Copyright © 2014 by Kirstin Downey All rights reserved Published in the United States by Nan A Talese / Doubleday, a division of Random House LLC, New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada, Limited, Toronto, Penguin Random House companies www.nanatalese.com DOUBLEDAY is a registered trademark of Random House LLC Nan A Talese and the colophon are trademarks of Random House LLC Maps by Gene Thorp Jacket design by John Fontana Jacket painting of Isabella by José da Rosa © Bridgeman Art Library / Monastery of La Rabida, Huelva, Andalus, Spain; swords © Kjolak / Shutterstock LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Downey, Kirstin Isabella : the warrior queen / Kirstin Downey.—First edition pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index Isabella I, Queen of Spain, 1451–1504 Queens—Spain—Biography Spain—History—Ferdinand and Isabella, 1479–1516 I Title DP163.D69 2014 946.03092—dc23 [B] 2014003895 ISBN 978-0-385-53411-6 (hardcover) ISBN 978-0-385-53412-3 (eBook) v3.1 To Laura Gregg Roa, who sat on the seawall with me in Coco Solo, Panama, dreaming of sailing ships and distant lands, and the queen who sent the explorer to our shores 1957–2009 CONTENTS Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Maps PROLOGUE ONE | A Birth Without Fanfare TWO | A Childhood in the Shadows THREE | Frightening Years | Isabella Faces the Future Alone FOUR | Marriage FIVE SIX | Ferdinand and His Family SEVEN | The Newlyweds EIGHT | The Borgia Connection NINE TEN | Preparing to Rule | Isabella Takes the Throne ELEVEN | The Tribe of Isabel TWELVE | The Whole World Trembled THIRTEEN FOURTEEN | The Queen’s War | Architects of the Inquisition FIFTEEN | Landing in Paradise SIXTEEN | Borgia Gives Her the World SEVENTEEN | Lands of Vanity and Illusion EIGHTEEN | Faith and Family NINETEEN | Turks at the Door TWENTY | Israel in Exile TWENTY-ONE | Three Daughters TWENTY-TWO | A Church Without a Shepherd TWENTY-THREE TWENTY-FOUR | The Death of Queen Isabella | The World After Isabella AFTERWORD Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index A Note About the Author Illustrations Other Books by This Author A depiction of the attempted suicide attack on Beatriz de Bobadilla, one of fifty-four woodcarvings that Isabella commissioned for the choir stall of the great Cathedral of Toledo (Album / Art Resource, NY) Queen Isabella’s first major architectural commission, San Juan de los Reyes in Toledo, where the queen ordered the manacles on freed Christian slaves to be mounted on the exterior walls so the ordeal would not be forgotten (Tony Page / Travelsignposts.com) The Alhambra of Granada, the Moorish-built palace of the Nasrid dynasty whose walls were inscribed with Arabic poetry and holy writ (Madrugada Verde / Shutterstock.com) A painted wood-carving depicting the coerced baptism of the Muslim women of Granada after the Reconquest (bpk, Berlin / Capilla Real de Granada / Alfredo Dagli Orti / Art Resource, NY) A nineteenth-century painting depicting Isabella, Ferdinand, and Boabdil at the surrender of Granada, Europe’s first significant triumph against Islam in hundreds of years (Album / Art Resource, NY) Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros, archbishop of Toledo, confessor to Isabella and later cardinal and regent of Spain, sculpted by Salvador Amaya Parque histórico de Navalcarnero, Madrid (Salvador Amaya) A nineteenth-century painting depicting the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, with Tomás de Torquemada, the chief inquisitor, angrily rebuffing a Jew seeking permission to remain in his homeland Prado Museum, Madrid (Copyright of the image Museo Nacional del Prado / Art Resource, NY) Friar Hernán de Talavera, Isabella’s long-time confessor and archbishop of Granada, a converso who fell victim to the Inquisition after being accused of using his home as a secret temple San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain (Album / Art Resource, NY) Rodrigo Borgia, the notorious Pope Alexander VI, who enjoyed the pleasures of both the flesh and the intellect, and who bitterly clashed with Queen Isabella Museo Diocesano D’Arte Sacro, Orte (Gianni Dagli Orti / The Art Archive at Art Resource, NY) Cesare Borgia, the son of Pope Alexander VI, whom Isabella came to view as a public menace Palazzo Venezia, Rome (Scala / Art Resource, NY) The Tempietto by architevct Donato Bramante, a masterpiece of High Renaissance art that was commissioned by Ferdinand and Isabella to commemorate their son, Juan Vatican Hill, Rome (Daniele Silva / Shutterstock.com) Explorer Christopher Columbus, who considered Isabella his most significant patron, sculpted by Salvador Amaya Parque histórico de Navalcarnero, Madrid (Salvador Amaya) A statue commemorating Isabella at the front entrance to the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the Organization of American States The thirty-five member nations include Argentina, the Bahamas, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the United States, Uruguay, and Venezuela (René and Peter van der Krogt, http://statues.vanderkrogt.net) One of some 370 spectacular tapestries owned by Queen Isabella, The Triumph of Fame depicts the Petrarch poem on glory and memory Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Copyright © The Metropolitan Museum of Art Image source: Art Resource, NY) ALSO BY KIRSTIN DOWNEY The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life and Legacy of Frances Perkins—Social Security, Unemployment Insurance, and the Minimum Wage ... CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Downey, Kirstin Isabella : the warrior queen / Kirstin Downey. —First edition pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index Isabella I, Queen of Spain, 1451–1504 Queens—Spain—Biography... all these years the city was a living relic of the classical world The residents there still called themselves “Romans”; they regularly read the Greek classics, including Homer; they saw themselves... other food for support than the honey they gathered in crevices of the rocks which they themselves inhabited like so many bees However, Pelayo and his men fortified themselves by degrees in the