Succession
Martin died, in Valdonzella or in Barcelona in 1410, reportedly due to indigestion and uncontrollable laughter. According to tradition, Martin was suffering from indigestion on account of eating an entire goose when his favorite jester, Borra, entered the king's bedroom. When Martin asked Borra where the jester had been, the jester replied with: "Out of the next vineyard, where I saw a young deer hanging by his tail from a tree, as if someone had so punished him for stealing figs." This joke caused the king to die from laughter.
Martin's legitimate descendants, born of marriage with queen Maria, were already dead. Martin's second marriage did not produce any children.
Only an illegitimate grandson, Frederick, Count of Luna, continued the line of Martin. Frederick was the illegitimate son of Martin the Younger. The king, despite his desire and some efforts, was not able to obtain sufficient confirmation of Frederick as his successor.
Thus, Martin's death led to a two-year interregnum, which was ended by the Compromise of Caspe, in which Martin's nephew Ferdinand, infante of Castile's House of Trastámara was chosen as the next king from among at least five contenders.
Read more about this topic: Martin Of Aragon
Famous quotes containing the word succession:
“The heart of man ever finds a constant succession of passions, so that the destroying and pulling down of one proves generally to be nothing else but the production and the setting up of another.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“There is the illusion of time, which is very deep; who has disposed of it? Mor come to the conviction that what seems the succession of thought is only the distribution of wholes into causal series.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“We then entered another swamp, at a necessarily slow pace, where the walking was worse than ever, not only on account of the water, but the fallen timber, which often obliterated the indistinct trail entirely. The fallen trees were so numerous, that for long distances the route was through a succession of small yards, where we climbed over fences as high as our heads, down into water often up to our knees, and then over another fence into a second yard, and so on.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)