Isabella The Warrior Queen - Historical Biography Book | Inspiring Story of Leadership & Courage | Perfect for History Lovers & Book Clubs

The advantage a reader unfamiliar with the subject of a biography has is that he/she can approach the subject with few, if any, preconceived notions. I knew that Isabella was the mother of Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of the famously non-uxorious King Henry VIII of England; and that she launched Columbus sailing 'the ocean blue in 1492'. Given the characterization of the book elsewhere, I had suspected that Kirstin Downey's book might be something of a feminist screed (not that there's anything wrong with that), but this was not the case. Downey has written a fascinating book that is feminist, but only insofar as the life of Isabella was female. She was, in fact, one of the pivotal characters of world history.The world of Isabella was dangerous, complex, and violent. She led a somewhat unsettled childhood and grew up in the shadow of her elder half-brother King Enrique of Castile. At his death, the succession was unclear but Isabella seized the throne in her own right. Marrying Ferdinand of Aragon, Isabella and her husband completed the reconquest of the Iberian peninsula, an accomplishment that threw Light on Isabella's supreme worth as a ruler. While Ferdinand commanded the Spanish army, Isabella worked tirelessly to supply her husband with troops, armaments, food, and medical supplies. What is starkly clear, and what is proved by Ferdinand's sorry record as sole ruler after Isabella's death, was that the military successes of Ferdinand were only made possible by the efforts of his queen. No need for feminist special pleading here -- the facts speak for themselves.It' is readily apparent that a biography of Isabella could easily turn into a multi-volume monument. The European discovery of the Americas, the Inquisition, the continual threat from the Ottoman Turks, Castile-Aragon's relationship with the Portuguese, and European politics in general -- particularly the predations of the French; each of these topics would require at least one book to explicate. Downey's singular triumph is to distill all this into an easy read. Not easy to plumb, but easy in the sense that the book flows quite nicely. It reads like a novel.The chapter dealing with the first voyages of Columbus is very lucid and Downey makes it clear that the impetus for exploration came from Isabella as Queen of Castile. This was her enterprise, she funded it, and Ferdinand just wasn't that interested. And here it is important to emphasize that Isabella was, first and foremost, Queen of Castile. Ferdinand was not allowed to interfere in her rule in Castile. She and her husband single-mindedly fought the Muslim rulers in southern Iberia, but it was Isabella who controlled everything else when it came to the interests of HER kingdom. This is a point that has been glossed over for 500 years and it bears re-emphasizing.Downey handles the Inquisition with kid gloves. She finds Isabella culpable for its genesis and subsequent horrors of its execution but she tempers her criticism with something like the standard device of pointing out the dangers of anachronistic finger-pointing. Still Downey does not shy away from describing the injustices served to Muslims, Jews, and Conversos. Downey also does not refrain from telling the sorry tale of Isabella and Ferdinand reneging on their promises to let the Muslims and Jews practice their religions in perpetuity, and that the Conversos would not be subjected to the prying eyes of the inquisitors.Downey's feminist slant is rightly deployed to prove convincingly that her daughter Juana (later dubbed La Loca) was the victim of bad press. Isabella worked tirelessly to find suitable and advantageous marriages for her children. She married off her daughter Juana to Philip of Austria and, in a sort of two for one deal, acquired Philip's sister Margaret for Prince Juan, heir to the throne of Castile. Philip and Margaret were the children of Maximilian who became the Holy Roman Emperor. Excellent matches, politically, but Juan died young and Juana's husband turned out to be a classic example of spousal abuse toward Juana. It is too complicated to go into detail here, but it appears more than likely that the abuse heaped on Juana led to her being sequestered and being declared insane (after Isabella's death). Downey's evidence to the contrary is persuasive but the clincher for me was that when Juana and Philip were forced to land in England on their way to claim the throne of Castile, no less a personage than King Henry VII of England (future father-in-law of Isabella's daughter Catherine) deemed Juana to be quite sane and self-possessed. If anyone could read people it was Henry VII, who had spent his life reading people and their motives.There is so much more to this fascinating book. Isabella's ups and downs with Rodrigo Borgia, who became Pope Alexander VI (and father of the even more infamous Cesare), her relations with the Portuguese monarchy and, above all, her constant fretting about the aims of the Ottoman sultan du jour would all make for further books. If anything, though, Downey's book is a model of concision and an excellent launching pad for further reading. There are extensive end notes, a good bibliography, and a useful index. The only things missing are genealogies of the Castilian and Aragonese monarchies (and one of the concurrent Portuguese monarchy would have been welcome). Isabella's reign echoes down the centuries. Except for Brazil and the Guayanas, Spanish is the dominant language of South America and Central America, the Roman Catholic Church paid dearly for its excesses during the Spanish Civil War, and far away in the Middle East some would-be caliph dreams of regaining Al Andalus for the Prophet.A great read.Another defect in my Iberian historical knowledge base is the biography of Isabella of Spain. From my travels of the last ten years I have witnessed first hand her influence in the transition from Medieval to the Renaissance European world. After visiting Cordoba, Spain this year several times and learning Columbus journeyed there to the Alcazar palace to meet with her, I thought I needed to discover more of this important woman. Kristin Downey completely satisfied this thirst in “Isabella The Warrior Queen,” a portrait of one of the greatest women who ever lived.This exhaustively-researched work is written like a thriller, though a biography, is that it is hard to put down. This is a book you bring to the beach! The book brings the reader into the life and realm of the Queen, one of the most powerful in history, and greater than Eleanor of Aquitaine and Philippa of Portugal (not queens in their own right). Her and the characters are brought to life like no other biography.Midway through the text I was rewarded that in Chapter 15 the material regarding Columbus relationship with perusing the Queen for sponsorship was reveal in detail (material not reveal to me prior). Downey also confirms my suspect Isabella was also related to the “Portuguese’s Illustrious Generation” and Philipa of Lancaster by her maternal grandmother. Therefore, having John The Gaunt of Lancaster as a great-great grandfather on both sides of her family!In my travel this last month I final got to experience the grandeur of the “Royal Chapel” in Granada which was the catalyst for obtaining this book. I was much impressed by what I viewed for 2 hours and 5 Euros, I had to find something to explain this women. Disappointingly, no English books at the gift shop were available to tell this story. So, I immediately ordered this book from Amazon as I left the building.Now after reading this work I am more appreciative of Isabella’s accomplishments and am planning to travel to Madrid and explore Arevalo, Medina del Campo, Avila, and Segovia to fully understand her history. As a writer I take my hat of to the author for an outstanding and astonishing easy to read contribution to the literature. It brings life to probably the greatest queen (in her own right) in history. What a marvelous piece of writing!I was looking forward to reading this new biography of Isabella of Castile, the queen who, with her husband Ferdinand, conquered the last Moorish kingdom of Granada, sponsored the voyages of Columbus and raised Spain to the ranks of the great European powers. However, Kirsten Downey's book failed to live up to my expectations.The 'blurb' on the front cover was a sign of things to come, as it described Isabella as a 'forgotten queen'. Really? Isabella must be one of the best known queens in history!. She is the subject of numerous modern biographies in both Spanish and English, including recent works by Peggy Liss and Nancy Rubin Stewart, and the Spanish drama series 'Isabel', based on her life and times has been shown in many countries and is currently on its third season.Accuracy is an essential component of any historical biography, and Ms. Downey significantly fails to achieve this. The book is riddled with factual errors. Dates are wrongly recorded - for example, the siege of Gerona took place in 1462, not 1463 - and King Ferrante of Naples is given two different causes of death. Ms Downey correctly states that the counties of Roussillon and Cerdagne were returned to Spain by France in 1493 but later describes them as cities and says that they were in French hands in 1502. Cesare Borgia is stated to have been transferred to the fortress of La Mota 'under Isabella's watchful eye' but this did not happen until June 1505, seven month's after the Queen's death! Isabella is said to have been married for twenty five years, but as she married in 1469 and died in 1504, the correct figure is thirty five.. These and other mistakes really should have been corrected by the author or her editor prior to publication.The book is also strangely unbalanced by the inclusion of material which is of limited relevance. Ms. Downey expends a whole chapter on the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman sultan Mehmet II, an event which occurred when Isabella was only a baby. She also writes at some length about the invasion of Spain by Moslem troops in the 8th century, but includes little information on the subsequent Spanish reconquest through the medieval period. The ten year war waged by Ferdinand and Isabella to conquer the kingdom of Granada is given only one chapter, but was undoubtedly one of the Queen's major achievements. There is little or no information on the Queen's economic policies and very little on her efforts to reform the Castilian church, in contrast to the amount of space devoted to the failings of the papacy of Rodrigo Borgia.Although the book is generally well written, it is marred by some clumsy terms of phrase such as 'she had had to learn to live with' and 'he took up company with other women'. The author is over-fond of quoting from secondary sources within the text rather than leaving these to the footnotes. Her lack of training as a historian sometimes shows in her lack of understanding of contemporary terms - for example, 'lusty' means strong and healthy in sixteenth century English, not lecherous. She struggles to critically evaluate her sources, most notably in her treatment of the Spanish general Gonsalvo de Cordoba, who was a favourite of the Queen. Ms Downey takes contemporary and modern hagiographies of 'the Great Captain' at face value, criticising Ferdinand for sidelining him after Isabella's death.but the King had good reason to be suspicious of a man who attempted to use Spanish resources to win himself a state in Pisa, took kickbacks from contractors when Viceroy of Naples and leaked state secrets to the Venetian ambassador.However, the greatest weakness of this biography is its treatment of Isabella's husband Ferdinand. Ms. Downey clearly believes that many of Isabella's achievements have been wrongly credited to her husband. Whilst this may have been the case with some contemporary writers such as Niccolo Machiavelli, modern writers have generally redressed the balance. In her efforts to address what she sees as an injustice, Ms. Downey falls into the trap of virtually ignoring Ferdinand's contribution Although Isabella was, as the author says, the driving force behind the conquest of Granada, she could hardly have achieved this without Ferdinand's leadership of the army Bizarrely, she also describes Isabella as the driving force behind foreign policy, an area in which Ferdinand took the lead. She appears to base this assertion on Isabella's involvement in the negotiations with England for her daughter Catherine's marriage, but this was only one part of Spain's international relations. The author also dismisses Ferdinand's achievements as sole ruler of Castile after Isabella's death as almost nothing of significance', ignoring the consolidation of Spanish power in Italy and the Americas and the conquest of the kingdom of Navarre. As a result of this prejudice against Ferdinand, Ms.Downey fails to explore one of the most interesting and unique aspects of Isabella's reign, namely how she worked in partnership with her husband.Readers who want to learn more about Isabella and her achievements should seek out the excellent biographies by Peggy Liss and Nancy.Rubin Stewart rather than this book. The television series 'Isabel' also gives a more accurate account of the life of this important Queen. ..First the author describes the epoch. Then the personages, Isabella and Ferdinand and most importantly their interactions. The important role Isabella played in designating the Pope, liberating Spain from centuries of Muslim occupation, setting the stage for the growth of the Americas, and most importantly, in my eyes disproving that Queen Juana was not crazy but the victim of a husband and a father whose intent was to destroy her which they did.I can only echo Juliana's comments above. I'm deeply relieved that I did not spend money on the hard copy; I more than half-resent the money I've spent on the Kindle edition! This biography adds nothing to those already available, even Carroll's hagiography is better—if one can overlook the fact that it's raison d'être is Isabella's canonisation. I appreciate that not everyone who writes a historical biography is a trained historian, but someone who claims to be a journalist should at least be capable of writing with more elegance than is shown here.If you're looking for an accessible biography of this great queen, try Nancy Rubin's. For an academic evaluation of Isabella, Peggy Liss's work is your port of call. If you want a good survey plus a level of emotional analysis—and incomparable prose—you can do worse than Townsend Miller's now classic 'The Castles and the Crown'. Just don't waste your time on this unless you're an Isabeline completist!An excellent read and makes one want to explore in greater depths many of the points raised in this comprehensive exploration of the life and times of IsabellaExcellent!! I'm so happy, the book is in a great condition! I'm very satisfied!