This Queen Has Had No Equal On This Earth For 500 Years

She was one half of a 15th-century power couple that united Spain and helped propel the west towards global dominance. Of all Europe’s queens, argues Giles Tremlett, surely none had a greater impact than Isabella of Castile

A dozen days before Christmas 1474, a 23-year-old, green-eyed woman with light auburn hair processed in her finest clothes through the chilly, windswept streets of the Spanish city of Segovia. A handsomely dressed gentleman walked before her with the royal sword held upright by its point. The young woman was Isabella of Castile – who owed her eye-colour to an English grandmother, Catherine of Lancaster. Her dazzling clothes exuded magnificence, while the sword spoke of violence and a willingness to use it. The scene was remarkable for two reasons. Firstly, this was a usurper’s pre-emptive coup – part of a ceremony in which Isabella had herself proclaimed queen. Secondly, she was a woman. “Some of those in the crowd muttered that they had never seen such a thing,” one contemporary reported.

Within two decades an awestruck German would declare that: “This queen of Spain, called Isabella, has had no equal on this earth for 500 years.” This was not hyperbole. Europe had never seen a female monarch achieve so much, even if merit was shared with her husband, Ferdinand – who brought the junior territories of Aragon into a marital alliance that created modern Spain. Isabella was Europe’s first truly great queen regnant - the founding member of a small club of women whose influence spread well beyond their country’s borders and which includes England’s Elizabeth I and Victoria, the Russian empresses Catherine the Great and Elizabeth, as well as Maria Theresa of Austria. Yet of all these strong women, none had as lasting an effect as Isabella.

THE THRILL OF POWER