C. W. Gortner: The Queen's Vow

[bibliogramma]

C. ​W. ​Gortner's historical novel The Queen's ​Vow: ​A ​Novel ​of ​Isabella ​of ​Castile, does an excellent job of creating a believable and even sympathetic portrait of the warrior queen who ruled Castile and Leon in her own right, and Aragon through marriage, who is remembered in history as the patron both of Christopher Columbus and Torquemada, the Most Catholic Majesty who with her husband Ferdinand (Fernando in the novel) drove the last of the Moors from Spain, expelled all Jews who refused to convert, and loosed the fires of the Inquisition on heretics within her lands.

Gortner paints Isabella of Castile as a strong-willed and intelligent woman of her time, who could shun the native tradition of bullfighting because of its cruelty, yet at the same time condemn the inhavitants of an entire conquered Moorish city to slavery and suspected apostates to the auto-da-fe. A woman of deep contradictions, who pushed at the boundaries of acceptable female behaviour on one hand while she followed the conventions of her faith without question on the other.

Well-written and fast-paced, Gortner tells an exciting story about the woman who played a major role in creating the united nation of Spain.