A Monarchy of Death
Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain
The year is 1469. October. The 19th. Life was continuing as per normal. Babies were born. People died and somewhere in between, something historic was going down.
A young princess, the half-sister of King Henry IV of England, has finally chosen who she wants to marry. At the age of 18, Isabella has seen many proposals come her way.
She was a valuable commodity. Any smart prince or king would want to marry her. Marrying Isabella meant a familial alliance with England. Her annoying big brother Henry wanted her to marry a French prince.
She had a different idea though. Isabella decided that she was going to marry Ferdinand. She was the heir to Castile. He was the heir from Aragon. The two of them could pull their political might together and unify Spain. They also happened to be second cousins and needed permission from the pope to marry (The Catholic Church has decided to condemn intermarriage and was just ignoring the Habsburgs in Austria.)
Pope Paul II is not particularly fond of politics and less so of monarchs increasing their power, so he refuses to permit them to marry. Somehow, the two teenagers come up with a ‘genuine’ letter from the pope agreeing anyway.
