Isabel I de Castilla. Siete ensayos sobre la reina, su entorno y sus empresas by Miguel Ángel Ladero Quesada (review)

The book is comprised of eight studies by the veteran Spanish Medievalist Miguel Ángel Ladero Quesada which take up the manifold and complex personality, roles and significance of Isabella, queen of Castille (1474–1504), her times and personalities related to the court. Isabella and her decisive reign which so defined Spain and its project for nationhood is are concerns which Ladero Quesada has addresses numerous times in his long and prestigious career. A tireless scholar and meticulous frequenter of archives he has, over the decades, come across new documents, read sources in a new way and put historiography into perspective. As such he is uniquely qualified to study so complex a figure as the great female who left such an indelible mark on Spain’s institutions and national character. Some of them are texts which he had published before in journals and books, others are texts presented at conferences while at least one was prepared especially for this book. All reflect his balanced approach when taking up the study of an often divisive and controversial figure, whom, as Ladero Quesada clearly shows, was a child of her age while she was also a forward looking, able and and conscientious administrator who made it a point to leave in place a series of structural structural models which would serve Spain for centuries.

The first study “Isabel la católica: perfil político de un reinado decisivo” (1–42) provides exactly what the author spells out in the title, he clearly defines the decisive reforms brought about by Isabella, the tumultuous events which took place during her reign and her legacy. Defining three important periods during her reign (1468–1479, 1480–1491, and 1493–1504) the author spells out the principle innovations brought about under her tenure as queen of Castille. Without glossing over the darker points of Isabella’s rule such as the expulsion of the Jews and Muslims and the introduction of the Inquisition the Spanish historian, citing a number of sources shows how the monarch, along with her husband Ferdinand (1452–1516) managed to contribute to the creation of national institutions, bringing the nobles in reign and establishing the bases of what would become the Spanish empire. Nowhere is Isabella’s exceptional diligence in assuring her cultural and political inheritance in evidence than in her will, which Ladero Quesada spells out in painstaking detail.

In “Isabel la católica vista por sus contemporáneos” (43–101) Ladera Quesada presents some of the many accounts of Isabella’s life and times. Lauded by Spaniards on such as Hernando del Pugar, Diego Enríque de Valera, Alonso Flores, Juan Barba, Andrés Bernáldez, Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros, she was also held in esteem by Italian humanists and writers such as Pietro Martire d’Anghiera, Lucio Marineo Siculo, Francesco Guicciardini, and Baldessare Castiglione. As he points out in the wealth of texts he cites, poetical works, chronicles and contemporary accounts among others, all were calculated to elaborate an image of Isabella as the ideal Catholic queen and spouse, who incarnated all the attributes of hearth and court.

“Príncipes de Asturias” (103–111) provides a short chapter on two of the occupiers of the principality of Asturias by members of the Trastamara family, Isabella from to 1468 to 1474 and Juan from 1478 to 1497. More than simple monarchs in waiting they took an active interest in managing the affairs of the principality which comprised lands, feuds and possessions throughout Spain, derived income and taxes which demanded constant supervision and administration.

In “La príncesa Juana. Felipe el hermoso” (113–156) Ladero Quesada takes into account the long reign of Juana, the daughter of Isabella and Ferdinand who officially reigned as queen of Castille from 1505 to 1555 even though, in effect her rule was purely formal. The Romantic legend of Queen Joanna of Castille whose...