16 - How King Enrique arranged to return to Castile and how the King of Aragon prevented him from passing through his kingdom
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 January 2024
Summary
We know no more than what you have already heard concerning how long the prince stayed in Castile and the circumstances of his departure. But when King Enrique received confirmed reports that he had left, he arranged the return to Castile and held a meeting in the village of Aigues Mortes with the Duke of Anjou and Cardinal Guy de Boulogne, a kinsman of the King of France. There, in the name of the King of France, they negotiated the strongest agreements that they could with King Enrique, which they confirmed on oath. The duke also gave King Enrique a sum of money with which to help him on his return.
The king departed and went back to Peyrepertuse, where he had left his wife and children, and was accompanied at that stage by some 200 lances. He sent for other companies to go with him, and there rallied to him several captains with their forces, namely the Count of Illa, Don Bernal, Count of Osona, the Bastard of Béarn, Sir Bernard de Villamur, and the Stammerer of Villaines. He then left with them, heading for Castile, and took with him his wife the queen and Prince Juan. He left behind Princess Leonor, along with other ladies and maidens, in the castle of Peyrepertuse.
The King of Aragon, on learning of King Enrique's return and how he would have to pass through his territory, sent him a message to say that he was a friend of the Prince of Wales, had no wish to cause the latter any annoyance and therefore required King Enrique not to cross over his land; were he to attempt to do so, he could not avoid defending it against him.
King Enriq answered the messenger as follows: ‘I am greatly astonished that the King of Aragon should send me such a message as this, for he knows only too well that, at the time when I was necessary to him in the war that he fought, I never once failed him whenever he had need of me. Indeed, when I invaded Castile, he recovered 120 villages and castles which King Pedro had seized. Yet now he sends me a message to say that I should not pass through his kingdom. It behoves me to make my way to Castile, so I cannot avoid passing through it.
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- The Chronicles of Fernão LopesVolume 2. The Chronicle of King Fernando of Portugal, pp. 38 - 40Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2023