Daughters of Spain Isabella, Princess of Asturias

Daughters of Spain.

Isabella, Princess of Asturias, born on October 2, 1470, was the eldest of the four daughters of the monarchs Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon. Her early childhood was some of the most chaotic in Spanish history; her mother was embroiled in a war of succession, and there was tension with her mother’s uncle Henry IV of Castile, who remained forever angry that Isabella had married Ferdinand without his consent. At only seven, Isabella herself was caught up in the fighting, stranded in a tower during a siege and uprising in Segovia, and was only saved when her mother returned and took charge of the city. She also spent a considerable part of her youth on a campaign with her parents as they conquered the remaining Muslim states in southern Spain.

Her first marriage was in 1490 to Prince Afonso, the son and heir of King John II of Portugal. The marriage had been a part of the Treaty of Alcáçovas that brought peace between Spain and Portugal. But soon, the young couple fell in love. She was popular in Portugal and well loved by the people; she knew the language and learned the customs. The happiness did not last, as a year after the marriage, Prince Afonso was killed in a riding accident. Isabella was heartbroken and inconsolable; she turned to pray and became convinced her husband’s death was punishment for Portugal harbouring the Jewish people her parents had expelled from Spain.
Her parents sent for her return, and eventually she did, but she was much changed. Fervently devout, she would spend the rest of her life starving and scourging herself as part of her mourning. She declared she would never marry again, and for a while, her parents humoured her.

After the death of her ex-father-in-law, John II of Portugal, in 1495, his brother, her late husband’s uncle, Manuel I, immediately sought her hand. Her parents, trying to respect her wishes, offered him one of their younger daughters, but he refused, saying he would only marry Isabella. She eventually agreed to the match on the strict condition that he expel all those of the Jewish faith who would not convert to Christianity. He agreed, and they married in September 1497. That same year, her only brother John died, and Isabella became Princess of Asturias and the heir presumptive of her mother’s crown of Castile. A weak and fragile Isabella gave birth on August 23, 1498, to her only child, Miguel da Paz, Prince of Portugal. She died within an hour of her son’s birth.

Isabella asked to be buried dressed as a nun and to be interred at the Convent of Santa Isabel in Toledo.

When Queen Isabella of Castile died in 1504, she requested that the body of her daughter Isabella be moved to rest by her side in Granada, but sadly, this was never done.

Portrait believed to be Isabella, Convento de las Huelgas Reales de Burgos

Sources:
Isabella: The Warrior Queen, Kirsten Downey
Isabella of Castile, Giles Tremlett
Isabel la Católica, Manuel Fernández Álvarez