( Isabel of Castille - © Royal Collection Trust )
Madrigal de las Altas Torres is a town in the province of Ávila, in Castilla León, Spain. This municipality had only 1464 inhabitants in 2017. It is situated about 800m above the sea level and has an area of more than 100 km².
But why am I telling you this? Why would you care?
Well, you’d care because that’s the birthplace of one of the most important women of the XV century, daughter of King Juan II of Castile and his second wife, Isabel of Portugal. She was also the granddaughter of Henry III and Catherine of Lancaster, and of Juan of Portugal.
Who am I talking about? No clue yet?
I’m talking about the incomparable Catholic queen, Isabel I of Castile, whose birthday is today. If she were alive, she’d be turning the astonishing age of 572.
Isabel I of Castile was born at 4.30pm on Maundy Thursday afternoon, 22 April 1451. This date was something sacred and important in Spain, where what is known as madrugá was celebrated. The faithful took to the streets to witness the diverse processions, which were sober and simple, and took place in the early hours of the morning between Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. They paraded with their faces covered and their backs exposed and, unlike today, they didn’t carry big religious images on their backs, only the sacred cross, called Vera Cruz, which gave its name to the religious brotherhoods that followed years after.
But, returning to the birth issue, historians do not have a date that’s one hundred percent certain and unequivocal. Isabel wasn’t yet very relevant, as the king already had an heir from his first marriage with his cousin, María of Aragon, so they didn’t take much trouble to record the event (hindsight’s a funny thing, isn’t it?). The first in line of succession was the Prince of Asturias, named Enrique, aged 26, followed by Isabel's younger brother, the Infante Alfonso, born in 1453.
Thus, the most important record that we can rely on is the one belonging to King Juan II himself, when he announced the arrival of his daughter with the following statement:
"I let you know that by the grace of Our Lord this past Thursday Queen Isabel, my very dear and much loved wife, gave us an infanta, which I let you know so that you may give many thanks to God".
Despite this announcement, Isabel's father wasn’t present at the time of her birth, and an emissary had to hurry to bring him the news, although, unfortunately, fate didn’t allow them to form any kind of deep bond, as King Juan II died shortly afterwards, in 1454.
Fun fact: her chambers within King Juan II’s palace in Madrigal de las Altas Torres still remains today, even though it has been turned into a convent. Another place you can see related to her is the church where she was baptised in, named San Nicolás de Bari, which has the baptismal font used back then.
After the coronation of her half-brother, now Enrique IV, the Infanta's life continued in Arévalo, land belonging to her mother Isabel, together with her younger brother Alfonso. Both children witnessed their mother's mental health decline and experienced deprivation due to the monetary non-fulfilment of their father's will. They lived completely out of the court’s bubble in spite of being heirs to the crown. It’s now speculated that Isabel’s mother could’ve suffered from postnatal depression, aggravated after her husband’s passing. Since she was not receiving proper care and was living as a hermit with her children and few trusted servants, it’s understandable that her health didn’t have a fair chance at recovery. Nonetheless this might have been difficult to witness for both Alfonso and Isabel.
Future queen Isabel was left to be raised by Gonzalo Chacón, who was married to Clara Álvarez de Alvarnáez, chief chambermaid to the queen. He would become her only fatherly figure. Her spiritual guide was Martín Alonso de Córdoba, who wrote for her “The garden of noble maidens” that said that women ought to be “timid, humble and obsequious” and didn’t specify any intellectual advice. This leads experts to believe that while she must’ve been taught how to write and read, the main concerns during her upbringing were her social skills, e.g. dancing, music or rhetoric. It’s known, though, that Isabel was her father’s daughter, and she loved hunting, riding horses and reading chivalric novels.
Alonso Flórez said about her that she had pretty eyes, long eyelashes and small white teeth, but that she was rarely seen smiling or laughing as she should’ve during her infancy.
All of that came to a halt when King Enrique IV called them back to court, when Isabel was 11 years old. His court was unstable, and much like Henry VIII’s, it was full of upcomers who pried on the King’s affections in order to succeed. That’s how many of the people close to Enrique IV came to be from lower statuses and nobility grew uncomfortable and irate. Enrique feared that his younger siblings would be lured to an enemy side that could end up threatening his rule. Unfortunately, the king failed to produce any offspring, going down in history as the impotent king. He did, however, have a daughter from a second marriage to Juana of Portugal, although everyone at court seemed to doubt the veracity of the king's paternity.
After a few revolts that had having Alfonso on the throne as the main goal and that some say were approved by Isabel herself, Enrique IV agreed to marry off his supposed daughter to his younger brother, and to name him heir to the throne in an attempt to put everyone at ease, though that didn’t come to fruition.
On 5 June 1465, in the "farce of Avila", Isabel's younger brother, now named Alfonso XII by those who sided with him, was proclaimed king, but neither the nobles nor the Pope supported that, backing Enrique IV’s claim.
Alfonso died in 1468, believed to have been poisoned, and Isabel was proclaimed Princess of Asturias and heir in September of the same year. But Enrique’s court was a jealous one, so no one took care to prepare Isabel to her future role. Lucio Marineo Sículo wrote in 1492 that Isabel took matters into her own hands when she occupied the throne, and surrounded herself with people that helped her learn and mend that unfulfilled need. In only a few months, she practically taught herself latin. This might be the source of future English queen Catherine’s ability to learn English, many years later.
Either way, after a series of failed engagements orchestrated by her brother and after obtaining a papal bull to marry (due to them being second cousins, as it often happened), Isabel ended up married to Fernando of Aragon, with whom she ascended the throne of Castile on 13 December 1474 when Enrique IV died. She was already queen of Sicily in 1469 and would add to her list the Aragon crown ten years later. They united Spain for the first time and forever.
She went on to reign for 30 years and her children were bound to other big royal families as follows:
- Isabel, queen of Portugal between 1497 and 1498.
- Juan, prince of Asturias.
- Juana I of Castile, unfairly known as “the Mad”.
- María, who married her sister’s widower and became queen of Portugal, giving birth ten times. Her daughter, Isabel, would be empress after marrying emperor Carlos V.
- Catalina, Catherine or Katherine, married off to Arthur Tudor, prince of Wales, and then to King Henry VIII, making her queen consort of England.
Isabel I became known as a warrior queen, who died in Medina del Campo, on 26 of November, 1504, after being a key part on the wrongly named discovery of America. It’s believed she left us saying:
"Do not weep for me or waste your time in vain prayers for my healing. Pray, rather, for the salvation of my soul".
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