A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Isabella (of Spain)
ISABELLA, Queen of Spain.
Henry IV. king of Castile and Leon, having wearied out his subjects by his indolent and licentious life, in 1464, they declared him deposed, and elected his brother, Don Alphonso, a boy of twelve years of age, king in his stead. This extraordinary proceeding was followed by all the horrors of a civil war, which did not cease till some time after the death of the young prince. The archbishop of Toledo, the head of the party, continued to carry on war in the name of Isabella, the king's sister, to whom they gave the title of Infanta; and Henry could not extricate himself out of those troubles, nor remain quiet upon his throne, till he had signed one of the most humiliating treaties ever extorted from a sovereign. He acknowledged his sister Isabella the only lawful heiress of his kingdom, in prejudice to the rights of his reputed daughter Joan, whom the mal-contents affirmed to be the daughter of Don la Cueva, and the abandoned life of the queen gave a colour to the pretence.
The grand object of Isabella's party was her marriage; upon which it was evident the security of the crown and the happiness of the people must in a great measure depend The alliance was sought by several princes. The king of Portugal offered his hand; the king of France demanded her for his brother; and the king of Arragon for his son Ferdinand. The malcontents preferred the Arragonian prince, and Isabella prudently made the same choice. Articles were drawn up, and they were privately married by the archbishop of Toledo.
Henry was enraged at this alliance, which, he foresaw, would utterly ruin his authority, by furnishing his rebellious subjects with the support of a powerful neighbouring prince. He therefore disinherited his sister, and reestablished the right of his daughter. A furious civil war desolated the kingdom. The names of Joan and Isabella resounded from every quarter, and were every where the summons to arms. But peace was at length brought about, 1474. Henry was reconciled to his sister and to Ferdinand; though it does not appear that he ever renewed her right to the succession; for he affirmed, in his last moments, that he believed Joan to be his own daughter. The queen swore to the same effect; and Henry left a testamentary deed, transmitting the crown to this princess, who was proclaimed queen of Castile, at Placentia. But the superior fortune and arms of Ferdinand and Isabella prevailed, and the king of Portugal was obliged to abandon his niece and intended bride, after many ineffectual struggles and several years of war. Joan sunk into a convent, when she hoped to ascend a throne; and the death of Ferdinand's father, which happened about this time, added the kingdoms of Arragon and Sicily to those of Leon and Castile.
Ferdinand and Isabella were persons of great prudence, and, as sovereigns, highly worthy of imitation; but they did not seem to have merited all the praises that were bestowed upon them by the Spanish historians. They did not live like man and wife, having all things in common; but, like two princes in close alliance. They neither loved nor hated each other; were seldom in company together, had each a separate council, and were frequently jealous of one another in the administration. But they were inseparably united in their common interests; always acting upon the same principles, and forwarding the same ends. Their first object was the regulation of their government, which the civil wars had thrown into the greatest disorder. Rapine, outrage, and murder, were become so common, as not only to interrupt commerce, but, in a great measure, to suspend all intercourse between one place and another. These evils the joint sovereigns suppressed by their wise policy, at the same time that they extended the royal prerogative. By supporting a society, called the Holy Brotherhood, formed to apprehend and carry delinquents to punishment, and other salutary measures, prompt and impartial administration was restored, and with it tranquillity and order.
But, at the same time they were giving vigour to civil government, and securing their subjects from violence and oppression, an intemperate zeal led them, 1480, to establish an ecclesiastical tribunal, equally contrary to the natural rights of mankind and the mild spirit of the gospel, the Inquisition. The same zeal, however, which thus led to the depopulation and barbarising of Castile and Arragon, led also to their aggrandizement. The kingdom of Granada alone, remained of all the Mahometan possessions in Spain. Princes equally zealous and ambitious, like Ferdinand and Isabella, were naturally disposed to think of increasing their hereditary dominions, by expelling the enemies of Christianity, and extending its doctrines. Every thing conspired to favour this project, when, in 1483, Ferdinand entered Granada. He continued the war with rapid success. Isabella attended him in several expeditions, and they were once in great danger of being taken; but at length, in 1492, the king of Granada capitulated, and his dominions were annexed to their crown; which ended the empire of the Arabs in Spain, after it had continued about eight hundred years.
The great Columbus, a Genoese navigator, who, perfectly acquainted with the figure of the earth, conceived the idea of another hemisphere, after having, unsuccessfully, applied to his countrymen and to Portugal, for means to make this grand discovery, had laid his proposals before the court of Spain, where he had long suffered all that supercilious neglect which unsupported merit so often meets with from men of office, who are too apt to despise what they do not understand.
Ferdinand and Isabella were then engaged in the conquest of Granada. The Spanish treasury was exhausted; but no sooner were the Moors subdued, but the ambitious mind of Isabella seemed to sympathize with the bold spirit of Columbus, She offered to pledge her jewels, in order to furnish him with a fleet; and by her means it was effected. On his return, he was much honoured, ordered into the presence of Ferdinand and Isabella, and desired to sit covered, like a grandee. Royal favour beamed on him with unremitting brightness; and the pope having issued a bull, granting to the sovereigns of Spain all the lands they had or should discover, an hundred leagues to the westward of Azores, a larger and well-furnished fleet was assigned him. He went; but though he prosecuted his discoveries with the greatest success, a new governor of Hispaniola, a place he had conquered and colonized, was appointed, and he was sent home in chains. His patroness, queen Isabella, was no more, and he died a martyr to the ingratitude of Ferdinand in an obscure retreat at Valadolid.