“The journey cannot have been easy for Isabella, who was now often sick. Anghiera put this down to the tragic deaths of Juan and Isabella, her two most adored children. ‘We are with the queen who, because of her grief at the death of the daughter who, being so discreet and good, was her favourite, is [now] sick in bed,’ he had written eight months before she set out for Granada. Little Miguel, the tiny new jewel in Isabella’s crown, travelled with them, along with her two remaining unmarried daughters, María and Catherine. The boy’s father had been happy to leave him in Isabella’s care and her mood was both lightened by Miguel’s presence and darkened by his fragility. ‘He was born weak, fragile and sickly,’ warned Anghiera, who was nevertheless relieved that an heir was at hand. ‘With the child’s birth, whatever his state of health, all debate over primogeniture is over.’ Isabella fretted over the small, precious boy who had been sworn in as heir to her crown by the Cortes early in 1499.”
