ISABELLA I

born 1172 died 1205 byname Isabella Of Anjou, French Isabelle D'anjou queen of Jerusalem (11921205). Daughter of Almaric I of Jerusalem and Mary Comnenus, she succeeded to the throne of Jerusalem after the death of her sister, Sibyl (Sibylle), in 1190 and the deposition of Sibyl's husband and consort in 1192. First married to Humphrey IV, lord of Toron, she was separated from her effeminate and irresponsible husband in order to be married to Conrad of Montferrat, lord of Tyre, and, after his assassination (1192), to Henry of Troyes (d. 1197). Her fourth husband was Almaric II, king of Cyprus. Isabella's daughter Mary (Marie) of Montferrat, succeeded her as queen and was married to John of Brienne (1210). born April 22, 1451, Madrigal de las Altas Torres, Castile died Nov. 26, 1504, Medina del Campo, Spain byname Isabella The Catholic, Spanish Isabel La Catlica queen of Castile (14741504) and of Aragon (14791504), ruling the two kingdoms jointly from 1479 with her husband, Ferdinand II of Aragon (Ferdinand V of Castile). During their rule there were effected the permanent union of Spain and the beginning of an overseas empire in the New World, discovered by Christopher Columbus under Isabella's sponsorship. Additional reading The standard biography in English remains W.H. Prescott, History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic (1838; rev. ed. by J.H.F. Kirk, 1908). Though antiquated it is reasonably reliable. A more recent biography is Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Ferdinand and Isabella (1975). There are good modern summaries of the reign by J.M. Batista i Roca in The New Cambridge Modern History, vol. 1 (1957); and J.H. Elliot in Imperial Spain, 14691716 (1963).