BEATRICE OF PORTUGAL

'Beatrice of Portugal', in Portuguese 'Beatriz' (pron. ), (9 December, 1372, Coimbra-8 March,1408) was the only daughter of King Fernando I of Portugal and his wife, the Castilian Leonor Telles de Menezes. She married King Juan I of Castile and claimed to be Queen of Portugal in the 1383-1385 Crisis that ended with her uncle João I of Portugal being acclaimed King of Portugal.
At the beginning of 1383, the political situation in Portugal was not peaceful. Beatrice was the King's only child, and heir to the throne, after her younger brothers' deaths in 1380 and 1382. Her marriage was the political issue of the day and inside the palace, factions lobbied constantly. Ferdinand arranged and cancelled his daughter's wedding several times before settling for his wife's first choice, King Juan I of Castile. Juan had lost his wife, Infanta Leonor of Aragon the year before, and was happy to take the Portuguese heiress. The wedding took place on May 17 1383 in the Portuguese city of Elvas. Beatrice was only eleven years old.
King Ferdinand died shortly thereafter, on October 22, 1383. According to the treaty between Castile and Portugal, the Queen Mother, Leonor Telles de Menezes, became regent in the name of her daughter and son-in-law. But not everybody in Portugal was happy about this state of affairs. The loss of independence was unthinkable for the majority of Portuguese nobles. A rebellion led by the Master of the Order of Aviz, the future João I, began in that year, leading to the 1383-1385 Crisis.
King Juan invaded Portugal in 1384 to fight for his newly-born son Miguel's (1384-1385) rights to the crown. That war ended in the next year, with the utter defeat of Castile in the Battle of Aljubarrota. In the aftermath of this battle, João I of Aviz became the uncontested King of Portugal. Beatrice was no longer on the throne of Portugal; she was merely the Queen Consort of Castile and Leon.
Beatrice died in 1408 in Madrigal, Castile.
There is some dispute among historians about Beatrice. She is rarely referred as Queen of Portugal, but some claim that at least for a short period she was Queen and so must be in the list of the Monarchs of Portugal. Others say that in the 1383-1385 period the country had no King or Queen, and so Beatrice could not be considered.

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★ Debrett's Kings and Queens of Europe, , David, Williamson, Webb & Bower, 1988, ISBN 0-86350-194-X