The Court of Queen Germana de Foix in the town of Madrid. Documentary collection.

A collection of documents relating to the court of the queen consort of Aragon Germana de Foix during the period when she settled in the town of Madrid in 1516.

Germana de Foix -Foix (France) 1488 – Liria (Valencia) 1536 was the daughter of Juan de Foix Count of Etampes and Viscount of Narbonne and Maria of Orleans, sister of Louis XII of France. On October 19, 1505, at the age of 17, she married Ferdinand II of Aragon, who at the age of 53 was a widower of Isabella the Catholic. The marriage was the result of a previous agreement between Louis XII of France and Ferdinand II of Aragon, in which the French monarch promised to give his niece the kingdom of Naples and to name her king of Jerusalem. For his part Ferdinand established that the son of both would be named heir of Aragon, thus undoing the unity of Spain. The agreement raised the ire of the Castilian nobility who saw that all this was a maneuver to prevent Philip the Handsome and Doña Juana inherit the crown of Aragon. On May 3, 1509, Juan de Aragón y Foix was born, which meant the end of the unity of Spain, although the child died a few hours later. On January 23, 1516, Ferdinand II of Aragon died, but not before begging Charles V to take Germana de Foix under his protection, since she was his step-grandmother. It seems that this was the case and the queen consort of Aragon moved to Castile and settled in Madrid with her court. Curiously, the meeting between Germana and Charles V gave rise to a lurid love story between the two, the fruit of which was born the “infanta” Isabella. Later to save the delicate situation Germana was named vicereine of Valencia and married Juan de Bradenburgo- Ansbach in 1519 and after being widowed again she remarried Fernando de Aragón, Duke of Calabria in 1526. She died in Liria de Valencia in 1536.

The documentary set is composed of the following manuscripts:

I- Queen’s decree of one hundred ducats of aid at the expense of her notary of the ration. Given in Madrid on March 10, 1516. Manuscript on laid paper. Two leaves. Autograph signature of the queen and her secretary.

-Nomina de nuevo de los criados dueñas y damas de Su Alteza, dated in Madrid on the 11th of March of the year 1516. Manuscript on laid paper in courtly gothic cursive script. 6 leaves. It contains the list and lists of all the members of the court with their names and functions in it (butlers, camarlengo, prothonotario, treasurer, scribe, secretary, horsemen, cupbearer, trinchantes, despensero, veedor, repostero, mozo de copas, cerero, physicist, apothecary, guardaropa, receiver of pecunias, pages, presenter, silver waiters, cooks, porter, ladies’ guards, sweepers, baker, brazier, tailor, shoemaker, balesteros, henhouse, footmen, watermen, spurs waiters, azemileros, chaplains, waitresses, chambermaids, widows, laundresses, seamstresses, etc. With autograph signature of Germana de Foix and her secretary.

-Order of commission for Pedro Celdrán, scribe of ration, to see the accounts of the waiter Don Martín Cabrero. Granted by the testamentaries of the Catholic King. Madrid November 24, 1516. Manuscript on laid paper in courtly Gothic cursive script. One sheet. Contains autograph signature of Germana de Foix, her secretary and executors.

-Order of commission for Pedro Celdrán, scribe of ration, to see the accounts of the waiter Don Martín Cabrero. Granted by the testamentaries of the Catholic King. Madrid November 24, 1516. Manuscript on laid paper in courtly Gothic cursive script. One sheet. Contains autograph signature of Germana de Foix, her secretary and executors.

IV- Order from Queen Germana de Foix to her notary of ration Don Pedro de Celdran to pay one thousand seventy barceloneses salaries to Pedro de Mendoza for his dismissal and services rendered. Given in the town of Madrid on the 8th day of August 1517. Manuscript on paper in courtly Gothic cursive script. One sheet. Autograph signature of Germana de Foix and her secretary. As we can appreciate, this is a key documentation to understand the composition of a court at the end of the Middle Ages of the queen consort of Aragon with a singular biography. The last document related to don Pedro Mendoza seems to refer to the adelantado of Rio de Plata and first settler of Buenos Aires don Pedro Mendoza Luján (Guadix 1499-Canary Islands 1537).