Consent in Love and Marriage in Songs Associated with Princess Isabel of Castile

In Christian canon law, marriage is considered invalid if consent has not been obtained from both partners. Isabel of Castile understood this: rejecting the suitors selected by Enrique IV, she insisted on her right to marry a husband of her choice. Similarly, in the courtly love tradition to which ladies then subscribed, voluntary commitment was regarded as an essential feature of love, but there was a tacit understanding that marriage should not be mentioned as a solution. By assigning the song ‘Ni me plaze, ni consiento’ to Prince Alfonso, Isabel’s brother, in the poem that he wrote about the prince’s departure from Arévalo c. 1466-1468, Nicolás de Guevara was drawing attention to the need to respect this principle, and also alluding to an understanding between Alfonso and his sister that each would insist upon it. It is within this context that we may interpret a short cycle of poems in the British Library Cancionero (LB1) associated with the courtship of Isabel by King Afonso V of Portugal in the years 1465-1468.