Aragon, Sardinia, Sicily & Navarre

Ruler: King John II of the House of Aragon, born 1397, married 1^st Blanche of Navarre, divorced 1453, 2^nd Joanna Henriquez. Children: King Charles IV of Navarre (died 1461), Blanche (married Henry IV of Castile) and Eleanor (married Gaston de Foix, Earl of Kendal) by Blanche, son Ferdinand (8) by Joanna.

Aragon as a kingdom began when Ramiro, a son of King Sancho III of Navarre, rebelled against his father in 1035. By 1076, the tail was already wagging the dog and Navarre has drifted in and out of Aragonese influence ever since, but has generally been eclipsed by its more vibrant neighbour.

Although a quarter the size of Castile, Aragon is the richer, more dynamic and extrovert of Iberian states. The Aragonese are a down-to-earth trading nation: even sailing to England with Mediterranean produce: wine, oranges and spices.

Aragon is also a military power. Created in 1035, it has conquered the Moorish provinces of Barcelona, Catalonia and Saragossa (1137), the Balearic Islands (1235), Valencia (1238), Sicily (1302), Sardinia (1326), Naples (1442) and gained Navarre by marriage in 1441. Unlike Castile, Aragon is tolerant of non-Christians and has a cosmopolitan outlook.

Alphonso V conquered Naples, defeating Duke Rene of Anjou, father of our Queen Margaret. On his death, he gave it to his bastard son, Ferrante; everything else went to his brother, John II. Relations between the two monarchs are good though the Aragonese resent the obsession with Italy.

John's bette-noir is Navarre. In 1453, he divorced his first wife, Blanche, Queen of Navarre in her own right, to marry a noblewoman, Joanna Henriquez. His son by Blanche promptly took up his mother's cause and assumed the crown of Navarre as Charles IV. Luckily, Charles was incompetent, was comprehensively beaten in the field and imprisoned for years, dying after recently being let out of his father's dungeons, reputedly poisoned by his stepmother.

John regards Ferdinand, his younger son by Joanna, as his heir. Charles' death now ensures that Ferdinand will inherit his father's empire but Navarre has passed legitimately to Ferdinand's half sister, Eleanor, married to Gaston de Foix, Earl of Kendal and son of John Compte de Foix, himself married to Blanche's sister, Joan, and so the two kingdoms are sundered again.

John's other problem is France and he greatly fears Charles VII muddying waters in Navarre. The French King shrewdly betrothed his daughter, Magdalen, to Gaston's heir and John must fear Charles using Navarre as a tool against Aragon in their long-running territorial disputes while Gaston may also seek to exploit his long-running connections with the English Court.