The Queen's Vow: A Novel of Isabella of Castile (56 page)

The palace came into view, lounging on its plateau, its honey-brick walls seeming to reproach our advance. The same architects who had built this place had worked on Sevilla’s alcazar at the command of one of my ancestors, adhering to the Arabic custom that rulers must not display their wealth to the world lest it incite envy. I knew that within lay a realm of incomparable beauty—chambers of alabaster hung with stone pediments and arches of lace; patios and arcades ringed by pilasters graceful as dancing women; lily-strewn pools where the reflection of the sky turned the marble walls azure, and gardens smothered with roses, lavender, and jasmine, their fragrance drifting into cedar-vaulted halls cooled by ingenious wind-catchers and high arched apertures that captured and softened the light.

I knew all this and still not even I was prepared for the magnificent emptiness of the place. Divans and quilted pillows had been left in disarray, as if their occupants had only just fled, and the scent of incense lingered like a lament.

Juana floated about perched on tiptoes, clutching little Catalina by the hand, mesmerized. Later, she’d spin fanciful stories of doomed concubines leaping from the towers and spectral reproaches from departed caliphs, but what most struck me in that moment as we moved through rooms that flowed into each other, where the glint of winter sunlight scattered over the ceramic walls, was the silence—so absolute that I could hear my own heartbeat in my ears, loud as the clack of my heels on the marble floors.

It was as though no one had ever lived here. After all his glory and thunder, the Moor had ceased to exist.

Outside, our battered silver cross was lifted over the palace. Cannons fired thundering volleys, followed by the heralds’ cries: “Granada! Granada for our sovereigns, Don Fernando and Doña Isabella!”

Fernando reached for my hand; his palm was hard, permanently callused from years of wielding his sword. Gazing at him, I saw passion ignite in his eyes.

“We did it, my
luna
,” he said. “We have won. Spain is ours.”

Together we knelt to offer our gratitude to God.

So it was.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

C
ongratulations on our conquest arrived from every major power in Europe; in Rome, the newly elected Spanish pope, Rodrigo Borgia, known as Pope Alexander VI, held a special procession and Mass in the basilica of Saint Peter and bestowed upon us the honorary title of the Catholic Monarchs, Defenders of the Faith.

Grateful as I was for the accolades, I wanted life to return to normal as quickly as possible. Ten years of war had come to an end; it was time to begin the process of healing and consolidating our nation, of seeing to our children’s futures and upholding the Church’s glory. Ensconced in the Alhambra, I turned my attention first to my children. It was imperative that they resume their interrupted studies, in order to prepare for the roles they would one day assume.

Juana, in particular, required firm oversight; her impressive educational accomplishments were overshadowed by her rebelliousness and her penchant for eccentric outings in the gardens, where she rushed here and there, dragging little Catalina along by the hand. Isabel likewise continued to worry me; she had recovered from the worst excesses of her grief, but she still insisted she was best suited to a holy life. She did not welcome any discussion of another marriage, though Portugal had again offered her a husband, this time in the form of her late husband’s uncle.

María, however, was proving the balm to my troubles, a docile child who neither excelled nor failed in any of her undertakings. And Juan, my precious boy, became my primary focus, for I suspected I’d never bear another child. My menses had almost ceased. On Juan’s slim shoulders now rested all of our dynastic hopes; he would be the first king to rule our united realm, and I oversaw his schedule personally, so he could master the complex art of being a monarch.

But my domestic respite was brief. Only weeks after we claimed Granada, we received word that our Jewish financiers were requesting urgent audience with us.

As they walked into our presence, their bearded faces careworn, their robes dusty from the long ride, I braced myself. By now, rumors must have reached them of Torquemada’s claim about a widespread seditious Jewish plot to stiffen converso resistance and overthrow the Inquisition; they must have also heard of the riots in Castile and Aragón over the alleged crucifixion of Christian children, and other horrors supposedly perpetrated by their brethren. And as Mendoza had predicted, along with these vile reports, Torquemada had sent his renewed request that I issue an edict demanding the conversion of every Jew in the realm, on pain of forfeiture of goods and expulsion from my land.

I did not believe the half of it, though in public I’d expressed appropriate consternation. In all my life, I had never seen a Jew harm anyone, much less kill babes in mockery of our Savior. But I could not deny any longer that the tension built on centuries of mistrust toward the Jews—always simmering like poison under the surface of our much-vaunted tradition of
convivencia
—had, with the fall of Granada and the uniting of our realm, reached its boiling point. All over the kingdom, declared Torquemada, devout Christians rose in demonstrations to storm the Jewish ghettos, pillage their businesses, and throw them bodily out onto the roads. They would have no Jews in their midst anymore, my head Inquisitor claimed. The time for tolerating Christ’s killers in Spain was at an end.

While I had no proof, I presumed these alleged spontaneous uprisings were part of Torquemada’s quest to force Fernando and me into an impasse. His agents, now spread throughout the realm under the aegis of the Inquisition, brewed a cauldron of fear designed to push me into a decision I’d thus far refused to make. It infuriated me to think Torquemada believed he could manipulate me thus, but, manipulated or not, I had to face the ultimate consequence. I couldn’t ignore the potential civil disorder in Castile to protect a people who did not share our faith.

Still, as I beheld these six huddled men who had come all the way from Castile to see us, who had lent us millions for our crusade and still held some of my most valued jewels as collateral, I felt the weight of
their fears as if it were my own. I remembered when I’d faced this dilemma years before and failed to heed it; then, it had seemed foolhardy to reverse our centuries-old policy of tolerance.

And as elderly Rabbi Señeor bowed, the azure velvet casket containing my nuptial necklace cradled in his knobby hands, I remembered what Talavera had said:

The hour of reckoning must come. It is unavoidable, much as we may regret it
.

Rabbi Señeor lifted his voice, a mere thread of sound, all but exhausted by his journey. “We come before you to beg Your Majesties not to heed the Inquisitor General’s petition to expel us from this kingdom. As you well know, we’ve always supported your endeavors with every means at our disposal. Please tell us now, what do you want from us, your most humble subjects? Ask for anything and it shall be yours.”

Fernando gave me a sharp glance. He had tensed as the men approached our dais, his face adopting the inflexible expression he sometimes wore when he felt challenged. He had supported the implementation of the Inquisition; I suspected he bore the Jews no particular love, though they’d acted as our treasurers. How would he react now?

“We want nothing more than subservience to our dictate,” he suddenly said. “Much as we may regret it, the time has come to prove your loyalty beyond material goods.”

His uncanny echoing of Talavera’s phrase startled me; I had not expected it and neither had Señeor, who visibly blanched as he turned to me. “
Majestad
, we beg you as our queen. We are so many and so powerless; we appeal to your greater wisdom.”

It was a mistake; nothing could rouse Fernando’s ire more than to be disdained in favor of me. Before I could reply, Fernando pointed his finger at the rabbi. “Do you think to deny me?” he said, his voice soft with menace. “I too am ruler here; my heart is in the hands of our Lord, and it is to Him—and only Him—I need answer.”

“Fernando,” I murmured. “Please, let us hear them out.” As my husband leaned back in his throne, his face white, I said to the rabbi, “What would you have us do, Don Señeor?”

He motioned hastily to the black-robed figures behind him; from their midst stepped a youth with angular cheekbones and careworn
brown eyes. He was Rabbi Meir, Señeor’s son-in-law, and another trusted financier of our court.

“Go,” Señeor said to him. “Fetch it.”

Meir and two of the others hastened out; they returned moments later with a large chest, which they lugged to the foot of our dais. Rabbi Meir unlocked the sturdy hinged lid. Within were several sacks, fastened with twine and sealed with red wax.

“Thirty thousand ducats,” explained Señeor, as the others drew back. “Collected from our brethren to defray your Majesties’ debts; our usurers have also agreed to cancel all loans to you and return your jewels as delivered, without expectation of recompense.”

My throat went dry. I looked again at Fernando; saw by the twitch of a nerve in his temple that they’d touched him. Religious considerations aside, we were impoverished, more so than we’d ever let on. Indeed, only these men knew the full extent of it. Only they understood how far thirty thousand ducats would go toward restoring our treasury, not to mention the cancellation of the numerous loans we’d accumulated over the years.

“My lord husband,” I said. “Does this meet with your agreement?”

He sat silent, still; that near-imperceptible twitch the only sign that he was considering the offer. Then he exhaled, opening his mouth to speak. But a commotion at the entranceway silenced him. To my dismay, the gaunt figure of Torquemada was striding toward us, his cassock swirling like dusk about his ankles, his eyes like agates in his emaciated face, which had grown even more arresting, and frightening, with the passage of the years.

His gaze fell on the open chest; as my heart capsized, he reeled to our dais. “I heard that you entertained these foul liars in your presence but I never thought to see this. Judas Iscariot sold our Lord for thirty pieces of silver; now, you would sell Him again for thirty thousand. Here He is, then. Take Him and barter Him away!”

Yanking his crucifix from his chest, he flung it at our feet and stormed out. In his wake he left a terrible hush. Looking down at the crucifix, Fernando whispered, “Leave us.”

With a broken gasp, Rabbi Señeor started to stagger to his knees.

“No!”
roared Fernando.
“Now!”

They retreated; as the double doors of the hall closed on them, Rabbi Meir looked over his shoulder at me, with unmistakable resignation.

I sat without moving. They had left the chest and nuptial casket on the floor, but I did not even look at them. I had failed to anticipate this rage in Fernando; it was as though the very sight of Torquemada wielding his crucifix had awoken something feral, instinctual, but until now hidden, in my husband.

Finally he spoke in a trembling voice. “It is blood money. Torquemada is right: We bought our triumph with blood money and now we must atone for it. We must issue the edict, Isabella. No Jew can stay in our realm, lest we too are damned for it.”

I swallowed. My mouth and throat felt as if I had just drunk a cup of sand.

“We bought our triumph with loans,” I managed to say, “like countless kings before us. The Jews have always managed our finances; you know that as well as I. They have been valued advisors, treasurers, and counselors to us. What will we do without them, if they do not choose to convert?”

He passed his hands over his chin; the touch of his fingers bristling his beard was loud in the silence. “Are you saying you can live with it?” He turned his stare to me. “You can live with the fear that we might burn in Hell for eternity because we succored them?”

I did not tremble. I did not look away or evade his question. I met his eyes and I let myself fall into the chasm; I made myself see, feel, and taste the torments he posited, which might be ours if I heeded the reluctance in my heart.

“No,” I whispered, and I bowed my head, as though the burden of the choice had already fallen upon my shoulders. “I cannot live with it. I cannot ask Spain to live with it. But it may mean the exile of their entire people. How can I be responsible for that?”

He reached across our thrones, taking my hand. “We have no other choice.” He lifted my hand to his lips. “Do you need time?” he murmured and I nodded, fighting back a surge of sudden, bitter tears.

“No matter what you decide, I will abide by it,” I heard him say. “It is your decision; it has always been your decision. You are Castile’s queen.”

.  .  .

THAT NIGHT IN
my rooms, where the musk of vanquished odalisques clung to the enameled walls, as the nightingales of Granada keened outside my window, I went before my altar, with its illuminated Book of Hours, wrought gold candlesticks, and soft-faced Virgin with the Christ Child in arms, her mauve robes floating about her as she stood, posed, upon a cloud, ready to ascend….