass. No one dared shut the castle gate. Once she had secured the princess, Isabella returned to the gate to face the murmuring crowd. Isabella’s companions advised shutting the gate in the face of the hostile rebels, but she would have none of it. Instead, with the regal hospitality of a ruler who truly loved her people, she welcomed them into the castle and promised to hear out their complaints. Amid the cheers of the people, the rebel leader fled in confusion and dismay, and the entire revolt dissolved into a peaceful encounter between ruler and subjects.
That Isabella was able to quell a rebellion by her words alone, with no troops, no weapons, and no backup, speaks to her imposing presence. She must have cut a striking figure. According to contemporary accounts, she had lively blue-green eyes and long golden-red hair. She was beautiful, graceful, dignified, modest, well-spoken, and confident. Her trust in God gave her the courage for moments like Afonso’s invasion or the rebel capture of her daughter.
Wise Rulers
Isabella was born in 1451 to John II of Castile and Isabella of Portugal. She spent her early years peacefully with her mother at Arévalo, but when she was summoned to court at the age of 13, she became embroiled in Castilian politics. Opponents of the current king—Isabella’s half brother Henry IV—began to gather around her, hoping to place her on the throne in his stead. Isabella rejected the machinations of the nobles, refusing to challenge Henry as long as he chose to reign. Henry IV rewarded her fidelity by naming her as his official heir in the Accord of Toros de Guisando in 1468.Various people—including Henry IV—set out trying to arrange a marriage for Isabella. Some of the proposed suitors were much older than the teenage princess, and some were disreputable characters. A devout Catholic, Isabella hoped and prayed to be spared from an immoral husband. In the end, she refused all the suitors Henry proposed and instead married Ferdinand II of Aragon, who was a good man and much nearer her own age.
Moreover, the wedding solidified two unions at once: one between man and wife, the other between their two respective realms, Aragon and Castile. The two combined realms would make up Spain as we know it today. Isabella and Ferdinand jointly ruled over Spain. The whole realm would benefit from their loving marriage and upright rule.
As described, not everyone agreed to Isabella’s right to rule, however, and the young royal couple had to fight their way through the War of the Castilian Succession from 1475 to 1479 to maintain their reign. From the smoke and blood of the war, Spain emerged united, with Isabella and Ferdinand firmly installed as its rulers. The official union of the realms occurred in 1479.
Space prevents a full enumeration of the royal couple’s achievements. But the foremost among these would be the reform and strengthening of the Catholic Church in Spain, the ending of the centuries-long war of reconquest against the Muslims, the support given to Columbus in his epoch-making journey to the New World, and the cultivation of education and the arts.
Queen Isabella worked with the pope to appoint wise and holy bishops who would strengthen and correct the Church in Spain. She hand-selected the effective Ximénes de Cisneros as primate of Spain to carry out the reform of the Church throughout the kingdom. Isabella and Ferdinand worked to renew the secular clergy as well as the various religious orders, especially the Poor Clares. As a result of their efforts, the Catholic Church enjoyed a renewed purity and vigor in Spain during a tumultuous time in the ecclesiastical sphere that tore apart much of the rest of Europe.
Isabella and Ferdinand also deserve credit for ending the longest war in history: the Reconquest (or Reconquista) of Spain from the Muslims, who had invaded and conquered the bulk of the Iberian Peninsula during the 8th century. In 1482, Isabella and Ferdinand besieged the last Muslim stronghold in Spain—Granada. The attack was prolonged and costly, but in the end, the Spanish forces prevailed in early 1492. During the siege, Isabella closely monitored the battle, created a military hospital, and made improvements in the army’s supply chain.
Isabella was herself a cultured woman and she fostered culture in her domains. She was proficient in Latin and supported scholars and artists, such as the poet Ambrosio Montesino and grammarian Antonio de Nebrija. A number of famous literary works of the period bear dedications to this patroness and queen.
Isabella and Ferdinand furthered their kingdom’s good in almost every conceivable field, from military to economic to ecclesiastical, and succeeded in making Spain a great power in the late medieval and early Renaissance periods.
In the words of Carroll: “Under the rule of her pathetic half brother Henry IV, Castile had descended into virtual anarchy—the laughingstock, the whipped dog of Europe. In 30 years Isabel made it, united with her husband Fernando’s Aragon as the Kingdom of Spain, the greatest power in the world. She accomplished this by no harsh and domineering rule, but by bringing justice and peace, integrity and incorruptibility, responsibility and honor with her wherever she went, sealed by the love she bore her people and the love they bore her.”
