Isabelle I of Castille

Filiation

It was the girl of Jean II (1405-1454), king de Castille and of León (1406-1454) and Isabelle of Portugal (1428-1496). The death of his/her younger brother Alphonse (1453-1468), made of it the presumptive heiress of the kingdom, its half-brother born of the first marriage of his/her father, Henri IV (1420-1474), king de Castille and of León (1454-1474) being without legitimate descent. Henri IV was indeed the father of Jeanne (1462-1530), known as Jeanne Beltraneja , which the possible illegitimacy did not cease being discussed since the 15th century, and for which it intended the succession after the death of infant Alphonse.

Isabelle the Catholic

Isabelle married, the October 14th 1469, in spite of the opposition of her brother, the future Ferdinand II of Aragon (1452-1516), known as Fernando the Catholic and, after several estrangements, ends by reconciling herself with Henri IV in December 1473 and up collecting her succession in December 1474.

Although become king de Castille in title at the same time as his wife, Ferdinand II never laid out, of living of this one, any authority on its personal field. It was necessary to await the death of this one in 1504, followed in 1506 of that of his son-in-law Philippe the Beautiful and of the disease of their daughter and heiress Jeanne Insane the, so that king d' Aragon ensures regency in the name of his grandson Charles Quint whom it managed to make recognize as king de Castille in parallel with Jeanne 1st who preserved the title until her death in 1555.

Become in its turn in 1479 sovereign of the various territories of the Crown of Aragon, Ferdinand II then formed with his wife a single example of double monarchy, of 1479 to 1504, where each sovereign kept the full autonomy of his own territories, while actively preparing the formal unification of the Spain at the next century.

The two sovereigns completed the Reconquista in 1492 by the annexation of the Royaume of Grenade, last eight century old vestige of Moslem presence in Spain. This success in the formerly Christian ground reconquest was worth in Isabelle and Ferdinand to be described as “catholic Kings” by the Pape Alexandre VI in 1494.

In parallel, Isabelle and Ferdinand organized the Spanish Inquisition, in 1492, by the Décret of Alhambra they drove out the Jews of Spain which found refuge in the Ottoman Empire thanks to the authorization of the sultan Bayezid II, and reduced the influence of large feudal.

Descent

Of her union with Ferdinand, Isabelle had 5 children:

Isabelle d' Aragon, wife of Alphonse, infant of Portugal, then of the king of Manual Portugal {{Ier}}, his/her cousin.
Jean (1478 - † 1497)
Jeanne {{Anger}} of Spain, known as Jeanne Insane the , heiress of the kingdoms of Castille, then of Aragon, and mother of Charles Quint
Marie d' Aragon, second wife, after her Isabelle sister, of the king of Portugal Manual {{Ier}}
Catherine d' Aragon, wife of Arthur Tudor, heir to the crown of England, then of his/her brother, future Henri VIII and mother of Marie I {{Re}} of England.

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