The Sunday Telegraph

Isabella of Castile

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by Giles Tremlett 624pp, Bloomsbury, £25, ebook £15.83

Isabella of Castile, as this magnificen­t biography shows, had a good grasp of realpoliti­k. To win her throne, she had to drive her half-niece into a convent with a rumour of illegitima­cy; against her half-brother’s wishes, she married Ferdinand of Aragon – by which much of Spain was united – and asserted corule. She is an uncomforta­ble subject for a modern biographer: after she retracted protection from the Jews, their persecutio­n did not “trouble her greatly”. Catherine Fletcher

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