Melveena Mckendrick: 2 books

King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain are most often remembered for the epochal voyage of Christopher Columbus. But the historic landfall of October 1492 was only a secondary event of the year. The preceding January, they had accepted the surrender of Muslim Granada, ending centuries of Islamic...

Out of the division and strife of the Middle Ages, Spain emerged from behind the Pyrenees to straddle the stage of European politics like some new colossus. Discoverer of a New World, it became the greatest power on earth and created a Golden Age of culture breathtaking in its quality and achievement....