Queen+Isabella

** By, Reilly Dugery **
 * __ Queen Isabella of Castile __**

**
 * Queen Isabella of Castile, a strong queen, ruled during the Middle Ages. She had a very successful reign. She drove Moors and Muslims out of Spain and created an incredibly strong army. She helped her country through many hard wars, and helped an uncontrolled poor country become organized and rich again. **
 * Queen Isabella was born on April 22, 1451 in Castile, which was located in the center of modern day Spain. She was described as a very beautiful woman with blonde hair and pale blue eyes. As a young girl, Isabella was sent to live in Segovia by her half brother, Enrique IV, to keep her from the throne. Enrique was a very weak king. Over the years he was king of Castile, he managed to gamble away almost the entire Castile treasury. After that happened the people of Castile realized that they needed a new ruler and that Isabella and her other brother were the only other royal choices. They first went to her brother. He tried to over take the throne, but never did. About two weeks after he had started his campaign to become king, he died. Many people suspected that he was poisoned. Isabella was next in line now and deserved the throne, but Enrique had a daughter. His daughter’s name was La Betranja. Some people in Castile though, knew his daughter would have the same ruling traits as her father. Few people realized this but, Isabella fought on. **
 * In August of 1468, Isabella met with Enrique. They decided on an agreement. Isabella would become queen after Enrique died if she respected him as king. He also wasn’t allowed to marry her against her will and she wasn’t allowed to marry if Enrique and his advisors did not agree. After signing the agreement, Enrique awarded her with seven cities. Isabella later found out that Enrique had lied about all of this when she tried to go to one of her cites and was turned away at the gates. She was told that Enrique was their leader. Isabella also realized that Enrique planned to have La Betranja take the throne. However, he never wrote this in his will. On December 12, 1474, Enrique died and there was going to be a fight for the throne between Isabella and La Betranja. Isabella won, even though La Betranja married the King of Portugal. He started a war between the two countries, but eventually lost. She became Queen on December 13, 1474. After being proposed to three times, she finally married Prince Ferdinand of Aragon. **
 * Isabella had five children with Ferdinand. Their names were Isabelle, Juan, Juana, Maria, and Catalina. She made sure that they were all married. Isabella’s first and favorite daughter was Isabelle. Isabelle’s wedding was extravagant and celebrated for days and days on. Even though Castile and Portugal had been enemies in the past, Isabelle was married to Prince Afonso of Portugal. They were a happy couple at first, but a few days after the wedding, Afonso was killed after he was thrown from a horse. Isabelle was so overcome with grief, she entered a convent and became a nun. **
 * When Isabella became queen, one of the first things she found out was that the Catholic Church did not like the Moors [African Americans] and the Muslims. They did not like these two groups of people because they wouldn’t convert. Isabella decided that the best thing to do was to either put them in bondage or kill them if they would not convert. She made a strong war against the two spiritual groups. She won this war for her country and drove the Jews and Muslims out of Castile. She was not only a good queen to her people but an excellent and dedicated mother. too. She made sure all of her children were educated so they could go on to do great things as well. She also made sure they were always safe. Isabella went to the city that had left her at the gates before and put a harsh rule on it. This town was one of the towns that had supported Enrique and that was rebelling against her reign. She saw this as a problem and made a law that all rebel leaders would be hung in their homes. This quieted them down for only a while though. Isabella thought that how this law had quieted the city down, it would be a safe place for Isabelle, who was a toddler at the time, to grow up in.She was wrong. In August, 1476 Isabella heard news that her daughter, Isabelle, was in danger. The city was rebelling! She rode all night and all day on horse back alone to rescue her daughter. **
 * Queen Isabella was a truly amazing person. She improved the economy, speed up trials, and gave each person their own lawyer to plead their case. She gave money to widowers and orphans of solders who died in the war. She also funded and believed in Columbus’s trips to the new world. She did a lot in her reign and helped form an amazing and civilized society that we know now as Spain. **
 * __ Bibliography __**
 * Whitelaw, Nancy. __Queen Isabella and the Unification Of Spain__. Greensburo, North Carolina: Morgan Reynolds Publishing Inc., 2005.
 * Picture: http://www.visualstatistics.net/EastWest/Long%20Waves%20of%20Time/Isabella.jpg **