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The wedding between the infanta Isabel of Castile and Aragonfirstborn of the Catholic Monarchs, and the Portuguese monarch Manuel I It took place in Valencia de Alcántara, Cáceres, on September 30, 1497. But the celebrations of the historic wedding were overshadowed by a great tragedy, which occurred only four days later: the death of prince don Juan, brother of the bride and heir to the Castilian throne. Isabel, the brand new Portuguese sovereign, also became Princess of Asturias in this way and the figure she attracted a long-awaited Iberian union between both kingdoms.

But that dream would disappear again with a new chain of misfortunes. On August 23, 1498, Elizabeth junior —as the humanist Antonio de Nebrija described her to differentiate her from her mother— she died in Zaragoza an hour after giving birth to his first son, named Miguel of Peace in reference to the aspirations attributed to him to consolidate Spanish-Portuguese harmony. His death was attributed to an embolism, although it is likely that it was actually a uterine rupture.

The 27-year-old woman was buried that day with the same clothes she was wearing at the time of childbirth. The loss of a second offspring in such a short period of time was a terrible blow to Isabella the Catholic, who fell ill and remained bedridden. As a kind of prophecy confirmed by reality, the poet and chronicler Garcia de Resende wrote these verses: “Portuguese and Castilian / I don’t want God together to see”. Because the truth is that Prince Manuel, although he emerged healthy from the birth, died in Granada on July 20, 1500, before turning two years old, due to his physical weakness. The Iberian union would have to wait almost a century, until the appearance of Philip II.

That was the fateful end of the eldest daughter of the Catholic Monarchs and her descendants, of a woman who had it in her hands—in her health—to write a quite different history of the Hispanic leap to the Modern Age and its international relations. Her premature death, on the contrary, has plunged her into “a complete lack of biographical and historical knowledge”according to the researcher Ruth Martínez Alcorloauthor of the outstanding biography Isabel of Castile and Aragon. Princess and queen of Portugal (1470-1498)recently published by the publishing house Sílex.

Overshadowed by the powerful figures of her mother and sister Joan the Crazy, the Castilian infanta has been reduced to the background and framed in distorted archetypes, such as unfriendly, anorexic and cold. The work of the philologist from the University of Alcalá, which rigorously and entertainingly reconstructs the fascinating context of the time, the life of the protagonist and the dramatis personae that surrounded her, finally does justice to the historical relevance of a very religious woman who also stood out as a patron of the arts and inspiring muse of verses.

First wedding

One of the great virtues of Martínez Anido’s work is the treatment of the succession conflicts that broke out around the figure of Isabel. Yes ok In Castile, women’s ability to govern was not questionedin Aragon the mentality of the provincial and regional powers was totally different. Ferdinand the CatholicHowever, he did everything possible so that in 1498 the Cortes named his daughter heir to the kingdom, who seized on the princess’s pregnancy – they only allowed a female to transmit rights – to hinder recognition. The death of the Princess of Asturias ended up avoiding the conflict.

He embodied that title twice throughout his life. The first was from 1476 until the birth of his brother Juan, on June 30, 1478. There Fernando also had to pressure his father, John II of Aragonso that she would do everything possible to repeal the law that prevented her from becoming a legitimate heir – she was “in the absence of a male” – of the territories and assets of the kingdom.

Born in Dueñas in the middle of the Castilian succession war between the supporters of Isabel la Católica and the side of Juana la Beltraneja, the infanta’s biography is full of singular episodes: in 1475, at the age of five, she was offered by her father as collateral and hostage for a challenge that launched the Portuguese monarch Alfonso V into single combat in Toro; In the middle of the following year, when she was in the castle of Segovia, was the subject of an attempted kidnapping. “From then on, Isabel would be at her mother’s side and would accompany her wherever she went, eliminating the possibilities of being the object of more revolts or falling into hands that could undermine her integrity,” says the researcher.

But if there is an element that structures the life of the first-born of the Catholic Monarchs, it is tragedy. Her first husband, Infant Alfonso of Portugal, died eight months after the marriage in a horse accident. The lavish wedding had taken place on April 18, 1490 in Seville. Her parents spared no expense: The tableware alone cost the kingdom’s coffers 3,277,227 maravedíes. Martínez Alcorlo includes in his text a letter sent by ambassador Ruy de Sande to João II, then Portuguese king, which is revealed in a chronicle of the day in which details are given from the roar of those present after the ‘yes I want’ to the dances and scenic acts that followed the banquet.

The death of her husband shocked the princess, who cut her hair like any lover of books of chivalry. “Crazy with pain before her husband’s corpseIsabel refused to abandon him,” says the researcher in reference to certain testimonies that bring this case closer to the romantic legend of her sister Juana and the mourning for the body of Philip the Handsome. The fasts and vigils dictated by the Christian faith led to a manifest thinness of Isabel, who returned to the court of her parents, with whom she would experience the triumphant outcome of the Granada campaign.

The widowed princess, a valuable negotiating asset for the Castilian-Aragonese Crown, stated the wish to his parents not to remarry because of the pain he felt. The monarchs, at first, respected this decision, but politics would end up dragging down any personal deference. With the arrival of Manuel I to the throne of Portugal, the good relations between both kingdoms had to be confirmed. He rejected the proposal of the Catholic Monarchs to marry the 13-year-old Infanta María, and claimed his cousin’s ex-wife, 26 and at the optimal age to offer an heir. Isabel agreed, and from then on her life began to accelerate.

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