Afonso V de Portugal, príncipe herdeiro de Portugal

Heir apparent[edit] Afonso, named after his grandfather, King Afonso V, was the only son King John II and Eleanor of Viseu.[2] The king was very fond of him and named the smaller island of São Tomé and Príncipe after him (Príncipe meaning Prince in the Portuguese language).

Marriage[edit] Afonso's grandfather Afonso V of Portugal had sided with Joanna la Beltraneja who was a rival for the throne of Castile against her half-aunt, Queen Isabella I of Castile. She was never considered legitimate and, when the king was dying, no one took her as a serious contender for the crown. Isabella was due to inherit the crown, but Afonso V was keen to interfere with the succession in Castile. In 1475 he married his niece Joanna, whom he considered the legitimate heir to the crown. Since her adulteress mother was his own sister, Afonso V had not only ambition, but the family honour to protect. He proclaimed himself King of Castile and León and prepared to defend his wife's rights.[3]

King Ferdinand and Isabella, however, won the war of succession and, as part of the Treaty of Alcáçovas, signed in 1479, it was agreed that their eldest daughter Isabella would marry Alfonso.[4][5] Isabella was also to come with a very large dowry that in practice represented the war compensation obtained by Portugal. In 1480, Prince Afonso, who at that time was five years old, went to live in the town of Moura with his maternal grandmother, Beatrice. In the early months of the following year, his future wife, the ten-year old Isabella, joined him and lived there for about two years.[6]

The wedding, by proxy, took place ten years later in the spring of 1490 in Seville.[7][8] 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 Évora, where the court had gathered to ratify the marriage that had been celebrated earlier in Seville.[9]

This wedding had the blessings of both Kingdoms. The queen of Castile, whose mother and nurse were Portuguese, wanted to strengthen the ties with Portugal,[10] and, at the same time, this would allow her to "keep an eye on and control the steps of her eternal rival, Juana la Beltraneja", through her daughter.[8]

Death: According to the chronicle of Rui de Pina:

...na força do correr, o cavalo do príncipe caiu, e o levou debaixo de si, onde logo de improviso ficou como morto, sem fala e sem sentidos. ("...running at a great speed, the Prince's horse fell, dragging (the prince) under him, where he remained, seemingly dead, without speaking and having lost his senses").[11]

References[edit] Jump up ^ Rodrigues Oliveira 2010, pp. 526, 536. Jump up ^ Rodrigues Oliveira 2010, p. 526. Jump up ^ Rodrigues Oliveira 2010, pp. 507–508. Jump up ^ Rodrigues Oliveira 2010, pp. 527, 533. Jump up ^ Álvarez-Palenzuela 2006. Jump up ^ Rodrigues Oliveira 2010, pp. 528, 534. ^ Jump up to: a b Fernández Álvarez 2003, p. 266. ^ Jump up to: a b Rodrigues Oliveira 2010, p. 534. Jump up ^ Rodrigues Oliveira 2010, p. 535. Jump up ^ Fernández Álvarez 2003, p. 362. Jump up ^ Rodrigues Oliveira 2010, p. 536. Jump up ^ Rodrigues Oliveira 2010, pp. 536-537. Jump up ^ Rodrigues Oliveira 2010, pp. 537-541. Bibliography[edit] Álvarez Palenzuela, Vicente Ángel (2006). "Paz con Portugal". La guerra civil castellana y el enfrentamiento con Portugal. (1475-1479) (in Spanish). Alicante: Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes. Carabias Torres, Ana María (1994). Las relaciones entre Portugal y Castilla en la época de los descubrimientos y la expansión colonial (in Spanish). Universidad de Salamanca. ISBN 9788474817928. Fernández Álvarez, Manuel (2003). Isabel la Católica (in Spanish). Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, S.A. ISBN 84-670-1260-9. Rodrigues Oliveira, Ana (2010). Rainhas medievais de Portugal. Dezassete mulheres, duas dinastias, quatro séculos de História (in Portuguese). Lisbon: A esfera dos livros. ISBN 978-989-626-261-7.