Isabella of Castile : Europe's first great queen

Title:

Author:

Summary:

1474. Castile was the largest, strongest, and most populous kingdom in Hispania-- and Isabella ascended the throne, a female ruler in a male-dominated world. Her marriage to Ferdinand of Aragon not only united their kingdoms, but began a royal partnership in which Isabella more than held her own. Tremlett chronicles Isabella's colorful life as she led her country out of the Middle Ages and harvested the ideas and tools of the Renaissance to turn her nation into a sharper, early modern state.

Contents:

1.No Man Ever Held Such Power -- 2.The Impotent -- 3.The Queen's Daughter -- 4.Two Kings, Two Brothers -- 5.Bulls -- 6.Choosing Ferdinand -- 7.Marrying Ferdinand -- 8.Rebel Princess -- 9.The Borgias -- 10.Queen -- 11.And King! -- 12.Clouds of War -- 13.Under Attack -- 14.Though I Am Just a Woman -- 15.The Turning Point -- 16.Degrading the Grandees -- 17.Rough Justice -- 18.Adios Beltraneja -- 19.The Inquisition -- Populism and Purity -- 20.Crusade -- 21.They Smote Us Town by Town -- 22.God Save King Boabdil! -- 23.The Tudors -- 24.Granada Falls -- 25.Handover -- 26.Expulsion of the Jews -- 27.The Vale of Tears -- 28.The Race to Asia -- 29.Partying Women -- 30.A Hellish Night -- 31.A New World -- 32.Indians, Parrots and Hammocks -- 33.Dividing Up the World -- 34.A New Continent -- 35.Borgia Weddings -- 36.All the Thrones of Europe -- 37.Though We Are Clerics ... We Are Still Flesh and Blood -- 38.Juana's Fleet -- 39.Twice Married, But a Virgin When She Died -- 40.The Third Knife-Thrust of Pain -- 41.The Dirty Tiber -- 42.We Germans Call Them Rats -- 43.The End of Islam? -- 44.The Sultan of Egypt -- 45.Like a Wild Lioness -- 46.The Final Judgement.

Physical Description:

ix, 607 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, genealogical tables, maps, portraits ; 20 cm.

Personal Subject:

Isabella, Queen of Spain I, 1451-1504.

Subject Term:

Queens -- Biography.

Geographic Term:

Castile (Spain) -- History -- Isabel I, 1474-1504.

Castile (Spain) -- Kings and rulers -- Biography.

Spain -- History -- Ferdinand and Isabella, 1479-1516.

Publisher:

Bloomsbury,

Publication Date:

2017

ISBN:

9781408854068

Publication Information:

London : Bloomsbury, 2017.

Call Number:

923 ISABELL

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003327437	Adult Nonfiction	923 ISABELL	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

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Summary

'Packed with vivid character sketches and lyrical description, Tremlett has told a gripping story, full of beauty and darkness' The Times WINNER OF THE 2018 ELIZABETH LONGFORD PRIZE In 1474, a twenty-three year old woman ascended the throne of Castile, the largest and strongest kingdom in Spain. Ahead of her lay the considerable challenge not only of being a young, female ruler in an overwhelmingly male-dominated world, but also of reforming a major European kingdom that was riddled with crime, corruption, and violent political factionism. Her marriage to Ferdinand of Aragon was crucial to her success, bringing together as it did two kingdoms, but it was a royal partnership in which Isabella more than held her own. Her pivotal reign was long and transformative, uniting Spain and laying the foundations not just of modern Spain, but of the one of the world's greatest empires. With authority and flair, acclaimed historian Giles Tremlett Tremlett 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.

Author Notes

Giles Tremlett is the Madrid correspondent for the Economist . Until 2013, he covered Spain for the Guardian, for which he is now a contributing editor. He has lived in, and written about, Spain for the past twenty years, and is the author of Catherine of Aragon: The Spanish Queen of Henry VIII and Ghosts of Spain: Travels Through Spain and Its Silent Past . He lives in Madrid with his wife and their two children.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

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. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Library Journal Review

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 Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.