Nancy Rubin Stuart

A fascinating portrait of Spain's most powerful queen who united Castile and Aragon, brought Renaissance artists and musicians to Spain, sponsored Columbus on his famous journey to the New World, conquered the Moors, expelled the Jews, and initiated the Spanish Inquisition.

Who then, was the real Isabella?

Was she, as some people still believe, an unrecognized saint who deserved beatification because of her charitable acts to her subjects, her special concern for widows and orphans, and insistence upon cleansing the Church of corruption?

Or was she a heartless bigot -- a religious fanatic who forced conversions of Spanish Moors and Jews to Christianity on pain of death through the instruments of the Spanish Inquisition?

Was she, as history suggests, a brilliant woman -- the only European monarch who understood the implications of a successful transatlantic crossing -- and consequently sponsored Christopher Columbus's famous journey across the Ocean Seas to the New World.

Who then, was the flesh-and-blood Isabella? As her dramatic biography reveals, the Queen was a very human blend of these three historical images.

Isabella of Castile describes the complex social and psychological forces that drove the queen to become one of history's most famous and quixotic monarchs, a monumental figure who is alternately revered and despised to this very day.