Ferdinand Iking of Aragon byname El de Antequera (“He of Antequera”) or El Infante de Antequera (“the Infante of Antequera”)

born 1379? died April 2, 1416, Igualada, Catalonia

king of Aragon from 1412 to 1416, second son of John I of Castile and Eleanor, daughter of Peter IV of Aragon.

Because his elder brother, Henry III, was an invalid, Ferdinand took the battlefield against the Muslims of Granada. When Henry III died in 1406, his son John II was an infant and the regency was divided between Henry’s widow, Queen Catherine of Lancaster, and Ferdinand, who claimed positions on the royal council for his sons. In 1410 Ferdinand captured the Granadine fortress of Antequera, a feat that ensured his election to the throne of Aragon, vacant with the death of King Martin in 1412. Ferdinand was chosen by the Compromise of Caspe (1412), though the Catalans supported a rival. His election was due in part to the support of the Aragonese antipope Benedict XIII and the efforts of St. Vincent Ferrer. Once elected, however, he ceased to support Benedict and so helped to end the Western Schism. In 1413 he accepted demands from Catalonia that limited royal power in a way that was not the case in Castile.

On departing for Aragon he retained control of the Granadine frontier and of the positions held in Castile by his sons. His accession ended the long Catalan political domination of the Aragon state, which his nephew John II would bring into the orbit of Castile. Ferdinand’s provision for his sons in Castile (where they were known as the “Infantes of Aragon”) added to the distinctiveness of the reign of the Castilian John II. He was succeeded on the throne by his son Alfonso V.