Yolande of Aragon - Claim To The Aragonese Throne

Claim To The Aragonese Throne

Yolande was born in Saragosa, Aragon on 11 August 1384, the eldest daughter of King John I of Aragon by his second wife, Yolande of Bar, the granddaughter of King John II of France. She had three brothers and two sisters, as well as five older half-siblings from her father's first marriage to Martha of Armagnac. Yolande later played an important role in the politics of the Angevin Empire, France, and Aragon during the first half of the 15th century. As the surviving daughter of King John I of Aragon, she claimed the throne of Aragon after the deaths of her elder sister Joanna, Countess of Foix, and her uncle, King Martin I of Aragon. However, unclear though they were, the laws of succession for Aragon and Barcelona at that time were understood to favour all male relatives over the females (this is how Yolande's uncle, Martin of Aragon came to inherit the throne of Aragon). Martin died without surviving issue in 1410, and after two years without a king, the Estates of Aragon elected Ferdinand de Antequera as the next King of Aragon as Ferdinand I. He was the second son of Queen Eleanor of Aragon and King John I of Castile.

The Anjou candidate for the throne of Aragon was Yolande's eldest son Louis III of Anjou, Duke of Calabria, whose claim was forfeited in the Pact of Caspe. Yolande and her sons regarded themselves as the heirs with the stronger claim, and began to use the title of Kings of Aragon. As a result of this additional inheritance, Yolande was called the "Queen of Four Kingdoms" - the four apparently Sicily, Jerusalem, Cyprus and Aragon. Another interpretation specifies Naples separate from Sicily, plus Jerusalem and Aragon. The number could be raised to seven if the two component kingdoms of the Crown of Aragon (Majorca and Valencia) and Sardinia were included. However, the reality was that Yolande and her family controlled territories in the said kingdoms only at short intervals, if ever. Their true realm was the Anjou fiefdoms across France: they held uncontestably the provinces of Provence and Anjou, and also at times Bar, Maine, Touraine and Valois. Yolande's son René I of Anjou became ruler of Lorraine through his marriage to Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine.