Joanna La Beltraneja - Heir To The Throne

Heir To The Throne

Joanna remained the only child who could be remotely attributed to Henry IV of Castile. On 9 May 1462, Joanna was officially proclaimed heir to the throne of Castile and created Princess of Asturias. Henry had the nobles of Castile swear allegiance to her and promise that they would support her as monarch.

In 1464, however, her father was forced by a rebellion to promise her in marriage to his half-brother, Infante Alfonso, her uncle, who was proclaimed her future spouse and co-monarch. In 1468, her half-uncle died and she was stripped of her succession-rights by the separation of her parents. Her half-aunt, Infanta Isabella, was placed before her, on condition that Isabella marry a man chosen out by the monarch, although Joanna was considered the heir after Isabella.

Joanna was kept hostage by the Mendoza family from 1465 to 1470, and by Juan Pacheco from 1470–1475. In 26 October 1470, she was engaged and then married by proxy to the Duke of Guienne, and again proclaimed as legitimate heir to the throne. The duke died in 1472. There were many marriage negotiations in order to marry her to someone who could defend her succession. After a few unsettled arrangements, which included French and Burgundian princes, Joanna was promised in marriage to her maternal uncle, King Afonso V of Portugal, who swore to defend her (and his own) rights to the crown of Castile.

When Henry died in 1474, she was recognized as monarch by some noble factions, while other recognized her half-aunt as Queen Isabella I of Castile initiating a four-year War of the Castilian Succession.

In addition to the King of Portugal, Joanna was supported by some of the high Castilian nobility and descendants of Portuguese families that settled in Castile after 1396: the Archbishop of Toledo (Alfonso Carrillo de Acuña); the mighty Marquis of Villena Diego López Pacheco; the Estúñiga family, with lands bordering Portugal; the Marquis of Cádiz (Rodrigo Ponce de León); and the Grandmaster of the Order of Calatrava (Rodrigo Téllez Girón). On the other hand, Isabella was supported by the Prince heir of Aragon, Ferdinand (whom she married), as well as by most of the Castilian Nobility and Clergy: the powerful Mendoza family; the Manrique de Lara family; the Duke of Medina Sidonia (Enrique Pérez de Guzmán); Beltrán de la Cueva; the Order of Santiago and the Order of Calatrava, except its Grandmaster.