Ending the line of Trastamara’s queens descendents of Isabella of Castile, we have the daughters of Maria and Catalina (Catherine) of Aragon.
Isabella of Portugal (Maria of Aragon’s Daughter)
Isabella was the second child and eldest daughter of King Manuel I of Portugal and his second spouse, Infanta Maria of Castile and Aragon. She was named after her maternal grandmother, Isabella I of Castile, and her aunt Isabella, Princess of Asturias, who had been her father’s beloved first spouse.
Isabella had 3 children. Phillip II of Spain, the Holy Roman Empress Maria of Portugal and Joanna princess of Portugal.
She died in 1539, so this is a postumos portrait painted 9 years after her death.
And I just realized that I totally forgot of the Holy Roman Empress, the Archduchess Maria of Austria, spouse of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia and Hungary, and her daughters Anne and Elizabeth of Austria, both queens. WOW!!! I’ll make her soon. I promise! ;)
Isabella’s portrait is from c. 1548
Maria had another daughter, the infanta Beatrice, married with Charles III, duke of Savoy. But she never was a queen neither her descendents.
Mary Tudor (Catherine of Aragon’s Daughter)
Queen Mary I of England, or Bloody Mary
Mary was the only surviver daughter of Henry VIII and Catalina de Aragon, and a huge catholic person. She became more famous because of her persecution of protestants during her reign than anything else, so she earned the nickname Bloody Mary.
Mary was a precocious child. Throughout Mary’s childhood, Henry VIII negotiated potential future marriages for her. When she was only two years old, she was promised to the Dauphin, the infant son of King Francis I of France, but the contract was repudiated after three years. In 1522, at the age of six, she was instead contracted to marry her 22-year-old first cousin, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. However, the engagement was broken off within a few years by Charles with Henry’s agreement.
But with the nullification of the marriage of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, Mary was considerated as bastard.
From 1531 until her mother’s death, Mary was often sick with irregular menstruation and depression, although it is not clear whether this was caused by stress, puberty or a more deep-seated disease. She was not permitted to see her mother, who had been sent to live away from court by Henry.
Mary and her first stepmother, Anne Boleyn, detested each other, and she also hate Katherine Howard, but apparently she got along quite well with Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves and Katherine Parr.
As illegitimate child, Lady Mary loose everything, including her marriages proposals, and only had a new suitor when she was courted by Duke Philip of Bavaria from late 1539, but Philip was Lutheran and his suit for her hand was unsuccessful.
She finally got marriage after being crowned queen. At the age of 37, she married with her cousin Phillip II of Spain, but, but even with several psychological pregnancies, she died childless.
c. 1554
It’s really interesting analize the costumes of the Trastamara Girls to see the versatility of the fashion renaissance. When we think in the renaissance, we automaticaly visualize 3 or 4 especificy outfits, like the mid 1530s Tudor’s fashion, an elizabethan, an italian renaissance, and maybe an iberic style outfit…
And in the House of Trastamara’s fashion we can see the transition between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance even in the 16th century, a huge influence of german renaissance, and of kind of hats, hoods and veils. Is really cool to see it.
“When the Hapsburg court moved from Brussels to London in 1557, a huge number of powerful and glittering potentates, courtiers, ambassadors and soldiers followed in its wake. At Lent Mary entertained the duchesses of Lorraine and Parma at Whitehall. The duchess of Lorraine, formerly Christina of Denmark, who had famously turned down Mary’s father’s overtures of matrimony, had previously visited London in March 1555. Ferrante Gonzaga and his sons Cesare and Andrea were back, recalled to play a part in the forthcoming war with France; they had briefly visited London on 13th October 1554, shortly after the wedding, returning to Brussels by 6th November. Cesare danced at a ball at Whitehall and went hunting with the duchess of Lorraine a few days later. The Mantuan ambassador Annibale Litolfi presented his credentials to Mary on 4th May and reported that the queen was ‘not as ugly as in her portraits, and that her lively expression, white skin and air of gratia even rendered her beautiful’. Alvise Schivenoglia […] described the departure of the ambassadors of the duke of Muscovy on 13th May 1557. This was a moment when ‘sixteenth century London truly became a major capital of Europe’.”
— Mary and Philip: The marriage of Tudor England and Habsburg Spain, by Alexander Samson, 2020 (viaqueenmarytudor)
