Childhood
Maria was the eldest child of King Henry III of Castile and Catherine of Lancaster. Her godmother was her mother's aunt, Maria de Ayala, a nun and illegitimate daughter of King Peter of Castile. She grew up in an entirely Castilian household in which she lived until her marriage, which was unusual for a royal daughter destined to marry a foreign prince. Her education was supervised by the Great Steward, Pedro González de Mendoza, while her governess was Inés de Ayala y Toledo, 3rd Lady of Casarrubios del Monte. As the King's eldest child, Maria was granted the title of Princess of Asturias, the title reserved for the first-in-line to the throne. Her father had her formally recognised as heiress presumptive at the Cortes of Toledo on 6 January 1402. At the same time, she was bethrothed to her first cousin, Alfonso, the son of her paternal uncle Ferdinand, as a way to strengthen her status. However, the birth of her brother John (the future king) displaced the Princess in the line of succession; from that moment on, she was merely an infanta.
Her childhood was quite happy by all accounts; the frailty of her health was not evident until she was a married adolescent. Her father died when she was four, leaving the crown to her only brother, John II, and making her heiress presumptive again. Her mother, Queen Catherine, governed the Crown of Castile as regent during King John II's minority and the Infanta was able to observe her mother's statesmanship. The queen mother's political actions would later make Maria aware of her own responsibilities and prerrogatives as a queen and as a regent. Mother and daughter were very close and remained in frequent correspondence even after the latter's marriage.
Read more about this topic: Maria Of Castile, Queen Of Aragon
Famous quotes containing the word childhood:
“Having a child is the great divide between one’s own childhood and adulthood. All at once someone is totally dependent upon you. You are no longer the child of your mother but the mother of your child. Instead of being taken care of, you are responsible for taking care of someone else.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)
“Why are all these dolls falling out of the sky?
Was there a father?
Or have the planets cut holes in their nets
and let our childhood out,
or are we the dolls themselves,
born but never fed?”
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“We hear a great deal of lamentation these days about writers having all taken themselves to the colleges and universities where they live decorously instead of going out and getting firsthand information about life. The fact is that anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days.”
—Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964)