WI: João de Castro King of Portugal

[Taunay]

João de Castro had everything in his favor to become King of Portugal during the 1383 Crisis. He was popular among the lower classes of Lisbon and had a base of support in some sectors of the nobility. However, unluckily for him, he was in Castile as the crisis unfolded, and John of Castile, who himself wanted to claim the Portuguese throne, had Castro arrested, preventing him from claiming the throne.
But what if say João de Castro somehow returned to Portugal in 1382, and as Fernando I died in 1383, was able to claim the throne (Say João of Avis renounces his pretensions and throws his supports behind Castro).
How would a João de Castro kingship be? IOTL João de Avis is rightly remembered as one of the greatest kings in Portuguese history, but would this be the case with this alternate João I of Portugal?
@RedAquilla @Lusitania @galik @Karolus Rex @Terço @Viriato @Diego

 

[Prince di Corsica]

Well, he did kill his wife for the sake of marrying their niece and inherit the Kingdom, so I'm going to go ahead and say he probably would be sort of a ruthless individual. Of course, he didn't have quite the nicest childhood, but still.

Reading the wiki page, I did find out about his son, about whom I had not read before, and found it fascinating. The man lived almost to 100, and was apparently quite the scandalous fella, marrying six times and begetting some 42 children. Now, I'm not saying he could do this as a monarch, but it did make me think of a Portuguese Walder Frey, which would be quite interesting to think about.

Anyway, there are two quite distinct death dates for João de Casto, either at 1387 or at 1400. The former would give him some 2 to 4 years to rule, ang generally prevent him from doing much, even remarrying a proper match, since his previous weddings were apparently of dubious legality. 1400 gives him some more room, but even then... What I'm getting at is that one of his dubious children from previous marriages inheriting, and inheriting young, is quite feasible.

So I'll let others give their input, but so far, from what I'm reading, it's not so much his own kingship, but that of the next generation that we should be worried about, and it seems like it could be quite interesting to read or discuss about.

 

[galik]

He had priority in the succession and if the Cortes at this time gave privileges to the burghers of Lisbon, he would probably follow the OTL path of discoveries and mercantile focused diplomacy. I don't know about him too much, neither the noble allied to him. One should not forget that even during the D. Afonso V reign there were noble intrigues to further their interests, infant D. Pedro is an example.

 

[Karolus Rex]

João de Castro had everything in his favor to become King of Portugal during the 1383 Crisis. He was popular among the lower classes of Lisbon and had a base of support in some sectors of the nobility. However, unluckily for him, he was in Castile as the crisis unfolded, and John of Castile, who himself wanted to claim the Portuguese throne, had Castro arrested, preventing him from claiming the throne.
But what if say João de Castro somehow returned to Portugal in 1382, and as Fernando I died in 1383, was able to claim the throne (Say João of Avis renounces his pretensions and throws his supports behind Castro).
How would a João de Castro kingship be? IOTL João de Avis is rightly remembered as one of the greatest kings in Portuguese history, but would this be the case with this alternate João I of Portugal?
@RedAquilla @Lusitania @galik @Karolus Rex @Terço @Viriato @Diego

He wasn't at Castile, he was exiled in Castile after murdering his wife, he was quite popular pre-murder, but post-murder eh.

 

[Taunay]

He wasn't at Castile, he was exiled in Castile after murdering his wife, he was quite popular pre-murder, but post-murder eh.

Fair enough, most of my knowledge about him comes from Wikipedia. Still it's interesting to imagine how his reign would go

 

[King of Danes]

Not sure if it quite answers your question, but in this ongoing tl he becomes king at least

The Gold Rose: An Edward of Angoulême timeline

Also you mentioned the Viscounti. Will their fate in this TL be radically different? I know they were the one house that came so close to unifying much of northern italy. It won't be radically different in the near term. The medium to long term is still undecided.

www.alternatehistory.com