Editing Il trovatore (section)

==Historical references==
{{original research|section|date=January 2019}}
While the story and most of the characters are fictitious, it is set towards the end of a real civil war in Aragon. Following the death of King [[Martin of Aragon]] in 1410, no fewer than six candidates staked a claim for the throne. A political meeting, the [[Compromise of Caspe]], found in favour of Martin's [[sororal nephew|sororal]] nephew [[Ferdinand I of Aragon|Ferdinand]]. Count [[James II, Count of Urgell|James II of Urgell]], King Martin's brother-in-law and the closest relative through purely patrilineal line of descent, refused to accept the decision of the Compromise, believing (with some justification) that Martin had intended to adopt him as the heir by appointing him Governor-General after the death of his own son [[Martin I of Sicily|Martin the Younger]], and rebelled.<ref>Hillgarth, Jocelyn Nigel (1978) ''The Spanish Kingdoms 1250-1516'' volume 2 ''1410-1516: Castilian hegemony'' p 229 {{ISBN|0-19-822531-8}}</ref> A third candidate was [[Frederic, Count of Luna]], bastard son of Martin the Younger, whose legitimization had been sought from the Pope unsuccessfully. As part of the compromise for withdrawing his own claim in favour of Ferdinand, Frederic was granted the County of Luna, one of the lesser titles that his father had held.<ref name="Earenfight">{{cite book|last=Earenfight|first=Theresa|title=Queenship And Political Power In Medieval And Early Modern Spain|publisher=Ashgate Publishing|year=2005|isbn=075465074X}}</ref>

While neither of the two princes who actually took part in the war appears in the opera{{snd}}neither is even referred to by name, and only Urgell is referred to by his title{{snd}}the fortunes of their followers mirror those of their princes. Thus, with his military success, Ferdinand's side has the upper hand in the war and is effectively the Royalist party, with the backing of much of the nobility and the Dowager Queen, and he also has Di Luna as his chief henchman (Luna's own connection to the royal family is not mentioned, being not necessary to the drama): while Urgel, losing the war and on the back foot, is forced to recruit among outlaws and the dispossessed, effectively taking the part of a rebel despite having some legal right to his case. Thus the fact that the forces of Urgel, in the opera as in real life, lose every pitched battle: and on the single occasion that they capture a castle (named in the opera as "Castellor", a fairly generic name for a castle, there being many Castellars in the region), it proves a handicap to them because their only hope in battle lies in speed, mobility, surprise and ambush, all of which are lost when defending a fortress.

Thus it is that the fictitious troubadour Manrico can gain his rags-to-riches background, having risen from the obscurity of a Biscayan gypsy camp to become Urgel's chief general, a knight and a master swordsman in his own right, good enough to defeat Di Luna himself in a personal duel, or win a knightly tournament: only to lose it again on the military battlefield, where the odds are perpetually against him, and he is damned as an outlaw even before the opera begins, for no deed of his own but because his master is the rebel. And yet he gets to be a heroic, popular outlaw, who might just escape with his life in return for a vow of future loyalty, if put on trial in front of the Prince himself: a chance that Luna does not want to risk, given that his rivalry with Manrico is personal as well as political. Hence the challenge to the duel over the personal rivalry, instead of calling the guards and making the arrest political, in act 1: and hence also the decision to execute without trial in act 4 even though Luna knows he is abusing his position. Leonora and Azucena are, of course, as fictitious as Manrico, as is the story's conceit that the former Count of Luna had not one but two sons.