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Home / People / Isabella I of Castile

Historical person

Isabella I of Castile

1451–1504

Isabella I became queen of Castile in 1474 and ruled jointly with her husband Ferdinand of Aragon. Their reign defeated a rival succession claim, conquered Granada and strengthened royal authority. Isabella sponsored Columbus’s voyage across the Atlantic and supported religious uniformity through the Inquisition and the expulsion of Jews who refused conversion. Her policies helped create a powerful dynastic monarchy while inflicting persecution and opening the way to colonial conquest.

C. W. Gortner’s The Queen’s Vow places Isabella at the centre of a historical novel covering her contested accession and partnership with Ferdinand. She also appears in Philippa Gregory’s The Constant Princess as the formidable mother of Catherine of Aragon. Fiction often admires her determination and political ability, but responsible portrayals also confront the coercive religious and imperial consequences of her rule.

In Jean Plaidy’s Castile for Isabella, Just sixteen years old, all seems lost: is Isabella fated to be the victim of the Queen's revenge, the Archbishop's ambition and the lust of Don Pedro Giron, one of the most notorious womanisers in Castile? In Robyn Young’s Court of Wolves, Harry Vaughan serves Henry on a covert mission to the Spanish court, where Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon are completing the war against Granada while Christopher Columbus seeks support for a western voyage. Other novels featuring Isabella I of Castile include Alison Weir’s Katherine of Aragon, Tariq Ali’s Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree, Alison Weir’s Six Tudor Queens, Colin Falconer’s Converso, and Jean Plaidy’s Daughters of Spain.

Series

Series featuring Isabella I of Castile (5 series)

Six Tudor Queens in Order

by Alison Weir 20 books 4.2

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Epic Historical Adventure in Order

by Colin Falconer 15 books 4.3

Epic Historical Adventure is Colin Falconer's publisher-defined collection of stand-alone historical thrillers rather than a continuous narrative sequence. The novels range from Alexander the Great, Cleopatra and the Mongol Empire to the Ottoman court, the conquest of Mexico, colonial India, shipwreck and twentieth-century Palestine. Most volumes can be…

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New World Rising in Order

by Robyn Young 2 books 4.2

New World Rising follows the fictional half-brothers Jack Wynter and Harry Vaughan through the dynastic upheavals that ended Plantagenet rule and opened the early Tudor age. Sons of the Blood begins in 1483 with Edward IV’s death, the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower and Richard III’s…

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The Islam Quintet in Order

by Tariq Ali 5 books 4.2

The Islam Quintet is Tariq Ali’s cycle of five historical novels examining encounters between Islamic societies and the Christian West across more than five centuries. Moving from the fall of Muslim Granada and the Crusades to Norman Sicily, the late Ottoman Empire and the modern transnational world, the…

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