Hi, I know this isn't exactly about the Tudors more about Catherine of Aragon, but has anyone every came across that she had a younger brother named Pedro who was born from 1488 and died young in 1490? I came across this once, but haven't found anything else on it.
Reason why I want to know is that Pedro (if he was real) would have been second in line for the Spanish throne (behind Prince Juan)and in 1490 the eldest daughter of Fernando and Isabella married the heir to the Portugeuse throne Afonso, he was killed in a horse accident 6 months later and apparently under mysterious circumstances and I read that Fernando and Isabella had tried every trick in the book to stop that marriage from happening as it was a term in a treaty to end the Castilian sucession wars.
2 comments:
I have myself also come across Pedro only once. Most sources list Catherine as the youngest child of Ferdinand and Isabella. garrett Mattingly, in his biography of Catherine, which is THE history of her, makes no mention of a younger brother. Nor does Nancy Rubin in her biography of Isabella. It could very well be that there was a younger brother who died young. Indeed, Isabella was fortunate that she had five children who lived until adulthood, as infant mortality was extremely high in her time. She was an active woman, on the move with her troops, and had babies from the age of 19 (when her oldest surviving daughter Isabella was born) to the age of 34 (when Catherine was born). It is known she had several miscarriages and stillbirths, as well, so it is not beyond the realm of possibility there was another son who died young, but he is just not documented reliably.
Pedro probably did exist but as both you and Wikipedia say that he died aged two in 1490 it wouldn't matter anyway as both Ferdinand and Isabella would have long outlived their son. He would never have been the heir apparent, although even then you would have thought that he would have been documented a bit more?
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