Peter of Castile

thumb| [[Alabaster sculpture of Peter, 1446]]

Peter (; 30 August 133423 March 1369), called Peter the Cruel () or the Just (), was King of Castile and León from 1350 to 1369. Peter was the last ruler of the main branch of the House of Ivrea. He was excommunicated by Pope Urban V for his persecutions and cruelties committed against the clergy.

Early life

Peter was born in the defensive tower of the Monasterio de Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas in Burgos, Spain. His parents were Alfonso XI of Castile and Maria of Portugal.

According to chancellor and chronicler Pedro López de Ayala, he had a pale complexion, blue eyes and very light blonde hair; he was tall and muscular. He was accustomed to long, strenuous hours of work, lisped a little and "loved women greatly". He was well read and a patron of the arts, and in his formative years he enjoyed entertainment, music and poetry.

He was to be married to his contemporary Joan, the second and favourite daughter of King Edward III of England; however, on their way to Castile she and her retinue travelled through cities infested with the Black Death, ignoring townspeople who had warned them not to enter their settlements. Since the plague had not yet entered England, it is likely that they underestimated the danger. Joan soon contracted the disease and died in 1348, aged 14.

thumb|[[Dobla of 35 maravedís with the effigy of Peter of Castile]]

About two years later Peter began his reign when almost sixteen years old and subject to the control of his mother and her favourites. Though at first controlled by his mother, Maria of Portugal, Peter ascended the throne with the encouragement of his mother's second cousin, the Portuguese minister Count Alburquerque.

In the summer of 1353, Peter married Blanche of Bourbon. Two days later, he abandoned her for María de Padilla. In 1355 he married Juana de Castro, widow of Don Diego de Haro, convincing her that his previous marriage to Queen Blanche was a nullity. The bishops of Avila and Salamanca were asked to concur, and were afraid to say otherwise. Peter and Juana were married in Cuellar, and Juana was proclaimed Queen of Castile. another version of the story says she was poisoned; a third one that she was shot with a crossbow, although it may have been the plague. Also that year, Maria de Padilla died in Seville. After Maria's death, Peter declared that she had been his first and only legitimate wife.

Wars with Aragon

thumb|War of Peter The Cruel in Castile.The illustrated history of the world for the English people. Painting of 1884.

From 1356 to 1366, Peter engaged in constant wars with Aragon in the "War of the Two Peters". The Catholic Church’s French pope in Avignon, responded to the multiple pleas to have the border war cease. France and Aragon had been losing valuable lands and men to Castile. Pope Innocent VI played peacemaker, using his authority with a papal legate. He sent Cardinal Guillaume to discuss a truce, stopping the war for one year between the two Catholic kings named Pedro. The king of Aragon supported Peter's bastard brothers against him. It was during this period that Peter perpetrated the series of murders which made him notorious.

Death

thumb|[[Henry II of Castile|Henry II kills his predecessor Peter, in an early illustration to Froissart's Chronicles]]

thumb|Peter the Cruel decapitated by order of [[Henry II of Castile. Manuscript from 15th century]]

In the summer of 1366, Peter took refuge with Edward, the Black Prince, who restored him to his throne in the following year after the Battle of Nájera. The health of the Black Prince broke down, and he left the Iberian Peninsula,

Peter had many qualities of those later monarchs educated in the centralization style. He built a strong Royal administrative force ahead of his times. He failed to counter or check all the feudal powers that supported his rivals, however illegitimate and opposite to the principles of aristocracy they represented themselves. But his moral superiority was reduced too by the violent means, including fratricides, by which he sought to suppress opposition; he at times was extremely despotic and unpredictable, even by the standards of his age. In this he was preceded by his father Alfonso XI, who since the crisis at the death of Alfonso X had faced multiple rebellions against royal authority.

The death of King Peter ended the traditional alliance of Castile and Navarre with England, which had been started by the Plantagenets to keep France in check. The alliance was later renewed by the Trastámaras and Tudors.

His death also led to the Fernandine Wars, where Portuguese king Ferdinand I would claim the throne of Galicia, which would eventually lead to the historical alliance between Portugal and England with the involvement of John of Gaunt's claim to Castille.

Children

Peter's children by María de Padilla were:

• Beatrice (1353–1369), nun at the Abbey of Santa Clara at Tordesillas
• Constance (1354–1394), married John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster
• Isabella (1355–1392), married Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York
• Alfonso (1359–1362), Peter recognized Alfonso as his legitimate heir on 29 April 1362. However, Alfonso, a very sickly child, died at the age of three, months after his recognition as Crown Prince.

Peter and Juana de Castro had:

• John (1355–1405), married doña Elvira de Eril, had issue. Juan married while in captivity warder Beltran de Eril's daughter, Elvira, and had two children: Pedro, Bishop of Osma and Palencia (d.1461), and Constanza (d.1478), named after King Pedro's I daughter, and she was Prioress of Santo Domingo El Real. (source: The Granddaughters of Edward III by Kathryn Warner. pg.61, pub; 2023).

Peter and María de Henestrosa had:

• Fernando de Castilla (1361-1362)

Peter and Isabel de Sandoval had:

• Sancho de Castilla (1363–1371)
• Diego de Castilla (1365–1440),

Peter and Teresa de Ayala, niece of Pero López de Ayala, had:

• María de Castilla, had long career at the Dominican convent of Santo Domingo el Real in Toledo and maintained a friendly correspondence with the Trastámaras.

Sources

The great original but hostile authority for the life of Peter the Cruel is the Chronicle of the Chancellor Pedro López de Ayala (1332–1407).