Introduction

Isabella was only 10 when word arrived that she and her brother had been ordered to go to the king's court in Segovia. Isabella would take solace in the words of her astute grandmother Isabella of Barcelos, which guided her through this dark hour of her life. The queen mother at times would barely speak, only looking up to gaze upon her daughter with sad eyes. She was now six years later and Castile was in the middle of a civil war.