Germaine of Foix - Marriage To Ferdinand and Queen of Aragon

Marriage To Ferdinand and Queen of Aragon

Following the death of his wife Isabella I, Ferdinand had to yield the government of Castile to his son-in-law Philip of Habsburg (1478–1506), who assumed power in the name of his wife Joanna (1479–1555), Isabella's heiress. Ferdinand objected to Philip's policies and to prevent Philip from gaining Aragon through Joanna, he sought to have a male heir with a new wife. A new male heir would displace Joanna (and by extension her husband) from the line of succession. He negotiated with King Louis XII of France for a marriage, hoping perhaps to salve generally bad French-Aragonese relations. At the Treaty of Blois, Louis agreed to have his niece Germaine of Foix marry Ferdinand. (Germaine was also Ferdinand's niece her paternal grandmother, Eleanor of Navarre, being Ferdinand's much older half-sister.) Louis XII also ceded in the treaty his weak claim to the Kingdom of Naples (already controlled by Aragon) and Kingdom of Jerusalem (controlled by neither) to his niece, conditional on a male child being produced. The marriage, between Ferdinand and Germaine, took place in March 1506. A short truce and brief alliance between the two kings resulted, despite several wars before and after the Treaty.

In 1506 Philip of Habsburg died and Ferdinand became regent of Castile for his mentally unstable daughter Joanna. Ferdinand and Germaine did have a son, John, Prince of Girona on 3 May 1509, but he died shortly after birth. Despite the use of love potions, they did not have another. If John had lived, then the Crown of Aragon would have split from the Crown of Castile once again (after being semi-unified by Ferdinand and Isabella's marriage). This included Aragon, Valencia, Majorca, and Catalonia in Spain, and the Kingdom of Naples, Sicily and Sardinia in the Italian peninsula and the Tyrrhenian Sea. With Juan's death, both Castile and Aragon would eventually go to Ferdinand and Isabella's daughter Joanna.

Ferdinand's diplomatic deviousness and off and on alliances with France infuriated Henry VIII of England (born 1491, reigned 1509–1547), married to Ferdinand and Isabella's youngest daughter, Catherine of Aragon (1485–1536). Seeing this match devalued, Henry in 1514 forced his sister Mary (1496–1533) into a loveless marriage with Louis XII to spite Ferdinand. Louis XII died the next year.