Columbus's 1502 will disappeared while his descendants fought over the Veragua estate from 1578 to a final ruling in 1793

Columbus put his titles and revenues into a mayorazgo, an entail. His will said a woman should not inherit "unless no man is found." His grandson Luis Colón, 1st Duke of Veragua, married three times. On 5 November 1565 a royal court upheld his bigamy conviction and exiled him to Oran for 10 years. He died there on 3 February 1572 without a legitimate son. His daughter Felipa married her first cousin Diego, which kept the estate together. Felipa died in 1577 and Diego in 1578, with no children. After that, almost every branch of the family went to court. Cristóbal Colón de Cardona won a first ruling and died in 1583 in "very suspicious circumstances," in the words of a 1989 article in a Complutense University journal. His brother-in-law and successor, Francisco de Mendoza, was accused of taking the page of the will that set the order of succession, and he was jailed. In 1585 another claimant, Baltasar Colón, got a papal "paulina" that threatened anyone hiding the 1502 will with excommunication. Witnesses said papers had been taken out of the Colegio de San Gregorio in Valladolid and hidden behind a false wall on a farm. The will was never produced. The titles went to Nuño Colón de Portugal, with a final Council of the Indies decision on 2 December 1608^†. Family suits over Veragua went on until a final ruling in 1793. The 1502 will is still missing in 2026.