Empress Isabella of Portugal - The Origin Story

empress isabel of portugal was born in a changing world during which the middle ages slowly gave way to the renaissance five years before her birth pashuk zagama reached india arriving in calikut in may of 1498 two years later pedro average corrales embark on what is now modern day brazil later the portuguese also reached japan in southeast asia this one became the epicenter of this first version of a globalized world spices like pepper and cinnamon came from india from china silk and porcelain which was an absolutely novelty in europe elephants and rhinoceros were part of the royal stables exotic animals unseen in europe since the roman empire like hano the indian elephant offered to the pope back emmanuel isabel's father and immortalized by the hand of rafael the social fabric of the city also changed with the arrival of travelers merchants and enslaved people from all over the world it's in this effervescent world full of contrasts and impermanent change that isabelle was born and raised between the medieval the humanist and the exotic her background would affect her vision of the world and her personality as an adult and above all as an empress it comes to no surprise seeing her being gifted jewelry from india or later in her life exchanging letters with cortes in the new world so on this video i'm going to try to discover who was the woman behind the ttm portrait that immortalize her before we start don't forget to like and subscribe isabel was born in lisbon on october 24 1503 she was the first daughter and the second child of king manuel of portugal and his second wife maria of castile in aragon isabel's father manuel came to power under special circumstances after a series of tragic events and backstage political maneuvers when he was born manuela was just the younger son of the dukes of baja although he was the grandson of a king his father fernando was a prince and not a king not so much was expected of manuel the youngest child of a duke a powerful and wealthy duke but with little chances of becoming the heir of the portuguese throne but after a series of unexpected and violent death the young manual became the heir of john ii of portugal his cousin and brother-in-law it's fair to say that manuel own is crowned partly to the women in his life his eldest sister queen leonard of portugal his mother the daughter duchess beatrice the matriarch of the portuguese aristocracy during the reign of john ii at one point the person behind the portuguese expansion and his cousin isabella the catholic queen of castile all these women run efforts to make him the heir of the portuguese crown especially his sister leonore who would have a lasting influence over her younger brother and throughout his old reign acting as regent and advisor she was the one that granted a smooth transition between the reign of her husband and the one of her brother when manuel became king he was still single and had no children he arranged his marriage with the eldest daughter of the catholic kings isabel but less than a year after the marriage isabel died in childbirth and the child the potential heir of the iberian kingdoms died two years later manuel had to remarry once again he turned to the catholic kings for one of their daughters juwan was already married with philip of hamsburg and catherine was promised to the prince of wales the only one available was maria who curiously was previously offered in marriage to manuel who chose her caesar isabel the couple wedded in 1500 in a marriage that lasted for 17 years the queen was blessed with a prodigal fertility from her 10 children eight middleton adult would a rare fit for this time in an innerisocratic family a social level that saw high mortality rates in infants with a close example in catherine of aragon the younger sister of the new queen of portugal with only one daughter mary tudor surviving past infancy it's not possible to understand the nature of the feelings between the royal couple but harmony and deep respect seemed to be the norm during their marriage king manuel never had any known lovers or bastard children and through written sources it's even possible to detect some affection between the couple isabelle was born in the old castle of lisbon between 3 and 4 am on october 24th not much is known about her birth and the celebrations that followed but they must have been similar to the ones dedicated to the birth of her elder brother the future john iii a year before although probably less grand as she was a girl a year later another royal baby was born beatrice the last portuguese princess to be born in the old medieval fortress sometime around 1505 the court abandoned the hilltop castle and moved to the brand new rivera palace built on the riverfront of the city and from that point onward the center of the vast portuguese empire the royal family had other palaces in the city of lisbon and in the region around it like sintra usually used in the summer and now meeting used for hunting in the fall it's in these palaces that isabelle and her brothers and sisters grew up with a very close relationship with their parents who were very present in their education in this period boys and girls were educated by the ladies of the court presided by queen maria around 7 or 8 years old the boys were taken from this feminine environment and educated by men who taught them all the necessary skills a male aristocrat would need the girls stay with their mother until their marriage queen maria received an excellent education along with her sisters in the house of isabella the catholic their mother the same education was given to isabelle in beatrice during this time there were several guidebooks dedicated to the education of nobles male and female the so-called mirrors the most famous mirror for girls was the one published a century before by christine de bison considered by some historians the first feminist voice in modern western culture arguing that intellectual capacities are equal to men and women christine's mirror was already circulating in the portuguese court since queen isabel of coimbra probably educated with it ordered it to be translated to portuguese so that he could be used by the ladies of our court by the time isabel was being educated christine's work was considered mandatory to a lady of the aristocracy and especially to a member of a royal family education was valid for women as a way of keeping them away from the dangers of idleness and futility approaching them to the model of the virgin mary it's not by chance that the iconographical representation of the annunciation one of the fundamental and most powerful image of catholicism the virgin mary is surprised by the angel gabriel by reading from the sacred scriptures isabel learned to read and write with the same teachers as her brother although it's not clear if they had lessons together she also spoke castilian the language her mother and the ladies who accompanied her it's also important to note that at this point the portuguese court was bilingual using portuguese and castilian equally isabel also learned to speak read and write latin and it's possible that she also learned french and studied astronomy but the center of her education were the skills a mother and a wife would need for her future domestic role such as weaving sewing and embroidering and being able to preside over the administration of our household also how to move how to behave in public how to dress how to address others above and below her status and how to follow social norms and practices in a court context in other words how to behave like a queen it's very clear that isabelle was quite aware of her position in society and that she had to project a proper and adequate image of herself even in extreme situations during the labor of her first child isabel was surrounded by the most important and powerful aristocrats of castile present at the event to dignify it but also to ensure the honesty of the birth even in a moment like that isabel was zealous of her image as queen and empress so she ordered the lights to be reduced in order to preserve her modesty and when one of the midwives advised her to scream in order to alleviate the pain she was feeling isabelle kindly answered that she would rather die than scream queen maria had a particularly strong influence over isabel and her siblings educated in a castilian court by her mother isabella catholic maria was described as a woman of medium stature with a small chin and not very smiley the opposite of her husband king manuel described as tall thin with very long arms and legs and a very smiley face maria was a loving but severe mother punishing the princess herself when necessary like her younger sister catherine years later in england maria transmitted her daughters an unshakable sense of pride of being the descendants of the catholic kings something that the two sisters isabelle and beatrice would never forget throughout their lives in the case of beatrice she even left in italy where she married the reputation of being arrogant and the sense that she was superior to everybody else which as we will see was not completely wrong maria also transmitted her daughter's strong religious beliefs and a christian-based morality isabelle was known for her immaculate morality and elevated behavior these were some of the virtues that would grant her a good position in the marital market of europe when the time came besides a reputation for being a virtuous young woman isabelle was famous in all over europe for her beauty being considered by some as the most beautiful woman of her time in a time when queens and princesses were generally described as beautiful even when they weren't as at this point the presence of beauty on the outside was seen as a reflection of interior virtuosity the written and iconographic references to isabel's appearance are always consistent and abnormally abundant in describing her as beautiful when after the death of queen maria king manuel remarried with leonard of hamsburg the eldest daughter of joanna the men the new queen was stunned by the looks of the 15 year old isabel on their first meeting and later when prior to her marriage to charles v a portrait of isabel was sent to the emperor the polish ambassador noted that judging by the portrait the future wife of the emperor should be very beautiful in fact all the daughters of king manuel had a reputation for being particularly pleasing to the eye decades later maria the daughter of king manuel and his third wife leonardo of amsburg was described as magnificent the french ambassador in portugal pointed out that she close to her 50s was still an attractive woman so beauty must have brought in a family at least for the women who seem to share good genes even if she was considered a great beauty isabel didn't fit in completely in the beauty canons of her time during her lifetime the ideal female body was a plump and voluptuous one the opposite of isabel who like her father was thin a thinness that only grows especially after her marriage due to the immense pressures she faced by ruling spain in the absence of her husband surprisingly with all her beauty intellectual and moral capacities as well as the best dynastic connections and a monumental dowry isabelle didn't seem to have had many marriage proposals unlike her sister beatrice who had many historians explain this by the fact that being the eldest one isabel was dynastically more valuable than her sister which reduced the possible future husbands to a very small number just one in fact charles v caesar or nothing was the motto that isabelle adopted and the message was clear she was destined to the highest ruler of europe or to no one it's not very common seeing a princess of the renaissance verbalizing her marital ambitions in such a clear and open way which allows us to sneak inside isabelle's mind and understand her point of view once again her mother was one of the influences behind his ambition on her last will dictated by herself queen maria demands that her daughters must marry with foreign kings or legitimate sons of kings only and if none are available then they should become nuns even if it's against their will this passage of the queen's will is oddly specific and leaves no space for interpretation it might seem excessive to force her daughters into a monastic life against their will if there were no suitable candidates for their hands but the queen was trying to protect her daughters from two very specific eventualities that maria felt that her daughters shouldn't be subjected to one concerned beatrice before the death of the queen in 1517 the duke of savoy sent an embassy to the portuguese court in order to secure a marriage with the infanta beatrice the queen was vehemently against this match as she didn't saw charles iii of savoy worthy of her daughter as he was just a duke with no prospects of gaining a crown and the lord of a territory constantly disputed by france and the empire in fact the duchy of savoy was not particularly important in this time so beatriz had a point when she thought she was marrying below her status something that only happened after the death of her mother the other eventuality concerned isabel when king manuel became the heir of king john ii the latter made some pressure for manuel to promise that if he had no male heirs he should marry his eldest daughter with george the duke of cuimbra the bastard son of john ii making him the heir to the portuguese crown maria was horrified with the possibility of her daughter marrying a bastard so she choose her words carefully it's possible that maria was acting in joint efforts with king manuel's older sister leonor the widow of john ii who since the tragic death of her only son and heir to the throne made everything in her power to remove her husband's bastard from the line of succession and from the sphere of power for more than a quarter of a century leonor and george were never seen in the same space when she was at court he never went there he not only reminded her of her husband's betrayal but also the death of her only son that she against all the norms of the time breastfed herself leonore was a powerhouse and from her convent she still had a huge influence over her brother who owe her his crown and over his wife so it's possible that the two women work together in order to prevent the duke of quimra from ever becoming considered a candidate for the hand of one of the daughters of king manuel queen maria died in 1517 due to complications after the birth of her last son isabelle became the most important lady of the portuguese court and responsible for her younger brothers the following year a scandal erupted in the portuguese court prince john isabel's eldest brother was promised in marriage to leonard of hamsburg but at the last minute his father the recently widowed king manuel replaced him and married his daughter-in-law to be in a move that historian still struggled to understand jon felt humiliated and the relationship between father and son turns sour with the court dividing into two parties one supporting the king and the other supporting the prince isabel's opinion is as expected not known about this issue the new queen of portugal was only some years older than isabel so they became close friends and when the time came she was instrumental in the arrangement of the marriage between isabelle and her brother charles v 1521 was the year of change for isabel the court returned to lisbon after a long absence since the marriage of the king which means that the new queen never saw until that moment the most important city of her kingdom in january of the same year the official entry of the queen in the city was punctuated by a river parade fireworks and theater in the summer beatrice was married with the duke of saboy with grandiose celebrations the infanta was carried by an armada to nice where her husband awaited her the ship that carried beatrice the santa maria dumont sinai one of the largest ships of its time was transformed into a floating palace complete with a great hall several chambers for beatrice and her ladies and kitchens because of the lack of wind the armada would be a beatrice and her entourage inside was docked in front of the city for several days every day her family visited her and isabel slept there every night on august 8 yarmata set sail because of the rough sea isabel and leonor could only say goodbye from the belling tower while king manuel said farewell to his daughter in person giving him his blessing and advice for her new life isabelle and beatrice never saw each other again but they kept close contact through letters and ambassadors this was the last event attended by king manuel in the last month of the year lisbon had an outburst of plague the king normally was very careful with these situations and retired immediately from the city but this time he ignored it and that was fatal to him king manuel died on december the 13th of that year his young widow leonor was called to spain by her brother and forced to leave her infant daughter maria behind they would only see each other one more time 30 years later in the meantime john iii the new king married with catherine of amsburg an 18 year old that until that point lived in virtual captivity with her mother joanna the med in tor de village it was her brother charles v who arranged her marriage something his youngest sister never forgot and throughout her life she always manifested an authentic devotion to the figure of her brother catherine also became an ally to isabel and whether held his sister leonard were the best pr the portuguese princess needed the castilian court also supported a plan to marry charleswood isabel citing many reasons this alliance would mirror the natural proximity between the iberian kingdoms the fact that the bride was the granddaughter of the catholic kings the fact that isabelle spoke castilian and was familiar with castilian culture through her mother the powerful of castile and aragon were betting on isabelle's culture and education to help them make charles v born and raised in flanders more hispanic isabel would act as the link between these men saw in his new kingdoms as a nordic foreign and spain in a period of great political tension between the locals and charles which was leading to revolts all over spain his marriage was a local princess would create a stronger bond between a young and still inexperienced charles and his new subjects that were having some difficulty accepting him a foreigner with little knowledge of iberian politics and interests as their ruler isabelle's dowry was also taken in account as it was an unheard sum for the time not to mention that it already included a discount relative to a large quantity of money that some years earlier charles v borrowed from king manuel in order to deal with the revolts against him finally with all these reasons and after years of negotiations the marriage contract was sealed and signed on october the 17th 1525. isabelle triumphed she married with the most important sovereign in europe and became empress but although she spent part of her life desiring this position she never met charles the man she was marrying was as common for royalty an absolute stranger to her surprisingly this story had an happy ending as charles and isabelle's wedding was a rarity for his time also crowned by love once they married they embarked on a honeymoon that only ended with isabelle's death in 1539. thank you for watching and i'll see you on the next video you

Channel: Into The Past

Views: 130,914

Keywords: Isabella of Portugal, Documentary, Charles V, History of Portugal, History, Habsburg Dynasty, Jaw, Spanish Empire, Portuguese Empire, Isabella the Catholic, Catholic Kings, Avis Dynasty, Empress, Emperor, Holy Roman Empire, Royalty, Princess, Tudor, Queen, medieval, renaissance, Infanta Isabel de Portugal, D. Manuel, King Manuel, COLONIALISM, História de Portugal, Descobrimentos, portuguese discoveries, women in history, 16th century, female history, Royal Family, Lisbon, period drama, art

Id: -QcjWd_TQqo

Length: 18min 15sec (1095 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 04 2021