[November 26] Isabel I, queen of Castile & León

Soubriquet: "The Catholic"
Parents: Juan II, king of Castile & León, and Isabella of Portugal
Date of Birth: 22 April 1451
House: Trastamara
Spouse(s): Ferdinand II, king of Aragón, son of Juan II, king of Aragón, and Juana Enriquez
Predecessor: Henry IV

Reign: 1474 – 1504
Brief: The first undisputed female ruler of the largest kingdom in Spain, Isabella ruled during a time of change. During her youth, she fought to establish her right to rule, which was only confirmed when her half-brother, Alfonso, died suddenly. She was jostled between various betrothals and proposed marriages for many years before finally settling with Ferdinand, the heir to Aragón. Isabella became queen in 1474 and almost immediately went to war with Portugal, which claimed a daughter of King Henry IV was the true heir to Castile. The war continued for many years, and Isabella took direct control over her government, traveling throughout Castile to suppress rebellions and revolts. At home, Isabella reformed the criminal code, rebuilt the finances of her realm, and pushed strongly for administrative reform within the government. In 1492, Castile dissolved the Emirate of Granada once and for all, ending the Muslim presence in Spain. Later that year, she personally financed an expedition by Christopher Columbus to seek a route to the East via the Atlantic Ocean. He returned the next year and she secured from the pope exclusive privilege to the New World for Spain with the exception of Brasil. For her participation in the crusades and for evangelizing abroad, Isabella and Ferdinand received the moniker "Catholic Monarch" from the pope, a title unique to Spain. Isabella finally retired in 1504 and died later that year, leaving the government in the hands of her daughter, Juana, and her son-in-law, Felipe I of Austria.

Date of Death: 26 November 1504
Successor: Juana

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Siricius, pope of Rome (399)

[October 5] Alfonso VIII, king of Castile

Surnamed: "The Noble"
Parents: Sancho III, king of Castile, and Blanche of Navarre
Date of Birth: 11 November 1155
House: Burgundy
Spouse(s): Eleanor, daughter of Henry II, king of England, and Eleanor, duchess of Aquitaine
Predecessor: Sancho III

Reign: 1158 – 1214
Brief: Raised by a trouble regency alliance, Alfonso asserted himself at the age of fifteen and began to actively retake lands held by the Almohad Moors. He had his first victory in 1177 against the city of Vuenca, and he followed by forming an brief alliance between Navarre, León, Portugal, and Arágon against the southern Muslim empire. The Treaty of Cazola in 1179 defined which areas of the south would go to which countries. Open warfare between the Christians and the Almohads broke out in 1195 and at the Battle of Alarcos, Alfonso was defeated by Caliph Abu Yaqub Yusuf al-Mansur. Castile went on the defensive and were pushed back to the hills just south of Toledo, Castile's capital. In 1212, the pope called a second crusade which Alfonso led. One-by-one, the cities of the Almohads were retaken and at Las Navas de Tolosa on July 16th, Caliph Muhammad an-Nasir fled and the Almohads left the peninsula. Alfonso died two years later and was succeeded by his son, Enrique.

Date of Death: 5 October 1214

Successor: Enrique I

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Justin II, emperor of Constantinople (578)
• Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor (1056)
• Philippe III, king of France (1285)

[March 23] Pedro, king of Castile

Surname: "The Cruel"

Parents:  Alfonso XI, king of Castile, and Maria of Portugal

Date of Birth: 30 August 1334

House: Burgundy

Predecessor: Alfonso XI

Spouse: Blanche, daughter of Peter I, duke of Bourbon, and Isabella of Valois, then Juana of Castro

Reign: 1350 – 1369

Summary: Pedro did not grow up cruel. He was a happy child who loved both work and play. He was a patron of the arts, including drama, poetry, and music. Still, he came to power at the age of sixteen and was controlled by his mother for the first two years of his reign. Pedro was betrothed to Joan, the daughter of King Edward III of England, but the princess died of the black death while on her way to the Castilian court.


The intrigues of Pedro stem primarily from his mother who was domineering and dangerous. Pedro eloped with his lover, María de Padilla, in 1353. Yet only months later, his mother forced him to marry Blanche of Bourbon, whom he deserted immediately. Pedro was forced to renounce his first marriage but produced four children with her. Both María and Blanche died in 1361 and Pedro relied on mistresses from that point forward. Throughout the late 1350s to mid-1360s, Pedro was engaged in the "War of the Two Peters" with Aragón. Castile was allied with England while Aragón was allied with France in this extension of the Hundred Years' War. All turned ill for Castile in the end. In 1366, civil war broke out within Castile and Pedro was deposed by his illegitimate brother, Enrique of Trastámara. Pedro did not fight but fled to the south of Spain. He finally settled in Portugal with his uncle, Pedro I, until he moved into Galicia. There he committed the atrocities for which he is famous; namely murdered in the archbishop of Santiago and the local dean. All the while, Enrique spread anti-Pedro propaganda across Castile, labeling him a Jewish-sympathizer and forcing the conversion of hundreds of Jews. Late in 1366, Edward the Black Prince of England helped restore Pedro to the throne. Edward almost turned on his ally but was forced to return to England due to ill health before he could act. Enrique returned in 1368 and gained the recognition of the Castilian cortes. Pedro finally confronted his brother in battle in March 1369. Pedro was tricked into leaving the safety of Montiel tower and was repeatedly stabbed in the face with a knife by Enrique. The king's body was left unburied for three days and was viciously abused. Two of Pedro's daughters by María, Constance and Isabella, married sons of King Edward III of England and the cause of Pedro was continued by his son-in-law, John of Gaunt, until the latter's death in 1399.

Date of Death: 23 March 1369

Successor: Enrique II

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Eudes I, duke of Burgundy (1103)
• Julius III, pope of Rome (1555)
• Gelawdewos, emperor of Ethiopia (1559)

[March 8] Urraca, queen of León and Castile

Parents: Alfonso VI, king of León and Castile, and Constance of Burgundy

Date of Birth: April 1079

House: Jiménez

Spouse: Raymond of Burgundy, then Alfonso I, king of Aragón and Navarre

Reign: 1109 – 1126

Predecessor: Alfonso VI

Summary: Unlike many other states, Spain has had its fair share of female monarchs. Urraca, though was one of its firsts and one of the earliest queens regnant in post-antiquity. Urraca was heiress to León and Castile from the time of her birth with only a brief interruption from 1107 until 1108 when her father, Alfonso VI, recognized her illegitimate brother, Sancho, as heir. At the age of eight, she was married to the Raymond of Burgundy, a Crusader and adventurer and the fourth son of the Burgundian duke. By the age of 13, Urraca was pregnant and, though her first birth was a miscarriage, her birth in 1105 produced Alfonso, her future heir. Raymond died in 1107 and she remarried in early 1109 Alfonso I, king of Aragón and Navarre just months after her father died leaving all of León and Castile to her.

Despite her father's death and her lack of desire to marry Alfonso, she did so anyway, thereby briefly unifying most of northern Spain together for the first time since the Visigoth era nearly 300 years earlier. Her marriage prompted rebellions in Galicia, the region north of Portugal, where her sister, Theresa, and brother-in-law, Count Henry of Portugal, were consolidating power. Within a year of their marriage, Alfonso and Urraca separated. This ended some of the opposition she had been facing. By 1111, full-blown warfare broke out between León and Aragón, culminating in the Battle of Candespina. A truce was negotiated in 1112 and their marriage was annulled two years later. The annulment came at a loss to Castile, half of which was occupied by Aragonese forces. Parts of the west, meanwhile, were occupied by Portugal. Yet the queen moved forward with her plans. She reclaimed most of her lost lands by the end of her reign and pushed further into the Muslim south of Hispania. Like her father, she claimed the title "Empress of All the Spains" and, to assert her authority over her sister, included the title "Empress of All Galicia" which included Portugal. She died in childbirth, having been impregnated by her lover, Pedro González de Lara, and was succeeded by her son, Alfonso VII, who continued in his mother's footsteps.

Date of Death: 8 March 1126

Successor: Alfonso VII

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Celestine II, pope of Rome (1144)
• William III, king of England (1702)
• Charles XIV John, king of Sweden (1844)