"Pizarro started from nothing, rising to a life of conquest and glory. He toppled the Inca with an act of Odyssean cunning. After years of war, he went out in a blaze of glory, fighting off assassins even in his old age… is this not Bronze Age Mindset?

Is this not greatness?".

-Alaric the Barbarian.

Isabel of Castile, First Duchess of York

Isabel was the third of four children of King Pedro I, also known as Pedro the Cruel, who ruled the Crown of Castile from 1350. Her mother was the vivacious and intelligent Maria de Padilla, often described as Pedro's mistress. In 1361, when Isabel was only six, her mother died. The following year, Pedro declared that he and Maria had been lawfully married before he was forced to espouse his estranged French wife, Blanche of Bourbon, who was by then also dead, some said murdered by her husband. His claim of an earlier marriage was subsequently endorsed by the Cortes, thus legitimising Pedro's children by Maria. Pedro was killed by his illegitimate half-brother and deadly enemy Enrique of Trastámara in March 1369. Trastámara became King Enrique II of Castile.

Isabel accompanied her elder sister Constanza to England, and married Edmund of Langley, son of Edward III and Philippa of Hainault, in 1472 at Wallingford, as part of a dynastic alliance in furtherance of the Plantagenet claim to the crown of Castile. Isabel was only 16 or 17 to Edmund’s 31, and brought him no lands or income or even the promise of such because her sister Constanza – who married Edmund’s elder brother John of Gaunt as his second wife – was their father’s heir. John and Constanza spent many years trying unsuccessfully to claim her late father’s throne from her illegitimate half-uncle Enrique of Trastamara, while Edmund and Isabel were required to give up any claims to the kingdom of Castile and were not compensated.

As a result of her marriage, Isabel became the first of a total of eleven women who became Duchess of York. She was appointed a Lady of the Garter in 1379. In their twenty years of marriage, the Duke and Duchess of York had three children:

Edward of Norwich, Duke of York

Constance

Richard of Conisburgh, Earl of Cambridge

Contemporary sources suggest that Edmund and Isabel were an ill-matched pair and their relationship was a rocky one, with Isabel accused of having an affair with John Holland, Duke of Exeter and half-brother to Richard II. The affair is believed to have started as early as 1374 and likely continued for a decade. As a result of her indiscretions, Isabel left behind a tarnished reputation. The chronicler Thomas Walsingham considered her to have somewhat loose morals.

John Holland has also been suggested as the real father of Isabel’s youngest son, Richard of Conisburgh, who was the grandfather of Edward IV and Richard III. The fact that his father Edmund of Langley and brother Edward, both, left him out of their wills has fuelled this theory. However, leaving a son out of your will was not entirely unusual, and Richard had died when his brother made his will.

Isabel of Castile died in December 1392 at the age of about 37 and was buried at Langley Priory in Hertfordshire. In her will, Isabel left items and gifts of money to close relatives by blood or marriage, and to numerous servants of hers, men and women. Isabel referred to Edmund of Langley as her "very honoured lord and husband of York", and left him all her horses, all her beds including the cushions, bedspreads, canopies and everything else that went with them, her best brooch, her best gold cup, and her "large primer". Isabel named King Richard II as her heir, requesting him to grant her younger son, Richard, an annuity of 500 marks. Isabel left nothing at all to her older sister Constanza, duchess of Lancaster, and failed even to mention her. Isabel doesn't forget John Holland in her will, at this time married to Elizabeth of Lancaster, John of Gaunt's daughter.

About 11 months later her widower married Joan Holland, niece of Isabel's supposed lover, John Holland. In another bizarre family twist, it was Joan’s brother, Edmund Holland, Earl of Kent, who had an affair – and an illegitimate daughter – with Constance of York, the daughter of Edmund and Isabel. In Edmund’s own will of 1400 he requested burial ‘near my beloved Isabele, formerly my consort.’  Despite Isabel of Castile's bad reputation and supposedly having been involved in a court scandal that humiliated her husband, Edmund seems to have felt great affection for her as demonstrated by his willingness to rest eternally with Isabel and not with his second wife.

Source:

A VISIT TO KING'S LANGLEY

King’s Langley was once home to a massive Plantagenet palace, built out of the remnants of a hunting lodge of Henry III for Edward I’s Queen, Eleanor of Castile. She furnished it lavishly, with carpets and baths. There were shields decorating the hall and a painted picture of four knights going to a tournament, while the expansive gardens were planted with vines. After her death, the palace was…

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The Royal Diaries

Growing up, born in the early 90’s, my absolute favorite book were The Royal Diaries series from Scholastic. These books were a spinoff from the Dear America books (which I also read). They followed the middle age/teenage years of historically important royal women. To be honest, my obsession with monarchies and my interest in history (and my history degree) can be firmly traced from this series.…

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Recapping the BS of Columbus can be a bummer, so sometimes we make memes about how we believe this exchange went down.

A number of returned settlers and friars lobbied against Columbus at the Spanish court, accusing him of mismanagement. By his own request, Columbus remained in chains during the entire voyage home.

Columbus and his brothers were jailed for six weeks before the busy King Ferdinand ordered them released. On 12 December 1500, the king and queen summoned the Columbus brothers to their presence at the palace. At the palace, the royal couple heard the brothers' pleas; Columbus was brought to tears as he admitted his faults and begged for forgiveness. Their freedom was restored. On 3 September 1501, the door was firmly shut on Columbus' role as governor. From that point forward, Nicolás de Ovando y Cáceres was to be the new governor of the Indies, although Columbus retained the titles of admiral and viceroy. A royal mandate dated 27 September ordered Bobadilla to return Columbus's possessions.

↳ Historical Ladies Name: Isabella/Isabelle

ISABEL TVE 2x06

– juana i de trastámara ; infanta of spain, duchess consort of burgundy, queen of castile, aragon, valencia, mallorca, navarre, naples, sicily, sardinia and countess of barcelona was born on this day, 6th of november of 1479

Isabel of Castile and Katherine of Aragon in blue

Michelle Jenner in "Isabel"

Charlotte Hope in "The Spanish Princess"

Isabel and Juana of Castile + quote

Happy birthday @latristereina !

Isabel had good cause for being upset. Such was “the disposition of the Princess” as the physicians described it, “that not only should it pain those who see her often and love her greatly, but also anyone at all, even strangers, because she sleeps badly, eats little and at times nothing, and she is very sad and thin. Sometimes she does not wish to talk and appears as though in a trance; her infirmity progresses greatly.” It was customary, they explained, to treat Juana’s infirmity through love, entreaty, or fear; but the princess had proven unreceptive to entreaty, and even “a little force” affected her so adversely that it was a great pity to attempt it and no one wanted to try, so that, beyond the queen’s customary immense labors and concerns, this weight of caring for her daughter fell upon her. It has been conjectured that Isabel’s illness could have been cancer, endocarditis—infection of the heart valve—chronic dropsy, or several of them combined. By the following June she had a visible tumor, although it is not known where or of what sort. In August she took Juana to Segovia, which she had seemingly avoided for years, telling her it was a step toward the north coast and her departure for Flanders. There Isabel continued to try with little success to get her to turn her mind to affairs of state. Juana showed little interest in government and in her child, and a good deal of disregard for religious matters of any sort, and for public opinion as well. The princess appeared to disdain much of what Isabel valued, and even to represent the antithesis of the very qualities her mother valued most highly. Even so, Juana was her designated successor, and Isabel was determined to keep her in Spain and do her best to train her to be its queen. So the arguments against Juana’s departure were patiently repeated: the season, the sea, the French, that Philip should be safe in Ghent before she traveled, and did she not want to see her father before she left? The hope remained that Juana would stay and Charles join her, so that Isabel might have him educated in Spain’s customs and come to prefer its people. And with Juana and Charles there and Philip not, should Isabel die, Fernando, still king of Aragón, could surely manage to guide their daughter in governing Castile. It was November. A treaty with France—arranged by the queen of France, Anne of Brittany, and Margaret of Austria—had been signed, and an envoy arrived from Philip requesting that Juana return to Flanders. Isabel, playing for time, responded that the princess, although better, was not well, that relations with France were still such that it was not safe for her to travel by land or, now that it was winter, by sea, that she had better wait until spring, and that “following her frame of mind and la pasión she has” that Juana should not be where there was no one who could quiet and restrain her for it might be dangerous for her. The implication was that Juana was emotionally out of control. Exactly what was meant by “restrain” we do not know.

-Peggy K. Liss, Isabel the Queen

Period dramas dresses tournament: Orange dresses Round 1- Group C: Isabel de Castilla, El ministerio del tiempo (gifset) vs Simonetta Vespucci, Medici: the magnificent (gifset)

Propaganda for Isabel's dress:

Another pic 🧡🧡🧡

José Garnelo y Alda (Spanish, 1866-1944) The first tribute to Columbus (October, 12, 1492), 1892 Museo Naval, Madrid The work depicts Columbus landing in the New World on the island of Guanahani (in today's Bahama Archipelago), and the new lands being taken over in the name of the Spanish monarchs on October 12, 1492. The artist was inspired by descriptions found in Columbus's renowned journal, but modified certain aspects, including dressing the native people (whereas the journal states that they went about naked). The cross is a reference to Christianity and the evangelizing work carried out in the New World. The flags of Castile reinforce the idea of allegiance to the kingdom and Columbus' stature as an envoy of the monarchs.

Thread about Joanna of Castile: Part 8.2: “A Mother's Distress: Juana's Turbulent Departure from the Castle”

Guessing that her mother was trying every trick she could think of to keep her, Juana abandoned pleading and talking. Instead, she staged an astonishing display of histrionic, even hysterical, behaviour, indulging in tactics she would employ for the rest of her life whenever she was thwarted or powerless. She refused to eat, to talk, or to sleep, she attempted to force a ship’s captain to prepare to sail.

On a cold November night, Juana fled, half-clad, from the castle.

When she realised that Isabel had ordered that the gates be shut, she

“Remained in the outer precinct of the house all evening and all night and all the next day until the second hour in the humidity and night dew and without either hat or coat, during one of the coldest nights of the year so far, and not for a moment would she return to her room.”

She even threatened the bishop with death and torture for keeping her locked up.

Martire describes her prowling the outer precincts of the castle like “an African lion.”

The international fair was in full swing, with the saddle and leather workers engaging in trade close to the castle walls. Concerned that Juana’s departure would cost her authority and reputation, Isabel sent a series of high-ranking emissaries, including Cisneros, in vain attempts to persuade her to return inside.

In the end, Isabel had to come in person:

“With more effort and haste, and making longer days of it than I knew was good for my health.”

But Juana :

“Spoke to me so heatedly and with words so disrespectful and so far, beyond what a daughter should say to a mother, that had I not seen the state she was in I would not have tolerated it for a moment.”

We do not have Juana’s account. Did she, when arguing with her mother, venture into the darker territory of Isabel’s past? Might she even have referred to Isabel’s role in the descasamiento of Afonso V of Portugal and Juana (‘la Beltraneja’) of Castile when the war of the Castilian succession of 1475–1479 ended in their defeat? The heir to the throne of Castile, Enrique IV's daughter and heir, was still confined to monastic confinement in Portugal in 1503, but she would never give up her claim to the crown.

On 2 December 1503, Lope de Conchillos wrote to his uncle, Fernando's secretary, Miguel Pérez de Almazán, that Isabel was well but “very afflicted and tired” of the princess.

In March 1504, Juana was finally allowed to leave the country. In the end, her tantrums worked. The bishop of Catania, Diego Ramirez de Guzmán, was sent with her to strengthen the Spanish diplomatic presence in Brussels. Moreover, Diego Ramirez de Villaescusa, bishop of Málaga, did not accompany her.

Juana’s journey, from beginning to end, was a reversal of the first. There were no tears when she left Laredo, but Philip eagerly awaited her at Blankenburg/Blankenberge.

While Isabel wondered if she would stay as unhappy as she was while she was here, she was the talk of the Low Countries. Juana's decision to leave Castile would have big effects on her future and the kingdoms she ruled.

Sources: Fleming, G. B. (2018). Juana I: Legitimacy and Conflict in Sixteenth-Century Castile (1st ed. 2018 edition). Palgrave Macmillan.

Fox, J. (2012). Sister Queens: The Noble, Tragic Lives of Katherine of Aragon and Juana, Queen of Castile. Ballantine Books.

Gómez, M. A., Juan-Navarro, S., & Zatlin, P. (2008). Juana of Castile: History and Myth of the Mad Queen. Associated University Presse.

Juraría que la conozco de algo...

Isabel (2012-2014), 2×01 Desencuentros II El Ministerio del tiempo (2015-), 1×04 Una negociación a tiempo