In Triumph's Wake: Royal Mothers, Tragic Daughters, and the Price They Paid for Glory - Hardcover

Gelardi, Julia P.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312371055 ISBN 13: 9780312371050

Publisher: St. Martin's Press, 2008

Synopsis

The powerful and moving story of three royal mothers whose quest for power led to the downfall of their daughters.

 

Queen Isabella of Castile, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, and Queen Victoria of England were respected and admired rulers whose legacies continue to be felt today.  Their daughters—Catherine of Aragon, Queen of England; Queen Marie Antoinette of France; and Vicky, the Empress Frederick of Germany—are equally legendary for the tragedies that befell them, their roles in history surpassed by their triumphant mothers.  In Triumph's Wake is the first book to bring together the poignant stories of these mothers and daughters in a single narrative.

Isabella of Castile forged a united Spain and presided over the discovery of the New World, Maria Theresa defeated her male rivals to claim the Imperial Crown, and Victoria presided over the British Empire. But, because of their ambition and political machinations, each mother pushed her daughter toward a marital alliance that resulted in disaster. Catherine of Aragon was cruelly abandoned by Henry VIII who cast her aside in search of a male heir and tore England away from the Pope. Marie Antoinette lost her head on the guillotine when France exploded into Revolution and the Reign of Terror. Vicky died grief-stricken, horrified at her inability to prevent her son, Kaiser Wilhelm, from setting Germany on a belligerent trajectory that eventually led to war.  

Exhaustively researched and utterly compelling, In Triumph's Wake is the story of three unusually strong women and the devastating consequences their decisions had on the lives of their equally extraordinary daughters.

About this title

About the Author:

Julia Gelardi is the author of Born to Rule and From Splendor to Revolution. Educated in the United States and Canada, she is an independent historian and author, currently living in Minnesota with her husband and two daughters.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

In Triumph's Wake
PART IQUEEN ISABELLA and CATHERINE OF ARAGON1CALLED TO RULEThe dramatic stories of three unparalleled sets of royal mothers and daughters--stories that span half a millennium--begin with the birth of Queen Isabella of Castile, "an extraordinary woman who was also an extraordinary monarch, one of the most powerful the world had ever known."1 The saga unfolds in the far southwest corner of Europe, some six centuries ago, on the Iberian Peninsula. There, on a melancholy, austere expanse of land known as Castile--a wide plateau in hues of bronze, gray, and green--Isabel of Portugal, queen consort of King Juan II of Castile, gave birth to baby girl. It was April 22, 1451, Holy Thursday. The birth occurred in the small summer palace of the baby's father at Madrigal de las Altas Torres. A multitowered agricultural town of a few thousand inhabitants located inland on the plains of Castile in the province of Ávila, Madrigal was named for its many towers, built to help fend off attackers. Inside Madrigal's arched and gold-flecked, domed church of San Nicholas, the baby infanta of Castile was baptized and welcomed into the Roman Catholic Church.Isabella's birthplace exhibited Muslim and Christian influences, most visibly through the palace and town walls, constructed in the Mudejar style. The Mudejar style, which pervaded Madrigal and many parts of Spain, is characterized by a unique interpretation of Western themes dominated by Muslim influences. The Muslim factor was to loom large in the future Queen Isabella's life. For centuries, Muslims from North Africa, often referred to as the Moors, had dominated swaths of the Iberian Peninsula. By the time of Isabella's birth, other Muslims, the Ottoman Turks, were on the march from present-dayTurkey into eastern Europe, bent on conquering peoples and territories by the sword. Their progress stoked fear among many Europeans.Little fanfare accompanied Isabella's birth, for no one viewed the baby as having a great role in the future. Enrique, her elder half brother, was already married and destined to succeed their father, King Juan. In that day, brothers superseded daughters in the line of succession. When, in 1453, Queen Isabel gave birth to Isabella's brother, Alfonso, young Isabella slipped a step further away from the Castilian throne and that much more removed from a position of power.Yet if the throne itself seemed elusive, there was always the possibility that the infanta from Castile, like many princesses before and after, would be a useful commodity in the royal marriage market. Even though princesses were not first choices as rulers, they were valuable as brides to cement alliances between dynasties. Consequently, royal daughters were potentially significant players in the complicated, high-stakes game of international diplomacy.In order to survive, let alone flourish, in times marked by peril and political machinations, the infanta Isabella had to navigate her way through the treacherous waters of medieval Castilian court life. Turbulence clouded the girl's early years. One of the young Isabella's biggest challenges was her mother's increasingly unstable disposition. Queen Isabel had arrived in Castile at age nineteen, attractive and innocent. Unfortunately, however, her position was thwarted by the king's scheming favorite, Álvaro de Luna. Luna had hoped that Queen Isabel would be a malleable ally. However, not only was she intractable but she saw through Luna's ruse. Queen Isabel obstructed Luna's plans to dominate the monarch. The queen's opposition to Luna's pernicious influence on her husband marked her as Luna's enemy, and the corrupt, arrogant, and power-hungry courtier therefore eyed her warily. Hostility grew between them. Soon, suspicions of Luna and his ill treatment of the queen were on everyone's lips. Isabel's unstable behavior during her pregnancy with Isabella fed the rumors. A melancholy descended that was soon to overwhelm the queen. Some in Isabel's entourage surmised that the cause of the queen's depression was poison ordered by Luna.Eventually, Luna's manipulations caught up with him. His use of imprisonment and execution as tools to maintain power, plus his unpopular hold over the king, combined to make Luna a hated figure. Queen Isabel's utter contempt for the man sealed his fate. By gaining so many enemies, Luna paved the way for his own downfall. Charged with treason, he was executed in 1453.Under King Juan's weak reign, which saw much fighting among his nobles,Castile's international prestige plummeted. Aware of his failure, toward the end of his life, Juan II wryly observed that he should have been the son of a mechanic instead of becoming Castile's king. Isabella's feckless father died after an ineffectual forty-nine-year reign. There was much truth in the harsh observation. "King Juan did one thing and one thing only for posterity, and that was to leave behind him a daughter who in no way resembled her father."2 But first, the unlamented Juan II was succeeded by King Enrique IV, son of Juan's first wife, Maria of Aragon. Enrique, nicknamed the Impotent, proved to be even more disastrous a monarch than his father.King Juan's death left Isabella and her younger brother, Alfonso, in their mother's care. The family of three lived in the small castle in the Castilian town of Arévalo. Arévalo, with its stretches of greenery and cornfields, offered Isabella and Alfonso plenty of opportunity to enjoy life outside. The energetic Isabella spent her early childhood there indulging in outdoor pursuits, often accompanied by her best friend, Beatriz de Bobadilla, the daughter of the governor of Arévalo castle. The friends were a study in contrasts: Beatriz was dark-haired and effusive, while Isabella, the fair-haired one, was restrained and mature. Beatriz and Isabella became like sisters. Among their favorite forms of exercise was riding. Fearless with horses, Isabella became an accomplished horsewoman and indulged in hunting all manner of game, both docile and dangerous. She even hunted down a bear, felling it with a javelin from her own hands. Riding and hunting were time well spent, for they taught the infanta patience, endurance, and an ability to ward off exhaustion.Central to Isabella's life during these formative years was her mother. The widowed Queen Isabel saw to it that her daughter and son were imbued with the same veneration for the Roman Catholic Church that she herself possessed, a rigorous faith steeped in asceticism. Isabella's first tutor at Arévalo was a Franciscan priest, the provincial head of Castile, Fray Juan de Tolosa. He and the numerous other Franciscans there made a profound impact, and in time Isabella became devoted to the order. These clerics instilled a piety and love of the Church that were to remain with her all her life.Two others contributed to Isabella's spiritual education: Fray Gonzalo de Illescas, Prior of Guadalupe, and Fray Lope Barrientos, Bishop of Cuenca. So important were these two men of the cloth that it is not far-fetched to conclude that they, "more than the mother, greatly influenced the religious orientation which was given to her [Isabella's] studies: Franciscans of Arévalo, well chosen pious ladies of the court ... [and] the Mendicant Fray Martín de Córdoba." De Córdoba was so enthusiastic about his pupil that he wrote a book dedicatedto the education of young noblewomen. He gave the book to Isabella on her sixteenth birthday with the recommendation that she "brilliantly reflect chastity and purity in all this kingdom."3Isabella's piety was more than automatic, based purely on obedience and external practices. Instead, Isabella linked her faith to reason. "She herself accepted no faith merely because as a reward she was promised understanding at some later time. She was one of the creators, and yet also a creature of the new modern age, and she therefore accepted human reason and bowed before a single truth. This 'unchangeable' truth was based on the existence of God and praised by Saint Augustine as the 'source of all happiness.'"4For those imbued with devotion like Isabella, a life centered on God became a raison d'ętre. Living in service to God, one's soul would journey toward the ultimate goal: eternal salvation. A faith-filled life could also bring solace to those on earth, particularly in times of great troubles--and Isabella grew up in such times. Hers was a world fraught with uncertainty and danger. No matter one's station, it was a harsh life peppered by plagues and other diseases, along with constant warfare.Queen Isabel raised her children as well as she could; however, the melancholy that first manifested during the queen's pregnancy with Isabella escalated into insanity at Arévalo. Incessantly mourning her dead husband, the dowager Queen Isabel descended into "profunda tristeza" (a profound sadness).5 As she fell deeper into madness, the queen shut herself off from the world and stared blankly. Or she might have been found, as legend has it, "fleeing up and down the dark stairs of the castle pursued by the ghostly voices cawing Luna's name."6Her mother's madness, her father's death, and life under the watchful eye of her half brother, Enrique, shadowed the early years of the future Queen Isabella's life. It was a far more unhappy and unstable youth than that enjoyed by her daughter Catherine. Yet in spite of the challenges that came Isabella's way from the earliest days, she was intent on not letting life's vicissitudes divert her. As a child, Isabella had shown determination, bravery, and an unswerving devotion to God--characteristics that she was to call upon in the future and qualities that her daughter Catherine of Aragon was to share fully.As a female with little prospect of succeeding to the throne, Isabella received an education that was circumscribed at best. Though her mother had ensured Isabella's spiritual formation, her study of academic subjects was limited. The child learned to read and write Castilian well, but her knowledge of foreign tongues, particularly Latin, the language of the educated, was negligible.Her tutors were able men, usually priests who were educated at the University of Salamanca, founded in 1218. Isabella studied music, grammar, and rhetoric. She was exposed to the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle. Poetry was a favorite with Isabella, who most likely read Dante in Spanish. Her tutor drummed in histories of her royal forebears, so that Isabella was well aware not only of their long, distinguished lineage but also of their lengthy crusade against the Moors. Not forgotten in her training were valued female accomplishments, such as sewing, painting, embroidery, and dance. The nexus for nearly all Isabella's education, however, was religion. Even her artistic endeavors had the glorification of God as their impetus; she labored over items such as decorations and standards created for altars. As a product of the Middle Ages, Isabella's life was steeped in faith. As predictable as the seasons of the year, life revolved around the liturgical calendar. Days and momentous events were punctuated by the chiming, tolling, or pealing of church bells. Central to the Church's teachings were the sacramental aspects of the faith, which imbued life with a profound sense of the presence of God.Besides her deep-seated attachment to Roman Catholicism, Isabella came to understand her future role instinctively. Even as a child, she seemed filled with a presentiment that she would be called to rule. The infanta Isabella, in her Arévalo years, "gained a self-possession, a pride in her royal lineage, a sense of both entitlement and responsibility, a regal bearing and a high morality inseparable from religion and ruling well ... . In her veins, she had learned, ran the blood of warriors, of heroic Goths and Moorfighters, of monarchs and saints, of powerful men and women. Hers was a heritage for a queen."7For nearly eight centuries, a long, drawn-out battle for the soul of the peninsula unfolded, pitting the region's Muslims and Christians against each other. Though the two warring groups, along with the Jews, had at times coexisted, the overarching theme of Muslim-Christian relations from the 700s into Isabella's lifetime was of war. Ever since the Arabs invaded Spain in 711 via the Strait of Gibraltar and established their faith and culture in the region, Christians had sought to regain their lands. Thus was born the struggle that came to be known as the Reconquista or the Reconquest of Christian lands on the Iberian Peninsula. The legendary Castilian hero and conqueror of the Moors in Valencia in the late eleventh century, El Cid, added luster to the lengthy battle for the land that was to become Spain.The march toward the re-Christianization of the Iberian Peninsula was cemented by a decisive Christian victory in 1212 at Las Navas de Tolosa. This, along with the gains made by the King of Castile and León, St. Ferdinand, ofCórdoba in 1236 and Seville in 1248, pointed to the inevitable total defeat of the Moors.At the time of the future Queen Isabella's birth, the Iberian Peninsula consisted of the following main kingdoms: Aragon on the east, bounded by the Mediterranean Sea; its large neighbor, Castile, comprising Andalusia, Extremadura, Murcia, Old and New Castile, León, Asturias, and Galicia; Navarre on the Pyrenees near France; and Granada in the south. The elusive territory of Granada, the Moors' last stronghold, was the still-painful reminder that the Christians' work was incomplete. Granada represented the last trophy in the struggle to liberate Iberia and bring it back into the Christian fold.In spite of the steady gains of the past, during Isabella's youth, the final chapter of the Reconquista seemed more in the realm of dreams than reality. Islam had gained new traction in the ongoing war with Christendom. Only two years after Isabella's birth, Constantinople, the seat of the Christian Byzantine Empire, fell to the Muslim Turks after a dramatic siege. This event shook Europe to the core and reinforced fears of an Islam in the ascendant. The crescent was again making its mark against the cross. The Ottoman Turks' victory over the Christians at Constantinople in 1453 reinvigorated the Islamic world and created new impetus for them to proceed farther into Europe, this time westward from Asia Minor. The Muslim juggernaut battered its way through the Continent, devastating most of the Balkans, and reaching as far as the Danube.That a woman would one day reverse this seemingly unstoppable tide of Muslim gains from the eastern end of the Continent, then emerge the victor against the Moors in the final chapter of the Reconquista, was unthinkable. But before achieving that historic triumph, the girl from Madrigal de las Altas Torres and Arévalo had to fight her way through the maze of courtly intrigues, for "Isabella's path to the throne" was not "straightforward, let alone inevitable."8Isabella later recalled how she and her younger brother were ultimately "inhumanely and forcibly uprooted" from the arms of "my mother the queen."9 They were ordered to live at King Enrique IV's court, away from Queen Isabel. Isabella thus became the ward of the king and his consort, Queen Juana. The weak and vacillating king and his immoral and scheming queen were indisputably unsavory characters. The court--with its distracting gossip and political posturing--proved an uncomfortable atmosphere for the circumspect Isabella and her brother.Bearded and redheaded, Enrique IV was large in stature but ungainly. H...

About this edition

• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0312371055
• ISBN 13: 9780312371050
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 432