the compromise of caspe

The death of King Martí (31 May 1410) led to a crisis within the states of the crown of Aragon. It was resolved in a radical fashion which has been the cause of debate ever since. Martí’s death brought to an end the dynasty founded with the marriage of the infanta Petronilla of Aragon to Ramon Berenguer, count of Barcelona, which had reigned uninterruptedly since 1137. The demise of the line was caused by Martí’s lack of legitimate heirs, after the death of his son, Martí (July 1409), during the military campaign in Sardinia, although, through Martí, the king did have an illegitimate grandson, the young Frederic, count of Luna. Martí I’s fondness for Frederic did not blind him to the problem of his illegitimacy, especially since there were other claimants to the crown whose rights were beyond dispute. The strongest of these was Jaume, count of Urgel, who had been appointed first lieutenant and later governor-general by the king himself, who thus almost appeared to be naming him his heir, giving rise to constitutional questions among the Aragonese. On his father’s side, Urgel was descended from a junior line of the family of Alfons IV ‘the Benign’. A member of the powerful Catalan family, he was disliked by the minor aristocracy and was strongly opposed by the patrician class of Barcelona. Louis of Anjou, duke of Calabria, and Fernando ‘de Antequera’, the infante of Castile, were more closely related to Martí, but through the maternal line, Violante, the mother of Louis, being the daughter of King Joan I, Martí’s elder brother and his immediate predecessor, while Fernando’s mother, Elionor, was Martí’s sister and wife of Juan I of Castile.