In 1474, a 23-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 setting the stage for its golden era
of global dominance. For by the time of her death in 1504, Isabella had
laid the foundations not just of modern Spain but of one of the world's
greatest empires.
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, modern state
with a powerful, clear-minded, and ambitious monarch at its centre. With
authority, insight and flair, 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.
