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- BIOGRAPHY
Juan Ramón was born about 1375, the son of Hug II Folch, 1.conde de Cardona, and his third wife Beatriz de Luna. On 12 May 1392 he married Juana de Aragón, daughter of Alfonso de Aragón, 1.duque of Gandia, and Violante Eximenez de Arenós. They had six children, of whom Juan Ramón II and Hug would have progeny. He also had an illegitimate son Juan de Cardona.
In 1395 Juan Ramón was sent by the assembly of Catalonia to Sicily to plead for Infante Martin, son of Pedro IV 'le Ceremonieux', and brother of Juan I, kings of Aragón, to return to take possession of his kingdoms. On the eve of the day when Martin I 'el Humano' was crowned king in Saragossa, 13 April 1399, he knighted Juan Ramón and appointed him Admiral of Aragón. On the death of his father Hug in February 1400, Juan Ramón succeeded him as count of Cardona and viscount of Villamur. In 1409 he took part in Martin's campaign in Sardinia and on 30 June that year he fought in the battle of Sanhuri against the army of the Giudicato of Arborea and contributed to the Aragónese victory.
At the death of Martin I 'el Humano' in 1410 without surviving issue, Juan Ramón actively participated, as a representative of the high Catalan nobility, in the conflicts and negotiations that ended with the Pact of Caspe in 1412 that chose Fernando of Antequera, younger son of Juan I, king of Castile and León, as the next king of Aragón. Juan Ramón promptly abandoned his loyalty to the party of Jaime II de Urgel, conde de Urgel, who had been one of the six candidates to succeed Martin, and he swore allegiance to the new king. In 1416 he was sent to the Council of Constance as the head of the delegation of the crown of Aragón and the first ambassador of the new king of Aragón Alfonso V 'the Magnanimous', who succeeded his father Fernando that year.
Juan Ramón died in 1441.
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