User:Walrasiad/Fernandinas
Fernandine Wars
| Fernandine Wars | |||||||
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 House of Burgundy Supported by:  Legitimist forces of Castile Kingdom of Portugal.svg){kind=small} House of Lancaster Kingdom of England Kingdom of Aragon Kingdom of Navarre Emirate of Granada |
House of Trastámara Supported by: Forces of the Crown of Castile Kingdom of France | ||||||
The Fernandine Wars (Guerras Fernandinas) were a series of conflicts between the Kingdom of Portugal and the Crown of Castile, from 1369 to 1382.
They were launched after the assassination of Peter I of Castile by his illegitimate half-brother Henry of Trastámara in 1369, at the end of the Castilian Civil War. The King Ferdinand I of Portugal, backed by the "legitimist" party in Castile and other Iberian monarchs, refused to recognize the claims of the bastard House of Trastámara and laid claim to the throne of Castile for himself. The kingdoms of England and France backed opposing parties as a sideshow of the Hundred Years' War.
The conflict can be divided into were three distinct wars, 1369-1370 (settled in the Treaty of Alcoutim, 1371), 1372-73 (settled in the Treaty of Santarém, 1373) and 1381-82 (settled in the Treaty of Elvas, 1382). It culminated in a victory for Trastámara, who succeeded in obtaining recognition as Henry II of Castile by the other Iberian kingdoms. After Ferdinand I bowed out, the "legitimist" cause was taken up by John of Gaunt (Duke of Lancaster).
Background
In the Castilian Civil War that had been raging since 1366, King Peter I of Castile (with English support) had been faced with a rebellion led by his half-brother Henry of Trastámara (a bastard son of Alfonso XI of Castile, backed by France). Henry defeated Peter I at the Battle of Montiel in March 1369. Henry personally assassinated the captive Peter I in the aftermath. Peter had no legitimate male sons, but the Cortes of Seville of 1361 had recognized the children of Peter and María de Padilla as his legitimate heirs. But Henry of Trastámara set that aside, and laid claim to the Crown of Castile for himself as Henry II of Castile.
Peter I's supporters within Castile were apalled by the cold-blooded assassination of the king. They recast themselves as the "Legitimist" party and vowed to fight to prevent Henry of Trastámara's ascension. The usurpation of the throne by a bastard line also alarmed the neighboring monarchs on the Iberian peninsula, in part because they were connected to the old Burgundian dynasty of Castile-León, but also because of the precedent it set - a violation of the standard rules of succession that might encourage other bastard pretenders and threaten the stability of their own thrones. Although Constance of Castile, daughter of Peter I and María de Padilla, had probably the best claim as the legitimate heir, she had no sponsor at the time. Other plausible candidates included the kings Ferdinand I of Portugal, Peter IV of Aragon, Charles II of Navarre. The Legitimist party settled on Ferdinand I, principally on account of Portugal being better positioned of bringing the Legitimist cause to successful fruition - Ferdinand was undistracted, his kingdom adjoined the westerly regions of the Castilian kingdom, where Legitimist feeling was strongest, and (unlike Navarre and Aragon), Portugal did not have the frightening weight of the Kingdom of France, the principal of supporter of the House of Trastámara, in its rear.
Citing his descendancy by maternal line from Sancho IV of Castile, King Ferdinand I of Portugal immediately proclaimed himself the legitimate heir of Castile. Ferdinand I quickly struck agreements with the other Iberian monarchs to support his claim and/or refuse recognition to Henry of Trastámara. He secured the agreement of Peter IV of Aragon and Muhammad V of Granada went so far as to promise to procure a mercenary force from Marinid Morocco to assist him. The Kingdom of England also endorsed the project.
First War (1369-1370)
Hostilities broke out immediately. In the west, the cities of Carmona, Zamora, Ciudad Rodrigo and Valencia de Alcántara declared themselves for the Legitimist cause and recognized Ferdinand as the rightful King of Castile. In the northwest, the powerful Galician nobleman Fernando Ruiz de Castro (nicknamed de toda a lealdade de España, "of all the loyalty of Spain"), rallied the Legitimist forces and set about seizing castles and sealing off the mountain passes from the Leonese plateau. Ferdinand I of Portugal launched an invasion of Galicia - more like a calm triumphal procession. Groundwork prepared by the Legitimists, city after city, Baiona, Tuy, Lugo, Santiago de Compostella, La Coruña threw open their gates to welcome the Portuguese monarch. Ferdinand's open-handedness - shipping food supplies from Lisbon to war-starved Galician populations, handing out Trastamara property to Legitimist partisans. Galician nobles rushed to pay homage and receive their share. Several leading nobles, such as Álvaro Pires de Castro, João Fernandes de Andeiro and Nuno Freire de Andrade accompanied the king's march through the province. Ferdinad was allowed to coin money bearing his name at the mints of Tuy and La Coruña.
[Notes: The highest authorities of the Kingdom as Fernando Rodrigues de Castro, Greater "Pertegueiro" (protector) of Santiago, the greater charge in the Kingdom of Galicia, Sueiro Eans Parada, and other aristocrats as João Fernandes de Andeiro, Men Rodrigues Seabra or Fernão Peres de Deça, were the main supporters of the "legitimate" monarch.
Ferdinand I of Portugal arrived to Galicia with many aristocrats supporters of the legitimate cause and a good number of representatives of the Galician nobility, including the Earl of Trastamara, Fernan Peres de Castro, the lord of Salvaterra Alvar Peres de Castro and the lord Nuno Freire de Andrade (master of the Portuguese Order of Christ). ]
But the Portuguese king had been overconfident. While Ferdinand I was trapsing around northern Galicia, the young Henry II of Castile, assembled his forces, supplemented by French mercenary companies on break from the Hundred Years' War, and launched a massive counter-offensive below him. His troops poured through León, laid siege to Legitimist Zamora and then turned to open up the Galician passes and dislodge Fernando Ruiz de Castro from his citadels. Ferdinand I hurried his army back to Portugal before he was cut off.
[Centered himself at Coimbra at first, while castilians ravanged the north, seizing Braga and laying siege to Guimaraes. Ferdinand did not offer battle,allowing Minho to be ravaged. Street urchins of Lisbons coined the ditty "exvollo vai, exvollo vem, de Lisboa para Santarem",
<ref>Unforutantely, the author does not provide a definition of the archaic term "exvollo", and its definition seems to have been lost in time. It may come from exvolare ("take flight", thus translating as "in flight he goes, in flight he returns,from Lisbon to Santarem", or perhaps related to esfolar (to skin)
before turning into Portugal itself, seizing Braga and laying siege to Guimaraes. Ferdinand I hurried his army back to Portugal, before he was cut off. Alarmed at the swelling size of the Trastamaran army, Ferdinand did not offer battle but merely sought to position himself to prevent Castilian penetration into central Portugal.
In the Spring of 1370, as the positional war continued in the west, Ferdinand I managed to secure the active participation Peter IV of Aragon in an agreement signed in Barcelona in June. Peter IV promised to recognize Ferdinand as King of Castile and launch an invasion from the east, in return for which Ferdinand betrothed his eldest daughter Eleanor to Peter IV, promising have her deliver Murcia and the lordship of Molina to Aragon as dowry, once they were conquered. Realizing the danger, Henry II ordered his lieutenants Pedro Manrique (adelantado of Castile) and Pedro Ruiz Sarmiento (adelantado of Galicia) to go on the immediate offensive in Galicia and dislodge the Galician strongman Fernando Ruiz de Castro. The decisive battle was fought at Puerto de los Bueyes (near Lugo). Castro was defeated and fled to Portugal.
With the Portuguese gains in Galicia all but lost, Ferdinand I sought a truce, but Henry II demanded a permanent treaty. With the mediation of Pope Gregory XI, the Treaty of Alcoutim was signed in March 1371. It was to be cemented by marriage of Ferdinand I of Portugal with Eleanor of Castile (Henry II's daughter), for whose dowry Henry would deliver a large sum of money and the frontier settlements of Ciudad Rodrigo, Valencia de Alcantara, Allariz and Monterrey.
[by Alcoutim, Count of Andeiro exiled to England (OM, p.139)
The peace was fragile. The legitimist party within Castile was still strong, and Aragon still waiting. The frontier adjustments were poor compensation for Ferdinand's claims on the crown of Castile, and the marriage to Eleanor no consolation for any future claim, as Henry II already had a son of his own and thus dynastic security. Ferdinand has been forced into it by the military setbacks and was likely to repudiate it at the first opportunity.
It was not long in coming. Before the consumation of the marriage, Ferdinand fell into a passionate love affair with Portuguese noblewoman Leonor Teles de Menezes and secured the annulment of the marriage with the Castilian princess, putting an end to Alcoutim. (The discarded Eleanor was eventually passed on to Charles III of Navarre in 1375, settling that conflict.)
The blow turned into an opportunity for the Trastamara camp. In January 1362, the impetuous Ferdinand married Leonor Teles de Menezes, who quickly set about imposing herself on the government of the country, provoking a popular uprising against her. At the high level, the opposition was led by the Galician-Portuguese nobleman Álvaro Pires de Castro (half-brother of the Galician strongman), who took up the cause of his nephews, the Infantes John and Denis (illegitimate sons of the earlier King Peter I of Portugal and Inês de Castro), whose rights were being encumbered by the ambitious Leonor Telles. Henry II furthered the conflict along, by backing the claims of the disgruntled Infantes. Ferdinand's domestic squabbles were not only a distraction, they also undermined Ferdinand's representation of himself to the Castilian nobility, as the champion of legitimacy and order.
[Oliveira Martins, p.137] On July 10, 1372, Treaty of Braga, signing an alliance with John of Gaunt against Henry of Trastamara. (Henry inquires by sending the spy Pacheco to gather Ferdinand's intentions. When Pacheco replies he seems earnest,Henry requests Ferdinand to please give it up and maintain the peace. But Ferdinand, goaded on by Galician Afonso Telles, who tells him Henry's request rests on his weakeness, continues his preparations. Henry decides it is best to invade than be invaded, and launches an attack through Beira (central Portugal). Siege of Lisbon in 1373, a fleet from Seville closes it from sea.) All the while,Ferdinand is immobilized in Santaraem. Pacheco and INfante Diniz de CAstro (accompany Henry II) plead with Lisbonites to surrender, but to no avail.
After seeing no English help, King left Santarem and went to Vallada to sign armistice.
The second war played out pretty much like the first, Pedrist strongmen emerged in Galicia, Juan Alfonso de Zamora and Men Rodriguez de Sanabria, and rapidly seized much of the province for Ferdinand, against Henry II, but they were soon dislodged. In December 1372, Henry II launched an invasion of central Portugal. In quick succession, Castilians took or besieged Almeida, Pinel, Celorico, Linares and Viseu. Henry II then proceeded to lay siege to Coimbra, where the Portuguese queen Leonor Telles was at that moment giving birth to Beatrice of Portugal, the future heiress of Portugal.
In the Spring of 1373, Henry II laid siege to Lisbon. The Portuguese Cortes, via the papal legate Guido of Bologna and Pedro Tenorio (Bishop of Coimbra), opened negotiations with the Castilians.
Peace was restored by the Treaty of Santarém, signed March 19, 1373. Among the conditions of this treaty was the promise to expel all pedrist exiles and refugees from Portuguese territory, and a triple betrothal between the Portuguese and Trastamara families:
- (1) between the Portuguese princess Beatrice of Castro (of the Castro brood, half-sister of King Ferdinand) and Count Sancho of Albquerque (brother of Henry II)
- (2) Isabel of Viseu (natural daughter of Ferdinand), with Alfonso Enríquez de Castilla, Count of Gijon-Noreña (a natural son of Henry II), for which she would bring the Portuguese city of Viseu, and the towns of Celorico, Linhares and Algodres as dowry
- (3) newborn Beatrice of Portugal (legitimate daughter of Ferdinand and Leonor Telles) with Don Fadrique, Duke of Benavente (Henry II's illegitimate son).
The third betrothal was a particularly humiliating pill to swallow, as Ferdinand, the champion of legitimacy, would have to hand over his sole legitimate child to a bastard son of a bastard son. The sole saving grace is that Fadrique of Benavente had little to no chance of inheriting the throne of Castile, thus implicitly guaranteeing the continued independence of Portugal. From the Castilian poit of view, the three marriages, served to mix bastard Trastamara blood in the Portuguese royal family. By forcing liasions with the illegitimate children, implicitly meant Ferdinand accepted the concept of illegitimacy itself, putting the two families on an equal footing and ending any and all Portuguese dynastic claims to the Castilian throne.
Beatrice of Portugal came with a huge dowry, in three parts - in the Tras-os-Montes region (Braganca, Chaves, Montforte de Rio Livre, Miranda do Douro and Santa Comba), in the region around Coimbra (Lousa, Pedrogao, Figeuro, Hilhauo) and in the Alentejo (Alcacova,Ferreira do Alentejo, Evora Monte, Terena and others). To ease the blow, Henry II threw some Galician frontier towns into the pot for the new couple - Milmanda, Allariz and Monterrey (already promised in the treaty of Alcoutim, but now "given" to Portugal, albeit packaged as Beatrice's dowry). Confisacted estates of Galician rebels, notably the Castro family, were consolidated into the giant Duchy of Benavente for Don Fadrique.
The end of Ferdinand's claim, opened the door to Constance of Castile, the daughter of the late Peter I of Castile and Maria de Padilla, who now took up the legitimist cause. Leaving Portugal, the Pedrist exiles flocked to Guyenne, to be received by Constance and John of Gaunt at their court in Bordeaux.
Gaunt began preparations.
Position secure, in 1373 Henry II force Charles II of Navarre to yield disputed borderfortresses he had held since Castilian Civil War. Charles II turned to John of Gaunt, and at a meeting in Dax (Gascony) in March 1374,offered to put Navarre at his disposal, if he helped them capture those fortresses back. Gaunt agreed, but a few days later, suddenly changed his plans and left for England. Taking this as betrayal, Charles II opened contact with Henry II. Agreed to marry Leonora in May 1375.
Charles II reopened intrigues with England in 1378, but his missives were intercepted and he suddenly faced the onslaught of a French invasion of his Norman estates,and a Castilian invasion by John of Trastámara (John I of CAstile), devastating Navarre, before retiring. Charles II fled to Bordeaux, fo English protection. Governor Sir John Neville sent small force under Sir Thomas Trivet to protect Navarra in the winter, but accomplished little Henry II announce John will ravage Navarre again, Charles II sued for peace. Treaty of Briones (March 31, 1379) commited Navarre into perpetual military alliance with Castil and France against England, surrender 20 foretresses, including Tudela, to be garissoned by Castilians.
Henry had pipped John of Gaunt by quickly negotiating the treaty of Briones in May 1375 with Charles II of Navarre, thereby sealing that part of the Pyrennees from the passage of the English army. Peter IV of Aragon was now the only remaining Iberian monarch who had not yet recognized the bastard Henry of Trastamara, but his hand was held by fear that Henry might throw his weight behind the claims of the Infante of Majorca (then in exile in Narbonne). John of Gaunt's delays in organizing himself gave Henry II time to win the Aragonese king over with an agreement in May 1375, which was sealed by the betrothal his Henry II's son and heir (the future John I of Castile) with the Peter IV's daughter Eleanor of Aragon.
After two indecisive military campaigns, culminating in the defeat of the Portuguese invasion forces and allied Castilian nobles at Puerto de los Bueyes (near Lugo) in march 1371,
Pope Gregory XI mediated a truce between the parties, and settled the question with the Treaty of Alcoutim in 1371, cemented by the marriage of Ferdinand I of Portugal with Eleanor of Castile (Henry II's daughter). However, before the consumation of the marriage, Ferdinand fell into a passionate love affair with Portuguese noblewoman Leonor Teles de Menezes, and secured the annulment of the marriage with the Castilian princess. Although the king's affair provoked a popular insurrection within Portugal, it did not mar relations with Henry II (the discarded Eleanor was passed on to Charles III of Navarre in 1375, settling that conflict.)
Second War (1372-1373)
Ferdinand I of Portugal was induced to break the peace by the powerful English royal prince John of Gaunt (1st Duke of Lancaster), who had swiftly married Infanta Constance of Castile (eldest daughter of Peter I) in 1371. John persuaded Ferdinand to support his claim on the Castilian throne. The war that followed had little success, and peace was restored by the Treaty of Santarém in 1373
Third War (1381-1832)
With the death of Henry II of Castile, John of Gaunt resumes his claim on the Castilian throne, and once again secures Ferdinand I of Portugal's support for his cause.
This war was terminated by the Treaty of Elvas in 1382, which was to cemented by the betrothal of Beatrice of Portugal (Ferdinand's eldest daughter and heir) with the son and heir of John I of Castile. In the end, Beatrice ended up marrying John I himself.
This arrangement ended up provoking the 1383-1385 crisis. When Ferdinand I died on October 22, 1383, Beatrice of Portugal was slated to accede to the throne. Ferdinand's powerful and unpopular widow Leonor Teles de Menezes was nominated regent of the realm on behalf of the young Beatrice of Portugal. But the prospect of John I of Castile becoming consort King of Portugal provoked a popular uprising. Resistance was rallied by John of Avis (Grand Master of the Order of Avis, and illegitimate half-brother of the late Ferdinand I), and the 1382 Treaty of Elvas was repudiated, unleashing a new war with Castile. It would eventually culminate in a victory for John of Avis, who ascended as King John I of Portugal, and inaugurated the Avis dynasty.