Alfonso XI of Castile

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Alfonso XI of Castile
Alfonso XI in a medieval miniature from the Chronicles of Jean Froissart (c. 1410).
King of Castile[lower-alpha 1]
ReignSeptember 7, 1312 – March 26, 1350
Coronation1331
PredecessorFerdinand IV
SuccessorPeter I
Regent
BornAugust 13, 1311
Salamanca, Crown of Castile
DiedMarch 26, 1350 (aged 38)
Gibraltar, Marinid Sultanate
Burial
Royal Collegiate Church of San Hipólito
SpouseConstanza Manuel
Maria of Portugal
Issuesee Issue
HouseHouse of Burgundy
FatherFerdinand IV of Castile
MotherConstance of Portugal
SignatureAlfonso XI of Castile's signature

Alfonso XI of Castile, called «the Justicer» (Salamanca, August 13, 1311 – Gibraltar, March 26, 1350), was King of Castile,[lower-alpha 1] great-grandson of Alfonso X «the Wise».

After the death of his father, Ferdinand IV, in 1312, a multitude of disputes arose among various aspirants to hold the regency, which were resolved in 1313. The Infantes John, the King's great-uncle, and Peter, the King's uncle, formed a regency, and guardianship was assumed by his mother Constance, until her death on November 18, 1313, and afterwards by his grandmother Maria de Molina. In 1319, as a consequence of a military campaign against Granada, the aforementioned guardians Don John and Don Peter died, leaving Maria de Molina as sole regent until her death on July 1, 1321. From the death of the aforementioned guardians in 1319, the Infante Philip—son of Sancho IV of Castile and Maria de Molina and therefore brother of the deceased Infante Peter—Don Juan Manuel—the King's second uncle, being a grandson of Ferdinand III—and Juan de Haro «el Tuerto» ("the One-Eyed")—son of the deceased guardian John and the King's second uncle—divided the kingdom on account of their aspirations to the regency, while it was plundered by the Moors and by rebellious nobles. Alfonso, once declared of age in 1325, assumed the throne, achieving during his reign the strengthening of royal power, the resolution of the problems of the Strait of Gibraltar and the conquest of Algeciras.

Biography

Statue of Alfonso XI in Algeciras.

He was the son of Ferdinand IV of Castile and Constance of Portugal and grandson of Maria de Molina, who exercised the regency during Alfonso's minority. He ascended the throne of Castile and León when he was one year old. He reached his majority at fourteen, in 1326.

As soon as he assumed royal power he began laborious work toward strengthening royal power by dividing his enemies. He thus showed, from his tender childhood, his magnificent gifts as a ruler, not hesitating to execute possible opponents (Juan de Haro «el Tuerto» (1326), etc.).

During his reign he managed to carry the Christian frontiers as far as the Strait of Gibraltar after the important victory at the Battle of Río Salado against the Marinids, in 1340, and the conquest of the Kingdom of Algeciras in 1344. Once that conflict was resolved, he put all his efforts of Reconquista into fighting the Moorish King of Granada.

In 1331, Alfonso de la Cerda paid homage to Alfonso in order to settle his claims to the Castilian and Leonese throne. In 1332 he was able to put down, with the help of his subjects, the revolt raised against him by Juan Manuel and Afonso IV of Portugal. These events made him neglect the Reconquista, and he lost Gibraltar.

Both Alfonso and Abu al-Hasan sent a large naval contingent to the strait, since they knew perfectly well the importance of that geographic point in their aims of conquest. Alfonso obtained the help of the Aragonese, and the Muslim that of the Genoese. After the defeat of the Castilian squadron, under the command of Alonso Jofre Tenorio in 1340, they obtained a series of victories: first at the Battle of Río Salado the same year. At the end of that year he besieged Alcalá la Real, which he managed to take on August 15, 1341, without Yusuf I or his vizier Ridwan managing to supply it or break the siege. The general of the African «defenders of the faith», Ozmín, tried to lead the Christian troops into a trap, but the Master of Santiago did not fall into it and on August 15, 1341 Alcalá had to surrender. Days later Priego, Carcabuey, Rute and the Torre Matrera would do the same. Those expelled from Alcalá were settled in Moclín so that they would keep their desire for revenge. Then came the Battle of the Palmones River and finally the taking of Algeciras in 1344 after a long siege.

At the beginning of the Hundred Years' War, Alfonso allied himself with France and managed to sign a truce with the Muslims of Granada. Once that truce had ended, he laid siege to Gibraltar.

He was nicknamed the Justicer because of the energy he had to exert to keep the nobility under control from the moment he took power, not minding in many cases resorting, in order to achieve that submission, to the execution of nobles or even to murders and ambushes, as happened with Don Juan de Haro el Tuerto in the city of Toro, instilling in the nobles a justified terror that the Romancero was able to reflect, for example in "Don García de Padilla / ese que Dios perdonase...".[1]

It is also known that among his pastimes was hunting, his usual hunting place being the village of Valporquero in León, next to its caves.[citation needed] During his reign the so-called Libro de la Montería de Alfonso XI was written, as its authorship is debated.

A love cantiga addressed to Leonor de Guzmán is attributed to Alfonso XI.

Alfonso XI and his nobles. Libro de la Coronación de los Reyes de Castilla.

Death and burial

He died at the siege of Gibraltar, a victim of the Black Death, on the night of March 25 to 26, Thursday and Friday of Holy Week of 1350,[2] being the only King in Europe (besides Queen Margaret I of Denmark) who died from this cause. His body was later taken to Seville and in 1371 moved to the Royal Chapel of the Cathedral of Córdoba, where it remained for more than three hundred years, in the company of his father Ferdinand IV, also buried there.

In 1736 the remains of Ferdinand IV and Alfonso XI were moved to the Royal Collegiate Church of San Hipólito in that city, founded by Alfonso XI in 1343 in commemoration of the Battle of Río Salado. The mortal remains of both monarchs rest in red marble sarcophagi, built in 1846.

Issue

After a first unconsummated, and later annulled, marriage with Constanza Manuel, daughter of Don Juan Manuel, he married on June 24, 1328 in Alfaiates (Portugal) his first cousin Maria of Portugal, daughter of Afonso IV of Portugal, with whom he had two sons:

Genealogies of the Kings of Castile, Peter I the Cruel and Henry II of Trastámara
  • Ferdinand (1332–1332/1333), who died before reaching one year of age.
  • Peter I of Castile (1334–1369), nicknamed the Cruel by his detractors and the Justicer by his supporters, killed by his half-brother Henry II, Count of Trastámara.

From 1331/1332 he had ten children with Leonor de Guzmán:

Portrait

And this King Don Alfonso was not very large of body, but of good build, and of good strength, and fair, and blond, and generous, and valiant, and fortunate in wars.[3]

Ancestors

Ancestors of Alfonso XI of Castile

  1. Alfonso XI of Castile
  2. Ferdinand IV of Castile
  3. Constance of Portugal
  4. Sancho IV of Castile
  5. Maria de Molina
  6. Denis I of Portugal
  7. Saint Elizabeth of Aragon
  8. Alfonso X of Castile
  9. Violant of Aragon
  10. Alfonso of Molina
  11. Mayor Alfonso de Meneses
  12. Afonso III of Portugal
  13. Beatrice of Castile
  14. Peter III of Aragon
  15. Constance II of Sicily
  16. Ferdinand III of Castile
  17. Beatrice of Swabia
  18. James I of Aragon
  19. Violant of Hungary
  20. Alfonso IX of León
  21. Berengaria of Castile
  22. Alfonso Téllez II de Meneses
  23. María Yáñez de Lima
  24. Afonso II of Portugal
  25. Urraca of Castile
  26. Alfonso X of Castile (=8)
  27. Mayor Guillén de Guzmán
  28. James I of Aragon (=18)
  29. Violant of Hungary (=19)
  30. Manfred I of Sicily
  31. Beatrice of Savoy

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 The full title was: King of Castile, of Toledo, of León, of Galicia, of Seville, of Córdoba, of Murcia, of Jaén, of the Algarve, of Algeciras (from 1344) and Lord of Biscay (1326–1334) and of Molina.

References

  1. ↑ "0341:1 El Prior de San Juan y Alfonso XI (á) (fichas nº: 1463 y 1464)". Pan-Hispanic Ballad Project (in español). Retrieved March 21, 2020.
  2. ↑ León-Sotelo & González Crespo 1986, p. 588
  3. ↑ López de Ayala 1779, p. 10

Bibliography

Further reading

  • Sánchez-Arcilla Bernal, José (2008). Alfonso XI (1312-1350) (in español). Gijón: Ediciones Trea. ISBN 978-84-9704-330-4.
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