Queen Isabella I, Queen of Castile and Leon, was born April 22nd, 1451, and died November 26, 1504. She is frequently referred to as “Isabel the Catholic,” an honorary title she received from the pope himself. Her husband was Ferdinand II of Aragon, and with him she set about completing the Reconquista, concluding the re-conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by taking Granada back from the Muslims. It was an enormous task, and it is recorded that during one difficult period she left Granada to visit the tomb of her ancestor, Saint King Fernando III, sitting upon his throne as she sought inspiration to go on. Granada was finally taken in 1492, the same year she sent Columbus sailing to the new world.