Writing her letters from the new world, her man in the Indies described the glories and riches that would be hers. He told of blue-green islands of impossibly fertility and beauty; of colorful parrots like rainbows and all kinds of fruit trees; and of people who were docile and, as yet, did not know God. And did he mention there was gold? Endless supplies of gold that would prove to be as much as she needed; like the slaves--it was all endless. And reading these letters from her man in the Indies, Queen Isabella could almost be forgiven, says Giles Tremlett in his wonderful biography of the queen Isabella of Castille, for believing herself to be the queen of Eden.
There has been some criticism of Tremlett's popular biography-- that he engages in too many loose narratives, such as positing motivations in peoples' heads who have been dead 400 years (For example, that Isabella’s daughter had a eating disorder due to the perfectionism of her mother)… and by not taking into account or mentioning recent revisionist history (such as Kazan's book on the Spanish Inquisition) that seeks to address placing full blame on Isabella for the crimes of the time, still I would argue this is a very balanced account of Isabel la Católica. He does address the old Black Legend-- British propaganda that suggests that Spain remains backward like all Catholic countries having been cast into intellectual darkness due to their superstitious religion, which had basically turned the clock back to the “dark ages” (another trope). The black legend is with us today. If you do the Yale Open Course on Cervantes' Don Quixote, the professor will discuss this at some length. And indeed our image of Isabella as a cruel religious fanatic in part is informed by this. (We are always unfair to female rulers).
And speaking of female rulers, she was the first great female monarch in Europe. In the company of Catherine, Victoria and Elizabeth I....In terms of impact, Tremlett believes her reign to have been most important. Mainly because by sending Columbus off on an "adventure of blind, chivalric daring, she helped reverse the decline of western Christendom and to alter the course of global history in the second half off the millennium."
If you think that is an extraordinary statement for him to make, I did too!
Isabel la Católica~~
Love her or hate her (she is my own personal arch enemy), her religious fanaticism takes center stage in most books about her--and Tremlett is great on this. My favorite chapters were the ones on Isabella and Columbus. Descriptions of the dashing Genoese explorer, who became a bit of a court hanger-on-er are pretty wonderfully described. Following her from place to place, Columbus even camped out with the queen on the siege of Granada. His portrayal of their relationship was wonderfully reminiscent of a short story that appeared in the New Yorker way back in 1991 by Salman Rushdie, called Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella of Spain Consummate Their Relationship, Santa Fe, January, 1492. ( Download The-New-Yorker-Jun-17-1991)
Rushdie is such a genius. In just a few short pages, he somehow evokes an unforgettable picture of the two.
….he bowed over her olive hand and, with his lips a breath away from the great ring of her power, murmured a single, dangerous word. 'Consummation.' — These unspeakable foreigners! The nerve! 'Consummation', indeed! And then following in her footsteps, month after month, as if he stood a chance. His coarse epistles, his tuneless serenades beneath her casement windows, obliging her to have them closed, shutting out the cooling breeze….”
And so she plays with him! At luncheons she promises him everything he wants and cuts him dead later in the afternoon, looking through him as if he were a veil.”
He wonders if she is tormenting him for fun alone…!
Tremlett echoes this by telling us:
“Columbus was a seducer, as tenacious in his pursuit of people as he was with new places. Over the years he would study Isabella and her court, thinking of different ways to impress her. The Italian mariner adopted a mixture of gallantry, boldness and religious conviction, knowing that she was open to the flirtations, if carefully circumscribed games of courtly love and rivalry. A later letter to Isabella is full of sensual praise for the woman who “holds the key to his desire and to whom he boasts of the scent and taste of his goodwill ..."
Columbus famously appealed to her through a language evoking romance. And the book goes on to detail reasons why Isabella came to give her approval for this voyage since all of her science advisors knew that Columbus was dangerously underestimating the distances involved in such a voyage. Basically, it was a small investment for a chance at what would be an infinite return. To invest in discovering el Dorado and all the gold of the Indies for only the amount of money that a middling aristocrat might have at his disposal in a year. Tremlett goes on brilliantly here:
“He and Isabella were a perfect match.They were equally enamored of bold action, divine justification, and in moments of weakness, of romantic folly. It is hard, indeed, not to see something of Don Quixote in him—a knight errant bent on glory and death, with Isabella as is Dulcinea. And if that was not enough, he added a touch of messianic Spanish glory to the adventure: “All the profits of this enterprise of mine should be spent on the conquest of Jerusalem…" (288)
The two of them changed history. She was till the end a fanatic (I cannot see her otherwise). The obsession with blood purity was incredibly politically expedient for Isabella and Ferdinand --and the Spanish Inquisition indeed was far more focused on cultural hegemony than over esoteric religious questions. 1492 was quite a year, from the "discovery" of the New World to the infamous expulsion of the Jews, this was followed by a severe crackdown and expulsion of the Muslim population as well. Isabella set Spain on a path for world domination but wow, at what a price. Wonderfully written book on a fascinating subject!
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