Isabel La Catolica, Queen of Castile: Critical Essays
David A. Boruchoff (Editor)
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Published: 2002
312 pages. ISBN: 0312293070
"In truth, Aeneas was not so merciful as Virgil paints him, nor Ulysses so prudent as Homer describes him."
-Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quijote de la Mancha (1)
[Isabel la Católica] is a cautionary tale about the emotion-stirring power of myth, symbol and belief. (2)
"Isabel la Católica, Queen of Castile: critical essays" provides an extremely satisfying collection of thought provoking essays, with many of them successfully achieving one of the book's goals to examine "Isabel's will, inspiration and agency in refashioning the political, social, cultural and institutional landscape of her nation, with herself positioned as an icon." (3)
Including thorough notes and translating many of the essays from the original Spanish, this small volume (just over 300 pages) allows the English reader access to "findings available only in scattered and hard to locate venues." (4)
My main disappointment with this work stems from its limited scope in allowing us to see the human face of Isabel. Whilst providing tantalizing glimpses of Isabel's domestic life, the curtain tends to comes down before we are given a chance to form a firm picture of Isabel's roles as mother and wife.
One of the essays also claims the future Richard III put forward as a candidate for Isabel's husband. (5) I had never come across this before, and thought it strange when Richard was an untried seventeen-years-old when Isabel's marriage to her cousin Ferdinand took place and ranked youngest of the York brothers. I believe the writer may have confused Richard with his older brother Edward. Before Isabel became Queen, marriage to Edward IV was thought a possibility, before it was discovered he had already burnt his bridges by a secret marriage to Elizabeth Woodville.
It is said Richard III, during his reign, was told by the Spanish Ambassador that "Isabel's heart had been turned against England because Edward IV had refused the offer of her hand to marry Elizabeth Woodville." (6)
If this is correct, putting aside the famous Castilian pride, does this indicate a very human trait in the nineteen-years-old woman who also believed God meant her to be the redeemer and Queen of Castile? Golden-haired, well over six feet tall, blue-eyed Edward IV was something of medieval pin-up King. Isabel went on to marry her cousin Ferdinand - a man too not lacking in physical charms.
