Maria of Aragon (1482 – 1517). Queen of Portugal as the second spouse of King Manuel I, the widower of her elder sister Isabella.
Maria was born at Córdoba on 29 June 1482 as the third surviving daughter of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon (the Catholic monarchs). Like her sisters, she was given a thorough education, not only in household tasks but also in arithmetic, Latin, several other languages, history, philosophy and the classics.
Her eldest sister Isabella, Princess of Asturias, was the first wife of Manuel I of Portugal, but her death in 1498 created a necessity for Manuel to remarry; Maria became the next bride of the Portuguese king, reaffirming dynastic links with Spanish royal houses.
Manuel and Maria were married in Alcácer do Sal on 30 October 1500. She had 10 children, eight of whom reached adulthood, including King John III of Portugal, Holy Roman Empress Isabella, and Beatrice, Duchess of Savoy.
She maintained a close correspondence with her parents, got along well with her sister-in-law Isabel and the queen dowager Beatrice, and hosted a large court with both Spanish and Portuguese ladies-in-waiting. King Manuel appreciated her pious nature, treated her with respect and awarded her with expensive clothes and jewelry during her pregnancies.
- "Maria was of a very fair complexion, had blue eyes, and her hair colour was of a shade between reddish-blonde and auburn; these were typical features in members of the Trastámara family who were descendants of Peter I of Castile." https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/11695121
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