Ancestry and early life Isabel Osorio was born around 1522 as the daughter of Pedro de Cartagena y Leiva, Lord of
Olmillos,
regidor of
Burgos in
Castile and León and his wife, María de
Rojas, daughter of Diego Osorio and Isabel de Rojas, herself a daughter of Sancho de Rojas, Lord of
Monzón and María de
Pereira. Isabel's father was a descendant of Selomóh Ha-Leví,
rabbi of the
Jewish quarter of Burgos who later converted to
Christianity and became the
bishop of the same
diocese. The relationship seems to have ended around 1559, when Philip was already King of Spain and married his third wife, Princess
Elisabeth of France.
Later life Osorio retired to the
Palace of Saldañuela near
Burgos which she had built after acquiring the tower that stood there with a sum of 2 million
maravedís she received from the king. She lived in this palace until her death, and never married. She founded
"el convento de las Trinitarias de Sarracín", the
Convent of the
Trinity in
Sarracín, where she was buried after her death in October 1589. Her nephew Pedro Osorio de Velasco, son of her only sister María de Rojas inherited her
estate. == References ==