Maria of Aragon's Children

Maria was the third daughter of the Catholic Monarchs Isabella of Castille and Ferdinand of Aragon.   Her sisters included Juana the Mad and Catherine of Aragon.

Maria’s eldest sister Isabella was married to King Manuel I of Portugal, but died during childbirth in 1498, her son that survived her died in 1500.   Isabella and Ferdinand (Isabella and Maria’s parents) wanted to strengthen the bonds between Spain and Portugal so they decided that Maria should marry her former brother-in-law.   In 1500 Maria of Aragon became the Queen Consort of Portugal.

Unlike her younger sister Catherine, Maria seemed to have no problem procreating and ended up having nine children, eight of who survived childhood.   Those eight were –

• John
• Isabella
• Beatrice
• Louis
• Ferdinand
• Afonso
• Henry
• Edward

Maria’s eldest son succeeded his father Manuel as King of Portugal.   He married his cousin Catherine of Castille (the youngest daughter of Juana of Castile).   Catherine and John had a total of nine children, but unfortunately only two of them survived childhood.   They were Princess Maria Manuela who would marry Philip II of Spain and Prince John who would marry Joan of Spain.

Isabella married her cousin Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (son of her aunt, Juana of Castile).   Although the marriage was a political one, by all accounts it also became a love match with the couple extremely happy together.   They had six children together, three of whom survived childhood.   These three were Philip, Maria and Joan.

Philip would become Philip II of Spain and would marry his cousin Maria Manuela of Spain, another cousin Mary I of England, Elizabeth of Valois and lastly to his niece Anne of Austria.   With his four marriages Philip only had 11 children only four of which would survive childhood.

Maria would marry Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor and would have a total of 16 children, 8 of these would survive childhood.

Joan would marry her cousin John of Portugal and they would have one son together.

Beatrice married Charles III, Duke of Savoy and had nine children with him, unfortunately only one of them survived childhood and that was Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy.   Emmanuel died childless.

Maria’s second son Louis may or may not have married.   He had a son called Antonio out of wedlock, but some sources state that he eventually married the son’s mother thus legitimizing him.  

Ferdinand was married to an heiress in a Portuguese noble family Guiomar Coutinho and together they had two children, a girl and a boy.   Unfortunately neither child survived childhood.

Afonso did not marry instead he held several religious positions before becoming Cardinal of the Kingdom.

Henry, as a younger son, was never expected to become King so he followed his elder brother Afonso’s example and took religious orders.   He progressed up through the church’s ranks before becoming Cardinal and then King for two years before his death.

Infante Edward became the 4^th Duke of Guimaraes upon his marriage to Isabella of Braganza.   Together the couple had three children – Maria, Catarina and Edward.

Maria would marry Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza and have three children.

Catarina or Catherine married John, Duke of Braganza and had ten children, three of whom definitely survived childhood.

Edward died unmarried and with no children.