Alfonso de Aragón y de Escobar


Alfonso de Aragon y de Escobar, Duke of Villahermosa, Count of Ribagorza and Cortes and Grand Master of the Order of Calatrava, was an illegitimate son of John II of Aragon and Leonor de Escobar, one of his mistresses.
His brothers and half brothers included Prince Charles of Trastámara and Viana and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, called the Catholic.
On August 18, 1443 he was elected Master of the Order of Calatrava and dismissed on September 19, 1445, overtaken by Pedro Girón. Received the title of count of Ribagorza by his father John II in Monzón, and resigned on November 27, 1469 to be succeeded by his first son Fernando.
He fought in the War of the Castilian Succession. Capture of the Catalan castle of Amposta gave him fame during the war. He again led a group of skilled siege engineers in the Siege of Burgos in 1475.
In 1475 he was named Duke of Villahermosa by his father John II of Aragon as a reward for his loyalty and military value.
Alfonso of Aragon and Escobar died in Linares in 1485, not long after making to Pizarra, Málaga.

Marriage and children

In 1477 Alfonso married with Leonor de Sotomayor of Portugal, daughter of Juan de Sotomayor and Isabel of Portugal with whom he had three children:
María Junquers had two extramarital children:
The premature death of his eldest son, Fernando, at the age of three years in 1481, would make the duchy passed to the second son of the marriage: Alfonso, who would inherit the duchy at 16 years in 1485.

Footnotes