Isabella, queen of Castile, was born at Madrigal, in that kingdom, on
the 22d of April, 1451. Her father, John II., after an inglorious
reign of forty-eight years, died in 1454, lamenting that he had not
been born the son of a mechanic, instead of king of Castile. Isabella
had but a slender prospect of obtaining the crown during the early
part of her life. She had two brothers, Henry and Alfonso, the former
of whom acceded to the throne at the death of John. Isabella retired,
with her mother, to the little town of Arevalo, where she lived many
years in obscurity. Her mother, who appears to have been a woman of a
strong, religious turn of mind, bestowed great care on her education,
and inculcated the strictest lessons of piety upon her daughter, which
did not fail to exercise an important influence upon her future
career. On the birth of a daughter to her brother, Isabella was
removed from her retirement to the royal palace, by Henry, who, being
disliked by his subjects, feared the formation of a party adverse to
his interests. At the royal court, surrounded by all the pleasures and
seductions most dazzling to youth, she did not forget the early
lessons imbibed in her seclusion, and the blameless purity of her
conduct shone with additional lustre amid the scenes of levity and
licentiousness by which she was surrounded.
Before this event, she had been solicited in marriage by various
suitors, among whom was Ferdinand of Arragon, who afterward became her
husband. His first application, however, was unsuccessful. She was
next betrothed to his elder brother Carlos, while yet a mere child.
That prince dying before the marriage could be completed, she was
promised by her brother to Alfonso, king of Portugal. Isabella was
but thirteen at this time, and the disparity of their ages was such
that neither threats nor entreaties could induce her to consent to the
union. The selfish and unprincipled Henry, who looked upon his sister
only as an object of trade, next made an attempt to dispose of her for
the purpose of gaining over a powerful family in Castile, which gave
him great trouble by their opposition. He offered her in marriage to
Don Pedro Giron, grand master of the order of Calatrava. This man was
well known to be a most detestable character. He was a fierce and
turbulent leader of a faction, and his private life was stained with
almost every vice. Such a person, vastly inferior in birth, was
selected as the husband of the young and virtuous Isabella. The pope
granted a dispensation from the vow of celibacy, which the grand
master, as the companion of a religions order, had been obliged to
utter, and splendid preparations were immediately made for the
nuptials.
Isabella was at this time in her sixteenth year. When she understood
in what manner she was now to be sacrificed to the selfish policy of
her brother, and that, in case she proved reluctant, compulsory
measures were to be adopted, she was filled with the liveliest grief
and indignation. She confined herself in her apartment, abstaining
from all food and sleep for a day and a night, imploring Heaven, in
the most piteous manner, to save her from this dishonor, even at the
cost of her life. As she was bewailing her hard fate to her faithful
friend, Beatriz de Bobadilla, that high-spirited lady exclaimed, "God
will not permit it; neither will I;" and, drawing forth a dagger from
her bosom, she solemnly vowed to plunge it into the heart of the
master of Calatrava as soon as he appeared. The affair, happily, did
not come to so tragical a catastrophe. Her dreaded suitor was suddenly
carried off by sickness in the midst of his magnificent preparations.
Troubles now began to thicken around the weak and vicious Henry. His
subjects, disgusted with his administration, rose in arms against him.
Castile was afflicted with all the horrors of anarchy and civil war.
Isabella retired for shelter to a monastery at Avila. The confederated
nobles, who were in arms against the king, offered her the crown of
Castile, which she had the prudence and magnanimity to refuse. This
led to a negotiation with the king, and the civil war was closed by a
treaty between the parties, in which it was stipulated that Isabella
should be immediately recognized heir to the crown of Castile and
Leon. Her brother Alfonso had recently died, and Joanna, the daughter
of Henry, was believed by the people to be a supposititious offspring.
Isabella's prospects of a throne, having now assumed a certain
character, drew the attention of neighboring princes, who contended
with each other for the honor of her hand. She gave the preference to
Ferdinand of Arragon, and they were married in 1469. On the death of
Henry, in 1474, they were conjointly declared king and queen of
Castile. A party, however, existed in favor of Joanna, and Alfonso
IV., king of Portugal, entered Castile at the head of an army,
publicly espoused her, and assumed the regal title. His defeat at the
battle of Toro, in 1475, was fatal to his pretensions, and, by a peace
concluded in 1479, the right of Isabella and her husband was fully
acknowledged. In that year Ferdinand succeeded to the crown of
Arragon; and from that time the kingdoms of Castile and Arragon were
inseparably united, comprising the whole of Spain not possessed by the
Moors.
Isabella, who was high spirited and jealous of her authority, governed
Castile as the real sovereign, and her husband had the policy to
concur, with apparent cordiality, in her measures. In 1481,
hostilities were commenced against the Moors of Grenada; and, after a
war of ten years, that kingdom was subdued by the arms of Ferdinand
and Isabella. By this event the whole of Spain was restored to the
Christian dominion; and, in honor of an achievement so auspicious, the
two sovereigns received the distinguishing title of "the Catholic." In
this war Isabella engaged with all the ardor of religions zeal; and
though Ferdinand joined in her plans with perfect harmony, yet he
seems to have acted in a secondary capacity. Soon after this, the Jews
were expelled from Spain--an act of bigotry and injustice certainly
countenanced by Isabella, but owing chiefly to the frantic religious
zeal of the inquisitor-general, Torquemada, her confessor, who, while
the king and queen were deliberating on the acceptance of an offer of
thirty thousand ducats made by the Jews to avert the threatened edict
of expulsion, suddenly burst into their presence, and, drawing forth a
crucifix from beneath his mantle, held it up, exclaiming, "Judas
Iscariot sold his Master for thirty pieces of silver. Your highnesses
would sell him anew for thirty thousand. Here he is; take him, and
barter him away." So saying, he threw the crucifix on the table, and
left the apartment. This bold stroke of priestly impudence was
completely successful. The sovereigns were overawed, and the edict was
signed.
A deed more glorious to the memory of Isabella was the generous
patronage she bestowed upon Columbus, and which was the sole means
that enabled that heroic adventurer to accomplish his great
undertaking of the discovery of the western world. After he had failed
in all his attempts in other quarters, he at length found a friend in
the queen, who, rejecting the advice of her narrow-minded and timid
counsellors, exclaimed, "I will assume the undertaking for my own
crown of Castile, and am ready to pawn my jewels to defray the
expenses of it, if the funds in the treasury shall be found
inadequate." Under her auspices Columbus achieved his great discovery;
and Isabella may be called the mother of the western world. She
continued a constant friend and protector of Columbus during her life;
and her death proved an overwhelming disaster to him.
During the war against the Moors, Isabella shared in most of the
campaigns, animating her husband and generals by her courage and
undaunted perseverance; providing for the support of the armies by her
forethought and economy; comforting them under their reverses by her
sweet and gracious speeches, and pious confidence in Heaven; and, by
her active humanity and her benevolent sympathy, extended to friend
and foe, softening, as far as possible, the miseries of war. She was
the first who appointed regular military surgeons to attend the
movements of the army, and be at hand on the field of battle. These
surgeons were paid out of her own revenues; and she also provided six
spacious tents, furnished with beds and all things requisite for the
sick and wounded, which were called the "Queen's Hospital." Thus to
the compassionate heart of a woman, directed by energy and judgment,
the civilized world was first indebted for an expedient which has
since saved so many lives, and accomplished so much towards
alleviating the frightful evils of war.
Isabella's confessor, the Dominican Torquemada, had, from the
beginning, earnestly labored to infuse into her young mind, to which
his situation gave him such ready access, the same spirit of
fanaticism that glowed in his own. Fortunately, this was in a great
degree counteracted by her sound understanding and natural kindness of
heart. But he is said to have extorted a promise that, "should she
ever come to the throne, she would devote herself to the extirpation
of heresy, for the glory of God and the extension of the Catholic
faith." The fulfilment of this promise being afterwards insisted on,
led to the establishment of the Inquisition in her dominions, the
darkest spot that exists upon her character. It was not till she had
endured the repeated importunities of the clergy, particularly of
those revered persons in whom she most confided, that she consented to
this measure.
It was under the auspices of Isabella that Cardinal Ximenes introduced
his famous reforms into the religious orders of Spain, and began the
work of correcting the horrible abuses which had crept into the
government of the convents. This attempt was strongly resisted, and
occasioned a general outcry of the clergy. The general of the
Franciscans waited on the queen, and remonstrated in high terms
against this interference with the privileges of his order; at the
same time reflecting severely on Cardinal Ximenes, and his influence
over her mind. Isabella listened to this turbulent friar with some
impatience; but, little accustomed to be dictated to in this style,
she at length rose from her seat, and desired him to remember who he
was, and to whom he spoke. "Madam," replied the monk, undauntedly, "I
remember that I am but ashes and dust, and that I speak to Queen
Isabella, who is but dust and ashes, like myself." She immediately
turned from him with a look of cool disdain. The next day he was
ordered to quit the kingdom; and Ximenes, supported by the royal
power, pursued his system of reformation.
Isabella was a patron of literature. The first printing press set up
in Spain was established at Burgos under her auspices; and all printed
books, and foreign and classical works, were imported free of duty.
Through her zeal and patronage, the University of Salamanca rose to
that eminence which it assumed among the learned institutions of that
period, and rivalled those of Pisa and Padua. She prepared the way for
that golden age of Spanish literature which immediately succeeded her.
Her own love of study is evinced by the fact, that, after she was
firmly seated on the throne, she applied herself to the task of
remedying the defects of her early education, by a diligent
application to books, amid all the cares of state. She mastered the
Latin language in less than a year's study.
Notwithstanding that Isabella adored her husband, she would never
suffer him to interfere with her authority as an independent
sovereign, and she was as jealous of her prerogative as Elizabeth of
England; except, indeed, where priestly intimidation was applied. Her
extreme deference for the ecclesiastics around her was a misfortune
for her people, but, consistently with the best points in her
character, it could not have been otherwise. She was humane, just, and
reasonable in all matters not influenced by the religious bigotry of
the age. She declared the American Indians free, and ordered the
instant return of several cargoes of them which had been sent to Spain
for slaves.
After a successful and glorious reign of thirty years, Isabella the
Catholic died, on the 26th of November, 1504, in the fifty-fourth year
of her age. Her last years were clouded with the deepest melancholy.
The insanity and misfortunes of her daughter Joanna, and the domestic
afflictions of her daughter Catherine of Arragon, lacerated her heart
with sorrow. She pined away in her lonely grandeur, till the deep and
long-protracted melancholy invaded her constitution, and settled into
a rapid and fatal decline.
The chief traits of Isabella's character may be gathered from the
preceding narrative, to which we subjoin the parallel drawn between
her and Elizabeth of England, by Mr. Prescott, whose "History" so ably
and satisfactorily unfolds the events of her reign.
"It is in these more amiable qualities of her sex, that Isabella's
superiority becomes most apparent over her illustrious namesake,
Elizabeth of England, whose history presents some features parallel to
her own. Both were disciplined in early life by the teachings of that
stern nurse of wisdom, adversity. Both were made to experience the
deepest humiliation at the hands of their nearest relative, who should
have cherished and protected them. Both succeeded in establishing
themselves on the throne, after the most precarious vicissitudes. Each
conducted her kingdom, through a long and triumphant reign, to a
height of glory which it never before reached. Both lived to see the
vanity of all earthly grandeur, and to fall the victims of an
inconsolable melancholy; and both left behind an illustrious name,
unrivalled in the annals of their country.
"But with these few circumstances of their history, the resemblance
ceases. Their characters afford scarcely a point of contact.
Elizabeth, inheriting a large share of the bold and bluff King Harry's
temperament, was haughty, arrogant, coarse, and irascible, while with
these fiercer qualities she mingled deep dissimulation and strange
irresolution. Isabella, on the other hand, tempered the dignity of
royal station with the most bland and courteous manners. Once
resolved, she was constant in her purposes; and her conduct in public
and private life was characterized by candor and integrity. Both may
be said to have shown that magnanimity which is implied by the
accomplishment of great objects in the face of great obstacles. But
Elizabeth was desperately selfish; she was incapable of forgiving, not
merely a real injury, but the slightest affront to her vanity; and she
was merciless in exacting retribution. Isabella, on the other hand,
lived only for others; was ready at all times to sacrifice self to
considerations of public duty; and, far from personal resentment,
showed the greatest condescension and kindness to those who had most
sensibly injured her; while her benevolent heart sought every means to
mitigate the authorized severities of the law, even towards the
guilty.
"Both possessed rare fortitude. Isabella, indeed, was placed in
situations which demanded more frequent and higher displays of it than
her rival; but no one will doubt a full measure of this quality in the
daughter of Henry VIII. Elizabeth was better educated, and every way
more highly accomplished, than Isabella. But the latter knew enough to
maintain her station with dignity, and she encouraged learning by a
munificent patronage. The masculine powers and passions of Elizabeth
seemed to divorce her, in a great measure, from the peculiar
attributes of her sex; at least from those which constitute its
peculiar charm; for she had abundance of foibles; a coquetry and a
love of admiration which age could not chill; a levity most careless,
if not criminal; and a fondness for dress and tawdry magnificence of
ornament which was ridiculous or disgusting, according to the
different periods of life in which it was indulged. Isabella, on the
other hand, distinguished through life for decorum of manners, and
purity beyond the breath of calumny, was content with the legitimate
affection which she could inspire within the range of her domestic
circle. Far from a frivolous affectation of ornament or dress, she was
most simple in her own attire, and seemed to set no value on her
jewels, but as they could serve the necessities of the state; when
they could be no longer useful in this way, she gave them away to her
friends.
"Both were uncommonly sagacious in the selection of their ministers,
though Elizabeth was drawn into some errors, in this particular, by
her levity, as was Isabella by her religious feeling. It was this,
combined with her excessive humility, which led to the only grave
errors in the administration of the latter. Her rival fell into no
such errors; and she was a stranger to the amiable qualities which led
to them. Her conduct was certainly not controlled by religious
principle; and, though the bulwark of the Protestant faith, it might
be difficult to say whether she were at heart most a Protestant or a
Catholic. She viewed religion in its connection with the state,--in
other words, with herself; and she took measures for enforcing
conformity to her own views, not a whit less despotic, and scarcely
less sanguinary, than those countenanced for conscience' sake by her
more bigoted rival.
"This feature of bigotry, which has thrown a shade over Isabella's
otherwise beautiful character, might lead to a disparagement of her
intellectual power, compared with that of the English queen. To
estimate this aright, we must contemplate the results of their
respective reigns. Elizabeth found all the materials of prosperity at
hand, and availed herself of them most ably to build up a solid fabric
of national grandeur. Isabella created these materials. She saw the
faculties of her people locked up in a death-like lethargy, and she
breathed into them the breath of life, for those great and heroic
enterprises which terminated in such glorious consequences to the
monarchy. It is when viewed from the depressed position of her early
days, that the achievements of her reign seem scarcely leas than
miraculous. The masculine genius of the English queen stands out
relieved beyond its natural dimensions by its separation from the
softer qualities of her sex; while her rival, like some vast and
symmetrical edifice, loses, in appearance, somewhat of its actual
grandeur, from the perfect harmony of its proportions.
"The circumstances of their deaths, which were somewhat similar,
displayed the great dissimilarity of their characters. Both pined
amidst their royal state, a prey to incurable despondency, rather than
any marked bodily distemper. In Elizabeth it sprang from wounded
vanity; a sullen conviction that she had outlived the admiration on
which she had so long fed, and even the solace of friendship, and the
attachment of her subjects. Nor did she seek consolation where alone
it was to be found, in that sad hour. Isabella, on the other hand,
sank under a too acute sensibility to the sufferings of others. But,
amidst the gloom which gathered around her, she looked, with the eye
of faith, to the brighter prospects which unfolded of the future. And,
when she resigned her last breath, it was with the tears and universal
lamentations of her people. It is in this undying, unabated attachment
of the nation, indeed, that we see the most unequivocal testimony to
the virtues of Isabella. Her own subjects extol her as 'the most
brilliant exemplar of every virtue,' and mourn over the day of her
death as 'the last of the prosperity and happiness of the country;'
while those who had nearer access to her person are unbounded in their
admiration of those amiable qualities whose full power is revealed
only in the unrestrained intimacies of domestic life."