Beltrán de la Cueva, 1st Duke of Alburquerque
| Beltrán de la Cueva | |
|---|---|
| Duke of Alburquerque | |
 |
|
| Born | c.1443 Úbeda, Spain |
| Died | November 1, 1492 (aged 48–49) Cuéllar, Spain |
Beltrán de la Cueva y Alfonso de Mercado, 1st Duke of Alburquerque (c. 1443 – 1 November 1492) was a Spanish nobleman who is said to have fathered Joan, the daughter of Henry IV of Castile's wife Joan of Portugal. His alleged daughter, called "la Beltraneja", was deprived of the crown of Castile because of the uncertainty regarding her parentage.
Henry IV, in his second year as king, travelled to Úbeda and stayed with Beltrán's father, Diego Fernández de la Cueva, 1st Viscount of Huelma. When he left this house, he took Diego's second oldest son, Beltrán, with him to stay at Court to show his gratitude to Diego. (Diego offered Beltrán after Enrique asked for Diego's oldest son, whom Diego wanted to keep close by).
He married as his first wife Teresa de Molina de Quesada, of Úbeda, daughter of Francisco Cazorla de Quesada and wife Guiomar Mayor de Molina y Vera, without issue.
Beltrán soon became the King's favourite and married Cardinal Mendoza's niece, Doña Mencía Hurtado de Mendoza y Luna, daughter of Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, 1st Duke of the Infantado, by whom he had a son Francisco Fernández de la Cueva.
Beltrán de la Cueva is, however, best known for allegedly having an affair with Henry's second wife, Joan of Portugal. It was rumoured that Henry's only child, Joan was fathered by Beltrán and not by the King himself, who may have been impotent. This rumour led to a four-year War of the Castilian Succession, which was won by Isabella I, Henry's half-sister. It is unlikely that an agreement as to Joan's probable paternity will ever be reached by historians, as there is not enough evidence to support either possible father with certainty. Most of the extant contemporary sources about Henry's potency are suspect, as the royal chronicles of his reign were either written or revised under the influence of Isabella, whose personal interest in the succession caused her to take great pains to insist on Joan's illegitimacy. Much of Isabella's attention to Henry, in fact, was spent on harming his reputation in order to cement the legitimacy of her own reign. The question of Joan's paternity has, as a result, fascinated historians for centuries: if Joan was not in fact Beltran's daughter, and was actually legitimate, Isabella's tremendously influential reign would have been an illegal usurpation.
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