Isabella of Castile ............................
(1451–1504)
Queen of Castile whose marriage to Ferdi-
nand of Aragon was the foundation of a
united Spanish kingdom. Born in Madri-
gal, in the kingdom of Castile, she was the
daughter of King John II of Castile and
Queen Isabella of Portugal. In 1454, her
half brother Henry IV became the Castil-
ian king. When Henry sought to deny the
succession to his brother, Afonso, support-
ers of Afonso rebelled, fighting with
Henry’s army at the Battle of Olmedo in
- In the next year, Afonso died, and
the rebels then supported Isabella as their
candidate for the throne. In 1469, Isabella
married Ferdinand, prince of the kingdom
of Aragon. Henry conferred the succession
on his daughter Juana, a candidate sup-
ported by the monarch of Afonso V of
Portugal.
In 1474, on the death of Henry IV, Isa-
bella was crowned Queen of Castile, but
she was challenged by Afonso and Joan.
Ferdinand’s army defeated the Portuguese
at the Battle of Toro in 1476, after which
Afonso gave up his opposition to Isabella.
Three years later, Ferdinand became the
king of Aragon. Ferdinand and Isabella
united the courts of Castile and Aragon. A
new parliament, the Cortes, began meet-
ing, and a new system of laws and admin-
istration laid the groundwork for a united
kingdom of Spain.
Determined to establish her legitimacy
as queen, which had been so forcefully
challenged, Isabella set out to enlarge and
enhance the kingdom and her own author-
ity. She led the campaign to recapture the
kingdom of Granada, the last vestige of
Moorish control of the Iberian Peninsula.
Over ten years, the Spanish armies laid
siege to a series of fortified towns while
the Moors laid waste to the countryside.
This campaign ended with final victory at
Granada in 1492, ending the centuries-
long campaign against the Moors known
as the Reconquista.
In the meantime, Isabella had been re-
jecting the request of an Italian navigator,
Christopher Columbus, to support a voy-
age of discovery to the west, where Co-
lumbus believed he would find an easy
route to the spices and other riches of the
East Indies. Such a route, Columbus prom-
ised, would allow Spain to bypass the In-
dian Ocean, which was under the control
of the Portuguese, and build its own trad-
ing empire in Asia. In August 1492, she fi-
nally gave in, and Columbus’s voyage to
the New World that fall began Spain’s con-
quest of colonies in the Western Hemi-
sphere. The rivalry between Spain and Por-Queen Isabella I of Castile. THELIBRARY OF
CONGRESS.
Isabella of Castile