Isabel the Queen: Life and Times

Abstract

The quincentennial celebration of Queen Isabel’s death in 1504 has generated a flurry of publications on her life and reign. Most of these (Pérez Samper, Fernández Álvarez, Atienza, Navascués Palacio, Javierre, Val Valdivieso, Edwards and Mayo, Checa Cremades) have added few new insights into her controversial, yet critical, ascension to the crown of Castile and the delicate interplay of politics, religion, and factional wars that dominated her time in power. Others (Weissberger, Boruchoff, Ruiz, Valdeón Baruque) have carved new and promising pathways of scholarship on the subject. Liss’s new edition of her 1992 classic is not innovative, but it does consolidate its place among the most complete biographies of the Catholic sovereign to date, rivaled only by Tarsicio Azcona’s.Liss’s monumental study is heavily focused on the complex political arena of fifteenth-century Castile and its myriad of dynastic and personal conflicts. After a quick glance at the reign of Juan II (1404 – 54), the book moves chronologically from Enrique IV through Juana “la Loca” (1479 – 1555), centering, logically, on the figure of Isabel. Suitably structured around the three major stages in Isabel’s life — princess, queen, and leader of a future empire (falling short of calling her empress, albeit the inference is clear) — Isabel the Queen craftily and intelligently pulls the reader into the life journey of a complex personality. Drawing a more distant connection to the previous 50 years, back to the reign of Pedro I (1350 – 69), would have helped clarify Isabel’s role within the realms of the Trastamaran dynasty and the royal house of Portugal.Although it uncovers many of Isabel’s ploys and manipulative political stratagems, Liss’s book exudes a favorable and overly cautious picture of the Catholic queen. The abundant contradictions that defined Isabel and characterized her reign are either treated tentatively or avoided altogether. For instance, the book presents but doesn’t explore in depth the ambiguities surrounding Isabel’s religiosity, never reconciling “her saintly piety” with her “religious fanaticism.” Furthermore, the treatment of the union of Castile and Aragon through marriage makes no clear attempt to explain how each of the kingdoms preserved its legislative, administrative, and fiscal autonomy, which is of crucial importance to correctly understand power negotiation between Isabel and Fernando. Liss does probe into the private side of Isabel, offering a few insights of the psychological influence of her mother, Isabel of Portugal, examining the dynamics of her relationship with her half brother Enrique IV, and giving an acceptable account of how the personal misfortunes of her progeny shaped the psyche of an aging queen. Nevertheless, the reader is left longing for a more in-depth psychological portrait of Isabel’s complex mind. To this date, we lack a good psychological study of the queen that would satisfactorily explain many of the seemingly irreconcilable aspects of her nature, such as the combination of feminine virtue and manly stamina or her subjugation to Fernando while being inclined toward self-rule in Castile. Gender analysis has proven to be of utmost importance in the examination of female sovereignty in the latter years of the Trastamaran dynasty, when the restoration of a strong, absolutist, male-centered monarchy in the Visigothic tradition was seen as the only solution to political and social instability. This falls out of the scope of Liss’s biography but has been addressed in more-innovative studies by Weissberger and Boruchoff.Though considerably expanded and impeccably edited, the 19 original chapters of the 1992 edition remain basically the same. There are still instances where the sources are not clear, although the notation is more thorough and lucid than in the first edition. Liss resourcefully incorporates material from modern biographies, particularly those by Tarsicio Azcona, Gonzalo Chacón, Suárez Fernández, and Ladero Quesada, but there is still no sound evidence of archival research. She maintains a heavy reliance on the official accounts of court chronicles, especially Enríquez del Castillo, Alonso de Palencia, Hernando del Pulgar, and Diego de Valera. All things being equal, Isabel the Queen’s first edition was the first serious attempt, timid but patent, to enlighten historiographical material with the literary and religious discourses of the time. Liss felicitously reminded us of the powerful influence that the chivalric code of romances and courtly literature had in Isabel’s life and politics. A further incorporation of other discourses, such as literary, artistic, religious, or economic, and the examination of the iconography and symbology of pictographic, sculptural, and architectural representations, as well as the consideration of material culture to supplement official records, would prove invaluable in our understanding of history.All in all, Liss’s new edition stands as a solid and detailed account of Isabel’s complex personality, her shrewd political savvy, and her tremendous influence in the shaping of premodern Spain and the staging of what would become a powerful empire.