isabella of castile europe's first great queen

Isabella’s gutsy seizure of the throne after the death of her half-brother King Enrique IV had me on the edge of my seat. Tremlett gives us a well-organized and well-thought-out, chronological, presentation of Isabella’s life, from the reign of her father to her death.

įrom the first page of this book, I was hooked. ‘No woman in history has exceeded her achievement’ from Hugh Thomas, “Rivers of Gold: The Rise of the Spanish Empire” and ‘Probably the most important person in our history’ from Manuel Fernández Á lvarez, “Isabel la Católica”. Tremlett’s opening page has two quotes about this formidable queen. I’ve had this volume on my shelf for some time and having recently decided to do some research on Isabella, finally read it. With authority and insight he relates the story of this legendary, if controversial, first initiate in a small club of great European queens that includes Elizabeth I of England, Russia's Catherine the Great, and Britain's Queen Victoria.The Freelance History Writer has previously reviewed two other biographies of Isabella of Castile: Here and Here.

Acclaimed historian Giles Tremlett chronicles the life of Isabella of Castile as she led her country out of the murky Middle Ages and harnessed the newest ideas and tools of the early Renaissance to turn her ill-disciplined, quarrelsome nation into a sharper, truly modern state with a powerful, clear-minded, and ambitious monarch at its center. Their pivotal reign was long and transformative, uniting Spain and setting the stage for its golden era of global dominance. Her marriage to Ferdinand of Aragon united two kingdoms, a royal partnership in which Isabella more than held her own.

At a time when successful queens regnant were few and far between, Isabella faced not only the considerable challenge of being a young, female ruler in an overwhelmingly male-dominated world, but also of reforming a major European kingdom riddled with crime, debt, corruption, and religious factionism. In 1474, when Castile was the largest, strongest, and most populous kingdom in Hispania (present day Spain and Portugal), a twenty-three-year-old woman named Isabella ascended the throne. A major biography of the queen who transformed Spain into a principal global power, and sponsored the voyage that would open the New World.

Isabella of castile europe's first great queen