Isabella of Castile
Europe's First Great Queen
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Isabella of Castile
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Narrated by:
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Karen Cass
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By:
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Giles Tremlett
About this listen
In 1474, a 23-year-old woman ascended the throne of Castile, the largest and strongest kingdom in Spain. Ahead of her lay the considerable challenge not only of being a young female ruler in an overwhelmingly male-dominated world but also of reforming a major European kingdom that was riddled with crime, corruption, and violent political factionism. Her marriage to Ferdinand of Aragon was crucial to her success, bringing together as it did two kingdoms, but it was a royal partnership in which Isabella more than held her own. Her pivotal reign was long and transformative, uniting Spain and setting the stage for its golden era of global dominance. For by the time of her death in 1504, Isabella had laid the foundations not just of modern Spain but of one of the world's greatest empires.
Acclaimed historian Giles Tremlett chronicles the life of Isabella of Castile as she led her country out of the murky middle ages and harnessed the newest ideas and tools of the early Renaissance to turn her ill-disciplined, quarrelsome nation into a sharper, modern state with a powerful, clear-minded, and ambitious monarch at its centre. With authority, insight and flair, he relates the story of this legendary, if controversial, first initiate in a small club of great European queens that includes Elizabeth I of England, Russia's Catherine the Great, and Britain's Queen Victoria.
©2017 Giles Tremlett (P)2017 Audible, LtdListeners also enjoyed...
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 151
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 133
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 132
Here is the tragic, stormy life of Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon. Her story is a chronicle of courage and faith, betrayal and treachery - set amidst the splendor, pageantry, squalor, and intrigue of 16th-century Europe. The history of Mary Tudor is an improbable blend of triumph, humiliation, heartbreak, and devotion - and Ms. Erickson recounts it all against the turbulent background of European politics, war, and religious strife of the mid-1500s.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A good history
- By A. Barrios on 05-21-15
By: Carolly Erickson
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Four Queens
- The Provencal Sisters Who Ruled Europe
- By: Nancy Goldstone
- Narrated by: Josephine Bailey
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 267
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 148
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Story4 out of 5 stars 149
Set against the backdrop of the turbulent 13th century, a time of chivalry and crusades, poetry, knights, and monarchs, comes the story of the four beautiful daughters of the count of Provence, whose brilliant marriages made them the queens of France, England, Germany, and Sicily.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Interesting, informative
- By Eunice on 12-06-07
By: Nancy Goldstone
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The White King
- Charles I, Traitor, Murderer, Martyr
- By: Leanda de Lisle
- Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 122
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 111
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 112
Less than 40 years after England's golden age under Elizabeth I, the country was at war with itself. Split between loyalty to the Crown or to Parliament, war raged on English soil. Its casualties were immense. At the head of the disintegrating kingdom was King Charles I. In this vivid portrait - informed by previously unseen manuscripts, including royal correspondence between the king and his queen - Leanda de Lisle depicts a man who was principled and brave but fatally blinkered.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Enlightening Stuart history
- By Adeliese Baumann on 01-25-18
By: Leanda de Lisle
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Tudor
- Passion. Manipulation. Murder. The Story of England's Most Notorious Royal Family
- By: Leanda de Lisle
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 16 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 117
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 106
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 106
The Tudors are England's most notorious royal family. But, as Leanda de Lisle's gripping new history reveals, they are a family still more extraordinary than the one we thought we knew. The Tudor canon typically starts with the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 before speeding on to Henry VIII and the Reformation. But this leaves out the family's obscure Welsh origins and the ordinary man known as Owen Tudor who would fall (literally) into a queen's lap - and later her bed.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Clear and detailed
- By Tad Davis on 04-13-16
By: Leanda de Lisle
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Catherine de Medici
- Renaissance Queen of France
- By: Leonie Frieda
- Narrated by: Sarah Le Fevre
- Length: 21 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 516
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 446
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 443
Poisoner, despot, necromancer - the dark legend of Catherine de Medici is centuries old. In this critically hailed biography, Leonie Frieda reclaims the story of this unjustly maligned queen to reveal a skilled ruler battling extraordinary political and personal odds - from a troubled childhood in Florence to her marriage to Henry, son of King Francis I of France; from her transformation of French culture to her fight to protect her throne and her sons' birthright. Based on thousands of private letters, it is a remarkable account of one of the most influential women to wear a crown.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Narrator didn't get one name right
- By Georgina García- Menocal on 09-15-19
By: Leonie Frieda
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Lancaster and York
- The Wars of the Roses
- By: Alison Weir
- Narrated by: Maggie Mash
- Length: 22 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 476
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 407
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 407
Lancater and York is a riveting account of the Wars of the Roses, from beloved historian Alison Weir. The war between the houses of Lancaster and York was characterised by treachery, deceit, and bloody battles. Alison Weir's lucid and gripping account focuses on the human side of history. At the centre of the book stands Henry VI, the pious king whose mental instability led to political chaos, and his wife Margaret of Anjou, who took up her arms in her husband's cause and battled in a violent man's world.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Dense, fascinating history...questionable delivery
- By kbreezy on 10-04-17
By: Alison Weir
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A Distant Mirror
- The Calamitous Fourteenth Century
- By: Barbara W. Tuchman
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 28 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,375
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,706
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,719
The 14th century reflects two contradictory images: on the one hand, a glittering time of crusades and castles, cathedrals and chivalry, and the exquisitely decorated Books of Hours; and on the other, a time of ferocity and spiritual agony, a world of chaos and the plague.
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5 out of 5 stars
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And you thought the twentieth century was rough...
- By Rob on 03-23-06
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The Dark Queens
- The Bloody Rivalry That Forged the Medieval World
- By: Shelley Puhak
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 344
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 287
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 287
Brunhild was a foreign princess, raised to be married off for the sake of alliance-building. Her sister-in-law Fredegund started out as a lowly palace slave. And yet - in sixth-century Merovingian France, where women were excluded from noble succession and royal politics was a blood sport - these two iron-willed strategists reigned over vast realms, changing the face of Europe.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Fascinating & Long Overdue
- By Mary E Birdsong on 10-22-22
By: Shelley Puhak
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Henry IV
- The Righteous King
- By: Ian Mortimer
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 22 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 225
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 200
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 196
The talented, confident, and intelligent son of John of Gaunt, Henry IV started his reign as a popular and charismatic king after he dethroned the tyrannical and wildly unpopular Richard II. But six years into his reign, Henry had survived eight assassination and overthrow attempts. Having broken God's law of primogeniture by overthrowing the man many people saw as the chosen king, Henry IV left himself vulnerable to challenges from powerful enemies about the validity of his reign. Even so, Henry managed to establish the new Lancastrian dynasty and a new rule of law.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Detailed and compelling
- By kayakman on 12-15-17
By: Ian Mortimer
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The Women of the Cousins' War
- The Duchess, the Queen and the King's Mother
- By: Philippa Gregory, David Baldwin, Michael Jones
- Narrated by: Bianca Amato
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 500
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 454
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 455
In her essay on Jacquetta, Philippa Gregory uses original documents, archaeology and histories of myth and witchcraft to create the first-ever biography of the young duchess who was to survive two reigns and two wars to become the first lady at two rival courts. David Baldwin, established author on the Wars of the Roses, tells the story of Elizabeth Woodville, the first commoner to marry a king of England for love, and Michael Jones, fellow of the Royal Historical Society, writes of Margaret Beaufort, the almost-unknown matriarch of the House of Tudor. The Women of the Cousins’ War will appeal to all.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great book
- By Stacey Wallace on 11-14-11
By: Philippa Gregory, and others
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Elizabeth
- The Forgotten Years
- By: John Guy
- Narrated by: Alex Jennings
- Length: 17 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 74
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 67
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 67
Elizabeth was crowned at 25 after a tempestuous childhood as a bastard and an outcast, but it was only when she reached 50 and all hopes of a royal marriage were dashed that she began to wield real power in her own right. For 25 years she had struggled to assert her authority over advisers who pressed her to marry and settle the succession; now, she was determined not only to reign but also to rule.
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5 out of 5 stars
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worth the credit
- By Lesley on 04-19-17
By: John Guy
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Sister Queens
- The Noble, Tragic Lives of Katherine of Aragon and Juana, Queen of Castile
- By: Julia Fox
- Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor
- Length: 14 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 220
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 197
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 194
The history books have cast Katherine of Aragon, the first queen of King Henry VIII of England, as the ultimate symbol of the Betrayed Woman, cruelly tossed aside in favor of her husband’s seductive mistress, Anne Boleyn. Katherine’s sister, Juana of Castile, wife of Philip of Burgundy and mother of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, is portrayed as “Juana the Mad,” whose erratic behavior included keeping her beloved late husband’s coffin beside her for years.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Sad but Fascinating Lives
- By Cariola on 06-29-12
By: Julia Fox
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Eminence
- Cardinal Richelieu and the Rise of France
- By: Jean-Vincent Blanchard
- Narrated by: Mary Kane
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 52
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 45
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Story4 out of 5 stars 45
Chief minister to King Louis XIII, Cardinal Richelieu was the architect of a new France in the 17th century, and the force behind the nation's rise as a European power. Among the first statesmen to clearly understand the necessity of a balance of powers, he was one of the early realist politicians, practicing in the wake of Niccol Machiavelli. Truly larger than life, he has captured the imagination of generations, both through his own story and through his portrayal as a ruthless political mastermind in Alexandre Dumas's classic The Three Musketeers.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Great story boringly told
- By pete k on 09-19-16
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The Borgias and Their Enemies
- 1431-1519
- By: Christopher Hibbert
- Narrated by: John Telfer
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 513
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 459
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 453
The name Borgia is synonymous with the corruption, nepotism, and greed that were rife in Renaissance Italy. The powerful, voracious Rodrigo Borgia, better known to history as Pope Alexander VI, was the central figure of the dynasty. Two of his seven papal offspring also rose to power and fame. The Borgias were notorious for seizing power, wealth, land, and titles through bribery, marriage, and murder. The story of the family's dramatic rise from its Spanish roots to the highest position in Italian society is an absorbing tale.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Covers the bases, but falls a little flat.
- By Chap Walker on 06-16-13
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The Black Prince
- England's Greatest Medieval Warrior
- By: Michael Jones
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 16 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 237
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 205
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 204
As a child, he was given his own suit of armor; at the age of 16, he helped defeat the French at Crecy. At Poitiers, in 1356, his victory over King John II of France forced the French into a humiliating surrender that marked the zenith of England's dominance in the Hundred Years War. As lord of Aquitaine, he ruled a vast swathe of territory across the west and southwest of France, holding a magnificent court at Bordeaux that mesmerized the brave but unruly Gascon nobility. He was Edward of Woodstock, eldest son of Edward III, and better known to posterity as "the Black Prince".
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5 out of 5 stars
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Outstanding history
- By Scott on 02-17-19
By: Michael Jones