Finally back, was busy all Holy Week. Without further ado...
Charles, Prince of Viana is one of those historical characters who is little known to the public, but whose fate was massively important to the development of late medieval and early modern European history. The only son of John II of Aragon and his first wife Blanche, Queen of Navarre, Prince Charles' relationship with his father turned bitter after John remarried to the Castilian noblewoman Juana Enriquez (who hated Charles, considering him a threat to the prosperity of her own son Ferdinand, and did everything she could to turn John against him) and then tried to deny Charles his rightful inheritance - the crown of Navarre - following Blanche's death in 1441. Charles was unwilling to let go of his maternal inheritance without a fight, so fight they did, and eventually father triumphed over son: Charles was defeated and imprisoned by John in 1452, eventually released (but denied the Navarrese crown) and jailed again in 1459 for attempting to marry the Castilian princess Isabella, who would eventually become Queen of Castile and wife to his half-brother Ferdinand.
Alas, there was no happy and glorious ending for Charles himself. In 1461, his father was forced to release him from prison to satisfy the demands of Catalan rebels who resented his efforts to expand his royal prerogative at the expense of Catalonia's traditional autonomy. However, not long afterwards, Charles was poisoned - likely by his stepmother - and Ferdinand became the undisputed heir to the Aragonese throne. Ferdinand would go on to marry Isabella and become one half of the Catholic Monarchs who united Spain, complete the Reconquista by destroying the last Muslim state in Iberia, and oversee the dawn of the Spanish Empire 'on which the sun never sets'.
But what if...Charles does not die at his stepmother's hands? Perhaps he prevails over his grasping father in the Navarrese civil war and forces John to recognize him as Charles IV of Navarre, or John never bothers to infringe on his son's succession rights in the first place. Either way, with an independent power-base and stronghold secured in Navarre, Charles becomes much safer from his stepmother.
Even more interestingly, Charles was originally married to Agnes of Cleves, a niece of the Burgundian duke Philip the Good: sadly, Agnes died childless at the age of 26 in 1448, and Charles would eventually get into hot water with his father again when he pursued Isabella of Castile, who would eventually marry his half-brother Ferdinand after his death. Of course, if Agnes still dies on schedule and Charles lives long enough to marry Isabella, then a Castilian-Aragonese Spain will still be born, just with a different father. But if Agnes lives longer and bears an also-longer-lived Charles children, then the unification of Castile and Aragon is butterflied away. Instead, Aragon will unite with Navarre and remain independent of Castile, allowing Charles and his successors to focus on Mediterranean ventures: uniting with their distant Trastamaran kin in Naples and battling the Muslims of the Barbary Coast.
So, what happens to Castile in this scenario? Well, they had a succession crisis of their own brewing at the same time that John and Charles were fighting. Isabella's uncle was the weak king of Castile, Henry IV 'the Impotent', who had only one child of dubious parentage with his infamously unfaithful wife Joan of Portugal: this daughter, also named Joan, was nicknamed 'La Beltraneja' after a rumor that she was actually the child of Beltran de la Cueva, Duke of Albuquerque and one of her mother's many lovers. After Henry died in 1475, Castile fell into civil war between the supporters of Joan and Isabella (who claimed that Joan was a bastard, and so Henry should be succeeded by his indisputably trueborn niece), with Joan being supported by her uncle and husband Afonso V of Portugal and Isabella being backed by her own husband Ferdinand, by then King of Aragon. Of course, historically, the 'Isabelino' party and Ferdinand defeated the 'Juanistas' and their Portuguese backers, solidifying Isabella's hold on the Castilian throne and paving the way for the formation of Spain.
But without Aragon's help, Isabella's chances of victory grow much dimmer. Thus, we could very well see a different Spain formed by the unification of Castile and Portugal. This alternate Spain would still destroy the Sultanate of Granada, the last Islamic kingdom left in Iberia at the time: by the late 1400s, the situation for the Spanish Moors had grown hopeless, and Granada is too heavily outnumbered and outgunned to have a prayer against any Spain regardless of whether it is comprised of Castile-Aragon or Castile-Portugal - their defeat is only a matter of time. However, after the Reconquista is complete Alt-Spain would be free to focus on colonial ventures abroad and wars against the Muslims in the Maghreb with no other major European commitments to bog them down: this means a unified Spanish-Portuguese colonial empire, and the availability of far more resources for a crusade into Morocco and beyond. Thus, while Aragon-Navarre focuses on Mediterranean ventures, Castile-Portugal would be free to dominate the New World to an even greater extent than the historical Spanish Empire and conquer the western Maghreb, in the process saving the Songhai Empire from conquest by the Moroccans. Given enough time and resources, they might even expand into what is now modern-day West Africa (particularly Mali).
So, what happens to Castile in this scenario? Well, they had a succession crisis of their own brewing at the same time that John and Charles were fighting. Isabella's uncle was the weak king of Castile, Henry IV 'the Impotent', who had only one child of dubious parentage with his infamously unfaithful wife Joan of Portugal: this daughter, also named Joan, was nicknamed 'La Beltraneja' after a rumor that she was actually the child of Beltran de la Cueva, Duke of Albuquerque and one of her mother's many lovers. After Henry died in 1475, Castile fell into civil war between the supporters of Joan and Isabella (who claimed that Joan was a bastard, and so Henry should be succeeded by his indisputably trueborn niece), with Joan being supported by her uncle and husband Afonso V of Portugal and Isabella being backed by her own husband Ferdinand, by then King of Aragon. Of course, historically, the 'Isabelino' party and Ferdinand defeated the 'Juanistas' and their Portuguese backers, solidifying Isabella's hold on the Castilian throne and paving the way for the formation of Spain.
But without Aragon's help, Isabella's chances of victory grow much dimmer. Thus, we could very well see a different Spain formed by the unification of Castile and Portugal. This alternate Spain would still destroy the Sultanate of Granada, the last Islamic kingdom left in Iberia at the time: by the late 1400s, the situation for the Spanish Moors had grown hopeless, and Granada is too heavily outnumbered and outgunned to have a prayer against any Spain regardless of whether it is comprised of Castile-Aragon or Castile-Portugal - their defeat is only a matter of time. However, after the Reconquista is complete Alt-Spain would be free to focus on colonial ventures abroad and wars against the Muslims in the Maghreb with no other major European commitments to bog them down: this means a unified Spanish-Portuguese colonial empire, and the availability of far more resources for a crusade into Morocco and beyond. Thus, while Aragon-Navarre focuses on Mediterranean ventures, Castile-Portugal would be free to dominate the New World to an even greater extent than the historical Spanish Empire and conquer the western Maghreb, in the process saving the Songhai Empire from conquest by the Moroccans. Given enough time and resources, they might even expand into what is now modern-day West Africa (particularly Mali).
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