Alfonso of Aragon (Archbishop)

Coat of arms as Archbishop of Saragossa, Archbishop of Valencia and Regent of Aragon

Alfons of Aragon ( Catalan / Valencian Alfons d'Aragó ; Aragonese Alonso d'Aragón ; * 1470 in Cervera , Catalonia , † February 24, 1520 in Lécera , Aragon ) was an Aragonese-Catalan cleric and politician.

family

Alfons was an illegitimate son of the future King Ferdinand II of Aragon with the Catalan noblewoman Aldonça Roig d'Ivorra. She later married Francesc Galcerrán de Castro y Pinós, Vizconde de Ébol. Alfons was the grandson of King John II of Aragon, the nephew of the Archbishop of Saragossa John of Aragon and the uncle of the later Emperor Charles V.

Alfonso is in the line of bishops and archbishops who were descendants of the kings of Aragon. ( John II of Aragon had at least six grandchildren who were bishops or archbishops.)

Church career

A church career was planned for Alfons from earliest childhood without showing any calling. Since Alfons was the first - albeit illegitimate - son of Ferdinand, the church career should also exclude claims to the crown, which traditionally existed in the Trastámara family even in the case of illegitimate birth.

On November 19, 1475, the Archbishop of Saragossa, John of Aragon, died. King John II of Aragon, the father of the late Archbishop, proposed his grandson Alfonso of Aragon as his successor to Pope Sixtus IV . Since Alfons was only five years old at that time, the Pope refused the appointment and appointed Cardinal Ausias Despuig to the office. After intensive negotiations between John II and the Holy See, Despuig resigned in 1478. Alfons became Archbishop of Saragossa at the age of eight. It was not until 1501 that he was ordained a priest and celebrated his only mass on this occasion . In 1512, in addition to the office of Archbishop of Zaragoza, he was also appointed Archbishop of Valencia .

The archbishops and bishops were sovereigns in medieval Spain who had a great political influence due to their possessions and their military power. In addition to the income of the archdioceses, Alfons gradually received additional income from various monasteries, which he formally presided over, but where he himself did not have any leading function, let alone spiritual tasks. He evidently had a knack for finding people capable of holding these positions as representatives for his ecclesiastical offices.

Career as a politician

In 1482, King Ferdinand appointed Juan Ramon Folch, the Count of Cardona and Konnetabel of Aragon, as viceroy in Aragon. Since Folch was a Catalan, the Aragonese rejected him in this position. Ferdinand then named his son Alfons viceroy. Although, strictly speaking, he was a Catalan (he was born in Catalonia, his mother was a Catalan), the Aragonese accepted Alfons, then 12, as a member of the royal family as viceroy. During the long periods of Ferdinand's absence from the lands of the Crown of Aragon, Alfons was a reliable support for his father's government in the implementation of even controversial decisions. He fully supported the establishment of the Spanish Inquisition . The introduction of this institution in the realms of the Crown of Aragon obviously violated the traditional rights ( Fueros ) of the individual countries. Like his father, Alfons considered it to be a political necessity and, against all odds, implemented it with great personal commitment. When a rebellion threatened after the murder of the Inquisitor General of Aragon Pedro de Arbués in Saragossa, Alfons rode demonstratively through the city to calm the situation.

Together with the Count of Cifuentes, Alfonso of Aragon led the group of aristocrats who traveled to France in 1506 to pick up Germaine de Foix, whom Ferdinand had married on October 19, 1505 in a proxy ceremony .

In 1512 Alfons was at the head of a troop of 7,000 armed men, which was impressive for the time and equipped by him, to support his father in the conquest of Navarre .

After Ferdinand's death, Alfons, according to his father's will, took over the reign in the lands of the Aragonese crown for Queen Joan and Charles I of Aragon, the later Emperor Charles V (the name: Carlos I d'Aragón is unusual, but correct from an Aragonese point of view in this context.)

Alfons as a patron of art

Don Alonso was fond of literature and art. His bishop's residence was the focus and permanent residence of painters, musicians and poets who were financed from chaplain positions . During his time as Archbishop of Saragossa, Alfons had two additional aisles added to the three-aisled cathedral (Catedral del Salvador).

Alfonso of Aragon died on February 24, 1520 in Lécera. He was buried in the monastery of Santa Engracia (in Saragossa). The body was later transferred to the Cathedral of Saragossa, where it remains to this day.

progeny

With Ana de Gurrea he had the children:

• Hernando de Aragón y de Gurrea OCist (* 1498; † 1575) Archbishop of Saragossa (1539-1575)
• Juan de Aragón y Gurrea (* 1498; † 1530) Archbishop of Saragossa (1520-1530)
• Juana (* 1492; † 1520) ∞ Juan de Borja y Enríquez de Luna (* 1495; † 1543) parents of Francisco de Borja (Jesuit)
• Ana de Aragón y Gurrea ∞ Juan Alonso Pérez de Guzmán y Pérez de Guzmán (1503–1558)

Coming from a relationship with another woman from Barcelona

• Alfonso of Aragon, Abbot of Montearagón

literature

• Joseph Perez: Ferdinand and Isabella . Callwey, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-7667-0923-2 , pp. 394 (from the French by Antoinette Gittinger).

Web links

• Óscar Perea Rodríguez: Aragón, Alonso de, Arzobispo de Zaragoza (1470-1520). MCN Biografías, accessed March 31, 2016 (Spanish). 

• Aragon, Alonso de. In: Gran Enciclopedia Aragonesa. El Periodico de Aragón, November 6, 2009, accessed April 2, 2016 (Spanish). 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ At the royal court of Aragon there was silence about the exact date of birth of Alfons, as there were close overlaps with Ferdinand's wedding date. Óscar Perea Rodríguez: Aragón, Alonso de, Arzobispo de Zaragoza (1470-1520). MCN Biografías, accessed March 31, 2016 (Spanish). 
2. ↑ Vicens Vives gives the date of birth as "before March 10, 1469". Jaime Vicens Vives: Historia crítica de la vida y reinado de Fernando II de Aragón . Ed .: IFC-Cortes de Aragón (=  Colección Historiadores de Aragón . No. 3 ). Institución "Fernando el Católico", Zaragoza 2006, ISBN 84-7820-882-8 , p. 207 (Spanish, [1] [PDF; accessed February 8, 2016]).
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Óscar Perea Rodríguez: Aragón, Alonso de, Arzobispo de Zaragoza (1470-1520). MCN Biografías, accessed March 31, 2016 (Spanish). 
4. ↑ Joseph Perez: Ferdinand and Isabella . Callwey, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-7667-0923-2 , pp. 172 (from the French by Antoinette Gittinger).
5. ↑ Francisco Fernandez Serrano: Obispos auxiliares de Zaragoza en tiempo de los Arzobispos de la Casa Real de Aragón (1460 - 1575) . Institución Fernando el Católico, Zaragoza 1969 (Spanish, [2] [PDF; accessed on February 28, 2016]).
6. ↑ Joseph Perez: Ferdinand and Isabella . Callwey, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-7667-0923-2 , pp. 142 (from the French by Antoinette Gittinger).

predecessor	Office	successor
Ausias de Puggio	Archbishop of Saragossa 1478–1512	Juan de Aragon II
Pedro-Luis Borja	Archbishop of Valencia 1512–1520	Erhard von der Mark