Isabella I | |||||||||||
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Isabella I of Castile, depicted in the painting Virgen de la mosca at The Collegiate church of Santa María la Mayor (Church of Saint Mary the Great)
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Queen of Castile and León | |||||||||||
Reign | 11 December 1474 – 26 November 1504 | ||||||||||
Coronation | 13 December 1474 | ||||||||||
Predecessor | Henry IV | ||||||||||
Successor | Joanna | ||||||||||
Co-monarch | Ferdinand V | ||||||||||
Queen consort of Sicily | |||||||||||
Tenure | 19 October 1469 – 26 November 1504 | ||||||||||
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Tenure | 20 January 1479 – 26 November 1504 | ||||||||||
Queen consort of Naples | |||||||||||
Tenure | 31 March 1504 – 26 November 1504 | ||||||||||
Born | 22 April 1451 Madrigal de las Altas Torres, Spain |
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Died | 26 November 1504 Medina del Campo, Spain |
(aged 53)||||||||||
Burial | Capilla Real, Granada, Spain | ||||||||||
Spouse | Ferdinand II, King of Aragon | ||||||||||
Issue among others... |
Isabella, Queen of Portugal John, Prince of Asturias Joanna, Queen of Castile and Aragon Maria, Queen of Portugal Catherine, Queen of England |
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House | Trastámara | ||||||||||
Father | John II, King of Castile | ||||||||||
Mother | Isabella of Portugal | ||||||||||
Religion | Roman Catholicism | ||||||||||
Signature |
Isabella I (Spanish: Isabel I de Castilla, Old Spanish: Ysabel I) (22 April 1451 – 26 November 1504) was Queen of Castile. She was married to Ferdinand II of Aragon. Their marriage became the basis for the political unification of Spain under their grandson, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. After a struggle to claim her right to the throne, she reorganized the governmental system, brought the crime rate to the lowest it had been in years, and unburdened the kingdom of the enormous debt her brother had left behind. Her reforms and those she made with her husband had an influence that extended well beyond the borders of their united kingdoms. Isabella and Ferdinand are known for completing the Reconquista, ordering conversion or exile of their Muslim and Jewish subjects in the Spanish Inquisition, and for supporting and financing Christopher Columbus' 1492 voyage that led to the opening of the New World and to the establishment of Spain as the first global power which dominated Europe and much of the world for more than a century. Isabella was granted the title Servant of God by the Catholic Church in 1974.
Isabella was born in Madrigal de las Altas Torres, Ávila, to John II of Castile and Isabella of Portugal on 22 April 1451. At the time of her birth, she was second in line to throne after her older half-brother Henry. Henry was 26 at that time and married but childless. Her younger brother Alfonso was born two years later on 17 November 1453, lowering her position to third in line. When her father died in 1454, her half-brother ascended to the throne as Henry IV. Isabella and Alfonso were left in Henry's care. She, her mother and her brother Alfonso then moved to Arévalo.