Denis, Lord of Cifuentes


Denis of Portugal, occasionally surnamed Castro, was an infante of Portugal. He was the son of Portuguese King Peter I and a Galician noblewoman named Inês de Castro who had arrived in Portugal as a maid of princess Constance of Castile, recently married to Pedro I.

History

Considering Denis an Infante of Portugal is a debatable subject. Some historians consider him a natural son of Peter I, so the title Infante of Portugal could never be attributed to him. Other opinions refer that after the death of Inês de Castro, ordered by Pedro's father King Afonso IV of Portugal, the Prince after inheriting the throne admitted that he had married Inês secretly, and because of that she was a lawful Queen of Portugal.
After the death of his mother Denis left Portugal to Castile with his brother but during the 1383–85 Crisis he was one of the claimants to the throne along with Beatrice of Portugal, John, Master of Aviz and John.
Although he managed to be acclaimed King in the city of Santarém his connections with Castile eventually lost him the throne and at the time of the Battle of Aljubarrota he was already out of the country like his brother John.

Family

He married in 1372 Joan of Castile, 2nd? Lady of Cifuentes, born c. 1360, illegitimate daughter of Henry II of Castile by Juana, 1st? Lady of Cifuentes, born c. 1340, from whom he had two sons and a daughter:
He died in about 1403.

Ancestry

Citations