About Me

I was born on April 22, 1451 in Madrigal de las Alas Torres, Ávila. I was named after my mother, Isabella of Portugal who was married to John II of Castile, my father. When I was only three years old, my father died leaving the kingdom to my half brother Henry IV who made my life miserable. My mother and brother Alfonso had to move to Arévalo and though living was difficult there, my desire to learn about Castilian politics kept me from going insane. After many complications considering the true successor of the throne, I was named Queen of Castile and León on January 20, 1479. My marriage to Ferdinand II of Aragon not only expanded our power, but also our territory. Together, we unfied Spain permanently and have our kingdom was based on Catholicism. Therefore, our monarch turned into a Catholic Monarch. There were many disagreements and chaos that happened to my kingdom because of my desire of a Catholic centered Spain. I had six children, four daughters and two sons. Isabella, John, Joanna, Maria, Catherine, and Peter but he died young. Each on of them married into another territory which only benefited us by expanding it. Catherine was the first wife of King Henry VIII of England, Joanna’s son Charles V became Holy Roman Emperor as well as King of Spain. My husband, Ferdinand, and I agreed on everything together. We ruled together equally without any unbalanced decisions. I am widely known as the queen who financed Columbus and his voyage in search of a westward route to India. Spain could be known as the country that started the mass of explorations around the world. I was ambitious as a queen though not power hungry. Like I stated before, Ferdinand and I ruled equally which meant that if there was a fault in one of our decisions, the other would help to found what to do so that we could improve or finalize that final decision. Maybe for that reason, our country became stronger and more stable than it had before. I was also very curious even as a young child. I always wanted to learn about new things, even when Henry tried to keep me away from his political problems that he was having when he ruled, I always ended up knowing because of my curiosity. Sometimes I could also be daring of trying new things. When Henry would not approve of my marriage with Ferdinand, I ran away to him so that we could even though I knew what the consequences would have been. Another time was when I had to banish all the Jews and Muslims from Spain because of the contradictory religion. My work of stabilizing Spain also brought great benefits to not only the country, but to future generations as well. For example, Charles V, Joanna’s son, ruled with great authority and power because of such a strong foundation to start from. I would say that I wasn’t a bad queen but I also wasn’t a great queen either, every person has their faults here and there but I am just glad that I had my dear husband Ferdinand to rely on.

Henry's Effect on My Life

After our father died, Henry took the throne and named himself Henry IV. Because Alfonso, my mother, and I had no other business we moved to Arévalo. It was horrible there and that is all that I can say. The castle had extremely poor conditions and we couldn't do anything about it because Henry didn't financially support us as he had to. The shortage of money didn't help at all either. However, mother believed in a good strong education so Alfonso and I would sometimes spend our days chasing rabbits and coming back to the castle to do our daily lessons with mother which consisted of reading, spelling, writing, grammar, mathematics, art, chess, dancing, embroidery, music, and religious readings. When I finally thought that things would start to turn around, Henry's dear wife Joan was having a baby and we had to leave our mother. Mother at the time, was beginning to lose her sanity, from old age or maybe just the castle, I might never know. "Queen Joan" was an idiotic woman, in my perspective, though if I ever mentioned that to Henry, I would have been beheaded faster than Joan's baby would have arrived on this world. I then moved to Segovia where my life really did improve there. Henry tried to keep his kingdom's problems from me, but of course I knew. His nobles confronted him one day and stated that they want Alfonso to be king instead of him, obviously Henry wasn't doing a very good job. The nobles sided with Alfonso and went to war with Henry. Henry eventually agreed to let Alfonso become king and even let him marry Joanna, his daughter. But again, Henry decided to take everything back but it was too late because Alfonso was already named king but then he soon died and so I had to confront Henry to change the succession of the throne from Joanna to me. From that day on, I was Queen Isabella of Castile and Léon.
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