Martín de Gurrea y Aragón

Martín de Gurrea y Aragóna (17 May 1525 - 25 April 1581) was a Spanish nobleman from a royal line descended from John II of Aragon's son Alfonso.

The Dukedom of Villahermosa was created by John II of Aragon to recognise the military achievements of his illegitimate son by Leonor de Escobar, Alonso.

He then moved on to the court, where he served as minstrel to empress Isabel of Portugal and then page of the future Philip II of Spain as well as becoming friends with cardinal Granvelle.

He also became friends with Philip, who he accompanied to England to marry Mary I and to Brussels in 1555 to witness Charles V's abdication of his rule over the Low Countries.

His personal fortune enabled him to pay for some of the political and diplomatic posts which followed, though he had to leave court to govern his possessions in Aragon after his wife's death in 1560.

Martín remarried around 1542 to Luisa de Borja y Aragón, from the family of the Dukes of Gandía and great-granddaughter of the Borgia pope Alexander VI.

All the children received a careful education, with Martín and Francisco even going to the University of Salamanca, which was unusual for major noblemen of the time.

On 6 May 1565 he passed the County of Ribagorza to his eldest son Juan de Gurrea y Aragón,[5] who he also betrothed to Luisa Pacheco Cabrera, daughter to the Count of Villena and Duke of Escalona.

Years after Martín's death, the line of the Counts of Ribagorza died out and the territory passed back under direct royal rule.

Granvelle introduced him to artistic circles in Flanders and there he met painters such as Roland de Mois, who worked for the duke.