Isabella of Urgell, Duchess of Coimbra

Isabella of Urgell, Duchess of Coimbra (Spanish: Isabel) (12 March 1409 – 17 September 1459) was a Catalan noblewoman of the Urgell branch of the House of Aragon. She was the wife of Infante Peter, Duke of Coimbra.

Family
Isabella was born on 12 March 1409, the eldest daughter of James II, Count of Urgell, and Isabella of Aragon. Isabella was one of five children.

The county of Urgell was dissolved in 1413, following her father's revolt against the new King Ferdinand I of Aragon who had been chosen to succeed to the throne of Aragon in 1412 despite James being the closest legitimate agnate to the Royal House of Aragon.

Marriage
On 13 September 1428 at Alcolea del Cinca she married Infante Peter, Duke of Coimbra (9 December 1392 – 20 May 1449 at the Battle of Alfarrobeira), a younger son of John I of Portugal. During her husband's regency for his nephew, Afonso V of Portugal, the marriage of the couple's daughter Isabella to the King was arranged.

Issue
 Peter, Constable of Portugal (23 October 1429 Coimbra, Portugal- 29 June 1466) At the age of fourteen he became Constable of Portugal. In 1464, he was acclaimed King Peter V of Aragon.
 John of Coimbra, titular Prince of Antioch (1431 Coimbra, Portugal- 11 September 1457 Nicosia, Cyprus). On 26 February 1456, he married Queen Charlotte of Cyprus (28 June 1444 – 16 July 1487) as her first husband. 
 Isabella of Coimbra (1 March 1432 Coimbra, Portugal- 2 December 1455). Married her cousin, King Afonso V of Portugal on 6 May 1448, as his first wife. They had three children, including King John II of Portugal.
 James of Coimbra, Cardinal and Archbishop-elect of Lisbon (17 September 1433 Coimbra, Portugal- 27 August 1457 Florence, Italy)
 Beatrice of Coimbra (21 November 1435 Coimbra, Portugal- 22 February 1462 Bruges. Married 13 May 1453 Adolph of Cleves, Lord of Ravenstein (28 June 1425 – 18 September 1492). Her death was attributed to poisoning.
 Philippa of Coimbra (1 June 1437 Coimbra, Portugal- 25 July 1493 Odivelas). She was a nun at the Convent of Odivelas.

Widowhood and death

Peter of Coimbra was regent of Portugal from 1439, and engineered the marriage of his young charge, Afonso V of Portugal with his daughter, Isabella of Coimbra in 1447.  But he also gathered powerful enemies, most notably the House of Braganza, who ingratiated themselves with the young king and managed to drive Peter from power immediately after.  The parties remained at odds and Portugal careened into civil war. After Peter of Coimbra was killed at the Battle of Alfarrobeira in May 1449, his family was immediately and relentlessly persecuted.  Isabella of Urgell and her daughter Philippa went into hiding, while her other children were driven into exile abroad - Peter the Constable to Castile, and John, James and Beatrice to the Duchy of Burgundy, the lands of their aunt Isabella of Burgundy.  The threats of the powerful Duke of Burgundy were conjoined to the pleas of Peter's daughter, the young queen Isabella of Coimbra, who pleaded her husband to have mercy on her family.  Against the advice of the powerful Braganzas, Afonso V relented (partially) in 1450 and allowed the widowed duchess Isabella of Urgell to reside in Montemor-o-Velho and Tentúgal (Philippa was allowed to reside in a cloister in Odivelas, although apparently she later moved in with her mother).  However, she continued to be harassed by the Braganzas - Afonso, Marquis of Valença reportedly tried to deprive the widowed duchess of her residence, which only the queen's renewed pleading prodded Afonso V to intercede on her behalf.

Isabella of Coimbra availed of the king's good mood after the birth of their son, the royal heir John (future king John II of Portugal), in May 1455, to engineer a complete and final rehabilitation of the rest of her family.  Peter of Coimbra's remains were allowed to be re-buried at the Aviz dynasty necropolis at Batalha Monastery and the dowager-duchess Isabella of Urgell was granted a royal pension for the remainder of her years.

Isabella of Urgell died on 17 September 1459, at the monastery of Santa Cruz in Coimbra.  Her remains were translated to Batalha, into the tomb of her rehabilitated husband.
 
Her father had died while imprisoned at Xàtiva in 1433.

Ancestry

References

Category:1409 births
Category:1459 deaths
Category:People from Noguera (comarca)
Category:Portuguese duchesses
Category:Medieval Catalan nobility
Category:Medieval Portuguese nobility
Category:15th-century Portuguese people
Category:Medieval Catalan women
Category:15th-century Portuguese women
Category:15th-century Catalan people