On 19 September 1468, King Henry IV of Castile recognised his half-sister, the future Queen Isabella I of Castile, as the rightful heir to the throne of Castile over his daughter, Joanna.
The Treaty of the Bulls of Guisando was agreed upon on top of the hill near the Bulls of Guisando. Isabella now officially became the Princess of Asturias.
In the years before this, a rebellion had broken out following rumours that Henry’s daughter Joanna was not his daughter but rather the daughter of a nobleman named Beltrán de la Cueva. Isabella’s younger brother Alfonso had initially been the face of the rebellion, but he died at the age of 14 in 1468. Isabella took over his claim upon Alfonso’s death, and she preferred to negotiate with King Henry.
Neither Joanna nor her mother, Joan of Portugal, was present when the treaty was signed. Joan, “as soon as she heard how the infanta Isabella had been sworn in as princess, she was very sad, both because of the dishonour it brought her and because of the loss of her daughter to such vituperation. For which, to speak without affection or passion, she bears great guilt and responsibility because if she had lived more honestly, she would not have been treated with such vituperation.”1 Joan protested to Isabella being made Princess of Asturias, but it does appear she was briefly reunited with her daughter at Buitrago.
There was another important stipulation in the treaty – while Isabella would allow Henry to search for a husband for her, she would have the final say in the matter. It said, “She must marry whoever the king decides on, with the volition of the lady princess and by agreement with the council [made up] of the archbishop [of Seville], the Master [of the Santiago Order, Pachecho] and the Count [of Plascencia, Álvaro de Zúñiga].”2
The following year, Isabella married the future King Ferdinand II of Aragon, which went against the stipulation in the treaty. Henry indeed changed his mind in the face of Isabella’s marriage and reinstated Joanna as Princess of Asturias. Joan swore an oath that Joanna was “the legitimate and natural daughter of the said lord king and mine.”3
King Henry declared, “In order to stop certain warring and divisions that existed in these kingdoms at the time and more of which was expected, and because the said infanta [Isabella] promised and publicly swore to obey and serve me as her king… and to marry whomsoever I chose… I ordered that that my sister, the infanta, should be entitled and sworn in as princess and heiress. She did the opposite, doing me a great and damaging disservice, disrespecting me, breaking both her own sworn oath and the laws of these kingdoms while creating great upheaval and scandal. As a result, and given that her swearing-in [as heiress] prejudiced my daughter Princess Joanna and her rights, that second oath to my sister is declared invalid.”4
Isabella angrily wrote to Henry, “You complain about the breaking of promises, but forget the promises made to me that were broken. For which reason I was no longer obliged to abide by anything that had been pledged.”5
It would be a few years before there was a chance of a reconciliation between brother and sister.
Be the first to comment