After a too-colorful childhood spent shuttling between her pious mother
and her debauched half brother (King Enrique IV),
Isabella succeeded to the throne of Castile in her own right. She arranged,
against opposition and the threat of imprisonment, to marry her second
cousin, Ferdinand of Aragon, thus uniting the two kingdoms into the modern
nation of Spain. As queen, she reformed the legal system but persecuted the
Jews, and helped direct the reconquest of the Moorish kingdom of Grenada.
She financed the expedition of a dubious adventurer who called himself
Columbus.
After a too-colorful childhood spent shuttling between her pious mother
and her debauched half brother (King Enrique IV),
Isabella succeeded to the throne of Castile in her own right. She arranged,
against opposition and the threat of imprisonment, to marry her second
cousin, Ferdinand of Aragon, thus uniting the two kingdoms into the modern
nation of Spain. As queen, she reformed the legal system but persecuted the
Jews, and helped direct the reconquest of the Moorish kingdom of Grenada.
She financed the expedition of a dubious adventurer who called himself
Columbus. 
Castile
Arms
click Sophia's torch