Isabella the first
Isabella I (Spanish: Isabel I, Old Spanish: Ysabel I; Madrigal de lass Atlas Torres, 22 April 1451-Medina del Campo, 26 November 1504) was Queen of Castile. She was married to Ferdinand II of Aragon. Their marriage became the basis for the political unification of Spain under their grandson, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. After a struggle to claim her right to the throne, she reorganized the governmental system, brought the crime rate to the lowest it had been in years, and unburdened the kingdom of the enormous debt her brother had left behind. Her reforms and those she made with her husband had an influence that extended well beyond the borders of their united kingdoms. Isabella and Ferdinand are known for completing the Reconquista, ordering conversion or exile of their Muslim and Jewish subjects in the Spanish Inquisition, and for supporting and financing Christopher Columbus's 1492 voyage that led to the opening of the New World and to the establishment of Spain as the first global power who dominated Europe and much of the world for more than a century. In most instances, she was more influential than her husband. Isabella was granted the title Servant of God by the Catholic Church in 1974. Isabella was born in Madrigal de lass Atlas Torres, Ávila, to John II of Castile and Isabella of Portugal on 22 April 1451.[1] At the time of her birth, she was second in line to throne after her older half-brother Henry. Henry was 26 at that time and married but childless. Her younger brother Alfonso was born two years later on 17 November 1453, lowering her position to third in line.[2] When her father died in 1454, her half-brother ascended to the throne as Henry IV. Isabella and Alfonso were left in Henry's care.[3] She, her mother and her brother Alfonso then moved to Arevalo.[4]
These were times of turmoil for Isabella. Living conditions in their castle in Arevalo were poor, and they suffered from a shortage of money. Although her father arranged in his will for his children to be financially well taken care of, Henry did not comply with their father's wishes, either from a desire to keep his half-siblings restricted or from ineptitude.[3] Even though living conditions were lackluster, under the careful eye of her mother, Isabella was instructed in lessons of practical piety and in a deep reverence for religion.[4]
When the King's wife, Joan of Portugal, was about to give birth to