伊莎贝拉与玛格丽特26

Like so many rulers before and since

she started to run the country for her own enrichment

Very few of the objects that Isabella owned still survive

but one that does is this exquisite casket

It's delicately engraved with the arms of England and France

and it may have been a wedding present from her mother-in-law

It gives us a tiny glimpse of the extraordinary luxury

with which Isabella surrounded herself

That, of course, was appropriate for a Queen

but the problem was that Isabella didn't know where to stop

At the helm of English government

Isabella and Mortimer rewarded themselves not just with silver trinkets

but with vast estates and the contents of the royal treasury