Beatrice of Portugal - Status As Monarch

Status As Monarch

There has been some actual debate as to whether Beatrice should be counted as a monarch or not, and there is, in the last decades, a historiographical current of Spanish and Portuguese authors defending that she was titular Queen of Portugal between 22 October and the middle of December 1383. However, the majority of the Portuguese historians have argued that during the 1383–1385 period Portugal had no monarch, and Beatrice is not counted, in Portugal, as a national queen regnant.

The Portuguese rebellion was not the only problem to her ascension to the throne. Many Portuguese nobles of the pro-Castillian faction also recognized her husband, King John I of Castile, as their monarch according to de jure uxoris, by rendering him vassalage and obedience, as, for example, Lopo Gomes de Lira in Minho. John I of Castile, as can be read in his testament, dating of 21 July 1385, in Celorico da Beira, identified himself as the king of Portugal and possible effective owner of the kingdom, saying that if he predeceased his wife, the Pope should decide whether Beatrice or his male heir Henry should be the sovereign of Portugal.