Is Isabella The Warrior Queen a Good Book? My thoughts on Chapter 1 | Book by Kirstin Downey

So far I find that this book is very entertaining. It is very well researched which is clearly visible in the amount of notes provided by Kirstin Downey in every chapter. However I do have a few quarrels with the beginning portion of the book, which seems to go off topic and into a complete Mediterranean history lesson, where she describes the relationship between the Roman empire, the later Muslim invasions and Visigoth problems for over 15 pages.

My Notes & Thoughts for Chapter 1:

In chapter 1, Alvaro de Luna is portrayed like the Spanish Thomas Wolsey; the richest man in the realm with vast sums of properties and titles transferred to him by King Juan II.

Queen Isabel, Isabella's mother and Juan's second wife, is portrayed as having to fight for her existence beside the king, against Alvaro who dominated much of the Kings activities and decisions, even being the one who orchestrated their very marriage, believing an alliance with Portugal was best over one with France, thwarting the Kings plans to marry a French princess after his first wife, Mary of Aragon, died.

Isabel is referred to as the "unwanted queen", and baby Isabella is described as having an uneventful birth where there were not many interesting parties involved in the baptism or celebration of her arrival. She is described as having attached herself to her younger brother, born of both her mother and her father, to seek comfort and solace of the orphaned lives they embarked on after her father's death, having left her older brother Enrique (half brother born of Mary of Aragon and her Father) as the heir to the throne and her mother drawing into deep depression.

Around page ten in chapter one, the author goes into the influence Greek culture had on the Spanish territories and the ancestral ties it has to Rome, with both Hadrian and Trajan being born near Seville, however, as she continues she flies off into a complete history lesson of the Roman Empire and Christianity. For the next 15 pages, (and rest of the chapter), the author spends all her time talking about Constantine's decision to make Christianity permissible, the invasion of the Visigoths and 4700 other historical events that really go off topic.

I understand that she is trying to set a background for Spanish life, Isabella's love of the Christian church, and the fact that she sponsored and helped produce a history book about Spain's past, but 15 pages of Roman, Islamic, and religious history is excessive for a book about the Queen of Spain in the 1400-1500s.

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©C.J. Leger March 26, 2015 | CJLeger.com