The Year of Isabella I of Castile – Joan of Portugal, A Queen in an impossible situation (Part one)

The future Queen of Castile and sister-in-law to Queen Isabella I of Castile, Joan of Portugal, was born on 31 March 1439 as the daughter of Edward, King of Portugal, and Eleanor of Aragon. Four elder siblings also survived to adulthood: Afonso, King of Portugal, Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu, Eleanor, later Holy Roman Empress, and Catherine. Another sister, Philippa, died of the plague eight days before Joan was born, at the age of eight.

Joan would never know her father as he died of the plague six months before she was born. The custody of her elder brother, now King Afonso V, was taken from her mother and transferred to her uncle Peter, Duke of Coimbra. This deeply affected her mother, who took her daughters to the castle of Almeirim. Her mother continued her attempts to regain the regency and left the castle, leaving Eleanor and Catherine behind. She took Joan with her and even entered Castile, looking for help. It was Joan’s first visit to the country where she would one day be Queen. She even briefly lived under the same roof as her future husband, who was then in the first years of his marriage to the future Queen Blanche II of Navarre.

At the end of February 1442, Queen Eleanor was officially exiled from Portugal. By the end of the summer of 1444, Eleanor and Joan could be found in Toledo. Eleanor was likely already ill by this time as she tried to have her servants placed in other households. She died on 19 February 1445, and although poisoning was suspected, she likely died of natural causes. Joan was just five years old, and she was to be handed over to Vasco de Gouveia, a former servant of her mother. During this time, Joan lived in a monastery in Toledo, “stripped of all her servants and in great misery.”¹

Maria of Castile, Queen of Aragon, her aunt by marriage, asked the ambassador to plead with her brother, King John II of Castile, to take care of Joan’s needs and to intervene with the regent of Portugal. She then asked the ambassador to contact the prioress of the monastery to request that Joan be treated with the honour and reverence as befitting her status. She even sent money so that the most immediate needs could be addressed. It is likely that Joan was placed in the monastery to prevent her from being kidnapped. Joan herself seemed most worried about the fate of her mother’s servants as she had written to her aunt about her concerns.

Joan would finally be allowed to return home to Portugal after the marriage of her cousin, Isabella of Portugal, to the widowed King John II of Castile in 1447. She was escorted home by her uncle Peter, Duke of Coimbra, who handed her over to her brother, King Afonso V of Portugal, who had not seen her in seven years. Once she had returned to Lisbon, she went to live in the same household as her sister Catherine, who was 11 years old and received her education alongside her. She learned Latin and subjects such as history and genealogy. In 1451, their eldest sister, Eleanor, left to marry, and soon, Joan’s own marriage was being discussed. After Eleanor left, Catherine and Joan were given their own households.

The Prince of Asturias, the future King Henry IV of Castile, proposed an alliance with Joan, as he wanted to start the process of having his first marriage annulled after many years of childlessness. His stepmother, Isabella, was pregnant and would give birth to the future Queen Isabella I of Castile on 22 April 1451. Henry’s stepmother gave birth to a son named Alfonso in 1453, shortly after the annulment was pronounced due to Henry’s impotence. It even went on to explain that Henry’s impotence did not have a physical cause but had an “evil” cause.² Blanche was sent home in disgrace. With the marriage plans now going full steam ahead, Joan’s dowry was so large it seemed to imply that the Portuguese knew what they were getting into.

On 13 November 1453, a letter requesting dispensation for marriage, as Joan and Henry were cousins, was sent out. It was granted not much later. However, before the marriage could take place, Henry’s father died at the age of 49, which meant that Henry was now the King of Castile and León. Henry announced that he intended to marry again, and Joan was his intended bride as he heard that “she was a very outstanding woman in graces and beauty.”³

By March 1455, the final preparations for Joan’s departure to Castile were being made, and she left Lisbon sometime in the middle of April. She was accompanied by her brothers and her sister Catherine to a ship that would sail up the Tagus. Along the way, Joan was received with numerous celebrations and received many gifts, such as bull and trout.⁴ She finally met Henry at Posadas, “about which the Queen was very happy, and the King went to see her and was with her for four or five hours.”⁵ They had last seen each other when she was still a young child, but now she was a “dazzling beauty.”⁶

Joan officially entered the city of Córdoba on 20 May, and they were married there in person that same day.⁷ Following the wedding celebrations, a mass was held on 25 May, after which the consummation would take place. This event had been highly anticipated, but Henry had recently abolished the custom, which required a group of witnesses to be present. According to chronicler Diego de Valera, “At night, the king and queen slept in a bed, and the queen remained as whole as she was, which caused everyone no small irritation.”⁸

Read part two here.

1. A Rainha Adúltera by Marsilio Cassotti p.51
2. A Rainha Adúltera by Marsilio Cassotti p.87
3. A Rainha Adúltera by Marsilio Cassotti p.101
4. A Rainha Adúltera by Marsilio Cassotti p.115
5. A Rainha Adúltera by Marsilio Cassotti p.116
6. A Rainha Adúltera by Marsilio Cassotti p.117
7. A Rainha Adúltera by Marsilio Cassotti p.119
8. A Rainha Adúltera by Marsilio Cassotti p.121