El Beltranejo

What if Juana of Castile known to history as 'La Beltraneja' was born as a boy? Would the rumors about his illegitimacy still be taken as seriously? Would Isabella still be preferred to a male-heir? Or would he be crowned as King Juan III even if the rumors of his illegitimacy abound?
 
Personally, considering how much male-heirs were valued at that time, I think the Castilian nobility will just grit their teeth and bear it. The behavior of the queen of course would do little to dispel the rumors that *Juan III is not the king's son - especially if she still takes up with various lovers - however, Maria Luisa of Parma was accused of having an affair with Godoy that led to the birth of her youngest children, and I've never read anything that decisively states that Francisco d'Asis was the father of Queen Isabel II's children in anything more but name.

Isabel certainly made no secret that she did not love Francisco d'Asis, since she said "how could I possibly be attracted to a man who on our wedding night, wore more lace than myself". However, 15th century Spain might be a different matter, of course.
 
Personally, considering how much male-heirs were valued at that time, I think the Castilian nobility will just grit their teeth and bear it. The behavior of the queen of course would do little to dispel the rumors that *Juan III is not the king's son - especially if she still takes up with various lovers - however, Maria Luisa of Parma was accused of having an affair with Godoy that led to the birth of her youngest children, and I've never read anything that decisively states that Francisco d'Asis was the father of Queen Isabel II's children in anything more but name.

Isabel certainly made no secret that she did not love Francisco d'Asis, since she said "how could I possibly be attracted to a man who on our wedding night, wore more lace than myself". However, 15th century Spain might be a different matter, of course.

I think that *Juan III's success will depend on the support he'll be able to gather from the Mendoza and all the other upper nobility families. This could go well, or not. It's not like Isabel's brother wasn't a disaster :rolleyes: But in any case, Isabel might have had to fight more for the throne, but I'm not sure it'd have changed much, since obviously this Beltranejo would need to be recognized by the Henry (not so likely) and if there's a showdown, I doubt he'd get the Portuguese support that backed La Beltraneja's claim.

Well yes but the Isabel II situation was pretty special. Everyone knew the husband was gay (and apparently he couldn't pee standing which made him even less virile) and she was a nymphomaniac, so yeah, we were lucky enough to get what we did, no questions asked.
 
I think that *Juan III's success will depend on the support he'll be able to gather from the Mendoza and all the other upper nobility families. This could go well, or not. It's not like Isabel's brother wasn't a disaster :rolleyes: But in any case, Isabel might have had to fight more for the throne, but I'm not sure it'd have changed much, since obviously this Beltranejo would need to be recognized by the Henry (not so likely) and if there's a showdown, I doubt he'd get the Portuguese support that backed La Beltraneja's claim.

Why wouldn't Enrique recognize his son? It wasn't as though he was unwilling to recognize la Beltraneja in the first place - IIRC it was only because everything was going against him that he named first Alfonso (on the condition he marry la Beltraneja) and then Isabel (on condition she would marry where he chose) as his heir ahead of her.
 
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