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Queen Isabella

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:8,000.00 - 10,000.00 USD
Queen Isabella

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Auction Date:2018 Jan 10 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
LS in Spanish, signed “Yo la Reyna,” one page, 8.75 x 7, December 20, 1492. Letter to Dr. Alfonso Ramires de Villaescusa, municipal royal representative in the town of Valladolid, in full (translated): "You already know that I have sent to order you to speak with Don Diego de Cuniga in order that he receive Beatriz Brana, his wife, and have her in his house and company. I have since learned here that, although I had ordered him at the time that I was in the said town of Valladolid that he take her and separate from Leonor de Riano, he had not done it, and neither does he give his said wife anything for her maintenance, from which she has received and receives much injury and labor. I order you to attend to this with all diligence and see to it that the said Don Diego complies with what I have sent to order in this case and has his said wife and treats her well and supports her and gives her the things necessary for her maintenance, as he is obligated to do as a Christian, assuring him that otherwise I will be angered and will order that the matter be remedied as may be just. And inform me at once about what us done in this matter.” In fine condition.

Isabella and Ferdinand famously sponsored the voyage of Christopher Columbus to the New World, which set sail from Palos, Spain on August 3, 1492. Two months later on October 12, Columbus made landfall on San Salvador in the Bahamas—a date now immortalized as 'Columbus Day' in America. Later that month, Columbus sighted Cuba, which he thought was mainland China, and in December the expedition landed on Hispaniola, which Columbus thought might be Japan. In March 1493, the explorer returned to Spain with gold, spices, and 'Indian' captives, and was received with the highest honors by the Spanish court. The recipient of this letter, De Villaescusa, served as both an advocate and magistrate in cases of property seizure during the Inquisition’s mass expulsion of Jews and converts. Only two months removed from the date of Columbus’s arrival and claiming of the New World for Spain, this is an outstanding and historically significant document that expresses clearly Isabella's feelings on the sanctity of marriage.