MARTINO d'Aragona, king of SICILY. — Called the Younger to distinguish him from his father Martino 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 Federico III of Sicily, and crowned at Palermo in 1392 without papal investiture, he had to face a most powerful insurrection; with only a few bishops remaining loyal to him 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 Bianca of Navarre, the famous princess who subsequently united this Kingdom with Castile. Devoted to his father and seeing him engaged in the difficult suppression of the Sardinian rebels, led by Brancaleone Doria and protected by Guglielmo III of Narbona, he hastened to his aid with powerful military forces, which brought the Aragonese victory at 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 conveyed to his father by s. Vincenzo 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, Federico and Jolanda, and his father died the following year, likewise without issue, the way was opened for the domination of the Castilian dynasty over Aragon and Sicily.
Giuseppe M. Pou y Marti