Isabella of Castile

Isabella of Castile (Spanish: Ysabel, Isabel or Isaabela; sometimes in English: Elizabeth) (1451 April 22 - 26 November 1504) was queen of Castile, the wife of Ferdinand II of Aragon, a great-great-grandaughter of Edward III of England (and her grandmother was half-sister to Henry IV of England), the mother of Catherine of Aragon, and the patron of Christopher Columbus.

In 1492, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, Granada, was taken, fulfilling Isabella's long-held dream.

Motivated by politics and religious zealotry, she and her husband started the Inquisition in Spain, which targeted converted Moors and Jews. The Spanish Pope Alexander VI, father of Cesare and Lucrezia Borgia, gave them each the sobriquet "the Catholic" (or Catholic King/Queen) because of those efforts.

"In the love of Christ and his Maid-Mother," she says, "I have caused great misery. I have depopulated towns and districts, provinces and kingdoms."