Isabella of Castile

Author(s): Giles Tremlett

History

A major biography of the queen who transformed Spain into a principal global power, and sponsored the voyage that would open the New World.In 1474, when Castile was the largest, strongest, and most populous kingdom in Hispania (present day Spain and Portugal), a twenty-three-year-old woman named Isabella ascended the throne. At a time when successful queens regnant were few and far between, Isabella faced not only the considerable challenge of being a young, female ruler in an overwhelmingly male-dominated world, but also of reforming a major European kingdom riddled with crime, debt, corruption, and religious factionism. Her marriage to Ferdinand of Aragon united two kingdoms, a royal partnership in which Isabella more than held her own. Their pivotal reign was long and transformative, uniting Spain and setting the stage for its golden era of global dominance. Acclaimed historian Giles Tremlett chronicles the life of Isabella of Castile as she led her country out of the murky Middle Ages and harnessed the newest ideas and tools of the early Renaissance to turn her ill-disciplined, quarrelsome nation into a sharper, truly modern state with a powerful, clear-minded, and ambitious monarch at its center. With authority and insight he relates the story of this legendary, if controversial, first initiate in a small club of great European queens that includes Elizabeth I of England, Russia's Catherine the Great, and Britain's Queen Victoria.


Product Information

'Packed with vivid character sketches and lyrical description, Tremlett has told a gripping story, full of beauty and darkness' The Times

Magisterial ... Tremlett's contention, which he supports with a sublime presentation of facts and interpretation, is that Isabella represents the first member in the exclusive club of great European queens who exercised sovereign power in their own hand -- Starred Review * Booklist * Richly enjoyable ... He seeks to understand his subject, while never underplaying the appalling impact of some of her decisions. Packed with vivid character sketches and lyrical description, Tremlett has told a gripping story, full of beauty and darkness * The Times * A triumphant and chilling account of the rise of Spain and its New World conquests * Daily Telegraph * Magnificent * Sunday Telegraph * This is a most enjoyable book - a lively, intense page-turner written in straight-forward, unpretentious prose ... Tremlett balances academic scholarship with journalistic flair to produce an enthralling biography -- Rebecca Rist * Tablet * Magnificent * Daily Telegraph * Tremlett uses his gifts as a writer on Spain's history to offer us a voluminous biography with fluent and evocative narrative that fully exploits the romantic aspects of the age * Times Literary Supplement *

Giles Tremlett is the Madrid correspondent for the Economist. Until 2013, he covered Spain for the Guardian, for which he is now a contributing editor. He has lived in, and written about, Spain for the past twenty years, and is the author of Catherine of Aragon: The Spanish Queen of Henry VIII and Ghosts of Spain: Travels Through Spain and Its Silent Past. He lives in Madrid with his wife and their two children.

General Fields

  • : 9781408854068
  • : Bloomsbury
  • : Bloomsbury Pb
  • : 0.522992
  • : April 2018
  • : 198mm X 129mm
  • : April 2018
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Giles Tremlett
  • : Paperback
  • : English
  • : 946.03092
  • : 2x8 page colour inserts