Note 51 — CHAP. XIV.

John, king of Arragon, was killed in 1395 by a fall from his horse while hunting. By Matthea of Armagnac, his queen, he had two daughters, of whom the eldest was married to Matthew viscount de Chateaubon and count of Foix, who claimed the crown in right of his wife, and invaded Arragon in support of his pretensions. But the principal nobility having, in the mean time, called over Martin king of Sicily, brother of John, to be his successor, a bloody war ensued, which terminated only with the death of the count de Foix. After that event (which took place in 1398), Martin remained in peaceable possession of the crown. The right to the crown, both by the general law of succession and by virtue of the marriage-contract, appears to have been in the countess of Foix; but the states of the kingdom here, as in some other instances, seem to have assumed a controuling, elective power. This authority, probably inherent in the constitution, was more signally exercised in the death of Martin without issue in the year 1410.