The tragic fate of the Children of the Catholic Monarchs

In recent years the historical novel has been the preferred subject of many readers, from The name of the rose but also The pillars of the earth, plots with medieval and historical background have stood out on the shelves of many libraries and bookstores. The last work that in addition to being a historical novel is a scientific reference work is called The tragic fate of the Children of the Catholic Monarchs. A work that collects the misfortunes of the five sons of the Catholic Monarchs, their destinies and the role that their lives played in the Modern History of Europe and Spain.

Over the past few years, many writers have decided to create and tell stories about the Catholic Monarchs, the last of these has been Vicenta Marquez de la Plata, a writer of the historical novel who has wanted to tell the tragic life of the children of the Catholic Monarchs since they are in one way or another the ones who have transmitted the wishes of their parents.

In addition, Vicenta Márquez has chosen some princes or rather infants, since in Spain only the term “prince”For the heir to the throne, very prone to the novel and fictitious stories since all the children of the Catholic Monarchs they had life cut short.

Vicenta María Márquez de la Plata, the author, is a historian and a graduate in Genealogy, Heraldry and Nobility from the CSIC Institute. She has been a professor at the Modern University of Lisbon and the University of Seville. Although his specialty is the late medieval period, Vicenta has had very successful forays into other eras of history, as evidenced by The tragic fate of the children of the Catholic Monarchs or his most recent work, The Valid.

According to Spanish tradition, there can only be one prince and the rest of the aspirants to the throne are called Infantes

Deaths, unhappy marriages, illnesses, etc…. Many topics that focused on the children of Isabel and Fernando and that strongly truncated the lives of these infants and the premature Spanish state.

We all know the love story of Joan the Crazy, which Vicenta Márquez de la Plata has great interest and accuracy in her work "The tragic fate of the Children of the Catholic Monarchs”, But few know the tragic story of young prince John or how Catherine, their sister, was queen of England and the first wife of Henry VIII, the first monarch to divorce and who institutionalized divorce among Christians.

These may be the children of the Catholic Monarchs who most influenced the course of History. With the death of Juan, the Trastamara dynasty, to which the Catholic Monarchs belonged and was a local dynasty, came to an end and this meant the government of a young Spanish Empire by foreign rulers to the Iberian Peninsula.

Juan was born in the campaign against the Conquest of the Kingdom of GranadaHis parents longed for a male child that at the moment they did not have and by having Juan, not only the Catholic Monarchs but also the entire kingdoms placed their hopes on this young prince.

Juan married the sister of Felipe el Hermoso, unlike Juana la Loca, Juan and his wife loved each other and it was love at first sight, but Juan's fragile health truncated the destiny of this marriage and without having finished the honeymoon, Juan died taking I get the hopes of Spain.

Catalina's role was clearer or rather, more direct. As the wife of Henry VIII, Catherine was Queen of England and their marriage was perhaps the first dynastic problem about crowns and inheritance in the Modern Age, problems that were born already with the preparation of the wedding.

Pedro Mártir de Anglería: «Here lies the hope of Spain».

Paradoxical was the fact that the person who initiated the end of Catalina was also of Spanish origin. We all know what happened between Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII and their unfortunate wife Catherine. A trio that not only revolutionized the country but also the religions of the moment, especially the Catholic Christian religion.

La unfortunate love story of Juana La Loca We all know it, either from our History classes or from the famous movie of the same name. Unlike her siblings, Juana was not the victim of death but the death of her relatives. Felipe el Hermoso, son of the Austrian emperors and Juana's crazy love, suffered the visit of death very soon and this triggered the madness of Juana, who already had several children of the Burgundian prince and who would be the future rulers of the Spanish Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Juana was quickly paired with the young Austro-Hungarian prince who according to the Catholic Monarchs would mean a rapprochement between Spain and the Central European kingdoms. Although this marriage was arranged, the love between Juana and Felipe was very passionate and crazy, something that would bring serious consequences.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND7cOLp7lk0

More unnoticed the fate of Ms. Maria y ElizabethInfantas of Spain and queens of Portugal, first it was Doña Isabel who married the Portuguese king and after her death it was Doña María who took her place as wife and queen of Portugal. And it is perhaps this lack of awareness that is unfair about his story. Both the links of María and those of Isabel represented a significant change in the Modern History of Spain. These unions allowed the great-grandson of the Catholic Monarchs, Felipe II, to be king of Portugal and Spain, thus uniting for the first time in a long time the entire Iberian Peninsula under the same monarch.

It was the grandchildren and not the children of the Catholic Monarchs who had a crown

Of course the children of the Catholic Monarchs had the very marked and very truncated lives, as if Machiavelli himself had written them, although to tell the truth, the great author wrote his work "The Prince”In honor of his father, King Ferdinand the Catholic.

The tragic fate of the Children of the Catholic Monarchs is a historical work that although with some literary licenses, their data, their stories, their knowledge are true. This makes the work a good summary of what happened in Spain or the Spains (as the inhabitants of the time called it) between 1495 and 1504, the year in which Isabel la Católica died and in which only one daughter lived. of the Catholic Monarchs, Juana, better known as Juana la loca.

Possibly I would have preferred that Vicenta Márquez de la Plata had been more ambitious and had spoken something about the descendants of the children of the Catholic Monarchs, I am not referring to the way he mentions them in the work but to give them a more leading role, not in vain, Mary of Tudor, daughter of Catherine and Henry VIII and Charles of Ghent, son of Juana and Felipe el Hermoso, were kings of England and Spain respectively. Titles obtained by the grandchildren but not obtained by the children of the Catholic Monarchs. Even so, the work presented to us by Vicenta Mª Márquez de la Plata is an exceptional work that may well be valid for our literary moments or for our scholarly moments, since in both moments the work is very good. So if you are lovers of historical novels or history, keep this work in mind and if you see that you are interested in reading it, it is something that costs nothing.

Important issues

• El reign of the Catholic Monarchs it was from the year 1479 to the year 1504 (death of Isabel la Católica).
• The children of the Catholic Monarchs were 5: Isabel, Catalina, María, Juana and Juan.
• The only son who succeeded the Catholic Monarchs was Juana, who she never ruled because she was crazy although she has the title of Queen of Castile.
• In 1504 Isabel the Catholic dies and in 1516 Fernando el Católico, after which the regency of Cardinal Cisneros appears.
• With the Catholic Monarchs the concept of «Spain»Where each kingdom maintained its autonomy.

To know more….

• Ortiz, Alonzo (1983):Dialogue on the education of Prince Don Juan, Son of the Catholic Monarchs. José Porruá Turanzas Editions, Madrid.
  
• Hickling Prescott, W. and Val Valdivieso Mª. I. of, (2004): History of the Catholic Monarchs. Castile and Leon.
• Val Valdivieso Mª. I. of,(2004): Isabel I of Castile (1451-1504). Editions of the Orto, Madrid.