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Incorruptible commitment to justice Queen Isabel, with great prudence, justice and fortitude, unified 27 separate kingdoms into one strong nation, Spain, leading her people from a state of extreme prostration to become a world power. She was famous for her impartiality, making the weight of the law felt by all without distinction, and if necessary she herself faced those who at first refused to comply. In one famous case Queen Isabel sent judges to investigate the disappearance of a man, following petitions from his poor wife. The judges discovered that Alvar Yañez had had a nobleman murdered then made over all the property of the victim to himself. Yañez then killed the notary who had verified the documentation. It was this notary’s wife who had petitioned Queen Isabel. Yañez was condemned to death, but to spare his life he offered a bribe of 40,000 doblas in gold, which was an incredible amount of money. Some of Isabel’s advisors suggested she commute his sentence and take the money (needed for the war in Granada). Isabel refused, saying that justice had to be the same for all: the powerful and the weak, the rich and the poor, the high and the low. Isabel ordered that Yañez’s ill-gotten gains be used for the support of the children of the murdered man. Isabel could not be bought. When Queen Isabel acceded to the throne in 1474 her country was in disorder and the royal court one of the more corrupt in Europe. Everywhere was dangerous: the countryside and the cities groaned with victims of violent crime and under corruption of the civil powers. But by her implacable campaign for justice the kingdoms were brought to order and peace with astonishing rapidity. |