Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/174

30 REIGN OF JOHN II., OF ARAGON. PART brief reign by his son Alfonso the Fifth, whose '■ — personal history belongs less to Aragon than to Na- ples, which kingdom he acquired by his own prow- ess, and where he established his residence, attract- ed, no doubt, by the superior amenity of the climate and the higher intellectual culture, as well as the pliant temper of the people, far more grateful to the monarch than the sturdy independence of his own countrymen. johnofAra- Durinff his lone; absence, the government of his hereditary domains devolved on his brother John, as his lieutenant-general in Aragon.^ This prince had married Blanche, widow of Martin, king of Sicily, and daughter of Charles the Third, of Na- varre. By her he had three children ; Carlos, prince of Viana ; ^ Blanche, married to and after- wards repudiated by Henry the Fourth, of Castile ; ^ and Eleanor, who espoused a French noble, Gas- ton, count of Foix. On the demise of the elder Blanche, the crown of Navarre rightfully belonged Joncari'oi'to to hcr SOU, thc prince of Viana, conformably to a Navarre. . , . . , . , , 1442. Stipulation m her marriage contract, that, on the crown given by Mr. Ilallam. 11., of Castile. The genealogical (Stale of Europe during the Mid- table, at the beginning of this His- dle Ages, (2d cd. London, 1819,) lory, will show their relationship vol. ii. p. 60, note.) The claims to each other, of Ferdinand were certainly not 3 His grandfather, Charles III., derived from the usual laws of do- created tiiis title in favor of Carlos, scent. appropriating it as the designation 2 The reader of Spanish history henceforth of the heir apparent. — often experiences embarrassment Aleson, Anales del Reyno de Na- from the identity of names in tiie varra, contin. dcMoret, (Pamplona, various princes of the Peninsula. 1766,) tom. iv. p. 398. — Salazar Thus the John, mentioned in the dc Mendoza, Monarquia, tom. ii. p. text, afterwards Joiin II., might 331. be easily confounded with his ^ Sec Part I. Chap. 3, Note 5, namesake and contemporary, John of this History.