After Isabel of Castille's death, Fernando of Aragon had no legal position in Castille and had to give up the castillian power to his elder surviving daughter Juana la Loca and her hatred (to Fernando) husband Felipe of Habsburg and, after the latter's death and Juana loosing her mind, to his grandson Charles, governing just Aragon.
Then Fernando married second Germaine de Foix and he fathered a son, a second Juan, Prince of Girona.
Juan lived for just 4 days, but should he have outlived his father, he would have succeed his father and cast away his half-sister Juana and nephew Charles, in Aragon, and the spanish union led by Fernando and Isabel would have been broken.
Just what exactly was the succession law there, anyway, prior to the unification of Spain? I believe it was male-preference primogeniture in most of the other kingdoms (e.g. Castile). The reason for my asking is that I read somewhere that the Aragonese law did not allow females to inherit the throne in their own rights.
Yet, when Infante Juan (the only son of King Fernando II) died, and Infanta Isabel (who by then had become the queen of Portugal, as well as heir presumptive to her mother, Queen Isabel I of Castile) gave birth to a son, that son (Infante Miguel de la Paz) was automatically first in line to the throne of Aragon.
Despite bypassing his mother in the succession (perhaps a moot point, in light of the fact that she died in childbirth), such a thing obviously would not have been possible, had the kingdom been bound by the Salic law -- like in France. As it was, Miguel was immediately recognized -- even welcomed -- as heir presumptive to his maternal grandfather ...
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