The Rose of Castille (or Castile)[1] is an opera in three acts, with music by Michael William Balfe to an English-language libretto by Augustus Glossop Harris and Edmund Falconer, after the libretto by Adolphe d'Ennery and Clairville (alias of Louis-François Nicolaïe (1811–1879)) for Adolphe Adam's Le muletier de Tolède (1854).

[2] Balfe's reputation as a composer had declined after the success of The Bohemian Girl in 1843, but The Times in 1857 was in no doubt that The Rose of Castille marked a return to form: "The ancient glories of The Bohemian Girl were revived at this theatre tonight when a new opera by Mr Balfe ... was produced with as great a success as was ever achieved by the composer of the first-named work ... there were numerous encores and tumultuous applause ... the opera terminated at an unusually late hour..."[3] During the Pyne-Harrison company's brief sojourn at Drury Lane, a gala performance of the opera was given at Her Majesty's Theatre on 21 January 1858, in honour of the impending marriage of Queen Victoria's daughter Princess Victoria to Prince Frederick William of Prussia.

Elvira, still in disguise, reappears, and the conspirators, noticing that she closely resembles the Queen, persuade her to impersonate her real self.

Knowing that "Manuel" will follow her, she agrees to leave with them, and her rondo ("Oh, were I the Queen of Spain") leads into a concerted finale.

Pedro plans to capture the Queen and send her to a convent (substituting the peasant girl) if she will not marry him.

He tells Elvira of Don Pedro's plan, and she arranges for the Duchess of Calatrava, heavily veiled, to impersonate her.

Elvira, realising that the muleteer Manuel is not Don Sebastian, is enraged, but his ballad "'Twas rank and fame that tempted thee" melts her heart, and she swears to be true to him.

By fortune blessed"), concludes the opera to general rejoicing: she will now be the Rose of Castille as well as the Queen of León.

James Joyce's Ulysses contains a number of references to The Rose of Castille (many more than to The Bohemian Girl or The Maid of Artois).