page_title: Prince of Asturias
section_title: Creation of the Principality
hierarchical_section_title: Prince of Asturias / History / Creation of the Principality
caption_attribution_description: Español: El lienzo representa a la reina Isabel la Católica y al cardenal Cisneros, entre otros personajes, educando al príncipe Juan de Aragón, hijo de los Reyes Católicos y heredero de las coronas de Aragón y Castilla hasta su defunción en 1497.
context_page_description: Prince or Princess of Asturias is the main substantive title used by the heir apparent or heir presumptive to the throne of Spain. According to the Spanish Constitution of 1978:
  Article 57 [...]
  2. The heir apparent or presumptive, from birth or event that makes him such, will have the dignity of Prince of Asturias and other titles traditionally linked to the successor of the Crown of Spain.
  The title originated in 1388, when King John I of Castile granted the dignity – which included jurisdiction over the territory – to his first-born son Henry. In an attempt to end the dynastic struggle between the heirs of Kings Peter I and Henry II of Castile, the principality was chosen as the highest jurisdictional lordship the King could grant that had not yet been granted to anyone. The custom of granting unique titles to royal heirs had already been in use in the Kingdoms of Aragon, England, and France.
context_section_description: After the assassination of King Peter I in 1369, there began a series of disputes and long rivalries between John, Duke of Lancaster (who claimed the Castilian throne as the husband of Constance, eldest surviving daughter of King Peter I and his mistress María de Padilla but recognized as legitimate and in line of succession by the Cortes of 1362), and the two successive Trastámara claimants, Henry II and his son John I. After two decades of conflicts of varying intensity, the parties arrived at a compromise through means of the marriage between Prince Henry (son and heir of King John I) and Catherine of Lancaster (only surviving child of John and Constance). 
  On 8 July 1388 the Treaty of Bayonne was signed between John of Lancaster and King John I of Castile, establishing the final dynastic reconciliation after the assassination of King Peter I. By this treaty, the Duke of Lancaster and his wife Constance renounced all their rights over the Castilian throne on behalf of the marriage of their daughter Catherine to the first-born son of King Juan I of Castile, the future Henry III, who was granted as heir the dignity of Prince of Asturias. The title was granted with a ceremony.
  The premature death of John I and the minority of Henry III prevented the institutional and juridical conformation of the principality while Alfonso Enríquez rebelled again after obtaining his freedom by royal decree. Besieged by the King's troops, he submitted to the arbitration of King Charles VI of France, who imposed on the count the return of the territories he held in Asturias. The territory was subdued, and his royal status was confirmed.
  In the early days of its creation, the title of Prince of Asturias was not just a simple honorific title, as it included control of the territory of Asturias. The Prince ruled it in representation of the King and was able to appoint judges, mayors, etc. King John II by decree dated in Tordesillas on 3 March 1444 declared the conversion of the principality into a jurisdictional lordship, linking the cities, towns, and places of Asturias de Oviedo with their rents and jurisdictions to the Majorat of the heirs of the Crown; however, this document was in some case disobeyed and ignored by the Asturian towns as it went against their traditional fueros. On 31 May of that same year the future Henry IV tried to make the Majorat effective and remember Oviedo and the twenty-one principal Asturian villages that rightfully belonged to his lordship even though he had not "executed or used [the principality] because of my minority and the great debates and scandals that have taken place in these kingdoms".
  With the legal conformation, the duality principality–lordship was recovered and would last under the jurisdiction of the Prince until the time of Catholic Monarchs, who limited the scope of the title, making it merely honorary; this decision was upheld by the members of the House of Habsburg and the House of Bourbon until the present day.
  Although all the heirs of the Crown of Castile have traditionally been considered Princes of Asturias, not all had a formal act by which the jurisdictional lordship was granted; strictly speaking, the only Princes of Asturias were Henry, during 1388–1390, Enrique, during 1444–1453, Isabella during 1468–1474, and John, briefly during 1496–1497. In the periods in which no prince was proclaimed, the Principality did not disappear but was directly governed by the monarch, to whose treasury were sent the jurisdictional rents.
  With the Catholic Monarchs, there began a policy of reintegration of the royal patrimony that gave rise to a long fight with the principality, lasting from 1483 to 1490, with the signing of an agreement by which the House of Quiñones handed over to the Crown the districts of Cangas, Tineo, Llanes, and Ribadesella in exchange for five million maravedis and the Leonese Babias. In 1496 there was an attempt to revive the principality by Royal Letter dated 20 May, in which the monarchs, "wishing to observe the ancient custom" of their Kingdoms – an allusion to Aragon – ga
caption: Education of Prince John, by Salvador Martínez Cubells 1877. John was the only son of the Catholic Monarchs and heir of all their domains during his lifetime.
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