The future King Ferdinand II of Aragon was born on 10 March 1452 as the son of King John II of Aragon and Navarre and his second wife, Juana Enríquez. At the time of his birth, he had an elder half-brother and two elder half-sisters from his father’s first marriage to Blanche I, Queen of Navarre in her own right.
Although upon Blanche’s death, the throne of Navarre technically passed to Ferdinand’s brother Charles, his father John had kept the power in his own hands. Charles would die in 1461 without ever having held power. The throne then passed firstly to Ferdinand’s elder half-sister, Queen Blanche II, who had returned home after a disastrous marriage and was promptly imprisoned. She died in 1464. Ferdinand’s second half-sister, Eleanor, perhaps knew better than to oppose him, and she only briefly succeeded officially as Queen of Navarre after Ferdinand’s death. The throne of Navarre would pass through Eleanor’s line.
John and Juana had another child after Ferdinand, a daughter named Joanna, who ended up marrying King Ferdinand I of Naples. Ferdinand himself was born in the town of Sos del Rey Católico, then just called Sos, and he too belonged to the House of Trastámara, to which his future wife also belonged. They were second cousins through a common descent from King John I of Castile and Eleanor of Aragon. As a younger son, he was not born to be a King, and he grew up in a politically difficult climate.
Following the death of Ferdinand’s brother Charles on 23 September 1461, the nine-year-old Ferdinand was sworn in as heir apparent of Aragon on 6 October 1461. He was then “conducted by his mother into Catalonia, in order to receive the more doubtful homage of that province.”1 He was later described as having “chivalrous valour, combined with maturity of judgment far above his years. Indeed, he was decidedly superior to his rivals in personal merit and attractions.”2
About his education, Ferdinand would later say that he had “seen much but read little.”3 He still had the basis of a classical education, and he was taught Latin by Francisco Vidal de Noya. However, he had his own horse from the age of eight and spent more time in the saddle than in the classroom. As his father became increasingly blind over the years, Ferdinand soon joined him on the battlefield.
The marriage between Ferdinand and Isabella had been on the cards when they were just children, but it had not happened then. Isabella, who was recognised as heiress by her half-brother in 1468, knew that Ferdinand was the right choice. Several suitors had already been considered for her, or rather yet, forced upon her. It thus took some secret manoeuvring for the marriage between Isabella and Ferdinand to take place.
The 17-year-old Ferdinand had already fathered a son, Alfonso, who was born in 1469. He had also been ceded the Kingdom of Sicily by his father in 1468. Yet, he took a chance on a Princess whose road to Queenship was not set in stone.
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