Alfonso de Aragón y Escobar


Alfonso 'de Aragon y Escobar', Duke of Villahermosa, Count of Ribagorza and Cortes and Grand Master of the Order of Calatrava, was an illegitimate son of John II of Aragon and one of his mistresses, Leonor de Escobar, daughter of Alfonso Rodríguez de Escobar.
His brothers and half brothers included Prince Charles of Trastámara and Viana and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, called the Catholic.
On August 18, 1443, he was elected Master of the Order of Calatrava and dismissed on September 19, 1445, replaced by Pedro Girón. Received the title of count of Ribagorza by his father John II in Monzón, and resigned on November 27, 1469, to be succeeded by his first son Fernando.
He fought in the War of the Castilian Succession. Capture of the Catalan castle of Amposta gave him fame during the war. He again led a group of skilled siege engineers in the Siege of Burgos in 1475.
In 1475 he was named Duke of Villahermosa by his father John II of Aragon as a reward for his loyalty and military value.
Alfonso of Aragon and Escobar died in Linares in 1485, not long after making to Pizarra, Málaga.

Marriage and children

In 1477 Alfonso married with Leonor de Sotomayor of Portugal, daughter of Juan de Sotomayor and Isabel of Portugal with whom he had three children:
The premature death of his eldest legitimate son, Fernando, at the age of three years in 1481, would make the duchy passed to the second son of the marriage: Alfonso, who would inherit the duchy at 6 years in 1485.
He also had five extramarital children:
With María Junquers, daughter of Mosen Gregorio de Junquers,
with Estenga Conejo :
with Catalina de Maldonado