Her husband is Petinan of Aragon. His wisdom and talent are equal to hers. Most of her decisions were made after consultation with him and were carried out through close cooperation with him. So it seems reasonable to put them in the same chapter in this book. But the title of this chapter is Isabella's name, not both, because most of their important decisions are usually made on her advice.
Isabella was born on 145 1 in an idyllic town in the kingdom of Castilla (now part of Spain). She received strict religious training when she was a child and was a very devout Catholic. Her half-brother, Henry IV, was king of Castile from 1454 until his death in 1474. At that time, there was no kingdom of Spain, and now the territory of Spain is divided into four kingdoms: Castilla, Aragon, Granada and Navy. Castilla has the largest area, Yala is located in the northeast of Spain today, Granada is in the south and Navarra is in the north.
In the late 1960s, Isabella was a candidate for the throne of Castilla and the richest woman in Europe, so many princes courted her. Her half-brother Henry IV wanted her to marry the king of Portugal. However, Isabella, who turned eighteen in 1469, ran away from home and married Petinan, the heir to Aragon's throne, despite the opposition of King Henry. Isabella's disobedience angered Henry, so he appointed his daughter Juana as his heir. However, when Henry died in 1474, Isabella announced her succession to the throne of Castile, which was opposed by Juana's supporters, and the civil war broke out. 1479 February, Isabella won by force. In the same year, John II, king of Aragon, died, and Petinan became king of Aragon. From then on, southern Pei Di and Isabella ruled a large area of Spain.
On the surface, Aragon and Castilla are still independent, and most of the administrative agencies of the two countries are still independent. But in fact, all the decisions made by Pei Di Nan and Isabella were made by both of them. Both husband and wife tried their best to cooperate tacitly and become Spanish monarchs. During the twenty-five years of their common rule, their basic policy was to establish a unified Spanish kingdom, ruled by a powerful monarch. One of their main goals is to conquer Granada, the only region in Iberia that is still ruled by Islam. The conquest began at 148 1 and ended at 1492 in February. Pei Di South and Isabella won a complete victory. After the conquest of Granada, Spain occupied almost as much territory as it does today. After Isabella's death, the small kingdom of Naba was annexed by Pei Dinan in 152 1.
Pei Di Nan and Isabella established the Spanish Inquisition in the early days of their rule. The court combines the powers of judges, juries, prosecuting lawyers and police investigators, and is notorious for its cruel punishment and rough trial procedures. The suspect had little chance to refute the charges against him. They can't know all the evidence against them, even the name of the plaintiff. Suspects who deny the charges against themselves are often tortured until they admit it. According to conservative estimates, at least 2,000 people were burned to death at the stake, and the number of people who received lighter punishment was many times more than this figure.
The head of the Spanish Inquisition is an extremely fanatical monk, Thomas Tongomada, who is Isabella's private confessor. Although the Inquisition was approved by the Pope, it was actually under the control of the King of Spain. The Inquisition was used to build religious unity and suppress the king's political enemies. In Britain, feudal lords always maintained enough power to limit the power of the king. The feudal lords of Spain used to be very powerful; But the Spanish king can now use the Inquisition as a weapon to suppress the feudal lords who openly rebelled, thus establishing a centralized monarchy, and can also use it to further control the Spanish priests.
However, the main target of the Inquisition is suspected religious deviants, especially some Jews and Muslims, who converted to Catholicism in name, but continued to practice their previous religion in secret.
At first, the Inquisition did not point the finger at Jews who openly believed, but in 1492, at the urging of the fanatical Tanggoma, Pei Di Nan and Isabella signed a notice ordering all Jews in Spain to leave Spain within four months if they did not convert to Christianity, and they were not allowed to take their property abroad. This expulsion order was a catastrophe for about 200,000 Jews, and many people were killed before they found a safe refuge. A large part of the most industrious and astute businessmen and craftsmen in Spain have been replaced, so Spain has suffered a serious economic blow.
When Lagnada surrendered, the peace agreement signed by the two sides stipulated that Muslims living in Spain could continue to practice their religion. But in fact, the Spanish government soon trampled on this agreement. So the moors rose up and were defeated. 1502, all Muslims living in Spain were forced to choose whether to convert to Christianity or go into exile. Ten years ago, Jews faced the same choice.
Although Isabella is a devout Catholic, she never allows her orthodoxy to interfere with her Spanish nationalism. In order to ensure that the Spanish Catholicism is under the control of the Spanish monarch instead of the Pope, she and Petinan fought hard and succeeded. This is one of the reasons why the religious reform in the16th century did not make any progress in Spain.
Of course, the most famous event during Isabella's reign was Christopher Columbus's discovery of the New World, which also happened in the extraordinary year of 1492. Columbus' expedition was funded by the Kingdom of Castilla, but it is not true that Isabella had to pawn her jewels to finance the expedition.
Isabella died on 1504. She has four daughters and a son in her life. His son Juan died young in 1479. The most famous of her four daughters is Juana. Pei Di Nan and Isabella betrothed Juana to Philip I (Handsome Man), the son of the Austrian Habsburg Emperor and the heir to the Burgundy Kingdom. The marriage of these two unusual dynasties enabled Isabella's grandson, Emperor Charles V, to inherit the throne of one of the largest empires in European history. He was also elected as the Emperor of Saint Rome, the richest and most powerful European emperor at that time. The territories he ruled in name or in fact included Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, most of Italy, a part of France, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary and Yugoslavia, and a large area of the Western Hemisphere. Charles V and Philip II were fanatical Catholics. During their reign, they plundered the wealth of the mainland to finance the war against the Protestant countries in northern Europe. Therefore, the dynastic marriage arranged by Pei Di Nan and Isabella within one year had an impact on the European history of almost 100 years after their death.
Now let's sum up the achievements and influences of Pei Di Nan and Isabella. Through their cooperation with Qi Xin, they successfully created a unified kingdom of Spain, whose borders at that time were basically the same as those maintained by Spain in the past five centuries; They established a centralized monarchy in Spain; The expulsion of Moors and Jews had an important impact on the deportees and Spain itself. Their religious prejudice and the inquisition they established had a far-reaching impact on the whole history of Spain in the future.
This last point should be discussed. People may simply think that the Inquisition put Spain in a cultural tights. In the centuries after 1492, culture, science and technology flourished in most western European countries, but not in Spain. In a society where the publication of deviant ideas will be arrested by the inquisition, it is not surprising that there is a lack of pioneering and creative spirit; Some different views are allowed in other European countries. In Spain, religion allows only one completely orthodox Catholic. Compared with other western European countries in 1700, Spain is a backwater in ideology and culture. Although it has been almost five centuries since Pei Di Nan and Isabella first established the Spanish Inquisition, and it has been 140 years since it was completely eliminated, Spain has not really recovered from its influence.
In other words, Isabella sponsored Columbus's expedition, which made most of South America and Central America become Spanish colonies. This means that Spanish culture and its institutions, including the Inquisition, have been established in vast areas of the Western Hemisphere. Therefore, just as Spain lags behind most western European countries in ideology and culture, it is not surprising that Spain's colonies in South America lag behind Britain's colonies in North America in ideology and culture.
In the ranking of Isabella in this book, one factor should be considered, that is, if it were not for her, the same incident would not happen under normal circumstances. From the actual situation, Spain has a strong crusade spirit because of its 700-year struggle to recover the Iberian Peninsula from Islam. But when this struggle ended at 1492, Spain had the choice of which direction to develop. It was Pei Di Nan and Isabella, especially Isabella, who led Spain to uncompromising religious orthodoxy. Without her influence, Spain seems to have always been a multi-religious society.
Perhaps people will naturally compare Isabella with the more famous Queen Elizabeth. At least Elizabeth's talent can be comparable to Isabella's; Besides, because of her kind and tolerant policies, she seems to be a more enviable monarch. But she lacks pioneering spirit than Isabella, and nothing of her deeds has a far-reaching influence like Isabella's establishment of the Inquisition. Although some of Isabella's policies are abhorrent, few emperors in history have had such far-reaching influence.