Kingdom of Castile

which left King Juan free to pursue other goals.

Perhaps strangely, Juan decided that the primary objective at the commencement of his reign ought to be the defeat of Portugal and the annexation of Portugal to the Kingdom of Castile.

This was an ambitious and rather surprising policy, which went further than that which had been pursued by his father.

You might remember that King Enrique invaded Portugal and occupied parts of it, but then, instead of defeating it, sued for peace.

Until the age of 26, he says, he was a man given over to the pilgrim.

the vanities of the world and his chief delight was in the exercise of arms with a great and vain desire to win glory his father likely meant him for the church since a boy in his position might be tonjured early to qualify for a benefice but the plan went nowhere Around the age of 16 he was sent to Arevalo in Castile, into the household of Juan Velazquez de Queller, treasurer to the Catholic monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella.

It was a school for the sons of good families.

Iñigo learned to read and write a fine hand, to dance, to ride, to fence, and to carry himself like a courtier.

At first the Christians were all driven to the mountains of the northwest, where they maintained their independence with difficulty, but by dint of constant fighting, they gradually pushed their enemies further and further to the south.

In the beginning of the 11th century, the chief Christian principalities were the kingdoms of Leon, Castile, Aragon, and Navarre, and the county of Catalonia.

The county of Portugal formed at the end of the 11th century

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In 1139 became a kingdom.

Leon and Castile were united in the 11th, and Aragon and Catalonia in the 12th century.

Navarre, a kingdom on both sides of the Pyrenees, became more closely connected with France than with Spain.

To give you some context for how these wars came about, it's wise at this point to spend a short time diving into the history of one of Spain's more notable monarchs.

[upbeat music] Peter the Cruel, also known as Peter the Just, I assume depending on which side of his wrath you fell upon, came to be King of Castile and León in 1350 at the age of just 16 years old.

He was tall for the time period at roughly six foot, enjoyed working hard, had a slight lisp, and according to one historian, loved women greatly.

And after a secret marriage to his first wife, Maria de Padilla, just a few months later, his mother coerced him into also marrying a woman named Blanche of Bourbon.

It was around this time that he earned himself the moniker of Peter the Cruel.

It seems he went on a bit of a rampage, killing family members he suspected of plotting against him, as well as particularly violent persecutions committed against the Catholic clergy, for which he would eventually be excommunicated by Pope Urban V.

In 1366, civil war erupted in Castile after he was attacked by his bastard half brother, Henry of Trastamara.

Peter, who it seemed had no stomach for battle, immediately fled the scene via a number of different cities before heading across the border to Portugal, where he was met with a particularly frosty reception by his uncle, the king, yet another Peter.

But less joyously with the knight's followers, who regretted more and more the gay court of Bordeaux and grew impatient at the prospect of spending a tedious winter in a peaceful English castle.

Their anticipation of weariness and the contrary expectations of Sir Reginald were destined to be equally disappointed, for two months had not passed since his return before a summons arrived, or, more properly speaking, an invitation to the trusty and well-beloved Sir Reginald Linwood to join the forces which the Duke of Lancaster was assembling at Southampton, the Prince of Wales having promised to assist King Pedro of Castile in recovering the kingdom from which he had been driven by his brother, Enrique of Trastamare.

Sir Reginald could not do otherwise than prepare with alacrity to obey the call of his beloved prince, though he marvelled that Edward should draw his sword in the cause of such a monster of cruelty, and he was more reluctant than ever before to leave his home.

He even promised his sorrowful Eleanor that this should be the last time he would leave her.

They cost a great deal too much trouble.

The meal over, Eustace took Leonard into the court to visit the horses and inspect the new armour.

They were joined by Gaston, who took upon himself to reply to the question which Leonard wished to have resolved, namely, what they were to do in Castile.

by persuading him to believe Enrique of Trastamare was a giant twenty feet high, who rode a griffin of proportionate dimensions, and led an army whose heads grew under their shoulders.

Did it just sort of appear out of thin air, or is this a sort of longer term demand, you know, um, by Catalans? What I find parti- particularly interesting about the Catalan case is that dependent on what is going on globally at that time, the aversion or inclination towards the central state changes, as does support for different groups for or against independence.

Um, for example, um, it was a, a mutual, um, agreement in 1469 for, um, well, Kingdom of Aragon with, uh, the Principality of Catalonia as part of it to join with the Kingdom of Castile.

Mm-hmm.

Um, very much made sense to both sides.

... all of Southern Italy.

So the Mediterráneo was all part of the Kingdom of Aragon for, I think, 300 or 400 years.

And then obviously you had Castile that looked westwards and, you know, and towards, um, the Americas.

So they were very kind of, yeah, I would say in this sort of relationship, Castile was very much more, um, militaristic in the way-

Meanwhile Ferdinand and Isabella had sent, in answer to the remonstrances of their own ambassador, some slight modifications of the original instructions, and of the terms on which they insisted as necessary to the treaty.

The great object of the Spanish sovereigns was to recover from France the counties of Rousselon and Setagny, a small patch of territory at the eastern end of the Pyrenees, which formed the key to Catalonia, and which had been mortgaged by Ferdinand's father to Louis XI, and it was hoped that Henry would enable them to achieve that object, as an alliance with the two powerful kingdoms of Castile and Aragon would strengthen his own weak position on the throne.

Such an alliance, indeed, was sure to be popular in England, being quite in accordance with the traditions of national policy, and if it involved a breach with France it might not be less popular on that account.

So, as the possibility of the proposed marriage actually taking place was yet a long way off, the Spanish sovereigns resolved to see what price Henry was prepared to pay for it.

The Pope himself would become merely his chaplain.

Henry really ought to rescue the patrimony of St. Peter from spolation, and even in kindness to the King of France himself, prevent him from rushing to his own destruction.

Such were the views of Isabella of Castile as she communicated confidentially to her ambassador, but she and her husband were not unmindful of certain pledges they had given Henry in order to induce him to enter the league at all.

Henry must be effectually protected from molestation on the side of Scotland.