Isabel of Aragon

Isabel of Aragon is Catalina’s sister, whose brief marriage in Portugal ended in widowhood and became one of the family’s defining stories of love and loss. Remembered as having loved her husband so deeply that she vowed never to marry again, she serves as a poignant measure of the passion Catalina wonders whether she herself will experience.

Identity and Family

Catalina recalls Isabel alongside their sisters María of Aragon and Juana of Castile and their brother Prince Juan. In Catalina’s account, the family is marked by powerful attachments, but Isabel’s story is distinct: she returned from Portugal a widow after only a few months of marriage. Catalina later remembers her as now with God.

Marriage and Widowhood

Isabel’s husband is not named in the account. The marriage lasted six months, after which Isabel came home widowed. The brief duration sharpens the force of her loss in Catalina’s recollection: a short marriage had, in Isabel’s own understanding, contained a love so consequential that life without her husband seemed meaningless.

Grief and Devotion

After her husband’s death, Isabel swore that she would never take another husband. Catalina presents this not as a passing declaration but as the measure of Isabel’s grief and attachment. Her remembered vow makes the cost of widowhood visible within a family whose members, Catalina says, love with extraordinary intensity.

Significance to Catalina

Isabel’s experience enters Catalina’s thoughts as she considers whether she will ever fall in love. Her sister’s devotion offers no assurance that Catalina’s own marriage will bring the same passion; instead, it gives her a striking example against which to measure her hopes and uncertainty. Isabel remains present in the narrative through that contrast: a sister whose brief happiness and lasting grief shape how Catalina imagines the emotional stakes of marriage.