Kirstin Downey - Isabella: The Warrior Queen

Copyright 2014 by Kirstin Downey

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Nan A. Talese / Doubleday, a division of Random House LLC, New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada, Limited, Toronto, Penguin Random House companies.

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Maps by Gene Thorp
Jacket design by John Fontana
Jacket painting of Isabella by Jos da Rosa Bridgeman Art Library / Monastery of La Rabida, Huelva, Andalus, Spain; swords Kjolak / Shutterstock

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Downey, Kirstin.
Isabella : the warrior queen / Kirstin Downey.First edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Isabella I, Queen of Spain, 14511504. 2. QueensSpainBiography. 3. SpainHistoryFerdinand and Isabella, 14791516. I. Title.
DP163.D69 2014
946.03092dc23
[B]
2014003895

ISBN 978-0-385-53411-6 (hardcover) ISBN 978-0-385-53412-3 (eBook)

v3.1

ALSO BY KIRSTIN DOWNEY

The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life and Legacy of Frances PerkinsSocial Security, Unemployment Insurance, and the Minimum Wage

To Laura Gregg Roa, who sat on the seawall with me in Coco Solo, Panama, dreaming of sailing ships and distant lands, and the queen who sent the explorer to our shores

19572009

I n a castle on a steep promontory overlooking the windswept plains of north-central Spain, a slender red-haired princess finalized the plans for a ceremony that was likely to throw her nationalready teetering toward anarchyinto full-fledged civil war.

Her name was Isabella, and she had just learned that her older brother, King Enriqueknown as Enrique El Impotente, which symbolized his failings, both administrative and sexualhad died.

King Enriques lascivious young wife, who had occupied her time bestowing her favors on the other gentlemen of the court, had produced a child, but many people doubted that the king was actually the childs father. Isabella had decided to end the controversy over the succession by having herself crowned queen instead. The twenty-three-year-old woman was essentially orchestrating a coup.

No woman had ruled the combined Kingdoms of Castile and Len, the largest single realm on the Iberian peninsula, in more than two hundred years. In many European countries, it was illegal for a woman to rule alone. On the rare occasions when women reigned, it was usually as regent for a son who was too young to govern. Isabella had a husband, Ferdinand, who was heir to the neighboring Kingdom of Aragon, but he had been traveling when the news of Enriques death arrived, and she had decided to seize the initiative. She would take the crown for herself alone.

On that bitter-cold morning in December 1474, Isabella added the finishing touches to an ensemble intentionally designed to impress onlookers with her splendor and regal grandeur. She donned an elegant gown encrusted with jewels; a dark red ruby glittered at her throat.

Observers already awed by the pageantry now gasped at an additional sight. On Isabellas orders, a court official walked ahead of her horse, holding aloft an unsheathed sword, the naked blade pointing straight upward toward the zenith, in an ancient symbol of the right to enforce justice. It was a dramatic warning gesture, symbolizing Isabellas intent to take power and to use it forcefully.

Acknowledging nothing out of the ordinary, Isabella took a seat on an improvised platform in the square. A silver crown was placed upon her head. As the crowd cheered, Isabella was proclaimed queen. Afterward she proceeded to Segovias cathedral. She prostrated herself in prayer before the altar, offering her thanks and imploring God to help her to rule wisely and well. She viewed the tasks ahead as titanic. She believed Christianity was in mortal danger.

The Ottoman Turks were aggressively on the march in eastern and southern Europe. The Muslims retained an entrenched foothold in the Andalusian kingdom of Granada, which Isabella and others feared would prove a beachhead into the rest of Spain. A succession of popes had pleaded in vain for a steely-eyed commander, a stalwart warrior, to step forward to counter the threat. Instead it was a young woman, the mother of a young daughter, who was taking up the banner.

The means she used were effective but brutal. For centuries to come, historians would debate the meaning of her life. Was she a saint? Or was she satanic?