Episode 133: Isabella of Castile, Part Two
Isabella and Ferdinand; she before he. The couple ruled together, but she was the one who created a centralized government in what is now modern-day Spain, and together they ended an 800-year holy war. It was she who funded slick sailsman (little nautical pun there), Cristoforo Columbo, to set sail to the Indies and it was she who hauled him back after he robbed, pillaged, enslaved and brought European illnesses to the indigenous people of Not-the-Indies. It was she who gave birth to five children, and she who supported the arts and education in her country.