Isabel I of Castile: effective and influential ruler

Queen of Castile: 1474-1504

Queen Isabel I of Castile was an influential and effective ruler in Spain during the 15^th century, at a time when Castile was in the midst of constant civil wars and Europe was under the threat of invasion from the Turks after the fall of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire, to the Ottoman Empire in 1453.

As Kristen Downey points out in her book, Isabel the Warrior Queen, Isabel I kept her focus on preventing further expansion of Turkish rule in western Europe, and in so doing she sought the aid of Ferdinand of Aragon, via the unification of Castile and Aragón, an important strategic element which successfully completed the Reconquista: the reconquest of the whole of Spain from Muslim rule, with the fall of Granada in 1492.

Under the rule of Isabel I of Castile, the Catholic Church became a powerful political force in Spain, which led to the expulsion of the Jews and Moors, and the Inquisition; policies that were already underway in Portugal. The exploration of the New World by Columbus, which Isabel I funded, expanded the influence of the Catholic Church as a political force, as well as the use of the Castilian language to the continents of Central and South America, well into the present century.

Due to Isabel´s marriage to Ferdinand II of Aragón as well as the newly appropriated lands from across the Atlantic and the strategic marriages that Ferdinand and Isabel arranged for their children to beneficiaries of the thrones to England, Portugal and the Low Countries, Isabel´s grandson, Charles I of Spain, also known as Charles V Holy Roman emperor, would inherit the largest Spanish Empire in history: extending eastward into Italy and the lands of the Holy Roman Empire in eastern Europe in the 1500´s.