The first prince of asturias
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In reply to:
Re: Arias-Asturias/West Virginia
2/18/02
Dear Joaquín:
I was reading your comments about the history of the Arias surname and I found them very interesting, taking ino account as well, that my parents live in the bloque covadonga in Oviedo (where you mentioned you lived for 10 years). However and concerning your comments about the first prince of Asturias beeing an Arias, I have to remark that I do not quite agree with that opinion.
As far as I am concerned the first prince of Asturias was Enrique III of Castilla, son of Juan I of the Trastamara House(dinasty replaced in the throne in 1516 by the Carlos I of Spain and V of Germany of the Hasburgs House until today).
During the second half of the 14th century, the monarchy as a form of government underwent a process of maturation in Spain. This was played out through frequent successional clashes in which, in many cases, Asturias would be the main seat of rebellion.
The writers at the time attributed these circumstances to the orographical difficulties of the area, as well as to the Asturian character. As the chronicles of Juan I state in such eloquent fashion, "they were warlike people and the land was all mountain".
It is known that Enrique of Trastámara as well as Count Alfonso Enriquez, father and half-brother to King Juan I, respectively, played an important role in the confrontations that took place in this region with the Crown of Castile.
With the death of King Alfonso in the year 1350, the throne was succeeded by his son, Pedro, who was only 15 years old at the time and was to reign under the title Pedro I. A challenge was to come from Asturias, in the form of Enrique of Trastámara, the bastard son of Alfonso XI, who was only a year older than Pedro.
In 1396 Pedro I was assassinated and his half-brother Enrique was crowned as Enrique II, thereby giving rise to the reign of the Trastámara dynasty that would be continued after his death by his son Juan I.
Nevertheless, the problems did not subside. Doña Constanza, daughter of Pedro I, was married to Juan of Gante, Duke of Lancaster and brother of the King of England, claimed her rights to the throne of Castile.
Apart from this, Juan I had another important conflict with his half-brother, Count Alfonso Enriquez, bastard son of Enrique II, who had inherited the dominion of Asturias from his father, prompting him to take an active part in various rebellions.
Juan I had to dispossess the Count of the dominion of Asturias, and upon the execution of his will in 1385, he ordered his son Enrique "that we shall take the land of Asturias for the Crown for the transgressions committed against us by Count Alfonso, and that it shall never be given to another person, so long as they do not belong to the Crown, just as we had promised to those from said land when we received it from them".
With this being the situation in 1388, Juan I and the Duke of Lancaster decided to put an end to their struggle for the Crown of Castile by arranging the marriage of their children Enrique and Catalina, on whom they bestowed the title Princes of Asturias.
The chronicles of Juan I, recounting the tenth year of his reign, literally state: "Furthermore, the said King Juan and the Duke of Lancaster set forth and ordered in their treaties that the said Prince Enrique (son and heir to Juan) is bestowed the title of Prince of Asturias, and his said daughter, Catalina (daughter of the Duke of Lancaster) Princess."
Juan de Gante and Constanza relinquished the title of King and Queen which they had been using and agreed with Juan I to introduce a sovereign territory-the Principality of Asturias-which was new to the Kingdom of Castile but already in existence abroad: in England, where the heir to the throne was known as the Prince of Wales, and in France, as the Delfines.
The city of Palencia was chosen for the wedding of Enrique and Catalina, considering that at that time Burgos was affected by a plague.
The ceremonies which first bestowed the title Princes of Asturias took place in September 1388. At that time, they were limited to when King Juan placed his son, covered in a purple cloak, together with a crown and a golden staff, on a throne, and kissed him on the cheek as a sign of peace, calling him Prince of Asturias at the same time. The rituals used in this solemn act of conferring this honour became more formalised in subsequent reigns.
With the title of Prince of Asturias as the Heir to the throne of Castile implemented, apart from the obvious objective of bringing the wars between the Castilians and the English to an end, clarified the status which corresponded to the successor to the King within the hierarchy of titles, levels, and jurisdictions of the nobility. It conceded a sphere of power and a sufficient income for him to be able to run a government and prepare for higher functions. Moreover, it cannot be denied that the Castilian King had a strong desire to eliminate the constant focus of resistance that had historically been rooted in Asturias. In this sense, three years before the creation of the new title, Juan I, in his will, had already ordered the suppression of the dominion of Asturias and its incorporation into Castilian lands.
On the other hand, the institutional vacuum which had been caused in the region when Alfonso was exonerated of his titles over the dominion was consequently filled by the constitution of the Principality.
At first, the rank of Prince of Asturias was not just a simple title of honour, considering that the Asturian territory belonged to them as patrimony (with the exception of the County of Noreña, which was ceded to the Bishops of Oviedo in 1388). Several Princes of Asturias appointed magistrates, judges, and mayors, etc. who governed the Principality in representation of his Lord. This situation changed with the arrival of the Catholic Monarchs who reduced the title of Prince of Asturias to honorific status, which would be accentuated by the Kings of the House of Austria, and later under the Borbón dynasty.
The relationship between the representatives of the Principality and their Prince was never very close. According to historic tradition, a delegation from the General Council of the Principality (an organism created to control the Prince's power, conditioning his recognition in relation to the privileges of traditional jurisdiction in the land of Asturias), went to the Court and offered the successor to the Crown the so-called "Mantilla Tribute" (a donation consisting of one thousand gold coins).
After nearly five hundred years of existence, the 1833 Law of Administrative Reform abolished the denomination of the Prince of Asturias, converting it into the Province of Oviedo.
HRH the Prince of Asturias swears allegiance to the Constitution and to the King (The Spanish Parliament, 30 January 1986)
In recent times, the Royal Decree of 21 January 1977 restored the rank of Prince of Asturias; and on 1 November of the same year, Felipe de Borbón, the thirty-fifth Prince of Asturias, made his first visit to Asturias.
Felipe de Borbón received an artistic parchment in which Asturias recognised him as their Prince, a Cross of Victory made of gold and studded with jewels, and a symbolic donation of five hundred pesetas in a leather bag, as a substitute for the traditional thousand gold coins, from the hands of the President of the County Council, Luis Sáenz de Santamaría in Covadonga.
Following this simple ceremony, Juan Carlos I delivered a brief address in which he stated "In this ceremony, the six century-old tradition that demands that the Heir to the Crown be the Prince of Asturias is consecrated and renewed. My son remains linked to what this region represents and what his position as Heir to the Crown means, which here has been made exact and clear. Therefore, we can say that from this moment on, having received the Cross of Victory, the Prince will feel the moral responsibility of the future King".
The new structure of the Spanish state is represented in the Constitution, in which article 57.2 clearly states that, "the future King from the time of his birth or from the moment that the fact of the claim is made will have the rank of the Prince of Asturias and other titles traditionally associated with the successor to the Spanish Crown".
Kind Regards
Luis Arias