A Short Biography of Isabella II of Castile
Isabella II of Castile
The near death of Isabella of Aragon after her eldest son Miguel was born nearly prevent the Iberian Union before it’s infancy. Sickly after constant travels during her pregnancy and unhappy with her marriage, the young woman took a turn for the worst soon after labour and looked likely to die. Fortunately, through the efforts of a particularly gifted nun, Isabella made it through and soon re-joined her son and husband. Her spirits, long since low after her first husband’s death, lifted in the presence of her son and by early 1500 the Portuguese Queen seems to have fully embraced her role, made evident by her second pregnancy, ending in a second son in May of that year, named Juan. This joy was dampened by the loss of her eldest child Miguel in August. Thus, Juan became the heir to Castile, Aragon and Portugal, along with various other small claims.
Isabella, always a devoted Catholic, grew further enveloped in the teachings of the Bible and in 1501 gave birth a third time, to a daughter who she named Maria Magdalena of Portugal, after the Virgin Mother and Mary Magdalen. Soon after, news arrived that her sister, Catherine, had lost her young husband to illness and thus was a widow at 16. Seeing that her sister may be forced into a position like she had been in, she became a fierce proponent against Catherine’s remarriage to the new Prince of Wales, Henry Tudor, writing to the Pope himself explaining that the union was not holy due to passages in the Bible that forbade the marriage of a widow to her husband’s brother. While this stance did not prevent a betrothal being created, the slow advancement of the dispensation around that time was put squarely at Isabella’s feet, particularly after she offered her daughter as a potential bride instead.
Her fourth pregnancy would take place in 1504, during a visit to her ailing mother. Discovering herself to be pregnant, she refused to return to Portugal until the child had been born, sending word to her husband King Manuel that she felt ill and hoped to ensure their child’s health. While there, she witnessed her sister’s marriage to the Duke of Savoy, acting as support for the disappointed young woman. A victim of James IV of Scotland’s back and forth attitude towards his marriage, she had been betrothed in 1499 but had been put against the Princess Margaret Tudor, eldest daughter of the English King, who was desperate for his daughter to marry well. Eventually, money and a chance at possibly joining the Iberian Alliance, particularly after Louis XII of France made motions towards possibly renewing the Auld Alliance through a marriage between a hypothetical second daughter of his and an eldest son of James, should that opportunity arise. Thus, Isabella would watch her sister be made the Duchess of Savoy. The match had been made rather quickly after the previous Duke’s death in September, for fear he would marry his brother’s widow. Maria, now 22, spoke often of her dread that she might end up unmarried, but now had a husband who would worship her, mostly due to her great dowry. Isabella, meanwhile, gave birth in October to a third son, named Afonso of Portugal and made Duke of Beja a year later by her husband.
The Portuguese Queen stayed with her mother at Medina del Campo until her death on November 26th, acting as her nurse in her final days. After acting as the chief mourner at her funeral and in March of 1505, after a difficult fight for recognition, she was coronated as Queen Isabella I of Castile. Now, as Queen of Castile, she was equal to her husband and asked him to join her in Toledo, where she had set up her court of the time being, asking him to bring their children. It was there that she sent word to the Tudor King that, if he allowed her sister to return to Castile so that she might have a more holy match (Isabella had doubted the rumours that Henry Tudor had been granted a dispensation, since she had not found evidence and the Pope had refused to answer if it had been granted or not), then he might keep the partial dowry and have the rest in due time as part of a match between her daughter, Maria Magdalena’s, dowry to the Prince. After much deliberation, it was agreed to and in November of that same year, Catherine departed for Castile, while Maria Magdalena departed to England.
Isabella expected gratitude from her sister, but instead found the Infanta distraught that she had “lost her place in history”. Undisturbed, the Castilian Queen began looking for a match for her sister after acting as godmother to her first nephew between Maria of Aragon and Charles III, Duke of Savoy, named Isabella after her. Finally, after much negotiation, her sister was married to Antoine of Lorraine, a young man set to inherit the Dukedom of Lorraine from his father. A way to ensure peace with Louis XII of Portugal, it also ended talks of the young man marrying an Austrian girl, effectively freezing out Isabella’s sister, Joanna of Aragon, from arranging a match there. Catherine went begrudgingly and Isabella would always consider her the least grateful of her sisters.
The Castilian Queen and the Portuguese King welcomed, in 1505, a second daughter in the shape of Beatrice of Portugal-Castile. At this time, the Austrian Royal family (without the Holy Roman Emperor) made a visit to Madrid, where Isabella had moved the royal court for the time being. While Manuel and the Prince of Asturias were, at this time, in Portugal, Isabella greeted her sister and her family as warmly as she could. However, she was not taken by her brother-in-law, who made an attempt to charm her during his negotiations for his daughter to marry Infante Juan. However, Isabella informed him that, at that time, she had betrothed the Prince to Mary Tudor, younger daughter of the English King. However, she did agree to betroth the Infanta Beatrice of Portugal-Castile to Prince Charles of Burgundy. Thus, Beatrice leaves for Brussels with her cousins, to be raised with her future husband.
In 1507 Isabella underwent her final pregnancy, giving birth to stillborn, twin boys, causing her to fall back into her depression. Her husband, for the time being, attempts to take control of the government, while her father attempts a similar coup, eventually ending after Isabella seems to return to normal in early 1508. To prevent her father from interfering again, she sets her orders if such “madness” should fall onto her again, her health should fail or she might die. Her husband is to act as Regent in Castile. In response to this, he father remarries in an effort to spite her, hoping to have a son to take away the chance that Isabella and her line will inherit Aragon. He marries, late in the year, Germaine de Foix, who will give birth to the short-lived Ferdinand of Aragon, Prince of Girona in 1510.
The Queen once again seems to threaten depression after her younger son Afonso seems sickly. Nursing him for a time, she is absent when the Princess Mary Tudor, in mourning after her father’s death, arrives in Toledo in preparation for her marriage to the Prince of Asturias. Rumours swirl that the Princess and her future father-in-law will have had an affair around this time, but luckily it seems to have been a false one and in 1514 the wedding occurs. The year earlier, Isabella receives word that her daughter, quickly approaching womanhood, has married the English King, although they are awaiting her 14th birthday to consummate the marriage. Called Queen Maud by Londoners, the Portuguese girl is highly popular for her easy nature, although she does maintain strict adherence to the Catholic faith.
Isabella’s death in 1516, shortly after the birth of her first grandchild, Maria Isabella of Portugal, is a shock to the royal family. Despite the constant swings in her mental and physical health, the 46 year old Queen of Castile had managed to push through time and time again. However, it seems breast cancer was at hand here and she left her young son, only barely a man, as King in her wake. Fiercely Catholic to her death, she was buried in a Nun’s Habit and lain next to her first husband in Portugal.