Queen Isabella is best known for her dealings with that crazyman, Colombo, but she saw that the last of the Moors and the Jews were turfed out, forced to convert, or killed. This wrecked much of the business and trade in Spain, only balanced by the wealth of the "Indies" brought in from the Americas in the 1500s.

In Columbia, and perhaps other countries in South America, she is remembered through the word "isabelline," meaning gray, because legend has it that, for religious reasons, she never changed her undergarments.

The Catholic hierarchy in Spain for a long time pursued a semi-independent course. One could speculate that her beatification is aimed at firmly sealing the union with Rome.