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Essay Name       : 1074.txt 
Uploader         : Zach
Email Address    : ProgsRus@aol.com
Language         : English
Subject          : Social Studies
Title            : Queen Isabella
Grade            : 9
School System    : Private
Country          : USA
Author Comments  : It's one of my best
Teacher Comments : "excellent"
Date             : forgot
Site found at    : link from another page
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Queen Isabella

Queen Isabella Live in midevil times, or in, "The Dark Ages," as some referred to
it.  She lived in a time when the majority of the population was catholic, and she
did her best to see to it that those who weren't a part of that majority, became a
part.
	The queen was born on April 22, 1451.  She was born in Madrigal, Castile,
which is why she later became know as Queen Isabella of Castile.  Her father was
John II of Castile and her mother was Isabella of Portugal.
	Her marriage was a politically arranged marriage.  What I mean by this is
that it wasn't a marriage where guy meets girl and they fall in love, it means that
they were wedded for certain political reasons, sometimes against their will.
Isabella was fortunate enough to actually fall in love with her husband, many
politically arranged marriages where arranged by the couple's father, and married
against there will because they could not stand one another.  This was not the case
in queen Isabella's situation.  She was married to Ferdinand II of Argon in October
of 1469 in Segovia.  Their marriage was intended to unify the two countries,
Castile and Argon.  The odd part about this was that Isabella almost forfeited her
rights to the throne by marrying Ferdinand.
	It  all started when Louis XI of France, a very clever king, made separate
treaties with both Castile and Argon in hope of someday gaining control of a place
called Catalonia.  Louis realized that Isabella was going to become heir to the
throne and so if she married Ferdinand, the rulers of the two countries that he
made treaties with might join forces against him.  Not only that, but they might
destroy his dream of taking over Catalonia.  So what Louis figured he would do
was see to it that they never became married, and that would solve all of his
problems.  He did this by strongly urging King Henry Iv of Castile, the current one
in the throne, Isabella's brother and, most importantly, the one who would choose
the heir to the throne when he died, to reject his permission for Isabella to marry
Ferdinand.  However, even though he rejected them his permission, they still
married.
	Now Louis was becoming very nervous that now they were married and
they were only one step away of becoming king and queen.  Becoming very
desperate, he now came back to king Henry and reminded them that they married
against his will, and should therefore forfeited their rights to the throne.  He added
that he should consider the rights of Henry's daughter, Juana la Beltraneja, be of
becoming queen.  Louis made his proposal to Henry even more tempting by
offering the same brother of Louis, that Isabella had rejected earlier, as a husband
for Juana.
	Henry agreed that Isabella had forfeited her rights to the throne by marrying
against his will, however, making a big mistake, he never actually said that Juana
was going to be the new heir to the throne.
	Well, this cause and enormous uproar throughout Castile about who the
next queen should be, Isabella or Juana.  As a part of the uproar, old feuds were
revived, armies were raised, towns were burned down, And crops were destroyed.
Isabella started campaigning throughout Castile in hope that a personal appearance
would create enthusiasm and support for her.  Louis, again being the clever king
that he is, he took advantage of this situation to take Roussillon and Cerdagne
(located in the northeast pyrenees of Argon) from Argon while this civil war was
going on in Castile.  Because of this, Ferdinand couldn't help rally up support for
Isabella because he was busy  with his father fighting France for the possession of
Roussillon and Cerdagne.	
	When King Henry died in 1474, like I said before, without specifying the
heir to the throne, Isabella immediately had herself proclaimed Queen of Castile in
Segovia.   Once queen, the cortes met in Segovia to swear allegiance to her.
Ferdinand immediately rushed over to be at her side as king consort.
	Once Queen, she and Ferdinand accomplished and took part in many small
things, as well as many large things such as the Conquest of Granada.  In 1478,
they established the Spanish Inquisition.  The Inquisition was intended stop all
unorthodox opinion towards Spain and strengthen the Church.  It was also used to
either expel, or kill, all Moors and Jews depending upon whether they agreed to
convert, leave the country, or both.  They tried to unify the country by persuading
the pope to revive the inquisition and put it under their control.  However, the
Spanish Inquisition really turned out to be a bad idea because while they obtained
religious uniformity, they also lost most, if not all, of their best artisans and
businessmen.  Their expulsion accentuated the economic weakness of Spain.
	In the conquest of Granada in 1492, Isabella hoped for a few small Islands
to conquer, instead she received vast kingdoms that could be conquered and
managed by a few thousand soldiers and officials.  The conquest, however, was
very expensive, so the queen had to do a lot of collecting money and taxes to
support it.  Once she ran out of tax money, she sent letters to all of the cities,
villages, knights, ladies, merchants, and other asking them for loans to support the
war.  Believe it or not, each and every one of them did.  Then once she used up all
of that money, she again sent out letters, this time apologizing, but again asking for
loans to support the war.  And again the people sent in their money.  The reason
that they did this without the slightest bit of hesitation was not only because they
were honored to send money to her majesty, but because the queen had a very
good reputation of paying back the loans she borrowed.  Don't ask me how a queen
gets this type of reputation.  Then, when all of that money was used up, she took
some of her jewels and pearls, and had the brought into town, and bid off in order
to raise money.
	When Columbus came to Isabella about requesting her sponsorship in his
finding a way to reach India sailing west, thus proving that the world was round,
she, oddly enough, was easily convinced by him that the world was round and that
he could discover a way so sail west instead of east.  The queen said that the only
thing holding her back was the lack of money that Spain had at the time.
However, she was very careful to make it very clear to Columbus that she was
interested in sponsoring him, so that he shouldn't go wondering off to some other
country requesting sponsorship.  Columbus agreed and the queen saw to it that he
was taken very well care of, just like a member of the palace.  She appointed her
confessor, Hernando de Talavera to examine his proposal.  He had Columbus
brought infront of a council of the queen's to discuss, how and why he thought that
the world was round and that he could sail west instead of east and not fall over
the edge of the world.  Columbus must have been a very good speaker because,
once again, he persuaded the council into believing that the world was round.
	Eventually, the queen saved up enough money to sponsor him, and they
agreed that while the queen got to keep some of the riches that he was going to
find, he too would be able to keep a pretty generous share of the riches.  So he set
off,  and when he reached America, thinking it was India, he called the people,
"Indians" and that is how the Native Americans get the name Indians being that it
was they he discovered, along with America.  Well, he certainly came back with
plenty of riches for him and the queen.  The queen had certainly gotten more than
she bargained for, much more.  That is why Columbus, along with many, made a
few journeys over to America only to come back with a lot of gold and riches.
	Queen Isabella died in Medina del Campo on November 26, 1504 and the
Spanish mourned for many days.  She died at the age of 53.
	She left the throne behind to her daughter Joan (Joan the Mad) and her
husband.  Her husband died in 1506.  Ferdinand married Germaine de Fox.  They
had a son, but he died in 1509.  Ferdinand was left the ruler of Castile until death
in Madrigalejo on January 23, 1516.  The crown eventually passed onto his
grandson, Charles I, ruler of the Netherlands and heir to the Holy Roman Empire
as Charles V.
	Over all, I think that Isabella had a very good influence of the world, and
inspired a lot of good things to happen.  While she did take part in  a couple of not
so great things like the Spanish Inquisition, she took part in lots of good things like
helping discover America, unifying Spain, strengthening the church, and helping
Spain become what it is today.
 
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