Juan II King Of Navarre And ARAGON

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John II the Great (June 29, 1397 ? January 20, 1479) was the King of Aragon (1458?1479) and a King of Navarre (1425?1479). He was the son of Ferdinand I and his wife Eleanor of Alburquerque. John is regarded as one of the most memorable and most unscrupulous kings of the 15th century.

In his youth he was one of the infantes (princes) of Aragon who took part in the dissensions of Castile during the minority and reign of John II. Till middle life he was also lieutenant-general in Aragon for his brother and predecessor Alfonso V, whose reign was mainly spent in Italy. In his old age he was engaged in incessant conflicts with his Aragonese and Catalan subjects, with Louis XI of France, and in preparing the way for the marriage of his son Ferdinand with Isabella of Castile which brought about the union of the crowns. His trouble with his subjects were closely connected with the tragic dissension in his own family.

John was first married to Blanche of Navarre of the house of …vreux. By right of Blanche he became king of Navarre, and on her death in 1441 he was left in possession of the kingdom for his lifetime. But a son, Charles, given the title "Prince of Viana" as heir of Navarre, had been born of the marriage. John quickly came to regard his son with jealousy. After his second marriage, to Juana EnrÌquez, this grew into absolute hatred and was encouraged by Juana. John tried to deprive his son of his constitutional right to act as lieutenant-general of Aragon during his father's absence. Charles's cause was taken up by the Aragonese, and the king's attempt to make his second wife lieutenant-general was set aside.

There followed a long conflict, with alternations of success and defeat, ending only with the death of the prince of Viana, perhaps by poison given him by his stepmother, in 1461. The Catalans, who had adopted the cause of Charles and who had grievances of their own, called in a succession of foreign pretenders. King John spent his last years contending with these. He was forced to pawn Roussillon, his possession on the north-east of the Pyrenees, to King Louis XI of France, who refused to part with it.

In his old age John was blinded by cataracts, but recovered his eyesight by the operation of couching conducted by his physician Abiathar Crescas, a Jew. The Catalan revolt was pacified in 1472, but John carried on a war, in which he was generally unfortunate, with his neighbour the French king till his death in 1479. He was succeeded by Ferdinand, his son by his second marriage, who was already associated with his wife Isabella as joint sovereign of Castile.

Family/Spouse: Juana ENRIQUEZ. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Blanca II Of NAVARRE. Blanca (daughter of The Noble Charles III Of NAVARRE and Eleanor Of CASTILE) was born in 1391; died on 03 Apr 1441. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Juana married Ferdinand I Of NAPLES on 14 Sep 1476. Ferdinand (son of Alfonso V King Of ARAGON and UNKNOWN) was born in 1423; died on 25 Jan 1494. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Name: Ferdinand V King Of Aragon
• Fact: Between 1468 and 1516, King of Castile, Sicily
• Fact: 1469, Became Ferdinand V of Castile when he married Isabella
• Fact: Between 1479 and 1516, King of Aragon
• Fact: Between 1504 and 1516, King of Naples
• Death: 1516

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Wikipedia Encyclopedia:

Ferdinand was the son of John II of Aragon by his second wife, the Aragonese noblewoman Juana Enriquez. He married Infanta Isabella, the half-sister and heiress of Henry IV of Castile, on October 19, 1469 in OcaÒa and became Ferdinand V of Castile when Isabella succeeded her brother as Queen of Castile in 1474. The two young monarchs were initially obliged to fight a civil war against Juana, princess of Castile (also known as Juana la Beltraneja), the purported daughter of Henry IV, but were ultimately successful. When Ferdinand succeeded his father as King of Aragon in 1479, the Crown of Castile and the various territories of the Crown of Aragon were united in a personal union creating for the first time since the 8th century a single political unit which might be called Spain, although the various territories were not properly administered as a single unit until the 18th century.

The first decades of Ferdinand and Isabella's joint rule were taken up with the conquest of the Kingdom of Granada, the last Muslim enclave in the Iberian peninsula, which was completed by 1492. In that same year, the Jews were expelled from both Castile and Aragon, and Christopher Columbus was sent by the couple on his expedition which would ultimately discover the New World. By the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, the extra-European world was split between the crowns of Portugal and Castile by a north-south line through the Atlantic Ocean.

The latter part of Ferdinand's life was largely taken up with disputes over control of Italy with successive Kings of France, the so-called Italian Wars. In 1494, Charles VIII of France invaded Italy and expelled Ferdinand's cousin, Alfonso II, from the throne of Naples. Ferdinand allied with various Italian princes and with Emperor Maximilian I, to expel the French by 1496 and install Alfonso's son, Ferdinand, on the Neapolitan throne. In 1501, following the death of Ferdinand II of Naples and his succession by his uncle Frederick, Ferdinand of Aragon signed an agreement with Charles VIII's successor, Louis XII, who had just successfully asserted his claims to the Duchy of Milan, to partition Naples between them, with Campania and the Abruzzi, including Naples itself, going to the French and Ferdinand taking Apulia and Calabria. The agreement soon fell apart, and over the next several years, Ferdinand's great general Gonzalo Fern·ndez de CÛrdoba conquered Naples from the French, having succeeded by 1504. Another less famous "conquest" took place in 1503, when Andreas Paleologus, de jure Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, left Ferdinand and Isabella as heirs to the empire, thus Ferdinand became de jure Roman Emperor.

After Isabella's death, her kingdom went to her daughter Joanna. Ferdinand served as the latter's regent during her absence in the Netherlands, ruled by her husband Archduke Philip. Ferdinand attempted to retain the regency permanently, but was rebuffed by the Castilian nobility and replaced with Joanna's husband, who became Philip I of Castile. After Philip's death in 1506, with Joanna mentally unstable, and her and Philip's son Charles of Ghent was only six years old, Ferdinand resumed the regency, ruling through Francisco Cardinal Jimenez de Cisneros, the Chancellor of the Kingdom.

In 1508, war resumed in Italy, this time against Venice, which all the other powers on the peninsula, including Louis XII, Ferdinand, Maximilian, and Pope Julius II joined together against as the League of Cambrai. Although the French were victorious against Venice at the Battle of Agnadello, the League soon fell apart, as both the Pope and Ferdinand became suspicious of French intentions. Instead, the Holy League was formed, in which now all the powers joined together against France.

In November 1511 Ferdinand and his son-in-law Henry VIII of England signed the Treaty of Westminster, pledging mutual aid between the two against France. Earlier that year, Ferdinand had conquered the southern half of the Kingdom of Navarre, which was ruled by a French nobleman, and annexed it to Spain. At this point Ferdinand remarried with the much younger Germaine of Foix (1490?1538), a grand-daughter of Queen Leonor of Navarre, to reinforce his claim to the kingdom. The Holy League was generally successful in Italy, as well, driving the French from Milan, which was restored to its Sforza dukes by the peace treaty in 1513. The French were successful in reconquering Milan two years later, however.

Ferdinand died in 1516 in Madrigalejo, C·ceres, Extremadura. He had made Spain the most powerful country in Europe. The succession of his grandson Charles, who would inherit not only the Spanish lands of his maternal grandparents, but the Habsburg and Burgundian lands of his paternal family, would make his heirs the most powerful rulers on the continent. Charles succeeded him in the Aragonese lands, and was also granted the Castilian crown jointly with his insane mother, bringing about at long last the unification of the Spanish thrones under one head.

Ferdinand married Isabella I Queen Of Castile And LEON on 19 Oct 1469 in Ocana. Isabella (daughter of JuanIIJohn II King Of Castile And LEON and Isabel Of PORTUGAL) was born on 23 Apr 1451; died on 26 Nov 1504. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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Eleanor of Aragon (Spanish: Leonor) (1425-Tudela, 1479), Regent (1455-1479) and the queen regnant (1479) of Navarre.

She was the third and youngest daughter of John II of AragÛn and queen Blanche II of Navarre.

She was born February 2, 1425, and was acclaimed by the cortes in Pamplona, August 9, 1427, being the legitimate heir of Charles, Prince of Viana, and Blanche.

She married Gaston IV, count of Foix, and had the following issue with him:

Gaston (1444-1470), he married Princess Magdalena of Valois of France in 1462 and their children Francis and Catherine both succeeded to Navarre in turn upon the death of their grandmother Eleanor, married Marie d'OrlÈans
John(1450-1500), viscount of Narbonne
Peter(1449-1490), cardinal and bishop of Arles
James(1455-1500), count of Cortes, married Catherine of Beaumont
Mary(1452-1497), married William VIII, marquess of Montferrat
Joan(1454-1476), married John V, count of Armagnac
Margaret(1458-1486), married Francis II, duke of Brittany
Catherine (b.1455), married Gaston II de Foix, Count of Candale and Benauges
Isabella b.1462, married Guy of Pons
Leonor
Ana

Family/Spouse: Gaston IV Count Of FOIX. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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Blanca married Henry IV of Castile. The marriage was never consummated. After 13 years of marriage, Henry sought and obtained a divorce. Blanca was sent home, where her family imprisoned her, and she was later killed by poison.

Blanca of Navarre (1420-1464) was the daughter of John II of Aragon and Blanche I of Navarre. Blanche was Queen of Navarre and John was King of Aragon.

She married Henry IV of Castile. Blanca remained a virgin, not only on her wedding night, but for the rest of her marriage. After thirteen years, Henry sought a divorce. An official examination confirmed the virginity of Blanca. A divorce was granted by the Pope on the grounds that some "witchcraft" had prevented Henry from consummating the marriage. Blanca was sent home, where her family imprisoned her, and she was later killed by poison in 1464. She remained childless throughout her life.

Her half-brother, Fernando II of Aragon much later married Henry's half-sister, Isabella of Castile. Isabella then inherited the throne from Henry after Henry's second wife, Joana of Portugal only gave birth to a daughter and there were rumors that her daughter was illegitimate. Fernando was chosen over his half-brother, Charles, Prince of Viana to rule Aragon. Isabella and Fernando ruled what became Spain.

After the death of her brother in 1461, some Navarrese dissatisfied elements and some of the anti-Aragonese party regarded Blanca as the rightful monarch, as they had regarded Charles. They proclaimed her queen. She would have thus become Blanche II of Navarre, had not her father (who wanted to keep the government of Navarre) already had her incarcerated and thus not capable to act. Upon her death, her rights to Navarre were inherited by her next sister, Eleanor of Aragon, Countess of Foix, who however was their father's ally and supporter, and did not press her own claims until his death in 1479.

Blanca married Henry IV King Of Castile And LEON on 15 Sep 1440. Henry (son of JuanIIJohn II King Of Castile And LEON and Maria Of ARAGON) was born on 05 Jan 1425 in Valladolid; died on 11 Dec 1474 in Madrid, Spain. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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Charles, Prince of Viana, (1421 - 1461), sometimes called Charles IV, king of Navarre, was the son of John, afterwards king of Aragon, by his marriage with Blanche, daughter and heiress of Charles, king of Navarre. Both his grandfather Charles and his mother, who ruled over Navarre from 1425 to 1441, had bequeathed this kingdom to Charles, whose right had also been recognized by the Cortes; but when Blanche died in 1441 her husband John seized the government to the exclusion of his son. The Prince of Viane was married in Olite (Navarre) on September 30 1439, taking as his wife the Flemish Princess Agnes, the daughter of Adolph I, Duke of Cleves and Mary of Burgundy sister of Philip the Good. Princess Agnes died, childless, on April 6, 1448, eight years after her marriage to Charles.

The ill-feeling between father and son was increased when in 1447 John took for his second wife Joanna (Juana) Enriquez, a Castilian noblewoman (of a bastard cadet line from Castilian kings), who soon bore him a son, afterwards Ferdinand V, king of Spain, and who regarded her stepson as an interloper. When Joanna began to interfere in the internal affairs of Navarre, civil war broke out, and in 1452 Charles, although aided by John II, king of Castile, was defeated and taken prisoner. Released upon promising not to take the kingly title until after his father's death, the prince, again unsuccessful in an appeal to arms, took refuge in Naples with Alphonso V, king of Aragon, Naples and Sicily. In 1458 Alphonso died and John became king of Aragon, while Charles was offered the crowns of Naples and Sicily. He declined these proposals, and having been reconciled with his father returned to Navarre in 1459. Aspiring to marry a Castilian princess, he was then thrown into prison by his father, and the Catalans rose in his favor. This insurrection soon became general and John was obliged to yield. He released his son, and recognized him as perpetual governor of Catalonia, and heir to the kingdom.

Soon afterwards, however, on 23 September 1461, the prince died at Barcelona, not without a suspicion that he had been poisoned by his stepmother. He was promised to marry Catherine of Portugal (daughter of Portuguese King Edward I) when he died.

Charles was a cultured and amiable prince, fond of music and literature. He translated Aristotle's Ethics into Spanish, a work first published at Saragossa in 1509, and wrote a chronicle of the kings of Navarre, Cronica de los reyes de Navarra.

Carlos married Agnes Of CLEVES on 30 Sep 1439. Agnes was born in 1422; died on 06 Apr 1448. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]