María of Aragon

María of Aragon is an elder daughter in the family of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, and an older sister of Catalina of Aragon. Though she remains offstage in the supplied narrative, Catalina’s recollections place María within a pattern of royal daughters sent abroad through dynastic marriages—and make her one of the lives against which Catalina measures her own hopes and fears.

Family and Position

María appears among the three older girls named in the royal household: Isabel of Aragon, María of Aragon, and Juana of Castile, followed by the infant Catalina. The brief family portrait establishes her place among the princesses, while Catalina’s later reflections identify María as a sister whose life, like theirs, is shaped by marriage beyond Spain.

Portugal and the Dynastic Path

Looking ahead to her own marriage, Catalina hopes her future will be better than María’s, who, she says, had to follow Isabel of Aragon’s path to Portugal. The comparison presents María’s destination as part of the family’s dynastic arrangements, rather than as a choice or adventure of her own. The account does not describe her marriage, her experience in Portugal, or what followed there.

Narrative Role

María’s role is indirect but meaningful: Catalina remembers her as one of the sisters whose lives demonstrate the costs and uncertainties of royal marriage. Isabel’s return from Portugal as a widow after six months gives that comparison a sharper context, but the novel does not say that María shared Isabel’s fate. By naming María as a further sister sent along the same route, Catalina’s recollection suggests that each princess’s future is bound to family decisions, while leaving María’s own story largely unspoken.