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 at Barcelona in 1391 to his cousin Maria, daughter and heir of King Frederick III of Sicily, and crowned at Palermo in 1392 without papal investiture, he had to face a very powerful insurrection; with only a few bishops remaining loyal to him and with the aid of a magnificent Aragonese fleet sent to him 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 with Castile. Devoted to 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 rushed to his aid with powerful military forces, which led the Aragonese to the victory of Santuri in 1409; but a month later the young monarch died at Cagliari, the victim of a sudden fever or of his sexual excesses; the news was communicated to his father by St. Vincent Ferrer on behalf of the antipope de Luna, to whom the deceased King, his nephew, had remained faithful, without however taking an active part against the pontiffs of Rome.

Since King M. had left only two natural children, Frederick and Yolande, and since his father died the following year, also without succession, the way was opened to the domination of the Castilian dynasty over Aragon and Sicily.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: J. Zurita, Anales de Aragón, X, Saragossa 1568, pp. 425-54; V. Balaguer, Historia de Catalunya, V, Madrid 1886, pp. 272-320; A. Rubio y Lluch, Documents per l'historia de la cultura catalana migeval, Barcelona 1908, p. 21; cf. also R. Starrabba, Documenti riguardanti la Sicilia sotto re M., in Arch. stor. Sicilia, 3 (1875-76), p. 137; 4 (1876), p. 32.

Giuseppe M. Pou y Marti

@incollection{ec8_martino_d_aragona_re_di_sicili, author = {Pou, y Marti Giuseppe}, title = {Martino d'Aragona, re di sicilia}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VIII}, pages = {228}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/martino-d-aragona-re-di-sicilia} }

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Martin of Aragon, King of Sicily

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