Isabella The Reconquista Summary

Isabella has always traditionally been viewed as a heroin of Spain and an admirable woman, Elliot saying of her ‘although highly strung in temperament, [Isabella] was a woman of great character and determination, she knew her own mind’. I would therefore hypothesise that the feminist perspective of Isabella would be favourable and as a great woman of history. Liss portrays Isabella as a woman who knows exactly what she is doing and all her actions are purposeful and done to benefit her interests. She saw Isabella as very aware of her limitations as a female and thus presented herself and Ferdinand as equals to strengthen her Queenship, hence giving it more power.
Liss sees Isabella as a woman who was very pious and acted in many situations, such as the Reconquista
He describes women as weak creatures prompted by desire, that they were masters of deception and pretence, indirectly insulting Isabella and dismissing all the writings of her being a strong independent ruler. The fact that Weisberger has introduced this alternate view on Isabella shows how she does not fully agree that Isabella was a picture perfect queen, as the majority of chronicles would have you believe.
On the contrary, another chronicler Pulgar consistently wrote in favour of Isabella pronouncing her as wilful, strong and controlling by her own discretion. Weisberger still considers these two opinions and looks at other evidence that shows of how Isabella attempted to change people’s image of her, for example she carried an unsheathed sword ahead of her at her coronation, a phallic symbol, which again masculinised her to give her more power and respect from those whom she ruled over, such as the Cortes, and her enemies to show her