IT IS SAID THAT AT A VERY EARLY AGE THIS PRINCESS HAD A MAJESTIC PRESENCE. But was this surprising since she was the descendant of Alfred the Great, William the Conqueror, the Plantagenet kings of England, St., Louis of France and St. Fernando King of Castile. Even though her parents and especially her mother often lacked money for food, clothing and the necessities, and was forced to live like a peasant still little Dona Isabel was receiving the usual education daughters of Nobel men of Spain in those days. She learned to speak Castilian musically and with elegance, and to write it with a touch of distinction. She studied grammar, rhetoric, painting, and poetry, history and philosophy. She learned to do beautiful work in embroidery. And she made some banners and ornaments for the Altar in her chapel. And they are still in the Chapel at Granada.
From her father she inherited a great love for music and poetry. And she probably learned much of the philosophy of Aristotle and St. Thomas of Aquinas. At an early age she was betrothed by her father to Prince Charles of Vienna. She was not very old when her Father died, and she and her mother then lived in her 1/2 brothers court. But still without much sustenance.
This was a bad time for all of Europe for they were threatened by those Barbarians who has been threatening the peace and prosperity of the West for nigh on 1000 years. In fact for eight centuries Christendom had been fighting for its very existence. The Mohammadans were all their time fighting their way west. The kings of that area and the princes at times placed their selfish interests above that of the good of Christianity. Thus, the people suffered.