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|title=The Queen's Vow

|sort=Queen's Vow, The

|publisher=Hodder and Stoughton

|date=January 2013

|website=http://www.cwgortner.com/

|summary=A rich and detailed account of a controversial monarch: Isabella of Castile.

}}

Queen Isabella of Spain will always be regarded as a bit of an enigma. On the one hand, contemporary sources claim that she was wise, kind and gentle, hating any kind of cruelty, including the popular sport of bullfighting. Her rule brought about the unification of Spain and heralded a new era of peace for its people. On the other side of the coin, she and her husband Fernando sanctioned the infamous Spanish Inquisition and the expulsion of all Jews from Spain. Her most vehement critics may also point out that her sponsorship of Columbus brought untold misery to the inhabitants of the Americas, although in her defence, there is no way that she could have predicted the eventual consequences of his pioneering voyage.