Elizabeth, before being the Catholic.

February 28, 1462 was a great day for the Crown of Castile. After years without children, due to her problems getting married, Enrique IV got an heir, in this case, heiress:the future princess of Asturias, Juana . If the nickname of the Powerless for him it was justified, not least that of the Beltraneja for his daughter, considered, according to rumours, the daughter of the queen, not the king, and of Beltrán de la Cueva , favorite of the king and lover? of the Queen. The godmother of little Juana's baptism was the infanta Isabel , her aunt, only ten years old. Would history have changed if Elizabeth, the future queen of Castile, had known that she was holding in her arms the one who would be her rival for the Crown? You might think not.

Michelle Jenner plays Isabel in the TVE series

With this birth, Isabel became the third in the succession line of the Crown of Castile. Ahead, the newborn and Alfonso , his own brother. Eleven years earlier, on April 22, 1451, John II , King of Castile and father of Enrique IV, announced that, after a difficult birth, and as a result of her second marriage, the infanta Isabel was born in Madrigal de las Altas Torres (Avila). Although she was born to be one more link in the chain of marriages of convenience, as needed by the Crown, her character and some providential deaths They allowed her to carve out her destiny and become queen of Castile. Her first years were spent in the company of her brother, Alfonso, two years younger than her, and her mother, depressive, almost insane, with no other consolation than religion. Her influence turned her into a devout Catholic, which will mark two of her future decisions. The peace and tranquility are broken with the death of King Juan II, father of Enrique IV and, although with a different mother, of Isabel and Alfonso. In 1454, Enrique IV, son of the first marriage of Juan II with María de Aragón , ascend the throne. His first decision is to remove his stepbrothers from the Court and send them to Arévalo with his mother. (Ávila), with no more help than for her basic needs. There, Isabel lives in austerity, prayer, study and preparation to get married. She in turn forges her first and great friendship: Beatriz de Bobadilla , the same age as her and daughter of the governor of the castle of Arévalo. Inseparable, they share games, rides, hunting days and raids. Isabel already shows character and one afternoon, on an expedition, she rejects the usual mount for women, mules, and mounts a steed.

Seeing that Enrique IV did not get an heir, he took his half-brothers to Segovia, following in the line of succession, to manage them at his whim. Isabel and Alfonso, already eighteen years old, thus abandon her mother, who warns them of the intrigues of the palace. Faced with that radical change, the brothers, at the beginning, remain together and support each other. Nobody notices Isabel, focused on her woman's tasks, but she observes her opposing factions: monarchists and nobility . Weaker of character, her brother is involved in the Farce de Ávila . The nobles, the nobles who seek to delimit royal power, depose in effigy to King Enrique IV, staged on a puppet who is stripped of the crown, the sword, the scepter and the throne. In addition, they force her daughter Juana to be excluded as heir because she was the result of a null marriage – Henry IV and Juana of Portugal were first cousins ​​and did not have the papal dispensation – and they proclaim little Alfonso king. Faced with this situation, the kingdom is divided and Henry IV, too weak, gives in:he excludes his daughter and appoints Alfonso, a toy in the hands of the nobility, as heir.

Farce of Avila

For Isabel, the first hurdle has disappeared:now, only her brother separates her from inheriting the throne. Isabel shows off her diplomatic skills:she supports the cause of her brother and, at the same time, does not challenge the existing legitimacy of the king, who, to win the favor of the rebels, offers her in marriage to Pedro Giron , one of the ringleaders. That marriage is not part of Isabel's plans and fate, her prayers or... some poison end Girón's life before he asks for her hand. In 1468 her brother Alfonso also died in strange circumstances. Her path to the throne is suddenly free … She allows herself to be loved by the nobles opposed to Enrique IV, who, believing that she will be a wimp like her brother, put her at the forefront of her claims and force the king to sign the Treaty of the Bulls of stewing , by which Isabella is proclaimed princess of Asturias and heiress to the Crown of Castile. It is agreed that she cannot marry without the consent of the king, but she, in exchange, imposes that no one can marry her against her will.

Rodolfo Sancho plays Fernando on TVE

Despite her many suitors, only she, who does not want an eyesore or a puppet by her side, decides that the chosen one is the prince Fernando , heir to the Crown of Aragon. But there is still a stumbling block:her Christian rectitude prevents her from accepting a marriage without the papal bull. Or if? In any case, the Archbishop of Toledo obtains a bull from Pío II , deceased a few years ago, in favor of Fernando, in which she allowed him to marry any princess to whom he was linked by consanguinity up to the third degree. After Elizabeth escaped from her from the nobles who guarded her and Fernando crossed Castile disguised as a merchant, they were married on October 19, 1469 in the palace of the Lord of Vivero (Valladolid). Hostilities with Enrique IV flare up. The marriage does not have his endorsement. The king also knows that Archbishop Carrillo's dispensation is false. He then takes her daughter Juana out of her confinement and reappoints her as heir to the throne. This dislodges the nobles and divides Castile again into two sides. During the confrontation (1469 to 1473) Isabel is born , eldest daughter of Fernando and Isabel and, through the mediation of the Aragonese Rodrigo de Borja , Pope Sixtus IV legalizes the marriage of the future Catholic Monarchs . On Christmas 1473, Elizabeth and Henry IV close positions... And, a year later, he dies. Isabel takes advantage of the absence or concealment of the will and imposes her conditions. On December 13, 1474, she asserts the agreement of the Toros de Guisando and proclaims herself queen. In the eyes of those present, she enters the church of San Miguel carrying the banner of Castile; In her own eyes, what she wears of hers is her destiny. .