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Isabel of Coimbra

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Isabel of Coimbra
Detail of the Saint Vincent Panels masterpiece by Nuno Gonçalves
Queen consort of Portugal
Tenure6 May 1447 – 2 December 1455
Born1 March 1432
Coimbra
Died2 December 1455(1455-12-02) (aged 23)
Évora
Burial
Batalha Monastery
SpouseAfonso V of Portugal
Issue
HouseAviz
FatherPeter, Duke of Coimbra
MotherIsabella of Urgell

Infanta Isabel of Coimbra (Isabella of Portugal) (1 March 1432 – 2 December 1455)[1] was a Portuguese infanta and Queen of Portugal as the first wife of King Afonso V of Portugal.

Biography

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Early life and background

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Born in Coimbra in 1432, Isabella was the eldest daughter of the Infante Peter, Duke of Coimbra and Isabella of Aragon, Countess of Urgel.[2][3] Her paternal grandfather was King John I of Portugal and her maternal grandfather was James II, Count of Urgel. Beginning in 1439, Isabella's father Peter served as regent for her cousin Afonso V during his minority.[4][5]

Isabella received a comprehensive Renaissance education influenced by the works of Christine de Pizan.[6]

In accordance with the wishes of the late Edward of Portugal, Peter arranged Isabella's betrothal to Afonso V in 1441.[3][7] The engagement caused conflict with Afonso, Count of Barcelos, Peter's half-brother and political enemy, who had wished for the monarch to marry his granddaughter.[8][9] Relations further deteriorated when Peter had Isabella's brother elected the Constable of Portugal in 1443, a title that the Count of Barcelos believed rightfully belonged to his eldest son, Afonso, Marquis of Valença.[10][11]

Queen

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Isabella and Afonso V were married on 6 May 1447.[3][12] Both bride and groom were fifteen.[13] Isabella was given the income of Santarém, Alvaiázere, Sintra and Torres Vedras at her wedding.[citation needed]

The Count of Barcelos began to wield more influence over Afonso and persuaded him to dismiss Peter in July 1448. Tensions escalated in the following months; Afonso annulled all edicts passed during the regency, stripped Isabella's brother of the title of Constable, and isolated Peter to his estates in Coimbra. In early 1449, Afonso interpreted Peter's refusal to yield all arms as an act of rebellion and began preparing for civil war.[14][15]

Deeply devoted to both her husband and her father, Isabella did her best to mediate.[16] She reportedly dropped to her knees and implored Afonso to have mercy on Peter.[17][18] Afonso responded that he would be lenient if his father-in-law requested pardon.[19] Peter reluctantly agreed, writing to Isabella, "This I do, lady, rather to please you, and because you have so bidden me, than because I deem it in reason for me to do."[18] Afonso considered the penitence insincere and therefore unacceptable.[19]

Isabella's father rebelled and was killed in the Battle of Alfarrobeira in 1449.[20] Her siblings were then exiled: John, James, and Beatrice went to the court of their aunt Isabella in Burgundy, while her brother Peter fled to Castile.[21] Isabella herself did not fall out of favour with the king, however, and she took control of the duchy of Coimbra until her brother John returned to Portugal in 1454.

In 1455, Isabella had her father honoured with a ceremony of exoneration at court and had him re-buried in a grand way.[22] Shortly after this, she died at age twenty-three, possibly from poisoning.[23][24] In her will, she left her inheritance to her sister, Philippa of Coimbra.[25]

Issue

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Isabella had three children:

Ancestry

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References

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Citations

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  1. ^ Pereira & Rodrigues 1904, p. 1005.
  2. ^ Freitas 2011, p. 17.
  3. ^ a b c Rogers 1961, p. 59.
  4. ^ Freitas 2011, p. 10.
  5. ^ Disney 2009, p. 129.
  6. ^ Freitas 2011, pp. 18–19.
  7. ^ Freitas 2011, p. 30.
  8. ^ Rogers 1961, pp. 60, 86.
  9. ^ Freitas 2011, p. 7.
  10. ^ Rogers 1961, p. 86.
  11. ^ Elbl 2022, p. 48.
  12. ^ Freitas 2011, p. 36.
  13. ^ Freitas 2011, p. 33.
  14. ^ McMurdo 1889, pp. 473–476.
  15. ^ Livermore 1947, p. 202.
  16. ^ Freitas 2011, pp. 38–39.
  17. ^ Freitas 2011, p. 42.
  18. ^ a b McMurdo 1889, p. 478.
  19. ^ a b Freitas 2011, p. 43.
  20. ^ Rogers 1961, p. 62.
  21. ^ Rogers 1961, p. 77.
  22. ^ Rogers 1961, pp. 68–69. "In 1455 Queen Isabela persuaded her husband, greatly pleased by the birth of his son João, to give her father the burial he merited. The King ignored the opposition from the Duke of Bragança and his son the Count of Ourém (now also Marquis of Valença), and brought the body to the Monastery of the Trinity in Lisbon. It was next moved to the Monastery of St. Eligius (Eloi) and finally transferred to Batalha, where it was interred with great pomp in the Chapel of the Founder."
  23. ^ Commire & Klezmer 2000, p. 792
  24. ^ Rogers 1961, p. 69. "Queen Isabel, twenty-three years old, soon joined her father in Batalha, for she died at the end of the same year. There were those who insinuated that she had been poisoned by her father's enemies."
  25. ^ Rogers 1961, p. 28.

Sources

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  • Commire, Anne; Klezmer, Deborah (2000). Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Yorkin Publications. ISBN 978-0-7876-4066-8.
  • Disney, A. R. (2009). A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire. From Beginnings to 1807. Vol. I: Portugal. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-60397-3.
  • Elbl, Ivana (2022). "Friendship, Disasters, and Social Capital: The Silva Meneses, 1415-1481". Portuguese Studies Review. 30 (1): 39–82. Retrieved 9 July 2025.
  • Freitas, Isabel Vaz (2011). D. Isabel de Coimbra: Insigne Rainha (in Portuguese). Quidnovi.
  • Livermore, H.V. (1947). A History of Portugal. Cambridge University Press.
  • Marques, Antonio Henrique R. de Oliveira (1976). History of Portugal (2nd ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-08353-X.
  • McMurdo, Edward (1889). The history of Portugal, from the Commencement of the Monarchy to the Reign of Alfonso III. Vol. II. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington.
  • Pereira, Esteves; Rodrigues, Guilherme (1904). Portugal: diccionario historico, chorographico, heraldico, biographico, bibliographico, numismatico e artistico (in Portuguese). Vol. III. Lisboa: J. Romano Torres.
  • Rogers, Francis M. (1961). The Travels of the Infante Dom Pedro of Portugal. Harvard Studies in Romance Languages. Vol. XXVI. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
[edit]
Isabel of Coimbra
Cadet branch of the House of Burgundy
Born: 1 March 1432 Died: 2 December 1455
Portuguese royalty
Vacant
Title last held by
Eleanor of Aragon 		Queen consort of Portugal and the Algarves
6 May 1447 – 2 December 1455 		Vacant
Title next held by
Joanna la Beltraneja


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