structural:summarization
Women in the court of Isabella I of Castile

Queen Isabella of Castile, like many other monarchs in Castile's past, favored the noble and ancient House of Medrano; Isabella made Catalina de Medrano her lady-in-waiting in 1497 and shortly after became the patron and protector of the first female professor at the University of Salamanca, Luisa de Medrano, Catalina's younger sister. Luisa de Medrano's intellectual abilities and solid formation caught the attention of the Queen and enabled her to teach Latin at the University of Salamanca. Her brother Don Luis de Medrano was the Rector of Salamanca University during her time. She received the chair left by Antonio de Nebrija (Antonio Martínez de Cala) in 1508 (Poetry and Grammar), although it is not known how long she maintained the post.

Luisa de Medrano wrote poems and philosophy, though her work has been lost. Luisa de Medrano not only received a privileged and nurtured education with the royal daughters, Isabel and Juana, she undoubtedly benefited from living in the climate of tolerance and advancement for women that Isabel I actively cultivated in her court, and which disappeared after her death. Under the protection of Queen Isabel I, Luisa de Medrano learned history, culture and humanist philosophy alongside children of the royal family. In the Castilian War of Succession, Luisa's maternal grandfather, Garci Bravo de Lagunas, secured the city of Sigüenza for Queen Doña Isabella. Catalina and Luisa's father Don Diego López de Medrano and her maternal grandfather, Garcí Bravo, died in the Queen's service at the Siege of Málaga in 1487.