Isabella of Castile

January 2, 2017
Tremlett (Catherine of Aragon), Madrid correspondent for the Economist, reveals how decades of ineffective rulers led the Crown of Castile to land on the unlikely head of Isabella (1451–1504), who usurped the throne of her underage niece in her quest to create a powerful unified Spain. He successfully argues that Isabella’s strong sense of duty to God and country strengthened her resolve for unification and her drive to convert heretics to Christianity, resulting in a reign with long-lasting consequences in the Western world. Much of this well-written account covers Isabella’s unique working relationship with her less politically astute husband, Ferdinand of Aragon, and her eagerness to wage war. Tremlett emphasizes her zeal and deftness with resources in furthering Spain’s interests as she perceived them. Clear descriptions of Castilian court politics reveal how the hopeful explorer Columbus finally received Isabella’s funding and approval for his westbound routes, inadvertently launching the Native American genocide while expanding Spanish supremacy. However, despite much attention, there’s little sense of immediacy regarding the Moorish invasions that Isabella (and the Iberian Peninsula generally) feared, making her forced conversions during the Inquisition and Reconquista less understandable to modern readers. Tremlett’s unsentimental portrait reveals an ambitious queen whose accomplishments of prescient religious reform, westward exploration, and empire-building far outshone those of her contemporary European monarchs.

November 15, 2016

With her marriage to Ferdinand of Aragon in 1479, Isabella (1451-1504) began a decades-long partnership that turned her medieval kingdom into a truly modern state by reorganizing the government, lowering crime, eliminating debt, and transforming Spain into a major world power. In this highly readable, engrossing biography, journalist Tremlett (Catherine of Aragon) champions his subject as one whose achievements are even more remarkable because of the gender norms she transcended during her reign. While Tremlett describes Isabella as bold, self-confident, intelligent, and single-minded, he also acknowledges that she is highly controversial, asking readers to consider why she is not better heralded. From a historiographical point of view, the book is most valuable in this regard. Marginalized for her religiosity, her establishment and support of the Inquisition, and the Black Legend of the Spanish Inquisition, Isabella became a symbol for religious traditionalists and authoritarians. The author presents a fascinating discussion of her appropriation by Francoism. This work raises significant questions about gender, power, and prejudice in the writing of history. VERDICT For general readers interested in both Spanish culture and biographies of achieving women, as well as academics open to a revisionist look at Spanish and women's history alike.--Marie M. Mullaney, Caldwell Coll., NJ

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2016

Isabella of Castile's marriage to Ferdinand of Aragon united two kingdoms, setting the stage for the political unification of Spain--not to mention the Inquisition, the reconquest of lands from the Moors, and the sponsorship of Christopher Columbus. That's all most people know about Isabella, a situation Tremlett, Madrid correspondent for the Economist and author of Catherine of Aragon, aims to rectify.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 15, 2017
Engaging new appraisal of Europe's first female monarch and her long, consequential reign.A century before Elizabeth I, there was Isabella of Castile (1451-1504), whose 35-year reign alongside her less-capable husband, Ferdinand of Aragon, became the model of a strong, enduring, ruthless (rather than enlightened) dynasty. Economist Madrid correspondent Tremlett (Catherine of Aragon: The Spanish Queen of Henry VIII, 2010, etc.) puts into lively relief the remarkable talents and drive of this singular female sovereign, who subjugated her husband's role by law and believed fervently that her "purification" of the Arab lands of Andalusia and Granada was dictated by God. In short, she ruled as rigorously as a man and was beloved for it. She was already proving herself a shrewd operator when, at age 18, she finagled her own choice of a husband in the dashing son of a quarrelsome neighboring dynasty, Aragon. Ascending to the throne of Castile after the relatively short reigns of her weak brother and half brother, she and Ferdinand were able to bring Castile and Aragon together under one crown, which was unprecedented and spurred new ambition in uniting the whole Iberian peninsula--the Reconquista. Isabella delighted in war preparations: she harnessed the power of the Spanish nobility, the Grandees, defeated her usurper, employed a "new sort of army" that used artillery and infantry rather than knights and their mounted followers, and terrified the enemy by her mere presence, as she did in the siege of Baza in 1489. Certain that God was on her side, she and Ferdinand instigated the state inquisition as a harsh system of justice to convert Jews and Moors to Christianity before banishing them both from the kingdom altogether. Tremlett gives a broad sense of the ramifications of her will, especially in sanctioning the expedition of Christopher Columbus and thus spreading Christianity and Spanish influence throughout the Western hemisphere. A combination of a solid biography of an extraordinary monarch and a concise history of turbulent 15th-century Spain.

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Starred review from February 15, 2017
Tremlett's (Catherine of Aragon, 2010) magisterial biography of Queen Isabella of Spain illuminates how, from her splendidly successful marriage to her cousin King Ferdinand of Aragon, sprang the united kingdom of Spain, and how their compatible conjoining of focus and force of personality brought their newly knit-together country to the forefront of European affairs, where it ruled for many centuries. He also traces how, from Isabella's treasury and forethoughtdespite her personal and institutional cruelty to non-Catholics, which is given full acknowledgement herea world empire of vast geographical dimensions and unbelievable wealth accrued. As he asserts in the subtitle, Tremlett's contention, which he supports with a sublime presentation of facts and interpretation, is that Isabella represents the first member in the exclusive club of great European queens who exercised sovereign power with their own hands. Other great female rulers followed her, including Elizabeth of England and Catherine the Great of Russia, but her story is unique, as presented here in fine detail, because it is the story of two people in partnership accomplishing what one person could not have achieved, and this is key to understanding Isabella's reign. All public-library world-history collections will be enriched by the addition of this greatly defining biography.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)