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Isabella of Castile ( Spanish: Ysabel, Isabel or Isabela) ( 22 April, 1451 - 26 November 1504) was queen of Castile.

She was great-great-granddaughter of both Henry II of Castile and his half-brother Peter I of Castile and their respective wives Joan of Villena and Maria de Padilla . She was also great-great-granddaughter of Peter IV of Aragon and his wife Leonor of Portugal , daughter of King Afonso IV of Portugal, as well as of her half-brother Peter I of Portugal and his mistress Teresa Lourenço. Through John of Gaunt she was great-great-grandaughter of King Edward III of England and his wife Philippa of Hainault and through his first wife of Henry of Grosmont, Duke of Lancaster and his wife Isabel de Beaumont . Finally she was great-great-grandaughter to Nuno Alvares Pereira, Count de Barcelos and his wife Leonor Alvim, Countess of Barcellos.

She was great-granddaughter of John I of CastileJohn I ( August 24 1358 1390) (in Spanish: Juan I was the king of Castile, was the son of Henry II and of his wife Joan, daughter of John Manuel of Villena, head of a younger branch of the royal house of Castile. In the beginning of his reign he had to co and his wife Eleanor of AragónEleanore of Aragon ( 20 January 1358 13 August 1382) was the daughter of Pedro IV, King of Aragon (1319-1397) and his wife Eleanore of Sicily (~1325-1374). Her brother became Juan I, King of Aragon. She was born at Santa Maria del Puig and died at Cuellar, a sister of Kings John I of AragonJohn I ( 1350- 1395), king of Aragon, was the son of Peter IV. and his third wife Eleanor of Sicily. He was born on December 27 1350, and died by a fall from his horse, like his namesake, cousin and contemporary of Castile. He was a man of insignificant c and Martin I of AragonMartin I ( 1356— 1410), "the Elder", "the Humane", King of Aragon ( 1396 1410, King of Sicily ( 1409 1410) was the last direct descendant of Wilfred "the Hairy", Count of Barcelona, to rule Aragon. He became the King of Sicily (as Martin II) after the dea. She was also great-granddaughter of John of GauntJohn of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster ( June 24, 1340 February 3, 1399), was the fourth son of King Edward III of England and is so called because he was born at Ghent in 1340. He became Duke of Lancaster by his first marriage to his cousin, Blanche ( 1359, Duke of Lancaster and his second wife Constanza of Castile, a daughter of Peter I of Castile. Her third set of great-grandparents were King John I of Portugal and his wife Philippa of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt from his first wife Blanche of Lancaster . Her final set of grandparents were Afonso, Duke de Braganza , a son of John I of Portugal by Inez Perez, and his wife Beatriz Pereira, countess da Barcellos.

Her paternal grandparents were King Henry III of Castile and Catherine Plantagenet of the House of Lancaster, a half sister of King Henry IV of England. Her maternal grandparents were Prince Joao of Portugal, Grand Master of Santiago , who was a brother of Henry the Navigator, and his wife Isabella de Bragança .

Her parents were King John II of Castile and his second wife Queen Isabella of Portugal.

She married Ferdinand II of Aragon, and their children included Joanna of Castile and Catherine of Aragon. Isabella was the patron of Christopher Columbus. In 1492, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, Granada, was taken, fulfilling Isabella's long-held dream. Ferdinand and Isabella are buried together in Granada Cathedral .

Motivated by politics and religious zealotry, she and her husband started the Inquisition in Spain, which targeted converted Moors and Jews. The Spanish Pope Alexander VI, father of Cesare Borgia and Lucrezia Borgia, gave them each the sobriquet " the Catholic" (or Catholic King/Queen) because of those efforts.

During her reign, she approved the voyage by Christopher Columbus that ultimately led to the "discovery" of the Americas. Consequently, together with Ferdinand, Isabella initiated the chain of events that would lead to the Golden Age of Spanish imperialism. As a legacy of this empire, Spanish is the fourth most spoken language in the world after Mandarin, Hindi, and English.

"In the love of Christ and his Maid-Mother," she says, "I have caused great misery. I have depopulated towns and districts, provinces and kingdoms."

Isabella was the first named woman to appear on a United States coin, an 1893 commemorative quarter, celebrating the 400th anniversary of Columbus's first voyage.

Some Catholic Spaniards are trying to get Isabella declared as blessed and later saint. This has met opposition by Jewish organizations, Liberation theologists and Jean-Marie Cardinal Lustiger.