Thought most of History Royal Weddings had nothing to do with love. Marital alliances were forged and broken based solely on the political needs of the various ruling dynasties.

The men and women born in this families were raised to married whomever their family decided in order to ensure its survival and prosperity. If love ever became a reality between these couples, it as a happy and rare consequence of marriage, not the reason for it.

On the contrary, in his treatise, O Leal Conselheiro, written around 1438, King Edward of Portugal warned married couples to the dangers of love and passion, advising theme instead to pursue marital friendship based on mutual respect and support.

Thought the 16th century the ruling houses of Iberia, the Habsburgs on the Spanish side and the Avis on the Portuguese one, successively married each other generation after generation. These alliances secure the power and continuation of both dynasties, creating complex ties of familiar and political interdependency.

To understand the origins of the marriage alliances between the Aviz and the Habsburgs during the Renaissance is necessary to go back in time, to the socalled age of the Reconquest, the moment the seeds of the Iberian Cristian kingdoms were planted.

#habsburgs #aviz #renaissance

Sources:

Buesco, Ana Isabel (2008). D. João III. Temas e Debates: Lisboa.
Coelho, Maria Helena da Cruz (20022003). “A Política Matrimonial da Dinastia de Avís: Leonor e Frederico III da Alemanha”, in Revista Portuguesa de História, nº 36, pp. 4170.
Dos Guimarães Sá, Isabel; Combet, Michel (2012). Rainhas consortes de D. Manuel I. Isabel de Castela, Maria de Castela e Leonor de Áustria. Círculo de Leitores: Lisboa.
Dos Guimarães Sá, Isabel (2010). “Coisas de Princesas: Casamentos, Dotes e Enxovais na Família Real Portuguesa (14801580)”, in Revista da Historia da Sociedade e da Cultura, vol. 10, t 1, pp. 97120.
Jordan, Annemarie (2017). Catarina de Áustria, a Rainha Colecionadora. Temas e Debates: Lisboa.

Keywords: Habsburg Dynasty, Aviz Dynasty, History, Spain, Portugal, Isabella and Ferdinand, Catholic Kings, Charles V, Isabella of Portugal, Catherine of Austria, John III of Portugal, Eleonor of Austria, Manuel of Portugal, Joanna the Mad, Philip II, Infanta Maria Manuela, John Manuel, Joanna of Austria, King Sebastian of Portugal, Iberian Unian, Inbreeding, Cousin Marriage.

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