Miguel da Paz, Prince of Portugal

Life and Death

Miguel da Paz was born in Zaragoza, Spain on 23 August 1498. His mother, Isabella of Aragon, died within an hour of his birth. He was shortly sworn heir to the various Iberian crowns by the courts of Portugal, Castile and Aragon. For the next two years, he was the recognized heir of his father's kingdom of Portugal, and of the kingdoms of Castile, León, and Aragon, which he would inherit from his grandparents, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. As such, he was styled Prince of Portugal, Prince of Asturias, and Prince of Girona.

Miguel died in Granada on 19 July 1500, in his grandmother's arms. He was buried in the Capilla Real, in Granada.

In October 1500, Miguel's father married Maria of Aragon, who was also the younger sister of Miguel's mother. Maria gave birth to Manuel's eventual successor, John III, and to several other children.

The hopes of Isabella I and Ferdinand II to unite all of the Iberian kingdoms vanished with Miguel's death. After he died, another of Miguel's maternal aunts, Joanna became the heiress of Castile, León, and Aragon, eventually bringing those kingdoms to the Habsburgs, under Joanna's son, Charles V. However, the Iberian Union, although short-lived, took place eighty years later, from 1580 to 1640, under the Habsburg King Philip II of Spain, Miguel's half-great-nephew and the grandson of Joanna of Castile, Manuel of Portugal, and Maria of Aragon, acquired Portugal and its dominions (see the Philippine Dynasty).