Chapter 36 - How Count Enrique invaded Castile with numerous companies and was proclaimed king, and how King Pedro ordered the abandonment of all the Aragonese townships which he had captured
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 December 2023
Summary
After the King of Aragon had taken Murviedro, he left for Barcelona. At his summons, a number of captains from the companies which he had summoned arrived there and signed with him an agreement whereby they undertook to present themselves the following February in order to invade Castile with Count Enrique. On learning of this, King Pedro made his way to Burgos, where he had ordered his army to assemble. While he was there, he learned that Count Enrique had been joined by the companies and that they had left Saragossa in order to invade Castile. They included captains from Aragon, namely the Count of Denia and Don Felipe de Castro, along with other knights; from France came Sir Bertrand du Guesclin, the Count de la Marche, the Lord of Beaujeu, the Marshal d’Audrehem, who was the Marshal of France, and others; from England came Sir Hugh Calveley, Sir Eustace [d’Ambreticourt], Sir Matthew Gournay, Sir William Allamant and Sir John Devereux, as well as numerous other knights and men-at-arms from England, Guyenne, Gascony and other countries.
They all reached the township of Alfaro but did not care to attack it and journeyed the next day to Calahorra, which was not a fortified town. Its inhabitants negotiated with the count, welcomed both him and his forces into the town and informed them that King Pedro was in Burgos and anxious to avoid doing battle with them. They then took the decision to tell Count Enrique that, since so many noble people were happy to support him in this campaign, he should proclaim himself King of Castile.
At first he began by refusing. However, as being a king brings no little enjoyment, he agreed without much argument that it would please him greatly, and so he was proclaimed king. Those who accompanied him then requested big favours and positions in his kingdom, and he was very happy to grant them everything, apportioning what he had already captured and promising what was still to be taken, as at that time it behoved him to do so. These events took place in the year 1366.
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- The Chronicles of Fernão LopesVolume 1. The Chronicle of King Pedro of Portugal, pp. 145 - 146Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2023