María Enríquez de Luna

Maria Enriquez of Luna
Maria Enriquez of Luna
Duchess of Gandía
Full name	María Enríquez de Luna
Born	1474; Spain
Died	1539; Gandía
Buried	Gandia
Noble family	House of Castile
Spouse(s)	Juan de Borja y Cattanei, Duke of Gandía
Father	Enrique Enríquez de Quiñones, Señor of Villada, Villavicencio, Orce and Baza
Mother	María de Luna y Herrera

Maria Enriquez de Luna (1474 – 1539) was the wife of Juan (Giovanni) Borgia, second Duke of Gandia. Her father was, Enrique Enríquez de Quiñones, making her paternal grandfather Fadrique Enríquez. Her aunt, Juana Enríquez, was Queen of Aragon by marriage to John II of Aragon. Therefore, she was a first cousin of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile, and therefore of the House of Trastamara. She married Juan somewhere between 1493-1494, and together, they had three children: twins Juan de Borja y Enriquez (known as Juan Borgia), who became the 3rd Duke of Gandía, and Francisca de Jesus Borja, who became a nun at a convent in Valladolid. The younger Juan was the father of Saint Francis Borgia. Their third child, Isabel de Borja y Enriquez, was born after her father was killed. She grew up to be abbess of Santa Clara in Gandia. In personality, Maria was very intelligent, devout, financially shrewd, and devoted to her husband and children, in contrast to her husband, who was regarded by many as a womanizer, a gambler, a drunkard, and an incompetent general.

Sometime after the end of Pope Alexander VI's papacy, Maria, along with her aunt Isabella of Castille, tried to press murder charges against her brother-in-law, Cesare Borgia for the alleged murder of her husband Juan.

Bibliography

Soler Salcedo, Juan Miguel (2008). Nobleza Española: grandeza inmemorial 1520. Visión Libros. ISBN 8498861799.
Salazar y Acha, Jaime de (2010). «Una rama subsistente del linade de Borja en la América española». Boletín de la Real Academia Matritense de Heráldica y Genealogía (75): pp. 16–17. OCLC 27332380.

Bibliography

See also