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Decisive Defence of Christendom The War in Granada. In December 1481 Muslim leader Muley Abou’l Hassan re-ignited war in Spain by attacking the town Zahara. The Christian citizens were slaughtered or enslaved. It took Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand three years to rescue Zahara, and a further seven years to liberate all of Spain from the 780-year grip of the invaders. The war frequently involved personal danger for Isabel and a great number of tragedies and defeats. Yet her cause was just. The Queen persevered, rallied her people, and triumphed. Isabel’s concern for the Holy Land (from Isabel issue 66). Queen Isabel cared for and laboured on behalf of all Christians. For example, she sent letters to the Muslim leaders of Jerusalem seeking good treatment for Christian pilgrims visiting sacred sites in the Holy Land, such as our Lord’s birthplace in Bethlehem and the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The Muslims replied favourably. They definitely wanted to avoid reprisals from the Catholic Kings (Isabel and Ferdinand) who had already shown constancy in their defence of Christendom by winning Granada back from the Moors. This greatly improved the situation of the pilgrims throughout the Holy Land. When a Muslim Sultan wrote Isabel that he had heard of atrocities committed in the war of Granada, the Queen wrote back to explain the merciful treatment given to the Muslims. If they surrendered peacefully they were allowed to leave Spain or to remain, and permitted to keep their mosques, continue the worship and practice of their religion, and keep their traditions and culture intact. Exonerating the Christian cause Queen Isabel wrote that it was just to take back what was once Christian territory. The Holy Land was at this time under the control of the Muslim Sultan Kayt Bey of Egypt. The Sultan, jointly with Pope Innocence VIII, named Isabel and Ferdinand ‘Protectors of the Holy Sepulchre’. In part this was in gratitude because Isabel and Ferdinand’s fleet successfully protected Mediterranean countries from Muslim Turks who had been on the verge of attacking Malta and Sicily and were menacing all of the Mediterranean coast including the Holy Land. Isabel’s devotion to the Holy Sepulchre included making a beautiful veil with her own hands to adorn the interior of the church, and a large annual donation which she initiated in Jaen on 24th August 1489 by writing: “Queen Isabel, by the grace of God, Queen of Castile, of Leon, of Aragon, of Sicily, etc. …order and command our beloved Gaspar de Cervello, Secret Master of our Royal Chamber of Sicily, [to] give as payment to the devout Father Vicar and the honest religious of the convent that are now and will in the future reside in the Monastery of Mount Zion of the Order of St. Francis of the Observance, in the holy city of Jerusalem, one thousand ducats of gold, with which we give as alms for said Vicar and Religious of the Convent of the said Monastery be it for its repair, or for providing for their needs. You will pay this, the said thousand ducats of gold, at the beginning of the new year [and] you will then continue yearly in the same way, as being obliged to pay it...I The Queen.” |