Essay on Queen Isabella- Facts & Biography

Queen Isabella

Queen Isabella was born to John II on the date of 22nd April 1451, at the age of three her father died, after this her half-brother Henry IV became the King. Henry later announced Isabella as his next successor. Isabella, I was the queen of the Castile and Leon by her right, after marriage she was declared the queen of Aragon, after her marriage with Ferdinand II of Aragon and under the rules of her grandson Charles V, she was declared as the Queen of Castile. She was the one who sponsored Columbus's voyages to America and was then popularly known as “Isbell La Catolica”. After Isabella became the Queen of Castile, she and her husband Ferdinand together fought to unify Spain.

Early life

Isabella was the second in the line of getting the succession after her father King John II of Castile, but she became the third line as her brother Alfonso was born in the year 1453. Her half-brother “Henry IV “ became the king of Castile after her father died in year 1454, since then Isabella was raised by her mother. She was well educated; her tutors were “Beatriz Galindo” who was a professor at the University at Salamanca for the subject of philosophy essay, medicine. As her half-brother’s first marriage failed and the opposition attempted to replace Alfonso with Henry and the plan failed miserably, later Alfonso died because of poisoning which paved the way for Isabella to become the next successor. But, Isabella was not quite confident so she refused the crown.

In the year 1469, Ferdinand (second cousin) married Isabella without henrys’ consent. After Henry died in 1474 during the war of succession, many issues and problems started to arise, the dispute was finally settled in the year 1479, thereby recognizing Isabella as the Queen of Castile.

Isabella and Ferdinand organized some Spanish inquisitions intending to rid Spain of the Jews and the Muslims along with the persons who rejected Catholicism. In the meantime, Ferdinand and Isabella were recognized by the pope for their pure intentions to purify Catholicism in Spain, they together started to fund the voyages of Christopher Columbus, so that land can be discovered for Castile. In the year 1492 also the same incident happened, Jews who refused to convert to Christianity were thrown away, exiled thinking as Muslims. Ferdinand after becoming the king of Aragon ruled both of the realms with equal authority for unifying Spain. Isabella appointed “Galindo” as her tutor child, he was the one who founded hospitals and schools in Spain named it the “hospital of holy cross” in Madrid.

“Catholic Monarchs", marked the year 1478 as the rise of the “Spanish inquisition” under the reign of Isabella I. They both were intended to maintain catholic orthodoxy in the kingdom, three months until the end of July, Jews were told to leave the country and were instructed not to take any gold, silver, money, and arms with them.

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Isabella along with Ferdinand kept acting on her initiative and extended the authority over the military orders to places like Santiago, Calatrava, to control over the vast property. The year 1492, saw a beginning of a new world when Columbus was able to convince Isabella to sponsor his first voyage to explore lands so that new lands could be given to Castile, to which Isabella agreed and proposed a fund for the entire voyage. Sooner, she developed a special interest in the indigenous people living in the new lands. When Columbus came back with some indigenous slaves in Spain, Isabella granted them freedom and promised that “Indians” will be treated with due respect and justice.

Legacy

Isabella always had good leadership skills and a good sense of statesmanship which was impressively reflected in her will and personality. She continued to work towards the unity of the states of the Iberian Peninsula, maintaining the control of the “Strait of Gibraltar” and the policy to expand the Muslims in North Africa. Queen Isabella faced much political unrest, but her terms did not collapse instead, it forced the collapse of the progressive government just after she faced the coronation. It pushed her to hand her powers to the Moderate liberals, and give them the entire responsibility. She was attacked twice as there were strong oppositions, authoritarianism reign among the liberals. Many people tried to obstruct her and attacked her, the first attack took place in ‘Calle de Alcala’ by ‘Angel de la Riva’, later a person called ‘Martin amerino’ – an elderly priest as well as a liberal activist who wounded the queen with a knife. But Isabella continued her actions as one of the powerful queens in history; her reign is still remembered solely dedicated towards the unification of Spain, beginning of the European colonialism, and the Spanish inquisition. Before the rise of Isabella, there was no place for female chess pieces on the board, just after the rise of Isabella in Castile during the 15th century, the country got introduced to the piece of “queen” who can roam around freely in every direction. Her reign helped to create separate recognition services for Spain, she believed in justice, fairness, treated every human being with the same eye, and due to her international acknowledgment offer was given to both Spaniards and non-Spanish recipients.

Isabella was the one who ended the 800-year-old period Christian conquest happening in the peninsula, the city was under the Muslim dynasty since 1200, Isabella and her husband Ferdinand received the keys to allocate the mosque into a Christian church, the year 1492 came to be a very big year for Isabella as on the same year Jews and the Muslims were finally expelled from Spain, the act also helped in deporting 200,000 people to their homelands.

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Queen Isabella was the first woman to get featured in the United States postage stamp; she was also featured on the US coin in the 400th anniversary of Columbus voyage, she was always very merciful towards the slaves as whenever the enslaved indigenous used to come to her she used to free them from slavery and used to grant them independence. Isabella was also popular and favorable towards the Moorish decor and fashion trends, despite her anti-Muslim policies, she was always known as a frontline warrior queen.

The Final get-together

Isabella worked hard towards the unification of Spain, as well as his husband Ferdinand. Somehow, Isabella and Ferdinand’s dream of unifying the dynasty passed to her heir, their dream was not successful as her heir died at the age of 19 leaving behind his pregnant wife. Isabella the Queen of Castile was officially not a Catholic Saint, still, she remained on the path of sainthood since 1974. After the demise of her son, her firstborn daughter became the heir to Castile, but sadly she also passed away while giving birth to her child. In her later life, she faced terrible tragic deaths, went through a lot of pain, her youngest daughter who was married to Tudor's heir, “Prince Arthur of Wales” also died after a few months of their marriage. Following the demise of Isabella’s two oldest children, her third-born child Joanna of Castile became the heir to her dynasty, she was the most educated princess of Europe she received schooling with their brothers in various languages, subjects like philosophy, law, theology others. In the year 1492, Ferdinand was assassinated in Spain; just after he passed away Isabella continued to rule the dynasty for 30 years, Queen Isabella of Castile died on the date 24th November 1504 at the age of 53 years.

Conclusion

Isabella is still remembered as the most powerful queen, she remained to be the patron of scholars and artists who worked towards the establishment of educational institution schools, a large collection of artworks. Still, there are many debates regarding the reign of Isabella and her actions, during the reign the queen supervise the formation of the Spanish inquisition, Spain’s capability of rising as a European power. Even after she suffered much loss in her life, many personal tragedies like her children’s marriage played a big role in the history of Europe, her son Joan and Charles became the Holy Roman emperor, while Catherine became the queen of England. Isabella’s long legacies continued and have been a remarkable thing in history, without her courage and support it would have been impossible to unify Spain, bring justice to the Jewish, Muslim world, and end slavery, she also supported the “edict of expulsion” in the year 1492. Under her orders Jewish families got freedom otherwise they would have faced massive torture, she remained to be the popular Queen of Castile. She also brought the crime rates low in a year under the governmental system, her marriage is considered as the ‘defacto’ that worked in the favour of the unification of Spain. Thus, Queen Isabella remains to be the name behind the influential monarch who led a major power in Europe and America, a name behind the effective monarch for bringing law and order.