Isabella of Castile

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

daughter of John, 2d king of Castile; born in 1451. By her marriage , in 1469, with Ferdinand, 5th king of Aragon, the two crowns were united. The subsequent conquest of Granada, and expulsion of the Moors, left Ferdinand and Isabella the first sovereigns of united Spain. Isabella was a princess of remarkable abilities, and rare domestic virtues . It was through her exertions and influence that Columbus obtained the small armament that enabled him to reach the New World. In the old fortress of Simancas, where the archives of Castile are kept, have been found some letters in Isabella's own handwriting, wherein she boasts of establishing and upholding the tribunal of the Holy Inquisition; while other official documents disclose the fact that the estates of the unhappy victims who perished by the flames were wholly devoted to the queen's use . exoneration of the queen, that, in her It must be said, in time, heresy was generally considered the greatest of crimes, and that the burning of heretics was held as legitimate a thing, as is, in our own time, the hanging of a murderer. She died in 1504. ISABELLA II., Queen of Spain; born in Madrid, in 1830. The Salic law, which had previously been in force in Spain, was repealed by the Cortes, in order that she might inherit the crown. The death of her father, in 1833, advanced Isabella, at the age of three years, to the throne. Her uncle, Don Carlos, who in his own right, and that of his son, regarding the abrogating of the Salic law as a direct injustice and violation of their interests, refused to take the oaths of allegiance, and a large portion of the Spanish people, deeming it beneath their honor as men to be swayed by a woman, supported Don Carlos in his treason, and a civil war at once broke out; which, after raging for nearly seven years, was finally terminated in 1840, by the defeat of the Carlists, and expulsion of their chiefs and leaders. At the age of 13 Isabella was declared of age, and at 16 was married to her cousin Don Francisco de Assisi; the realm being governed, during Christina, and Espartero, Duke of Vicher long minority, by her mother Dona tory, who were appointed severally to the post of regent. Dethroned by the revo- Spain, accompanied in her flight by the lution of September, 1868, Isabella left king-consort and her four younger children, and took refuge in France. After 1846, when she was married against her conjugal state, the private character of Isabella was exposed to considerable censure and scandal. She died in 1904. will to a man said to be unfit for the