Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Isabella

  • The Warrior Queen
  • By: Kirstin Downey
  • Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
  • Length: 21 hrs and 12 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (45 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Isabella cover art

Isabella

By: Kirstin Downey
Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Isabella of Castile cover art
The Thirty Years War cover art
The Burgundians cover art
Elizabeth I cover art
Legends of the Renaissance: The Lives and Legacies of Ferdinand & Isabella cover art
Eleanor of Aquitaine cover art
A History of Britain: Volume 1 cover art
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World cover art
A Distant Mirror cover art
Caesar's Legion cover art
The Most Powerful Women in the Middle Ages cover art
Lancaster and York cover art
King of the North Wind cover art
The Tudors cover art
The History of the Ancient World cover art
Tudor History cover art

Summary

An engrossing and revolutionary biography of Isabella of Castile, the controversial Queen of Spain who sponsored Christopher Columbus's journey to the New World, established the Spanish Inquisition, and became one of the most influential female rulers in history

Born at a time when Christianity was dying out and the Ottoman Empire was aggressively expanding, Isabella was inspired in her youth by tales of Joan of Arc, a devout young woman who unified her people and led them to victory against foreign invaders. In 1474, when most women were almost powerless, twenty-three-year-old Isabella defied a hostile brother and a mercurial husband to seize control of Castile and León. Her subsequent feats were legendary. She ended a twenty-four-generation struggle between Muslims and Christians, forcing North African invaders back over the Mediterranean Sea. She laid the foundation for a unified Spain. She sponsored Columbus's trip to the Indies and negotiated Spanish control over much of the New World with the help of Rodrigo Borgia, the infamous Pope Alexander VI. She also annihilated all who stood against her by establishing a bloody religious Inquisition that would darken Spain's reputation for centuries. Whether saintly or satanic, no female leader has done more to shape our modern world, in which millions of people in two hemispheres speak Spanish and practice Catholicism. Yet history has all but forgotten Isabella's influence, due to hundreds of years of misreporting that often attributed her accomplishments to Ferdinand, the bold and philandering husband she adored. 

Using new scholarship, Downey's luminous biography tells the story of this brilliant, fervent, forgotten woman, the faith that propelled her through life, and the land of ancient conflicts and intrigue she brought under her command.

©2014 Kirsten Downey (P)2014 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

A finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize!

Longlisted for the 2015 PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography!

A Kirkus Best Biography of 2014!

"A tale of feminist ambition that reads like a pulpy novel. (Don't be a snob—that's a good thing.)" —TIME

"[An] immensely provocative figure... [who] successfully maneuvered in an almost exclusively male world of politics." —Kathryn Harrison, The New York Times Book Review

"In a fascinating revisionist portrait, Downey sketches a monarch both adored and demonised, and makes the case that Isabella laid the foundation for the first global superpower." —BBC

More from the same

What listeners say about Isabella

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    29
  • 4 Stars
    12
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    27
  • 4 Stars
    6
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    31
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wide Screen History

I got this as a double bill with Roger Crowley's Conquerers which covers the same period from aross the border in Portugal. Both are great books. The joy of this lies partly in how little I knew about Isabella who is kind of Spain's equivalent to Elizabeth the first. A woman who became Queen of Castille despite being no one's first choice and then went on to rule through a mixture of hard work, intelligence, common sense of people skills. In the debit column she established the inquisition. This is a gripping tale of how Isabella took Spain from an affiliation of kingdoms still partly occupied by the Moors to a global superpower through her cannily engineered marriage to Ferdinand of Aragon, diplomatic schmoozing with the papacy (including the Borgias) and funding of Columbus' discovery of America. As a sideline she set up the inquisition with Torquemada. With that cast of characters there's almost too much to work with but the author brings it together beautifully to offer a panoramic view of one of the most dynamic periods in history. Highly recommended; think about this and "Conquerers" as a double bill.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A great listen

Where does Isabella: The Warrior Queen rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This has to be among the best I have listened to. Well written and narrated history of one of Spain's greatest monarchs

What did you like best about this story?

Surprised how much there was to learn

Which character – as performed by Kimberly Farr – was your favourite?

All of them

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes

Any additional comments?

Highly recommend

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Listened to it twice!

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. What a Queen! Amazing accomplishments, learned so much more about her. Such a shame the Spanish Inquisition blighted her reputation.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Magnificent story of a truly remarkable woman

I have rarely enjoyed a story this much especially as the author has presented a great story full of little known facts without ever becoming dry and overzealous about unnecessary details. Love the narrator who speaks clearly and with the right amount of expression in her voice.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant

Recommended for fans of historical biography - Isabella's life and the relevant events surrounding it are all covered. Narration was perfect from Kimberly Farr.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Remarkable Research

Fascinating. Remarkable collation of primary Research from world wide collections of material. Chronological telling made the story easy to follow.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent feminist view with fresh investigation

This work following my personal extensive reading on this subject from other writers has left me feeling very impressed by the approach taken and the conclusions drawn - albeit there are anomalies and possible errors in details overall I believe many new insights having been raised in this work which require further investigation and verification by others to consolidate the new facts that have come to light as a result of the personal investigations carried out by the author and which would prove beneficial to the history of women and which which men ( like Fernando)would subsume for their own glory

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Beginning of Spanish Empire

Excellent book. Enjoyed the detailed research and broad context given of the times in which it all happened.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!