Queen of Castile and Leon from 1447 to 1454
Isabella of Portugal
(
Isabel
in Portuguese and Spanish) (1428 ? 15 August 1496) was
Queen of Castile
and
Leon
as the second wife of King
John II
. She was the mother of Queen
Isabella I of Castile
.
Queen
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Isabella was born as a scion of a collateral branch of the
Aviz
dynasty that had ruled
Portugal
since 1385. Her parents were
John, Constable of Portugal
, the youngest surviving son of
John I of Portugal
, and his half-niece and wife,
Isabella of Barcelos
, the daughter of the
Duke of Braganza
, an illegitimate son of the king. She was married to King
John II of Castile
as his second wife. His first wife,
Mary of Aragon
, had given him four children, though only one, the future
Henry IV of Castile
, had survived. Henry had been joined to
Blanche II of Navarre
in an unconsummated marriage for seven years and was called "El Impotente." Because of this, John decided to seek another wife, preferably with a French princess. However, his trusted adviser and friend
Alvaro de Luna
decided a Portuguese alliance was better politically, and negotiated a match with the much younger Isabella.
[1]
The two were wed on 22 July 1447 when John was 42 and Isabella 19.
[2]
Conflict with de Luna
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Coat of arms of Isabella of Portugal as Queen of Castile
De Luna had dominated the king since he was young and doubtless expected this to continue after the marriage. De Luna tried to control the young queen as well, even going as far as to attempt to limit the couplings between the amorous king and his bride. Isabella took exception to de Luna's influence over her husband and attempted to persuade her husband to remove this
favourite
.
Rumors that de Luna had attempted to poison Isabella, and that he had also poisoned and murdered her predecessor, Mary of Aragon, still persist to this day. Isabella, being aware of this, set herself to the task of persuading the king to agree to rid himself of de Luna.
She had little success until after the 1451 birth of her daughter and namesake who would become
Isabella I of Castile
. The queen's confinement was long and difficult.
In 1453, de Luna had nobleman Alfonso Perez de Vivero thrown out of a window, as the nobleman had sided against the constable. Isabella used this as leverage, and convinced the king to have him arrested and tried. King John did as his wife asked, and de Luna was executed.
[2]
The death of his favourite saddened the king, and his health began to decline rapidly. John was on his deathbed in mid 1454, expiring at last on 20 July 1454. Henry IV, newly divorced from Blanche, became king.
Queen dowager
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After Henry ascended the throne, he sent his stepmother, who was three years younger than himself, and his two half-siblings to the Castle of
Arevalo
. The dowager queen and her two children lived austerely with Isabella's mother, who had travelled to Arevalo to assist her.
[3]
There is no evidence that the widowed queen ever considered remarrying.
While at Arevalo, Isabella sank deeper into the melancholy that had begun after the birth of her elder child.
[2]
She was permitted to keep her children until 1461, the year in which Henry's second
queen
,
Joan of Portugal
, became pregnant with
Joanna, Princess of Asturias
, supposedly by her alleged lover,
Beltran de La Cueva
.
Relationship with daughter
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Alfonso had died under suspicious circumstances in 1468. In 1469, Isabella told her half-brother (Henry IV) that she was going to visit her mother in Arevalo, but in fact travelled to
Valladolid
to marry
Ferdinand of Aragon
, the heir of
John II of Aragon
. When Henry IV died in 1474, Isabella bypassed the claims of her niece, who had never been considered legitimate, to become Queen of Castile. During her travels around Spain, she would visit her mother every year or so, always waiting personally on her to show her respect. The Dowager queen continued to live in retirement until she died in 1496 "worn out and enfeebled by age".
[4]
Interment
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Tomb of Isabella of Portugal
After her death, she was interred next to her husband in the crypt under the royal sepulcher, with Alfonso whose tomb is placed to the side in the
Miraflores Charterhouse
. Her daughter Isabella raised ornately carved tombs in their memory.
In 2006, on the occasion of the restoration of the Charterhouse, an anthropological study of the physical remains of John II, Isabella, and their son, Alfonso of Castile was carried out by researchers from the University of Leon.
[5]
The skeleton of King John II was almost complete, but only fragments of Queen Isabella's bones remained.
[5]
Issue
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Her children were:
References
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* also an infanta of Spain and an archduchess of Austria
,
**
also an imperial princess of Brazil
,
***
also a princess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Duchess in Saxony
,
?
Also a princess of Braganza
,
?
title of pretense
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