Isabella of Aragon, Queen of Portugal

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For other people named Isabella of Aragon, see Isabella of Aragon (disambiguation).
Isabella of Aragon
Isabel das Asturias.jpg
Queen consort of Portugal and the Algarves
Tenure 30 September 1497 23 August 1498
Born 2 October 1470
Dueas, Palencia
Died 23 August 1498 (aged 27)
Zaragoza, Spain
Burial Convent of Santa Isabel, Toledo, Spain
Spouse Afonso, Prince of Portugal
Manuel I of Portugal
Issue Miguel, Prince of Portugal and Asturias
House Trastmara
Father Ferdinand II of Aragon
Mother Isabella I of Castile
Religion Roman Catholic
Isabella, Princess of Asturias (2 October 1470 23 August 1498) was a Queen
consort of Portugal and heir presumptive of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen
Isabella I of Castile, as their eldest daughter. Her younger sisters were
Catherine, Queen of England, Queen Joanna I of Castile, and Maria, Queen of
Portugal.

Contents [hide]
1 Early life
2 Marriages
3 Heir to the Crown of Castile and Death
4 Ancestry
5 References
6 Bibliography
Early life[edit]
Isabella was the eldest child of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile.
[1] Born during the reign of her uncle, Henry IV of Castile, the early years of her
life were defined by the tension between him and her mother, as her uncle would not
forgive her mother for marrying Ferdinand without his permission. Upon the death of
Henry IV in 1474, Isabella's mother claimed the throne of Castile, and the young
Isabella was swiftly sworn as the heir presumptive to the throne.[2]

The early years of the reign of Isabella I were spent embroiled in a war of
succession, as Henry IV had not specifically named a successor. A struggle ensued
between Isabella I and her niece Joanna, who was known as la Beltraneja due to the
rumors that she was the illegitimate child of Henry IV's queen Joan of Portugal and
his favourite, Beltrn de La Cueva. Afonso V of Portugal, who was Henry IV's
brother-in-law and young Joanna's uncle, intervened on Joanna's behalf and
Ferdinand and Isabella were forced into a war with Portugal.[3]

During the war, young Isabella witnessed some of the chaos for herself. While her
parents were fighting the Portuguese, the princess was left in Segovia while the
city was placed under the control of Andrs de Cabrera and his wife Beatriz de
Bobadilla. The city's residents, unhappy with this new administration, rose up and
seized control of the city. The then-seven-year-old princess was trapped in a tower
of the Alczar for some time until her mother returned to Segovia and took control
of the situation.[4]

The war ended in 1479 with the Treaty of Alcovas. Among the terms were the
provision that Princess Isabella would marry the grandson of Afonso V, Afonso, who
was five years younger than the princess.[1] The treaty also provided that
Ferdinand and Isabella would pay a large dowry for their daughter, and that the
princess would reside in Portugal as a guarantee that her parents would abide by
the treaty terms. In 1480, Prince Alfonso went to live in the town of Moura with
his maternal grandmother Beatrice, Duchess of Viseu, and was joined in the early
months of the following year by his future wife, the ten-year old Isabella.[5] She
spent three years in Portugal before returning home.[6]

Isabella also spent a considerable part of her youth on campaign with her parents
as they conquered the remaining Muslim states in southern Spain. For example, she
accompanied her mother in accepting the surrender of the city of Baza.[4]

Marriages[edit]
Her first marriage was to Prince Afonso, the only son and heir of king John II of
Portugal from his marriage with Eleanor of Viseu.[7] The wedding, by proxy, took
place in the spring of 1490 in Seville.[8][9] On 19 November of that year, Isabella
arrived in Badajoz, where she was welcomed by Afonso's uncle Manuel, the future
King Manuel I of Portugal, whom she would eventually marry six years after her
husband's death. Afonso and Isabella were reunited in Elvas on 22 November and, on
the following day, Isabella met her mother-in-law, Queen Eleanor, in the Convento
do Espinheiro in vora, where the court had gathered to ratify the marriage that
had been celebrated earlier in Seville.[10]

Though the marriage had been arranged by the Treaty of Alcovas,[1] the marriage
quickly became a love match. Isabella proved a popular figure with the Portuguese
royal family due to her knowledge of their language and customs brought about by
the years she spent in Portugal as a child. Isabella's happy life in Portugal came
to an abrupt end in July 1491, however, when Afonso was killed in a riding
accident.[11][12] She was heartbroken and later became convinced that he had died
because God was angry that Portugal had provided a refuge for the Jews that her
parents had expelled from Spain.[13]

She was eventually sent back to Spain at the request of her parents, and Isabella
returned to them devoutly religious. She underwent efforts to starve and scourge
herself, something she would do for much of the rest of her life as part of her
mourning for Afonso. She also declared that she would never marry again. Her
parents seem to have humored her declaration at first, but after the death of John
II of Portugal in 1495, he was succeeded by Manuel I of Portugal, who immediately
sought Isabella's hand.[12] Ferdinand and Isabella, perhaps trying to respect their
daughter's wishes, offered him the hand of one of their younger daughters, Maria,
but he refused.[14] There remained a stalemate between them until Princess Isabella
agreed to marry Manuel on the condition that he expel all Jews from Portugal who
would not convert to Christianity. He agreed to her ultimatum[15] and they married
in September 1497.[16]

Heir to the Crown of Castile and Death[edit]

In the same year as her second marriage, Isabella became Princess of Asturias and
heiress of the Crown of Castile following the sudden death of her only brother,
John, Prince of Asturias, in September 1497, and the stillbirth of his daughter.
Immediately, Philip, the husband of Isabella's younger sister Joanna of Castile,
claimed the crown, although Isabella, as the eldest daughter, enjoyed greater
rights. The Catholic Monarchs, to counter the pretensions of their son-in-law
Philip, held courts in the city of Toledo in 1498 a few months after the death of
their son John and had Isabella and her husband Manuel sworn as the legitimate
heirs of the crowns of Spain.[17] The royal family then went to Zaragoza to convene
the courts of Aragon for the same purpose.[18] Although female succession was
permitted in Castile, Ferdinand II's kingdom of Aragon hesitated to accept a woman
as their future ruler. If she were to give birth to a son, then the child could
inherit everything, something much preferred to female rule.[19]
Isabella was pregnant at that time and, while in Zaragoza with the royal family,
she gave birth on 23 August 1498 to her only child, Miguel da Paz. Perhaps because
of her constant fasting and self-denial,[19] or the constant travelling at her
advanced stage of pregnancy,[20] she died within an hour of her son's birth. Her
son, the new prince, was later sworn heir by the courts of Portugal, Castile, and
Aragon, as the heir to these crowns.[20]

Isabella asked to be buried dressed as a nun and to be interred at the Convent of

Santa Isabel in Toledo.[19] Manuel's chance to become King of Castile ended with
Isabella's death, and the primary hope of uniting all of the Iberian kingdoms
vanished with Miguel's death.[20]

When Queen Isabella of Castile died in 1504, she requested that the body of her
daughter Isabella be moved to rest by her side in Granada, but this was never done.
[21]

Manuel later married Isabella's younger sister, Maria of Aragon, who bore him his
son and heir, John III. Portugal and Spain were finally united between 1580 and
1640, after Philip II of Spain, Isabella's great-nephew via her sister, Joanna,
successfully claimed the throne of Portugal as a son of Isabella of Portugal, the
daughter of Maria and Manuel.