The Year of Isabella I of Castile – Her final resting place

On 26 November 1504, Queen Isabella I of Castile died at the age of 53.

Her husband, King Ferdinand II of Aragon, announced her death to the waiting public and sent messengers across the country with the news. On a hastily erected stand, the Duke of Alba raised Queen Isabella’s banner three times while announcing, “Castile, Castile for our Sovereign Lady, Queen Juana [Joanna].”¹ In Joanna’s absence, Ferdinand assumed the title of regent, and he received homage from the nobles.

Isabella’s body was not embalmed, and she was dressed in a Franciscan habit. The following morning, Ferdinand and the mourning procession followed the coffin south to Granada. In the following three weeks, the cortege was battered by storms as it passed Isabella’s childhood home and several other cities. On 18 December 1504, the mourners reached Granada.

Isabella’s coffin, draped in black velvet, would wait for 17 years in the Franciscan monastery for the completion of the new Chapel Royal of the yet-unbuilt Cathedral of Granada. She requested to be buried with her eldest daughter, Isabella, but this request was never fulfilled, and the younger Isabella remains buried in Toledo.

She would eventually be joined by her husband, her successor Joanna, Joanna’s husband, Philip, and her grandson, Miguel de la Paz.

1. Isabella of Castile: the first Renaissance queen by Nancy Rubin Stuart p.416