Beatriz Enríquez de Arana

Beatriz Enríquez de Arana (1465–1521?) was the mistress of Christopher Columbus and mother of Ferdinand Columbus, Columbus's natural son,[1][2][3] whom he later officially recognized.[4][5][1][6][7][8][9][10][11]

Beatriz Enríquez de Arana
Born1465
Santa María de Trassierra, Córdoba, Crown of Castile
Died1521 (aged 55–56)
Santa María de Trassierra, Córdoba, Spain
NationalitySpanish
Partner(s)Christopher Columbus (as mistress; 1487 – his death 1506)
ChildrenFerdinand Columbus

Biography

In Rafael Ramírez de Arellano's history of Córdoba he explains that she and her brother Peter took the name of their maternal aunt Mayor Enríquez de Arana. She was one of the relatives who took them in (with possibly Francisco Enriquez de Arana, a wine maker) when they became orphaned in 1471.[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]

Relationship with Columbus
Posthumous portrait of Christopher Columbus by Ridolfo Ghirlandaio

When Columbus died he left some provision for her in his will, directing his son Diego to hold her in respect and continue an annual allowance.[23][24] Diego appears to have been a bit remiss with payments; Beatriz' last recorded act in 1521 was hiring an attorney to collect some money, and Diego's will written in 1532 contained a directive that any unpaid monies from the last three or four years were to be paid out to Beatriz' heirs.[24]

Neither her cause of death, or the exact date have been recorded, but it is assumed to have taken place shortly after 1521.[24]

Notes
  1. Phillips, William D.; Phillips, Carla Rahn (1992). The Worlds of Christopher Columbus. Cambridge University Press. p. 126. ISBN 978-0-521-44652-5.
  2. Fernández-Armesto, Felipe (2010). Columbus on Himself. Hackett Publishing. p. 270. ISBN 978-1-60384-317-1. The date of Fernando's birth, November 1488, gives a terminus ante quem early in that year for the start of Columbus's liaison with Beatriz Enríquez. She was of peasant parentage, but, when Columbus met her, was the ward of a well-to-do relative in Cordoba. A meat business gave her income of her own, mentioned in the only other record of Columbus's solicitude for her: a letter to Diego, written in 1502, just before departure on the fourth Atlantic crossing, in which the explorer enjoins his son to 'take Beatriz Enriquez in your care for love of me, as you your own mother'. Varela, Cristóbal Colón, p. 309.
  3. Taviani, Paolo Emilio (2016). "Beatriz de Arana". In Bedini, Silvio A. (ed.). The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia. Springer. pp. 24–25. ISBN 978-1-349-12573-9. Columbus never married Beatriz. When he returned from the first voyage, he was given the greatest of honors and elevated to the highest position in Spain. Because of his discovery, he became one of the most illustrious persons at the Spanish court and had to submit, like all the great persons of the time, to customary legal restrictions on matters of marriage and extramarital relations. The Alphonsine laws forbade extramarital relations of concubinage for "illustrious people" (king, princes, dukes, counts, marquis) with plebeian women, if they themselves were or their forefathers had been of inferior social condition.
  4. Christopher Columbus Biography Page 2
  5. Brinkbäumer, p. 112 Diego de Arana, cousin to Columbus's mistress, agreed to serve as marshal of the fleet...
  6. Wilford, p. 89 The cousin, a peasant woman of twenty, was Beatriz Enríquez de Arana. She and Columbus became lovers, and in August 1488 she gave birth to their son, Ferdinand.
  7. Thomas, p. 172 Another ship was commanded by Pedro de Arana, a cousin of Beatriz, the Admiral's old mistress in Cordoba.
  8. The World Book Encyclopedia, Vol 4, pp. 858-859
  9. de Arellano, Rafael Ramírez (1900). "Datos nuevos referentes a Beatriz Enríquez de Arana y los Aranas de Córdoba, encontrados por D. Rafael Ramírez de Arellano" [New data concerning Beatriz Enríquez de Arana and the Aranas of Córdoba, found by Mr. Rafael Ramírez de Arellano]. Virtual Cervantes (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  10. Thacher, p. 424
  11. Young, p. 101
  12. History of Cordoba from its foundation to the death of Isabel the Catholic. Ciudad Real: Tipografía del Hospicio Provincial, 1915-1919
  13. Phillips, p. 126 Marriage to a low-born orphan would do nothing to enhance his prestige and would surely impede his search for noble status.
  14. "Beatriz Enríquez de Arana, la amante de Cristóbal Colón". Archived from the original on 2008-12-29. Retrieved 2019-06-05.
  15. Wilford, p. 84
  16. Ryan, p. 27
  17. Wilford, pp. 87-89
  18. Brinkbäumer, pp. 87-88
  19. Wilford, p. 89
  20. Young, p. 104
  21. Young, p. 264 "less excusable was his acceptance of the pension of ten thousand maravedis which had been offered to the member of the expedition who should first sight land...It may be true, as Oviedo alleges, that Columbus transferred it to Beatriz Enriquez;
  22. Thomas, p. 87
  23. Brinkbäumer, p. 292
  24. Beding, Silvio A. (2016). The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia. Springer. p. 24. ISBN 978-1-349-12573-9.

References
  • Brinkbäumer, Klaus, The voyage of the Vizcaína: the mystery of Christopher Columbus's last ship, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2006, ISBN 0-15-101186-9
  • Fiske, John, The discovery of America: with some account of ancient America and the Spanish conquest, Houghton Mifflin, 1895
  • Patrick, James, Renaissance and Reformation, Marshall Cavendish, 2001, ISBN 0-7614-7651-2
  • Phillips, Carla Rahn, The Worlds of Christopher Columbus, Cambridge University Press, 1993, ISBN 0-521-44652-X
  • Rafael Ramírez de Arellano, History of Cordova from its foundation to the death of Isabel the Catholic. Ciudad Real: Tipografía del Hospicio Provincial, 1915–1919
  • Thacher, John Boyd, Christopher Columbus: his life, his works, his remains: as revealed by original printed and manuscript records, together with an essay on Peter Martyr d'Anghiera and Bartolomé de las Casas, the first historians of America, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1903
  • The World Book Encyclopedia, World Book Inc., 2007, ISBN 0-7166-0107-9; ISBN 978-0-7166-0107-4
  • Thomas, Hugh, Rivers of gold: the rise of the Spanish Empire, from Columbus to Magellan, Random House, Inc., 2004, ISBN 0-375-50204-1
  • Wilford, John Noble, The Mysterious History of Columbus. An Exploration of the man, the Myth, the Legacy, Alfred A. Knopf (New York) 1991, ISBN 0-679-40476-7
  • Young, Filson, Christopher Columbus and the New World of His Discovery, J.B. Lippincott, 1906

Further reading
  • Curtis, William Eleroy, The relics of Columbus: an illustrated description of the historical collection in the monastery of La Ra, William H. Lowdermilk Company, 1893, p. 117 item 521
  • Davidson, Miles H., Columbus then and now, University of Oklahoma Press, 1997, pp. 152–158, ISBN 0-8061-2934-4
  • Duro, Cesáreo Fernández, Colón Y La Historia Póstuma, BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2008, pp. 184–163, 217, ISBN 0-559-79785-0
  • Foster, Genevieve, The World of Columbus and Sons, Charles Scribner's Sons 1965, pp. 133–145, Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 65-18410
  • Markham, Clements Robert, Life of Christopher Columbus, G. Philip & Son, ltd., 1902, pp. 60–63
  • Ryan, Sara Agnes, Christopher Columbus in Poetry, History and Art, The Mayer and Miller company, 1917, p. 4
  • Taviano, Paolo Emilio (1992). "Arana, Beatriz de". In Bedini, Silvio A. (ed.). The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. Simon and Schuster.
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