MARTIN of Aragon, king of SICILY. — Called the Younger to distinguish him from his father Martin I, king of Aragon and Sicily. Born in 1374, died at Cagliari on 25 July 1409. Married in Barcelona in 1391 to his cousin Maria, daughter and heir of King Frederick III of Sicily, and crowned in Palermo in 1392 without papal investiture, he had to face a very powerful insurrection; remaining loyal to him were only some bishops, and with the aid of a magnificent Aragonese fleet sent by his father he was able to pacify the Kingdom.
After the death of the Queen (1402), who left him the throne, he contracted a second marriage with Blanche of Navarre, the famous princess who later united this Kingdom to Castile. Fond of his father and seeing him engaged in the difficult repression of the Sardinian rebels, led by Brancaleone Doria and protected by William III of Narbonne, he hastened to his aid with powerful military forces, which brought the Aragonese to victory at Santuri in 1409; but a month later the young monarch died at Cagliari, a victim of sudden fever or of his sexual excesses; the news was communicated to his father by St Vincent Ferrer at the behest of the antipope de Luna, to whom the deceased king, his nephew, had remained loyal, though without taking active part against the Roman pontiffs.
Having left King Martin only two natural sons, Frederick and Yolanda, and his father dying the following year, also without issue, the way was opened for the domination of the Castilian dynasty over Aragon and Sicily.